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all right it is 7 o' we will call the meeting to order everyone everybody would oh I'm sorry roll call please I'm out of practice yes Adam hkin is absent Andrea Cory here Kelly Moyer here Greg Meyer here Lisa schacher here Tyson search here pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right welcome both our visitors tonight glad you could join us special welcome there all right you have any public comments you guys have a whole floor here I just had to get out of the house well we appreciate you coming thank you correspondence and going around no correspond mon we'll run in right into our business here and lead off with the consent agenda Mr gr you you've got your minutes and your finances and your reports um we've got three resignations uh Chloe Alexander for middle school cheer Kimberly kerer Elementary special education teacher um and Joshua Kurt elementary school counselor we are employing some support Personnel these would be student workers for eagle Zone Abby Foster Kendall hemin uh Delanie Ray and John Spencer is a cook the other three were student workers for our Eagle Zone uh employee certified Personnel Megan P that's going to be that Blended prek program I talked briefly about last month um we are staying with the same person that was doing it as a non-certified so she'll be coming in as a certified and being part of the ca uh leave of absences we got Allison hunt Huff kindergarten teacher 12 weeks from 422 Stephanie Turner paraprofessional um 25 through 35 and then uh Carrie Stein that one says 12 weeks from approximately 623 but she's a teacher and that's the summer so it's really going to be 12 weeks from the beginning of school so the first 12 weeks of school she'll be on leave uh we've got an extracurricular assignment that came in I believe today or late yesterday um Berta row weer r o w d d r she's going to be the new Flags person that works with the band uh Martin wood class 2 driver is uh advancements for non-certified and then we've got vacancies sth grade social studies Elementary School social worker Ms cheer coach and bus monitor Administration recommends all of those be approved as presented all right any questions comments concerns with that one name we'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda thank you Andrew do I second I'll second seconds roll call please excuse me yes Andre yes Kelly Moyer yes Craig Meyer yes Lisa shoeer yes Tyson search yes right move on to our communication report and presentation your enrollment report is in your packet we'll go on to the ad ministrative reports and start with our building report Mr du is joining us this evening yeah uh so Park's been a pretty busy Place lately um so we got some some pictures up there for you the one on the left there is a picture of some fourth grade students helping us load up some food items for our uh winter food donations for the house of neighborly services and like I I feel like a broken record I've been saying that we've had so much support from the city that amazing how much we can get in one week uh we had I think it was two truck fulls and uh and then some um so we had that and then um I don't think it's up there but also November I just wanted to bring this up we we uh had a coin drive for one week for uh we were sponsoring two local veterans for to take the Greater St Louis Honor Flight and we were able to raise $ 2,28 for coins in one week which is just unbelievable so uh Mr Jean henkler and Mr uh David hoook uh got to come to the flag pole out here for our little uh Veterans Day celebration thanked us for for that um all of our grade levels this year have had some amazing field trips or will have one this is second grade at the St Louis aquarium we visited in November and everybody had a great time third grade students went to Bush Stadium last week and fourth grade is planning to trip to the arch and the new Museum there all of these wonderful field trips were funded by our candy bar fundraiser in the fall so students had no cost nice nice same excuse me same Joe Joe oh Joe I'm sorry Joe you might run the camera so people at home can see who's speaking oh thank you that's okay sorry to interrupt yeah's got this okay uh the picture on the left that's me I got pied in the face of the cool with pie by uh whan there second grader um just showing you that we're doing PBIS rewards at our school students earn Eagle bucks for positive uh Behavior Uh little whand earned 200 Eagle bucks which is a lot of money $1 do is usually what we give for positive behavior he earned 200 Eagle bucks to pie me in the face which is our top tier I think I think I need to raise the bar apparently there's eight more that are waiting um but uh no we we have other things that they can earn uh candy uh playing cards food special lunch table lunch DJ the kids really love lunch DJ during lunchtime uh we give them a playlist that they can pick from and they get to pick free songs that we play the kids kids love it um they can choose a PE game uh Chester Checkers against a staff member and of course the pie in the face we also do um schoolwide goals uh we'll have like uh clean restur rooms or uh lower bus referrals um right now we're doing voice level in the lunchroom um so when we meet those goals we do some kind of reward and that kind of all goes back to the chalk of our fundraisers that we do we can take the money that we earned from that and we've done a Kona Ice truck um we'll do a gum day coming up here for the voice level um yeah and then we had 116 students participate in the Young author contest just at Parkview the top four books from each grade were selected to attend the young authors's conference that's coming up in Chester and Mr Dugan has been reading the books to the classes during lunch we are so proud of every student that wrote a story and was willing to share great job all right our last picture there is Alex and Mrs Meyer Alex is in Mrs vulmer crosscat room and every Friday we have coffee crew and if you watch the show me St Louis they were kind of the the the spotlight on there um her class goes through they um they provide coffee and muffins for the staff every Friday and I think probably some of the district office orders from them as well they even have little Punch Cards where if you're a frequent frequent buyer you just get a punch so students make muffins I mean they actually mix the batter they make the muffins um they color code The Coffee Cup labels fill the orders and they deliver and that's the best part for all of us is when they're delivering the the goods to us on Friday so it makes everybody smile from Park nice great job right moving on to our assistant superintendent report so segwaying right um so Channel like Mr was say yesterday um Channel 5 was here at school and so um our coffee crew got highlighted on channel five um the kids looked fantastic so it was Mr Dugan did a great job representing our our school our district and our community if you didn't get a chance to see that um but I think the other thing too is it just I wanted to give a shout out to the teachers because to throw in a last minute assembly and to have all those kids in the gym waiting to go out of their ordinary schedules um is huge and so that is a testament as well to all the teachers at AT Park View and doing something awesome for our kids um I had a couple of kids tell me that they were celebrities because they got interviewed by Chanel five and then I heard today they were very upset because that part didn't air on TV so they were a little upset they weren really on TV but um but it was fun seeing that pep B was also amazing I mean Mr AIS Rous did an amazing job job and our kids loved it I I told them we might need to do that again there you go yeah it was awesome so um okay moving on to a couple of more shoutouts um I'm start at Eagle View with Monica M she's one of our kindergarten teachers um our you know we have an amazing staff and so it really is hard to kind of narrow down one at a time at the different board meetings but just a shout out to Monica who has been teaching kindergarten for several years but is constantly searching and learning and trying to find new things and then bringing them to the kindergarten team to let's try this out let's see how this goes um and then we'll take on the okay I'll make all this currently we are um piloting the Orton Gillingham that we sent teachers to train over the summer and the kindergarten readable books um kindergarten team didn't like the way they looked right they were just kind of very generic and basic well Monica has a student teacher right now and so she has volunteered to redo all of the OG books for kindergarten so um she has the time to do it during the school day but to even take on that task is um Monumental and and so she you know just wanted to give her an extra shout out for that um at Eagle View and Parkview this is Sasha hany she's our new librarian um so she covers both buildings she does a great job not only you know connecting the books and inspiring kids' passion of reading with what's going on the character words the month or what's happening in the buildings but she is always willing to help she gets pulled a lot to sub because we're short on substitute teachers so again I'm going to make my plug if anyone knows somebody that wants to be a substitute teacher we are always looking um but she is always willing to step up do whatever she can um no matter what's going on so wanted to acknowledge her at the middle school this is Betsy kenek she's one of our science um teachers and this year she is really um she's been trying to increase her leadership skills and exposure um and so she's been stepping up in a lot of different way joining different committees for curriculum helping to make some decisions she's helping to plan things for the solar eclipse um and then she also is one of our administrative Subs this year and so um you know it's tough when we can't get regular subs and then when administrators are out right we need somebody to help support the teachers um and so she has stepped up and is doing that as well to get some leadership experience so I'm going to do an knowledge her and then I have Megan Reinhard she's really a district employee but she works mostly at the middle school and high school but I put her down for the high school um because we have a couple of cases right as the school sites they do a lot of the testing a lot of the organizing for IEP meetings um and that kind of stuff but we have a couple of cases at the high school um that the high school counselors are like we've been trying we've been working with you know these couple of students for three in four years um we feel like we're spinning our wheels and Megan was like I've got it I'll come over I'll meet with the student I'll work we'll work on a plan together um and then she works that out with the counselors and then the counselors are like oh so kind of refilling their tool bag um with things to try and like I said that's kind of out of the ordinary of what our school sites do in the district um but she was willing to jump right in and and do that without hesitation so I think that is amazing as well sorry slides there's and the uh and our coffee crew from from the news um last month I talked to you a little bit about kind of our district focus and this cular cycle that we're on so just kind of wanted to fill in that we are currently um in this instructional phase so looking at the Core Curriculum at the standards we've been spending our half day work looking at Focus skills um really looking at our standards breaking them down and helping to build you know kind of progression sheets um it's an ongoing process it is not an easy process by any means even for the most seasoned teacher um but it is something that we are working through um and going to continue working on because it not only will help our teachers but it's also what's best for our kids is to have that lined up so that is kind of our district Focus um we're also doing some curriculum mapping um to do horizontal and vertical alignment and So currently I'm working with the Middle School um language arts team the district PE the district art program our elementary Ela program and our K8 math so these are the ones that we're focusing on this year um and then our Our Hope and our plan is to have these groups done at the end of this year and then next year move on to another set of of curriculum and then finally and I think the most exciting part of my presentation is um we were just notified yesterday so the state of Illinois has the those that excel in the teacher of the year program and so this year we were notified that for um one of the those that Excel is Heidi Klein who's our INR language arts teacher um does a phenomenal job um she says she's retiring after next year I think everyone's telling her we're not going to let her retire after next year um but she just does an outstanding job she's being um nominated or she was awarded with a special recognition from the state board um and the other one is Kurt Steve um for under our support staff for all of the just amazing things he's done for the district since he's gotten here he's another one that don't know that I've ever heard him say no or I can't do that it's always a I'll figured out I'm on it right now no problem and then as he's telling you that he's already rushing off to the next project because he keeps saying yes in doing that um so we are just you know we have amazing people in our district but it's awesome for the rest of the state to start to see some of the amazing people that we have so they will both be honored in Bloomington at a u presentation in a banquet in May so we are we are thrilled this is hot off the prices so nice all I have congratulations well now you got to follow both of those it's it's a tough one I will say um Kurt Steve just this year it's a good example the we had an HVAC unit start at stop at the beginning of the year at the high school in the language arts wing and to get a temporary HVAC unit there and set up was going to be a lot of money and Kurt did some phone calling talked to some people he knew and next thing you know he says well I think I got a an alternative and for half the price we were able to get a new unit there and get it hooked up and and have air for the kids and it's just he does what he does but he also reaches out to the relationships he has to really um benefit us and one wonderful way so uh I just wanted to give you a specific example on that one for us for me I've got a few things um parking lots in progress if you've walked the path we're hoping by mid um March it will be done but uh it's a very big area that's getting done remember they've got to do some sidewalks so that's not going to be all parking they're digging it out putting the underground trenches in and stuff like that but uh hoping by mid-march but that is in progress so I excited about that uh project that we've been talking about for a while last month we talked a little bit about residency um we actually passed a policy where employees can register their students tuition free um ihsa in December changed some of their bylaws and we were then questioning huh how's that going to play out for us because if a high school student is um coming to our district and they don't live here will they be able to play and uh so I sent the the new wording that they had but in the past the students were able to play okay so if you had a waiver with the state through the legislative uh branch and and your employees were able to have their kids register with you their students were able to play in high school sports um now that it's no longer through a legislative waiver but through board policy ihsa changed the wording of their policy why would they change the wording of their policies I I don't know why um lawyers do a lot of things that lawyers do however I sent it off to Barney mundorf and he read it and um it's kind of vague but he says no I I I believe that this says that they can play and so we believe that they changed the wording because it's no longer a legislative W waiver but a um board policy waiver and so our students would still be able to play but like those are some of the little details that we have to make sure we understand because as we're sent out a survey to find out how many people are really going to be thinking about registering their kids so that we can make sure our staffing is adequate we want to be able to say if your child is a high schooler if they'd be able to play or not and so right now we believe firmly that if they are employees of the district and they come here they would be able to play uh the other one I got uh news of was kind of interesting there was a Matilda and Edward dare d o r r pronounced dare it's a family in this of this community I see some board members nodding their head um they set up a Memorial Scholarship in their name and this year I was on the phone with the bankers um just this week and they said well for the 2024 year we have $150,000 we've got to give away as scholarships and I said okay okay so you'll want to have that decided by December then you know cuz I'm thinking 2024 and she and he goes no I've got1 15 ,000 we need to give in scholarships to seniors this year wow is right and and and so it got me thinking because I it's kind of funny because there are a lot of scholarships out there and for all of the families that are watching this getting your child my youngest is a senior all three of my children getting them to actually fill out the forms for scholarships it shouldn't be this much work but there's opportunities out there that they should be taking advantage of and so um if you tell your child to reach out to the guidance counselors and and they're telling you no there's nothing there's it maybe you should call the guidance counselors yourself and set up a little homework assignment for your child to get the scholarship because again the the intent of the Matilda and Edward dare Memorial Scholarship is they want to do a four-year full ride scholarship and and and so this year they would say you know we'll pay for your first year of college and then there'll be all these extra little ones then the next year those two would get their second year paid for and two new people would get it and then there'd be some other you know to come up this is going to be this was the interest that this fund earned and every year the interest goes toward these scholarships um we are very appreciative of this family giving back to the community in this way uh and I want to say that FAFSA was delayed in its opening um anybody with a senior this year might know and the struggles of filling out the FAFSA forms if you don't um you should really appreciate the scholarships that are there uh so again my plug is is to make sure that your children are filling out those scholarships but those are some of the things that have been coming across my desk this month quite else no sir that's a lot all right a very heavy item action list for this evening just one item is the approval of the 20 24 2025 school calendar yeah and this is one of those things where every year the calendar is relatively the same and then also different we always start in mid August we always end trying to do it before the uh Memorial Day um right now what we're proposing is that institutes August 13th and 14th with students starting the August 15th that would be a Thursday we like to start school on a Thursday because the kindergarteners half of them come on Thursday half of them come on Friday that gives them two days of coming to school and then the next week we're we're live and in progress first semester would end at 1220 Christmas I believe is a Wednesday this year so you'll get uh two full weeks of Christmas break second semester would start with teachers coming back on Monday January 6th and the students coming back on January 7th Tuesday uh the last day of school with no snow would be um the 20th that's a Tuesday the last day of school with five snow days would be 5:28 that is after Memorial Day much too many people's Chagrin um you just you try to balance the first semester with the second semester in the number of days you Easter is a little bit later this year or is it yeah it is later this year um so there's just always Oddities that happen the administration recommends we we've met with the association we've talked about it at various things we had a first iteration second iteration third iteration we've had some questions we've made some comments um it's not the world's best calendar but it's not the world's worst calendar either given The Oddities of When Things Fall Administration recommends that we approve this calendar questions concerns comments Alissa did I miss anything no I think the only other thing we tried to spend a lot of time on this year is in the past parent teacher conference the kns had been issues um for our own staff members um because there tended to be that usually tended to be regionals for volleyball um soccer is during that time senior night was tending to fall on those things or the last you know game and so this year we tried really hard we took all of the Fall Sports schedules and plotted them all out and tried to pick what would be the least intrusive um for everyone not just the sports schedules but looking at you know everything going on in the district to kind of help our staff out as well on those SS because they do give up two full nights to do this parent teacher conferences too you want to talk about March what we did there so typically we do um two nights and then a half day in the fall um this calendar has broken it up so the two nights would still be in the fall and then the half day would actually be in the spring um we haven't had a spring parent teacher conference in this district for quite a long time um but we thought this would allow for kind of an extra touch in with parents at the end of the year um but especially for those students that are struggling that are in danger of failing at the upper grades um and just having that extra dedicated time in the spring to be able to touch in this would not be a time where we would be at asking every parent to come back in like we do in the fall um this would be more of a kind of an invitation only if there's issues or things going on it'd also be good for the high school and those one semester classes because they don't get a parent teacher conference at all so um having them on both the sides of the semesters which is a positive so now questions concerns comments and this year with the number of emergency days we've taken are we still on scheduled to end on June 4th talking about this year yes we've had one emergency day right yeah yeah yeah we've only had one emergency day although there's many people that think that we should have had I do remember that more we have some people that think we should have had last so um all right question withdraw sorry no but the last day would be then one day later okay the 20 so it' be the perfect thank you so much for bringing that up again je long day all right questions concerns comments Mr G anybody like to make a motion to approve the 2024 25 calendar I'll make the motion Jo I your second second seconds roll call please Andy yes KY Moyer yes GRE Meer yes Lisa schacher yes Tyson search yes Norine fried yes really didn't need a roll call on that but since that was our only action excise a little bit so right all right next is our discussion items and we'll start off with our facility study we met last week and went into a deep dive on the gym we are right now reviewing the um design documents for phase one which is the administrative offices the academic wing and the auditorium they're about 50% completed with that we're looking to have those go out to bid this summer um and so we're getting close on that because of the cost implications and whatnot we've started looking at the phase two which is the gymnasium to make sure we have a good understanding of that scope so that we we'll be able to balance the budget and the finance as well so we've started having those meetings um we met today to go over the timelines some of the logistics uh the biggest I think hurdle is like I'm hoping in a month to a month and a half we will really start to be able to say this is how parking needs to be I can't stress this enough that the everybody knows how the middle school and high school is somewhat chaotic um we are going to have a more structured expectation of how people can do it right now you know and there's nothing wrong with it because it works for everybody's family differently but we have some people that will come in and they'll drop their kid off at the high school and then instead of pulling in and around and going back out they will then go and park in the um high school parking lot and let their middle schooler out to then walk across and that just not going to be able to work we're going to need to figure out what's going to work and then once we know what's going to work for the middle school and the high school we're going to need to say this is how it's going to have to be and having people come up with their own plans there's going to be one-way traffic because there's going to be construction fences and we might not be able to get around both sides of the high school um you know we've got to make sure that the flow of traffic is good for emergency responders but in the morning and in the evening drop off and pick up we're going to be um hopefully having a plan and trying to get everybody to follow the plan uh but more communication will come from that um I'm excited with how it's going to come together and do you have anything to say Mr Myers no just uh fortunately we did the uh parking lot up at the top of the hill so their loss in parking is going to be more than adequate for what we're making up on top of the hill and uh with a new entrance to the high school during the construction it's actually going to be an IDE location for for our parking um and I just want to take U I use your word shout out to uh to the team and we have every meeting here we have Architects we have Engineers we have interior design people we have our construction manager and every detail is just nailed down to the to the MTH degree um we spent a lot of time today on what's the are going to look like when start the building and where do we need to build temporary sidewalks to where and how do we keep the the community off of the construction area and how do we separate these things so a lot of thoughts going into it so it's not just a willy-nilly kind of deal that we're jumping into but uh a lot of a lot of plans and and really some good plans as well so any questions all right move on to individual board member comments anyone have anything to see me get out of here tonight I see that I have nothing for my work member's prerogative and I don't believe we have a need for executive session this evening no sir all right and that means we don't have any action ons for executive session so we're roll right along last time is adjournment you like to make a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion thank you second I'll second okay thanks second thank you roll call please Kelly moer yes Greg Meyer yes Lisa schoemer yes Tyson search yes noran Frick yes andri Cy y perect that concludes our meeting thank you all very much for joining us

going to call this meeting to order is 7:32 Mrs sininsky roll call please present here here here here here thank you could you please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all awesome favorite part of the night Miss Ella Paul and Andrew Elliott for the student representative report nothing better um so hi everyone hope you're all doing well um so now that midterms are over we are headed into the final phases of the school year Rec recently treasure high school students have been invited to be part of a delegation of students traveling from Connecticut to The jangu Province in China the trip is being coordinated with the support of our regional Educational Service Center area co Cooperative education center Aces the opportunity to be a part of this journey as honored guests the chance to create connections with students from across the globe and to have curated experiences in schools with peers as well as getting to participate in cultural events is very unique National Honor Society has held the annual Matchmaker fundraiser where students uh complete a survey and are matched with other students to get the results students must give a $3 donation during lunch waves with the last day being tomorrow and additionally for Valentine's Day CHS Drama Kids for Kids GSA and unified theater all sponsored candy grams so that's essentially just where people um or students choose another student to give a candygram to which just a little bag full of candy just to show their appreciation towards them so two two chesher students were recipients of the Scholastic art and writing award erua Adisa silver and Peggy Wang in honorable mention they were honored at the University of Hartford art building slipe gallery on January 28th the ex the exhibition was open from January 28th to February 2nd at Treasure High School Alan d varus's students have finished their house modeling designs for the high school competition that took place on February 9th at the Hartford Convention Center now moving on to sports our girls indoor track team were coach Champs of the SEC this has not been done since 2009 so big congratulations towards them so now we are beginning to wrap up the winter sports season and move into the spring Sports season skiing has had their or skiing is having their senior night tonight at Mount Southington boys basketball and cheerleaders are having their senior night tomorrow night and girls hockey co-op on Saturday additionally girls basketball is playing in the first round of secc's tonight Boys Hockey is on a rooll they improved to 151 in one with a win last night over North Branford completing their 13th in a row they have three more regular season games with the senior night being on Saturday February 24th additionally on February 24th we will have several chesher Public Schools staff members participating in the YMCA slow camp ER plunge to help the YMCA raise money that will go directly to helping kids in the Southington and chesher area I also heard from an anonymous source that Dr Solen will be participating on February 25th CHS sports teams clubs and teams of Staff staff members will be participating in the supermarket challenge teams of three to four members pay an entry fee of $100 and compete with other teams to buy as many Poss as many items as possible with that $100 all items are then donated to the the treasure food pantry hi everyone happy late Valentine's Day I hope you're all doing well so I have a few different categories of stuff for tonight and first would be the academic side of stuff at chesher High School uh just last week students that are freshman sophomores and juniors completed their course selection so they were able to kind of talk with their own teachers talk with their guidance counselors and stuff to be able to choose their courses for next year to stay on track with constantly updating graduation requirements and things like like that in our library they started a new thing where the guidance counselors are in the library every session there's one representative that can help students go and pick their courses and it was really helped alleviate stress for students who weren't sure what to do might have been having trouble with the online platform and things like that and it seemed to be a success uh next on a similar note would be the scholarship booklet that was just released on Wednesday for seniors graduating chure high school there are like 80 Pages worth of awesome scholarships that are just available to Chester high school students so it gives everyone a really great chance there's all kinds of different qualifications there's ones for specific Majors or specific types of extracurricular activities for students going to college students going to trade schools really like there is something for almost every student which is really a really great opportunity we also had the career fair recently where there were Representatives so many that we not only filled the C in Commons but also the gym as well for juniors to be able to come and meet with representatives from all different types of careers to learn about kind of the path they took to get there what their daily job might look like things like that and lastly on this note would be that senior language students that have been taking their language for a certain amount of years are able to take the biliteracy test and that will be coming up and this is usually something that a good chunk of Chester high school students do to be able to add to their resume and continue their learning of world languages in college on another note as we know February is black his history month and chesher high school has been doing a lot of exciting things to spread awareness of this one of them would be in the library they had uh certain things going on to recognize black leaders in history that was put together by our amazing Librarians and also by students in the POC people of color club there was an activity for all students to participate in in advisories on Wednesday and on February 1st misso and Miss griffi organized an in field trip for students it was called blues and Beyond and it was a band that basically was able to take students through some historical aspect aspects of African-American culture through music which seemed really awesome and moving on we as always have lots of stuff going on with extracurriculars one of them would be the inclusion catian that happened this week for Best Buddies we had over 100 attendees 30 peers with intellectual and developmental disabilities including from some other towns alumni of Chester high school and future Chester High School Rams from DOD and some elementary schools and it really was a great way to celebrate all of the inclusivity that the best buddies Club at the high school Fosters and the impact that it has on the community and spreading that awareness to everyone next our CHS chorus has their Pops concert coming up which is where they pretty much sing fun cool pop songs and all the seniors get to do a solo if they so choose and that is on the 23rd and 24th of Fe February next up we have a little bit through the student Senate have been revamping alongside collaboration with Administration what our B1 day is typically it would be just this one day of community building things Field Day activities but this year we're kind of switching that up and are now starting to plan a B1 week where we will have small activities going on every day to help Chester High School give back to the community and come back to the roots of the day and what it really means to be a high school community and how that will shape us for the future and then of course having our fun Field Day volleyball tournament on the last day but um just two more quick things one would be that again our Librarians are awesome and they scheduled a cute little Family Feud activity for students and teachers to get involved together and that happened today you can check it out on their Instagram and then um the peer Health students are now starting to visit do I know I mentioned in a past meeting how they would go to the elementary schools for re ambassadors but um they've now been starting to visit DOD to kind of help prepare them for the maturity level that is going to be needed when they get to jure high school next year and then my last thing I don't know I don't know am I allowed to come up there I brought you guys some copies of the newest Rampage Edition so I'll just leave [Applause] them so thank you thank you very much I at first I was like who's the editor I'm like dah hello Ella Paul any board members have comments Mr White thank you uh thank you for all of your comments tonight the career day did it include non what would typically be a non- Col career absolutely there were all kinds of different careers there were like trade careers there were more like traditionally like you mentioned some College Bound careers all different things thank you um is that is that just for students do any parents ever attend the career day this one was just for students okay so the a lot of the attendees who came to support the day were parents and Friends of students at the school this who got involved great no I think it's I I'm a broken record on this I think it's also important not just for the kids that students to see it but I think for parents to see it too thank you yeah that's why over the summer when we had our events at FF Hitchcock and Y um Richard Chevy uh East Coast mechanical there one other one I Marin manufacturing um we invited parents to attend those events uh really popular over the summer thank you Dr herrian hi thank you for your report both of you uh Ella any update on the musical yes I'm actually headed back to rehearsal after this but um we are so far doing well we just had last week our choreographer John was in from Florida so we learned all of our dances and now our awesome dance captains who are students that are in the show but very talented dancers they help us fine-tune everything before the show we're doing vocals tonight and we have been doing our acting rehearsals after school all of our scenes are blocked so now we're just working on really really getting into everything you want to throw out those dates oh of course March 21st 22nd and 23rd is the Thursday Friday Saturday of that weekend and I will give you guys ticketing information when it comes of course Mr um I just wanted to comment on the incredible quality of this newset that's not a newsletter it's an actual newspaper I mean that's on real newspaper for most part and it's uh probably the highest quality we've seen in in some time perhaps in this town thank you um so congratulations on that I don't know what sort of budget you had but U shout out to Mrs wellp and Mrs flood they help us with everything library media Specialists excellent thank you I have to say ditto to Mr gripple and I know Mr White is uh a fan of receiving one of these so you may want to autograph one for him as well too so any other comments from board members just calling in thank you I I really want to shout out the fact that the um these new office hours that the counselors are offering that's a really whoever came up with that amazing just to support you guys and the rest of the student body on class and course selection so that's awesome um and and Andrew took kind of a piece of my um chair report later on but I'm really happy to hear that Dr Solen will be plunging and I know Mr perini used to be my Polar Plunge partner and I'm hoping he continues to be my Polar Plunge partner I hear there's one coming up what later this month February 24th I believe I think we need a team building exercise yeah we do we do and we invite you all too as well to either donate or be part of the team thank you both very much you welcome to stay Thank you guys bye and then the next item is is oh we have the Darcy School partnership which is me so this evening's uh School partnership award will go to Darcy school um the recipient of tonight's um award will be Lori burelli Miss barelli oh really Jersey Jersey oh so according to principal dessert Lori brelli and her therapy bunny Jersey became part of the Darcy Community two years ago from day one Lori and Jersey became part of excuse me became part of the DAR Community by visiting classrooms each week and spending time with the children when Lori is seen pushing the stroll where's the stroller oh it's over there oh my goodness in the hallway children get excited here are some comments from the preschool and kindergarten children we get to pet Jersey Jersey is so soft we get to talk to Jersey Jersey makes me calm when children read to her Jersey loves to look at the pages of the book Jersey also entertained the children by dressing up in special costumes for the holidays one of the favorites was on April 1 when Jersey dressed up in a skunk costume stinky Lori comes every week ready to spend time with the children Mrs desert said they are extremely fortunate to call Lori and Jersey their dear friends to Darcy's school oh my goodness can I pet you please guys it's not easy oh thank you she just has a train was [Applause] next item Dr Solen uh you're introducing Isabella P yes thank you for that hair raising Pres presentation Miss Rosenberg you know you could take the dad out of the whatever but anyway it's certainly my honor this evening to recognize our next Honore Miss Isabella paio she's a sixth grader at Norton Elementary School I know her reputation probably precedes her though because uh tonight she's being honored for uh winning the uh local uh Martin Luther King Jr essay contest sponsored by excuse me Senator Murphy's office but uh you may know her name from the person who designed our holiday card uh that was sent out in December uh so she is quite a young lady who's made already a name for herself in sixth grade but I wanted to share just a couple of quick points from uh from her essay where she talks about how Dr King believes education is the key to empowering the human mind because ignorance is a dangerous thing um and of course I thought the cutest line she had is um you don't have uh excuse me I moved to chesher in 2 grade at first I was hesitant scared to attend my new school you don't have a lot of confidence being small and short I'm a sixth grader now and I'm still small and short but thankfully I met very kind-hearted classmates who welcomed my arrival with open arms you may be small and short but you're certainly a Powerhouse Isabella so congratulations on this recognition we're very proud of you come on up and we'll take some pictures over we'll take some pies d she [Applause] congratulations um next item we um get the pleasure of um having representative Curry if you come to the mic we're proud to welcome the chair of the Connecticut General Assembly legislative committee representative Curry this evening thank you for joining us um we had invited representative Curry prior to this at the beginning of the school year to provide an update and couldn't make it last time but we are so glad you're here because we have questions and hopefully you have answers so representating Curry excellent uh good evening everyone uh first and foremost thank you so much for allowing me to take up some of your space today um I have had the pleasure of traveling around the state uh corner to corner to have this conversation a number of times the number of interested and affected parties uh so I appreciate uh being able to give that again tonight so with respect to right to read I think the first thing that we need to do is probably right set and hopefully clear up some of the misconceptions um some of the misunderstandings that folks have with respect to kind of where this came from uh so during my time on the board of education as uh the former chair back in 2012 uh we piloted at from the state um something called the ck3 LI program it was little pilot initiatives um that kind of started this whole uh initiative around the science of reading um there was one in my backyard in the elementary school literally in my backyard where we saw some great successes uh and this was an initiative taken on then uh by the black and Puerto Rican caucus um the then Commission on women and children and I think they had seniors yet we've find a whole bunch since then um but uh it it grew steadily from there and then in 2021 House Bill 6620 was raised in the education committee uh that bill did include the language that uh talked about the number of models and programs uh that bill did have a hearing 41 people provided testimony so uh just right at the onset I know some folks uh want to give the impression that this was done in the darkness of night and under you know and slid in here and there but this this went through the process the education committee did hear this they then jfed it which means they joint favorably passed it out of the committee and over to the Appropriations Committee uh because there was a fiscal note attached to this piece of legislation the Appropriations Committee then ultimately jointly F or joint favorably passed that out um within the budget uh that year uh their budget proposal um it then went uh to the floor um where uh it became part of Senate Bill uh 1202 uh which was the budget that year uh it is not unlike it is not unheard of that uh bills ultimately get swept into the implementer bills um because the implementor bills are what implements the bud budget and so anything that has a fiscal note often is tied into there uh so uh that was ultimately uh past that year uh there was a debate during uh the floor uh debate uh if you want to go back and look at the transcript you can see clearly that again this was discussed there were members in the chamber uh there was even an amendment offered by one of our colleagues which was then also discussed and voted upon uh and again this so this was this did go through the appropriate process people did have eyes and ears on this uh people were able to discuss this and ultimately decide on what that language would look like uh that year there was a Partyline vote on the budget Governor signed it and it officially became Public Act 21-2 Fast Forward to 2023 um some stuff happened between there we'll get into that in a moment but 2023 uh Senate Bill 1094 um did have a public hearing on March 1st that did include the waiver language uh because I think there was a recognition uh that that there were districts who felt that they were already aligned to the science of reading and so we wanted to offer them the opportunity to uh to show that provide the evidence um and so a number of districts did do that but uh that was ultimately moved into Senate bill one uh which is in section 20 which ultimately became Public Act 23 167 the Senate did debate this there were five amendments called uh there was one Democratic Amendment four Republican amendments this passed on a Partyline vote it then went to the house it was debated with one Republican Amendment called and It ultimately passed on a bipartisan vote so in between that the State Department of Education essentially created a waiver process uh for districts to prove uh that they were aligned to the science of reading because all throughout this process starting back in 2012 and up until now everybody was aligned to the fact that the science of reading is what the literacy program should be aligned to there was no disagreement amongst any of the people that had been working on this uh everybody had their arrows pointed in the same direction rowing the boat in the same direction and so um the waiver process was created the State Department of Education brought in a third party do I Jeff Curry myself believe that this was likely the best thing to do probably not because I think good intent well there were good intentions of trying to make a neutral process and kind of not have it be seen as any sort of biases that uh they brought in folks to help create a rubric that the districts were then provided to then provide their um information to these folks for review some districts provided 80 Pages some districts provided 8,000 Pages um that's an exaggeration but not too far off um but I think it it also showed us that uh if had the waiver process been a little tightened we probably wouldn't have seen such discrepancies between districts in the information that they were providing uh the other issue that I think that we um can say was a definite uh definitely problematic was that during that waiver um meeting that they then had with the districts which lasted 30 minutes they were each given 30 minutes to talk about the waiver application that they had submitted now had a district done something in the time between they submitted that and that meeting they were not permitted to discuss that even if they had selected one of those five to seven programs um that were included in uh the the information that went out to the districts that's a problem um and which makes you know looking back absolutely zero sense but again they they kept uh very rigid um speaking of rigid there was some question around the five to seven programs and models that were selected um that ultimately during the waiver review process was uh raised increased to 19 because they found that the districts who were providing waiver applications actually were using programs curricul models that were aligned to the science of reading and so because of that uh SD being less rigid at that moment was going to increase the number of available programs that districts would have the ability to uh select from problem is is that they were in that waiver review process and couldn't go back and pick one of those uh now 19 to have any sort of stamp to say that they were now in compliance so so there's a number of things that were happening that uh were definitely not lining up as as far as a timeline goes to be able to provide districts with the ability to show that they were aligned with the right uh with the science of reading um so December 1st comes 2023 and the letters all go out to the districts it was a Friday night there was nothing about a Friday night dump as some call it in in the press it just happened to be Friday night that was the deadline for getting it out um there was then a rush for a number of districts to provide uh letters into the State Department of Education ask asking for a reconsideration um there were conversations that were had with attorneys about bringing legal action against the State Department of Education um there was so many conversations that it the director of our Center for literacy was accused with sleeping with some of the vendors that had been selected uh myself and my co-chair were accused of influencing the State Department of Education to provide our districts with waivers um this process turned completely nasty and it didn't need to come to where it is today unfortunately um but hopefully we can get to a point now where we understand that there is a path forward we recently met with the State Department of Education who after a bit of time had provided us with what they deem as the most appropriate path forward um there was a bit of confusion or hesitation on their end to uh move forward because they didn't believe that we as a legislature provided them with a an appeals process a reconsideration process and that they needed that in order to do anything post that decision um if you look back at the piece of legislation that ultimately passed there was a section in there that said uh if a district was not provided a waiver technical assistance and and the like would be provided and so they felt after uh further review that that particular line uh was the construct that gave them the ability to outline a path forward without needing us to do any sort of of legislation now what does that path forward actually look like for districts who are in the position of being labeled as transitional or limited also I'm not sure why they lose limited because limited just simply meant you were denied limited kind of has a different definition in most uh most usages so um so what's going to happen most likely is that districts are going to have the opportunity to spend some time with our friends at the State Department of Education and to fully go through the programs the models and the curricula that you are using and to be able to explain to the State Department of Education why what you are using is actually aligned to the science of reading which you have tried to defend in the waiver application that you originally submitted which again at the time was reviewed by people who were not sde in a 30 minute window where you were not permitted to talk about anything outside of what was in that particular application so taking away those use the word guard rails we enjoy that um SD now is going to have the ability to to sit with your folks to really get into it and to help them see exactly where they are allow you to defend if there are tweaks that are going to be necessary they're going to tell you that you're still likely going to have to make those tweaks but it's going to be a collaborative process not only with the State Department of Education with the center of literacy but also with the council that was stood up to work with the center for literacy um which is made up of a number of educational experts um none of which we are as legislators but that we heavily rely upon including folks such as your superintendent and other Educators in the system um and so that is essentially where that brings us to today and uh the State Department of Education is likely going to be rolling out uh with that plan forward to districts hopefully within the next week or so so I hope I was able to kind of clear things up level set but I'm happy to take any sort of questions that you may have on this and anything else and again I appreciate your time that was a lot white U thank you so much for coming tonight and you said you've already been around the state probably do dozens if not more than that of town so I appreciate all the time you're giving on this based on your own personal experience I'm just curious a comment that you made before about s um and they had refused to act in the absence of a statute or Direction I'm just curious based on your own experience have you ever seen that happen with the SD before SD before where they felt they didn't have something and therefore they could not act because I just find that implausible and I I don't know where this I appreciate what you said that this is hopefully resolved soon but if it's not I just am curious to know that for background because I find it difficult to believe that a state agency would refuse to act in this sort of situation uh with the absence of Direction I get it wanting that but I find it hard to believe in the absence that they wouldn't act anyway in good faith yeah so I'll say in my 10 years in the legislature I've never seen an issue like this have such a visceral reaction from folks on every side of the of the issue and I think because of that and because of the threat of litigation okay because of being buried under foi requests I think that they they took a moment to pause and breathe okay to make sure that they were charting that that appropriate course forward okay okay thank you I can I can appreciate that so my question is for the superintendent there was like like the chair just said there's a lot backed into this where are you right now based on what you know sure thank you and uh representative Curry again I want to thank you for coming here today uh for your work uh not only on this issue but uh earlier today I had the pleasure of being at the uh press conference for ECS and education funding uh very much appreciate that we need to do more for early childhood education uh but I also appreciate your advocacy and and those of all of the members of our delegation to make sure it doesn't come on the backs of K to 12 um so I just wanted to make that point with respect to Right to Read um I think this is what we've asked for um throughout the process is uh it it felt halfhazard and uh the point you made about maybe a little bit more clarity in the waiver process would have um a iated some of the challenges that we all Face bottom line is I think you know our team we're we're committed to looking forward um as you said I think all of us agree that the science of reading is the way to go I mean we've strongly felt that way for more than a decade and um the opportunity to sit down with other professionals uh and to go through the way that we employ the science of reading and receive valuable feedback is something that I think our team has been open into from the outset uh and I appreciate you illustrating how that necessarily wasn't part of the process uh so I I just again I want to thank you for being here tonight and in the work you've done uh to help you know kind of illuminate where some of the challenges might be and and address those things so yeah I mean anything that we do everything is relational and so it's a matter of just simply being able to sit down and have the conversation and allow people to just simply talk and better understand so that's what we've asked them to do and and luckily that's what they're going and and I do think you know Tim's um concern is probably Val valid his his hesitation perhaps a bit in the sense that you know there that that viscal reaction you talked about has been pretty uh loud since December 1st and it's taken a lot of time to get this sort of movement and we haven't seen anything in writing yet and you know I know you wouldn't be coming here sharing this if you didn't feel really confident but I think we'll all breathe a little bit easier when we see them put it to paper and and share it with districts yeah I'm sure it's a little drafty out on the edge of the limb there so yes I appreciate that I tell you I spent at least two hours of every single day talking about this issue I'm sure you do yes and I appreciate you you are always willing to listen he representative Curry has been to a number of the same meetings I've been to and uh not everybody stands up like that not everybody comes and listens so I appreciate you and certainly the members of our delegation that are here tonight that have also had to hear me uh and our team kind of rant on this issue with great frustration for the last three months so appreciate you guys being here too so much thank you yeah I just want to Echo the same and you know the Fab Four that are here that were here last time and um especially represented linan because I kept saying to her we need to talk to Jeff he's got all the answers so thank thank you very much representative Lan and um representative Curry for coming I do have one clarifying question if you're able to disclose you mentioned about um moving forward and I'm I'm happy to see that this the SD is putting into practice the design thinking process that they so much harp on for us to do um what is the timeline then now how long is this going to take for for us it's a great question and unfortunately I don't have an answer for you on that uh the conversation with the State Department of Education literally happened yesterday morning where they presented this to us so you likely and whoever's listening at home or wherever are hearing that for the first time publicly um but we're hoping like I said they put something out in the next week or so that'll help you and I will say so there's an implementation here that uh date here that we're all up against of that uh 2025 and so I think some of the conversations that we also had um was about do we push that out again for the folks who are going to have to go through this process to have additional conversations um we aren't there yet um but uh obviously we just started we're a week into our legislative session and we've got a bit of time to go to see if that's something that we're going to have to do okay and and we appreciate it you know the last conversation we had they finally brought in board members to be part of the discussion so that that's a most appreciated so moving forward you know I'd like to see that maintained Mr White did you have your hand up go ahead and then Dr herrian thank you madam chair yeah just I know you've heard lots of different complaints my own personal story is my son is in second grade I think his reading is doing great and the concern the number one concern that I have for him and for all the K through3 Kids is if a program is great based on the science of reading what's the likelihood that this improves the the reading the outcomes for those students and it just seems to me for me right here in the town of chesher great principal and back that's his principal Jody Rhoden um the the school uh I don't want those kids taking a step backward it just doesn't it doesn't make any sense and it seems to me that's the likelihood of what would happen with the results that they have right now thank you yeah yeah and I and I'd like to maybe push back a little and just agree that there is no like magic answer to any one program that's going to have everybody at 100% proficiency so I the fact that right now you know performance metrics were never a part of the conversation during this entire process at least so this is my first uh uh uh term as the chair of education so I was not sitting in on the initial discussions back in 2021 when this was first all created um but I do know performance metrics were not a part of that um having said that you know we have the districts who have you know 70% proficiency that means 30 aren't science of reading isn't going to solve that on its own there's additional resources humans programs that are going to need put in place for those students so I I appreciate your comments and agree that yes nothing is going to completely get everybody to that point but again if you are aligned already to the signs of reading hopefully that additional review process is a seamless one for you the points that were made this morning about Early Childhood Intervention I think are at least if not more influential in Reading outcomes but um you know the the one thing I think for us that was a little confusing was that in the legislation and in the waver process we were asked to submit data and so we you know uh were able to demonstrate that we've been uh systemically closing the gap for high need students students of color with the rest of our readers and was something we're really proud of um and I think it was a little frustrating for us to be asked for that data and then um have it not be considered but at the end of the day that's hindsight and you know for us I I think we look forward to moving forward um and learning what we can from uh other folks that are expert in the field uh to even better support the students than we do today hi thank you so much for coming tonight and uh talking with us in a very concise way you wrapped up the whole three years of controversy I think um my question is relates and I'm not sure you can answer this and I'm um I'm wondering if superintendent Solen might have some insights on this as well um you're still talking about these programs and having to follow a program in order to go through so whether it's seven programs to choose from or 19 programs to choose from if we have a program that we've built our own from the ground up over a dozen years but that follows the science of reading I mean are we going to just be still asked to um buy into one of these programs no not not if you are able to sit down and and show that that is aligned to the science of reading then you should be fine so that is part of the conversation oh absolutely yes yeah I mean we love when the districts take the time to to have that kind of organically grown within their their ranks I mean not very many districts do that um but when that happens I think we have to take a moment to celebrate that and if that is truly aligned then recognize that and allow you to continue on great thank you Mr per and Mr gripple thank you madam chair uh representative Curry thanks again for coming out this evening uh for those that don't know representive Curry came to our Cade board director's meeting last Wednesday night week ago and uh spent a good hour uh in a packed room of board of directors I wouldn't say about 25 or so and then more on zoom and yes they were there to hear from Mr Curry uh but they also shared a lot of feedback and uh he sat through the entire your discussion uh was very Frank with us uh like you are tonight we appreciate all that uh you did follow through on what you committed to C last week which was have those discussions with SD and I and I I I appreciate that so I just want folks to know that there is stuff happening outside of the headlines to resolve this I also want to acknowledge that um representative lhan Senator hell Senator Samson representative zupkus uh also attended our SD meeting back on February 5th which seems like attorney too and all asked great questions great gave great insight to SD at least when they were willing to listen to our feedback uh so I want to acknowledge all the time you're all spending on this I know it's not planned for you guys have incredibly busy schedule I thank you and uh I actually have cookies because last Wednesday night you gave me cookies you talk your behind off and I so I will hand it out to to our delegation tonight after you're done just appreciation we don't we thought it was for us but clearly no we we don't deserve it yet but you know so uh but I do want to say this uh there's other groups as you know Department education's working cab is helping caps uh uh CA trying to get to the right people I think that's what's going to solve this um I mean I do agree with the goals are right to read who doesn't want our youngest and most impressional students not become proficient with reading that's the former years for students is incredibly important it is about the execution um the only feedback I want to give is um actually a couple things one is throughout our discussions with SD and others chure success rate 74% seems to be mocked not celebrated as if we don't care about improving that we're resting on our Laurels we're not willing toward and and that can't be further from the truth this came up during our meeting with SD um and as much as Dr s and his team tried to explain that there's more to it I am concerned with some folks SD moving forward and how they're going to bring impartiality into reviewing our discussions on our program because one question that they could not answer from Dr Solen I believe was um and one of the questions no waiver was was our program independently reviewed we didn't have it reviewed but when Dr s asked what would be a legitimate source for reviewer they couldn't answer the question they couldn't tell us you heard from Seth who was the board chair from Madison last Wednesday night they had Yukon uh who SD relies upon review the program and they were still denied because it was not one of the handful of so I I'm concerned that our Administration is going to spend a lot of time getting ready for the next meeting and run to the same nitpicking and lack of Direction so I would implore the isolation that if you can move the data out it'll be more beneficial that way SD is not going to be rushed into reviewing all the districts that want have a second chance to talk and our Administration is not going to spend although they're going to do it anyway tremendous amount of time for not so uh I don't know where that would go if if it's moving date out if it's legislative action please take it and the last thing I would say there's a little bit of process problem too I know that this legislation was reviewed it was public uh hearing you know we don't pay enough attention unfortunately what's going on all the time in Harford but moving forward and I know it's not just you I'm not telling you just this this is for everybody and all your colleagues on Harford when we're forming these task force work groups particularly on education initiatives please be more inclusive a school districts not exclusive I still can't find a school district in Cape that was consulted about right to read uh specifically about the programs Chosen chesher and others have some great things happening I think we could brought a lot of things to the table as part of that task force I think that would probably eliminate a lot of this noise you're experiencing so please move forward please have your colleagues just spread out the task force a little bit so be more inclusive we want to help we're not trying to hinder things so but I do thank you and the team being here tonight I know we're not done yet but um I am concerned about the execution moving forward not on your part but on SD so I I hope that well it's not your purview I hope the legislation will keep tabs and SD as we move forward yeah I mean I I have to imagine with the number of eyes and the level of passion that many people have with respect to this issue right now that SD is going to chart a path forward that is going to be hopefully the most appropriate and if it is not you have some passionate people sitting behind me who are going to make sure that they do Mr GLE thank you um Mr Curry again thank you for coming before us tonight and explaining all that has happened um I'm trying to process and absorb everything that you said um the the one thing I wasn't clear on is who is overseeing the resolution is this a resolution that is being uh that is occurred through conversation and that will be I guess an administrative solution through SD or are you um going to uh codify a resolution and legislation so that it's crystal clear as to what's supposed to happen and if yes um is the legislature going to be uh committing to more oversight because it seems like SD took a line and ran with it and uh you know uh made our administration at least here and it seemed like a lot of uh school districts to commit uh perhaps hundreds of hours to uh putting together um a defense of successful reading programs where uh our children are learning to read and can uh can learn to read before they read to learn right so um I just ask that perhaps that um you know we have a crystal clear steps forward uh and very tight oversight of SD because I think at this point perhaps they've demonstrated that um they need to be watched a little more closely I would love to offer you that John because uh I will say that uh Folks at the state level are completely underresourced and underst staffed that uh I'm not sure that everybody has the capacity and mower to micromanage things the way in which I think some folks would want uh at this point in time there is no intention for legislation to codify that resolution um we are waiting to see what that guidance and that direction looks like in writing from SD out to the districts uh once we do see that then we'll have an additional conversation um mostly are like most likely centered around the push out of that implementation date uh to provide folks enough time to have those conversations that they need to have any other comments from board members and if I could also Madam chair uh responding to uh Mr per pery I think I said your name wrong sorry Tony so um you know I I like I said this is my first term as the chair of Education I've been on the education committee for 10 years prior to that sat exactly where you sat in my community and I have committed to the folks on the committee and those behind me uh that we have will we will continue continue to have uh a very inclusive process in everything that we do uh 99% of our legislation out of the education committee was fully vetted was reviewed was compromised um Everybody in the education sphere had their eyes and their hands on our pieces of legislation which is why you saw some of the most impactful pieces of legislation come out of the education committee that you had in some time so I sit here and I again commit to you moving forward that we will have an inclusive process and that your voice matters and will continue to matter um in what we do thank you representative Curry I mean um I have to say Mr gripple is right we have been taxed on time and we do run on a a skeleton crew too in the administration office so thank you for acknowledging that because you know as much as uh csde I'll hold back my comments but I I personally believe that on the Chas side my day job is also an educator so I have the other end of the spectrum as well too um but with regard to chesher and the the curriculum we have a strong and valuable curriculum so if anything include our voices and consider the suggestions and recommendations that the Administration has put forward so that's pretty much all we ask of you but thank you again thank you to Senator and representatives in the in the front well back Leslie's back there thank you for coming back out to support us um it it's really really just I exhaled a little bit now that you said all that so thank you anything else I'm here you got me cookies all right excellent I appreciate the time thank Youk you thank you so much and next um part of our agenda is audience comments um and if there are any any audience members that would like to come to the podium to speak I do want to just read the disclaimer for public comment um the board does welcome public participation and ask that speakers please limit their comments to three minutes speakers may offer objective comments on school operations and programs that concern them so to protect the impartiality of the board we will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the chesher public schools such issues should be brought to the school administration the board will not respond to comments made during public comment except to clarify issues and when appropriate District administration will follow up at a later point in time so if any public members would like to come and speak please come to the podium state your name and address please my name is Tucker demin 230 Oregon Road so meritocracy is the goal here Excellence performance to the the height of Excellence that's what we want all of these other uh objectives that we want to in place implant into the educational system are distractions actually you know this is one more example of uh the crew up there in Hartford and our Federal rep Representatives their first impulse is to control to regulate this is it comes Downstream so what we want to do here is understand that this is one more tyrannical Movement by our government to suppress independent thought so it's time for people to speak up it's time for you to speak up to your to the um the state you have the power to declare what our town is going to do in this regard we can't put up with this it's just going to get worse put your foot down I'll leave you with a quote from voler it's difficult to remove from Fools the chains which bind them thank you thank you Mr Deming any other public comments so I'm PM Salomon 659 Cornwall Avenue I'm actually really glad I was here for um representative Curry's remarks because it solidified exactly why state government should stay out of local control um so I'm not really going to talk about the right to read program and explain the waiver disaster since everyone up here already understands it um I'd really like to talk about how dis appointed I am and our elected State officials this has become a very partisan um issue one-sided issue created solely by the Democrats I'm quite frankly appalled that representative linahan had representative Curry come here when we know how partisan he is and we know that he voted for this twice supported it and helped create the disaster that we now have to deal with and that not only parents here in town may have to deal with but y'all might have to deal with um Senator Samson and representative lovus zupkus do represent chesher they gave plenty of warning about the waiver problem with right to read law they voted against it not once but twice Senator zupkus spoke to representative Curry who assured her there would not be a problem exempting chesher from the Law's requirements so now that we have proven that they were right and in fact this is a very big problem why would we trust him meaning representative Curry or any of our Democratic legislators to fix a problem they knowingly created this is not a new issue for them they've known known about it for the last 3 years Senator Samson has presented a letter to fix the law but not one of our Democratic legislators signed on to it so much for bipartisanship now representative Lan is trying to do damage control because she is on the wrong side of Chester citizens this is a situation that is completely unacceptable it's time for our legislators to start supporting local control thank you thank you Miss Almon any other audience members good evening Doug Noble 30 Jesse Court um you know I have a my daughter's in first grade here so I'm in the same boat as you Tim um and this program will affect my daughter she can read a whole book and you know what I appreciate Jeff you sending out the survey that said you know what our programs are are spoton with with phenomenal uh reading program we have in town the teachers you know the Board of Ed here Dr Solen and the parents have a huge you know uphand upper hand any other school system in the state I think we're number seven I believe in the category if I'm not mistaken and I find it really unacceptable that the state would not give us a waiver but yet they give Meridan a waiver why would they give Meridan a waiver if the whole point of this is to get the kids up to speed up to code I'll call it for third grade then why would you give a city that's struggling and I'm just going to use that as as one example a waiver isn't the whole point that to bring them up to standard no no no no we're going to do it's a lot easier to just cut the top off with the program belit our program we work so hard for in this town why half the people live here is for the education system and then oh well then those numbers at the bottom will come up naturally that's what's going on here and then this the Democrats at the state level have basically screwed up and they're cya here right tonight that's why they're here and everybody in this room in front of me the parents of all our kids myself have to have to deal with this okay it's a waste of time we had a phenomenal program and they didn't even consider it thank you very much thank you Mr Noble any other I'm excited to see you up there Faith ham 633 courland Circle um I pretty much have to do this to my remarks but um because I was very surprised to hear um representative Curry tonight talk about a possible out um for this problem that we've been in nevertheless we still have 19,000 students in this state who cannot read at grade level and that is appalling we know where the problem is and we know the where the solution is and it's in districts like ours and I hope you guys fight hard to get our talented teachers and our talented reading um Specialists out in front at SD giving them advice coaching them wherever possible on how to um perhaps train those um those reading instructors in the districts that are failing give them the wisdom and um just the the professional um expertise that we have developed over Dozen Years and allow coach them find a way to get our teachers in with those teachers so that we can impart to them what we have done so well um so I I just applaud your patience and your diligence in what you've done and um keep up the good work I do want to raise one other topic though I know you're you're taking up um an first reading on inequity policy tonight you guys um my concern so much with Right to Read and I'm going to run into my 3 minutes is that what we were looking at was equity and and action with the wavers that were that were administered they were going to districts that were not doing well and the W districts that were doing well were denied were told you're just not up to Snuff and my our fear and the big question about Equity is are we really raising the standards or are we bringing the best down with whatever policy you develop for Equity please keep that in mind our goal has to be elevating those who are not performing well figuring out why um and all the while trying you know um just making sure that we're not also somehow bringing down tamping down success so when it comes also to funding um there's some interesting language in that that c policy that we're considering and I hope that you um do not um um in your bid to perhaps um what is it uh achieve equable equitable distribution you don't pull from the General Ed program such that those kids who are succeeding without the extra help are their success is tamped down so that's all I have to say thanks a lot you guys keep up the good work thanks Faith any other speakers good evening everyone Rob Samson state senator 16th District um three minutes is hard I can't even order a pizza in three minutes um I want to start by following up on on face comments and thank you for your determination and your patience in dealing with this uh problem and uh I also want to thank you for your um diligent effort to produce a very um Quality school system for the town of chesher and your predecessors as well uh because I know that uh everyone's worked hard for a long time to get where we are um I have a lot to say about this issue and I can't possibly wrap it up very quickly but I just want to say a couple quick things which is that um I certainly respect my my colleagues I certainly respect um the chairman of the education committee and I appreciate him coming here to to face you guys and explain what his uh vision is for the future um and I certainly respect my my colleagues that I work with here in town on the other side of the aisle but I could not disagree with them more about the path forward um we are in a situation where we are effectively having to beg a non-elected state bureaucracy uh that is not responsible to the citizens of the town of chesher you guys were elected for the purpose of making the education policy for this town and the buck should stop with you and your performance should be applauded and not questioned and that's what's so frustrating for me here I saw back in 2021 when this uh was attached to the budget and yes that does happen very often but it's not a good thing and it should never be justified we should vote on these individual policy matters separately but when it does happen uh many of us speak up and say our school districts all across the state whether they are run by Democrats or Republicans all want the same thing which is the state to leave them alone so that they can operate and run their school districts properly now I understand there may be school districts in the state that do need outside help but this is not one of them and for you guys to have to put yourself through meetings with SD and I did sit in on that meeting that we had uh on zoom and to have them jump have you jumping through hoops and explaining yourself and I thought that um you did an amazing job the superintendent uh was responsive to every question that was asked I thought your answers were incredible and I thought you dotted every eye crossed every tea and gave them exactly what they needed to be able to say you should be granted a waiver and they found a way to deny us anyway and what I heard tonight um from representative Curry is that there will be no change that the only thing that is different is that SD will come up with the next set of Hoops and they will make the next determination of what has to be done and to to sit and think that somehow it's a good idea that you get a 30 minute opportunity to defend yourself or that it's going to be a collaborative process but at the end they get to say whether you're approved or not is not acceptable we should be demanding that our representatives in both parties remember to rightsize government that local control is important for Education you guys were elected to do that job I I'm glad to be here tonight with you all I I appreciate the the opportunity to connect and see everyone but the problem tonight is that you had five State officials in this room you shouldn't have any you should be making the education policy not us and I'll just leave it with that thank you hi Christopher Affy 204 pek Lane I just to clarify something uh Meridan sington Wallingford and chesher all apply for waivers and Meridan did not get a waiver so that was incorrect info given tonight that's it thank you Mr aul good okay many other hi uh Leslie zupkus I represent Prospect chesher Bethany and part of Waterberry I just want to say as you know I sit on the education committee I'm glad representative Curry was here to answer your questions I will be in his ear to make sure that number one you are always included in legislation that affects our schools to push that you get your waiver um and to also uh make sure cuz I too would like to see something in legislation to get this process changed um I don't like Loosey Goosey so uh I'll commit to you that I will continue to do that and make sure that um you have to be included because you have the your feet on the ground thank you thank you leslee Rober Cado from treer most of you know me uh you know You' probably heard me before talk about new curriculum and how a lot of times it hurts our students uh the bureaucracy of Connecticut is trying to force a curriculum down you I hope you hold representative Curry and that department their feet to the fire that they'll let this waiver go through if we are in compliance with what they want I don't think we have to be like Senator Rob said uh what I empore you guys to do in the whole town of Cheshire is to find a way to get out of these State mandates this is a great town right people come to this town because of our education they come to the town because of the housing uh it's it's a great place to live let's not ruin that let's not let the state ruin this with these mandates if we have to find a way to fund this all ourselves we have huge budget for the Board of Ed let's do that let's take the chance let's look out of the box sometimes and say and and not be afraid to say no we're not going to do that let's see what you're going to do see if they pull our funding let's fund it ourselves we have a great education great Board of Ed let's keep that let's let's ignore them somehow you they don't if we if they go back on their word and we don't get this waiver screw them whatever pay the $700,000 buy their curriculum throw it in the garbage and let's stick with ours you know who's going to say anything because our kids are doing great my daughter's reading well my niece is reading well I haven't heard any problems with any of these readings let's not go backwards like Faith said because that's what's going to happen if you take this on or we're for not that you take it on but if it's forced upon us let's find a way out of the box to keep doing what we're doing in Treasure thank you thank you Mr Brado any other public comments I do have to agree with you Mr Brado we do have a great town because we have great passionate people coming out here tonight to speak thank you can just Dr Solen I just wouldn't feel right if we didn't make two very quick points I I know meriden's been brought up and um the professionals on our team spend a lot of time reviewing data sometimes it's not just our data but data from other communities and I want to give Meridan a shout out those people uh are incredibly dedicated and have produced results that are far exceeding their peers um and so you know we even turn to them the same way they turn to us for insights on how to support reading so just a quick shout out to our our friends and Meridan uh for the great work that they do but um I know tonight some people acknowledged you know me and um I just want to be crystal clear that that you know while I'm the the mouthpiece and and the face of the organization Uh Kevin hanin and marleene salano and there's a a reading specialist Pat Castle are you know incredibly talented people brilliant when it comes to reading um I would not throw down with any of the three of them when it came to reading on my best day uh and they are uh the masterminds behind our reading success and I wouldn't feel right if didn't at least uh acknowledge the tremendous work that they do thank you any other public comment great thank you okay next item on the agenda we're going to committee reports first committee Dr herant no I'm Sorry Miss cinin curriculum thank you madam chair so tonight um I will comment on a couple of items um under new business and then turn it over for um more information from our assistant superintendent the first item is a new textbook recommendation that was reviewed um on our meeting last Monday it's a recommendation for the krugman's macroeconomics textbook for the AP course at the high school it came very highly recommended um we heard about details the book The course um the students what the teachers felt about it and at the end of the meeting we um did move to forward it to the full board for approval after the appropriate two- week period when it'll be available for public review the second item um our student rep Andrew spoke about it a little bit is our outof country field trip request for chesher high school during the week of April 7th to the 14th to China um again we received an overview of the planned upcoming trip the um students will visit schools engage in sightseeing they'll connect with a local um buddy during the trip and participate and cultural experiences from dining to calligraphy um we were very happy about the cost of the trip per student um and the advantages that our students will have by the ability to be able to train travel um to China so we did make a motion to send the outof country field trip um this evening to the full board for their consideration and hopefully approval now I'd like to ask our assistant superintendent thank you Miss oh thank you Miss cullinan so as part of our meeting on Monday night in addition to the things that Miss cinin has already described we also took a look at the recent pupil attitudes to self and school survey that I know we have talked about as a group at previous meetings and so I've included in the curriculum packet a brief overview of what was reviewed at Monday night's meeting and so I would I would uh suggest that you take a look at some of the materials in there and I will try to just briefly um review them uh every student K through 12 took this survey this survey is sort of a universal screener to get an idea of what our students attitudes are towards themsel and school as it relates to social emotional learning and we know how important that is if you take a look at page two of the document sort of outlines how the results are scored you can see that the green is high satisfaction with their school experience and it's in red uh red orange yellow and green and if you look at the K3 profile for our students here in chesher you can at Quick Glance see that the overall percentiles which are the standard measures indicate that our students in kindergarten through third grade have a positive feeling about school their preparedness for Learning self-worth and response to learning the um the survey reports on nine factors and the kindergarten through three survey really goes into four of the factors if you look at four five and six and I I know this is a a real sort of um 30,000 foot overview of the district's results we also look at those by school we look can look at them by classroom and we can look at them by student this was Baseline only information to give us an idea of where our students are based on our um continued emphasis on social emotional learning if you look at grades four five and six you can see across all nine factors that green healthy indicator the bars at the top are really specific to the mean percentages in the school and then the overall percentiles are how our students track as at with the standardization from all of the students in those grades who have taken the test uh not test survey and then if you look on the last page grades 7 through 12 you get an idea of the overall health of our students again in in that bottom in that bottom quadrant so what we did was to administer this in October our students have never taken this survey before we trained all of our administrators and how to look at this data all of our school counselors have also been trained and how to look at it but what I want to call attention to is the kinds of things we do with this information for example the first factor is feelings about school so if a student were to score low on his feelings about school we might look to see if he or she has a friendship group if they have a group that they feel comfortable with if not we would try to link them up and and help Foster some friendships we would also look to see if they're involved in school activities clubs extracurriculars and as well as things within School something that we might do under preparedness for learning would be to teach independent study skills within the school day and make sure that students had strategies to um help with concentration and revising materials we also have factor eight which is about attendance and students attitude towards attendance and so that if we looked at that even for a student who might be coming to school his his or her attitude might not be positive towards attendance and we would look at both that past data and his whole the whole child to determine what other information we might need to pull in to make an action plan for a student who didn't feel positively about attendance so I know this I don't want to go more into it than anyone has time for tonight I'm I'm happy to take questions about this I think what we are seeing is that the overall health of students is strong we will readminister this in the spring to see how students progress ressed and teachers are able to use this information within the daily instruction of academics to intervene for students where it's needed Tim thank you Miss Lana Tim yeah thank you for all this Marlene just speaking on my own experience um so first of all I appreciate everything that you and the chesh public schools are doing on this but from my own experience the parents have to be involved and making in making these things work they just absolutely have to be involved there's you um the kids can go to school and the schools can do a bit there but it's 247 in working on these things so just asking parents to be there for them thanks Mr grible um I appreciate the explanations of going through the fact s um I guess um my largest concern of course is grade 7 through 12 that's where we always have problems that's where or or more problems because I think at that point that's when um the students at least in my opinion more objectively can determine their own feelings and selfworth and that's when they're exploring those things and um I noticed a lot of 60s 60% I don't know call it percent I it's not percent 60 percentage 60 percentages or percentiles or whatever it is um in here um you know specifically regard you know self-regard as a learner um confidence in learning um and I I mean I guess at General work ethic like those are those are the sort of like those intangibles that you know determine whether you're going to be a successful learner or not and so um there seem to be an appreciable dip from elementary school and I I think of of of course they would because they're they're more on their own there's a lot less handholding obviously as they become more mature um so uh is there a a game plan are you using these statistics are these broken down by a class or by an age group or or how how are these statistics being used to I guess help um bring these numbers up help improve those attitudes yeah so a couple of things I guess I can respond to on that Adam um the first is that while you look across to all of those numbers St the standardized numbers um these are healthy numbers but you're I think what you're pointing out are relative weaknesses in certain areas and so what we've asked is for each principal to take a look at this and make a plan for how they would address their relative weaknesses what we're able to do is look at it by school look at it by grade look at it by boys and girls look at it by high needs we're able to disaggregate all of those all of that demographic data and we're also able to see individual student scores so that if there were a group or a class we can make a plan on how to tackle that and that's what's happening in the schools now okay okay so so you can break it down to the student on this so there will be you'll see so with particularly low numbers that's when you're identifying sort of problems and they'll identify the student and talk to them I don't know how does how does that go is that a like I know remember in elementary school's times you'd have that lunch with the uh school psychologist to kind of talk and you know that kind of stuff so is that sort of what you're suggesting a lot of these things can be handled by the classroom teacher because once they know that a certain student maybe has scored a certain way there are some group activities there are some things that can be done within the classroom it could be giving a a special job it could be looking at the rigor it could be of a of a of a of an example um encouraging a student that they do have the right answer I think some of the instructional practices that we've talked about rather than having a student have to raise their hand and answer a question in front of their whole class that activity that we did um at the at the U Elementary Board of edge showcase where you've got kids working in groups you might not want to raise your hand and answer a question in front of the whole class but you might be very willing to do it in a group of three so just restructuring some of those instructional practices could help really support students in a better way and so those are some of the things that um teachers can do by all means if we have students who have significant um areas that really are concerning we could go all the way to having them work with a school psychologist but again this is one data data element we have so many other pieces of data but this particular survey um this Universal screener was something that we felt gee we've been talking about social emotional learning for so long how do we know how we're really doing with that what kind of measure do we have to say if we're even close to um you know achieving the goals that we want so that that's why we chose to go forward with this and if I may add um when we reviewed um this data I I looked at um grades four five and six as compared to grade seven and eight and where the percentiles ranged and five out of the nine factors went up which is a good um to me as an educator um to look at students that are moving from that Middle School into the high school and really feeling good about themsel about the school and about their learning capacity um I mean that tells something about the district that these students are coming through elementary middle school and they have built determination and consistency and the ability to really feel um their perceived learning capacity is positive um there are a couple areas preparedness for learning um attitudes to teachers that went down so there's some areas um that we have to look at General work ethic went up I'm thrilled to see high school kids feeling that their work ethic is is up so um made some you know good points I think um our administrate administrators are really looking um at the data and as Marlene said a lot of this is is done in classrooms particular particularly on the Middle School level and as they they grow up so um there's always work to do but I I see the trends going in the right direction and those those people skills that executive functioning ability of our kids is really what we want to move towards and we see that over these um the factors other comments I I do appreciate this especially trying to prioritize our student social emotional learning um it be curious because this is the first time we're implementing this I'd be curious as a data junkie right now to see the longitudal and follow the cohorts and see if their attitudes actually change based on those um factors so when Marlin when is the next time you're spring spring y so then maybe by the Fall we get another now we have three data points to work with at least great any other comments from board Mr perini very quickly so thank you and I apologize I to current Comm can make Monday night I'm still overcoming a cold don't worry I'm not contagious um and I forget I know we discussed this the curriculum last year the past survey I think we got a chance to some of the questions so I know there was no issues there but is it just the students that takes the survey or the Educators take it too because what goes what goes through my mind is sure my if my daughter was taking this and she ranked herself as a High um work ethic I'm curious to know what the teachers are seeing you know maybe the students SE that way but they're not quite there m we're not serving Educators on their attitude survey towards this correct that's right and we went with this particular survey because we really wanted to know what the students attitudes were as opposed to some other surveys that are being used in the state that are all educator answering Educators answering the question without knowing what the student is thinking and I to Samantha's point the long the longevity of this I'm sure we'll probably hear feedback from Educators on what they're seeing right the reality and things are improving so I was just kind of curious but thank you you answer my question yeah yeah well I I'm as curious as you are to follow the follow the Trends on this and and see where we are by next fall after students have taken it for a third time and to look at those everything that you said the cohorts and the different um grade levels Etc and and we did have that discussion at the meeting on Monday around um input from parents and staff certified and non-certified staff I have another um another piece to our committee meeting from Monday night and in your packet you also have a page that looks like this and it's titled District educator evaluation committee update we reviewed this in in pretty lengthy detail and I I will spare you all of the detail about it and sort of summarize here that um the State Department of Education is revamping their educator evaluation plan and we knew that this was coming and so last year in January we had decided to take a look at our committee and we gave it a refresh and asked both our um EAC Union which is the teachers union and the cap Union to get us some representation on this committee we sent an email to every staff every certified staff member in the district asking for their participation and if they wanted to participate to complete a simple Google form explaining why they would like to be a part of this work we then met in March um we met again last May and during that time we've engaged in looking at different evaluation models one of them was himim Marshall we also talked at length about the current model that's in place through seed and we have uh in June and then again in September uh the csde had released their guidelines it wasn't their model but simply their guidelines of evaluation since then and you can follow along here back in the fall um both administrators myself Kevin hanin Jeff Solen we had attended different evaluation leadership conven meetings to really dig into this work we then attended a workshop at Cass followed up by um some some further discussion about this A letter came out from the csde in December with some more guidance and then just this past Wednesday the state put out their model to the State Board of Education and while I've had a chance to briefly review it I haven't had a chance to review it in excruciating detail but I will and so we have a small cohort going to another professional development session in March and then we'll have um a convening of the committee um let's see in April and again in May we'll be reporting on our progress to the curriculum committee and then eventually to the entire Board of Education looking for approval of a plan once we have it nailed down so that we can submit that to the State Department of Education for approval and we would begin the new educator evaluation program next school year so just to give you some highlights of what we're doing and there's certainly more detail in here including Representatives who they are what schools they represent what grade levels and I think when you take a look at that you'll see that we have representation from every grade level and every possible corner of the district so we have I think a really good representative group to work on this any questions comments Mr gripple I just wanted to comment that uh at least um the district is having some latitude in how to uh evaluate their our our teachers which was I think a little different than it was a few years ago so Kudos there I guess Dr herrian yeah my comments are along the lines as Adams um we heard a lot of complaints with right to read and and how SD is handling that but I mean here's an example of guidance that SD is giving to school districts that's really useful and so I just would like all of us to remember that sometimes things don't go the way that we want them to and we need to have some patience about letting our government agencies do their jobs and helping them along if if we need to which we are doing but um they're there for a reason we also get guidance from uh these state agencies that's very useful for us as we uh continue to improve our programs and this teacher evaluation process is one of those other comments thank you Miss Solano I I definitely recognize that the state did just publish their their motto was Wednesday at 12:35 I think it was um but I I did see that there is no single point rubric as a example so I did not see that in there yes so good luck but to Dr haran's Point yes this is an example of the CSD at least giving us some flexibility to build our plane while flying um and then allowing us to get you know approval as we we start to make some modifications so thank you um within this particular item we do have to call for a motion to approve the field trip I believe it is yes so if whoever has the motion Dr herrian I'm happy to make that motion um I move that the chesher Board of Education approve the participation of chesher high school students in the educational field trip to xanu China April 7th 2024 through April 14th of 2024 with the understanding that there is no cost to the chesher Board of Education second second it Miss cullinan discussion Mr gripple and then Dr herrian um several questions um normally when we have an international trip it's for a year out so why is it that this is I mean this is only like what two months um so how did this come together so quickly um do we have any security concerns and I guess do we even have a trip uh trip insurance considering that uh there could be a an invasion at some point that could occur I don't know whatever um that may uh prohibit our students from going to China I wish uh I could tell you any of what you shared was like far-fetched in terms of the insurance or whatnot but uh we do require that um families have to work through the insurance process as well uh because we have unfortunately historically had to cancel trips at the 11th Hour um but uh in this trip we are working with Aces um and we were able to secure a grant one week fully inclusive uh is you know 27 50 is is really a tremendous opportunity for our kids there's a $3,000 grant that goes along with each of our students so um and to be honest with you because it is relatively last minute I'm not positive that we'll have enough students to actually go I won't know that really until tomorrow um but there has been good interest we had 18 parents express interest in having their children go and uh there was a meeting with families and representatives from Aces who went through the itinerary and security which I'm happy I'll send to the board um so you can see what the presentation was like and because that just happened I think two days ago a day ago um and uh yeah I think I I covered the few questions you asked yeah I would just add that we had a very thorough discussion on all of those points during curriculum committee meeting and um the main reason that it has gone through as quickly as it has is because of the the partnership with Aces and all of the work that they did I was quite frankly amazed at the cost that our students are able to take advantage of this trip through it really levels the playing field for um families and participation um so I hope that it does go through I hope that uh we get enough people to to make this trip cuz this the way it's being subsidized through Aces is is pretty amazing actually so thanks for your questions if I may ask what is the risk of not moving this forward limiting a number of participation then we wouldn't be able to attend I mean the bo what's the minimum I guess it would be the question oh the minimum for because you have 18 here number of students so so we only get five do we move I think we would have to look at what the costs are okay so there's cost implication if we with with 10 students it's 2750 okay um and we'd have to look at you know if we don't get to 10 do we still go I mean prices can fluctuate on some of our international travel uh relative to the number of students who attend so um you know it's not like DC trip where I could pretty much guarantee the number every year uh from eth grade that are going to Washington uh this is like a some of our other trips to Europe that you know the price is basically set on a on a certain number of students and can go a little up or down based on the number of students who actually enroll so we'll see how that plays out okay thank you Mr White thank you I I think this is a great opportunity for the students at the same time I want to just just uh Circle back to Adam's point I think the point that he was making about security and the world is different so tensions are rising particularly with China as between the China China and the US I recently saw an article I think it was in the Wall Street Journal that said it's been in the last couple years not just North Korea and Russia but countries in general are arresting Americans and using them as trading chips for diplomatic relations these people could be criminals for all I know the people who got arrested I really don't know the way that the journal was sort of explaining it was they're not and it really is just a diplomatic tool being used by countries um so I before we do you know do you know are the parents and the students high school students so they're not adults but they're aware of what's going on are they aware of the tension with China and risks that are involved in going overseas and again I love it I love to travel overseas and I'm personally willing to take those risks but we're putting this on the chest public schools and doing and and approving something like this so I just want to make sure people are aware sure actually you know many of the students who signed up are of Asian descent okay and are really pretty familiar with relations uh the I know that security was a significant part of the conversation okay when they had the meeting so people are well aware of the global conditions I mean um there are certainly risks inherent in American Travel and Y fortunately but um you know I I I know I appreciate the concern I think our families appreciate the concern and uh that's been addressed and ultimately you know if enough families decide that you know this is a a great opportunity for them and then you know that's their decision I I I feel confident with the involvement that Aces has the history that they've had the work that they've already done there um to feel comfortable enough to send one of our employees there too two because Mr May Russell at least one at least one it depends on the number of students perhaps that that sign up I'd love to send to but we'll see what happens thank them both if they do get to go with the kids Adam Adam yes um yeah just uh one last uh question so because it's Aces it's not just our students I'm assuming that it's a group of students from Connecticut or from the United States or right there there were other uh districts invited I forget I want to say old sa Brook um and maybe even Cho that were invited to attend as well Mr AI Asus has a history they do this on a annual basis so this this trip I don't know that they've done this trip on an annual basis I know that their people have been there okay um but uh I I think they've done a lot of trips to different places all the time there when I was talking to Jason who oversees their international travel stuff uh the other day he was in Portugal um South Korea they they go all over the place um last year I attended a trip with them to Singapore there are regular relations that exist this wasn't a cold call sort of situation um they they've been to the to China on several occasions many occasions okay that I can vouch for I don't know that they do this trip every year but I know that they have regular ties with China okay okay any other discussions no okay so the motion is on the floor which has been seconded um call for a vote to approve yes to approving the trip to China One Two Three Mr gripple yes I'm sorry I didn't hear all in favor oh all in favor it is unanimous thank you thank you Miss cullinan um up next Finance Dr herrian yeah thank you [Music] um so our last fine I'm sorry I'm sorry um so you'll find in your packet um the financial report for the 2023 24 Board of Education budget reflecting expenditures and encumbrances through January 30th of 2024 and with that I am going to throw the discussion over to Mr Mariana for because he is much more well-versed in words like encumbrances than I am thank you Dr harrian good evening ladies and gentlemen uh yes you do have the report I I will highlight just a couple couple of things most important that the budget for this year is 84.9 million through January 31st we've encumbered 73.5 million 86.4% which typical for this time of the year so we have seven months of the budget completed I do not have any concerns about being able to balance the budget this year there was some accounts that are under budget and two accounts that I wanted to just highlight tonight one is special ed out Place tuition which um I reported in the last two months that it is trending over budget as of January 31st will be about $286,000 over budget in that category you know this is a a result of students that need services that we cannot handle in District and they have to be outplaced the second one is a new item and this is not a budget busting item but I think it's important to highlight that this year we've seen quite a a large increase in the unpaid balance for student meals it's not just chesher in fact there was a an extensive uh article in the Hartford current this week February um actually was February 12th so what um couple of things that I want to point out one um this year is um student meals only breakfast is free through the p pandemic years as as the board knows all student meals breakfast and lunch were free this year the legislature approved funding and made breakfast free for all students all districts so our students are receiving free breakfast lunch however is not free here in chesher about 15% of our families qualify for free or reduced meals so the inverse of that 85% of families are expected to pay for their students meals this year year the um what we've seen as of January 31st is we have about $119,000 of unpaid meal balances and just to put that in perspective the highest year we've ever closed with an unpaid meal balance was $4,000 at the current rate if this continues and we have lots of measures in place we're trying to get that balance down if it continues we can be um in a position at the end of the year where the unpaid lunch balances is is $40,000 and even though it's not our budget it's the Food Service budget under state law we are required to repay the Food Service program from the board of Ed's budget so the budget implication is whatever unpaid meal balance we have at the end of the year in food service we have to write a check from the board's operating budget to pay back the Food Service program the one related item that the board um knows about because we asked our legislators to take it up is that in Connecticut the threshold for free and reduced meals is seemingly too low at this point we've increased minimum wage you know over the last five years but those thresholds have stayed the same so for a family of four to get free lunch meals their household income has to be $39,000 or less so we know from speaking to some families that you know they're above that $39,000 but that doesn't mean that they can afford to pay for all the things that they need including paying for their students lunch meals so we um have quite a few measures in place you know we regularly send emails alerts through parents Square we do have one person that is making phone calls now to families to ask them to pay for the student lunch meals and just to put a little perspective around it you know we're talking about you know balances between $50 and $100 that are owed but there's you quite a few of them so it it adds up to 19,000 the other thing I want to make clear is that this is not a student issue when a student goes to buy their lunch they get their lunch meal they are not aware that there's a balance due the lunch staff does not know if there's a balance due it's it's something that only the parents are responsible for and we communicate through our food service program to parents children are never denied a meal there's no such thing as ches sandwiches anymore um we do not hold back report cards or prevent students from going to prom so I just want to make that crystal clear this is not an a student issue at the counter um it is a parent issue and and we are following up we're hoping to bring the balance down we think that you know there are certainly some families that um should be paying maybe they're just not paying attention to all the notices they get from us and they do get a lot besides the notices from our food service uh program so wanted to give you that update again it's not a budget Buster it's something that we've never experienced before we are not alone we've been been um talking to other school districts we had a meeting with the school business officials and the uh School nutrition Association food directors to work through and share ideas on on how we can make this better it's problem and we're dealing with it the best we can um so that is the financial update I do not have a medical benefits update this evening we didn't get the report yet so we'll report on January and February claims in our March meeting and so with that if there are questions I'll be glad to take them questions Mr gripple Dr herin um so uh Vin along those lines does that mean that you cannot restrict access to um not parent Square the uh is it P no not no you get the grades and everything no the one where you can pay stuff where you would pay School my school bucks the place where You' if you have to buy a t-shirt or go on a field trip can you strict restrict access to that system because that seems to be the lifeblood for payment for anything that's extracurricular and it's also the place where you pay your uh school school Lune balance um is there a way to uh restrict that or is that go along the lines of not affecting a students uh experience we can't do anything that will um inhibit student participation in any way and you know that is a that is legislatively um been changed in in the last three to four years it's you know lunch shaming is not allowed and and we don't do anything that we would put student in an odd position right I understand Lun shaming but if you cut off someone's act if you cut off a parent access that certainly gets their attention to paying uh a bill right there's no there's really no way to to do that that I could see that wouldn't potentially adversely affect the student right so because the students you know they do use my school bucks to pay for meals and that doesn't necessarily have to be a lunch meal they could buy an all cart item like a bottle of water and so if we we shut that down then they can't buy that bottle of water how do they how do they buy the bottle of water if there's no money in the they could buy it with cash oh mean with cash don't they could use cash right okay but I mean if if they if they used no but if they used their lunch card what I'm saying is if they had access right you could still use cash but if they wanted to use their card for food they're not cut off obviously but what I'm saying is for other activities yeah just can't I just don't think there's a way to do it because that would certainly get a parents attention that's all I'm saying as I said we're trying to um make phone calls you know and that we've done that in the past this is not the first year this has happened it's the first year it's ever been this High by far and it is a phenomenon that's happening across the state I will add and I and I know you know that school lunch is very highly regulated every district is different you know there are about 40 school districts in Connecticut that um have meals that are free all the time for students we are not one of those and we're among the more affluent school districts but and those are the school districts that are actually mentioned in the article so it is um something that occurred it's it's post pandemic I know there there was certainly confusion created over the last few years where meals were free they're not free well this year breakfast is free so I'm not saying they aren't valid reasons why this is happening but it is something that we take seriously and we're going to continue to work at it but we're going to work at it so that we're compliant with the law and and not embarrassing students in any way yeah I would just I would just comment on that and say you know I'm not into parent shaming either um this is a legislative issue that we've known for years and it's been accumulating that um that school lunches need to be available to more families than they're available to right now and I know that you that our staff here is working with the legislature on that and that is an issue that's happening this time around right uh it's been presented yeah to the legislators yeah the the governor's budget uh called for the inclusion of breakfast sub subsidy uh for students I mean our position has been to rather than provide free meals to all is to um raise the threshold for free and reduced lunch access exactly and I think that would help yeah so that that's what we've been advocating for um whether or not you know that that is embraced by the legislature we'll see but that's our position and and you know we're not certainly not trying to shame anybody but um the we contact parents when Balan is Rise uh via telephone and if there is an issue where maybe uh the ridiculously low income level that is expected for somebody to receive free and reduced lunch I think it's like something like $40,000 for a family of four to qualify um if somebody's close to that threshold we um Avail them of other services in the town to support them because I'm sure that the needs extend beyond our lunch programs but um for those who where it's not necessarily a financial issue um we do encourage them to pay thank you very much and thank you for advocating for that raise that threshold a little bit thanks Vinnie is there if I may any Trend to like to Adam's point about using my school bucks I know it's more digital an easier way to pay I I don't know what's easier I mean parents can pay cash check my school bucks okay just thinking I don't know if there's do you know if something maybe that's maybe I just didn't know if if in the past when you've called is there some sort of trend where parents are saying well I can't really access my school bucks and I don't have any Trend like that to I mean there are some things that we're hearing from parents you know one has been that you know I I used to qualify for free and now I no longer qualify for free because I'm making more money but right it's not enough money that you know I could cover all my family expenses so you know that's where that's where it gets really painful you know for us and our food service staff is very kind you know including when they're making phone calls to parents so we do try to help but what I'm reporting is something that's really you know that that type of thing that we've not experienced before so it's really odd for us the fact that we're alone not alone makes us feel better but it's still an odd odd place for us I also just hope like the the food insecurity hasn't increased either we saw it during Co you know what's happening after the impact of covid and so forth so just as we go forward if I have anything you know that that we're hearing from you know families I'll I'll certainly report it back to the board but we are um doing what we can and I I think it's important that I don't want to walk into the financial meeting on June 30th and the board is going to say well you know gee that sounds like a high number so I did want to not a red flag I just wanted give little messenger Benny I'm not worried about the messenger thank you thank you for um for the information you're welcome because I I honestly I just worry about the families because families we may think the pandemic is over and maybe it is but people are still reeling in a lot of different ways and um I think this is clearly one of them so thanks for the information thank you Dr herrian I think Finance is it yeah that concludes thank you um next committee would be planning Mr eki reporting on our meeting just earlier todays ago yeah um so we met earlier this evening um to speak about the uh uh The Five-Year Capital plan um and we are bringing a draft forward for uh $5.1 million for next year for the for year one of the capital plan Vin would you like to go over any specifics I'll just give you a two-minute overview so the planning committee met on January 9th to review an initial uh 5-year Capital plan uh at at that meeting we discussed and reviewed in detail all the requests uh the planning committee asked us to make some adjustments uh we did that we made some further modifications the uh request that you know is over five years is is 55 m845 th000 that is in line with last year the um all important piece of the of the board's work this evening is to look at the 5-year overall plan and I will state that everything that's in the capital plan has to do with required uh maintenance around our buildings its roofs its Windows its cafeteria improvements it's fire alarm control systems for the buildings that are staying there are no funds being requested for Chapman Norton or Darcy which we know that in 3 years those buildings will be going offline um the capital budget is what we use to plan for future expenditures to keep our buildings in good repair and as Mr eki pointed out the request for next year which is the only amount that would be funded um assuming it's approved by the council is year one years two through five those funds are not appropriated by the council but they used as planning for future years I think that's summary Mr REI thank you motion so we do have a motion to approve if you have it Mr Aki I in front of you uh move that the planning committee recommends the Chester Board of Education approves a 5-year capital expenditure plan and budget improve for improvements to current buildings in the total amount of $ 55,8 45,000 with $5,100 th000 to be funded in year one with annual allocations as follows 20 2425 5,00,000 25261 16, 425,000 2627 13, 650,000 12,285 th000 and 2829 8,385 th000 call for a second Mr White discussion on the motion Mr White thank you um so I I support this motion the moving forward with the particularly the first year capital budget the important piece a couple reservations I just highlighted during our meeting number one we're still in the midst of school modernization so particularly with in my mind DOD as because we're talking about student enrollment increasing so so as a student enrollment increases at the elementary it will next get to DOD and so to be mindful of what we're doing there in terms of spending money on DOD Renovations one item in particular I'm hesitant about which is $75,000 for a study of window replacements which takes school modernization out of it I'm fine with it it makes sense but in the context of school modernization I've just I asked Vin to just be cautious think about that and hopefully come up with a recap for us for me of how the first phase of school modernization played out and over how many years because I don't want to spend $75,000 for a window for a for a plan for window replacements that we don't do for 5 years and then we renovate dot in 5 years so basically just get an idea of the timeline and how those things could come together and that's just generally speaking with all of our schools obviously to just be mindful of that um any renov any maintenance that we're doing how it could fit in with school modernization and then the one other point that I mentioned to him is just my own little energy uh concern he knows what I'm talking about we've been through it for years generator at Highland um and the thought that crossed my my mind actually is if you could have you gotten the demand data for Highland School we do have it you do have it okay so as long as that's part of the conversation with the contractors that's really the important thing yeah anyway thank you and I'll be supporting the motion thank you Mr White I had the same um concerns as you did but Vin if you can just speak to the fact that how we are going to prioritize um for year one and then subsequent years so a couple of things to to pick up on the questions some of the items if you look at the $5.1 million that's being requested 500,000 of that is for design work for projects such as do windows um some of the Roof Systems that need to replace including at Highland window replacements at Highland so these this is designed money to not only understand what needs to be done but get a cost estimate you know for the future so these are projects that we anticipate having to do getting the design work done helps us understand what the costs are when you look at a building you know like Dot and that that's you know this is a dilemma that we've had you know even with the elementary schools before we approve D replacement of those buildings there's maintenance you had to do windows may not be something we want to do at Todd um and I think it's on the planning committee actually to start looking at what phase two really needs to be and I know dot is high on the priority list of you know if not renovation it's eventual replacement but this is going to be our challenge the next you know few years as to what things do you have to do to keep the building maintained and what things don't you want to do like invest not only 75,000 in dods study for Windows but2 to3 million replacing the windows and do we want to invest the other $8 million that we have as a quote for um making DOD fully air conditioned which by the way we wouldn't do until we had windows in there so there's this the you it's a valid concern and I think the fact that's in the 5year capital plan gives us a great opportunity to explore and and discuss and have in hand you know we know these are the costs to get the windows replaced the air conditioning and the roofs replaced that uh do we want to invest in that or are we better off with a renovation or a new building and we would know what those cost would be to offset that we don't want to spend because we're going to do something better thanks Vinnie any other Mr gripple thank you um so I just happen to have a a chance conversation this evening with a uh a mom from the high school who see would that be out here if I said all right so I'll just say this we had a a conversation about Laboratories and I couldn't help but notice that we have $400,000 uh for laboratory upgrades um and I'm wondering if there's anything in here for uh prevention I know uh when we had our um our student representative last year who had the that the enforcement Brigade or whatever that was for bathrooms and we we discussed uh security implementation at the actual bathrooms to to sort of tell maybe who's coming and going to perhaps lock down uh uh you know enforcement of uh vandalism uh in inside the high school and uh is any of this for uh for that type of uh system or uh are we just going to just sort of is this money for just continued replacement of Flushed Vape damage and stuff like that it's really not for damage it's really to replace the dated you know the dated bathroom so this isn't even for any of that that's just coming out of our maintenance budget essentially yes but we did talk tonight about if we're going to renovate a bathroom can we renovate it in such a way so that you know we have like an airport where you don't have a door you know you have a sheltered access so you could hear sounds and and have a sense of what's happening in the in the laboratory which you know we would hope would tend to prevent trouble from occurring at the rate it's been occurring lately and you know I will say with the issues that we're having at the high school right now tend to e and flow um I just realized what I was saying intended that wasn't intended but um yeah we're having a a bad spell right now you know with you know stuff being dumped in into the toilets at cheser high school and we did have you know group of students last year that were really aggressive that helped you know we need another group of students you know to help on that side again to prevent some of the things that we're dealing with on the main inside I could just add a piece there real quick I I think last year's issue was a little bit different in the sense that it was more General vandalism um and you know our our talk to our kids they took ownership of that they don't like the vast majority of kids don't like that situation and so they did a good job of taking ownership of this the more of the problem that we see today is you know you can go into a stall with a vape pen and nobody can go in there after you and it's often odorless and you know kid'll use a vape pen not want to get caught with it and drop it down the toilet and flush it and you know we don't Frisk every kid who goes into the bathroom nor should we and so it's uh an incredible Challenge and uh Dr Gad met with the PTA last night because really it's Community issue you know we're not handing out fape pens at the door obviously and so you know we all have a vested interest in trying to address this issue um I know one of the things that we've bandied about in the past is you know treating some of our restrooms where it's feasible like hi traffic restrooms at say the mall or the the uh airport or other places where the door is not on the hinges um to support security you can hear things going on in there it's more hygienic on top of it I know like when we toured high schools North Haven relatively new high school they don't have doors on their bathrooms um and so we're trying to work with other communities who are dealing with this uh CT Insider just published this really long article the other day about Stamford High has a a app the kids go on they can see what bathrooms are locked and unlocked and they don't like it either and other high schools in the vicinity in Fairfield County are running into these issues too so it really is a community issue that we want to work to address um I mean first and foremost I mean we're we're treating the symptom the problem is the vape pen and why 17year olds have them and 18year olds have them you know it's really uh super unhealthy and you know that's a whole another issue love to go to the source stop kids from getting them um the same way we would stop kids from getting other things that are really harmful when you're 17 but um we are closely looking at this I know Mary wanted to hold a special PTA meeting next month to bring more parents together with our school resource officer um Mike Khan at chesher high and you know see what we can do what we can collectively do to improve the situation uh not just I mean I mean the bathroom cost is one thing and it's a problem but you know the health costs the aggravation for the 95 plus percent of kids who have to deal with a bathroom issue you should be able to go to the bathroom at school during the day and um so we need to we need to work together to figure this one out any other comments Dr so wasn't there a prevent I thought we had some sort of preent ion workshop for that specifically too for Vaping yeah yeah we do offer different uh workshops and you know if students are caught with vape pens they you know engage in um an educational program through Youth and social services and stuff the problem is it's it's really hard to catch people with Bap pens and it's and it's become popular enough you know I was a a high school coach and know you know even athletes are engaged in this so it's it's really concerning from a public health perspective and it's really a problem and we need to continue to focus on it and I think we'll work with our parents to figure out strategies to attack this okay thank you so the motion is on the floor to approve um so we're going to call for a vote motion to approve two three all in favor it's unanimous sorry Adam thank you fig it's getting late sorry you're a fast learner uh next committee report is policy still back to Mr eki thank you um we met uh January 23rd and February 5th um the we discussed on the in the January 23rd meeting uh several policies including uh the status level of sports program the transition from a club program to a Varsity Sport um and on the February 5th meeting we discussed at length uh an equity and diversity policy um and we decided that it would be best to bring to the full board for comment and discussion before we we took any direct action are we are we reading that policy in for first reading yes we in first reading huh for first reading okay you don't have to polic okay all right so first reading of policies um number six 645 point21 instruction status level sports program and number is 0523 Mission goals and objectives equity and diversity Madam shair do we do anything with that or we just move on to the second readings we're moving on to the second reading okay second readings number 2132 Administration assistant superintendent for instructional Services number 5111 instruction admission placement number 5112 instruction ages of attendance and number 9230 bylaw new member board orientation great thank you any comments questions okay we're moving on to the next item is the calendar um Dr Solen or Dr herrian I guess if you can report on the February first meeting thank you I'll give it a start and then I'll pass it off so we had um we had a um meeting of the calendar committee on February 1st um where we discussed and um are sending along the calendar for 20242 calendar year uh school year I'm sorry um Dr Solen shared the drafts of the calendar and um it was decided that we make December 20th an early dismissal day to allow more flexibility for families who are traveling for the holiday days that falls on a if you're looking at your calendar um that falls on a Friday before the um winter holiday um in addition uh we are looking to change the name of Columbus Day to indigenous people's day and that is on the proposed calendar that you have before you um some important dates to note the first day of school will be August 29th 20124 convocation scheduled for the 26th so put that on your calendars because that's always a fun day for Board of Ed members to attend as well and then um teachers will have professional development for the August 27th 28th and then first day of school will start August 29th um cheder Public Schools will be closed on the following days of the 20242 calendar Labor Day September 2nd rashash Shana October 3rd indigenous people's day October 14th Thanksgiving break November 28 29 Winter recess including Christmas and New Year's December 23rd through January 1st Martin Luther King Junior Day January 20th February recess is Feb 17th through 18 of 2025 spring break will be April ail 14 through 17 of 2025 Good Friday falls on April 18th and Memorial Day will be May 26 of 2025 so with no snow days which probably won't happen the last day of school for students is projected to be June 10th 2025 and the last day for teachers would be June 11th uh snow days will be made up June 11th through the 30th and additional snow days Beyond those uh will begin April 17th and that moves um backwards in the Spring Break um do we vote on these calendar motions separately yes yeah we do have uh we need to approve we need the motion to approve the 2425 calendar so with that I will put out a motion that the um that the cheser Board of Education adopts the 20242 school calendar as presented all those in favor is there a discussion oh sorry a second is there a second second is there a second Mr eki thank you all those in favor or discussion excuse me I'm losing it it's 951 discussion Mr gripple um I couldn't help but notice that there was a significant change to the 2425 school calendar uh so I'd like to ask um what is indigenous people's day and why is it replacing Columbus Day do do you want me to take that one sure um basically Columbus [Music] day has been outdated language for quite a long time now I I don't think our our students in schools have been have been taught that Columbus discovered America for about two decades now um and there's been a movement towards uh showing the respect for the indigenous peoples of this country uh instead and so um I think following the pattern that um many other towns school districts schools certainly higher ed uh has adopted the indigenous people's day instead of the Columbus Day language would anyone want to add to that I mean I I definitely agree I did make that proposal when we were in the committee I believe it is you know respectful for us to also honor and celebrate those that were here and established um this land um and given that we have tribes within Connecticut it's right that we only honor those as well too so that was the proposal to change it um and I think you know from this point on that our um history courses and teachers hopefully will take it from here and just allow indigenous groups to be seen and heard as well too any other comments Mr peren so I'm uh very disappointed with how this is being undertaken so indulge me for a couple minutes when the kellerer committee met last year we set the 24 25 Pros calendar a year in advance this is done and we've been doing this for years since know of the board so that all stakeholders can view what's coming two years out be able to give us feedback full transparency I love the public comment the calendar we published last year did not include replacing Columbus Day with indigenous people's day it didn't come for conversation fast forward to February 1st was some reason in this committee's haste change a draft calendar to replace Columbus State for up school year not two years out in several months with no notice before the public no notice to the Board of Education I didn't see until I got the packet back on Tuesday or Wednesday thankfully the communication came out to explain what happened and the CPS website still shows to propose calendar for 2425 showing Columbus Day so so the public is largely unaware the other issue here is there's no minority representation from the board on this calendar committee it's basically an and Samantha so Tim and and myself we to ask the Serv the committee I think this is an oversight but in my time under this Board of Ed we always have representation in all committees just the right thing to do so all voices are heard had I been asked and I know if my colleagues have been asked they would asked for you guys to pause think about this and follow the pth putting this two years out so the public digest this because it is a major change the issue I personally have with this and I'm going to separate my personal thoughts on this for what's right for the district in a second it's it's alienating the atan American stakeholders in treasure for which as many of us many of us being a first generation in my family I have difficulty elimin clus day all together like many many others around Cheshire I come from from Italian background go figure last name is perene I use my hands a lot even when I'm not eating right so my Bor my parents were born and raised in it they're incredibly difficult times they had nothing but their hard work ethic and were barely getting by at that time in Italy they literally lived in cramped farm houses with dirt floors and no bathrooms I can't possibly detail what they and many of my brothers went through to get to the US but nothing but hard work ethic wanting a better future for themselves ully for me is what they had in mind and people find it interesting that if you trace my anesty far back enough in my bloodline you know that I have ancestors that were surfs at some point in time that they were allowed to live in a makeshift Villa if they worked the land for no pay for nobility in Italy I'm telling you this for a reason my daughters will never know how difficult it was for my parents and like many many ethnic groups I'm not the only one that has this story but I hope my my daughters never have to live that life but I credit them because they carry the values my family carries and I carry which is to be thankful respect others regardless of ethnic background and I guess that's where I get my fighting Spirit to be equable for everybody I don't be political I don't alate groups I try to fight for everybody to be fair this is not fair taking this away is a slap in the face for Italian Americans treasure which also includes Italian American students and treasure Public Schools why do sit home for tresure did you know that one of a longtime Farms here in tresure provid a work for T immigrants as far back as 50s and 60s and even up until recently my uncle came here in the early 50s he was desperate to find work he ran into this Farm here in Treasure and he had day labor work in the fields he survived another Tian immigrant set up a greenhouse operation here in treer many years ago he too did the same thing in fact my uncle and this G gentleman rolled the bat together from Italy when they immigrated to the US I wasn't going to say their names because I don't want them getting negative pressed about this but I do respect those gentlemen are Mr Alex arisco and Mr Mike tradina I cannot tell you how many families they've helped out over the years not just Italians all immigrants and the late Mr tradina died a few years ago but he was helping people to his last breath and there's more Rich history in this town you can trace many of our businesses back to it that is not always taught in schools and contrary and I the last 10 years my daughters went to treest Public Schools yes they thought about Columbus but they also talk more importantly about the tian's Heritage and impact on history in a positive manner too that is still being discussed but I can put those personal things aside and I respect the fact that we're trying to do the right thing I know you all I know the intent of this is not to alienate or be inequitable like Italians all our ethnic groups all our students in our schools want to be respected for who they are not for what the politics tell us the indigenous population especially do respect and recognition and I'm not getting into that history but more well overdue but the way we're pushing this change through and the way we're doing it is what it telling our children the tidings don't matter and for some students they don't matter either the history is not relevant that cannot be the intent of this board there's a better way of recognizing indigenous people without marginalizing others and still be Equitable this approach is not Equitable any way shape or form the state of connectic itself recognizes Columbus slash indigenous people's day as does a town of treasure so why aren we following our own State guidance on this when a board any board operates in a manner such as this it creates distrust not just with us with the public the reason there's no public outrage tonight is because the public doesn't know about this I don't know why this is being pushed through I don't know why we're not being transparent about it with the community but there's a better way of doing this this is not it the uh what I would recommend to this group I'm not going to vote for this motion but this motion should be postponed indefinitely the calendar committee should get back together with proper representation from the board revise his 2425 draft to include as intended Columbus Day if it so chooses it should keep the draft of 2526 to include Columbus indigenous people's day or indigenous Columbus State however you want to order that because that puts it a year out it gives the ample notice to the public to discuss and in that time period we can teach ourselves why we're doing this we can also teach Public Schools why we're doing this it's just the right thing to do respectful for everybody and I know we're going to talk about the policy this is not an equitable way of doing it the whole point of that policy is to not have this situation where you're being inequal to one group versus another maybe we do need the in place to avoid something like this again I know you are I know this is not your intent I know you're trying to do the right thing but my opinion is not the way to go about it there's a way to be respectful both groups and respect everyone and I put that information before you but I will not be supporting this motion tonight thank you for indulging me this evening thank you Mr perini any other comments Mr White thanks for the comments Tony um I based on what you just said so first of all I want to say I history is complicated and it definitely has um the history I was taught here in the Chester Public Schools I'm 51 so 45 to 30 years ago uh it is definitely through a particular lens and history is much more expansive than that I completely get it that you're limited in terms of time in the classroom um nonetheless I do share Tony's concerns and so if it's okay I'm going to make a motion tell me if this is in the spirit of what you were saying make a motion to table this and ask the calendar committee to reconsider exactly what you said what the state said Columbus indigenous day indigenous Columbus Day that's my motion to send it back to to the calendar committee so for a point of order and this obviously our chair will will lead this next but if whatever so again I I don't I'm trying not to be that board member that's been around so long that they feel that have to teach the board everything at every second I'm not trying to do that but we have some new board members so procedural order is an order um when there's a motion on a table you can certainly table the motion which means it gets discussed it later at time but the motion sits on the table so any point in time you can bring it back up when I said postpone indefinitely that's a way to completely kill the M the motion so it cannot come back up this is in Robert R order um because if the board so chooses whether you po postpone a motion or kill indefinitely if something changes in the underlying calendar you have to make a new motion the next time so maybe postpone maybe give the calendar time to discuss if the board choose it that way revisit later but I I appreciate what you're saying but there's a couple ways to do it Mr gripple point of information um Can the uh board uh unilaterally make changes to the calendar without reconvening the calendar committee I don't believe so but I'm going to call Miss jinsky to clarify I don't know the answer to that either quite frankly I that that would typically be an amendment to I mean I think the way that yes you could do that is via an amendment so somebody would have to propose an amendment to the uh calendar that's been presented that would have to be seconded uh discussion and then vote on the amendment that would be the adoption of the revision um just like any other motion would be and that's no different than we do a budget or other motions that can be done as someone offic you can also obviously withdraw the motion and make a new motion before we do so can I get a first off a clarification from Dr Solen um specifically to the point that Mr perene made about the two-year um draft calendar and then the makeup of the committee um it is my understanding that we we called for the um members how the assignments were assigned pretty much yeah typically I'm sorry um I know that the policy requires certain representatives and I want to say historically it has been just one person that represented the board on that committee but I don't recall if there have been others in the past I you know I yeah so last year was an and I year before that was two or three other board members year before that was two or three other just how we did it traditionally yeah the chair you certainly would sit on there uh I think it says the chair and one other board member so we did satisfy the required makeup of the committee um and having met when we proposed this the full committee didn't um would was not against this at all they moved it forward as well so um at this moment in time it's I guess I'm going to ask are you proposing an amendment Mr White so first of all I'm totally comfortable withdrawing this um but no what I actually would like to happen would be if it was returned to the calendar committee I don't know who's on the calendar committee I've never been involved with it um but just returned to the calendar committee with a basically a request saying please consider what Tonia just mentioned a change to the same name which the state uses Columbus indigenous day or indigenous Columbus day so I'm going to leave my motion as is I'm happy to withdraw it if anybody says anything differently um about all the different rules but that's where I am right now um I don't think that was Tony's no those are those are mine in the spirit of what Tony was saying it was my motion in the spirit of what I thought Tony was saying you didn't officially make a motion I oh so then I make a motion can't to I can't we're still on the motion oh sorry an amend it an amendment I make you can make an amendment to the motion yes okay sorry I apologize on the on the language I I make I offer an amendment to the motion to refer this back to the count no no didn't do that either to table the motion you can amend this motion that's on the floor and that's it oh that's it yes so is the floor still open to questions the floor is still in discussion at this moment in time well I think we I think we need to have a second or no second and put my thing to bed well you didn't make anything so I don't think so the only option you have right now is do nothing and vote or you can amend the motion to modify the 2425 calendar to include Columbus Day okay I make a motion I make it offer an amendment to the motion to change the name to Columbus State the way it is for 2425 and then for 2526 to we're only on 245 right now yeah it's only okay so to return it to Columbus Day as is and then change the 2526 to Columbus indigenous day that's going to be a separate motion separate motion sorry okay we're still on the 2425 yeah so the motion on the floor is to amend the current motion to rename the holiday on October whatever that is 14th is it to Columbus Day and so I guess there would have to be a second for that a second discussion and then any discussion on the amended motion Mr White yeah I just I just want to reiterate history is complicated and I'm not I'm not I it has been told through a particular lens and I would love to see a more complete and robust history uh taught in our schools and understood by America at large but I also agree with Tony on the process and about how there's there's a lot of italian-americans who I I do think will could very well be upset about this including the process and not that we could make everybody happy not that I plan to try to do that but just simply the the way we go about doing it I think matters and that's why I'm saying this for this particular year but I'm open to I'm open to changing the name in the future and adding it similar to what Tony said the state does so this time I R voting on the amended right so you vote on the amended v motion if it passes it's adopted if it fails it goes back to the motion that's on the floor okay so all those in favor of the amended motion that is currently on the floor one two three all those oppose the amended three exstension Mr a are you abstaining no I got okay all those who are opposing if you can for thank you and then the motion is failed so it goes back to the original motion which is the calendar as presented yep the cheser Board of Education adopts the 2425 school calendar as presented Mr gripple I would like to make an amendment please present your Amendment uh amend uh the current motion to uh add or yeah to add uh to change the um indigenous uh uh people's day uh what was that October 14 14th uh to read um Columbus day/ indigenous people's day as uh that reflects the uh calendar of both the town and um I don't even know if it reflects the state of Connecticut I think the state of Connecticut only still recognizes uh Columbus Day uh so at least recognized that would be in uh in uh synchronicity with the at least the town calendar as it currently is formulated second is there a second to Mr gle's Amendment Mr perini so all those oh I'm sorry is there a discussion on the amendment the motion that is amended Dr herrian yeah um so what is it that the town calendar does because I in consultation with uh the town manager the the town calendar lists Columbus day/ indigenous people's day but I think as Mr grippo said the state is exclusively Columbus do you have another question Dr heran no I'm thinking so next steps would be to um vote on the amended motion that presented by Mr gripple and seconded by Mr perini all those in favor of the amended motion one two three all those oppose the current amended motion four no extensions the motion has failed I would actually entertain if I may and if I may present an amendment to this in the spirit of inclusivity and um really to respect the um Italian population is that the we adopt the calendar that states that October 14th would read indigenous people's day/ Italian American day that is my proposed amendment if anybody would like to second that I'll second that Mr perini discussion on the amended motion nope so all those oh Dr herrian discussion yeah so I feel like it does exactly what we what Mr perini was saying we don't want to do which is just singling out a a one particular ethnic background so I I guess I won't be supporting that Amendment St Patrick's Day if if I may not official holiday I I really appreciate that everybody on this board has come to this from a really genuine place um certainly not wanting to uh alienate but unite all uh members of our our cheser community I I found it interesting the history of uh Columbus Day which I I think supports this amendment that I'm not sure that everybody I didn't know actually uh I'm sure a lot of people don't know that um Columbus Day was the Genesis of that came from uh terrible Massacre that happened to Italian-American immigrants uh back in the late 1800s in New Orleans of all places where um you know Columbus Day was really a kind of a minor New England type recognition and when um this terrible incident happened where uh a number of Italian Americans were arrested for uh just kind of indiscriminately accused of shooting the the sheriff in New Orleans or for killing the sheriff in New Orleans um the the folks just stormed the prison and hung 11 Italian Americans which actually cut off all diplomatic relations with Italy at the time there was a lot I mean so um this Columbus Day was actually established uh as a holiday to uh recognize the Italian-American Community even more so I think than it was Columbus but because Columbus was a a figure in the Italian-American Community was acknowledged you know as Columbus Day um and so I I think you know that uh this represents a sensitive uh proposal uh that's clearly recognized by both parties um and nobody's going to be perfect on this um and I I think this represents a a sensitive and uh important effort to acknowledge everybody in our community um in a way that that makes more sense in contemporary hindsight just my two cents thank you any other discussion Miss cullinan so interestingly enough um knowing this was was coming um I asked my grandson tonight what he knew about Columbus Day and he said well it's not called that anymore he's in school here in chesher um and he explained to Great length about IND indigenous people and um no no animosity towards Columbus that wasn't part of the history lesson that he had learned here in the schools but he went into great detail about it um I am interested um being half Italian um that some of Tony's perspective I'm I'm a bit dismayed that um the word that there wasn't transparent in the discussions around it so I'm concerned about that because I think this is um you know is is a delicate topic as our history Tim that you alluded to is very um in increasingly difficult to meander through um so I would be comfortable in the Nuance that our chair recommended around indigenous people's day slash Italian American Italian amican American um I I do think there should be more discussion for approval of the 2526 calendar in line with um other districts the state Etc but I would be comfortable with um that recommendation this evening thank you Miss cullin and any other comments Mr gripple um I won't be supporting the motion um because the uh reference to Italian-American day does not exist it's Columbus Day thank you other thoughts so the motion is on the floor to um approve the 2425 calendar which makes a change to October 14th indigenous people/ Italian-American day all those in favor of the amended motion one two three four five in favor all those opposed two the motion as amended passes the next item would be um the 2526 draft calendar Dr herrian you want to take that as well um the 252 or 2526 calendar is a little complicated and I'm going to throw it to Dr Solen talk about because it involves adding time to the summer because of new school buildings going up after so thank you Dr heran so um there's been a lot of conversation as a matter of fact even today I had with om who was our Builder and um arcadis who was our owner's rep for our school construction projects that uh they need and we need frankly as a school system as much time as we can possibly Garner during the summer of 26 uh we will be consolidating three school buildings into two that summer um finishing uh hopefully things are done before uh June but still moving all everything that we have our resources from uh our three buildings Darcy uh Norton and uh Chapman and some of Highland probably some of dittle when we are redistricting into these two new buildings so as such um they've asked that we kind of clear the deck as well for their construction purposes um because don't forget not only are we moving stuff but demo has to happen at Norton so we'll be taking that building down um at that summer as well to the greatest extent we can before school starts so as such we're starting the 256 year a week earlier we don't have it in front of us today obviously but the 267 year will actually start a week later um to build in an extended summer there now we recognize that this has a lot of implications for our community you know for vacations and for people that are working and everything like that we you know I'm sure by the time we get there we'll have some alternative plans the the way that we always do to try and accommodate our our community but um I just wanted to provide some of the backstory as to why it looks so different than what we typically experience just a full week off uh starting earlier and ending earlier in this particular year for construction thank you Dr Zen um so there is a a call for a motion to approve the 2526 school calendar year if Dr herin you can read that motion I move that the chesher Board of Education adopts the 2025 26 proposed draft school calendar uh recommended by the calendar committee second there is Mr per oh miss miss Colin in second we're going into a discussion for 25 26 draft proposed Mr per jany for sake of consistency I like to make amendment to this motion that we change I just had it for the 2025 2026 cop calendar proposed draft and it is a draft that we change October 13th indigenous people do it day to indigenous people's daytin American day this way it gives the board and calendar committee to get feedback before it's formally adopted next year great is there a second to the proposed amendment Mr White discussion so the motion on the floor is to um amend the language of in indigenous people day on October 13 2025 to to indigenous people's day/ Italian American day all those in favor of the let me pull back Carol the initial motion has to be voted on first it's no no so the amendment is on the floor it got seconded and um now we every discussions occurred y all in favor if the motion carries that's the what's been adopted if it fails it goes back to the original yes you're right all those in favor of the amended motion one two three four five all those oppos to the amended motion passes great um so we're going to go back to the calendar for um am I reading the same item here I think we're okay because I think yeah we're fine the amendment's been adopted the amendment's adopted we're good we can we can finally move off a calendar off calendar just kind of a clarification so Dr Solen this is draft so it's going to go back to the committee uh to review and then will'll be brought before us again right so this isn't final the 256 calendar is not final until next year at this time when we vote on that calendar um I would suggest that we consider given the substantial shift that will occur for that summer that we take this item up maybe in the late fall rather than waiting until February because uh we will certainly you know all already start now telling people to be prepared for this for next summer but you know I think we want to formally adopt the calendar in the fall rather than waiting until February to because of the change not to mention that we will put out a draft at that time too for 67 um so just my recommendation thank you and to Mr perin's point I know there were a couple parents that asked to also participate in the committee as well too so if you can kind of speak to how we're adding on members now to the committee well I don't I don't know that we're adding me members per se the board policy says that uh the calendar should be drawn up by a committee composed of the superintendent or design chairman of the board a member of the board chosen by the chair a teacher who may be chosen by the president of the EAC administrator chosen by the president of the treasure administrator personnel and a parent chosen by the president of the townwide PTA but you know like any other meetings that we have certainly the community is welcome to come the other thing is Marlene and I can look at you know putting out a survey like we've done for guidance on other things we put out a survey for the calendar um for early uh dismissal PD days versus delayed days for um for professional development we've done different things to try and get community feedback the biggest challenge I'll tell you right now that parents feel in this the calendar is the number of early release days we have and that was part of what was was negotiated into the contract and I think it was a really good idea and you know you try things and we try and evolve I don't know that it played out the way for families that maybe Elementary age families perhaps more so than high school and middle school families but you know we'll talk about that when we go into negotiations you know with our our Union this summer um for our subsequent contract great thank you yeah I know there's a couple parents that would like to voice their um concern and feedback for the upcoming 25 26 Calendar so thank you Mr gripple and then Mr per J um Dr Solen that uh composition statement you just read for the calendar committee is that a policy yeah 6111 because I'm just wondering if it should be revised because I'm wondering what the relevance of the townwide PTA is to anything right now yeah I think it it this should be maybe representatives of local ptas or something like that but as far as I know they're not a relevant organization anymore yeah it's it's um I don't know I wouldn't I don't know that they're not enrolled but I would hard to hard to call them active so we had a a local PTA member sitting in on that committee but I fully understand and appreciate what you're saying and you know we I think it's worth taking a look at in policy to to be more inclusive maybe of different parent groups groups Mr just want to thank thank uh my board my colleagues for entertaining the feedback and making the adjustment I will certainly go with whatever the board decides for next calendar but my purpose is not to put one ethnic background over the other respectful to both but more importantly if we're going to talk about an execute equity in thei we have to be transparent and give folks time to chime in that's all so thank you thank you Mr perini uh board members with any other standing committees comment on Mr gripple um I was just curious I I guess that sort of slipped my attention before um so back at the policy meeting um uh it was discussed that the equity policy was to be distributed to the board members for comment and I was curious to know if there was any comment there was there was yeah uh I I received I think the board received comment from Mr perini um I received comment today from Mr White who certainly distribute both of those I think Mr perene went to everybody but uh maybe not no I I was worried about it becoming an legal meeting if I emailed everybody but I will forward and you all be surprised about my input I'll forward I I want to give Mark an a else is on the policy besides and the background of this policy how it came to be and why it is put in perspective so so that's why I sent I'll send to the rest of the committee thank you and I'll I'll forward on Mr White's uh email too yeah I'll I'll do it right now yeah thank you Mr perini it was a pretty lengthy um really some good points though no but it was some really good points so if Dr s could full all that to the committee um next item is approval of our the minutes from January 18 2024 and January 3r 2024 or if we could take a second to look at both if you have not so the motion is to approve minutes for both of those meetings is there a second Mr White is that a finger out there okay uh are there any additions or Corrections that we need to make at this point no so we are going to vote to approve all those in favor of the minutes for January 18th and January 3rd 2024 um please say I oh it's unanimous nobody opposes minutes are approved thank you Mr secretary are there correspondences that we need to be aware of yes there is oh um I guess I'll read let's see so this correspondence is from let me see if we have a name here is it signed is it signed Dr Solen or is it is it Miss stingo stingo yeah okay so I'll read uh just reading through it I will read her response from February 6th because it seems to summarize her previous email and then sort of come sort of expands um so uh hello Mrs Rosenberg and Miss herrian thank you for reply to my email I appreciate the feedback you provided about a timeline on the school calendar however the email did not answer many of the poyant questions first how does someone get invited to a Committee for chesher Public School I have inquired about this in the past about being uh a part of the calendar and curriculum committee next uh what variables are considered Dr Solen sent a survey to the committee last year and then this I'm assuming this is meant to be read into the record or no you don't have to read the whole thing it's it's added to the record okay if people want to access it all right well so then uh basically she is um commenting about the um additional was it I guess the early early early dismissal days or the number of early dismissal days and then she makes reference to other school districts is that is that what that means 24-4 is that like 24 days out of something I don't know um but anyway she makes reference to that and um that was a general commentary there we go this will be in the in the minutes for review thank you Mr gripple um Dr Z do you want to respond to that I know you yeah sure um basically I there was another email late today um later today the one I I received but I basically replied to her and her husband both had the concern about disrupted weeks which frankly in I explained to her is a function of that contract issue because elementary teachers have eight collaboration PD days throughout the year in addition to our regular PD schedule um and and that like I I think I just explained earlier is is challenging for a lot of people so you know I know different communities do different things West Hartford has a early release every Wednesday I'm not I'm not suggesting we go that route by a long shot but um I think it's something that we do need to take up in our uh negotiations this summer with the teachers union and look at other strategies can you also kind of explain the process we just approved a calendar for 2425 so when at what point do we insert those PD days and so forth now that the calendar has been approved we have to look at all of the days the only date I could tell you definitively that will be a PD day is election day because we close down our buildings really for uh the uh registar as of Voters the election to happen and then uh what we'll do now is try and overlay the multitude of required days onto the calendar and that's it's a laborious process um and Miss Solano like basically shelters in the bunker for days on end and tries to make it so that we're not messing with all the various things that are on our schedule already like Board of bed meetings committee meetings Etc bless you great thank you next item is back to you Dr Solen for the superintendent's report thank you thank you um I know that you guys heard earli I got a bunch of things to cover today so I'm going to try and rifle through it I know you heard the high school play will be the 21st 2nd and 3rd um so I think I'm going on the 21st or or 20 well I probably have a meeting so the 22nd the CF trivia contest is Saturday March 23rd I know a number of folks um Adam has had good fortune in that event U many years uh nothing to do with luck Dr s I think that's your team name um then uh you know Dr herrian and Company have been there with her cast of former board members uh always a good time I encourage you to check out chesher education foundation.org uh if you're interested in signing up it's only I think it's only like 80 bucks and it's a great time it is so so much fun uh probably my favorite fundraiser it's not even 80 bucks it's like 60 bucks it's like 60 for four people chump change really for the the cause that it goes to and the fund that you have it is well worth it $60 for the total for the team of four um I excited to announce that signno recognizes uh employers for their commitment to providing um healthy programming and options for their employees and we were recognized as a gold healthy Workforce uh U I guess gold healthy Workforce uh employer and so that was pretty cool I want to commend Tim or excuse me Tim I want to include commend Vin take three it's like late at night here but um thank you VIN and your team for all your work to help make that a reality you might remember that earlier this year we were recognized by the American Heart Association as a a gold recipient uh for the programs that we have through them as well so uh congratulations to Vin and& company uh quick update on K transition program I know that we talked about that during the budget process and curious about enrollment um we expected at least uh two sections at this point we have uh a section filled at 18 and another section um at at least eight um right now that was a few days ago so um we look well on our way to two sections there um quick update on school modernization uh Vin and I attended the Planning and Zoning meeting on Monday uh there if you recall there were a lot of concerns about who's getting a bus and sidewalking uh Vin did a great job of walking the uh Planning and Zoning through how we determine who takes a bus so just because you're within walking distance doesn't mean you're automatically a walker we assess for safety and if it's not safe you get a bus so even though there are streets um right across from the new North End School doesn't mean you're a walker because you're that close if you have to Traverse uh uh Maran Road or something so we went through that process and I think the planning and zoning committee really appreciated uh the presentation um the uh other things that we have coming up I I know I've mentioned in March we have our meetings with the um Department of administrative services to go through the plans the uh Architects are you know moving right along in that process uh today was kind of exciting I met with om and uh arcadis as I I said and we looked at Norton school um and it looks like they're going to try and do some work in uh the summer to prep for the December like groundbreaking and really hard start at that point but um when we looked at it we thought it'd be uh safer and less of a distraction to do certain things closer to the building it in the summer when students aren't there so uh look forward to sharing more about that when plans become finalized uh so we're we're moving right along it's really exciting um uh earlier today the US EPA and Connecticut Department of Public Health uh completed their asbest management plan inspection um they chose two buildings that were audited um and one was the Norton Elementary School and the other was DOD Middle School uh we passed both with flying colors Real Testament uh to our maintenance team and our administrators in those buildings for keeping everything in order uh I'm excited that to announce that we recently received a $50,000 um Connecticut grown for Connecticut kids grant for fiscal year 24 uh the state received 73 applications and we were one of a few to receive a a significant Grant like that um we're excited as you know we put in the greenhouse and uh that was a a tremendous um you know move forward for us and we're looking forward to you utilizing that more with these resources and getting more kids in there uh and you know you know that we in our budget included Agricultural Science I think this will be a really helpful resource toward that end so uh very excited we're moving in the right direction there last but certainly not least um yesterday uh the Connecticut Association of schools was on site at Highland Elementary School to award them for their outstanding culture and climate award uh in recognition of the school Community shared success in building an environment where all members feel valued engaged supported and safe uh so they were the elementary school that was recognized for 2024 and we're really proud of the effort that they all put in to make that sort of environment possible for their kids there so uh congratulations to Highland School that's it for me comments questions for Dr Dr Solen awesome job for oh Mr gripple go um Dr Solen um are the uh revised plans for the North End School are they posted anywhere so they aren't necessarily revised plans the the school is the same in terms of the design what's I met the yeah the the property layout because I'm sure there were changes not not really uh a change to the property layout um it's just when they're going to start doing the work so the the real change is if you're familiar with Norton school um in the back of the school there's a little bit of a roadway that pathway really that curves around to a lower asphalt area and um the fire I'm sorry I was referring to the North End the pnz I'm sorry I I had the Norton one on they haven't done Norton yet right cuz I got him confused they pnz has not met on Norton yet um that's their next meeting that we'll be going to that but um in terms of the Planning and Zoning uh for the North End there were some um Minor Adjustments that I I will have to solicit the architect to make sure that I have that updated plan and we'll get that on the website I'll get it out to you guys I'll ask Justin and Jeff and we'll follow up with them tomorrow to get that that revision thank you sure thank you thanks Dr s is there any um comment also where we are in the budget process and know we obviously moved it to the town yeah sure thank you uh the we just had communication that the uh Town manager will be presenting the overall Budget on March 12th we don't yet have a date for education but uh it'll kick off on March 12th so probably shortly thereafter great thank you uh next item new business uh chair's update although Vin just a little challenge can we get a Blue Zone award next time just saying what kind of Zone Blue Zone what Blue Zone where the whole area is like at a certain level of Health oh for I think I'm right by saying Blue Zone but Andrew asked her this last time too aspiring to the next level so whatever it is I'm sure we'll be there next I don't remember that I'll send it to you it's something to to earn we'll try I'm just I'm channeling uh Andrew right now I remember him asking for that last time um I don't have much for the chairperson's update I just uh kind of reiterate that if at all possible um we can join the Polar Plunge um especially this year since Dr Sol's participating um and I do want to yield some time to Mr perene because he had some um information from cab if he want if he could please oh just one item oh just one item okay CU you heard enough from me this evening so uh I think it's good news so the Attorney General of state of Connecticut finally approved a contract between cab and a state education for C to provide the board member professional development training that was passed in legislation last year for new board members elected starting 2023 so the new folks uh cab just got that news the other day uh so I gave it a few weeks I'm sure we'll be getting information what that's going to look like and what's required but no one C they're going to make it as painless as possible so it's a I think it's a good thing other thing I learned too is apparently there's a number of contracts held up with the attorneys General's office because cab NSD nego negotiated this about a year ago and just now I got approved so nd's defense they're also suffering from some backlog of uh contracts too so that's it just for clarification would their participation in the uh orientation count as that or I hope so I don't know the the K board hasn't got the details yet gotcha because they're they're not just not working out those details W Ste okay so we'll know in a few weeks great thank you um other than that announcements of um upcoming meetings we have Monday March 4th 7 PM policy committee will be meeting at humston boardroom Thursday March 7th this is 202 3 which I'm going to change Thursday March 7th 2024 7:30 p.m.

meeting to order do we do a roll call I I will do it Mr REI present Ms Rosenberg I see she's present and Mr White is not present and I do note that we have Dr Solen and Mr cette on as well okay Pledge of Allegiance let me bring up flag a pledge allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America United States of America and to the Republic stands which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty Li and justice for all uh I see no one in the audience so we will skip the audience and Mr massian it's all yours okay thank you and I will acknowledge Mr White has joined us now so you have all the members of planning committee on um what I'm going to do is uh Jump Right In And I want to share on screen um you know the overall total of the capital budget and I assume you could see the screen there's just the uh I'm going to focus on the center section way down at the bottom this is the um annual total for the five-year capital budget you know the planning committee at their last meeting did go through all the details and in line with that uh you know Mr cette and I in particular um also in consult with Dr Solen have moved the uh Dollars around so that we spread it out a little bit more evenly and so the total five-year capital budget request is$ 55 million 845,000 um as the committee members know you know these items are all items that we need to continue to maintain our buildings um except for you do except for um the buildings that are coming offline which are Chapman Norton and Darcy there are no funds requested for those buildings in this fiveyear Capital plan so this is to continue to maintain you know the buildings that we're going to keep after the new schools are open if you look at the one-year total it which is $5,100 th000 I'm going to switch the screen in a moment here because you know that is uh the certainly the year that needs to be focused on most closely because that is the only year that will be funded years two through five they're um they're for planning purposes so next year when we're reviewing the capital budget the items in year two move into year one but you know when the board and planning committee and the board is complete with their approval process it goes to the Town Council and the council will only appropriate whatever money is approved for Year One um so with that I'm going to keep moving and if there are questions you could just you know pause or raise your hand in the chat and you know chairman eki can acknowledge anyone that's in the chat with questions so here is where um I'm going to spend you know the time this is just taking the total of that $5,100 th000 in year one and I'm going to go through some additional detail as we look through it um and as we look through it I'm going to note a couple of things you know one is if the item is highlighted in yellow that means it's an item that was just added this year it wasn't in a priye capital budget and that is not unusual that that happens where we have items that are maintenance items or items that we need to to allocate to design money for those items you know do fall in in year one and they weren't in Prior years and I'll I'll explain those as we go through um and just to give you a little bit of context of the $5,100 th000 that's being requested and recommended 3, 575,000 is items is for dollars that were requested in PRI years that are just moving into year one um there's a million2 25,000 of of new items that we're going to talk about those are highlighted in yellow and then there's $500,000 of design money that's being requested for items that we're going to ask for funding in future year so the important point there is most of the funds that are being requested of the 5 million1 3.575% all right so with that said um the first item is the chesra high school it's uh it's it's labeled on the category of Code Compliance but here we're requesting $500,000 to begin the $1.75 Million worth of work that we need at the high school athletic complex and and the items that will be included in that are to replace the stadium seating uh replace the the Press Box and the upper deck there's a secondary viewing tower that has not been used in years and it's in this repair it really needs to come down and and and the course of making these improvements we would make sure everything is ADA Compliant that's why this falls on the Code Compliance the um item that's noted here is there is you know money in year four of the capital budget now to replace the turf field so you know this project is separate from the funding we've requested to replace the turf field still in good condition we have a maintenance contract on it so we don't um we don't foresee an issue in continuing to use that field until we have to replace it in about four years I will just keep moving until someone stops me Mr Rosen sorry Ben I keep going in and out but can you just clarify for anybody watching that these because the the dollar amount is so high um does this impact anything that needs to go to a referendum yes so any item that is $500,000 or more will need to go to referendum for approval and you know the Town Council at the end of the day you know decides what items you know stay as requested or get reduced or get pulled out but it's 500,000 or over and I will note that it is cumulative so if we have a request for let's say $300,000 this year that is phase two of 300,000 we funded in a prior year it's meeting that $500,000 thresold that's cumulative so those would have to go to referendum even though they're below the 500,000 it's not just for the year there is a look back for that and the year by year you mean calendar or school year no I mean operate uh capital budget year gotcha so last year's capital budget if 300,000 were approved and now in this year's capital budget another $300,000 is approved for the same project at the same building generally speaking it would have to go to referendum in year two does that make sense yep yeah now will they be putting I see something about an elevator the Press Box is that something that with the Ada we have to do no you know we we don't have to do that any longer you know we would make accommodations at the field level which is acceptable now so you know A lot's changed since money was initially approved for funding ADA compliance improvements at the high school so I don't Envision that we'll be doing that okay thank you okay and as um you know I do want to note that this particular project there design money was appropriated last year a a uh design specialist has been hired so that work is continuing rich i' I forget who's the design firm that's helping us with this SLR is is doing the design and then uh we just last week we just completed um uh the majority of the Geotech work so that's that's been completed and hopefully we're going to move on to uh full design okay thanks Rich Mr White Mr W I think you're muted thank you uh yeah just with regard to the 1.7 million for the stadium and complex yeah whatever the council comes back with um I'm sure I'll be comfortable with it I mean these are things that need to happen but if they want to pick it apart and do different pieces at different times I have no problem with that just to be clear on that yeah I mean I I trust you're going to be advocating for us the best that you can but if they have other concerns however it comes together it just needs to get done yeah and and we would work to prioritize um what should get done first you know as that as that design work gets completed so yeah I I hear you Tim and and you know we would make those recommendations based on what the design specialist comes back back with the the the one thing that really goes through my mind I think most is just the referendum is it $500,000 three times is it one time for 1.7 million I I have no problem with whatever the council comes back with I'm sure I'd be comfortable with them you know next couple years yeah you know we will have that discussion when we get to the council too about you know rather than doing this over three you know different funding phases can we I mean it would be nice to ask the 1.75 all at once and it's not likely to happen but we will have that discussion at the council level to see is there a better way to split the um you know the requests and and the council is usually open to discussion and then they have to balance the requests from the schools with all the other requests that come you know from across the different departments thank you okay the next two items are just items that were in previous year Capital budgets the window replacement at at ches high school we we'd like to continue that work you know we're getting to we're getting near the end we're looking now to do the um west side of the building and the northwest corner is the next phase and the council has been um you know accommodating at approving those Appropriations the 250,000 for the maintenance garage that that garage serves us well but it is dated and we haven't made any Investments uh in that garage other than putting a roof on it since I've been here so there is some work that we would like to complete in the maintenance garage um the next three items just note that that the dollar amount 75,000 50,000 50,000 and 25,000 they're italicized and bolded because we're requesting design funds for each of those projects the utility tunnels we need to um you know keep those in good repair and we do want to um make some further improvements so that's why the 75,000 is requested 50,000 design funds for the fire alarm control system at chesha high school U 50,000 to make um HVAC improvements to replace uh rooftop units and then another 25,000 to phase in air conditioning at the high school so those are all relatively small dollar amounts what the council um you know has done what these types of requests in the past is lump them together and appropriate money through um Capital nonrecurring so that we're not actually borrowing the money for that but that's seed money to you know really get a larger projects done in future years next um next page uh laboratory improvements ongoing project $400,000 being requested uh for this year we in the past have done bathroom Renovations across the district on a worst first basis um we are now you know in good shape at at dittle so we're going to begin focusing on replacing Laboratories at cheser high school and Dot again on a worst burst basis um repaving 250,000 you know we didn't get repaving money um last year and so we are looking to uh make some improvements down at the treasure High School the south parking lot uh 200,000 for flooring replacement um again that's a continuation of a project we usually go on one year and skip a year with the funding same as is happening with flooring replacement and then the 200,000 for elementary school playground equipment replacement you know this is a uh request that we had last year that's moved into this year we do need to start U making some Investments the the target initially would be the playgrounds at dittle and Highland uh and as is noted there we would look to stop using wood chips and you know go with one of those um crumb rubber flooring materials that um do much better you know they last pretty well and they're actually safe for children I'm Gonna Keep moving on the uh continual the lavatory the repaving and all that we don't have to go to referendum for that that that just we can do those things because they need to be be done how does that work so with the Laboratories um because we're moving into new schools chesher high and DOD we probably will not need to go to referendum on that and I say probably because that's always a decision that um Bond Council makes that represents the town so I don't think we'll go to referendum on that clearly the window project at the high school it's a 500 and that one it's the same building same project that will go to referendum uh repaving flooring replacement and the playground equipment replacement I don't believe any of those will um need to go to referendum okay um the next one is gym equipment replacement um this is a new request that's why it's highlighted in yellow and we have some some gym equipment rich I don't remember where where we would start I know we had talked about at it but do you have an idea where we would start if this is appr I mean the two yeah the two heavy users would be the high school and do I mean start at either those we'd have to do uh you know an inspection and prioritize you know worst case and then move on from there but both of those are heavily used um and you know are going to need a little bit of uh TLC on equipment replacement side yeah and I I'll just add that I mean typically if something you know breaks like a backboard you know on one of the basketball you know hoops at any gym we just replace it out of our you know our maintenance funds but this is really looking a little bit longer term you know putting together you know project a gym at a time and replacing everything that needs to be replaced including the wall padding and the and the backboard um and it is necessary to to fund it this way it's just a better option because if we run out of operating you know maintenance funds in a given Year we're not getting to these projects so if we Mak the wall padding the wall padding is a good example because you know if the wall padding is 10 years old and then we have you know half a dozen wall pads that need replacement due to failure you never get a good color match so it just makes it difficult so it's like trying to just paint one wall of your living room it just doesn't work you got to do the whole thing so that's that's the reason why we're trying to put it under capital yeah uh the next two items roof ladder replacement this is um you know something that we started doing we got an appropriation this year and you know I know we talked about this in the last capital budget year you know there's a lot of there's a lot of these roof ladders that um exist in every building you know and I know it seems like a large dollar amount but you know it is important and Rich I don't know if we've done any of The Replacements yet but um yeah we're in h we're in the study mode we're planning on doing some Replacements at uh DOD this summer okay roof repair this 125,000 that's um that's typical of what we appropriate every few years where we have roof failures um or preventative maintenance we do on our Roof Systems it's on a worst first basis so we are scheduled to um get that appropriation and we use it as needed the next item the 125,000 for storm order management um this is a new request and it's just to be able to have funds appropriated that we can make these um you know different either repairs or Replacements to catch basins and covers Rich any anything else that you want to highlight because I know the priorities of dittle and the high school yeah d uh Doolittle and the high school a little bit at DOD and a lot of these have come um have come to past only um you know they've been highlighted due to the extraordinarily wet year we've had the 2023 I think was the third wetest uh year on record for for our area so you know there's a lot of areas that are dated do little for example you know we have some storm impoundments that haven't been improved since uh 1996 you know things like you know uh erosion and you know overgrowth things of that nature lend to having to uh you know do some Capital Improvements in these areas then the the next three items are um you know just continual items that we fund inter interior door Replacements we skipped last year on that that we skipped last year on the ceiling tile Replacements um and then so each of those are 100,000 as is that that third item in the middle which is to replace pneumatic controls with um direct digital controls and this is has to do with the HVAC systems so those are monies again that we had in last year's capital budget we're just moving into year one the the next two you know are probably the more critical ones that we that are that are new that you know we we do need to invest in uh one is the roof replacement of 350,000 over at dod you know we've been chasing leaks at DOD for years you know we've done a good job of of um trying to replace the seams which are typically the first areas that that leak and you know some of the Roof Systems are just dated you know overall were in good shape you know at dog because we've replaced most of the Roof Systems but you know we've got a couple of priorities it totals 350,000 Rich you said over the science Wing just help me out on this one too yeah there's smaller roof sections over the science Wing um um I'm trying to remember the areas more over the boys and girls locker room along the north elevation um there is a there is I believe it's the um it used to be the old wood shop that roof needs to be replaced and then all the caps for uh the stairwells um you know mostly on the 2000 edition or 96 Edition depending which which addition you're looking at so there's a lot of I would say there's a half a dozen to to seven of smaller roof sections uh that need to be completed and once those are done then we should have uh we should be in pretty good shape okay rich just um talk about the next one too this is the the water main so those are yeah the fire man firan water M Replacements um those are primarily um adjacent to the The Boiler Room which we're renovating uh this coming summer um again those you know suffered the same fate as all the equipment in that general area when uh humidity was out of control so we do have a lot of pipe corrosion um you know backflow preventers that need to be replaced checks things of that nature so um you know those those are on the on the radar for um um you know for replacement going forward yeah we added this because it's it's a type of thing you don't want a failure you know obviously nobody would want to see that and you know it's inevitable that those items have to be you know replaced so this is one that we just have to bite the bullet you know make the investment and get it done uh the next I hear it there it is Sam Rosenberg then this one's kind of a little difficult because I mean I guess the question would be what's the what's the expected life span on the roof if we were to do this and then if this becomes a conversation of The Next Step for school modernization we'd be spending some dollars that we' eventually have to spend again yeah as I said Sam you know with the roof what we've been doing you know at dot in particular is you know we you know we we'll go onto the Roof System you know and and we use a a roofing specialist for this and they'll inspect the roof where they see there's a seam that looks like it's lifting up they'll they'll pull it out and replace it you know and that you know that gains us a few years at a time but you know the Roof Systems you know they're way past their 20y year life so you know we're recommending that the particular smaller sections that rich is mentioning just replace them you know I I think the thing that we're g to struggle with um with with Don in particular is as we look at the building you you know we we know we'd like to replace it but we don't have a plan just yet so you can't wait on the items like a roof or you know your your fir man and water mains um it's just not it's you're gonna have to spend the money until you know you've got a replacement in hand sort of what we're doing with you know at this point Norton you know Chapman and Darcy you know we don't have anything in this capital plan for those three buildings we think we'll be able to get you know through the the next you know at this point two and a half years without making any major investment the other thing I'll add to the roofing is uh it's you know it's also you know when you're when you have a building envelope that leaks you know either occasionally or repeatedly staff uh frequently attributes that to an ieq issue whether that's a correct perception or or not um it it still presents problems that you know a leaking roof um you know is not uh it doesn't it doesn't uh uh doesn't add to the value of the building and it makes the appearance that the building is uh unhealthy for whatever reason but that's a lot of it's based on perception Mr White thank you yeah just just uh following up on Sam's Point just in general with following student enrollment projections anything that you think might last another five years just make sure you're thinking about kicking the can down the road on it if it if it could reasonably work and I think that's I'm confident that's what you're doing um the only one that struck me as you were going through the list was the flooring I'm not sure how often flooring where it's out or what it looks like but that was when the idea popped in my mind um I do have I do have one question uh just backing up to lavatories it was $400,000 one thing that got mentioned at one point about dealing with basically you know bad bad behavior in the bathrooms I think at the high school is the idea of the doorless airport style bathrooms with this $400,000 cover anything like that I'm guessing not but figured I would ask if you were going in that direction je are you gonna tackle that yeah and I didn't expect this to be I I was thinking this would be a relatively quick answer yeah y Jeff you're mute it sorry I wasn't muted it was actually the setting on the microphone phone so it took me a minute but anyway um I I would just throw in uh Tim that is it relates to bathroom issues I mean tresure High School this you know we could dedicate we are dedicating a fortune to addressing uh things due particularly in our the boys particularly do in our bathrooms um and uh I've asked Mary she's got a PTO meeting tonight to talk that talk about that with our parents and um schedule a meeting a month from now uh publicize a meeting for CHS parents to talk about strategies and solutions I have said to her before uh that removing bathroom doors might be one such solution in places where you can maintain privacy um with no door on the hinges um so you know I I know that some people may be a little uncomfortable with that but like you said it's it's pretty much a a Universal Design now in larger you know facilities because it's more hygienic and it's um maintains privacy but maintains some security as well so um you know certainly a consideration okay great yeah the first time you had mentioned it it threw me off when you said the doorless but as soon as you explained like the airport style yeah I mean I go to airports on occasion I've seen them makes sense to me anyway that's it thank you yeah I mean rich and I will certainly keep that in mind as we go through design that if we can you know start moving in that direction as as we're doing a bathroom renovation it's certainly something that um can be done Mr Rosenberg v i just oh Rich I just want to clarify doorless is just the main door we have stalls that should have doors then yeah I think that's yeah inside there stalls door stalls yeah I figured one strategy that one of the schools is using is also there's there are every other stall that that doors have been taken off to limit the amount of students going into the bathroom yeah that that's sad and it's certainly not something that I would want to see but yeah we're talking about dless entry so it's you know obviously you can't see in but you can kind of hear what's going on is as the thought process okay thanks okay uh the next two items are uh HVAC improvements set that and this is you know kind of along the same lines as the roof uh the roof point that was brought up by Miss Rosenberg that you know we've got 30-year old rooftop units that need to be replaced at dod you you can't wait you know and our guys do a good job you know patching them together using duct tape as long as as they could keep the unit operating but at 30 years you pretty much got your money's worth and you got to replace it not to mention they're just a lot less efficient you know that something that's 30 years old right Rich well that would be true Vin I don't know about the duct tap part but yeah I'll take I'll take your word at it sounds good I was being I was being factious about the duct tape I know you guys you guys do quality work but um yeah it's once I mean the big the big deal is once the uh enclosure you know starts failing it's like it's a it's another scenario where now you have water leaking inside the building and uh becomes an ieq issue so we're we're sensitive about that because staff is sensitive about that which I I don't blame them yeah so the next one is the last item on Dot and um you know this is gonna kind of feed into the discussion we're having that you know all the I'm maybe it's not all but certainly the the majority of the windows at DOD are single pane uh dated Windows they do need to be replaced we've been pushing this out um so the request here is to take 75,000 and and look at designing for window replacements in that building you know so this is one that if we do approve the 75,000 you know you'll have a design in hand um but there's going to be you know several million dollars worth of work over time so I I think this is one that you know as we look at an investment like this we're going to want to think about well when are we replacing dot but we don't have a good building envelope because of these windows so we think it's it's a good idea to at least have a design in hand so that we can if we need to start replacing windows on a worst first basis so I just want to I just want to add to that um when we request design monies uh we're careful to include in the scope of work on the design side um for a construction cost estimate uh on the design so that's equally important so we get a a a better idea of what um the costs are and you know what our requests are going forward uh too often in the past you know we've we've asked for monies and unfortunately been willfully uh low on the on the cost estimate because we're you know what I called the a wild guest but um ultimately when we we when we hire a design professional we get a we get a formal construction cost estimate and that puts us in better position and understanding uh what kind of costs we're going to be um looking at going forward thanks Rich Tim thank you um Devin stop it sorry um yeah this one this I I'm not particularly in favor of it I guess I I guess what I would like to hear before saying I actually support this and I'm not making any motions toet or anything about this um if if we are moving forward with uh DOD which I expect that we will be with some sort of renovation what's the time frame on it what are we looking at and I know you're not in charge of it Vin but in your own opinion what would you recommend on something like that getting you know and I don't expect you to answer that right now but I'm just thinking that window we're the window of time not the actual Windows de stop please um Deon stop I'm sorry I'm sorry about that um anyway you understand the point that I'm making uh and you you are you already shared that concern but I think if if I knew the if I had an idea of a timeline of you know the town looking at it board looking at it Council looking at it actual construction something like that we have an idea of how all that could play out then I might be more comfortable with this uh request for funding that's it thank you I hear you yeah that that was my thinking on in that along that line as well is how long you know is it worth getting the design I understand the the idea of getting that design but if you know we're five years out how much money are we gonna save in the five years with the uh with the new windows yeah well the only thing I would add to that is I know that most optimistically Mark I don't think five years is crazy like I think that's the most optimistic Target but um the other consideration here is that it gives a very clear picture of cost avoidance uh for a new Middle School um and I I hate to spend $75,000 to get a number for cost avoidance I would hope that you know maybe we could get that quote at a much lower I mean that's the full design but I you know I'm not an expert I would certainly defer to Vin and rich on what it would take to get a legitimate cost avoidance estimate to be able to turn around to the town and say well windows are going to cost us X doll figure and have a real good knowledge of that when we know that we're going to get 50% reimbursement on a new school does it make sense to do that yeah yeah right and I mean you take window we already have an estimate you know it it's a high level estimate on air conditioning dot at somewhere like um eight to n million dolls and part of that is because you have to upgrade the electricity at dot before you put in air conditioning and you wouldn't want to do air conditioning unless you had a tight you know building with with good Windows right so yeah I think that's a that's an important Point Jeff to to know what it would cost to just keep the building as is and just make some upgrades in place um you would help speed up the decision perhaps as to what to do with that building I I oh sorry no go ahead you're good thank you I I think it's I think it's valuable to get to have an idea of cost avoided but to incur $75,000 in cost is not that's not a bridge I I would really want want across I mean you can imagine that I don't think you would either um so anyway that's it I'm going to leave it at that okay um the next item is just um you know some additional HVAC funding that was planned for at D at dittle this is to replace um unit ventilators hot water control valves update or enable the the system um upgrades to work with the building management system that we have in place and then trying to scroll up here okay all right so these are the last few items um too little we do want to start working on the design of the fire alarm control system so 50,000 is the design funding we would need for that um Highland we know that we need to make some improvements there and Highland is building that we're keeping um expanding you know expanding parking um is something that we need now we've needed it for years it's always been a h site that's not easy to get in and out of and I realize when the new schools are built the population of students will decrease but it's still going to be a 725 student school um and some of the other um you know improvements we get for this 350 you know would help us improve the storm order you know drainage um rich I know you wanted to talk a little bit about maybe the the drop off circle at the bus we would make some improvements there as part of this um and then yeah ideally would try to ideally would L to try to utilize that space to reconfigure for some new parking um ultimately this would you know this would help us in at least get that into design in addition to making uh improvements to what's existing yeah and and related to this although not in that capital budget the Public Works has it in their budget is we would like to improve the entrance and exit off of Route 10 yeah the week's road yeah week's road yeah so you know this would would we would try and time this you know with the work that the town wants to do assuming that it gets approved um Highlands emergency generator so we've requested 200,000 um we just opened the bids yesterday for the generator at Highland um and I mean the bids came in at 523,000 and up the appropriation we have is about 350 so we're short on the appropriation you know this would enable us to um get the work done but we're not going to be able to hold on to the bids we received without this funding so you know rich and I are gonna kind of think through a little bit more what to do with this do we just put it off part of the reason that the bids are as high as they are it's because the electrical switch gear at Highland has to be replaced it's 50 years old and it's oversized because that wasn't all electric building and it's not anymore Rich what did I miss yeah U I think the main consideration was uh the cost that we would incur by doing an automatic switch gear that was uh weatherproof so right now this the the current switchboard room just doesn't have enough room to incur the generator you know all the ancillary equipment required to operate the generator so in doing the design study we looked at the existing uh switchboard which has been uh described was uh oversized for our for today's needs um and then it would afforded us an opportunity to reduce the incoming uh switchboard size that allowed us room to put the automatic transfer switch indoors which uh although we out you know although we incurred cost for replacing the switchboard we saved on the backside by uh not having yet a weatherproof enclosure so um it's probably the best of both worlds at this point will that have to go to referendum then yes yeah yeah okay yes well you know what let me I take that back because the the appropriation now you know what Mark let me double check because I want to say the first appropriation was 280 and this 200 would get you to 480 but that may not I I I'm not sure what that original appropriation was so I'll I'll check that what I would say with this one is let's leave it in you know at this time because by the time we get to the Town Council on this in April you we may need to adjust this pull it off the table all together but if we leave it in for now um that's the safest thing to do because if we do want to go forward with this we would need that funding and again it's not just a generator you're getting you know your electrical switch gear replaced Mr White thank you yeah so Highland generator have you had the discussion or consider ation of any battery backup to offset Peaks uh we have discuss that it's not you know built into to the dollars here you know which would increase the cost so you know I'm hoping Battery Technology actually gets to a place where it can be done reasonably um and I I know there's a lot of grant money out there related to projects like this Tim so um that's not included at this point okay can can you when I when you're talking to the when you're talking to contractors can you just make sure it's part of the discussion about it and the reason I say partly is I just got I just got an email in the past day or two that the the uh Green Bank at least for residential but it could be for cni as well my understanding is they're you know doubling their or more than doubling their incentives that they have for batteries right now yeah um so it it could be I mean it could be uh it could change the financial case I'm not sure but just something to I just request that you have that in mind and have it as part of the conversations with contractors y thank you you're welcome and then the last three items again these are just um requests for design funding one is to begin the window replacement at Highland again we're keeping that building um the second is to replace the rooftop units over the main office and the calf um and then the last item at Highland is to design for a roof replacement um rich I I just don't remember highight and what's are we leaking much I I know that eventually that that roof has pasted its 20 years life cycle but what what kind of shape are we in right now so the committee understands yeah we're in I would say good to Fair shape um ultimately you know as time goes on we're going to have to you know we we continuously have to expend money for what I call minor repairs but you know that's going to only progressively uh get you know increase over time um Highland is uh like 100% full exposure not that all the rest of the buildings are but for some strange reason that uh that seems to incur more wind damage and uh you know thus more leaks which require more attention and also much more in the way of penetrations because of the uh the rooftop unit um configuration that we have there currently yeah and the idea of the capital budget is you know to plan for future um replacement of things like roofs so that's that's really what we're doing with you know with this item and a lot of the other ones so they have it that's the 5.1 million requested in year one that makes up the 55 million um that we have in the fiveyear budget Vin I you know I I'm a bro broken record on this one but um I just want to reiterate how important I believe it is to make sure that air conditioning at dittle is addressed um we're only two summers away from that being the only School in Cheshire and the only elementary school that does not have air conditioning and so I appreciate you know that the attention that's been paid to that in the budget obviously we're doing the design work this year uh hopefully to next summer have it be installed and ready to go um for 26 27 school year the same way all of our other elementary schools in the district will have it yeah and what I just brought up on the screen in the middle there that that orange box that's 6.9 million that's you know the funding that's um in the capital plan for next year and I'll just footnote too that um right now this we believe this would be eligible for 50% construction Grant reimbursement assuming the HVAC Grant you know stays in place and is available when we apply the money has to be appropriated before you can apply for the grant but you know that would you know take the 6 .9 million then after the grant the cost of the taxpayers would be about half that dollar amount assuming it was all eligible for Grant reimbursement so that is the um that is the presentation on the capital budget again it's you know up to the planning committee to make a determination if they want to go forward you know this evening you know as presented um with a motion to send it to the Board of Education tonight um it is on the agenda for the board of ed for tonight but I'll I'll leave it you know to you and the committee mark on on the next step um which you know typically would be to make a a motion to approve either the full amount or a modified amount Mr Rosenberg yeah I mean I would support this I just beforehand V just want to get a sense of a timeline if we hypothetically move this forward to the full board um and hopefully that gets voted on quickly if not what are we looking for if we need to kind of stall a little so to speak so the way the the way the capital budget works I'll I'll explain the process once the board um after the planning committee makes a recommendation and the board considers it and the board approves its five-year Capital plan we take the numbers and all the detail that we've presented and provide that to the to to the town manager through the finance um director Jim jascot and they include that in the overall capital budget request for the town in if you look at what the timeline is supposed to supposed to be on the town side at the time they're reviewing the operating budget they also review the capital budget the last two years though the Town Council has taken up the operating budget and approved that by April 30th and then they've gone in and approved the capital budget in May and June so if we needed to if we couldn't vote on it tonight at the planning committee and the board then you know we would delay that till March the capital budget was supposed to be submitted to the town in late January um but the reality is and I just talked to Jim jascot and and Sean Kimbell today the reality is if they needed some numbers I could give them the numbers we have today and then finalize the numbers once the board votes in in March if you needed to put it off but just this is just my thought you know the capital budget if you're reasonably comfortable as a planning committee and as a board I would say that you go forward and and vote to approve it because when we go to the Town Council there's plenty of time to debate and make adjustments which you know we typically do you know there is some negotiation um and changes that are made we'll have some more information you know on one of the items as an example the Highland generator so I from a timeline I think we're good even if we have a delay I'd rather not but we could work around it sounds good thank you Mr White oh well if um yeah I'm ready I'm I'm ready to make a motion and send it to the full board I'll just add what what I had said before Vin I I trust your judgment and how you move forward on this stuff and just because we vote on the budget doesn't mean you're spending the money so just to reiterate it the 70 particularly the $775,000 for windows at DOD and also the generator at Highland maybe even incorporate that in an RFP or something that you I don't know if you've already done that but you did already do that um just make sure it's part of the conversation and with with that I'd be comfortable moving this to the board as is if you want a motion Mr chair sure would you like to uh make the motion sure sure move that the planning committee recommends that the chesher Board of Education approves The Five-Year capital expenditure plan and budget for improvements to current buildings in the total amount of 55,8 45,000 with $5,100 th000 to be funded in year one and with annual allocations as follows 2425 5,1 100,000 2526 16, 425,000 2627 13, 650,000 2728 12, 285,000 28 29 8 mil 385,000 any further discussion you need a second I'll second thank you Mr Rosenberg Mr White thank you U yeah just one one I think this is my final Point Vin you are working uh on a performance contract to the extent that you're seeing if something would you would want to recommend something to the planning committee or the board it's it's on your plate right now looking at it which could ultimately end up funding you know a number of different projects including dittle which this Jeff had highlighted before about making some improvements there but that's that's on your radar right that's something in the mix right now okay yeah thanks thanks for bringing that up Tim because we are um you know we provided energia on uh who's looking at a possible performance contract all the information they needed um we have a meeting set with them for the 21st next week where they'll present their initial fin findings if those findings are positive some of what we talked about tonight in the capital budget potentially can be funded through an energy performance contract which means they would come out of the capital budget um so my my plan is that at the next planning committee meeting um which I would try and do in early March if that works for all the committee members is to present the findings from eneria and hopefully we'll have a recommendation that and and then while we're on the topic of the next meeting I do also want to give an update on the Highland Portables which those are out to bid right now um and site work is the site review work is set to begin on Tuesday um and we would also talk about long-term um electricity locks so yep Tim that's a long-winded answer that yes we're working on it and we should have results pretty soon thank you I'm done with my discussion on it on the motion all right call for a vote all in favor I I it's unanimous excellent thank you um all that's left on the agenda is adjournment motion all in favor we're in I right all right being is a

[Music] [Applause] d [Music] d [Music] d [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] da [Music] da [Music] d [Music] [Applause] la [Music] right welcome everyone to our February 15th uh Board of Trustees meeting and we will reconvene our meeting with a Pledge of Allegiance and moment of silence led by Daniela ruy um R please stand put your right hand over your heart ready begin to uned States indivisible andice for all thank you we are busy we love to say we don't have time meetings classes conferences flights presentations some of us even get master calendars with events we must attend throughout the year so we must be selective when scheduling things to ensure nothing overlaps yes restrictions like these might make you feel like you don't have time but it's important to remember that change starts in your thoughts and to make more time you need to change the way you think stop living in wha ifs and start living in the present in the now this could take form in mindfulness breathing or even small breaks in between assignments we are human and we are meant to breathe as we take a moment take a few deep breaths and trust that you will get everything done in its time thank you thank you Daniela very wise words and uh to remind us to always take a deep breath and reflect um I would like to um recognize a member in the audience a trustee from nocd uh trustee Steven Blount is with us thank you for being here appreciate it and now we will move on to our Clos session report thank you uh 4.1 no report of action taking regarding public employee performance evaluation superintendent 4.2 the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the settlement agreement in O ah case number 000270 resolving all issues in dispute by providing assessments compensatory education and other reimbursements 4.3 no reportable action taken regarding negotiations 4.4 no reportal action taken regarding Personnel 4.5 this item was pulled prior to the adoption of the agenda 4.6 the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to accept the agreement with employee HR -202 3-24 d09 thank you thank you truste Guerrero all right moving on to items of business resolution 6.1 resolution number 2023 sl24 db- 111 authorizing the issuance of Anaheim Union High School District Orange County California 2024 General obligation refunding bonds and this is an action item so moved second all right and I'm to refer to Dr nen to intr OU Chad wayang perfect thank you so much we have Chad Wayne here from Kent uh he is our independent financial advisor advising us on um this proposal here for your review thank you thank you and um good evening trustees uh superintendent matsuda staff and Community um we have a bond refinancing opportunity in today's current interest rate environment and before the board this evening are documents to approve the issuance of potential refunding bonds so we'll look at economic conditions potential savings and potential next steps should the board approve tonight's resolution so under the IRS rules we can do refinancings either on a taxable basis which have higher interest rates or tax exempt basis which come at a lower interest cost a current refunding is a type of refinancing we can do tax exempt when we pay off bonds within a 90-day period of their Redemption date or their call date the district currently has three series of bonds that will be within a 90-day period uh that is the 2012 refunding bonds the 2015 refunding bonds and the election of 2014 series 2015 the last two Series callable in August of 2024 financings generally take about 90 days to complete anyways so we would be within that 90-day period upon completion so what does the interest rate environment currently look like if you look at the chart to the right you can see that interest rates and these represent Municipal bond interest rates took a pretty drastic decline to end the 2023 calendar year that was a function of economic data indicating to the FED that there might be cuts coming in the 2024 calendar year after 11 increases of the FED funds rate to over 5% we might start seeing interest rate Cuts uh the market is projecting probably in the June or July time frame and because the market reacts to expectations interest rates dropped starting in November of 20123 as you see in the chart so what do our savings look like we would be replacing certain of those three series of bonds with new refunding bonds which come at a lower interest rate so it's very similar to a mortgage refinancing where we're paying off a higher interest rate with a lower interest rate the main difference here is we are not extending the original repayment term so there's not we're not going to replace 20year bonds with 30-year bonds if there's 20year bonds to refinance they will be replaced with 20-year bonds the savings are going to fluctuate until we actually sell the issuance and lock in the rates with investors all costs of the financing except for the credit ratings are contingent so no fees would be paid if the financing is not ultimately successful um on the advisory side of things and under current interest rates we're looking at about annual Savings of $225,000 in each each year of the refinancing over a 16-year repayment term that will total $3.6 million if we take a present value of that savings and turn it into a percentage that's 5.3% present value savings the industry has a benchmark of anything above 3% is a worthwhile refinancing to consider and we're able to achieve these savings by replacing old bonds at an interest rate of 4.05% with new bonds at an interest rate of 3.26% so it's about a 8% reduction again without extending the original repayment term as I mentioned earlier the savings will fluctuate until we lock the rates so rates could go up or down as we move forward through this process and here's a sensitivity analysis if interest rates increase 1% or 10 basis points our savings will go from 3.6 million to about 3.2 million conversely if interest rates decline 10 basis points our savings would increase from 3.6 million to about $4 million so if the board should approve tonight's resolution the next steps would be to update the district's credit rating with Moody's you currently do have very strong credit ratings of able A2 that's a highgrade credit rating so we would work with District staff Dr nen and uh the superintendent on presenting the district's local economy your very strong finances your policies and procedures your debt profile we would once we receed the rating the uh Bond team would finalize the offering document circulate that to potential investors and interest rates could be locked as early as early early April should interest rates be favorable to the extent they're not we're able to pause watch interest rates and work with uh Dr nin to determine what savings level is is right for us to lock in the rates and then we would close by early May within that 90day period so with that welcome any questions you may have TR I had a quick question um is this the first time we have looked into refinancing the great question the district has taken advantage of refinancings in the past in fact uh the district has done three of them in5 2012 and 2015 and across each of those or total of those three it's about $16 million of savings so the district's done a great job of lowering the tax burden for your taxpayers when interest rates allow got it thank you great question now this is a great opport Unity for us to save our voting public money and I'm sure they would love that as we would yes and the idea of doing it now is so that um the tax role um you know when they issue it um later on in the year would see the savings correct that's the goal and so that's why I was like you know depending on timing because of the interest rate and I did ask um um Chad that question of do we wait even further depending on where the interest rate but he like he said already in the presentation the fact that the rates already ref Ed the feds already going to you know that that anticipation the rates already kind of start falling already at this point at the bond market so it's a little different than how we get the mortgages but so that was one of the things I I did ask should we wait right to see if further rates and you know we can determine at that that point once everything is ready um in April to see if that time uh the savings will still hold up so you said it take about 90 days to to prepare everything before we would be able to issue that's correct and then when when we issue we have to be within 90 days of our of our August date that's correct okay sounds like a a a you low risk for us and um so thank you for looking out for us and see you're always doing that and thank you for explaining this so well very good you did a wonderful job very very easy to understand thank you thank you thank you thank you okay action item and it this is a roll call Mr O'Neal I miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and Miss tro I vote I all right Bravo okay moving on to item 6.2 naming a facility Anna piery Arts education building move to approve second okay moved and seconded um I just wanted to read um a little bit about what this is all about the background information is that the board policy 5201 naming a facility was adopted on April 14th 2011 by the Board of Trustees to develop procedures for the naming of facilities to honor individuals in the district as per the Board of Trustees request and ad hoc committee was formed to review the proposals and to make policy recommendations to the superintendent for board consideration the current consideration is that the Board of Trustees is requested to approve the request to rename the Fine Arts Wing building 700 at Lexington Junior High School after trusty Anna piery Miss picia is a passionate and committed advocate for our students and school sites elected to the auhsd Board of Trustees and 2006 Miss Pier's contributions to education span over several decades she began her remarkable 37-year career at a in ahsd in 1968 teaching various subjects including geography art and reading and later history English speech as well as drama her commitment to education is paralyzed by her extensive service in local government including roles on the Cypress city council the North Orange County Regional occupational program and several other significant positions the district ad hoc committee evaluated the request developed a report and made a recommendation to the board for their consider ation the recommendation is to name the 700 building at Lexington Junior High School the Anna piery Arts education building would anyone from the audience care to speak on this matter okay uh Stephen Blount come on up wow this is the second meeting here in two days and I'm still recovering from the first one but I thank the the Anaheim Union High School District for the hospitality and and the graciousness and their their overwhelming support and making us uh comfortable and and uh able to do our work which was very passionate at this last meeting uh I am stepen T Blount you can count on Blount to come through for you and I've known Anna for 34 years first met her when my son Jason took speech from her at lexicon at Junior High and uh Jason uh was a special kind of person that relates well to all people and endear himself to all people and and when the second opportunity to uh uh support and uh be thrilled about the naming of a building came after uh coach Tom Miner's name going up on the gymnasium and Lexington because uh coach Tom would asked Jason to demonstrate a a skill physical skill or a a skill used in sport and Jason says I'm too old for this so it wasn't long after that coach would say Grandpa show them how to the class how to do this so everybody knew him as Grandpa and he continued on into high school where he was a TA to his uh freshman High School football coach uh when he gave up being athletic director and they gave him earth science and he says Jason you got to help me I don't know anything about Earth Science so they met every morning before class and Jason said well this is what we'll teach today and this is how we'll present it and you do this and I'll do this so uh he had a special time at Lexington and the Anna was very much part of it and I'm uh thrilled to to uh support this uh item and be sure to invite me to the uh unveiling of the name on the building I would appreciate that so much and um yeah and Anna Anna and I have served on various uh City c u committees in Cyprus I followed her career in the city council and then for many many many years we we've been members of the Cypress quanas Club and as such we encouraged supported and brought along the key clubs at uh four high schools three of them are in the district two are in our our area and I can't be happier that this has been done for Anna thank you trusty [Applause] Blount would any of the board members like to speak on this issue I think one of the wonderful blessings in life if you love the work you do you have joy going to work every day and I would say that Anna piery loved her job and she has been blessed multiple times with the joy of the work that her students have produced and I thank her with all my heart um I think this is a wonderful way to celebrate her 35 years uh and continuing for everything that she's done uh for ahd and especially for lexingon junior high school so looking forward to seeing the naming of the building yes Anna has been in uh giving herself for the last over 55 years to not only her City but to the school district and she continues on even until today so uh a lot has been said here about what she has done over the years and uh she this is not a more fitting uh tribute to her by naming a building where she worked for almost 37 years of her teaching career so it it it will be me remembered uh long from today forward as long as the building stand so that that's decades to come Anna so congratulations on all that you've done well said trustees anyone uh cabinet well I just like to say on behalf of all the teachers and students Anna has been a devoted loving and trustee that has served um our district so well and she is so deserving of this I also want to uh put a shout out to her family her daughter is a teacher in our district Kenna and her other daughter is a nurse nurse in our district over at Orange view so uh thank you so much to the board and uh to Anna for all her service and just to um let you all know Anna is watching so say hello to Anna and uh we love you and um I can't think of a more fitting um building arts building where she loved where she um taught so many students and in um talking with her the other night um she is so honored and um she feels blessed by um the accolades and just the the messages and hos that people are sending her so please continue um she says that she um is really um honored and and humbled by the attention um but feels very um blessed to to hear it all so um when with that we'll uh take a vote is this a resolution or just straight vote straight vote okay well we'll we'll do it anyway we'll do a a a roll call so she knows uh Mr O'Neal absolutely yes Miss Smith I did oh yes Miss Guerrero absolutely I I vote I congratulations Anna we love you all right moving on to reports Daniela R starting the ahsd January school report with Anaheim Anaheim was honored to have their alumni come back like Mr Ruben drones um who is an NFL player and Mr salivar and and council member ruak kak to come back and visit the their track opening CVA students took part in graphic design contests for drug awareness and the winner of the winning poster would receive a $20 gift card Cypress would like to to highlight their CS basketball event that they held katella's ASB had their annual dance for their special needs students attending catella high school during lunch there were plenty of fun activities like karaoke dancing C pong and Jen that allowed for the a for the Las students to chat with ASB members Kennedy would like to congratulate Mr Reed on being named a hsd's teacher of the year his passion to help students plays an integral part of forming the culture of our Fighting Irish loera would like to highlight their launch to loera where eighth graders from Ball Junior High visited the campus to interact in a schoolwide tour and pep rally along along with interacting with different clubs such as RSVP Magnolia is holding their International show which is a cultural yearly event held every year Magnolia's performing art groups for light and dance Vietnamese Student Association dream club and many more put on a different cultural performances from different continents from lion dance to Latin America not only performances but different cultural foods from tacos lumpia orchata and many more the event will be held Friday February 16th at 5 pm at Magnolia High School it's $5 at the door Oxford would like to highlight that their girls soccer has now progressed into the quarterfinals for CIF so congrats girls and Savannah's Brooker eighth graders um visited the campus for steps to Savannah where they were commended for academic Excellence through an awards night that concludes the aesd January school report thank you Bravo thank you Danielle okay moving on to our item 7.2 our student speakers and I have one uh student that wishes to speak Alysa you sing welcome okay good evening my name is Alysa Singh I a member of the black student union at Western High School I'm here could you speak into the because we can't hear you completely good evening my name is Alyssa Singh I'm a member of the black student union at Western High School I'm here to invite our ahsd Board of Trustees to our fourth annual Black History Month celebration taking place on Friday February 23rd at 6:30 in the evening at Kennedy performance art center our event this year will be featuring an inspiring kyot speaker traditional African dances with ahsd students spoken word poetry a live performance artist and more our ahsd BSU are proud to be a part of our school district that strives to celebrate Black Culture and honor Black History Month and Beyond thank you for your time thank you Alysa are you going to be mcing yes I will be I thought so congratulations you break a leg thank you all right report of the associations do we have any jenniferet oh Jeff there you are oh jeffg welcome all right good evening president Rand tro Board of Trustees superintendent Matt suda and cabinet I've been here at the district office for two full days for Community Schools starting off with our professional learning yesterday and our learning and leading day and so feels like I need to get a find an office here or some like all right I just wanted to let everybody know that we did hold our contract ratification vote for the tenative agreement and it did pass at at 87.1% so that is good news um do want to let you also know that chrisy betor from myself will be traveling to Chicago and present on behalf of Asa and also ahsd for Community Schools at the Nea Leadership Summit on the first few days uh in March so we're very excited for that opportunity to share what we've been doing here with the rest of the country and and really rest of the world as well um we had the opportunity for continuing with Community Schools to have several folks from um La USD come visit us today at our learning and leading visit and to let everybody know that in March we're going to take a team out there to present some of the things that we do here in Anaheim in terms of our focus on instruction so we're excited to take that opportunity and share some of the strengths that we're doing here in Anaheim I'm just kind of going down my list here uh trying to keep it brief um and last week I think it was last week we had our teacher input grp meeting we talked a little bit about Aries and I know that there's conversation about taking the function of Aries off of our district servers and putting it back onto the aies servers we understand that there's a cost to this um but on behalf of the association and all of our members um the time that it takes for for our members to wait when it's offline line when we're losing data when it's slow uh one thing that I realized being president now for five weeks is time is our greatest commodity so while there is a cost to doing that I think what we're going to get for that money is literally thousands upon thousands of hours of productivity uh where our members are not fighting areas as a system it's going to work properly and they can then devote that time uh to other tasks and not have to deal with that type of frustration so we are wholehearted hardly in favor of returning Aries back to their servers I may not be using the right language for that I I know Eric Rin was going to speak to that so he'll be able to explain the details but we support his effort so that it just alleviates that time and frustration on behalf of our members um we are excited to continue as an association engaging um our community through the elcap process uh I always enjoy and I always pick the parent involvement Focus area to just have a chance to sit down and talk with students talk with parents so we are engaged and looking forward to continuing participation uh through the elcap process and I know with declining enrollment uh with with kind of the dark clouds of the budget to come a little bit um that as president and as other Association members I am more than happy to engage in conversations collaborative work so that any possible Cuts can just be kept as further from the classroom as possible so please let me know I'd happy to reach out and have those conversations all right so thank you very much thank you Jeff Morgan Stern AA president and I believe we've got Jennifer Cai waiting in the wings for Alta good evening Madame President Randall tryo Board of Trustees superintendent matsuda executive cabinet and students parents and Community joining us in person and online first and foremost Ulta wishes to end our continued heartfelt wishes to trustee Anna piery we want her to know that our thoughts and support are with her during this time there is also a digital frame for her please email any photos you have to her daughter teacher Kenna Russell this gesture represents our compassion and unity that defines our district and I encourage everyone to participate in extending our warmest wishes is to trustee piery through this thoughtful gesture as we continue Black History Month we continue our commitment to diversity equity and inclusion in our schools the fourth annual Black History Month celebration is on Friday February 23rd at the Kennedy Performing Art Center additionally we would like to acknowledge the significance of Lunar New Year a time of renewal and celebration for many in our community may this auspicious occasion bring joy prosperity and to all that celebrate on a different note we are excited about our upcoming AI Summit at the Weston Hotel in Anaheim we're looking forward to 31 States being represented and 100 districts it it represents our unlimited possibilities of artificial intelligence this event does underscore our commitment to providing Innovative learning experiences that prepare our students for the future as we look ahead we want to remind you that we do have our upcoming mean open houses throughout the district where families have the chance to connect with teachers explore the curriculum and strengthen their Partnerships between home and school lastly let's extend our congratulations and support to our student athletes as they compete in the CIF playoffs their hard work dedication and sportsmanship represent the best in our district and we subst stand behind them as they strive for excellence both on and off the field thank you so much for your attention and we look forward to working as a team to promote our vision and mission of ahsd thank you thank you [Applause] principal all right uh do we have anyone from our parent teacher Association okay moving on to our presentations item 8.1 our lcap midyear update for 2023-24 four so an information item all right well it gives me a great pleasure to bring up Dr Hernandez who is going our director of Learning and Development who will be leading us tonight in our District's elcap M year report and just as a reminder to the board this is different than what we normally do in June this is going to be a much truncated version where we're required to just share an update on kind of where we are and where we're headed as the board knows we began our elcap season last week so Dr herand will kind of share our Mia report to all of you so you know where we're at great thank you Dr freed it's my pleasure to provide a midyear local control and accountability plan update but before I do that I want to first take a moment and acknowledge the work of our board and cabinet for laying the foundation to our robust ELC cap process where all educational Partners voices are elevated some background information section 61 of Senate bill4 requires districts to present an update to the current lcap which includes all available midyear outcome data related related to the metrics that were identified in our lcap and also midyear expenditures also identified in the lcap so the purpose of today's presentation is to provide a brief update on our metrics and our expenditures the lcap is a threeyear plan that is updated annually we are ending the three-year cycle this year and we have started our educational partner engagement process for the development of the new three-year cycle of our lcap our District's core values help us achieve our vision and Mission and through the elcap process we are able to ensure that we are doing what is best for our students and our families here's a brief budget overview this chart outlines our budget items are projected 2324 adopted budget amounts which we presented to the board back in June next to that we have outlined our actual budget amounts which are based on the first interim followed by the the difference as you can see the total projected lcff funds decrease slightly from our projected adopted budget the projected amounts were determined and based on our enrollment projections the difference you see is based on our actual enrollment where we saw a decline in students we can also see that our state funds increase by approximately $9 million which is primarily due to the added prop 28 funds and the community School dollars that we received our local funds also show an increase of approximately 11.4 million for liability claims and a 4 million projected increase in interest income and a 1.5 million projected e rate in auhsd we utilized our local control and accountability plan and educational partner engagement process to develop goals sorry um to develop our goals our actions and also to measure our progress it serves as a plan for continuous Improvement where we measure academic performance data surveys District indicators we also gather input from various educational Partners which include our teachers our students parents and administrators their perspectives and feedback provide valuable insight into our program's Effectiveness I will highlight data that was not yet available during the lcap adoption in June and also some real-time data that we have captured for the fall of this year our district graduation rates have maintained at over 90% which is above the state average we continue to make progress in the graduation rate for our students with disabilities and our foster foster youth students similarly our a through G rates also above the state average demonstrate increases with our socioeconomically disadvantaged students where we see a 2.3% increase we also see a 6.8% increase for our students with disabilities and a 2.9 increase for our foster youth here you can see our standardized test scores as you know we do not rely on standardized test scores to demonstrate the full depth of student learning however it is a state mandate that we acknowledge and continue to work towards we believe that by analyzing student performance postgraduation outcomes and feedback from our educational Partners we can better assess programs and highlight our student progress here's an example of that from our class of 2023 67.9 eight% of our graduates enrolled in postsecondary options immediately after graduation 42.5% enrolled in a 2-year college and 25.4% enrolled in a 4-year college or university we are proud to share that our persistence rate and college gpa have significantly and consistently outperformed College averages auhsd is also ranked number two in the county for CTE completion and ranked number one in the state for graduates receiving the state seal of Civic engagement which speaks to our mission to graduate socially aware civic-minded students who are life ready we are also seeing great progress and meeting our desired outcomes when it comes to serving our plural lingual students our 2223 reclassification rate was a 10.6% and the percentage of plural lingual students who scored level four on the LC cap was 14.2% also meeting and slightly exceeding our desired outcomes it's also worth noting that ahsd is ranked number two in the county and the state for in the county for our state St seal of biliteracy at auhsd we strive to provide meaningful education opportunities for all our parents and our families in the fall semester alone we had over 14,000 parents and family members participate in workshops and meetings we also had over 9,000 families served via our food and our care packages Our Community School's model and approach to learning provides the opportunities for our students families staff to conect connect and work together to expand experiences and address the needs of the whole child as a demonstration District we are a model to many we have coordinated several leading and learning visits where we have been able to showcase the assets of our students parents and our schools our guests have left inspired when they see our community school model through the lens of the classroom experiences of our students and the evidence in our ptas performance task assessments our student engagement in CT te and name and our student voice thus far we have had 75 different districts and organizations pay us a visit and close to 400 guests in actuality this number has increased after today's amazing leading and learning visit to Lera high school regarding attendance we have maintained a 91.2% attendance rate due to the dedicated work across the district all Sites have an attendance committee and are working hard at implementing the attendance task force recommendations a safe and positive School culture is being supported through ongoing collaboration with addition of six school resource officers one District campus safety Aid lead and three campus safety Aid floaters as a system we continue to support the social emotional well-being of our students this year over 2,000 students have received Direct Services from our school mental health and well Wellness teams we truly believe in serving the whole student as you can see we're making good progress on meeting and exceeding our desired outcomes and in the same way we are utilizing our planned resources and expenditures to support the work as was mentioned earlier we had our first lcap meeting on February 8th with close to 400 ATT 400 in attendance with our students being the majority here's a snapshot of the remaining four lcap partnership meetings and as a as I close here's a brief video showcasing our students learning experience across ahsd please enjoy [Music] I think student voice is really the the groundwork of our of our education um the the connections that we make is really what um drives the community and if you don't allow students to have their voices heard it's really a one-sided conversation with the with the adults but I think in our district ahsd what's really important is that one of our drivers um is student voice and [Music] purpose [Music] [Applause] thank you for your time theing thank you Dr Hernandez does anyone have any questions thank you great report fantastic report thank you I think it's a good idea to uh come to a Midway Point um and always good to reflect uh but every time we speak as trustees to other districts uh they cannot believe that we have that many uh students and adults in the room working on the LC cap so a remarkable job corralling all the folks and getting that information out to them a lot of work is done in the prep of this um we don't just throw people in a room we have uh uh parents that are invited to actually learn about what the lcap is and get educated on it beforeand and students as well so Bravo um to all the folks that are leading that um and especially Dr Hernandez and Robert alavar thank you Bravo all right moving on to item uh 8.2 aim web design internship yeah so it gives me a great pleasure to bring up Scott Randell he is our coordinator of career Readiness and I know he's bringing up some of our teacher leaders and I think we have a couple students here who are also going to give testimonials for the great work happening in this area so Scott all right uh thank you Dr Fred um so it's uh with great pleasure that I introduce our presentation tonight on the aim web design internship uh the aim program um you know as as always is offering career Mentor mentoring and internships to students and we're proud to have some um programs focused on certain Industries as well like our kinds set program focused on entrepreneurship our Film Academy focused on film making and our web design internship uh focused on web design um so um before I turn it over to Mr sha Manning who will uh lead us through the presentation a couple of shout outs uh one to uh Mr Eric Greenwood and John Batista for coming to us with the original idea for this program um also shout out to Julian reel who's here uh who was uh one of the teacher leaders along with Mr Shan Manning to get the program started last school year um so so really proud of this group so without further Ado I'll turn it over to Mr sha Manning who will lead us through our presentation thank you so uh we have a a fantastic program for the for these students that's that's working to to ensure that they are College and Career ready and and we run this internship just as though we're uh a small design agency with many uh different uh projects and opportuni ities I'd like to introduce you to my partner Mr Hoffman um we hold it down come on and uh we we we serve we serve the students and we meet them on Saturdays and during Zoom meetings under the direction of Scott um and a this was kind of a great opportunity for me I'll go to the mic here we go thanks uh the program began in 2022 with Julian reel and Sean Manning uh the meetings take place um at the Western iLab um on Saturday Saturdays and then we do uh midweek Zoom check-ins as well there you got okay cool um one of the great perks of this particular uh program is that the students receive a a $600 scholarship upon completion so once they complete this program they get paid um the application process was highly competitive and I'll speak for myself and Mr Manning it was amazing hearing some of these kids and getting a chance to interview them and hearing in their feedback just from high school students I mean there's kids that I would see in college it wouldn't be sounding as as professional as them um The Returning students get to Mentor and teach the systems on the ahst website um and we kind of do this idea of like this three- tiered system where we learn the system creates the sites as needed and then participate in the internships with the industry partners and so um you know the the program objectives are to you update school websites uh and provide uh each of the schools interns to work with their local web Masters um the some of the students also work in the community as interns for development and digital marketing um companies and we uh develop websites uh for the district this year our Focus was the exclusive Pathways uh Community Schools and the the special programs and then students use their voice also as you'll see as you hear tonight uh they could use their voice and come to us with with special ideas or special projects that they're passionate about and we'll support them in that so excuse me for talking fast but I wanted to give the time to the students tonight to share um their experience Jo hello everyone I am Joanne Park a sophomore from Anaheim High School and I'm here to briefly talk about my internship at above and beyond as a web designer when I first started this internship I was excited but also worried that I lacked the experience for the job however I was invited to many meetings that taught me to use the website's program WordPress catching on with the help of Miss Young Miss real Mr Manning and staff members of above and beyond I got to work scouting each page for any inconsistencies this internship ship deepened my understanding of web design and also allowed me to practice my soft skills like communication and attention to detail the above and beyond internship was an incredible journey of learning and growth that taught me the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone thank you for [Applause] listening hello everyone my name is Shan and my name is derj and we're both currently a Junior's at Cypress High School in our second year of the aim program uh so joining the aim program last year really sparked my interest for website development and it led me to offering Web Design Services for local businesses and real estate agents in the future I hope to use the skills that I gain from this internship as a computer science major in college and as a freelancer on the side I joined this internship because I wanted to know how a technology related internship would be like from a young age I always knew I wanted to major in computer science and this internship seemed like the best best way for me to move forward with my career aspirations in the future I plan to use the skills I learned in this internship to build an AI themed business in college so the ahsd tech Equity website is dedicated to ensuring the success of every student in the Nim Union High School District by offering them essential technology related information such as Technology support contacts for technology related issues digital resources allowing students to complete assignments and personal projects and internet access programs tailor for low-income families uh fostering equal access to technology for all students and families this website stands as a brilliant example to the power of centralization in addressing educational Equity needs this centralization marks a significant leap towards Bridging the digital divide allowing any student irrespective of background the tools and resources necessary to succeed in an ever increasing Digital World by bringing together all these resources into one centralized Iz platform it streamlines the process for students and parents to find the help they need such an approach not only simplifies access but also ensures every student in the district has an equal opportunity to leverage these resources for their academic growth and success thank you wow let's go good good even evening everyone my name is Brianna D and this is my talented partner Lee we're both Juniors attending Magnolia High School and alongside my talented partner we Crea we crafted a website for our ahsd community schools our primary goal was to highlight the invaluable contributions of our community oriented schools and spread the essential message surrounding their significance this internship has been a wonderful experience profoundly shaping my perspective and future aspirations thank you for the opportunity to share my journey and the importance of our internship with you tonight hello everyone my name is Lee Tha and this is my second year participating in the aim web design internship with my partner Briana and throughout this program we have been involved in working on innovate Innovative projects to support educational initiatives and recently one of our projects was working on a website for ahsd Community Schools and it was designed to enhance accessibility and resources for students and families throughout our district through aim we strive to have a positive impact and Empower our community while obtaining skills to prepare for the future with aim we also believe everyone can become involved thank you for your time and attention wonderful and we have a couple minutes left so if anyone has any questions for the students I I don't have any questions I think they're way above my level yes so just give me their phone number so I can call them and if I have issues yeah maybe some fantastic presentation you know students like this or all students that we that come to our meetings and and speak to us we just love hearing what they have to say because they're they they speak so well uh and it just goes to show the educ they're receiving from from the district so congratulations all five of you go a long way in your careers absolutely well I think you all did a brilliant job of speaking Clarity of the work that you do and what you're learning and we because we live next to the Hollywood industry um all kinds of job opportunities are obvious here in Southern California and I wish you all well it's just a joy to have you here tonight and to speak to us and I just want to thank you and best wishes likewise I'm very impressed with each and every one of you did a great job presenting and uh through your work through the program and um also thank you to the aim advisers uh for supporting our students in their projects I think uh there's going to be some job changes in a little bit they can be probably teach the course they're so eloquent um thank you instructors for your hard work and dedication to our students and students you're taking your Saturdays to to do this um that just shows uh that this is passionate for you um and uh we really really appreciate hearing from you and all five of you are going to go so far in your careers and I I hear someone wants to work for them elves right yeah that's awesome that's awesome thank you so much for your presentation and your words thank you fre oh just real quickly you know today we had our community school visit and when we have our guests visiting we we often share our story and a little bit about our drivers and how they came to be and when Mike today was sharing with the guest that the standardized testing is not our driver not that we don't take that seriously but that's not what drives us it's really about the whole child education and when he was sharing that we don't do District benchmarks we don't do interim assessments that we teach the whole child this is one of the first times usually we get we get this this look of shock but we actually had people in the audience starting to clap because they're coming from districts that do that when you think about what they just experienced in districts that are traditional they wouldn't get these experiences so it just shows I think for our parents especially that you're in a district that really does believe in whole child education this is a perfect example of of our district preparing students for Life Beyond high school so congratulations that's awesome thank you okay uh item nine do we have any other public comments I'll make you no all right moving on item 10.1 School sponsored student organizations and our student trustee will um join us in this vote action item so moved second okay moved and seconded all in favor I all right resolutions 10.2 resolution number 2023-24 df- 06 approval of notice of exemption for the Gilbert High School outdoor gym project outdoor I'm sorry outdoor item action item no move second did anyone have any questions on this no no no questions moving on to the vote all in favor resolution resolution Mr O'Neal I miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and Randall tro votes I 10.3 resolution number 2023 sl24 d-11 Career and Technical Education Month so moved second all right um roll call Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and myself I all right this is our resolution month 10.4 resolution number 2023 sl24 d-12 National parent/teacher Association Founders Day our PTA yes so move second second moved and seconded and uh roll call vote Mr O'Neal I miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and I vote I 10.5 resolution number 2023 sl24 e-13 Black History Month action item so moved second moved and seconded um Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and I vote I 10.6 resolution number 20 23/24 D e-14 read Across America 2024 action so moved second moved and seconded uh roll call vote Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith hi Miss Guerrero I and I vote I 107 resolution number 2023 sl24 D15 preserve music in our school's month action item so moved second moved and seconded Mr O'Neal I miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and I vote I 108 resolution number 20232 4- e-16 Arts Education Month action item so moved second he moved in seconded roll call vote Mr O'Neal I miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and I vote I resolution 109 number 2023 sl24 E-1 seven women's History Month action item no move second I moved and seconded uh Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and I vote I 1010 resolution 2022 23- e-18 National athletic training month action item the moved second okay moved and seconded Mr O'Neal I miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and I vote I 1011 resolution number 2023 sl24 b-03 compensation for board meeting action item so move second he moved in second this is a roll call vote Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith hi Miss Guerrero I and I vote I and um I did that really quickly but just know that um each one of these resolutions means a lot to the Board of Trustees and these will will be uh presented to the schools to hang uh wherever they hang the resolutions um arts and education Black History Month women's month um and um all of the the like um we uh we truly um uh honor these resolutions all right moving on to 102 agreement Donald cot partnership Inc action item so move second moving to second second any questions or comments okay all in favor I I 1013 public utility easement city of Anaheim action item so moved second any questions on this item okay seeing none all in favor I I all right 1014 ratification lease lease back agreement asphalt Fabric and Engineering Inc DBA AF Sports Cyprus High School track and field RFP number 2023-24 action item so moved second moved in seconded any questions on this item okay all in favor I I 10:15 memorandum of understanding University of Southern California Center for Effective Neuroscience development learning and education action item so moved second moved to Second any questions or comments okay hearing none all in favor I I 1016 memorandum of just one point just on that 1015 if whenever whatever the findings are you'll share them with the board when we get we can do that okay moving on 1016 memorandum of understanding California State University Fullerton on behalf of pro project rebound action item slow moved second any questions or comments comments about this item okay all in favor I 1017 agreement with Karen Garett action item so moved second okay any questions or comments okay moving on for the vote all in favor I hi 1018 agreement with Dr Anna deit De Melle de Michelle thank you uh action item so moved second moved in second questions or comments okay all in favor I 1019 agreement with Dr Jonathan talberg action item don't move second questions or comments okay all in favor I I 1020 agreement K12 logic LLC action item moved second moved in second questions or comments okay all in favor I 1021 contract independent psychoeducational assist assessment action it item Dr Robin Morris don't move second moved and seconded any questions or comments all in favor I I I all right moving on 1022 agreement Tyler durman action item second okay moved to Second any questions or comments hey all in favor I I item 1023 public hearing disclosure of 202 3 24 collect collective bargaining agreement with AA this is an information item does anyone wish to speak on this item seeing none moving on 1024 adoption of the 2023-24 collective bargaining agreement with AA action item so moved second Mo a second questions or comments okay all in favor I 20 1025 initial contract proposal AHS D to apga information item 1026 opening public hearing initial contract proposal a hsd to apga anyone wishing to speak seeing none moving on 1027 initial contract proposal apga to ahsd information item 1028 opening public hearing initial contract proposal apga to auhsd anyone wishing to speak seeing none moving on 1029 initial contract proposal auhsd to afscme information item opening public hearing 10:30 for initial contract proposal auhsd to askme anyone wishing to speak on this item seeing none moving on 1031 initial contract proposal ask me to ahsd information item 1032 public Hearing in contract proposal asks me to ahsd anyone wishing to speak all right we are now to our consent calendar anyone wishing to pull any items uh 1110 I I and 1111 yes okay 10 1110 1110 I I and and 1111 1111 anyone else uh also 11 pull okay and I'm pulling 1113 and 11 18 Catherine any items to pull no move the balance move for the balance second second all in favor I I I all right we have 10 1110 I I well can we do 1110 and 111 together all right all in favor I um exstension I I you have two exstension on that all right uh item 1113 so moved thank you second and second it um I just want to say um thank you to United Way uh we actually got to see uh Sergio contas at the T parade um and from his words he's um he says that the pie is getting um the slices of the pie are getting smaller um and they but they've always been a great supporter of ahsd and he continues to try to get a bigger slice of the pie um and so we we uh we thank um him for fighting for us and always being a supporter of ahsd all right anyone else wishing to speak on this item all right all in favor okay item 1118 is mine I get a motion second all right I just wanted to comment um while this um this is uh always a wonderful event uh in person and online I've been um um blessed to be able to see it online when I can't make it there uh I hope they do that again uh but I really I noticed that this year they're um involving um more of our students to participate with um the the dancers and I would like to the the folks who are organizing this event to really um to think more about involving um more of our students and I appreciate that our students are going to MC the event um I really pleased to see that the students are going to be taking um uh the stage with this troop so with that um I will call a vote all in favor I I all right moving on to superintendent staff report yes thank you madam president I just want to report that our national K12 AI Summit is sold out with over um 115 districts participating from 31 States and three countries we have over 100 people on the waiting list we're very grateful to our internal committee um just want to highlight a few few people Amy Quan and you saw um Sean Manning a number and a SEMA sidu a number of people have been involved for several months uh as well as our consultant Brian Brady and I also want to put a shout out to our um superviser Doug chaffy and our other partners Chan Zuckerberg and Google for um stepping up and um really um putting some money and resources uh this will be a very successful event we're very excited about it thank you congratulations real quick but just as a reminder next week's a busy week I know we just talked about the black history mon celebration at Kennedy uh kpac next week but also next week is our cab conference the California Association of bilingual education so uh our staff a lot of our parents will be participating in the cab Conference next week uh there are a couple recognitions this year where Dr re Bryant is the cab administer of the year and then also Sycamore Junior High is receiving the cave seal of excellent award so they'll be recognized at the dinner on Friday night I know it's a conflict with the black history month but a lot of great things going on thank you so much congratulations to Dr Bryant and Sycamore I do uh want to shout out to Western High School I was at the um football Signing Day um this past month and Coach Davidson um was able to get 10 out of his 13 football players seniors onto scholarships and to be playing for those colleges so 10 uh 10 students out of 13 seniors so just amazing 11 now okay so the signing day was at 11 so um just um I'm very appreciative um of the coach and the all the side staff uh to make that happen and by the entire coaching team um just you know kind of I've got to know that that football family and just I'm so proud of the entire staff and all the students and their amazing work and so it just so um amazing to see the kids are able to go go to college and be able to play sports and you know do amazing things later later so thank you thank you couple of shoutouts as well just wanted to give a shout out to again Carlos and his staff for the successful leading and learning visit and also to Lera high school and their staff for hosting our 80 plus visitors um for the leading and learning visit so as always a great job um to everyone involved and then our outc cap as Dr Hernandez highlighted earlier we had quite a few folks attend that first um uh session uh over 400 folks so to all that attended uh both online and uh in in person and to all of our sites for doing such a good job um at encouraging our students our staff and our families to to partake in the survey uh close to 17,000 folks have taken that survey um and then also um earlier this month we had our our national counselors week so on behalf of our district just a shout out to all of our counselors for the tremendous job that they do to support our students staff and families every day um from you know when it comes to our students from you know academic counseling to postsecondary advice to mental health so just just a huge shout out to our entire team thank you you Daniela did you have anything else to report yes so I will be attending the cab Conference next week uh representing Savannah's Global language Leadership Academy as well fantastic were you able to do any of the um the pledge um oh yeah get out there um I did a pledge presentation at gawer Elementary to parents fantastic thank you for doing that experience Mr O'Neal me okay um well I got around to about a half a dozen schools uh for the seron seeing all the activity there students uh excited and and U participating in in helping others uh tended uh seven openhouse events so far there's more to come on the calendar uh I attended uh the uh Coral showcase at Kennedy uh which was a great presentation of of our District's abilities so thank you very much looking forward to more showcases uh attended a budget meeting uh put on by Dr nean and always interesting even though we hear about it here but still it's refreshing to hear um uh attended Roop board meeting last night where we recognized the employees seven employees of the year I think is what it was and one of our employees was um uh the chef at um Gilbert and just it it was we we don't realize when you go into a fine restaurant how much time a chef has to put in he was saying that before he became the teacher for us uh for the Roop that he was putting like 70 and 80 hours a week and he said there was you know really no time for a family and he was he felt so good going to work for the Roop being uh a teacher teaching the kids and he could actually go home and have a family life so he really not only appreciated the job but he appreciated the ability to to to redirect sort of say say his life u i attended uh elcap meeting uh as been stated and I was very surprised at the number of people that were in the room very pleased and I tried to do a quick headcount and I couldn't I lost track after the few hundreds so um it was wonderful to see the U all the students that were there and the parents that were in the audience um participating I have no idea how many were on online looking at this at it at the same time and then uh Monday night I attended the Cypress city council meeting where they recognized Anna piy with the key to the city and renaming a park in in her name so that's it thank you lovely well thank you for sharing that um I attended the uh discipline committee meeting and that is held with mainly teachers and some administrators and the insurance uh committee um is an example of how hard these different committees people that serve on them work to have an agenda and formulate the what they're working on and sharing it and it's quite an interesting process and then I I attended the health committee and that was with um Orlando grigo and they were talking about the food that we serve our students and staff members in the school district and I've Come Away with the feeling that we are a tremendously large family of surrounding support and love for each other because every one of these committees pointed to what we do for each other it's not just all for students it's for everybody in the district and I wanted to share something that um it's an item that we haven't ever heard much about in public society and it's called genetics and what we inherit from our parents our grandparents and ancestors and it's a process of learning who and what you are through life and listening to your body and recently I got a call from my 21-year-old old grandson in North Carolina they moved from Anaheim back there and he called to thank me for his remembering his 21st birthday and I said what did you do and he said my mom's best friend is here they had graduated from Savannah and she took me out and he had a drink and I said what did you have Nathan and he said I don't know what to call it but I think it had the word gold in it and I said you are on the precipice of learning who you are this is a life Journey how how you can handle alcohol when you can't and should not have more and that you don't ever get behind the wheel of a car and now we know more and more today about what these committees come to to help us to understand each other and ourselves how we eat how we learn about our history diabetes is a huge problem in society today do we inherit addiction do we inherit mental illness and so on and I asked um our superintendent tonight about this and he said we do have a unit on it but I think that this needs to be elevated for our young people to understand that they're starting the life process of learning to know what they are and listening to their bodies and I've read two reports in medical journals that um young people vaping these Jewels I think they're called jewels that are flavored that they could have become addicted after one puff and that's their genetic so um I just wanted to share that because I think it's something that needs to be elevated and talked more repetitively to our young people and then we received this school news put out by the school district and it's information about the different schools and the leadership and it's beautifully done and as just prideful and then recently we've been receiving in our Friday update the gamut from Oxford Academy and it's quite a paper it's quite a read and I am enthralled with how this all came about and it now they're producing this and it's numerous Pages Chuck full with information and Community News uh politics Etc and it makes me proud to be part of this District that people care about our young people and that Orlando cares about the kind of food that he prepares trying to teach our young people what a healthy snack is and um I just want to say thank you to all of you that put your soul in hearts into your work and that's Joy thank you Miss Smith Miss guer thank you um I also had the opportunity to attend the budget committee I attended a project St teen CER ribbon cutting ceremony um and then uh joined uh some of my colleagues for the Save the Music Foundation check presentation at uh Ball Junior High School and I just want to highlight some of the um items that some of the items at the Save the Music Foundation um is bringing to our district including instruments to Ball Junior High School and syamore Junior High School a marachi grant to Brooker junior high school and digital music grants uh to South Junior High School and Savannah High School um so thank you to our ahd vapa department uh for working uh with the foundation with that and then I also had the opportunity to judge um South Junior High School South talks uh which is an incredible experience um I'm looking forward to the ahsd soapbox speeches on Mar March 19th um but as an attendee um not judging it was very hard uh to be a judge along with the trusty R tro so looking forward to being in the audience um I also attended the T parade um and I just want to thank all the programs that joined us to celebrate Lunar New Year and then I attended open house at Savannah high school and Anam high school and then also joined my college my colleagues for the city of Cypress presentation of the kitza city and uh uh Park dedication to trusty and piery than concludes my report thank you thank you Miss Guerrero and Mr O'Neal attended the ball Junior High School presentation as well uh I was um privileged to attend Anaheim uh and Lera open house um at Anaheim we were uh not only uh got to utilize the um uh see the students uh showcase as where as as were as well as at laera uh but we were also able to watch the um the girls water polo team win it was a nailbiter think it was like a 12 13 I think it was it was pretty close um the girls are really tired at the end but they they held firm so congratulations to them uh my Gela meeting uh where I was sworn in for my 12th year uh serving on that board and uh last night's Roop meeting um trusty O'Neal um said they celebrated um uh Jason Jasmine as well as uh Colleen Hanley at Anaheim High School um where she's been there for a number of years and she is uh announced her retirement this year so uh for their dental program uh judging the South Junior High School soap Puck speeches were uh it was very very very difficult um the winner ended up um being a uh a bilingual student he gave his speech not only in English but in Spanish and had a tremendous story I love the um theme this year uh they wanted the students to focus on um a project that would be beneficial to the community and uh we're in good shape um our students have uh tremendous ideas and all of their ideas were um really um looked at seriously and actually by the time that we heard the one students speech about the bathrooms um they were already they had already put in the the order to fix it so um so a great work to um everyone over there at South um and we always get really treated well at South we always get treated well at every site that we go to but Al uh South does a really nice job they have the students pick us up from the parking lot bring us in and then they walk us out at the end I got a balloon and they always have a nice card and they have the students um from pal um uh signed it for us so um great job I'm teaching students how to be uh thankful uh I attended also the Cypress city um where they gave the keys to the city um uh and the uh Park dedication for Arnold park over in Cypress to Anna T parade was just absolutely amazing and uh super attended and I um also attended a um uh was kind of like a symposium panel um with uh the uh sociology department at UCI it's called conquering hate the emphasis was really about um hate and um one uh of the professors actually said that um we have to be reminded not only are the perpetrators of hate um feeling that trauma um we don't think about that but also of course the victims and but she named hate um a a mental and physical uh epidemic that we need to really um be thinking about and trying to um conquer that um last night at the Roop meeting uh Dana Lynch the superintendent of Roop reminded us that February 20th is the uh deadline for actually registering to vote in um Orange County um there are some very important races not only the presidential primaries but we have um an election for our Orange County uh uh trustees um so it's a really important um election on March 5th um and he's also looking forward to our AI Summit um he can't wait and um I just also want to give a shout out to John Baptist and the team they're um all at these events recording them uh Stephen was at the T parade and um got all of that videotaping um enough to uh put it on the spotlight and if you haven't watched the spotlight um presentations on Saturdays and then sometimes they kick it over to a Sunday morning it's just amazing to get all that that footage um recreated to um the videos um wonderful wonderful wonderful um highlights to um to what we're doing for the week and um we're at the 23rd now or 24th now and it's just amazing so Bravo to you John and the team to getting that out every week yeah and uh as uh principal s said congratulations to all of our CIF teams that are still uh fighting those battles um happy belated Valentine's Day and happy Lunar New Year and with that President R tro could I uh interject just for a second absolutely apologies to those who have their their agendas closed already could we recall 1110 I I yes that was um I pulled that one correct yes pulled it and and we had two extensions and two eyes so if M trusty Guerrero is not abstaining if we could revote then we'll have a 31 okay yes I'm only abstaining on 11 and 11 right okay oh okay okay so I move 1110 I I second okay all in favor I I all righty and exstension by thank you thank you good catch Joy all right uh future meeting we will be meeting sooner than expected on March 7th coming up and uh any suggested agenda items okay seeing none item 15 adjournment so move second okay all in favor hi hi all right good night everybody

will be the Middle School showcase meeting at dad Monday March 11th 700 p.m. curriculum committee will be at humiston boardroom and then Thursday March 21st 2024 7:30 our regular business meeting will be held here in town council chambers um we do want to recognize that February 19th to the 20th um schools in central office will be closed for the February break yay um March 14th will be a professional development day so there will be no school for students and then March 29th is Good Friday so both schools and central office will be closed um with that I do want to wish everybody a happy February break and um pres day as well too and the last item is a motion to adjourn Mr White second M Jackie all those in favor of adjournment it is unanimous thank you we are adjourned

to hear from what I ask is you do just like you did as soon as I said good morning and you notice the social cues everybody started looking at me and everybody settled down and was quiet Nick will you Circle back around with that student when what I'm going to ask you to do is take your cell phones put them on silent put them on vibrate put them away you've only got 40 minutes till the end of the day today that puts our speaker in a rough position to be the only person standing between the end of a long of a a half day and a soon to be long weekend I expect the same things that you would do for any other presentation or teacher or adult that's speaking to you in terms of not talking giving your full attention staying off your phone there will certainly be an opportunity for questions and answers that's going to come later on the presentation but I will turn it over to is it who's starting Ava yes all right to Ava to introduce Ava all you [Applause] the BHS student government is excited to welcome musician author and teacher Brendan slokom to Brookfield High School Mr slokom is raised in fville North Carolina and holds a degree in music education with concentrations in violin and Viola from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for more than 20 years he has been a public and private school music educator and has performed with orchestras throughout Northern Virginia Maryland and Washington DC his first novel The Violent conspiracy was published in 2022 by anchor books his second novel Symphony Of Secrets was published in 2023 also by anchor books he is currently working on his third novel on behalf of the entire BHS Community we would like to welcome Mr slum we also would like to thank the berkfield Education Foundation for the generous grant that has allowed Mr slum to visit with us today we would also like to thank the berkfield public library for partnering with us to provide BHS students with this unique opportunity please welcome Mr Brandon slom morning everybody morning today is your diversity day as I'm looking around don't see a great deal of diversity but that is not necessarily a bad thing it's just what it is it's just very different um when I was growing up I started playing violin at the age of nine I was in fifth grade I started playing and uh um there were not a whole lot of people who looked like me playing the violin so as you can imagine it was a bit rough you get called every name in the book people look at you like you're constantly walking around with something stolen they're wondering why you have that how can you afford that that's not for you you should do something that you're going to be good at I would hear that all the time music was actually my way of succeeding when I say my way of succeeding it took me to college I got to fly for the first time because of my violin and music I got to go overseas for the first time because of my violin and music I got to meet and play with Stevie Wonder because of my violin in music when I was um in college people would look at me and just automatically assume the only reason I got into the school is because I was black not because I was a good player not because I worked my butt off to be able to play as well as everybody else how did that make me feel how do you imagine it made me feel yeah it's a bad feel feeling for someone to automatically assume that you were this or that just based on your appearance so as I'm going through life people would constantly say to me yeah why do you do that you're not good at this you can't do that that's not for you all the time I've played at weddings where I was not wanted at the church because of the way that I looked this is not for you this is not what I paid for you can't play this kind of music I have sat in churches to play and the director takes one look at me he automatically assumes that I'm not going to be good and he finds someone to help me with the part but I played handles Messiah about 200 times since I was in high school and the person that helps me I usually end up helping them because I've played it so many times and I can tell them what they need to do better I have walked into buildings to conduct I'm also a conductor I walked into buildings to conduct students District orchestras Regional orchestras true story I walked into a room one once with a group that looked pretty much like this one I walk in the garbage is over there you can take it out that's what I was told okay well all right I've been walking down the hall at schools that I've taught in and one little girl said to me are you one of the cleaning people said no sweethart I'm going to teach your class go away I have been in stores people look at me like you know they I I need help hey can you help me find something and they will just look at me like he's not going to buy anything he's probably going to steal something let's watch him very carefully it happens and it sucks when it happens but I have a choice I can be a victim I can be a victim or I can make lemonade out of lemons that I've been handed and I choose not to be a victim and music has actually helped me tremendously with all of this if I did not have my music I probably would not have graduated from high school I would probably be in prison a lot of the kids that I ran around with with when I was younger a lot of them are in jail right now and some of them are unfortunately dead but I had music to sustain me to give me purpose give me something to do even if it was the violin and people are constantly telling me you can't do that that's not for you you're not a violinist that's for white people but I actually made it work for myself now when we talk about diversity is is it a bad thing that you have a lack of diversity yes or no who says yes that's a bad thing raise your hand if you have a lack of diversity is it a bad thing how many of you think it's not necessarily bad it's just what it is all right I'm going to tend to agree with that it's not NE it's not you know it's not your fault that you live where you live or you go to school where you go to school it's not necessarily a bad thing it's just what it is but I can tell you one of the best ways to learn about other people other cultures well first culture if you are a certain color does that mean that you have a certain culture culture is learned you learn culture so it always drives me nuts when people use the term cultural appropriation y'all know what that means for those of you that don't know what it means cultural appropriation is when people get accused of trying to hijack someone else's culture like one example would be a white person wearing cornrows in their hair you can't do that because you're white if you grew up around around people that wore cornrows all the time why wouldn't that be your culture culture is learned if you guys don't take anything from today's speech know that culture is learned what is culture culture is learned you're not born with a culture you don't inherit it it's totally learned how do we best dispense sell stereotypes what's the best way to do that the best way to do it is to ask questions yeah exactly how many of you are afraid or embarrassed or uncomfortable to ask a question about another race or another culture that you don't know how many of you is it uncomfortable so everybody else in here you talk guys are totally cool with asking about do black people do this do Mexican people do this do Asian people do this y'all are comfortable with that I don't know so when you are [Music] experiencing when you're going through your own life's experiences it's not good it's not bad it's just different for me honestly I can tell tell you I've had some very very harrowing experiences I've had some of those stereotypical experiences where you only see stuff like this on TV something tells me that you guys have not had some of the experiences that I have I've been driving down the road I live in Washington DC and I made a turn without putting on my signal six cops six pulled me over why did I get pulled over oh well you didn't put on your signal it takes six cops to do that well we didn't know if you were dangerous or not okay well why would I be dangerous well okay I get it in 2000 I was actually driving in Baton Rouge Louisiana I had a brand new black Honda Accord this was preg GPS yes my shoes are dope I know you should check out my sock game it's really [Music] [Applause] strong that's another stereotype why do black people always look good no so I'm driving down the street and uh I'm in Baton Rouge Louisiana and I'm driving down the street in a brand new Honda Accord black car it is the year 2000 this is pre- smartphones preg GPS I had to use a road map and I'm in the Deep South you guys know anything about the Deep South okay well some people might consider some people who live in the Deep South they might consider them a a bit racist just because I don't know so I'm driving my hotel is on this side of the road I'm in the far right lane I put on my signal I turn lights and Sirens I have a friend in the car who happens to be white we're taking a road trip I get pulled over the cop is on his bullhorn with his gun drawn get out of the car driver walk backwards put your hands up get on your hands and knees with a gun pointed at my head I'm thinking well this is it you know I had a good uh 30 years or whatever so here we go and then he says to me okay you can leave what was that about oh well you made an illegal Lane change you had your gun drawn on me for an illegal Lane change seriously and my white friend in the car didn't have to move what was that about you might just want to go ahead and leave okay it happens it happens to me do I hate cops no cops protect us we need police just happened to be some jerk of a cop who probably like I don't know maybe he was having a bad day I don't know what does any of this have to do with diversity it's my experience my experience is going to be completely different than yours it's not better it's not worse it's just different and one of the best ways for you guys to understand is to ask the questions I'm sure there's so many questions that you guys have about people who don't look like you and I'm telling you it is totally okay to ask the questions as long as they are respectful if you honestly want to know you should ask and don't be embarrassed or don't be afraid to ask those questions that's how we learn am I right how many of you actually have a question but you might be a bit embarrassed to ask it any brave souls you got a question come here come here come here D come [Applause] here um I was just going to ask what inspired you to be a violinist honestly what are you a musician okay um honestly the inspiration for me to play violin was to get out of class twice a week that's why I did it and I just happen to be because I hated school I hated math I hated everything and any opportunity I could have to get out I did which is funny because I ended up being a teacher but yeah I just wanted to get out of class but I'm I was good at it I was really good at it I was first chair in my College orchestra how old were you when you met Stevie Wonder I was in my 40s yeah I'm significantly older now you don't look that old yeah I know okay you can sit down thanks dude okay dude were you afraid to come up and ask that no not really no I just wanted to ask why' you want to ask um I don't know I was just interested I just want to know why keep it real dude keep it real I don't know I just I just wanted to I guess it was like kind of just like your story and then I just wanted to know like how your story started yeah it was really just to get out of class and I I I had a lot of people to help me um you know CU it was tough it was tough being one a violinist CU it's tough two being a Black Violin is because no one takes you seriously you know and I had to work three times as hard as everybody else I mean I wrote a book wrote a couple of books but the violin conspiracy it it details a lot of this stuff so if you haven't read it I suggest you read it it'll give you a really interesting perspective um but yeah it was it was it was tough I had to I had a lot of encouragement and I really appreciate those who encouraged me to keep going you know when I would get passed over for a playing job because of the way I looked you know they would take one look at me and say no he's he can't do this so it sucked it sucked a lot and I worked three times as hard as everybody else but you know it was their loss and then I would go someplace else and play and it would be oh wow we should have got him you know or sometimes people will see my name it doesn't sound like the typical black person name you know sometimes I don't I don't know that I necessarily sound like a stereotypical black person so when I speak to people on the phone they have an assumption and then when they meet me in person they're like shocked there any black teachers at this school one just curious just curious hey question yes guys I got to congratulate you on being very very quiet and [Applause] respectful I really appreciate your focus and you guys paying attention all right we have a really tall kid who has a question okay so you know so you know you talking about them corn rolls cultural appro you know just you know one your opinion on white people say all right okay okay okay okay okay okay okay I think that's a legitimate question but before I give you okay you guys might want to listen to this focus focus focus before I give you my opinion I'm curious to hear what your opinion is because you're half black half white yeah okay what's your opinion I think n you think not what they can't be saying that do you think anyone should be saying oh yeah why I mean we chilling now like I mean can you hold us they they was you know using it against us so now now now it's SS you know what I'm saying them white people what you need you know so my personal opinion my my my perspective is going to be slightly different from yours because you're black and white and I'm just black personally I think it is just just me this I'm not speaking for all black people I think it is one of the dumbest things in the world to say you can't say something you can't say something I think it's [Applause] dumb however there is a caveat personally I think it's not very I don't think it's I don't think it's wise to tell anyone they can or cannot say anything however if someone is using that term in order to make me feel bad or to hurt me that's one thing but if someone uses it as a term of endearment who cares where it comes from who cares I have white friends who say it all the time I'm not saying I'm not saying that they should I'm not saying that they should and I'm not recommending that they do but you know it is what it is and because they're talking to me are we focused and because they're talking to me I know that they don't mean it in a derogatory fashion but you know I don't recommend anybody saying it I don't recommend anybody saying anything hateful to anyone else ever doesn't matter what the word is but at the same well yeah you can clap for that the bottom line is treat people the way you want to be treated that's that's the moral of the story if you want to be treated with respect then you should treat people with respect regardless of color or you know skin tone it doesn't matter haircut accent it doesn't [Applause] matter and that was an uncomfortable question to ask so I had give it to you dude that was that was pretty brave of you to ask so does anyone else have uh any questions they are curious about from my [Music] perspective um my question is how do you stay so positive in all these uh negative situations you're [Applause] in before I answer that how do you do it because I'm sure you've got you've had to deal with some stuff so how do you do it cuz you seem like an intelligent nice young man so how do you do it I mean I yes um some people wouldn't say I'm I'm like nice but like in the negative situations that I face um I think about how my parents would want me to react or um um would they be happy with how I react or like um like how would I be looked at as if I reacted negatively or positively so I have to think of like the right situation and react in so I like sometimes I'll like react in like a good way but sometimes I let my emotions get the best of me so I react negatively is it necessarily A Bad Thing to react negatively it's it's a human emotion you know it's it's it's real you know if somebody says something to you that is trying to hurt your feelings of course you're going to react negatively um the way that I stay so positive dude don't get me wrong I have been angry I've been I've been the angry black man yes I have had to deal with all kinds of crap all kinds of crap um but I choose it's a choice I know that I represent myself and to a lot of people I represent people who look like us and if they see me reacting a certain way they're going to assume that you would react the exact same way so I do my best to stay positive all the time it's not I I I look at if someone says something that is not you know very nice or whatever it's them it's not me it's them they have the isue not me CU they don't know me if they knew me they know I was a great guy like I don't know you but I'm assuming you're a great guy sometimes okay well does that answer your question just stay positive thank [Applause] you any other questions now's your chance [Applause] uh my question is why what do you think makes life worth living for you great question personally I have been through so much bad stuff that I appreciate every little thing I've got thank you tattooed on my forearm because I'm so grateful for every bit of help that I've ever gotten and I believe that we are put on Earth to be happy not miserable and anything that I can do to contribute to anyone else's happiness that makes life worth living [Applause] me that was a good [Applause] question okay um you say you play the violin right that's your uh favorite piece of music to play I like the Four Seasons by Vivaldi my fav is winter from the for SE are you an instrumentalist I play the alpha saxophone yeah cool yeah I I'm a Baldi fan and you know it's violin music I actually got to go to Venice a couple of last month I was in Italy and I got to uh see where he was born and it was cool and why were you surprised okay so what's your name Hunter Hunter Hunter is Korean and he comes up and I go um I was really surprised because I didn't expect um somebody other some some somebody from another race like be able to speak a language from wherever I'm from so that really surprised me in a positive way told you yeah I've gotten to travel because of my why I live so yeah I've been to Korea a couple of times it's good stuff that's a you bro [Applause] uh I have a question has God helped you what do you think yes why because God is [Applause] everywhere so the question was has has God helped me and uh people actually say to me uh I'm really surprised that you openly talk about your faith um I almost I I consider myself in my seventh bonus year of life because back in 2017 I was 12 hours from dropping dead I was in ICU and the doctor was like if you don't go to the hospital right now you're going to be dead tomorrow and uh yeah my faith got me through my faith my faith absolutely got me through and that's why when I say we're here to be happy anything that I can do to facilitate happiness because I know what it's like to be on the other end so I I never want anyone to experience what I had to go through and feel helpless and worthless and all of that stuff so anything I can do dud it all comes from my faith all the success that I've had it all comes from my faith all of it [Applause] I just want to ask uh what like First brought you into your faith I would go to church every Sunday from Elementary School through college my my parents thought that it was really important for me to go to church and I'm so glad they made me go so glad they made me go um and I I you know kids nowadays you guys have it tough you have it really tough it's not the same as it was when when I was growing up we didn't have the internet we didn't have the electronics we didn't have the phones we had none of that stuff all we had was each other and we really relied on each other for everything um now it's so easy to hide behind your devices and everything but um it because my parents were so you know they they were very Hands-On and it's like you know we want you to be a good person and this is the best way to do it and I learned so much about people in church and about myself and you know just be nice to each other that's all it just be nice to each other just be nice and the world will be a better place [Applause] um what gave you inspiration to write your book covid-19 no uh during CO as a working musician everything stopped for me everything stopped and I needed a creative Outlet um so I wrote the first chapter of the violin conspiracy and my agent who's currently my agent he was like if you write this book I can sell it like all right cool and I went from a roach infested ghetto drug dealing nasty apartment to actually a really nice place to live and you know I'm so grateful for every single thing that I have as a result of it so I got thank you tattoo on my heart gratitude gratitude gratitude probably one more yeah why not I would like to ask what's the most important thing in your life yes a banger um most important thing in my life the opp unity and the ability to reach people I'm so happy to be able to reach an entire group of people who would honestly never talk to someone like me or read a book by someone like me and the fact that people are reading it and and reaching out and have questions and asking stuff like this that that really makes this message is not the Bell please remain in your classroom until you hear the Bell after this message will ride home on bus three today again if you normally take bus five you will be riding home on bus three today thank you have a great long weekend all right I think that's going to pretty much conclude because you guys have a long weekend coming up uh I will leave you all with this focus focus I'll leave you with this random acts of kindness some of the most powerful things that you could ever experience or share with someone just the smallest thing smile at somebody hold the door for someone tell someone they look nice today just be nice to each other try it you'd be amazed at the results all it takes is one random act of kindness to really have an impact on someone and I thank you guys for your attention today

all right hi everyone um the BHS student government is really excited to welcome musician author and teacher Brendan slokum to BHS Mr slokom was raised in fville North Carolina and holds a degree in music education with concentrations in Violin Viola from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for more than 20 years he has been a public and private school m music educator and has performed with orchestras throughout Northern Virginia Maryland and Washington DC his first novel The Violin conspiracy was published in 2022 by anchor books his second novel Symphony Of Secrets was published in 2023 also by Anor books he's currently working on his third novel on behalf of the entire BHS Community we would like to welcome Mr slum we would also like to thank the Brookfield Education Foundation for the generous grant that has allowed Mr slokum to visit with us today we would also like to thank the Brookfield public library for partnering with us to provide BHS students with this unique opportunity please wel welcome Mr Brendan [Applause] SL morning I think it's great that you guys actually respond when uh I say good morning so this is your diversity day yes all right so I'm not quite sure what diversity Day means can I get a volunteer to explain it to me anyone can't hear you still can't agree so Student Government prepares this day where we have a lot of speakers come in from all different cultures identities things like that just to talk about their experiences um to kind of just teach all of our students about the world around them and some of the things that they might not have yet to experience you said that like you're important okay that's cool nice [Applause] job all right so diversity day diversity um when you guys I'm looking around and I'm I'm thinking about diversity and don't take this the wrong way but one of the most diverse things that I see about you guys is probably the [Applause] haircuts but that is actually okay um it's all about your perspective my perspective I is going to be 100% different than most of you guys I don't see a whole lot of people in here who look like me so you know my perspective is going to be really different are are there okay just bear with me any brothers in [Applause] here hey let me ask that again and you want to be brothers in here yeah that kid I can tell all right so um my name is Brendan slokum I am from North Car well I was actually born in California and raised in North Carolina and I'm has anybody been down south to North Carolina okay a lot of you and let me guess you guys laugh when you hear us talk right I do uh I pretty much lost my North Carolina Southern accent because I've been living in DC for so long but um I raised in North Carolina I went to a high school that was half black half white uh I went to a college that was predominantly white and you may have guessed from this picture two things are very different one I'm holding a violin and I don't have one here today two I've got a bunch of white hair on my face it was black last year no it really was it's a no I just grew a beard because you know Co and I don't like to shave and all of that good stuff but um when you see this picture of this guy holding a violin uh what do you think he like oh this guy's a professional viol violinist probably not it's just a prop that he's using for a picture anyone PR all right you guys are easy this is going to be fun okay so uh when I was 9 years old I started playing the violin in my elementary school I was in fifth grade I started playing violin and um you can imagine seeing a black kid playing the violin was not a common sight so it was kind of tough why was it tough because people would look at me and one of the first things that they would say is where did you get that did you steal [Applause] that they have Future Leaders over here so Growing Up High School it was kind of tough as well because say you know you are in high school I was on the baseball team for a little while but I actually had to quit because of music I wanted to play football but I couldn't do it because of Music well that and I was only 150 lbs but um I I couldn't do it all and going through life is already difficult as a teenager and then you have a violin case skinny kid big feet long arms walking around school with a violin case that was rough then you go to college and I went to a predominantly white college and I'm carrying this violin around in the School of Music there were probably six people in the entire school of music that looked like me six and the first thing that people say first thing that people think the only reason you're here is because of affirmative action you're not good enough to be here with the rest of us if you think you are you're going to have to prove it over and over and over and over and over and over again I have been told you should not do this because you're not going to be good at it you will not be successful you should do something that you're going to be good at this is not the type of music that you should be listening to you should probably find something that suits you better I'm wondering what that means because I've been listening to classical music I've been listening to hip-hop listening to rock and roll listening to everything why would I not be good at this I took the same classes as my counterparts I had the same teachers I worked just as hard if not harder why can't I do this because people like you don't do things like this but what is people like me took me a while to figure out what they were talking about can anyone guess I am all day long so it was it was actually tough it was very tough I would have to deal with this constantly I am in a practice room and I'm practicing my fiddle and people are like who is that oh that can't be Brendan he's not that good he no that's not him you know you know I would go to play in different churches or weddings if you read my book The Violin conspiracy if you haven't I'm going to recommend that you read it you should read it before the movie comes out oh oh now you want to pay attention Okay I see now right yeah I've got two books out and they're both being made into movies so yeah I know right w so I would go to a church to play and the church director would take one look at me after I sat down he would look at me and then he would go and Whisper to someone I need you to go and sit next to that guy because he didn't think that I could handle the part didn't think that I was going to be able to play it because of the way that I looked the person that he usually sat next to me no offense to anyone in here was usually a a white girl she would sit down she would have trouble I would end up helping her because I'd played the piece anybody familiar with handle's Messiah Hallelujah course anyone anyone okay great yeah I'm not going to sing it all right um yeah so I played it Pro I've been playing it since I was in high school I've played it probably 200 times and instead of the girl sitting down to help me I would end up helping her and then she would say something like wow you're really good at this I said yeah I've been doing it since longer than you've been alive I have gone into schools to conduct I'm a musician so I've gone into schools to conduct I've walked into a room with a bunch of teachers and they've not not kidding the garbage is over there you can take it out I walked down the hall with my shirt and tie little girl came up to me and said are you one of the cleaning people like no sweetheart I'm going to teach your class today go away does it suck a lot it really does to be judged on your appearance not on what it is that you can do I've had to work twice as hard three times as hard as my counterparts who are white does it suck yes it sucks a lot to constantly have to prove yourself all the time but I will do it and I will take the hit so that the next person who looks like me who wants to walk down the hall with a violin case doesn't have to be scrutinized doesn't have to be judged because of what they look like so I will take those hits so that it doesn't have to happen again what does any of this have to do with diversity what I'm saying to you guys is it's not a bad thing that your school or your your population right now is is not super diverse it's not a bad thing it's just different it's your perspective I probably have one of the most unique perspectives in this room things that I have had to endure like like you can imagine one of the worst things what what's one of the worst things that you guys would have to deal with out in the world dude you can't hear you still can't hear you dude can you come and grab the mic cuz I'm not walking over there dude can you come over here uh maybe like getting fired from a job I don't know or or um I don't really know [Applause] wor my I don't know what's worse than that are are you interviewing me now you're asking me um what would you imagine one of the worst things that I would have to endure with be keep it real keep it real what's your name kid Ryan uh maybe even just like even just standing up here guess in front of all these people I don't know like [Applause] what I'm not really [Applause] sure go take a nap Ryan yeah um I what I was trying to get at is uh okay so Ryan's y'all do y'all know Ryan by the way is he cool one of the worst things you know I'm I'm trying to get what your perspective would be what what what would you think that someone who looks like me what would be a bad thing that I would have to experience that you wouldn't got to come up here dude got to come up here dude okay dude just say it what people say the true very true I have been walking down the street minding my own business and you just you know you're looking at people I'm from the south we smile and we speak and we say hello and instead of hello you get the nword I'm not going to say it because there might be some delicate egos in here and I don't want to hurt anybody's although some of you probably said it 10 times today already I'm sure so it's one of those things where you never ever ever get used to it and I hope that I I would hope that you guys would never say that in in Anger to hurt someone else's feelings but it happens and it sucks a lot and and what do you do you know it's uh when it happened to me and it's happened multiple times I I actually played a wedding and um in in my book I write about where the main character went to go play a wedding and he was the only person that looked like me in the group and the father father excuse me the uncle didn't want to let him in he's like no you're not supposed to be here that actually happened to me we made it into the church played this as soon as we played our last note the father or the bride shoot us out as quickly as he could looked me dead in the eye and said this is not what I paid for you need to leave it's like okay yes it hurts yes it sucks and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why I like why is this guy so mad we played great I didn't miss a note everything was perfect just because of the way that I looked I didn't do anything to him what did I do wrong that's always what I ask myself and I did for years and years and years now I realized that it was it was never me me it was never ever ever me it was always those people they just didn't get it it's different people sometimes are afraid of what they don't understand not the only difference between me and a lot of other people is my skin tone is a bit darker that's it I'm a normal dude I bleed I cry I eat I do everything else only because of the way that I I look and you would think if people are constantly judging you on your appearance that it would make you bitter I used to be extremely bitter extremely bitter I was mad all the time I had a chip on my shoulder the size of a house I was just waiting for people to do and say things a lot of times it did happen but it's all in how you how I decided to react to it there came a point where I was like it doesn't make sense that I am putting so much time and energy into being angry over what someone else does I decided a long time ago not to let anyone else dictate my happiness never ever ever let anyone else dictate my happiness it's all a matter of perspective if you guys are unsure about a different person a different culture A different race what's the best way to understand it if you understand it you won't have to fear it if you don't fear it you can embrace it what's the best way to understand it does anyone know UC education so how do we educate ourselves stuff like this and there's one really important thing that you all can do I'm I'm not sure if you guys I don't know you all at all oh I know Ryan now but I I'm not sure if you guys are what what your bravery factor is I'm I'm not sure how courageous you are but one of the best things that you can do and I am telling you this as a minority as one of the people who I I'm you know I'm a minority you know there's not a whole a lot of black people in here but if there's something that you want to know I would encourage you all to ask because you bless you because you ask that does not mean that you're racist it does not mean that you're being mean or nasty or hateful you're just being inquisitive that's the best way to learn to educate yourselves is to ask people have come up to me and just ask me the most random questions and I appreciate it because instead of making assumptions they actually come and try to find out and I appreciate that you know and it's not embarrassing it's not hurtful it doesn't it doesn't it it takes nothing to just ask a question and it's not being mean it's just you know your lack of knowledge you want to you want to feel that void you want to know and the more you know the better off we're all going to be able to understand each other I'm sure how many of you just just raise your hand how many of you have how many of you have stereotypes in your head about black people just a stereotype doesn't have to be good doesn't have to be bad just a stereotype seriously only eight people black people are this black people are that black people are this black people are that all right thank you you may put your hands down now I'm going to do something right now I'm going to do something right now that um it's going to take a very courageous person and I'm I'm it's all seriousness if anyone has a question about me I can just tell you about me I can't speak for the entire my entire race of people I can just speak for myself does anyone have a question who's going to be courageous enough to ask anyone well let me ask you this why is it so difficult to ask a question I'm sure you guys have questions why is it hard because I'm scared what are you afraid of how strong are you okay can we give that kid a courtesy laugh right yeah don't do that kid because you're afraid of what of like everyone looking at you dude everybody's looking at you right now what are you I mean are you afraid you're going to actually get an answer that you it might be true um no so you really don't know what you're afraid of no [Music] you got a question is it going to be like a good question or you going to be like a all right cuz if it's not I'm going to hurt your feelings [Applause] dude let's go Le oh are the benef are there benefits to being [Applause] black the question was are there benefits to being black I'm going to ask you to clarify that just a bit like are there any things that you get to do that other people don't that is [Applause] good Puerto Rico are there benefits to being Latino what are they like culturally you get to uh I don't know like the environment is different from like Caucasians they don't they don't have the same environment that black people do their familyes different all that like I go to my friend's house and they're like rude to their mom and everything all this stuff no white people then I go to my I go to my um black friend's house and if he says a word to his mom it's he's getting beat then and that all right so you guys heard that right um I I I would say that it's a stereotype but I can just speak for myself I don't know what white kids say to their parents I don't know is it bad that's what Leo said I didn't say it he did um we can do things that other races can't what can a black person do that another race can't do if you say play basketball on a body sming I wouldn't say that you can't do anything I can't do but but you just did no if if I speak to my mother rudely I'll get beat if if another person does they might not like there's different situations so you're saying black people can't speak to their parents rudely without getting beat what are you saying I'm saying like growing up as a black person it's a lot different than growing up as a Latino or white now how would you know that are you basing this on what you've read what you've seen like like my experience in my experience sit down got this Le hey guys I I don't know how to answer well first Leo is very brave because he said a lot of what I'm sure a lot of you have been thinking am I right just by Applause and I actually I actually applaud you because dude dude are you focused okay I I apud you because that's one of those questions that a lot of people have they like oh well black people do this and you know it's it's like this but one thing about culture culture is learned you're not automatically a part of the culture just because of your race culture is learned and I think parents who discipline their children they're just good parents go sit down [Applause] man stereotypes oh okay we have another brave soul okay let's let's be respectful to the man with the beard [Applause] please um Jes um my question I could probably get canceled for this I hope I don't all right so so there's a stereotype in like Sports and just Athletics in general that people of color are faster or stronger than people that are white do you believe in that such that said stereotype it's biology so like for example like Lamar Jackson you know Lamar Jackson the NFL quarterback they all call him he should be a running back because he's just really fast but some people say that's because he's black not because not because he's a good athlete correct and like you see people see black athletes being faster but is that just because they're black or is it just because they're a good athlete that's a good question and I'm curious what do you think you're really good at this aren't you yes I am well crap um Banda please don't get me in trouble um Banda that's my principal so what I think is I think that they work as equally as all as white people do as people that are Asian people that are trans at are by any anything they work just as hard as we I'm getting a lot of like half and half in here but yeah well I I do appreciate your okay let's focus let's focus let's focus hang on dude I appreciate that question and it's that's a very common question and I can't answer that fully because I'm not you know I I was athletic growing up and do it could be the same thing for like music like do you think that I mean do you is there a stereotype with white and black white and people of color or anything else being like better at music or being at anything for that matter like do you see that stereotype and do you believe in it okay you're putting me on the spot all right um in my experiences just my experiences uh I'm around a lot of musicians so most of the musicians that I'm around have pretty good Rhythm doesn't matter if they're white or black um or Latin or Asian or whatever but they've got good Rhythm because they are good musicians as far as Sports is concerned there are so many theories about why uh black athletes are so much more athletic there's so many theories some of them probably are valid some of them are probably just dumb and just people make stuff up I don't know but does it really matter not really okay dude you're very brave young man with that be thank [Applause] you uh what's the most common form of discrimination you think you fa [Applause] uh I thinkk you what's the most common form of discrimination I think you face a lot of systemic discrimination like you're you're inherently not going to be the first choice for jobs you're going to be like discriminated against by police just because of how you look the government just not going to favor you over white people so aliser right okay so um aliser mentioned the police in 2000 I was driving a brand new Honda Accord it was black I was driving through Baton Rouge Louisiana this was preg GPS I put on my left turn signal and I was I made an illegal Lane change cuz my hotel was on the other side of the street lights and Sirens immediately cop pulls me over gets on his bullhorn with his gun drawing on me get out of the car walk backwards get on your hands and knees I had a friend in the car with me we were taking a road trip he was white he just sat there I thought my head was going to get blown off for making an illegal L ch had my friend not been there there's no telling what would have happened it's real I'm not saying cops are bad I'm just saying that every now and then you'll get some power hungry person who needs to prove themselves unfortunately sometimes people who look like me get the brunt of it if you were in the car and that happened you'd probably get a warning I get a gun to my head so it happens but I still don't hate cops cops are important cops keep us safe from people like me no just kidding just kidding kidding jokes that was all right all right right do you have anything else what's your favorite movie not really I got a lot of favorite movies I'm into the Marvel movies in game was insane that last fight scene was worth the entire 3 hours hey who cuts your hair no it's a dope haircut for real are you uncomfortable at all uh I had Indian food for breakfast so kind of what [Applause] all right I think we've got time for another couple of questions is there a young lady who would like to ask a question [Applause] okay so what's your thoughts on other minorities as a black person like what like do you have any stereotypes um what is my thoughts on other minorities they're cool I mean I don't have any to me I I I honestly I I judge people by their character as opposed to their characteristics so if someone comes up to me so if someone comes up to me you know and they are Asian or Latin or white or whatever I don't judge them based on what it I you know I I got to get to know them I that's me because I have been judged so much that I refuse to do that to anybody else so I always you know I I wait to meet the people and see what they're about before it make a judgment about them does that make you feel better yeah okay thank you oh thank you go sit down oh we okay thank you guys okay nice round of applause for Mr slokum at this point this block is over so you need to go to ilt if you're an upper classman

[Music] [Applause] you [Music] for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] one [Music] oh [Music] w [Music] [Applause] la [Music] the [Music] welcome tonight's is remember [Music] these as everyone is aware offers students andat to our please represent school with class so that our athletes enjoy the best officiated experience SC leag school will be awarded the leag sportsmanship award and accompan we appreciate your support and now would you please stand cast as we honor our nation with the plane of the national anthem tonight's Anthem will be performed by Burlington High School [Music] junior [Music] h [Music] e [Music] thank you we would like to welcome our gueston action now's the stting lineups first we will [Music] announce first Jun number one Shan number 14 57 Jun number 24 [Applause] jiah and 5 fo1 sopore number 42 K CC [Music] by and now the start for youring BL first freshman number zero Al Jun number 21 [Music] gra 5 foot 10 freshman number 22 the 23 and the 5 sophore number 25 [Applause] J the lady cat coach is mcau who assisted by jul aw go [Music] lady [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] hey [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey [Applause] [Music] home [Music] youti War nice [Music] J [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 42 team first the shots are [Music] [Applause] [Music] good [Applause] [Music] com number [Applause] [Music] [Applause] f [Applause] [Music] number zero ala for [Music] three 23 adio first [Applause] first [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes sir [Applause] [Music] s [Music] he he another [Music] [Applause] one [Music] [Applause] [Music] two [Music] [Laughter] in Cil th two will be on [Music] [Applause] [Music] Co number 24 [Music] side [Music] by number [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that's number two by number 22 [Music] [Applause] [Music] love number 23 [Music] [Applause] will [Applause] [Music] [Applause] s number 24 second now [Applause] black first out four [Applause] [Music] GRE [Applause] 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[Music] first second [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] mat [Applause] this something Miss BHS four wrestlers qualif championships girls allance and boys th wrestling [Music] congs be senior seniors will be HED between come of ouriet [Music] basketball [Music] ofs are [Music] available [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] a goodday yesterday [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] h [Music] the [Music] e [Music] that I [Music] got [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] the [Music] [Applause] that [Music] n [Music] [Applause] the [Music] oh [Music] in ofits and desserts are available [Music] e [Music] call number first [Music] first [Applause] that's Billy [Music] Grant [Applause] no they [Music] [Applause] going [Music] herero Alissa sler [Applause] [Music] for2 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] go [Music] [Applause] [Music] it [Music] [Applause] J everything [Applause] up up up up [Music] [Applause] number [Applause] 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[Applause] [Music] my [Music] what [Music] [Applause] super bow [Music] time [Applause] let [Music] so [Applause] [Music] be [Music] number 22 mat for [Music] green up guys number 22 Matt for [Music] [Applause] three [Music] the 2004 St champion [Music] he [Applause] [Music] you [Applause] [Music] right [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] do [Music] [Applause] two let's [Music] go down [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hit for cc 52 [Applause] got [Applause] go [Music] to that [Applause] me [Applause] 42's go [Music] [Applause] come on [Music] manad [Applause] third [Music] number4 [Music] that that's a what are you looking at someone's going to get [Applause] [Music] hurt [Applause] what [Applause] for the F foul [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that's [Music] [Applause] fin [Music] w we have cration 2004 those members of the just chick CH let's give him a warm [Applause] welcome this is a 20 year anniversary of the 2004 state championship the 2004 wild went 26 and un class 3 state champions they won their after R is still the record today when the seniors on his team were freshman they had a winning record this started the current streak of 24th consecutive winning seasons for the Burlington High School Wilds their senior year also started a foure run with a record of 95 wins and four losses this group and the 2000 Burlington lady cats are responsible for laying the groundw to make our basetball tradition what it is today 10 of the 12 team members are attendant Jeff re and M Hedges were not able to make it back we want to recognize the of Coach Martin's daughter manager laen [Music] Martin and I would please when your name is Bobby Mary Jr [Applause] SMI BR Joe [Applause] a [Applause] Scott [Applause] assistant Co mark eag [Applause] [Music] assome [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] I [Music] [Applause] here by [Applause] [Music] Al [Music] [Applause] the a

e W noes good evening we're GNA go ahead and get started the crane school district understands that our community of schools is located on the ancestral land of the oam D aimo oam people who descended from the hokam and have inhabited these lands since time immemorial the oath of whose name translates literally to people or a vibrant culture and Community sping countless Generations into the past continuing to thrive in the present and carrying a powerful Legacy for Generations into the future with this acknowledgement the crankton school district formally recognizes that the traditional caring keeping of these lands by indigenous people is an aspirational model of community stewardship that we are committed to honor with practices policy and human relations and Mr man if you can please lead us in the pledge of allege alance FL United stat States of America to the stand Nation indivisible liberty and justice for all all right we want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and remind the audience of the request to address board cards that must be completed and submitted to the board secretary if they wish to speak to to an agenda item board policy provides for two cards White cards to be submitted in order to speak to an agenda item and blue cards to be submitted in order to speak during public comments due to the open meeting law board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda and that's per reference policy be DH I'm sorry I did thank you Miss wattis um we have Miss Gibson McLean here miss myself and Miss Micha and Miss MC cheffrey is not here all right that brings us to 2A which is approval of agenda I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented second all those in favor hi I all right and that brings us to governing board reports um Miss MB would you like to get us started um I don't really have much of a report other than I hope everyone enjoyed the three-day weekend and is feeling refreshed and everyone's getting through a Zella testing and getting excited to push through strong these last few weeks before spring break thank you U Miss SS I do not feel refreshed I could barely speak so I'm my board report for tonight I apologize that was my mistake you did tell me that you were feeling ill my apologies um Miss Gibson McLean um I don't the only thing that I'll always say is that we had a good meeting last week we are finally going to get to dress code at our next meeting um and so and I guess I'm talking about the student conduct committee so please uh submit come to the meeting or submit your public comment ahead of time if you have any comments about dress code I know it's a hot topic IC um and we'd love to have you in 10 in person or watch Along online thank you so much and I do not have a governing board report I'll wait until student outcomes and that brings us to Mr Man so I do have a few things but I'll try to be quick and um and I do need to give some props to miss Gibson mlan for working Hot Topic into the dress code you know like as a place you could get clothes sorry that was really I'll have you know that I've never purchased anything from that topic sorry yeah I should stay away from the humor today I'll go to the serious commentary um so uh one of the things I wanted to give a shout out is to the team that is working on our science adoption um I've had a chance to pop in on a couple of their sessions so Dr pombo and of course Martha Hernandez who who are kind of leading up that effort um it's just been really really cool to see um and if you go to our homepage on our website like I was like well how am I going to tell people where to find out where they can get more info on This I Gotta give kudos to to miss wasik like you can't miss it it is like a splash page of science so you like literally you open the website and you see graph paper and Geeks like me are like oh this is really cool so but um that team's doing a great job but we really are we're in that public review and comment period and we really do want participation um we had our uh uh kraton kids Congress a couple weeks ago we actually even got feedback from students but we want to make sure we get family and Community member feedback so please check out the website check out what's happening with science um tomorrow night is our Athletics fair for 6th through 8th grade at mon Vista school from 4:30 to 6:30 um very appreciative to the team that put that together so we can get a little bit more connectivity between the athletes in our district and the high schools that we feed to particularly Camelbeach um and then this one I always struggle with like really how to give a shout out for it because it is Black History Month but I think limiting our you know appreciation of black history to one month feels very artificial but that nonetheless one of the things that I am pleased is that um our curriculum team has a bunch of resources for our teachers to use any time of year and particularly during this month um and so I know Miss was Sol shared that out through the crate and connection last Friday maybe a couple of Fridays it's been and so those resources are available for use in our schools um Dr dup and Dr Lauren and I were able to attend the uh National aasa con conference last week and um I won't do a full report on it but just to kind of give a sense of the value of what we received from that um we were able to connect with Dr Tracy Benson from the anti-racism Leadership Institute and one of the things we've been looking for are some tool sets for anti-racism in the district and I believe we even had um in our uh draft guardrails a desire for the board to have anti-racism training so that was a nice opportunity to to get a look at some potential partnership there um and then another one that really really stuck out was a session um that was sponsored by or put together by the Durango um School dist district and so they were able to share with us their strategic plan which had some similar patterns to ours including a desire to have Outdoor Learning in their district and so they've put together something called the soil Outdoor Learning lab also very similar to us they did not have the money to fund all the things that they wanted to do with their soil Outdoor Learning lab so they put together a program where they identified the systems and and large scale components they couldn't afford looking for donors and as an example they recently had their community garden funded to the tune of $460,000 through donors and partners they're still looking for a food Forest an agriculture lab a soil shed an Inspire Center a hub and a grow oh actually their grome just got funded to the tune of 175,000 so really good folks for us to have some conversations with we're walking parallel Pathways they're very interested in in doing some partnership work with them but they also brought some of their Partners who will be very beneficial to us so the um there are two national organizations uh one is Project Learning Tree who has a bunch of curricular resources and materials available to us and even PD at no cost which should be helpful to our team that'll be working this summer on resources um for the new school but then in addition to that we were also connected with the naae which I'm drawing a complete blank on what the acronym stands for but they also have even more resources aligned with what we're looking to do um at Larry C Kennedy School for next year so um I think I think the uh Dr dupin and Dr Lauren would agree with me we got really high yield value of of access to some resources and information that was super helpful and while we were there students and uh staff members and family members from builtmore Preparatory Academy and I see principal dears uh here with us this evening had their annual trip to herio as well and so I know there were some touch Ando challenges to make sure that trip all went off well but the fact that Dr dear is back with us tells me that they had a successful and uh and delightful trip um real high filled with learning so yeah so we just we had some challenges with busing that it sounds like we're resolved so we were able to get everybody where they needed to be so and that's all I have to share this evening thank you so much all right that brings us to our next item which is the student outcomes Focus governance update and within this update I will give mine from when I went to Kentucky I was out in Kentucky for a three-day training on sofg work um myself um one person from Phoenix Elementary and one person from Washington Elementary School District were there and we were the only out of the whole West Coast a lot of people in the east coast were there um the beginning day was a really interesting rough day it was a whole bunch of 30 different adults in a room and we did a lot of mindset work and I'll just share this personal experience and reflection that I had when I was there so we got in we were doing our work getting to know each other collaborating blah blah blah um the instructor which is AJ or one of the coaches which is also the author of Great on their behalf which is this book that talks a little bit about the student outcomes focused governance work um which all board members have a copy and um cabinet as well um he lets us know and says okay do we all agree to be back in our seats at 11:48 because we were just sitting down in some seats and everybody says yeah sure so we come back 11:46 11:47 11:49 1150 so people are still kind of you know talking doing their own thing and then the energy kind of shifts in the room I felt like I was in a classroom when the teacher kind of just staring at the class like you guys know you should be quiet listening so then when people started getting the hang of the energy in the room and everybody just gets quiet he decides to point at one individual and tells them why did you choose not to be ready at 11:48 it was just a simple question you know and it's a question that I Time and Time hear in classrooms us asking our students why didn't you do this why weren't you ready when I asked you know so for an hour and I'm not overreacting for an hour in this room full of adults about five different adults had every excuse in the book on why they could not be ready at 11:48 well you didn't tell us what be ready means well what did you mean by that did you mean sitting down did you mean not talking did you mean my phone put away and listening to you it was just an hour of going back and forth with the coach on why they cannot be ready at 11:48 and then it kind of goes back to the whole premises of this framework which is the first thing that student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change we were sitting in a room full of adults we were given one simple instruction and for an hour our professional development time was wasted on arguments back and forth so then it he brings us to like this reflection what would you guys have done if that would have been a student combating you or going back and forth and asking you well you didn't tell me to be ready this what usually happens oh Behavior issue conduct issue send them to the office so it was just a really eye-opening experience on exactly kind of what was touched on the last board meeting if we're having a lot of contact issues in the district what's going on with the adults that are in the rooms with their students and it kind of fed into what was practice in that room too somebody couldn't just take the accountability and say I don't know next time I will be more mindful the time and be W when you asked me to be ready it was as simple as that so that was an experience um it was three full days of eight hours full of mindset work there were very many more situations that arose that way and those were the the same IND individuals that decided not to continue doing the program and these are all school board members that said on governing board members by the way so that should tell you something after they fed all the way over there and after the district already paid by the way so it was a really um eye openening experience it's really awesome to also get a little bit of more clarification on what our district goals are what guard rails really are um I had a little bit more understanding on especially what the guard rails are supposed to be and I think in this time I think if can we pull up the do we have the guardrail we have oh yeah the sheet the cheat sheet you can do the you can do the one pager for right [Music] now so the only reason why I'm going back to the guard rails right is because um for example I'm going to read the definition of a guard rail it says an operational action or class of actions usually strategic not t tactical the superintendent may not use or allow in pursuit of the school system student outcome goals guard rails are based on the community's values and should not undermine the school system's ability to meet the goals the guardrails will often require the superintendent to accomplish the goals in a different way guardrail monitoring guardrail setting and interim guardrail will all be in between so with the superintendent guard rails that we have right now um for example okay so for example the superintendent will not allow the district to operate without I'm looking at guard round number three without students having effective school-based wraparound support systems access to a Family Resource Center and access to a Community Education Center what happens with the super superintendent guard rails is that from what I I understood and took back today wraparound support systems should be enough but not necessarily naming a Family Resource Center or a Community Education Center because those are the intrum guard rails that could live within that guardrail of what that what repar round support systems means or looks like at that time um a good conversation that was brought up with this is and I'm not going to go into it there's a little bit of Community Schools things going around if that were ever to be an option if we're specifically tying our our superintendent hands down and saying these are the two things that you have to keep what if there were other options or we can turn something into bigger and that just kind of defeats the whole purpose of what the wraparound support system would look like for that District at that time I don't know does that make does that make sense um for example one could be the superintendent will not will have culturally relevant programs or curriculum at all times then it's up to the superintendent to come and tell us how that's going to look like within the system and that's where the interim goals go in and the accountability part of like okay what does that actually look like within the infrastructure at the moment so I think we need to revise some of our guard rails board guard rails too um the spefic specific one about the board will not operate without an annual self evaluation that is within the framework already so it's taking up space of a guardrail that we have to do within the framework already so it doesn't have to be a guardrail because that's something that's expected of us to do on a yearly basis if we're following the framework so that's probably going to have to be edited and the only reason why I wanted to bring this up is because we're going to go we're about to go out to the community on Thursday to this community council meeting and I want to make sure that we understand to a whole like why we're choosing certain goals why we're choosing certain guardrails that when we're presenting it to the community and they're asking us questions especially why are we so heavy on the test I know that's a big a big question that people have but it doesn't mean that Community Values and District goals cannot coexist at the same time and that's what the guard rails are for so for longevity sake when we were talking about adopting a frame the frame that's going to exist at a set of policies at a certain point correct that is correct so you're saying in those policies it will be explicit that this is a requirement and that's why we can get rid of the correct okay yeah um also this training because it's such a new framework right this this new training that I'm in that we all couldn't be on especially with it being election season and all these crazy things happening we don't know who's going to be on the board but um It's a 9month Long training so I'm sure as I get deeper into the training and I did open up a share drive and everything that's being given to us and talk to us or taught to us I'm going to be putting in there I'm sure the policy piece will eventually come into that it's just that we're in the early phases right now of getting Community input and we still have to go to each school and do all that before we can get into the policy side but yes it will live in policy somewhere okay so with that being said um I would like for just to for example that one um board guard rail do we have the sheet where we were typing it [Music] in yeah because I think the the board selfie valve for sure has to be taken off because that's something that we have to do on a year basis anyways and I don't know if you guys have any other um ideas on for example the superintendent gville the first one I think that's sufficient because gives it leaves a whole bunch of room on well what does that inability or you know what practices are you talking about or what does that look like what does that mean you're asking if it's like any other edits one oh okay I was like I just want to be clear on what you're asking right now I'm going back to my notes before because I know we have had more than five board ones so if we're looking to revise number three or replace it I was trying to pull up my notes to see and then while we're thinking that we dropped off you know so while we're talking about that and we're thinking about the board guard rails too um one of the examples that they gave us also when we're taking into consideration the board goals and this is something that we need to obviously discuss with the community too right is that the whole purpose of having these goals is that the superintendent there in return is going to give us a game plan at how to get to these goals whether that means he needs to repurpose funds other things need to happen that's going to be up to them to come and tell us and see if that works for us and then we approve it right but one of the things and scenarios they were saying it's like look at it as a one truck right you only have one truck and that truck carry 16 gallons of gasoline if you invite a buddy now you're splitting half and half so they try to make us look at it as a budget point of view too if you have five goals then your resources are going to be split in five different ways versus if you had one two or three goals all your resources will go to those three goals versus getting 25% here or 5% here or 10% there I'm cool with us just leaving it perfect and and that's another thing that when we were coaching with Dr Ramos too he said that because we're such a small District that these kind of goals seem attainable did you have something Lindy um I was just going to share some of the notes from some of the things that we either dropped or tried to weave in to the board guards um so some of notes from that conversation um people brought up like respectful professional public meetings um two-way communication preparation for meetings fing following procedures and policies um I had a quote that I think was probably one from the examples from the other school districts that was um the board will not engage in negative conversation or public behaviors that put District staff students or board in a negative manner um and then the other one that we didn't include is not oh no we did include that that's the only one I have that we didn't if that makes sense yeah it does um and I think I had like um some free speech uh concerns about that one oh yeah I remember you saying that but the two-way communication one kind of brings up a good point because looking at our staff survey Last Time Communication was at the lowest and um historically you hear community members saying sometimes we don't even know what's going on over there we don't know what's happening here so maybe having a guard rail on two-way communication with when it comes to internal employees and community members could be good a good one um and that gives it a little bit more room and I think that's a obviously when we take it to community council they'll let us know but that's something that's going around especially with the data that we just came back and said that that was our lowest grading that we had was the communication keep in mind that when we drilled down into it it was related to local work group um communication okay so I I'm not against it as a board guard rail but I I also don't want to create a sense that there's an issue with something that isn't a match for what the feed was telling us if that makes sense oh yeah and I meant that more like a superintendent guardrail sorry or even as a superintendent oh okay or we can leave this as is and as we're getting more information on Thursday we can adjust them but um I did drop some information last minute into the drive if we can just look over it and read it because after watching those videos and watching um reading a little bit more in depth it kind of made more sense on what the superintendent guard Rael is and how the interim guard rails and and progress monitoring would work for each of those did you guys have any other yeah yeah I'll try to get through um I just want to say that I think I think we should have something on there about Behavior because we talk a lot about how our Behavior our our adult Behavior should change first and I feel like we kind of glossed over that and just looking at this like you know they're based on our Community Values we want that and we want that for our community so I would really like um you know I would like to see it focused on that and maybe you know like you said it could be talked about on Thursday night um when you guys are I don't know who's coming that night because I already had something planned um but I would like to hear from them like what what they feel about that as well so do you have the copy of the one that you were talking about when it said board Behavior because that that's probably a good one to swap out with the self EV Valu valtion since that's something that has to be done already so like the way it was written I think that there are going to be some free speech concerns because it discusses comments made by people and so I think you just got to be real careful with how you word it is all and I'm not saying we have to have it the same words yeah I just would like to see something included with behavior so like once again when we're gone I mean I agree I think there a way to word it that it doesn't do that but the way it's worded right now it doesn't work um I have a couple samples that they gave us from different districts and I think I see that one familiarized with different so what I'll do is um H if we can take off for right now if we're all okay the self evaluation one just because that's repetitive and or maybe just yeah strike it through thank you and then I'll figure out if I can pull a whole bunch of different ones and then maybe bring it back to next meeting or have it ready for you guys on Thursday and then we can look over it and then I'll send it to you to see if we have different different ones um okay other than that I don't have anything else Mr man did you want to add anything else um oh I was gonna go ahead if you want to go first it's fine it's okay no I was just gonna say I had I had a um one of the other positives of attending asasa was I had an opportunity to spend about an hour and a half chatting with Dr Ramos who um you know kind of shared similar feedback to what you described which was you know while these there are a large number of goals in guard rails compared to what we may have seen other peer districts doing throughout the country that he felt that we were small and agile and capable of of doing a little bit more and then um very much the discussion this evening was aligned where we might want to see some some tightening of um of those guard rails in particular to take a look at um these components and then I'm really excited to see what community feedback we get but um also wanted to point out that we also have some student feedback that we collected at our um Katon kids Congress Miss MC cheffrey was able to be there and with some support from Dr dup and and uh Dr Palomo um really facilitated a great discussion um with our student representatives and we got some some what I thought was really valid valuable feedback that's awesome and I love that we include student voices you would think that's the first place anybody would start especially an institution that's meant for students but that very much so gets overlooked all the time so that was some I know I did see some pictures on Instagram that was really cute I love kids Congress those kids are so man they're going to be the next board members okay um perfect perfect do we have any other questions or comments all right and then other than that please come out Thursday at lalinda we're going to have food we're going to have child care and we would love to hear from you guys all right and that brings us to our next item which is 5A public comments and we only have one miss green I invite you up good evening uh I just wanted to talk for a couple of minutes about less than three minutes about um uh behavior in general um I really appreciate I'm serving on meet and confer this year and it was our top concern when we went through and prioritized interests and issues that we wanted to talk about this year on meet and confer and then we got presentations from all four I think there are of the different committees and groups and including the policy committee that you guys are working with or are spearheading and it was wonderful to hear all of the information and I just wanted to bring a perspective that I hope everybody in this room appreciates in terms of finding the balance I think sometimes we have an education in general swung from one pendulum to the other or we one side of the pendulum to the other and we really need to find the middle in lot of different ways but especially around um Behavior I 100% agree with you that we need to change adult Behavior if we want to have an influence on student behavior and at the same time I think when a student physically assaults another student it should be an automatic suspension I don't think that that's okay to have students that are physically being aggressive over and over again not be suspended sometimes because there might be a perception that having a high number of suspensions looks bad if the board finds out that there's a high number of suspensions and I think there is some of that happening in our district where some leaders are feeling that pressure and that's having an influence on the decisions that they're making now is suspension a Panacea no absolutely not but we also need to think about that student who's getting punched and who feels afraid to go to school and is hiding out in the bathroom or trying to find ways around campus that won't um bring them into contact with somebody that's that's bullying them repeatedly and the message that happens when students who are that extreme with their behavior are not being suspended the message that that has on the other students because they are paying attention and they notice things like that suspension should not be by itself it should be coupled with all kinds of other interventions just like if we were going to retain a student is retention ever appropriate yeah in some situations it might be appropriate it's not appropriate by itself as an intervention to help a student neither is suspension but there are other ways that we can do this I I think if we look at some other districts and how they are managing some of these things that can help us I know one of our neighboring districts has an in school suspension that is not in a school it's in one other one of the schools that they have extra room in and if your P if your student gets suspended and gets assigned to in school suspension they have to drive there and spend the day there so they're not on their campus anyway I just think that we really need to make sure we're being balanced in how we look at behavior and make sure we're protecting all students thank you thank you that was the only public coming we had right Miss what okay okay thank you all right that brings us to approval of consent I move the governing board approve can I pull g& yes of course um GNH I move the governing board approve consent agenda items a through F and I in accordance with policy bb- e second all those in favor I I don't get scared I'm not doing anything inappropriate I'm just bringing to light like some changes in transparency and so if folks weren't aware um I went back and looked through agendas for several school years and for years this me this these two topics have been voted on and um nothing no actual lists of names have been posted and so a big change this year is that we requested to H to have actual names list of names so that we're not just blindly voting on contracts and um non non-renewals um it feels weird that in the past that was just being voted on with no names known and you're just voting on something that you've never seen and so I just want to give an example of how we're already seeing improvements in transparency so if we didn't know that also means the public never saw those documents um because they were never on board docs for the meetings and so if anyone's curious if you go back to this agenda for today there's now ual documents with lists for the actual names of people for items g& in the past you would not have seen those there so just putting that out there and I appreciate the transparency Improvement and so I'd move to uh approve items g& from the consent agenda I second all those in favor I I thank you all right and that brings us to 10A which which is Esser budget transition plan part two so Madame President members of the board I just I wanted to give a quick frame for for why we have this item and why a part two but I want to start with a quick mayaula because it was brought to my attention that um it may have appeared at the last board meeting that comments that were made were dismissed by me and in my introductory comments and that was not by any stretch of the imagination my intent what I was actually attempting to do was basically recognize the concerns and talk about the fact that you know we're aware of what those concerns are and the goal wasn't to move forward as if there were no concerns but there was a without a doubt a need to not only address those concerns but make certain that we were staffed properly to deal with some of the challenges that we have around conduct and behavior um and that by Staffing those needs we certainly would not see an improvement in some of the challenges that we're dealing with and so um my sincerest apology to anyone who took my comments as not valuing what they had shared with us I highly value it we hear what people are saying we hear their voice and and really in no way shape or form is there an intent to just continue forward with things in their current state we are always in the process of trying to dig in and find out what's working and what's not and keep the things that are working well and improve the things that need Improvement so um I just wanted to make certain that I owned that and put that out there and sorry to hold you up Dr dupin but with that I will turn it over to you all right good evening president Kio members of the governing board um it's my privilege at this time to introduce to you um doc I almost said Doctor Mr Billy M Billy is one of our child Justice Advocate teachers on on assignment and he serves at the district level so um he supports needs across multiple campuses at different points in the year he's filled in for a longer on a longer term basis at different sites and he's really been pivotal to helping us um support the development that has occurred respond to the changes and the feedback that we have received and get ready to engage in this conversation with you tonight so what we're going to bring forward are the responses to the questions and requests for data that we think we heard uh from our last discussion and hopefully provide additional opportunities for conversation about the role of the child Justice Advocates the impact and then the potential for change moving forward and so Billy's going to help us out with that so wanted to go back to the to the kind of the timeline of development we did prioritize the child Justice Advocates as a role for the 2223 school year and started hiring folks in those positions so really that role has been in existence in for for about 18 to 20 months so that's the the window of impact that we're thinking about um in that first set of months we learned a tremendous amount so I wanted to highlight some of the things that we learned and some of the changes that were made as a result last summer so after the first few months and based on the feedback that we were receiving about some of the challenges the the needs for consistency and other things made some very specific changes to the role and those changes are highlighted for you here the first was that we piloted a common evaluation and coaching framework this tool aligns to the teachers evaluation framework which is the Daniel and the Danielson framework has rubrics and tool sets for a variety of different kinds of Specialists including um counselors and support student support professionals so we took that modified it so that it didn't in incur some of the responsibilities that would be attributed to a licensed social worker um and made it appropriate for the role and I have an example of what it looks like we also implemented a uniform time tracking accountability system that the team learned about last spring and Billy remind us of where it comes from this is from the American School Counselors Association so in terms of the use of time and the use of time to support very specific actions the team learned about and implemented this time tracking accountability system in addition the team expanded affinity group professional development for teachers so this year we've been serving about 52 of our teachers from across the district in two very very specific uh Affinity groups one focusing on child Justice and advocacy we had a third one and it was condensed when one of our um District level toas moved on to another role outside the district um now we have child Justice and advocacy and then positive behavior supports for students and those have met throughout the year and then and then finally we were able to gather comparative perception data using the Panorama survey you'll recall that we give the Panorama survey to teachers staff and students we didn't give it to students last year because we had the law changed and we had to get um uh parental consent for for students to participate but we did get it in the fall of 21 so this year we were able to get consent from families and offer students the opportunity to take the survey so we have comparative perception data from Panorama from 21 to 23 so it spans the the window of time before we had the role to to this recent U fall semester so those are the four big changes that were implemented as a direct result of the learning the feedback we're receiving about some of the challenges and issues associated with the role and maximizing impact of the role so these are the components we call this a smart card because it has the four big domains of the evaluation and coaching system it again aligns to uh the the teachers it includes domain one which is planning and preparation domain two which is the environment for learning domain three which are the professional responsibilities um sorry domain four is professional responsibilities and domain three are the delivery of services so we began to use that as a way to provide coaching and then evaluation that was common for all the roles all the people in the child Justice advocacy role and I know I'm talking fast so if you do have any questions please feel free to to dive in who evaluates them great question thank you member SS Miss gatu we are the role is evaluated by the principal and supported by Linda mckever who's the district level coordinator and that's the common approach that we use for everybody in that's in like a district or in a TOA role so instructional coaches for example are evaluated by their principle and then with the support of the director of curriculum instruction assessment special ed similarly thank [Music] you and um you said this framework was adopted from where I'm sorry this comes from Charlotte Danielson and the Danielson framework for teaching and it's based on oh okay it's the same one that we use for our teachers except she the Danielson group has different models for different kinds of professionals so there's a framework for folks who support who provide student Support Services as well okay she also has one for instructional Specialists like instructional coaches or other teachers on assignment and there are a variety of others I will point out again that we did adopt it a little bit so we took off items that were specific to school counselors because again we don't have Masters in Social Work level practitioners in the role so we wanted to make sure sure we weren't inviting the problems that could exist when asking people to function outside of the role thank you thank you so I'll reference back to the service provided and the Really the the time tracking system that was implemented we have categorized the work of the child Justice Advocates into four big buckets if you will and those are Direct Services which are provided directly to students indirect Services which are are the work that's done for students um program management and then of course we have to have the bucket for other because there are things that that arise from time to time not related to the core of the role so Billy and team went through The Advocates and the data that has been collected over the use of time for the first half of this year and he's going to provide now some more specific detail about what we were able to capture in these categories as far as the investment of time and support from The Advocates this year thank you Dr dup president cryo members of the board forgive a little raspiness in my voice I feel like Miss Aries maybe about a week ago right now so um what we see up here on the screen at the moment is a list of Direct Services that we Whittle down as a group with all the Advocates from all eight sites these services are ways that we work directly with students students who um or if we categorize our work in one of these areas it'll mean that there's a student or group of students directly in front of us at that time um these services will um often revolve around providing instruction or helping with Behavior Support either before or after a behavior incident might occur are there um requirements for certain Direct Services that aren't like incident specific so as far as how often these need to happen and in terms of like Community circles and other things that might like Lunch Bunch that sort of thing at this time kind of like ad Haw at this time they're not direct requirements for any particular category but they do um there are requirements based on behaviors and situations that arise that would dictate which service would be used okay the only thing that to that that I would add is that with any time a child does experience a suspension there is a requirement that a restorative followup be in implemented as a result of or after the the suspension itself so okay sometimes that occurs as part of a like a sometimes it's an in school plus a little bit of an out of suspension during that in school part at the end then they work on a project under the direct supervision of a child Justice Advocate or they work on it over time and those projects take a variety of of formats but that is one very clear expectation that we've put in place over the last couple of years so just to be clear there's no semesterly or yearly requirement for how many Community circles lunch bunches or seal lessons need to be conducted at this point that's correct okay and then um the pro as far as the restorative projects go um is that something that every CGA does or is it if you choose to do it cjas are brought in for certain Behavior situations and when they are brought in they typically brought in for that reason and so all of our CJ have been trained on restorative practices and projects and do all use them okay and from my perspective it would because we do have suspension incidents at all of our schools there is an expectation that these strategies would be implemented at any time if that were to occur we want the majority of the services to be proactive in nature the reality is that the the one that had the clearest expectation was the restor followups certainly okay and and if I could add I think the youth Equity Steward component also had a clear set of that's true expectations because there were a certain number of Youth Equity stewardship events throughout the year and so and and at least anecdotally because I would just randomly pop into events um every time I was at an event the cja from the site that was participating or sites plural participating in the event were present um one of the really cool things was a few of them our CEOs showed up too which was awesome to see so sorry to harp on this just on the Direct Services but is there any has there been any contemplation about for things like Community Circle or lessons like making a requirement of having at least two or three of those per semester or school year so that there's consistency and community building and um culture building in schools around this I would say absolutely yes there's a strong desire to create greater continuity around that work as part of the basic Foundation of a school and I'm I don't remember the number but I do know when we started the approach there was an intention around I I don't know if we said every class every quarter there was a a a framework around that but it wasn't something that we held tightly to but yes there is a lot of thought around that the other thing that I do want to clarify is that especially this year we established an expectation that 80% of The Advocates overall time would be dedicated to Direct Services to students and the way we talked about that was that that meant and it wasn't when I talked about it it wasn't quite as detailed as what began to get measured but it was things like providing those in-class supports through modeling co- teing or doing small groups within the classroom setting so that it built the the strength of the classroom community um doing small groups with students or working with students and their families so it was kind of broad but the goal was 80% of that time should be dedicated to those kinds of services and not the other bucket which we showed there kind of building on that um just because I am familiar with Danielson from a teaching and coaching standpoint so um you have the components here but like when you get into those critical attributes or like ranking I'm assuming you all use the same terminology you know distinguish proficient basic within the domains so is there anything that does kind of quantify you know like because if you're going to evaluate this kind of going on so if you click on the link on the first page it'll bring you to that where you can see for each domain the rubric I would say and it's probably the first thing I wrote down was that these to me I know I'm not Charlotte Danielson and she's been around for a long time I'm not dumb and I'm not an expert but I think that these the way this is worded I'm not sure a lot of the there's no like me some of these are not like talking about measurables obviously yeah they're using terms like demonstrates deep and thorough understanding like a lot of subjective language so I think that some of these things depending on which domain we're talking about could use some work but I was going to get to that later and to add to that understanding of the Danielson framework although there are some vague tendencies in the language uh she does stipulate about proactive awareness about a lot of these services and making sure that people are aware of them before and after they would be needed and that criticism or that critique of the Danielson framework is common across all the approaches so when we use it to to work with teachers for examp example the same kind of of thought comes up like well how do you know and to what degree and how much yeah and I think even just from Beyond the broader vagueness it could be also more catered to our needs as well depending on what comes up yeah like I understand the intent of the language when you're looking at it from a teacher because you can't quantify all of it but I think this might be an area where some of those pieces could be Quantified you know what's the minimum that we expect just to ensure that there is that consistency that you know the kindergarteners in one school are getting the same you know seal lessons and push in that the fifth graders are and at another school the area that we lean on heavily with instructional Specialists instructional coaches child Justice Advocates and I don't know if the numbers are the same across the board but in this example it's 1e which is planning the Intervention Program so the structure is based on the Specialists themselves designing what the Intervention Program is for their setting and then implementing that so their valuation is based on this successful design and implementation of of a plan which then allows for some variety of approach to how the needs are served that same variety of approach can be very effective and helpful but it can also create inconsistencies that are pro problematic so to continue with the services that we've categorized and identified on the screen indirect services or Services we're work working for students not necessarily with them this is more behind the scenes where we are working to plan gather information and communicate with others who would need to be aware of any Services students are receiving program management is similar sounding although more administrative in nature where advocates would be monitoring their own data by one inputting it also reviewing that and using it as a tool to help influence decisions also this would be lesson planning and then participation in site committees which multiple of our Advocates are participants in a few different committees sorry can we go back to the indirect Services sorry it's just my processing tonight's a little sure um so the areas that I thought were most interesting in the domains on just given my prior work if you go to domain 4 on professional responsibilities for the actual rubric I think for for me and the work that I used to do this seems more like um passive I guess in terms of our relationship with families and I'm hoping that these um positions take a more collaborative approach with families and so just giving information to I'm not saying that that's what happens but that's what's communicated on these documents right and so like if the expectation on these documents is that we're just delivering information to parents that isn't setting us up for um like a foundation of building a collaborative partnership with families and so that's more what I think we need to strive for if we're going to start really making some strides in this work as well we can't just be passively passing on information to people and expecting them to receive it the way we want them to or to jump to be involved in whatever it is um I think uh some one of the major things about the work that I used to do was like the relationships we were able to make with our families and so I think if we could you know work on because there's only two components in that section as well um if we could work on that I think that would help as well I don't know how that looks I'm just throwing that out there thank you that's excellent and helpful feedback um it makes me think about what we're doing with the learning walks and and our focus on learning targets and success criteria for example so they're not explicitly mentioned in the Danielson framework we've learned that having much more specific action oriented um practices are where the real rubber meets the road in terms of coaching and so I think that that to me the connection is that that could just work really well here to support that development yeah and even getting families to understand what what all of the Direct Services were given to their student or child and what that look like having getting families to have a true whole understanding of what's going on with these interventions so that they can take some ownership over it or even maybe Implement some of the same techniques at home I think would be helpful just a thought thank you I'm sorry did you finish yes a non CJ related task would just be uh any other task that we might get called into that uh basically it's when you're not wearing your CGA hat and you might just be filling in as a support person due to Staffing shortages or anything else going on and you'll notice discipline is highlighted in there and and that specifically is when we're talking about what we consider the administrative functions of discipline so if we're conducting an investigation um you know doing a threat assessment for example we we want those to be conducted by people who are administratively certified who have been trained in how to do those very specific things um so it's we we really do try to a line between the the proactive and intervention oriented support that the Justice Advocate provides and that's not to say that administratively certified people don't also do that but that the roles do have some delineation so on this side we see a breakdown of our data between quarters one and Quarter Two um these percentages represent the amount of occurrences that were delivered for each one of the services and so so as we had spoken about earlier based on the ASA model we have asked our Advocates to reach 80% in Direct Services for each of their quarters as we see up here on the board we did not reach that goal in quarter one but we were able to obtain it in Quarter Two what this data does reflect in quarter one is a lot of beginning of the year type behaviors and supports that would be called in to support them for instance students who are uh getting used to new schools and school in general will require more deescalation and students as the year goes on we also have more Lunch Bunch groups and instances of advocate supporting discipline so in a Lunch Bunch group it might be a way to make students feel more comfortable to begin meeting new friends at a new school a new building and then as schools years begin there's always going to be Behavior hotpots where Advocates are going to get called in to support discipline on a less Advocate related role the next two slides represent the actual numbers that were delivered by The Advocates in each district or for the entire District here we see a shift to uh services that are going to show more relationship building with our students as well as the teachers and staff and families so as we move into Quarter Two we see more regularly scheduled and plan services such Asal lessons and also more regular check-ins with students if we can go back to the py graph for one moment um speaking to this is a little easier than the graphs because you can see that comparison but I'd like to draw your attention to the amount of red in quarter one and how it's dipped in quarter two and then also how our green Services have shifted from a variety of different ones as we built those relationships and established more Behavior plans and such we've had more check-in opportunities with students on a more regularly scheduled and proactive basis so this table summarizes the change between quarters one and two so a couple of these that we just wanted to highlight were the 514 additional in occurrences of the check-ins and can you just describe in depth what a check-in is because it feels like it could mean a lot of things yes and to a degree it does a checking could be anything that is incorporated into a specific behavior plan where we want to have students checking in with an advocate an x amount of times during a day during a week or whatever it might be that the behavior calls for for instance a student who is having behavior problems and is learning new coping skills to address those problems and as we build their understanding of these skills we want to be able to check in with them to see if it's working or not and have the student be able to self-reflect on their own progress so as we call students in that might be once every period we've also had advocates who have had to set up check-ins with students every 5 10 minutes for a certain amount of time until the students can demonstrate and begin to utilize those skills on their own checkins could also be checking up with a student after maybe having a restorative conversation between two students who had a conflict and you want to follow up with them at a later date to see how that progress has been and so that one is not going to be as regularly planned but it is planned ahead of time after a restorative conversation where an advocate would check in to make sure that everybody is living up to the commitments made in that conversation and then another area where we saw an increase um was restorative questioning can you describe what that is a little bit yes so restorative questioning is a way that we want to ask questions using restorative language to make sure that students do not feel personally attacked or judged for their behaviors but are instead being led to understand what happened why it happened and how it can be repaired so restorative questioning comes into play anytime there might be a referral written for a student student where a teacher might submit a referral and after meeting with the assistant principal or principal The Advocate then gets called in to ask more deeply questions rooted in the uh the roots of the behavior excuse me um so restorative question is also going to lead us to ask students questions before having a restorative conversation we like to use the idea of an iceberg where restorative conversation is just the tip of the iceberg sticking out of the water and a lot of the leg work happens beforehand so we're going to ask a lot of restorative questions to students um on both sides of the conflict in order to understand their thinking and help coach them and help lead them to what they're going to say and share in their actual restorative conversation with their peers I think the sophistication of the learning that we've experienced over the last year is just how hard restorative practices actually are there it's it's not just say you're sorry and accept and forgive and move on there's a whole bunch of work that has to be done to actually create a relationship because you can't restore something that doesn't exist in the first place and so if the kids aren't if the relationship doesn't exist between the people involved whether the're big people or little people it's it's there's there is nothing to restore so it has to kind of be built and understood how what the harm was that was caused and then something can the restoration process can begin so that kind of stands out in terms of the data and the amount of time that is has been invested to do some of those things do any of you have any questions about any of the other items here or any of the numbers and what they mean so going not a question but more of a comment um I know that we were looking at a pie chart that had percentages for the whole District but as you scroll through I see the attachment with the breakdowns for each school I think like there's obviously concerning discrepancies in terms of the actual raw numbers of what's going on at each school um I hope this is an error that nothing's happened at excellencia in Quarter Two there's just zeros um but even so the numbers from quarter one are dismal um for anything really and so I'm just curious what the heck is going on there um additionally Gateway numbers seem Troublesome specifically there is some improvement but zeros on the direct Ser indirect services and everything except for Direct Services for quarter one um and then just like the numbers in general I go the the disheartening thing for me I think in looking at the numbers is it's the exact like if you were to ask me where are we seeing people um putting in the most work the raw numbers are going to be highest for Direct Services I would be able to tell you those schools before I even scroll down because it's the same schools that have the highest test scores and it's the same schools that have the highest percentage of white students and the highest socioeconomic background and so I think we need to be cognizant of that as we're going through this it's pretty obvious that the numbers are aligned with that and so I just want us to all be aware of that as we're moving forward um and that's just that's just my opinion but also I I don't know if there's numbers missing but yeah if you go down to quarter two for uh cja stuff there's only like two numbers total on there which is confusing if I could point out just in excellen specifically the child Justice Advocate was redeployed to teach social studies and language arts for the whole I think the majority of quarter two if not all of it okay her her that data is is definitely reflective of a near complete change in assignment for that person and we you know these are the data that we have so we wanted to be able to be fully transparent I think it speaks to a lot of the concerns that have been expressed that even have been expressed in this room you know like why is it different well the data affirm that difference exists and point us in some clear directions about how to address the concerns you expressed with regard to a focus on all students um making sure that services are consistent across the board and I also will acknowledge that um and this is I don't want this to sound like excuse making but I do know from my experience that documenting the work is a challenge certain some people are really good at it and some people are they don't prioritize it in the same way something that we definitely want to strike the balance on but also hold a high expectation for you know showing the impact of a role certainly certainly and I think you know if I I would get that totally more if I we were like looking at summaries of what happened or debriefs or whatever but if we're just talking about talles it feels like you might be able to go especially for some of these things that don't happen very often but we're still seeing zeros and I'm just like question marks especially I mean obviously we already know the data that exists for Mackin and then if you look at this it seems interesting as far as numbers go so just things I want people to be like thinking of if you're not already thinking of because that was first thing to mind was demographics and how this all aligns for me absolutely any other questions or comments just ditto to what you said um the only thing that I want to add um to this is that I I do have kind of a a problem now that I've been learning about more goals and smart goal format is that I think what I would like to see is if we're going to be spending all these dces and dollars on this specific program I want to see how that in return is going to be measured I mean are are the referrals going down in the schools I'm not sure what that looks like on that end because I'm not in that system but I do think that we need to have something measurable coming back to us and saying okay this is three months this is what the CGA or whoever has been doing and this is the data that we're getting I don't know if the goal would be to reduce the referrals re I don't know what that looks like but I I want us to start getting in the habit is that when we as the board are making decisions and passing budgets how it's literally tying into the not only the student outcomes portion of it but how we're going to be measuring if this is working or not it's not a good think I'm not saying it's a good thing I'm not saying it's a bad thing I'm not saying it's a right I'm not saying it's a wrong but sometimes if certain things that are in place are not working there should be enough alert for us to be like okay maybe this is where we need to repurpose or do whatever um I think historically when we don't have measurable goals this is why we turn into this and that and nobody knows what's do nobody knows what's going on nobody everybody's doing their own thing and this is why we get into the same positions and still get the same results even even though we're funneling all this money or these added on people or all these added on things because we're not keeping on track of what really the issue is and I think the issue is is obviously to bring down the behavior issues and how do Behavior conduct gets um you know looked at at a school setting is through the referral so if that it's as simple as lowering the referrals then I feel like somebody people have a goal to look at and then they start putting their energy and their resources to that versus well this and that and being all over the place so for me I would like to see that back either in a board update in an email or something on how we're going to start bringing some measures to make sure that our conduct is actually being taken care of and we're working on it and that we know that what we have implemented is actually working because if we can't even come up with a a a goal in it then that should be a red flag in itself if we can't measure this then something else needs to happen I agree I think that would help with the with the evaluation and then I think you could also like I suggested some other things but for example like every time a restorative project is being done by a student like there should probably be a required communication with the family about the process for that project why who what where when how with the family because that's a big deal and they should be like totally CL queued in on to why their kids spend all this time doing something like that and what it was about and what what the end result was I don't know if that exists already or if that's measured but like those two things should definitely be directly tied together um I think there's other things you can connect here that would be like you're going to do one thing you're going to do the other right um and so I think there's ways to like develop measurables out of these pretty easily I think another piece of data that and again maybe it does exist but we're not seen it here um well I definitely appreciate that we have input from the students on the impact um I think one of the other concerns that was brought up is like are the teachers are the classroom teachers feeling it and going back to the goals and how we measure this it's not just number of referrals but like how supported are they feeling when these behav you know reception data yeah so whatever that looks like I I really don't want to us tell you what to do but whatever that lives and however it lives I would like to have some kind of measurables to make sure that it is going the right way and we're not running into this topic every year and it's like well it feels like nothing has been done because that's kind of what it feels like and that's not in anybody's fault we don't have measurables we didn't take it as a board the responsibility to initiate that so that kind of falls back on everybody but if this is something that we feel is going to get sustained I want to know with those measurables and how moving forward it is actually going to match to those student outcomes to that 0% of black students being able to pass that math test at 8th grade yeah I think I think all of that's valid the one thing I would push back on a little bit is if we're going to change our human resources practices to base things on perceptual data of other staff I don't know that it's fair to do that just to the child Justice Advocates and so you know over the years I've had a lot of perceptual feedback on a lot of different positions and if we bowed to the will of perceptual feedback versus actual data I think we open ourselves up to a lot of liability you know in relation to how we're handling Human Resources issues a very much value that perceptual data and to be honest all of these measures even though looking at them now we're saying wish we had this wish we had that you know maybe this isn't the be all end all of what we would want to be looking at datawise all of this data was actually as a process implemented and the data was collected did based on perceptual feedback that we had received at the end of last school year so I to me the way to react to perceptual feedback is to assess Effectiveness and make programmatic changes to try to improve you know visible outcomes from from programmatic elements and you know there are other groups within our district where I could give you 20 years of data that says H maybe we should do away with this position it's looking in effective and we made decisions this year for some of those positions to bring in new curriculum and new PD to instead of assuming that the humans involved in the process are just choosing to not be effective to look at what might the root root causes of the program itself being in effective is and rather than sort of pitch it to the side you know look at how can we put in place a program that would give us something measurable where we could not only determine Effectiveness but we could also ensure that the appropriate support were there to help those individuals be successful I think if we are to move forward a lot of the things that were expressed by board members this evening which also align with a lot of the perceptual data feedback that we've received to date is that we really need to see an impact at the student level at the data level with some with a measure other than did activities occur in in a certain quantity let me just push back just a little bit on that one is I don't see anywhere in here where student perception results or Panorama data answers are factoring into anyone's um evaluations and so I don't know that Miss Michaela was necessarily suggesting that teacher perception data should factor into anyone's evaluation what I'm hearing is that if we're already Gathering student perceptions we should probably gather teacher and staff perceptions as well and if student perception data is already being considered in the totality of the circumstances we should probably include teacher and staff perception data in that as well not in like retaining employees or in their evaluations necessarily but in like overall program uh uh like efficacy and so I think if that's the case I think that it's very important to get that that information in that data from teachers and staff I understand that some of these things it it could feel like checking boxes when you start making requirements but at the same time I think we got to try some things on especially when we're seeing such a discrepancy in implementation of or either data collection is way off or the implementation is very bad it's one or the other and either needs to be fixed and so until then I think there probably needs to be some changes in requirements for what needs to be done on a regular basis because at some point there's going to be a threshold level for eff efficacy and so we got to figure that out before we just start really changing things up because if we haven't even tried some of these things why are we going to throw them out already um and so I think that plus what we don't know the unknown unknowns of the teacher and staff perceptions not saying that's going to guide the entire conversation but it's an important voice and we're hearing again and again and I think that like that's very I I you know that's not going to go anywhere and it's going to Fester if we don't listen to it and so I I that's just kind of how I wanted and I'm not pushing back in a way that's like what you said is wrong I agree with you I don't think that should be factored in but since I'm not seeing the student perception factoring into anyone's evaluation why not gather that data just to can I add to it too and just clarify because I there is a way to do it where you're not pit making it personal and we absolutely don't want that um but I was thinking in terms of like staff can evaluate if they feel their students have increased social awareness if they feel their students have increased self-management like if they're seeing impacts and changes in how students interact with one another rather than this person doesn't come into my room enough you know like um I think there's a way to do a way to measure Buy in we already know if teachers and staff are forced to do something that they have no ownership or buyin into it's not going to be successful and so we have to get a sense of where we're at with that or we're just going to keep running into the same dead ends over and over again and we need to get everyone bought in and on the same train moving in the same direction and and we do have teacher we have equivalent teacher Panorama data that that we could look at over the same period I guess the the reason that the student data was provided was that these individuals were not working with the teachers they were working with the students so what we were looking at was that direct work with students what was the impact on those students of that direct work but we certainly could take a look at the teacher Panorama data as well um and that is data that we do have we just didn't reflect it in the presentation this even so and I apologize because I misunderstood I didn't realize we were talking about similar Panorama data I thought we were talking about floating a survey should we have should we have these people yeah no that gets no not no just I think and it's always interesting too when you do like not even you know Behavior related but when you have perception data from the teachers and the students like it also gives like sometimes teachers think things are better off than they are or they think they're worse off than they are you know and students feel differently and so I think that's just also valuable information for the site leadership and the cja to see are are the teachers and students feeling the impact the same way and if they're not sometimes it's a matter of like going back to the inner communication right yep so any other questions or comments no thanks for dealing with yes thank you so much for the presentation appreciate it having me all right that brings us to 11a which is governing board asba policy advisories number 748 through 762 first reading [Music] um yeah the only reason why I say that is because last time we received this email I took it upon myself because I knew that this organization fired the attorney that they had so my valid question was if I'm spending all this thousands of dollars on policy who's the attorney that's giving us this advice because last I checked they don't have an attorney well apparently they gave us this random name that I've done some research can't find it no education background so I don't even know sometimes I take these with the grain of salt because who knows who's advising I I don't know but it is what it is so that's the most recent one we've received this one is actually from last summer oh okay so this is this is actually I think we received it in it's end of September so we we do we do know who the attorneys are that were involved in this particular set of guides and what I will tell you and I don't know if this is another mayaula or or exactly how to express it we held it back because we knew we had the student conduct policy committee that was ramping up and there were several things that were in here that were student conduct policy related what we should have taken into account and came to me because I missed two of the conduct policy meetings being out of town feedback came back to us well in the meanwhile we're out of alignment with state statute on some of these items and so what we really should have done was brought these forward put them into place in our under our current policy set which we know we're moving away from and then made certain that the conduct committee working on that policy had the same set of guidelines to make sure that they were appropriately integrated into the updated version of policies that we're hoping to see come forward to the community at Community Council in April that feedback taken into account then coming back to the board in May for first grade to make those changes for next school year so um got it good to know because we already found these discrepancies and we're like what is going on and I was attributing it to them and thought cool yeah no in this case I I would love to not have to own it but I am also somebody who owns what I own um had I had I had a diff the lens I have now back then I would have just brought it Forward at the time we were deep in conversations around launching that that team and so it was just like well why would we do this if we're going to have a whole team who and what what I don't think was evident at that time was the sheer volume of both policies and time that would be necessary to do the work so in my mind at the time I'm like by December we'll have all this sorted out and then we'll be moving on but you know consequently it became clear that that would not be the case and somewhere along the line had I recalled that we had set them aside on the back burner I would have been like hey we probably should pull these off the back burner but it wasn't until the committee brought it up that it was like oh wait a second these are all still sitting out there so um so I think these are the teams reviewed them we're not seeing anything like 98% of it feels like it's literal just drop-ins of statutory changes if you look at the the ship some of it's just grammatical fixing some of it is is definitely grammatical fix organizing instead of organized right right so like the the general Council every now and then at the legislature will decide they've adopted a new way to grammatically organize things and then they on every bill that's fast they'll just change the grammar to align with whatever their new decision is but then that then happens again like several years later the language yeah because some of these I'm just like yeah okay cool you changed it from you know present tense to present progressive tense right um one of the things that I've always been interested in discussing and maybe we can do this at another date even though this is the first reading but the board member conflict of interest policy to me most boards have or most districts have this exact same policy I know that this is the statutory minimum I have always believed that board should operate on a that school boards especially um should operate on a more um I guess strict conflict of interest policy and it's something that I've thought about just haven't had any time to put any effort into probably in my observations of Phoenix Union that's a bigger District but just I feel like this is the bare minimum and I think that there's more we can do to like ensure that future boards are not operating like shadily is I guess how I would put it and I I don't know of specific examples but maybe some would include like if you've been given a campaign donation by somebody you're going to abstain from a vote on the on the contract with that person or if you hold another elected office you're going to abstain from any votes uh with contracts with those entities Etc I think that those are all things we could add to this uh policy that people on other boards just don't even see as an issue at all and have been operating for years with what I think are shady politics it's fair also like is there a reason that that form always tricks you into saying you do have a conflict should they should put it at the bottom yeah like is that anything we have control over probably change the order and it very confusing form so the the form was provided by the auditor generals so that that gives you a sense um but yes I share the same concerns moving forward if we are to get policy advisories moving forward and maybe this is a future goes with the other future agenda item I'd like to be it's my understanding there are no attorneys employed and I would hate to take any advisories or recom I will not as somebody who has a bar number take a legal advice from somebody who doesn't have Bar number so I'm not doing it yeah I I think if what I think the next step for us with that next set of advisories will be to figure out like how we're going to have them properly vetted so um but for the reason I brought it up is for these at least I feel like there were two layers of vetting so we know who the attorneys who vetted them were and then there were actually one or two think cleanups that were caught by um a former employee of the um school boards associ assciation who used to do this this work and so I believe those changes are reflected here as well thank you so much cool and I did did our agenda because we had just revised our agenda so I fixed that in here okay cool added that um awesome whatever they wanted in there by having the boardroom 30 minutes out yeah I have already been doing because I had heard it at the log conference Co for Hilda all yeah which which is huge because that's the other place we get sideways sometimes is when our policy differs from standard policy so Hilda thankfully caught it and corrected it all right perfect um any more discussion awesome that brings us to Future agenda items do we have any future agenda items I don't have a future one but I'm just the employee handbooks has been on there for a while it's mine um and I was just wondering if maybe we could just meet um Jay if we could just meet and kind of discuss that yeah I i' like to pull Dr Lauren into it because I know it's something that's on his raar as well okay perfect I don't have any anybody else any future agenda items all right seeing none that brings us to our last item which is they move the governing board adjourn second although in favor hi hi thank you w noes have a good night thank you [Music] everyone not eating dinner at 11m tonight hey I bought this book remember yeah I went to see that guy I like him he

I was just trying to get sure [Music] I thought thankfully like I was just like okay I some teachers so I was trying to figure [Music] out and I said I went in I only yeah saw an ad on Facebook click here to apply right awes Now They're Up by I was like I don't know how much of that isi I think they meet with noing there nobody know still see you in laugh what a great job he does all right but you better tighten it up for the L you know right Al I don't know what the but no I'll put you the public comment first what I have to read I'm sure I'll do that I'll put you that from my after I say thank you president Meadows Middle manag I don't know that midle management Heyde you know so uh next uh item on our agenda is public comments so we welcome to the meeting welcome to the meeting of the Board of Education if anyone wishes to address the board this evening please see our recording secretary and submit a form for addressing the board please put your full name and address on the form in general the board does not will not answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comment this does not mean that we do not take your concerns or comment seriously the board values active Community participation in the district's Endeavors and encouraging people to engage with the district using appr channels and systems designed with your input in mind board members are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the district and cannot engage in District business individually if you have specific questions who would like to further engage with you may submit your questions using the link on the website and appropriate staff member will communicate with you our BPS 101 Communications manager Holly dman will now explain the procedures for public comment and call up the speakers thank you president meow we have two speakers today speakers will be called up in order of form submission the first form received is the first person invited to speak when your name is called please come to the podium so that you can be heard there will be a three minute timer displayed up on the screen here shortly and we will turn start that timer once you are settled at the podium at any time during this meeting written comments may be submitted to our recording secretary sen Rodriguez here at my right um speakers should conduct themselves with Civility and respect towards others our first speaker is Monica Hubble hello everybody my name is Monica Hubble I teach at Rolo Middle School I've been there for a little over 20 years I've had some of your kids have them now um I was here about six years ago with a fellow Rolo teacher sharing about the same topic our lrc's our library Resource Centers I'm reaching out to you because I believe you might not be aware of the situation at Rolo te teachers have grown increasingly concerned regarding the lack of Staffing support and procurement of substitute teachers for the Rolo Library the net effect of these decisions is the closing of the library for part or all of some of the school day about 30% uh the day our library is closed the cutting back of these effective reading programs the conflicting message sent to students about the fundamental importance of reading and literary skills is kind of um sad I'm sure you recognize that our library is a key instructional space it serves a purpose well Beyond Simple book checkout Diana wolf is a certified library or certified Ela teacher and she implements many initiative programs which Foster reading as a lifelong skill unfortunately when the change in working conditions this year required her to teach reading skills it meant that the library is closed numerous periods of the day and our students suffer because of it if the kids can't use the Bulldog block period which is 5A 5B and 5c to go check out books in the lrc when else can they certainly we think their Ela classes are a challenge because we have gone from 80 minutes to 50 minutes trying to teach Reading Writing vocabulary speaking and listening to a Mastery level we have readers in the true sense as most six 7th and eighth graders um the teams provide a total of at least 20 minutes of free reading time daily across the language arts and Bulldog block periods on average we can have 10 to 12 students requesting to use the library each day they are visibly disappointed when I have to tell them the library services are unavailable certainly no other pivotal instructional resource serving a thousand plus students across the school building would be closed due to a failure of inadequate Staffing the RMS library is vital it should never have to be closed or face program Cuts due to misguided Staffing decisions please consult with other administrators maybe reach out to central office administrators so to find a solution to this problem I would really hate for it to be known as pass practice I've heard that term before it should never be P practice I'm a former librarian myself uh and this really saddens me that this has to this has happened all year um a frequently closed Library cheats our kids and is hypocritical to our mission here is signed sixth grade teachers about 15 of them it also agreed with this letter that was sent to Mr Kim and with my um to my principal as well miss PCH I appreciate the board uh we'll pass Mor oh thank you I appreciate you all meeting with the Librarians earlier this week about what they had to say how important it is Li to be open andly thank you thank you our next speaker Ellen my name is Ellen canout and I guess you would call me an a parent alumni of BPS 101 uh my youngest son just graduated from high school last May so I have been a parent with BPS 101 for 19 years and 12 of those years I had one child or another attend HC Storm I am up here today regarding uh agenda item 9.2 regarding the land for cash uh ordinance I would like to thank the president of the board Craig Meadows for responding to my detailed email to the board and administration regarding my concerns uh and my request that you post postpone acting on the recommendation outlined in that agenda item today uh I have many detailed reasons why I would appreciate you considering this postponement but uh a couple of the main reasons is that the community hasn't even seen the revised development plan for Ashton Ridge the also the community hasn't seen a detailed plan for the use of the outlaw Outlaw a that py has put in its development to help HC Storm uh revise its parent pickup and drop off and access to the school via mck uh I have confirmed with the staff from the city of bavia that this development is unique because the land that the development would be built on require requires complete rezoning which requires a vote by the city of bavia to change the zoning so that Ashton Ridge can be developed as designed which the community hasn't seen yet so I appreciate you taking the time in consideration to postpone voting on the recommendation that was outlined in 9.2 and as one last statement uh once open space is developed it can't be undeveloped and that includes the 2.5 acres that could be available to the district through the land cash ordinance thank [Music] you that's the end of our public comment thank you very much next is BPS Partners uh Todd would you like to step to the podium for Bea good evening everyone um from the Bea I would like to extend our congratulations to Pavia citizens of the Year Dave and Marge Brown I've had the privilege to work with Marge on the bavia foundation for educational Excellence for several years now and know that her lens is always asking what can be done to support our staff so we can best support our students I've also been on the receiving end to some of Mar's culinary treats so I know that she knows her way around the kitchen as well as she knows her way around the community once again congratulations to both the Browns in their well-deserved recognition tonight I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the newly appointed principal of Louise White School Mike wall I know that in speaking with my Bea members at Louise White they feel the entire process was thorough transparent collaborative and resulted in a fantastic addition to lead Louise White school next year knowing that he is a product of BPS and even attended Louise White brings new meaning to coming around full circle welcome to bavia and the Bea looks forward to beginning to build our relationship with you as well I would like to reiterate also the incredible opportunity that you're all going to hear about after I speak that the bspn resource Fair will hold for all who attend this Thursday night from 600 to 7:30 at the high school cafeteria opportunities abound for students and families from prek all the way through adult to come and get information and find resources for recreational activities therapy providers and educational consult just to name a few of their offerings a mission is free and open to anyone many many hours have gone through organization and preparation to bring this event to the public so please come and check out what is available through this amazing opportunity now to the board uh I have I'd like to put a save the date on your calendars and that date is Friday April 19th as you know as many of you have participated in the past the Bea Awards two scholarships to graduating seniors each year that are funded by our annual Bea scholarship trivia night well when we began our trivia night many years ago trivia nights were a pretty unique idea but today trivia nights seem to be very commonplace and widespread fundraising Avenues so this year we're going to try something a little bit different and we hope that you are all able to come and participate in our first annual baa scholarship music Bingo night we will still be hosting teams of competitors much like we have in the past however many of the night's activities will be individually played on your phones but there promises to be group categories and other events as well all music genres and eras will be covered and of course we will have our amazing basket raffle that is sponsored by each of our eight buildings throughout the district for you to bid on more details will follow but I just wanted you to pencil in that date of April 19th on your calendar so we can be sure to see you there it promises to be an amazing evening of music and fun all to benefit our Bea scholarships for 2024 which as a reminder go to one senior who is pursuing a career in education and one senior who is entering a program in CTE which is careers and Technical education in the past these winners in this category have gone on to programs in fire safety cosmetology and produ or production design just to name a few so April 19th we hope to see you there so save the date and then just to wrap up the rest of my time tonight instead of sharing with you the great things that Bea and our members are doing as I normally do I'm wanting to reverse the tables a little bit with you now I realize that this is not an interactive portion of the meeting tonight so I'm not expecting a dialogue to happen now however I am looking forward to your input and your feedback some of you may be aware that I'm wrapping up my third term as Bea president this year and I will not be seeking a fourth term with that said I actually only have two more board meetings March and April when I will be the president of the Bea addressing you monthly the new president will begin as the board partner in May so in my last few months in this role I'd love to hear from you what you feel we could be working on to strengthen the relationship of the Bea and the Board of Education I know we have school Liaisons assigned to each of our buildings but I also know as it currently exists this part this partnership could be drastically improved from both sides and I would love to hear what your goals are as building Liaisons and how best to fulfill that role with the buildings that you serve then I'd like to know how the Bea can help you fulfill this role so we can forge a stronger partnership for each of our board members and the buildings that they are working with I'd also love to know your thoughts on communication from the Bea and the board are there things that we should continue to do things that we should change or things that we should do better in working together for the students of BPS 101 are you getting your questions answered regarding the district committees that you serve on how are you getting that information and it doesn't contain an equal voice from admin and Union perspectives how would you like to Garner that information so it includes a cross-section of all the voices that the Committees are representing we all know that building positive and productive relationships is critical and exponentially provides benefits to our students Educators and the whole community of bavia Tom Kim has come to bavia and began the rigorous and arduous process of examining our strategic plan as a district I see this ask as kind of a mini version of that how can we help our relationship grow stronger so that when we need to tackle problems together or have difficult conversations we have that relationship already built that allows us to move forward with positive intent and a goal focused ending whether you reach out to me individually or you funnel your thoughts to Craig and then he reaches out to me I look forward to using the rest of my time as president to further strengthen the relationship with this current board and to help us all best meet the needs of our students and our community as always I thank you all for your time on the board and truly look forward to hearing from you as you consider the requests that I've laid out for you tonight and for my last two months as president thank you all very much thank you Todd next is Laura from best good evening so tonight um I encourage you to look at our slides I am highlighting our um par professional from Early Childhood Carol sortino and um these were the questions that we asked our best ball personnel and just to kind of fill out some um of these answers here and and we just want to present um to you a little bit of an inside look at some of the support staff at so Carol started working for BPS as a par professional in August of 2008 and she started working in the fifth grade at AGS then placed in third grade her second year and on her third year she was placed on the reduction and force list she was offered a position at eight at ECC RMS or bavia High School her first choice was ECC as she was doing home daycare prior to her employment with BPS and thought it would be a perfect fit she has been an Early Childhood Center now for the last 14 years she has resided in Aurora with her husband Jeff of 35 years and their two children in the savannah subdivision for 23 years her two two children attended and graduated from bavia schools their son Joe is 31 years old and finished his college education through North Central with a computer science degree and is employed with Accenture their daughter Lisa is 27 years old and finished her college education through Aurora University with a Nursing degree and is employed with Northwestern both of their children are married and have been blessed with granddaughter named Kora who is 16 months old her husband is a volunteer coach with the bavia High School girls varsity softball program working with Tor prior he is also a bus driver for Pavia schools with first student he is doing this job part-time now that he has retired from his 30-year career with AT&T she enjoys walking and shopping for their talent to home that they just moved into this past summer to downsize for their retirement years now that they are empty nesters Carol always valued being present in the home raising their children through the years until they reached Middle School age so she opted to do inhome daycare after a 13-year career as district manager with Carson Perry Scott she originally took the position intending to stay only until their youngest graduated high school so she could be in attendance for All Sports and activities and to be available for them by being on the same schedule now 16 years later she is still here because she enjoys her job and the staff that she works with on The Daily the center is unique and dedicated team works well together she is very supported on a professional and personal level a highlight for Carol working in the district was when her niece Khloe vyek was hired as an elementary teacher at Hoover Woods two years ago she was a student herself in bavia and is now giving back to our community which makes her so proud the one thing she would want to change about her job would be the pay she started this job at $12 an hour and after 16 years of service her pay rate has only increased about $7 an hour she feels for the number of years and level of experience and commitment to her job is not reflected in this dollar per hour our job is very important and we all work hard on the daily to support our classroom teachers and our students the retention of great employees has been difficult when the value of our work is not fairly compensated the current and ongoing shortage of par professionals will continue without a positive change thank you Carol for your dedication we really value you thank you very much all right next to our student ambassadors hello just a reminder um we're the bavia Ambassador students and my name is jarit and I'm Zara so bavia Sports have been really successful this season um I know that girls wrestling is doing really well because it recently just went to State and shout out to Sydney she's dominating despite this being her four time to State and we have some other insane recognitions um um first uh highlighting girls basketball they've been doing phenomenal and I can attest to this I went to one of their games probably the most entertaining games I've ever been to um and they've even became Regional Champions and it doesn't end there because dance has been putting in the same work they've had some in insane accomplishments they placed in like the top 16 at State and they even went down for Nationals at Orlando Florida So Great accomplishments through sport s for clubs February has been a fun and busy month with uh with black student union we've had two big events so far we had an open night event to welcome possible new students uh to our club uh we had so much fun with food um music and dancing we also had a movie night event which was also really fun we watched black panther um and as for upcoming events we have a poetry slam and black box where we we invite black speakers to speak about their experience during fourth block uh I know we hosted this last year and from past experiences students and staff really like this event and as for upcoming events we have um student visiting uh Aurora University and NIU and personally I will be attending and I'm like super excited to go and um also some recognition from other clubs Scholastic Bowl they actually had a teachers versus students round and I heard it was pretty close um sadly teachers took it home I wish I could be there to see it it seems super entertaining and there was also a spirit week I know some people find February a little gloomy so it brightened up with some Valentine's Day Spirit weeks some uh lot of pink in the hallways so it was exciting yeah thank you thank you all right and we have bspn today hi good evening everyone I'm Danielle Mahoney I'm the uh bspn parent chair and I'm lean Rodriguez I'm the speech pathologist at the early liaison for bpn so I'm not sure if you heard there is some exciting stuff going on Thursday night at the high school we start off with poetry that sounds awesome jam slam jam slam slam see yeah um and then we have the 11th annual bspn resource fair at 6: PM in the cafeteria until 7:30 and then there's some basketball games no big deals right I mean what Regional lot lots of fun stuff going on and I know you're concerned gosh if I'm G to be at this resource Fair am I going to be able to go to the basketball game I'm sure we can work it out we're just down the hallway from each other but Hey listen we have an amazing lineup of agencies and organizations um coming this year we have 57 different um organizations coming they range from anywhere from uh County and um Community we have the fire department the police department we have the public library we have um everything from Early Childhood all the way up to adults starting with potty training yes that is a real thing OT helps with potty training I almost hired this lady um but then we also have everything from respit we have six different autism organizations coming out that support autism we have from transition we have five different colleges coming as an addition to seven um job training adult programming coming we have six different Therapies in addition to that mental health and therapies we have over six different agencies two different um advocacies uh Advocates that are coming so if you have questions about 504 IEP plans uh we have travel uh someone's going to come help and if you have it's a free service um to help make those detailed plans for your kids sometimes when you have someone a little extra special takes a little extra to go on a fun vacation um we have tutoring we have substance abuse treatment um options we have lgbtq plus organization coming Financial um and we also have dogs coming come on come see the dogs uh we do have a h service dog uh organization coming so if you are looking for um trying to have one for yourself or they're also looking for Fosters so maybe it's something you might be interested in doing but we have even more than this what I just mentioned um please come out it is not just for bavia it is for the entire Fox Valley and surrounding areas um it's not just for families and kids with in the special education program um I know I have personally with the ex you know with besides my youngest daughter um I have utilized some of these different organizations for our family and have referred to other families so please encourage parking might be a little tricky but I promise you there's also they give great giveaways I'm just saying fidgets are the hot thing so just a little bribery but if you are at the basketball game come on down during halftime and uh and check us out it is free so thank you so much for your time thank you thank you Danielle thank you okay okay next are board liaison committee reports um since I made RJ do the pr Sue can I start with you do you have any updates [Music] um Grant beefy met and voted on grants our committee but we will be meeting on Thursday to finalize it so I can't really make announcements right now so check back next one check back next meeting okay Danielle uh pla had a meeting since our last meeting uh working to clean up forms in the website um they're continue to make sure that PD is related to strategic plan goals um they were also working hard to there's like a feedback form for institute days and they're working to ensure in the future there is like an open box for you to be able to the staff members to be able to type in and really give feedback and then for the committee to actually look through that make sure they're reviewing to see if any changes need to be implemented which is which is great um Equity I was not present so Tom do you want to share sure okay uh we had a great conversation what we've been doing is doing a little bit of our own PD within the committee just to kind of help each other gain insights on educational Equity with each other learn as a group so what we've done is shifted um initially from providing articles uh Amber and I have now shifted it kind of towards the group providing their own reads and and you know suggesting what we should look at as a committee for the next meeting and that's what we did and then at the end um we agreed and created a plan of action in um making contact with students at bavia high school and starting to try and and reach to some of our club sponsors um and help us solicit some student participation to bring some voice to the table that repres presents the student experience uh directly and so we're we're really excited about that and I would say that was our biggest takeaway and that'll be the continued focus at our next meeting that's coming up sounds like you missed a good one I did sorry to hear that huh all right Aon uh I attended a lot of meetings uh since our last board meeting so for the insurance and benefits um our message this meeting is uh what we did is review the financial tracker for plan year 2023 and the committee discussed the implementation of B Swift swift which is a tool that will assist with open enrollment and benefits uh for the administration it's actually action item 9.3 we're going to be talking about it Josh I don't know do you want to talk about it when I'm done or are you going to talk about it later in the meeting we talk about okay Josh will go into more detail with it but um after a pretty lengthy discussion the committee recommended the purchase of bft to be presented tonight and finally the committee started talking about 2025 planning we're already doing that and analyzing a lot of data uh to figure out you know how we can make smarter choices uh to provide better benefits at uh lower costs moving forward and then uh the steering committee also met uh Rob and Tom were there as I recall um the the bulk of the meeting was we had a survey they went out to the community Tom did a great job of summarizing that and we just had a discussion and we talked about some future events that we're going to be having we have a parent event coming up very soon and there's a lot of contact points where if you're in the community and you want to help sort of with our strategic plan your voice can be heard from a parent and a student level as well is there anything you'd like to add to that either one of you you covered it okay and and then um Hall of Honor I actually had a meeting too uh I can say that we have a tremendous amount of really fantastic candidates uh we're going to have another meeting here in a week or so and then and try to pick some folks that are deserving of recognitions for the next year uh at next the next homecoming we'll have a nice ceremony honoring them that's all I have so for the rat committee um we began to revise our Charter and Norms to align with our current practices um some things were just outdated and we also reviewed and discussed the 2023 annual comprehensive financial report um just kind of went over some things with that and then capital projects just gave their updates on summer projects thank you uh the committee I attended other than the rack because we both serve on that together as a representative um was the Bick I think that was between last meeting in this one and I'm as usual continually um surprised and amazed at all the work the volunteers and the parents and others do and then come to that meeting and kind of share ideas and talk collaboratively and Tom get a good just like at the board meeting a good bit explanation of what goes into how you determine emergency day um and talked about the bpn event and many other things so did I miss anything Tom no okay thank you curriculum committee um I think I gave an update for the January one last board meeting and we haven't had the February one I think uh we have it scheduled for the 29th leap day so um I'll give an update next time anything there's uh no I do not um the oh excuse me I'm trying to there was not a step in meeting committee um why am I not getting the words out right there was not a stien committee meeting uh but there will be one before the next meeting okay next board meeting great thank you all right next is consent agenda Steve are you gon to lead us through it and I know there's some level of discussion from Josh yeah I think Dave may have a all right so something to share right yeah we'll get into that right at the end here okay so uh consent agenda 6.1 and 6.2 is the approval of the January uh 23rd uh 2024 uh regular meeting and close session minutes 6.3 is the review of our close session minutes 6.4 is our uh monthly Personnel report 6.5 is our payroll on bills 6.6 we had four um sizable donations from including Office Depot brater first Nook Marketplace Top Golf and HC Products LLC we thank them for their uh kindness and generosity uh 6.7 is the ratification of notice of contract termination with Alpha building maintenance services uh 6.8 is the BHS overnight field trip approval for the BHS uh marching bands March of 2025 and then our last two items 6.9 approval uh excuse me approved purchase of the Chromebooks 61 Z approv purchase of laptops and desktops um Dave is there something you want to share on that uh the 6.9 Chromebook purchase um I just back to share we had another Grant come through through the feds uh they basically through the emergency connectivity fund it's a a federal fund that was kind of started during covid um I applied for it last year the actual Chromebooks you're using came from that um we're doing it again uh we got another wave of funding so um 636,000 from them so they're covering a lot of Chromebooks about 1,600 of them so um no cost to us it gets us through another cycle this coming year and it'll be the second year then into it so first grade second grade will both have Chromebooks and then moving on up the performance gets up for like the middle school high school levels they have more memory so they able to keep up with all the new stuff that's out on the interweb so that's it any questions or I just want to say thanks David I don't I always ask you questions about this but uh I mean the fact that all of our students have Chromebooks I mean during Co obviously it was essential and even now when we have e-learning days the fact that we don't have to really worry about a student having access to that technology is uh really valuable so I want to thank you for doing that work to get that Grant I mean that's sort of amazing that you just saved us over $600,000 through your hard work so thanks it's much appreciated thank you all right and then finally 6.11 is the approval of this consent agenda all right so I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda if I miss some oh you have a question yes sorry I usually do that in like space so do you have any questions uh yes so quick question is on um the person L report um do we give um exit interviews like are are they offered to the staff that's leaving uh not formally um I would say I in looking at uh that group of people who resigned there were two people on that list who I actually reached out to to see if they'd be willing to meet to talk um I allow them that choice obviously I'm not going to force someone to come in um a lot of people when they resign they often share uh rationale and different things even in the resignation letter um or sometimes I'm I have good knowledge of maybe why they're leaving so I would say that formally we I don't we don't we have not had a practice of we do exit interviews but uh on some occasions I reach out to people to try to understand so when they do respond when you reach out is there like what do we do with that data is it saved somewhere isn't it is it a given it to like to see like why I don't have a repository I don't have a place where I keep that data I would say that it's very uh anecdotal and I think it just helps kind of our organizational awareness of what's happening again often times people are pretty transparent when they uh resign and I have a pretty good handle on it but not all the time and when you see different Trends you want to know more right yeah that's I was just curious if if we do see Trends that's all yeah um the next one and I sent this and I understand if um we didn't have time Tony um I was just wondering about the Amazon Prime description because it says for quantity of one but the dollar amount was like 3,499 so I didn't know if Amazon Prime really hasn't subscription for that much they do it's a business it's a it's one for nonprofits for schools okay and so instead of paying for individual schools or paying for shipping when orders go through this is one large a business type one a business level subscription so we have I don't off the top of my head I'm not sure how many people are on that account but a lot okay I guess I mean I'm not a business so how would I know um that's all I have for the agenda okay have a question yes and if this isn't the right time to explain it just let me know we could talk later but the Personnel of retirement um I no a couple people are in the future 2027 2028 do they need to declare when they're that's okay simple answer thank you for it's to give context it's tied to it's in our contractual language it's tied to uh for our Bea members who retire it's tied to a non- discounted annuity and that's a the non- discounted annuity is defined by TRS I'm not going to get into the uh Weeds on that but it's tied to something that TRS requires um or or has and uh it it then gives a very specific timeline to that retirement so it's pretty well laid out in the uh baa contract we can certainly go over that I thought I remembered it in the timeline that you showed us I just wasn't sure okay so any other questions I guess maybe real quick I just want to go back to Raquel's point on the exit interviews here made me think a little bit um and I think this is what you're trying to get at maybe we should be collecting some of that information and understanding that data and documenting it and looking at it and trying to identify the trend so maybe something to consider that we have a more formal process yeah and like I'm I'm just looking at this list here I'm not going to tell people stories it's not my story to share but um there's people on there that are staying home because it's a better situation for their family um there's two people on the list I can state that uh another one is going to be pursuing actually a degree so like there's there's a wide range of rationale for why people share that with me and for a lot of people it's pretty personal as you can expect but we can also I mean if if you need me to find out more I'm more than happy to do that um it's just hard to require it for some yeah and I'm not saying it's um I'm saying can we learn from it yeah for sure so making sure we understand why these people are res resigning or leading and then seeing if there's something we can do to change that right yeah that's for that's maybe for another I is an appropriate use of time so we can we'll I'll talk with Tom and we'll look at an Avenue or point of direction to talk about that there seems to be some general interest in it okay I uh any other questions I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved so moved by Aaron second by Sue second by Sue Cindy please call us lead us in a roll call Vote sler Yes Meadows yesberg yes yes yes Thomas yes AR yes motion passes thank you uh reports Tom is there anything to share this evening under reports um the foyer requests are present presented to the board since the last board meeting okay and treasure reports Tony nothing out of the ordinary to report okay any questions for anybody on that I don't have any come outs on that but I know we're going to have a motion to do a Jin to close session in a second so um I hope everybody sticks around when we come out a close session but um I wouldn't I wouldn't blame you if you left so I do always like to thank people for uh being here tonight there's a lot of young people in the crowd tonight well I'm just saying I don't know how long we're going to be there so uh I know people are busy but I just want to say that I appreciate everybody who's here attends the meeting we had a lot of public comments this was a great meeting because we had a lot of celebrations for some old and new faces that are part of our community so I just want to say thank you to everybody who's here and I hope I do hope to see you when we come out of so we will be adjourning to close session um the just so everybody's aware we do have action items after the fact so we be we will be coming back into this room um so therefore the time is 806 and I will entertain a motion to move to close session as allowed under the open meetings act for the purposes of exception 5 ilcs 1202 C1 and exception 5 ilcs 1202 C1 so moved so moveed by RJ second by Rael RNR roll call vote yesz Thomas yes mat yes black yes Hilbert yes Meadows yes CER yes yes right thank you everyone we will be back e so uh the time is 8:5 two and we return to open [Music] session Cindy would you please take the roll Thomas present yes here AR here meow here sler present all right feels great no I think so okay all right so action item 9.1 public hearing and authorization for e-learning Renewal Brad will you please be leading this discussion sure so um state of Illinois has an e-learning provision which allows school districts to use e-learning days in Li of emergency days we applied for this and went through the process and the the process is working with your Association Partners about public izing a public hearing and then the board authorizing the superintendent to submit to the K County Regional Office of Education our e-learning plan and then it's either approved or denied from there our e-learning plan was approved last three years ago uh by the pat Del sento the regional Office of Education superintendent this is a renewal of such we still have to go through the same process so it's the same plan it's on our website we've enacted it a couple of times in those three years um uh twice this year and this has allowed the district to continue moving instruction forward um also not really um mess with our calendar too much which is actually a really important thing considering quarters and semesters and the balance of those types of things so what we're seeking today is uh to do a brief public hearing to hear from the public if anyone wants to speak speak about e-learning days they can come to the podium in just a few minutes uh and then the board we're asking for your authorization to allow Tom to submit to the regional Office of Education or e-learning plan for Renewal okay is there any comments from the public on this matter seeing none Holly you don't have any either okay um are there any questions or comments from the board on this long as nothing's changed just the exact same about the basics we're we still have like behind the scenes stuff to work out with our with the different levels but in terms of the plan itself it complies with the school code and it will be the same thing that we move forward with okay any other questions nope okay I will entertain a motion to authorize the superintendent to submit the district's e-learning plan to the King County Regional Office of Education so moved so moved by Danielle second second by Rael Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes yeser yes yes Meadows yes hilber yes Thomas yes H save the best yes exactly all right thank you all right item 9.2 specify preference for landash dedication is this you or Tony uh it'll be both of us so um in front of the board is we are asking I am asking the board um take action on the recommendation for cash acceptance on uh some land near HCS um that the city and py is working on in terms of a Housing Development residential development um in it we outline our memo to the board the dollar value amount and Tony do you want to take it from there this is a bit of a what I like to call the chicken egg Paradox because um the city won't let py hold a public hearing on their plan until the Board of Education makes a decision as to whether or not they want the land or the cash and yet the Board of Education isn't the one who's vetting the plan they're just making a decision as to whether or not they want the land or the cash so the land or the cash is an ordinance that the city of Pavia has had for a number of years I think it dates back to the 90s when the city experienced fairly explosive growth and that was to um exact uh support from Developers for the impact that their developments would have and historically um it was kind of a not kind of a no-brainer that the school boards would accept cash instead of land so as a matter of fact down the street PTI has another development on mcke Street on the other side of Randall called Winding Creek same thing it was is an no-brainer for us that we want the cash there because if we were to accept the land there's no value to the land for us because it would be a relatively small parcel isolated from anything else here however it's different uh because the land is immediately adjoining HC Storm school there's a potential for adding to the school campus in terms of land and initially when we first saw this proposal uh some years ago um we thought hey this is a great opportunity for us to expand the school campus with access to mck Street proper thinking that we would need a kind of a land bridge from our property to mcke street so that we could build an access road so that we could separate car and bus and pedestrian traffic but in talking with py um in over a period of many months they were highly responsive to our needs and said what is it that you're trying to accomplish and those sorts of things and they said oh well we can design this development so that you don't have to build that access road you'll have it through essentially this subdivision so um Holly will show us a a picture of it um you'll notice the School site is at the North portion is kind of relatively small you'll see a word School site that's what AB buts the campus of HC Storm school you can't really see it there but between Lots four and five in the upper right hand corner kind of below the word School site would be kind of a an access road a driveway that we would usej can you point to it do you see it I don't even see it how close I am laser pointer right here yeah I'm sorry we should have a laser pointer but we'll just show us Mouse is on it straight up straight up straight up straight up go to four and five right there right above r a is it right there school s oh right where it says School site okay that's the road I see the mouse oh now I see go back to Vana White trading okay all right so they so that dividing thing in between is what you're talking about yeah okay and that would run essentially into what is existing now is a play playr and obviously that wouldn't work very well um we have to move the playground and the reality is we have to move the playground anyway one the playground that's there is I don't know exactly how old it is off the top of my head maybe Mark you recall 15 years old 15 years old there's two there is two yes so there's another playground behind the school and that one is for younger students like K1 the one on the other side is for older students this one's for younger students right I don't think the back playround is safeer younger students is it no but by the time we do this work uh those playgrounds will be about 20 years old and they'll be replaced and when we replace them we would build a bigger playground that would accommodate all students and probably accommodate students with special needs to to C to a reasonable degree that that they're there at the school so it's almost the end of the life for the playground and to address the school needs that we've done so far in our Master facilities planning process we need more parking at storm most definitely and we need access to separate that traffic and we believe that this is the best way to do that so their current plan right there right now shows like a sidewalk they're proposing of changing that to a roadway connection for am I understanding that correctly there's a sidewalk that runs East West right now there isn't a sidewalk where that right that run that goes to the South except for the sidewalk that's on Van Norwick Street okay but there would be a sidewalk along that road yeah but there's a road there I just say the picture is is a so the advantage here is that we don't have to build the road which would be expensive and we don't have to maintain the road which would be expensive we do have to reconfigure the site which we have to do anyway to add parking and to improve the site lanes and the main office and those sorts of things part of the project that the board approved in December included allocations for this work um so um that's the gist of it so has the design team reviewed the approximate location of that and deem that they can make the proper connections for bus and or yes on a preliminary basis we haven't done the actual engineering but conceptually probably yes no conceptually that's how it would line up um and they would probably build this before we would get to the building the sidewalk or excuse me the making the site plan adjustments so this I'm guessing I don't know what their timeline is and depending on how we make decisions and how things are carried out through the city but I would expect that this would probably be in place before we would finish that what is the pro it's hard to tell in here so what is the space between the school property and these people's potentially their backyards like what are we talking about distance-wise um so you'll note that that greenish area mhm above those properties those that kind of marsh area yeah those there's existing trees there so where those trees are is essentially the the line but over like where you would yeah like that area that all might be trees that might just put it in but that would butt up to the property like right up to the storm property yeah and you'll notice on the North side you know we bought up to the apartments we bought up to homes on the west side and we bought up to Homes at every every single one of our schools right if we were to opt for land would do we get to choose the area no not really where would it be well it's would be a kind of a a negotiation between us the developer and the city what we choose basically where they're proposing well it would have to be somewhere on this they don't have land elsewhere to give us it would have to be somewhere on this page yeah and the ones I've been not saying that this happened the ones I've been involved with they don't usually try to negotiate with you the best piece of property right you certainly can't take swaths off multiple properties that'll usually be like okay you can have this set of three that we were going to one retention area you have yeah it's not usually the best M that locations I just I guess from a community standpoint a lot of concern is how close it is and if there's a curiosity of whether or not if we were able to choose land if there's any leverage to make there be more land between storm territory and these backyards if that is at all a possibility because it's very it's very close and just thinking of children being out their out safety you know so that's something I've heard floating around what is the potential of that the potential of us being able to leverage if we were to choose land over cash to leverage more land less land coming close to to storm so probably not what you're asking is can can we take it off that roll basically can you just like take take 15 or 20 ft across 10 properties give a little buffer it's only two acres right yeah I'm guessing we're locked down it's probably it's probably about 5T across the back of all those we don't uh you can the the calculations are such that with the amount of houses that are in this plan as it stands today and this is an estimate um we would be entitled to roughly 2 and a half acres or $375,000 you don't have to pick either or it can be a combination of um but it gets complicated they're basically giving us what we want right but from a community standpoint that's houses yes there are houses around but we have a parking lot and a like kind of like a ditch that that separates the storm playground from the apartments you have a big field on this side that separates from that neighborhood you have a street that separates from the other the other houses and when you have this people's backyards border in the actual school grounds understandably there's concerns well that's something you need to take up with the developer well that's something I'm talking about land over cash this is the chicken egg problem yeah the city won't move forward with talking about this further from a public you know like the the public hearings and those sorts of things until we make a decision so theoretically if we say hey we want the cash but then public tells the city we don't want this the city can be like okay you don't get it you to the py group that's one that could happen I'm not saying it's going to but that's a theoretical right um ask that yeah could you I'm sorry you I'm trying to make sure I follow corre so theoretically I'm asking if we say hey okay we'll we'll do the cash so now it goes to the city and and let's say the citizens of bavia go to the city and say hey we don't want this and then so then for the city C they they say okay you know what we're not going to do it that's one thing that could happen yeah okay yeah no this is all provisional and these estimates are provisional because the city could after they actually take a look at the plan and hear public input and all the rest they could change the plan they could change the number of homes that could if the number of homes go down the money that we're entitled to would go down the land that would we would be entitled would go down you know these are all estimates and they're provisional based on this is the current form of the plan sorry I if you wouldn't mind before we move on I wanted to address Danielle's concern I'm just looking at a survey or excuse me a satellite view of storm school and I would say there's a bigger a larger buffer from these homes on the South Side than there would is a currently a buffer between the school and the apartments on the North side okay that's what I was it doesn't really reflect how much space it does not not with this drawing okay and I'm just eyeballing this but I'm I'm just looking at where the line is on my screen right now with the satellite view there's more space between there's more open space between the school and that line than there is between the school and the parking lots for the apartments okay when you say your word about security can you articulate that a little more clear so again the I'm in the storm community and from people that I've heard from from looking on social media and again some of it is HD storm specific social media and others are bavia pages I think the concern is that you have backyards and a lot of them that are bordering right now without knowing about a playground being moved where these kids go for their recess and the recess includes that green space and the kids are quick so I mean there's with the proximity of people's backyards or that many homes being so close together if from one emergency standpoint would be just not being able to see if people are kind know just around the kids a little too closely right now we have to kind of watch and we get a little bit of like a when people are walking through we when I used to work there we would redirect them and you have a little bit of a better like view but this if it's that close I think is a worry especially if they are utilizing the playground the black top and the white top area um and then the other point was what if there was an emergency at the school and they needed to Evacuate the school and now there's no open space on this side you know does that does that cause any issue as far as you know rep replying to a a potential emergency I mean and I I I do want to add though that the footprint for all six of our elementary schools has some similar level of contact points to neighboring bring homes within our buildings boundaries or property lines whatever the correct term is there um and I think part of that is naturally coming with uh a district that has uh neighborhood School models you know what I mean uh versus other models where they may have been built and developed in a space that was intentionally designed to be able to draw from various parts of the community versus Walkers coming to a neighborhood school um you know the example I'll give you is like when I go to jbn I'm literally parked right up against the next door home when I turn in on Prairie I think it is whatever that left is right and you come down there and you park the homes surrounding the property lines are all literally less than two inches off of the district's property line there's a bike rack that's probably five feet off a property line right so and so I'm just saying I think that's the vision of how when the district created these building locations decades ago and be to be a neighborhood model I mean that's what's going to happen because you're embedded in homes areas residential areas okay like R R's backyards on the front side of the of the campus all those homes those are houses residential houses that are right up onto the Rolo property line can you clarify back to the access road so from the school to mcke Street where where would that be or how does that look you know maybe it would be best Holly I don't want to put you on the spot here but could you go to Google Maps that's better great all right then we can we can she'll get pull that up and we can continue our well go ahead um the subdivision that's what you say on that they already that these C company did on Randall um I don't know how many years ago that was but what was the how long was the construction phase for that like did they sell those homes like pretty quickly or did it take like 10 years they're still building them they started uh Mark do you remember two years ago and they have to meter them because back of Rand I'm the street yeah sorry seven a mon only selling seven a month okay and how many lot you know how many lots that was 183 of memory service 183 okay yeah and they're they're metering them they them almost as fast as they open up slots for them yeah actually one of the challenges municipalities these guys are having is ComEd can't get power to these houses as fast as they are selling them so it's actually slowing it down a little bit here we go this is better po Tavia power or pavi power depend on where it isavi power is probably better off than ComEd so show show my roots out west but as you remember the the trees that were on the last drawing that were on the top that those are trees here and you can almost kind of see where the line is this would be the the North Boundary of the property and this is boundary of our existing property now kind of cuts over and then goes up so originally we were thinking we needed to build a road to get to mcke Street yep um and that would be you know fairly long road for for a school um so are they proposing with they so if we go back to the other drawing pleas they would fill in that section that I would just pointed to with these homes and there would be an access drive to this road and we would use this for bus traffic okay so it's just winding yeah okay it's not a straight shot so that would alleviate some of that little circle right there would be more there would be more parking lots better flow there would be a parking lot if you go back there would be this is where the playground is right now yeah that would be back here with the other playground and this would be a parking lot this would probably still be a roundabout or some form of it be more parking that field the storms behind it to the West so there's plenty of area to have children go out where they're not they're not allowed to play in that green space though because it's a soccer field I can tell you that from being there we we they're not allowed to use that space who makes that decision I don't know they weird some guy some guy said no because I mean it would ruin the field it's tarped a lot of the year it's tarp and so the only green space that they do have if you see like that far playground on the like the north side of school is like right below there's like a little green chunk that they will utilize but it's not much so unless that changes they don't have that whole Green Space so and you know those aren't hardcoded things those are things especially when um we were building the stadium and we were hard pressed for space at the high school we had to make some adjustments in terms of how we used fields and that could be a whole over policy from that time honestly I didn't know that Daniel um but we we certainly can make adjustments in in on that scale of where you know how we're using fields or where those spaces are that would be excellent yeah so you're saying the high school uses that as St I guess so we we're always told kids it's not high school back in the day before before we built the stadium that had a turf field you would have to let the turf rest so during the week you couldn't have soccer practices and other things on it so now that they built the turf field and the stadium this what Tony's saying is maybe that could be a consideration for some sort of operational change because of the effort and the money hint hint hint that was spent on the stadium passion of mine um one of the things I will say because I've been through a zoning process before and since you mentioned before this is a zoning change there is a public input session and process for that where people can go up and request that as a part of this zoning change if they're doing what's called a plan unit development I don't know if they're going to that extent with this but they may be that the public can request things like buffers or additional plantings or other things on that property line if you look actually at the other one they show they show actually plantings in that and this is a sales pitch thing that they're shelling before it's not they're actually showing plantings of on the left side of that plan up against the houses that are on the other that are currently built but they don't show anything really other than the N current natural planting up there now I know there's some question about whether that's you know you said Marsh or you know Wetland or whatever might be there so they'll have to contend with that but o can you transpose one come on Dazzle us we need like the VR glasses that will just let us see it I mean I can't even see it from here so so Dr glacy my question I have a couple questions so can you reframe again exactly like where our purview is like if we vote on something exactly what we're voted on the scope of what we're allowed to scope on what the city vote on so we understand what this body and the question before you is land or the cash it's not no toay on the development no I you you don't I mean if they were going to build like as I would you know if they were going to build a chemical Factory here I think the board would take on that but since we're building homes around it and every other one of our schools have homes around them um that's kind of what is to be expected um so really the question before the board is land and you said that we uh we're in one of the first dominoes that falls in this process yeah if we were to um say we W need time to think and put this back on the agenda for next month what things would it happen and what could happen because I think I read that P is having a a Q&A session of the Moose Lodge tomorrow I that would still go on I believe so it's not clear to me what would and wouldn't but it's my understanding through py is that the city will not let them have a public hearing until the board makes a decision as to whether or not they want land or cash because that obviously would profoundly change um the design yeah what they're talking about can I cut in really quick with a question and something that I know I've mentioned is will this at all be utilized as perceived um uh support of the project you know us our vote whether which way it goes could the developer use that is a perceived support hey BPS is in support of this which you know we do know does play into you know how the public looks at it and how perhaps other bodies who may vote on it would approach it um if that's the board's desire we can tell them you know we take no position the vote tonight is not in support or against no I understand that but my I do have a concern that it will our vote potentially be used to proceed whe perceive whether we do support it or not I don't know how we can determine how someone might utilize our vote because either way we're not saying yes or no we're just saying we want land do we plan as a district to say we're we're really looking forward to this and we're going to support this I guess is my question and one way or another that's a good question the one thing I would say is that um Tony alluded to this earlier they've been really responsive to a very U Big Ticket item on the development of that site and and that's that access road you know an access way to mcke and given that they have uh been able to find a solution that for the district um you know allows us to have that access that was pointed out because we are going to have more than likely some site work that needs to be done that was part of the plan that you approved in December some of that can drastically change our costs and our potential designs on HC with the upgrade work we're going to ask that we are doing that Mark and and team are already on it now because of the approval uh with that access way we don't as Tony mentioned we don't have to maintain the road it's being being built for us now as part of this plan and we won't have to maintain it during the winter months or when repairs are needed which would be very costly you know for the school district to absorb moving forward so I mean I hear what you're saying and I guess I would just say I appreciate that with these plans at whatever input we were able to give it was heard in what the needs are to make sure that whatever site work we do to HCS um is being met if that makes sense right cuz otherwise if the plans change and they say that's fine then this is what we're going to do and the City of Pavia and PTI agreed to a new plan but now it puts us on the hook to find our own ways and routes to to make this happen and it's on our uh pocket basically right I think that to me I don't I don't know how favorable I would look upon that I know but I guess at the same time if the the community is is not able to voice their concerns where we're kind of not putting our you know backing of it I don't want to get in the way of that ability I do see that the benefit of this I just I guess I want to try to confirm that our vote is ensured that it's just for this issue it will hold weight otherwise I mean no matter what we are voting on this one issue but it will be perceived I think naturally as more than that and it does hold more than that we're holding we're not I know we don't have to St in that but we are going to be responsible for an influx of students and how are we going to treat that I think we have a responsibility um and I'm I mean the timing of it I don't I'm a little worried that tomorrow they're going to be able to say yeah the board voted on you know this cash cool we're good to go with the board the the the school districts are you saying you feel like so here's my question if we said to vote for the property that would be were against it no because either way we're no no I think either way it can be construed as perceived I think either way the vote so I'm wondering should we wait to vote and they can do their public thing I'm just wondering why do we need to vote now and then they're going I just don't want it to be utilized as while they're meeting with public the community tomorrow like yeah they voted on this yesterday I think either way we vote it could be utilized because I I remember seeing a letter where land was accepted over cash and it seemed like BPS was in you know kind of saying that the community was excited about it and that really hit HCS Community like hey they didn't come and talk to us I don't know if that was from the last part I think it was the PRI board who might might have U made a decision to take Landover cash but the letter that PTY was using in their meetings in City Council made it seem like I mean it was very much like that BPS agrees that this is a great project and the community agrees with it so if I'm hearing you correct Daniel you're saying really what this body should be considering is not cash or land at this point but vote on it or not vote on it I I'm curious what you guys feel about that I mean I do see where Cash Plus that that's a win-win like that makes sense right like I guess I'm a little concerned of the timing of and if in the past it's kind of like referred as as any of our votes to be supportive of the entire project and I kind of want to in terms of timing yeah uh I am not familiar with what is going to transpire after today all personally I've been concerned about is Board of Education land or cash okay it's my understanding that the city will not let py move forward until the board makes that decision but that said the board is under no obligation to take AC move forward what does that mean they are not going to hold a public hearing with the plan Commission on this matter until the board of education has decided whether or not they want the land or and even prior to that most likely they have to do all of their drawings and they have to get everything set up which is why we have to make a decision first because they won't or can't expend significant dollars in designing a subdivision in this case without knowing which way we're going to request or going through the trouble of talking about this and know to agree but they're again we're not you're like you don't have to make a decision tonight I guess they just want to make sure we make a decision and it's not going to be perceived as as support for it or against it I think if you say that when you make your vote yeah then it'll be fine and otherwise are we sending any writing that states that we are it was done before so I just want to ask if it's when was it done it was in with their the the information we had at one of our school board meetings it was in in that uh packet it was in the packet that py was providing the community there was a board I think it was from you yeah that had stated like we are we're taking land over cash we're excited the community is excited but the community voice that I heard was nobody even came to talk to us from the district how are we saying we're excited we're concerned so I want to ensure that doesn't happen again if we do vote on this right now Danielle is that uh are you referencing the window of time during the referendum push like when land was being asked for in in order to do the building site development next to the buildings that were going to be rebuilt is that what you're I'm just trying to understand the context of since so when py went no initially there was a first round where they went to city council and there was like a packet of information that kept being and you know presented it was the site plans this is and that and in it was a letter from BPS saying that they were taking land over cash and it was voicing support for the entire project so for this development not for this for devel an iteration of this talking about a previous time week I think it was for this wasn't it for this they were including it with this developments what they they had already gone to city council and now this is second round they're coming back with this revised plan but py was using that letter as support from the District yeah I don't know how the letter was portrayed I did write a letter um and historically these aren't decisions that have been made by the board these are usually decisions that are made by the administration because like I said in 99.99% of all these issues you know it's not contiguous land and we had talked about it it was part of our Master planning process in terms of what we wanted to accomplish initially we thought we needed the land then we realized we didn't so then we decided that we were going to take the cash and when people voice concerns here with the board we said we'll take this matter to the Board of Education when the time when when when py was ready to bring a proposal forward I think you've done a stellar job of explaining your neutral yeah thought process and none of us I'm not trying to none of us have also said anything counter to it that we want to say yay we're all for this I was conf so if people want to know what we think I guess it's more so if if it's being presented to people outside of our voices right if if if if the P general public sees a letter with BPS header saying that they you know that we are so supporting it so Tony are you in the district committed select this option correct pardon a letter wouldn't if we vote on this one way or the other it's not really saying we support the project saying we had a choice A or B we selected B no no I don't think that our vote would indicate that I'm just saying that if we do vote on it I don't what you're saying because youed at it like hey we I don't want a letter to go out that basically says we're in support of this and thank you for the money like we voted on this we're voting this we're really excited and the community agrees with it because I think that's false repres I agree here's a couple of things in my opinion about it just mine so one if Tony writes a letter that says the board pass it we're taking the cash thank you very much move on we're done yes if they put out a letter with our letter head and our logo on it saying things that we didn't say there will be an entirely different conversation I'm comfortable with like hey you made this decision cash cash over land whatever our decision is but at that where there's no other indication otherwise yeah cuz what this actually starts to do is if things stall too much then the opportunity for people to kind of get together go to the city talk about their concerns and that sort of stuff gets pushed down the road a little bit more as well so I guess what I would say Danielle is um and I really do appreciate your and RJ because you have kids that go to that school um if I had children that were going there and change is scary I get it and uh you're used to things working in a certain way and there's a lot of unknowns I guess my position on at this point is um you know we have this narrow window of choices we can make um it is fair to characterize it that uh they have been responsive to some needs we have uh I don't want to car not necessarily charactering as an endorsement but saying they have listened I guess and that um one of the options to me seems like a a good path moving forward now if people have concerns about this and there's many of them they could have they will have many opportunities to hear their voice heard through their Alder attended meetings and I would encourage people to take advantage of that opportunity uh we are not really the body that can address those concerns we're sort of narrowing this scope and I hear again what you're saying is people can take take any piece of information and try to spin it any they want I would say that I would go on record say that no one should do that we're just making a choice of the options presented before us and then there's going to be the responsibility of other elected officials and the community voice opinion to see how this thing plays out any other questions What's the timing on this like um like how soon would we have the access the access road I honestly don't know it depends on how quickly or slowly it gets through the the city of bavia the city no I just I'm just are we waiting five years for the access road 10 years or yeah I mean my initial thing is this is almost like like you said earlier like a little bit of Best of Both Worlds we get the cash and we effectively get some land for our use and our benefit without having to maintain it you know which they could turn that into a Greenway and say you can use it but you're going to have to develop it I think they and trying to be a partner they're trying to work through that so so how does this work do we have a vote if we're going to vote on option A or B or do we have a vote like do we want to vote on it we we right now it's as it's written it says as a preference for receiving cash in L of land for the py group development so right now it is written as if it was a cash we have to specify a preference yeah if you vote no I would presume that you would be thinking you would want land if it fails then he would go back and start talking about land yeah and if you we want land then we where that land is obviously would be important and we would have to work with py too and our and the city and all all that stuff take some time yeah the thing I like about the loop from my perspective is I am aware of the challenges of trying to get a Bus Loop and a vehicle Loop and a drop off and everything else in the narrowest part of the site going back out that to the to the east it's going to be a challenge this gives us an opportunity to do something that is really for the betterment and safety of the students that go to that school as well because that is I went over there and watched one time what happens Bus drop off and parking and it's a challenge to everybody that works there to keep everybody safe yeah so we identified it as a top me absolutely yeah it's been right any other questions okay I will entertain a motion that the board specify a preference for receiving cash in lie of land for py group's Ashton Ridge Development some so moved by Aaron second second by Sue I think I heard yes okay thank you Cy please lead us in a roll call V yes yes Meadows yes sler yes yes arando yes Thomas yes thank you all right 9.3 is approved purchase of benefits Administration software who's leading us on that one oh yes thanks for sticking around Josh so yeah Aaron uh a couple hours ago I think said that I was going to talk about this so here I am so basically what is before you is a recommendation from the benefits uh committee on a new open enrollment option solution to better the experience for our staff members um and really it's a three-fold process it's one to better that one of those horrible adult moments in life the annual open enrollment that we all do with our employer to make that process better um also to allow all the staff to see all the benefits that they have um all year round and to improve how we send our information to our 12 different vendors so what I want to do is just kind of quickly run you through what happens in open enrollment and how this is going to change that so currently what's happening in open enrollment is it's Saturday morning got to get this thing done as an adult hitting some buttons not quite sure what I'm clicking rolling with it right because I do this every year gotta pick my benefits don't know what an FSA is don't know what an HSA is but I'm rolling with it maybe I'm shooting an email to someone who's not even working that day what this software does is it walks you you through what you're picking and explains to you what those choices are also it asks you questions about your family so in my case I've got some kids they're about the age of braces right there's ways to put money away in a limited FSA for that specific purchase so it asks you questions to help guide you to pick the best benefits to support your family so that happens currently when you hit submit that's exactly what happens you hit submit and it just goes somewhere you don't even know what you got you don't even have a receipt of what you purchased or what your benefits are so this will give you a receipt of that at the admin side Beth our benefits coordinator gets a PDF of every single change that's occurring to every single employees benefit she is to go in and manually change the deduction or the the feed or the option in all of our 12 different vendors which leads to a lot of potential error one wrong keystroke on a birthday benefits are denied right and then there this whole process to try to get those benefits to our our employees um so what's nice about this is it does direct feed so it takes away that human error in that process so now open enrollment is done but you want to access your benefits this gives you a way to see a benefits page that is unique to you as the individual so right now if you go on our intrnet you see all the benefits that we offer we offer a lot of benefits but not everyone takes every benefit and you've got to sift through and weed through what those benefits are what this will do is when you log in you'll see your specific page your specific benefits that you have access to You'll also have a digital ID card for all those benefits so if you're on vacation and you don't have your ID you forgot it at home you have it right with you so that you can access your health care um cost-wise I know it talked about it in the memo I don't want to reiterate that but what I do want to say is the goal here is to do this for three years uh we're not going to take the time to do an implementation and then switch to a different product so this is three-year commitment that we be looking for um to improve that experience for our employees so questions can you actually run through the costs I'm sorry of course I can so the implementation is $10,900 so that's the setup one time one time done um and then it's a monthly charge of $2,400 um and that's broken down per member per month um so that's based on 600 members okay um which is roughly what we have and it oscillates every month depending on you know who's in and out as you saw in earlier when there people leave people come you get the idea um now what also is in here is that our providers will give us subsidies to help offset this cost so if we approve this tonight then our broker will go and talk to you know all our different providers Vision dental medical and they'll actually give us money because they don't want to have to deal with those errors they don't want to deal with having to call and and figure out whose date of birth is water oh we forgot a dependent and all that stuff so it's a great way for us to get this and actually our our providers will pay for a lot of it um assured Partners gave a range of what they thought they could get um $6,500 to $1,500 $155,000 a year again it's a range it's an estimate can't guarantee it but just wanted to share that with you guys and is there a contract there is so it's a three-year contract so I guess my question is is right so open enrollment is what for a month two weeks it's it's two weeks that is correct it's two weeks throughout the year or when someone's a new hire they would go through that process major life changes major life changes you got it so um why can't I go on blue car Blue Shield right now and look at all my benefits my medical benefits oh you can you can what this does is allows people to see all their benefits and I think that's a really great point is everyone goes right to Blue Cross right maybe they go to CVS for pharmaceutical if they're really Savvy they know that we have a guardian and Imad right but then there's lavango there's Modern Health there's clever Health there's all these different options that we have that people don't utilize because they just go to the big two or three and this kind of pushes those in the Forefront for example clever health is our tele medicine we want people to use that more they get the quality service that they need for their family and it saves them and US money so we want to push that information over just going to the the the Brick and Mortar doctor um it also allows people to see their extra benefits that they might pick so like additional life insurance um they'll see that on the page uh I've had several conversations with individuals that don't even know that they get life insurance from the Board of Education because they don't see it so that's a benefit that every employee gets they get their salary but they don't even know they have it I guess my question is is just because they don't see it as any are they told they're told okay I'm just making sure it's not something that they see I mean you know whenever you get hired into an organization you get bombarded with so much information right and Steve Steve sits down with uh all the new hires he goes through all the benefits and and I'm just trying to put myself back is that first year teacher or the first year administrator you're so focused on like doing a good job you're like ah I'll worry about that other stuff later you know so this gives us an opportunity to engage with our staff members is there any metric showing results of not having B Swift benefit system and then having B Swift benefits like what what's their sales pitch uh there sales pitch is honestly that it's a One-Stop shop and that you eliminate the error rate from the manual entry um anecdotally like our broker can't believe that we don't have a system like this nobody can in fact we have a benefits coordinator and we should call her benefits data entry person because she can't coordinate benefits because she spends the vast majority of her her day literally moving data between one of these 13 systems what will she do if we have this she would probably do a j dance first uh and then she would work on providing better customer service and making sure that our employees are getting the top not Ben topnotch benefits that they deserve she could actually coordinate benefits and I think customer service wise you know one of the examples would be I you know I've personally witnessed her come out to a building to try and help um one of the buildings that had a lot of Staff questions but you'd be able to get out more and engage with our employees who have those um concerns and I guess I'm speaking from just my previous places I was actually somewhat surprised we didn't have something either but so I thought this was a great step in the right direction I'll share one thing from the committee meetings that I've observed is um we do have a very robust plan but one of the constant conversations is inform ing the members that they have these benefits and are they accessing them is it um communicating because you're right uh it's just health insurance in general is a labyrinth and you know I think we have a lot of acronyms the acronyms that are used in that meeting are uh pretty rough so it's kind of twofold in my opinion as I remember was one we're going to move from this sort of archaic labor intensive uh process of uh data entry which is fraught with mistakes and then two it's a way to clarify what the benefits for every so I would think I don't want to put words in your mouth but um like when we're you know you do a blast and say Here's your benefit someone could easily access it oh yeah I have that whereas now it's you know like you said it's a pretty archaic system that needs probably an update yeah and what's nice about this system is it works well both on a PC and a phone and more and more more the phone is the Nexus for how people are communicating and functioning whereas getting on a dtop and logging into the internet it it it's kind of a more archaic system so do you think again I'm not trying to put words in your mouth but like this will be will be more efficient and how we administer benefits because I remember before we you know we had some challenges and uh I know uh Beth and her pred spending just so much time yes doing a lot of that leg work it was really almost like a 247 job there for a while yeah it I always used to joke with you know Beth and Kathy before that it was like their Super Bowl and it was just this intense process to get ready for Jan one I mean just the amount of data entry that is done in such a truncated amount of time um which again is not a great use of someone's skills when they can be going out to buildings talking with people helping people data entry is not necessarily a good use of an individual's time when there's a solution for that um so the subsidiary is the 6,500 to 15,000 yeah is that over the three years or over each year no each year that's a good question so that would be each year and again that is a range um that's not a guarantee of anything uh it's kind of like the Chicken and the Egg right we have to approve it and have it before we go to our various vendors and say hey we have this now give us money so we can't do the one before the other any questions so my head right now on this is you know it's like a value question right and it's not something I'm really all that familiar with because like in my business business it's like here's the piece of paper you get to choose two different things do you want the long-term disability you know do you want Vision or dental or you know HMO po whatever so the choices are fairly minor right because I will say when I first looked at this I kind of went okay I get what it does for about a month every year for everybody but so what I'm hearing is and I'm just confirming one it allows a particular staff person who's probably being underutilized be below her skill set to do that two I presume it reduces some liability associated with errors on the inputting process on our end like if we mess it up because what this seems to do is transfers the responsibility to the person choosing to type in the right information and click the right buttons to do that as opposed to write it on a piece of paper someone picks it up someone can't read their handwriting because correct we actually I I had a a company I worked at one point in time that the employee somehow didn't get the insurance but his kids did oh couldn't figure out how that happened the insurance company couldn't figure out how that happened so I I'm just trying to like because this is just to be kind of clear to everybody you know this is and I understand the number is variable we got about a $10,900 setup fee and we're looking at about $86,000 over the three years so so I I'm just laying it out so everybody makes sense I'm not saying that's it's a value question to people so um I appreciate your kind of help walking through it so anybody have any other questions you ready to all right I will entertain a motion to approve the purchase of the benefits Administration software B Swift so moved so moved by RJ second second by Sue Cindy please lead us in a roll call vote Thomas yeah yes mat yes sler yes arand yes Meadows yes yes thank you very much all right 9.4 is Adopt a resolution authorizing emergency purchase Tom or Tony so this will be um a service we are seeking authorization from the board to move forward for next 60 days any questions or comments okay not seeing any I will entertain a motion to approve an emergency purchase of custodial services from GSF USA through May 3rd 2024 for an amount not to exceed $300,000 so moved moved by Sue second by Rael Cindy please lead us in a roll call vote Meadows yes yes yes AR yes Gonzalez Thomas yes yes mat yes all right thank you very much action heavy evening all right staff and board commas Administration time anything you or the administration would like to comment on yeah just uh some brief comments um I'd like to begin with just reaffirming our recent announcement at this evening's meeting um that we are thrilled to welcome Mike wall to our leadership team effective July 1 um I think his expertise and Leadership qualities make him invaluable addition to our team and um will help us in furthering our Collective Pursuit for educational excellence and growth in our district uh not just Louise White but for all of us so very excited um and another exciting development I wanted to share with the board uh next week Dr Kettle who is the president at wanzi college and I will have an opportunity to meet with representatives from fery Lab um this initiative which uh has been uh assisted in the efforts by uh Margaret peral from the Chamber of Commerce in arranging a meeting for us um to meet with these representatives and we are looking to explore and establish a direct partnership with firy lab for our students and our staff um and take a look at what exciting opportunities we can explore with them in a more direct manner um so this this is actually really exciting um little bit of red tape to get my access approved to get in on their campus but uh working on it better work fast right because the meeting's on Monday but uh so we're very excited about that um and then lastly I just wanted to express my deepest appreciation to all of our District's educ Educators our leadership teams um I commend their dedication and the work they've done to crafting educational programming and activities and lessons around Black History Month um I think it's imperative that our students understand the significance of the month and recognizing the contributions and the historical achievements of black Americans and not just nationally but the Deep history that exists within our own King County and the communities we serve here at BPS 101 so I just wanted to say thank you to everybody there's been work that's been shared with me that are that's happening across the district um you know we see it some of it maybe even through social media and I just want to thank everybody that's been doing that and um you know BPS 101 we're going to continue to move forward and keep growing all right that's it all right board colleagues our day do you want to start I have no comments no comments okay Rob uh just uh congratulations again to Mar and Dave for their celebrated earlier uh want reiterate Tom's comment congratulations to Mike wall welcome to the BPS family um and I will leave it at that okay uh so congratulations to margin Dave Brown being the bavi citiz of the year um like to thank everyone that came out to speak tonight um Happy Chinese New Year to those um I know I'm a little late but that's what the board meeting is um and I also like to recognize B history month and I appreciate the schools including this in their studies and it's a great time to celebrate their achievements and accomplishments and recognize the hardships that they faced also to go off Todd um and their schol Bea scholarship night I think I would like to think that you changed it to bingo because the devil the Diamond Dogs kept uh almost winning and so you know you guys are like hey the Diamond Dolls we got to stop them this year that's good did you win or almost win we almost second second you're scared though yeah I did I yeah I don't think the people on first I don't think they're coming out this year um but you're lamenting your your loss of your opportunity to dominate is what I'm here um but uh the Diamond Dogs will try to be there that's all I have um follow that up that's tough to follow I've actually been in a head-to-head competition I can bow to the diamond dog's uh expertise and trivia matters so it's impressive uh like I always do I want to thank everyone in attendance everyone who reached out to the board um when we have robust conversations and discussions usually it's spurred on by Community involvement so thank you to that I really appreciate people still being here actually that's impressive again I want to thank congratulate principal wall and his family it was great to meet them margin Dave Brown thank you for their service to the community I want to recognize an event that happened on February 15th kindergarten Meetup um I have a senior so we're sort of at the end of The Journey with uh my oldest daughter but I remember those days especially with your first kid um and so we're excited to have those new families entered the BPS 10 101 family so thank him for that and then I do want to recognize someone uh also named Brown in bavia but um on Monday senior Ben Brown uh was recognized by the Chicago Bears at halis Hall as a community champion and this is given to students they give out two of these Awards as man understanding present annually to high school seniors football players uh their accomplishments on the field are obviously considered but really what drives is their excellence in their community and their volunteer Endeavors and I I want to use this as an opportunity to recognize his parents Martian ran who have gotten to know over the years uh and in bavia we are just blessed with with these selfless folks that uh not only support their own kids but everybody's children and if you've been at a a football game or a wrestling meet uh I probably get an email from Marsha about once a week um and they are just if you think about what you would want a bavia citizen to look like Martian around really exemple it they're humble they're hardworking it's never about themselves it's about what they can contribute to ever other people and Ben is really uh following their footsteps and uh again I just want to congratulate them and I do also want to say that arj and I had a conversation about just the board's overall appreciation for the army of people that so selflessly give their talent and their interest and their time I know we're working on a way to maybe recognize those people formerly uh near the end of the year so um I know we just recognize those people so I just want to say thank you and um and I also want to say I want to thank my fellow board members and and everyone up here you know I really appreciate the conversations we have I think this board does a good job of being curious and uh seeking to understand and um I think that these discussions are very healthy and I'm glad that we're having them so thank you yeah thank you um to feed off of all the acknowledgements and celebrations we really do have a lot to celebrate um specifically with bspm coming Danielle is one of my neighbors and the amount of it's a labor of love that she puts into it it's not just for her daughter and her family um but there's a lot of intersectionality that comes with this resource ability like it I mean really she spelled out so many and I just listening to her I was like gosh you know I mean there are so we have a lot of diverse needs and I sat in with the one meeting I think was at ISB where it talks about de in the sense of of you know the diverse needs of kids like their mental health their actual needs and that res like that when this is a really great place to go and understand things better so I mean just really I want to acknowledge a lot of that effort and a lot of the Blood Sweat and Tears that go along with it you know she's raising her own family doing her own thing and then still working for the community so I wanted to acknowledge that and um there was something else there was something something else but I don't know and then for everyone being here yeah and again I really appreciate the community that they feel comfortable emailing the ones that did email the ones that came and and spoke continue to do that you know I think we've made it clear that our position only goes so far please reach out to your older people please go to city council please be educated go to their open house and ask your questions there's only so much we can do and I think we did a good job explaining what that is and what our reach is um but I really do appreciate that the community is able to reach out and I I hope that they can yeah thanks okay s nothing s is good um only thing I will add is to reiterate those that emailed us I will say this particularly on this one the ones that emailed us gave us kind of a lot of fruit for thought and you know I responded back that say you're you were seen by and heard by everybody on the board and we'll take it under consideration and this was a good example of how that kind of affected maybe or or guided some of the thought process um uh thank you to all the staff that showed up today on their own time to kind of welcome the new principal who has some very big shoes to fill at that school um and looking forward to the excitement that might occur there um and then um lastly Danielle I wanted to say thank you to you for making sure that you were heard and that your thoughts and were were understood and that it helped flesh out the conversation that this is a dialogue not a argument absolutely you know so I appreciate you sticking with it to help make sure that your point got across so that we knew how to handle it so sticking with me on that thank you no absolutely all right well um with that I will entertain a motion to adjourn Raquel and second by second second by Aon thought for a minute we were going to be sitting here longer all right all in in favor I I opposed it is now 959 and

call tonight's meeting to order Andy can you take a roll call aif here ful present henil yes Nolan yes papis here vote here Gorman here need a motion in second to approve tonight's agenda it's all moved second a thief yes faul yes pil yes Nolan yes papis yes vot yes Gorman yes yes motion is carried please join us in reciting the pledge of allegiance of United States of America stands indivisible with liy and justice for all like to thank everyone for coming out we got full house um Dr M yes thank you everybody for coming out thank you for those checking in in um online uh we appreciate you all coming out all right first up athletic activities director Ted JY is here to recognize some dancers and cheerleaders separately of course hey uh good evening thank you uh before we get started here I do want to couple congratulations number one our dance team canot be here but I do want to recognize our Central dance team for finishing six place down at State feels like a month ago but it was only a couple weeks but uh they had a great season kudos to the coaches uh on a great year but I would like to introduce now um I believe for the first time in school history our cheer team went down state and brought home a second place trophy so I just brought them here wanted them to be recognized for all our hard work achievement uh thank the coaches uh coach mariac both hering Emily and Meredith Herring for all their efforts and if you were watching along or SE on TV uh from day one these girls did a did a phenomenal job uh scoring I believe their highest was day one and then bringing it home on day two and being able to uh voice that second place trophy like I said for the first time in school history and I believe the highest team finish collectively in school history as well so just want to while here mind bring up get a quick picture be appreciated for just go right in front of us you go nice job yeah they're not to see me all right you po down go JG L approval to go to sectional we couldn't go to state so thank you congratulations congratulations congratulations that's awesome so again thank you for the support and uh like coach mariac said I know we had a a unique circumstance with sectionals but uh obviously the adjustment we made there helped tremendously and again can't speak to enough of the coaches and the kids for their effort throughout the course of the year and how extremely proud we are for them to represent Central High School so thank you another thanks everyone I just um I said we gave a card to the board of the community because without the approval for sectionals we couldn't get to Stage so um do so well so that was like I said it was a couple great weekend these kids have worked so hard as you know in any Sporter activity and it's um it was so awesome to see what they accomplished so again I I'm excited for them and the school and the community because I just think it's so um it's so amazing so thank you thank you you're sicking me I'm sorry because I'll be up here a couple more times you'll follow Dan yeah just kidding no you're not we move on to public comment uh first up will be Virginia Romano oh sorry your pen was running outa I'm sorry yes hi um I was at one of your forums and I know at that time I had asked the question about the property the sale of the properties that you guys um have and I know that there was a bit of 2.2 I just want to say that um I hope that you vote no for anything lower than what the school board had paid for and originally in 2006 thank you thank you you all right Warren Lan just uh wanted to say I think you should vote no for the property bid um you're selling it for less than what you paid for it um property has gone up in the 18 years that you've owned it so I think you should vote no for this thank you thanks hi Mike McMahon I do want to address the property on rorison road um I'm not here to tell you how to vote one way or the other I just want to make a few points so um for anybody doesn't know I'm the township supervisor and here's how I see and I look at all sides of the issue over here so you know I see 301 pays $5 million this is not only what I see it's what the Public's going to see and I'll get to my point for the board in a moment but 301 pays $5 million from the Meyer family 20 some years ago 301 now sells back to the Meer family for just $2 million plus so the Meer family makes $3 million can't exactly blame them for making $3 million but the taxpayers are going to see that we lost $3 million we can run Plato Township on $3 million okay the whole Township for the year and maybe more um this to the board is is a public relations nightmare for you okay because what's going to happen when everybody starts talking saying hey we just lost $3 million they're going to come back and say the board doesn't care about our money so why are they going to trust anything the board does going for forth in the future right is what they're going to take the look at um as I said before I listen to 301 I listen to the better Builder District I'm seeing what they're saying there's agreement on both sides here okay there's some middle ground and there's some agreement I can see that clearly um for example when their website um the board of build back a better District makes a good point about rorison but I still see some issues on rorison as well in that you have the train tracks right there okay um you know even Plato believe that was a district for a while because we put guard rails up it cost Plato Township $85,000 I believe back then so selling the so the other positive side for our side would be selling the property back to put selling that property puts it back on the tax rolls and off the Forest Reserve but then I look at who you're selling it to okay and they're sitting between the forest preserve if I was the Meer family I'd say hang on a second can I sell this back to the forest preserve and that's going to create another PR nightmare for the school district and everybody else so I'm just saying people should be sitting down slowing down and talking about this there are sides that make an is make points I'm all in favor of people sitting down and talking and coming to a resolution because we are the cust ience of the taxpayers money it is their money okay and they're trusting it to us well what we're showing though is that they're showing that people aren't going to trust things anymore if we keep doing things like this so again I'm not saying yes or no on this you have to make your own decision okay um so the question again I have here um and it is for the board to ask again Ask yourselves if you if you are they going to trust you going forward because there's that old adage full fo me once shame on me fool me twice shame on you no sh me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me right so the taxpayer is going to look at it this way um so if you keep the property I'm going to ask will you be earning some money on the rent I haven't seen that address if you f send this back if it's $500 an acre for the year is that $60,000 a year to hold on to it and then possibly sell it at a higher price later again remember we have Forest Preserve on either side and I certainly don't want the forest preserve to buy that property because it takes off the tax RS again even though you're sitting if you sit on it it takes it off the tax rad which is not good for us either so again there are the main point here is sit down and let's all get involved in this conversation and say are we doing the right thing okay this is your decision to do I'm willing to sit in on that completely because I I see both sides of the whole issue okay and both sides have points both have points you have points they have points as well there's a lot of options out there um yeah so that bottom line is and can we get together and sit down and talk to each other okay and not not not operate in separate Little Worlds and everybody attacking each other and then the public is mad and they're why you can't do this and they're making bad comments on social media I see it all it's like really okay you know I think who was that that said can't we all just get along who was that that said that Rodney D Rodney King that's what it was anyway not Deerfield Rodney King close so the Rodney all right thanks thanks M got mayor start with Jean sure Jean Meyer resident and Christian why is it that so many of our young people support socialism the percentages being so high that it threatens the future of our constitutional republic I can tell you why it is because they are taught an academic institutions not to value our form of government and the blessings that we all take for granted please beware of what our young people are being taught and exposed to at Burlington School District he what the new president of AR artina who taught University economics um he's the new president of Argentina a country that was once the fourth most wealthy country in the world he sat at the world economic Forum in Dava Switzerland where the elite who run the world plan annually to take away our freedom and our Bounty this was on January 17th 2024 new president president mle warns that the Western world is in danger it is in danger he says because those that should defend the values of the West and that includes this board and me um they have been co-opted by a vision of the world that leads to socialism and therefore into poverty in he says in recent decades the main leaders of the western world have abandoned the cost of freedom to collectivism some well-meaning and willing to help others but others who want to maintain the long-term privileged cast abandoning freedom for collectivism Collective experiments are not the solution he says to the evils of the world but rather the root cause of those evils when Argentina adopted the model of freedom in 1860 in 35 years they became a leading world power but when they embrac collectivism for the next hundred years they dropped to 140 from number four capitalism brought an explosion ion of wealth and lifted 90% of the global population out of poverty free trade capitalism is the only instrument he says to end extreme poverty but the left wing has attacked capitalism as evil as being individualistic social justice is not just he says um it's an in evil idea taxes are paid coercively the higher the tax burden the lower the freedom that's what we're fighting for here note Kane County has some of the highest taxes in the nation collectivism hinders and binds the hands of entrepreneurs uh the president of Argentina goes on free trade capitalism gives more freedom and riches free countries are better off than 90% of people and repressed countries he warns again the West is in danger socialism always leads to poverty and M murdered over a 100 million people in the 1900s I'm speaking now for myself we are on this path to collectivism with the ideas being taught in our schools and dictated at all levels of government in this country are you board members true red-blooded patriotic Americans are you bold enough and wise enough to push back from the path of globalists who wish to maintain the long-term privileged casts are on when our country has totally lost the freedom and Bounty provided by free capitalism will you be able to tell the young people in this District that you fought for freedom I am asking you to stand for this country and the principles it was founded on it's not a perfect country but it is far the best that history has ever offered us thank you thank you following along some of my wife's comments about history remember that phrase those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it um the Virginia colonies in the 1600s come to the New World set up a new Society share and share alike and they almost disappeared from famine um when everybody owned a piece of everything and didn't matter who worked how hard to earn people didn't work that hard and they nearly died because they weren't making enough food they switched to a capitalistic uh basis and hey wow I'm working hard I get the benefits of my labor and they thrived to follow along with my life saying thank you thank you move on to our action reports motion and second are needed to discuss and approve the consent agenda so moved second so included in your board packet you have your revenue and expenditure reports um revenues are currently at 44.

there we go okay just wait for the YouTube stream to start okay we'll call the meeting to order um since I have at 6:04 PM um and uh first order is always um citizens participation Mark I know you have something to say what do you got even Mark Sony for on hoton road and what what have I got a kind of a bigger audience than usual this on Zoom yep and uh everything everything's going all right no problems and uh I don't really have much much because everything just normal right now and for me for saying it that way I'm not looking for trouble okay that's it that's it that could be the shortest citizens participation ever Mark all right well thanks um all right so we'll move on to um item three which is ason historical commission Cemetery working group Kathy Rooney request for pesticide waiver um hi Kathy how are you great how are you good so Raj do you need to say anything here or do anything just Dr Ron thank you so we'll give it to Kathy first you know and then yeah go from there you know thank you hi hi hi Kathy all right so um I'm gonna let Joan or Helen speak about the project overview because that's sort of their job and then I can take it from there about my part of the job okay can you give us a little bit of just a little bit of background about it since I don't know anything about this I don't know if the other board members that were not um I I can this is J okay Jon and Friday sha Road um Ashland okay I'm on the historical commission and the cemetery working group and um I work with Helen Helen Nicole as lead on the um working group she's on but I I'm not sure she didn't jump in so I'm just GNA jump in for you right now if she wants to add she can um but um as you know this Cemetery was formerly known as The Village burial ground it's a sign it's significant for its association with the settlement of Union bill later the town center of Ashland it was Ashland's principal burial ground prior to the dedication of Wildwood Cemetery in 1870 the earliest burial here is in 1828 and um clearly the the um Cemetery working group in the ashin Historical Society feel that the cemetery deserves and the people that are buried there deserve the respect um deserve some respect and um there are a lot there are soldiers there that don't get the flags on Etc um so the back Northeast section has become overgrown with invasive plants and trees covering Graves and damaging Stones many of the gravestones have been damaged and broken through the decades and the stones are covered in leech and mold and fungi fungi fungi I believe is the way you say it yes um and um so um Kathy has been kind enough to offer to help us with the um herbicide um treatment of the invasive plants we have um I believe Warren wup is the gentleman who is who is Vol also volunteered we have a big work big volunteer group also helping us and Warren wup is has volunteered to um trim down the the plants to the St to the um stump and then um Kathy with some with probably some volunteers that she can train will treat the stumps and um over time those will Kathy should probably jump in here because she's much better than I am thank you for that okay so so um in part just to Echo what um Joan and Helen have said it's like uh to try to respect the Integrity of the graveyard and the continuity of the past into the future which is why um I think the historical commission the working group Historical Society there's a lot of people interested in this and um when I found out they were going to try to like take care of all this stuff in the back that I discovered by accident like years ago I was psyched and I said okay I'll I'll volunteer to deal with the invasives and you know get on to some of these um these hearings and talk about treating them with herbicide so um the invasive plants and it's pretty much I'm going to say 90% invasive plants out there 85 90% um are essentially invading the Integrity of the graves so in a normal flat landscape we would try to rip as much of that stuff out and then stuff that was really stubborn we' go after with herbicides but in the case of this we don't want to be disturbing the graves for the obvious reasons it's really close to the water so that's the second reason we don't want to be disturbing the soil because any flooding or runoff is going to create suting up with the water more so than might already be happening um so the idea would be to cut all of these plants down to a 12 to 18 inch height then I'm going to come along behind the crew doing the cutting and Hauling and apply herb aside and there are some plants out there that they can't cut down so we're going to start this whole process off with a training of all the volunteers and I've got a lot of handouts um and basic basically show people how to identify things in Winter and in summer you too can do this on your property so there's an incentive for people to come and volunteer because they can learn how to do it on their property we got a lot of open space in town that people take care of already and they can learn how to also do that for those groups then there's Edon who's also taking care of Cadillac and they need a lot of help over there so um you know I can definitely teach what's over here and I've got some for some more and I've done this already for a couple of other groups one of which I'm still working with up at the town of Shirley where we're doing this on a wetland so I'm uh applying in a concentrate form and a two bucket uh system so God forbid if the first one goes over generally everything gets caught in the second one um and I'm extremely careful I usually hold on to the thing the entire time I'm out there doing it occasionally have to put it down to raise something so I don't have collateral damage very occasionally I have a tip it's rare that I spill on the ground um because I'm super duper concerned about whatever comes off you know I know what these herbicides do and I try not to use them except in this kind of a situation um so it's two different products uh uh basilo blue which is a um surfacant dye uh and penetrant so it helps the herb side penetrate better um it does a better job staying on the surface it's got a little bit of color so it's more visible while we're applying it once it's applied and it's dry you almost don't see um where stuff is you have to really look very carefully to know where you've applied so some of that is dependent on me and the volunteers doing things in a very organized orderly fashion moving along so we can track what we're doing uh the second product is um manufactured by a company called aligar and it's a uh aquatic approved um triop here which um back in the old days was called brush begone it's my much preferred herbicide for this project because everything we've got out there is a Brushy um and B it's much less dangerous in my opinion than uh ubiquitous Roundup and I almost never actually do broadcast spraying in part because I don't want to have one of my least favorite terms used for these projects is Collateral Damage I don't want overspray I don't want other stuff getting sprayed um and it's very hard to avoid that if you're doing spray so so this is this how is this applied then Kath um I use actually foam brushes so when I'm done um they either get left in the container for the next time and if they're really ratty and disgusting they get thrown out and I basically double wrap everything I throw out goes into the trash say goodbye and I try very hard not to have any leftover Pro mixed product I have it you know in the separate things at home um you know because that's where it gets mixed then I bring it down um um so ask away what questions do you have so is okay I don't care who wants to go first I can wait go ahead Ed Jay you guys both had your hands up at the same time so Kathy um so once this is applied do we have to does the area have to be um kept clear of people coming in for certain period of time um I would say definitely till it's dry so I usually follow the volunteers who are clearing and doing everything else and they're usually to be perfectly honest they're way ahead of me um that's been my experience in all these other projects um that I've done with volunteers so there's no risk like if kids go in there right after you guys leave for um I think what we'll do is we can put up some uh caution tape just tell people keep out of that area it basically once it's dry um there's not an issue and there's not a runoff issue but it definitely has to dry that's the other reason I use the basil of blue is because it dries a lot faster and I also have to be really careful about not applying it when there's dwall looking at the weather knowing that it's not we're not going to have a um a thunderstorm it's going to rain I mean I'm I'm pretty uh OCD about it basically um I've been caught a couple times by surprise and I basically you know I'm letting my client know guess what I'm folding up shop right now um but I try to be very careful not to have that happen thank you Jay um hi Kathy nice to meet you nice to meet you too thanks for coming um so I I'm assuming that since you're here at the Board of Health that this is Ashlin property yes okay um the other question I had was the chemicals themselves I just did a little quick uh Google search when we got the documentation and I didn't see that there were toxicity category one or two Am I Wrong uh well I'd have to go back and actually look at the um the labels in the SDS but there what's been approved for the wetlands use um and I've actually been using them on Upland areas because you know they sent me Vats of the stuff because that's how I could buy it um and it works the they're not like an organic product if that's what you're asking me I'm just asking because it I'm I'm wondering if you even need a waiver um I don't well I think in the um I know uh Leslie giens so she was the person who spearheaded the Organics law to begin with so the answer is um in the spirit of Organics I think I need a waiver number one number two just so that um other people follow the rules that's one of the reasons we're here is to make sure we've crossed our teased outed our eyes and I think that's you know I want to be very sure that in the middle of this project somebody doesn't come running up to us and go hey what are you guys doing you know right right okay if I could just jump in this is Joan again um just quickly the other reason we need approval is because we we received an RDA from the Conservation Commission and one of the conditions is that we get the approval from the Board of Health so that's that's one of the main reasons why we're here also got it thank you and Dr J we we do have a regulation you know for pesticide herbicide use you know in in Ash so yes definitely for tri for they're going to need a v yeah I just wondered Raj because that spec that specifically says category one or two chemicals and I wondered if this was a category one or two chemical I think it's more than that I'm sure it is actually and c and Cat just just for me I obviously you're asking for a waiver for something is this a wetland is it a con Conservation Area what what are you asking for the waiver for to use the herb Ides because we've got from conservation to do work in the buffer zone the buffer zone okay and I think the bulk of the work is in the buffer zone there might be a little bit of it that's in um in the actual Wetland so back in the day they built a granite and stone wall and at the bottom because it's fallen into such disre hair um and there's all kinds of trees and then um invasives growing there we don't actually know where all the graves are so that one of the first parts of this project is to actually do I think it's a ground penetrating radar and they can when they do that they can see the rectangles of where the graves were because of the difference in the soil composition because some will be more compacted than others and they can also so tell if there's Stone pretty close to the surface which means it just sunk um and the leaves decomposed on top after 20 years and you create your own compost actually that way um so the soil out there is excellent actually in places where some of these graves are down at the bottom of the hill um so we we don't actually know how far back we're going we have I have seen graves in some of that area that looks really bad um that I got to photograph Joan and forwarded to you all today um so I'm I'm just guessing we're going to find more back there okay great um Ed who you know a lot of people have know wrote War in peace as far as any kind of hazardous material and do know including this I I know you have something to say please give a sure uh Kathy is very experienced very professional I read the request letter that she sent and it was organized deced in complete I have every confidence in her and I'm sure the operation will proceed without any problems troper is not a category one or two according to the EPA it's a three and four uh three for I uh and four for dermal um and in my humble opinion I'm not shurney I can't interpret uh uh these regulations from a legal standpoint but I don't think that she would require a waiver because it is not a class two one or two but if she asks one I see no reason why not to give it um the as long as the trio per is used properly which Kathy is an expert at um then there really is very little risk especially like she mentioned once it dries uh even to passers by it's mainly if you get a splashed in your eye you have a problem but you know so that's that's all I I was here to testify for all right well thank you thank you for that have anything any questions no they've all been covered um except maybe for the last one which is um you know uh do you uh do you keep any um do you bring along anything to to to prepare in case any you or anyone else is is accidentally overdo uh exposed you know through through ey splashing or whatever I know you you wear glasses and and so forth I'm sure you're very careful but um I didn't know if uh if you just make sure for example there's a functioning garden hose nearby in case you have to wash your eyes out or stuff like that well essentially I'm wearing I have I have safety glasses my regular glasses safety glasses so I wear that and I wear um clothing that I use to do this all the time um and then I wear like double gloves um and things like that so I don't actually have a functioning hose but I do have wipes um with me and things like that because splashing in the eyes happened I think it's never happened what I'm more concerned about actually is something tipping on the ground and so I don't um when I work with volunteers it's clear ahead of time that there'll be one or two people working with me who go ahead of me specifically to cut stuff back the rest of them will have already gone through and then the big sort of what I'm going to call the gross cutting and Hauling of stuff so that there all of that work happens away from me so there's no chance that somebody's dragging brush and they knock over my pail for instance or that there's extra people walking around and they knock over my pil or bump into me and I knock over my pale stuff like that so it's pretty um I do it in a pretty controlled fashion um I had guys of mine create actually an incident where I spilled the gas cuz they stored it where I told them not to under a deck and then they got it caught up in a tarp and I took the tarp off all the tools it was never supposed to be under there and you know two garbage cans later full of soil I had to have clean harbors come into a Newton neighborhood you know with and pull it away which I really hated to do because then everybody in the neighborhood like why is clean harbors at this house you know um and I I didn't ever want to be in that and you know that was back in the day it cost me $1,000 and I paid it because it wasn't my client's fault it was my guy's fault um and you know they had done what I specifically told them not to do so uh I I'm just very careful about it and you know that stuff if I go on a break for some reason that stuff gets locked back up in my car or it's under the eyes of like I've occasionally left it with clients to B babysit and they understand how serious it is and they babysit it so somebody's it's always under the control of somebody responsible and it's a it's a like a hand pressure sprayer type of a thing no I'm not spraying at all I'm oh that's right I'm sorry yes a bucket in painting that's right painting yep yep yep yeah so I mean I I guess if it were me I probably would make sure that there was a functioning garden hose you can buy uh portable eyewashes uh bottles um or or just have bot of water in case somebody does get water there it's notal I have a spray bottle there it's not a big deal if I could just jump in for a second that we are planning on having bottled water there too for the um for the volunteers to stuff like yeah that that's probably sufficient you just don't want it to linger in somebody's eye for for any longer than it has to so um well yeah I yeah that's that was the only thing that I wanted to ask yeah path what what time of of year are you planning is this a June or July thing or what what are you planning on this if ifs if we can get in now um somebody else who does what I do this type of work um has been doing very successfully doing winter applications I've done some late winter applications and they've been pretty successful so I just have to plan on the weather have to plan on volunteers because first we have to clear so the reason we cut high is because if let's say we cut all this stuff and then it it snows a whole bunch like you know a few years back and we got 101 inches of snow we won't be able to get in there and do anything till spring and so I like it to be reasonably dry at least have a couple of dry days um for us to get out there and apply stuff okay but the whole idea is for it get into the stem and to sit in the stem and then the stems are going to stay up for a good six to 12 months to make sure everything's gone down into the roots because the idea is to kill the roots it's a systemic that works going down into the roots and the sticking agent is basically like a it's a cervant penetrant so it helps penetrate the bark better and then goes down through the cambium layer so if stuff is really thick like some of the monster bitter suets that are out there I'll have people skin them so I can come along and do not only the tops but also the sides because the whole idea is to just be get this done and do one round of it which is probably why I'm asking for the time extension because once we start we'll probably be able to get the first thing done in the first 30 days and would probably be we' call the Board of Health and let Laura and um Raj know that hey we're going to start I'm hoping the 30 days can start then but I also know if we want to go back in there to retreat it takes a while for stuff to grow back if it's going to grow back the other reason we apply high is because some of the stuff so if we miss stuff it comes back out right away up at the top of the stem stems here then you'll be little leaves up here otherwise it'll come shoot back up from the bottom and if someone goes in and mows you know like a week later most of the herbicide is either in what they collected or on the ground which I really don't want I want it in the routs where it's supposed to go and that will minimize the most amount of herbicide in the soil period okay great thank you any other members with any any questions no and Dr Ron just want to if with your permission you know I I discussed this with uh with Kathy you know how it's written in the regulation that uh the waiver can be written for one month and then can be extended up to six more months you know with a vote from the board you know so uh however you I mean if we want to Grant the permit you know or the waer that's how it's written in the regulation just want to bring it out there so I I have a question um when this work gets done on conservation lands in other places there's a they give you um an RDA that's for like three months I mean three years excuse me because they expect that you'll have to come back um so I'm wondering what would happen if we get the one months we get the six months and then we have to come back and ask again because I'm I'm concerned about that because I expect that based on the amount of invasive material out there and how thick it is we're not going to get it all even with a first and second treatment we're going to have to go back and do some more in the far future I expect all we'll have to do is pull seedlings because we will have gotten the you know the big uh the big mass of it out and then it's whatever is in the soil seed bank which can be for years plus whatever our Pals the birds deposit for us with a nice doll of fertilizer sure go ahead yeah Raj so given what Kathy just said um and given what Ed had said are we still certain that we need that Kathy needs a waiver for this I mean up to the board sir you know if Mr atart you know I know he's the expert on this you know if if he thinks I guess it it Mr hard are you are were you involved with the writing the regulation by any chance right uh we we well I I could say that the town has used this in the past without the need of a waiver uh the DPW has used Tri reper communication a few years ago uh the force committee used it on poison ivy um and the same question came up I I think I talked to you Raj for the force committee while ago yeah and uh you know we determined that because it was a naughty class one and two substance that it could be safely used um and that's the main thing and and there was a question also that would only pertains to town property so yeah if it's not Town property then the town doesn't have as much um Power uh as they do if it is Tom property that was one of the reasons why I think that's why Jay Burns asked if it was Tom property far as I know it is okay okay yeah but even then you know like I said according to the strict wording of the pesticide regulation uh a waiver would not be needed in order to use a class three or four substance and this particular substance I think California prop 65 determined that it it uh uh does not contain any chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity either uh neither this or the basil oil so uh both both substances are safe especially if you use properly and like I said kath roone is a professional she is you know very experienced and only other thing I want to point out you know this was a conversation before this meeting right I I talked to our conservation agent and I I have let her know that you know these chemicals we have used in the past right uh but when they appeared in front of the conservation board looks like they have asked you know Board of Health clearance you know so U but I I have told her you know Becca that hey we have used this chemical before and you know and Mr hard I guess we discussed this couple of times before so but it's all up to the board or how you want to handle this yeah I mean personally I don't know how the other board members feel about it I I don't see that as the as the um regulations are written I don't see the the need for a waiver um if we were to Grant a waiver for this that doesn't seem to need a waiver then we need to get into the time frame um issue so I I in my opinion I I don't really see the need for for the waiver as the regulations are written I agree yeah as do I and I can certainly let the conservation board know that you know hey we are okay with a chemical and they didn't need a v from us you know so if that need to be done that way you know I can have conversation tomorrow with them okay Kathy just one more question about the whose responsibility is it to take care of that like I I'm just wondering how it seemed to get in such disrepair over the years so that this is necessary well it's Town owned property so it's the town's responsibility um that's a tricky question and I think moving forward perhaps that needs to be um thought about and we need to figure out a different way to do some of these things in town because this is not the only property I've seen like this that's under care and custody of the town and you know I think Doug Small and his guys are they've got too much on their plate already and then they get asked to do a whole bunch of other stuff they have to fill in all the time and and then you know God forbid that they there's any kind of a pipe breaking in the street or some other Calamity and they get called on to do that too so you know they got they always have I mean it's rare that those guys aren't doing tons of stuff yeah I mean all the time yeah yeah well well all right well you know thank thank you for the presentation and you know I agree with the you know the other members doesn't seem like we need it and you know certainly Ed you know Ed gave you a great endorsement which I appreciate very much thank you yeah so thank you for bringing it to the board's attention you know best of luck with the project and you know if there's anything that we can help you with or anything you need from us let us know excuse me Ron I think Helen Nicole has her hand up okay well I can't see anything oh it was just I don't see I don't see I don't I don't have any video I only have there you go go ahead go ahead Ellen yeah no I did have my hand up but I basically just was going to re was going to say and then Cathy kind of covered it all so it is Municipal property I've met with the DW I've met with the town manager yeah um basically they go in and they mow um and that's about it they don't really have the time to really properly um maintain uh the property um which is an issue actually but we're hoping that once we get the whole thing cleaned up and and somewhat restored uh that we can if not change that at least maybe make some sort of oversight you know the historic commission the Historic Society and the working group would have some sort of oversight and hopefully in the future we can we'd like to to work out a long-term maintenance plan for it but we still have to work with the town and see see how that goes no I completely understand okay right great all right all right well thank you for uh thank you for coming um you know we appreciate it and you'll let us know if you if there's anything else we can do thank you for a good discussion does this need a vote yeah does this need a vote we decided we don't think we need a waiver for it so you're good to go but yeah thank you so much yeah okay sure thank you okay right thank you right yeah thank you bye all right thanks everyone yeah thank you thanks Ed yeah thanks Joan um all right um item four 98 High Street it's got to be Raj yes sir we we have we have Eric you know so just just to give the board a little bit uh this this system is under construction it's a repair system you know we encountered a issue while doing the repair uh there was a couple of uh local variances that we have given to them you know not the title five uh local ones you know but Eric is here you know so he's asking for a Title Five wer waiver that we encountered while constructing this system give it to ER hi hi guys this is Eric Dickinson with civilized Solutions um as raj said 98 High Street is under construction the septic was going in and um during the excavation um actually pretty close to the existing septic tank it was discovered that the water service for the home actually went beneath um the old leech field um it was not um where I had depicted it on the plan um this happens every so often uh it's kind of crazy if you think about it that the the leech field was over the the water service but um we're not able to uh achieve the 10- foot separation required by um by Title 5 so the contractor Colin Mayo has been in discussion with the DPW and um in the letter I wrote I said he was going to encase it in concrete in all areas where he can't achieve that that 10 foot separation but um they would rather see it um as a 3/4 inch copper um and in all areas where it's not it it can't be it can't achieve the 10- foot separation to be placed inside of a ductal iron pipe uh 15 ft Beyond um all the areas where where you you know what I mean where it can't reach uh beyond the 10-ft separation um it's uh it's he's proposing to install it on Thursday um the DPW will be out there um so I'm looking for a variance from section 310 cmr5 45g which allows the um the separation to be less than 10 feet between a soil absorption system and a water service pressurized Raj you anything you need to say no sir we're good to go I mean we don't have any option you know given this is the repair you know so sure but I I've been there multiple times you know maybe three four times already working with Eric and Mr you know so we should we should grant them this okay any other members with any questions or concerns no okay anybody want to make a motion I'll make the motion okay thanks Dave um let's see I make a motion to Grant a waiver from Title 5 regulation section 15 uh.

21% compared to 41.89$ 245,000 for in FMA money that went against the 750 $729,000 that we spent in the prior years um the expenditures are at 48.9% compared to 46.4% a year ago this month the district received impact PES for the amount of 94,5 29 for 12 home starts with no transition fees and then the bills payable for both Central and Northern canine are typical for the month of February there's a few construction bills and the property and some technology things that are in there thank stated questions righty Fulk yes Hil yes Nolan yes papis yes vot yes be yes Gorman yes motion is carried uh next we need a motion in second to discuss and approve the dance team overnight trip to the ihsa state competition in Bloomington Illinois that occurred January 25th to the 27th second am this stand scham has already occurred so uh we're just looking for formal approval for something that we've already completed Tempo yes Nolan yes keus yes vote Yes a yes buul yes Gman yes motion is carried another one a motion and second requir to discuss and approve the cheer team's overnight trip to the ihsa state competition in Bloomington that occurred February 1st to the 3 some see chers we're here very good showing from them second place in state but they've already ended so we're just looking for Nolan yes papis yes vot yes aif yes Fulk yes Hil yes Gorman yes that motion is carried Motion in second I require to discuss and approve the wrestling team's overnight trip to the ihsa state competition in Champagne Illinois that occurred February 14th to the 18th s second we did have a student that participated in wrestling he went down I think he lost both matches but did a great job of showing do you want have one gentleman that qualified as an alternate at 113 he did have to go down there just in case somebody didn't show up or didn't make weight but unfortunately they did so he was unable to wrestle but U Jonah Chavez was our our 165 St qualifier for resting P awesome great year so far papis yes vote Yes aif Yes Fulk yes Hil yes Nolan yes Gorman yes motion is carried next the motion and second are required to discuss and approve the bid for buses for the 2024 to 25 and 25 to 26 school years so moved second hello um bids were sent out for buses um and we opened them on the 14th they were sent out to five suppliers uh we received two uh formal no bids and um or two uh no bids formal no bids and then we actually received one bid only from Midwest Transit um in uh the no bids uh one of the suppliers asked us if we could uh possibly bid ear earlier in a school year which Dana and I talked and moving forward we don't have any issues with that possibly next school year um this school year in our bid package we had asked for um a separate cost for the possibility of adding air conditioning to some of the buses and I believe uh Dana passed out or gave an additional sheet of paper to like review um so this is our small year of uh School Bus bids and and um if we were to add the air conditioning on nine of our school buses um you can see after we do our transportation claim reimbursement what it would actually cost the school district to put the air conditioning in those buses so with it being a small school year and us being able to kind of monitor what the fuel consumption would be to see if the efficiency would be there with opening and shutting the doors the Stop and going of the buses um we think it might be a good idea idea to um put air conditioning on those nine buses for the two years and to see how it would benefit the fleet of the buses and the community so we are recommending um to do that and do I have any questions just from a practical standpoint you know if we have nine of you know 56 buses that have air conditioning would those be the longest routes right well that's we would determine that I would say probably the longest routs lot longest student time on the bus yeah that's how we I mean obviously with our population right Dem of our bus drivers longest routes yeah excellent yep do you think that would rotate at all or just stick with the longest routes I'm gonna say probably the longest routes but it's really always a good year to try when we have that small bus lease because we do you know the every other year and this is like nine buses so it would be a good way to check to see if it actually is even worthwhile for the next next year when we have a big you know turnover of buses so Pam in the past you have four transation claim reimbursement figures is that of the range of what we usually get for transportation claims yes urement yes been from 75 to 90% yes 95 and 2022 yeah upper right oh okay that's high so yeah we've gotten yeah so the cost to the school district is not an enormous amount so how uncomfortable are the buses I'm sorry what was it uncomfortable are well when we had some of those bad heat days the inside of the buses pushed like 115 to 120 degrees and that's why we kind of got out of school early one year one day two school day yeah it was it was miserable yeah miserable kind of feel like our weather patterns are changing a little bit in August and September are are beastly have there been any health issues with the bues being too hot we didn't experience any health issues is per se on the routes but drivers were extremely dehydrated you know in the afternoon my drivers are on their buses for a solid two and a half hours so no time to take a break or get a drink of water or anything like that get off your bus or anything when my kids get off the bus and say d the bus driver was like really sweaty my kids don't say stuff like that so you know it's a big deal when they get off the bus and it was noticeable students are only most of the students are on the bus maybe you know 20 minutes to 40 minutes but your driver is on that bus for a long time in the afternoon so definitely something to consider anything else was that this year thank you thank you was this year we had a we had a we turned it over in August I did have Pam monitor buses Pam you want to come back up so Pam didn't monitor buses she's like I thought I was done we tried buses under trees we tried putting them in shs we tried different locations to see what the we even reached out to like Midwest to see if they had any um literature for that and actually they did not but we did we did our own like uh testing we like Esther said we um put uh thermometers inside the buses outside the buses in shade out of shade and they were beastly and even in the shade they ranged from oh they were they were like a hundred yeah and there's really nowhere to hide them well they said too even with all the windows open it's still just doesn't move right there's no the Air's just St you know so um but then we'd also this would be really a great opportunity to even see if it does keep that bus cool because you are talking some of those buses have you know 50 to 65 70 kids on them and then you're constantly opening the doors so we have to see what the efficiency is you know what I mean we currently have special education buses those are all those have the air conditioning on them those come yes those are stand those all air conditioned yeah those are all air conditioned how many of those are I think we have like 20 22 something like that yeah but those come standard with air conditioning yeah so this is a cost of the district just because it's new information not the packet for the public 8,000 to 30 8,100 to 32 depending on what we get back from the Transportation claim yeah okay yeah which varies every year sure yeah so thank you all right okay vote Yes aif Yes ful yes Hil yes Nolan yes papis yes Gorman yes what was that motion the you want approve with airing without oh sorry we'll get a new motion to approve the bus big with air conditioning yeah so moved second okay okay vote Yes a yes Fulk yes Hil yes Nolan yes papis yes Gorman yes motion is carried we need a motion second to discuss and approve bid for the Plato Road Project no try to help you good evening as usual Ted steals my thunder we didn't get a motion yet to discuss do a motion I'll make a motion second I'll second motion second for that we already did I'm sorry Mark and D yeah we're looking forward your yeah breath I'm sure dissertation so we went out for bid for our Playdoh Ro um widening project um we had six vendors submit bids um Schroeder asphalt uh submitted the lowest bid which uh came under budget um we're still working with uh Kane County Kane countyy is going to be a partner in that project to the tune of somewhere around $100,000 of that that current estimate so that'll knock down the district's part you know roughly $100,000 we're still working out the details making sure Schroeder understands the expectations of what Kane County wants us to do and making sure we can meet those expectations so we're still working on that we'll end up having a OU written with them um and signed by the district and then I'll I'll bring that forward once we get that agreement taken care of can you talk a little bit about the reason for this and how it came about so this this whole project went back when we put the last addition on to Central High School um C County as part of that permitting process felt that we needed to um late some of the traffic flow on on Plato Road and adding turn Lanes would be the appropriate fix at that point in time um the district felt we felt that the whole cost shouldn't be incurred By Us in repaving that whole road service um so we could never really come to that agreement and that understanding and the project kind of just fell off the Wayside they still permitted it we still went through the process closed it out everything was fine um then when we came back to permit another project the addition on Central High School the same conversation was had um we had a couple meetings um online meetings with K County and they came to the agreement that they would support doing Port the portion of the work that repaved the roadway itself they would incur some cost for partly because they just repa repaved the road um so then we came to an understanding to what that would look like work with shales mcnut and our engineering firm to kind of highlight what that would be and we got kind of a handshake agreement with them on what that would be so this was something that the Count's encouraged us to do for a while we never thought it was a bad idea we just you know couldn't bring to our taxpayers incurring all that cost to repave the County's road so thank you yep aif yes Fulk yes Hil yes Nolan yes Happ yes vote Yes Gman yes motion is carried next motion second to discuss and approve the bid for the Emergency systems electrical work to be done at Lou Lake harby Thomas and PRI grade schools second so this this project came about this has been a work in progress uh getting generators at all of our schools um so this Project's been going on for probably almost two years now now um when we had to order the equipment and procure that we purchased it through our purchasing Co-op which saved us well over 50% on the cost of all the equipment so all the equipment's already been pre purchased and we're waiting on delivery of some of it this is the labor part of that purchase so we've already have funds and dedicated funds to pay for the equipment so we just bid out the labor to to do the wiring and piping and install the transfer switches and install the generators so again we had three vendors bid we built we B bid Lily Lake as the um scope of work with alternates to do Prairie View and hbt just to make sure that budgetarily they came in at at what we thought um right now Lily Lake's going to be paid for out partly out of a grant so we wanted to make sure we got that one on the books we do have that generator in our hands now so that one that equipment did come in and we we're being told that prair reviews and hbts is in route um the last one that we have be for the maintenance and transportation building that also has a generator coming and then that'll be all of our district buildings except CMS CMS will be the next project that we work on we can try to get a grant or do something for that building and then all of our buildings will be on backup generators so we had three vendors bid and pack electric was the was the low bid shales mcnut work with um their new ownership um before they came in with a competitive bid did the building walk through we did a scope review with with them and think they'll be a very qualified contractor to do that work we'll probably start Lily Lakes over spring break with the idea of trying to get the rest of them done this summer questions right vulk yes Mel yes Nolan yes papis yes vote Yes aief Yes Gorman yes next motion second to discuss and approve the bid for the sale of real property on Ron Road move second so we uh did a bid last week a public bid that we put out that we opened last week that we put out um for bid for the sale of the roson road property um we got one bid um in that from the um Nancy a Meyer trust um and their bid came in over what the minimum B bid threshold was that the board had asked for uh so our recommendation is that we move forward with the sale of that Ron land any questions any discussion well I think a discussion is warranted based upon all the input from the community all right I mean I I to think that I mean I'll just say me personally having considered the Optics of this I mean let's be honest right with with the land that we closed on last week um you know Esther remind me what the the estimate estimated value was and what we end up setting the per acre 16,400 that's what we set it at that's what we set it at it came in at 175 what did what was the the um paid for a price no no no no no what was the or we had somebody appraise it the appraisal was much lower came at 122 roughly 122 we set the minimum at 164 and they came in at 175 175 so certainly appreciate the perspectives of the people who spoke tonight we got some emails as well of course that you know the people that weren't here tonight um I think there's an inherent risk right we keep hearing you know we got a couple emails that said land only goes up in value this is a perfect example of the fact that it doesn't only go up in value there's not a linear a linear route here right so if we end up in another recession and all of a sudden it's that much it's that much you know values less I think we're kind of six in one he does in the other I think there is the potential that we lose out for sure on money that we have right now in a deal that we have versus what something looks like if we choose to not sell it and we wait five years to rent it out for $500 an acre I certainly understand that and we get 60,000 a year and in five years from now it's worth $600,000 less and we have all this extra land that admittedly we might be able to piece some things together but now we have the land that we closed on on 47 um and we've moved forward with that with our you know planning pending the referendum outcome and from there um and you know I certainly understand the idea of the the family that sold land I wasn't here then so to me I would say if we feel like it's a good deal to me I don't think it should matter who it's going to if that's who came in with the highest bid good percentage over asking it's sixish percent the only bid the only bid right so I mean I think there's I think there's risk uh in holding on to it I absolutely do one question I have um es if you can and I know we talked about this but I know you said it came in about 12,000 can you is there any information around that why it came in lower is it because it's a flood plane I know some of the public is wondering you know they obviously see a number that we bought it at and now obviously it's depreciated Z there any addition I know I mean when we looked at the pricing for both PL Center for here in Burlington plus that land I think it's just the where the timing came where it came in it where it's at I don't know if it has anything to do with the FL think it does um it was just an assessor that kind of gave them verbal assessment it wasn't anything formal that we asked for yeah um we can go out do all land study I don't know if you want to pay the money to do that um I know that we did have interest in the forest preserve they did back out they did have uh dollars they were willing to give us later but not to go to that amount so they themselves must have known it was not at that value I'm not quite sure um so that that was pending uh maybe we could get an offer letter if we didn't get a bid but we end up with a B the day of the bidding process um I mean I do think that the taxes we did pay taxes on the property because we rented it when we owned it um so we did rent the property so we paid real estate taxes um on that property so there are some issues with taxes right if we rent it make money then you do get some money from the public school uh it's not free but you you know you're thinking Mr that we weren't going we did pay some taxes but understand that with the tax levy we get some of that money back because we get back the tax levy coming back to the school district um so we did rent it to farm when we had it I mean that's what the land's worth you know it's lower than what we got it I mean it's going to repay some of the you know land that were're we purchased last week you know and quite honestly I mean the value that we paid for in ' 06 people have to remember what 06 was right you know there was a lot of movement on property and people were grabbing it faster than you could buy it y um that was what it was going for then and then we had 09 and 10 and it could have been worth you know 10 cents on the dollar made you you know this will help us recoup some of the money that we paid for I I think it's you know while we don't like like it but we bought the same I mean we're selling it for more than what we paid for per acre per acre on 47 and it's 2 and a half times the acreage right so I mean it could it could go down that's the other I mean I let's be honest it could go up too right like just of all I'm sure they first of all 2006 clearly you know um I know there's been a lot of frustration even in you know I think I went to three or four of the town halls and everybody at some point brought up the land and why did you do this and I wasn't here was in District not in the district I was not in the district I thought you were in 06 you just came here answer yeah yeah I was not here on oh there you go so I mean so there you go there is it really isn't we don't have context for that no um sure everybody's kicking themselves I mean I don't know maybe it was a good deal in 2006 I don't know maybe not maybe not I mean can't answer to that Fred anything FR you want a discussion well I think this is all appropriate I don't I don't like the idea of losing this kind of money but I understand it's a gamble I mean you could hang on to it for three years and suddenly it's worth five million extra dollars or it could be worth you know a million dollars all of a sudden there there really no really have a crystal ball so I think it's important that we had this discussion and we listen to what the public is saying but um some points I think it's kind of a bad idea to what a deal slip out of our hands now we have a buyer right I would agree I mean no who cares who the buyer is we're we're receiving more than we p per acre I mean this is what we had discussed when we set that price um we had the money for that we're paying for you know at least we're recouping almost half of that so um why keep it at this point when we have a purchaser um so yeah that's what I think there one right now one side of the coin is this is the financially responsible thing to do right to recoup and I think there's just people who have a different perspective on that which is it's more responsible to keep it hopes that it approaches the value at some unknown at some unknown time in the future right yeah all right anyone else I'm ready to vote yep all right pil yes Nolan yes pepis yes vote Yes aif Yes Fulk yes Gorman yes motion is carried motion and second are required to discuss and approve the bid for the sale of real property on Russell Road so mov second second so during the uh same bidding process um we uh put up for sale the land that had the old PL Center Grade School on it the that had currently has the baseball fields on it um we received one bid for that property also um from Central District baseball league Inc um and again they bid slight L over uh the asking price um so we recommend that we go ahead with the sale of that land to Central baseball I will say that I'm excited about this as somebody who started playing on those fields in 1985 my dad was I don't think anybody told mebody my dad was actually the president for two years in the 80s of cdbl and he's one that brought uh Burlington L Lake and Plato together they always function independently we pl had teams of just play kids and they were Burling kids L late kids and then it was 1988 I believe that they mixed all the for the first time which is a pretty big deal for these three great schools like ly Lake having to drive to Plato Plato to drive to LY lake so I think this is really exciting so I certainly appreciate the fact that cdpl and I know some of you all are here representing um cdpl so I think it's really exciting and a natural progression of the land so I think it's a great keep producing those product let's Nolan yes yes vote Yes aif Yes Fulk yes Hil yes Forman yes motion is carried congratulations information congratulations aan Ryan Central District 301's audit report so tonight we have sharidan jurgenson with us um she is the U partner at aian Sean close um so she's going to present the audits for us well good evening um I'll just spend a few minutes of your time just going over the results of the audit for both Central and Northern cane um I'll start with Central [Laughter] good go turn the switch back and that's why we voted on those all right so oh we will start with Central um overall the audit went very well um we always provide a list of the journal entries that we do as part of the audit um very minimal um most of them are either just ones that are made as part of the audit and that's typical with every school district because the information isn't available until we come to do the audit or they ones that Dana has given to us um while we were out here so other than that other very minimal and so the books were just in really great shape when we came out um there was a delay just in getting some reports back from industrial appraisal for the fixed assets but that's been kind of typical the last couple years unfortunately we just kind of have to wait on them so um a few things I wanted to point out in the audit report uh the first part of the audit report is our opinion um it's an unmodified opinion um on the regulatory basis of accounting and really what that means is all the testing we did everything that we looked at that we were able to conclude that we felt the financial statements were free from Material misstatement um under the regulatory basis of accounting which is an basis of accounting that is allowed by Illinois and ISB um in there it also talks about internal controls and um we not only look at your written policies and procedures but more importantly we actually sit down with people and make sure that they're following them if there's going to be fraud or any errors that occur it's going to be your internal controls that catch that it's not necessarily the external audit that's going to catch that and so we're making sure that there's proper approval proper authorization um and that everything is getting looked at and there's always a second look on everything that's going on there was no issues no deficiencies noted in any of the internal controls that we looked at so that was good um in the financial statements that are part of the audit on page nine you'll just see the results uh for the year uh the revenues and expenses for each fund overall there was um an increase of 2.7 million um mainly that was due to the onm fund of an increase of a little over a million and trans transportation of about 750,000 and then you can see the other funds as well and the increase SL decrease that they had um after that is the footnotes and it just goes into more detail on the numbers and the financial statements I did though want to point out there was a new standard that we had to implement this year um similar to the lease standard that we implemented last year this was related to subscription based it agreements and so it's just something that we will be looking at now going forward there wasn't anything that that we ended up having to record differently than we have in the past but again something that we'll continue to look at as long as well as the leases um that fall under those new standards then the last part of the audit report is um the single audit which is a separate audit we have to do for your federal Awards uh we tested the special ed um grants that you receive um and we look at not only a variety of transactions making sure that there's proper reporting but also all the compliance that goes with those grants no issues no deficiencies noted in that audit either um and then for uh the last thing for Central then um we provide the AFR to ISB and in there they calculate your financial profile which is on a scale of 0er to four um for being the best and you are at a 3.9 for this year um which is in the recognition which is the highest um section of that scale so overall the great news for the for Central's audit um and pretty it's going to sound the same for Northern C uh no issues there at all uh only really one journal entry and again that was provided by Dana so the books were in great shape when we came out um you'll see the financial statements there I don't know that there's anything specific that we need to go over per se but um that is there uh there was as well no deficiencies no issues that we needed to report for Northern came either they also are not at a level that they need the federal um single audit um so um it's much smaller report so um so that's just a quick overview but I can answer any specific questions that you have I mean just so everyone's aware this is consistent and this is my sixth audit I think on the board now this is consistent with the years at least I've been around your year 10 I think we just talked about so this is consistent with what we've had in the past correct yep yep did anything stand out to you Dana as you were running through everything with them um no I like to like if there's a journal entry that they might record then I try to learn what they're doing so then I can just do it before they get here and try to get the journal entries to be none so some better every year but there's still like that TRS one is always changes the laws and everything I just let them do it but some of them we we try to do those inhouse and then instead of doing it at the audit like um our activity accounts we do it at monthly now so we just make that journal entry it's part of your Treasures report and then that way when it's June it's already made it's not a huge entry so we try to do those kinds of things as we learn more things so yeah excellent job thank you all right thank you thank you thank you absolutely have a good evening thank you next up is our facilities update we didn't get enough of director po so we asked him back you got to go first awesome um really just one one thing just to talk about the uh the addition that's our kind of our major project it's going to be our major project for the summer um unfortunately we're about 28 21 days behind because of the cold weather snap and some other issues we're roughly 21 days behind the good thing is is our overall schedule we had those days in the back end so we are going to have substantial turnover in towards the end of June where we're going to concentrate and getting the first floor built out so we could occupy that and clean it then they'll be working upstairs so those 21 days we'll make up a few of them here and there there but we'll still have no problem being open for the start of school um right now they're working on that second floor pan deck on the west elevation um so they have a crane out there for a couple days swinging steel getting all that set get that that deck on so then we'll get concrete port and then we'll just have the roof section to do so we're getting really close they're working in the basement electrical piping getting non-bearing walls all those kind of things going so as they can work around the stuff that's going up we're kind of working underneath as we can so that's moving right along if Mother Nature blesses us with weather like this we should be golden not gunwood so that's all I got thanks thank you dantics activities director jusy is next again try to top Dan that's pretty good yeah it's PR be tough uh again just want to thank you we got we got one more group left we got a couple rest girls wrestlers who that information will be coming coming to you next month we did have two girls qualify for ihsa state that we kind of found out and getting ready after the fact so you'll see that uh next month but proud of that um apologize for Dr M's comment has sitting down it has been a great winter we've had a lot of success um so we appreciate the support with all that and uh also kind of pinching myself because it's hard to believe that spring is here already and on February 26 next Monday when we start spring Sports it is going to be 6 and sunny so they'll actually have the opportunity to get outside day one of spring sports that we haven't had in a while uh thanks to Dan and his crew for getting netting up uh baseball softball fields turned over lines put down this early so we're looking forward to that so numbers look good for the spring looking forward to it but but excited for it as well so you have the freshman sophomore wrestling also yes we do have freshman freshman sophomore uh as much as we recognize that with our freshman sophomores our coaches are volunteering their time to recognize that and those kids will have an opportunity to wrestle and our our in addition to what our coaches do they'll put in time to make sure those freshman and sophomores have that opport opportunity to even though it's not an extension of our school but still gives them the opportunity to compete under the Burley to name for freshman sophomore State P can you just updat on the athletic trainer yes um the next thing we did have a full-time athletic trainer start start as of I believe February 7th uh Noah janger who is a 2016 graduate started if you were at the spring Sports meeting we unveil we didn't unveil him but we introduced him it was kind of like an unve it was a good showing were there but uh Noah was part of Team rehab we partnered with Team rehab right off of uh r Road there in Elgen uh they work with a lot of our athletes and we were able to finally get that together so nose on board full time and already uh not I would say a line outside the door but already some kids lining up to see him so we're excited to have Noah as well I I attended the event last week um you and your department did a great job getting everybody's expectations thank you l so nicely done you and Amy and the rest of the crew thank you thank you excellent you have information I guess here FR Bliss correct spry deuts yeah all right that's about as far about as uh far as I'm going to go with that but I just wanted to bring your attention uh I know that I'm fairly new but uh FR Bliss has been here a while running the German uh German the German American partnership program where uh in the years past we've sent some students over to Germany and then the German students come here in the fall we would like to continue that for the uh 25 school year that summer but right now we just want to bring it to your attention because this doesn't happen overnight it does take some planning and we're going through that phase right now trying to find out travel Arrangements staying arrangements and I know FR Bliss is putting a lot of time and effort into that so just want to bring it to your attention that that's in the works and if you have any questions we'd be weren't happy to answer them and I know in that that packet there is some background information about what it's about but excited to be able to provide that opportunity again for some of these kids like they had preo yeah well I uh prob explain more but the gap program it's really one of the great programs we offer in our district uh we stopped it uh pre-co right at Co with Co and and it really is the opportunity for our students it's one of the programs where you know we take our students to Germany they actually go into the school they experience the educational system in Germany and then those students students in Germany come back to us and stay with our families here and experience the American education system it's a great partnership it's a lot of work uh we definitely appreciate her uh experience in doing this and the opportunity for our kids the kids enjoy it it's a lot of work for the few kids that sometimes participate in it because it's fairly expensive um but it is a great program one of the things I would like to um recommend to just consider for this program is in the past we've never really paid for the sponsor to go the teacher to go um it's something that they've always always had to incorporate into the expenditures for the students that's encompassed but I do feel like this is one of those programs that's co-curricular it's really not an extracurricular a lot of our programs where our staff go out and say they go to visit a an international country they're just going more for like the experience not tied to the curriculum this is truly tied to our curriculum um so I would like to just the consideration that maybe we would absorb the cost of not just a co-sponsor but two just because I don't believe they should go by themselves but that's um one of my recommendations for the board to consider and we'll work back next month great okay okay thr your name I just had a question probably some the years that you didn't go is that just because there were no participants the kids didn't want to or you just try and do it every other [Music] year okay numbers gotcha all right great thanks for doing that yeah thank you you got it nailed away you don't have anything else for us right that's it that's all you got TR nothing else back app G to do a chair dance or something next time the next up we have Foya had a few of those sorry yep we had uh three foyers we had one from Central Education Association uh requested an invoice for our District's attorney related to the ca grievance um and any other expenses incurred by the said uh that went to arbitration uh so we were able to comply with the request in part the Illinois retired Teachers Association received request for a list of teachers we get this annually from the uh retired Teachers Association so we're able to um comply with their request and then the Indiana Illinois and Iowa foundation for fair Contracting we received a request for copies of the bid tabulation for the pl Road uh Improvement project and we were able to comply with that request as well all right that concludes tonight's meeting thanks again for coming out do we need a motion to adjourn and close session so moved second papus yes vote Yes Theif yes F yes Hil yes no

405g to allow a reduction from the required 10- foot separation distance from a water supply line in areas where the 10 foot separation distance cannot be achieved the water service will be encased in concrete for protection great I will I'll second it okay great thank you you were tied again all in favor I hi okay thank you thanks Eric okay have a good night guys thank you too thank you okay all right um and Raj thanks for your update today you know I I love that idea so um Raj had uh told me earlier in the day that we were kind of putting this out on social media to the town um so I don't know apparently we can all make um you know nominations then and Raj thought it would be better that we maybe wait till our next meeting and you know that way we'll be able to you know reinforce some nominees and then you know either make a vote that night or I would assume make a vote you know that night is that correct Raj did I get that right that is right so we we did get a couple of uh nominations already so but what happened U it went to Mr manager's newsletter on Friday okay but didn't go out in social media so it went to social media today you know okay and I know we got a couple of nominations already but uh we thought like you know given went to social media today we give uh residents a little bit of time you know to just uh send more entries if there are any you know so it just the timing Factor you know because it went to went to the newsletter Friday but then went to social media today you know so we just thought give it a little bit uh time but we have couple of nominations already as you are aware we have we have plenty of time still so okay all right that's great anybody with any questions no hi Barber how are you okay hi sorry good all right Jay you're up Ram Clinic thanks the the only thing I have to report is that we had our kickoff meeting with ram last week last Tuesday and we have the official goahead to begin um the planning so so nothing really new in terms of activities uh but we have the go-ahead to raise funds and begin recruitment of uh volunteers which is what we're doing so um I Dave or Ed I don't know if you have anything to add to that not at this time no nothing from me right right now all right thank you all right great thank you right item seven Raj you're up it's all you thank you sir thank you you uh easy convenience uh 69 Pawn Street uh we have a ownership change going on there I mentioned it to board last week you know last meeting you know we we had couple of pending items at this location uh they didn't had a mop sync uh and they they in process of installing that uh other thing they didn't had was a three Bas syn and they did serve coffee and all that they was coming in front of the select board for the liquor transfer so we have asked them uh we have requested the select board you know to if they're going to be granting permission to them to give them a conditional approval and the owners have decided not to serve any TCS food or any coffee and that's why we are waving you know the requirement for the threeway sink and uh they're in process of installing the uh mop sync so that's that uh regarding the milpond rest home I know again you know the owner owner was in front of the board last meeting and at that time Mr Sweeney mentioned that he he's going to be contacting us for the repairs you know uh next day but we have not heard from them so far you know from from last two weeks you know just want to bring it to board's attention uh we do have a uh meet and greet coming for the Medical Reserve culs you know we uh got divided into three parts right like when right now we are in the middle folk part of the MRC they do have a meet and greet in Framingham on February 27th it's at it's at 6 or 8 right it's it's starts at 6 I guess it's from 6 to 8 if any board member or any residents or anybody interested in MC you know in our region wanted to to join and then uh maybe in couple of months or you know after that we'll we'll also be hosting one of the meet and greets of MRC in Ashland uh housing cases you know Chestnut Place apartment I do see improvements with the dumpster and all that we do have a meeting set up you know with uh some Town staff right like different uh Town departments um on the 29th with the owner of join drive you know uh the Chestnut Hill Apartments they are trying to do some more repairs or you know some additions at U at the apartments and uh we are we are setting up a meeting with them just to you know bring up the current issues we have there you know so I'll keep the board posted uh serious Apartments um still dealing with the trash situation there you know uh U we have a complaint coming this morning actually you know if it was forwarded to us from DPW so multiple complaints at this time uh I have four citations to them worth $900 for non-maintenance of their trash you know from last month but still not in in control I did speak with the manager she was not happy uh with the citations you know um but um when whenever I go there is crash out there you know last time I saw diapers there you know that that was just in the open so not not very good picture but we're still working with them you know to get this under control but multiple complaints on trash 137 Pawn Street uh uh the town uh from from our human services department uh we have provided uh uh the the occupants from there you know two week two weeks of more support you know for for this stay at the Monty chello uh this was provided through the emergency fund and it's still still with the AG's office you know any any more updates I'll I'll keep the go was uh 120 uh 23 in trail site this is another housing case uh U that that was dealing I have two citations out on this property and uh the it seems you know I have uh communication from the court you know booster Housing Court uh that there was an uh a case going on eviction order for the occupant who have complained and that he have agreed to vate the place uh February end of February and the owner have committed to do the repairs after that you know so that's that's with 213 Trail site hey Raj can I is there anything else any other information you can provide about what's going on there unless I missed it um in a previous communication3 Trail s side so this are we talking about 213 Trail site right yeah yeah this was a housing complain you know I've had multiple housing issues uh I guess it was a month and a half you know when when we complaint came we did the inspection and issued the order letter right uh didn't had a response we issued first citation uh there was some repairs done we was uh in contact with the plumbing company you know know who was acting as a general contractor for the uh for the owner and then there was like uh two weeks Gap we didn't hear anything so I have to issue another citation uh then the owner called me you know we have communication from them that you know it was in court you know there was a uh some matter that they had you know going on about the eviction of the occupant you know and they have actually uh um the the occupant have agreed to vate the place you know that's what I have in writing in you know the some some other issues you know that we don't know but so he's saying they they'll have the other repairs done once One Stop depend got it yeah so we yeah we talked about this right yes oh yeah yeah I'm sorry I just it it was on the last meeting as well you know exactly to keep the board posted got it thanks thank you disease investigations you know from last time we picked up another salmonella cast you know so that was part of the same uh I I don't know if I said that to the board last time but uh so we had two confirmed salmonella out of the outbreak that we had you know uh from a neighboring town uh 13 total cases you know uh that they had at the restaurant for salmonella and we we had one more TB case that we picked up uh last month it seems you know the blood work for TB have come out negative you know so hopefully we won't have that much work to do the TV TV investigation or followup you know usually it takes like six to eight months for us you know or even more a lot of work you know to to follow up and it tbk sometimes Raj sorry again salmonella cases did you say 13 so yes sir the the city where they had you know the outbreak you know had total 13 cases but two of the Ashland residents also ate there you know that's why they had Sal okay because I remember too um when we discussed it last um and maybe I was just thinking of the two from Ashland but that I think that that right so two Ashland cases you know yeah wow thanks um Co flu Clinic last Clinic with with the Pharmacy you know Shan pineal Pharmacy we it's on 27th February and the routine you know childhood vac Clinic we we have weekly know uh we went through the vaccine uh Clinic the enrollment thank you Dr Ron for signing the sop it it it was a kind of tedious process you know thank you sir anytime lot of work you know lot of new requirements from the state you know yeah so we we are re-enrolled for the year with that and I attended a couple of meetings with hmcc that's the regional health and medical coordinating Coalition uh so this is a group of folks you know like we from local Board of Health and then hospitals you know MRC members meet together uh the last meeting we had was on on on the 7th and we we discussed you know like what what to do do in in in case of different kind of emergencies you know like that that we usually don't encounter you know like what what we'll do in a case of a tornado or something like that you know or U so we did an exercise right like how prepared we are what what kind of resources we have you know on both on all sides right like from local Board of Health side or town side or even at the hospitals right how many people we can handle stuff like that so very good exercise to to be prepared for the for for sort of emergencies you know so I guess that's all I have you know I'm open for any more questions just just a just a little followup what what's your opinion what's the problem with the Cirrus apartment trash issue been talking about that for a long time now so I'm not getting what is so hard to figure out that is correct Dr R so the management is same you know it's a the island company right uh but uh the managers have changed I guess I have in past maybe two three months I've seen couple of new managers you know yeah so we were discussing at the Town side too the it's it's definitely going down you know given um like you know the the kind of high-end apartments you know um lot of complaints you know I mean U there's something and even I had a discussion with Mr manager right like we had a discussion in our meetings you know with trying to coordinate a meeting like where where are the lapses you know like what what's happening uh definitely the manager changes or I don't know you given given the number of Apartments there are like 398 Apartments you know and that was my discussion with the manager it's like you know the kind of revenues they might be bringing this handling trash should be very easy process like you know uh like is it is it so it's not the residents they're just not thrown it everywhere or they're I'm not I'm still I I I don't know why it would take so long to correct this problem that is correct Dr Ron so they they have a compactor then that that is enclosed you know so all the residents bring their you know trash out there then but then they have another open kind of dumpster you know next to the compactor that that that's not allowed with our housing code you know but you know it's maybe they're generating a lot of extra trash like you know with us but definitely lapses you know and it's and it's good amount of time now and that's why the citations you know like because and this morning I went because of another complaint came in but it was cleaned up you know but like the dumpster was still uh you know full of trash and all that but you know and they have to control that as well you know like keeping trash in an open dumpster doesn't help you know and definitely rodents you know like man they they need to be aware right 400 units like you know tomorrow the the rodents are going to be in the units you know so if you don't control your trash you know and it's it's like buffet for them you know if you're not going to control them you know like it's it's going to be more more problematic thing for them you so okay hopefully hopefully get it board you know put on the agenda if you feel like you need that help absolutely sir okay we we'll do that thank you welcome anybody else Ed Dave Jay with anything no okay right moving on to the consent agenda um anybody want to make a motion to approve uh both of those the review of the draft meeting minutes for February 6th and the fiscal year uh 2024 budget reports Ed can't do it this time he's eating that's okay yeah I can do it I'll do it Ron I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as written okay all right that's great any seconds second all right thanks Dave all in favor hi hi Barbara you in she looks like she's Frozen yeah you frozen okay all right great okay I thank you okay all right that's great thank you um moving on to item nine future items apparently we're going to talk about a septic replacement on Tower Road next time and I know that theend will usually be pretty full so um we'll definitely do the the Mary mortensson thing next time and I guess we're you know our usual dates in March the 1 and third uh well camp be the seventh and the 14th correct no no Dr Ron that's not the right dates you know right think it's seven and 21 yeah seven and I'm assuming seven and 21 right so yeah I don't I don't have a uh a calendar if I'm looking right this should be five and the 19th you know five and 19 yeah five and 19 okay yep okay all right well sorry about that yeah okay all right that's great anybody else with anything to add nothing okay no all right everybody all right well thanks everybody and uh who wants to make always the best motion of the night I will I'll make a motion that we ADN okay thanks Ed second second second I'll second it thank you thanks everybody Mark checking in like you always do all right good night everyone everybody in a thank you night night night

[Music] okay we'd like to get started uh thank you everyone for coming there has been adequate notice of this meeting provided by the Board of Education in the December or possibly yeah December 20 28 2023 notice in the Asbury Park Press and the co-star setting forth the date time and location of this meeting similar notice has been posted in the barl hall the Briel SCH website and the burrow clerk has been notified Mr Becker present Dr Dan brosia here Mrs mcdevit here Mr Milano here Mrs wath here Mr starky here Mr Vitali Mrs Walsh here Mr Waltman here if we could stand for the flag solution to the flag of the United States of America rep stands Nation indivisible liy justice for [Music] all get a motion to approve the minutes of the uh January 24 2024 meeting I make a motion and I will second it Mr Becker yes Dr D brosio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr banit yes Mrs wath yes Mr sty yes Mr Vitali abstain I wasn't here Mrs Walsh yes Mr Walman yes all right I believe uh Miss pster we have a presentation we do um Mrs peon and I tonight would like to spend a little bit of time giving you an update on our district goals that were set um I believe back in October or so we're about halfway through the time that we set them and yeah sure um you know we just wanted to provide you with a little bit some snapshots of evidence uh to demonstrate that we're making progress towards the goal that we set um back the beginning or near the beginning of the school year so so I'm going to allow Miss Pearson to talk about the first two since they're a little bit more curriculum and program related and then I will talk about our third goal uh since that's a little bit more Global and and operational in terms of res so if we look at our goals overall our first was to look closely at our Ela and math programs we know that there are new state standards in those areas and we also wanted to really do um a little bit more of an in-depth assessment with with how our students are doing and take some additional steps to um see how well they are doing with meeting braing level proficiency uh we are looking this year into uh ways to enhance our social emotional development of our students character education executive functioning really taking a look at um the program that we already have in place and some of the things that we're doing and then considering ways that we can continue to meet our students needs in these areas and lastly um being new and coming into the district taking a look at our technology tools that you know affect how we are even doing some of our day-to-day business um so that we can increase our efficiency and enhance our organization so I'm gonna let Miss Pearson um give you some details about what we're doing with Ela now thank you um so it's been a really exciting busy year um as most of you know um whether you're a parent or a board member you know that we've had um lots of rigorous ideas um we came in looking really close at our El Ela and math and in the beginning of the year with the analysis of our New Jersey state um results we've talked about that and some of our goals as to helping our teachers look at what to do with those results where to apply the standards appropriately um and look really delving into what they can do to change their instruction to meet the needs of each of their children in their classrooms so that was what we started the year off with very very first thing in the beginning on August and September and then to our October PD um we started we continued with the administration of our link it benchmarks EXL and Dibbles Dibbles is given in um K through five and that is an assessment in Reading EXL is given in the area of ela and math and Link is also given in the area of ela and mathl and Link at R K8 we did hold off with our kindergartens and first graders and didn't assess them until the mid year benchmarks um in linked inl just to give them a chance to get used to you know the new routine of school using computers and all of those pieces so that has been very valuable data for our teachers to drive instruction in their classroom um and also allow us to look at where we need to Target our small group instruction with our students if they needed more than just what was given the high quality instruction within the classroom tier one did they near tier two or maybe even tier two three more intensive intervention in specific areas and any of those students that do um qualify for the type of instruction or progress monitored by our interventionists usually they are within an action plan that parents are involved with as well so it's been um a new Endeavor not new but an updated Endeavor for our school district but it's been you know very um well received with our community parents and our teachers because this really has allowed us to track progress of our students more effectively um that that goes right along with intervention and also kind of solidifying and put making some updates to our intervention and referral services and making sure that we had a case manager that was overseeing all of those plans and making sure that we had the connection with the parents uh coming in to understand what their students were doing and how they were progressing we've um given our staff members ongoing professional development and Link it Dibbles and iel using our October professional development days using um days within our school calendar and getting some sub coverage when we had link um we've had link it come in a couple times to help our teachers along the ways when the different benchmarks come in what you do with this new updated data because we have such important information it's a lot for the teachers to take in and know what to do with so we're trying to get as much support with that as possible and we are a year to W wisdom which is our Ela curriculum in grades p through five it's actually the third year for grade four because I believe they piloted it um a lot of really excellent feedback from our teachers um to observe some of these rich discussions that these even kindergarteners are having with literature and text um and identifying um different things within what they're reading is really truly remarkable um what they can get these little ones to do at a very young age and get them writing even um sooner than before so that kind of sums up our El math and moving on to social emotional learning um that was another one of our district initiatives so our counselors Kate and Kate Caldwell and Beth O'Reilly um have started off the Year by pushing in on a regular basis to our classes in K through five whether it's during The Home Room warning meeting period or during the a regular period throughout the uh the week we are ling everything to our five Cel competencies self- awareness responsibility um all of those pieces so all of the lessons and everything that we do related to social emotional learning does link back to those five competencies um we had initial training of our counselors our pre teacher our occupational therapist our speech therapist on zones of regulation in October that is something that we would like to push out a little bit more globally to the rest of um K through 4 next year so we are got our pilot groups going we have some of our um therapists using that individually with students and some of our counseling groups so we're trying it out we do know that it's an excellent program um and that we hope to make that available to all of our students next year and up to grade four we had some summer training in the area of metacognition for our counselors and teachers um that had signed up that kind of started performance of culture and I came in um very well received we were looking to continue that again next year too um in I think it was October there was um I made ANL presentation to the bpeg um committee about what we are doing with the district initiatives inal and what seal kind of is and what it's not and how it can just be very easily integrated into the day um with our students we have we are Contin looking at our code of conduct um and we are making sure that we are incorporating restorative practices um when we are imploring the code of conduct and discipline and certainly with any of our hi remediation and making sure that it's meaningful and it's not just giving you know telling students what they did wrong but what can we learn from that and how can we do better next time so that has been very helpful for some of our students or some of the kids that just continually make the same mistakes like how can we help them not make those same choices again how can make a better choice um our executive functioning groups um have been ongoing with oh that's something our OT and speech therapists do on a regular basis as well as our counselors but we have stared this year starting to do some co-reading co- teing co- treating um Cod groups and they have been really great because it allows the students and it allows our staff members to collaborate together and learn from each other as they're as they're working um and then again as like I said earlier with our irns process we have expanded our lens to just not be academic but to be a little bit more looking closely at social emotional behaviors looking closely at um at any kind of you know any kind of issues that might not be that might make academics look a little different but it might be because there's something else going on so we are trying to expand our lens with our whole staff um in that way so and then lastly you know we have some really great um you know technology Tools in this District that as we continue to de into what they can do for us you know we can find better ways to communicate to collaborate uh to kind of just make things flow a little bit more smoothly so here's some examples of some things that we've started to do with the technology tools that we already have uh we have asop for staff attendance we have started to use that um gotten rid of all the paper forms for um teacher absences and things like that that is all electronic right now uh we have increased the scheduling module capacity in Genesis that's our student information system so we have more fully built out um how we're using Genesis to ensure that uh we are you know more closely tracking where everybody is and and all of those types of things around scheduling um we're we've increased the use of Frontline for staff evaluation to include some other components that were not in there uh previously that we're required to have as a part of NJ achiev some things were on paper we've shifted some of those things over to front line so it's all one place uh and we've certainly uh increased the use of the Google Drive for a lot of our district processes uh things like our HIV investigations meeting agendas PLC notes our grade level teachers are meeting weekly um at regularly scheduled times and they submit notes to Administration from those meetings based on topics we give them or things that they're working on we can review those notes get back to them very quickly um all our field trip and professional development requests are all now being done electronically so we're using Google um in a much broader way and we continue to think about how that can improve our organization and efficiency um Nancy has created a great uh Google Classroom all around curriculum and instruction topics so when things are due articles we might want teachers to read um you know uh how we're going to do certain things like you know your linkage training here's the schedule so we're doing all of that through Google classroom with our teachers and very exciting just this week we are transitioning to online registration for kindergarten I want to thank Mr Slater over there he had a big hand in helping us with that and Mrs Kennedy um and new students all of our registration will now be online instead of on paper form so um you know there there is some some Growing Pains along the way and everybody has been really open uh to starting to make some of these changes but I think what it's also going to allow us to do is decide you know which of these tools is most beneficial are there some that we might want to expand the use of some you know others as we expand some of these there might be some that we're purchasing that we no longer need um so it's allowing us to really kind of dig in and see how we can work most efficiently with one another so like I said we just wanted to share some examples of things that we're doing to work toward the district goals uh that we set and the bottom we look forward to the rest of the year so thank you very [Music] much thank you Miss P thank you Miss Pearson that was awesome uh any board questions anybody yeah we're going learn more about um discuss code of conduct and restorative practices restorative we're going to learn more about what that is and what's being taught so we we have not fully redone our code of conduct yet that is a work in progress and I guess when we're talking about restorative practices it more is along the lines a little bit of what Miss Pearson was saying it's a little bit of you know many times it's just a discussion of you know think back about what you did what choice could you have made differently right and then for us to even as a followup to that conversation do a check-in with that kid and say you know have you you know how has this week been going you know so while we there are still some things in place like lunch detention and regular detention right I think we also want to seize on some of these things as you know um point points of reflection time to learn have a discussion about what took place and how moving forward you know maybe as a as a kid I could do something differently so I don't find myself in the same situation okay is the intention to reduce discipline for for actions as as part of that or is it as part of the process and then there would be escalations to different discipline yeah and I think like ultimately right we don't want to be giving detention detention detention detention right but rather if you can have those conversations with kids and check in with them and just say you know how are things going um you know or have you found yourself in a similar situation over the last few weeks where you had to stop and think about what you do whatever right we hope that that that student when they get to that next next situation will maybe pause and think and not find themselves being hit with another detention or making that same mistake so ultimately yes we always always want to reduce you know disciplinary infractions and hope that you know using some other interventions besides just the negative consequence you know can help kids make better decisions thank you thanks uh at this point we are at uh visitors business and visitors are permitted to comment on agenda items only at this time we just ask that even if you've been here before before you clearly state your name and [Music] address does not seem to be any Miss Quigley are there any correspondences this one no okay uh that brings us to committee reports uh Mr Vitali District Operations thank thanks we met yester we met yesterday late afternoon meeting less than an hour uh we we talked about the results of the audit through a representative of of the audit firm uh and a a very very quick summary of that is we ended up the way budgets are supposed to end up pretty pretty much even pretty much even so so so what we what we brought in on the revenue side we actually spent on the expenditure side and and I think it was a small deficit around $20,000 so on a budget of almost 20 million 20,000 is not bad um and and the good news the good news is we did not have any recommendations Mrs quickly congratulations yeah the microphones are for the for the people at home it is okay so yeah [Music] so we discussed the order which we have to approve tonight and the uh the results of the order was the budget was actually you know came it came to a small deficit up around around $20,000 and I just made a statement that budget of about [Music] million pretty and um the order part of the auditor's job is is is is to report on on any kind of internal control deficiencies and uh we we did we did um we did not have any recommendations for improvement which is a wonderful reflection on business office um we also talk about the media center and we we ultimately do have a Time table here um we are just we're in the early stages of the of the of the of the of the work there and the time table the timetable is for completion sake mid mid uh may actually uh we also talked about we also talked about the playground equipment and we are waiting on a proposal from from our vendor and and and and we still we're still researching if if we if we if we can pay for some of the if we can pay for part of the playground equipment from from from from one from one of our surpluses we should we should have an answer we should have an answer on that but you know I would think about the next committee meeting and the next committee meeting is pretty much pretty much solely going to be focused on the preliminary budget okay for the 2024 and we keep you up to date as to how it [Music] progresses that's that's about that's awesome good information uh representative this Mr M i attended the meeting in the beginning of February uh prel is month every month prel is represented very very well academically in clubs Athletics it's just uh it's amazing how all eight Towns come together for one high school and just to hear on the elementary school side I'm not a voting member there but it's very similar to what we do we had a presentation on their uh board goals and objectives and you know just weeks ago of what they're doing on you know Elementary in addition to high school so it's just on a k to8 level we run very you know identically if not very similarly and on the high school level it's just a whole you know different thing but how we have Representatives on the Key Club uh you know on all the sports they're excelling they're getting Awards month in and month out it's just a a very positive environment to go see month in and month out thank you thank you Mr uh curriculum and programs M Walsh yes we didn't have the opportunity to meet um we had such a robust meeting about um last month and when I talked to Miss busher she said she was going to present with Miss Pearson so they were going to go over many of the topics that connected to the board goals that they're working on under this category so so we will have another formal meeting this month and update you on that thank you thank you HR uh Human Resources we met with um Miss Paula just before the board meeting on the topics that are on the agenda tonight thank you and Mr Walman uh we did not have a uh former policy meeting uh this month there was no pressing alerts from Strauss smme um we are making steady progress on staff review of our our policies for the website we're now down to less than 40 uh to be uh completed um we also are going to evaluate in the next meeting uh the use of facilities uh for organizations such as as chess um that are not nonprofits or I guess four profits um and then we're also so working on verbiage for our two policies uh pertaining to the situation where uh students need to potentially pay tuition because of construction uh overruns in in the in the district so I'm sorry for no formal report we did not we did not not officially meet fine thank you Mr Walton and then uh M reath Community relation yeah I just have a a couple of updates um from the PTO um we had a successful inaugural Bingo night family bingo night um it was a really fun evening and uh we look forward to keeping that hopefully as an event for future uh school years um the PTO is hosting the sweetheart dance Friday night the 23rd um which they are all very excited about uh from from the bef casino night was rescheduled for February the 29th at 6: p.m.

e all right I'm going to go ahead good evening everyone good evening Welcome to our board meeting thank you I would like to call this meeting to order roll call Mrs Richards may I have the roll call please yes president Michelle Anderson let the record show that all five board members are present this evening thank you please join me in a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance I motion to approve tonight's agenda all those in favor I I I motion carries 5 to zero next action item approval of the superintendent contract and authorization um an and authorization the governing board to ex authorizing the governing board to execute the superintendent contract as approved by the governing board any board member wishing to make a comment I motion to approve the superintendent contract and authorize the governing board to execute the contract second all those in favor I I I motion carries 5 to zero and U we're going to come down um yes I'm going to come down and introduce Dr Carmen is here with with us tonight he's standing right [Applause] here go ahead introduce himself thank you and make a comment and make a comment well thank you um I want to thank the Higley Unified School District governing board for giving me this great opportunity to serve as your next superintendent I am humbled at being named at for this role with such a high performing and well-respected District at the same time I'm excited to join the Higley team and work with a the governing board faculty and staff and Community to continue to prepare all students for Limitless opportunities public education continues to provide the knowledge so that we maintain an educated populace our country's Founders knew the importance of education for democracy to be successful Thomas Jefferson stated the governments derive their just powers from the consent of the government but that it is education that makes that consent possible as such I am proud to be a part of public education serving as a lifelong public educator for 30 years beginning as a teacher and Coach I am still a teacher at heart and as my role has expanded in administration to include 11 years as a superintendent in prek districts I have and will continue to support teachers so they have what is needed to empower all students to be successful in their future endeavors again thank you for this opportunity I look forward to meeting our students employees and parents and working with the entire higgle USD Community thank you thank you okay next on the agenda is recognitions and awards Mrs Richards what do you have for us tonight president Anderson here comes another exciting Higgly Adventures we have a lot to celebrate this evening so we'll get started this is the year of the wooden Dragon husd held its annual Chinese New Year celebration on the evening of Tuesday February 13th at R hcpa students particip ating in our Mandarin dual language immersion programs at kulie early childhood development center Coronado Elementary and williamsfield high school performed songs and traditional dance in addition we had middle school students MC the event and they took the show away they provided explanations in Mandarin and then help us out in English because we didn't know what they were saying um before the performances we had booths with crafts games and of course food trucks we are so proud of our students staff and event planners for the preparations that went into making this a success it was beautiful and if you weren't able to attend we encourage you to participate next year we may shake it up a little bit but those fan dancers for example out there were impressive next meet your kindergarten principal day kolie and saaman preschool students and their families had the opportunity to meet our amazing husd Elementary principles on this day that was either January 23rd or 25th School leaders and mascots greeted our students provided information of course gave them some school swag and got students and families excited about coming to husd we also just completed the first round of Kindergarten Roundup husd elementary schools hosted this on Tuesday January 30th School administrators and kindergarten teachers provide an exciting overview not only of the district but of the kindergarten experience specific schools highlighted programs for parents and students families will have another opportunity to attend a Roundup event hosted by our schools in either late February or early March that information is posted on our website we are excited to welcome the class of 2037 next school year so I went to Santan today and they had balloons and they had that sign and all like I'm not going to do the math on how old I'm going to be when we hit that all right in addition we had our little preschoolers get ready for kindergarten by going on field trips to our feeder elementary schools during these field trips Kinder Prep students are getting tours of the school and learning about all the fun that we have at all of our campuses they had I've heard amazing things from not only the teachers but the principals so they're ready to go this year we had student council groups from San Middle School chapparel elementary and Cortina Elementary attend the first ever Public School parent par day at the capital this was held on February 5th a special shout out to Jessica Batista who set this up for us and actually went with the students they toured the house and the Senate and were introduced to the floor and had an opportunity to meet with Senator Hoffman so it was a great learning experience is Carrie Matthew here I don't know that she was going to be able to come tonight but I don't want to skip over her Carrie Matthew and the higgle High School Academic Decathlon team competed at the regional competition on February 2nd and 3rd where Tori Tesh won first place in speech and first place in interview Chase good earned second place in art the team qualified for state competition for the 10th year in the row which will be held on March 8th and 9th and we want to wish them the best of luck so we don't have Chase or Tori in the audience do we so when you see them congratulate them great job I went backwards so I believe these people are here this evening so I want to highlight them and then ask them to come up and have the board come down do I have Miss pan leatherby here this evening yes come here [Applause] five students from Higley High and one student from San Middle School have been awarded a federal scholarship to study environmental sustainability sorry I'm losing my voice course in Mandarin this summer at the University of Arizona the will be able to earn two college credits this is a big deal not only for our high school kids but our Middle School student as well this program received an overwhelming number of applicants across the United States however these students from our district stood out with their impressive proficiencies at a young age so I'm going to call call your name please come join Miss leatherby n Nicholas [Music] [Applause] Dewey Nathan [Applause] Sue Dylan Phillips Carston weart we also need for Savio Tac to come forward and Maxwell Moser come on down piggley is truly an Innovative District that is preparing our students for Limitless opportunities and we are so very proud of all of [Applause] you than conratulations than next do we have Miss April French in the [Applause] audience all right we want to congratulate The Fabulous Higgly High thesbian troop led by Miss April French for their outstanding success at the Arizona lesbian Regional competition in January where they received several Superior ratings and I hate to say it but way to go nights so I need all the students that received this amazing honor to come join your teacher right wow impressive group right they work hard all year and now we need to fit the board in there somehow I [Applause] congratulations you know when I said I hate to say it way to go nights there's a bunch of Williamsville people in here too so we're going to get to them next but what amazing kids we have in this District next We Have Allison May on are you in the audience here Alison [Applause] yes all right we're incredibly proud to announce that williamsfield high school senior Allison main on has been named a Flynn scholarship finalist this prestigious scholarship has thousands of applicants from across the state and only 36 of them become finalists Allison is also the valedictorian of her graduating class a member of Hosta Health occupation students of America America and a Star tennis player the next thing I want to get a sample next time because I heard you also own a business for decorating cakes is that true okay now we're going to invite you to bring us a sample next [Applause] up so the Flynn Scholars class of 2024 will be announced in April and we wish you the best of luck [Applause] impressive [Applause] all right next we want to congratulate Mr Joe abber scudo and Mr Devin Adams and the nine students from williamfield high school okay he just told me three out of the nine come on these students participated at the future Business Leaders of America regionals a fantastic achievement with seven out of the new nine students earned earning Regional medals we're excited to inform you that they qualified for the spring state competition in Tucson and when is that it is April 8th okay we'll be cheering for you over here all right [Applause] congratulations [Applause] okay you have to love the name of this robotics team they are called the technical Terrors it scares me to think about it uh williamsfield Varsity robotics team is Kelly Kelly Mahoney here this evening all [Applause] right all right this team competed a First Tech Challenge qualifier with 35 other teams on February 3D not only were they competitive Champs but they also received the Inspire award this is the most prestigious award given to the team in this competition they have to strongly embody the ideas of the First Tech Challenge they must perform well on the field and off of the field it must be an inspiration to those around them this is a great honor you don't really look like technical Terrors but I'm sure you are once you get on the field all right same kids same kids same kids you want to go to the next one sure The Story Goes On and On Right Kelly in addition on Saturday February 7th 19th Williams Field's Varsity robotics team technical Terrors competed in the Arizona Championship consisting of 48 teams divided into the Soro Division and the Grand Canyon division after qualifying matches the team was chosen to be part of the number three seated Alliance and went on to win the division semifinals and finals becoming the champions from there they went on to beat Grand Canyon and um they achieved a state record score of 272 Arizona's champions so congratulations to technical Terrors and thank you to Horn Kia family and friends for supporting their amazing season good job ex when you get your congratulations thank you thank you glad yall are here you notice they all have their medals with them we have a nice that all right Mr lson Heiser we have state champs in the house again yes and continuing on our state championships from williamsfield high school I'd like to introduce Mr Daryl stangle the athletic director at williamsfield to introduce our state champion [Applause] cheer Madam president members of the board I want to thank you guys for inviting us here um to honor this uh this incredible group of young ladies um they put in countless hours and sacrificed so much to be able to do what they love in competing along with cheering on the rest of our programs so they truly embody the selflessness that we uh that we ask of our Blackhawks um they went there are three major championships in Arizona State cheer um game day cheer all girl stunt and show cheer um and our girls took two of the three um championships in the 56 team second division in Arizona so first on Thursday um our all girls stunt team uh won the uh won the the the division 2 Championship um if we can uh have them come up just go right up there this this routine is is a minute long it's made up of a whole bunch of crazy stunts they throw up each other up in the air they tumble they flip they it's it's amazing to see and uh and these girls did this separately even though they're part of our show cheer team too they stayed after and and also practiced to become to become the all girl stunt team so these uh these five girls kicked it off by winning on Thursday um and also qualifying for the uh for the show chair Championship along with their teammates um and then on Saturday all together they competed and won the show cheer um championship in division two come on up [Applause] ladies [Applause] I also want to introduce Danielle degreef and Jen selder the soon Tobe mother um who coached this team to the Championships once again big round of applause for the cheer squad right we have everyone come on [Applause] out e We Ready president Anderson for points of Pride and now I want to invite principal Katie Harris and assistant principal Angie Walker up to the front I don't know if I have that on me thank you so much just yell I probably can do that thank you guys so much for having us tonight I'm Katie Harris the principal at Gateway and this is Miss Angie Walker thank you guys so much for this opportunity we look forward to this every year the first person we are going to recognize is Miss Janine Liu Casey if you can come on up [Applause] here so as the title coordinator at Gateway Janine has exhibited exceptional dedication Innovative thinking and a profound commitment to the success of our students in the enhancement of our literacy intervention programs in her role as title coordinator Janine has been instrumental in developing and overseeing our literacy Cafe Intervention Program her Visionary leadership and tireless efforts have significantly contributed to the program's success and positively impacted the academic achievements of our students Janine has demonstrated an unwavering passion for promoting literacy and ensuring that every student and I mean every student has the opportunity to thrive academically one of Janine's notable strengths is her ability to collaborate effectively with colleagues parents and students alike and her interpersonal skills and genuine concern for the well-being of those around her create an inclusive and supportive environment Janine consistently goes above and beyond to tailor it's her grandchild it's okay interventions to me meet the unique needs of each student fostering a love for reading and learning in the process sorry I love you so much I have so much to say Beyond her exceptional work in program development Janine's dedication to professional growth is evident through her continuous pursuit of learning and staying AB breast of current educational Trends she actively seeks out opportunities for professional development bringing fresh ideas and practices to Gateway in addition to our professional contributions Janine is a team player who read supports her colleagues her positive attitude and willingness to assist others make her an invaluable asset to our community so thank you for all that you [Applause] do and before we take a picture who is here with you would you like to recognize them the crying baby that just went out um my I have three of my four children here and um three of my five grandchildren here yeah so thanks for coming [Applause] guys I think you can just stay off to all right next Mr Lee will you come on [Applause] down so Harley or Lee we call him Lee just so you guys know in his role as our dedicated plant Foreman Lee has not only excelled in his professional responsibilities but has also become a cherished and respected figure among students teachers and parents alike Lee's impact on our organization extends far beyond his duties as plantform his commitment to maintaining a safe efficient and welcoming environment has earned him admiration for from all corners of our community Lee consistently goes above and beyond ensuring that our facilities are not just functional but also conducive to a positive learning environment what sets Lee apart is his ability to connect with people students appreciate his friendly demeanor always willing to answer their Curious questions and share his knowledge teachers value his proactive approach to facility management which allows them to focus on their core mission of educating students parents admire Lee's dedication to creating this as well Lee's popularity among our community members is a testament to his exceptional interpersonal skills genuine care and approach nature his positive influence is felt through our organization contributing to a collaborative atmosphere that enhances Gateway we appreciate you and who do you have here with you I have my H wife Lucia my son in the back um Ben I was gonna say Benjamin but you know um and then uh my daughter winter so thank you guys for coming all right next can we have Miss Suzanne Brown come on [Applause] down Suzanne's contributions as a parent volunteer has been truly exceptional her involvement in various school activities events and initiatives have significantly enriched the educational experience for our students furthermore Suzanne has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for both students and staff her positive and collaborative approach has created an inclusive atmosphere that resonates throughout our campus Suzanne's ability to connect with students teachers and fellow parents are further strengthened in the sense of community at Gateway point Thank You From the Bottom of our hearts for everything you do and you continue to do you're a breath of fresh air every time you step on our campus oh and you get to recognize who do you have here um I have with me U my three kids Gary Tim and Bella Tim and Bella are gators too back there thank you all right next we have Miss Ka KY who was one of our second grade students that is coming up with Mrs Walker let's give her a big round of applause [Applause] good girl and then you're gonna turn this way and Miss Harris is okay Kaa is a second grade student that has attended Gateway since kindergarten her ability to overcome obstacles is nothing short of remarkable sorry I'm going to cry she is an exceptional student who brings joy laughter and unique vibrancy to our school Community Ka is not just a student she is a beacon of positivity intelligence and warmth that brightens the lives of everyone fortunate enough to know her in addition to her delightful personality Ka is exceptionally bright her intelligence shines through in her academic achievements and her interactions with peers and teachers alike what stands out even more is ka's remarkable memory she does not forget anything I am telling you she contains information with an impressive level of detail showcasing her commitment to learning and her Natural Curiosity her parents are without a doubt a bonus to our school Community their involvement and support have played a significant role in fostering a positive and collaborative atmosphere the apple does not fall from the tree and Ka is a testament to the values instilled by her family and I also want to say that she just won second place at the regional braal challenge in Arizona this past weekend so let's give her hats off to [Applause] that Ka do you want to tell everybody who's here with you um my mom's here and my dad and my two little brothers kayen and cash and my teachers and my tvi oh we love it all right you're going to stand right here and we have a gift for you ka it's a balloon with some Smarties in it because you're so smart so you'll get to eat those when you get home okay are we ready for a picture now guys you come thank you Gateway Elementary next points of pride is Mr John Dolan with Higley Virtual [Applause] Academy I got to follow Katie Harris boy yeah uh president Anderson cabinet members welcome Dr Carmen uh thank you for this opportunity to share about uh not just a Higley Virtual Academy but the Limitless opportunities our students have when it comes to Alternative programming here so um I'm certainly going to talk about some students that are online but we're going to talk about a staff member that helps us in some other things and we have kids you know when you look at them uh we have all this opportunity in the traditional setting but outside of it as well we have kids who are going to take some classes online we have some kids that might fall behind and we have some summer opportunities for them and then of course we have those kids that get to a point where in person is not really working for them and they need some way to graduate and uh Mrs Tommy bird in her Higley Learning Center um works with that so I would like to First bring up the first person Talon gaspie [Applause] but what why don't you tell us who's here with you I got my mom my dad my brother and my grandma and my grandfather okay I told him I was going to embarrass him a little bit so hopefully I do so uh first for Talon when we talk about uh online classes I think his sophomore year when he probably started taking some classes with us I remember him coming in and uh Mrs marklin and I will deal with all kids when it comes to testing and it comes in very uh stoic and the goal was to try to make him laugh uh the only reason we trying to make him laugh because we're going to try to get to know him better and it's so nice to have this opportunity because I don't see them you know he's in a classroom but I get to interact with kids when it comes to testing When I Call Etc and for Talon starting his sophomore year um as he's continued online he was a concurrent student for a bit now he's full-time online and something I just shared with him you know we make our choices and some places are better for him he's doing wonderful online he's a 3.0 student in uh a full year of online classes um and I know that uh when I watch and see the successes he has I hope that that continues for him in the future so congratulations buddy stay here Presley Liga come on up here hun [Applause] so Presley you started in fifth grade online right sixth grade fourth grade so when we were in covid she was online so when we started she started so fourth fifth sixth and now in seventh grade um so uh I got to know her because we had we went from just looking at a picture uh on a camera to our fun fridays at uh Power Ranch and to now we have our meetings every Thursday where we get to have conversations now Presley why I chose Presley is when you think of an online student you just think about a student who you know they're at home and they don't do very much every single event we've had whether it be helping at Power Ranch going to a cancer Network thing she's been at uh she engages with her classmates uh did Riley come over your house today okay um I know they do other things outside of it I think that online for her has just been wonderful and it's great to see her grow and I'm very glad that um I can be part of that so congratulations [Applause] thank before you leave who's here with you my dad who my dad Mr pugnetti why don't you come on up [Applause] here I'm gonna let uh Mrs bird talk about you but before I do that I know that you like uh trivia nights and I tried and I didn't get something I was supposed to get for you but I think what is in here you'll like my name is Tommy bird I'm the director of the Higgly learning Learning Center Program um kind of a little bubble where we live um not a huge program but I think we make a huge difference um and Angelo pagetti is one of the major reasons for that um almost every kid who comes to us comes in with a frown they're not happy about being there because we're there to make sure that they work to make sure they graduate when they're credit deficient but every single time kids leave with a huge smile on their face and some of them even Tears in their eyes and for some reason they want hugs from us when they leave um but Angelo is a big part of that um and the reason that I nominated him for this award is because of his professional growth and his outstanding work in hlc over the past few years um he he's first and foremost one of the most self-reflective people I've ever worked with um he's receptive to feedback he's tuned into what's working what's not he's quick to make adjustments as needed over the past three years I've seen him work very purposefully on his commun Communications skills his classroom management style which is a huge part of what we do uh his academic content knowledge and his understanding of teenage psychology his efforts and commitment to professional Improvement are truly commendable The increased efficiency of hlc operations and the academic achievements of our students is due in large part to Angelo's commitment to Excellence he truly cares about his Student Success not only in hlc but in their lives after high school and he is a tenacious advocate for the hlc program additionally his willingness to collaborate and gracefully accept change as well as his ability to successfully affect change has helped transform the hlc learning program our team benefits from Angelo's gifts and skills on a daily basis and husd is lucky to have someone like him in our corner so thank you very much for everything you do for us who's here with you I got my wife McKenna back there and I know my parents are watching online hi Mom and Dad than for you bud thanks a lot man okay last but definitely not least uh Mrs Melody Griffin would you come on up [Applause] here so I go back a little ways with this uh person because we used to work together at San uh when we began our online program uh I guess I get blessed that there's some people that I know that will want to continue to work with me she did and the best part about Melody and why I chose Melody here is one of the things that we really need is flexibility with our teachers we talk about the importance of feedback and communication and when you look at what Melody writes to kids remember they don't get to see her so they're doing work and they have to trust that whatever she's going to share with them is going to make them better um so the next time that uh when they turn something in it's it's uh you know just looks better better and I get a better grade on it and her feedback to those kids is amazing her communication is amazing and also her flexibility hey John um I I'll teach that hey John I'll teach that she's now teaching uh 10th grade and art 10th grade hon a regular 10th grade honors art last year was nth grade did you do seventh and eighth too as well Visual Arts so just so willing and flexible to do so many things um I just so appreciate you so thank you who's here with you um I brought my husband ship with [Applause] me guys want to get a picture thank you everyone and congratulations to those that recognize tonight thank you for the administrators and teachers and all staff that showed up to support the students and staff and and um volunteers and the teams that were phenomenal and really making Higley proud um next on the agenda uh is our I'm so sorry is our upcoming events I do I always skip it um Miss Richards what do we have all right our next events include tomorrow night our parent night social media awareness here in the boardroom at 6: pm.

[Music] you under freeze it it's like a at some point it's like a one two three y I'm Beth Reynolds I'm the economic development director for the town of Ashland um and I am so glad that we are finally here celebrating I was pushing Lauren to get the the ribbon cut early um so I'm glad it's February it's freezing it definitely feels Subzero out there um so what better J didn't do it so um welcome everyone um Lauren and Dan Crowley are the owners of this wonderful establishment so know how these two have done done what they have done over the last year and a half two years they have moved to Ashland they've started a family and they've started this business so you know they clearly do not like to take things halfway they just like to go all in and I think you can see the results of that here in this business is what they've already created here in downtown ashing um I think uh one of the things that I think is really really important about what we're trying to create here in downtown is like best said that sense of community and that sense of being together and that icy Vitality that we all want to see here in downtown Ashley and and la and already started participating and being a part of that commity since really opened up the holay SCH right back in December that we have uh one of the things that uh was I'm really real proud of and I know B is is uh that they fully utilize the busin and C program um so and you're taking advantage of all of the all the little mini programs we have within that larger umbrella all in all theyve received about $28,000 in assistance but that leverag the $250,000 you put into the business yourself and they have completely transformed the space I don't know if you remember what it was like before but it was pretty dark and dingy and um well it's anything but oh well thank you so much as well and uh sorry I was late I was in a very important meeting but just kept going uh and it was the reality that I was have ice cream sort of gave me a motivation to drive the exact speed the whole way here uh but so so excited I haven't had a chance to come in yet uh but I drive by all the time and been a vegan for like 20 years so part of me has been like yes I'm so excited they're in town but I'm never going to go uh but someone told me that you do like yeah we have almond milk and oat milk in all of our I will try to make up for the money I would have spent over the last several weeks had I know uh but so excited that you're here and I look forward to getting to know you as well I've only seen this nitrogen ice cream like once uh and it was my kids and so there's videos of them with the smoke the Dragon smoke out of the nose uh so they're going to definitely uh I have a citation from the stage signed by uh the speaker and myself but on behalf of all of my colleagues uh it's an honor to work with Beth and and Mike in the whole town uh to support businesses coming in uh but as small business owners you're taking this huge risk you're you're putting everything into it as all small business owners do uh and just a small way to celebrate you and to congratulate you and I know I'll speak for everyone when I say we'll try to spend as much money as we can here uh because if you've never had the experience uh my kids say it's it's quite uh but I'll just read part of the citation and I know the Senate President has a very similarly worked one uh but be hereby known to all the Massachusetts House of Representatives offers its sincer congratulations to Subzero nitrogen ice cream in recognition of your grand opening of your new Ash location the entire membership extends its very very best wishes and expresses the hope for Future Good Fortune and continued success in all Endeavors signed this February 16th 2024 congratulations thank you Senate the state senate official citation be it known that the Massachusetts Senate hereby sends its congratulations to Subzero nitrogen ice cream in recognition of the joyous occasion of your Ribbon cutting and your commitment to joining a revitalized downtown Ashland and I'm so excited to be here and I will say as a former Ashen resident I'm very jealous that I can't walk I can't walk from the Mendes on a half day come right over here but I'm sure that future Generations will be able to uh enjoy as much as they can I will come home as much as I can to visit my parents and then come home over here so thank you so much welcome thank you so [Applause] much um congratulations uh first opportunity I had to uh to taste uh your ice cream was actually through I think the winter stroll which over at uh um the fitness office there and uh I'm looking forward to trying um magnetic mint that's my next uh try there um ason Business Association is an organization that promotes its businesses of visibility we try to create um a positive environment for uh for our businesses here and obviously I think we've done a good job partnering with the town um our tagline is actually keeping businesses on track um and obviously we have um a commuter rail that goes through fall that connection um we have a little certificate for you uh with the little commemoration of the ribbon cutting um and it says the certificate of recognition is awarded to Subzero nitrogen ice cream in honor of your official ribbon cutting today uh the ash bus Association extends the best wishes for continued success welcome to Ashlin congrat ulations on your day today thank you so very much thank you um like Beth said it is kind of subzero temperature everybody was wondering like oh why are you opening an ice cream store in the middle of winter you guys crazy like well yes a little bit um but also it's really served us well um to kind of learn some things learn about our community um get to know folks before we've got everybody rushing in um we've had a great staff we just hired our 10th employee so it's given us a lot of time to get to know them and work with them and train them up and we have some of our employees families here today most of our employees are still in school um so their families are coming out to support um so like Michael had said you know we this has been a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears for the last couple of years um we looked at no fewer than 80 locations in like two dozen towns um in Massachusetts trying to find the right space for our brand um and so when we came here again we loved the location and Steve Greenberg from Oaky actually helped us with with that and he brought in Beth from our very first meeting um and I think that the combination that the two of them had with not just um what the space could be but all of the programs that were mentioned um it really let us see the vision and so while we didn't have a a 12 Monon construction project in our plan or our budget um hearing the passion that everybody had for re revitalizing this space and looking at the downtown area and seeing that like hey an ice cream or retail space here is going to be something that's great for Ashland um really motivated us to say like all right let's do it like Michael said we only have one speed so we just went all in um did the complete demo on this and we're really happy with how it came out so we'd really like to thank NM bank and exponential Construction Company who um helped us bring this Vision to Life along with our corporate team for being here special thanks to Beth who who's [Applause] sure

good evening everyone and welcome to the Ashlin select board meeting of February 21st 2024 uh we will begin with um I just want to note that one of our colleague colleagues Joe manani is not with us tonight but we do have a quorum of four members so we will be continuing um the first item on the agenda is uh citizens participation I just want to note that we do have uh an uh an agenda item for 710 so we'll try to if everyone will keep keep your comments within that so how many people here are for Citizens part so I think I have three any anyone on line see I don't see any hands raised all right remotely so each each have about three minutes so go ahead Joel three minutes oh boy okay uh first just a quick comment then I had a lot more to say about it but the uh and I appreciate very much that you're going to be addressing what happened at the planning board meeting of February 8th uh I was at that meeting and for those who haven't seen what happened you can hear about it to have been there it was truly a shocking just absolutely shocking what happened so the board will provide more details about that and I do want to I do want to um just clarify for people it is on that incident or is on the our agenda so we will be discussing it I will um allow citizens uh residents of ashin to speak on this at that time if you want to hang around for that uh but um but don't feel like you have to go ahead I hope that the board as it deliberates about the events that occurred realizes that people who chair Zoom meetings online we are not trained I don't know when it's okay to kick somebody out of a meeting for conduct or what to do I don't even know how to use zoom really I can mute somebody but I really don't know how to mute 20 people attacking the meeting I would encourage you to look at that and see if we we could get better training or guidance in in what to do cuz we have no idea now that is all I'm going to say given the limited time here Jo that's uh however that was the one of two incidents that occurred that night and I'm addressing the second one now and I was very unhappy with what occurred I went to that meeting uh representing the upper Charles Trail committee we have one of our members here and wanted to focus on public safety uh the project that was under consideration by the planning board was a large housing project on Homer ra and the trail that we have planned and have had the route that we have had in place for a very long time goes right on home arav we did that to bring business and commerce to the downtown and I got into a an argument really it was very unpleasant it was polite but uh I was told by the planning board spefic specifically one or two members that the trail they really didn't want to discuss the trail and I pleaded with them again this had happened at a previous meeting to uh only ask their traffic consultant to have an awareness of the trail such that safety could at least be considered there might not be any safety issue but at least they could have had professional feedback on the implications and I was told that the trail is aspirational that's the word they used we don't have anything in front of us it doesn't exist and it's we are not going to plan for something that does not exist and I started to say I thought the idea of planning was to consider reasonable intended uses that may not have occurred yet planning you know the future the unknown and I was muted I sent all of you today an article I hope some have had a chance to read it my I'm not a lawyer so I could be way off base here I you know it's for you to interpret but the the Massachusetts Supreme Court bent over backwards to say you can't do that kind of stuff you know there is Free Speech when a resident comes up to speak they're not to be muted even if you even if they are criticizing you even if in in the case in Southboro the the resident called one of the board members a Hitler likee person or or words to that effect I me called him Hitler and my point is that when you consider uh what what we should be taught as chairs running meetings we need to understand what is a what is legal speech even if it's not appreciated speech and what is not those are all my comments thank you so and yeah so we should just keep that in mind um you know maybe you could have a discussion with Peter about the planning board dealing with the upper Charles Trail and those kind of issues all right thank you Joel yeah we are just going by time limits here so limit go ahead uh Mar will be three minutes got three subjects three minutes one one subject is is I saw sh5 news earlier tonight that nian is going to be looked at again for the final twoyear study yes or no so Mark I haven't I haven't watched the segment but my understanding is that they referenced the the $2 million that the EPA is putting forward to finish basically the ground extraction system that they that they currently have in place basically supercharge that so I don't know if they're looking at it again just fully implementing what they call the final remedy for for the um yeah I did see it and that's what they were referencing is the Final Phase okay okay and another thing would be um you you was talking about in the board before we came on there the comprehensive plan has it meeting in the Box on Sunday can that be explained and how many people can go so Market's it's open to anybody who wants to attend so a meeting in a box is is really a focus group that's probably Jen and I have uh we we talk about this often uh what to call it so a focus group it's really more of a focus group and we have you know basically a set of questions that we ask the people that are in attendance so if we have a large group we'll split up into smaller groups so everybody has an opportunity to provide input and um yeah that's basically the gist of it and it's at the community center at the community center correct from one to three that's s on your um your site yeah and the last thing would be the the plan board zoom boom I'm going to wait to for my comments on that but then again you gave me three minutes so I'll wait to when it comes up okay thanks Mark right CeCe I believe CeCe is the last uh speaker for public participation right okay thank you thank you and good evening I want to extend my appreciation for my offer to take home for each of you the radio frequency radiation meter I hope that you each got to have a turn with that over the last two weeks and just really gather data on what our children and our families are exposed to given today's radio frequency radiation exposures what I brought for you tonight is a copy of the New Hampshire 5G commission report New Hampshire is the first in the country to pass a law to investigate the health and environmental impacts of today's 5G technology once they got started on their investigation they realized it's not just 5G it's it's everything Wireless from our laptops to our cell phones to our wearables and everything beyond that the utility Smart Meters as well that they're putting on our homes so I paid 50 bucks to print each one of these so I'd like to loan them to you for the next two weeks and ask that you at least skim through the first 17 pages of their executive summary and findings now this was not just a willy-nilly commission these are highly trained professionals we had medical doctors we had Engineers we had World leading scientists in electromagnetic radiation and these are top-of-the-line people who were in a position to assess the body of science that our federal agencies have failed to do they have defunded all of the good programs that we had at the federal level when the 1996 Telecom Act was passed that favors industry over public health so I hope you'll take a good solid look at this New Hampshire commission report one of the recommendations among the 15 that they make and they are not weighted in any way all 15 are very important one of them is to get the wireless radiation out of our schools because children are especially vulnerable and what got me on this path with with you guys again is when I went to the open house at our beautiful new Mendes school and there were no children with all their devices in the building but what we have done sadly is we put a wireless access point the Ruckus on the ceiling of every classroom and in the hallways and when I measured it was Skyhigh in the red zone and that's what we're exposing our children to every day so I'm asking once again that you continue to do your investigation on this issue I hope the resources that I'm providing you are looked at first of all don't take anybody's word on this do your own independent investigation and just today I was given a new report that came out um applying the precautionary principle to wireless technology we should have never let this come into our living spaces this is put out by Dr Paul Ben isai who's a physicist at the aerial University in Israel Dr halel Baldwin who's a neurosurgeon and he was the co-chair of the EMF medical conference which I was asked to present on for state and local policy Dr Linda burnam who's now the retired director of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and it goes on these are top level experts and I sent this to you this afternoon so I was going to ask this is different than yeah this report okay some of some of the same people Dr Kent Chamberlain has now retired from UN in their Department of electrical and computer engineering he thought it would be a slam dunk to sit on this Commission of course Wi-Fi is fine he worked in it for 30 years and then he got a hold of the science and he's done a 180 so we anything anything else on this the only thing I would say is you should go to the Board of Health and present this I think I I've been presenting for years Brandy and Ashlin has done um some really remarkable inroads to help us be the first in the country to even have a little sign hanging in our classrooms with precautionary measures we're the first in the country to put this on loan but you guys are the ones who set the rules in our town you guys are the ones who can change our zoning code so we will stop putting close range micro W radiation on our homes and cell towers near our homes and I don't know if you guys saw there was a press release from uh the Mass state board of Ethics that the DPW manager in Franklin has just gotten into some hot water because Yolanda is not in her head when the industry came in and talked our towns into putting these smart water meters on our homes they did some pretty unethical things and so now there's some hot water coming out of that um so I have asked Michael and I have asked the DPW to show me where in the state law it says we are required to put these smart meters on our homes because I think the industry pulled a fast one on us so those thank you CC thank you all right so that that concludes citizens participation so we'll go in the first item on the agenda which is um I have here Hank Rous uh Habitat Humanity discuss 47 Main Street proposal and who do I have uh on this one if you could either unmute yourself or raise your hands so I think Steve Greenberg is there and some other folks maybe so is this a presentation uh do you want to just introduce yourself um and I think Dave Rosen Bloom is here from the affordable housing trust as well all right so why don't you go ahead and um um we have a we just want to remind we have a public hearing at 7:30 so you have about 20 minutes for this in discussion so go ahead put that in mind so thank you all right thank you I'm Debbie maruka H I'm the executive director of Habitat for Humanity thank you very much for having us tonight um Steve do you or Dave want to say anything by way of introduction or would you like me to jump right into presentation please Jump Right In David wants to say something all right um so I don't know if I have the ability to share the presentation her sharing and I think the board did get this right is this the same thing that you sent us correct yeah okay very good okay um so yeah you should be all set to share now oh wonderful all right is that working that looks like it's working see it great okay great um so I have a brief overview of habitat and then um the primary point of the discussion tonight is to share the details of the project that uh we would like to pursue at 47 Main Street and to request the select board's support for that project so Habitat for Humanity our mission is to build homes community and hope we do this in um cities and towns um our affiliate covers 42 cities and towns in uh South Central Massachusetts and we specifically seek to um to do these buildings in towns that are requesting us to join them and to partner with them our vision is to uh is a world where everyone has a decent place to live and we build our homes through volunteer labor um and donations as well as subcontracted um projects and site supervision with our construction supervisors our primary programs are home builds veteran builds um our operation Playhouse program we also do home repairs have neighborhood revitalization and a brush with kindness as well as operating a restore which you probably know um there is one on pwn Street in Ashland um that is uh growing every day so the details of 487 Main Street um this is where it is um you know located on the on the site plan map um habitat has made an offer to purchase this property from the current homeowner and that offer has been accepted the purchase and sale is contingent on a building permit um moving forward habitat's next step is to complete um and to direct the 40b process through um the executive office of Housing and livable communities with the state uh and we would navigate you know the U 40b application as well as regulatory agreement and um uh you know right through to the deed at the end of the process um our build schedule we would begin construction within 30 days of receiving a permit weather dependent um and and construction completion would be estimated to be done within 15 months the details of the process with the 40b application is that we do need a letter of support from uh the town manager and a letter of support from the Housing Trust we have already met with the the Housing Trust and um believe that we have their support for this project um we would also request a town funding commitment that's a requirement for uh 40b application um and then some details about the overview of the any master plan or affordable housing plan that may be in place um in town habitat would then complete the housing plan the budget the lottery um and the schedule and communicate with the um with housing and livable communities and they would then commission an appraisal um once the application is accepted then we would be given the um permission to move forward uh for a comprehensive permit and then all the building permits Etc would follow from that habitat would identify prospective homeowners and conduct a lottery process as required by the state um for the homeowner to move into this home um and simultaneously be fundraising for the project who then complete the construction convey the property to the homeowner through a third party mortgage um and that mortgage would include a deed Rider which would maintain the home um as an affordable unit in perpetuity I realize I jumped ahead and probably should have pointed out this would be for a single family home our sales model is that the um eligible buyers to work with habitat are make between 30 and 60% of the area in median income and are required to be a firsttime home buyer as defined by the state um their financial qualifications do need to be approved by the executive office of Housing and livable communities um there is typically a requirement for somewhere between 3 and 5% of a down payment um and that varies depending on the bank that we are working with for the um for the closing the family conducts Sweat Equity with habitat meaning that they work for 300 hours through a combination of um education firsttime home buyer classes um other Financial education and then work on the home itself um and other partnership opportunities within habitat um the family is selected as I mentioned through a lottery um and we will have we will write um an execute a fair housing market plan that hlc does need to approve before we can begin marketing the property um and the maximum sale price estimate for the home is $280,000 that is based on um the current area meeting income um that is you that's in place right now however in March or April the new numbers will come out from HUD so that's an estimate because that will be updated when those new numbers are released great for our funding model the construction cost we estimate for this project will be between $475 to $550,000 the mortgage sale the net that habitat would receive at the end of the mortgage sale would be somewhere between 200 and 250,000 that's once we take out the um the expenses of the closing um and also uh recognizing that the majority of our homeowner applicants do not make enough to um sell the price at the maximum um and habitat's mortgage amount is actually based on the income of the family that gets selected through the lottery so we back into the price of the home we don't set the the house price up front and then require applicants to meet that price we will do um fundraising through corporate grants and um in kind fundraising and then again we do request a municipal sub subsidy through uh CPA funds in the range of$ 120 to $170,000 for this property a recent example that um we just completed Ed is uh 226 Cedar Street and Sturbridge um the town of Sturbridge actually donated that lot it was Town owned land um their CPA funds were allocated to cover 50% of the project costs and we um we built three-bedroom one and a half bath 1500 foot home there it did have a septic and well um because that site did not have sewer and water run to it here are some images of some of the recent homes that we've built so um this one on the left is that home that we've recently completed in Sturbridge the ones in the middle are essentially this house plan um joined together into three town homes um and this site is in Worcester and then this one is a um renovation that we recently completed uh in Holliston that one's on on concrete Street in hollist we just finished that um home owner actually just closed a week or so ago so big celebration for us so the summary of where we stand right now is that the property is currently under agreement with the owner um we did uh advertise and hold an autter meeting um on the week of January 29th um we are here tonight to request support from the select board um if we receive that report moving forward we would request the letters of Municipal support um in the next month and then through March and April um habitat will work to um finalize the rest of that 4V application and keep the process moving forward okay thank you for that presentation do um do um Dave or uh do you guys have anything to add to that presentation I have some questions but I'll comment if that's okay um we've met with habitat many times over the years and most recently um this project came up and um want to thank uh David Rosen Blum for uh helping put in this together and uh we've met with the owners and uh it seems like a very good project habitat's a wellestablished nonprofit and I think uh this type of development would be an asset to the town yeah um thank you Steve so my question is I thought that the trust was contributing the funds uh Deb said the CPC what what's the situation with the town funds well um I think that's to be determined um you know we have to uh see where we are when this thing is uh finalized uh terms and conditions but you know I think it would either be directly from the trust if all goes well uh Andor um approve the town meeting through CPC funds still CPC funds okay questions or thoughts on from the board uh sure I have I have a couple of questions here um you know one question is in terms of uh who might be eligible so the the are is any sort of priority given to town employees no so the um when we build a single home at a at a site there is no local preference that is allowed through the office of uh housing liable communities um it has to be a a lottery where all eligible applicants um have equal waiting okay I think that we several years ago we it wasn't a um habitats for Humanity but um the the land off of um Raymond marquetti that looped there those homes um they were built uh for low-income housing and and there was they were able in that case to to offer I think um priority to town employees um and then I wondered about your Butter's meeting on January 29th and and how that had gone um so that was a relatively quiet meeting um we had uh members of the Housing Trust and one of the members of the select board Joe was there and the um current owner of the property attended but no other Butters attended thank you Brandy or you um so thank you for the presentation um I know that our affordable housing trust has been working hard to try to bring a habitat project to Ashland I think that I've I've been on uh on site at habitat builds and it's it's a it's a great project to be a part of um so you know personally I'm I'm excited to see a habitat house come to Ashlin um I was curious about the the current um owner of 487 Main Street and sort of how how that works if the property is a is privately owned how that gets worked out with habitat I'm I'm just curious based on you know knowing that this is going to be kind of offered up as a lower income um house for a family so the way that it works is habitat has made an offer to the current owner to purchase it um and the owner has accepted that offer um pending habitat being receiving a building permit um once we receive the the building permit we would um go through the the purchase and sale process and close on the property and then the deed would be um in habitat's name during construction um and then final disposition of the property is you know then um to Habitat to meet uh housing livable communities requirements um for affordable housing but I did have a conversation a very transparent conversation with the current owner who is um in support of it being a habitat property um there's just no concerns about that at all okay great um and then just one other quick question um assuming this would need to go to town meeting for for um CPA fund approval from a timing perspective if it's a 15mon um construction process is that from when the 40b application is filed in April or is that sort of the like what what would be the timing from actual like in your estimation when would construction actually be feasible and how does that kind of fit into the to sort of the CPA funding process that makes sense it does it does um and I I have may may have misspoken about where the um whether the funding was housing trust funds or CPA funds and I apologize for that um if it did need to go for um C to CPA for approval um you know habitat's 15 months um construction begins at um receipt of uh the building permit um so that's just the the average time that it takes for Habitat to build a single family home with volunteer labor okay all right so so and and the 40b process would take a certain amount of time as well assuming it does yes yeah it does extend the the time frame there's a comment period of 30 days that can't be changed and the um the marketing plan also has some time in it that uh that is mandatory by Al hlc okay all right thank you very much Yolanda yeah I want to thank you for coming I know as Brandy said that we've been trying to work with habitat so it's nice to see that this project is moving forward or potentially moving forward here in Ashland there was no details on the type of I mean other than a single family home does the design get determined further in the process or when does that happen so the the images in the presentation um are especially that Sturbridge um image is um habitat sort of standard plan um so we have built that that same house type um a number of times now and we have three different fronts that we can put on it um you know so that that um review you know goes goes through obviously the um you know building permit process but we do try to match Styles in the neighborhood so that the home Blends well okay good yeah I I too have done a build and I I think this is a great pro pro program so um I hope we can help you move this forward here in Ashland if it needs to come here I have construction volunteers on the on the board so that's great oh yeah definitely we can we can do something um in regards to timing I guess the affordable housing trust still needs to decide where the funding is if it's going to come from the trust or from current CPA funds I guess that has to happen um if you need to go to town meeting are you looking for spring town meeting or potentially fall town meeting Steve or David yeah oh I'm sorry if I may go ahead thank you Yolanda uh the trust has the funds um in an account to cover this if need be okay so um you know it's not going to be a last minute type of approach but um if if possible we'd go to town meeting if it makes sense to ask for funds uh replacement funds or additional funds but as I mentioned the C the um the affordable housing trust has the capital to cover it might be the kind of thing where you move forward with it now and then ask for replenishment funds at a different town meeting well I was a friend used to say probably maybe definitely we'll get back okay so uh what do you need from us tonight to move this forward or what what do you require um so it would be very helpful to have a vote of support from the select board um for this project to move forward I move that we support the Habitat for Humanity house that is being planned and presented for 487 Main Street and I'll second that okay the motion to support like U has been made uh this project has been made and seconded all those in favor say i i i a motion passes four uh 4 Z so congratulations thank you for coming forward to do this um and hopefully it'll go smoth smoothly so thank you and congratulations to the affordable housing I know you the the committee has been working to try and work with habitat for a while so to everyone involved in making this happen thank you for doing that absolutely and now you can start with the sibson property so there you go all right thank you thank you very much all right so the next item on the agenda is uh minutes late it's been uh uh uh this is a notice of violation hearing to include but not Li mited to noise occupancy and parking ashin Memorial Association Incorporated VFW 311 uh Pleasant Street and um I'm just going to read the um uh the the the purpose of the hearing um and I um before I get into that I'll just um just maybe make the members aware that we've had a proposal to open um to start this hearing and then to uh to take testimony and facts and then and potentially suspend it until our either next meeting so that Joe manani will be here for that so that's kind of the thought so keep that in mind as we go through this that we'll be uh deciding that be and just want to make everybody aware that that um we may not have a a conclusion to this hearing tonight okay um although the idea is that we're going to gather all the facts and information so people won't have to necessarily come back and spend a lot of time as we conclude this okay so thank you for bearing with us on that so the purpose of this hearing on February 16th 20124 uh notice was provided to Fred auton bar manager Richard Smith president of BFW and Kim wallbridge owner operator of marone's company pursuant to General Law chapter 138 section 64 and section 3-2 of the town of ashon Charter the subject to be to be discussed is whether the VFW violated the provisions of 204 CMR 2.52 and our section 4 D6 of the town's regulations governing alcohol licenses by permitting any disorder disturbance violation of noise ordinance exceeding the building capacity illegal parking block erress and consumption of alcohol brought onto the licensed president pres premises by patrons whether or not there was a crowd manager on duty during the event and if the crowd manager completed the building safety checklist fp-25 the incident in question occurred at about 2224 hours on February 9th which I think is what 1024 uh 2024 all the facts are more specifically set forth in the police report fire lieutenant report and photograph on record with the select Board office uh the hearing will be held uh pursuant to provisions of General Law chapter 138 section 64 so do I have a motion to open um uh the hearing so moved second motions been made and seconded all those in favor say I I so this hearing as described is now open um since people will be offering evidence at this hearing I ask that if is there anyone here who will be presenting evidence to the board uh either in person or remotely to stand raise your right hand and repeat after me do we have so I think we have three four I think all you folks except for Mark should stand up right potentially and then anyone on line there that is on virtually that's going to say anything want to want to testify I'm not seeing any okay Kim Kim oh there she is okay thank you all right so Kim you too put raise your okay everyone raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name I Kimberly Walbridge very good swear that the testimony I am um swear tesy I am I'm about to provide is the whole truth I'm about to provide is the whole truth all right thank you all right you may be seated all right so this uh hearing is now open so I'll turn it over to I think the town manager to present to introduce people to present uh okay so I think has everyone had a chance to read through so we kind of are familiar with the basics of what we're talking about here so Michael if you want to just present the town issues and then after that we'll get to the folks from the BFW to talk all right so thank you I mean I do think it was it was self-explanatory um you know the violations there's a little bit of detail involved in each one in terms of what um what is supposed to happen there versus what our uh professional Public Safety staff felt was happening there uh and so to that end I would probably ask um Chief Roby um if you would like to come up and outline what the what you have in your letter um that outlines the violations and how how they are violations essentially uh so the biggest things we're looking at is sprinkle of violation um due to the type of event that was being held that's why we wrote up a violation of not having a sprinkler um following the nightclub fire occurred 21 years ago yesterday actually in Rhode Island 100 people were killed Massachusetts past regulations that every nightclub dance hall discotech bar or similar entertainment must install sprinklers so then the question came up what about your vfw's your Legions Knights of Columbus fishing game type places so going through the sprinkler um hearings a lot the waiver was issued to them on only certain circumstances I'm going to read through them because it so I don't miss anything but they concluded they would not have to put a Sprinkle system providing they feature a meal as the main attraction the facility is used for events that it organized for the purpose of private function attendance for each event is limited and pre-arranged between the facility operator the private event organiz the number of guests is limited by written invitation or limited tickets available and does not exceed the attendance limit each event has a definite start time and end time tables and chairs are arranged arranged in well-defined aisles in such a manner to not impede ESS there is no significant low light situations the maximum documented legal capacity based on the available floor space is not less than 15 ft per occupant and that is a reduction just because they don't want a concentrated Hall the characteristics of the event as referenced are strictly controlled by an on-site manager and made in part by a written function event contract although there may be dancing to live music and recorded music during some portions of the event the entertainment is not the main feature of the event the dancing activity is limited to those persons who are attending for the purpose of eating a meal each guest has a seat at a table in such situation the occupant load is not typically concentrated or crowded in this event it did not appear to have enough tables and chairs and looked overcrowded from reports from my lieutenant that was on site and I believe he produced a picture showing that so that's the biggest thing I are we looking for sprinkler systems yes if they're going to continue this type of event if they're going to go back to a controlled event then they they fit the requirements not to have it uh crowd manager a crowd manager is required when you have over a hundred people two if you have over 250 we had estimates of up to 300 here wow um I believe the bill inspector will be talking about that but it their occupy limit is 250 right now must be the owner the operator or an employee working under the control and supervision of the owner or the operator who is the crowd manager so you can't rent the hall and tell the people who rent the hall they're in charge of it it's on the the building control they must make sure pathways are maintained assure they do not exceed the occupancy they have to initiate the firearm if needed they have to assure all exits stay clear and guests are aware of the locations of them and they also have to do a daily complete uh checklist it's a state form that they fill out um in this this case we were later produced a form that she did complete and it was a crowd manager they had one on site technically if they were over 250 they would had two but they shouldn't even have been there um the checklist was pretty much checked off other than three squares were missing and the biggest one being the Occupy was checked so um another big thing with the sprinklers and more for the VFW to know two violations of occupy in 12-month period is mandatory that sprinkler systems have to be installed so if they violate the Occupy load one more time in this year it's mandatory sprinklers it's not waved anymore and if they do get a third offense according to mess law they lose liquor license food license and all entertainment licenses for the property Chief the sprinkler cut off is what 250 or or just oh no Morey of over 100 over 100 and if it's not a controlled event like a dinner I guess right so basically they're looking you want more like a restaurant type style that way there's tables you're filling up the place where here if it's a dance hall you can load it with just people dancing around standing okay right any other well should we have questions now or uh are there more people that want to I think if if you have questions of the chief um you know you can you guys have question yeah go ahead we can start with quick question I think even even with the sprinkler system would that change the occupancy number no no I mean they could get away with the table so I technically yes I would have to say it would change it a little bit here they're supposed to fill up the room with tables everybody has to have an assigned seat so there for the amount of people that are there they all have to have a seat at a table somewhere what you're doing is you're filling up the room if they had a sprinkler system they could take all the tables out and have a dance just strictly dance flexibility but the ultimate square footage 250 would never be exceeded so quick question so the the three boxes that were not checked um where um basically it says with the respons you know about the responsible party to ensure no one in excess of the occupancy load um which includes all employees guests and performers and it's listed as Kimberly wallbridge but it's not checked off correct um because it's not checked off is that I would say it's not completed I mean Ally by checking it off it's verifying that she's saying she counted everybody and never exceeded the occupany okay and I think in this particular case is really the big issue was the Occupy load was okay and they have the person has to be dedicated to count um I sure if you read the fire report Lieutenant marowitz I think was going to try to be online if he didn't yeah he's he is online um their person was running the bar at the time okay and you're not going to be able to count and do two jobs like that yeah because the way the way the setup is is the bar faces away from where the occupancy is and there's a wall between okay well and that person is supposed to be free to make sure the aisles are staying safe maintained uh I believe you you could see in the picture that it's it's not basically what it was doing for the law coming in place was allowing them to continue on with their retirement bodies their weddings that they were hosting right you know without putting all those type of facilities out of business okay and so Chief your determination like the three main violations were the sprinkler system or a lack of a sprinkler system um the crowd the requirement of a crowd control manager and then the occupancy limit yeah okay and uh the last would be is just maintaining fire lanes and access to the parking lot cuz that's actually what started this whole thing was somebody driving by saw you couldn't get an Hance in a fire truck in and ended up it was the police officer who later called the fire department to come over there and so you know just for the board's clarification you wouldn't be making a finding on those issues that's the chief's Duty and and what he found you're basically um talking about the liquor license and whether not the actions that happened on that night um you know constitute um affect the liquor license in some way shape or form yeah I mean I hope from here it's an education for them to improve and monitor it Yolanda any other question I'm good right now thank you um so just to follow up so Chief what actions are are you going to take on these violations so I gave him a written notice for right now and we're going to go with the education of it and oh okay I mean unless we have to take further action down the road but that I'm going to consider is violation number one so that's a notice a second violation would be okay to shut them down until the sprinkler system is installed okay thank you Michael uh who no are you are you all set Chief okay um so one of the things that the chief mentioned was um blockage of of egress or Vehicles the inability of emergency vehicles to um be a part of that and I would offer up to uh Deputy Chief vula or Sergeant Rocky who is commanding officer on the scene if um you want to step up and give your your take um and Sergeant Rocky if you could also talk about like what was in your report in terms of what you had to do to get basically emergency access open and freed up absolutely um so on the night of the 9th my attention was initially drawn to the VFW because of a parking issue uh there are two main entrances into the VFW parking lot one was nearly fully obstructed one was partially obstructed so I could barely squeeze a cruiser in there um so again that initially Drew my attention just to the inability of emergency vehicles fire engines ambulances to make their way into the building should there have been an emergency um from there um we attempted to go inside and allow people to move the cars uh with no success I then called the on duty tow truck and a number of vehicles were removed um for safety so you had to physically tow yeah I believe two vehicles were removed by the tow truck okay do you have any observations about some of the well were there any specific laws that you enforced that were violated number one did is there are there any laws that you were sure um so I would say just given the size of the crowd safety of everyone that was in attendance was our number one priority um so safely when the determination was made that we were going to end the party uh with the fire department we were trying to develop a plan to safely egress everyone without a mass Exodus um so that was kind of our number one priority there um secondly the only other real observation that I had was a number of knit bottles that were consumed inside the VFW that were kind of strewing above the ground okay interesting okay how did you know they were did you say they were consumed inside you thought the empty knit bottles were on the ground inside oh inside okay questions or oh I had one from your report um Sergeant you said the security guards were armed yes they were is that usual or is that like is there something unusual or issue about that or anything nope it wasn't an issue we confirmed that they had valid license to carry firearms and in the performance of their duties as security there was no yeah legal violation there okay I was just I was a little surprised is that a usual kind of well maybe other folks can address that why someone thought it was necessary to have armed security there yeah well I can't speak to whether it's usual but um I haven't seen it in the past um but we did confirm that everything was above board with that company thank you other questions for sergeant thank you all right thank you thanks for your observation skills on that one thanks sergeant and then um our building Commissioners here Scott Doug do you have anything that you'd like to add well I can explain so what I can do is address the occupate load uh so that everybody has a clear understanding how it works uh I was not called to this so I don't know anything about what was happening at the time um the ENT load is a requirement under chapter 10 of this Mass State Building Code and what it does is it sets out the number of people that are allowed in a situation um so what I did was I I printed out a table this is a table that we have that we go by we can when we can create the occup Lo occupancy load in this situation I inherited this you know like the rest of the places if I have a problem I have the right to go in and do I change the occupant load if I if I needed to um and and so in this situation it would be considered an assembly use because you've got greater than 100 people in this in this particular uh in each floor cuz in this at the V BFW you've got uh occupancy load where this incident took place of 250 people and then you have the bar downstairs which has an occup occupancy load of 150 people so the different types of occupancy load are based upon uh fixed seating like if all these chairs were fixed permanently in place um they and without fixating where you're standing around the dance hall things like that and so uh and then concentrated chairs only but not fixed like this here and then unconcentrated which is tables and chairs and each one of them requires so many um square feet is how you get your Arup load so if you have an assembly area with uh without fixed seats and it's uh concentrated chairs only it's 7 Square ft so if you have 70 square ft of space you could only have an occupancy load of 10 people in there and then you have a standing space which is 5 Square ft so if you have 100 square ft you could have um 50 I that I think it do the M math right uh people and then if you had tables and chairs which is like a restaurant it's something like that you're allowed you're required to have uh one person for every 15 square feet so what the the captain was referring to was um that the the the amount of occupants can vary depending upon the use but typically what you would do is you would set that um by those calculations and that's what they would have to follow the other important factor is the certificate emancy that we issue every year because we go around fire department and I go around and we check exit signs emergency sites and things like that aisles are clear and safe um that is supposed to be posted so it can be seen by the public in both in this situation both upstairs and and a copy of it downstairs so that everybody can see so if the police or the fire or somebody goes and enters the building you can you can see or the crowd manager enters the building they see oh we can only have 250 people so I'm managing the crowd and I get to 250 people I have to shut the doors I can tell nobody else to leave unless somebody leaves then you can let one person in um so that's about all I can provide you for information to give you a general idea about that okay thanks Doug questions for Doug I have a question so the the 250 occupancy for the upstairs was that determined by tables and chairs or was that determined in a different way do you know you know this was long before I came here that somebody figured that out okay but you know depending upon what the board would like to do we could go in and I could go in with the fire department we measure the space out and and see what we come up with I mean if if they're not going to install a sprinkler system that they got to go with the tables and chairs yeah um and that means you know for every 15 square feet you get one occupant in the space so it's it's not that difficult to figure it out interesting okay thank you other uh questions for Doug interesting okay okay thank you thanks anyone else from the town no I I think that covers it and Deputy unless you want to to add anything okay deputy chief okay okay I don't oh Kyle did did you have anything that you wanted to add I don't think did he get sworn I'm here yep did you is there anything you wanted to add did you did you get sworn the chief Sergeant did you hear me did you get sworn when did you uh get sworn when we did the rest of the folks yeah I was I great thank you go ahead uh nothing crazy to add uh reiterating off what Chief Robi and sergeant rodkey had said uh the sergeant had inquired uh what the occupancy limit was which uh pequ my interest and brought me over there in the first place just to put eyes on the situation and like the sergeant said we our biggest uh concern was just how to safely Evac these people um without causing some Mass Exodus I did poke my head in I did check the egresses from the inside um what we call the alpha side on the fire service is the front of the building so there's two main egresses on the front side which faces Pleasant Street neither of those were obstructed for um pans per se in or out there was one on the left side as you come down where the handicap ramp is it was it wasn't blocked from the exterior it was just it would have been tough to get to from the interior just with the amount of people that were in that area um and other than that that's uh that's pretty much it okay thank you I I have one other question um just I don't I don't know who would be the best to answer this question but the occupancy certificate was posted um somewhere in the upstairs I posted downstairs just downstairs yeah I I was not able to find it I briefly looked for it after speaking with Kim on what the number was because I was uh not 100% positive and off the top of my head what it was supposed to be she said it was 250 which that's what it ended up being but I I looked for a posted sign and there was nothing at the time oh I don't think it says it in the contract either does it yeah I didn't see it in the contract all right okay we'll wait sir you you should be at the microphone so why don't we wait uh till you get there uh and um is there anything else brandy or we can so I think we're we're done with the town staff so uh VFW folks if do you want to come in in whatever order you like just come up to the microphone identify yourself uh who wants to go first we have two it looks like we have hi two people online Kim and happy to speak online since it's iPhone as well yeah did he get sworn I remember okay good all right so who wants to speak go ahead I'm happy to speak sure go ahead C we can hear you go ahead hear me okay yeah okay um so I understand the importance of safety in our Event Hall for sure um we definitely never do parties that make it a nigh hul This was um you know a surprise um I tell all my parties 200 is our Max I don't want to get close to 250 um the host of the party knew that so um I was surprised to hear that the count was over 250 you know um I understand that mistakes might happen within 10 that's why I wanted to you know that's why I like to keep it at 200 um just for extra caution um as far as as the three boxes go that wasn't checked off um it was because it wasn't a yes or no question on the checklist it's always I sign my name and then on the certificate it says the number and the expiration date my name and that's why they weren't checked off so it's not that they weren't answered I just didn't check the yes box because it asked for you know my name and the person responsible so just to clarify that um also you know in the six years this has never happened um now that it has you know I would make some changes that it can continue and you know we have a lot of different cultures that come in and have different events you know this was um a cultural um cultural Ecuadorian celebration and it's a festival and food was a big part of it um they do um food they do uh kids performances um and they have you know music so it started out that way um and there was no issue there were you know kids it was you know not a ton of people and you know I felt okay about how the party was going and at around 10 10:30 it's when it shifted and you know a lot of people started coming in it was um a different vibe um so at that point although no one was over served um because it had sort of changed and shifted from you know a family centered event um I decided to stop serving alcohol at the bar at that point um and I did walk around at that point assessing next steps and like what the level of intervention was needed and at that point the police and fire had arrived um you know I understand that I'm I'm liable to Monitor and be sure we stay below capacity and going forward I will keep count um versus in the contract I have it's the responsibility of the host of the party and he was the one checking people in um as far as security goes they were his security because I said I need to make sure nobody brings alcohol into the event so um you know that's why that um they were there for that um I didn't see the nips there was a bottle on stage at the end you know which I had seen um that was most likely from the DJ um you know but like I said going forward um you know I'll make sure that I know the capacity at every event that we have all the cbles um set up and that will also make it easier to keep track of the capacity because if there's anybody standing not in the seat then I will know that it's you know more than the amount that they said they would be okay anything else Kim I also have I have cameras that I have on my phone so like I can see different angles um you know so I was behind the bar um and I would look to see you know what's going on in there you know I can zoom in see like you know make sure you know um you know as best I can like what people are doing and you know nothing's being blocked and you know we're following all the rules okay thank you Michael did you want to well I think you want to had a question yeah we can start So based on the information that we've heard it sounds like it's difficult you're asking for them to be the crowd manager whoever the host is it sounds like you've asked them to be the crowd manager not the crowd manager but just um they were responsible for the amount of people that came in to be what they said that was set up to become in to come in okay and you were behind you were at the bar you were managing the bar was for the event okay so it it sounds like for larger events like this you might need to have another person to be the crow manager from what I can tell baby showers um you know yeah w they're all small simple you know this was you know an Ecuadorian Festival um the one we had the following night um was exactly the way I was supposed to go there once a year um but these particular people um that I had a couple of years ago um I you know asked not to come back because um they were difficult to work with and so it was sort of a surprise that it was them because they had booked under another name and I would never have allowed them back okay yeah that was in the report okay yeah that's what that's what I have for questions for this I just wanted to ask so you actually shut down serving alcohol prior to even the police arriving yeah because the the vibe shifted from the the way it was supposed to be and the way you know they said it would be to now you know younger people are coming in and you know uh you know the the children's presentations were ending and then it became like just a different vibe and that's not not how it was supposed to go so I started with okay how am I going to handle this I'm going to shut down the bar first and then you know assess from there because similar to what um Kyle was talking about you know I was fearful of a mass Exodus like how am I going to shut this party down you know and so I was you know just sort of making this assessment then and you know uh it you know they were standing on chairs they weren't supposed to do that um you know it was not going the way it was supposed to go at that point thank you so I have a question for you um we have a copy of the the contract that you Ed to um to sign with these parties that are coming in to use the facility um nowhere on that contract is there any information that you're looking for from people to like what the event is and how many people they are expecting and there's nothing on there that has an occupancy limit on it I do say 200 on there on the page under rules and procedures number two I put capacity as a maximum of 200 and it's it's the responsibility of the renter to ensure that capacity is not exceeded um you know it's 250 but I never want more than 200 I didn't see that let me hold on um because I I did look for that specifically um should be the second page uh we've got a lot pages in our packet just hold bear with me one minute um here we go so I have a hall rental agreement um you said it's on the second page yes so under rules and procedures number two so all I all it is says says here is entertainment must be concluded by 12:30 a.m.

we are about to record this meeting as we do with all of our public meetings um and I will repeat that this is a subcommittee meeting for the reenvisioning our Public Schools school committee subcommittee meeting um on Wednesday February 21st 2024 and we are calling the meeting to order at now 4:02 PM um I'm going to ask that all of the members of committee uh indicate that they're here when I call your name um committee chair ston I am here member Childs I am here and member disor here and we are also joined by the superintendent Christine targe and assistant superintendent Karen patod welcome and thank you for joining uh and we do have a member of the public here with us um sort of giving ourselves a few more minutes so that the public could join if if any more folks were going to um but we do have a spot on our agenda to move into public comment just out of uh for Robert's Rules orders I will say to you all right now this is my first time chairing a meeting of any kind for our school committee so if I get it wrong many apologies but I'm trying to gonna try to do the best we can and uh if I skip a vote gently remind me and we can hold as many votes as we want um but until then public comment um and I wanted to give our our sole member of the public the opportunity to share if they feel so inclined does that mean me that means you yes I know there's a couple of other people trying to connect but uh their Zoom has not been updated so they're probably not going to be able to check in but uh other than what I said the other night at the um school committee meeting I'm just here to listen um to drink it all in be supportive uh provide constructive ideas you know based on my familiarity um but other than that this is just going to be a learning experience for me and so I'll just sit back and I've muted my face so I'm totally Incognito great well thank you very much um okay happy to happy to have you on the meeting as part of our public process appreciate just for clarification can I get the public participants name for the we need your your name and your address oh sure my name is Kate Bron b r o u g h t o n 94 Meridian Street and uh that's about three houses up from the Green River school so that's my primary interest is just to kind of see where things are and if you want to ask me questions but I'm just here to basically observe so great well again thank you for joining us um it's about five after um I want to be sympathetic to the folks whose zooms were updating but I also want to be mindful of our agenda and that there is also a city council meeting tonight which I'm assuming we are all also very excited about um okay so the the next item that I had on the agenda um was reconvening the committee and this was just sort of a place for us it doesn't have to take it it can take as long as we need it to take but just to make sure that we all understand what we're doing and why um and what stage of the process we're at because I think that that will be helpful um to remind ourselves where we're at as we make any decisions that need to get made um so as as I see it um the purpose of our subcommittee is to solicit public opinion carefully study and make recommendations on the use of our public school facilities uh and infrastructure including how we divvy up um where students go um that now that we are in a place where those um where the recommendations were ultimately brought to the school committee and then voted upon that we are in a stage now of making any decisions that need to get made in order to carry out that initial vote um as well as be supportive in the efforts of reaching out to students parents in the community about how this process is going to to to be undertaken so that's being supportive of the vision of the administration and helping them carry out any plans for smoothing the process of students getting from one place to to wherever they are now to wherever they're going to go in the future um to help do that um does that sound about right to everybody else who's here who has a part in making these decisions is there any piece of what we're doing together that is either unclear or I didn't mention and you think that I should have mentioned it no I I I like to give good pauses to to just weed out all the people who are uncomfortable with the pause and will say something anything um great can I I know that this will be slightly out of protocol and out of order but could I get the opinion of the other committee members on allowing or giving the opportunity for the other two Community people who have joined to see if any of them would like to give a public comment I'm all for it I think one of the benefits of the subcommittee meeting is that we don't have to be so formal in order to maintain order fantastic I saw a general affirmative from Jenny I I concur I always like to have members of the public have a chance to speak great um thank you both for that um so I just want to recognize there have been three community members now with Nancy who have joined in the past few minutes um and we've already we've given one opportunity for public comment but we are reopening that temporarily just to ensure that you do have the opportunity to speak um because we had heard that your zooms may have been updating as they do sometimes um so with that could uh we get you to put your name in the chat if you would like to get on stack to speak um and when you speak can we get your name where you live and then you will have three minutes to make your comment okay I see Jesus so we'll do Jesus followed by Nancy and Meg I see that you're here just to listen thank you for joining J Zeus you've got three minutes sorry I I got I got lost it I mean my my comment's basically just going to be a repetition of my comment um more or less from the school committee which is just having an interest in learning more information about the decommissioning process for uh the Green River school and that if there's a possibility to advocate for um I guess there's a there's a loan on the school that's tied to it being a school that would need to be I think forgiven by the state um in order to move forward with it as housing or even something else um so learning more about that process um being able to you know eventually Loop some local legislators in so that we can try to advocate for that would be great so mostly here to listen great thank you um Nancy can I get your name and your address Nancy Hazard 30 spring Terrace Greenfield and I'm here Jesus just said everything I needed to say I'm here to learn more about the Green River school and with the hope that um it can be de decommissioned and that it can be moved forward into the so that it can be used for a purpose other than being a school and ideally that the city doesn't have to pay back the loan but that that's the dream so thank you I'm here to hopefully I'll will hear the answer to that tonight all right thank you very much um seeing no other interest and public comment I'm sorry we can't we can't really respond to what's going on in the chat only use that for sort of a recordkeeping purpose so if you put comments I can't can't really see them um so I have a sort of another would you all support if we moved that item item five which is on our current agenda around the Green River school property moved it up talked about it right now and maybe addressed some of these concerns I'm in favor I'm great uh all right moving on we are now closing the public comment portion and we will be turning to uh turning to talk about the Green River School um Dr DeBarge can you give us a a brief overview of where we are with that property um well there's not much to actually share at this point um I have I have the documentation that needs to be completed um that's a goal to get it done during this school vacation and um you know out outside of that um I will be in communication with the Department of Ed regarding the process for um moving Green River from a school held property um to does it remain a school-based property does it move to being a city property for decision making by the city so we don't really know that and I think until that piece is clarified um you know we can't really talk about what if anything the schools would want done with the property or the city would want done because right now there's lack of clarity about who in fact would end up holding Green River so to speak um there is some there is a loan um it was signed it was accepted the documentation was signed by mayor Martin um it was I don't have it in front of me it was just over a million dollars and there is criteria in the documentation about that Green River needs to be used as an educational facility for 50 years um and failure to have Green River be an educational facility for 50 years um could kick in the requirement for a prated amount of the loan to be paid but there is some language in it that is suggestive to me that there is some flexibility however um msba the mass School building authority basically said you have to fill out the paperwork before we'll talk about anything else so we're we just have to fill out the very comprehensive paperwork which has been a little bit challenging when schools are running imagine so yeah don't generally have a stretch of time during a a populated school day um so that's really where we are so no not really even any conversation about Green River until we find out where it will be held at the end of the discussion do either of the other school committee members have questions about Green River School I don't think I do because it sounds like we're in the holding pattern until we submit our paperwork great um So eventually once that paperwork gets in and they do it ever they need to do on their end to process it and get back to us at that point it becomes a conversation then that gets um sort of ratcheted kicked up back up to some joint decision-making body between the schools and the city to decide who's ultimately Gonna Keep keep care of it is that what I heard that's what I believe I don't have confirmation of that but um I believe that is where the next step will go um but I am waiting on confirmation of that but it seems to me to be a reasonable step which reason reasonable doesn't always um equate to what will be so but that's that's kind of where we are and where I believe we will be going great um well then we look forward to working on that with you as it continues and thank you very much for your diligence in moving it forward and taking on taking on the grunt work that not everyone wants to do that's all right we'll get it done much appreciated all right so that closes that agenda item we are proceeding right along um I believe that takes us to sort of what I considered the main meat of the evening which is um or the main cauliflower depending your persuasion um the uh the discussion about what the next steps are Visa redistricting as per the vote that was taken um at the end of the last school committee session prior to the election of a couple of us um and so again if you wouldn't mind indulging us uh Christine if you could give us an overview of where that sits and what you need from us so where we are is that there were some decisions made one was that intradistrict choice would stop so prior to my arrival um there there was no real strong language in policy it just said that exceptions could be made by superintendent to assignment of students to schools um what that became operationally was what we refer to as intradistrict choice where families could request to have their children attend a school that was not their assigned school because of geography within Greenfield when I got to Greenfield I only approved in District Choice applications for incoming kindergarteners who would still have a sibling at their requested school um we had talked we administratively had talked about the impact that in District Choice longterm has had on class sizes specifically at Four Corners and so um I see my I'm flickering I don't know why that is um so I was only allowing that for incoming siblings school committee voted to stop any new incoming intradistrict choice but to allow students who were already accepted into a school that was not their neighborhood Hood School to basically age out um so there are students who are in um all of our schools despite the belief or the statements that suggest only four corners has intradistrict students that's not the case all three elementary schools have interdistrict Choice students um so they will be allowed to age out until they get to fifth or sixth well yeah fifth or sixth grade depending the age when they when they move out of Elementary um the other side of that is that siblings now our current registering kindergarten class is not allowed to move into the school where their siblings may be if it is an intradistrict Choice request so um you know every decision that gets made has a consequence and some direction or another um so while students are allowed to age out some siblings may not be allowed to attend the school where their siblings have already been accepted intradistrict Choice the second piece of that well a second Vote or a third vote actually I think those were two um was that for the 2025 school year I'm going to ask Karen to double check my year the lines were going to be drawn 2526 Stacy when you and I had this conversation I messed up the years prior so for the 2025 2026 Academic Year the district would redraw School attendance lines so that the makeup of each Elementary School better reflected the makeup of Greenfield as a whole in terms of diversity so the challenge that we now come to when you asked what do we need you to do is one one of the biggest pieces that I need the subcommittee and then the school committee to think about is we have a group of Kinder gardeners who will be enrolling next month who may the following school year have the potential to have to change schools if their neighborhood happens to fall in a different catchment area so the committee needs to consider whether you will move up the redrawing of lines to this for this school year or will you allow students who have registered and are attending a school to to stay and age out of that school even if the lines get redrawn and their home would now be assigned to a different elementary school so I can make that much more much more pragmatic if I am a little kid living on ABC Street and right now I go to Federal if I enroll in kindergarten next year if ABC Street gets reigned to Four Corners do I have to move or will you let me age out much like the same process we have right now for our students who are inra district choice so then the subsequent question to that is will we provide transportation for the students who we've redrawn lines and then created a new school for them if the committee lets them age out of their current school and that is clear as mon may I ask a question yes so superintendent Dage um is first I was wondering if yes you might give us the numbers that are in each one of the three elementary schools and secondly Karen might have them I don't have the that's okay that really isn't what I need for my question truthly that was more of curiosity okay however um would it be possible that because I would I actually would not like a little child I would it I would not like my own child or my grandchild to need to have to start in a school that I knew was going to change and then move them the next year that is my opinion um and yet I listen to the meetings and I understand it would it be possible um to you know start that child in the school that that we knew that they were going to be in even though we weren't starting the whole redistricting um or or is it your thought process that we should be doing changing of those lines earlier I just think we have to think about those little kindergarteners starting off and I wonder how many children that really you know how many children is that going to involve and I think that we should be careful and teach and and treat each one of those children as if they were our own so I do believe Karen has some numbers that may or may not respond to your question so I'll let her look but I I think the challenging part of this is regardless of when a change occurs there is potential for families to be into different buildings so for to answer your question if you were to allow say I'm again I'm a kindergartener living on ABC Street and and my siblings are already enrolled at Federal Street because that's the that's the neighborhood but next year ABC Street will be routed to Four Corners the kindergarten student could go to four corners but the two siblings are still at Federal because that's their school so I'm not sure that that um eliminates challenges other than the kindergartener won't have to move but I think the bigger question is do you allow the third and fourth graders or whoever the siblings are at Federal to stay or do you make them move see that an has raised a hand so I I think that we instead of just the kindergarteners we do need to focus also on the kids who are not in the school they've choiced into but will be moved out because I think we have a serious fa favoritism problem if we're going to say that these families are allowed to be grandfathered but these families don't get a choice I think we need to come up with a way of structuring this that is fair even though it might be logistically complicated because otherwise it is clear favoritism to say this group of kids doesn't have to move schools because that's too traumatic and that's too big of a transition but these kids me whatever I think we have to make sure that we're fair to all of the kids and we aren't giving one group special treatment is there a way for us to come up with not hard numbers but rough figures of how many kids are choicing at each school and how many kids are being moved from each School like not hard numbers because that would be impossible but just a rough ballpark um Karen do you have numbers that would address Ann's question yeah and again this is Ballpark and I think an you're correct I don't think it's just kindergarten you have to worry about I think you could have a family that moves to Greenfield tomorrow and they could have a third grader and we would be asking that same student to do the same thing so I appreciate that comment that you know equity and um conscious awareness of who we're affecting here is not just our little babies coming into kindergarten for the first time it could be just a student moving in um right now approximately about 40 students at Federal Street who have Federal Street as their home school would be uh affected by the redrawing of lines if you forced them to move to a to a new home school when those lines are redrawn and you have about 22 at Newton who when you redraw lines some would go to Federal Street and some would go to Discovery so you kind of have a mix split as to where they would get relocated and this is at grades all grades this isn't just um our incom in kindergarten and as you know we just started kindergarten registration so our numbers and our data on that is just tiny right now you know we only have I think about 50 students identified that are actually registered but that obviously is going to increase so you know I think also with the moves you have to think about if you're going to to force those whose homeschool switches because of the redrawn lines to move we would really have to seriously think about class sizes at some of the schools that they're moving into because the bubbles would increase you know where we've talked about trying to keep two twos and two twos of each grade level at every building we're pretty Equitable in dispersement you know Newton right now has 180 kids Federal has 185 and four corners has two 10 so you know we're pretty evenly distributed and I think if we if we have these huge bubbles of moving and shifting 40 to 50 kids throughout grade levels that creates another problem so just more things to think about how many children would move at I'm sorry I didn't raise my hand how many children would move at um Four Corners so there the catchment line would be they would be the receiving school for the new redrawn line not uh streets that actually would be moving so their grandfathered kids as far as I could see from enrollment currently that doesn't mean there could be a street or two here where there's a family that moves in or something but currently um they actually would be the school that's going to receive more kids because of the redrawn lines unless you grandfather those kids that are attending their home school even when the lines are redrawn as the school of origin I guess is the best way to put it okay so let me just make sure that I've got our options in My Mind One we could say sorry there's absolutely nothing we can do and adopt an attitude of no flexibility whatsoever which I do not believe is what any of us would like to do just based on what I've heard um but we could do it I mean it's it's always an option to sort of do nothing or take the path of of least resistance um there's letting the kindergarteners age out of their their current homeschool which would which would be um not the school that they would otherwise go to if we followed the boundaries so we could let we could let the kindergarteners age out um which is the same policy we adopted for intradistrict Choice am I correct in thinking that there's also this a third option of redrawing the boundaries this year rather than next year like the 2425 year as opposed to the 2526 or is that basically we are too far we are we are too close in order to make that viable and would that even solve a problem my opinion and certainly Karen could have a different perspective I don't I don't think logistically it's too late it might be um challenging for families to think about a change of school at this point because the school committee meeting as you know wouldn't be until March so we wouldn't be communicating out to families until at least the end of March um and that that could be um challenging but the question would still remain do you let the students who are already in their school of origin age out or do you force everyone to move to the schools based on the newly Drawn Lines I think no matter when you move the lines that question will remain I think if we have already decided that one group The Choice group gets to stay at the school they started then to say other people have to move and don't get a choice would be preferential treatment that we would not be able to defend so if we made the rule for one group it needs to be the rule for all the groups in principle I am in agreement with that I would also like to understand what the implications of that decision are uh implications are for Staffing for class numbers for you know like how for the same reasons that we were wrestling with that decision for for intradistrict choice I would like to know what the impact of that's going to be for this redrawn boundary decision as well so again I'm going to look at Karen to interject if I'm but um really the numbers if you if the committee allows students to age out no different than allowing students at Four Corners to remain or any school to remain if they did inad District Choice those are the numbers we know now so our staffing is really based on those students being in the buildings they're in so we know those Staffing levels the only challenge that I see is that um at some point which I don't know if it would be this year or next year I think it would be next year um if siblings choose to stay in their school of origin any younger incoming siblings will have to go to the redrawn line school no different than what is happening with the students who are in a school through intradistrict choice at some point you have to say you live in this area you must register in this school um the option as it is now for our students who are in a building through in District choice if their younger sibling currently enrolling is not able to attend that school the family does have the ability to take all of the siblings and put them in their neighborhood school you know that is that is an option um so that problem is going to occur no matter when you draw the line so to speak Karen is there any any other thought with well I think the transportation piece then also has to be played in if you're thinking budgetary budgetarily what is going to cost uh the district because you know if you're going to allow students who are in their school of origin to remain there even if that school changes with the redrawn lines but then have the incoming kindergarteners next year have to go to the school that they're redrawn line is you're probably going to need at least one other bus if not I don't I'm I'm guessing really right now and that Transportation piece has to also be a decision you make and if you're going to continue to provide transportation which is if I can piggyback on what Karen said that's a piece that I hope to bring to the committee in March around trans transportation in general because right now we have a situation where the school committee policy states Transportation will be provided for students you know greater than a mile and a half but we have some students who are within the mile and a half we're still getting transported so the committee I think will need to make a decision about do you follow the policy as written or do you change the policy um because right now we have students I'll say who are you know a mile away who walk and we have students who are a mile and a quarter away who get a bus and then students one house past that who have to walk so there's there's um there are exceptions within the mile and a half and I think the committee needs to just think about that and either change it either implement the policy as written rewrite the policy or shorten the distance for busing but that decision will be combined with the decision on this and I would need to ask kis mesus who is our next year's bus company because you've voted on the contract um so basically take take the numbers as best they can and run them okay yeah I think I would need to see that information before I can make the decision um an you have your hand I have another Transportation question that will just make everything Messier um so my understanding is that when you do the choice School your family is responsible for that Transportation so we know that the choice families do have the ability to self transport but if we allow kids who are not choice to grandfather and stay at their school and they are currently riding a bus would they lose the bus access and therefore if their family can't provide transportation would they not actually be able to take advantage of being grandfathered this um I think you just restated the exact question where trying I was trying to um POs to you and I I don't know if I did it well that is the exact question and that we'd like the committee to consider if we allow them to grandfather into their school of origin based on lines will the committee continue to transport those students um based on um the fact that the committee has moved lines you know they have not made an a choice we've made the choice for them so do you continue to transport do you transport if they continue to live a mile and a half outside of the school area you know some students may end up less than a mile and a half from the new school so you know it's and then we've got the other fairness piece of if we're transporting the kids if we're transporting the kids who uh did not choice but have been moved but they're staying then do we also need to transport the people who were Choice from the get-go whose agreement had always included that they would be the ones providing their own transportation in well I guess for my opinion it's not my decision but my opinion is the the choice aspect um that if families elected to request a school outside of their catchment area we have not provided Transportation um the families that we are talking about are being told you're going to have your school moved but the committee could decide to transport if the family says no I'm I'm going back to my neighborhood School even though I would be allowed to stay at this school those folks would get transported um so you can do it either way I suppose my next question is how long would it take for us to get some basic numbers of what the increased cost would be what the new bus routes would have to be I can reach out to kcus and ask them to rerun keeping in mind we're using what we believe to be the new judment areas and we would be using current students which may or may not reflect who's there when the time comes but we can give try to get a good good picture I can hope to have it um I mean I'll reach out to them tomorrow and ask if they can do that um certainly with a hope that they'd have it well prior to the school committee meeting but I can certainly forward any information if it comes in or I can reach out to Stacy and see if we would have the ability to get a new subcommittee in prior to the full school committee go for Jenny okay so I think I think I'm missing something here that I don't understand um you said or somebody said at the beginning when this all comes to fruition 40 children from Federal Street were going to be affected and 22 from Newton were going to be affected in that they would be moving okay but we didn't think any people from Four Corners were going to be moving and yet Four Corners has the most students um um so no children from Four Corners that are currently there are going to be moving when we redistrict or did I miss that part is it something I'm not understanding so the highlighted streets that we had originally Run for the redrawn lines when you go through um roughly who who lives where in what grades uh those students uh live in areas that currently attend Federal Street or Newton and then would be moved to Discovery School or some from Newton would be moved to Federal based on the street changes so if you decide to change streets in the redrawing that would create a whole new problem because we'd have to figure out that but according to the um I don't know how long ago that was done Christine maybe a year ago close yeah um the the people affected um would be moving from federal or Newton to other schools not from Discovery the issue right now is that all of our students who live in housing areas are routed to Federal and Newton that has been sort of the point of discussion in the community that or Corners is not a diverse population and so that the redrawing of lines would result um in the streets for lighten Woods to be rerouted to attend or corners and students in that neighborhood currently attend the other schools so a followup I if I may chair um I I was following this and I definitely understood what the problem was I'm just looking at the numbers in the end and I understood that there were certain you know I I understood the whole inequity issue and I'm but I'm just listening to this and I'm thinking well if that's happening it sounds like in the end once we do this that there's going to be even there's going to be a lot more children possibly at Four Corners that's that's where I was going with this and I I just caught up to you the the issue being the redrawing of lines was pushed out two years so that the Bubbles at Four Corners where they have three classes at certain grades where the bulk of those students will have aged into the middle school you're looking at current enrollment not projected enrollment in two years and does that explain does that answer your question yeah so so we know that four corner has the big bubble do we know how much of that bubble is made up of choice students versus students who are currently uh zoned to go there and would have been zoned to go there in a few years from now even I I don't not I certainly don't have the top of my head and I don't even know that I have that information no because because you voted that they could stay there that really wasn't a population we were were focused on well I was just looking at it for just the numerical piece of anticipating like okay this are what these are what the numbers are with the current but in a world without choice this is what the numbers would be just for figuring that out it's not important it was just more for cont for context so I think really the question is do you allow students who would be moved to stay in their school of origin and if you do do you continue to provide transportation to easy questions not at all it seems like just having heard the comments from the other committee we might have an answer for the first part of that question but when it comes to the transportation issue it sounded like we were asking for a bit more information that you we might not have on hand until the next meeting arrives um the transportation piece you are completely accurate I need to get more information before I can give that to you yeah um um because while we might have principles around it where we would recommend a certain thing based on those there are also obviously budget affordances we need to be mindful of when it comes to our transportation contract um Jenny just had another thought um and I guess you can't do this one family at a time and I don't know how many people this actually involves but um this was a long time ago when my kids were little but you know if it was an elementary school I I'd have liked them to be at the same school and um and do we you know if your kindergarten is going to go to a new different school do you give the is there any thought to talking to the the the parents when we're going to do the redistricting to see if they're willing to move to where their new little kindergarten or is going if that's what we're doing which I imagine that would be rather labor intensive um but uh I get I get how this is a very problematic thing and I I also think uh my other thought with all of this is I know this is a subcommittee of the three of us you know kind of the three of us and then we have um Karen and Christine I hope it's okay if I call you by your first names but if you have um if you have input into what you think is the best idea too I'm I for one I'm happy to hear it because I think they're uh these are they're they're big choices so can I maybe make a recommendation for how we proceed because I am mindful of the time um that we entertain a uh a vote now to answer the first part of the question are we allowing students to age out of their distri their their school of origin um even after the boundaries are drawn um basically getting a motion on the table that says yes we will be allowing that to happen um and that we sort of table or um whatever the language is that says pending information um to revisit this as a discussion item for the full school committee meeting the transportation piece of this how formal do we need to be do you need one of us to pose that as a resolution to vote on or can we just second what you just said and I'm not entirely sure how formal we need it to be can I make one minor suggestion yeah that you would be making a motion to recommend to the full committee thank um okay so I'm going to make a motion now that we recommend to the full school committee that we uh allow students who would otherwise be affected by the redrawing of the district boundaries to remain in their their school of origin and age out I will second that if it needs a second all uh any any discussion on that any extensions on that any no votes on that I and point of order ma Madam point of order chair yeah I I think we may need to do a roll call I'm not sure on that but I I think that might be true there's three of us so let's just get to it um myself uh chair ston I'm a yes and uh member child I'm a yes as well member disor yes all right there unanimously recommended to the full committee woohoo uh democracy triumphs again um and now I don't know if we need to make a motion but the the remainder of that portion of the agenda item related to transportation we are we are tabling it to the full committee meeting pending information which will be forthcoming from the district related to the cost and um you if our if our bus company that we've just contracted with can do it um great I think that closes out that agenda item for us yes um then let's let's move right along um I would love for us to go ahead and set up another meeting while we're all together and have our calendars on hand um if that would be possible and I heard I heard you Christine earlier suggesting that it might be helpful for us to do this prior to the next full committee meeting assuming we get information so like sort of like only if we get information yeah I think I'm maybe we could optimistically pick a date and then I can update you yeah is that is I'm all for holding the time and not needing it rather than needing the time and not having it okay um okay so that would mean that we would want to be meeting again before March 13th how does Wednesday March 6th at this exact same time feel feel to you folks um I most likely could make it but I might be running 15 minutes late would 4:30 be amenable to our district folks it's okay with me Karen does that work yeah yes that works for me that works for me as well okay that was remarkable um and just to reiterate that was 4:30 pm on Wednesday March 6 then I will make sure to follow up with Lauren to to get that posted um for that meeting are there aside from this one agenda are there other items that we should plan to talk about at that time and if anyone thinks of one between now and then feel free to email me I can't think of anything from our perspective right now uh what are the odds that will have any sort of a Green River School update I know it's a lot of paperwork I'm just trying to figure out when we'll have something for the public because it is something that the public seems very interested in yes they do I I don't know I mean I'm I'm certain looking to make a phone call today but even if I am to get not today I apologize an this week um to make a phone call to find out about process I have no idea the rate at which the mass School business Authority responds to anything um so I'm hopeful to have a little bit more information on process but I I couldn't even Hazard when they could reply maybe I'll know that part before the next meeting how long it takes for them to reply that would be something right that would absolutely be something yes I'll give it a whirl and see what I can get out of them yeah and the I'm sorry no you go ahead the only other thing I can think of is uh with what was currently voted on will the superintendent in the future have any sort of discretion to allow a caseby casee move in the event of say a kid whose parent is staff at one school or a kid who's trying to get away from a bullying situation like is was the decision made at the full school committee a hard no or do we have any flexibility for superintendent to make a very much single case decision as needed for student at one school or the other as current superintendent I believe in students best interest I always have some latitude with decision making but that is my perspective um you know I I guess I don't recall there being a an exclusion like I don't think that was restricted an so okay um I just wanted wanted to make sure that if that was restricted we could get it as an agenda item to come up with some way because what's the point of having a professional if you can't use professional judgment well I I haven't um been in a position to do that often but you know once or twice I think in my tenure I've I've used my judgment around student placement so okay well since there is nothing from the current decision that would impede that in the future that does not need to be an agenda item okay great are these are these meetings going to be Zoom is that the plan I believe so yes is that is that good with you you're oh it's perfect thank you great all right um with that I have no other items that are on our agenda for this evening and I would welcome a motion to adjourn so moved second disorder I I guess we probably do need a roll call for that actually um I am chair xon I'm an i member Childs I member disorder I we are adjourned at 4:59 p.m.

[Music] good evening everybody I'll call the order of the meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education um at 7 o'clock on Wednesday February 21st 2024 thanks very much for joining us um and if you'll all um rise and join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance that'd be great I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic stands Nation indivisible welcome to Man TV I'm Drew Mass the founder of the company founder of the network we're the world's first internet television network so we have um everyone assembled um around the table do I need to say everybody's name this evening okay great thank you very much um so we're going to start with public comment we have one name um Mr Korea second second public comment okay oh yeah thank you very much all right um so with that we'll move straight to we're not going to have the um uh agenda item number five uh this evening the students Spotlight Brookfield High School we're going to go straight to the student representative um Eva hi I hope you're all doing well it's kind of been a little while since the last meeting so I have a lot of updates um to start off uh the midterms at Brookfield High School were held between January 23rd and 29th and there was a master year midterms event held for freshman students too coming up the BHS musical Mama Mia is going to be running from March 14th to 17th and tickets are on sale now I have a lot of Athletics updates um to start off with dance team we had our first competition on January 20th where we play second for jazz at Woodland Regional High School um this year we were the S swc hipop Champions um on February 6 which we held that event here for the first time in a while um and we also placed third in jazz uh holding the event here was a lot of work but it was a really successful event and it was a great opportunity for a lot of students in NHS or Key Club or other to get service hours we and we have our state championship coming up on Saturday too for the cheer team they play second at their s swc Championship on February 2nd and at the hatter Fest competition at Danbury High School they were first place Champions and the overall Grand Champion too um basketball and hockey have their state playoffs starting next week and the Unified sports program at BHS just attended the CIA unified basketball tournament this past weekend um I have a couple individual athletes that I wanted to feature because we have a couple who have just accomplished great achievements throughout their High School Sports careers um starting with Katherine Sosi who scored her a thousandth point this season um Shane Weber on basketball also scored his a thousandth point this season and became the Brookfield High School all-time top scorer Danny car roza from wrestling um won his 100th match this season and Olivia Walters from indoor track will be competing at the New England opens in Boston next weekend for indoor track also this weekend several wrestlers are going to be competing at their state opens too finally spring sports are starting up with practices in March a lot of started conditioning already this past month on March 4th Molly McCarthy from the Central Connecticut State University athletics department will be coming in to talk about underclassman about the college sports recruiting process and finally last week Mr Baldwin our athletic director went to speak at the aasa National superintendence Conference about the great work that the BHS student athletes on the athletic advisory do um finally some of the clubs that I'm in National Honor Society we're doing a lot of planning for the Mother's Day 5K we haven't established a cause that we're going to be raising money for yet but we've started to establish committee heads and members just to get everything in the process of organization we also have a blood drive coming up on February 27th so right now NHS members are sitting at a table during lunch time and visiting ilt to inform students about the process of donating blood and to get them to sign up um also we had NHS members volunteering at some recent athletic events like I said the dance team s swc competition as well well as a wrestling tournament that was held here for Spanish Honor Society we're still doing our mural project just to increase appreciation and recognition of the Spanish language program at berkfield High School in the Spanish language and culture and we're doing a lot of tutoring for students in Spanish classes as well as the ESL students um I'm in a in the Morgans message club which aims to promote student athlete mental health and raise awareness um um we had a dedication game at the boys basketball game on February 5th where volunteers handed out ribbons and wristbands to support that cause and for youth commission we have our career fair on March 26th during the school day we've sent emails and flyers to pass presenters as well as all the parents in the district in terms of the schedule that event it's going to be exactly the same as we did last year with 3 30 minute slots um this year students will mannually get to select their first second and third choices for presenters on a first come first serve basis and we're also going to be working with the college and career counselor Mrs Usher for this event and I know that was a long one but that's everything thank you thanks AA can I ask a clarifying question um about the job fair the three 30 minute slots so those are like professionals who would have a dedicated space and then kids would go to that space for the 30-minute presentation so what we do is for an hour and a half out of the day all the in each classroom there's a different presenter so we have a bunch of careers so far we have um I want to say we're up to 36 um so some interesting ones we have right now are pediatric oncology or veterinarian a lot of business careers too um so each student gets to pick their choice for each slot that they want to do and like I said it's first come first serve but then they'll just go to that that specific classroom with their presenter in it during whichever slot they choose that's um are you guys still uh trying to recruit folks for anybody who's watching yeah we were like we're not really going to turn anyone away so so they should call The Guidance Department anybody who's interested in volunteering they can contact either Marty mcniff or um Senor dula who's the teacher adviser for youth commission there's a lot of Flyers posted on Instagram and Facebook and other social media with all the information for that awesome thank you of course thank you anything else for Eva thank you very much great report as usual okay so um Now we move to uh the next agenda item written correspondence the following people sent emails to the Board of Education Andy Korea regarding Legal Services special ed Council Federal discrimination verdict and more joint meeting BOS bof Boe operations plan and budget meeting Personnel negotiations and Public Act 22-18 Austin Montero regarding public comment at special Boe meeting and Stonewall speakers assembly Foya Todd and I apologize for the name kak kak regarding a news article Christina Zimmerman regarding Morgan's message basketball game and Debbie Brooks regarding the Brookfield Library hosting Brendan slom the following people wrote in support of the email sent by Mr belanda on Friday February 2nd Shannon Riley Raa stefen Laura orbon Ron swinger Christina Zimmerman Jennifer Kramer Andrea yurina Carrie Columbo Michelle Sans and Leslie riro again I apologize for any of the names that I'm about to butcher the following people have sent emails in support of the book appeal asking that fun home be removed from the BHS Library Andrea Lopez Agnes Dickinson Rita Tui Sarah Amaral Patricia bosio Kevin plel Amelia malfi Joyce bino Tony sangalo ream nser Jaclyn fistetto Jamie pletta Sarah coffee Elena Lopez Mary ewig Kristen ventresca Lori pesi Michael pesi Nicole Rogers and Robert greo the following people have sent emails against the book appeal and have asked that funol remain in the BHS Library Laura Orban Tara Peterson Christina Zimmerman Joanne cafiero Elizabeth Ray Mike Luchia Aaron Zimmer Stacy Gul Ellen Odon Eric and Tony Joseph s George Jean hartnet John pit Elizabeth cornachio Phoebe Holmes Brian McGovern jeie Fernandez Sarah Joe Banks Jillian Dyer Monica mackinery Debbie Brooks Maria seagull Jessica Hawthorne Shannon Riley Carrie Columbo I think there might even been a few more today um this has been an issue that apologies if I missed those that's right they'll make it had meeting at 6 o' and hav't been on my email put them on the next agenda yeah yeah um I yeah it's just noteworthy that we've gotten a lot of um Lively correspondence this um in the past few weeks haven't been on no problem yeah I didn't see those um so um Now we move uh to the next item on the agenda agenda uh I recommend the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended the regular meeting on 1724 and the joint meeting Boe BF and BOS on second um do we need to have the the literal word move in there no okay great um all well is there discussion on on this okay um all in favor say I I I any opposed okay so the um board minutes are approved for the regular meeting and the joint meeting thank you very much um now uh next item on the agenda item nine is the superintendent's update Dr BR Dr yba thank you good evening everybody nice to see you all um just uh I do have a number of items on the uh report tonight but they're they're brief kind of uh more announcements or notifications to everybody to let them know so of course I was going to uh congratulate Ava and the dance team for their uh s swc Championship um importantly the bhf BHS Athletic program review it looks like the site visit has been scheduled for early March so it should be in a couple of weeks um the uh State Department of Education has a mandate on a diversity recruiting plan and uh Dr man and our new HR supervisor are working on that um and that plan is due April 15th so we're working on that in terms of our human resources department um we're really excited about parents Square which is the new communication platform and website um Eric uh presented actually to the whiskin staff today to share with them what that's going to look like and um in March uh either at the first or the second meeting we'll make a determination based on the balance of the agenda Eric will actually do a presentation for us so we get really excited about seeing that so that's something for um soft roll out in the spring uh likely after April break to get people used to it start signing up for it Etc and then full uh after July 1 full implementation I do have to thank the parents that have been involved with speaks student parent educator advisory Council to the superintendent we kicked off in January our next meeting is March 14th we're still recruiting some high school students to be involved the real Focus there was uh enhancing communication and really the use of parent square and how that could really help us all out in terms of Engagement so we're again excited about that um I also need to thank the parents that have been involved with uh Mrs Newman in the gang really reactivating the district-wide PTO um three areas of focus were looking at school climate teams and supporting the the schools in that regard uh also fundraising and making sure that not each school is not stepping on each other's toes uh in addition to the getting the vote out uh this spring for the referendum The Joint board meeting that we held um on February 6th of the Board of Ed Board of Selectmen and board of Finance thought we had a successful meeting um and as a result of that um in trying to educate the board of fin and board of selectman on the board of education budget um so everybody knows um we could certainly Rosen might talk about this a little bit later Mr Dunn um submitted his uh budget to the the community essentially and to the board of Selectmen on uh this past Friday so that process is moving forward Mr Dunn uh moves It Forward the board of selectman work it through then it goes to the board of finance and then we see where we all land after that um as Ava talked about the youth commission career fair is coming up uh at the end of March um actually Anna and I were invited to do a little piece on uh organizational leadership in uh uh public school so we're excited about that and it's a really nice opportunity uh Legal Services RFP was posted last week um our um purchasing agent has that posted I believe it's for 30 days I think we've had three or four firms already sign up uh on our website expressing interest so that's in process um potential board retreat dates I have heard from two board members um but I could hear from the rest um March 21st or 26th April 2nd or 4th um we need to pick one of those days so if everybody could uh it was in The Weekend Update just asking about that if you can send Lisa and me a note as to your availability of those days obviously we'll go with the majority of people who can make what for day school security update um this was something that was really uh exciting and and interesting as we think about school security on February 6th we have our uh bimonthly uh leadership meeting we invited the police department we had the chief and the major and a number of other officers a couple of our sro's and there's really some new philosophy and thought on how to go about lockdown uh procedures and and lockdown safety so we had a nice lengthy conversation about that and we'll be talking further with the chief and with the uh the officers about certain kinds of training we may be embarking on um let's see here I did want to let the board know that Central Connecticut um their graduate school has a leadership program for administration certification and they actually put feelers out for uh faculty in various districts as to their interest in being part of that program um we sent that information out to our faculty um if there's enough faculty interested we may even host uh a course or two here that's taught by adun professors from Central um or full-time professors to come in here and do graduate work with our teachers so we're really interested in in graduate work to support our teachers in their continued growth additionally um the interim director of the YMCA Jim work uh reached out to us uh not only is he offered corporate discounted memberships to our faculty people are really excited about that um he's looking to partner with our principles and schools in a number of different ways including uh possible Child Care opportunities and other activities so uh getting the our local why involved with our schools a little bit more than they already are is uh another opportunity for our students and for a faculty um couple last things here in terms of calendar the um last day of school now is Tuesday June 8 18th we've had three snow days um that would take us to days 181 and 182 would be on a Monday and Tuesday just so everybody knows that graduation is on June 15th which is a Saturday uh the board voted on that a couple months back and then finally our not finally I'm sorry I've got one more after this our um religious major religious holidays we talked about that with the calendar development this past fall that has been posted and it's publicized with the 24 25 calendar and then the final thing is um we've talked about student attendance is needing Improvement in working with families and so forth um the state department of Ed has had some programs and some flyers and things that they've disseminated want to turn that over to Dr man for a quick update sure so thank you very much so um the uh State Department of Education and um along with I'm sure most State departments across the country have also acknowledged that student chronic absenteeism is an issue um and so they have launched a campaign uh a couple weeks back they sent all um all districts materials that uh focus on this campaign that is called school is better with you and so they send you they send each district enough banners for the number of schools that they have and so our schools will be putting up their banners in a conspicuous place to let all kids know that we um are happy to have them come to school um and whether it's this year or the beginning of next year it's kind of an odd time to you know launch a schools better with you campaign but it's great anytime because we always want kids to come to school um the focus and goal of this program is to inform caregivers and students about the importance of regular attendance regular and consistent School attendance and to educate folks on The Chronic ABS absenteeism which we've spoken about it's 10% or more at any given time of a school year so at the end of the school year it would be 18 days or more if you're chronically would be considered chronically absent it um highlights the importance of daily routines coming to school every day getting into the habit of doing daily routines um access to not so much for us but a little bit with the mental health access um but Health Access in general and then meal access um social and emotional advantages of being around trusted adults and peers and then participation in clubs and extracurriculars um and also the pathways to postsecondary experiences both educational and career and that's kind of the focus and so um as part of that you know they sent us all these materials including this LEAP program um which is kind of a formal program of Outreach for students who are not showing up to school um and so we haven't kind of gone through that with our uh District leadership team or the ad counsil yet but essentially the program is that you know you kind of establish a committee in your school um for educators to make contact with um with school with uh families that are not having that are have kids in chronic absenteeism situations so it's called leap which stands for learner engagement and attendance program um so it was just it was kind of a fortuitous thing one of those um non unfunded mandates it was just here's some materials to help your students uh avoid chronic absenteeism so um that's a nice thing to be partnering with the state and then I just wanted to mention that that um uh increasing educator diversity plan which is the IED plan which is a the state mandate which uh Dr BR mentioned earlier does need board approval uh the state made that adjustment to that mandate in January even though the Mandate came out in the fall um and so we will be bringing forward this plan um for your approval prior to sending it off to the state so I'll have more information on that as we look to figure out what exactly it means so thank you thank you that's all I have thanks Wendy um I have a couple questions on that um is Dr Manel the first part is for you it's about the um diversity recruiting plan um because schools can have that as a goal you know to diversify their professional core um or body um but then if and they can Implement all kinds of procedures but if if those folks don't get the job it becomes hard to like prove that you were faithful to the to the goal you know what I mean is there any flexibility within like do you know much about what the state requirements are going to be not not so I mean we'll see how it goes right now it's the requirement is that you have this plan which is essentially setting a smart goal based on your current percentage of and and when they say diversity they're specifically reflect focusing on racial ethnic diversity they're not considering religious or you know sexual orientation or you know um immigrant status or you know background it's specific to racial and ethnic diversity um and so it's really taking the percentage of um you know minority uh Educators you have now and then setting a smart goal um and then fleshing out the plan plan on how you're going to realize that goal um there has been no indication as to what would happen if you don't if a district doesn't meet that goal um and I know that a lot of uh superintendents and Educators around the state are looking to encourage the um the state universities and you know postsecondary schools to try to come up with a plan for recruiting kids out of high schools to be go into teacher prep program so that we then have a greater um Workforce to to try to pull from because right now the concern is Educator recruitment yeah it's a small including um diverse Educators but um yeah so that's so we'll see it's kind of a a learning curve for all of us um you know I I I think the effort is there they're they're trying to encourage you know uh the the whole concept and building up our Workforce in for educators um and this is hopefully just one of the ways not the only way um building off that to the CCSU leadership program is that for an 092 like an administrative or content so it's not content no this one's just 092 administrator program and it's a cohort that you know you can create if so like some Educators might be from here and some might be from and if there's enough in the area you know one District could serve as a host site or something like that okay I had one more question um that probably I could answer if I read my emailemail more closely the the potential board retreat um dates thank you for this uh these options do we have a time uh we were thinking uh 6 6:30 somewhere around that would would work for everybody I had sent that in my note on Friday work for you okay okay great all right thank you did anybody other have other questions one yeah there are four there are four options is that something that we feel that we feel like we still need well when Wendy and I talked we thought there was some yeah yeah that has cost implications when we bring legal legal to a meeting yeah I think I think that there are because there are so many of us who are new um the things that are maybe clear and obvious to you um are less so and um I think to to I'd be more inclined to because we were provided with the very thorough detailed binder to be more to have you have people ask questions prior to provide questions based on what they greata organize instead of having him read the binder like I could read that myself I don't need him to read it no that's a great idea sure so maybe by the end of the week if board members could get back to me on their availability and then once we decide on a date you know perhaps we could set up a a a dock or something where you send your questions in and that could help Drive the agenda just quickly in terms of driving the agenda does anybody know that they'll be out of town for any of these days I will March 21st and 26th my spring break okay I responded that so far those dates are fine for me all that spring break so then we're looking between April 2 and April 4 then okay great thanks everybody all right thank you very much Dr Dr man that was awesome okay so um subcommittee reports let's start with um policy and uh Communications yes so uh the policy uh committee policy and Communications committee met um and since this was a new committee new composition um Dr BR spent some time uh kind of going over the roles and responsibilities and gave us an overview of um how the committee would function we really spent most of our time talking about the survey of students which is the policy number 61 62.5 one which was a carryover from uh the last committee um it hadn't been finalized so we took a look at that language there was some there were some areas that the committee felt were a little bit vague we wanted to tighten it up so we asked for some advice on that uh some legal advice and uh we made some edits to it uh so that we could take a look at it the next time and just possibly tighten up the language so we can uh bring it to the full board for um for a decision on that um and uh so that was most of our time and then Dr br will give us a a a brief um update on some of the issues or some of the areas such as the ribbon cutting ceremony for CES um the state of the district the budget flyer and the new website which he mentioned in this update tonight and that was about it do you have any idea when that um policy 616 2.51 might be coming to the full board we hope we hope by the next uh March 20th meeting okay thanks mhm awesome holla thanks very much okay uh next facilities all right we met on uh February 7th finally we're able to meet after a few cancellations um we uh we elect the new subcommittee chair which is uh myself we had a capital project update um the guen swing roof was recently closed out at the high school um we were going to request uh more funding for the uh from the board for um another addition to the project but thankfully um we don't we don't need that at this time the uh the money was able to come from somewhere else and move for the electrical upgrade for the electrical upgrade thank you um that we do not have to request it at this time um Mr cwell uh reviewed a proposal from Max orbo to develop uh plans to complete complete the AC project that's been put on hold um the expectation is that the project can be engineered in a way will not require additional structural work which is good news um Mr Co will also provide an update on the locker room condition that uh there are conditions that are being worked on several items that will eventually need to be addressed um such as tile flooring and sink um he shared with us that the space is not used as traditional lock room at at this time committees discussed the needs for the space of relation to various Capital needs across the district um and that was it for us and to be clear the that's the um whiskin girls locker room I'm sorry whis my fault whis girls locker room yes so did he talk about give it like a specific timeline regarding that because there was very specific um regarding which one wh yes so the wires have been addressed um anything that could be immediately addressed I think there was he did say he took care of those those were yeah the same day that he was alerted to those um situations they were they were addressed okay um the only things remaining are you know there was um there is a sink that's been removed Off the Wall yep we we not even sure um Mr Caldwell was that way when he came to the district about nine years ago so it's it's been in that state for a while it's been sort of cleaned up in other words the ends of the pipes have been capped and and things like that but short of having you know putting in the committee did speak quite quite at length about you know sort of the prioritizing investing money into an area like that um that isn't utilized um per se as a lock room at the middle school um as it's reported it's really more like a holding place to put book bags and things like that um so it's prioritizing those things people use it as a the community uses it as a restroom as a bathroom right right right um and there is one sync in there that that is that is functioning okay um so any other fixes would be you know c not capital projects but would be more more um a larger investment than just you know fixing one little item here and there so so it's just prioritizing those things yeah and was the high school locker room was that closed out or is that still open the project um that I think there's still a couple of lingering things um coup with some uh door handles door locks things like that um Eddie from um techon was actually in contact with uh Steve Balman and myself today um I reached out to him because we just needed a little guidance on that and so actually Mr Czech go here grab him after the meeting if he hangs around so there you go the NPC okay is that boys and girls that you're referencing with that question for the middle school and the high school and just the boys okay that's what I thought right thank you so we all said great thank you so much um and now uh Cape report okay we met on Valentine's Day and we're all present um myself Sarah and holla is our second meeting with Dr man and Mark Blanda and Liz Spencer we didn't have any public comment and we received a thorough update on the uh 2024 2025 Brookfield High School program of studies presentation which we'll get more information on it's on the agenda later on so I'll just um touch briefly about it um there is a proposal for an additional course creative writing to it will be an additional halfe elective course or enrichment course and it's really student requests that are driving this uh creative writing one is a prerequisite for this course this is also possibly an opportunity to expand um our journalism course offerings like I said before Dr man will um talk more detail in more detail about this on the agenda we did vote unanimously um in favor of all the revisions and changes um unfortunately one of them will be not to continue with American sign language for next school year fortunately uh the enrollments down and the online platform that's currently being used is not really preferred by students um because we haven't been able to get staff to staff that course so that was an unfortunate uh piece of information to learn um we also talked about Capstone um we were brought up to speed on some of the history of what it was in the past but one of the qu pressing questions moving forward is you know how do we manage it effectively also we're we would need money to hire staff to go through with this moving forward so um that's something to think about moving forward um we ALS so discussed uh we got an update um PDC which is um having to do with the new teacher and educational leader educa evaluation plan um they the committee underwent a two-day trading to orient the new CSD de evaluation guidelines and begin preparing a draft for the adjusted teacher and administrator support and growth plans which will be presented to us in June for Implement implementation for next school year a little update on instructional team they're looking at student data reflecting on it and creating goals instructional coaches are creating an instructional Playbook so we're looking forward to seeing this Playbook and they're continuing to engage in ongoing professional learning opportunities with at Advance where they're exploring various approaches to student centered coaching including setting learning targets based on student data helping teacher teachers explore gaps and strengths based on student work and developing the instructional Playbook um and we asked for a comeback regarding midterm exams and data from them uh Elementary and secondary teachers are using their interm assessment plaques both as formative assessments as well as experential for students to become familiarized with the format and the approach of the SBA and ngss assessments and the instructional coaches are um currently collaborating with teachers on midyear data such as mclass midterm exam data Etc and that's about it we'll get more information later on the agenda from Anna um actually I have a question but I I wonder if I should hold off for later like the instructional Playbook how does that interact with um or interface with Atlas is that something that's better for later no that's okay that that would be now because later is just the program of studies for the high school um so it's that that wouldn't necessarily be something that would be reflected in Atlas um the instructional Playbook is really more almost you know kind of like a handbook um to pull from to flip through um based on high leverage instructional strategies such as using formative assessments differentiate instruction I mean all of that jazz um and it's really it would be based on you know it would be the way that a coach could offer um you know like based on the scenario that the teacher is bringing here are the things that my students are lacking and then a coach could say Okay so let's set some learning targets and then let's try this or let's try that so it's more like a you know bag of tricks specifically bag of instructional approaches um and so that's one of the things that they're working on as a product for the end of this year the instructional coaching team is working to build that um which is actually something they had started with Dr Ruby and then it kind of fell by the wayside so they've they've gotten a lot of their materials from before and now they're really digging into it okay um lots of questions not the place okay um and midterms uh which grades take midterms so um all grades take midterms unless they are unless a student I'm sorry 9 at the high school no 912 um and uh unless they are exempt based on the exemption policy um or on the course and is which subjects all the all the sub most subjects I'm not sure of the some of the elective subjects if it's like if their course is over they take an exam right like their elective course is just half year than they take it okay right thanks sure I may ask for joy to help me out with the program of studies or Hala or Sarah cuz if I miss something I'm pinch hitting for Mr Bland tonight okay um was there anything else on on the cap all right then we can go to um personnel and negotiations um we met oh sorry go ahead yeah we have so much to do all right I'll talk fast um so the personnel and and negotiation subcommittee um met uh last Thursday and um we entered into executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations uh related to collective bargaining um and we invited um superintendent Brill and um Mrs de in and um that's the report okay so now moving to the next item I move that the board approv the items listed below on the consent ENT agenda as recommended new hires resignations and transfers just have a quick question um for the school psychologist at CES are has that been posted yet or yes y okay since the um motion has been um made and seconded um all in favor okay it looks like it's passed unanimously great so fast all right so Stephanie and I decided to switch things up for new business and I'm going to read the actions and the Motions tonight so the first item under new business is uh the recommended action is that the board receive an update from Mr czecho chairman of the municipal building committee uh regarding clees so welcome Mr czecho thanks for coming thanks mrze thank you for those of you who don't know me I'm Paulo and as a Mobility for probably longer than I should be um I'm very direct don't take it personally I can be somewhat cynical and a little sarcastic again it's just me it's New York I know you're from New York working way too long in the Bronx so uh it does come out but as far as clees look the project is moving forward you know the it's taking longer than anybody wants it to the last VI % takes about 95% of the time but we do have right now the removal and replacement of the unsuitable soils in the North Lot which was a lot of the holdup that's complete sidewalk prep is continuing the storm system in the north parking lot's complete sight lighting is complete um you know we're installing the subbase material the plan is to do that get the uh binder course down the asphalt binder course sometime in May move everybody over there you won't lose any spots it'll just be a switch of what we're doing and then go to work on the south lot doing the islands the curbs and the balance of the concrete work uh that came up last night we're going to do a plan John and then we'll sit down with the team and we'll go through it and make sure everybody's comfortable because it will involve sort of um modifying that bus traffic um I have to thank everybody I sat in that line trying to get into CES this morning uh as people coming northbound on the road almost hit you because they have to swerve around but it's a wonderful wonderful thing uh commissioning on mechanical and electrical commissioning is done training is done hot water bypass is done that was the gym issue all right um we're still there was a little bit of a a hiccup there with one of the uh valves that's been corrected and we're just waiting for colleages to come back and finish that uh commissioning the punch list for the most part is done we still have about 100 open items we find more and more every day as we walk through but look we'll get through it we've asked them what their schedule is for the Easter break and that's where we're going to attack a bulk of these items and then of course there's going to be a host of activity in the summer with that as we get closer we'll talk about summer school whether it's a good idea to have it a clees or if there's activities that would prohibit you from having a clees so but again somewhere around March April we'll start to have that conversation we'll have a better idea on going forward what's going to be the best plan for this summer thank you uh everything else for the most part you know has been going along you know we we just do it every day uh you know questions come in and we're just trying to get this building complete get the site work complete and close out this project as far as the financials every month we get from on the BC we get a report from our OPM uh they do the financials for us and right now I think we have about 1.2 million 1.1 to 1.2 in uncommitted funds however there still change orders out there we spent close to $2 million to date removing unsuitable soil off of that site including a large Mr czecho I I want to inter when you say unsuitable soils that could be scary to people what was unsuitable about the soils can you explain that that's important for everybody to hear since they weren't good um see there's the sarcasm coming out understand um unsuitable soil so you have different grades of materials where you can put a building on some material some material you can't under the building we did excavate a large amount of material that was Clay and when clay gets wet it acts like a roller coaster you can step on it and the other side lifts up you can't put a building on that so a lot of those Clays were excavated and we put in what we call structural fill which is glacial till it's mixed with rock sand um LOM and when it compacts it compacts to about 95 to 98% density and that's appropriate to put a building on we found a lot of clay under the roadways or the road beds of the project and again when you're driving heavy equipment tractor trailers over that you have the sort of roll of coaster effect in the field areas it's not so critical because you don't have those heavy loads surprisingly enough we found a large portion of those unsuit bles under the existing Huckleberry school so after that school was demolished and taken down starting in September and October um when we started testing those soils because they really frown upon you bringing a boring machine inside an occupied school to test underneath it um they found a large portion of this some of that we're able to use on-site material to sort of remediate the areas because it is a drive but other areas again we had to bring in so this went through the summer into the fall through the fall just wrapped up about a month ago thankfully we had a winter which allowed us to continue to work for the most part through the winter months otherwise we would have stopped dead and waited for the spring thow on March so thank you unsuit bles in a nutshell can you just explain the 1.2 million uncommitted funds what does that mean exactly you want the sarcastic answer it's 1.2 million in uncommitted funds funds that are not encumbered elsewhere in line items okay that previously were identifi during the project whether it be PCOS potential change orders or other trades or contracts so it's that portion of money that's sitting there that if we don't have a another large unknown come forward would be returned to the taxpayers I don't see that happening at this point because of the unsuit bles we still have a few things to figure out with that we also have uh claims for delays from roofing materials and such that we're working through those are the types of things that are going to come up at the end of the project um that we're going to have to negotiate on but again every month we receive this it's posted it's available in the town clerk's office it's with our minutes everybody's free to come to the NBC meeting third Tuesday of every month come on down you'll love it can you speak to I don't know if you've discussed or has there been talk about the increase in our bills as far as um yep so the electric bills yeah yeah so when I did a deep dive into that I noticed that the total number of kilowatt hours us used off peak that's from 6:00 p.m.