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e it is e good evening I would like to welcome you all to our regular governing board meeting for Tuesday March 26 2024 I'm going to call the meeting to order and we will start with a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Music] all thank you Mrs Wilson will you do the roll call please Mr Chad Thompson here miss Lorie wood here Miss Sheila ug jetti here miss Jill humph here miss Ronda Pig here Madame President all board members are present you have a quorum thank you um item 1.05 call for a public hearing pursuant to ARS 15- 905 I will ask for a motion and then I'll turn it over to Dr mcord do I hear a motion to move for to call for a public hearing so moved thank you Mrs Paige second second thank you Mrs humph it's been moved in seconded all those in favor of calling for a public hearing pursuant to ARS 15- 905 please signify by saying I I I opposed so on a 5- z vote Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members if you want to move to item 2.01 you'd like to call that up I will introduce it uh we are asking and this is our public hearing for the instructional time model for our online students Global academy uh we went over this in one of our last work studies Bonnie or Jared is there anything you guys like to add to this presentation that uh we presented last time is is attached to that so if you have any questions please feel free to ask and Dr McCord this is just a hearing it's for information purposes required by law correct anybody going to talk I I I just wanted to clarify that um basically this means that Global Academy is going to be the students that are their part-time maybe I should just ask Mr Ryan to summarize what we talked about last time so people who didn't hear the previous discussion will know sure absolutely um Madame President governing board Dr McCord um as you recall uh Miss longen was here with us for the work study and went through in detail a number of reasons why we feel as though this is the best option for us moving forward as we know Global Academy has gone through a number of reiterations over the course of time based on need and uh at this point in time it is a separate School entity um as a separ separate School entity it's a challenge with the number of students in and out on a part-time basis as well as the full-time basis students that we have we feel as though it's important for them to remain attached to their home campuses which would be the case in the instructional time model would enable us to have more flexibility with them completing required cour work based on seat time uh completion of cour work um still assessing and going through courses through Global Academy while also then being attached to their home campuses um So based on the the volume of part-time students versus full-time students having a graduation rate going through Global Academy when it stands as its own entity is a real challenge um once again why we want them tied back to their home campuses working with homeschool counselors ensuring their meeting graduation requirements and um then being part of of that if that's what they deem to be uh their future we have some students for a variety of reasons who need to go full-time although that population is becoming smaller and smaller over recent years um if you remember during the pandemic we were upwards of 9,000 students and now that number has has drastically declined in terms of full-time need um so for those reasons and this just makes it a program so that it doesn't have a separate letter Gade correct okay which is very similar to Canyon Valley yes that I just want in case people didn't hear previously at our work stud wanted to make sure people had a summary of that so thank you absolutely you did better than I did I couldn't get the words out so thank anything further on that okay and at we 2.02 is a request to speak if there's anybody that would like to say anything about this you're welcome to get up and talk about it right now okay we'll move to 2.03 adjournment of public hearing and I believe that I can just adjourn it but just to be on the safe side I'll take a motion and we'll vote on it uh do I hear a motion to adjourn the public hearing so moved thank you Mrs Humphrey second second thank you um it's been moved in seconded that we uh adjourn the public adjourn the public hearing all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed so it's a 5-0 vote okay we go back to 3.01 motion to reconvene the regular board meeting do I hear a motion to reconvene I move that we reconvene thank you and a second second thank you so it's been moved and seconded that we reconvene to our regular board meeting um all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed so a 5-0 vote we will move to 4.01 approval of the agenda do I hear a motion to approve the agenda as presented so moved thank you Mrs Humphrey second I'll second thank you Mrs wood it's been U moved and seconded that we approve the agenda all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed so on a 5- z vote superintendent recognition Awards Dr McCord thank you madam president govering board members uh it's our favorite part of the evening when we recognize students and staff in our district if you join me in front of the dice we'll get that started good evening wow wow we're recognizing people who excel in their areas I guess saying good evening isn't one of them let's try it again good evening good evening there you go thank you guys for being here as I stated a few minutes ago uh this is the the best part of our board meetings is when we get to recognize our students and our staff and the great things that they accomplish it ranges from uh the Arts to Athletics to academics and tonight is is pretty heavy with Athletics for the mere fact that uh the winter season's concluded and we're into our spring Sports and so we have some folks that did very well uh in their respective Sports during the winter if I could bring up Candace Gonzalez head coach girls varsity basketball mosquit [Applause] High how are you tonight I'm good good do you know why you're here I absolutely know why I'm here let me just tell you what they had a banquet tonight and they decided to push it back just to see me how nice is that I'm you know some things I can embellish um you're we're going to see the fora varsity basketball state Runner UPS our girls team here Candace I'm going to turn it over to you if you talk about um your season bring the girls up introduce them one at a time or have them introduce themselves turn it over to you perfect thank you for allowing us to be here tonight we're grateful for the opportunity um we're kind of shy and we're supposed to communicate but we don't always talk I'm going to make you guys say who you are and what grade you're in um but our girls this year went 26 and five um we had a really good showing in both of our tournaments that we played in um preseason we went undefeated in the Nike Toc we lost one game in overtime um so we did some really good things this season and we made it to the 4A state championship and we ended up going in as the number two seed and we played sou point the number one seed and we started a little bit slow cuz those lights were a little bright but we ended up uh finishing strong but we just needed about five more minutes I feel like if we had five more minutes then we probably could have come out on the other side of it but we have um I'm going to let them introduced themselves but I've been at mosqu for 26 years so I've been there a long time and I love it there and I love coaching the game of basketball and um these girls show up every day to work really really hard and they are dedicated and they play basketball 12 months out of the Year take a little bit of time off in August but that's really the only time we take off so it's showing their dedication for sure um we're graduating six seniors and we have five Juniors returning and one sophomore and Four Freshmen our JB team went 15 in1 and our freshman team went 15 And1 so we have a lot coming up through the pipeline that we're really excited about so if I can get my seniors to come up first come on [Applause] up tell them your name and then you can line up right here there you go scoot over that way so people can see that big smile look at that no they all know my name is aiyah Bey and yeah my here my name is Jada silver my name is Ariana Krueger my name is Jayla mclin I'm pra sedra Vanessa seula um hi I'm Kia Gonzalez I'm Rebecca Udall I'm Lucy Fisher I'm Pippa kriger and I'm n gri I'm skylie Gonzalez I'm Mariah Willis I'm Jensen coward I'm Lizzie Norton and I'm niia gri again uh Candace Candace and her family have really built basketball in Gilbert public schools in the town of Gilbert anybody ever heard of Wham basketball yes that's her dad he started that years ago he used to build hoops and bring him to elementary schools and donate him there so kids could have places to play basketball on on weekends and at night so uh a huge thank you to Candace her family her team congratulations on a great season um I know you guys work hard and it shows and everything you do so one more time from MOS High basketball thank you if you guys would shake hands with the board just kind of go through this way and then stay up here and we'll take a picture okay yeah take KN FR row underneath look at this like this there you go there you go down whatever it is we just got to get I really be 5 or less there you go thank you coach parents you good wait ladies and gentlemen high thank you guys they're probably going to sneak out and go to their banquet now thank you guys thank you thank you next can I have thank you can can I have Mr or coach Drew gorer come on up he is the Varsity soccer coach for the girls at Campo verie hi Drew I take it you're the soccer team over here is that right that's my ladies I how many of you have been to a meeting like this before for something like this yeah some of you have he seems to be a regular here with his teams because you guys perform so well um Camp overie girls soccer division 2 they are the state runner-ups this year for soccer congratulations Drew has been coaching soccer for as long as I've known him and uh enjoys working with the kids and at the schools and uh really gets the best out of out of the students that come and join his team so I'm going to turn it over to Drew and he's going to bring some folks up so they can talk thank you uh first of all thank you for having us here I haven't been coaching that long cuz I'm not that old so I it's I'm I'm ageless so uh our Our Girls team at the beginning of the year uh and and they can attest to this we were thinking we'll play a playin game we'll have an opportunity to maybe host something because we really weren't very good at the beginning of the year we struggled uh the leadership in the group brought them together and they were performing their best at the end of the year when they needed to we won the region beating Castile which is always a fun thing to do uh then beating them again in the playoffs to get ourselves a semifinals and then beating Desert Mountain who we had played earlier in the year to a z00 tie so our progression was was fantastic and and like I said it all comes back to the leadership unfortunately we fell short in the final against Notre Dame who we lost to in the regular season as well but we do move into their region next year so that'll be fun for us our record unlike basketball that was here our our record wasn't outstanding it was 137 and two during the regular season which is still good uh we finished in six spot for 5A and like I said made the final but one of the things I I like to recognize we we had Player of the Year in the region we won the region but we had 31 players on our roster and 27 of those players made either first team all Arizona academic team or honorable mention [Applause] so I think at the end of the day that's more important than finding ourselves in the final so congratulations girls for that I want to bring up my two two of my three captains are here tonight Shannon Healey and Audrey King and so they'll come [Applause] up and they're going to go ahead and go through this list and and invite their teammates up just come on up when we call your name Ashlin Ortiz [Applause] Amy Sheen Taylor Sullivan Sierra Knox Payton Gibby Maya neie Ashlin Osborne Sarah metf mallerie Butler Nyla blowers Kenzie schaer Molly Hogan Shannon Hy Addison or Victoria Garcia Jordan aides Kate Higgin Botham and Ella [Applause] burill ladies and gentlemen your state runner up division 2 varsity girls soccer team from Camp over please give them a huge hand if you guys would take a minute and shake hands with the board and you saw how basketball took a picture we'd ask the same [Music] thing yes conratulations Havey keep getting going all right guys over this going have to get down thank you thank look at this I'm going to be a reti all at least tell people what to do I'll be that guy you're fine you just stand there congratulations again thank you guys all right now we're moving to wrestling yeah can I have the coaches come up from all the teams that are here I have from Highland High Cliff gersen Desert Ridge High Travis Jackson Camp verie Chris Bishop and mosquit high Jeff [Applause] Alexander come on up oh yeah would you guys do me a favor so all four of these schools had someone do well in in the state tournament uh for their division and we're very very proud of these uh young men who show up if you've ever wrestled in your life you know that when you walk into that wrestling room it's a whole different world until you walk back out and there's a lot of time and effort and literally sweat everywhere and so uh very proud of these young men and what they've accomplished I'm going to turn it over to the coach if you'd introduce yourself and then bring up your wrestler and just talk about them can you do that yeah hi I'm Cliff gson um coach over at Highland High School Aaron keros um from Highland High School was [Applause] uh uh Aaron is a junior and he won the State title at 134 PBS this year and tell you a little bit about Aaron last year he took second and when he walked off the mat after losing you know the first things people might want to do is make exuses or something the first thing he said when he got off the mat was what do I have to do to be able to beat that guy and he's always trying to learn he's humble seeks out uh good coaching and stuff actually coach Jackson's been a big influence on helping him offseason um but he'll he'll russle year round um you know I've heard it said you don't rise to the level of your goals but you fall to the level of your systems and he's got the systems in place where he's working hard all year round um at the right weight class and just is doing all the right things with the right attitude and uh you know it's not like he deserves to win but he does all the right things to give himself the best chance um to be successful when he gets to those matches um so that's it conratulations my name is Chris Bishop from Campa ver High School like to call up Andrew [Applause] mask this is Andrew mask he was a he was a D2 State runner up for us um some of the things that that are great about this young man is he's a he's a thre sport athlete multiport Athlete on our campus um one of our best students on the whole campus 4.6 which puts him in the top 2% of of our senior class and he he's also going to be U going on a church mission to Argentina we just found that out last night yeah and then a funny story about Andrew is he broke his nose um at the beginning of the season so he had to wear a mask attached to his headgear and so as we would talk to him during the match and call him by his last name mask um it was it was a lot of confusion with the referees that we had to repeat over and over again what no that's not his nickname that is his name thank you um my name is Travis Jackson the head coach at Desert Ridge um I've had this kid actually in the room since he was Gabriel PCO I know he wasn't in the state finals [Applause] but lost a tough Heartbreaker in the semifinals but the thing about Gabriel he's a 4.0 kid he's a three- sport athlete in division one and division one wrestling you don't see many kids in the middleweights that are three sport athletes so that's very good successful for him and the other thing about right after the season last year went to the Terminator he blew out his shoulder he postponed surgery said I can't have surgery because I I got to be able to wrestle in the in the spring or in the fall so he battled the whole year with the torn labram and never made excuse out of it made the finals of every tournament that we went to including three out of state tournaments so he's had a heck of a career I know he didn't make the state finals but and this is his first year being a state medalist but he's a four-time state qualifier and we counted up he beat over 40 something state state placers in his career so great career all right I am uh Rudy alado I'm the athletic director over at mosquit high I am not the wrestling coach they would have been wondering why the kids were dropping elbows from you know if if I was in charge but uh I have two guys that we're recognizing tonight um Mark lipsky and Eric Rodriguez come on down Mark was the state runner up at 106 lbs which I thought was kind of funny I'm like I wrestled at 106 when I was about 7 years old with my brother in the living room so cool and then Eric was a state champ for us at 190 I I'll brag a little bit about Eric um he he qualified for State 9th and 10th grade 11th grade didn't make it and made it his goal to get back there not only did he get back he he wanted also really proud of this guy to see the work that he put in and uh proud of both of these [Applause] guys wrestling is an individual sport but I think they show how much of a team sport it actually is because it it it's not just the person on the mat it's the people that have coached them over the years it's the camaraderie with the teammates cheering each other on being there for each other and it's a mental game and you guys uh obviously have done well so congratulations to all of our wrestlers please give him a [Applause] hand all right just come up in and squeeze in congratulations [Applause] again Madame President that concludes my recognitions for this evening thank you thanks guys [Music] thank you Dr McCord um we'll move on to 6.01 superintendent report thank you madam president govering board members uh thank you for everyone being here tonight I'd like to introduce Somebody To You who's in our audience his name is Max Udall Highland High student he is part of the superintendent student Senate and if you just look at that face and see that smile you know why we all enjoy going there and seeing this kid so thank you for being here [Music] Max all right well welcome to the fourth and last quarter of the 2324 school year I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable spring break and everybody's back ready to learn and and taking on the last 45 days of this school year on Saturday April 20th from 8:00 a.m.

should be good all right we uh welcome everybody here to our uh school board meeting we'll start out with the Pledge of Allegiance and follow by the prayer please please stay standing for the prayer pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Our Father in Heaven we're grateful for this day which we've been given we're grateful for the beautiful weather and the Sunshine that we have enjoyed we're grateful for the opportunity which we all have to be here to uh discuss the things that are on the agenda we're grateful for the the opportunities that we have to be able to to serve the in this community and in this school district we're grateful for the administration and our staff and our teachers we ask you to to bless them and to always strengthen them with the ability to to have the knowledge of how to to help the students here in this District we ask to please always bless bless them with with good health and protection bless this country bless this this community and bless us each and every day that we may recognize the the great blessings that we have and the freedoms that we enjoy we say these things name of Jesus Christ amen future board meetings um March 26th April 23rd and May 28th all here administration building here at 6 o' uh we have a few revisions to the agenda just under uh donations and HR we'll go uh to public recognition all right just have a few tonight as you remember our um staff and teacher um spotlights have been concluded because of the teacher and staff we've gone through all six schools so um we kind of miss out having those people recognize weze them throughout the year so I have a couple things actually three first of all from norfield congratulations to norfield uh Junior High basketball teams on a great season the seventh grade fell short against Southwood I'm sorry I'm reading the wrong one because I just in why I just read that last time so 312 thanks to Mr Baker and Mr elra for organizing sponsoring interal volleyball this winter they decided to try volleyball and it was a success we had more staff involvement and the great thing is that students and staff raised $720 at the annual student versus staff final game the students chose where to donate the money for the $2 admission to the game and this year they chose fish inter murals are great but is awesome when kids can be involved in thinking of others and giving back to our local community and I don't think Mr Snider put down in there because he didn't want to rub it in I guess but the staff did win that uh that game so also then we have a uh Exemplar Behavior report that want to read this is from Southwood the boys and girls Southwood track and field teams received exemplary behavior recognition from alen Wright for the he Southwood versus Miss missall track meet Wright stated tonight I was a TR track starter for the missall versus South co-ed track meet even though it was the first outdoor meet of the year the student athletes from both School were professional prepared for each event and showed great sportsmanship throughout the evening both schools were well coached and never once did I have to wait for athletes to be ready for the individual events I believe the administration from each school should be proud of their Cho their coaches and student athletes along with their fans who were in attendance as an official it was an very enjoyable meet to officiate for these reasons I would like to nominate both Missin walls and Southwoods co-ed Varsity track teams for an exemplary award I wish you both good luck and thank you for being a good example sincerely Allen Wright Indiana high school track official and so that's all I believe I have this evening all right we have uh some donations that we need to get some approvals of recommendation to approve an anonymous $100 donation for south of Elementary for students in need and then we have an additional list here this recommendation for $4,800 donation for the Southwood baseball and these are how that total comes about all these donations Jenifer Meyer Ru off $250 Todd Adams State Farm $50 pton Alissa deer $200 dust bunnies cleaning service $250 Nicholas Abby Driscoll two $200 bgs Services $250 Sutton real estate LLC $400 B in in BS Family Dentistry $250 pool Foods Incorporated uh $250 Gentry well and pump $500 complete last Solutions $250 FJ Ric and Suns $2200 shepher Chevrolet $250 GM rolds Oil Company $200 Terrell real Group LLC $200 for meterbox company $200 moers tarp $500 and true land equipment LLC $200 need to motion a second to approve those donations I move to accept donations second that you have a motion a second you got it yeah um all those in favor please say I I any opposed all right um okay you already did your yeah Spotlight we that's all right public comment gend items Z link any comments any public comments about what we've already talked about or any agenda items any agenda items if you looked at the agenda and you have anything just the I just trying to give a little more information about the building projects and what's planned and the alternatives are clearly we don't have enough to go to referendum and do anything different so I'm just looking for understanding I guess of what's going to happen and what the when I say what the motivation is I don't mean that to be like sarcastic or SM like I actually want to know what we're doing and why we're doing it and like how much would sh cost to you know I know nobody wants to do that but what would it cost to re all that stuff so there those are the kind questions and and again I don't even have all the information but some something who said about possibility building a field house on the Northfield campus and I was trying to understand um rationale for that gu this is really a comment section so I mean I can go through all of that um if you want me to I can go through and start from the beginning when we started last um because part of it is when we get to that point um we're going to do the hearing of the lease agreement um and there will be a time in that that I'll share all the different meetings that we had last year to get to this point that's if you talk about later that's that's thing was that's my reason not I want to see you guys but that was the main reason yeah and whatever you think yeah there a lot of questions there um and I can go through all of that and we will share some of the information when we go through this hearing uh we'll share all the different meetings that we've already had to get to the point where we're at now and so really this is just the final stage of um you know working on this project but we certainly can go over that and I can I don't have to say it twice so if you're going to cover it later yeah or if you get me out of here by telling me now and part of this hearing is not necessarily going through all of that but it kind of is too so what we'll do is um I can share more later but we we've discussed this and discussed it for a long long time now um it's been over a year and so and everything actually is on you know all of our um documents as far as Facebook live and YouTube and things like that and so um but anyway let's just wait and we'll go and then we'll answer some of those questions there and and some of it Dave I know you went to some of the when we were doing the referendum thing some of that stuff is it's duplicated you know some of the same information you might hear what we based our decisions off of as all came off of what was being talked about way back then and so so basically uh it's not uh not anything that uh hasn't been thought about for a lot of years so it's but yeah we'll talk about it more and I would say if your questions don't get answered then maybe it's time to set up an appointment with Mr ke faer or whatever to to talk through that and you know always feel free to contact any of us you know we don't know everything these guys know most of everything all right uh let's move on to our considered agenda items uh approval of our minutes and our regular meeting there February 27th second all those that are in favor of approving those amendments say I I any opposed all right uh Financial reports um claims I have any questions on claims second all right we've got a motion in second all those in favor of claims say I any opposed payroll anything additional no just I think I said it last time you'll see an increase in payroll as we get in those winter Cod which is sens um you'll probably see the majority of those come within the next two okay got a motion second for that second motion second all those in favor say I any opposed right Financial summary Chris yeah a couple things um one obviously this is the end of the month uh balance sheet so you can see where our um any balances are for each of our funds nothing out of the ordinary um or is surprise from any of that stuff uh the second thing I wanted to mention not related to this per se but um we had our audit exit meeting for oh were you going to talk about okay our audit exit meeting um Scott Mike and I met with the Auditors as they were finalizing the audit for the 21 22 22 23 fiscal years um it was a pretty pretty clean audit uh so we were in pretty good shape there so we're just finalizing a few things and just um a few adjustments that we need to make for future uh things that came from the audit I don't think if there's anything else you elaborate on that the only thing I was going to say is you know with um with the large budget with all the things that are going on with um uh all the different federal funds you know just uh thank uh Chris and his team business office for all the things that they do to have a clean audit uh this is the second time this independent group came in to do the audit and it's just great to hear about all the work how was successful in that way and so it was a clean audit yeah the State Board of accounts usually have done our audits in the past but the last couple of times theyve had to contract contract those out which then we look with somebody that maybe is not as familiar with schools as the State Board accounts is and so just working through some of those things well we sure appreciate uh you guys and being fiscal responsible with this budget and getting it towards that because from what I heard from him he was pleased with what that looked like so thank you uh Personnel recommendation payroll yes we did payroll oh yeah we did I'm doing Mr bman job yeah secretary I put once and two but I guess I'm ready for first what are you trombone okay I was trying I was like what instrument was he playing back there you're hiding all right uh HR um got a few things here got a resignation of a couple people uh is that car car yeah carel yeah Carmel Turner a par professional at Southwood Elementary uh that was effective 226 and Haley Laney per professional at Southwood Elementary uh that's end of the school year employment Danielle Stout a custodian at Southwood Elementary uh Cammy Ross transferring from third grade teacher at Sharp Creek Elementary to the stem teacher at Northville High School effective August 5th so the beginning of next year and and we have one retirement Cindy French at Cook southw high school that's effective March 15th and we've got their summer school staff for this summer for all the K through 8th grade Janette Moore uh summer school teacher well she's more like the director and so I don't know director director Alysa deer is a third grade reading teacher Jennifer finny third grade reading professional Tara hoppert uh third grade reading teacher and kayb Blake or black third grade reading care professional uh Laura Schultz Mia level one Heather quick Mia level one Janette Moore Mia level one uh Kayla Paul Mia level two Heather click Mia level two Janette Moore Mia level two and Hannah ruer Mia level three Brett Evans Mia level three and Janette Moore Mia level three and Adam Phelps as high school ad ad and just for our audience M mind's in action oh lines in action and if you recall Mrs Moore did come in and kind of share all the things that they're doing for this summer uh great U events uh and experiences for our students in those three different levels all right can I get a motion a second to approve HR so motion second all those in favor say I oppose all right moving on to reports Cartland cve Center Matt we have anything new no progress nothing happened had a meeting a meeting next week all right hopefully we'll get something going we'll see okay superintendent report well as promised I was going to share a little bit of legislation I'll make it real quick for you because there's some things that we'll have to learn more but before I do that I just want to let you know that the robotic teams um they won't be going to the state until the following not this Saturday but the following Saturday but we do have five elementary teams and three high school teams that are going so we have eight teams going all together so we want to congratulate them and wish them good luck uh when they go down to Lucas Oil Stadium so all right tighten your belts here here we go real fast your seat belts that is not your financial belts but so ju just a few HB 1104 school safety uh there's going to be arm Intruder drill protocol we have all kinds of um drills you know we have fire drills we have tornado drills we have earthquake drills we have man-made drills now we have arm Intruder drill protocol that will be happening uh property taxes there's a legislation on that of course these haven't been signed yet by the governor so we're not going to go over too many of them I have a lot of them here at the end of the session there were 16 house bills 16 um Senate bills that were actually more education related not all of them passed but a lot of them did but I'm going to high the ones that will affect us more we have house build 1243 uh various education matters a lot of different things about um a lot of different things uh it's about language as far as the 62% the funding floor uh they they put all kinds of things in there 2028 a new high school diploma um doe will conduct the annual survey for fees there's just all kinds of things on that one um uh this is one for um in meetings HB 1338 security a property and meeting theorin all right so you can actually give warnings and have people leave a meeting it's in legislation so do that Nowa affect July 1 yeah I didn't say anything I looked and then somebody opened up but anyway uh House Bill 1380 also various education manners a lot of different things about minimize or eliminate the use of timeouts that's not for basketball or football that's other kinds of thing a lot of other things in that one too um House Bill one as you know the lower the number one is very much a priority it probably means it's going to pass which it did and that has a lot to do with literacy um about actually the doe is supposed to notify parents of the retention requirements under the plan in other words the kindergarten so the I don't know how that's going to happen but that's what they're supposed to do of course now instead of just having third grade be tested in I read it would also be second grade starting next year um also summer school for those that do not pass and also retention exceptions and appeal there is an appeal process we knew that was probably going to pass we just wanted to learn a little bit more how that's going to work um Senate Bill also six has reading proficiency that deals with um doe again will develop a method to identify students in grades two 4 through eight who did not pass State Board of Education approv evaluations and guidance on how to support them interesting bills um the other one is sb150 AI and cyber security there'll be a task force technology resource policy and a cyber security policy some of these things we already have in place but not all of them um Senate Bill 185 deals with um student use of wireless communication device meaning their personal devices and so wireless communication device policy so we will have a policy that we will develop for that and then also we will then have to put that on on our website so everybody knows about it uh there's a Senate Bill 282 talks about absenteeism and School attendance uh one thing prosecuting attorney shall notify each parent of a child when an affid David is filed regarding the child's compulsary attendance violations or if a child is a habitual Trent and that's basically for kindergarten through sixth grade so a lot of discussion was about getting that started early uh so parents know that we need to make sure that we get our students to um school so they'll be a lot more to that but I told you to'd be quick and so those are some of the updates with what happened just remember though this was a short session so there wasn't going to be too much that was supposed to be controversial but there was still a lot of controversial bills in legislation and so we will wait for the governor to sign those and then go to work and get some other things taken care of and I believe my notes talk about the a a little bit so that's all I have for now all right Dr you have anything um I'll just fill you in on our testing schedule we just finished our weda testing which I haven't been around enough for last Jeff to start quizzing you when I came up with the test name you have to say what it involves so not tonight not tonight you get get night waa is our federal requirement to test all of our English learner students and so we have a very small population of those students we have to test those W uh and we are also doing I testing this week and today both high schools North and South did um their sat testing for the juniors whites has been doing theirs also and so is the season for testing right all right thank you all right we're up to new business so all this we have uh um our next item on the agenda is for the board to hold a hearing on the proposed lease agreement for the construction projects and additional appropriation hearing for the bond Pro proceeds if you're interested in speaking at the hearings please make sure you have signed in the sheet which should include your name and address there will be a opportunity for public to make comments about these rental the lease rental to be paid under the lease and additional appropriations of the proceeds at the hearing we will ask that each person limit their comments to three minutes and that the topics be limited to the lease rental and additional Appropriations under consideration the not notices of this hearing on the lease and additional Appropriations were published as legally required pursuant to Indiana code 20- 47-3 before a school corporation may enter into a lease with a nonprofit building Corporation the school corporation must conduct conduct a hearing regarding the execution of the proposed leas document and whether the rental to be paid to to a building Corporation under the proposed lease is a fair and reasonable rental for the proposed improvements similarly before the school corporation can appropriate any dollars it directly receives as Bond proceeds it must conduct a hearing on those proceeds for the additional appropriation of those funds we will now hear hear from the administration about these about the project which have been described at the prior meetings mik okay I'll go ahead and start and Dr K can fill in anything that I missed but I will since there was a question about that kind of go over a little bit of History so in 2019 um we developed a strategic plan one strategic plan number four was all about facilities about being efficient as part of technology and as you know um in 2021 uh there was a I'm sorry 2022 there was a referendum to look at that um look at that uh strategic plan to be able to um become more efficient in the school district um so that did not pass in 2022 so we had to Pivot then and look at some situations especially uh Shark Creek Elementary was one of those that has been discussed for a long time if we recall um at one time and and actually in 20 2016 um it was actually going to be closed and we're going to do some other things but that was changed and so with all of the other things happening um then we went to uh look at what should we do as far as uh the repair of the building and so um there were we had a construction some audits done the audits came back and said we really had like three different options we could um redo all of Sharp Creek which it really all needed to be done and all you guys know that you took tours and things like that add on to Metro North Elementary or add on to norfield those costs came in and um the most efficient way of doing that was to add on to norfield and so we started having uh those meetings and I will get those meeting dates for you so we had work sessions and again work sessions are meetings that are held in public we actually had those on Facebook live they're actually still on our website um as far as looking on the the YouTube channel uh you can find those and so we had one in January of uh January 17th of 2023 we also had one in April 10th 2023 and we also had one in August 8th 2023 along those same lines then after all those work sessions um we had a decision was made on the August 22nd 2023 a decision to go with one of those three options and that option then at that point was chosen and that was to add on to Northfield for grades three through five because eventually we would have the sixth grade uh move to uh Northfield in those classrooms that we had available and then we had the bond hearing in September 12th 2023 that was the first bond hearing that we had of course that was all advertised and then uh the final bond hearing uh for this project was done on September 26 of 2023 and so um that goes along so then to answer the question here um we went through all of that we had uh much discussion with our architect we had discussion uh uh with some construction people uh looking at different ideas and came up with the and so we're basically to the point where to become more efficient we know also that that Sharp Creek besides all of the all of the work that needed to be done um we also know that utility costs are rather high for that small footprint uh because we typically run the boiler system even in the summertime with the air conditioner system just to make sure that um we have the right uh humidity and different things like that in there so um we are to the point where uh we're doing this hearing but we have already hired a construction manager um our architect is working now with our staff um to to look at uh the classrooms to look at basically that part of the building so sharp Creek Elementary will be demolished and so uh there will be um a gym that will be put in it because we already lost a gym when we don't have sharp Creek so will be a gym put in that um addition at Sharp Creek along with not at Sharp Creek I'm sorry but at nor FL along with classrooms along with offices um along with the commons area where those students can eat because obviously they had their own cafeteria too and some of those details aren't ready yet but they're they're getting closer as far as working with the construction uh managers and also working with the Architects to design all of this um there's question but some of the things so so the gisto is so this is what you get when you listen to people who don't give you all the information this sounds like a a reasonable project compared to what I had heard from people and some of them are on staff of Metro so we talk but so K through two will all pre prek through second grade will stay at Metro North Elementary and 35 will be here and then sixth grade will be like middle school and all high school just like we have sou right now yes all right so okay that's great um the funding you said you're leasing like the building Corporation so you're in a um like we would go Leisa tractor or something that's is that what you're doing to is that part of the funding for the building project is that what you're saying I understand yeah let me read this um this actually was asked of us this was actually asked of us and part of it goes along with this too so um I'm just going to read this to you okay be better to read it um the finances would come from a lease Bond financing structure the school corporation is funding this project through lease financing as it has done with other uh past construction renovation projects these financing are used by school corporations across Indiana in order to borrow for renovation and construction this type of financing does not count against the school corporation's constitutional debt allowance this might help a look at this next paragraph the building Corporation will purchase a portion of the norfield Junior Senior High School campus at the closing for at least the appraisal value the building Corporation will will then lease the real estate back to the school corporation the lease rental due to the school corporation will be paid for property taxes the lease rental will be sufficient to pay the principal and interest due to the bond holders um and I don't know if anybody else wants to to give any more information but basically this is this is something that we've um done many many years and actually I had information about how many years obviously school districts had done that we did a bond um and a lease fond also in 20202 2023 I mean this is 2024 now 2023 for all the renovations right now that you know about too the locker rooms the tennis courts the roof at Southwood Elementary the chiller and what did I forget and the well locker room waight room all that together so that so that is the same kind of lease Bond or lease that we're doing we did that then uh obviously it's been done many many many years prior to us all the way back since 1978 this Corporation has done so in like and I'm sorry he put a SC but I know he knows what I'm talking about everybody else proba does do it so at the end of the lease period do does MSD still do they end up with like a balloon payment and buy the building back or does this Corporation own the building forever no how's that I mean I may be confused about what actually is going on you want to explain that I don't know if I explain what you're actually asking about he's wanting to know if we're going to get just transferred back once the he's is it free and clear when we're done so you'll have an additional payment at the end so final like the seed bar we have that Scott's going to come out I know that he's itching to come out and talk to us about SE in our new barn but that but it's similar right we so we pay a leas payment every year and then at the end the last payment is is called the buy out it's actually just the last payment residual it's not a balloon though it's going to be the same right it's the equal part or whatever but then at that point and I'm not sure I don't I understand completely why we have to go about this way we do this on our Farms also but it's kind of to protect you a little bit too but I don't know if about Deb it's about how much we can borrow there's a debt maximum in the Indiana code that you can only borrow so much through a Geo what we call those General obligation bonds and so anything that above that this is the only Avenue that school districts have to borrow Beyond thatal ceral so as far as funding um the payment of the lease then will be through regular general fund or there'll be additional property taxes assessed to increase what the property tax have to come up to cover that not now this this project is is tax neutral okay um we already had the taxes from or from the 2023 um actually raise some of those and so this project alone though is a tax neutral but they all all paid back through Debt Service which is from local property tax yes but you're not anticipating a be I mean I'm not going to have to pack my suitcase and come with as it's not going to be a different what you get this spring I think think it's yeah this because this one don't wasn't won't take effect until 20125 so what you see this spring will be the same and this will not increase so it's not going to have a huge impact on okay yeah I'm trying to be well it did go up but go and that's what we said during the referendum um that we had to do some of these projects I mean things are needing to be done so this is our next best Avenue so everything is I'll be Qui so everything that's being done will be at the North Co campus and then not everything we also one other thing that we're doing is um we're adding cafeteria space at Metro North okay part of this Pro part of this project I forget that was is that we've been for a long time so yeah and we have pre yeah and we have breakfast now too so that's why we're doing that pardon me you so this funding does include that part it's just a small portion of that funding but it is part of that project question is this leading to one County school no we're still having we we'll still have South we still have north um basically what it kind of does is we have two schools North or South I'm sorry I'm point wrong direction South um although we do have whites but whites is not our building yeah but that's part of our yeah and so now we will have two basically buildings we'll have Metro North Elementary and we still don't have a name yet right now we're calling the North norfield Elementary but it will be connected to norfield Junior Senior High School so that doesn't change anything um we need this we need to have these classrooms for the students that we have so you know without um yeah so we're going to have too many classrooms the population going down no um actually with our with our prechool students that we have now um we're pretty much F full and in all of our classes in fact we really need more classrooms if we want to hire or have more pre so right now we have nine classrooms of prek students and Metro North is pretty yeah it's full sou Elementary is full now that we move Southwood the sixth grade it's pretty much full when I say full that we're using we're occupying all the all the classrooms practical right so the waiting list there's forek more prek than we already have water too we one of those options was to add on to Metro north and we kind of all voted the the money wise the mus add on to North instead of add on to much North we're thinking the two schools North and two School South well you never know in the future it's easier to close a small school put a bunch of money into not that that's I right and we were talking if you had like you were saying North and South all you got your not to say down the road you wouldn't have to add on to South would you have your South School and your North school as this is my last comment that we can leave go ahead from a fell in town you probably heard about it I don't know it's so or not start bringing the some of the seniors from Southwood to Northfield that's news to us the stories get started somewhere out in the woods I guess get on Facebook you talk a lot of stories so I don't do Facebook and that's that's why you know we do make these meetings public you know even all the pre-planning that we've had with this is because all of the information thisinformation can be you know taken away so now so now you know it's one of those things that you know for our school district you know we will have the two camp north and south and we are doing what will keep us looking towards the future for the next 25 or 30 years to to become a better District even in ourselves and so um not saying that you know what we do on the North side won't happen on the South Side you know but we're just we're trying to improve what we know is is lacking here and and it'll be good and it's the and like Christian said it's the it's the cheapest cheaper route so the most efficient rout maybe don't do a lot of good to put an article in the newspaper lot of people don't get it but but maybe in the paper and wherever else you advertised to clarify thats going to be two high schools like they have been etc etc that you're talking about I think you did have an article in this yeah I actually was reading some of the things that I gave to David Nelson who is the um editor and reporter for them because he asked a lot of questions too about this and so we we gave him all the information I mean there's other things I could have read but you were asking questions in the paper that was in the the that was just do they actually have proof read it before they it no but the nice thing is if they give us the questions ahead of time and we can do it then it makes a little bit better too because no and sometimes they I say else get everything right we'll leave you guys I did have one other thought this is off do this off I just at the end at the end you can because we're almost actually just go through this at the end you can make comments on anything actually whatever we can talk about lat questions careful enjoy the night more there a little while I got we're here right did that right now ready for the resolutions all right well so I got to do our public hearing we got comment now you close hearing top of the page I didn't really open that so I guess all right thank you I guess we didn't give Mr Evans a chance but I just saying if I would be hired for I'm good hey got that okay thank you for all those who participated in the hearing we will now close the hearing go to number three that's going to be fine all right Chris could you uh summarize the resolution authorizing execution of the lease sure as required by Indiana code 20473 after a lease hearing the school board must approve the lease document and authorize the school board officers to execute such lease this lease is the agreement whereby the school corporation will Levy the required property tax to pay the lease payments throughout the life of the bond issued the lease payments will be paid to the building Corporation used to pay the bond holders to repay the proposed bonds can I have a motion in a second to adopt the resolution authorizing execution of the lease so Mo second all right got a motion of the second all those in favor say I I any opposed Chris could you summarize the additional appropriation resolution the additional appropriation resolution outlines the appropriation of funds received for the sale of certain school facilities to the building Corporation upon which portions of the project will be constructed the resolution also specifies that any such funds will be placed in a school corporation construction account separate from all other school corporation funds and spent only on the projects since they are F proceeds all right could I have a motion a second to adopt the additional appropriation resolution second motion second who was that again I'm sorry Christian second Christian [Music] second all those in favor say I I are there any opposed all right motion passes Chris could you please summarize the resolution of signing bid contracts the next resolution is the resolution of sign bid contracts to the this building Corporation at the bond closing the building Corporation will own facilities where the construction and renovation work will be completed the building Corporation will also be the issuer of the bonds the bond proceeds will be held by a trustee bank and will be used to pay the contractors for the renovation work as a result certain contracts may need to be with the building Corporation because the building Corporation will hold the money to pay the contractors the school corporation receives the bids Andor contracts and awards the bids Andor contracts under state law but then authorizes the ability to assign those bids and contracts to the building Corporation for payment at the discretion of the board all right could I have a motion a second to adopt the resolution ass signing constru construction bids the voting Corporation move second got a motion on the second all those in favor say I I are there any opposed Chris couple more got a few more get your drink could you please summarize the resolution authorizing the supplement to master continuing disclosure undertaking and issuance of bonds this resolution satisfies the Securities and Exchange Commission requirement that a school corporation enter into a continuing disclosure undertaking agreement if it issues bonds to public investors the agreement requires that the school corporation agree to timely provide certain financial information and provide notice of certain material events if and when they occur all right could I have a motion the second to adopt the resolution approving the fourth supplement to master continuing of issuance of bonds second a motion in second all those in favor say I I any opposed right motion passes Chris could you please summarize the res resolution authorizing issuance of bond anticipation noes yes with certain construction projects there may be upfront design and construction costs of significant enough size such that a temporary notes are necessary in order to fund those costs this resolution authorizes the issuance of bond anticipation notes in order to pay those costs until the long-term bonds are issued the bonds are the sole source of repayment for these Bond anticipation notes and so we do this just in case we were to run into cash flow issues because we are spending our own funds up front early before those Bond U Bond monies are actually received and then we can pay ourselves back with those Bond monies and so this would just be I don't anticipate us have to do it but this is just in case there any anticipation of how long it takes to get the money after you so for these anticipation notes we've done them before like the tax anticipated warrants that it's been several years now but usually we get those monies pretty quickly and then we just repay those back at the end of the year but I think he might be asking too about when the bond money will be coming available well we're not looking to do this fall until this fall and so once that gets started it's pretty quick I think it's like a week that more than likely all right so it's just whatever happens pre that okay can I have a motion in a second to to adopt the resolution approving Bond anticipation notes second you were first Christian second all right I've got a motion in a second all those favor say I I any opposed all right motion passes that's it all right make sure I wasn't missing any other resolutions all right any unfinished business uh board policy any public comment Mr Evans congratulations on the M that will be fun I'm jealous are you you're level three Kansas are you level three I am oh you Kansas interesting good that's awesome well we appreciate you being willing to do that for the kids yeah now any items from the board members all right nothing we4

uh brother to said be there too away okay all right we welcome everybody to our school board meeting here uh this evening we'll start out by say the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a prayer plge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all father God in heaven we just give you thanks today Father for all that you've done and all that you're doing Lord in our community and our school system Lord in this generation father we just give you thanks we pray tonight that you just give us wisdom and knowledge to make decisions Lord that would be best beneficial for this school staff and the children that we serve we just give you thanks for the opportunity we pray God that all that we do will glorify you we pray it in Jesus name amen amen thank you our future board meetings uh we don't have another one till April 23rd then the next one's May 28th and then June 11th all those are at 6:00 here at the administration revision to this uh agenda there just one H one under HR um public we have any public we just have a few things that were submitted so I'll go Ahad and start with that so from Southwood Junior Senior High School uh Mrs Lewis put in Southwood was awarded $1,500 to the growing uh together Grant which will go towards Southwoods outdoor Garden setup thanks to car Sol met Community Wellness coordinator with the new extension nutrition education program that's a big one who assisted Southwood and obtaining this funding so we want to thank her and thank Southwood for starting that program also then um Mrs Moore from Metro North and South Elementary being preschool uh our Metro North little Norris preschool and our South Elementary little kns preschool were recognized as past equality level number three ptq level three recognizes our preschools commited to ensuring a high quality early learning environment in which children are safe healthy and learning thank you to all our little Norse and little KN staff for um compiling paperwork and tasks ensure our success completing these processes provides our families with access to tuition support like on my pre on my way prek and ccdf vouchers so we really appreciate them working to get to that ptq level three a lot of paperwork involved in that but then also it does help our families across the district and then from Northfield Mr Snider one2 says our Northfield robotics teams had a fantastic day last Saturday at the state meet our seventh grade team made it to the semifinals and teamwork and received a trophy they placed 12 in the state and skills our eighth grade team made it to the state finals and also received a trophy they tied for third in the state in skills the eighth grade team of Colin Bal Nate Hudson meline Holly H Gavin Lester Carson Brown and Preston Moore earned the privilege of heading to the world competition in Dallas Texas in April these kids dream B and worked hard and represented norfield very well and also it was mentioned norfield senior Lane Denton entered his welded um sculpture medal on with child in the iuk high school art contest Lane was awarded the People's Choice Award from iuk for his work this work was chosen due to receiving the most votes from visitors of the iuk gallery during his Year's High School Art Exhibit so I want to congratulate all them I want to mention a little bit more about the robotics um so this is interesting information last year we had several teams that made it to world but because of all the things that are going on in the world with robotics and stem there are a lot more teams that are involved so it makes the competitition even um stiffer and so I want to share that this is Elementary this is interesting so in 2023 and we're going to compare 2024 there were 1,200 Elementary teams in the state of Indiana this this year there were 1,600 Elementary teams and so going to State there were 134 that went to the state so this year there 151 went to state but this is where it gets really interesting because of how many teams that there are in the United States um going to World in Indiana Al for Indiana last year there were 84 World bids that went and this year there only 22 so you had a lot more teams that were involved with the robotics in the state of Indiana um a lot more that were at the state but only 22 bids compared to 84 so that's very and then the the junior high would be very similar to that and so we did have the one team that is actually going to worlds in April so I want to congratulate them that's all I have that's it all right public comment agenda items only nothing all right uh agenda items approval of the minutes uh of our regular meeting that was took place March 12th I get a motion for a second move second I got a motion a second to approve those minutes all those in favor say I I any oppose all right passes uh approval of financial report uh claims anybody have any questions on claims Airborne Athletics was that weight near the top I that's what is it called 8900 that's just curious oh that looks like that was something for athletics Dr dish rebel I imagine it's a one of those basketball machines I'm guessing yeah see we got security system and all that and iPads y That's all coming out here y all right um I [Music] a all right got a motion a second for claims all those in favor say I I opposed payroll nothing payroll I think I told you this before I mean we this pay will reflect a lot of our spring coaches pay we'll have a little bit of that as well for our winter coaches sorry um we'll have a little bit of that as well um in the next payroll trying to come in all right motion to approve all right second got a motion and second uh to approve payroll all those in favor say I no opposed all right thank you Financial summary Chris uh just give me cash flow update uh reflecting January and February uh costs uh educ ation fund not really much to talk about we'll have a little bit of change in education fund as we should see those uh reconciliations for the February ADM count um just don't know what those dollars will look like exactly so um that will be a plus benefit on our side because we had an increased ADM account so not much there on education fund operation fund um just wanted to highlight a few things on there for you just um a lot of the expenses that I highlight on there as we look into the future um are some expenses that we can reimburse ourselves back for out of some of these projects that's a decision that we can make U at another point in time but I just kind of want to identify those areas for you uh because those are costs that um we're paying uh without the bond yet so without bond we could re that requires some longer term plan what to do y but I just wanted to highlight those areas for you I think we talked about this ear on I tried to go out and kind of put best estimates out there as far as what I knew we were going to be spending in some of these projects that we're working on um but I wanted to highlight those ones that might be specific uh to uh projects that are established for the 2024 Bond isance have any questions on that additional expenditures all right we'll move on to uh uh personal recommendations for an HR report see we have under resignation uh Melissa Brooks as a cook at Southwood High School effective 311 Lauren CIS math teacher at Southwood High School um effective 314 and I'm just going to make a note of that one that's the one that um South would actually her um early on um well not early on but this calendar year I believe um and she was going to have to move from um around the Indianapolis area and she then basically and this wasn't going to start until next year so and then she decided that she was unable to be able to move up here so she had to um apply her resignation for that so she never got started but just to keep a paper trail of hiring somebody and then resigning went ahead and put that for that under employment Ashley Campbell has a temporary teacher at Southwood Elementary uh April 26th and end on the 2324 school year uh transfer Abby Watkins transferring from metr North kindergarten teacher to Shark Creek fourth grade teacher effective for the next school year 2425 and then under retirement Barry um Boyer as the DEA students out and they're whites um he's retiring at the end of this year and another retirement is that right one or is that leave that's just a leave yeah okay we got leave uh 174 leave uh to begin April 27th and returning approximately October 21st 2024 questions there get a motion in a second to accept HR report second motion a second for the HR report all those in favor say I any oppose all right if I could talk a little bit about Mr Boer Mr Boer I did see him today and I told him that I was going to recommend that you not approve his uh retirement but we're just being serious about that but anyway I want to talk a little bit about when I was um principal at White's Junior Senior High School Barry was actually the residential one of the residential coordinators he did an excellent job as a residential coordinator uh when I moved on then to Northfield uh Troy f short became the principal and then he hired Mr Boer as the DEA student and that started was in 2011 and so um appreciate all the work that he's done since 2011 and before that he'll definitely be missed but we appreciate all the the work he has done um he did a great job working with the students um there at White Junior Senior High School so just wish him well in his retirement thank you all right under report looks like Matt's not here unless Josh wants the spot heart career center well I could but I [Music] won't Mr ke fa I I want to mention something about Barry I was going to say something about the robotics but that's already been mentioned and highlighted by the principles and then also just reminder that um our spring break uh for MSD uh starts on Friday or actually I guess for the most part Thursday at 3:15 for the students and then just a reminder I will be putting out an call um either wed either tomorrow or Thursday I think I have on my calendar for Thursday just a reminder to everyone that on April 8th when we return uh we're going to do an early release for the solar eclipse and so that's already been put out there the information's been put out a lot of different places but people might forget about that so we will put out an all call just remind everyone that will be doing that so that's what all my had for what were they going to do for practices 5 o' they won't um they're not allowed to start practi until 5m so they'll come back okay Mr Drake anything for nothing formal we're just in the thick of things we just wrapped up sat testing and I testing and weeda testing and I learn testing when we come back um lots of professional development going on it's just it's that time of year and so after spring break I feel like our world goes lightning fast so I think senior parents probably feel that as much as the rest of us but just super busy things are going well all right like we have one item under new business uh recommendation to approve a vendor for the tennis court project any information on that yes so um last Friday we had our bid openings for the tennis court projects at Norwood andwood uh we had three biders um and so um we kind of separated out the base bids a little bit but they could also submit them as a combined bid but we um the bids we would recommend got and Suns uh to do the work at both Northfield and Southwood T Court projects um once you approve them then we can set up meeting times as far as when those projects would eventually get started we do have some time uh because they won't get started till after the tennis season they don't have to be completed until next tennis season but obviously we want those to be done probably before the winter sets in U but they might be able to get those started as early as this summer with that but we haven't established all those details yet but from a cost perspective D Suns came in at $1.1 million to that include demo and everything the Southwoods being moved we're not going to move it not moving we'll be in the same spot demo that up and put it right back do you think do you anticipate relief Northfield for y and adion U ility we'll have to we'll have to have some conversations to work those details out but they they've already they are already aware but we didn't know who aend was going to be at this point in time so so where as far as there may be a year delay or so in the deconstruction no they'll they'll have to work around each other in some capacity that's been mentioned in the meeting so any questions on on this bid I'll make a motion to approve G SS for the tennis court projects all right a motion and second to approve the recommendation to approve the vendor for the tennis court as gotten Sun asphalt all those in favor say I any opposed all right motion passes any unfinished business board policy public comment we got the next 45 minutes you wouldn't want us to do that we could probably come up with something all right any items from board members all right weour

half million um it jumps in the next two sales from the 1 and a half million to 2.1 million and 1.8 million and then Ai and final sale you know it's like 5 um 5.3 million that was the point she was trying to make is that we able to um move short-term eligible projects to be repaid and um used or paid for quicker um and then the total debt service ass associated with this model we still did 20 million 20 million 20 million 25 million but with the increased tax rate you'll see total debt Serv service now of 136 million as opposed sorry 10 we looked at this um I don't I don't know that it's right here I think it's on the breakup and this that we had in our spreadsheet yeah yeah it's about 3 million 3 million less so we did move some of these numbers around and we'll um redo these sheets for final versions as we get closer but as you pay off debt faster um then it obviously reduces your interest cost so um I think something is we need to fix there but yeah so just for my clarification if I understand what you're saying correctly it's a higher tax rate but ultimately the taxpayers are spending less money on the bond that's correct that's correct and um if you go back to um so one more page forward so here you'll see then the average home value in the district is 252,000 that's the average um obviously there's a lot of property that's well in excess of that but the the cost for that scenario one on an annual basis is $181 thou $181 um whereas if you go two more slides forward um you know that's $84 so um it that's just kind of the difference between the 10-cent tax increase is $3 um so I don't know if there's discussion um I I don't know that we necessarily need to make a decision about the tax rate implication here I'm mostly available for questions and I think then you guys can talk internally about um how you would you know like to proceed forward do we have any questions comments or concerns from board members I know everybody's thinking right now a lot of pro information to process yeah so and it's It's Our intention to you know based on board feedback to come back with a recommendation to the board at the April board meeting um April's a little unusual because of the nsba conference we only have the one meeting um but we feel like pushing into May would probably be too late to bring it as an item so um so that April meeting is likely the sweet spot for us to kind of come back and and ask the board if they have desire to move forward yeah and if you have a time yeah here's the time schedule so this is the county deadlines um for moving forward with an election um so the board does need to um submit uh a recommendation to which you plan to move forward in July you have to submit your um pamphlet to um the elections department so you know again you could wait till May but then also so you know it's causing your pack delay and there's lots of other implications so at a minimum though you want to do something by June but that's I think why the staff has made a recommendation to have me present this initially and then come back in April with for foral formal board approval so you're not necessarily looking for um feedback on the the different tax rates you're just saying well maybe you are but you're just saying this is kind of where we want to keep it within as these two yeah I mean theoretically I mean the district could go out for $100 million Bond and you could raise your tax rate you know 30 cents but in working with staff there's obviously um sensitivity around an increase in a tax rate um we could go out for an election and have a decrease in a tax rate but likely what you would need to do in that situation is um a lower bond amount or you know the short-term eligible projects would have to be delayed um there's implications with that because of you know your device requirements and and and the need to do that so we're trying to balance all of the different you know um variables and you know we put in front of you um you know a maintenance of and a 10% or sorry a 10cent if there was board discussion and and there was other options that were you know wanting to be um reviewed or looked at we'd be happy to you know share those and and I think our leaning at this time so it would be good like if anyone has an opinion on this is that while you know we're we're always avoiding increasing tax rate where we can it feels like that 10cent increase is fairly modest and ultimately saves our taxpayers 3 million dollars over the life of the of the bond plus gives us greater flexibility to be able to um affect projects where they need to happen because while we schedule all these projects out as we've watched watched over the last nine years sometimes something crops up that causes us to have to change a timeline on something so having that greater flexibility is really beneficial it gives um the team more flexibility to react to problems and sometimes they're not even problems sometimes they're blessings like the um electric bus Grant so we were fortunate to have some districts couldn't take advantage of it because they didn't have bus Bond dollars and the grant doesn't pay for all of it so being able to have some of those available for things like that earlier in the bond sale versus later might create opportunities that would be available to us so that's probably not the best example but it's just something that's come up recently so it's kind of a a very recent example of where that flexibility becomes very powerful so in layman's terms how would you explain to someone yes we're increasing it by 10 cents or whatever um but saving how much three three million yeah I mean and that's based on a 5% interest rate assumption and right and the actual growth rate that we're restricted to in a voter pamphlet but in you know in the materials that will be you know produced for the uh election we would help you know help with drafting any language that would try to describe that to a Layman taxpayer okay so but but it's just so I understand yeah and with my head um it's basically we're paying the debt off sooner so right okay yeah and just think about if you have 30-year mortgage and you end up paying off in 20 years your the interest cost associated with that re you know faster or rapid payment of your debt you'd save you know hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest it's the same concept here okay thank you there's also an added Advantage because if you're able to tackle the projects faster the taxpayers see the results but progress versus seeing it nine years from now any other oh sorry didn't me interrupt it all is a balance any other questions concerns um is 10 cents usually the norm um the only reason why I'm sitting here and thinking is that we don't really know with all these vouchers and what the future looks like with funding for public schools I'm not sure where that lays so I think we have an added Advantage maybe given the community that we're in um is 10 cents usually what usually is in I know you said that it's moderate has it ever been a little bit more has it been it it really has given the history of our district I haven't been here through the history of all the bonds that we've done but has there been any specific times that we've gone for higher amounts yes so what what I can't show you um but I have it in front of me um is the voter pamphlet from 2016 and at the time because the district so in 2016 the district did a bond election and the last election that they did prior to that bond election was in 2009 and it was only for 44 million so 2009 and 2016 correct how often can you run bonds um you if you ran a bond election this year you could run a bond election next year what is and I I don't want to get two in the Weeds about it yeah yeah sorry but um you if you do a bond election and it's $100 million you have 10 years to sell all $100 million but there is nothing that prevents you from selling that in four years so in year five you could go out and do another bond election got it but what happened was you had done a 2009 bond election it was 44 million your tax base was much lower um and you know you did a couple a couple sales in the $20 million range at the time prior to doing the 2016 bond election your tax rate was $151 for Bonds doing an $85 million bond election which was double the ask we showed in the voter pamphlet a tax rate of $186 so that was a 30 Cent 35 Cent tax jump on bonds just on that program alone in 2016 in 2016 you could do 85 million with no tax impact you could do 85 million with a 10-cent tax impact you could do it with a 20 cent tax impact that would just mean we would amortise your bonds even quicker than what you saw in scenario 2 and the debt associated or the interest costs associated with scenario 2 would be even less um it's dependent on every some districts do $500 million bond election and they show no tax impact some do it and they have a 50 Cent 50 Cent tax impact so it's really what you know about your community um your community is supportive you've had you know your tax pass or sorry your election passage rate um for the last bonds or the last election was 55.6% um so you know you're not you know 49 51 type of situation so it's it's really what the the cabinet and board um is most comfortable you know presenting and and alsare we kind of guided um Miss Burke to be somewhat conservative just because we were concerned about some of the comments like Miss MC cheffrey shared that there there is a sense in our community sometimes the tax rates high but I don't think that's a function specifically of kraton because keep in mind in our district we have kraton for tax rate we have Phoenix Union for tax rate um those two things show as schools we also have U Maricopa County community colleges that district has recently um passed some Bonds in recent years um and then there's you know there's there's a whole bunch of other elements but what families seem to notice at least the ones that I've spoken with is that the largest chunk of their secondary tax rate that they're paying really is for the two school districts for um for kraton and for Phoenix Union and so that that has been where we've had some communication from the community in the past about concerns around around tax rate okay I don't have any oh go ahead and just just for um reminder sake uh the overrides expire not for a while right yes so we you know we've and and I'd be happy to um provide Miss Shapiro with the chart that I may have even given it to her the chart I used to use to track all the elections but um what we've been doing is we found that the even years the gubinatorial and presidential years are the most successful for us so we've tried to schedule things to where we're not going out more than every other year so our hand isn't always out number one um so we're hitting that success successful election cycle but then the the other reasoning for it was to not try to not go out for two or three things at once so if we were to go out for this bond in 24 it would really be the right timing to go out for both overrides the m and the capital again in 26 so that would be the first time where we'd be in a position where we kind of need to run them together and that has to do with you know the down cycling of M if we don't if we if we don't pass it by 27 it starts to down cycle and then the and then the capital sunsets at a certain point so to be able to to make sure both of those are maintained over time we would actually need to float either float both of those elections in 26 or go out in back-to-back years where we might try an odd year um but you know based on the data that we have it looks like those even years are our more successful time frame sorry for taking that one I'll let you take it in the future I just had the history so absolutely and and there is on sorry there is on slide four um there is a history of bond and override um c s these are successful these aren't the ones that were unsuccessful um in the under the tax rate table sorry we didn't go into detail on this I know we were trying to keep this to a minimum um but one thing to point out is ml it says the last year that's the last year m&o does ratchet down um so they're good for seven years full for five ratchets down in six and seven by onethird in each year if it's not renewed so the year that you do see see would be if it just phased out and and and you didn't go out for a new but the daa was last done um in 2020 so that to Jay's point we would want to go out that's a full for seven years by 2026 yeah Mr Man I apologize you can I I'm not very form okay any other questions concerns comments all right thank you for your time thank you so much so Madam president members of the board with apologies to Miss Shapiro having noticed the time that it is at 7:22 in our full board meeting were you gonna shoot were you gonna pass me an out I missed out on that no I was gonna say what you're about to say okay sorry do you want to say it no go right I keep stealing I keep stealing your thunder today um it we might want to table the budget conversation for a future board meeting we have we do have more time and space with that than we do with the bond we just knew that was coming up in April um and if you're okay with that so with apologies to you both for suggesting it and for stealing your suggestion of it and I just I I would I would be grateful for uh time to spend uh discussing discussing the budget the budget process there's some uh changes in the in the requirements of reporting I think they're fantastic changes uh and they allow us to uh present the and develop the budget in um a way that I would have been doing anyways uh so it's great to get that information out there and be very transparent with the process but I do want to have time to discuss it explain it and and add value as to why that transparency is really um important for a school district and I also want to make sure that I get information from the board members on the types of things that you would like to see as we're developing the budget and the um types of information that that maybe need to stand out for you that I can go into tell you know the areas that I goober over might not necessarily be the areas that you guys uh enjoy as much um I I really jazz on uh how the budget's broken up with the account coding I've talked about account coding before I think it's fantastic to have a set of numbers that tell you everything it is amazing so um the budget is absolutely aligned with that account coding process so maybe I can make account code joy in everyone so yeah I'm I'm if I have no objection from the other board members I'm okay if we table the budget discussion to another time just to give us more clarity and give you guys more time to do that as well um do I hear any objections no since it's a study session Hilda Miss Hardis okay perfect thank you so much so with that being said we're going to go ahead and adjourn our study session I'm going to go on a quick two-minute recess and then we'll be right back with our regular board meeting thank you sorry Josh how much we value have in the top half of our district and how the bottom half can average it out to 20 that is wild even though there's four and6 million Homes at the one end I know I mean we're talking people that live on 32nd Street in Stanford yep yeah well what I was saying is they presented to the board go is that even I'm going to stag this because I know she likes to look at these e yes okay thank you very much Ward this we're going to go ahead and reconvening the meeting and we're going to go ahead and start with our land acknowledgement the cron School District understands that our community of schools is located on the ancestral land of the oam dude and Akim oam people who descended from the hokam and have inhabited these lands since time in Memorial the oam whose name translates literally to people are a vibrant culture and community Community spanning 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 C School District formally recognizes that the traditional care and 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 with that we will have um Dr Lauren start us off with the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of thank you and that brings us to roll call we are all here miss Gibson mcling Miss SS myself miss maleb and miss MC cheffrey thank you we want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and remind the audience of the request to address board cards that are on the left side um that must be completed and submitted to the board secretary if they wish to speak 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 open meeting law board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda and that that's po that's per our reference policy BH that brings us to approval of agenda I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented second okay all those in favor awesome and that brings us to our governing board reports and Miss Gibson's writing so miss MC cheffrey I'm going to turn it over here first I do not have one today awesome thank you Miss MB I'm Gonna Save my voice okay I danced in the rain too much this weekend and so wedding went well now I have no voice Miss SS my voice is bad too I was at the wedding but I didn't dance in the rain I didn't scream a lot it's just been like this for a long time I don't know when it's going to come back so I have nothing tonight miss Gibson m um well congratulations to Lindsay and happy birthday to sopia um thank you yeah I we had a we just had another I guess hope everybody had a good Spring Break um and people got some relaxation in we had a committee meeting was it last week it was last week not this week okay it was last week um and we're chugging right along I'm honestly I will say surprised but I don't want to jinx us or anything um so so we've gotten through um wow dress code and then we've uh tackled a couple of other big things and so please join us next week I I believe it is next week on Thursday if I remember this is all just a quiz for youj yeah I know like you're just it's like are you supering just look at my calendar right now but I'm not um next week uh again we'll be here and so obviously it's March so we're really getting into the um to the uh grind here to try to get uh all of these because it seems like every time we think of something we're like well this is a related so hopefully we don't coming to you and asking for an extension I hope that we can get through everything by the end of uh the year and and the date that we've the dates we've prescribed so again if you would like to please uh come to our meetings in person or watch them online you can provide public comment um as well so thank you to everyone on the committee for their hard work and contined hard work thank you for that um just a board update that I have is that I know that we have some really cool events going on this week that I'm really excited for I know that we have our art expo I believe it is tomorrow um yes so at five o'clock so if you guys can go ahead and make the art expo at mon Vista to Showcase are the beautiful art I know we have some beautiful ones over here and on the left side this is amazing work from our students around the district so that's always awesome um I know that a lot of the schools are having their own kindergarten um fairs so that's cool um excellencia has one coming up tomorrow and I know Thursday BPA has one um so that's really awesome and I also know that in the month of April we have um The Family Resource Center is actually putting on together a baby shower for the community I don't know if that and you guys knew that our family resource puts those together so we um pregnant persons can come in sign up and they get free diapers we throw food baby shower we do games we do the H nine yards and it's remarkable what the ladies do we're also going to have a kindergarten um fair I like to say we because I live at the Family Resource Center basically so I take a lot of Pride and ownership in what they do so there's also going to be a kindergarten Fair going on in the districtwide at the Family Resource Center there and it's really cool because um they have different countries that they're representing and it was awesome to see all the parents um we did a tour of the Family Resource Center for first things first which is who the family res um Resource Center is Grand funded by and um Governor Hobbs um it's a part of Governor Hobs Administration and they were really excited with the stuff that we're doing in the Family Resource Center there's I believe 88 Family Resource Centers in the whole state State of Arizona and our Family Resource Center is one of the few if not only that has certain um enmities like giving out diapers for free or the DCS grants that they just got to help community members get their water paid their gas so if you guys know anybody in the community that's needing assistance Our Family Resource Center has direct dollars for that so it's really amazing to see all the work that our specific Family Resource um is doing and that's why it was so happy to see some itemized um numbers on there for them for the bond because they really hold the epitome of this District you know or parents go there our zero to five children go there all the services that they have um so it's it really holds the district together so um if you guys can check that out that would be awesome as well and that's the only update that I have for myself I'll go ahead and turn it over to you Mr Jay I know it's late I know it's your birthday and so I'm going to keep it very very short um I'll start with some some sad news um a longtime teacher in our district um Lan for H um we recently found out had passed away um and for those of you who knew Leanne she was just an amazing bright light of energy but also um she was our music teacher at Papago for many years and I just remember enjoying so many performances uh that she was behind I think she brought students to perform here in the boardroom a couple of times and and at a variety of other events so m h was my music teacher in the 90s wow there you go it's a small world and there's always connections right so I'm very very sad for that news and of course condolences go out to her family um to kind of build off of the committee work that our policy committee is working on um we also have our our student conduct and behavior support team that's looking for proactive supports for our students and they have actually reach the point where they have their rubric for how they're going to measure possible programmatic elements we could bring in to support um our our teachers our staff and especially our our kids throughout the district for next year and they have actually started their tours I think their their first tour of the school district to look at the program they're using was actually this morning so um so they're out there trying to get that work done so that we were able to look at um bringing some programmatic elements in uh bring a recommendation forward and then bring programmatic elements in for next year so I'm just going to go with those two for time but um thank you for the opportunity to share those things and one thing I forgot to mention is I didn't know that we had our first spases what's our special education didn't we have that last week oh my goodness that was my other one it was our CAC I can't I forgot that um yeah I got to be there it was awesome it was so awesome that they were struggling nobody wanted to leave um I my my test the next morning got canceled but I was supposed to be fasting for a test so I ducked out earlier than I wanted to I wanted to be there to The Bitter End with everybody but I realized I wouldn't get to to have my last meal before before my test so um so I didn't get I have no idea you guys could have stayed till midnight for all I know I know we were like Beyond 30 minutes past our time and people were still hanging out and I think one of the big things that we learned was that we need to build in time for the families to connect because they really loved connecting with each other as well but my thanks to the whole Special Education team everyone involved in in pulling that together I know been in planning for a while um and those families so we had if my count is right and somebody correct me if I'm wrong I think we had like eight or nine distinct families that showed up but we had more individual because there was two parents from some of those families um and that actually for us historically is a lot but we'd like it to be more but one of the things that we charge them with is toing others and they left energized to bring others so I know you know it's it's going to continue to grow and it's going to be an amazing feedback loop for us as we continue to dig in and and improve our programs throughout the district so again thanks to the team for for that effort yeah and I just want to say thank you too I know that I wasn't there I had to take a last minute trip that week but I'm really thankful for you guys um supporting us I know it's been a Talk Amongst the community and one of the things that we really strive to is listening to the the committee and I know that this is something that we've been um not neglecting but it's it hasn't been operating the way it should and I know that this is the starting point I know we only have a few families but that's the way that it starts right but what I'm most grateful for is that the initiative was done to actually hearing the community and bringing these families together to actually advocate for their students so that's awesome and it's very aligned with theg framework that we're also doing so I appreciated that and I wanted to make sure that that was that was brought up thank you for catching I'm just going to throw one more quick story because it's so awesome I'm going to embarrass um Miss Green in the background there and Dr dup in here but one of our parents who was there with their two children one who currently um is in our program and one that is one of our future attendees um in our district um he I had been introduced to him outside of Mack and school like I think last year because we ran into him I was with Dr dupin and Dr dupin was his principal when he was a student at that school school and Miss green was his teacher so it what's amazing and super cool is we do have like multi-generational families within our district and seeing them not only bring their kids back here but participate in opportunities to give us input and feedback is really so for me it was super exciting to have a former student who was I know we have a for we have former student board member but they have a former student who um who you know who actually was then part of our convers about what we're doing for students now so I I just wanted to share that just really quick because it's coming to mind and I would hate for her to just be barely mentioned but you know I think Miss V I we used to call her Miss V started in the district at a time when we didn't have a lot of money for music and art education and I recall her only being able to come so many times a month or a week like maybe like once a month because I'm sure she went to all the sites and uh I feel like she always did like the most she could with what she had which was interesting I'm sure um now looking back but she had a choir for us at monov Vista we also had a recorder choir which I'm sure our parents all enjoyed um and and we even she was even on the cuss with technology because we created we did a fundraiser where we all sang songs on a cassette tapes that she then mass produced and we sold for a fundraiser which I'm also sure sounded fantastic um which included like Barbie girl and things like that so it was great it was a great time she was a great teacher from what I recall so I'm sorry for uh her loves on loss thank you for that and thank you guys for all the work you're doing in the district um Mr man I didn't me cut you off was that it no it wasn't I'm s I'm sorry to have stretch I just thought it was the story had touched me when watching it unfold so okay perfect so that brings us to our student outcomes Focus governance update which this which is the sofg framework and for the past few weeks I think we actually completed our site councils now now I wasn't there to make it to the last few weeks but we've been going around we started it off with Community Council getting feedback on the new goals that the district is doing I think with all the feedback and I'm hoping everybody had an opportunity to look at it we can discuss the five goals if we need to make any edits and if not then I think we're ready to move forward to adopting them um I've gone through the feedback I've talked to people in the meetings in person and it seems like our goals are very aligned with what the community is saying um you guys can see it in the paperwork I don't know if you guys have any edits to any of the board goals I'm not talking about guard rail guard rails right now but from what I personally have been hearing and seeing a lot of them seem to be very aligned of not making major um changes the only concerns that I am hearing is um that our goals are very eighth grade based and a lot of the families were stating well what about the third grade and the second grade and fifth grade um I think part of this framework um and and having this interactions with our community is part of like educate education on our part and their part too where we're going to have interim goals within those goals so that's going to be up to once our goals are adopted to our superintendent and our administrators to come back and tell us well this is what we're going to do in the meantime to get to that overall 5year your goal and it can be focusing on third grade literacy it can be focusing on what we're doing in fifth grade I'm not sure what that looks like but once we get to that point we'll get to discuss um what we if we accept those intrum goals or not so I guess the question here now is after reading the feedback do you guys have any major concerns about changing the goals that we have do we have any edits what are you guys feeling thinking the one edit that I saw in here um about changing like the teachers to staff um it was under the guardrails we're talking about board goals um right now and then sorry yeah no it's okay um I think the board goals maybe if we can pull that up and have it up here too because I know that administrator had some adjustments on some um of the board goal so um think only the biggest thing that stood out well one going back to yes we had feedback on the eighth grade but I think that goes back to those interim goals and also realizing that five years from now the eth graders are the third graders now so um but the one that I heard like the most discussion about was um the looking at the 8th grade elel students and measuring using the aella to measure simply because if you're newcomer students if you know there's something else going on that you've have not been evaluated throughout the time like are we going to get to that and that was brought up by several um folks and I don't have the perfect answer for what that it's are I'm trying to recall the numbers do we remember like what the because I remember a lot of times I was having those feelings and then when we talked about actual numbers of students and what that looks like to move the the meter then I would feel better so I don't recall the actual numbers of students well and I I don't mean to put Dr dupin or Dr pombo on the spot but I know that the aella scores and the El students were one of the things that there were some potential recommendations for a possible shift so I don't know if if you have that you are okay perfect thank you um so that that and that information might help with that concern that you've heard because I think they structured it a different way to make it a little yeah a little clearer more understandable and ensure that it's attainable so and then I also wanted to make sure we we discussed or thought about the concerns over calling out um eighth grade black students um on the map just because um some students had some issues with that and there is a privacy issue in in because the number of kids are so small um and if we want to I don't want I don't want to unintentionally be adding any shame to these kids um and bring up possibilities for bullying of these particular students um in my experience that wasn't something that really was brought up in the community forums especially talking with parents I know I wasn't there when kids cogence happened and I know that was one concerned but it hasn't some it hasn't been something that I've personally heard at the different sites with administrators teachers support staff parents I that's just not something that is going around I understand that it could be a concern to um separate you know different people and how they the lens that they see it in but I don't I personally don't believe that this would cause any added on bowling or any added on any of other that especially because I haven't heard it around I don't know if anybody else has a different experience but that's not something that has been a a prominent concern going around doing the tours it just came from students that's and that's it was well I guess I just want to clarify it was one student right no it was actually it was I remember being communicated at the last meeting yeah we we shared the story from one student but um if I remember correctly Dr dup and you were there I think it was about three students who had raised concern dur course of the meeting am I remembering correctly that's correct yeah I guess I'll just clarify on the Privacy issue right like again I'll say that we're not violating any privacy because these scores are published and so if there's just an inherent privacy issue because of the number of people we're not revealing any information that isn't already publicly available is what I'm trying to that's my whole thing right so I understand we're highlighting something at the same time it's all information that's on the add website as it is right I know kids aren't going to go hang out on the ad website I also know most people aren't my other thing though is that um I also don't know how many kids are going to hang out and look at our board goals and talk about them if they're not in kids Congress all those things to say they're valid I mean if there are there concerns they are valid concerns and I have a lot of follow-up questions and Curiosities about all of that before I just go ahead and strike that as one of the goals and and I think a lot of conversations can go around with this if we decide to adopt this on maybe a strategize and have a meet a conversation with Mr Man on how we will present this especially when we're talking to students um but also I don't necessarily feel that it's something that we should completely strike out because um it's not something that I commonly have heard going around well there's another kids Congress in April I mean I'd love to have a followup with them myself after you know us discussing it a couple times um I think it's something that would be valuable for you guys to hear and there's probably other opportunities to hear from them if that's not a convenient time but I think think you know I'd like to think that our kids are not bullying each other about silly things like this but um I also want to be living in reality and not give them an opportunity to use that um especially for black kids I mean this came from someone who possibly identified and and again we don't know that was something that was brought up um just recently at builtmore there's not a way you know people identify differently on and there's not a way to identify as multi-racial and black you have to pick one I guess you can't separate that out so it's just complicated and I don't want to I don't want to unintentionally contribute to something that is shaming kids or you know putting putting them in an uncomfortable situation any further than they may already feel like they are right and I think that's why after the adoption of the goals there 's going to be a lot of communication back and forth not only with the students but the community and the parents um because I also think in our leadership roles and making sure that our students are attaining and receiving the best resources they can our data historically assuring that our black students historically year after year after year have met none of the criteria so in my I I understand but in my in my um governance mode is it's imperative that we give the resources and the attention to the most vulnerable and from the data that we've pulled from 2016 it keeps showing up that our black students are the ones that are being impacted most by the lack of whatever we're doing so I think that's why it's important to um have goals like this because then all our resources and our time and our efforts are going to go to who is being mostly impacted and clearly um one of those most impacted is black students given the 0% of them going on to high school without knowledge on math so um I I think that's why um if we decide to adopt this goal after tonight it's a very crucial that we do have a conversation with admin and our superintendent and maybe even our um principles to make sure that we're relaying the information where it's not intended to be in a hurtful matter versus uh this is what we're going to do because this is the group that's most impacted and we're going to give all our resources so you guys can be up to everybody else and then I think also using the right language like not even impacted like as adults and I'm not talking I'm not targeting anyone here teachers whatever I'm talking about every single adult in this issing us like we've said in this is responsible for all of this and so nothing at all should be placed on the students as far as like ownership of this at all and so as adults we definitely need to have these types of goals because until people are not acting like they're colorblind until people are are actually making sure that that all students are being served equally these numbers are not going to improve and I think that's an important point I think if we move forward with this as a goal it's important that we frame it not as these students have failed but that we failed these students so um so at a minimum that that framing needs to be in place so that way we're not putting the blame on the students but um I do agree one of the things I always am concerned about and we've had this happen a number of times one of the dangers when you're involving a lot of people in conversations about things is you don't want them to give their feedback and then feel like their concerns were not were not heard so I I want to make certain I think Miss MC cheffrey suggestion that we that we go back to that student group I think is is an important one um as we've tried to be more collaborative in the district one of one of the unintentional harms that's been created at times is that sometimes you know people feel like well we gave you our feedback but you didn't do what we asked you to do well sometimes you know we take the feedback we Implement what we can from within that feedback but there's multiple feedback there's multiple factors so um I think it's important for us to make sure we're we're having those conversations as well I just checked my calendar and I am free on April 19th at 11:00 a.m.

to noon at Gilbert High School GPS along with the town of Gilbert um and the events coordinator Katie mcferson will hold an event called rise how to be an upstander this event will bring together students parents Educators administrators and community members to engage them about topics such as social media impact and Internet safety current trends and substances and what we all need to know and how to create a home where kids learn how to cope and develop resiliency over time this is a free event and open to anyone who would like to attend we'll be sending this information home directly to families and staff in the next couple of weeks so if you're available on that day please feel free to come out uh Desert Ridge High robotics before spring break Desert Ridge High did a phenomenal job hosting the AIA robotic state championships congratulations to our Desert Ridge High students who were named state champions for the third consecutive Year yes awesome in fact the ridge achieved both state champion and state runnerup titles students are headed to Dallas next week to compete in the world championship congratulations to our Desert Ridge High robotics students led by our Vex robotics coach and math teacher Wendy Harden and thank you to all of the students coaches teacher support staff and admin at Desert Ridge High who make this possible good luck to the team at the World Championships next week in Texas Miss U jetti that concludes my report for this evening thank you Dr McCord I we'll move on to um 7.01 requested to speak to the governing board and we do not have any this evening and also just as a a point of information we also have ones that people can do online and we did not have any today for that either so we will move on uh reports monthly financial report for month ended February 29th 2024 Dr McCord thank you Madame President govering board members um usually we have two reports in this section uh one about Finance the other about academic uh success and things that we're doing in our district we've moved that to the April 9th work study because we also have some things to talk about related to mathematics and curriculum so just so you guys know that I'll turn it over to Miss Betts now good evening Madame President governing board members Dr mord so this monthly report represents activity through February 29th 2024 a very very short report um as as always we share our two main um report uh two main funds maintenance and operations and unrestricted Capital note uh that we continue to increase um increase spend um but uh we are as we're increasing spend we are un encumbering so you can see that the Ava available balance is about $13.6 million in M we expect that our final ending balance will be about that which represents about our 4% Revenue control limit um Target uh every year to make sure that we have adequate monies in reserve in the event that we do not meet our student count Target um and in addition you can see that under unrestricted Capital outlay again uh year-to date expended encumbered um has gone up but we are releasing encumbrances at the same time you will see though probably about $3 to5 million more in encumbrance coming to you uh when we share the uh March report so before I go any further are there any questions about any of that okay great so um the Federal grant funds the reason we're highlighting the esa funds those are the title funds um is because when we um revised our budget in May and we are prepared to uh correct this of course for our final budget revision we had activity included in that budget that was really representative of last year our title uh grants go through September 30 so there's a co-mingling of that in of that so um Miss Lauren T toska has uh clarified and cleared up all of that at this point in time so uh you will see when we share with you uh the March report you will see a pending final revised budget will which will um share those changes and that's all for the Federal grant funds uh State Grant funds the ones that we're sharing here are the school safety program the Esser Grant we are going to remove that from the grid as it is no there's no activity and it's no longer um an available Grant fund so just a warning as we move forward to the end of the year and then Enterprise funds so we're happy to note that our estimated revenues have increased uh substantially in both nutrition services and Community Ed reflect Ive of their ongoing um increases in activity and so that is uh showing slight increases in available balance through the end of the year and then finally the bond fund the big change that occurred um the facility's renewal line which would represents all the work that we do to upgrade and um replace HVAC equipment roofs Etc you can see that the remaining balance is about $400,000 reflective of all the continued required spend that we need to make sure that all of our buildings are operational so we'll continue to draw down that that balance through the end of this year and then and all of these new projects are taken forward to Cabinet to make sure that they are the highest priority and any project that exceeds the $100,000 threshold it comes to you for approval so and that uh represents our report for this evening I'm happy to take any questions if there are any I just had a quick question how far are we drawing down the facilities budget because you said we're going to continue to draw it down can you go back on that side right so um it's $400,000 that's left so we expect that that will be fully spent by the end of this year the 400,000 that's last okay that's what I thought thank you you bet any other questions okay thank very much thank you we'll we will move to the consent agenda and before we do a motion I know there's uh Dr McCord has a change a slight change yes um if under the resignation there's a individual named Darlene Jones that should be under retirement it was submitted uh to otm as a resignation and so it ended up on the agenda that way put it should have been submitted as a retirement by technology services so just wanted to make that clear all right thank you do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda item with the um agenda with the one change so moved thank you Mrs hrey second second thank you Mrs paig it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda items as presented with the one change all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed so on a Z vote thank you we will move to to 10 action items 10.01 employee benefits trust medical Vision Pharmacy Dental District paid and voluntary insurance rates for the 20 2425 school year and I would take a motion to approve that and then we'll discuss it move that we approve 10.01 right thank you very much M Mr Thompson second second thank you Mrs humph now we'll discuss Madame President I'll just go over this real quick if you don't mind um there's four sections of this the employee benefit trust committee EBT uh as well as the employee benefit trust board EBT board voted unanimously to recommend a 0% increase to the medical pharmacy and vision premiums for the 2425 plan year number two the EBT committee as well as the EBT board also voted unanimously to recommend a 1% increase to the dental insurance rates for the 2425 plan year number three the EBT committee as well as the EBT board also voted unanimously to recommend a 0% premium increase for the following District paid benefit insurance offerings basic life basic short-term disability employee assistance program or EAP and lastly in addition the EBT committee as well as the EBT board voted unanimously to recommend a 0% premium increase for the following voluntary benefit insurance offerings Voluntary Life Insurance voluntary short-term disability and voluntary legal insurance we have Mr McIntosh as well as Miss bets as well as yourself Miss ug jetti who serve on that committee and can speak to anything yes um I would like to to just say that that the 0% is a phenomenal benefit for everyone and that in particular really helps our budget our District budget the 1% Dental is something that that the employees pay for so and that's still extremely reasonable and uh having served on this committee for a number of years and with everything that is happening in in our world today to be able to do uh not raise rates is is really good and we are in a very very good Financial place we would not be doing this without um the advice of all of the people that work in in the uh in that department and um I you know I just I think this is wonderful and and I'm very very pleased having we we meet with the the staff members which is just the committee and then they make the recommendation to the the trust committee which is made up of um myself Mrs bets and three community members and so it was all unanimous and we we did this this part of it this week so I think it's a great great benefit that we're going to be able to give to our employees and our district questions I just had a question I don't know if it goes to M Mr Macintosh probably um are the employees is this a lump alog together or are they able to opt in and opt out of like maybe Medical but not vision okay good evening um vision and medical are tied together and then Dental they can purchase okay okay thank you uhuh we also were able to give a little bit more for the contacts too correct yeah so we're able to increase them amount increase the amount that the district the insurance plan would pay for contracts up to just $25 $20 every every little bit helps it does I just ask CU most employers do not offer that as a combo combo package so that's amazing that our district is able to combin Medical Envision together without making the employees pay or the the staff pay for that and the other opt-in that's a really nice benefit is the legal advice we I think is our second year of doing it we're staff members have an opportunity to talk to a lawyer about a personal um legal issue which is a really nice benefit too and we also have the employee benef or the counseling to part of this anything else any other questions I do want to um second what you said Mrs ug jetti the fact that there's so much of this that we don't ask for an increase that is um almost unheard of so it phenomenal work on the part of our financial department and our district to be able to do that so thank you very much I mean it's just I don't know that I've heard of that for a good many years so thank you I just want to state that it is we're able to do this because of what the committee does and has done for several years this is a this is nice when when Bonnie and Sean come to cabinet and we talk about insurance and and what are the rates going to be because if you know anything about health insurance out in the general public it's a different story mhm being a self-funded trust and managing those assets well uh really benefits our employees uh in the long run so thank you to the committee and uh for doing all that you guys have Dr mcord I'd like to say that the employee committee is made up of Staff members from all different areas teachers uh principles um support staff and you know they meet generally once a month um and listen to lot of information but I agree with you and and then Sarah story I think in our department is really keeps us and toe um she's right there to make sure that we're we have all of the money that we need and you know like I said I've been on this a long time and to be to see the health of the health of the health committee is really uh impressive thank you very much Mr doc Mr Mr MacIntosh and Mrs B so I know you've done a lot of work so any other questions or concerns okay hearing none I hear a vote for I'm not going to go through all that again but all of the the previous information that we just discussed for our employee benefits trust for the 2425 school year all those in favor please signify by saying I I I opposed so on a 5-0 vote we have good news a 10.02 to consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed aail ad ible to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special budget override election to be held in and for the district and declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election to the Maricopa County school superintendent as of August 9th 2024 at 5 p.m.

so I'm going to do my best to make it that kids Congress and then I know um this has already been brought up but I I was hoping that we would have um the recommendations of Dr pumbo and Dr dupin um side by side with our board goals just so we can see you know because I think there was some quite a bit of thought put into that you know just so we can kind of see what their recommendations were as well when we do get to a final adoption meeting or board meeting before I think it was the last one yeah I believe it was last board meeting to I know there were language yeah it was at the end of the present the data presentation that we went through was March 5th okay so it wasn't the last one it was it was two board me no this yeah it it was the last board meeting because it's still march it feels like it's April already it feels like this meeting stretched into nice to see them just side by side and have give some thought for that yeah are we able to do that or no is that have them side by side like um the recommendations we had from March 5th and our goals right now yeah is that possible I don't know oh no no no no it's okay we've got it we they're here they're just not it was part of the PowerPoint wasn't it yeah it was part of the power point that's the problem because it wasn't by themselves it was part of their PowerPoint it was it was on the last slide I believe can we can can you guys just send it to us so we can look at it between now and the next board meeting we're not voting on anything tonight yeah we we can absolutely um and actually rather than just sending it to you in its current format I don't think it would be a hardship to put the two sets side by side and send them out to you so yeah and we don't have to wait for a board update we can just go ahead and push that that' be great that's all yeah in fact we'll probably have it's gonna take more than like 15 minutes about it you know and and in addition to that and I haven't had a chance to share this um our extended exec team which includes do pombo um um gret uh who's our new um uh and I'm sorry to address You by first name it is late and my brain is not working but our um exceptional student services director um and several members of the team including Tyson who you worked with on the original goals are going to be working with uh Dr Ramos on April 2nd to try to get some more information and start moving forward on some of those HMS and some of those pieces so we'll have some information from that that we'll need to share out with you anyway so as we share that out um we'll also we'll share this out as well so that way you hopefully we'll be able to get you a lot of different pieces of information um after next week it's gonna actually a week from today that we'll be doing that it'll probably take us a day or two after that to pull pull things together and get them off too um and then just for next board meeting we will be taking action on those board goals so I just want to make sure that everybody's reading their materials reading everything coming forward with your questions or setting up those one-on ones if you have questions before because um where our community feedback is done we have the we have all the paperwork the community feedback um Dr pombo brought up those recommendations last meeting so for the next board meeting so we're all aware we're going to be voting and have a discussion so just make sure that once those materials are sent out to you we're actually reading them going through and not using this time to look for paperwork or ask questions um just so we can get those goals settled and I'm assuming the next meeting is going to be after that kids Congress meeting so that will play out it's not it it'll it'll be yeah unfortunately it's the Tuesday prior to the Friday of so okay um I don't think it's a matter of not reading it that we had a lot and then we had these possible adjustments the end of our discussion last time but it's being able to then look at those next to the ones we have and figure out are we meshing them so I think that's what we expected to be able to see tonight yeah and I I apologize for not having ton and it's it is it will be important for me to Circle back with the kids I'll just be honest with you so yeah and that's fine nobody said it yeah we won't be able to do it before the vote it sounds like like so yeah well we if do we want to Circle back with the kids and make sure we're because it's the same kids Congress right so that's the only thing is that if it's only three kids and it's the same amount of kids how are you getting more information that it's an actual issue within the students that's what I'm trying to get at if we go back to kids Congress what's your solution off of that if it's only the same individuals it's it's about having a conversation with them and saying look this is these are the discussions that we had with the board you know do it does it make you feel any differently or are those three students are they students at three different schools um believe it on were two of them were from one school and then one was from another school is it possible to coordinate a conversation with before kids Congress um please could I'd be willing to participate in that conversation if it's possible to coordinate it if that's what we're trying to do is have that conversation again again prior to the next prior to the vote if that's not feasible well if if I um if I'm following the conversation correctly I don't know that there's new information that we'll get from those kids but I think it's a matter of of addressing their concerns so and and if I'm misspeaking Miss MC Jeffrey please correct me but it it feels like you know if if that's the volume of that feedback and the board feels comfortable taking action that Tuesday prior to that Friday meeting that conversation could still take place at kids Congress and it would really just be explaining here here's here's what we've here's the here's the goals we brought you originally here's what we've adopted they may be identical they may be slightly different depending on how you feel about some of the recommended changes um and then and then have a conversation with them about we heard your concerns and we value them and here's why we still chose to move forward in this way and here's we're going to do as we communicate the goals out to try to address the concerns so I don't I don't know if that would help I mean I feel like it's Rel leaving out the other kids and kids Congress to just yeah because there the other ones were all there sitting there and listening to the conversation so I hate to exclude them um I was just trying to come up with a solution that would please people but if that's this is fine with me I'm just a solution person so I was trying to think of something on the fly but it's fine I'll go to kids Congress too I'll be at the meeting I'm eager to hear it thank you they're fun okay um I I personally believe that's the action step that I would like to take what Mr Man recommended but I am only one voice so it's up to the rest of the board what you want to do but at this point I believe that for the next meeting we should go over the board goals and look over all the information and and start making a decision on adopting our goals um that's just where I'm at it at this moment any other comments okay uh moving over to the guardrails I really do think that we need to get our board goals straight first and then the guardrail conversation can come up so we can move that over to the next um agenda item especially because I need to follow up with Dr rals on on the guard rails as well um one of the ones for sure that we're not going to do is the board self evaluation and I'm going to make sure that all the other ones don't intersect with stuff within the framework I'm really hoping um we're taking the responsibility also of reading the book um just because I know that there's a lot of questions or sometimes stuff comes up and if we're reading the literature of this um framework it it really depicts and goes into detail on why certain things are written a certain way or why certain goals or guard rails are executed in such a a certain way so that's part of our job too make sure that we're reading in and and understanding the material and if we're not this is the perfect opportunity to ask questions or set up one-on ones to make sure that we're getting Clarity on either the guardrails or the or the goals but I think guard rails and goals mixing them together when we're adopting them can get a little bit confusing so I'm going to if everybody is okay we're going to table the guardrail conversation until we can kind of get our goals um in place and set up um couple comment um I would I would like to if we could make a note to add staff just so that we don't lose that note because I think that was a good um addition to which one sorry to the guard rail to the board guard rails oh board sorry we we're missing the word staff in there really okay that's all easy yeah yeah yeah and then um why was the this one removed the board will not operate without a self annual self- evaluation So within the framework um the self evaluation um we end up getting a sheet and it tells us the self evaluation is within the framework already that has to be done once a year already so if we added it as a guard rail it's already expected of us to do a board self evaluation every year so it kind it's like double doing we're wasting a guard rail basically on something that we're already going to be doing yearly anyways so that's what ni thing to have out there publicly because I did get some comments about that you know like who's GNA hold you accountable for doing that and it's like because we haven't done one for a couple years so it was nice to just have it public that's all yeah um but I think that's the anti-racist training because there was comments about that too I'm I'm I'm sorry I was still on the other one what about the anti-racist training how come that was removed um I don't I think it was I think it was accidental because it was oh yeah part it was part of the self-evaluation yeah so we I think I don't think that was intended to be removed it's not in the fra yeah it's not in the framework um but our goals are very anti-racist can I ask a question um it's my understanding that we will adopt eventually an entire framework yes and in that adoption we could amend the evaluation section to include that portion if we yes we can add it too okay and I thought it was going to be added to the superintendent's guard rail as one of the indic that the board will not go out without self evaluation every year that the anti-racist thing was going to be added as an indicator somewhere and that could be an indicator to as like an interum guardrail that's why the guardrail conversation I kind of was like let me set it off to the next agenda because because there is a lot of but yeah the anti-racist can be yeah under the superintendent guard rails well I just got good feedback that's all yeah and I don't think it was meant to be taken out it was just the self evaluation portion of it but we can include it within the self evaluation in the framework that it exists already um do we have any other questions or comments regarding the guard rails okay um Mr man did you have anything to add on to the sofg framework conversation I I appreciate the conversation I appreciate the fact you know that we've we've gathered so much input and feedback and I and I do appreciate the concerns but making sure we honor the the concerns of the students as well so I think we can address all of that um and and as I said we'll be getting the side by side out to you along with anything else we get from Dr Ramos son on the second we'll get that out to you the end of that week so that we have it sooner rather than later instead of having to wait for a board update and hopefully that'll uh put us in a good position to be ready to have the the work that we need to do in April so awesome all right I'm going to move on to the next agenda item which is public comments we do have one public comments and I invite Claudia Garcia board um aw some conversation huh that was happy I didn't expect that uh so I just wanted to speak about the recent uh personal lawsuit against the board and just kind of reassure the board that uh trying to connect with other parents to organize our support for our current board and um you know I really think that there's a place here got to look hard to take the high road on this um but but but I I think that if I had to speak to any parent and explain why why we should um support our uh dual language aversion program at builtmore it's because we do believe that it is delivering it is delivering according to the state standards I have two children who have gone through the program they are both uh above average academically they are just fine um and you know it's brought to my attention that there's a point about uh engl English Learners being at the program that that that's really the problem and I say so what okay so what so there's a couple of English Learners in the program guess what my biggest surprise at billmore was not all the Spanish-speaking kids that joined the program it was all the uh excited and Earnest uh non-english uh speak non-spanish speaking families that were there to put uh their children in this dual language immersion program and just the goodness that that brought to my kids life you know I'm I'm out of District my kidss could have gone to Hopey or they could have gone to Great Hearts but they would not have had the Multicultural experience that they had at builtmore and I think it's difficult to explain to someone outside of this situation all the advantages that that offers but it's been huge I mean they will take that with them forever and I want them to be people who go into the world who understand what it's like to be sensitive to others who understand a sense of the world and our dual language immersion experience erience has given them that and it is because of the school district like I said we came out of District to come here and it's just been a Priceless experience so you know there's there's so many layers to this lawsuit um that there just has to be a way to find the high road I think looking at it technically legally um would be you know to explain to the parents you know where the board is going you know get some feedback um can only help you know I know the eight people that I heard back from today no one said oh that's great the board's being sued like no nobody said that no said that's amazing no everyone said us is the this is awful he's a bad man um so uh just so you know I know eight people who got back to me they each know eight people who know eight people and uh just want to reassure you that we are trying to uh do what we can to uh organize we just need a little bit of guidance and I think could certainly make a political impact if with with that um and and you know and I want to hit this point too because it's important about what you were talking about there the there's this balance between sensitivity transparency execution and that's what government's about right that's why we have government because government is a public trust We Trust our public officials to make good decisions for them I don't have it all the time in the world world to uh figure out what standard my kids should be learning to I trust my government the market cannot solve everything that's why there are Environmental Protections that's why there's public education because we need a government it's not supposed to be for profit and so that's the message I would give to my fellow parents that built war and I want to reassure you that we're going to do what we can um little a little bit of feedback would go a long way um but but we we you have you have you're G to have a quorum you're gonna have some people behind you so thank you so much I appreciate your words thank you all right and that brings us to our next agenda item which is um approval of consent I move the governing board approve consent agenda items a through D in accordance with policy bb- e second all those in favor I I and that brings us to our next agenda item which is acceptance of financial audit reports for fiscal year 22 and 23 it's the Miss Shapiro show tonight so I will turn it back over to you thank you Mr Man yeah uh Madame President board members and Mr Man uh we have tonight uh Mr Joshua jumper who is a CPA and a certified governmental uh finance manager with our external audit firm heinfeld and meech I believe I will be able to do the technology with no assistance oh but somebody needs to exit out of this first thank you for your patience also no problem one thing we've learned over the years is Auditors have a lot of patience they will outweight you if they have to oh I see okay oh so if you just let me know when you're ready I will I'm ready go ahead all right the next slide uh good evening uh members of the board Mr man it's my pleasure to be here uh to present the audit results for the district's annual audit for the year end of June 30th 202 3 so we're looking backwards uh and I have some slides here but I'm going to keep my comments fairly brief uh and not dive into anything too specific but again happy to answer any questions you may have uh so just uh to start with what is the annual audit uh for the district and what does that look like and what reports get issued uh so we're the external Auditors and we're procured through competitive proposals so go through the the district's normal procurement policy to be uh selected as the external Auditors and the year under audit I'm speaking to was the fifth year of the audit on contract uh so just wanted to lay out the timeline for the annual audit uh so way back last May the engagement letter which uh gives approval to begin the audit uh process was done in June we made an on-site visit for some preliminary audit procedures we came back in October to do more uh audit procedures in line with the issuing of the AFR uh and then in December uh the financial statements were issued uh not on this slide but then in January and February the other reports were issued which I'll touch on in just a minute so uh the audit reports that are issued so uh the first one's communication to governance so this is a letter that's included in uh your documents uh which I'll touch on in a minute the annual comprehensive financial report so the acfr this is the district's financial statements the single audit reporting package so this report is submitted to the federal government and reports the district's uh spending of federal grants and any findings related to to those and then the U uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire the usfr so that is required by the state and so we assist in reviewing that and submitting that to the state uh so the scope of audit Services uh provide an audit in accordance with us generally accepted auditing standards government auditing standards uniform guidance I'll roll off some other long words uh and then complete the usfr compliance questionnaire okay so just getting into what's our responsibility as the external Auditors and then what's the responsibility of management when it comes to the audit uh so we uh do fraud Communications inquiries to various members uh at the district um to just uh ensure we're uh looking for that and being aware of anything that may have Arisen but ultimately the responsibility for fraud at your entity lies with management and the board so just distinguishing between that uh the the audit isn't necessarily geared to to catch fraud 100% of the time and ultimately the responsibility lies with management and the board which goes into we provide reasonable not absolute Assurance sound a little like a lawyer in that statement but it we're uh it's true all right go to the next uh so summary of audit adjustments uh and so if we came across any uncorrected misstatements in the financial statements we I would be required to communicate that with with you here and also in the letter in your packet uh please to report there were no uncorrected misstatements uh for the year ended June 30th 2023 and then just touching on some non audit services that are done in conjunction with the annual audit so we assist with the preparation of the a for in terms of getting the data from the district and compiling that report and then um the schedule of expenditure of federal Awards in the data collection form which both go to the federal government some other required Communications uh please report we had no disagreements with management uh during the audit process uh they sign the representation letter at the end and then okay go ahead to the next slide I'll just touch on some of the reports so I'm not going to get into the reports in specific items or numbers in any of the reports but pleased report that the financial statements had a unmodified opinion and uh in non-ac accountant speak that's a clean opinion so pleased to report that the financial statements were free from material misstatement and then this is more just for your reference if you wish to look through the the act for uh those are the pages on specific areas single audit reporting package again this is the report that goes to the federal government pleased to report there were no findings noted in that report looking at the federal grants for the year we looked at the Esser Grant and the title one Grant reported no findings I know that's a big yes so great news and then oh yes the big usfr compliance questionnaire so we spend a great deal of energy on this report that goes to the state because it covers a bunch of different areas of the district that we look at so these are just a few procedures of management and board uh accounting records cash and revenues procurement student attendance travel processes and procedures credit card purchasing cards you name it we probably look at it in some form fashion and so in total this uh questionnaire has uh about 170 questions that we have to answer or no and so I'm pleased to report uh in this report that went to the state there was only nine no answers uh and just minor items noted uh so M Shiro wanted me to touch on perspective in comparison to other districts and so uh we also other we audit other school districts in the state um and I would without getting into specifics but definitely the the number of NOS or the number of items we were required to note to the state was on the low end in comparison with all districts as a whole and so we the audit process went well uh and happy to answer any questions you might have do we have any questions or comments I know that it's a long report and I appreciate everything that's done and I also appreciate that out of all the things that we do and out of all the questions that are asked that we're actually in compliance we didn't have any issues with ESR funds or title one which I know that that's always a big um thing so it it just speaks volumes of the district so I am appreciative of that and and I would like to point out with that um usfr compliance questionnaire uh it does change the questions change year to year uh when the auditor General's office rolls out out um has different focuses uh I would be concerned if we this is going to sound weird but I would be concerned if we had no findings in the usfr compliance questionnaire we know that the uh District runs a very large process I mean just even to process payroll to take student attendance um is it involves a lot of people and the risk to human error is very high in some of those processes uh so you know zero is really hard to maintain so I'd probably say go look again um so and those things are not to say that that's not important or something to strive for but that does give us a measure of processes so the compliance questionnaire make sure that our processes are flowing the way that we expect them to do um when we're talking about fraud fraud involves uh developing internal controls so our Auditors are good partners in that but it's our responsibility to develop those process processes that are likely to reduce the chances of fraud um and we work closely with our Auditors to make sure that our internal controls are good uh it's not necessarily digging through every single piece of paper and seeing if there's something right or wrong so I'm just I'm super impressed with Kon once again um to me uh anything on the compliance questionnaire under 15 is amazing um so 15 I think is like oh that's fantastic it's a celebration so to have nine to have less than 10 especially with uh student attendance that seems to be the most common one that most districts have um it's very difficult uh and and as Josh said it's it's a yes or a no so when you're reporting attendance and you put it in there and you say well 959 that's a half day absence which we required to report for some reason it doesn't affect funding they just make us report it uh for some reason um but uh and you and you should have been 958 was the one that cut it off and it was one minute and and you reported a half instead of a full or vice versa the question is did you report it properly and it's yes or no they don't I'm sure they care uh but one minute it happens it happens so nine is excellent very impressed very impressed with kraton and just uh the changeing the law a couple of years ago one of the things that's required with this so we've always had I mean it's as long as I've been here um heinfeld and me has been kind enough to come and Report um it's now required that the board take action by roll call vote to accept the audit so I just want to make sure we don't it's late and we're all tired and I just want to make sure we didn't miss that um in the process this evening okay do we have any other questions comments or concerns regarding the audit before I go into the motion I guess did you guys work with a board member on this this year as is tradition or is that not I don't know yes we always have at least a phone call discussion with a board member and of course now you asked I can't remember which one of you I spoke to but I I know everyone's here uh but yes we speak to a board member each year and uh and it's just it's typically random and usually due to availability and who's available when we're on site so called me and I missed your call more than likely I will say thank you for coming thank you for doing this work and um thank you for the added entertainment of your facial expressions this evening I really enjoyed it you don't have a poker face no other oh go ahead sorry this is super nitpicky but um for all of like for a lot of these it's no or yes but also Na and the drop downs but on the one on 23 about completing High School requirements and we don't have school why is that no and not na that's a good question I I believe in the form so the form gets submitted to the auditor general and it's an online form that we we basically go in and put yes no and then a comment if applicable and I believe in that one it was just due to their form having an error we couldn't put any a so that gets us down to a that's why I brought it up it wasn't it picky but you know competitive yeah sometimes there's not a perfect match between the questions us auditor general or the Arizona auditor general Arizona auditor easily give them feedback on that like forget about it if we got to contact someone at the federal once again a form coming to us usually late in the day and not formatted properly yeah all right well I don't believe we have any more questions comments or discussion on this so thank you so much for the presentation I appreciate it and I move the governing board accept the audit reports for fiscal year 2223 in compliance with ARs 15- 914 second all those in favor um and I have to do it by raw call sorry I remembered Miss Katie Gibson McLean I miss SS hi myself I miss MCB hi Miss MC Jeffrey hi awesome thank you so much that brings us to our next um discussion item which will be um I invite Miss Earl which is the principal of paple school and the equity committee and you guys will be providing an update on information gathered regarding the renaming of papagal school so welcome thank you so much for being so patient with this sorry for keeping you out so late on the school night school's canceled tomorrow right hey hey hey that's Friday I think the board will give you a holiday Friday it's Friday I'd love to CES Chavez count I didn't even know I added her Powerpoint to the folder okay thank you it's not up to me right no I'm trying you just have to think harder Vanessa you'll get it there it's currently in use try while the computer's deciding if it wants to connect it's not letting me connect here PR is it in meetings Hilda yeah be yeah and if you um if power if you go to featured go under documents thank you you're talking about the presentation there it is y I think the computer's tired too yeah everything's moving slowly tonight I'll try to speak slowly too I happen to speak um if you want while that's loading or do you want me to read the letter or do you want to read the letter I think we can read the letter for right now sure please oh sure dear cron School Board um I trust this letter finds you well we are writing to formerly request permission to proceed with the selection of the new Papo Elementary School our existing committee composed of diverse stakeholders has thoroughly and there it goes considered the matter and has determined that a name change is essential to better align with their school's core values the committee is eager to embark on the process of choosing a name that reflects the inclusive and Forward Thinking nature of our school Community we understand and are committed to adherent ing the requirements set by the governing board for a school name change we kindly seek your approval to move forward with this important initiative and assure you of our commitment to a transparent and collaborative process thank you for your time and consideration and it there's a whole bunch of names attached to who are part of the Papago Equity committee excent thank you so much for reading that good evening um board members for president and executive team um today the pan Equity team is honored to present our formal request to change the school name um tonight we'll review our progress today in three stages which we have listed here um examination exploration and advocacy I'd like to introduce um the equity team members they are all listed on the screen but three are present here with us tonight one is Isaiah Washington he is our child Justice Advocate and Equity team facilitator he will be uh uh presenting with me tonight and also miss Terina Dixon our preschool teacher and Miss Senna tzuka who is a kindergarten teacher thanks for joining us tonight yes thank you thank you thank you and also miss um Dixon has been a longest member of this committee this is our either third or fourth year Mr Washington joined us last year and Miss tomooka joined this year so just a little background about that thank you for everything you guys do so this uh Team wanted to make sure we talked about all the different phases and make sure that you kind of could see the broad picture of what we've been doing and the process that we took and it's it's in steps over three years so um we worked through the phases and we wanted to request the name change tonight and so the first year and the first step of it was to was examination so we really wanted just be introduced to the issue which we were informed about it and then we started kind of researching and we started presenting about what we knew that was like this deep and then we found out o that people had a lot of questions and I only shared this much information so we went a lot deeper and so in the second second year we were able to um go a little deeper and we realized the last time I presented here we realized we still hadn't shared with our younger students and so this year year three we added lower grade students to be included in that process so we've had um parents we've had Community we've had um multiple staff and also Native American Family nights um over the past three years um and moving into the exploration where we were um digging deeper into identity development and also um developing our name suggestions that's the second um phase and it's taken a couple of years to just kind of get a few suggestions and then kind of refine the process so that's what that's about and Mr Washington will show a little bit more and so tonight we're here after all of this work to be able to say we really do think it's time ready to formally propose a request to make a name change so Mr Washington okay I skipped the slide hold on um but the other thing we wanted to make sure we um sorry Washington that we wanted to make sure you knew about is that we really do think that um this decision will not only reflect our District's dedication to equity Equity or just our schools but it will really serve as a catalyst for this broader Community to kind of reconsider the use of the word pepo so there's still a freeway there's a golf course there's a park there's a lot still named after pepo and so if ours changes I think the the effects it may have are so we wanted to make sure we we've re recognized that this is an important set for us so now welcome Mr thank you uh good evening folks um Madame President governing board members Mr Man um so part of our role as part of the equity team um on that year two so the first year that I came in uh was really looking at listening to the examination that um Mrs Earl had shared with us at staff meetings giving us more information about the name kind of history behind it and looking towards that um we were able to also work as an equity team to receive a range of perspectives and input as she shared through our staff in those staff PDS we met about um coming up with some ideas and some cons considerations uh we also had uh some community members share their input where that that was through Google forms and Google surveys um as well as some cons considerations with students uh we also had an opportunity to talk with our Native American families and get some of their considerations and their suggestions with this um and moving forward we have also throughout this whole process let me State uh we were always being mindful of the governing board policy as well as making sure that we were having our community here as well as our Native American representation with any decisions or considerations that we had uh this year been super we're excited to work with our Equity team uh having it be a lot larger having some new voices as well as some folks that have already been doing some of this work uh we focus a lot of our work on reviewing our Purpose with the school name change as well as giving some more information for you know maybe some of the students that hadn't really heard about why we were considering this or even just as we know if any of us have been in the classroom we have to uh review with our students they got to remember what's been going on uh so we made sure to create some present presentations and share that with some of our lower grade students as well as sharing a Google survey and getting their voice getting their input and uh getting some suggestions many of them I guess had a idea that maybe we wouldn't be Panthers anymore so they always wanted to put Panthers in there we also had some creative things I think some of us some of them wanted Hogwarts and that nature um but uh after getting yeah after getting some of that data we as a a site Equity team looked over the data of the suggestions that we got from our students as well as those suggestions from the community and staff uh and we were able to look at at least top three that you'll see that are listed there uh and we were able to look at these suggestions and we looked at the governing board policy as a team and really tried to look at do these suggestions meet the criteria for that governing board policy and does that align with our Native American representation and with our community um So based on the criteria of the governing board policy and with some of the uh Native American representation some of the top name suggestions you see here are Agave um so that came up in one of our staff meetings looking at the agave plant holds significant cultural and symbolic value in uh Native American culture whether that was with medicine or with food and things of that nature um and one note here could be a fitting res representation for resilience and sustenance that's what we always want with our students and with our staff uh another one that came up was piesta uh now namely that goes with piesta Peak which geographically is the peak that we see from our Second Story Windows as we look out so you know it really makes sense with our with our uh our area plus gotta love the pee there can still go with Panthers so all those kids worried about Panthers it could connect um but also uh looking at it's named after an Army soldier Lor pesta a member of the hopy tribe who was the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the US military so again recognizing that Native American representation um another one that came up was Desert now we weren't sure what we would have with desert uh but we wanted to make sure that we were incorporating desert because it does acknowledge the Papago tribe who are now known and now identify as the bana Autumn Nation um which which translates to Desert people so those are the three suggestions we have come up with as a committee um and thank you for your time we're open to some questions and suggestions from our committee team thank you so much for the presentation I am full-heartedly thankful for you guys taking all this time spending it in the community I'll open it up to my board members but for myself I really don't have any feedback other than you guys are doing an amazing job and whatever you bring forth I can I'm more than trustworthy that it is representation of the community that you guys are leading so I'm I'm okay with whatever you guys decide as a community and bring forth I I I'll deflect to you guys but I love the names I love the three and I love the where the vision is going and I think you guys are doing an amazing job so thank you for taking the time and you know like you said this could lead into something more of a ripple effect in the city so that's that's great so thank you um any comments Miss MC cheffrey um thank you very much for the presentation and um I've been wondering why it's taken so long but I really appreciate the fact that you took your time I know you got some push back in the beginning do you feel like um you came to a consensus do you feel like everyone came together in the end or there is there going to be still some people sad to lose the name that's been around for a long time I think we'll still see if few but overall I think they they've because it's been going on a long time that some of them are also wondering why hasn't I out one either so I think but because we've been talking about a long time at least it won't be a shock to most people and so for that reason I think it shouldn't be push there shouldn't be too much push back and we have a lot of efforts that we've made to communicate with parents so what's your next step how how do you think you're going to decide the from the three well that's what we wanted that's why we came to because we wanted to make sure we were following policy and also making sure that um if we had any additional steps that you'd like us to take before we before that's why we came tonight and wanted to well I'll put my two cents in I I like all three of these so you know whatever happens happens but I love the idea of um naming it after Lori piesta and the fact that you can see pesta Peak from the second floor is really cool that's I think been a hard name for the valley to get you know get used to It's A Hard name to pronounce but I think you guys would be leaders in you know adding that that name to another um another entity so that's just happens to be my favorite but good luck picking the picking the top one thank you Miss MC cheffrey any other comments yeah um so I really appreciate all the work y'all have done it's really great to see the the effort and the energy that's been put into this I appreciate the suggestions I think think I'd be really interested in knowing if there's any way to have any conversations with any Tana Autumn leaders because um you know and I'm not saying this in any way but you know Native American folks are not a monolith and tribes are not a monolith and I I while I appreciate Lori pesta um and thought that that would maybe be have been a more fing name for my middle school Al monor than what it has right now that's another thing but um uh I don't know that maybe given what reasoning behind the name change in general to like switch to the name sake of someone who's Hopey I would prefer to see us celebrate the T AUM tribe in in some way rather than to just settle for something that's Native American and so whether that be a leader from their tribe or words that you've and I like the the direction of the desert people um so so I I would love to see if there's any way to explore that a little bit more to honor their tribe rather than to than to just go away from it Alto together um and just to give a little bit of context because I know this conversation was started during the pandemic and you weren't on the board we actually had the vice chair I believe he was at that time of the Tona hamination um and we actually met or sta not me personally but admin and I know I don't know if you had the pleasure of meeting him um missl but there was a conversation um going back and forth and they kind of the green light of whatever this process has got into but we did vet it with we made sure that we were intentional in making sure that somebody from the TOA nation was helping us and when we first started the process that's how it was and then they kind of it felt kind of like a blessing like okay you guys got our input now this is you guys can do whatever you want and whatever works for your community so I'm not saying that that's not something to look into but I just wanted to make sure for Community Clarity because it has been a couple of years that was how we started the process was um side by side with the vice chair or the chair at that time certainly and I actually I believe I watched one of those meetings and then was here in the audience for another one where you presented and so I guess what I'm more looking for as a convers specific conversation about potential names not necessarily history or blings or things like that yeah yes um any other comments concerns questions um trying to save my voice but I agree with a lot of what was said and um just all the work you guys have been have put in um I I like all three names um the only thing is does aave fit in our policy because it's not a geographic location or area well it depends on how you know there's no policy police and it depends on yeah and how you interpret policy but having a geeky son whose um specialization is sustainable horiculture um the Agave Terraces are sort of a geographic location and are very like they're kind of a important component of that culture through throughout you know not just our state but all the way down into Mexico and if you were to go to Mission Garden in Tucson um one of the things you would see that they're working to recreate is the Agave teres they have agave Festival every year that members of the tahana um Nation participate in so um so I think it it while the word Agave itself refers to a plant it does also have a regional connotation in the sense of you know the places where those Agave grow so it's a little bit of a stretch but and being the lawyer type of lawyer who wants to just find a way to do it rather than saying you can't do it this has no statutes on the policy we can just amend this policy and add whatever the heck you want to it before we do the name change yeah or or even I'm just being transparent yeah or even suspend the policy or suspend the whatever I mean if nobody wants to set the president fine but how often are we getting name Chang this yeah on so it it feels like maybe a final double check through maybe some sort of community survey might be in order um we could push it out through our Miss Wasola who I know is online watching this in case we made more work for her um could uh could go ahead and push it out through our community newsletter and we could kind of gather some feedback on sort of the three finalist names and then um with the other concerns addressed I don't know if you still have a con contact or if um if president uh kuo might be able to get us a contact where we could also maybe do a check-in with um with the tribal Elder who helped us out you know first go around and say here yeah where we so we could kind of knock those two pieces out and just move forward from there um you know adjacently we've had I think out of a roughly 166 feedback for Kennedy we actually had 160 in favor of keeping the name so that we had that survey worked fairly well I think 166 is a pretty good um return rate for something like that and um and having that overwhelming support so hopefully we can get a similar level of return to kind of have some efficacy um for the results that we're seeing for this process as well and I'll reach out back out to Mr uh Juan buendia that was his name yes that's he was the chairman of the sales District which is one of 11 political districts in the to Nation so yeah he um is definitely somebody we can reach back out that would be epic thank you okay well do thank you so much yes any other questions comments all right thank you guys so much for everything we appreciate it yes thank you thanks to these two thank you thank you so much and staying late sorry I know I know you have to be at it again early in the morning so we appreciate what you do all right and that brings us to our next agenda item which is future agenda items do we have any future agenda items the only thing I would suggest based on public comment tonight is maybe to consider having as an agenda item something that Robert approves to give as an update throughout the process of the lawsuit that's a possibility just for public transparency yeah we we can absolutely explore that yeah okay any other future agenda items hearing none we move on to our next which is I move the governing board adjourn second all those in favor I W noes thank you drive safely

and approving the governing board's argument in support of the special maintenance and operations budget override election so Dr mcord um we need to make a motion to do that and then discuss everything before we vote correct okay so do I hear a motion what I just read so moved that we uh submit sorry so moved that we have a special budget override election thank you Mrs humre second second thank you Mrs Paige okay Dr McCord will let you go from there thank you and I'll have Miss bets kick in as well this is uh this is a continuation of our current 15% over override uh as you know we went out in the fall for an override and a bond and we failed at that and uh we went out a year early this is a year early next year uh is the last year of our override so it'll expire and it'll take 3 years after next year to expire and it'll pull down about 13 million 12 to13 million for a year for three years and so uh we are asking that you approve this so we can go back to the voters and um maintain uh all of the things that the override currently pays for and then some for our school district and then just for clarification the um the draw or the the phasing out of the override would start in the 25 26 school year um next year we are still authorized to have the full 15 % so just just for clarity so um I wanted to share too that this presentation uh covers the both both questions the one regarding the override continuation and the other regarding the sale of two pieces of property here in Gilbert and then before I go much further I wanted to make sure that you all knew that we have um Brandon kwood uh in the audience from gust Rosenfeld to provide any support for any technical questions you might have about any of these uh resolutions okay so I'll just go ahead and move forward then so budget override continuation the need uh so these are have been our consistent priorities um since the uh 15% override was approved in November of 2019 attract and retain the highest quality teachers and staff maintain students and staff Safety and Security personnel and finally maintain a $2 million allocation to class size reduction so these have been our budgetary priorities they're also specified in the Strategic operating plan note that over the last let's see since 2021 we have added over 51.5 million onto salaries here at Gilbert Public Schools very proud of that um fact um maintaining students and staff Safety and Security Personnel we added about $1.8 million in resources in 21 and about $700,000 in 2023 total of $2.5 million and then we have been pretty disciplined about using that $2 million allocation to reduce class sizes in our most needy um District classrooms whether it's at elementary junior high or high school [Music] okay so average teacher based salary wanted to share this is the the average base Sal salary now excluding stiens and other pays so note that in 2020 our average teacher salary was reported at $52,400 and in 2024 we have reported $ 646486 per increase during that time frame yes if if I can ask so this um this is not just funded by the override but the override is a contributor to this this def the override definitely impacts how we can in have been able to increase the salaries it gave us an opportunity to kickart being more competitive in the East Valley absolutely okay okay so this is our M override history since 2013 so this is our estimate for 2026 you can see that we're staying pretty flat but all the the 2025 value as well as the 2026 value does include assumptions regarding the loss of students as well as presuming the legislature's approval of still that 2% ongoing um inflationary increase um and then you can see that uh between 2021 between 2020 and 2021 you can see the large increase at that point in time so so November of 19 was the 1920 school year so the first year in which we were able to take advantage of that 15% increase U was during the 2020 2021 school year so that's reflected in this graph as well so any questions about any of that okay great so in addition so in lie of the fact that we are recommending not going out for a bond election we do have two pieces of two Parcels here in Gilbert public schools that were intended for elementary schools so we are um we are recommending that we at least get voter approval to sell those two pieces of property it doesn't mean that we're obligated to sell them um and the authority from the taxpayer does not ever expire so this just gives us full flexibility in in the future um also uh it gives us an opportunity that knowing that our bond funds are almost fully drawn down at this point in time if we are able to sell those two pieces of property they are roughly the same size as Neely Elementary was um the Juniper site about 13 acres and so we would estimate maybe as much as 7.5 or 8 million per parcel so being able to infuse another 15 or $16 million of capital money into Gilbert Public Schools to help us get through the next few years Mrs bets could we just go back to the to the override for just a minute sure I think it's important that we that we um explain to our constituents exactly what that means in terms of it's a 15% above what we're what we are allowed to have from the state in terms of our budget so we can exceed it by 15% and we've been doing that for the last what five or six years since November uh since 2021 right so that gives us additional funds in order to to do all the things that we need to do in terms of employees class size and all of those and if in fact we didn't pass it we would have to start cutting 15% because we've been on the 15% so we we've been doing all of our budgets for the last many years based on that and if we do not pass it starting the following year then we have to cut 15% correct that's correct and that represents about $36 million okay well I think it's important to remember that the state just really gives us money for a basic education a very basic education and what the override does is it gives us additional funds for the high quality education that our constituents want for their for this Community for these children you know um we just had an amazing display of how well our Sports programs have done and having a little bit more money um above what the state gives us helps us to be able to provide some of those quality things like smaller class sizes and competitive salaries that um without the override we we just will struggle and I was on the board when we went down to State funding only which shows into 2016 there on the graph and it was very difficult to continue the the amazing programs that we have so we just want our constituents to be aware of that that state aid State funding is just for a basic education but in Gilbert I know we want more for our kids well and just to to remind the board that one of our main strategic operating plan priorities is to attract and retain High quality staff so back in 2016 when we did not have an override and all of the school districts surrounding us so Chandler Unified Mesa unified Queen Creek Higley uh kirne all were operating under a 15% override at that point in time so uh the we we have been almost catching up to be competitive because of this 15% override and one of the pieces of information that I've learned all all along is how important the quality of the teacher is in the classroom and that really represents the best indicator of a Student Success so it's important that we're able to be competitive just wanted to share that okay so regarding the two uh pieces of land that are in the second resolution in the second action item so it's we we um refer to it as the Madero property it's just east of uh Desert Ridge Junior High um so aage again approximately 13.8 acres uh the district's coal property this is in the Morrison Ranch area in Gilbert so it's uh just under 12 acres and again voter approval is required for us to sell the land uh but the authority never expires and the governing board is not obligated to sell any property after a voter approval and before we even initiate a sale we would have to bring it back to this board and the reason that we have these two are they're they're Elementary School sites aren't they or they were they targeted they're Elementary School sites they were intended to be for elementary schools yes were they were they donations or did be bu the Morrison Ranch property was I do not know um I think we purchased the Madero property but I don't remember for sure is there any concern if we vote to approve the sale and then if we vote to approve the sale of uh the site located east of South krisman that seems to be where a lot of the growth in our community is happening out east is there any concern that selling that property would uh hinder our ability to keep up with the growth on that side of town so um I'm going to um start the conversation to answer that question but i' I'd love some help from my counterpart um Dr Martin um but first uh the main point is that when it comes to school facilities board funding which we would be obligated to take advantage of without having any bond dollars or have to get a bond approval to build another school but they look at the situation of the district as a whole to determine whether there's any uh reason to allocate out school facilities board Monies to help us build another Elementary School um I do believe overall our elementary school sites are large enough to accommodate Portables and Mrs wood I know how you feel about Portables however they are an appropriate means by which we can control the EB and flow of population uh we were we were at nearly 40,000 students not that long ago and and today we're down to um about 32,000 so um just that would be one comment I would make about that and Dr Mountain do you have anything else you'd like to share yeah good evening everyone um so of course each year we have our demographic report done by applied economics and um they have shown that the projections over the next 5 to 10 years is although we have been growing we will not be growing in the east side um most of that area is actually built out in our official GPS boundaries there are a few areas of land the Haw Crossing area near sasman and Elliott is currently being developed but we have Boulder Creek Elementary right now that has plenty of capacity for our elementary students and then speaking of our secondary students as well both Desert Ridge Junior High and high school both show that they also will have capacity in the coming years um as we've talked about there's a lot of enrollment factors that are happening with less students that are living in our GPS boundaries so even with new housing we're not seeing um Elementary and um K12 age students moving into these homes nearly as much as we used to previously and part of that du to current home prices in our GPS boundaries as well thank you um with the other location uh North at Morrison Ranch you said that location was donated how does that how does that I don't know if how does that work is the right way to ask but um is there is there any conflict there that that land was donated and and we then we sell it talking about selling it right no there isn't there was no stipulations related to it when it was Don to Gilbert public schools and so um it's ours BR clear and um we can do with it what we will so when that was donated to us that was that was made clear by both parties of who's in control after it's gifted so thank you I have a question um thanks Bonnie for all of this so if the board approves us tonight can can you just quickly walk through the November vote if it passes by the voters and if it doesn't pass what are we looking at on either side of that vote okay so um if we are successful then we are able to continue to Levy for that additional 15% so we would be continuing to receive the the $36 million sorry I meant on the sorry on the property oh on the property on the property oh if the property if the property fails to S doesn't this go to the general doesn't this go to the vote it does yes so they the voters approve this what is the steps going forward if the voters do not approve it I'm assuming that we'll just it will not be approved but if it is approved what are the next steps to sell the property sure so if it if it is approved there's some very uh significant processes that we are obligated to follow in statute at that point in time we would engage with a legal counsel to make sure that we're not uh going to break any of those rules um and then and then we would make a determination as to when we would make a such a recommendation to you as a governing board at that point in time we would give you all the details of what would be required we may we we also are able to still engage with the municipality so we would the first thing we would do is likely contact um the town of Gilbert or the city of Mesa to GA engage them to see if there's any interest in their uh purchasing of those pieces of property in a comparable way that we did the the Neely uh transaction so are you saying the municipalities get first dibs on this property yeah the um the putting it on the ballot is really a a precautionary measure that gives us more flexibility um not the there's a lot of statute regarding how we have to sell the property it has to We Can't exclude anyone it has to be an open uh sale bidding process um but the town if the town or the city of Mesa the town of Gilbert or city of Mesa all they have to do is basically assure to us that they have a public uh purpose in mind for those pieces of property and at that point in time we are able to sell it to to those municipalities but again we're not obligated again we're not obligated to sell at all we're just getting voter approval that's correct okay just wanted to clarify that this is not a quick process that if it gets approved in November for sell signs going up in on the property the next week right we are contacted all the time by people in the community businesses investors about our properties I got one actually this morning I'm sure someone looked at the agenda and saw something like this on there and and send an email so I if we have to end up going through that process it'll it's it's very very time consuming like you said and and it's very detailed and there's certain things that we can and can't do and so um but we'd be very mindful of that in terms of anything that we do we would only do it to benefit the district the first thing that we did with neie is we we did receive two appraisals on the property one that includ includes the building and the presumption that it the zoning is going to stay the same and another uh appraisal that would assume that the zoning could change and so that was how we were able to Value uh the cost to the town of Gilbert at that point in time so that would be a part of that process okay thank you I just have to follow up with what you said that's my neighborhood in Morrison Ranch and about every 3 months on our Facebook page there's a long com commentary running commentary of what that's going to be turned into so I could really have some fun with some people if I got on that Facebook page but no uh nothing right now so sure so always when we're talking about uh an override uh there are tax rate considerations so the 15% budget override continuation tax um just wanted to show the assessed value growth through the current year 2024 note that Gilbert Public Schools continues to increase in value so you can see um the net limited assess value uh for 2024 Rose 6.4% over the prior year and the uh net full cash assess value uh increased by 6.8% what's important to note is that for residential property the max increase that that can happen for purposes of Taxation is 5% so um 6.4% the difference between 6.4% and 5% represents intrinsic growth what I mean by that is the fact that we've got more property on the roles to be taxed that very much helps because it spreads out the dollar amount being requested over a larger base so I just want to make sure that's clear and then over time you can see that we have continued to decrease the combined tax rate so note that um you can see the uh the increase in the override so the the increase in the override occurred in the 2021 school year and so you can see the large increase in the green bar um but then it's gone down and has stayed relatively flat since that time finally I thought it was important to share where where our tax rate is in comparison to our um East Valley neighboring school districts and you can see that of all these school districts Chandler Higley Mason Queen Creek Gilbert has the lowest uh total tax rate and yet we're still you know we're not the highest in terms of salary but we are um competitive and um and so we're able to do that at the same time while keeping our tax rate low any questions on that okay that's what just highlighting our T combined tax rate and then uh just wanted to share the timeline and the election uh costs so this is the timeline for the 24 election this is uh what is put out by Maricopa County uh they it's the Maricopa County elections Department that has responsibility for all of the election information and then the county school superintendent is responsible for um helping create the uh budget uh 15% budget continuation budget override continuation pamphlet informational pamphlet um and so you can see the that on by June 10th we need to let make sure that both of those Maricopa County entities are notified and they'd like to be notified as early as possible as you can imagine uh the June 24th is delivered ballot language to the mced we are very very early right now so if you are approving this it gives everybody a jump start so that we will easily meet those deadlines um note the um let's see note that on August 9th the proon arguments are due and that is when the original signed uh governing board Pro statement is due to the county at that point in time so this evening we've included an action item for your consideration tonight that represents a draft that was basically um text that was just copied from your last Pro statement that you approved a year ago so the intent tonight was just to make sure you had an opportunity to discuss it we can take it back and bring it back either at the next board meeting um on April 9th or at the end of April or you may wish to approve it tonight but it's at your discretion for this evening and that's the third the last action item on tonight's agenda and then uh October 7th is the last day for voter registration and note that um the last date of request and early ballot is October 25th we will continue to use this timeline throughout this procedure to make sure that we're communicating everything to our taxpayer in public um public Community Miss B um there is a um limit on the number of pro statements is there also a limit on the number of con statements for the override it's the same for both pro and con same same limit and then this is just an estimate of the election costs we have the um 2023 election costs that were from last year note that we were that the election was costs were all borne by Gilbert public schools because we were the only entity on the ballot so the 2022 election cost this was the governing board election we just um use that as our template for what we expect to happen in 2024 because in 2024 it's a presidential election year so the election costs are spread out across all the entities that may have a um ballot language on the ballot and that's all I have tonight I did have one question I think it's in the pamphlet that you put in our packet and it mentioned uh mail in ball from the previous election which this election will be different it won't be all mailin because we'll be at the you know our question will be on the ballot and there'll be more polling places due to the presidential election will that language get changed then before we finalize the P can you help me with that um Brandon possibly generally speaking if I know Mr Gil he is always very flexible in his language so that's the that's the intent it's uh you know the Safeguard against uh perhaps a global pandemic where voting in person may not happen or or whatever circumstance so it's uh it's meant to be there as a bail safe in the event that the that the in-person election wouldn't happen the options there and we wouldn't have to go back and look at the uh governing board resolution to see if that was a possibility okay so it's just there to make sure that if we have to do a mail in ballot for whatever reason we could do that y if it's a if it's a ice cream Sunday it's not chocolate sprinkles or rainbow sprinkles you're getting both so it's both are available all right that's helpful to understand because I was confused by that when I was reading my packet it's it's a common it's a common question okay thank you is that it Mrs BS okay so I think what we need to do is go back and and we have a motion on the on the floor for 10.02 and we'll just discuss the override at this point now that we have the information um if anybody wants to to discuss anything or qu ask any questions or um whatever then we'll take a vote on it and this would not be the night we would be if we did if it does pass we write the pros and cons later correct well I hope we just read Pros yeah the only statement coming from from the district would be a pro St right right okay that's I'm sorry the other statements come from but we would not be doing that tonight correct the only thing we have on there tonight as the last item is a copy of what we've done in the past and again as Bonnie explained that can just be for discussion we don't have to approve that tonight um but if you'd like to that's up to you as well but we just wanted to make sure you had that in your hands if you decide like we got to look at this some more we can bring it back to another meeting and and Wordsmith some okay discussion about the um the 15% override I'll just I'll just kind of summarize my thoughts here so allowing us to voters allowing us to have this 15% override has given us local control to allow for competitive salaries for our teachers and other staff that's the main thing that we've used it for to attract the best highest quality teachers and staff to put in front of our students and um we currently have this in place but if and we'd like to put this on the ballot again this November if our voters do not approve it this November then the current override this 15% override that we have in place would begin to expire and beginning 2025 2026 we would have to cut $13 million and since it's gone directly toward um salaries that would be one thing we we don't know exactly how we would balance and cut it it would definitely impact us though so I am I have been really grateful for the voter support I've been grateful for that the attention that we have put toward salaries and competitive salaries I think it's critical to pay our teachers and our staff that work so hard for our students each day and I am in full support of this um putting this 15% M over M override budget continuation on the ballot again this November and asking our voters to support this for us along those same lines Mrs wood and Mrs humph you can attest to this just in since since 2017 or so um we have been I believe incredibly transparent with our community in terms of the the financial part um with the like what you did today at every meeting we have some kind of a presentation that has to do with our budget and it's it's available and you know we it's out there for anybody to see and I agree with you you know it's it unfortunately we aren't having as many people go into the education field anymore and so the there's not the pool of people so we're having to be more even more competitive than than we were let's say 10 years ago um throughout you know throughout the state there's a shortage of teachers we have been fortunate in Gilbert is and that people want to be here um and I believe a lot of it has to do with the um atmosphere here the you know the the sense of community but a big part of it is too is is what you get paid and our benefits and you know I think that that when you look at what we do with our benefits it we we are outstanding there um but we need to continue we don't want to lose anybody to another District just because of you know a higher amount of money so I I agree with you Mrs wood I think our our community has been extremely supportive and and I hope that that um if we do pass this that we can do everything we can so that people understand that you know we're we're here we're giving you all the information you need we're going to always do that we're going to continue hopefully with you know the the budget um information that you give out all of the time so that I I agree I'm absolutely in support of this Mrs Jett um I I did want to um voice my support for going out for the override again um I happened to be sitting on the board when we did lose the override in I I I got on the board in 2012 right after we lost the override and um when we went down to State funding only it was very challenging and we are currently in a climate where there are two over 2,000 classrooms in Arizona that do not have a permanent teacher so it is highly competitive and I consider a point of Pride that we've that during my time on the board we have been able to go from paying less than the district surround us to paying a competitive salary not just for our teachers but for our staff I mean it's incredibly important that we have great leadership here at the district office and with our principes at all our schools that we have um incredible support staff and incredible teachers because we all I think that's one thing that came out during the pandemic was the importance of the child in the classroom with the teacher that is the number one impact on a student achievement on a child doing well is to be in a classroom with a great teacher and great support staff and people to support that child it's a whole network it's not just one person um so I think that's really important to have that competitive pay but we also want to have those smaller class sizes as well and um that's important that we can address those issues so we don't get up to 33 students in a class or 34 students class but the other part is that we've been able to put in um some security Personnel at our our elementary schools and um our Mental Health Counselors that was a request made um a few years ago we're able to do that in 2019 and when we have considerations of um students who are struggling um and need support I think that's a really important piece for this override I did um take a look at my own property tax bill and frankly um Arizona is a very low property tax state and I would say um there's a portion where it of my bill where it was the um it put Gilbert public schools and then the override and the bonds that we have and then a couple other little things like EV the total of that bill there was also a state aid portion that took off about 25% of that bill for me and so my bill I was happy to pay that amount to ensure that the students in our community get the education that they need it's it's um it's important there are future um leaders but also it's it's an investment in my own home value because we know that when we have great schools that makes the town attractive to businesses and people who want to move here that's a critical important part and you know for over what now 112 years Gilbert public schools has been drawing people to this community and so we want to keep up the high quality that is expected that we provide for our students and for our families and I'm totally in favor of going out for the override you further just wanted to quickly add thank you for your comments I wholeheartedly agree with everything that's been set up here um just wanted to thank our voters that have always supported Gilbert Public Schools when it comes to Great Public Schools there's so many components that go into it such as the great parents that we have here and the great families that we have and this override is just one of the components that adds to making Gilbert Public Schools such a an amazing District so I am also in support of this override going on to the ballot anything else okay uh then I will call for a vote as to whether or that we will I'm I'm thinking it's the way it's written it's kind of long but that we will put the the 15 we approve going out for the 15% override all those in favor please signify by saying I I I I I opposed so U 5 Z vote we are going to recommend that we go out for a 15% override um 10.03 is uh to consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special election to be held in and for the district and authorizing the sale lease or exchange of District property do I hear a motion so moved thank you Mrs humph a second second thank you Mrs Paige it's been moved and seconded um Mrs Betts has already presented it so we can take discussion questions or whatever from the board members now I I think this is legitimate you know you want to just have it kind of as a insurance policy so to speak and we might as well um take a look at it so I'm I'm I'm in favor of it well I I did have a question for Mrs Betts um because we won't have bonds we're we we've drawn those down um what are some of the things that we'll have to postpone until we have a bond sale I mean until we go out for approval for a bond sale so what would be some of the the items that we wait till the next the next agenda item for that is that all right okay this this is yeah we kind of put everything together but this this is just for the um well the next agenda item is the um override I mean the bond the bond No this is about the land sale so it's this is the land right now that we're talking about the next one is the bond no there's no there's no question that deals with so why what I'm asking is because we have the land sale to help us fill in where we won't have bonds possibly what are some of the things that we might have to postpone or leave undone because we won't have bonds that did not pass in the last election so the um with um Mr dut over's uh great assistance because he understands the condition of all of our buildings so well he is bringing forward those most urgent needs right now so just as an example the next board meeting there will be the request to redo Camp of's track it's in um in dire condition and it's still being used by athletes and so allowing them to run on a track that is nearly down to its um to its base would be putting our our student athletes at risk so those are the types of things that we're taking to the leadership team for approval um and we would pay for that out of our district additional assistance um we would we would continue drawing down uh bonds with all those so um we are so we are being careful about the projects that we are bringing to your attention to make sure that if we do have a major catastrophe at any of our schools like what happened two years ago at South Valley which precipitated the need to replace 96 uh units on their roof 96 units all at once um so uh we are we those are the types of projects we are bringing forward to have them complete completed so some of the um projects that are being held um until we determine what our status is for sure moving forward uh we're we are not bringing forward the secured entryway projects for our elementaries and our Junior highs so we have all the high schools have a secured entry way and mosqu Jr has a secured entry way as well as GCA and then Neely and Patterson also have secured entryways um but that was part of the The Proposal uh for additional Bond dollars was to continue doing that effort so that's being held right now um other projects we know that there are we're creating standards right now for culinary arts standards for the Sound and Lighting systems within our auditoriums just creating standards so that when we do have available resources we know the type of of equipment that we will be putting in so but we're not bringing those forward either so we're really looking at health and safety needs as our priority right now um and so if and when we are able to go out for another Bond request in the future we'll be very specific about the programmatic or um or suggested project on how we would use the those future Bond dollarss all right thank you I appreciate that I apologize Mrs humph I misread that no that's in I the reason is because this if this land is sold it would go into our Capital account so I I wanted to help people understand right the difference between our maintenance and operation and our bond dollars and they're two very specific different uh buckets that we don't really mingle what it which account would it actually go toward toward a school plant account which we can use toward what are the what are the limitations on what we could use the school plant fund so right now the amount of debt that we have here in G Public Schools allows us to use School Plant for just about anything to include maintenance and operations type expenditures okay um we have made a recommendation to you that we hold the school plan dollars in reserve for Capital needs needs so we that would be the intent moving forward okay well and again we this is we it's required to have voter approval to even consider the cell so if we can go out while we're while we can have already an election so we don't have to pay for it separately we can go out and get voter approval on this and then if something comes up and it's a it's advisable to sell it and we needed the funds then we have that flexibility if not we don't have to but at least it gives us that flexible option and I think it's a I think it's a um a being wise stewards of of the things that we have in our possession and looking at our needs and the future of how we're going to actually utilize all of our all of our assets basically and have that flexibility anything further okay hearing none I'll call for a vote to um consider or to to consider disc what actually would be to go ahead and um call a special election would it wouldn't be a special election though would it be it would be part of the general election but we just call that's how the termin for the district and authorizing the sale lease or exchange of District property all those in favor please signify by is saying I I opposed so on a 5 vote that was approved we'll move to two 10,000 excuse me 10.04 discussion and possible action of governing board Pro statement for the 15% M override budget continuation ballot question on the November on November 25th 2024 do I hear a mo well um I guess well let's do a a motion and then we'll discuss whether we want to do that or not so do I hear a motion so moved thank you Mrs Humphrey second second thank you Mr Thompson okay discussion of the pro statement um if we want to go ahead and like me to read that yeah wrote it last year could we get it up on the screen well I but maybe one of them can yes if if we could get a but go ahead and read all right uh the pro statement says Gilbert Public Schools governing board is asking the community to vote Yes for the 15% maintenance and operations budget override continuation the existing 15% override has contributed approximately 35.8 million to the GPS maintenance and operations budget your support allows the district to remain competitive within the East Valley GPS continues to prioritize these resources for the direct benefit of our student students the Arizona auditor General's report confirms this each year by ranking GPS among the most efficient districts for dollar spent in the classroom and one of the lowest for administrative expenses the budget override continuation will directly benefit our students and families by retaining and attracting highly qualified teachers and employees by maintaining salary competitiveness upholding campus safety and and providing resources for student health and academic achievement and continuing funding for class size reduction the funding provided by this budget override continuation will preserve the excellent education our students receive and our community expects and deserves we are grateful for your ongoing trust and ask for your support by voting yes this November for the budget override continuation governing board Gilbert public schools number 41 well we we put a lot of work that so I actually don't have a lot of ideas tonight I think maybe we could just put it on the agenda next month in case somebody wants to make a change but I I think we did some really good work on that um but I need to think about it for a little while on myself before I could think of way any way of improving it can we get a copy of that sent out to the board this week and you'll have it by tomorrow thank you do you want to withdraw your motion we'll just table it or do you want to go ahead and um I can we can just uh we just we said to discuss part of it was discussion so we'll just ask for it to be on the next agenda and we'll have a copy of it then okay I mean I I I do think I know we did a lot of word smithing on that last time but is there a way we can refresh it and I just don't have the words right now but maybe maybe if we all get together we'll have that synergy um at the next board meeting we would not do that outside of a board meeting but at the next board meeting maybe we can look at it and give our thoughts vote Yes and all caps yes yes easy yeah okay um so that is a request for a future agenda item any other requests for future agenda items either let Dr McCord or myself know and we will move to the board committee reports 12.01 Insurance trust representative we've already discussed tonight with the with the um action items what has been going on with the insurance trust so we'll move to 12.02 legislative representative Mr Thompson nothing tonight thank you thank you Mr Thompson city of Mesa Mrs wood nothing to report thank you Mrs wood uh town of Gilbert and audit committee Mrs humph um the town of Gilbert we've been working with them on bicycle safety it came up during our policy meeting and we've had one meeting there will be another meeting coming next week um but doing some things um together to to help educate students and families about bicycle safety because we have these new electric bikes that are um really bringing up some issues and then the audit committee will meet uh later this week and so I can report on that next time okay thank you Mrs hum um Mrs paig Gilbert Education Foundation nothing tonight thank you thank you can I add to that real quick I just information I just found out and I just want to make sure all you Teresa Dudson who's our executive director of the well the executive director of Gilbert Education Foundation her father passed away a couple days so I just want to make sure all of you knew thank you and condolences condolences to Teresa yes yeah this time she does a lot of work for our district so thank you okay um meeting dates Dr McCord thank you madam president gy board members April 9th is a board work study and brief board business meeting April 16th we have our board policy committee meeting and April 23rd we have our board business meeting thank you okay do I hear a motion to adjourn so moved thank you Mrs Humphrey second I'll second it okay all those in favor of adjourning signify by saying I I I and no oppose so thank you very much

good afternoon thank you for joining us for joint committee on education and committee on higher education this is Wednesday March 27th we are in room 229 and the first on the agenda is scr 144 and sr17 73 urging the Department of Education University of Hawaii community colleges and Hawaii P20 Partnerships for education to develop clear Pathways for students in Department of Education Career and Technical educationmy to seamlessly continue their education in Career and Technical education programs at University of Hawaii community colleges oh I'm supposed to read this first sorry welcome to the Senate committee on education higher education today is Wednesday March 2 I say that 2024 this is our 3:00 p.m. agenda and we are in hearing room 229 this Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include a 3:00 p pm. agenda for the joint committees on education and higher education in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to Major technical difficulties the Committees will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Monday April 1 2024 at 3: p.m.

to everyone that the meeting is being broadcast and recorded um first on our agenda tonight well our first of all I will call the meeting to order at uh 7:18 and then first on our agenda tonight is the clerk's report Kate thank you madam chair we've received one correspondent since the uh last planning Bo meeting okay and are we kind of caught up on correspondents that been responded to or need a response to you I would say I was going to get it out this weekend like I do to Peter the ones that I did not respond to and then sometimes it just he'll get back and like I already took care of it so I think there's three or four that I don't know and they would not be something the clerk could respond because they're specific okay great thanks for keeping keeping up on that all right next on our agenda um is our public hearing sections the First on that list is six Chestnut Street this is being continued Peter do you have a report on it yeah so I can just make a note of this uh this public hearing did come in I mean this application did come in and this is for the project at the Old Dairy Queen site six chut street but uh I am um I need to report to the board that we uh we posted the public hearing notice in the newspaper and it fell through the cracks to send out the abutter notification so in doing so we've had to reschedule the hearing until April 11th and so at this point uh we will be just moving the the public hearing out to April 11th uh we're working with the applicant the applicant has gone through conservation has met with conservation uh which is a good thing because conservation um this whole property is within the riverfront area and so conservation kind of got a good a good look at it um and so it's kind of moving through the process uh and so we will hear this on April 11th um all the information is up online so I would ask everyone to kind of take a look at it and to to to get any comments you may have back to me so uh we can make sure um I have all the ducks in a row when when the applicant comes here and and presents the project to the to the planning board I'm sorry can we pause for one second the stream is not I to live stop okays sounds good uh yeah it's not coming up on my zoom Mackie it's not coming it should be oh now I got it okay um w

e two one good evening everybody it is March 27th 2024 I will start by reading our new vision statement the Ashland Public School strives to be a model District that creates a culture of inclusivity for our diverse students and staff who feel safe and supported are empowered with the academic and social emotional skills to pursue their chosen path and embrace their roles as positive contributors to local and Global communities this meeting is being recorded by waca cable TV and our order of business this evening is open session call to order opening procedures agenda review and adoption it will be time for public comment and then we will open our public um fy2 school budget hearing next would be the student Opportunity Act plan accept collaborative agreement modifications appointment of a school Committee Member to the Driscoll scholarship committee assist assistant superintendent update superintendent update warrant approvals consent actions include gifts and donations minutes from March 13th and then we will adjourn so um I will take attendance and ask if everyone's okay with the order of business Marcy yep Kina yes yes and we have uh Paul Kendall and Mark Terry are absent this evening but we do have a quorum so we can move forward um I will start by asking if there are any members of the public um prior to us entering into the budget hearing is there anybody who would like to offer any comment Mark I see you you want to make a comment I'll unmute you I you I'm trying yep how's that good Mark we hear you do you want to have a um comment Mark uh yes I'd like to have a comment about um one your your mission statement and then it goes along with with um about the what the um College job fair subjects matters are so the with the mission statement is the um is is the second sentence and the third sentence does that be like collec of the uh the town itself South Town atmosphere of what the students go go by so normally this is just time for comment and we don't typically answer questions but I will just share with you briefly Mark that we had really a yearslong process um with the school committee and with other um smaller groups within the school schools and parents and so forth while we were building our latest strategic plan we had outside people working with us and this vision statement is a result of all the work that we did over the past couple of years taking input from all those different stakeholders okay then that that answers that and um when you when you do have the college job fairs at this at the high school are those College job fair from the metal West or or over or over the the state itself well school committee doesn't really have any involvement in that but I'm going to assume that the colleges at the job fair are from everywhere all around yeah but I couldn't tell you which ones it's not something that that we run um and I didn't attend this year so I don't know so I'll round out to the point is that I'm looking for this this town to have a a future growth and I've been talking to everybody else in on committees about um medical science technology climate control Net Zero things that happened that is happening now in in the world biotechs and stuff like that is wondering are the students being taught in the prep college courses to be ready to go in case they could find jobs around in the Metro West that they can go without going to college to be prep ready for those jobs so again I it's really not able to get into a Q&A but I will just tell you briefly that um part of the work that we we always do here and that we did specifically in the last couple years with the Strategic plan and the vision statement is to make sure that all students are prepared for whichever opportunities they're going to be seeking whether they be college or um service or employment directly out of high school it's our job to prepare all the students for any of those possibilities Jim did you want to add something so Mark also we have the ability to send our students to ke Tech as well as Norfolk agie which Supply our students with the opportunity uh to gain valuable knowledge and trades as well as biotech or things of that nature as well so uh so some of our kids yes are getting that experience but ashon High School isn't prepared to do those things at this point okay and to the and very last to Mr Mr shower there these are all questions I brought up for the comprehensive plan for this town and let just bringing it up here just to see what answers I would get thank you Mark appreciate it that's it thank you okay thank you Mark okay I am going to now move to open the public hearing on the fy2 school budget um do I need to take a roll call for that thank you Marcy uh just yes for agreeing to open the hearing Tina yes thank you uh we have a quorum we're going to open the hearing um I do want to start as as I usually do um because there aren't too many people here other than our wonderful administrators who are all here thank you um to just tell you a little bit about the process because you're about to hear superintendent Adams present the budget and there's nobody here that's going to be asking us any very deep questions about it because there's just nobody here um but I did want to let you know that uh we won't be just easily rubber stamping this presentation this evening that this has been going on all year um the administrators have had many meetings about it with each other with their staff the school committee has had a workshop with the administrators and we've had the chance to ask all of our questions there and we may have some follow-up questions tonight if um something up com comes up in the in the discussion um but I I do just want to make the community aware that um this is a process that has been going on for a while all right Jim thank you very much would you also like to mention that we are going to keep the session open yes um I'm not going to close the meeting tonight um superintendent Adams let me know earlier that our final number um is not ready to be voted this evening so we are going to go through the bud pre budget presentation um 99.9% of what's being presented is what we've all been talking about for these many months and it's just that the final number needs some tweaks and we will keep the hearing part of this meeting open until our next great Gathering thank you yeah so as we've done in my 10 years as superintendent we've had an opportunity to come together as a ad team uh over the course of many months starting back as early as as November uh thank you to Chris uh for all the the hard work that he puts in uh taking all the data that the principles and directors give to him and and put it in a a readable fashion for our community uh we want to make sure that that all of the information uh can be easily read by anybody within the community uh so what I'm presenting tonight as as you stated is a budget that that still needs a little tweaking um been in conversations with the town manager and what we hope to do is be able to have a finalized number by next Tuesday uh and have a virtual meeting uh with this whole the entire school committee where we can vote on a final number to present to the fincom as well as the select board that's the the ne those are the next steps so so what does it look like let see if I can slideshow here so our guidelines are are pretty steadfast in how we approach things uh we want to make sure that we have a fiscally responsible budget uh that we are maintaining our existing staff in our programs uh if we're including new Personnel in programs how are they meeting student needs how are they tying into our strategic plan uh how are they tying into the growth of our of our district not only with with regard to enrollment but the changing profile and demographic of our of our community uh we want to make sure that again adequate fun fing and programming does exist for future reference for folks you know we have about 439 employees 232 teachers uh $155,000 uh is approximate in our in District cost per student or per pupil cost um and here are our new Mission uh vision and core values everything we do has to tie back to this so anytime we ask for something anytime we're looking at our our funding sources we want to make sure our strategic objectives uh are being met so we ask that our admin team uh when they request something new uh that it is tying directly back into the Strategic plan I think that's really important um to note because we're not just asking for something it's what's the you know what are the reasons behind the ask so getting into the the nuts and bolts where are we so we ended the year uh in May we received $4 4,211 $2,690 in May currently uh the budget as it stands today uh is 42,1 42,47 that that's about a 4.8% increase uh over the prior years as you know we have a standing agreement with the town uh that our budget uh can increase 3.75% so so we're currently 42 2,000 roughly 423,000 over that number at this time that's the work that needs to be done with with Michael uh in the town uh to make sure that that we're getting closer to that 3.75 number which that 3.75 is the 41719 544 so um so folks are out there looking at it it's 3.75% of the 40, 211,000 and please stop me if you have questions I know you've seen this before but I just just want to make sure so this chart's a little different than what you saw in the budget Workshop because I wanted to make it a little clearer for folks uh in terms of what are we asking for and how are we going from that 40, 211,000 number to 42 m42000 uh so this year hopefully will outline it a little more um clearly for folks um so I will have a couple people jump in Britney I see you online uh and Kelly's here as well uh to talk a little bit about um the the new programs that we're looking to create but I think it's important to highlight a few things first one uh if you go down to increase in Personnel due to eser Grant fund loss uh we've all heard of the fiscal cliff coming from all the federal and state AIDS uh that came through the covid time period uh we have about 672 671 735 of uh salaries that are attributed and have been attributed to the Sesser money so this year that money runs out you can see the folks who are being paid out of that counselors uh as well as our Middle School half team that we created um as enrollment was increasing uh so those are positions that we want to keep but now we have to account for them uh in the operating budget um Brit are you available right now yes awesome thank you do you want to talk about the um the 18 to 22 program sure and I'm sorry I don't know what's wrong with my camera but it won't let me turn on it probably knows I look tired so worries um so the 18 through 22 program um in ashin specifically was you know is hoped to be created for our students in District who have been receiving our in District program for the duration of their educational career in Ashland um some students require additional support as they transition out of high school into you know their independent adult lives that require additional support from the school district um these students because of not having an in-house in District program have largely had to go out of District to continue to have that support which you know in my professional opinion isn't necessarily the most fair thing for our kiddos we want to create them um opportunities to grow in their community in which they live and our community in initial Outreach has been largely receptive of supporting job placements and career opportunities for our young adults um lots of um support from gym facilities um local restaurants um administrative support just really really excited to support our students and give them what they need to feel supported as they transition into adult hood thank you can you also talk about the reading specialist sure um the reading specialist at the middle school is coming from a request of um you know growth in special education numbers our fifth grade population transitioning to the middle school is pretty high in special education population about 30% of the students currently enrolled at Mendes are identified as needed special education support um so this role will primarily support that fifth grade transitioning into the sixth grade and they will largely be a a manager with a focus on supporting reading and um growth in that specific area with the hopes that over time as student numbers reduce um through you know more cohesive identifi identification and in support and intervention that they could be available to support all reading needs grade six seven and eth thank you I'll stop there to see if anyone here wants to have any questions for Britney or if you have any none okay great thanks Brit no problem could you come up thanks I'll have uh misser just talk about the the bright program and and the costs associated with that I think so yeah the computer is asking join but no okay um so the bright program is something um that Brett and uh Jen Taylor and I worked together along with um our iip coordinator at the high school uh looking at some different ways to meet the needs of some of the students um we have a rising population of students that have um very extensive long um hospitalizations um due to primarily mental health um but the potential is always there for other medical needs um as well as students that are withdrawing from high schools withdrawing from high school without a diploma um and um we have been looking for creative ways to meet those students needs in terms of providing them with additional supports um and case management um for those students that are transitioning back to school after along hospitalization um looking for a different way to to keep them uh caught up to provide them with direct instruction which they don't receive now um within their academic subject so that they can stay on track um to graduate um and with our students who um are potentially looking at withdrawing from high school um looking for ways to to be more creative many of them um we know are working full-time already um and looking at some potential work um study credit uh to build into getting again the academic um reinforcement that they need to complete their graduation requirements um you know we know that many of them are just a couple credits away from graduating um and are leaving for work so I'm hoping to be more creative in in getting all of our students to a diploma um the bright model itself has been around for 20 plus years um and the model um which we hope to um get support from them they offer a nice um system of support when you're starting a program um their model requires that you have uh a counselor that works with the families um to provide kind of that really wraparound support not only the academic support but the other um clinical piece of working with students um so our vision is to um require that students that are part of this program would also have a clinical component in terms of working with an adjustment counselor um around some of the mental health needs um that will help them be more successful with the academic piece and then an ESP um is associated with that program as well um in order to help with the case management we see this um potentially falling outside of typical school hours to meet some of those needs of the students that struggle with coming into the building um and an ESP would help with that management of the after um School piece um of coordinating with the classes that they are continuing with within the high school and any classes where they may be doing online or outside of Ashton High School teaching um classes questions all right thank you and Mike just can you touch Bas of the literacy coach sure um as you know a couple years ago we we um employed Kathy fari is our first literacy coach and she's she's been able to bring us um some really invaluable work in terms of improving our literacy instruction and with that we we started to develop our our data team meetings at at Warren and then now at Mendes and the amount of the amount of u staff that Kathy needs to work with is kind of insurmountable at this point I mean she's working with over 70 staff members um and in order for us to really be able to make the strides that we want to make with literacy and to continue to see improvement in our students um we feel like it's it's really important for us to have one more person in that role at this point um you know right now Kathy is traveling between the two buildings um if we were able to house her in either Mendes or Warren and then bring a new literacy coach to be able to work specifically with the other school it allows for some continuity in the building and also for those two to be a to collaborate with our uh building administrators to really um step up our our literacy instruction and continue to see great strides for all of our students as you know you know early literacy development has been at the Forefront of our thinking here for quite some time and we are making wonderful progress but I think the addition of yet another person to be an instructional leader in that capacity will will really help us to see continued improvements questions on that no great Chris uh you just talk about the facilities expenses hello um for facilities we're seeing uh a few increases one of the incremental ones would be a rent increase that we have associated with our maintenance team they are uh they they were housed at the Mendes school and we needed to find a new location for them so the plan is for the foreseeable future that they would be located um off of munko road so there's an incremental expense of a little over $50,000 associated with that the other expense is an incremental FTE of a 1.0 but it's really split between two buildings Mendes School we've had you know it's it's increased square footage so we're looking to increase the FTE by 0.5 there Warren school in the past we increased the square footage there and we didn't really catch up in terms of the Personnel so we're looking to see if we could increase that by a 05 FTE as well excuse me as well the other expenses are adjusting for well utilities first we uh need to recognize the inflationary expenses um associated with utilities and the other one is contracted services and supplies we're looking for a 4% increase in those areas as well great thanks so the the largest piece that you haven't we haven't talked about is really the the second line down the uh increase in salaries due to contractual obligations the 1.8 million uh we are still in the process of negotiating with uh two of the units we have five that we've been negotiating uh so uh those are not public yet uh we haven't voted on them nor has the uh applicable unions uh so uh we have a placeholder for some of the the reserves there as well as the retire anticipated retirements we have I think 10 or 11 folks who are retiring uh so we want to recognize that those are positions that will be replaced uh but we anticipate some cost savings uh in terms of just the structure of the salary so so as you can see uh we are also increasing the use of our revolving accounts um from the previous years by 1.69 million um 1.61 n million just to again i' just like to show this because you get to see really where the increases are almost 2 million salaries um and the contracted Services um Chris it's down 5% partly because uh we're we're shifting some of the salaries up top is that correct um how you move things around with the the the reduction in contracted Services is actually it's it's due to the the way that we're handling the offsets so so the offsets are moving the the credit that you that you saw of the 1.6 million a few minutes ago some of that is um uh there three there's a few hundred, worth of uh um Contract Services for our transportation that's probably the largest variance there student enrollment we we share this all the time we're we're still anticipating growth uh within the district we have we've slowed down a little bit uh Pete we're still at50 there 150 for kindergarten for next year which is kind of again scary uh because because we're in participating 205 uh so there are a few out there and uh this happened with the current first grade class was pretty low and uh but we don't anticipate it I just received actually today our new NASDAQ projections and they're actually projecting from the fall to the spring actually another slight increase so I've got to go through that it just happened I was like huh that's interesting from last fall to the spring or next yeah from this fall to the spring so they do a projection in the fall and I haven't do it twice a year now uh because we were seeing such a variance uh so that the spring numbers just came in and they're still anticipating the 200 plus for the kindergarten So based on birthing rates people moving in bless people moving into town Etc um it's scary a little bit uh 2728 uh 28 29 getting up in the 3,000 range bless youc uh I'm sure Jenna is scared at 725 over a Mendes building we just brand new at 635 we built it for um but as we've said uh we did build that facility with tremendous flexibility so we have we have space that that we can currently move folks into I show this uh because we talk about how well we achieve it's a double edged sword um within a community um but we are on average spending $1 15,928 average is 19,000 you know 600 almost um so um the bang for the buck is pretty real here in Ashland and we've talked a lot about that but that being said we are coming up against that fiscal cliff or financial cliff for us with the use of our revolving accounts we've been able to maintain this um for quite some time at least in my 10 years uh but this number uh certainly um needs to increase moving forward special education um always a moving Target and you'll notice that that in this slide I I adjusted it from our our budget Workshop to to be clear that while we have stud 38 students that we project to out be out of District students next year that's a decrease of five it's it's a decrease because we have some students that are out who would come back one at least one who would come back in for the 18 to 22 program okay we've got two students that are currently in-house that are going would be a part of the in-house program they would have been added to this uh and then there are some other students uh whom we've brought back in uh and that we anticipate keeping it's a moving Target Sarah knows best you know in terms of all the early intervention and the in the the prek students and all of the testing that she's going through uh so we settle so early on our budget that this could uh impact Us in June and July uh with students moving into the community but I wanted to show the reason to this community why we build programs I think it's really critically important and here's just an example this is the anticipated District savings for us building an 18 to 22 year old program uh in the first year we anticipate three students and that includes one student coming back in two who are currently in our district and as Britney said we've built programs in my 10 years actually for these these students to stay in our schools the entire time MH um we're not always successful some students are are better served not in the ason public schools that's um we recognize that and then it could escalate from three students to six students to nine up to 13 in about five years but to build the program it's about $222,000 so that's the educator that Britney was talking about and two pair of professionals but also spending $25,000 to fix the room the classroom uh which would be in the Middle School uh to to make sure the buildout is is perfect for their needs approximately if there were three students that we would have it except for the 18 to 22 would be approximately 226,000 so the first year is of anticipation of of $24,000 savings obviously these are estimates we don't fully know what the true cost will be um and then year two I just want to give another example we would add another pair of professional um because the numbers go from 3 to six so the the approximate cost goes to about 250,000 and and I took into account a little bit of the cola increases that are going to happen with the contracts so again it's it's an estimate but it's a it's a good guess right but then add in three more students of if they had to be outplaced to 450,000 so now we're looking at Savings in in year two of about 200,000 um again trying to build programs keep our kids in we all believe that we want our kids to be part of the ashon public schools the 18 to 22 year old program part of the ashon community working in the ashin community um you know we see such a value in that U this is just an example of why we do that um not only is it great for our kids but it's financially um responsible questions on this because you have not seen this I have a question yeah of course um shocking and um first I just want to say this is great this is great I I I really like how this is laid out um for the six students it the cost doesn't double so are you looking from the three in terms of the amount of money we'd save so does the cost vary to student so I'm just looking at um sorry I'm going too fast but for the three students we have an approximate cost savings of 226,000 the approximate cost to send them was 226 226 okay so then if we're doubling it yeah I I I could have easily made it 250 or 400 well it's 452 right yeah okay so I was I was doing in my head 250 25500 but it's rough okay yeah that's why I was just using that estimate and we don't know we wouldn't know exactly what the cost would be because it depends per student right because you could have one that could be a lot more cost it depends on if we were at accept or another uh placement somewhere we had we had we had one student who they moved it was out west they did an 18 to 22 program um where it was just a different cost so it was it's so it's dependent okay this is excellent though and okay thanks and not to interject but in addition to depending on where there's always an increase in terms of tuition at a percentage rate so I'm sure that's a piece of that increase yeah and if it's private it could be 14% we never know yeah I think this is so great because as a person who you know started so many years ago having kids I had no idea that it cost us much money for the schools to like send students um to other programs so I just really applaud everyone's work on you know generating the program thank you if this one shocks you wait till the next slide so we've built and it's hard to read uh we've built a number of District specialized programs uh from you know paway to the high school MH and currently we have 141 students participating in these programs and the cost to uh have the the programs and these are true costs in terms of salaries um is about $3 million uh that we we have in Ashen so I try to give a a a real um synopsis of what happens if we didn't have these programs right what would it really look like uh what would it be costing the town um even after circuit breaker after some um funding coming back from the state we never know we've we've experienced and Don is probably Donna FL is from accept here tonight and has probably experienced that in her career in special ed 20% 25% reimbursement for circuit breaker up to what's required 75% so we want to make sure that the community understands that these programs we've built you know next year just anticipating these 141 students um the district is saving approximately 10, 665,000 if again that's an assumption it's a big assumption that every kid would have to be outplaced right but it's sort of the the the process I want folks to see why we build programs uh not only because we want kids to be in our district that's the most important piece but there is a financial um savings to also building these programs um so so this is you know again this is just a a quick analysis of of where we are questions on that one no it's helpful to see those yeah good so this is where the rubber meets the road so we can actually balance a budget this year is in FY 24 we're spending about1 .3 million uh in revolving funds and for those who are listening uh revolving funds are funds that we pull in for fees Andor uh circuit breaker from the state so a reimbursement for partial special education out of District costs we charge for building rental we charge for busing um we charge International tuition when we used to have international students um and then we have school choice now school choice as you know we've reduced the number of spots because of our enrollment uh has increased therefore we have less and less or fewer and fewer spots every year but we're anticipating spending $3.7 million this year uh in revolving accounts to make our budget work that's a significant increase uh $2.4 million overall so um question y but in the last meeting didn't we choose to repurpose some of those funds so when you were at this same point last year you really have't increased 2.4 you found savings that helped you that's a great point and and I'll show that next slide that's that's really good point at the last meeting we talked about re um making an adjusting entry if you will for the accountants out there but to to say that we were um utilizing funds from school choice funds for instance say $100,000 I'm just useing an example $100,000 to cover a salary of someone and we had significant savings th this year because we haven't filled all of our positions within the operating budget that was passed at town meeting therefore we don't need to use the $100,000 that we had allocated and now that $100,000 can be appropriated for next year so that's what's happening uh so all of these actually school choice building rental transportation and International tuition all of those were had funds allocated for the fy2 24 budget that we didn't need to appropriate so after the savings that we've had that's a good point so yes this number would have looked a lot different and this is what it would have looked a lot different oh so yeah sorry it's all right stole your thunder no worries um so our beginning balance anticipated is almost $6.4 million that number would have been 42 Chris yeah what 2 yeah two million less yeah two million less so that's what we would have started started the year with had we not been able to repur reallocate the funding into the general operating budget we we have anticipated revenues of next year of 2.1 and the one thing you'll notice is there are three numbers that are consistent the 1.5 million in the circuit break for anticipated revenues projected in balance and the budget offset that we don't know what we're going to get during um fiscal year 25 um which is really reimbursement from from fiscal year 24 so we're just being pretty conservative and saying we're going to get about the same amount of money um we don't know so this will have to be adjusted as we go forward um everything else is stay pretty status quo the International tuition will will be uh used up uh we will not have that in the future uh you'll notice School Bus revolving we're not increasing fees we're keeping everything the same uh school choice uh we anticipate years ago that was almost a half a million dollars a year in Revenue uh it's starting to you know decline so as we go forward that 4.7 million is what we're looking at for available for FY 26 um even after the huge spending of of 3.7 this year that make sense everyone yeah okay and for those people out there school choice we can use for any purpose okay anything else has to be specific circuit breaker special education um building rental for buildings maintenance facilities uh School Bus revolving for for transportation costs Etc so the one question you all ask of our of our admin team um which you did uh at our last meeting uh was what are we not funding and what does it look like Beyond fy2 and this again is a pretty conservative number um but there are teaching positions that we're looking for there's additional um the turf needs to be replaced at the the middle school as well as at the high school um most recently our fire the fire alarm uh at the high school uh it's been going off 15 years I think Kelly right around there uh every day it just beeps on us um there's you know we've we've spent a lot of money from an electrical standpoint but it needs to be replaced and uh serviced um that's a $425,000 price tag that Chris and John Murray are working through and and we're going to try to figure out how the funding will work to to get that but again safety first right we want to make sure that um that we're meeting the code set by the ashon fire uh State as well um boiler Replacements roof Replacements at pway as well as the high school um so modular Replacements so it's about a $5 million price tag if we wanted everything uh this year um so it's it's pretty significant I the modular replacement uh Pete we've had those 10 years is that right 10 like yeah uh and they had a 5year lifespan when we bought them because they were already refurbished so so that's really where we are uh what's next is not closing the meeting uh making sure that uh by on Tuesday of next week uh we will have a final number number to to vote on I do anticipate it getting closer to that 3.75% that the town is asking for U there are conversations uh being had to discuss the use of our special eded stabilization fund and how much we can um withdraw from there to help offset that that Delta uh as well as you know we will certainly look at uh the the variables of out of District uh costs um students that we you know were conservative again in our approach saying okay we think this kid might need to be outplaced but as we move throughout uh the school year we're oh they okay they're settling in they're doing okay we may not need to so the clarity is coming uh you know I know in five days you're like how much more clear are you going to be but every day you know you know Britany and those who work in that special education field will tell you just every day is a new day and we just don't know what is going to happen uh so we have to be uh a little flexible with that uh so we will have our um numbers sent to the town next week and then we'll have a process from there the select board and pom for a May 1st town meeting this year I believe I was just going to ask the date yeah it's May 1st if I'm not mistaken questions Chris can I make a quick comment sorry I said $2 million less on that uh that other uh revolve account is actually 1.4 I apologize for Miss uh misspeaking okay on that slide going back to last week it's the conversation that we already had yeah oh I not adjusted no it was my fault I I said out loud oh okay I got you 2.0 and it's really 1.4 so I apologize fair enough good and that's that okay good and thank you we're going to keep the uh hearing open as we discussed in the beginning can I ask um actually the ad team you're welcome to leave um but also adjust adjust the um order of business so Donna FL from accept can can present before Mike does the SOA sure get her out of here as well she's got a long drive home as well we have consensus for a change in order here absolutely yep thanks everyone I'll pull that up on slide thank you thanks everyone appreciate it hello hi thanks for having me here this evening um it was fun hearing about uh the students that we've shared in Ashland over the years and times um some of the students our mission is always to try and prepare students to go back to their District because we too believe that students belong in their Hometown so we're always happy to be able to do that we've certainly had those successes with some of your Ashland students which is nice so I came here to kind of talk a little bit about so accept education collaborative is one of 24 collaboratives in the state so I thought I'd just kind of talk a little bit about um what a collaborative particularly for your uh listening community so a collaborative um provide services for their member districts and we utilize our business managers the curriculum instruction assistant superintendant and the directors of um special education as sort of our guide to focus our initiatives every region that we Metro West has some different needs so the services that we provide to our 16 member districts of which Ashland is one includes special education programs specifically um social emotional learning uh autism we have students with intellectual disabilities we provide language-based learning sldd um so a number of areas that we have programs targeted for prek 3 years old straight through to students that are 22 years old and our mission and goal as I said is always to the best of our ability have the students return to District if not to the best of our ability what does life look like once they leave accept right and they become adults whether it's high school or it's um at 22 years as um Britney and Mr Adams were discussing in regards to programming so other things that we do is we provide special education transportation for you need me to lean in okay seven of our 16 member districts which Ashland is one so we provide the out of District transportation for those students we also provide homebased services for parents and students who have autism we provide School behavioral educational consultation and Assessment Services we do that in the home or we do that within school districts sometimes parents are looking for that third party to provide an assessment and we do do that kind of work as well for schools we do lots of external professional development we um create professional development specifically for districts so for example ashin might want to hire us to develop you know specific areas or all their professional development for the year we have educational technology um Online High School classes which Ashlin also utilizes us for that and the software security we do Medicaid reimbursement which I believe Ashlin is one of our customers as well as well as grant writing so those are all the services right now that we do and we're always working together with districts to ensure that if there's anything else that would make like the little bitty is here that we could collaborate on that we do so that's kind of a collaborative in a nutshell we are turning 50 years old in the fall so we'll be celebrating 50 years of being in business and providing services for communities students and families um one thing that it's always nice is when another district is interested in joining so we sort of expand our wealth of you know having the superintendent tell us what they need as well as other leadership members telling us what they need so what I'm coming to about now is we have to amend our collaborative agreement if we're going to um include Westboro who specifically is the district that is looking to join us we did have two districts that wanted to join us but in thinking in terms of what's best for the collaborative what's best for the districts that are already members and what can you provide the decision was made by you know the board you know with some input from me as well that westbar we were going to accept in the other District that we're going to have come back later so it's not like we just have everybody come we want to make sure this is going to be a true partnership and that they really want to participate because it does require um time of your superintendent to come and participate at our board meetings um budget hearings and other different areas so the original agreement that they had was made in 1976 the most recent um agreement was back in 2015 when I believe it was Wellsley and Needum it was Welsley and Needum had joined so we had to go through the process then um on the next slide we can talk a little bit about what the process is so basically what happens it's really like a year along process we start with the district that is interested in joining us they come to the board meeting their superintendent the uh chair of their school committee and sort of present their reason for like why do you want to be part of us why do you want to join us and the board is able to ask some questions about that then they take a vote to say do we want to move forward if they get 2third of the sitting board members saying yes we move to the next step the next step is coming to your school committee and having a conversation with you so I can answer your questions um we can talk about the rationale for it and then we're looking for a simple majority of school committees when we have 16 that would vote Yes to include this new member um and that's why it's important that I want to share with you that you know really as a board and as a collaborative we really vet out who is going to join us because there is a financial impact for the collaborative as well over the course of um two years of being a member you get a 20% discount for all the services whether it's tuition for your students the transportation the professional development so you know that's a I don't want to say a hit but you know it impacts the bottom line of running the collaborative basically but for us that's why it's so important to ensure that they are going to participate um and finally when we're done we have to rewrite the collaborative agreement so that we have some updates for you um and we can review that a little bit then it goes to the commissioner of education and he or she makes a final decision as to whether they're going to sign off which they do but so the changes that we made um again it there weren't a lot of substantive changes I would say there was a lot of word smithing and sort of updating Things based on some of the subtle changes um that were made to the law for one reason or another but you know the first section of course includes West Barrow as a member district the second are the conditions of the membership so what we did is again the importance of the superintendent participating in the work that we do we wanted to really kind of beef that up a little bit to really ensure that people understand this is a commitment you know this is your collaborative this is your decisions um and you need to have an influence whether it's over the budget or the program services so we beef that language up um because we've had a few issues over the last few years you know whether it was Co or not but we just want to make sure that that level of importance is really there um the general Provisions was removed from the table of contents as we don't need that any longer so that's just a delete there and then we replace the date um again the word smithing by um some of the Desi Representatives so really that was all the changes that we have in there um and the primary one being just to add West borrow so the next step is a vote of the school committee and then a signature of the school committee chair um I think Jim has the paper that we can forward to me later but do you have any questions about what we do or anything about the amendment I mean obviously you've thought this through and um determine that this is best and is there anything other than the um discounted or loss of revenue for the next couple years is there any other reason why you wouldn't want to do this so um there is um hypothetically I can talk about why maybe you would say no to one and yes to another so again the importance of having the superintendent come and the chair come and really talk about um what can you contribute to the collaborative what you can contribute to the members that are there because the members don't just come for the board meetings it's a real collection of professionals who bounce ideas off of each other they work together as well and contribute to what the work that we do and the same thing of applies for our job alikes which would be the um assistant superintendents of curriculum instruction special education directors business managers you know they all come they work collaboratively together um sometimes on new initiatives that they're creating so you know we're really looking for people who are going to participate and maybe you have a superintendent who is leaving in their third year of their contract and so you don't know who's going to be there and you don't want to make a an agreement with somebody who's not even the superintendent yet because you don't know if they believe in collaboratives um are wanting to participate you know same thing with the school committees um you want to make sure that you have a good understanding of why a school committee would want to be part of this as well so it it's really that um piece of interviewing them and really looking at the structure of that town is vital to our making a decision like I said we don't take it lightly and we did accept one and we rejected another another so thank you that's helpful yeah and just I mean I I have you know no uh real problem adding Westboro to it but since you mentioned you AC you you know the decision was to accept um Westboro but not another town what was it can you just share with us what was it about um their inquiry application whatever I don't know what they call it when they seek to join the collaborative but um can you share with us what what you feel just very briefly because I don't want to identify um anybody but um both the director of special services as well as the superintendent um we leaving the district so those are two key people that we need to have committed to the work that we do so um I had a long conversation with the chair of the school committee because they were obviously pretty disappointed that we said No at that time and you know I said we're not saying no forever come back you know come back bring your new people have a conversation with us again and we'll make another decision potentially I'm actually more interested in what is it about Westboro like what what like what what are the factors because I'm not familiar with the discussion what are the factors that that make you decide to say yes to a district sure do you want it sure I can I can handle part of it as well because uh what Donna is presenting is you know westbo and any other District that has come before the the board and when I say board it's all superintendents of the collaborative District right so we're intimately aware of of the reputation of a district uh their needs within within uh their District but also what they can provide to the collaborative um as well uh and I would say westbo is a very similar Community to the other um towns within the collaborative um say one city right Framingham uh so and it's that that Central you know Metro West um community that we felt really comfortable with uh that it's it's a a district that has has everything together um while Amber is retiring um it is what but she wasn't unexpected surprise yeah it was but but it's a but there's been consistency in leadership uh in their district for a long time um and again she's been coming to the meetings for a year and and and listening and not a voting member but someone who was there providing Insight um okay those are the things we're looking at at least from a board standpoint how are they going to benefit all of us right and you know so yeah we overall we were just impressed with the presentation from you know the people that came the three people that came in on the interview and they're very creative in their approaches to education um and students so we thought that would be a great benefit for all of us thanks anything else so what we need is just a a vote to uh approve the Amendments and allow West burn to collab you guys are going to be just going to say I'll make a motion to um to accept the um accept collaborative agreement as presented I'll second all in favor Marcy I Tina I I all right thank you you have a good evening so the next item of business is the stupid stupid wow hello a little slip there yeah tell us how you really feel right uh I blame Jeff Marsden and Arman pyus for that the student Opportunity Act which was which was a lot p in 2019 that that really was about um adjusting the funding formula uh for for the schools around um Massachusetts and and ever since um it was 93 was the last time they adjusted um it's not always related to just Chapter 70 so let's I want to be clear it's not just a funding formula uh it's more resources are being put into the into the schools uh at from the state and what they want us to do is to have a plan uh to look at students and our students who are not achieving at the highest level they possibly can and or um are are identified at the state level of having barriers as well and what we've done basically and Mike is what we're sharing here is it really is just an extension of what we consider all the work we just did for our our um strategic plan now if you talk to desie they would say well we don't want your whole strategic plan we want you to identify a few indicators that you're going to focus on over the next 3 years so this is our second iteration we had a plan three years ago uh and we would come back uh to the school committee each year uh and say you know we need to to modify our plan uh we will without a doubt have des's um input four or five times uh we'll we have to present this to them uh through a board vote here uh by April 1st uh and then uh desie will give us feedback back and we'll change it and I think it was four times the last time and um and it's not there they actually give you a a funding formula to determine you know they don't want you to say $1 million is is additional funding from the S SOA right we don't they don't really say specifically right but they give you actually a formula to say you can figure it out if you want uh ours is zero um this year it would be a zero increase just on the SOA um but that being said everyone's still required to fill out um and I think it's a good exercise it's not but it's work we've already done and you've already seen right so I'm going to have Mike just walk you through a little bit of it um and it does just require a school committee approval to submit the SOA okay yeah so so essentially what they really want us to do is look at our data and and figure out along with the data that that the that the state provides um where are our lowest performing students and are there any significant disparities in the performance among our students and as you know we've already identified uh some disparities among our students and it's been it has been included in our strategic plan so what you're going to hear today is really nothing different than what we've been talking about for the last year as we've developed that plan um but they asked that you that we um focus on three specific areas uh in which we are going to work to make specific improvements in what we are doing with the goal of trying to um improve um the achievement data for specific subsets of of students uh so for instance uh Focus area 1.1 uh and there are a number of things that we can choose from but we decided to choose these three Focus areas so 1.1 is promote students physical and mental health and wellness and welcoming affirming and safe spaces um and uh we are going to specify that enhanced support for seal and mental health as you know that's been part of our strategic plan um we have talked about uh how we are have a specific goals in our strategic plan to ensure that every student has a safe and trusted adult in each one of our buildings that's one of the ways we're going to ultimately try and measure that data but there's also a number of other things that we're doing in terms of looking at our Desa data that we've talked about that Jen Cutler has has discussed with us I'm sorry Jen Taylor I'll probably do that for the next year or so until I get it right but Jen Taylor has discussed with us um so we we are going to continue to commit resources time and energy into ensuring the social emotional well-being of all of our students uh Focus area 1.2 is to implement a multi-tiered system of support you'll hear the the acronym mtss a lot over the next couple of years we've already started talking about it uh we've still got a lot of work to do to get there and to be doing it appropriately uh and the ash Public Schools but you know to to develop those systems of support that help all students progress both academically and in their social emotional and behavioral development so the specific uh way we're going to do that is through comprehensive tiered support so we are going to be continuing to work to fully Implement mtss in all of our schools um specifically one of the things that we've started to do is work with that S3 team team that we've spoken of that is uh the state grant that we were able to get to work with the Warren school they are sort of our pilot school right now they're improving their data team process they really have been the folks who have been streamlining the intervention process for us again another reason why the the um additional literacy coach is going to be important because that was going to help to streamline more literacy interventions that will specifically impact student achievement data in in the area of literacy um but it's not just about um academic achievement it's also about what are we doing for students socially emotionally and when we have those mtss meetings we're able to put together specific plans for students academically um socially emotionally give them additional support with our with our counseling staff and and our our psychologists and just make sure every student is getting what they need all the time and the final Focus area is to develop a coherent and holistic range of programming that is resp responsive to the needs and interests of diverse Learners and we are really focusing on effective programming for our multilingual Learners uh as we look at our data it becomes really evident that the biggest disparity in our success of students in all areas right now is uh the success rate of our students who are English Learners we we need to improve their performance across the board for our English Learners and the way to do that is to um Implement some more effective programming for our multilingual Learners uh one of the things that um Christy Arnold is doing and and I'm not sure if she's still with us or not but she's she's implementing um sort of a a new way of looking at everything we're doing so it's the castona approach to to sort of do a assessment of our English language programming right now and she's she's Gathering data to see are we making sure that we're doing everything the right way for all of our students so we have specific goals I'm not going to go through all the data analysis you've seen that already you know um that we have specific data that we have looked at um this is all directly from our our strategic plan it's it's nothing new um so I'm not going to spend the time going through all of that information but what I will say is we have specific Target Improvement goals that are within the context of our strategic plan that is going to help us to focus what exactly what we're looking to improve upon um on top of these three goals we're also adopting the three-year Improvement targets that are established by Desi in terms of our lowest performing students groups now we've identified that our lowest performing student groups are our English language Learners uh as desie has as well um I only bring this up because I'm we're still I have to make a phone call to desie to make sure that we're both on the same exact page in terms of um the achievement scores um I I saw a little bit of a discrepancy in what what they supplied for some data and what we have so I've got to make sure that we have everything correct what I think will end up happening is just an iterative process as as Mr Adams has talked about they're going to bounce it back to us anyway so this will allow for us to have an open ended conversation with them to make sure that we're all on the same page but I what I think is that the three goals that we have U put forth here are actually more aggressive than what desie has asked us to do um so I I just I just want to have that conversation with them to make sure that it it is actually more aggressive yeah when we were reviewing it today we looked at the numbers and we're we're like wow we're actually well above what Desy thinks we need to be hitting for a target number which is not a bad thing but we also talk about it with within the Strategic plan a 3 to 5e window right to hit those targets right so and they and they split it up a little differently too they're looking at um high school and then non high school and when we set our goals we decided to do it districtwide and not and not separate the two so it just it just changes the the number that we're going to be looking for so I want to make sure that's okay from their lens um but we'll obviously try to do both we're going to do whatever Desi has asked us to do on top of these three specific goals so the first is we're going to Target a 5% student growth percentile um for our subgroups over over three years um in both in both Ela and math on the mcast and then uh for the access we as you know that that's the that's the test that our English Learners take uh we want uh 60% of our English Learners to meet their student growth Benchmark which means that they have reached the level that we think that they can uh attain I we want to get 60% of our students to be able to reach that level um and then one of the other pieces they talk about in the in the SOA is family engagement uh as you know that's that's part of our that's part of our goal in our in our strategic plan as well they're asking how are we engaging families right now what are we doing um that's one of our one of our um strategic plan goals is to improve our family engagement um so one of the things that we're doing is we have to get some baseline data in order to do that so I didn't put a specific goal in there know that we are going to continue to work to do that I know right now our spring conferences are happening at the elementary school for the first time ever we've asked teachers to actually Supply us with specific data about who is coming so we have a baseline from this spring to be able to actually see okay are we going to see a dip in the fall and a dip next spring or are we going to be able to somehow figure out how to improve the number of um parents who are engaged what we do have too as well is is some significant data um from the work that we've already done with Lexi as you know we implemented Lexi is the software program that allows us to bring in interpreters um at you know at will uh for for any parent who's a multilingual parent uh and we've had over 500 of those meetings at this point so we can continue to look at that data and to see how that has increased over time as well so those are those are the focus areas this next pie just gives a little bit more about what we're going to do and what we are doing um these are things that again are all included directly in the Strategic plan the language is not different everything ties in together I I I may be um too hopeful here but I think this might be the first time that in the long time that we send this back and don't get four iterations maybe we'll only get two iterations uh typically we've tried to take on too much I think and and and this year we've really honed in on these three specific goals and focus because the Strategic plan has allowed us to do that and I and again I keep on talking about the open Architects but it's a whole new thing for us to be able to look at the data in a new way that simplifies how we're looking at it and that has really allowed us the opportunity to to focus in where we need to be um the last thing that I should mention is that we we talk about in the document we do talk about chronic absenteeism that is something that we are still targeting to improve and we also talk about our our high school dropout rate uh we're targeting that population as well because we're seeing that our our English Learners and our low-income students are the ones who really need to be targeted for both chronic absenteeism and dropout rate um so those are the those are the two specific subset sets of of of students that we really are focusing on and the department was clear actually this time within the instructions they only want us to choose a couple things yeah that I mean that was our problem we we had way too many one year we picked like 10 and they came back and they three or four so yeah thank you so what is needed is just the uh school committee acceptance of the SOA to be submitted to the Department of Ed right I move to accept the S SOA to be submitted to the Department of Ed I second all in favor Marcy I Tina I I passes and great job this is I this it was interesting to to read through and I mean none of it was new because we've been talking about all this for so long but it's it's nice to just kind of see it you know reiterated will be published online that's one of the requirements as well uh from the Department is that we publish the SOA online so excellent done next next now we're down to the um Driscoll scholarship um appointment um Marcy if you don't know what that is and there are a number of scholarships that get awarded at graduation or the end of the year and this is one that requires a school Committee Member to be on the deciding small committee right there's there are names of there's five people right um I think it's one meeting uh from what I recall I've done it in the past you you go to the high school you sit down with the people you go over the application see who's met the criteria of the students um and then the decision is made so I don't know if anybody wants to do it or sometimes you might not want to do it if you have like a kid in the graduating class I was just going to say Mark and I I don't know that either of our children are applying for it but yeah U but they might yeah or I avoided it even if like I just well and I know a lot of students right exact AB want to be like influenced that way so um I mean I I'd be happy to do it again unless you want to I know some of the graduating class so that's my only yeah C totally up to you so if if that makes you uncomfortable yeah I you can sign me up when is it by the way I should make sure I'm going to be do we know Chris we're going to wait for the committee to get appointed and then um we'll have a um it's a middle yeah the answer is no we don't have a meeting scheduled yet but it would be um I'm only asking I I will be out of town for a while no it's not sched be around early you can be very flexible we essentially just uh um yeah we we can be flexible I'm thinking about we need to uh discuss an award and then um we'll issue the uh excuse me and then just issue that we're moving forward with it this year so we'll probably do that and then we can convene as a as a committee okay I mean if you think it's early May I'm I can easily do that if it's late April then I can't okay well we'll definitely follow back up and it won't be April then okay all right all right who wants to appoint me so moved second all in favor hi okay thank you Lord that's meks did we I miss the last meeting did we appoint somebody for the uh middle school princi I will get to that during the superintendence okay we're all we're all just jumping right ahead stealing your thunder tonight okay um you're uh Mike you have an update a brief one because you just heard a lot from me a moment ago um we had our second round of administrative learning walks this week uh that's as part of our superintendent goals and my goals um we are going to try and do a better job of calibrating how we are doing our evaluations and today was uh the first day of round two and it really was excellent uh we we were able to go into a couple classrooms at Warren there were seven of us that went and then we had some fantastic discussion about what we saw and what kind of feedback we would provide and when we when we talk about the feedback we're always talking about specific commendations that we have for the teachers as well as recommendations and then we we had good good discussion today about wonderings and questions as well and and how we want to try our best to um do a better job streamlining the way in which we are providing that feedback within the context of our teach Point observation data um in this summer we're really going to spend a significant amount of time as an admin team to not be robotic about it but to have a more consistent template that we're using to make sure that all of our this summer when we get together but the discussions have been pretty rich and I I've enjoyed it and and I think that the the principles and directors and APS have enjoyed it as well so it's been great um always nice for for uh different principles to be able to go and see what's happening in other schools as well and it's nice for them to to get that um we had a great professional learning day last Friday um highlight is by uh some work that was done at Warren in terms of the uh trauma informed practices that that Jen uh has brought to our to our district and she and Pete met with with staff to to bring that forward I know we did some great work with cultural responsive education practices um at at MES um uh and then uh Sarah worked with an outside consultant about some um responsive classroom techniques and I know there was some significant team work that was done um in terms of some collaboration uh for um different teams among issp at the middle school and some departmental work that was done at the high school um spring conferences happening right now at the elementary level I actually ran into uh Marcy today on the way to hers so spring conferences are are busy happening and for our secondary students term three grades Clos next week so I I know that the students are busy making sure yeah I saw that email out and the remind us and my goodness it means the year is winding down um and mcast has be gun um the high school students were taking them this week uh and our our middle school and Elementary School students are getting ready to take them in the coming weeks uh we've been making sure our infrastructure is all in place doing test runs everything right now knock on wood is smooth and we should be ready to go good great wait a minute you didn't mention the master reader I'm very curious to hear about literacy night oh so I was not I was I was not at literacy night I know literacy night is always a well in no so as as part of the literacy week yes I was lucky enough to be invited to be a mask reader um I don't think it was ever really a mystery of when it was me the students were all pretty pretty clever uh they knew that I indeed was the panda um that's awesome that's awesome we unmasked ourselves last week at a at an assembly and uh it was really fun to to be up on that stage and listen to the kids cheer they had a great time it was it was the it was the highlight of my week listen to them give us a nice FR of when I took the when I took that Panda mask off that's cute thanks Mike Jim sure uh so just a couple things one uh just want to extend congratulations to esar Casas and her family they had their baby over the weekend oh nice so she will be out until July 1 um but everyone is healthy that's great and uh that's exciting news wonderful that's exciting that's great then the the next big thing on the horizon for us is our Middle School principal search and I'm not looking for the school committee to appoint anyone but if anyone is interested in participating um they just need to let me know the process will begin on um next Tuesday 4 o'clock we're just having to get together to to discuss what's happening and then the following week uh will be some interviews um we have um currently 12 candidates all right um I guess as of this morning we had 12 candidates U Mike and I will be doing the um we'll take the process of of um looking at them all and seeing who one is qualified to might be worth interviewing uh and and we'll bring those to the um to the screening committee uh Jim do you know do we still I know in the past like we had policies that said who had to for certain positions uh for central office positions okay um and we've added it's it's I want to be clear it's not a committee to to elect someone um right we've always included a school Committee Member there's not a policy that states um specifically who has to be on the committee okay but we've always we' always includ for central office like I was on Jenna's so I know that we've always had I I don't the reason why I'm asking if if if you if the decision is to move forward without a member it's fine with me i' like a m but but I think we need to don't we need to formally appoint somebody here I I don't think I I think in order for us to agree who that's going to be yeah we could I mean it I'm W you're welcome to hold off on the decision till next week well we can't do it now because there's no um nothing on the agenda when are the interviews Jim are they during so they will be uh after school um it would be closer to 4:00 um depending on how many we interview I anticipate the interviews taking place on Monday the 8th is that the Monday the 8th is that right yeah yeah 10 Wednesday Monday the 8th and and 9th Monday and Tuesday 8th and 9th um would be the first round yeah that's what I anticipate again how many yes okay yeah a word not having another meeting before we will we will have a meeting on Tuesday Tuesday meeting which I will put it on the agenda the only reason why if if a me because I've had people I've had other school school Committee Member tell me that it's not part of a policy um but that's fine yeah um I'll go back and review it don't listen to him if somebody knows the policies though I'm just kidding all I'm saying is that we I apologize yeah yeah yeah I'm just kidding if if I just want to make sure if that's how we're supposed to do it that it gets on the agenda 100% that's why I was not expecting it to be a discussion tonight okay just I will put it on the agenda for Tuesday okay uh in addition to the open um the meeting the budget meeting keeping the budget meeting open right so I have no problem with that uh and know I will send an email just outlining you've already seen it I've sent you the outline of what the process will look like but now it's really clear when we're meeting um you know next week it's just a uh informal discussion of of what we're looking for yeah okay so uh but I'm pleased that we have 12 candidates uh yeah that's and certainly my initial review of the applications are we've got some high quality caliber individuals oh great excellent yep um so that's pretty much all I have for an update um on that all right uh and I guess we're not doing warrant approvals because Paul's not here no um gifts and donation we do have a few we're getting smaller and smaller hard read um National Youth tobacco survey $500 Amazon gift card for the wellness Department um Shaws $862 80 assorted office supplies HS student council there are a number of them in in their supplies for the the department of English science math social studies and unified Arts um in the amounts of $272 $285 191 $28.98 $94.31 and $29.30 uh power cords um for connect computers to the system in the auditorium uh newb cords $131 80 student council donated this uh and one more student council donation to The World Language Department of $277 78 for a total of $3,173 43 and what I do want to say it's the first time in my 10 years that uh I'm impressed that I actually have um and Marcy will appreciate this from a tape you know 10y tap 10 key tape wow so I'm really the numbers awesome uh trip down memory lane exactly do we need move to accept we do okay so I move to accept the gifts and donations as presented second all in favor Marcy I Gina I I that passes um had anyone looked at the minutes for March 13th I did miss that meeting so I have nothing to I didn't have any any changes yep all right so then we'll move to accept the minutes from March 13th is that the March 13th y second all in favor Marcy I hi and um I think that's it unless um we have any updates that you guys want to share um I made a list of little things that some of these I was able to attend others were just cool things that happened in the district that I heard about but um uh I was at an ashack meeting last week I think the meeting was I think it was last week maybe it was the week before but since our last meeting um and one of the things that they've been working on for a while now and it's kind of up and running is they've created this lending library um with a lot of resources for parents for teachers administrators on a whole host of different special education issues and so that's available um to parents um teachers administrators whoever um you know would benefit from from using those resources they they're all donated um you I don't from different people some from their own personal librar some from their professional libraries or um you know books that ashack has accumulated over the years so they've been working hard on that and that's um you know kind of ready to go at the meeting last week we talked a lot about the budget U Britney was there so um you know they were able to ask her a lot of questions about the programming which um you know was great I kind of reiterated our support from the school committee lens um of all of that programming and you know the the work that Britney's been doing um uh you know the the music program at the high school is going to be participating in every year they participate in a a a Festival a music festival um that which will be next weekend but they have a preview concert which was last week so so they did it they did a great job there um you know uh gearing up for that um and there were a couple of cool things that you know I saw um on on Twitter or on Instagram that you know were happening in the school um one of the things actually that Britney was sharing at the ashack meeting last week was there was this this uh you know we have best buddies um in United Sports at the um middle school and high school but it at Warren I don't know if it was at Warren and Mendes or one or the other but they had this really cool program called kids unite um that is kind of a it sounds like a midi best buddies program um at the elementary school to pair you know our you know kids with disabilities with um with kids who don't have disabilities but they're doing things together um and mik or Jim may feel free to talk a little I don't know that much more about it other than it happened and it sounds really cool U Britney said that there wasn't you know for her she's like I I don't think there was dry eye in the house it was just so great to see all the kids having fun together you know um working together and supporting each other and being really accepting and in in including you know all of the kids that took part so that was really cool to hear about um and then another cool thing that I saw on Instagram was I guess a a computer science class was invited to the state house to to present um some work that they've been doing so so that was kind of neat yeah excellent I I just want to hop in quickly I forgot to mention and you you reminded me um today um I was actually able to attend our unified Middle School basketball jamere so we were lucky enough to host um the jamere at at the middle school and uh there were two games that took place um for our students and it was well attended and uh just really wonderful that now we have unified basketball at the high school level unified basketball at the middle school level I know our unified uh track students are gearing up for their season at the high school um so just just another another wonderful way to ensure that we're fully including all of our students and uh it was it was a fun event to be at today so sounds like it awesome Marcy oh I just say literacy night was another hot hot place to be in Ashland and uh it's just always continues to impress those kids can't get enough of those baskets so true oh it's a mad house anyway so that was great awesome all right if we have nothing else then we can take a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor I I I good night everybody thank you good night for

good evening this is the Greenfield school committee subcommittee for the handbook meeting on March 25th at convening at 6:13 p.m. uh we'll do a roll call attendance uh secretary denim I'm here I'm the chair of the subcommittee and Kate Martini are you here she's absent Stacy seon I'm here member SE is present so we have two members and we have a quorum and we are in the Greenfield Middle School library there are no members of the public present all right we're suspending Robert's Rules of Order to do a working session which will involve brainstorming and we will not be adhering to normal Robert's Rules of orders so I have the let's open the document that we worked on in the past what do you think about that I think that sounds great okay because honestly I feel like it has more there um are you connected on the school's Wi-Fi is that something that we can do I am it I'm using CN guest okay and then asks you to do another little like I accept it'll like pop it up kind of let me do that c guest it's not I can take and it okay in the meantime while I'm waiting for that to happen I'm going to open it over here on my other device because why not we live in such a connected World such a connected World okay all right I have it open I just will not come up like just turn off the Wi-Fi and turn it back on that's always a good first step what I would tell you you have you turn off have you tried unplugging it exactly oh did do it because it is better to look at it on it's saying that it wants me to sign into the network but it's not working that it didn't pull up the leg nope not waitres NOP it's I need to sign in so I try to sign in it but it won't go to the sign in me you thank you for bringing chocolate Easter eggs you're [Music] welcome she it's not working no it just keeps the line across top that's okay I'm fully charged over here I was going to work in docks anyways it will just be a lot of my thumbs fact maybe I can move over there yeah we can better see thank you use my okay so we have two basic outlines for two related and complimentary but distinct documents one is a school Committee Member handbook right this handbook would be for new and existing school committee members right which would outline our sort of f ation principles there would be an FAQ section that would Orient new members to important documents and resources that are available to us um it would outline our public calendar um I think that you know these are all these are all sort of standard things that we've seen in some of the example handbooks that we've been looking through perhaps the one that we would want to refer to another subcommittee for drafting or might require more extensive drafting is this m code of conduct and articulated consequences that feels like a meteor section that deserves its own deliberation the rest of this feels like stuff we could pull from our samples and be pretty okay yep um the second document that we have listed is um a school committee resource handbook now this would be more of an outward facing document that's for the public right to help so I think you're absolutely right we can just sort of have those listed up front and then we can have a like Rua new me new or existing member skip to page whatever are you a community stay here and just keep scrolling um and then maybe have like an FAQ for community members how do I bring an issue to the Comm to the school committee how do I know when meetings are on anything that a Community member might be interested in knowing okay I'm going to start start taking notes yeah connecting to handbook ideas together um okay yeah ideas together member handbook and resource handbook maybe it should be called School Comm member handbook and Community member resource handbook School Committee Member in community resource handbook it's a mouthful but it is what it is it is what it is or School Committee Member and community resource handbook no I took words out and switched them to make it sound didn't notice the difference School Committee Member handbook and community resource handbook I said School Committee Member and community resource handbook that's what I it just sounds right it's good okay so I think if I have yeah talk I don't know if this ever does that to you but sometimes it just won't reload a yes that happens all the time so a section for so develop a section for members current and new yes and we can pull the stuff for the new members off of the website yeah we can pull a lot of the stuff there's a lot of stuff that's already been written and ready to go it just needs to be compiled exactly and I think that that also includes like this should be a resource that can live online as linked PDF um or yeah like a fully marked up pdf um and so I think that we can also link out like there are certain forms that you have to to the S different certifications that have in and like spelling out those instructions of like okay when you do masth you will get a little certificate or you will get something and you need to submit it I think a lot of is actually on there the section looks new and there's stuff that was not on there when I first started okay so I don't and I don't know the history of that I don't know like who went in and cleaned it up but somebody did because now there's a new member material section with more information good and there's links to the classes you have to take and everything so that feels pretty well fleshed out to me that that section on the website but we should read through it and make sure that it's current and see what could be missing yeah um I was just excited to see it so okay so develop a section for members current and new compile the current information already online and create a [Music] section for community members to gather um to get info about how the committee works and how about how to work with the committee right it's basically it's supposed to be a document that serves as a a smoothing and it makes it easier to interface with us yep so so so we need to develop a mission statement for yes so we need a statement of inclusion a mission statement which we we have in here possibly align with the district mission statement we need a school Committee Member code of conduct with articulated consequences we have a public calendar outline now this public calendar outline is not the same as the published academic calendar right this is a General this is our yearlong agenda this is not just a year Well we the yes yes minus anything that might be executive right yeah um we've which is coming up at the next meeting I believe Glen and I talked about the yearlong agenda and this school committee goals coming up at the executive session and then coming to the full committee at the next meeting so yeah um yes soals then we have our sort of like a suggested section is list of important Personnel people you might we need to put something in there we need to put school um subcommittee goals also CU that's a separate yes thing or you could even put committee SL you know we really were so amazing in our past three months ago past us we're on fire yeah um so yeah so this list of list of important Personnel so this is remember this yes ter we never figured it out remember but we're supposed to have one so we need to figure who out that figure out who who that is okay but it's like our legal council our superintendent our assistant superintendent cont and this is this is um specifically for new members but we also have list of important Personnel from the community's persp perspective which includes like us um our in our different committee assignments ET table live um you know but it could also include I think they should also include Glenn Franklin right because he is sort of the um family and Community relationship manager of the district we really should get a list from the superintendent of who she thinks is part of our part of the group of people that do community outreach and would would connect with the committee she's going to say no or she or maybe like maybe like those people aren't what I mean is like those people aren't part of our perview like we don't connect with them because they're specific to Student Services is what I'm saying so I'm wondering if there's some people that connect with the public and it's not a private student connection and that's those are the people that we should have a list of from her put on that does that make sense do we have people like that I'm wondering I mean Glenn Franklin yes but he does specifically student Outreach with family so that's why I would think that she might say no he's not in our I mean he AES student Outreach with families but he is also I me he's well connected with with organizations like Community Action and things like so I I just think that he has he's more for me he feels like more of a community facing presence in our schools than some other entities like a clash teacher right um but that could also include our sort of registar or enrollment people it could include the nurse um Wellness I would I would definitely want it to include our special education director those feel like outward facing but if they really want to find those people's names and numbers they exist on the district's website and you probably don't necessarily need to duplicate that yeah but it's always really great to have things in one place so that people don't have to go searching so maybe the the wording we're looking for is get a list of what you said was perfect of outward facing um members of the district right they are like District points of contact that apparent re L of outward facing members that are Point points of contact for families and community members so that's something that we could ask for because that's not intruding into any student privacy issues you know right which is what you know she rightfully yeah I don't want to be in the middle of that at all I am trying to be a of information and community members right and that really should be the theme of the handbook is being is creating a conduit of information so what are the things tonight do you want to tackle I had on the agenda that we create a list of Straight Up list of headers with the idea that if we just started writing things down we could fill them in but that was before I remembered past us and what we did on this document which we sort of already did so do you think that be should write a statement of inclusion tonight I mean I feel like if we start hitting these as we hit all of these individual Concepts that we have down more will come to light as we do it the list will get longer but we might be able to start filling in some blanks and we can potentially give this document to the full committee and just say like here's where we are so far because I really do like I understand not wanting like there's a lot of fear about um upsetting open meeting law with it but we have to find a way to get the rest of the committee to bring as much input from them into the document so that we can get other voices involved and they're going to think of things that we aren't going to think of right I don't think that it violates open meeting law for them to review a document and provide their feedback because that's literally all the our public meetings are is we reviewing submitted reports and providing feedback on them right and I don't think it violates open meeting law if they send an email saying hey I would like this section added to the handbook and there's no deliberation it's just a request to have it added but the deliberation would come if we if we do this in executive session true or even if we did it in public session right even if we didn't saying to us hey I would like you to add a section on I don't know whatever transportation to meetings or whatever comes up in their mind that doesn't violate open meeting law and we should know that that's something that they want put into the handbook yes that's I mean that would be one way for them to let us know changes that they are considering where where it would become a violation is if someone replied back no I don't think that's a good idea because which we wouldn't do which we wouldn't do because we don't do that because we don't do that um uh there will need to be a place though like just because someone suggests that it should be there doesn't mean it should right and there will become there will be the place where all of those those would I think need to be considered as like proposed amendments would have to like be discussed and voted out right but that's like all things not everything ends up on the agenda or ends up in the thing so do you feel like we should tackle a found a statement of inclusion as a foundational document we could um or do you want or how or do you feel like we should continue and outline and have it something we could give to the full committee to say this is the direction we're heading that's more of where I would like to go and make sure that the current outline we have is complete okay and if we do feel like it's complete then then perhaps we can move on to maybe doing some more of the loow hanging fruit and providing a heads up to the larger committee that there are a few sections that are going to require some more of our attention okay you know thought okay so um okay so sections sections that will require just as we get going some deeper discussion is our um statement of inclusion I'm just also taking notes like not just to take notes but also to sort of think about how we're going to report this um our statement of inclusion and mission statement really needs to be written like from the ground up aligned with dises um the code of conduct do we think that seems like a deeper discussion that's a deeper discussion it may also belong in the policies of or an ad hoc committee code of conduct um leads to the question yeah to the question of does it belong in the policy okay um condensing these so that they're shared outline in this yeah how do I in new member materials and how do I we can do all of that on our own without having to get the full committee into it important links we can do on our own new member materials already all that stuff we can do on our own guess we might like I'm curious to know if the questions we identify are the real e think like I just want to know how can we identify what the community e are okay Community okay Comm you know what that might even be that might even be a question to ask the community we could in fact just create some questions that we think and then run them by the superintendent and she might think of some other ones and then we could just put them out in some way and see if people have have thoughts and opinions on them because I would hate to create things and then have not be what they need I mean everything that we do this is going to be a living document that right that needs to get built in to our goal setting and the gender review process of just this FAQ uh can we can we offer can we source questions directly and this might be where we go back to our examples and see if any of them have right but it also might be really nice to put out like I imagine it would go something like know school committee is creating a new member handbook and handbook for the community we have a list if you're get ask questions please sign into this Google survey and let us know if these meet your requirements or if you have additional questions to add and we could like have it open for a period of like maybe the summer or whatever with the idea of because on our timeline we're thinking that we're going to be done with this project or at least in time for the next acemic right in time for the next academic year so we're going to have like a final outline ready in August so if we have these if we leave it open say for you know whole month of July or Jun or July we could have all of these ready to plug in you need using a survey to remain open through the summer okay um you I have some notes too from the last time um okay that we should maybe just check because it was based on some of the things that we saw um before I just need this okay oh oh I'm glad we l we need an acronymous breakdown page excellent our like acronyms we also have here's another one um when and how we set goals um budget calendar is part of that and a connection to some sort of academic dashboard which might be sort of like the superintendent um when she did the budget hearing for us the section on how we improved things like that something similar to that along with connections to curriculum items I don't know if that falls under committee things but Framingham had that an academic dashboard in their member handbook a dashboard is another one of those tasks like a code of conduct that will require its own Ark right for completion because we have to identify and agree on the metrics we all believe are important for judging the success of our district and then we have to figure out how to measure those metrics and display those right data it's a whole thing I know we might not be there yet but that could be a goal it can absolutely be a goal I I just want to name the things that we're going to be able to have ready for the fall and the things that we're probably not for well maybe that can go on our longterm school committee goal I I would love for for that to be something that we can work toward before the end of my fouryear term before the end of your two years I do love the idea of an academic dashboard that's a lot it is a long-term dream plan it's a long-term dream but we need to embrace our long-term dreams yes um um okay here's a low hanging fruit we should have a section on how when board members um visit schools like we should have a section that says that we're going to visit schools once a year to assess maintenance and building just to assess the buildings and the how do we want to word that I'm putting it under calendar calendar school visit annual School visit so we have to say annual a lot it's very important for that particular thing very good okay um oh here's a good one school committee Partnerships and I would think that that would be sort of under community links for example strings for kids or musical Franklin or all of the the after school programs that we work with things like that that might be a really good section for the community what was the last thing you just said after music of Franklin oh um The Learning null the YMCA uh I think those are the only two after book that we work with there might be more um streams for kids all those little things those little school Partnerships that's all we have on our list and then we have sections that we like from different um handbooks different districts that we liked like how it was laid out or okay but there are sections that we already have the head yes yes it was more like we like how this school lays out their budget calendar we like how that school lays out their acronyms that they weren't additional headers great I feel confident and comfortable then that this group of headers and subheaders is a is a good preliminary list to bring mhm for you know review additional flushing out Etc because it it at least showcases sort of where we're trying to go and I think it's a good thing to ask the committee maybe like how does everybody feel do how into this do other members want to be because some members might just want to trust us to just start writing these things and bring it to them and some might want to be really involved so we should probably have that question how involved do the other members want to be because we can go ahead and steam right through and write things and bring them but do you know what I mean and sometimes I've noticed sometimes as a committee we we uh trip ourselves up because we get worried about making sure that everybody input is in there but there are sometimes when it just it's like you just need to trust a subcommittee to go get their stuff done so I'm just wondering what the temperature on that is I think that's a question to ask at the end of the that's that's one will put it in there okay to move forward so that's okay so that's my report and my thoughts for that great you to read it back to you do you feel comfortable would you pleas please read it to yeah so so far tonight in our time we've we've discussed connecting the two handbook ideas together to create a school Committee Member and community resource handbook to develop a section for members current and new to compile the current information already online to create a section for community members to get information about how to work with the committee to get a list of outward facing members that are points of contact for families and community members there are several sections that will require some deeper discussion statements of inclusion and emission statement that aligns with our district code of conduct which then leads to a question of does it belong in the policy subcommittee or should we write it as the H of subcommittee a community FAQ and can we Source these questions directly from the community using a survey to remain open through the summer and how involved would the other members like to be would it be preferable for the subcommittee to move forward on some of the deeper sections on their own and bring them back for a review great I think that is fairly comprehensive and in that same time I have added uh I've formatted headers onto these headers that we said and added a table of contents I'm not worthy I'm not worthy I'm in I'm in the love of the greatness here um oh see you're so good at this it's really quick it's wonderful how good you are at these days um I think that this will help sort of add a glance are these the right sections are they expecting to see anything else and the details we can right details we can work out really for the next meeting all we need to know is are these the right sections knowing full well that we can always add more we can always take some away yeah we can always edit adjust Etc and we can edit adjust and add more and take things away later on too being the living document that it is yes so how do you feel do you want to go deeper do you I I mean we sort of just completed the agenda mostly because past us we're so amazing then I Feel Complete we did what we said we would do this we said we would do I also feel complete wow wow um would you I just want to for the record because the for the recording no other members of the public have shown up during the course of this conversation um neither did member martini and so it's 651 it is 651 we feel like we've completed the agenda and we're ready to present our beginning draft to the remainder to the remainder of the committee Comm that mhm this is just headers tables of contents mhm this is outlining the general sections that we might want to have for such a document and getting General consent to proceed in drafting all right so shall we adjourn I believe we should all we're adjourning at 651 6:51 p.m.

i unit States America stand [Music] na Louisa could you do roll call please Al Teresa present Michelle here K here here Cronin here Lauren here here H Jan M I'd like to make a motion please good I I would like to entertain a motion I'd like to make a motion to amend tonight's agenda by adding the following a motion for discussion in executive session for the purpose of discussing a confidential attorney plan privileged matter involving compensation the inter superintendent with possible action in public session motion made by Kate could I hear a second to the motion second second by Lauren all those in favor of the motion motion so public participation that the board welcome public participation and ask that each comment be limited to three minutes the public may not may offer objective comments of school operation and programs that concerns them the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the danur public schools tonight we have a lot of speakers we have an half an hour I'm going to ask everyone to keep your comments to three minutes we have a lot of speakers so we're going to cut the uh comments off at 7:30 first on the list is Mr Miller yep my name is David and I'm a student at Danbury High School scho in schools in Danbury are doing an excellent job educating students therefore the teachers who care about their students learning experiences employ a variety of techniques make their curriculum both engaging and informative however not every classroom has resources to empower students with all the unique students attending Danbury schools it's very hard for all of them to receive the help they need some of which may come from resources that are specialized to help children overcome their difficulties such resources can be categorized to include updated technology effective softwares and internet connectability as well as physical resources problem in our district is not the lack of resources but the use of funds obtaining those resources my time at Danbury High School in the danber district as a whole I have seen several instances of the district emptying its budget to give the illusion of progress with the funding that came from covid-19 the district successfully hindered the learning process of purchasing a software known as schoy this software required teachers to reinvent the wheel when it came to their curriculum because it had to undergo training adap us software that was harder to use and less efficient overall this was not fair to the teachers or the students I know students who struggled with the change showing a drastic decrease in their grades I'm not alone in voicing my opinions on these issues student voices can be heard using an outlet they created themselves the school newspaper in Danbury High School the hatter Herald was created by students to express student feelings and creativity following the introduction of schoy to the Danberry District District an article was put forth by student detailing student experiences along with some teachers opinions on the software the article went into depth describing the challenges students faced when completing their work and the annoyance of teachers regarding the new program needless to say both the students and the teachers had negative reviews of The District's unjustifiable purchase of school Agy I'm asking the board on behalf of the students and staff inside this District to carry momentum forward and continue to promote excellence in the academic field by listening to our voices on future action before it is implemented and later regretted thank you thank you [Music] so could you speak into the mic please yes thank you my name is s s and I'm a sophomore at dri High School just like many other students dur my two years at this High School I've become aware of certain problems that have been left un addressed for a long time which has limited our ability as students to successfully con concentrate and threat in such an environment one example of this can be seen in the lack of textbooks and similar resources in classes for my Spanish class we would have to share the same textbooks with another class which we did regularly this was a very tedious process and took time away from our learning as we sat for worrying about whoever we would get our textbooks instead of worrying about conjugations comp and regular Concepts who Alise Europe in a Spanish class in addition I remember how one of my teachers had to get a monetary Grant to give us very much needed AP exam RWS as every as everyone knows AP classes are very important for colleges and for students to get a glimpse of the college experience and not having sufficient material to review for the exam itself puts a significant burden on students who are already handling normal classes if the budget were allocated towards these necessary resources then the students as well as the teachers would both be satisfied I know some teachers who talk about spending money on school supplies dur the next school year which they shouldn't have to spend given the fact that some of these teachers are living paycheck to paycheck and are just getting by with the money that they have these are not the only resources that are affecting students the quality digal resources is also affecting students as well sometimes in a few of my classes when we have a street schedule need to cover as much material as possible on that day the Wi-Fi goes out and the students can't do the work as well as the teachers who can't go over their lesson plans as result some students get behind where they are supposed to be which is very stressful for teachers who need to cover material quickly and for students who are supposed to grasp those Concepts just as some days in my pre-calculus class the teacher cannot project their work because the Wi-Fi in that particular room is not very good and we have to wait for several minutes before the teacher's device starts to work again we have many mathematical Concepts in that class to cover every single period and having this happen sets our class back for and prevents us from being able to learn about it in short if more funding was put for towards better technology for students and staff such as better wi-fi integrated into classrooms as well as SLE resources such as textbooks and other educational materials then both students and teachers would be able to work effectively and be successful in this environment that D High School is looking to Cate thank you thank Youk you Liz hello my name [Music] isore many students and teachers Al can't hear you many students and teachers alike have been complaining about the lack of quality resources provided to the school despite being the largest high school in Connecticut who do not have the best internet or technology to efficiently do our AC the internet is very slow sometimes taking up to 10 minutes to open a this increases our work time and leaves more work to do at home which many of us may not have time to do or some may not even have access to theet at home to complete their work a friend of mine is unable is unable to go home until to All Sports andal she has she has to cram all of her school work one night compromising her sleep some nights she doesn't sleep at all with this internet problem she's not able to make the most of her time class to to do at home this further displays one of the multiple problems of school's slow internet causes in addition we are not provided with sufficient exp other and other study materials to fully optimize their students many teachers have had to reach out for GRS to get stud materials for the students something that should already be initially provided by the school these materials are important to compare ourselves for exams and projects and further maximize time creating more colorful facilities will also be beneficial as students would feel more excited to learn and engage in the concept of the class adding more colors helps to boost concentr learning and enhancing focus with a colorful and better decorated classroom can better our students learning experience the school should also provide them should also provide students the materialss to create certain School products such as Tri CS GL pencils sharpeners markers and many teachers buy these materials themselves they to afford on their on their salaries and although students should get school supplies themselves they me their un to without the sufficient amount of resources textbooks Food Supplies better Etc students begin to fall behind on on their work as without these resources feel no motiv to get the percentage of students in our high school is 41% the [Music] percent aage CL resources are significantly inir for students Lear if we don't provide the resources necessary necessary we may not see a change of these Ms and we should reallocate our budget to attend to the needs of our students and teachers our school will truly benefit from the AC thank you the team good evening my name is sore school today I can talk about two resources that I think our school should improve on and we have one this should be the school Wii receiving more money for our text since in class firstly our school our Wii has been very slow ever since I was and Danberry High School has been slower due to the increas of amount of students in this building the slow Wi-Fi anticipation it gets in the way ofation from personal experience SCH Point ined try to doed it takes time from our learning and interrupts it I'm not the only one who deals with this as many other students that are know tell me about this issue too in certain parts of the building it's even worse than others this year it's been slower due to there being more students this year the Freshman Class of 2027 is even bigger than than my class class of6 [Music] are very used out after the school having them for years are in need for new Replacements the school won't give that I have a great example for this for one of my classes my teacher needed new text for our class but the school wouldn't give the Mone to purchase that my teacher had to try to get Grant with her time just to try to give us the best possible this is an issue because it shouldn't be the teacher that was in the school should be providing this I appreciate the efforts that they did for us and handy and for for me and my and future students that will take the class I think we need more funding for t as it's a good resource for classroom education and we are provided with it a we should aim to have the best education possible for us students and be the best we can these resources can guide us with this thank you thank you Nicole good evening my name is Nicole caral and I am a sophomore at Danbury High School during my two years here at Danbury High School I realized how crucial proper resources for students and teachers are School resources should have been one should be one of the top priorities for deny High School a lack of resources will hold students back from learning to their full potential and from teachers to teach as effectively essentially students are't getting the most out of their education in Denbury public schools there are 13 elementary schools three middle schools and just one high school Denbury High School is already overcrowded as it is and in desperate need of newer better and more resources the classes I specifically notice the lack of resources for for the most are the science classes I talked to a chemistry teacher at G chess about this very topic he informed me on several issues on school funding and resources first of all the classrooms of buildings C4 and C5 have no access to water except for exended part of the building this is incredibly inconvenient and dangerous because if an accident were to occur for example if chemicals get into a student's eye then they don't have quick access to water to rinse it out immediately it is a legal statement by occupational safety and health administration that all offices Labs where employees are potentially exposed to corrosive liquids who have eyewash facilities that comply with the American national standards Institute this same standard applies to science classrooms and should to DHS before any regretful accidents happen along with this the classrooms also don't have access to gas which is needed for many experiments often in my chemistry class as well we have to switch rooms with another teacher since our room doesn't have access to gas not only do teachers have to share room but they have to share materials as well let me give a scenario teacher a gives materials to teacher B for a science experiment Now teacher a has to wait for Teacher B's class to finish the experiment to get her materials back and do it with her in class this takes planning and is inconvenient every teacher and student should have materials instead of having these materials passed around from class to class also making the materials wear out more since they are being used more often than they should be not only are the materials old and worn out but the classrooms are as well there have been roof leaks drainage problems and gas leaks not only does this make a classroom not a suitable learning environment but creates a dangerous environment k hello I'm and this is my Karen excuse me who's Karen is two of you Karen who's what's what's your name Young uh I'm Karen okay um we are both sophomores at danber high school our school is one of the most populated SCH in our state being the only High School in every Public School District you think as students we will feel more of an effect of our of our budget that is not the case earlier this year we had issues with rats in our school bathrooms bathrooms being closed and issues with bath sty many students in our one of my a uh teachers had to personally go out of her way and ask for a grant so my class would be able to receive a test books we only had half of the amount needed while conversing with an AB statistic students I will St how this year they barely had enough texbooks for the entire class there's already a very select number of students who take advanced placement classes so it is woring that we struggle to supply them with resources not to mention any of resources available to our students are out of dat or in po condition another issue that we would like to bring up is the importance of our learning environment it's hard for students to focus on their education when their class being impacted by the weather so vigorously as our school is our school is incredibly old being built in 1906 our building struggles were battling the force of the seasons many days when my schools had to cancel were due to the school being too hot too cold and in some cases flooded we sent out Google form and 59 of the students from the sem respondents reported that their education was being disrupted due to their classroom environment many reporting that this occurred on more than one occasion although form to not reach the majority of our school it is worrying that we struggle with these issues and can be felt throughout the building by both teachers and students in one instance my entire class had to take 15 minutes of our class time to relocate to our school's air conditioned Library overall our school is facing a huge issue with our budget we are investing so much but not feeling the effect of of the money in our schools after a being rule form students R our schools overlooking this a two out of five this is a big issue as 58.7% of the Denver School District's budget originates locally it solution these issu yeah okay I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name just pronounce your name so we can make sure it's Alish thank you hi everyone this is anra and today I'm here to talk about schoy and how I believe that it is a bad addition to our classroom resources we switched from Google Classroom to schoy in the beginning of my freshman year it was a sudden change and at the start of the year no one really had any clue on how to navigate into this platform which caused a lot of confusions in the start even after getting used to it people had problems with navigating around the app schoy at which I believe is not user friendly as well is outdated and makes it harder for students and teachers to upload and find assignments it is also really laggy and with the school Wi-Fi it just makes very common problem students space with school is its features of showing turning assignments and how that makes turning in the work harder for students schooly is designed to display overdue laid and turned in assignments on the homepage this feature has made difficult for students to find assignments which they actually need to do it also takes students longer to find an assignment as schoy isn't easy to use and is structured in a way which doesn't help make navigation easy I also think that this application uses colors which are really exciting or fun which if we refer to the color theory is how the colors around us schoolly aesthetic isn't something that would typically make students excited to learn one of the reasons why we switched to schoolo was because it was believed that schoy will help teachers and make it easier for them to log in grades for their students but a lot of teachers that I talk to have been experiencing problems when they link Power School to school district many assignments get really graded and some don't get a grade put on them at all also in school once students submit an assignment there is no way submitted once it passes the D day this increases the work for teachers as now while discussing assignments the teachers first have to return the assignment back to every student before starting class recently I realized that we have been paying for school degree all this time but Google Classroom was a much better option Not only was Google Classroom easier to use and navigate through it was also more user friendly and we got to utilize its services for free I think that the money we put to scho could be used toward something more crucial like fixing the bathrooms or investing into other classroom resources thank you [Music] SAA um hello my name is Sarah and um I'm a junior at uh DAV High School let's start by acknowledging the pivotal role of technology and education in today's digital era technology has become an indispensable for enhancing teaching and learning experiences and not only facilitates the interactive and engaging lessons but also opens doors to vast resources and opportunities however the reality is that our school struggles to keep up with techn technological Advance advancements due to the limited funds and resources as a result teachers often face hurdles in effectively incorporating technology into their lessons despite the potential to improve student engagement and academic performance reflecting on my own importance I witnessed firsthand the challenges um teachers encourage encounter with technology I've had teachers asking for help for assistance in troubleshooting technical issues during class which can disrupt the flow of learning and create added stress stress furthermore let's consider the importance of traditional resources like textbooks while digital resources are available textbooks remain a fundamental part of the learning process however many classrooms at DHS struggle with the short of t books depriving students of essential learning materials and hindering their academic process furthermore my own experience in a physics um highlight highlighted in my academic career how lacking essential resources can affect the academic performance and well mental well-being of a student despite a high a high quality education requires more than accessibility it demands adequate resources tailored to meet the diverse needs of Learners I recall friend who recently moved to this country from Cambodia struggling to navigate the education system due to the lack of introductory resources and support she turned to me for help with using technology communicating with her counselor highlighting the profound impact of resource deficiencies on individual students experiences in conclusion classroom resources are Not Mere conveniences but essential tools that shape our educational success by advocating for improved access to technology adequate textbooks and sufficient resources in all departments we can create an inclusive empowering learning environment for every student and educator let's work together to ensure that every student has the resources they need to thrive and succeed thank you for your time thank you [Music] Tyler hello my name is Tyler eler and a senior at danber high school and I transferred in my sophomore year from a Early College in North Carolina there I was part of a ro community that was able to pay for the textbooks for my college classes there which I'm very thankful for and upon moving here one of the first experiences I had in the advanced placement classes at dber high school was a superb lack of textbooks uh currently only two out of my six AP classes have textbooks which really shows that we don't have a lot of access to the learning resources necess necessary to succeed in these courses uh furthermore there were no online copies provided and very often there wasn't a lot of Weston credit either which really shows that we don't have those resources uh on top of this our stem Department really suffers from a lack of lab materials uh last year in my chemistry AP class we were unable to get distilled the water there was no running gas lines to run a bunson burner for uh titration labs and uh often times the teacher would be the one to spend money out of their paycheck on these resources which considering that the teacher has to be the one to pay rather than the school board is somewhat depressing if a loow income family cannot afford these review books for these AP classes they're not really given equal opportunity to succeed as compared to other students I mean look at Richfield High School they spend around $20,000 per student yet in Danbury High School we spend only $112,000 per student are we really following project opening doors that was meant before to bring students into AP classes we used to have over 120 students in AP English Literature which is now dropped to below 60 if there's not equal opportunity for AP students then well if they have to purchase their own success then it's not exactly equal opportunity thank [Music] you today I stand before with a sense ofcy and concern about a pressing issue that affects the heart of the community the dire shortage of materials and Dam passes as we reflect on the future of our city and the potential of the we must confront the St reality that many of our students are being denied essential resources that they need to thrive and succeed Pi classroom where students are eager to learn where their minds are bring with curiosity and potential but their enthusiasm is damped by the lack of basic material textbooks are outdated and classroom appli are sketch how can we expect our children to to reach their fullest potential when they are denied access to to the tools they need to excel the consequences of the are profound and far reaching they perpetuate inequality as students from disadvantage backgrounds or disproportion affected by the lack of resources inh academic achievement as teachers struggle to provide an engaging and dtic mess without proper material it undermines the very foundation of the foundation our education system which should be built on the principle of equal opportunity for all but ad miss this challenge there's also opportunity an opportunity for us to come together as a Comm community and make a difference in our lives of our children we must prioritize we must prioritize investment in our school ensuring that every classroom is equ with the materials and resources necessary for students success this means updating te providing access to modern technology and ensuring that teachers have the support they need to deliver high and high quality education furthermore we need to Foster Partnerships between schools businesses colleges and Community organizations to bridge the gap and provide additional support where it's needed the most by working together we can ensure that every children every child in has Suess to the tool and resources they need to succeed in conclusion the shortage of materials and family C is not just a problem it's a call to action let us rise to the challenge and commit ourselves to investing into our children's future together we can put a tomorrow for all thank you thank you it is now 7:32 we have four more speakers and I will ask the board that we allow the poor of the young people to go ahead and speak on no more than 10 minutes okay and allow you three minutes we appreciate you bringing your concerns to the board I don't want to be rude and cut you off but we have an agenda that we try to follow and stay uh in line with that agenda so the next four people if you can give me less than 10 minutes we come on up and speak uh car is that okay with the board that's okay hello I'm car and I'm a sophomore at D high school and I believe there's a definite need for funding for class materials and resources as I entered my geometry class there was a note on the board it read grab the compass on the table and pack and pack it and so I grabbed the first one and I found that I found a few minutes later the bell rang and my teacher began the lesson 5 minutes in I was struggling to keep up with the teacher because my compass needed constant adjustment it was very loose I looked around hoping to see that it wasn't just me that got a bad compass and I noticed that it was that a few of my classmates struggled as well my teacher noticed and she asked does anyone have a loose Compass about 12 out 25 students raised their hands the the teacher then said the companies aren the best and I don't have anymore so just be very mindful that we have to go slowly and it won't come out as perfect this is during the second week of school I realized that day that this would probably happen again I would all be mind solely because the limited tools we have wearing the best therefore today I come to address the topic that is critical to the education classroom materials and resources and investing in the future of our students by providing adequate funding for them as Educators and initiators and students we must come to realize how much of an impact proper tools have on our learning and out first and foremost classroom materials incl a wide range of tacti items that support learning from textbooks to whiteboards these materials serve as a pathway to a more interesting and effective learning experience classroom supplies impacting students learning by encouraging s to participate in their assignments they can follow along by filling out problems themselves with paper instead ofen to over our topic they may even discover that they learn better by writing out themselves this allows students to be able to obtain hands-on experience with their abilities while also improving their ability to absorb challenging ideas and their skills however the problem isn't that isn't proving that classroom materials are necessary for student education the problem is access accessibility to them we are often forced to work with limited resources making it difficult to fully engage and Inspire students the provided funding to our schools by district is evidently for our school to be proficient yet there are teachers who deeply care about the success of their students student studies show that on average Educators spend between $500 and $750 of their own money every year on supplies that students need I've seen firsthand how my teachers have applied for multiple grants and have paid multiple times out of pocket to provide for classroom materials as they attempt to bridge the gap between what their students need to learn what the District offers while Educators attempt to get what their students need to do at their economic realities can be harsh and in real in reality it isn't really their job overall it is incredibly important that the district provides fun for Uso thank you so much I'm going to wave my time okay Chloe good evening my name is Chloe chillis and my name is Melissa nean and we are both Juniors at D high school and speaking on behalf of Unicef we would like to share our experience on the lack of resources at DHS technology is a major issue we experience for example our printers do not always work due to them being jammed slow Wi-Fi and them being overused there have been times where we have spent the majority of our class trying to printed paper in black and white with just two working printers and over 3,500 kids it makes it hard for us students to complete our work teachers also experience trouble with the printers sometimes not being able to print copies for their class this forc most of our work to be online and it does not help when the Wi-Fi cuts out this means that the teachers have to change and modify their whole lesson to to these factors this takes away from our educational experience we hope our funding can be used to better our resources to improve our thank you hi my name is and I'm s and I come to speak to you about our school resources DHS is one of the largest schools in [Music] yet in fact many AP classes like mat essential materials to get AP exam for the last years they have been using tax toep for exam that is essential for those who aren't willing to thousands of doar in college when they could have simply high school instead teachers apply for GRS their own request money schri able to use their budget appropriately some teachers like my J teacher has mentioned it they even jok about how some of his materials aren't working properly he has also mentioned how a p Sher something so small compared to texbooks is something he La when I when I see this I wonder what has all the budget gone into the school has many other laws some chemistry classes don't have appropriate water or don't have any resources for their classes many researchers have shown that even $1,000 per student an increase show a huge boost in percentages of high school graduation if studies themselves show that the investment of education is essential then why hasn't our education been improved why have our budget why has our budget been used for other unessential materials School G has been one of these essential where classroom is just as good and even PR stud thank you so much thank you thank you I would like to thank you all for coming tonight um Mrs lorenza uh would you like to come up okay sure I'll give you one minute I would not want to be disrespectful no no that that's okay um thank you very much for all being so patient taking the time to listen to our children who are experiencing this on the ground level um I think I'm very proud of them um they took a lot of time and effort to plan and come here um and thank you for being such a willing audience and listening intently to what they were saying um I think their experiences tell you a story that maybe you don't see because you're not in the school um and certainly I don't want to speak for them but I invite you to please come talk to our kids please come talk talk to our students please come talk to our teachers so thank you so much as always thank you wait everyone C now we're going to move on with the agenda Michelle would you like to do the consent C please motion that the Board of Education approve the [Music] a special thanks to ca who is the a SAT coordinator and all the staff who proor the sat after the SAT was completed the staff offered enrichment flexus and the special lunch for our testers also on the 21st the sen a were offered toward the nbcc campus and the water campus with Diana dardo and anthon hman aeal thanks to stop for organizing the for our students this is happy to announce that I don't know how to pronounce thisis will be hosting a 10 session residency called M the spring at East during our Flex time movement is a movement residency that brings together students of varying abilities ages and backgrounds together to create a student BL Community students learn together how to express themselves through collaborative impr provisional movement with physic phys physicality and humor workshops focus on social socio emotional skills teamwork collaboration and self-expression the program addresses physical development encourages teamwork and improves communication socio tional learning the East family would like to congratulate the following students for earning February student awards February student of month awards for nari draws and Jaa hering ace of hearts for heing Vanessa AA Ace of SP for hard work is Jim Vargas thank you all for allowing us to share what is going on this holiday season at East have a wonderful break and stay also have here have Ace do we have any other [Music] represent hi everyone my name is mayaone and I am the B secretary at Denver high school a lot of fun fun and exciting things have happened at D High School since we last met with you all the winter sports season have concluded with lots of success from our cheerleading team our Cher team was FCX Champions um state dou champions first runner UPS in the New England championship and chsca cheerleading team of the Year our Co-op BBD hockey team won the S swc andcc championship and made it deep in States they're a runner up to Conor High School spring sports are starting up as the final rosters are finalized today and opening day is on this Saturday speaking of winter sports we had high participation at basketball games this season and lots of school spirit was shown in February we organized a winter spirit week during the week of Valentine's Day we held voting for a sweetheart court and the winners were announced at the boys basketball senior night on February 21st we organized our first ever Indoor Winter pep rally this year for seniors but unfortunately fire alarm went off during the pepper coming up we have our senior CL occurring on May 24th at the Amber Room with the theme of gods and goddesses our Junior Prom is occurring on May 10th at the Portuguese cultural center with the theme of Hollywood hi everyone my name is Josh ala treas um there's been a lot of testing going around at DHS recently we just concluded the edss testing for our Juniors with participation rate um Juniors have since jumped into the SATs uh which are currently in the process of being completed um we have completed 92% of the SAT testing so far also for the first time ever in DHS history we have over 300 students um taking the Seal of by literacy which is when you um show proficiency into two different languages and course registration is open for grades 9 10 and 11 for the 2024 25 school year and uh selections Clos on Friday hello everyone my name is Serena Johnson I'm the B vice president the P the PTO is kicking it back into full gear they're doing um a raffle for the seniors where if seniors choose to opt in they have the chance to get $25 Amazon gift cards and this takes place over the course of months months for six students each for each month and that ends up being 24 gift cards for the class 24 um the spring musical the the spring musical is going to be on April 25th 26th and 27th the tickets are live so I encourage you to go buy them it will be great um and our spring committee the environmental Club is doing a prom upcycling event so basically taking other um Old Pro Tire and giving it back to the community um dress collection ends on April 1st April 5th will be a fashion show to show them off during fle and then people can purchase the outfits on April 12 during Flex or after school um I know from the seniors um we are anxious to see when we were when you'll be able to graduate the Cong graduation date so just to communicate thinking with you and that is all we have um the Flor is open for any questions thank you uh educational SCA I apologize I was moving on the agenda a little bit too fast and everybody evening good evening so in true teacher style I'm going to start out with a report card kind of teacher sandwich tonight we'll start out with some really great news move on to the challenging more difficult news and end up with some really positive news so yesterday I had the pleasure of continuing our work on our professional development evaluation committee formerly known as our chal committee we've been busy at work this year our committee has been newly formed we've had a committee for many many years but um we reestablished our committee need it's new guidance to make sure we have equal members equal amount of teachers equal amount of Administrators and everything we do has to be taken by vote for a consensus so we feel like it's a much more fair representation of creating our new evaluation process so this new process that we've been working on is a shift that will work to grow our Educators through a positive productive and supportive model our PC team has worked hard to consider the unique needs of our teachers and our students to choose a model this year that will be a true growth model for educators and un and ease the unnecessary clerical and administrative burdens on Educators and administrators alike while really focusing on fostering professional learning and support for our Educators it's a positive step for reestablishing trust between teachers and administrators and building a pathway for growth rather than just compliance we are so pleased to share that our work has been enriching collaborative and productive the future definitely looks brighter for our teacher evaluation process and we're looking forward to sharing our work and rolling out the new plan with staff in August and September so now to the tougher talk you heard at the last Boe meeting from D high school students who were begging for additional counselor supports many of those students reported not having access to their counselor until years into their High School experience two counselors at Rogers Park have been recently tasked to take on an additional case load of 150 students each bringing their case load to over 450 students per counselor without any overage pay or wage increase for the significant change in case load in workload and working conditions these two counselors already had an untenable case load that is far out of the national recommendations for appropriate student counseling ratios now they were just handed a 50% increase of students that are not even on their grade level not only is this a disgraceful Injustice for our students but it's also an unacceptable expectation to put on any human being any counselor doing the job there's no possible way for any one counselor to service 450 kids daily we need to do better for our students and we certainly need to treat our employees with more Humanity than us telling a counselor who prides themselves on helping kids to do the best you can it is what it is is just not acceptable because of our shortages in other high need areas like special education teachers are reporting to be told being told to make up service hours for students that they miss when being asked to delay or postpone their own classes to cover for unfilled positions for lack of substitutes they're pulled from their own classes to cover or attend district meetings how is that even possible in many cases the solution to make up these service hours is to double up on their sessions with kids having multiple groups at a time for special education teachers providing resource support or for our MLL teachers that is again only Pro providing a disservice to their students and placing an unacceptable expectation on the teacher I want you to for a minute think about what this actually looks like in Translation pretend for a moment that you are an MLL or special education resource teacher you have arrive at work for the day with your lessons planned only to be told to cancel your small groups for a few periods to cover another class where there is no substitute the next day in order to make things up you're told to double up on your classes now you're tasked with teaching two days worth of material with two different small groups simultaneously as if that would even be possible or effective and oh don't forget this is taking place usually in an overcrowded room that is only suited for half as many students are my students IEP meets met was I able to deliver solid instruction and provide the required small group support with Effectiveness the answer is obvious no and this happens daily in most schools and the effects are devastatingly cumulative for both students and teachers I wanted to shift gears a little bit to talk a little bit about what I spoke of last time riew Middle School we had uh the Connecticut Association come in and meet with the folks at Broadview in February and we asked them to come in to be an unbiased group that wasn't the faces that everyone at Broadview knows to really talk to the teachers and hear from them of what their needs were and what they felt the shortcoming of the school work the report that I just received is actually echoing a lot of the things I talked about last time but I think it's important to know this is coming from a different lens so the Broadview Middle School teachers had a couple of categories where they wanted to talk about the issues of concern so they continue to express little or no support for special education students in regular education classrooms bilingual support distri distribution is in is inequitable by this new schedule that we have now some MLL classes have upwards of 26 students teachers are again reporting frustration with the wi program they're still letting us know that there aren't enough Chromebooks supplied for each student to use and they question the effectiveness of the program with the overcrowding and lack of resources some teachers aren't even able to have their lessons in their own classrooms some teachers come to work in the morning and they get a list from the office of where they'll be teaching in the building sometimes they're asked to teach in the chemistry lab which makes them nervous because they're afraid the students will get hurt from the lab chemicals that are left out the teachers are reporting that they were upset when hearing they were denied for pod use in the classrooms they continue to have building capacity concerns and they ask if we're even in fire code compliance there are many inter internal classrooms with no windows and several teachers recorded temperatures in the classroom over 100° windows are so old and leaky leaky especially in the bathrooms that there's mold growing on the ceilings teachers morale and teacher attention issues continue to be omnipresent they're reporting they are Beyond burned out some are afraid to come to school because of the student fights that are occurring daily and the increase in staff absentee is because some staff are just not able to show up for work because of the toll it takes on their mental health continuously covering for other classes because of absences and teacher shortage is really taking its toll on our folks many teachers report they feel like being taken advantage of instead of focusing on recruiting of new teachers covering other classes continuously means no prep time for regular education classes one of the quotes that struck me in this report is a teacher said Danbury school district is like a training ground where new teachers begin their careers for a year or two they get their their stripes their Badge of Courage and then they go elsewhere many teachers are counting the minutes till retirement and of course copers copers copers copers came up everywhere in the report over and over and over again which you've already heard last month let's wrap it up with some positive so I had talked to Dr casmiro about this a few days ago and I wanted to give you an artcore update um as you know the art cor reading and writing program is a program that the district chose to adopt this year and we are implementing it in grades K through three this year four and five next year so as a third grade teacher I have firsthand knowledge to speak about this program um I was a member last year of the committee to select a new program and it's no secret artcore was my second choice but I went into this year with an open mind and excitement for a change after being forced to use for Two Plus decades the caulin teachers College reading and writing Workshop program a program we know caused irreparable damage to our students reading progress I was excited for any change anything would have been better than what we were using and we were incredibly grateful that the district made the change and made this investment in our students reading future so let's talk about that K through3 implementation this year we're all Learners this year every single one of us I've been teaching third grade for 20 plus years and I feel like I'm a new third grade teacher this year with the program everything had to be relearned we're learning a new platform we're learning new data entry points the process has been energizing challenging frustrating all in the same breath change is never easy but in this case we know it was absolutely necessary so let me tell you a few of the best things about the artcore program the small group toolkit resources the Hardy classroom library and the week by- week lessons to keep our instruction on Pace and matched with our learning standards there's also in every unit and end goal for a final learning project that helps keep our students directed to their application of their new school their new skills strategies and knowledge of their learning I wanted to share with you a few data points from my own class to show you the success at the beginning of the year I greeted my new third graders and only two out of my 20 students entered third grade ready for third grade they were all significantly below grade level the majority of my students were entering it at first grade level or below as of today 10 students in my class have already demonstrated a full year or more of growth seven of which are showing 1.4 or 1.5 years of growth 11 of my 20 students are now on grade level or above six of my students are now reading at the fourth grade level and five students have shown one full year of growth from first grade moving on to second grade even though I still have four students that are significantly below grade level even those four have showed immeasurable growth more than a year and a half for each one of those four students it's tangible measurable growth that excites me and they are excited I have a board in my room uh it's called The Game Changers board and every month I list the movements of where students have grown and everybody loves gu seeing their name on the game changers for and it's such a positive experience kids are devouring books in my class they become Avid readers and the love of reading has been reined in third grade so while I'm thrilled to share this data with you and I would love to take full credit for every bit of my student successes my 20 years of experience in DPS reminds me otherwise an excellent teacher is limited by the program and resources they are permitted to use thankfully this new resource will allow our excellent K through 5 Educators to shine without the encumbrance of an ineffective program dragging our progress down I know this is only the beginning of true change for our kids it is only with the use of small group explicit lessons and toolkit resources that help guide our Educators to the next steps that we were able to instruct progress monitor track and move our students forward while we all know no program is perfect based upon my own experience this year and coupled with the feedback of dozens of K through3 teachers it's clear we are on a positive path for encouraging student achievement and reading growth at the elementary level so just a moment to thank the board for investing in the program and continuing to invest in it for fourth and fifth grade and thank you to Dr casemiro for making this investment a reality thanks so much we see you next month okay okay we're going to switch up some of the agenda here we're going to do our presentation next and so while we give um while I give Mr steel a moment to get up and get settled I'll take a second to just um give you a little bit of insight as to as to how we've come to know Mr J steel um he is part of a part of our initiative he's an extremely important part of our initiative when it comes to um our implementation of the academ model so um just prior to the pandemic uh we embarked on a a journey of you know what can we do around High School transformation that would reengage our students um and and provide something better than what we were providing uh currently um we took a visit down to Nashville we'll talk a little bit about some another visit that we just recently came back from took a visit down to Nashville to see their public school system and what had uh transformed uh teach learning down there kind of went to work on keeping that level of exploration and then setting on an action plan to to to make uh change of reality and as part of that work um we hunted down the guru and the original um uh innovator of this model um to work with us to give us his best Insight um and to help us action plan um and we've been working with him on and off in in consultation for few years now so I just want to welcome Jay steel from ncac and I want to make a clear distinction that Jay has his own program now he does he's no longer with the cies of Nashville however he was a huge founder um of everything that is good and has happened down there and so um Jay I'll let you talk a little bit about yourself but we appreciate taking the time to be here tonight thank you Dr casemiro it's my honor to be here with you tonight um I've had the as Dr casemiro said I've had the pleasure of working with your principles I've been in uh Danbury High School uh at least twice worked with the whole faculty today I work with department heads assistant principles and got to hear one of the um Academy teams have a discussion around standards based grading difficult discussion as always um I've also had the pleasure of working with your Middle School principles in this room uh kind of for two days rethinking about the middle level education and what that should look like so um a little bit about myself this is my 30 seventh year in education it's been a long time but um I'm out of Jacksonville Florida and I was a middle school teacher a music teacher band director I was a high school principal of a very unique high school that sat on a technical college campus where kids were doing their technical degrees um at the same time as their High School diplomas um I was the chief academic officer for Nashville Public Schools for 6 years so 150 schools about 78,000 kids kids um under 40 different languages and um I was recruited to come to Nashville from Florida to transform their high schools because they were pretty much all failed all one um of their 12 uh comprehensive zoned high schools and we were able to turn that around using the College and Career Academy so Dr casir called me a guru I've been called a lot of things in my career okay but I did not create this model uh this model was created by teachers in 1969 in Philadelphia uh with the Philadelphia electric company and U Edison High School which is now called Northeast High School and the model was studied over the years by lots and lots of people but it really came down to a core group of teachers the English math science and social studies teacher along with an electrical teacher who really tried to do something differently with education and they took the 30 most atrisk students that the junior high would recommend Surefire dropouts and within four years 100% graduation rate and so that took a lot of notice around the country and the model started spreading and eventually became the College and Career Academy model that I'm going to share with you today so um I am the President of the national Career Academy Coalition which is a national International nonprofit that supports schools across the world so um every week I'm somewhere in a different School uh next week I'll be in Hawaii working uh with their schools I have 25 high schools there with Mississippi 18 schools there uh Nebraska uh several school districts there uh Arizona Guam I'll be there in about three more weeks working with some of their high schools and all the way to Thailand uh Thailand is working on this model in three different cities because they see it as an economic imperative for their kids uh to have a Competitive Edge in this world U so the model is really popular around the world you might ask why College and Career cies I know some of you got to go to Nashville and and see it U firsthand I think last week and so you have a little bit of context of what the model looks like and so we'll be able to have those discussions today but College and Career have to go hand in hand it's not one or the other we're not pring kid preparing kids for careers we're not preparing them for college we have to prepare them for both so they have a u plethora of opportunities and choices within their toolbox that they can make their own choices for what their future is going to look like right so the skill sets for the future this is one of the questions are schools preparing students with these skills and for these careers so I want you to think about danburry high school and what you currently um have there at the school and what it could be through this this lens right so these are the top three skill sets workers will need to secure the best careers for the future higher cognitive social and emotional technological most people educators will look at this and say well where's math where's reading where's writing right you're going to see that but these are the sources in theck Kinsley Global Institute these are the skill sets that workers need the first one sorry it's clear higher cognitive this includes Advanced literacy and writing critical thinking quantitative and statistical analysis I was so thrilled today that one of the teachers at Danbury High School today said our kids need to be able to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data it's say okay that's that's rare to hear a teacher say must have been a m teach teacher but that's still I'll take that as a win these careers are going to be Healthcare business finance science and research engineering programming these are the career career sets that will use these skills okay the next one is social and emotional this is advanced communication empathy to be adaptable and the ability to learn continuously when you talk to employers they always say we want uh uh workers who can critically think that can communicate and collaborate around Concepts and ideas these careers are going to be Business Development programming Health Care education counseling and these are among the best careers for the next 10 years you're feeling that now with teacher shortages all over the country and the third one is going to be technological includes everything from basic to Advanced it skills data analysis technical reading and writing okay and so that means all of the technical manuals in Career and Technical education courses they're written on grade 13 or higher and when I hear from the third grade teacher talking about the students that are behind in Reading just think by the time they get to uh being a young adult these technical manuals most people think oh that's just a old vocational program those technical manuals are written on grade 13 or higher so kids really have to have advanced reading skills in order to master that ccal these careers are it programming data analysis virtual reality and artificial intelligence robotics automation engineering energy these are the jobs that are going to be the most highly paid they are now and they are coming quickly um especially AI okay so pres um I'm sorry the organization for economic cooperation development said there's a continent full of empirical evidence demonstrating the efficacy of a system that connects work and learning beginning in high school I would even say before that and that was why the the work with your Middle School principles was so important and so enlightening and they were excited about what could be um a future design I want you to also think about um this an economy Bill to last demands that we keep doing everything we can to help students learn the skills that businesses are looking for I mean hopefully our kids are going to be able to go to school and work and live here in your community paying our social security someday uh we want them to H have the highest quality of life we can provide them and we don't want them to move away that's why that like the state of Hawaii is embarking on this with 25 of their high schools because their kids feel that they have to leave their community in order to have a better quality of life and they're importing all of their workers from the mainland I sit on the plane with them every two weeks flying there and they're going over for you two and $300,000 jobs that should be their kids having those jobs so you want to make sure that you're connecting what's available here in your community that's high skill High wage and high demand um with the programs in your school and with your postsecondary partners that's going to be key the re there's been a lot of research around this model and I know this is important for educators and school board members but there was a landmark study it was a longitudinal study done done from mdrc which is Manpower development research corporation that students more likely to complete their required credits for graduation andmy doubled the rate of which highrisk students completed core academic curriculum so this is students in an academy versus students who are not 8 Years After High School the longitudinal study found very significant labor market gains particularly for atrisk males you have those students in your school as I walk the school today I see them a significant sustained increase in earnings and overall months and hours of employment particularly concentrated among young men who had been at highrisk subgroups they don't name it here in the PowerPoint that's African-American males and Hispanic males had the best results in this model okay in a 2008 California study um California has this model Statewide it's called link learning or partnersh um Academy Partnerships Lighthouse partner academies is what it used to be called but they're more likely likely to pass the state exam for as a sophomore more likely to complete interns requirements needed for admission to California's public universities more likely to graduate from high school so in all of the data sets they kids who are in an Academy have higher attendance lower discipline um higher graduation rates more likely to graduate from high school and meet the requirements for a university right this was also very telling in the study in another study that um this puts in order the supports that you can put in place in a school that are going to keep kids to graduate on time Dropout prevention metrics I'd like you to look at the bottom one academic support when I first went to Nashville in the schools we had the graduation rate was 58% on a 5year rate a little scary and schools failing we were double dosing every single child if they were failing English we gave them two English class if they failing math we gave them two we had to remediate them the research shows that does not work that only increases the failure rates because now kids are failing to classes they don't like number one on the list is Career Development and job training giving the kids a reason to learn English math science and social studies is key and through the lens of a highlevel career that aligns with your community and your postsecondary institutions is key so that was number one the challeng is we are fa and we're seeing it in our economy now we have the best economy in the world right now I mean we have the lowest unemployment so total employment is projected to grow from 153.7 million to 165 in the next uh 10 years we're in that we're seeing that and increase of almost 12 million jobs Healthcare and social assistance are projected at the most jobs at 3.3 million technological advancements are expected to support strong employment growth in professional business and scientific service including Industries computer system design and related services this has been done a long time before this last econ OMC growth that we're see that we're in the midst of now but a general High School degree is no longer enough to remain competitive members of the workforce um I've had the privilege of staying here in your community um at the hotel that I'm staying at um the person who runs the front desk is a graduate of Danbury High School asking me what I'm doing here um another um partender at one of the Mexican restaurants that I like going to here as shared with me if I would have had that in the high school that would have been amazing everybody says the same things when they graduate from the school it's like that would have changed that would have made a difference in my life okay not saying their life is bad but that would have helped them with their future 67% of us manufacturers experience shortage of qualified workers our companies can't F the positions in the top three category job categories right those are going to be technology Healthcare and education is going to be one of them in all my conversations with employers around the world they say the exact same thing but what's happening here in the US our companies are now starting to invest in high schools okay and you saw that in Nashville those of you who went I'll give you another story Discount Tire which is a national chain they're probably here in your city I'm not sure um they're experiencing a major shortage of Workforce also so they approach the national Career Academy Coalition can you help us find High School Automotive acmy we would like to sponsor them we would like to provide our curriculum our leadership training Management training and certifications and we'd like to put a Discount Tire inside the high school so we did we matched them up with a school outside of Houston and a school in louville Kentucky and they are beginning that process of partnering those of you who went to Nashville maybe saw Bridgestone Firestone is set up in a high school there every child is guaranteed a job every child is guaranteed a certification and and paying for their college uh those who qualify for it so incredible things happen but they're they're seeing such success by reaching down into the high schools and educating kids on their practices their philosophies that it's really making a difference in their job retention every year over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone that's um every 26 seconds or 7,000 a day that's unacceptable about 25% of our High School freshman failed graduate from high school on time we know that's four years in a summer and we know that your high school I believe Dan is in the 80s low 80s okay um and that's below the national average okay the national average has been going up but I don't think any of you will be happy until it's probably above 90% okay the higher we can get the better the US which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country now ranks 22nd out of 27 okay we're going down on the list and if you start looking at some of the other countries and what they're doing I mean I Thailand as an example Thailand Vietnam 11 Southeast Asian countries came together to form a group called cbio Southeast Asian ministries of Education organization and their number one strategy is stem careeres and they are focusing on stem because that's where they feel their kids are going to be the most competitive career academies may increase student achievement that is one of the findings okay but it will not increase student achievement without quality instruction quality materials Etc the things you heard about tonight but quality instruction and quality instructional leadership are the number one predictors of Student Success this is just a model that lets the people do what they need to do at a higher level 81% of dropouts said if they would have had more real world learning it may have influenced them to stay in school all right so there are three key elements that you've seen or you've heard about I know that you all got the rubric ahead of time I know you all read every repage to that but that was a little overload but I wanted you to have the document that the schools are using the middle school has has a rubric the high school Hazard rubric around 10 national standards that were based off of the original teachers work number one it's a small learning community there are three smaller Learning Community types in the United States those are magnet schools one of your middle schools is a magnet school the second one is small boutique schools like New York and Philadelphia have broken down on their large high schools into several schools within a building and the third one is the College and Career Academy model that's what you're attempting to do at danburry high school taking a large Comprehensive High School and breaking it apart into smaller schools within the school this is the original Middle School model the Middle School model is built on 16 character rcks it's called this we believe it's about cohorting of kids and teams it's about bringing an interdisiplinary team of teachers together sharing kids throughout the day with common planning the only difference between the high school academy model and the middle school traditional Middle School model is it has a a career theme okay the second one is it must be a college preparatory curriculum with the career theme not separate it has to go hand and glove together because what we find is a lot of students who take Advance placement courses International baloran or Cambridge courses lack the skills of of um Cooperative learning critical thinking working together with a team the communication skills they're brilliant at what they do but sometimes they lack the um uh working in groups but a lot of times our kids who just take um basic level forces are lacking the academic sides so we have to bring together both College and Career and raise the level of all of our kids Partnerships with employers the community and local colleges are key to this it's not always about a 4-year University but we're looking at apprenticeships 2-year universities technical schools um training programs four year and Beyond bringing everybody together to work together for this model those of you who went to Nashville saw there's over 360 Partners working with the high schools there and bringing resources for the teachers inside the school and outside of the school for the faculty and the students um in a smaller Learning Community kids are hoed in groups they take classes together for at least 3 to four years in your case you'll have a Freshman Academy at the high school which is open now I met with the Freshman administrator today and she's already seeing success data that showing the kids are more engaged less disciplined better attendance she's already seeing that happen in the first year compared to last year's nth grade then in your upper your grades 10 through 12 I think you're going to have six cies based around different themes that are related to your community teams of teachers from different disciplines come together with a Lead Teacher that's empowered to facilitate the common planning meetings that happen weekly with those teachers they plan together as a team it is student uh Choice it is voluntary enrollment there are no prequisites in place to get in I don't have to have a math score to get into engineering because you never know when that passion is going to be ignited for a kid and it the light bul turns on and now they understand why they're learning math and there's also opportunity for students to engage in a full range of school activities this does not mean the end of band choir drama all of that stuff those should be open for every single child I preached that because I was one of those teachers okay is a college prep curriculum with a career theme you heard a lot tonight from your advanced placement kids but academic courses meet graduation and college entrance requirements at a minimum we want to raise the bar and bring more of those types of classes and expect more kids to start taking them common planning time for our teaching team that's going to be extremely important our middle schools and elementary schools already work together in interdisplinary teams our high schools around the country are departmentalized so keeping the departmental structure but also bringing together teachers from different disciplines into an interdisiplinary team is going to be key Project based learning brings together skills acquired through academic and career content so Active Learning is what some people call it some people call it problem based learning but kids coming together determining how they're going to master the challenge that the teacher has put before them and is a real challenge it's not something abstract it's something in their community that the business Community or the city is facing that kids can solve okay students also have a postsecondary plan um and I showed it to your teacher your um assistant principles today a 10-year plan in the eth OR nth grade where kids map out where they see themselves in 10 years it's a fluid plan and it should be because kids interest change and their experiences inform what they're going to do for the rest of their life just because a kid chooses a health care career in the 10th grade doesn't mean they're going to be in healthare the rest of their life so it's very important to teach them transferable skills that can be used in anything they want those are going we're going to call Professional skills all right Partnerships with higher ed Community um and employers so businesses provide internships for our kids mentoring you heard that tonight before the board meeting from the one group job shadowing opportunities teacher externships getting our teachers out into their business in learning how they use math and English and science and social studies is key to this leadership opportunities those of you who in Nashville met the ambassadors okay um that's a student leadership organization ation Dany High School will embark on that next year they were talking about it today is getting their ambassador program up and going but training kids on public speaking on how to meet and greet and represent the brand of danburry high school um giving advice to our students on labor market trends and assistance with project Bas learning that's going to be key postsecondary Partners work collaboratively to promote benefits of postsecondary and or Technical Training for our kids but starting to offer some of those entry level courses in high school is key you might call it dual enrollment here some school districts call it early college but kids should be able to graduate with AAS or as's done by the time they get to the senior year and that that happens in pretty much every Academy school parents and Guardians are aware and actively engaged to support Student Success so parents are going to be very integral part of this helping their kids choose um but also know what they don't want to do that's just as important all right these three essential elements come together with relationships so building a team of teachers around a team of kids that gets that small school feeling um that's going to address any some of the issues that you might be seeing with discipline attendance um lack of student engagement raising the rigor raising the expectation for our kids kids always rise to our level of expectation as adults are we raising that bar for our kids okay and then the relevance why am I learning what I'm learning this can it be taught in the Contex TT of a particular career um that's going to be key and the answer is yes and that's when we see achievement levels starting to go up when they see relevance in what they're learning okay so the academy model is about the acquisition of knowledge moving to the application of knowledge I was one of those kids I can listen to a lecture I don't have to take notes I can pass the test I graduated salutatorian I had a p and PE that was my only um be in high school um but I couldn't apply what I learned okay I can take the test and so often that's what we see of our higher performing kids they can take the test well they can reach those expectations but when they have to apply it to a real problem they struggle so that if we can get from acquisition of knowledge the application of the knowledge then we're doing wonderful things for our children so this is the process that your high school team has been going through your middle school team just started this they assembled a team okay um and that in instances was school leadership teachers and sometimes community and business partners um that is just getting off the ground here with the the work of Brent and and his team of one um but we started with the national standards of practice which you now have the rubric and those became the building blocks or the foundation or blueprint for what we're building we conducted an audit of Danbury High School and we crosswalked it with high skill High wage occupations here in Danbury those days data are published by the Department of Labor the Bureau of Labor Statistics they're every year you can Google uh Connecticut High School highways targeted occupations from the Bureau of Labor and every year you can see how many jobs there are what the growth is and the sour wages if it's less than $25 an hour it's not considered high wage all right then we developed a graduate profile which is kind of the North Star what do we what are we aspiring to do and then we developed a series of experiences called a College and Career Continuum that every student gets it's about Equity no matter what pathway I choose I get this experience and then um we developed an action plan a 3 to four year action plan that your high school is following your middle school just got one a couple weeks ago um and they're reviewing it now then you begin implementation high school is in the middle of implementation The Freshman Academy in place upper Academy is opening next year and then you Monitor and review a continuous improvement process so those are the steps we've gone through to build this here's your portrait of a graduate I assume okay so this has all been shared with you we want every child to be an advocate for themselves a collaborator a good effective Communicator innovator of learner all right your middle school now has backwards mapped this into key metrics and I really like the quote on the right hand side every system is perfectly designed to get the result that that it does we have to make changes if we want different results change is hard especially for adults kids can handle it it's the adults that always struggle with it and my doctorate is in Urban Leadership and strategic change trust me I I've seen it it's I've lost a lot of hair over change okay from there I know you can't read this I know I can't read it but this is the College and Career Continuum that the high school says that every child would get this year's nth graders should be doing career resear resarch they are I made sure of that today they're doing College research they are using Youth Science for that which is an online program um they um there was a career fair I believe this year for them okay semester two they're all they all should be visiting a college to see themselves on a college campus whether it's virtual or in person they should also choosing their pathway again choosing their High School major I want you to think of it that way and U they're learning in depth what those Pathways do okay once they get up I'm not going to go through all of these but every child gets these experiences and you have it's intentional acts of guidance there are wonderful things happen at Danbury High School but can we say 100% of the kids get it probably not with this model and this structure every kid gets it if they're at school because it has to be done when we have the kids captured during the day so this is your high school design you've got the uh exploration Academy in the n9th grade comprised of several smaller teams and then um and they're all taking a a course where they're learning about the pathways and the career interest inventories and then through that they choose one of the sixms that you see across and then you can see each pathway in blue underneath that this is like a high school major can the kids change their major yes they can okay the high school will determine when they can change it but they should be able to change their major at least once before they get to the 12th grade because you want them to be a program completer you want them to go as deep as they can get college credit and get professional certifications in those fields and experience whether they go on or not with that major in college that to me is a win I would rather my child explore Healthcare in high school than pay $1,000 to go to med school and not use the degree okay so this is the high school plan all right there it goes this is the 10 national standards again I'm not going to go through them so I'm not going to go through the rubric where you have the rubric this is based on again the original teachers work this is the guiding document that your schools are following and this is a national rubric all right the next steps the high school will go uh with their upper Academy 10th grade next year okay I think they're very close to being ready for that um the middle school is looking at the design um they actually did come to a consensus on a design that aligns with Danbury High School that brings back the original Middle School teaming uh they're very excited about that but they'll be finalizing um their draft of a graduate profile with metrics their Continuum of experiences to align with the high school and then um what their courses will look like in the Middle School um and then after that it should be backwards M to Elementary about experiences kids can have so for example in Hawaii their philosophy is we expose kids in the elementary to different careers and postsecondary opportunities and then um they explore in the middle school then when they get to the high school they engage okay so expose explore engage is really the philosophy around elementary middle and high around career and college education all right so I'll stop there and um take any questions um and maybe even some of the things you saw at Nashville CU I was there for six years while we were building that so you as you were giving your presentation you talked about um a number of things that were key in order for this to be a successful program um now do this what can you tell us about the funding sustainability of the programs that you're familiar with sure so let's start with funding um I always say this is one of the first questions I always get asked from boards um it doesn't require additional funding okay it does require you looking at existing funding and sometimes repurposing the way you're spending certain monies for the staffing models right so the only position I always tell a district that I think is key that they might not have is some type of Academy director who operates as a leaone between the community business partners your Chambers your postsecondary partners that's not the principle that person is key um to uh making those connections and bringing resources into the school and getting um students and teachers out into those businesses so I always think you have to look at the Staffing model so in traditionally in this model there's a counselor for each Academy okay so in this case in danburry it would be a minimum of seven okay I don't know how many you have there okay but there should be at least one for each Academy and there should be at the Freshman depending on the size we heard that earlier probably two okay um there usually is some type of instructional leader an administrator that is over each Academy depending on the size of the school the size of the acmy you could have an administrator sharing two academies okay that's not a deal breaker um but I know traditionally if you want to staff it correctly it would be an administrator a counselor and a Lead Teacher in each Academy so the Lead Teacher is a teacher who gets an extra planning period or a stien to facilitate the weekly common planning meetings that's really it it should be the existing staff that you have your resource teachers a special ed and I think you call it ml MLL I call it e English Learners um they follow they still F the the the Staffing follows the kids um and that model does not change okay sustainability depends on leadership okay if this is a priority of the board um and the principal and the superintendent then um it it shows in the way it's staffed the way it's funded um and the community supporting it so for example those of you who went to Nashville they are on their third superintendent since I left and um uh the first one who hired me was extremely supportive of it and we did an amazing work a whole team of people the next superintendent came came in was told by the Chamber of Commerce you will not touch it because we invested so much time and energy and resources into it and the new superintendent was um one of the principles that I appointed who's now the superintendent and she was a principal of an Academy school so it is part of the fabric of that Community because the business Community uh said we will not lose this and every leader that's interviewed for the job has to speak to the benefits and why they would keep it could you repeat could you repeat for me the U the three steps of the process going from the elementary to the high school the engaged yeah so think Elementary is exposure um kids getting if you ask elementary students about careers they're going to know NFL players they're going to know um maybe an influencer and um maybe a doctor something like that so it's about um having intentional experiences for them career days College days um speakers uh one of my Hawaii elementary schools has a career Parade Where each grade level dresses as their favorite career after they've done some learning units um just little things like that about exposing them once they get into Middle School they should be starting to explore with exploratory wheel courses um semester or year-long electives that align with your high school so I can tell you what the Middle School principles here came up with we're taking your sixms um and combining them the themes of them into three different themes and then each of those themes would be offered at each grade level sixth seventh and eth so by the time the kids get through Middle School they've had a course one course in each of the themes that the high school would offer and then they're able to choose which one best aligns with them so more at the high school it's engage they're engaging with the community they're engaging with the post secondary Partners they're taking advantage of all this so expose explore engage thank you that's just our philosophy what Hawaii is using they can look different in every Community okay Dr Ste thanks for coming in and presented to us this evening it's very inform appreciate that um you talked a little bit about howang difficult for adults um and I'm just wondering if you could speak a little bit to some of the resistance that you have seen from parents in particular um and some of the ways that that um you know you negotiated those conversations that's never easy um with adults some let me start with the adults in the system just like some of you who went last week you sometimes you have to see touch and feel it to in experience it to see what it could be and uh hopefully you saw some really great things on your visit to Nashville that's just one Community I I've recommended to Dr casemiro um Rockford Illinois is another great Community to go see so is Omaha Nebraska all nine of their high schools are in this model in some form um Hawaii um we can all go to Hawaii and I can tour you through the schools there incredible um so people have to see touch and feel that's that's key with parents the only um push back that I've gotten have been from um advanced placement parents um that feel that why are you forcing my child to take a career course okay I always use a personal experience here my nephew graduated from a Val Victorian from an international Balor School in Louisville Kentucky brilliant off the charts his younger brother not so brilliant um took a culinary business program went on to a 2-year technical school to get a culinary business um degree he now manages the dietary program at lille's largest hospital making wonderful money his older brother who never took a career course in his life is a standup comic in La who's not funny he's in his 30s struggling has a roommate uh two roommates and barely can survive um so it's not always about performing well on the test it's about how you can apply so if you can do both if you can marry both then your kids are going to be more successful so when parents say to me my kids going to college they're not going to work inside I chuckle a little bit and because I know everybody's going to go to work at some point the difference is do you want them to have a career that's meaningful for them or do you want them to have a job that's not going to provide for them so if we can convince parents that both is important but we also want to make sure in this that we're raising the expectations we're offering more rigorous courses we're expecting kids to take four years of math English science and social studies not the statement that's going to be key and having a choice parents the kids should have a choice about what Pathways they're in and you're always going to get well they don't have anything my kid is interested in then we have to educate people on the transferable skills that kids are going to get no matter what they're in they're going to be applicable for the rest of their Liv Mr I see you use the word Shadows what is that terminology mean Shadow like a job shadow yeah um so for example in most of my schools in the 11th grade when the kids are ready they will get one excused absence to go Shadow a professional in the community that's in the career that they're studying that way they see who I really want to do this or not that be synonymous with internship an internship would be probably a longer an internship can be anything from a week to 6 weeks long or N9 weeks long but a job shadowing is usually one day however in some communities business people will not take the high school intern so it might be an extended job shadow and that makes it more powerful thank you you talked about um the many schools that are using the program have been very successful uh with it out of those schools can you just give me an example of one and how many years it has been running um and kind of walk me through a little bit of a timeline of how many year you know what happened year one and I know sure I I'll be brief on it um uh my favorite High School to talk about is white pahu high school that sits in white pahu Hawaii that's at the base of Pearl Harbor so at the back of Pearl Harbor um it's is their school so you go up on the second floor you can see all the ships I mean incredible place to visit it is 90 over 92% Filipino American um it is has many different languages in it um I'm married into a Filipino family so that's why I say it's my favorite school I love going there but it had the highest crime rate in the state of Hawaii Hawaii's FBI said they could trace nine out of 10 crimes back to that community and the real estate agents would not show homes in that community so the principal who's now the superintendent of Hawaii schools his name is Keith Hayashi he implemented the model there in um the mid 2000s around 2000 let's say 2008 2009 and it immediately turned around the school the school is about 2,800 um so it's one of Hawai Hawaii's second or third largest high school and um they have sixms in the school and I started working with them in uh 2015 um and if you know that culture in Hawaii you have to be trusted in order to be brought in and once they trust you then it spreads into the other schools um so they started their firsty there probably around 2009 wall toall by 2016 three two of theirm were National models um and then within the next three years all six of them became National models so it is a I would say a 3 to 5e process with your schools we did um probably two are planning cuz Co slowed us down your Freshman Academy in year three your upper Academy your 10th grade year four by year six you should you should see uh dramatic changes in your uh attendance and discipline and the number of kids getting scholarships Etc but that all should be tracked with those key metrics around your graduate profile close to you um not too many schools in the Northeast you're a Trailblazer with that um I don't really know there's one in Vermont um I don't really know any there was one in Boston but when Co hit the principal shut down everything and stopped it um Omaha Rockford akan Ohio uh Columbus City Schools in Ohio they're starting the process um those are probably the closest ons just one other question in the state of Hawaii does this Prevail in the island of Hawaii yes there are three high schools on Kawaii all three are in this model yeah all 10th graders on um Kawaii high schools all have to get the oia 10 certification you heard one of the young ladies talking about that tonight they it's required by every 10th grader in their Economic Development board pay for are there any other questions if you ever want to see any in the schools you're on vacation there I can get you in and it off on your taxes Jay thank you so much for coming out tonight and very informative always information in a short period of time so we appreciate it and we'll be working together again and Jay's going to help us out with our student ambassador program uh and get that training up and running here in Danbury we'll probably shed some light on that when we do brief on the on the Nashville trip a little bit later thank you thank you thank you we move on down the agenda action item a a a February 2024 financial report motion that the Board of Education accept the February 2024 financial report as recommended by the finance committee in accordance with 24-3 motion made by Teresa I he a second second second bya any question concerning the motion yes to me I'd like to just point out that on this particular statement there were two additions made to the financial statements one was the inclusion of a report that now shows the monthly expenses uh in addition to the year or date it's good for referential purposes and also it shows the additional monies we receive from the city from the reserve of some $62,000 which reimburses US with some of the prior expenses that had occurred uh that were unexpected to us which left uh and unced balance of about 655,000 at February to that point on the unencumbered balance I'd like Mr Spang just to bring us up to date on the uh issues that we had early earlier in the year uh there were expenses significant expenses that were being transferred going to use that word to to Grants which um um were part of the process of this $4.8 million shortfall that that existed and then there was another group of expenses a little over a million dollar that were looking to be transferred uh to the balance in the uh S3 funds uh I like Mr spank just to give us a little update on how the progress is going uh if he sees any bumps in a row on those applications to those grants for these expenses thank thank you Rich um I think the last time we spoke we talked about really strategies to help U balance the budget one that would involve um utilizing some of the excess balances in our sr3 grant that was about to expire and the second strategy that would look to the same kind of thing from a the second year of a 2-year grant for Title One expir in both those cases we saw capacity to spend and we um knew there were expenses in the school budget that would be transferred over um since then the the two strategy approaches has grown into six strategies but um let me just describe them real fast um we did make application with the State education department for the first one I mentioned uh that would bring 1.4 million of capacity in to use against the 3 million uh we also uh made changes in the title one grant that I mentioned we didn't need State approval for that we could do it administratively that added about another half a million of expenses into the three million so 1.9 on those two original strategies uh We've then um done we did an early uh shutdown of our programs inol and their spending we didn't uh deny them doing anything but we asked them to do their planning a month or two earlier than they normally would and at the same time we put in um we might call a soft freeze on any new hiring that um really won't be any new hiring uh without going to a special approval path to superintending and and some others um thing is uh like we did with the first two grants uh We've identified what we think is some capacity in our alliance grant that could be about $600,000 and what that would mean is postponing some expenditures that we normally make in the springtime uh we do those in July and August instead in the next Alliance gr freeing up capacity now like our power school student information that's $300,000 um that bill is not due till July so we can use that money too um we also U believe there's a one of our priority School Grants uh that could be used for summer school expenses and we believe we can reallocate some of the summer school expenses from the summer of 23 summer school into this grant that could free up $240,000 um and finally um we were looking very carefully just today at our Magnet School uh finances and if you recall uh in this year's budget for the first time there was a subsidy that we set aside to help with some of the enrollment shifts in the school budget $277,000 we only need 150 of that so that frees up 120 that's a lot of small numbers but as we get closer uh to June 30th we're finding uh This Is What It Takes um now I would just say uh what I said to Rich U it's still march um and so things could change either way uh we if nothing changes we think we can end up zero but if something were to change to the negative um I think we'd have to reconsider again uh the draw down of reserves that we asked forious that's where things stand thank you can I just make a comment I just want to preface that by saying that the contingency under the sr3 money is based on approval of the division as as well as potential revisions for Alliance so those those two things need to be in play they we have to get approval for those for that all that to work that there right to get approval for Sr 3 from the state the the grant fols as same and safety with Alliance when we made that Amendment there was $1.8 Million uh we thought be on news or some vacancies in that Grant apply 1.4 million to our uh shortfall and we asked the state for approval to use another 400,000 for cop of Replacements in various schools so very sensitive to the uh the Need You You' heard a couple times now we're hoping this will bring some relief Qui so in essence the reason for my question was to update the board number one number two if they recall that earlier in the year when Mr wson was here he and John went before the council requesting uh up to $3 million and there was other the reserves to be used um and so the point here the perfect world as I see it all of these strategies come to fruition it we may be able to just squeak by hopefully in the black if not just a little bit in the red so we can dra down a little bit of that $3 million and not utilize the all so I just wanted everybody to be able to at this particular Point what the process was where we stay Thank you there any other question a motion on the for was moved by Teresa second by L Lou no more discussion C there all in favor any motion so car thank thank you Dr yes action item letter B healthy food certification participation motion at pursuant to the CGS section 10- 215f the D Bo of Education certified that all food items offered for sale to students in the school under its jur jurisdiction and not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1 2024 through June 30th 2025 this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines School cafeterias culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups in accordance with 2464 motion made by DR second by Kate are there any questions concerning this motion see none all in favor can I hear I I I any oppose any Abend motion so car action item C Lauren I make a motion that the Danbury Board of Education will allow the sale of to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10- 221q of the Connecticut General statutes provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend two the sale is in a location of the event and three the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or a school store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Inter Scholastic debates are regular are events but socc practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not the regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales in accordance with 24-65 motion made by laen I he second second second by Dr K any discussion questions stand n all in favor of a motion I I motion so Carri exhibit D motion that the Board of Education recommended to the city council to update the members of the school building committee danber High School science lab improvements to reflect new board leadership members glis Cooper board chair and L zag insights and Facilities committee chair motion made by Lis second second by bur on discussion questions s all in favor I I motion so car action item e Kate I'll make a motion at the Board of Education except for the first reading the following policies per exhibits 2466 through 2473 as recommended by the policy committee motion made by Kate second by to are there any question concerning the policies listed seeing none all in favor can iar I motion so car thank you superintendent report thank you so uh the first item I try to be try to be brief but um the first item is probably going to be the one of the more pleasurable things to talk about tonight um I invited Dan Donovan to maybe if you want to come up and join us for a little bit to help debrief a little bit on on the national study visit so we visited uh with some board members um Nashville the academies of Nashville nville Public School Sy um on March 19 2021 and it was myself it was board chair Cooper um it was Lauren daily it was Teresa um we had Mr Donovan at the squ Kate we Mr Donovan at School along with Angelo morero and Chris Davidson two of his um assistant principles and also Mr um Brent Dean as well so um we had a fantastic visit um it has been I have been to Nashville a couple of times now um so I'm going to withhold my comments on on the experience of the trip clearly I'm a fan of the model so I don't want to ttin the the pool here but um I would love for our own Bo board members to maybe talk a little bit about their experiences while they were there and um just share maybe some connections that they may maybe have made um it was a great experience I think um it helps me better understand what we're looking at for danburry um we learned I learned so much and how this can be just a phenomenal opportunity for Danbury um I think we are well underway thank you to Brett Mr Donan and Cara I think um we're it's just so exciting um the networking that we had the opportunities the um seminars we went to and just the learning that happened and the welcoming schools they had down um in Nashville and the students how excited the students are just to share what's happening in their school with us was h for me because like they were just smiling and they were they were speaking to us and they were looking at us versus when you're you know in other places and kids can't even look at an adult and these children are excited to talk to you and they want to talk to you and they're they're thanking you for coming and they want to know how they can help you and they're asking you questions and they're wanting to learn from you as much as you're wanting to learn from them and the staff is excited and the administration is excited and it just it's was just so great that one day we're going to be bberry giving those tours so I can't wait for that I was so I was so grateful to be there I would definitely echo's uh experience um it was it was really um I mean it's one thing I think when you talk about these things around the table and we had uh you know great pres presentation tonight from Dr steel but uh to be in that space and to see things like um a student Court that's in the school where when there's a student who's who's having an issue uh it comes board and to a group of his peers or her peers and uh they go through the process of learning about how the eal system works while they also create accountability in the school environment um or I the credit union that was in one of the schools that we went to visit student run the tellers there are certified students who go through a training process and you know students can go there on their lunch and and take out you know money for you know an extracurricular or something like that so they're learning these very tangible skills that um you know are part of learning about career Pathways but also skills that they're going to need for life to be successful and skills that translate across many different disciplines as as Dr steel was add to this evening um so just to see some of those things in action and see sort of what you can do with this model um the thing that impressed me the most was this idea their their motto for the schools is every student known and the idea behind that especially when I look at Denbury High which has so many students is that the the efforts of the administration at the school model is to make sure that every student in that building has support for what their path is going to be and that it's the same group of adults working with that student over the course of their High School experience so so that there's no there's no way for that student to fall through the cracks and I think that's something that we've talked a lot about around the table um just so to find a model where we can make that happen for us I think is is really tremendous and I would just like to also say thank you to Dr KZ to Mr Don and to Mr Dean thank you I want to Echo that as well they take care of GL and Mr D and it was a fabulous experience uh first class we were treated very well um and we were assigned two schools and we had different groups each one went to two schools and I I went to Glen Cliffe and learned that that was one of the toughest schools um in their district and it's come around uh they still have their issues but they don't have they're not allowed to have cell phones they carry the pouch so they make it work and they said at first they were a vocal minority but they were a school at one time that was you know a game Le school and it's we had a student lead us around and he was very uh happy about his program he uh Des graphic designer he already had a certification in ad doe working on his Photoshop and he also had a certification in HVAC just in case um so that certification aspect really impressed me um they I guess it started out in Nashville and now it's a state requirement for graduates to have a certification in something uh but I notic it was they they connected the dots with the community but I didn't hear too much about boards bed's involvement in the program uh I was confused between the two business programs alignment and pencil and how they overlap in the management of the uh of the academy model but other than that it was pretty pretty interesting and thank you again everyone knows I'm short on words okay I really enjoyed it I really enjoyed meeting all the different people there uh the place was at you know everyone was just welcomeing to us uh what impressed me the most the schools were clean and I don't know where they had them just clean for that for our Vis but everything was nice and clean uh the respect that the teachers had for the student and the student had for the teachers there were no hoodies I saw one young man came into the school and he had his hood him and that administrator approached him and said take it off he didn't get back who this Hood he on I think the whole day I was there I saw two students they were not walking around with all these hoodies around and I think to me it says the way that administrator appros that young man and it was a young man and how he turned around and had the respect for her and I said okay it can work it can work all depends on how you approach a person and how you speak to that person so along with everything else um I want to thank our superintendent I want to thank the board members we all got along good we had a good time and it was a good learning experience so thank you thanks I'd love toar from Mr Donovan and and Brent and I know um the uh two assistant principles that you went with also had good experience I want to share a little bit about some of your conversations when you have back to the high school you know for me it was excuse me for me it was my second trip down there we went down in 2020 right before Co and to see the amount of work that we've accomplished up here to get us we're never going to be exactly who they are for a while but we're using them as the model of where we want to go was really interesting it was a different lens for me to go uh that was one part of it it was good to see the improvements that they've made uh and having conversations with the administrators down there about um the stuff that we took and we were talking about and them coming back and saying hey start thinking about it a little bit differently which Changed My Views but it was also uh gave me great pleasure to take the board down there uh and watch you all enjoy the what I have twice now and understand our why and why we're we're going through to do this um as M Coop said we had a great time it was fun uh but we learned a lot and I thought our debriefs and our time together working there was was well served and I appreciate you guys coming [Music] at had a lot of Rich conversation with our board members and our APS our school structures and um you know I'm excited to uh build up the business engagement MoDOT here from G and so you all got a chance to see what that was like a lot of organizations assisting with the career County so just to kind of let you know we do have our chamber there in to helping us in this regard as well as the Northwest Regional West neighborhood to we are working to streamline our efforts so that we can support the the current County lives when it comes of job opportunities experiential learning opportunities and employers engagement with us we together to make sure that this happens in a way that makes sense for everybody so things are in work in progress I'm glad that everyone was able to see how that actually goes down and that it is and works with this Frame so thank you I'll just share one last one last thing and I know I tend to gush every time I talk about the model but um you know this was my third trip down and the first time we went that we went down we were kind of really just in awe of it and then we came back and decided that we were going to build around this and start educating oursel on it and digging in so we had a fouryear action plan the second time we went down really with a different lens of asking lots of questions now we started a plan how do we do this how do we do that how do we lift this you know getting that lift off and buy it and realizing just how much more work we had to to do um the third time which is now that we went with the board um I think it felt pretty good and I I looked at Dan and Brett too from time to time as we're going through and hearing again you know we're I'm mentally checking off we did that we did this we got this in place this is going great we just have to make it better and then sustain it and so you know with each visit there was a different lens um and I had different questions because you're in a different place with implementation so your questions are different your needs are different um who you need to network down there looks different um there was a great opportunity to network with a lot of people who are implementing um technical service providers people that can help along the way people that are that are just excited to be a part of it and want to reach out um you know we have Educators and administrators exchanging information around every corner call me where you from Nebraska great I'll call you I have a question about this oh good we've solved that you know can you help me with your problem so um lots of networking happen with this model and we are a little bit isolated in the Northeast in terms of having other people to look to so we've had to travel and and do these things and we're hoping to um to be the next I say we're the Nash we're going to be the Nashville of the Northeast um and that you know bring that model here and you know we have a great City here with a tremendous amount of potential uh for to really create something special so um I'm looking forward to continue collaboration on this um and uh you know we're going to we're going to make it happen and I want to thank these guys here because they from the from the day that we decided to do this we've been meeting how often L how often I I can't count but we we hold ourselves accountable to um almost every other week we meeting for several hours we've had a long uh action hit list for quite a bit and we hold each other accountable for completing the tasks on that and these guys have been a huge part of us since the beginning so I just want to thank you both Mr Jan um Mr Dean I've got a question for you two basically how long since you were one of the I understand from my colleagues who who went down that you were like the mayor of Nashville so um we're very happy that you're with us and we sold a celebrity but uh how long has the program been in effect to be successful how many years did it take to to get to the point where I don't want to say it's Perfection because I'm assuming constantly tweak and modify but that would be one question the second question is the enthusiasm that's come back from the colleagues that went down and the previous group that went down how do we get that out to the public so that it's more than looking at the chart that we got six or seveny and Etc ET how do we convey that that I heard the word respect that students have themselves to the pear teach us the collaboration in the business community and the community as a whole working together with education how do we get that message out to the public and the other thing is at some point in time do you think we could possibly get some money in the next trip is to have some of our high school students go down to be ambassadors so that they can take the message back and then the buzzword spread through the schools of the success of this I guess I had three questions okay so um if you're asking about the longevity with Nashville they are 17 years in the making and started out with three high schools and since then they've attained so much support from the community in fact um they were in in such a bad State uh I think Jay brought up a g% graduation rate it started with a team of community members that came together to talk about what strategies that they could put in place to move the city as a whole and then the school system came aboard and everybody else just ratted around that concept and so here they are 17 years in the making and people from around the world coming to that so this is a slow process it doesn't happen overnight right it's going to take time for people to buy in um the next question you asked was um around the the the communication aspect of everybody we have to have the same messaging so it can't just be the high school staff and the team behind us Dr an need staff just us speaking that same language we need community members such as yourselves to know and understand what this model needs so that you can speak the same language with your people in your communities as well right additionally your businesses are on board and they're ready to attack this whole thing right it's it's just a learning period for us right now we're still learning because we have teachers underg professional development our staff is going through professional development as well so that we can know how to tackle these things with this community um we've seen some of the high schools in Nashville that their populations are very uh similar to dhs's it's also important for us to go out and see other places too that have this one high school model in different buildings within so we can see how they run and those places are in Hawaii and in om so that would be great third thing you men um oh oh high and Hawaii so we can get money from you or somebody we can go there that be so in my time Nashville um we did have students uh ride the plane with adults to come see our tours and that was amazing because they were able to take information back to their school system I would love to do that one of the things about this model is having through the woods if you have the stakeholders involved in this whole process you will have better value so we have these these uh information nights where parents and families can attend that is your prize right there they need to know they need to understand so that they can take it back to their communities we have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable which means going out to communities that we don't normally go to and explain what this means so they can tell everybody else and we all come back we have to speak the same language so stop me from preaching but I'm just saying we have to do that so hopefully Dr still has instilled the fire everybody that's listening on YouTube or whatever and just to everybody here because it's important that we not only just hear but we act on thank you appreciate it Mr Janelle if I get add to that one I think Mr steel Dr steel said it as well um when it comes down to you have to touch it and you know I've made that similar presentation that he has with theem and the chart and what it's called to do and what the Freshman do what the sophomores do and all of that all the way up through but until you go to the career fair that we had at the Dome you know we were there for you know was about 4 hours and and the kids that came out of that it flipped them the business partners you know now they're dealing with freshman and that just built their enthusias teachers we did the externship they were very hesitant they came back from those externships at the different uh local businesses that they went to they were super excited about it because they could tangent so until we start building those in that capacity I think it's going to be tough the presentations I'm somewhat of an engaging guy but I normally do so much of it you have to go see it and then that's when starts building the capacity thank you you know I just want to say in the last I think it's three meetings the presentations of the students from the high school that had been that came here and and talked about the issues that they're experienc I think it's incredible because we as board members are here supposedly to make it better for the students and with the exception of going to all those schools which some board members have and some hav't Etc it's great to hear it firsthand uh and I I think that's important you can see you can hear the frustrations and the sincerity in what they're saying so it's an important lesson for us to be able to understand what they're saying and listen to them and then hopefully act so that we can show that we're on the same on the same page so congratulations to all those students that really come here make a representation and be able to speak up it certainly helps me understand my job a little bit better and what to advocate for thank you okay um thank you thank you very much thank you for staying for the whole time thank you thank you okay um next up the we have the April 2nd Primary Election that's happening this year um during the day while school is in session um so it's a little bit different than we normally have school can we will have you know school canceled when we have elections the locations are at um Dey High School Penbrook School stadley rough Shelter Rock D war memorial and Park Avenue School in Westside and just as an added safety precaution during the day because we would we will have the public coming in and out of the school we don't expect it to be a high high volume event but just as a secondary precaution we are going to have additional Subs in the schools to help guide people directly to where they're supposed to go and make sure that they they exit where they're supposed to exit um we're also going to extend our safety Advocates um beyond the school day just to make sure there's no one floating around in the schools Beyond where the the voting area is so um again it should be a high volume turnout but we did want to add some additional precautions in schools since it's during the school day and the last um item under for me is really about the the budget for next year um April 2nd you know at city council the mayor will present his initial budget and April 3rd we'll be presenting uh for the ad hoc um our budget by that point we'll we will have known within mayor's initial budget uh presentation our allocation would be for us and then of course April 11th is city council where the final budget will be be voted on um you know I think it's it's not lost on us that this is going to be extraordinarily challenging budget to close given our ask um given the needs of the school system I know that the city is also under a lot of pressure as well uh financially and um you know we we will obviously have an answer very very soon but um you know it's it's my understanding that you know with the challenges that I believe will have every level of the our school system will be affected by some type of uh some type of cut um and you know it's something that when we come back perhaps in our next board meeting we need to start talking a little bit more deeply about um I'm I'm always hopeful that the city will do their best um but you know very shortly we'll have to have some very serious conversations about um our needs and and what we're going to have to do to shore up any loss of funding sh up our ask so it's really more of an awareness at this point um that the the there's you know significant concern around that um and that uh you know we'll be facing that very soon and we'll be circling back around on those conversations that anticipating will get serious pretty quickly concerning the S3 positions that were funded uh once that goes away what positions are going to be impacted what is the number so you have with $10 million worth of additional Esser you you could have anywhere's upwards towards it 100 FTE um with that alone that would have to be considered um which is would be devastating to our our school system um some of the positions that are that were necessarily hired during the pandemic um that are necessary or for classrooms you have to look at all positions across the district and make the best judgment possible to make sure that we're sustaining the the instructional core so that's the teacher and the and the the teacher that's in front of the students in the classrooms um so we'll have to we'll be looking at all of that you know as we once we get a a solid number from the city and we'll start to look at those um at decision making process at that time thank [Music] you yeah you can talk about that as well um there there's one other item on on the on here for discussion it was about the naming um of the of the academy and um you know there were some additional conversations around um the naming and the legislation that are still being worked out and so there's some some discussion around um how the legislation is written and how we may have to actually name the building and so I don't have full clarity on that there's more discussion that's being had um and so right now I think we're just in a pause mode until we get a little bit more information on the building side Karen yeah in the last meeting there was a question of filing this this naming document because there was a deadline that is is that deadline are we up against it or is it extended the the there is a deadline that's still blooming I believe uh there's there's special legislation and um there's an opportunity right now uh where the um folks down so Antonio and his folks need to submit by a certain deadline I believe it's uh within the next couple of weeks so I think we've got a little bit of time but we were trying to wrap that up but um in in through those discussions that there's some there are some remaining questions around specifically on the naming and the legislation how those two things are tied that we need further Clarity on before we can make judgments so so we have a little bit of I think so I think probably by the next board meeting we should have to make a some decisions can you remind us [Music] sub it was the debur Career Academy at the ctis building any other question seeing none we need a motion to adjourn go ahead oh I'm sorry um I don't have a full report tonight I did most of my so um I just want to thank the board being here tonight thank Dr our superintendent for keeping me informed of a lot of stuff ear in the one that's going on that we need to talk about as shers and as the superintend um again I want to thank the grou for the visit of Nashville and how everyone conducted themselves I really appreciate um and that's it uh I hope everyone have a great Easter a safe Easter and at some point one day next week we will have to go into uh discuss something else I'm not going to give it okay yes I couldn't hear that what was that I didn't hear what you finished saying one day next week we will have to take care of some business concerning that's very important I don't know Michelle exactly what date I'm trying to keep a date open open I'm trying to do it maybe in the afternoon sometime after 6 I just don't know what day the superintendent and I have to work out of dat going to be available for everyone because tonight we have two people that are not here we want everyone to be a part of okay just quickly I want to just say thank you to U our chair keeper and members Al and Lis for showing with the Early Childhood fair and family University this past Saturday uh there was a lot of families there and it was great to see that kind of energy excitement in the room around education so thank you okay we need to go into executive session that's have ation can I make a motion for to enter executive uh session for the purpose of discussing a confidential attorney C forish matter involving compensation of the interim superintendent with possible action in public session made by cake by Mr janelli all in favor could I hear all motion okay so when all e camera is let me the on he's on his way out all righty you guys are live thank you we're back in public session is there a motion I'll make a motion to compensate our inter Superintendent at a perdm rate equivalent to the previous superintendent as discussed second motion made by Kate second by Michelle right there a a question discussion seeing none can we do a roll call Terry yes Michelle yes P yes glis yes Dr CR yes Lauren yes Vita yes Richard Holly yes and yes okay motion so carried thank you all it was 11 in favor motion wait a minute minute I have a question um I would like to request of the chair uh if we can get a list of uh courses that are need of textbooks and how and what the respective costs would be and the second um the number of copers that need to be replaced and the cost thereof thank you could we spend one five minutes one five minutes more notes I have to take one five minut okay I need you oh okay session I'll make a motion to okay second second by motion made by K second

this conference room 229 and a public notice will be posted on the legislator's website okay first on the agenda is SC 144 sr1 173 um do we have anyone here to testify on this measure Angela um good afternoon education and higher education committee Angela Melody young testifying on behalf of cares so the Hawaii P20 um produces a College and Career Readiness indicator report called the CC to provide research and data on Readiness outcomes which shows how well high schoolers meet doe vision of a Hawaii public school graduate um the Hawaii P20 strengthens the education pipeline from Early Childhood through college and provides training with data informed decision-making advocacy policy coordination and shared action so the work is focused on high expectations and Equitable access for all students to thrive in school and then in a career and Beyond an into life so we know um I think the goal um is to produce students that are skilled at what they do right and with p20s College and Career Readiness report critical Career and Technical skills can be developed to get higher skill higher wage careers and so I just want to refer to be it resolved page 2 line 33 it says backwards mapping of Pathways I think the more appropriate technical terminology that the resolution is trying to say is develop Pathways from college to Career by training equipping empowering youths to elevate their skills in their studies with accessibility to programs resources classes appren ships and trainings so just a technical thing thank you also to testify Julie chairs Vice chairs Kim and members of committee Terry usima testifying on behalf of the Department of Education in support with our um as our we're in support and we provided some thank thank you for University of Havi I'm not going to be un2 okay um they're in support I think testify was supposed to be Erica um they have you down as P20 testifying okay good afternoon members of the committee I'm Stephen Shotz up the executive director of white 220 Partnerships for education we stand on our written testimony and support thank you anyone else here wishing to testifying this measure if not moving on for questions oh questions yeah so you guys don't really need this resolution right couldn't you guys be doing this already we are um a lot of what is written in the resolution is work that is already underway okay so and when do we expect to get um we're happy to report on our progress along the way um right now we've um we're probably about 30% of the way through the pathways and we have made it a priority and put some resources towards um continuing to map uh the rest of the pathways so when do you anticipate being completely um ambitiously about a year from now and then maybe about halfway through you can give us a report happy to appreciate that thank you further questions thank you if not moving on to the next item scr 98 requesting the Department of Education to partner with the Hawaii state Teachers Association and teacher education programs at local universities and colleges to provide Pathways for schools support Personnel to become full-time teachers to testify Department of Education good afternoon chairs members of committee Sean Ry director of personal development testifying on behalf of the department uh Department stands on its written testimony and support of this me thank you Erica backro for uh in support and Steven shots no I think that was the one before on [Music] bottom oh I'm sorry on the wrong Osa Tui hi committee Le Mo speaking on behalf of O hly supports this resolution we are happy to be part Partners in this endeavor and it's best to grow our own recruit and grow our own and have them St white thank you thank you Le and also submitting written testimony was uh superintendent Hayashi in support anyone else here wishing to testify this vure not members questions that's all we have for this agenda um ver so what positions would be considered School support Personnel what positions would be considered School support per oh that would be like our EA and our long-term Subs they're already working in the school they they work with the students one of the biggest barrier is financing and that giving them the ability to continue working and still earn the credits and learn how to be certified would be excellent we we have so many of them that are so good with the students but they truly don't have the finances to to stop working and and take classes they are living paycheck to paycheck but if we can get them this training and be certified that would build their financial ability you know they would make more money and I have so many EAS that are really good and when I asked them to do it they say they don't have the money they they even though their pay is small they need it to keep their housing further questions members thank you um yeah you know what let me ask the so you guys can do this already right yes we we have been working on this already and it is in the Department's uh strategic plan implementation plan and so when do you folks start to implement it uh it's an action item for next school year 2425 so this resolution is perun to in the sense that you're already doing it so okay okay thank you thank you okay further questions members that's the end of this agenda pass this yeah Vice chair for the go you have the sheets I have my sheets your I'm taking it okay for the vot for SC 144 and sr17 recommendation recommendation is to passr 144 and Sr 173 okay recommendation for education is to pass strr 144 and Sr 173 uh unamended chair vot I yes chair V Vice chair of I Senator hoto I Senator Richard's excuse Senator FLL I four members voting I one excuse recommendations adopted same recommendation for committee on higher education pass strr 144 and Sr 173 with unamended chair votes I thank you uh Vice chair kidani I I vote I Senator Hashimoto I Senator plla I your recommendation is adopted thank you that concludes this agenda oh no we have one more it's sorry 98 oh I'm sorry okay so for SC 98 the recommendation is to pass pass with amendments to make some technical and non-substantive amendments chair vs up okay passing scr 98 with amendments chair vot any member on the education committee voting with reservations any member oppose if not four members present recommendations adopted same recommendation for the higher education committee pass Sr 998 with amendments thank you Vice chair kid I vote I Senator Hashimoto I Senator fella your recommendation is adopted okay that concludes this agenda good afternoon welcome to the Joint Committee on education and committee on agriculture and environment to hear one agenda item scr 78 and sr65 using urging the Department of Education to require all public schools and charter schools that serve meals to offer plant-based meal options prioritizing ingredients from locally sourced and locally farmed products we have a list of testifiers so strr 78 and sr65 are companions so the Committees will hear one round of testimonies for both agenda items and take the vote as one decision making and to testify doe please Jer kidani uh chair gab and committee members interam um what AM my assistant superintendent Audrey sorry it's been a long there sorry I know I'm the person sitting down though everybody was standing up I was going to stand up but I thought I'd sit down and face you folks anyway you have to talk about par in scho I'll call you later you have our written testimony we'll be here for um comments or questions thank you thank you Lorraine sakaguchi hi I'm Lorraine sakaguchi I'm uh president of the vegan Society of Hawaii which is an all volunteer nonprofit educational group uh our organization has been very active since 1990 here in Hawaii uh we're on multiple islands and we've been continuing our plant-based educational Mission uh to help human health animal rights and the protection of the environment uh I've already written about why uh it's so valuable uh for our K to have this plant-based option but I wanted to just mention that it's also a very practical option um uh to be able to do and is being done in many schools now across the US possibly the most wellknown being that New York City now has uh at school's children uh have a nutritious plant-based lunch every Friday as their main meal and uh we would be really happy to work with the Department of Education Food Services if they're interested to help develop practical uh delicious and nutritious plantbased choices for our KY and U and we would love to have them have many local choices as that we can help with um and that's all thank you thank you Angela Melody young [Music] hello um Angela Melody Young on behalf of cares so um it is healthy to serve meals which prioritize Plant Nutrition and products locally stores from vendors and locally farmed products so this res solution will help to enhance um the um Farm businesses um that are focus in producing um farm products and at the same time it will provide nutrition to the students um because locally grown from products um are healthier um and so we should be more proactive and goal oriented with Solutions such as this so you know this solution kills two birds with one stone farmers get um produce that's sourced from the farms and this provides for the agriculture sector and the business Economic Development sector is also provided for because the farmers then get a market um within the schools to serve their meals at and um so that's why we see capani Community College with farmers markets right to raise awareness about the business resources to equip the community with with the skills to create opportunity and this can also potentially enhance agrotourism if farmers and their Farms become culturally focused on providing um like tours about the farm process and nutrition for the community yeah so thank you thank you we have a Nicole galassi on Zoom thank you chair kadan and gabard vice chairs Kim and members of the committee Nicole gas on behalf of the Hawaii catman's Council the Hawaii catman's Council respectfully opposes this measure while we're still smoothing out the process for sourcing local food for school lunches adding the requirement that plant-based meals are offered makes this much more difficult especially when Hawaii's beef industry was one of the first Industries to reliably Supply that beef to the school system this planning takes years and to discourage people from eating beef and allude that it is unhealthy would be a detriment to Ho poolo you have Our Testimony with more specific information and I hope we can look to ranchers as allies Mahalo thank you Nicole is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure members questions got to come No No No No's he's smarter than me Senator no comment introduce yourself sir good afternoon Senator Cher kidani uh chair gabard Vice chair Kim members of the committee Weston Yap the new Farm to school coordinator for the Department of Education qu the question is that if the department asked the farms and the vendors if they have Supply handfuls of school of each month like a schedule you they scheduling you guys look into this plan B schedule of menus like no not menus but just the product itself because it's not that it's not it's not that easy to get a hold of the plantbased products right I mean yeah right and um you know just you know going into that I just you reason why it's hard for me to um grasp this and I understand there's a lot of support for it but then I understand we want to train the kids to eat healthy and all that great stuff but uh if they don't eat this at home and then we're going to try and make one day out the week to eat this plant-based product they're really going hungry as it is during the school day and not eating one healthy lunch or the whole lunch and that's going to be one day that I saying the whole day breakfast lunch or um um the main mu but it's just having this option is great but the reality of it all can we have it sufficient enough it's actually going to be beneficiary for our students um it Senator it should be beneficiary but um with all the findings that we have um lots of um the Hawaii farms and um vendors are not prepared to provide um the local U plant-based meals and meet as of right now if they if they Gear Up and um and we have to do our standards too so maybe down the road things but I understand your point about if they don't eat it at home you know how they going to eat it in school okay well that comes up to the next year so did you guys send out a survey to the kids who would want to eat plant-based foods and you know just to see what what would be the the result of that um May I address the the first part about the the items briefly okay so I feel Department of Education has made progress in the areas of uh local leafy greens um local orange fruits and vegetables have high and beta carotene your your Pala ey carrots um you making progress in terms of local starches uh trying to get working on ULU and and sweet potato OA on the menu we have a uala farmer in the committee the area that we're trying to figure out to make this uh resolution uh achievable is plant-based proteins and so um in preparation for this hearing today was kind of looking online to see what local farmers in terms of plant-based proteins because uh uh something that can take the place of ground beef um or or other other meats is uh where we feel we we need some some work in our agriculture community and so craps like soybean uh uh pigeon pea and other legumes and beans uh to try and make up for that that beef content or that protein content is is what we're kind of studying but the survey he's asking about the survey oh sorry I got off track the survey of schools we have not done a survey of specific schools in terms of interest in uh plant-based meals I would like to check with our dietician um to see if there's been something less for noral where that same kind of data may have come back so just a follow up so with that being said and what been happening in the Square building um on the form to table and and all of the stuff that we're trying to do in having a centralized kitchen to minimize the opening of the can and throw them in a pan and call it a meal um going forward you think this is going to be compatible or you guys going to be be able to have that but we start pushing more to form to food to having more beef more more more everything else in the sense of something similar to what Senator de Cruz always say that like what zippies is doing now in the stores they have the packets already stew and whatever and open them up and it's a meal I just like know how is this going to be compatible to to um what we're trying to accomplish when it comes to form to table because I never heard um that was looking into the plant-base um for protein thank you chair you have answer okay so that centralized kitchen Vision um is beneficial if there's uh some time that could be used as was said before about planning how to gear up how to work with the farmers to increase their own productivity uh because the the raw material in terms of the crops is what we're short on um the good thing right now is this this bill is kind of putting the call out there that we need our local farmers to look at some of these more protein based crops uh which can then be taken and formulated into uh a product uh that can be served in the schools that is easy for the our school F service staff to prepare um the thing about this resolution that makes me nervous is just it's asking for that action now and uh we're tasked with trying to achieve more purchase of local ingredients that 30% and by um causing us to include plant-based products now without having the build to purchase locally it will make us increase our Imports in the short term sorry does I answer the question yes Senator so I think um long story made short um when we figure out and have a partnership with the farmers and that can produce what they need to same thing like zippies will probably put it in the plastic bag and and send it out to the various schools so whatever we all agree on that is plant-based and if the materials ingredients are there we would have to incorporate it in our Central Kitchen thank you Kim um based on your testimony you're saying that you folks already offer a vegetarian lunch entry entree uh at least once a week yes and how is that being um accepted by the students I I don't know I mean I'm sorry I'm not in the school do we know if it's accepted by the students I'd like to ask for the opportunity to gather some data and some testimonials through our our nutrition website and uh bring that back if that's I was not prepared with that sorry we already know that they throw away a lot of I mean the federal government already requires certain things on the men and we know that the students are throwing away a lot food and we've had this conversation we've had this um hearing on other measures that shows that if you just look in the garbage can you can see what they're throwing away they're not drinking their milk they're leaving it on the table the apples the oranges are being thrown out and then you see students going over to fast foods and who can't afford to buy school lunch but can certainly go to fast food mcdonals or whatever and buy food as alternative is what they're doing those I guess who has the money to do it so it would behoove you not to and and we've asked this why aren't we surveying the kids in school why do we have to go to a website why do we have to go to a survey and and the 62,000 a year for this web page or whatever it is you folks are using 86,000 or 87,000 for the initial initial um uh software when each class after lunch they can ask the students on a little paper that's true you know what did you want about this meal did you eat it you know what would you like us to serve and certainly we want it to be healthy but if they're throwing it away then I mean it that's crazy right we're spending the time to fix it to buy the stuff and they're throwing it away and they're not eating it so they're not getting nutrition they're not getting meal that's one two because the federal government have certain nutrition requirements how are you going to determine whether the um this um plantbased meal option will meet their requirements we will meet their requirements right we we have to because we get their reim how do you how do you then because not only do you have to get the plants and and whatever it is that they're going to but then you have to somehow measure it correct or whatever to determine whether or not it meets the federal requirements right so our I believe our nutrition should know this and they know how to calculate Lindsay yeah cuz she's a nutrition and then if I can comment on your earlier question um we've constantly heard Senator FLL said they throw away lunch and stuff like that but you're right in your question because we don't know if they're throwing away the vegan lunches and maybe we can survey couple of schools to just to see on the vegan lunches if they eat it or throw it away but interesting too because one of the previous speakers I mean they want to promote vegan you know vegetarian lunches so how do we how do we identify the children you know you're you're McDonald's you're vegan you're vegetar oh no I'm just okay you're McDonald's but don't you folks don't your folks Sur don't you guys survey your students in the beginning like um do you have any any kind of restrictions in your diet how many vegetarians how you know you know because I know whenever we go to any kind of function they always ask do you have any you know any kind of restrictions and then they they always have a vegetarian correct plate available for those who choose to have it so wouldn't doe want to know in advance so we can tell whether or not we're we're not meeting the requirements of a large percentage of students or is it just a very small minute percentage of students I mean there's no way of knowing unless you do some kind of survey or question or yeah that's a and you have to don't have to do it on a web page you just do it in school now that's a good idea and a good question and then we'll work with our uh director Audrey can you um I guess my question is the school Lun service is it the food is laid out and the students take what they want or it's served to them Sen I don't know and because of that question I'm going to have to go to a school to might know huh you do you know oh okay speak up please the way that menus currently work is you'll have a set menu and some of the items will be just um served and then some items are held as offer I was at of breakfast in k um and most of the the breakfast uh it was it was a parfait yogurt fruit on top that was the one that was served and then they have uh bananas or apples the kid can the child can choose to take or not to take and so lunch it's kind of that that separation of items as well chair that that's for breakfast lunch you cannot choose they make the whole plate hot cold juice milk vegetables apples everything is on one plate he cannot tell them I'm not going to take the milk or I only going to take the Juice by law we got to give the kids everything on the plate and what they do grab the milk that's it everything else in a rubbish can and if anybody let go visit when school let me know I'll take you to Campell yeah we go they dump in the food but why aren't you guys doing that anyway you supposed to be doing that doing what going to the schools and sing every single P okay W no but it was like that when we were going to school too no we had burritos and T tots maybe you guys did but not when I school but I'm saying that the students still threw away their their lunches the milk I think um those things that were not served you like milk or whatever they could put back some place right yeah but back then the federal government didn't require I do have a question when you have an opportunity Senator so I guess um maybe things have changed since I'm getting old and things have changed but I don't remember having a choice at all you just they gave you and for me I I've been a vegetarian my whole life my parents were both vegetarians doesn't seem to have stunted my growth too much and part of it is that uh and part of it a lot of a lot about food in in my observation is that you you like what you're used to so I don't know I mean you know we're depending on the age if we're talking about high school students and okay at some point you get to decide what you want to eat but the younger ones um I don't really it's healthier to eat vegetarian it's better for the climate and I think we need to take that into consideration as we make policy and you can make plenty of vegetarian food that tastes good and fulfills your nutritional requirement so I I guess I'm just feels like we're giving more choices to people than at least we had 50 years ago I don't know so Senator I'm older than you and we're so poor we ate everything on our plate every speack of rice on our plate yeah that too yeah I'm sorry go ahead W okay thank you just in terms of an attempt to do a survey and gather more information as well as trying to encourage the the students to eat certain things come May of this year we're going to do an offering of poi to about 30 schools that opted to participate but we have found from our experience last year that if we just serve poy without preparing the students for its cultural history its taste its flavor its nutrition um things get thrown away so what we're doing this year is we're working with the Hai Farm to school network organizations on each island who already have entrance into a lot of the classrooms and uh relationships with a lot of the teachers and principles to try and gear up the students for what is po what is KO uh what's the cultural history what's the flavor um why is some sweet sometimes it's sour in hopes that the students will be more um welcoming of eating it and survey after to um observe how many uh e the poy how much is lost and if the education in the classroom was effective thank you so so you know when you talk about po the cost of PO is really expensive so I I how you going are you just going to put it in on school that you know already have a hard time eating Po and then you know you got to factoring cost right cuz you're going to have to buy the PO and already PO is scarce so how do you guys look at doing that within the study and then cost wise because I want you to think about this there's going to be a lot of waste you know if you put them in school especially with non Hawaiians and they they've um grown a custom and PO is healthy where does that fit in the cost of that and then for most of our schools especially like your my areas that are underserved or socially disadvantaged under the free meal as we see the family struggling you know and most of them have grown accustom I can say even as as a native Hawaiian individual the dietary has included everything from pork fish you know and that type um I go to my school and that's all I see is waste in there the only happy person walking out of animal is the pig that I will to eat later you know so you know how do you in turn I I really like know how you guys going to gauge that especially now you're talking about putting POI which I would love to see POI the cost of poi today and then to grow it you even figure out how much water it takes to grow po where is dry land po um every commodity is at a at a low right now so I would say whatever is being grown to use that and to diversify what you have to offset Imports but I don't see that in cost of that do you know to answer or can we get back to her I I'm prepared with okay so last year when we did a PO service it was provided by a company named pom kulo it was only for a selection of aahu schools that there was a survey that went out and they opted in the school food food service manager opted in based on his or her confidence that the kids eat uh we've done something very similar this year trying to focus on neighbor Island schools just because they didn't get to participate last year um same thing those School Food Service managers that felt their kids would um not waste much and enjoy it uh were about the 30 schools are opted in out of the 257 so it's a small section uh and uh so so every school I'm sorry every island except Wahu and we kind of did the math if if pomai Kul last year was able to offer a 4 oz cup at a cost of between um a15 and A110 I don't want to give away their secret sauce but it was it was just above a dollar um they were able to accomplish that uh we know things are more expensive this year you know inflation on materials and it's probably going to be higher than that I don't know the exact number yet because we're waiting for bids to come in right now but um uh so two things one we're hoping to keep the cost uh we do have that that threshold for small purchases of $25,000 less than so that's going to limit how many schools but again because it's such a small number we think will'll be under that and hopefully the cost will be something reasonable enough uh where where more schools next year can participate so so with that being said would Point qualify under the federal USDA guidelines as a dietary um uh food on there for the free meal yes USDA did a study onlo currently qualifies as both a vegetable and as a a starch okay thank you questions some the Gap as the U State's largest restaurant as I'm sure you guys have heard that term and what you were saying EP earlier about the farmers growing having once they find out that soybeans can come up with protein based alternatives there's going to be a hell of a lot of soybeans grown here in our state but that's and that's part of the whole education thing and then once the students start eating those plant-based protein made from Hawaiian soybeans they're going to say hey W tastes just like hamburger or whatever right so I think that this is a it's a good start I also had a question for uh Nicole Gass from the catman's she still on Nicole helloa hi senator gabard yeah I had a question I was a little confused by your testimony you were saying that and I quote we believe that individuals should have the freedom to choose their diet based on their specific needs and values and then you said a little bit later on in the next sentence requiring all schools to serve plant-based meals is not necessary so I was wondering if you had a misunderstanding of the the reso because all the reso is saying offering plant-based meal options it's not forcing anything down people thr and you're saying here you believe in Freedom of to choose but then you're saying the school shouldn't have it's it's unnecessary to have plant-based meals so can you clear that up sure I can thanks for asking that I think that what I meant is that the the schools can offer these plant-based items but making at a requirement right now when we're still trying to figure out the local purchasing and really make sure that but purchasing local is the goal we're still trying to figure that out and trying to get those Kinks worked out and I think that adding in the requirement to provide that plant-based meal I think that needs to come at a later point when we figure out the local purchasing first and right now the beef industry is readily poised and has already been providing this beef and I think the discouragement um to to not eat beef and kind of alluding that it is unhealthy um I think that's going to be a detriment to the cattle industry um you said it yourself it's the biggest restaurant and the Hawai cattle industry being able to provide that beef to the biggest restaurant really Mak sure that they can stay in working order they can continue their businesses they can continue the land Ste that they're doing while they're providing that so we really believe in that farm to school um program I just want want to make sure that it's successful into the future thanks Senator gabard okay again it doesn't really clear up the point that I made and that was that if you believe that individuals should have the freedom to choose their diet based on their values and needs if you don't have the plant-based options then they can't choose that's all my thank you CH thank you Nicole further further questions members so um Department of Education just to reiterate are you saying that you already offer this you already offeri we do yes plant-based yes once a week well it's a vegetarian lunch entree at least once per week including two plant-based Entre okay thank you can comment on that a there a vegetarian I mean once a week that doesn't do me any good so I have to starve for the other six days I mean I I don't or you can make lunch I guess but any anybody we could have all plant-based food and all the all the uh the omnivores could bring their own lunch too I mean I don't I don't see how it's an option if it's only once once a week that is a good point yes I I think too that the the schools should know which um you know how many of their students want this opportunity and want to offered more plant-based products and so that they should adjust their meals to um be able to offer that and I'm not going to say that I want to recommend it or mandate it because I think that should be part of the Doe's jobs to know what their school what their students want to eat so with that members further further question just coule couple of more so um earlier when I I came into the square building you guys talked about called ULU chips and ULU milk and all all of these other um products um how is that going along right now ULU chips and milk um can I ask for clarification on the milk do you mean like a plant-based milk U milk oh ULU chips ULU chips are familiar with uh we are working with on a request for proposal program to uh bring in uh bread Fruit Products I I didn't write up ULU chips specifically yet but we were looking at chunked uh ULU to be used in stews we're looking at um ULU flour to be put in the rolls and the breads uh I will revisit the ULU chips um as far as ULU milk that's uh new to me I know we're looking at Macadam at milk um if I can Circle back about ULU milk um I appreciate the opportunity the only reason I bring them up is that um just like how we bringing up right now is plantbased products as being an option and vegetarian meals being an option um I'm being in my fifth year here and um there's no ULU milk and ULU chips or any other um ULU or any kind of alternative to any of the meals because of the product that cannot be supplied to the school so I just using that as an example Le of how he just fall between the cracks sounds like a great idea and then how much schools is participating in this a vegetarian meal once a week thank you members I'm going to call for the vote and um yeah sorry CH and uh because of the discussion the recommendation of the chair is to um OS the bill I'm not going to I'm voting no so I'm not tring to pass it but I think we should V recommendation of the chair is no I'm sorry we actually voting the whole you have to vote individually I mean committee by committee yeah yeah so for Str Str 78 and and sr65 the recommendation is for education for Education committee is [Music] to not that's well how about you say it's just a hold vote there to hold to to hold okay to hold that's right sounds nicer Okay so chair votes I to hold correct okay chair votes I Vice chair votes I uh Senator Hashimoto I Senator Richards excuse Senator flla I okay four eyes one excuse um recommendation to hold is adopted so I don't know Mike it doesn't make any difference we don't you want to vote okay uh same recom same recommendation to to hold as the vote correct yes the chair's recommendation be to vote no because I don't want to hold okay all right all right chair's recommendation on scr 78 sr65 is not to hold correct Senator gabard votes no excuse me yeah it is so they're voting on The Hold cuz I was no but he said not to hold yeah but he's not his recommendation is not to hold yeah but it's but the motion is still you the same Senator Cher G votes no Senator Richards is excuse Senator decoy guess I voting two hold two hold okay two hold I'll vote no Senator is excused so we I don't know where this leads us to we voted not to hold so the Bill's dead I mean are has the same Strang well that's one way of ending the day that's a unique one that concludes the hearing

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welcome USD 264 staff stakeholders uh parents teachers and anyone uh watching this YouTube video about our Clear Water Clarity for the month of April it's kind of exciting to think we're uh starting to hit the down strrretch of our last two months of the school year uh it's been a great year so far and we're really excited about some of our uh things that we'll have going next year with reaching out and achieving some of our strategic plan uh but today we have another topic that we really just want to be able to focus on uh in regards to helping with our um strategic plans so again we always want to just make sure that we're continuing to Echo why are we doing this uh so why are we making some of the decisions that we're making uh what are we going to actually be doing and then how are we actually going to achieve this so always really starting with the why and centering ourselves with that uh our why this time is really focusing on how we can provide some consistent and relevant information uh to parents staff and students in regards to behavior avior uh and making sure that we're uh using consistent language across the district and then making sure that we're able to use deep relationships and engagement with the students and the parents uh to understand why we are uh making some uh consequence decisions or being able to uh respond to the behavior so um back in March the school board approved our new uh prek-12 discipline framework uh and here is just a short little snippet of it um this information will be going into stud when we are uh maybe taking an active role in disrupting our own learning uh or we're disrupting the classroom learning things such as being disrespectful to each other's inappropriate language um ideas of messing with things on a students desk um just providing some really just rambunctious behavior that may be U disrupting the learning environment and so some of the consequences uh for those minor behaviors could be a student teacher conference just talking about what appropriate behavior is all the way up to SS um uh in school suspension but that would only happen if there was uh a a multiple uh type event in the minors where we were consistently disrupting the classroom and it would be better for the student to be out of the class um instead of inside of the class but all of those situations happen based on uh identifying the Behavior Uh identifying the antecedent which is what caused the behavior and then being able to also have an opportunity for a consequence that matches that respons possbility uh the next category is the major category again we have two different parts within major intent to harm and no intent to harm again when there's no intent of harm it is a major disruption uh where it could be someone's under the influence of drugs or alcohol um they could be potentially on the verge of using inappropriate language they could have some major technology uh violations um and some of those events that are disrupting to the maybe potentially the entire school or severely disrupting some of the learning for for themselves or other people when we have an intent to harm we would be looking at something like have sold or distributed drugs or alcohol have brought a weapon to School threatened to use a weapon uh or is some consistent bullying um that happens at the same to the same person over a course of time uh in which that there could be some physical verbal or social media type uh bullying that could happen the consequences for major could range from as low as an administrative conference where the parents and the students are going to meet with the principles and talk about the behavior and expected uh changes for that behavior or all the way up to expulsion which is 186 days uh out of school which is part of the Kansas statute there referenced at 72 6114 part of what we also want to be able to do is besides uh categorizing the behavior is we want to understand that we need to respond to the behavior and so we have a behavior social emotional learning team uh each building does and that they have been creating interventions so tier one interventions tier 2 interventions and tier three interventions on ways that staff will be able to respond to the behavior um that is happening um so if it's a tier one intervention it's going to be something very similar as just redirecting a student in class uh using proximity if a student starts to get off task uh to help them with their uh learning enironment um a tier 2 intervention could be something where we're having repeated minor uh events that are continuing to happen we're going to put an intervention in place maybe a behavior plan uh maybe it's called a check-in checkout sheet where at the beginning of the day they're going to check in with the teacher and they're going to talk about what the expected behaviors are and then check out with a student at the end of the day uh or at the end of the class period to really talk about how successful they were with um achieving those desired Behavior results um or it could be as severe as potentially in a tier three where there may have to be an alternate uh learning environment because the disruptions just become that severe but each student it will look different on how they respond based on the students emotional needs based on the students background and based on the severity of the event that happened and or the frequency of that event so while we would love to have behavior and everyone is treated the same uh that just isn't a reality all students will be treated fairly but not all students will be treated equally and that's just a phrase that I've used a lot as a philosophical point in my education career is to really just think about we are going to respond to the behavior that the students have we have our framework for how we're going to categorize that behavior and what is the consequence uh range for that but if those behaviors continue to to move uh to continue without um any change then we're going to have to look how we put interventions in place to help that behavior change over time and again it's going to be a tailored uh uh event for each student and not necessarily lumping all students uh together uh in that response so at the end of the day we still want to focus on that all of our students have someone that they can go to and someone that they can respond to in a positive light each and every day so while we're putting on a uh a framework for discipline and being able to categorize minor and major events and have consequences tied to them that's an important part of being consistent and relevant uh from preschool through 12th grade and making sure if you have students in multiple buildings you have language that is consistent and you are able to understand that uh and secondarily then we want to make sure that your students have an opportunity to have an adult at each building that they can trust and go to when they're having some events that aren't always going the best for them because we want to make sure that we will be the one for those students because we are one team one family one District so in the there will be a PDF uh of those uh framework kind of sent out uh at the same time this video is released so you'll be able to look at that Clearwater Clarity written version to have a a little bit more definition of the minor and the majors and also a better clearer explanation of the um response to behavior plan so we are always excited to hear from our constituents so if you ever want to reach out and have a conversation with me here's my information you can call and set up a meeting uh but we're excited as we are finishing year one uh at USD uh 264 in Clear Water and being ready to roll on into year two and getting uh a lot of those things started we're excited for our staff and excited for our students and being able to make sure that we can set up the best environment and provide deep relationships and engagements for our students while also providing parents and community members uh consistent relevant information so thank you for your time and have a great day

e up on time this is great um and uh I would like to call the meeting to order this is the March 24th 2020 28th sorry 2024 um meeting of the environmental commission um and uh we'll kick it off whoops let's see uh here we go we'll be doing this as a remote meeting um as a continuation of the governor's order for social distancing related to the covid virus we intend to conduct the meeting similar to an in-person meeting and ask for your patience if there are technical issues public comment is welcome and will be via telephone only to speak at public comment call 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 962 6452 this information is available on the published agenda in the Public Notices section on the city website and on the broadcast of this meeting on CTN Channel 16 AT&T channel 99 and online at a2gov.org slatch CN um so there we have the start of the meeting and I will ask um Aon to start with the land Heritage statement thank you I acknowledge that the land the city of an arbor occupies is the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands of the Anish aay including adawa oju Bame and W do peoples I further acknowledge that our city stands like almost all property in the United States on lands obtained generally in uncontable ways from indigenous peoples The Taking of this land was formalized by the Treaty of Detroit in 18 1907 knowing where we live work study and recreate does not change the past but a thorough understanding of the ongoing consequences of this past can Empower us in our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals thank you Aon and now would you call the r please yes council member Amman here Ann Arbor Vice chair Brown absent commissioner Cowart here commissioner Curtis here and harbor commissioner Dale absent council member dish here in Chicago commissioner Graham I'm here and arber commissioner guber in Austin Texas Spring break for a lot of people uh commissioner Marson absent commissioner Mery you're Arbor chairperson Mitchell here in an arbor commissioner nadrich here and Ann Arbor and commissioner weing absent and sounds like we yep that's I need thanks perfect thank you um I would ask for a motion to approve our agenda for today so moved okay commissioner mki seconded by commissioner Curtis all in favor of the agenda as as presented I raise your hand I looks like a unanimous thank you um I'd like a motion to approve the minutes from our February meeting commissioner NRI seconded by commissioner J Gruber um all in favor of approval of the minutes from 20 February raise your hand to say I right I see guesses thank you oh um our next item of business is um public comment and I'll read the statement uh this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to 3 minutes please call 78899 and and enter meeting ID 962 6543 City staff will select callers that have raised their hand by calling out the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand please press star9 on your phone you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak press star six to unmute your phone when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background noises so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments and um Erin do we have any callers I'm gonna stop sharing for just a second because I'm in Portland also on Spring bre so I have a new setup I can't okay see no problem working um I do not set see any callers okay um and then let's move on to some what we're calling um unfinished business and this is a presentation that I appreciate staff coming for um Jen Lawson from the the water quality manager for the city of Ann Arbor and Jerry hanak the storm water and flood plane programs coordinator for us for Ann Arbor um they'll provide us an update on the storm water management guidelines for public Street construction and reconstruction it was formerly called the green streets policy and um we'll now hear the status and update and where we're going thank you for coming both of you thanks sa Erin is it okay if I share my screen yes come on there we go uh well thank you all environmental commission members um for inviting staff to your meeting I'm not sure how many of you have worked with myself or Jerry Hancock so I do want to take at least 30 seconds so we can just quick introduce ourselves so you're kind of familiar who you're working with um my name is Jennifer Lawson I am the water quality manager in the systems planning unit I've been with the city 13 years prior to that I worked for an Oakland County Community as their environmental coordinator prior to that I was a storm Watershed planner for a engineering firm my background is water policy and law and then my masters is in landscape architecture um no I don't really use the landscape architecture a whole lot but I can really Identify some trees um but we work in our systems planning unit kind of cross collaborative across the entire organization um around the idea of managing utilities and our assets so you'll hear us sometimes talk about asset management or underground infrastructure and that's really where our focus is is more on the broadscale holistic policies on how we manage our infrastructure and how we rehab improve replace our infrastructure um across the entire city and Jerry do you want to take a few minutes to introduce yourself as well okay uh Jerry Hancock I'm the city's storm water and flip plane programs coordinator I've been at the city almost 34 years and I am going to retire retire in July so this project we were trying to wrap up before I retire um I have a degree in forestry for Michigan Tech and a MERS in environmental planning from Eastern and that's really what I do environmental planning and like my title I mostly focus on storm water and flood plan management sorry I just got the dreaded your battery is low notice okay plugged in well we do have a few slides that we R want to run through with sort of you know where have we been um where are we going or and what have we learned and uh some of our staff recommendations around the um storm water infiltration policy for the public road right away so many of you recall about 10 years ago we came up with what we termed the green streets policy um and that specifically focused on road construction or reconstruction um to start thinking about walking the walk so the discussion from the water committee which was out of the environmental commission really focused on this idea that we require developers to manage storm water but the city wasn't M maintaining or managing storm water um that well ourselves especially when we start thinking about how much storm water the city has to manage and what we create so we decided to sort of think about what we've learned over those 10 years and how can we take what we've learned and do better and improve the policy to ensure that we can continue sort of expanding what our stormw water management policies are headed towards so just as a reminder green infrastructure which is really sort of the method or mechanism of how a lot of storm water can be managed is that non-traditional it's not a pipe we're not conveying water from point A to point B we're looking at either using natural systems or mimicking natural systems to enhance improve um infiltrate storm water so we can start thinking about um methods and and means to improve storm water sort of outside of building a big hole and filling it with concrete and making a big Vault um in some cities that's what we have to do but in our Community we do have a lot of opportunities where we can use more um sort of nature-based solutions or um engineered solutions that mimic those schal processes so one of the slides that many of you have probably seen over the years um is sort of the scale of where does storm water sort of come from for the city of Ann Arbor so we have all of this road surface um including the public right of way which includes driveway aprons and sidewalks that the city is responsible for owns manages operates maintains um when we started really looking at the numbers and the data we recognized that it's about 10% of the city area so that's you know sort of taking the I'll say concrete versus non-concrete but it also the number that's more important is that it's 25% of the total impervious area within the city which means the city and I'm using that with my hat on is that the city is creating a lot of runoff that needs to be managed and we require our developers to do it we require homeowners to do it if they're doing a home addition so we really decided again back 10 years ago that we needed to start walking the walk um so the original intention um and and again I have green streets in quote um was coming up with a new standard for how we design streets either rebuilding them or reconstructing them and again we we even put terminology in the uh resolution and I'll quote it it's an array of products Technologies and practices that use natural systems or Engineering Systems to mimic those natural processes and enhance overall Environmental Quality and provide Utility Services um but I I want to remind ourselves that it was really for reconstruct and new road construction which sounds fantastic because it seems like we're building a lot of New Roads right um it's not exactly the case and I'm going to walk through a few things that we've done since 2014 some of the projects that we've completed um so we do have one project in the city that was completed in 2022 that actually received a waver because when we did soil sampling it was found to be noninfiltrated of um the soils were entirely clay we did several soil samples along the entire stretch of the street Russell Street was a gravel road that was completely um built as a new construction um and we really looked at all opportunities and we could not find anything within the public right of way and so in the previous policy there was an option for a waiver um and this was Mr Hy was still Craig Hy was still with us at the time and we we really worked through a lot cuz he didn't want to sign the waiver easily um but you know we recognize it it's just kind of impossible conversely to that though we did have a lot of projects that that achieved what we called the green streets policy and that's the infiltration of the first inch um at minimum um over the entire project area of paved surface so several of the projects that you've probably driven down and didn't even realize they were um Environmental friendly and infiltrative Roads um some of them are downtown um for example hon to Liber I'm sorry forth a from here on to Liberty infiltrates the 100-year event which in in design speak that's phenomenal that means that we could have a massive massive flood uh or massive rain event and fourth a would be able to infiltrate a lot of that rain fall underneath um without any impact above several of the other projects are large bioses underground storage um sand filters that look like Turf on top but allow for a pretty extensive amount of infiltration underneath and then a few projects that we included infiltration what we're calling to the maximum extent practicable these were not road projects that were constructed or reconstructed and I'm going to again I want to kind of hone in on that um these were projects that were other utility projects or Road resurfacing projects where we looked and did an evaluation and staff saw opportunities so these five projects did not fall under the streets Capital reconstruction list but we felt as staff that it was important to start looking for opportunities outside of what the policy required because if we're opening up the road we might as well do something for storm water even if it wasn't the driver for the project so for example many of you if you're out walking your dog maybe through the water Hill Neighborhood when where we um disconnected Brooks from Sunset and built sort of an interesting l-shape we took that entire new RightWay that was created and we built a beautiful bio Swale um it's actually temporarily stabilized right now and it will be planted in the springtime that was a project that was not intended not planned for but when our Engineers got into the design they realized that there was an opportunity that um they you know we sort of didn't want to pass it up and we didn't want to just put a bunch of turf grass on top of it so I talked a little bit about what the projects were that we've done and I also have a few slides on those specific lessons that we learned and the biggest one by far which was sort of a gut punch to be very honest was about a year and a half after our policy was approved in 2014 the engineering department changed how they maintain streets and they started to do what's called Capital preventative maintenance which is in layman's terms Mill and fill they grind down the top layer and put more asphalt on top it's a good way of extending the road surface and especially if we have minimum dollars available for Road Improvement um it it definitely expands on the fix the blank bleep roads um because we were we've been able through capital capital preventative maintenance to improve the condition of our roads significantly but what that did mean is that we are not building New Roads and we are not reconstructing roads therefore the policy was sort of out the window because the previous policy the original policy only applied for road construction or reconstruction so it's sort of I'll say cut our legs off before we really even had an opportunity to start implementing the policy other Lessons Learned is that just because we have great soils in the area doesn't mean that there aren't other utilities that are underground where we cannot put infiltration Gardens within the public RightWay there's a lot of other pipes that maintenance is never easy and it never happens magically and this this picture actually tells us two stories this is the roundabout up on Nixon and I'm not sure how many of you re remember this area can you guys see my mouse just question okay there is supposed to be a rain Garden right here I mean you can zoom in you can drive by you can get on your hands and knees there is no rain Garden there it was built per plan it was constructed per plan it's gorgeous until the contractor that was hired by the local the neighborhood next door thought it was a bunch of weeds and mowed over it and continued to mow over it for an entire season um it's sort of it's sort of a little gut punch that we were really excited about those opportunities now mind you the soil base underneath here is still infiltrative and the rainfall that does get here does infiltrate so so we're still achieving the intent to manage storm water it just doesn't have that pretty flower aesthetic that we had designed the other sort of lesson learned and this is growing more and more and more we see is the pushing for additional interests within an already restricted right of way um the protected bike lanes are phenomenal for bike traffic but it reduces the amount of opportunity that we may have between sidewalk and curb for storm water infrastructure um that is visible above ground oftentimes we can move things underground still achieve that same storm water intent but we sort of lose that aesthetic um a perfect example of that are the bike Lanes along first um there is a sort of curbed buffered area that does have grasses in it but if you've ever ridden down it that curbed area where the grasses are is about a foot wide maybe at best 2 feet wide and it's not really collecting a lot of storm water and runoff that goes in there in fact that project is achieving infiltration but it's not achieving that full amount that we were looking for just because we had such a restricted amount within the public right of way so after about N9 years if you will so last summer Jerry and I and our Water Resources Group we were kind of we already knew that you know we've been doing this for a long time and we internally sort of had our own non-written policy of how we wanted to continue improving the green streets policy but we also recognize that we have a lot of external um stakeholders including design Engineers that the city works with often that have made comments about the green Street's policy really being an implementable document so we worked with uh Wade trim our one of our engineering consultants and had them do a thirdparty independent review of the policy in addition we had City staff from the engineering department we had City staff from the public works department and City staff from systems planning doing our own sort of individual um reviews of the policy as it stood and we came up with I don't want to call it a laundry list but it was a pretty detailed list of some things that we knew we could improve upon and it would make such a larger impact and a really a more implementable policy where we could actually start measuring change and measuring improvements um so we all got in a room and we hashed out our our comments and everyone was on board everyone was really moving towards the right direction I don't want to say hashed out but we all agreed that we could do a whole lot better um so again this is part of the laundry list um one of the biggest ones though was the nomenclature um this idea that the street had to be green um really was was difficult because often times as I've mentioned through our lessons learned we realize that it can't always be green um my my perfect example is State Street that was just completed last summer that infiltrate a 10-year 24hour event so that actually infiltrates 3.26 in um but it looks like a lot of concrete up top because they were competing interests there was the idea of removing the curves there was an idea of making it um you know the the public um meeting space area so while we're still achieving a lot of those wonderful goals and really overachieving those goals um we recognize that it can't always be green so looking at how we can change the policy just for a sort of um what people are thinking or what assumptions can be made um we decided to calculate the volume for the full right of way within the project limits as opposed to what we were looking at back of curb so that actually extends the area that we were designing for and enlarges it so now we're not only requiring those Engineers to take care of what's in the road but from sidewalk to sidewalk which in some areas is pretty significant um clarification of the policy does not apply to preventative maintenance and and resurfacing because if we're not going to open up the road we don't need to sort of jump down that that rabbit hole of making a project that could be a very uh beneficial Road resurfacing project for the neighborhood and making it a little bit more of a deep project um when the road service didn't really need that um the fourth bullet is really a a big shift in the policy and that's applying the policy not only to Road resurfacing projects but to all utility projects so water main jobs sanitary sewer jobs um Road jobs for example if we if the project will disturb at least half of the road width so if we're when we scope out projects and this happens many many years prior to you guys ever seeing the road opened up in construction um if we recognize that there's a water main job that's going to open up half of the road surface we put a Kaiba shot down and say nope that that requires storm water and um the project sort of gets res scoped including storm water so storm water sort of is a a second level or a second layer on so many of our CIP projects but that's really how we've been able to integrate um stormm water management across all of our utilties projects and and making sure that we can keep expanding storm water management um next bullet allowing multiple infiltration standards on one project because we recognize some of our road projects are long and expand over soil areas and in some projects we can achieve infiltration great on others we on the other end of the project we might not be able to um next bullet just following the county storm water rules uh next bullet describing the process for a waiver we really didn't have a process prior and when Craig walked through that first um waiver for Russell we were kind of making it up as we went along we have a process now but we wanted to actually document that and put that in writing um next to last bullet is a very important one that we hadn't really thought through for our previous policy was the maintenance plans and making sure that maintenance plans are reviewed cuz I'm not sure about you guys but for the past 20 years I know Ann Arbor has been a leader in implementing green infrastructure we were really good at putting something in and forgetting about it so we're really getting back to the the Grassroots of we also need to maintain these things and have a process in place and then making sure that these projects are not designed in a bubble that these projects all have to be designed with public works with systems planning and engineering and so it's a really a collaborative effort that we have um making sure that all of these proposed infiltration projects um will be successful um many of you recall the flow chart from the previous policy this hasn't changed this is Verbatim what it was previously depending on site conditions so if the project um depending on where the project is within the flood plane what the infiltration rate of the soils will be and what the slope will be um we want to make sure we're using the right BMP in the right place place and the Baseline for all of these is infiltrating the first inch of rainfall and then we can move sort of down the chain if you will um the the better soils that are underneath we ensure that we're infiltrating at least um what is possible so if it's the 50% annual chance or the 10% annual chance um so just as a reminder I throw this picture up here that we can solve or we can create storm water management features that look a lot of different ways um it could be a trench underground with with gravel for infiltration it can be a biosoil it could be porous paving brick it could be a lot of different things um we encourage our designers to come up with a design we don't want to be um very predictive or um sort of authoritarian on telling them they must design a biooil because if they're going to try to fit that square peg into a round hole it won't work but we encourage them to be a little more creative and use the storm water management um manual from the state which gives a myriad of opportunities and ideas to manage storm water um so um we're really making sure that we're sort of opening up our eyes and thinking outside the box so we can make sure that we're managing storm water to the best of our ability so with that um I know Aaron sent around a draft policy um that staff has created based on the comments heard um as well as a draft resolution that we prepared um just to get your brains thinking um but with that Erin I'm going to turn it back over to you Jerry is there anything that I forgot before I turn it back over I don't think so you com I have to say Jerry did a brunt load of the leg work on this project so kudos to Jerry um sort of hurting the cats and making sure that all voices were heard because this is this was a big undertaking but we're really excited to see it come to fruition um so Aaron do you want me to stop sharing sure yeah go ahead um and I am wondering I might have just sent around the resolution or I think I just have the resolution linked and I'm um checking if I I'm not sure if I set sent the updated policy it it was together with the resolution on the same document oh it was okay great on the next page oh okay all together in the same document okay um so I um we can go ahead and introduce the resolution um which uh Jerry do you want to walk through what you sent or created and sent um yes and what you're kind of thinking for next steps so 10 years ago the the water committee um was the driver for this project project and I was the staff person to it and so I um went back and found that resolution and have updated it because that's basically what this project is is simply updating the policy to uh you know apply the last 10 years of knowledge of working working on it um and within the policy I did bullet out the same things that Jen went over in the [Music] presentation then there's the policy that follows it's it's a clean clean version of it not not a marked up version of it okay great so um it's my understanding the environmental commission typically when resolutions are introduced that it's a we do follow a first and second reading so I think this would be considered kind of the first res reading of the resolution um and so folks have questions um we have Jerry and and Jen on the line um if there's any outstanding issues or questions that you saw pop up in the in the document Erin I not finding it where can you say again where when you sent it and where it's included yeah it's linked in the agenda um and I can go ahead and share my screen and I think it we may want to also have some questions addressed um based on the presentation correct so sorry I I'll hand it back over to you Rita if you want to kind of feeli questions sure okay looks like um misser grber has a question yeah thank you Jen and Jerry for that that was really helpful since I was not here 10 years ago and the history was really helpful for me to hear you describe Jen so I my question is I understand that Council has been talking about this trunk line transfer where perhaps the city would take over hon parts of hon parts of Maine maybe washt I can't remember the fourth one maybe and I don't know what happened at the last council meeting and perhaps council members dish and acman could add to this but so my question is do you what implications do you think think that this update would have to that potential which I think would be big projects that the city would be working on on those big um trunk lines in the in the in our city well I can sort of take a stab first of all uh we already have some storm water infiltration on those trunk lines um the DDA did a project on hon um and many of you will probably just look at them as the dark darker gray bricks in the sidewalk those are all infiltration privious papers um and the city maintains those already as part of our act 51 with roads um so I don't think it would be a pretty significant change for us we would just start applying these same policy standards to the roads that we now own and maintain one we did the infiltrative pavers along hiron it was sort of a partnership with DDA and with mot and the city um and it worked relatively well I think the the only issue that we had was more of a maintenance question because they were put in but nobody really asked our Public Works guys if they had the equipment to maintain it so we now have to rent um a little sort of power washer thing that has a lower PSI so it doesn't blast the sand out of the the um grout lines but no we've we've done it successfully and would anticipate that we would continue doing it successfully from a stormwater standpoint it would it would make an opportunity to do storm water that we might not otherwise have it would just an MD do project um Mr grber was there anything further I guess I'll guess no um commissioner Curtis I just want to say I just went and looked at the agenda on legistar and I don't see this file link there the presentation but not this file I thought I I know I got it yeah it's not there the uh resolution is there with a summary of changes but okay that's uh my mistake um so I will yeah this one is not okay okay I will go ahead and we can include this um in the next in our next meeting um so I apologize for that um all right Erin I see it in legistar if people go to lestar online it is linked as a separate agenda item yeah I think I see it too but it doesn't look like that if you if you look it doesn't look like that no it's it's jumbled and it's the actual text yeah it's it's the normal like title memo blah blah blah right and then whereas where as where as resolved yes I'm just gonna share I'm stealing this from you guys make it big though what's up there right now is I will make it big I won't make it big yeah H Okay so tell me can you guys see this oh aon's still sharing oh I'll stop share okay all right so if you go in to our fabulous L star go over to the agenda and then you click on I'll show you what I did when you click on the agenda it'll pull up the full thing let me go back so it'll pull up this friend and then it is the second one which is very jumbly but if you click for full text there it is um that looks like the resolution yeah I think so I think this is my fault because I didn't I didn't realize that there was the draft policy at the end which I don't think made it into that um so that was my fault um and we can um R and I can get and commissioner sorry commissioner Mitchell and I can touch B and see what makes sense um so we're able to have a appropriate first reading of this resolution because you will need to see this updated policy so apologies we'll try and send that out by tomorrow I guess let's try that that sounds good thank you thanks for raising that and the resolution's good um council member Amman I just wanted to respond quickly that the trunk line um study has not been a topic of discussion yet at city council um it was on our agenda as a report I think because it went to Transportation Commission for discussion and it's to be a work session item sometime this summer so um we're a bit of a ways from just considering it wanted to let you know and um I have a question oh sorry Mr Mercy go ahead you go ahead okay all right um I loved that there was in the diagram um an indication of geothermal underground um and I wondered so I don't believe that we have that yet um as like a shared geothermal within the city I know it's discussed for the Bryant commun Community um but it seems to me that that might be something that we would look forward to in the future right and that I assume that that would be in the roadway um so I don't know if that really um is a question for me right now but I I just want to say I want I think it would be a great thing to proceed and and my question I guess is how how can and Jen we've talked about this before how can we measure the performance Improvement or you know like I know that weather is changing right or the climate is changing so it's like every Everything is a little bit different each time um what makes a success well I'm gonna take a step back outside of just the public right of way um in systems planning this is a question that we ask ourselves a lot because we're behind the scenes you guys don't really see us we don't build things you guys maybe see us on special projects um but we are responsible for all of the storm water managements that are built across the city including private development including things that are outside the public right away including projects that we do with Washington County water resources Commissioner's Office that's a mouthful um we we are working through a dashboard and I don't want to put it public yet um I actually just got the rough draft of it last Thursday and it it's a it's an assumptive model that calculates the amount of rainfall that is infiltrated in either city-owned green infrastructure um or private residential rain Gardens um there's a few assumptions based on volume based on size but we're we're sort of trying to figure that out because it essentially R we're trying to measure mother nature and if there's an antecedent moisture conditions in the soil it's not going to infiltrate as well um but we still will be achieving infiltration it might not be in the first 24 hours maybe it's in the first 48 hours so there's a lot of overthought if you will and you know I work with a bunch of Engineers and we're they're really good and I include myself in that we're really good at overthinking things um but what we're hoping is that this dashboard that we've been looking at can get us to a number that makes sense based on the amount of investment we've had around green infrastructure um the previous projects that have been built um so the previous uh rain Gardens the ones that were listed in in my my slides many of those are included in that dashboard um so I think that there are methods and mechanisms but what we're struggling with is how can we sort of automate that so we don't have a little squirrel who has to do calculations every single time um that we have to start thinking about you know what's been developed what's changed how was our land use changed um I feel good about the numbers you know Jerry has been part of that team also in in putting together really a lot of the data behind um what has been built how is it maintained how is it being inspected is it is there an assumption that it's working as designed um so there are measures and really what we're what we're looking at is that that X Factor is going to be how many million gallons of storm water were infiltrated this year um and that's we're right and I don't want to burst anyone's surprise bubble but we're right like 60 million gallons of storm water infiltrated it's huge it's absolutely huge and that's not including the systems that mother nature already has on her own this is on man-made things that we've built um so we are measuring what we feel is achievable to measure um but as I said Mother Nature kind of doesn't think um that way Jerry what are your thoughts on that yeah so part of it is we have to make assumptions because we're not actually putting meters out and that that's terribly expensive to do and usually when someone does it it ends up being some sort of uh you know presentation at many conferences because not very many people do put a lot of meters out on these storm water features um so that so that's not we're not talking about putting meters out um we we have done some of that in the storm seur system on a large scale for our model um and if we do that in the future comp you know we might be able to compare like how have we done in the last 10 years you know versus the last time that we put meters out in the system if we have some rain events that happen to be similar you could compare but even that you have to make a lot of assumptions because no rain no two rain events are the same okay thank you Umi thank you I I had a number of quick questions well first of all I support um the effort to come up with some kind of outcome based metric to be able to see whether or not we're we're making progress and and use that as a feedback mechanism for making and driving improvements a couple of quick questions um well first a comment I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about this again in our next meeting um and it would be great if um either Jen or Jerry you could join us um because we're probably likely to have a more substantive discussion after you've been had a chance to read the policy um couple quick questions um how is U ofm property um taken into account here and um do any of the policies um relate to U ofm I assume um all their storm water feeds into the city's storm water system um and then I'll go ahead and um ask the second question that I had and that is is um I know airheart Road between Gettys and Glazer was a major project in 2023 and I'm wondering what kind of storm water management strategies were implemented there that wasn't mentioned on or shown on those timelines that's it thank you and thanks for the presentation you want to talk about um umm yeah so U ofm is not subject to city codes um and they're definitely not subject to our policies because this this is a policy this is outside of city code and they're not subject to any of it so um they have their own what's called npdes permit and their npds permit um requires a lot less storm water management than our policies and I mean our our codes and this policy that we're talking about here is above and beyond meeting code so the U ofm um is nowhere near uh the level of storm water management that we um expect for ourselves and for developers is is that something that could be addressed jointly given uh the two entities are updating their comprehensive in campus plans I mean it seems to me that you know the UN buers has um a number of sustainability metrics um I don't think they measure anything related to storm water I don't know as we discussed it may not be so easy to measure um but it seems like um If U ofm is interested in sustainability There's an opportunity there for let's call it uh improving or raising their game I think to do that you'd either have to change state law or at least change the regulations that are applied to the U ofm by um Eagle they're the department that oversees their npds permit and the university is not any different than any other university in the in the state they probably all have the same permit and so like we we require control of first flush Bank full 100-year and have this infiltration standard which ALS is also applied to private development um the university only has to do the first flush uh when they don't even call that they called water quality standard and then they um are required to deal with the Bank full event but not even not even for the whole site only for the difference between pre and post um it's it's really like if you just want to like look at it on a scale they only require to control maybe a quarter of the volume that we would [Music] require if if I can just say one more thing about that that's concerning to me I mean I I'll I'll raise it with some people that uh I know at the U ofm but if you just look at what umm is going to be doing down at elow field with the huge dormatory there plus the second phase which potentially is just as as large and we know that area is already prone to flooding and if they're only uh infiltrating you know at I think I heard you say a quarter of the what we're trying to achieve from the city side that that impacts a bunch of adjacent properties and that really seems like there should be discussions between the city and and uh University leadership on on trying to mitigate the negative impacts of of uh storm water and and lack of ability to to manage it properly and that's not the only place I mean University is still acquiring As We Know city other properties and that means a bigger and bigger portion of the city is being um governed by a policy that's apparently quite a bit weaker than the cities plus the city is going to be doing I mean the university going to be doing a ton of development on uh North Campus if if you look at the the campus plan 2050 scenarios Air Road anything about aut Road that's notable and then I'm so think actually was able to pull up the airart plans and remember how I um made that comment about Road reconstruction versus Capital preventative maintenance um it looks like there was not a lot that was done on airheart for storm water I can get a complete answer to you but nothing is jumping out in my memory for it other then uh they replaced some storm water catch basins and made them um they added sump to them sump them sumps to them which removes sediment um which is a sediment removing sediment is better than nothing that helps us meet our our phosphorus dials um but it doesn't look like there was any um large infiltrative bmps that were added to that project I do know the new roundabout that's proposed on Pontiac Trail is going to have infiltration it's Pontiac Trail and duvar because the road there was taken down to the road bed several roundabouts were installed I mean it was a it was a major project it was one of those projects that sort of fell into the it doesn't have to follow the policy because the policy hasn't been updated and I I don't know exactly off the top of my head what was included but we can definitely get an answer for you um so I'm gonna call us uh time on on this because we've got two more presentations and I'll I'll take um questions from commission NRI and then commissioner Curtis thanks um I have just like two kind of quick things um thanks Jennifer for the presentation that was really interesting um so like circling back to metrics um I know we mentioned and it's also in the resolution the tmdls um it looked like for total suspended solids eoli and phosphorus I guess as far as a metric like how are we doing on those is my first question um and how is the Green Street sort of feeding into that how important and relevant is it in Meeting those goals um and then I also so I live in um the Lakewood neighborhood um and I actually did some monitoring on uh first and second Sister Lakes uh last year and found that the amount of phosphorus they're holding is incredible um so I was wondering um in your green infrastructure plan do you look at sort of protecting these natural systems that are having such a huge benefit in managing storm water um like for instance Matt nod um facilitated putting in the biosil um which is capturing a lot of the water from our neighborhood um oh was that you yeah Matt was so you know he may have taken some credit but um so um I guess that's another question is um how are we looking at you know protecting these natural systems and using their natural ability to clean water in our in our plans as well I I'll call the Catalyst but he had to put his resident head on when he was in meetings so we were a good team for that project um well you asked kind of two questions first of all is how are we doing on our tindles and the answer to that is we've seen improvements on the ecoli we've seen improvements on the phosphorus um the TSS has been a little bit harder to sort of um pin down but what's interesting about the timle numbers is that they are calculated from the main stem at the hiron but we're seeing the improvements in the creeks so and we've pres we're actually working with Molly ripy trying to figure out and this is at Eagle how we can start delisting some of these Waters because we're seeing improvements in The Creeks but the improvements aren't being visualized if you will or determined at the at the main stem um we have a lot of this data that we haven't necessarily put out to the public only in that it's kind of confusing um but we definitely when we complete larger storm water projects there is a um sort of modeled assumption on how much TSS or how much phosphorus will be removed how much siment will be removed um so we have those numbers and that sort of gets along to the discussion of modeling versus actual measurement um the measurement is in the creek Downstream a year or two after the construction project is completed because you've got to sort of wait for great uh grow in and um vegetation for the project to actually function how it should but um how do we sort of incorporate it with the green streets it's a they're such small scale that it it really is the the two or three you know containers and I say like five gallon containers maybe of sediment that we're keeping out of the river but maybe if we start adding more of those it's sort of a a um a cumulative benefit for these smaller Street scale projects where we see a lot of improvements for and you mentioned specifically phosphorus and TSS is when we do stream beinging stabilization projects that's really where you get the murky Waters the muddy streams um we're not seeing that um obviously a a biosoil type of project is very different than a stream B stabilization kind of project um so we're not doing monitoring on each individual project a lot of it is model based and then there's an annual sort of annual calculation did I answer all your questions you did thank you okay good I was I was making notes Mr Curtis so hopefully this is an easier question um when you're doing road construction work like at the intersection of Sunset and Brooks there was a there is a very lowquality nature area that's adjacent to it and did you look into using the nature area or some of these storm water management and there's other lowquality nature areas there streets that might have the same opportunity to support storm water we did so the one at Brooks and sunset is interesting because that kind of landed in our laps um through the the scoping project which is cool because it always makes our designers think differently um we were looking at where the water was coming from where the water was going to recognizing that there already was a lot of water going down into that Brook Sunset nature area that was already erosive so our main goal for this project was to capture the water within the public RightWay before it got down into that Brook Sunset area so in essence sort of protecting it allowing it to um not receive as much Road runoff so it wasn't necessarily a protection for the the services that it provides it was more of a protection because we don't want to damage it anymore than we already have well it's better than it used to be we've done some work in the nature area and it's absolutely 10 years ago it was a lot worse for the storm water than it is now so but what you're doing will help quite a bit that's what we're that's what we're aiming for right well thanks everyone I hate to I hate to um cut this off but I'm aware of um our next presentation so um I think that um Erin we should work out our next steps because I think it would be worthwhile perhaps for the Commissioners to have the opportunity to send some additional questions to Jen and Jerry um that might be helpful in terms of the next um review at our next meeting does that sound okay absolutely y when is your next meeting April 25th it's NFL draft my friends what sports I live in Detroit draft day um okay well we'll have to work around something there um uh anyway um I want to say thank you thank you to both you Jen and Jerry for this presentation um I think you can see that the commission is very interested um and I think that the result of your work will be something that we'll really appreciate and uh so we'll go to that next step by the way if Jerry doesn't make it to our next meeting I think all of us on the environmental commission present and past want to thank him for all of the wonderful service that he's given the city and Jerry we're going to miss you thanks a lot thank you Jerry Jerry we worked together a lot of those 40 years you've been at the city and I will miss you greatly you've been a absolute Gem of a city employee and helpful to natural natural features committee and environment commission for decades thank you thank you I totally agree thank you well thank you environmental commission um if there are any further questions certainly shoot them to Aaron and she'll be in touch with us and um in the mean time I am going to get a response about what bmps were included on airheart for you commissioner mki um and we hope to continue the conversation and uh get the updated policy passed thank you all right look forward to it bye bye thanks um well thanks everyone that was a great discussion um I think we could have all kept on it for quite a while um I still have many questions but we'll go for it um our next um discussion um is one that I also appreciate greatly um uh we have Dr Missy staltz available to talk about the renewable energy options analysis and um she's here because we at the environmental commission are really concerned about climate change and the effect on our natural environment and um certainly this will have some effect at least we hope that that's our goal um so moving to a a um 100% renewable energy is a goal that we all share and so with that I would appreciate um Mrs stealths to um initiate her presentation that we have you have prepared great thank you very much chair Mitchell and everybody I know it is late and I know we are in storm water mode and we're going to Pivot for a second and what I'm going to do is not actually go through all of my slides I'm going to give you a high level because every single thing is actually on this website and in fact a much more entertaining presenter is going to go through these slides right here in this link so the actual Consultants themselves um I I do have slides and I'm going to go through some of them but I'm not going to go through all of the details so I want to make sure aon's going to send this out to all of you everything I'm talking about all of the resources and background material lives here so I'm going to go fast because I want to get to more discussion and just wanted you to know this exists it's coming your way so don't be upset if I go through what I'm going to show you very quickly because it's really easy to find so I just want to make sure we focus on dialogue because I think that's probably more interesting so as here Mitchell named we have the goal in an arbor of powering our electric rid with 100% renewable energy this is part of a20 and hopefully you all know what a20 is our community's plan strategy framework goals actions to be carbon neutral and adjust an equitable Way by 2030 and so what we ended up doing is commissioning a study to understand what were different Pathways that we could take to achieve that goal building on a lot of work that had been done through the community and through staff and so what this presentation actually goes over are four main things what it was that we commissioned and what we didn't commission so we can binded it what uh was found in a public survey what was found from a technical report and then what staff's recommend commendations are now I'm not the consultant that did the public survey or the consultant that did the technical options analysis so I'm going to give you the high Lev findings but I can talk about in Greater detail the scope of what we commissioned and the recommendations that are coming out from staff any technical questions a lot of them are going to be answered in the report there's also a technical app pendum uh app pendum I don't even know what that is appendix uh that you can dive into to get more information but let's take it on a quick a quick little overview here so here's what we did we hired uh a team to create an options analysis providing details about the various Pathways that the city could take to achieve its clean energy goals we also ask them to do two very specific analyses so that's the big analysis there are lots and lots of different procurement Pathways there are lots of different options available on the market uh to help us hit our clean energy goals we asked them to evaluate those and then we said we also want to make sure you study at least two of those Pathways in Greater detail one is traditional municipalization through condemnation or the buyout of our existing incumbent utilities assets this is known as traditional municipalization this was a phase one study and a phase two study for something called a sustainable energy utility which is an optional optionals key opt in supplemental utility that would only provide 100% renewable energy to those that subscribe through rooftop ground maned solar systems energy storage systems and network geothermal which I'm excited to say uh chair Mitchell mentioned this before we a lot of work actually on network geothermal right now in the office this was kind of a twinkle in our eye when we came up with the idea for the sustainable energy utility but we are well past twinkles uh and very much moving into uh practice here with network geothermal so this was the scope of analysis we also said you can't just tell us you could do all of these magical things because of course we've studied those magical things right we have a very capable competent staff uh who's done extensive analyses we have wonderful experts in our community who've leaned in uh that understand the energy system and all of its nuances and so we've done a lot of work and so what we really wanted is someone that is actively in Industry who is doing this looking and saying okay here are the pathways that look viable uh across the board and we wanted those to be evaluated on the goals that we've established things like a20 being carbon neutral by 2030 it doesn't really matter if we can achieve something in 2043 when that's not our goal right our goal is 2030 that's what's been adopted we need to to create Pathways to achieve that 100% renewable energy Target we needed to understand how the strategies aligned with our core principles of equity sustainability and transformation this body and the energy commission as well as city council also adopted a series of energy criteria and principles that help guide our decision making and so we wanted to understand how things aligned with those criteria and principles and of course it was really important to think about a just transition for workers in the fossil fuel industry now while this isn't part of the study I will tell you we're working really closely with our plumbers and tight Fitters Trade union because as we think about transitioning away from fossil gas those are jobs that we could lose but if we lean in to network geothermal plumbers plumbers and pipe fitters are the ones who work on that system and so it's a reskilling as opposed to a job loss so those are the kinds of things we wanted to have be evaluated as part of the study so the first thing we did we did this technical study right but we also wanted to understand public sentiment because it doesn't matter what's technically possible if the public does not want to see that happen and so here we commissioned American pulse to run a statistically valid representative uh survey this is just some background on and American pulse not going to belor any of this you're welcome to dive in again all these slides are public what we had them do is a random sample they ended up with a sample size of 412 95% confidence interval plus or minus 4.8% uh it was a multimodal hybrid study so they did phone online panels and text to web it was weighted with an over waiting to ensure we had racial and ethnic representation throughout the city um slightly higher than actually what is represented uh with a focus on low-income households we really wanted to make sure they were heard and seen in the study so here's kind of a big picture right um we wanted to understand if people knew about our 100% renewable energy goals and What mattered to them as we were looking to achieve that what were the key characteristics they wanted to see in their energy system now throughout American pulses slides again these are the consultant slides so I'm just doing my best to reiterate them here you can see the quotes from uh individuals these are actual quotes that came out of their particular Sur excuse me missy we do not see the slides you do not see these slides we see something that says Consultants findings and it's static you're Frozen I'm frozen okay hold on did you see anything at the beginning we we saw the website that you had up yeah all you saw okay there thank you you see it now yeah okay great now I don't no it's good I just went off to see you so now I'm putting it back on all right apologies for that okay so apologies you couldn't see anything I promise all the slides are public here's the backwards this is what it looks like it's so delightful yall okay so this is where I was this is the methodology that we talked about uh you'll see on these slides when you look at them these gray boxes these are quotes that came directly from people who took the survey I'm not going to read them except for for one that always makes me smile a little bit so here's their they had five strategic insights based on their samples and you can actually see on our website all of the responses so I mean verbatim responses if you'd like to dive into that the number one uh Insight is resilience reliability and cost are the three most important characteristics that people want to see in their energy system we deliberately asked questions and I I did help design the question methodology uh we asked questions in multiple different ways we asked open-ended questions so people could say whatever they wanted to say about What mattered to them in their energy system we did uh a rank a Force rank where they had to pick their top three and then we let them pick everything so if there were 10 items they could pick all 10 items so in that way we were able to look and kind of compare responses and no matter how you ask the question these are the three most important things with resilience being by far the number one thing that people want to see now I'm using the term resilience we didn't you can see in the question it's a description of resilience as defined um it's it's a definition right it's not saying do you want a resilient system because resilience is a pretty fuzzy term and so we used an industry definition of resilience so here is uh just continuation of that resilience ranked number one across all demographic groups 66% of all respondents said this was one of their top three priorities when forced to pick one of three priorities reliability was number two with 48.6% selecting it as a top top priority and pretty close behind you can see within a margin uh that that margin of error is cost uh being selected as a top priority it was also the number three verbatim answer right Insight number two there's this one I'm delighted by uh didn't realize we would have this high of a response rate but we have about 75% of respondant that that are aware of our goal to achieve 100% renewable energy CommunityWide now that level of awareness varies as you can see in the in the pie chart off to the side but this is great right this is a great Foundation to build from it means we have a lot more work to do to get out and really make sure that we move those just sums over to a lot uh but there aren't many people who know nothing at all about what it is we're trying to do in the community Insight three gener uh residents generally support the 2030 goal now this is a quote it always makes me chuckle because one of the things that we heard it wasn't that 40% don't support the goal some of them actually think it should be more aggressive uh than 2030 bless their hearts so uh this is one of the you can see as soon as possible 2030 feels aggressively achievable I appreciate that respondant very much but generally speaking we've got the community uh in support of the goal to achieve 100% renewable energy there's their fourth Insight is of all the criteria that we offered to people people want everything they can possibly have right and this makes sense you want an energy system that is the Cadillac or the Tesla maybe not the Tesla but like the gold standard of the the system and when you ask them to say but which of these are the most important to you you still get them focusing on resilience reliability and cost and you can see here uh and again these are all importance how many of them said it was very important being the most important characteristic uh to to them in this study and the fifth strategic Insight was um again this is from the Consultants that we would ignore cost and affordability at our own Peril that when you look especially across demographic groups you actually start to see cost not being the third most important variable even though that it showed as the third most important of the three but it rises to number two in very different demographic groups those making under 75,000 a year it's a very important characteristic our non-white population and those under 40 have high cost sensitivity and so that as they were reading the responses and coding things they identified a need for us to to never lose sight of affordability and cost I don't think anyone on this webinar would uh we all acknowledge we don't want to exacerbate energy burden as we think about what the future holds for all of us we want to make sure that we usher in a clean safe healthy future for all meaning it also has to be affordable and accessible to all so these are I'm not going to go through these slides there's just these are the general takeaways I just shared resilience great so that is framing we went into the technical report so we've got this in the back of our head saying okay we've got to think about resilience reliability and cost that's where the public is right now let's analyze the technical options available to us so this report is online again you can dive in uh to it it was created by these particular Consultants five lakes was the leading organization involved New Gen strategies and solutions who does the vast majority of M the country Atomic Law Group extremely experienced lawyers multiple different lawyers from our state uh that work in the energy system and sensor energy helping us with a lot of the energy storage analysis as part of the SE I'm going to quickly go through these because I want to get to the questions here part of the study as you look to the future is you have to understand both the present and where we're tracking under a business as usual scenario as well as where we're tracking with all of our at0 goals so this slide just talks about how electric generation and electric usage are going to vary over time so this particular one is on load on usage the next ones we'll talk about some other elements of the electricity system but here what we basically see is between now and 2030 there isn't really that much projected shifting in our amount of electrical usage however you start to see that change and this is because we're electrifying right vehicles are electrifying uh we're talking about making a transition to more sustainable sources of heating and cooling as we think about transitioning our water heaters over to heat pump water heaters well they're already electric but our dryers for example making that transition our cook tops if we're concerned about indoor air quality we're having conversations about what we cook on and so we're going to see greater electrification that means to get to 100% renewable we have to factor in that level of growth so I just share that we are planning for a future in which we have increased electricity demand now this is outdated let's just stop you can look at it right now uh this report was done before govern Whitmer signed the new renewable portfolio standard so that is true we know that we're analyzing all of this information the most important thing to note when you look at 2030 that green slice uh actually not the green slice the for you I think it's teal it's 35% that's 50% because the new renewable portfolio standard the governor's sign means we have to have 50% renewable electricity on the grid or clean electricity is the actual vernacular by 2030 if has to be 100% clean by 2040 so what that means is everything gets smooshed meaning that 41% we're trying to close is actually smaller our calculations are closer to gosh I think it's 28% when you factor in the different elements uh that we've got going so that's good news that means we have less of a gap that we're trying to to close with 100% Renewables but yes this is outdated slide please don't belor it I promise we're working on updating it okay so the Consultants analyze various different Pathways and early on WE ruled out some we did not have them chase down Solutions which were not legal in Michigan while they could become legal that's just not the moment we're in and so we said only things that we could reasonably do and so they reviewed the six things that are here behind the meter solar and storage Community solar power purchase agreements both virtual and traditional uh Rex uh virtual power reduction agreements and then the migraine power program if you have questions on what any of these are we can talk about them uh we had them of course analyze them based on these different procurement options based on our energy criteria and principles you can see how things rank across the board we had them look at costing and temporal uh like how early we could actually adopt these different strategies we and then we have them develop scenarios so how would they stack things spoiler there isn't one thing you can do we already know this uh no one action is going to get us to 100% renewable energy and if someone tells you it will they're absolutely feeding you a very happy go-lucky Story by 2030 uh we're going to need multiple different solutions to hit our 2030 goal which is why we're working on multiple different things at this moment so these are three scenarios that they ran they call them the DTE plus scenario which is basically stay the course uh and do a few additional things there's the seu plus DTE and then there's the DT seu and Community solar strategy they also R costs for these different strategies you can see the difference in what the outlay capital outlay costs are the recoverable costs and then the non-recoverable cost depending on what's included again I know I'm going fast this is all in the technical report this is just kind of a a quick the structure that they talked about so the DTE plus this is where we continue to take service from DTE but we take additional steps to achieve 100% renewable electricity credits right this could be a wreck P purchase this could be uh a virtual power reduction agreement this could be a virtual power purchase agreement there are certain things that we can do and there are certain things we cannot do if we take this path the second is we stay with DT and we launch a sustainable energy utility so this is that supplemental utility we take as much uh demand as we can in the community we generate local Renewables we provide that uh energy here in the community and whatever else we need comes from DTE and then we do a virtual power purchase agreement to close the rest of Gap the third option is takeover of all of DT's assets within the city and become the load serving entity meaning we have to provide 247 power provision every single day of the year this was not deemed to be possible by 2030 and because our goal is 2030 I'm not going to spend a lot more time talking about that particular pathway so they also did pricing around the sustainable energy utility the projections and rates what we assumed as we went into the analysis is that in order for the sustainable able energy utility to succeed it has to be cost competitive right it's got to be cost competitive with current rates and it's got to be cost competitive with private solar leases the good news is it can be and it is um we're actually doing thirdparty verification of all of these numbers because we're very excited by what we see here what we also know though is storage is not if you if you tie in solar and storage it is not going to be cheaper than your current rates in most situations however there is a value of resilience that you get and we heard from our residents that resilience was very very important we also know a lot of people are investing in things like generators and actually when you factor in storage solar and storage through the seu your rates can be cheaper than what it would be if you use traditional energy and got a generator so there are cases there's a rationale here for leaning into storage and of course we have financing options that are available uh to make that happen there's multiple different Pathways that we're exploring the meu study came out and showed a wide range of estimates and you're going to hear a lot of conversation around this uh the reality is no one knows what the truth is uh and the reason is because there are a few things that go into a municipalization process there's the value of the assets outside your door if you look out the window you're going to see pulls and you're going to see wires that's actually the easiest part of the system to do an appraisal on so we did kind of a random sample in a phase one study a phase two study is something that's being discussed that's an actual appraisal that's that's saying what we would offer for those assets that are at our door so that's one piece of the cost of buying the infrastructure another piece is the stranded asset costs this study looked at stranded asset costs in some cases we made a very strategic decision good or bad that we would minimize stranded assets so there are certain situations where equipment serves an arbor and it serves another Community a stranded asset means that we take that asset whatever it is let's say it's a Transformer we take that which means DT can't serve this other community that's a stranded cost courts will make you pay that cost you you can't take away someone else's right outside of your Municipal boundary to get power so what we decided was instead of saying okay we'll buy the old infrastructure we said nope they can keep it we'll build a new infrastructure to serve the community and so that's how we cost it out to minimize stranded asset costs but a phase two would also look at that and the phase one did as well the third piece is the most variable piece and the one that no one is going to be able to give us an answer to except for a court and that is what's the value of going concern that means um kind of simply put our franchise for electric has been ruled in perpetuity multiple times it's made it to the Supreme Court it has been rued the Michigan Supreme Court it is in perpetuity that has a very different value right of service and what the courts will decide the value of that franchise is has never been tested and so you see this range of estimates coming forward from very little value for the franchise to quite valuable for that franchise that is why we have this variability in cost estimates it also means excuse me that in year one we could have slight savings by launching an meu to extremely high increases in rates and we don't know where the truth will lie they also ran a 20 year analysis showing that we still in 20 years uh could we could have some savings or we could still be paying a premium by municipalization I want to be clear none of this counts the cost of investing in the system this is buying the exact thing that is outside your door right now it is not making improvements the cost of those improvements to that system it is not upgrading that system it is not assuming that system is being upgrade to handle the amount of electrification that we see coming down the pike that is not good or that is not bad I just want to be transparent the study was a snapshot in time and that's what it had to be because we can't see the future blah blah blah this is long you guys are probably so glossed over uh the study also looked at how it aligned those three options or utility structures aligned with the city's energy criteria and principles and ultimately we're at the end here the recommendations from the consultant excuse me you heard me say this a full a few times which is we'll we'll have to top off as they call it with probably renewable energy credits or something again these are Consultants recommendations regardless of which Str strategy we take we take they recommend that we pursue the seu to accelerate solar deployment and resilience within the city that we competitively procure recks through virtual power purchase agreements they also recommend that we competitively bid that out that's how we competitively procure excuse me and they recommend that we decouple consideration of municipalization from pursuit of 100% renewable electricity but if there's interest in pursuing municipalization we need to think about acquiring those Renewables those top off those virtual power purchase agreements through means that are transferable to a municipal utility the good news is vppa are so that's what the consultant said I'm going to end here by what staff have recommended so just a few weeks ago we recommended to the city administrator and city council that we put the formation of a sustainable energy utility do a vote of the people uh we are going to recommend that that go to a vote in November we want to do that for a few reasons we don't think that we have to do it but this is a really big policy decision and we want to ensure the public is supportive of this optional opt-in supplemental utility if the public is not supportive of an optional opt-in utility chances are they're not supportive of a fullon traditional municipalization effort and we want to understand what public support looks like second it gives us a chance to do education and engagement around the seu which means if it were to pass we also would understand what demand would look like which means we can roll out much more quickly and effectively we also recommend pursuing grant funding to launch uh the scu's second fease which focuses on micro grids I'll be working on a grant when I get off the phone with you all uh that's focused on that and then third we recommend initiating a request for proposals to generate new additional M Michigan renewable energy systems that we could acquire here in the city of an arbor through what's known as a virtual power purchase agreement so those are staffs recommendations in terms of moving things forward that was a lot I will end where I started which is all of this is on a website there is so much more information go thank you missy um I have the feeling that there will be a number of questions from this group um and I do want to um ask us to pay attention to time because we do have one more speaker um so um I have questions but if anyone has some queued up I'd be happy to call on you looks like I go first um I see I I think that one of the things that that would be of interest to me is to understand from the seu and I know that there are multiple options for it but how many people would be served and what's the Baseline number um in terms of like however you measure it is it residences is it is Does it include commercial um what are we talking about for a scope of users and maybe the one of the counts is number of meters yeah it's a great question so when there there's a model that is behind the seu uh that we're actually third party testing right now with a rate firm to make sure because this is this is really important your question is really really important what we know is the startup costs are the same you've got to have staff you got to have a maintenance grw right you have to have the same things so you need to have enough subscribers to cover those costs and have the cost be comparable uh to what we're currently paying or savings the good news is that's actually not a lot um I don't have the number in front of me but it's I don't have the number in front of me so I'm not going to speculate I can try to pull it up in the back end after that though those fixed costs are those fixed costs right installing a system the beautiful thing the thing that excites me about the seu in particular is for those of us on the line I think many of us do already have solar on our home we know that asset already has value I mean it's going to pay for itself over a certain period And so this just makes that this much more accessible to more people in the marketplace so you add people on and you just get better you get better economics effectively you get scale the way we modeled it though was residential and small commercial so we didn't look at really large commercial because they were on a different electric rate we can build that into the model but that's just not where we started and is that like do you have a I saw something like a range of like 6,000 to 12,000 some um oh in the good good question so what you can see in the technical report is we had them do three seu scenarios what would it look like in a low adoption to a medium adoption to a high adoption rate I think the slide I showed I'll pull it up here was it was just one of them one of those scenarios but they you can see the economics for all different scenarios and you can see what I mean about the more people that subscribe the better the rate is because those fixed costs get spread over more people but the rates actually work even in a low adoption scenario and but what's the denominator of that the cost of it's the fixed cost uh starting like staff no it's a different question if you've got 1,200 that would enroll how many are the total who could enroll if you magically you had 100% it would be every household yeah how many is that 55,000 okay yeah so 12,000 was modeled the 55 that's right okay thank you yeah we and we did it by 2030 to be clear right that's what we modeled so you would continue adding as you went but we picked that's the timeline we modeled okay good question right um anyone else oh John mki as might be expected uh so I have a number of points and I appreciate hearing Missy's response to them and um first of all Maybe I can start off by saying uh or giving the update on the energy Commission meeting which I don't have to give at the end of the meeting which is this is exactly the topic that we covered in the energy commission meeting along with a resolution of support for the seu um so first of all I think it's maybe appropriate for me to to state that um I'm on the record publicly supporting the seu so I think this is um something we should definitely do um but I I have a number of um let's say concerns or issues that I just like to raise first of all I think um the the situation is changing so dramatically with the energy transition and Technologies and I mean just look at preira and post Ira I mean huge differences and so I think this is something that we're going to Contin have to continually reassess um first of all I want to secondly I want to point out to everybody that when we talk about 100% renewable energy we're talking about electrical energy and even at 2030 we're not going to have 100% renewable gas and we're going to not mean natural gas or fossil fossil gas as some people like to say or 100% renewable gasoline or diesel and so um we need to be clear as when we're talking about scope and costs and timelines and everything this is talking about electricity um I I know that things have shifted um back and forth on CCA that we should all remember Community Choice aggregation was assumed as a pathway um and I know that some of our elected representatives feel that it's not uh a very good pathway on the other hand um you know districts have been redrawn we control the Democrats control I should say all all three branches of government and so I don't know that we should um forget CCA and I know Missy has also stated on the record that um CCA is a good thing because if it were to happen it would benefit every community in the state and would give them options that they don't have right now it's not just something specific to Ann Arbor um one concern that I have and this something that I provided back in October is that all of this analysis um stops with 2030 and that that's reasonable given it's pretty far out and as I said a lot is going to change but we have to be cognizant of the fact that costs for example are going to continue to um ACR and have to be paid for by taxpayers and one of the slide that Missy showed is a slide of costs and there's a line item on and they're called non-recoverable costs um and those are costs that at least the report says that taxpayers are going to have to bear and in the a20 plan um we have for strategy seven action for went back and looked um an assumption that we are going to pay $10 million in total costs for Rex now um the costs that are shown in the report as Missy pointed out are going to be changing because of the new state renewable portfolio standard but the costs that are that are in the report are substantial between 2023 and 2029 um it's you know this is it depends on the choice but it's roughly $10 million so that's equal to the whole amount that's in in the a20 plan and in 2030 alone it's going to be for the option shown DTE plus plus seu is going to be 12.5 million and those costs continue to uh have to be born by by residents and so I think we just have to be honest with ourselves and residents that these are substantial costs that are going to have to be recovered somehow they're going to be in the city budget um um another thing is is that we're assuming the port resumes that all a20 Targets are going to be met um you know I think that's a reasonable assumption and we want to we want to do that on the other hand I think if anybody goes through and looks at the a20 report and looks at uh indicators of success timelines and assumptions there are a number of things that we are not meeting the the timeline on so if we're not meeting the timeline costs will be higher um and then just the last um comment um well two more comments um GTE CEO has said publicly in an arbor at the end of January that he wants to partner with the city to meet our 100% renewable energy goals I have no idea what that means um it would be really wonderful if DTE would outline exactly what they mean by a partnership and meeting our goals because well I'll I'll leave I'll leave leave that as a blank and then people can fill in the blank um so but I think you know if we're if we're asking all these questions and what we should be doing and a a statement like that as being made and he there's an advisory committee being made for washingon County where he apparently personally is going to be leading these meetings and the two first two meetings have been set um then I think it's really important that all of us be asking DTE what do they mean by that and a partnership to me means win-win and it doesn't mean win lose or lose win it means win-win um and then finally I know there was a lot of email exchanges back and forth um with the commission that Aaron for Ed between uh anti- Republic power representatives and the city and um I would just encourage everybody you know there was there was some um criticisms of the report from A2 P2 there was a rebuttal from Five Lakes um and then there was a rebuttal to the rebuttal from a2p P2 and I would encourage energy Commissioners to look um at that and and judge for themselves my senses and I need to look at these more carefully is that there are um there were rebuttal from five lakes that really didn't address a number of points from A2 P2 and I'll go back to my very first point that's why I think we need to have an ongoing conversation about all of these issues so thank you for allowing me to ramble on there that's it that was great I just want to respond to a few short things here yes the landscape constantly is changing that goes both ways right certain things are more complicated some things are better battery technology is much cheaper it's much more advanced than where it was even when we started the analysis grid forming inverters are stronger and more marketable than they were before so just just think of vehicle to grid coming exactly yeah the the four four three to four Tesla power walls so absolutely absolutely um to the seu one thing I just wanted to note is we are going um SE are proposing that when we go to council we will not just ask for authorization to do electric uh we will ask for authorization to launch District geothermal Network geothermal systems as well so we don't close that door we get authorization so we can start tackling thermal which is what you brought with heating and cooling transition uh CCA we I've said this publicly and I'll keep saying it we will work with any regulator that's ready to introduce legislation we have drafts ready to go so uh I invite our legislators to step up to that challenge and and if not we'll work with anybody uh the I just did want to note that while the report stops IT 2030 it doesn't for the me it actually models out into the future for an meu with increasing cost uh escalating cost rates through DTE so just note that um Rex are always going to be a cost or virtual power purchase agreement but they are meant to be a stop Gap because we're never going to stop it's not like we stop working in 2030 they're just a bridge to continuing to close emissions so excellent point um timelines are slower in some areas and they are faster in other areas of a20 I'm delighted to share uh that we're this year we'll finish I think 10 a20 strategies so so that's great they're different we're finding some things we just going slower and you're right that's true uh and then the last thing to your last Point rational people often disagree on things that doesn't make one right and one wrong it just means there's there's room we're in Uncharted Territory with our kind of franchise that people are going to disagree doesn't mean anyone is less skilled than another people just disagree a lot of them are lawyers and they get paid to disagree it would be great if there was a forum where people could just disagree and and challenge each other I don't know if that's yeah we may have that um so I I want to just add that um I would appreciate the opportunity for um a discussion of of not a line between the meu and the seu but more the combination and so I haven't heard that really discussed and I think that would be useful um because I don't think it has to be one well I mean I think that's probably true but I would say Stafford are operating under one goal and that is what council's adopted and that's a20 and so our goal is 2030 and so we're going to continue sprinting at things that allow us to achieve the 2030 goal and so that's I think an seu could grow into something else uh for sure it doesn't preclude a formal municipalization effort but it doesn't have to be formal municipalization effort right it can just be a supplemental or it could be the foundation for something else but the reason you don't hear me talking about municipalization is I do not believe that that is a pathway to achieve our goal even though it could be within a short period after that date maybe potentially and maybe not you know I I don't know all right um thanks um all right I would welcome questions from anyone else and if there are none going going we'll move on to our next speaker and thank you see thank you thank you for bringing that information um and now we'll have some information from Greg Woodring who is the president of anber for Public Power we have um had Greg here as the speaker in the past um and he's here to talk about annab from Public Power and the potential of moving forward with a phase two um feasibility study for looking at how this could potentially play into an Arbor's future so um thank you Greg for being here thank you so much uh chair Mitchell and Commissioners and council members I really appreciate you having me here to speak to you as well and I will also try to be as brief as possible as I know that we're nearing the end of your scheduled time here um but and I'd also love to entertain any questions that all of you have so we in Arbor for Public Power as re mentioned uh we've been I've been here before to talk to you before but essentially we're a Grassroots organization um or 501c4 technically and we're working towards achieving uh what we believe is the spirit of the a20 plan which is true 100% Renewable Power uh and you know there's a lot of different ways to consider uh Renewable Power however we are considering it as it is actually the power that we are consuming that is coming 100% from Renewables uh and that's what we're working towards um and so the general problem that we have is DTE is not transitioning to Renewables fast enough as you all are aware this is dte's most recent energy fuel mix apologies I didn't update that Source there that should be updated with the most recent numbers because I just pulled this graph off of their website um however they're still at 54% coal 14.2% natural gas and yes uh there have been some great winds at the state level to make their goals more aggressive to make it clean however as I'm sure many of you are also aware uh they have considerable carve outs things for renewable natural gas for hydrogen generation for um nuclear that are not necessarily the renewable energy that we're looking to go towards right it's a clean energy standard rather than the renewable energy standard which is a different standard than what we're working towards in ant Arbor um and so as we see the solution is municipalization um and the reason for that and municipalization as I'm sure all of you are aware is essentially has taking over the electric utility as Dr stls already laid out uh it's worth noting that there's over 40 Municipal municipalities in Michigan that have some form of Public Power whether that's co-ops or communities like we're discussing creating there's more than 2,000 communities across the United States that have uh Public Power um and uh a big advantage of it is that it's legal in Michigan right that uh we have a clear legal Authority granted to us by the State Constitution and the Ann Arbor City Charter to municipalization is the right option for us is reliability affordability local control investing in our community and as I'm sure uh those on the commission today are uh most interested in the environmental aspects of it right so uh DTE is the slowest utility uh in Michigan to return power to customers after an outage right uh and the difference is rather staggering um dte's reliability as I'm sure I don't have to explain to you is abysmal and it's been getting worse over the years uh and when you compare it to other publicly owned Electric utilities uh it makes it clear that this is not an issue due to geography or anything related to Michigan's specific climate this is an issue due to the system of power that they are using right they they have underinvested in their infrastructure to an extent where they're not able to withstand the normal weather patterns of Michigan and uh it's also worth pointing out that well reliability isn't directly related to climate it is a climate issue right reliability is going to continue to get worse as weather becomes more and more erratic due to the effects of climate change and so we're in this situation now where DTE was a is and has been a major driver towards the climate crisis and they have underinvested in their infrastructure to an extent where they cannot stand up to the ravages of it um and we're seeing that play out in our uh backyards across the state um and we can see the uh what we believe is the obvious solution right next door to us in communities like uh Lancing Chelsea Holland Trevor City um and they do all of these these Public Power utilities do these things well charging considerably less for their power right so this is updated with last year's numbers um and the way that I pulled these numbers is that I averaged the different um rates that they charge so they charge different rates at different amounts of energy you use is is probably not actually accurate to the actual demand but it's is a relative ballpark right and I did this across all the utility so hopefully it's fairly even um however you can see that when you're looking specifically at residential rates right which there is a big difference especially after the state allow DTE to separate their residential and Industrial and Commercial rates um res Donal rates have been going up and up and up for investor owned utility customers and that has not been the case in publicly owned utilities across the state um we are paying under DTE um about double uh what many utilities or close to double slightly less than double a few cases um what public own utilities are paying for their power um and they're so we are paying a lot more for a lot worse power and I'm not pointing this out to say that this is ex ly what we're going to be seeing if we were to they're paying a lower cost of capital which means all of their projects are cheaper compared to investor owned utility projects due to cheaper debt financing versus uh much more expensive debt financing and Equity financing and also all of the other activities that DTE does like their uh lavish salaries and bonuses for their Executives the lobbying the marketing all these various different things that DTE does to maintain their position uh of power within our state additionally this gives us uh local control over our utility we would control our rates we would control our source of power we control when our infastructure is updated it is a form of democratic control that we are regaining over our daily lives by reclaiming uh Val uh and you know one of the most um valuable uh utility Commodities that we are being served electricity is absolutely a need and not a want in the 21st century um and furthermore it invest in our community right um there is an argument to be made here about the amount of uh money that is paid back towards the general fund um in Lancing uh in 2020 that was $23.3 Million I think that Trevor City was 1.6 uh Holland was 78 or so um you know it's a lot of money that is being paid back to the general fund is in addition to keeping the jobs in uh the area um allowing us to advance unionization um and various different things and also the just value of having resilient energy grid right we can begin to improve the um resilience of our energy uh and that is going to have a lot of different benefits right for one it's um a health and safety issue for many people but it's also uh it's a determining factor and for a lot of different economic activity if you don't have reliable electricity that is going to dissuade people who are looking to potentially invest in this community and there's also the fact that many developers are looking to be electrifying to be building larger developments um and they simply cannot build it due to a lack of capacity provided by DTE with an investor with a publicly owned utility instead we'd be able to work with these types of entities to make sure that they're able to um be provided the capacity they need to build these sorts of developments and finally um as I'm sure that all of you are the most interested in is the environmentally responsible choice I've already mentioned this is our only real path to 100% Renewable Power in terms of how we are actually consuming yes we could buy Rex we could buy vppa we could buy Rex from DTE um and there may be some uh potential to get some of our energy uh demand service by an seu which we absolutely endorse right as much as the seu possibly can we should be pursuing that aggressively however as the feasibility study uh uh showed that was just discussed it's only projected to be serving about 10% of our power Demand by 2030 um and well you can make arguments one way or another about the timeline of municipalization it may be reasonable to say that we're not going to get all the way there by 2030 this will get us there in a reasonable timeline it's not going to be quick it's not the easy path forward but is the path forward that actually gets the job done um and then there's also other things that we can talk about how um you know there's caps on community solar and distribut generation those caps have been raised which is great however 6% in my opinion still too low um and this is something that would be at the discretion of a public utility right we could remove those caps um we could um reinstate net metering we could do all these different things that would incentivize so rooftop solar a lot more than we currently can do under DTE um so how do we do it uh this is kind of I think the part that's valuable um that you haven't heard before um so we've completed a phase one feasibility study which is a huge win um and well uh I'd be happy to answer any questions that any of you have about um what you've been sent uh earlier today or tomorrow or yesterday um regarding uh some of our critiques of the feasibil study we do believe that the high-end valuation is unreasonable um however uh as I think that many people in the city have already concluded we believe that even if you take the study on face value there's enough reason there to believe that it is worth pursuing the second state uh stage of the feasibility study which is valuation study and as Dr stz already mentioned what that study would be doing is it would be looking at what price are we going to offer DTE for their assets right um now and that's essentially the next because after we uh um make an offer to DT for their assets and you know there's some kind of discussion you could set up governance that could be the seu board right if the city is looking to establish an seu um potentially whatever entity is servicing the seu could evolve into Municipal utility right and that could be a very uh viable path forward for Ann Arbor to pursue um however ultimately to um do the acquisition of the assets we're going to need to make an offer to DTE and DTE is is almost certainly going to say no it's worth more right that is DTE is a for-profit company right they're going to try to make an argument to get more money out of us than we are willing to pay um and what that valuation study does is it gives the city a strong argument to say this is what we believe your assets are actually worth it is exhibit a in the legal case that's going to come up because DTE as I already mentioned earlier is legally obligated to uh surrender their assets right the city has the right to force the sale to condemn dte's electrical infrastructure within the city boundaries um the only point that DTE can contest us on is the price of those assets right and the feasibility study provided a range of um potential costs that that could be valuation study should uh narrow the city in on a legally defensible strong and in my opinion advantageous to the city uh argument for what um the price of those assets should be um and so that's what we are hoping that the city council will um approve in their budget it was a um item included in the um budget proposal however April 15th we'll see if it made um the administrator's uh recommendation for the budget um and so we are hoping to see that um and we're hoping that we can pursue the phase two feasibility study uh in parallel with the buildout of the seu this seems like uh best potential path to aggressively pursue 100% um uh 100 100% of the an arbor being served by public electric utility while also not waiting for the whole thing to be finished before we get started on something um so we go through that legal battle eventually the court is like either we settle with DTE or a court makes a decision on what the cost of those assets will be and then that is put up to a vote of the people staff recommendations did recommend a vote prior to legal proceedings we're not sure um exactly what the justification is for that um and we'd love to hear some more information from the city on that um we're not certain if that's necessary at this point however one vote that absolutely is necessary is the vote to approve the funding so essentially um and apologies I I kind of um spoke over this already but this is our arguments for uh the phase two fusibility study but um essentially the way that uh municipalization acquisition is finance is we are going to take out revenue bonds right revenue bonds are essentially like a millage Bond except for instead of being backed by taxes they are now backed by the revenue generated from whatever you were invested in so that's why we were looking in uh Dr stl's previous um slide about what the change in cost of electrical rates would be is that the cost of acquisition would be paid through the electrical bills that we are already paying right which is why we're um it's uncertain whether the cost will go up or down if if it wasn't for the cost of the acquisition the cost would certainly go down right that is why these other Public Power utilities across the state are able to offer such lower prices compared to DTE however the cost of the acquisition does um play into what the ultimate cost will be but as uh uh commissioner mki um rightly pointed out earlier the cost of reaching 100% Renewable Power is going to be born somewhere whether that is in tax dollars paid out to Rex or vppa or if that's paid out through our electrical bills and municipalization actually provides a realistic pathway that would actually lower costs rather than increase cost and so for that reason we strongly believe that this is something that is at the very least worth aggressively pursuing looking into with a phase two feasibility study and putting up to the voters to decide if they want to uh ditch DTE and uh build our own Energy Future so that's uh our position on it I thank you for your time I'm sure that uh many of you are hoping to get out of here fairly soon but I would be happy to answer any amount of questions that you have thank you Greg um and so here we are an opportunity for questions and I know that we are at a close to an endpoint but I would really appreciate if we take advantage of this opportunity [Music] um to here okay missioner mki quick question and a comment um I've read somewhere recently that if there were to be a municipal utility that uh there would be an immediate 6% savings because uh we pay sales tax when we pay an investor own utility and the you don't pay sales tax when you pay Municipal utility is that correct that is correct yeah public entity is exempt from sales tax um and that is often uh the justification for What's called the city fee so the revenue paid back to the general fund from the utility and legally you do have to be careful that you're not um paying out too much to the city from the utility however on average it does turn out that Public Utilities tend to put back more into the general fund than uh the investor owned utilities do in taxes so the comment that I had was um I would like to speak out in favor of a fake two study um I know I think it's a million dollars that's the line item in the budget that's a rough estimate that is a lot of money without a deliverable at the end um but I'd like to remind everybody uh about what Boulder Colorado did Boulder Colorado was unsuccessful in its municipalization effort but um and it spent $25 million but it uh was a very very well publicized uh activ ity and in the end Excel Energy its utility energy um Excel Energy ended up making significant concessions um on uh what kind of goals it was going to have that affected not only Boulder but all of its customers in Colorado and in Minnesota and possibly in other states and I think we should really be keeping the pressure on DTE and I think this is one way in doing it and and I know that you council members are going to have to weigh a million dollars here versus a million dollars there but I think this is something that really would would push um and DTE as well as make us much better informed about what kind of decisions we should be making in the coming years so that's all I had to say thank you thanks commissioner mki um commissioner grber thank you Greg I just have a question about the timeline Dr staltz mentioned that she didn't think it was possible to have this it's not really one of her options because it didn't meet the 2030 goal and so on your slide road map to municipalization I you might not have an answer for this but is it possible to put that road map on a timeline um you said you think that it's possible to get it this by 2030 but I also question whether it's feasible so I I'd love to visualize the timeline that's possible yeah um I will say that I certainly cannot tell you authoritatively how long it's going to take and I think that it's entirely reasonable to say that it might take longer than 2030 I will say that I don't think it's well Justified to say that it can't happen by 2030 um there are many examples of uh cities that have done this quicker yes it is probably more complicated in Michigan because it hasn't happened in a 100 years um so 100% acknowledge that right the legal um case may be more drawn out um in Michigan I have I'm not seen from any of the legal work that we have done or anything published in the feasibility study an argument as to why our Perpetual franchise agreements would make this significantly more uh lengthy or costly other than the fact that we would not be able to cancel the franchise agreement which is a uh pathway that many communities pursue however there are uh options available to us that don't involve cancelling the franchise agreement and it's also worth remembering that we're not purchasing the franchise agreement right we are not on there we should not be um uh um we we can't P purchase the franchise agreement DT will still have a franchise for an arbor instead what we are getting is the infrastructure and we are using the right that we already have by the home rule City act to service that infrastructure right um so yes it may take some amount of time I would say that you know a lot of that time time is a little bit in the hands of the city um in terms of how quickly we pursue some of these next steps you know I hope that we will get started on an RFP for a phase 2 feasibility study soon I know that Dr St said in uh um energy commission meeting earlier this month that if city council funds it she would be looking to um be doing that in May um you know I hope that that will be aggressively pursued um and that we will select a contractor as fast as is responsible and that we will put some amount of pressure on the contractor to finish in a uh diligent but uh reasonable time frame because that will increase the amount of time that uh or decrease the amount of time that it takes um the legal case is um uncertain you know you can look at other examples across the country of how long their legal cases have taken no Jefferson County Washington took about a year Winter Park Florida took two and as um commissioner mury pointed out Boulder Colorado took 10 right now Boulder Colorado had other legal complications that came up around with that I'm very confident the city of an arbor can avoid those however yes it it is a question mark you can't say that um confidently one way or another um and then as far as uh the amount of time that it takes to interconnect and things like that um it's it's difficult to say it certainly probably will be longer if we um pursue the feasibility study 1's recommendation of building 10 new substations um I hope that the phase two feasibility study will um at least in investigate the option of acquiring some of those uh substations not saying one option is better or the other however it seems like both options should be considered thank you Greg other questions right um I think one of my concerns has to do with the um scope of coverage of people in the community um people in businesses and so could you comment on that um aspect for the municipal utility option yeah um and I think that that's a worthwhile thing to point out I mean the municipal utility has one advantage of if you know day one of its operation it's going to be servicing 100% of Ann Arbor because we were going to be acquiring all of those um connections through the acquisition process the unfortunate side is city of an arbor cannot service area outside of its City boundaries due to the foot act um and if desired I can go into more detail on the foot act but essentially that's what gives DTE its Perpetual franchise agreement um and we can also look at cases like poer Colorado where they were attempting to acquire infrastructure outside of the city boundaries and that is a large part of what led to that prolonged legal battle um so in our opinion despite the fact that we would love to serve as the county n I actually uh to confess something I live in ipolani um and I would love to serve as Iolani um but we don't think that that's probably the um most reasonable we don't think that that's an advisable path for the city to pursue um but hopefully if the city of an arbor is successful in municipalization this will reduce the barrier of entry for other communities across the state to pursue something like this um it will chart a clear legal pathway for communities to follow and other communities um maybe and surrounding areas might even be able to pursue this option themselves and then work together in some sort of joint agreements with an Han Arbor Municipal utility which we're not certain but think probably is legal thank you um all right um going once twice for additional questions um I will want to thank you very much Greg for um joining us tonight and um so was very informative for me and I um hope that we'll continue this discussion among ourselves and and um we'll also uh be able to send questions to through Aaron to you and to um Dr stz think that would be great absolutely really appreciate you having me and happy to answer any questions at any time thank you um all right y we are really at the bleeding edge of the end of our meeting and over it um so our next um order of this business is reports from committees so I'm going to um do something different which is just to ask if any of the Committees have a particular announcement that they would like to make um and I'll take those that are ready to speak otherwise I'll just tip through them biodiversity circular economy commissioner C go ahead biodiversity for biodiversity we've drafted up changes for the pollinator websites for the OSI and for nap and those are both review by the different city staffs and for the pollinator Corner that should be going out in the OSI newsletter and some of the parks newsletters later this month great thank you um circular economy water quality uh just quickly we're continuing with our work with uh looking at options for a construction and demolition uh ordinance uh this month we spoke with representatives from the city of Chicago about some of the trials and tribulations they've EXP experience there with their ordinance um common theme across all the places we've talked to is the problem with tracking trying to get accurate information to know what's going where and what impact is being made um we hope to speak with one more uh representative probably somebody from a recycling industry organization to give us some broader State and National perspective on it and then what we're doing is putting together a kind of presentation or power to kind of explain what do we find what do we think the opport are do we think the challenges are as a way to start uh discussing that with a variety of different groups both uh City staff and others in time great thank you uh let's see um city council would you like make any account either council member dish CC rman yes um yep I wanted to let you know that we have a reading of for an ordinance change related to the open space and Parkland preservation plan um it expands the boundaries includes uh this is also known as the Green Belt sorry it also uh includes an overlay for um looking at surface water so want to let you know about that and then we also in our last meeting passed a resolution in support of the rides proposal to look for other options on the us23 corridor project than adding a lane so trying to stay true to our sustainability plans and the rides long-term plans for utilizing Park and rides as a way of minimizing uh traffic and increasing accessibility that's it sound great good uh okay our next it group is energy and we heard from commissioner mki I think if you want to okay let me just leave it at that um um uh commissioner Maran is not here for pack um Planning Commission well Planning Commission is deeply working on the comprehensive plan you know the comprehensive update um I can't think of anything that we have passed recently that it is of direct interest to this Commission um but there was there were a series of public meetings held at the an arbor District Library focusing on downtown planning and there was a lot of work with maps and bike lane you know projections and what you know what do you think would work and um it was very exciting very well attended and the meeting that I went to had a real range in particular of Ages that was very Str of the people who participated so um yeah I can't think of you know anything specific right thank you thanks for that update it's great good to know things are moving um as the chair report I don't have anything specific to add so I'm gonna um pass it off to Ain who gave us a report Erin I don't know if you want to make any comments on the report that you provided us sure yeah I think um council member Dash covered one of that them and um there's a link on there to all the materials that were presented at those meetings at the library if anyone didn't get a chance to attend then I think commissioner msky covered um my other item um about what the energy commission's been up to um with regards to the resolution and then the only other thing I had on there was that the um the Gman site U the EPA has opened public comment for the npl list the national priorities list um under super fund so public common is open on that until May 6 great thank you um and so moving on from there thank you Erin um uh our next schedule meeting is April 25th and guess what one of the things we're going to talk about is the Gman plume and we'll also have some other water discussions um ideally if it if it works out we'll have a representative from um Michigan's Department of Environmental great great lakes and energy to talk about groundwater contamination in Ann Arbor some of the sites that are being treated um and with that I want to move on to our second public commentary session um and this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes please call 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 962 6453 City staff will select callers that have raised their hand by calling out the last three digits of the phone number in order to electronically raise your hand please press star n on your phone you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak press star six to unmute your phone and when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments and uh eron are there anyone is there anyone writing to speak to us yes uh caller 245 H go ahead see if I can figure out how to do this right there hello can you hear me yes yes um my name is Kathleen Murphy I live at 315 Lind vist Street in Ann Arbor and um I'm calling uh to let people know about a meeting that's coming up that I think would be very interesting to people given the topics that were discussed tonight and I'm speaking for um anab for Public Power the organization and we are having a meeting next Thursday April 4th from 6: to 7:30 p.m.

[Music] hi and welcome to another edition of all politics is local I'm your host John featherson tonight I think we have a very exciting interview with Bob Sav you probably know Bob from Fitness Together uh gyms that he owns here in the Metro West area in Ashland in South Mar welcome Bob thank you very much Sean thanks for coming so we're going to talk a little bit about what you've got planned coming up for for the upcoming Marathon this year and one of the things we're going to talk about is tough Ruck tough Ruck nation is a group of military First Responders and civilians whose sole purpose is to Ruck in honor and memory of Fallen service members police firefighters and EMTs why raising funds to support our Warriors and families yes so I said a lot there Bob but uh you know for the audience out there you're going to Ruck yeah talk to us about what a Ruck is yeah so a Ruck is a little bit different than a run right people familiar with the Boston Marathon they're familiar with running a marathon um or you know any smaller distances 5K 10ks a rock is carrying what we call a rock sack so that's what we have here right uh it's typically a military bag has a certain amount of weight to it and you carry that Ruck and you can you can run tough Ruck um but you'll see most people out there walking and carrying that heavy load U throughout the entire event so let's talk about but your ruck right here I was going to call it a bag but it's actually a rck so you're going to walk 26.2 Mi or walk run 262 miles with a eight-year-old on your back pretty well yeah at least I mean that bag weighs right now 25 pounds there are different divisions in in tough Ruck you can enter um either as a civilian or as military and there's different dress codes for that uh but also in terms of a weight category so anything greater than 15 lb 15 lb is the minimum you can carry the lightweight division is 15 plus pound the heavyweight division is 35 Plus pounds so um I sort of fall in between there but you know always hard to know on on the day of the event what kind of things you're going to want to carry what kind of things you want to have with you how much water you want to have and there are stops along the way but I like to carry some things myself and uh for me there's there's some personal value to to to carrying at least 22 PBS as an owner of two gyms you know Fitness Together here in ashin and Southboro I mean you know kudos to you that you that you want to do I don't even like to drive 26.2 miles much less uh carry you know a 25 lb you know Ruck on my back so talk to me about how you got involved in the motivation for yeah you know it's funny I used to say the same thing when I first moved here I grew up in New York and and I went to school at Boston University and when I first moved up here I was really motivated and and driven to want to do the Boston Marathon um but I am not in any way shape or form or Runner I think I had done a couple of 5Ks under duress but I've I've never been a runner and I never really was able to train to do the Boston Marathon and and I had set my sights on the 100th Boston Marathon clearly never got there uh but then as time went on and as I got more involved with the military community and helping to volunteer at different organizations uh I met some people and they they suggested to me that I enter knowing what I do for a living they said hey you you know you should think about doing this tough Ruck with us um most of the events that I volunteer at I I'm not able necessarily to to hike along with them so this gave me an opportunity to be in that crowd of people to feel and experience uh the emotion of the day but also to fulfill one of my goals which was to do a marathon when I found out that tough Ruck is part of the Boston Marathon it sort of brought everything together for me and and the opportunity to earn a Boston Marathon medal was was you know really what sealed the deal for me to want to do this so this year will be your sixth year yes six consecutive years six consecutive years um you know unfortunately I got started in 2019 um had a great experience the first time out and then we entered into covid with two virtual uh years um and that sort of was what motivated me to keep going was that I wanted to have that experience again of being in the crowd seeing the people um and having that experience uh with everyone do 26.2 miles with a 25 pound Ruck on your back I just I'm always amazed like when you talk to marathon runners here you know because marathon's so big you know in Metro West uh how do you feel the next day you must be exhausted you know each Year's a different experience and I think that's what it's been is that my first year I didn't know what to expect and it's so different training for me for tough Ruck than it is to be a runner if you're a runner you go out you run every day you do a few miles and you build up that endurance and even at you know the the the longest run you might do might only be it might be 20 miles for an experienced marathon runner they're still going to finish that in in a few hours you know I went out this past weekend and did a training Rock we did 13 miles it took us about four hours you know and then we looked at that and said gez you know that's only halfway right and I don't have six eight hours a day you know on a weekend to train for this so you never know going in really what that's like if you if you don't train that mileage so yeah that was a that was a real hard thing for me to you know and from an experience standpoint is to be able to train and and mentally to be able to prepare for it so you know each Year's a little different and you ask how I feel is that first year I felt what I thought was pretty good going in and I was great and we even had a few clients from Fitness Together join us that day and as we were going up the last Hill I was cheering them on and and and we were excited about it and we could see the finish line and then all of a sudden I had this incredible pain in my calf and it was throbbing and I looked down and I saw almost like my calf had a heartbeat right and I'm looking at it and I stopped in my tracks and I'm holding on and um someone a big Marine came up behind me and I saw that not only did he have his rock on his back he had someone else's Ruck on his front he was helping someone else you know get to the finish line and he came to me and he says you know you okay can I help you and I said I looked at my calf and I was in agony and he says hop on I'll carry you oh and it was at that point that I knew that I had to figure out a way to get to the finish line and I did and I got there and it felt great but there were some things I don't remember about finishing um I was uncomfortable for a few days afterwards so like I said I just every year it's kind of inspired me to train more and I've had some good years and then a couple years ago I had a really bad year I got dehydrated and I think most Runners understand this too you know those that participate in the marathon every year is you can't account it's so hard in this area to train for weather right that was going to be one of my questions yeah what's an ideal day I you know I don't I don't know I mean I think like we were out on Saturday and it was overcast and 50° or less and that felt good um but there were morning you know we we sort of assemble at around I think it's 6:00 in the morning and it's generally in April pretty cold at 6:00 in the morning so you're there you got your pants on your sweatshirt on and you're trying to stay warm and and and go about the day and then I think a few years ago it warmed up to 60° and not that that was terrible but it was warm yeah you and I didn't account for it I didn't take off layers fast enough and by the time I hit about 9 or 10 miles I was dehydrated and I didn't realize it uh my wife saw it on me and and could tell that something was wrong and and my posture was wrong my back hurt um oddly enough I finished probably with my best time ever that year but I was laying on the ground for two hours afterwards really couldn't move you know um and then last year I think I got done and I said you know hey anybody want to go out and get a you know something to drink like I was like let's let's keep going so what what's the toughest part of the course I mean you you come out of hopkington into Ashlin and then you hit the kind of a flat track into Framingham and NAIC and then you know then you hit you know uh Heartbreak Hill I mean so where's the worst part of the route for you guys no so actually well so this is this is something that I guess we should have talked about is is different about tough rck unfortunately tough Ruck is not on the Marathon course oh okay um so years ago when tough Ruck started back in 2013 there was a there was a small group of of Ruckers who were participating in the Boston Marathon they were carrying their rucks they were you know people from back then probably remember them you know through the streets and this day now you still see some people in uniform but back then they had their rucks it was a small group um but as they were finishing in 2013 that's when the bombs went off right and when that happened they were just crossing the Finish Line they were some of the First Responders on site that day um so they they you know helped in any way they could but it was after that year that some of the rules changed uh and Ruckers were no longer allowed to carry backpacks um that next year and I don't know if that's changed I don't follow the Boston Marathon as as closely but that particular year um in 2014 they said you know we're sorry guys you know this is this is something we can't honor um you know this year but if you'd like you know we we appreciate what you do you know where you've been and we want to help you why don't we create this other event right so they they branched off from the Boston Marathon that's how tough Ruck was sort of created and expanded so they moved it to Minute Man National Park and conquered okay um and it's the day before the Boston Marathon so it's everything about the marathon sort of you know it's 26.2 miles it's sponsored by the baa we Ruck the you know the whole say when we get done we get the the Unicorn metal um but it's just has to be done the day before and they moved it off course so they can make their preparations for Boston day on Monday that makes sense so it is the Sunday before Marathon Monday it is and it starts in conquered it starts yeah so where uh in in conquer so it's you know it goes through conquer in Lexington starts at the Finn school um and you know and and weaves its way through conquer um you know along the some on the bike path there as well and what time of day is that uh early in the morning I forget exactly what time it goes off I think usually around around 8 maybe uh I know we assemble sometime I think it's at six um but it's uh yeah but you asked about like sort of the hardest part is you know the course has changed a little bit over the years um so there's been different types of things like I remember my first year we were back and forth in Minute Man National Park a few times so that was sort of challenging mentally to to be sort of retracing your steps and to see people kind of kind of coming and going you felt like you were just on a on a wheel and you weren't getting anywhere um the one that I had difficulty with a few years ago we were more in the woods than we had been in in years past so the terrain was a little uneven um whereas most of the time it's flat on pavement on on on uh tamped dirt so you know that usually works out well um but that's always the hardest part is I think for me I mean physical you can train for physical um it's harder to train for elements and for mental and that is I think and I and I used I mean as a personal trainer for years I've coached athletes and marathoners and and we talk a lot about that is that you know I can always prepare somebody physically mentally you have to be ready as well you know when you're participating in in a competition oh I I would think the mental is the bigest so what do you what do you wear on your feet running shoes boots I I wear I wear uh for me I wear Merill boots uh but people I've seen in all different kinds of Footwear if you enter in the military division you are not only wearing you know full dress but you're wearing uh your your issued boots as well uh so I and I've seen people wear full military dress you know and and military boots and run that thing in four hours 4 hours and I don't know with 35 lbs on their back so let's talk about let's talk about The Ruck we don't call it a backpack we call it a rook so why is that why is it called a rook that one I can't answer for you so I'm a civilian so I don't I don't have a good answer for that one um and I will tell you a funny story about The Ruck so when I when I got started uh doing this in my first year training you know I I was training with a a bunch of veterans and they suggested you know the backpack I was wearing wasn't going to cut it for 262 you know point2 miles so they suggested I go to the Army Navy Surplus and I and I pick out a Ruck so I walked in and and having no idea what I was looking for I just asked the poor man at the counter if he could help me and uh he pointed up and said those are rucks pick one and I looked and I my next question I was training with a lot of Marines and I said please please please um you have to give me a marine color backpack uh Ro and he corrected me right away and said Rock and because I said if I pick the wrong color I'm going to get picked on so uh so so I ended up with this rock and he got it all fitted for me and there's all kinds of straps and gadgets and places to hide things and again for me you know and for this event it's just about carrying the weight I can imagine it has all kinds of very specific purposes as to how these things are designed and I was taught one thing about it when the when the gentleman at the Army Navy uh was fitting me for it he told me there are two straps at the top that if you pull on them it'll disconnect the entire bag from your body so if you find yourself submerged in water it is a very quick way out and I had to remind him again that I was doing a marathon and if I found myself submerged in water I made a wrong turn so uh did he laugh I hope yeah he just looked at me and said please buy the bag and get out so cash or credit yeah that's right so talk to me about you know what you've got here yeah so there's a few patches on my bag from different events that I've done or different events I've participated in uh there's a couple of ribbons on the bag now and and those are what we consider Ruck tags or you know they're basic luggage tags but we had those made for a different organization that I volunteer with called the reverent Warriors okay um as far as tough Rock goes and I didn't bring them with me today but during the tough rck uh you'll see a lot of people most people during tough Rock are carrying ribbons on their bag longer uh ribbons of yellow uh white red to signify the different either branches or um you know EMT fire police uh that they want to honor somebody so most of my ribbons are yellow to honor Fallen service members uh that are unable like you said in the opening about unable to rock with us anymore so we carry those names for our entire Rock so what was your motivation to get involved with with this I mean did you have a friend a family coworker well just I mean some of it was was the motivation to do the event uh there was motivation to be with the people that I was meeting through a reverent Warriors and through that organization um and over time I've learned more and more about some of the people people that I knew people that friends knew that had passed um and it became sort of more important to honor them and to carry those names and and that's a big part I mean I said you talk about like mental motivation and when when you're walking that that distance and when you're feeling that pain to look ahead of you to see other people sort of forging on to look at the names on the on the bags not just the own the ones I'm carrying but to see the names on other people's packs to see pictures they're carrying um things that that they're holding dear that just drives you that much more to get done or you know eight hours it takes us you know anywhere from 6 to 8 hours if you're walking to finish this um there's a lot of people to talk to uh there's a thousand people that that join in on this event so as you're going You're not necessarily always with the same crowd of people and it's easy to strike up conversations with people and say hey tell me about the people on your pack good you know um and and so you get to learn a lot about the people that they're honoring um and that's that's I said that's the biggest motivation is to finish for them I mean in a six hour six to8 hours to do it I mean you've got to go to the bathroom you've got to eat yes you've got to hydrate so talk to me you know that the mental piece of this to me is almost as fascinating as the physical piece I mean you know like I said I don't like to drive 26 miles much less you know carry you know that back but talk how do you prepare for the mental we talked about it a little bit in the beginning but I mean when when you're struggling what do you what do you tell yourself it it's just a lot of practice and and I mean for me and I think everybody handles it differently I a lot of the the the practice that I do is um Often by myself during the day you know as a as a personal trainer I'm busiest in the morning and in the evening so I have a lot of free time in the afternoons and I'll and I'll run down over to you know the rail trail and and hop on there and go as far as I can you know in whatever time I have and that's a lot of alone time so I I have my headphones on I can think about things I can I can analyze how I'm feeling uh I can pay attention to my stride so you know it's looking inward sometimes and and thinking about those things but as I said it's it it comes with practice so the more times I go out the more times I I know what things feel like and what they're supposed to feel like and and how to adjust when things don't feel well what I've always told myself again because of the time involved in this you know a lot of my hikes are 6 to8 miles on a regular basis so on always with the Rook always with the Rook um so yeah I'm sure there'll be plenty of people out there that saying I've seen that guy I'm on I'm on the trail a lot uh but I'll go out there and you know on on event day I will go out there and I know the first 8 to 10 miles simple I do it all the time it you so I don't even have to think about it you know if something feels wrong in those first eight to 10 miles like it did a couple years ago I know there a problem it's going to be a rough day it's going to be a rough day so those 8 to 10 miles no problem at all as I told you before is you know any Long training rucks that we do might only be 12 13 15 miles so that next8 to you know 10 you know eight miles or so the second third if you will of the of the marathon is when you start to feel things that's why I always tell people that are new to this I said you the first eight n miles you're going to feel great piece of cake no problem you're excited everybody's excited be pass out on the side of the road the next n miles you start to feel things right the bag gets a little heavy on your back your feet start to get a little tingly right your knees start to ache a little bit so you start to notice things if you haven't trained beyond that distance and most people don't often train beyond that distance that's when you have no idea you know and I've done you know five of them now so I I sort of know what to expect at that point but again it's always different so the last third of the marathon you're just hanging on and you just tell yourself that you know what it's not going to feel any worse whatever I'm feeling now is what I'm going to feel the rest of the way and that's what it is it's just yep my back hurts my knees hurt okay it can't hurt any more than this and we just do it so what do you eat and drink during during all um for me I try to keep my sodium levels up uh you know I'm drinking water Gatorade whatever people are handing out you know I try to keep as much fluid but uh yeah electrolytes that type of stuff so definitely you know working on on those for food you know again I've started to eat things that I never thought I would eat and and here comes the personal trainer side of me um but the people love this so I eat a lot of potato chips um because they go down easy salt yeah a lot of salt on them uh the carbohydrate level so it so it helps just and they're just they're easy to eat uh you're not you know we're not running so it makes a lot easier to eat things um I was never a big fan of beef jerky and I don't eat it on a normal basis ever um but my first tough Ruck somebody was handing some out and I said I'm hungry and I and I took it and it was fantastic uh same thing keeping the protein and the salt and uh so things like that things that go down easy I I don't like all the the gels and goo and Power Bars I like I don't like that stuff um so I just try to find other snacks and peanut butter uh things like that that I can that I can get down easy wow so you mentioned it a couple times tonight irreverent Warriors let's talk about that cuz we don't have a lot of time left but we definitely want to get that in so a reverent Warriors is another organization that um I volunteer with I'm actually the lead coordinator for reverent Warriors here in Massachusetts and their mission is to bring veterans together using humor and camaraderie to improve mental health and prevent veteran suicide um it's that simple there's no sort of barri it's not a it's not a marathon it's not it's something totally different but really our our mission is to just get veterans out of isolation we know and this gets back to of my Ruck and what I carry but 22 veterans a day and that number has been debated a bit but 22 veterans a day are are um commit suicide MH and you know we're looking to end that problem and we're looking to like I said bring them out of isolation bring people together so that they know that they've got a network of people that have been through what they've been through and are available to talk and and and work on the things they need to work on you know kudos to you because you've tou you've touched on a hot we didn't even know but you've touched on a hot button with me with this is that you look at the young soldiers now in their 20s and 30s that have served two three four tours yes in Afghanistan or you know or you know in the Middle East which is unheard of we've never asked soldiers to do that now they come back home and there's there's no mental health help for them there's no you know communities even like Ashlin has a part-time veterans agent now and most of the community in Metro West have part-time services so what you're doing here I think is huge work and if Elizabeth Warren or Ed Mary or cathine Clark is watching this you know this is the guy this is the model because there are so many young veterans that are struggling with the Mental Health crisis and then you throw a worldwide pandemic on top of all of that mental health is the biggest thing going so kudos to you I mean so how do people learn more about it yeah so reverent warriors.com is the website we have several events and that was the thing when we started this or I say we but you know when a reverend Warriors was was started it was a simple premise get veterans together go for a rock enjoy each other's company uh what we found over time was that to Simply do we have a a big event every year called the silkies hike where the veterans will come together they'll put on their real short shorts they call them you know silkies or Ranger panties or they they they were the PT shorts that they that they wore back in the day you know for training so it's humor and camaraderie right you can't take yourself too seriously when you're wearing tiny shorts and walking through the streets so but the idea is to come out and have a good time well when they we doing that to have that event once a year and say you know to say our mission is to prevent veteran suicide thanks we'll see you next year didn't really cut it so what they started to do was to say you know what as a lead coordinator hey we'd like you to have more events we'd like you to get people together more often so we started doing other things we have a fundraiser coming up on April 20th we have other we have a hike in Milford a silky hike and the silkies hikes are for veterans only uh veterans active duty uh reservice and guard uh civilians can volunteer and they can help out along the way but that hike itself um you know on May 25th is just for those categories and then we have another one in Worcester on October 5th but all of those events and and not just here in Massachusetts but anywhere in the country uh can be found on a reverend warriors.com um but there are there are there are hikes and events throughout the country now and and Beyond um there was a hike recently um they're doing them now in England there's one scheduled for Normandy uh there's um one in Italy so they they're all over Puerto Rico yeah so does the Reverend Warriors have social media yeah yeah and and those are private groups but you know uh if you're a veteran uh if you're active duty if you'd like to get involved you can go and find Reverend Warriors Milford or Reverend Warriors Worcester um on social media on Facebook on Instagram uh and keep up to date with some of the things going on or they can reach out to me directly and as I said you know we can we can make sure that they get in the right group and um and what's been great is that you know you talked about mental health and other events you know there are so many groups sort of expanding on that idea so even within a reverent Warriors we have a gaming group we have a fitness group we have a sobriety group we so there's different things that people are interested in and involved with to sort of fit that niche of where they want to be um and the great thing for me I mean I got involved with all of this because again I I didn't come from military background military family I I didn't understand that there was this network of people that I wanted to help and now that I'm involved I'm finding many many many more groups and people and networks uh to interface with there's all kinds of groups Beyond just a reverent Warriors that do things to help veterans if they're not getting the help they need publicly well God bless you Bob Savin from Fitness together I mean you talk about a you know an American hero that's what you are I mean that's you're making a difference in people's lives you're giving back to your communities you're giving back so what what have we missed what what more do we have to do talk about your ruck coming up on uh Sunday April 14th the day before the marathon what more do people need to learn about that well I think that you know to get involved with tough rck they are still looking for volunteers as well or if you just want to come out and and and see the event and support the you know the the hikers that day as I said it'll be in conquered you can go to tough rock.org um you know that's a great place to get more information to sign up as a volunteer um there's ways to donate to military friends Foundation as well um but those are all things with tough Ruck I mentioned about a reverent warriors uh give the website one more time yeah reverent warriors.com for their website there and I think you know the the last thing I could say about all of this is just you know get involved because for me starting out you know when I was asked the question back in the day as to do you support the military I thought I did because I donated some money once upon a time you know or I might have you know left a couple of dollars on the table somewhere but until I when I was challenged to get involved and really support the military in that way by donating my time my presence I find that that's the the best thing that you can do to support our military is to be involved and be present well what a great guy you are hey we can't let you get out of here without getting a shot of you having your ruck on your back so so we'll have you suit up here a little bit y there's 25 lbs in here now so we strap in you know and this keeps it pretty tight you there's a couple of different straps on here straps around the waist uh but all that keeps the bag pretty tight to my body and you know as I said when you're when you're moving it's got a good frame to it so it really you know becomes just part of your body that's Bob Savin from Fitness Together here in Ashland you've been watching all politics is local we'll talk again real soon [Music]

it's okay okay so um before we have a little technical break we um you were telling us about um six Chestnut Street that they have we needed to continue it until until April 11th yeah so just re to to re re reiterate to anybody that missed it uh online is that U we have to continue it to April 11th due to a a butter notification uh technical technicality um and we will do that but all the information uh is up online uh to re be reviewed and and they the applicant did go to the conservation uh commission last uh Monday night and and did kind of receive a uh a favorable um response to the project regarding the work in the riverfront area uh which was which is a positive note is is that part there is that process done or not done just the first meeting just the first meeting they didn't close out they didn't make a determination however they just kind of heard the application saw the site plan um and kind of and is that their their process is also moving along uh and so but I would just say no you know with the proximity to the to the river um it kind of uh it makes sense uh to have the conservation in the concer on in the conversation sooner rather than later so but we'll open that up on the 11th and we'll continue on any questions on that project motion I make a motion to continue the six Chestnut Street site plan approval application to our April 11th meeting I'll second that and a roll call vote de D Anna teski I marcelona I Katherine Jers I and Trisha Kendall I so six Chestnut Street is continued till April 11th next on our public hearings we have 151 Main Street this is the Clover Road um Brewing um that is looking to come into the old um fire station correct so I can give a little quick update on this uh in that the applicant kovera Brewing uh in custody of and or care of uh John mun um was working uh with their his Architecture Firm to kind of firm up um a couple kind of loose ends regarding accessible parking and the the kind of the knee wall in the front but as it turns out that the architect that was working with the applicant at the firm Architecture Firm uh moved on and so therefore uh a new architect has had to step in and so uh they should have new in information to us regarding the building however I do want to just make a note that uh Beth Reynolds is here from our Economic Development coordinator uh and she just wants to make a note of the uh and and just take a couple minutes into talk about the trash enclosure in the rear of the property um Alvaro did send out a quick there was an email email from Beth that kind of explained the um the the tra the trash enclosure which I I I'll let Beth take care of however uh just to make a note that uh it's on the town and and it's under the town responsibility uh since we're making some some forward steps with this property um that we would like to put a fence we're going to put a fence up along the back property line um and right now it's obviously wide open to the tracks and so with this new uh this use being there uh we are moving forward we like to move forward with that fence installation uh and maybe also with the trash enclosure at the same time so uh with without further Ado I'll ask Beth Reynolds to to um come up to the microphone and I will make her a co-host um so she can unmute herself and uh put her video on hi sorry hi Beth hi um Peter can you bring up the drawings or do you want did you want me to do that no I'm happy to I'm just going to take a it's going to just take take a second terrific so thanks everyone so we've had plans um since the town moved decided to move forward and Lease this property um we've always had a plan to put a fence along the property line um just to secure it without having police and fire there um we wanted to do that so that um chain link fence is going up on Monday um that was something that we've been working on for five months so um the fence is there but then in the whole conversation with John and clover Road the dumpster came up um in question so I wanted to let you all see on our plan where that dumpster was going to go it will be a 10x10 enclosed fence for the dumpster that Clover Road will be in charge of maintaining you know just making sure it's not overflowing they'll rent it um on their own but we are dividing the fence because we want that fence to stay there should Clover Road ever leave um so this is the yep uh if you you have to scroll down a little bit more P to see the dumpster or at least from what I'm seeing I'm not sure yeah one minut I'm having a uh Adobe technical issue oh there it is there it is yeah it is um so it is will actually be um put on the asphalt um in sort of like a it it's like one parking spot that will go into their um into like this I don't know kind of grade out area um it's there's no parking there now um but it is 10 feet away from the building which is what the fire department requests or requires and um it is going to be on asphalt which the Board of Health has approved or the director agent has approved um so that is what we are looking at yeah and I I would say um just to note if you're also you know purchasing the dumpster is that the pl you know the one of the things that we're always looking for is that the dumpster is lower than the fence obviously so that the dumpster doesn't stick up above the fence um but uh so that's just something to keep in mind with the with the planning Beth do you want explain what the fence is obviously I think you you put it in your email but it will have blastic uh kind of slots in it is that correct y yep it's a the black chain link fence that will match the um the fence that's going in um and the full description um it is a six foot high all black chain link um it will have the the slats in it so you can't see through um yeah it and I mean it has the specifications of like the top Rail and the coral oil wire but yeah it'll be six feet tall and it will be enclosed so be locked I just want to follow up with um Trisha's thing that it it's now become in our standard conditions that in a dumpster the dumpster has to be below the height of the enclosure so we will probably be putting that condition I'm assuming right with the um any decision but I I would just make sure that um that's well coordinated before you install it because we've had other businesses have like they're still they still exist right that the dumpster above the height of the fence so I don't think we want to bring that to another area in town sure I'll double check that on Monday um that's good to know all right any other any other questions in this project right now like Peter said we're waiting but for the new architect to step in and then we're waiting for the details on the the little wall in front and the clarification of the parking which is just kind of mismarked I guess I have a um question on the schedule because that I looked at it's January something so I mean I think it's 90 days without it's 120 days so I counted today so we have up until so the application came in on January January 4th in 100 days uh since then brings us to May 3rd so we have some time before we're we're up we before we have to um obviously uh make any final decision um and I think obviously since the this is a town property and clover road is going to be a tenant I don't see foresee any issues with that but I think hopefully we can get this closed out prior to May 3rd so um obviously we are well Beth can I ask you do you have any other uh questions that you while we're here that you want to ask or good at this time okay that's um so are we looking at uh or April 11th is getting is going to be a little busy um just so people know but I think we just have these you know hopefully some of these projects it's it's a smaller time frame as we kind of move through them and I um I I think it's I think it's going to April 11th we just might have to plan on that being a longer meeting so in the in the spirit of full disclosure I'm out of the state on the 11th in traveling uh I should be able to attend remotely because my flight lands prior to our meeting but I just wanted to folks to know that I would be remote for the meeting any other uh questions comments on this project at this time all right otherwise um someone want to make a motion to we're moving till April 11th again I'll make a motion for 151 Main Street site plan approval application to the April 11th planning board meeting I'll second it and a roll call vote I Anna tus minitz Iona I Katherine Jersey I and Trish Kendall I so we will see 151 uh on April 11th thanks Beth all right um next on the agenda is um the public hearing for 9 to 49 Homer a um last time we're reviewing comments in blue this time I have taken off um the comments in blue that I think uh we had all agreed on are talked about or went through and then the new things or things that were still in um in wording or whatever are now in kind of a purple fuchia fuchsia kind of color um and I think there's a couple little spots in yellow uh that still um need uh factual information yep that kind of I was able to take care of those today okay uh and most of them so for the last couple days where is that so we will just be now so for the special permit sorry yeah the special permit you'll see that those highlights and purple for the uh site plan review we never kind of got back to looking at the um the site plan review conditions findings sorry findings um most of them uh you know related directly back to the ones in special permit you know they different wording of the condition but they're very similar so but we didn't actually go through those so I want to take a a pass through that and then of course through the remaining items on the special permit plus um any obviously any other questions um people have uh preference on where to start um special permit or site plan review I think this special permit because they might copy overrate yeah they might so so I just want to make a note from the application team we do have Charlie zudo here and Mr Rong Fork so if there's any questions we can refer them Attorney Terry Morris was not is uh is feeling under the weather tonight so he's unable to join us okay so uh just first area of it looks pink when you print it out but um was just on page five that was just the um addition to the documents of adding that um rendering of the pergola sorry are we in on page site plan review page four or no we were on special gotcha okay sorry you said special permit Kate right yes sorry sorry sorry sorry yeah so special permit page five yep it was just adding that rendering of the pergola that um we looked at last time that wasn't in the list yet um the next thing I think I see oh um I'm gonna stop at page 11 even though there's no pink on there um because this this will come up on the um the site plan review if under number six um the last two paragraphs under number six do you have what you need sorry I'm just looking at um deepa's version and mine match but yours looks a little I printed mine at home oh gotta sorry so I have my notes on that's okay just like are we all looking at the same thing yeah yeah no sorry I um they should they should be the same that's okay um but uh so on I'm looking at page 11 number six it's not there's no pink on it but if you look at the last two paragraphs under number six it's just repetitive like the first sentence of that says the board approves the non-conforming setback for the existing building at 9 to5 hom RAV and then the second paragraph it it's only a sentence but it's it's all about that the board also approves the current setbacks of the existing commercial building to remain it's the same building that we're talking about so I was going to eliminate the first sentence and the further of the of the middle paragraph since the second one is more detailed think that makes sense okay I noticed that actually when I was looking at the site plan review on um so you got that piece mhm and then the next page page 12 is where we actually have a uh more pink this was about the survey um and I don't remember actually where we had this one last time if we just we did discuss it right it was are we looking at the wording the inspection the the survey yeah um so yeah we did discuss it and then um that is the that's that is the newest that's the newest condition that we had I just want to make a note that some everyone else is you'll have you'll see green green was uh just some language that when Lisa me reviewed this decision she just had a few edits uh this paragraph for blasting didn't really change but she just wanted to reflect a few items and then the second par this the paragraph Below in green um just has um you know information regarding um consent of the adjacent donors Peter that's second green section I think it's meant to say to the extent with a T at the end okay do you see how it says to the extend with a d to yes I do I think that's that's supposed to be a t got it makes sense I also looking at the first screen um I promise I'll I won't go backwards uh looking at the first screen as the planning board reserves concerns about the possibility of blasting and then we have a sentence that actually says blasting shall not be permitted so I'm I'm a little I don't want us to sound uncertain in that first sentence where we're like oh we kind of reserved the right to be concerned rid of that first sentence maybe we just get rid of that sentence entirely and just say blasting shall not be permitted it just kind of creates this uncertainty like are they just thinking about it or are they saying it's a bad idea okay I think we are saying don't do it so maybe is that uh does that sound good to folks all board members I see a lot of heads going up and down with with one exception though because I totally understand what you're saying it made sense the first time you said it but I reread it and and I and and I think you said this was reviewed by Lisa right corre the way after rading it a little slower I think there is always the possibility for whatever reasons when you start an excavation that you end up needing a certain type of technology to get the job done so there's no there's no way to full proof that somebody's going to say you will never need blasting and I think that is the intent that Lisa put in here or I don't whatever this came from if we had it and she fixed it is that we don't want blasting and that's the first thing but in the event that is needed then there's got to be a certain set of procedures and I just want to highlight that it's impossible to foresee what you will find when you make an excavation that's just the world that's the way it is so I don't know if that's the intent so yeah that that might have come out of um cuz I Peter and I we're probably trying to write that condition based on um uh gcg's um information and we also we're considering that often times or I I I'm not an expert so I won't say often but sometimes um the blasting is actually people think of blasting is a huge blast and sometimes it's more like a firecracker and sometimes it's actually the less obtrusive Thing versus home ramming which is constant and so I think it was kind of saying yeah we don't think it's going to happen here we reserve some concerns but there may be a case where that's actually the better option you know um and that's and it would have to be supervised by experts and by complying with whatever state regulations there are so so I I I don't know if removing part of it uh I'm okay with it staying as is I think the point would still be made without that first sentence the first sentence I don't think the first away I think actually because it every it says it's not permitted until you're in compliance and the follow on of our concerns are expressed by gcg why you wouldn't want to do it I mean I'm fin leaving it but we try to be as tight as we can so it's not going to hurt till he did but it's not a big difference but yeah I I see I I think since Lisa has already reviewed it I think just leave it in yeah that's fine by me you know I just I'm okay with it as as as is I I do think we you know when Lisa gives us input we still have the responsibility to review it and agree to it um but I'm okay with it as is if it's not going to harm us to leave that sentence in I just felt like it wasn't necessary right agreed we're fine okay so the uh the inspectional survey um so that really um has kind of two parts one is about the 300t radius um and again this is uh the surveys is always happen with the um approval of the homeowner they don't have to approve someone coming on their property to survey um so that's why that language is put in there and then um for the uh for the elevation markers it's the abing properties mhm um to see if the if there's any changes in the ground that was from G CG so if the my only concern about that second part so I think if you say no one can take pictures of your foundation you're kind of on your own the second part if nobody lets them put a marker how are we going to measure and check for settlement like wouldn't we want that anyway can you do it against the will of the owner I don't think so trespass I don't think you I don't think you can but but I didn't say to do that I said like is there a way to do it which is maybe on the edge of their property or something I don't know I think I think we have to figure that out um I I I think the procedure is pretty clear and it's in the interest of everybody to to participate on it some body doesn't want it you cannot control everything you're given all the guarantees and safeguards that people deserve you cannot force somebody to be helped I'm not sure that I don't know if it's about the helping of other properties necessarily like if somebody doesn't allow like I I I haven't been to the property in a little while since our site s sidewalks but if one property owner says no that property owner's refusal to participate could harm somebody right next to them who says yes why so presumably these properties could be sharing elevation in theory that could then right this is what we're concerned about so I I don't necessarily think a property owner say not giving consent somehow allows the harm I think the decision is meant to be written in a way that we can monitor the end result I am not a technical person so I have no idea if there is a way to place the elevation marker on this property to kind of not rely on the placement of it on the adjacent properties but if there is a way it you know that might be more reliable than a photograph it's hard for me to imagine how you would take a photograph to prove to prove that there's no no you can't use the the photographs are like if if there's ho ramming and your foundation gets a crack right the settlement is the issue with groundw something could be it has to be monitored but what you all are telling me is if nobody around gives it then we are just saying n sorry you can't Monitor and I don't think that's acceptable I I'm not a lawyer to say what we can do I think this might be a gcg thing like can't you just put it on if no a butter allows it then can we ask for it to to be put on that property does that I mean can have some experience with this where they' be willing to put a elevation marker on their own property if there's a lack of consent I mean I just don't understand the problem though I mean yeah you you the instrumentation this is this is a technical thing and to to instrument a you have to survey and repeat the procedure scientifically to prove settlement if you don't have the instruments in place you cannot do it why why wouldn't somebody not want to do that I don't know presumably that that could be the case if somebody says I don't want anything on my property okay but just from the legal point of view don't you on any other case do you lose your standing if you refuse to to help with proving that you were harmed I don't understand the legal part of it but I just everybody's given open opportunity to make sure that nothing happens to their property what else is needed I I just don't see really the need to go further the Project's also going to have building per you know building permits affidavits the building official is going to be there every control construction but but these are the that is the way you check for that I mean this I I'm pretty sure when we were doing the big dig this actually happened to a building like I don't think this is a madeup condition that can happen right so no it's not it's not a madeup condition but um you know um so we're saying that the the property owner I mean there can be settling on their own property right it's their property and that's one condition but if if the owners of the adjacent property don't want to have this information and don't care enough then who so as long as you're saying we have no culpability then because we made a condition and nobody went with it and then doesn't matter planning board so worst case of building caves and everybody doesn't matter right case that is that is not consistent with this Cate because so the way this is written the way this is written it seems like the intent of the draft is that we're going to make sure that there is no um what is the technical term here we're trying we're trying to avoid a problem relative to Elevation that's our intent and it's a property that's very I think it's fairly dense and other things that are there so again my concern is if one owner is not Cooperative or not reachable or out of town doesn't participate doesn't like it's not necessarily the intent of the owner to be annoying or reject or rejection maybe they're not available and therefore somebody does not quote unquote consent I would be more comfortable making sure that we as a board come up with a different way if there's a technical way to do it like why not ask the applicant they've built properties before is there a way to measure this without sticking the marker on an adjacent properties if the adjacent properties are not Cooperative can the applicant creatively think of a way and if they can why don't we okay I see Char so I see the applicant with their hand up so Charlie uh I'm I'm please unmute yourself I I did make you a co-host and so uh please help out help us in this discussion can you hear me yep loud and clear so Pete honestly we I've been doing this for a long time Bild we've never had to do this only if you're doing blasting they make you do serving on the properties around I mean have you done this to all the other developments in town that if somebody's building a like when they were digging the streets for instance they were doing major work for the new develop for the new roadways did you survey all the properties around this is something that's only been done when you do blasting not for regular site work or anything like that oh I I I understand that Charlie and uh yeah this is a new condition that this board is putting on and so um but no this is a blasting condition I I I see only for blasting or for everything no that this part of the condition is for settlement like in digging the basement or water or something like that it's not really about the blasting so the so this is not just for the project in general it's still got to be done not only just for blasting correct okay so this is something new that the town has adopting as a ordinance for anyone doing a building so if I if I could please um I I think that the way to think about it is that each project in my opinion each project gets to be viewed relative to where it's located and so this is not just the board randomly choosing a new condition we are cognizant of the fact that we're looking at an area that is downtown and we as a board have been attentive to that fact relative to this project so just like because you're in downtown we have been thoughtful and flexible with you relative to certain conditions and certain elements of the project and how we're designing it how we're working with it we're also I think appropriately considering things like settlement in an area that is high traffic high visibility highly important to the town of as highly marketable related to Economic Development etc etc so it's a perfectly reasonable thing in my opinion for the board to consider unique conditions relative to downtown and I don't think how many times do you want this survey done so over the I I think it's over the course of the project to confirm that there's no settlement Charlie so I'm going to have to have a survey go survey every house within 300 ft of this property ongoing for the course of the project no it's a budding it's only a budding property Charlie oh okay cuz this thing says 300 foot radius that's the first paragraph that we're talking about the second paragraph okay now on that on that note what uh what Anna said it's it makes sense but the caveat to me is that you can go so far I think that there's going to be a a substantial excavation in the site and this is taken care of you know measures to make sure that nobody gets impacted by it so just just so hold on so so uh trying to come up with scenarios that could be what if this what if that I don't think that's the the board's job either I think we have a gcg that provided some recommendations we have Lisa has reviewed this there is a there is a system in place recommended I think we should just uh um trust the building code procedures the staff in the town that's going to be reviewing those inspections the professionals that are doing this under lawful techniques that are approved by the code and not come up with scenarios like what if something happens I I think we could come up with a thousand different ones we'll never end did is that ccg language though with the consent of each do we have their um because I don't I remember it being something like explaining how to do it and how often I do not recall them linking it to another property so that's what I guess no I think the explanation was putting some initial market and reading them I think monthly over something like that I remember but and so I think that that is the issue if it has to be tied to an abing property or not to me I think it sounds like everyone agrees with a professional recommendation a reasonable Condition it's it's thec um trying to understand if it has to be tied to an abing property and I'm not clear that it has to be but if you mention their foundations you have to I'm going to make a suggestion I don't think this board has the technical expertise to create a condition that would place this elevation marker anywhere other than the abing properties the way it's drafted so it sounds to me sorry hold hold on hold on talk one at a time hold on I'm okay with the language as is I'm changing my mind because I don't think we have the expertise to make it different from the way it's drafted um I'm learning as we go here that I need to educate myself more as to how these things work technically um I will say I have some grave concerns if the applicant is already kind of um views this as cumbersome as it's drafted um I'm concerned about our ability to assure that it's actually followed but I will put those concerns aside and I would hope that the applicant will follow the condition and actually make good faith effort to reach out to the abing owners um and if they're not responsive to follow up Etc That's My Hope just a note before I'm going to let Charlie talk again um that uh that um the cumbersome I think is more um uh it in my mind more unusual that this is an unusual condition um it it was not part of the other projects we you know it was an unusual condition and so um and it's probably unusual for him too and I think that's fair so Charlie did you was there another comment you wanted to add yeah so what the survey can do is they could take the top of each Foundation where the foundation meets the framing and use that as the marker on each property I I'm just just concerns like it I've never had to do this before and if I'm only getting if this is the only project that this is going to be used on or if it's going to be in the zoning code for now on for every project I think um I think the there's some new things here because this is the first downtown project that's been done in in a while and certainly and certainly by this board so that's why um and and and we know that the project has kind of a high water table so that's why this has come up so um I understand your concern I understand what you're what you're saying Charlie um it's we we're kind of figuring it out so Kate so I mean this has underground we we had residents at some of the very first hearings having concern about construction near other buildings and digging down and I think full circle we're doing our best to to understand that this is not the type of construction we've seen before so I just want to I I want to recognize that that the public raise concerns we know that buildings get built like this in Boston but maybe they haven't been we acknowledge that in Ashland and that is part of us trying to do our due diligence and and and just to add to that this it's not really that unreasonable to to test that when you have a Butter's next door in a downtown situation and and I think other projects that come with similar contextual um parameters probably will get the same condition I don't mind doing it I just want to make sure that I'm not the only one doing it that it's for every project in the town like if there's if you're if you're trying to set a standard I'm all I'm very happy to work with you on that but it should be a standard for the whole city okay hold hold on if I if I could I think that it's Our obligation as a board to constantly evolve and learn and look at project in a unique fashion that it is but also reflective the environment around it so I'm not comfortable guaranteeing that every single project downtown is going to have the exact same conditions I think the nature of our work is that we we're going to continue to evolve and learn um that's my position on that okay so what I'm going to suggest is that we're going to take a little breather on this condition and we're going to come back to it because I want everyone to have a few minutes away from it you know um to let it let it settle a little bit no pun intend yeah okay so um that's a good planning joke right there thank you uh so uh so we'll come we're going to come back to that um make sure you keep track of that where that is okay um 14 shared parking again this was um just to try to clarify the relationship uh between the uh you know basically borrowed parking from 20 Homer AV the train station and what should happen say if one of those properties it's sold and the new owner says no way know how no one's using my parking you know that kind of thing so um I believe this was this condition also reviewed by yeah this is review by Lisa uh Town Council and this is the final uh draft that she has posed did she have feedback um on I I think our thought last time was to request that an easement go into place if ownership changed like at that time as a term of sale and that's not that's not it Just reflects that if there's a change of ownership the shared parking agreement shall I think that was our concern last time is that that agreement would there's not like an enforceable way to carry that over um said in the event of the use or ownership of either property change in the future the parking agreement shall remain in place I think that was the concern there there there's it says it goes on to say that it will be filed with the registry of deeds I just I think our concern was that an easement would run with the property it couldn't because they're owned by the same owner right now you can't do an easement now but you could as a term of sale in the future and I think that changes not reflected I wonder if Lisa had it sounds like she's she's drafting this as like a general General condition of like whatever needs to happen shall happen right like it's almost like implied like said share parking agreement shall remain in place right implied in that is whatever legal instrument you need to make that happen should happen okay I think that's what she's doing um I don't know if we necessarily need to dict the legal mechanism that's utilized to make that happen as long as we are all interpreting that sentence this is a directive this shall happen it shall stick around um I guess the question becomes um what is the obligation for us to kind of Follow that through when that transition of ownership happens like who who has the jurisdiction to sort of pay attention to that is that the building inspector like how does that work yeah I think it's really all of us in town hall The Building Commissioner too you know he's going to be the one that signs occupancy permits he's the one signs building um is there is there a way to indicate like um but if there's a sale what would trigger that right is there a way when the sale happens is there maybe we should I'm just suggesting maybe we should add a small note that when the sale occurs we would be notified like the town would be notified it says the sh sh parking agreement shall include a requirement to notify the building office should a lease within either property be terminated for any reason uh so you're you're you're thinking when the ownership changes the lease will terminate not terminated by any reason that would include a sale I just I don't know I don't know if that lease would terminate at this point of sale maybe we're just too worried yeah I I think that too deep into it I think we're probably okay the way it's drafted I've talked about it with her she's she know I discussed everything she's done this you know many times and I have full faith that this draft and this condition can be implemented okay perfect that's that's great if she I just wanted to make sure that that was the discussion about transitioning from a shared parking agreement to in easement I I just wanted to make sure that was switched for like intentionally and for a reason that's that's perfect be comfortable moving on um number 17 is the mural um I think this basically stayed the same we did put it back into the conditions um yeah so um again it's just that the applicant is offered and the planning board accepts the wall space um and that the planning board will work with the applicant to develop a process for implementation artwork shall be mutual mutually acceptable to both parties um that might need to be mutually but it's not a big deal mutually Mutual acceptable I think mutually right mutually how do we feel about putting some time frames on that like right now the way it's written in theory it might never happen like at all um is there any thought about if the applicant is comfortable of kind of working with us on this within I don't know certain type of time frame year two years I think I think given that there's no building permit there's uh there's a site demolition delay there's we couldn't even we don't know who's going to be handling the mural we don't know I I I think I'm I'm good with it just leaving it General as something that we're going to work on together and we'll see down the road how that happens me too I'm comfortable because it says we'll work with like the ball is very much in our cour shouldn't fall off radar when the time is right yeah when the time is right I I it sounds like the majority wants to go with as is I'll just say that without some time frame like hey within within a year of issuance of the permit or whatever um I think it's very likely this will get buried um but that's just kind of where I'm at with it well if the planning board at that time is not interested in pursuing it that will be up to them I guess you us or them whoever people I guess that's what I'm saying I think we're pushing the buck on something that is being given to us um and without framing some kind of um reasonable time frame for a Cooperative process like if it said within a year of the issuance of the per all we're doing is we will work with the applicant the applicant that point might say I don't really have an idea yet but I'm working on it like it gives us some framework to achieve this otherwise to me this is just like a lovely paragraph that there's absolutely no incentive not to cut you off but Charlie has hand up if you want to make a comment yeah sure Charlie if you want to jump in on this I don't see his hand up anymore okay I'm sorry he did have his hand up so yeah so I I just I I really strongly think we leave a general we're still learning about this whole mural thing Starbucks is a case in point it's we're learning as we go I I'm just not into putting more any more detail onto it and we don't in a way we don't know what we're doing yet so um Charlie does Charlie has his okay Charlie you want to jump in yeah sorry about that you I mean you might want to change your mural every two years so just put something in there that's like a permanent thing you might paint a mural and it might not be you might want to change it as the seasons go on if this school system has an hot team that wants to change it every you know Season or something we're we're fine with that yeah so it's something that can be an ongoing thing I think it's just a description of an ongoing partnership and we'll leave it at that is agre General agreement yep okay all right moving on um some of these are just recording things that we um hadn't recorded last time the building brick um doesn't really have a um a colorful name like gray slate or Pearl gray associated with it so we uh just put in transitional brick that's what is L is labeled as provided to the planning board or an approved equal um which is a typical way of doing it in specifications um the pavement brick we put in um uh those information about the brick from downtown so we put in that um information about the brick used in downtown or again said approved equal in case for whatever reason it's not available or we can't get that exact batch or whatever um pocket park pergola um obviously just tried to ex um describe what we saw in the image and the um you know the basic comments we made at that time about Pera and then referred to the drawing and that was the drawing added earlier who comment Who's the um approved who approves the equal if there is a change um well that's a good question I mean and uh usually it's the architect um like like it's it's usually the architect but so yeah you're not going to have the applicant approve their own or equal I don't think that would be the intent of our decision right yeah no I mean so um I would just I could we could put what without unreasonably held by the planning board you can just say approved equal um after Consulting with the planning board yeah or something like that just we just need a consultation hey this one is not available how about this one yeah we can that could be a simple procedure equal approved equal after Consulting the planning board approved equal are we looking to color match what is that deal it's not the spec of the brick what are we trying to get is it getting color match to yeah it's usually this brick is no longer available is this one okay it's a color yeah it is a color match just a little subjective but yeah yeah so you can just put them both both of those locations got it okay all right any further questions on that um exterior materials okay um next page is pretty simple uh just adding a phrase there it was just no some pump shall be allowed and then um it was added in to be no sump pump shall be allowed to be connected to ashin storm water system so bless bless you sorry um the next page is 17 where this was where we were looking um at the um exterior elevations and if anything was added to the exterior elevations we talked about um the normal events and things that are available from a public Street need to be um they're not currently shown in the elevations must be carefully placed aligned so as not to Marv the approved elevations and then we were we were discussing the placement of mechanical electrical or other equipment or vents the pink is what was new um originally said is not allowed without approval from the planning board um this is where I will just call it the Starbucks situation you know and how do we uh how do we prevent that from happening um so um and the problem was that without that pink section there's no um there's no differentiate between um something minor and something larger yeah you establishing a baseline establishing a baseline yeah I'm okay with it makes sense so so anyone have any comments about that okay I I hope nothing ends up on those elevations but yeah it's construction and then I think the last pink comment is on 21 is that yeah about the dewatering um can we can we just the two words submitt in there so it needs to be if a dewatering is required a dewatering plan shall be submitted for approval to the Department of Public Works period that's my recommendation y you got that Peter a dewatering plan shall be submitted for approval to the public works yes yeah okay all right so then let's um skip over still not going to go back to uh so I think we caught everything in there right I just had a very quick clarifying question on the sign I know we don't normally talk about signature pages um for the special permit that we just went through uh and Amanda is noted as na associate member no vote cast and no signature um but for the site plan review we we are having aanda sign so I just want to make sure there's some consistency oh uh between those two things yeah that was that was just left over gotcha oh you copied it over without yeah that's just I haven't filled that out yet because oh no no what I mean is on the other one oh it's not an NA on the other one it looks like Amanda is voting so we just need to like be consistent okay is the asso number voting or not and it should be the same on both documents or is she signing both or just one right like there has to be some in general we should make sure we're consistent yes okay so you put it from your house oh okay right got it thank you I'm getting confused in my own stuff okay yeah and then just to make a note the decision so the decision the documents are record in the decis in the conditions are going to be a mirror image for both documents the only thing that's changing is the uh the meet the finding section okay so then we run into blue at um in the in the um findings um and again this isn't um we reviewed them we reviewed very similar things in the special permit but these conditions these findings criteria are different in the in the site plan review than they are in the special permit so it doesn't copy over exactly but the phrasing um should be very familiar of of edits that we've already made so I think on under number 11 that's um page 10 to 11 is the same um repetitive um thing about the uh the setbacks so in the third blue paragraph We should take off the first sentence that says the board approved and then take off the word further page 10 yeah it's the same edit we made before I mean I feel like all the edits should be just replicated because it's the exact same language so like yeah yeah so um yeah so it's repetitive with the last paragraph there which is more detailed okay so after Dimensions yeah we're taking off the board approves the non-conforming setback existing building at 99 to 15 take that paragraph off the sentence off oh the sentence off and the word further and the word further okay so it's like the board approves gotcha yeah and that will be consistent with what we did before on page 11 that word exit um was already there we've already gone through that we just hadn't done these comments um did we we ended up not changing anything with the blasting is that yep we stuck to the blasting thing as is the only change is in the inspection survey the extent extend versus extent with a t Okay M I think the rest of it is the same parking mural it's on the next page right wait no did I miss it yeah go back down in your green oh go you yeah yeah ex yeah okay okay and so and then it's down to just U number 29 that we just corrected um unless someone has something did you go P page I'm was going to finish I'm fix proved equal yeah we can take care of that if do want plan we submitted to the depart public submitted for approval that's that then we need to go back to six page 16 number 18 whereafter um or approved equal I can't remember exactly what wording or approved equal by the planning board yeah approve yeah approv by the planning board for [Applause] EX this is a very minor thing but under affordability in the findings or sorry in the um under special project conditions affordability at one point we used the the new um eoh see and then a few lines down we say dhcd oh yeah so just to have it be the proper yeah organization gotcha is paragraph 11 supposed to have some kind of filling of the occup occupancy permit like a little L the sidewalk sorry for sidewalks and curves yeah I'll just say the first I'm sorry where are you uh paragraph 11 that says sidewalks and curbs the last sentence has a blank right in front of occupa occupancy permit y um it looks like this like a oh like a little place to fill something in it's supposed to say first okay yep I fixed it thank you I'm looking at the other my earlier version okay so those little Corrections are made on both documents yep I'm making them right now okay so um I think that puts us back I have a question I'm not finding it now but was there and I might I might have mixed it up with another decision that um like if it's not if the permit is not exercised Within two years it's two years because it conflicts they had three but that conflicts with the bylaw yeah so I went back to the two years I just want to make sure to make the line it up with the bylaw awesome y I took care of it um and then I think something I wanted to bring up and I I know there's some uh language it's fairly standard we've been doing about third party inspections but I know a the downtown is um high profile for the public for the board for the town and when we were talking about um the Chestnut Street project I talked about INSP in independent third party inspections and everybody said given that the last small projects in town have not been built with the planning board wants and I think that's not great for the town I think that's not great for the planning board so when we get projects that don't end up getting built what's approved I feel like we have to make sure that our at least every condition is getting us to the best result of that once once we approve or not approve we don't actually control it but it's it's a little bit um egg on the face of the planning board that something got built that wasn't what it was approved so I I guess I want to bring up that are our conditions adequate and is that the best possible is everything covered the best possible so we can try to get what we asked or or we're going to potentially approve is it a are you asking a question about a condition yes I am which which one um well there there's um like the third party inspections if we I don't think it has um like it doesn't have a timeline or when they should be performed or how how are we going to prevent I mean actually I take that back is the next even Starbucks is also an example it was we think we have a way to recover but that's a smaller issue but buildings that were not built to what we I mean it keeps happening so I I guess I want to be part of a board that tries to prevent that and I'm I'd like to bring up what what kind of inspections are you thinking of well how did the a building uh almost across from town hall get built not to the plans and there's other examples so I think that inspection has to be fairly frequently what kind of inspection so are we thinking third party inspector that the town pays that the applicant reimburses us or are we thinking the building code requires a specific set of inspections that they have to provide by law and the Building Commissioner will get those so are you thinking having a condition that somehow reflects a report of that inspection to us like how would we frame the well there there is language of third party inspections and it's and you can do that by Mass General law that's how it's written what I guess I just don't know what you're getting at what kind of inspections that will will fall out of what the code requires well buildings got built not to what we approved apparently they were code required so if that's the best we can do them then we can't do anything I guess but I I'm not sure I believe that though so are we talking about technical code construction or planning board conditions because it's very different yeah I'm talking to so I would assume that it met technical building code and what are we trying to say I mean they're going to have to comply with that right but if how if there's currently like we're we're it's right across the street a building that got built not to what was approved that was that's a situation that took place during in the middle of Co and I can tell you what happened and I can tell you how we fixed it and we've wred the ship hold on I I don't know if we need to like go back in history to a different project I think the question is do we have jurisdiction as a planning board to require some kind of third party review on the spot I try to look it up I can't find how it works in Massachusetts I found New Hampshire allows it allows planning boards to do it um but Anna before we go to knowing the jurisdictions we need to know what are we trying to ask for I think what I'm hearing is a concern that because this is a downtown project do we want to have some kind of communication close the communication gap so that the planning board has more awareness relative to any kind of third-party review it sounds like it's already required by law but there may be communication gaps because it's a downtown project do we want to maybe reference it and say to the extent there is a third-party inspection per state law that the applicant will communicate the results of that inspection to the planning board do we want to maybe create some sort of closure of the communication gap so that we're we are aware of when the inspection happens the planning office is is uh notified that gives the planning department the ability to double check that everything is going smoothly so that we as a planning board have done what we can we're not putting an additional requirement we're simply asking to be informed so that we can assure compliance how is how is this not covered in item two third party inspection which I'm sorry I mean I so I don't think that says a um it's daily It's weekly it's whatever right it says we're allowed to do that but I don't think that it says um they there every time constructions going on they're once a week once a month I I that's the part that I think but that is enforced by The Building Commissioner because they will not get a building certificate of occupancy if they don't comply with what's required and the the billing commissioner has a lot of discretion under the code for administration so uh I just there's inspections going all on all the time all the time and I just don't I don't understand what lack of communication has been I think the process that we go through been one year we've been going through all this communication to get to where we are I don't think we need to micromanage every single piece of every single project moving forward we set up conditions the building inspector requires to make sure that they comply if something happens that is completely out of the bounds of the conditions I'm sure the bill inspector will notify us or directly request that they fix it but I I I think it's very easy to come up with a with a number of potential potential situations I think I think we're distracting ourselves our job is hearing the conditions and I think they're very clear we we're being we're being f studious about making sure they're clear I think we should stick within the bounds of that beond that is just making an effort to go way far into the future imagining potential I'm fine with that if we say we we did our due diligence and if it doesn't look like it was approved that the I'm sorry the planning board had nothing to do with that why are we apologizing in advance of something that we don't know because we are honoring the fact that it's a downtown project that that we care about downtown and want projects there to reflect our intentions and our decision so why do we one second but why do we feel the need to say that I think people that see these meetings will know that we've been working for that very reason on all this we we don't have to go on and publicize that we care about things I don't see the need personally we this the process I think for me it's more about understanding I want to make sure that we've done our our piece of assuring our intentions are understood and so one of the things I'm looking at like to Trisha's point is this paragraph enough what I like about the paragraph is that it says that if if there is an inspection official they're going to give the planning office a weekly report that part I really like the part that I'm curious about and that I would like Peter to explain to me is how do we decide how does the town actually decide when we would when would we choose to hire a third party official under what circumstances like if I had a better understanding as as a planning board member then I could agree with marcelo's point but I don't have a full understand when we notice as the project starts the engineer they come in the contractors chosen right and they're going to give us a schedule of work when are you going to do this X Y and Z right when are you going to do the UN you know the the storm water infrastructure right that's an item where we typically say yeah we want mik Carter to come out and do a full inspection to make sure that the subterraneum storm water is taken care of right but I don't think that's never been in a decision our our water department goes out when they're connecting to the new water meters right our our Sewer Department goes out when they're doing all these inspections right so over the course you know they're do we're doing inspections over the course of all projects and so it's usually something that's set up within a preconstruction meeting within that preconstruction progress you know and then I'm usually involved in that process it it's it it it's kind of It kind of rolls a little bit with the with the project so what can we how what can we do to catch the things that are not do not involve some kind of Staff like the the examples you mentioned are there's already like a person from our town that has to get involved sewer so there person Road opening DPW all all of us but there are things our daily job thinking of the Starbucks project forget Co postco thinking of the Starbucks project there is no human there when those electrical panels went up on the wrong side right so how can we as a board make sure that the design element of the building like the setbacks all of that is honored for that part we're not there when it happens so you well a number one the building department has to be issued right and that's going to take into account the site plan the building setbacks all of those elements right and typically that's how you kind of can confront that and then sometimes there's there's you know for this one well Charlie has his hand up but they're all going to be you know put through this building permit through this decision we're always doing inspections and then the final outcome is a as Bill plan to make sure that that asil plan reflects the approved site plan yeah let me let uh Charlie do you want to weigh in on this so even even not only with the city even with the bank it's very important for them so when we dig the foundation as far as the setbacks go we have to have the survey come out and Survey the property while while we do the foundation and that get certify we send that to Peter and we also send it to the bank so the the bank will not let us move forward if the the building is in the wrong spot yeah I think it's more about these little the little things that that happen later or or trim details I mean if we looked at 128 across the street you know just kind of they kind of winged it after a while and we're just putting up different kinds of exterior sighting and different kinds of exterior trim because someone said hey that might look good this isn't this isn't you Charlie this is someone else and um and it kind of been it had to it all had to be undone right you know because they just didn't follow the drawings I don't know they just didn't understand that they had had to follow the drawings that that were approved anyway well I already I already learn my lesson with you people on that too yeah I'm talking to the board here um yeah so um so but I think um you know I I agree with Marcelo that that I think we're we're trying to uh we're trying to baby proof the world you know in a way um and it just came can't it can't really be done in that way and um I think you you have to let it play out a little bit you have to have some trust in the players that are in place and in the recourse that comes back to the planning board does that mean everything is going to go perfect all the time absolutely not it never will no matter how many conditions you have in place it's going to happen anyway and it comes it comes back right so um I'm not sure we have to so test everything I'm okay not overly managing every single word and having some trust I'm okay with that up to point to me it's it's about building a relationship so um building a relationship with the applicant right making sure that there's open communication um I will say that prior to my time on this board there was a project not far from where I live that Charlie you're involved in it's the project you have on 126 and there were neighbors that raised to me as a new planning board member hey this project was supposed to have a pocket park where's the pocket park and that was elevated to me when I became a member of this board as a warning from residents on the 126 Corridor who said oh good luck because sometimes as a planning board you guys make decisions that don't actually get um don't actually happen as you envision and so as I remember as a new planning board member that was something that was was really important to me that I would make sure that to whatever extent I could projects would actually come to be the way the planning board intended so for me it's about building a relationship and frankly Charlie I'd like to hear your thoughts how will you make sure in this project that if we leave this paragraph the way it is that you would communicate with us and communicate with the planning office in a way that would actually honor all of those things that we've included in this decision and I think that's a fair question because it's about building Trust so that we don't have to micromanage every single sentence I I agree with you and so let's go back to Pawn Street real quick the problem that happened with Pawn Street was the wrong set of plans got submitted to the city or town so we built off those plans and there were a few things that were the plans were almost identical but there was a few things that were different and the architect sent me the wrong set of plans I said sent them to Peta no none of us knew until the building was already built that we were working off the wrong set of plans and it was just it was like trim detail stuff and siding details and some color details but there was never a pocket pack on any of the plants or anything we submitted with the town for that project so I apologize if people thought we were going to put a pocket pocket pack there then on on this project we know we have to build it to the plans it'll be built to the plans and we're going to pay more attention to making sure the proper set of plans get submitted to the city town I'm sorry and you know before it just was things looked exactly the same and we were rushing to get the plans to get the permits pulled we will pay more attention to that and we will follow the plans if you look at all the other projects that we've built we never had problem I'm not sure about the name of the of I can't recall anymore about the label pocket park and when that kind of came in I there were some Landscaping things um at 12 Pawn Street but I can't I'm not going to recollect I can't recollect the exact term we I will say it was way before my time so and I was there but I can't I don't want to turn memory I can't and I do appreciate Charlie's uh transparency yes as to what went off the rails and that does help me and I I appreciate that because we're having that discussion publicly and it's on the record and I think words do matter and and I think that I'd like to find a way to to believe those words and and I think it's a move in the right direction to have that kind of conversation so I do appreciate that Charlie thank you I think that condition then is in place in my mind I think it was put in place was it for 100 Chestnut Street maybe that we first it was really for 100 Chestnut Street and then then it we folded it over to 501 py and it's there to have you know gcg come out and do site inspections and do spot inspections when need be at the proper times that are decided in the preconstruction meeting to make sure that storm water storm water structure is put into place and properly put in place that connections to our water and our sewer are put in place um but it doesn't call out a certain kind of consultant it calls it that's up to the town the type that's up to us right if somebody need to be need be so it seems that to me that there's the Trust In relationship but if a warning Bell goes off that this thing gets triggered and say now we need someone now that trust has been broken now we need someone who's checking it out you know um and and this and this goes into effect that was always that was always my impression of was I'm glad we're having these conversations um I'm learning on the go I think that it's great progress for us as a board to have this kind of condition um and I think it's really important and I appreciate Charlie speaking about it openly and and you know I do think words matter it sounds like Charlie wants to be a man of his word and do the best that he can and we're all going to do the best that we can to make sure the correct documents are attached and that they're followed and and hopefully we're not going to have a repeat of this conversation all right so um are we comfortable with that condition the way it is I am I I think I am is if Charlie's on board my representation of what I'm hearing him say like does that make sense to you Charlie that we're kind of going to trust you to to make sure this gets followed and the right documents get filed yep that's what we're only going to do it the right way okay so the remaining condition I think we we we still need to go back to inspectional survey is that right at the one remaining condition so um Kate you announced about exactly what gcg said oh G G's the Le I going close it off sorry do want me to read or do you all all right so um I'm just TR to this is a question about um requirements need to be listed about what the preconstruction survey includes so gcg wrote a video and pictures of the exterior of adjacent buildings and property should be provided so that's in there and then said an elevation on the side of each building to be checked over a period of one year after completion of construction um um and then talked about monitoring they just said submit an elevation report every month until one year after completion certified by a professional liced surveyor so so what I'm he's talking about exterior of adjacent buildings and property should be provided and so I think that doesn't imply it can't be on the property and I maybe that's a question for Charlie like can this be so if if the adjacent property for any reason they are just not available and you don't know that they are refusing they're just not available can that be placed on the applicant's property to follow that monitoring of settlement I think Charlie alluded to that because the what what what I think is being recommended here is a marker a marker is anything right mhm Charlie said well the surveyor could with his or her instrument determine like say the the Inception of the s in between the foundation wall a a place that is fixed in the building and and and looked at it from the other side and confirm elevation changes based on a on a datum that that would fulfill both well and so I think that's I guess the point of the purple wasn't gcg wasn't saying go to the adjacent properties and get their permission and do it they're saying this is how you would do it so that I think is the only confusion here so what if we put in a sentence like this if adjacent properties cannot be used for elevation markers other suitable locations for El for elevation markers will be found so if all the property owners say no no no no one can can't use my property can't mark my building we'll find other suitable locations whether they're on the property oop nope it doesn't work like that they can't be on the property we can go deeper into the site maybe two houses over says yeah you can monitor mine right we can find some other suitable elevation maybe you can monitor along a telephone call like I I don't know right so but that's where gcg would be involved in those finding a suitable marker if no one absolutely no one wants to do it then I mean then you can see as something on your own property but that's all the options there are right you ask private homeowners he has the building across the street yeah let's be honest with each other he owns the building across the street so you can monitor that you can monitor that and you're trying to create a baseline that's all you're trying to do is create a baseline okay except that's not in our decision so no so that that a proposed modification that TR yeah if that's a proposed modification that works I think just a suitable if if the adjacent home or some other suitable location as approved by it should be approved by gcg or a third party that sounds good I mean okay think that's a reasonable so where should it be inserted um I would just put at the bottom of at the very bottom at the very end of that pink paragraph are you ready I'm going to take that I don't you won't be able to read it okay sorry okay all right so um if so what's the 300 ft radius that's for the that's for the blasting that's for 250 or 300 ft is pretty typical for the blasting well it's not just blasting is they're they're required to do that any anyway cuz I trust me I mean my Foundation was shaking with with a project near me like think they said we could do it for home ramming as well but it's the typical I think 250 is the typical range for blasting when it's going through the fire department which monitors blasting so we put it in here for whole ramming for for any just to do the survey whether it's whole ramming or blasting or that they need to do 300 ft I think 300 ft was suggested by their engineer no fair enough but that's in both the paragraphs that's under blasting and inspectional Survey so if this 300 ft radius was for blasting why do we have that under inspectional survey category CU you already covered that in the previous paragraph that makes sense because I remember the conversation with the engineer was exclusively on blasting cuz that's covered I because that that's I think that's what was Charlie's question to begin with why do you have the 300 ft because that's throwing and there's nowhere in that report that talks about so I think this line you're saying the mention of the you're saying the mention of the 300 feet in the inspection under blasting and inspection so so should we just are you just saying just to take off the 300 feet and then it says including inspectional surveys and the next section is inspectional surveys and then you read about inspectional surveys okay so I can we check the gcg because I didn't read it that it was only necessary for blasting I think I thought that was a recommended condition in general I mean I I see that often we should read it think to blasting but the 300 thing also creates a limited Universe of where you need to care so I I would think we want to keep that there I don't think we want to get rid of that and make it like applicable to everything I think we need some kind of you said yeah so if it says 300 I would I would stick with that if this was cut and pasted from their report yes yes so the in my mind the um there's the condition about the blasting right um and we can take off the within the 300 ft so we don't say it twice a compl completely separate condition is the inspectional survey that says prior to any site work and with the consent of each owner the applicant applicant shall complete an inspectional survey of ab budding properties within a 300t radius to set an existing conditions Baseline for possible construction related impacts it does not say what kind of structional related impacts um so it it's a separate condition you have to follow it separately than the first condition so whether it's h ramming or it's blasting um I confuse things because usually it's a condition associated with blasting it's usually regulated by the fire department but we had talked to the engineer um I think the radius is usually 250 he set off and they put it at 300 he was comfortable with that and so that's what we did is that I could C 100% you know we've had these conversations and this condition's they've been in there so all right so feel comfortable with it so in the blasting we're taking off the 300t radius but we're saying but we're leaving including inspectional surveys which then makes you read the next part because it's related right um and that's about the inspectional surveys okay um so um okay so are we do you you took off the so we're taking off the 300 feet in the first one right um we're leaving including inspectional surveys and we're only taking off within a 300 foot radius where I'm so sorry where are you removing the 300 ft from the BL I only see it once in Blast right there and it's here okay including inspectional surve it says including inspectional surveys so then you read immediately condition two is about here's got okay right I'm I'm so sorry I'm confused which 300 you're removing are you keeping it in the blasting section the top one under condition one so what radius will it be in you have to read inspectional surveys and then it the next Point fair enough so you don't have the same information in two places got it that's F clear I thank you I just couldn't as long as we're not removing the limitation I mean there should be containment so we're good okay so at the at the end the pink then what we were talking about if adjacent properties cannot be used suitable oh let me when if adjacent properties cannot be used suitable elevation marker locations so what do you say suitable or alternative alternative is fine um locations will be used as approved by third party inspection will be used as approved by that's fine or third party consult thisway after the building is complete one year after the building is complete during construct the the elevation survey are monthly during construction and for a year after are we seeing that here it says elevation markers shall be monitored over the course of construction and for one year this just says over the course of construction I don't know what do with monthly for the course of construction and for one year after an issuance of occupancy permits okay I don't recall if I just read that thing but I don't recall if it said monthly it it is monthly because it says on a monthly basis a monitoring report shall be submitted the belly commissioner by professional license surve it you could clean up some words to make it not that you didn't have to read that next sentence but it I mean if you're confused maybe other people I just didn't read that next sentence I just stopped where I stopped so I'm okay with it with not making so many all right do you want to read that sentence back to us sure says if adjacent properties cannot be used period alternative locations will be used as a as a approved by thirdparty civil engineering consultant nobody can see that no civil engineer yeah if adjacent properties cannot be used comma alter alternate alternate or alternative resp alternative locations will be used as approved by it's probably should say a professional license so oppos no but the third party third party third party consultant thir consult ading properties cannot be used alternative locations will be as approved by should you say the town's third party yeah I would just say the town's third because they are the ones that have followed up everything so they should do it okay okay so those have to go into the other site plan yes yeah so that will have to be Chang hell yep Charlie how you doing hold on pal patience um Charlie okay go ahead so even when we do excavation you I got to do the survey for 300 feet the survey just the survey of the 300t radius is the typical um is the typical radius for blast T in but in this case we're also doing it for home Ram H ramming or whatever it's just the typical survey um but not for not for digging a foundation Charlie I think when pre pre this pre-construction we're going to ask you to do a survey of all properties right and to just to kind of to view the existing conditions to set a baseline yeah that's what we're asking to do but it this thing says every month doesn't it that's for that's only for the that's for the uh the settling the adjacent properties to make sure that there's no settlement and or grade change yeah so not 300 R not just for the adjacent properties for the settling only for one time not every month right once a month this was this is from the third party consultant it's going to probably cost me $5,000 a month to have the surveyor come out and Survey these properties every month it's it's only like one marker on each adjacent property it's not it's not 300 Properties or within it's it's just the ones adjacent to the site like connecting to the site you have like two sides of your site honestly I it it I'm baffled by this if you want me to do it at the beginning I'll six months or something for every month well at this point at this point we're not going to change what our third party consultant recommended okay so I would suggest that you look at some real numbers on it if you're paying someone $5,000 a month I I think I should become a surveyor so if you got to survey five properties that that's they charge a th like a th000 bucks maybe 2,000 to surve a property for for the settlement you don't have to survey the properties what we have to survey is the elevation markers that were set up at the Baseline to make sure they haven't settled so the surveyor will come and verify those elevations and report what they find you don't have to survey the properties every time the survey is only a survey of elevation markers I just hope that this is something that that you're going to adopt for your bylaws that every developer in town going to have to do not just downtown then downtown where this is this is really DSE let's say dense areas you know we we don't know where every project is going to land so if all right that's fine I'm sure we would given that this is somewhat new we would appreciate feedback along the way on it I I would like to feedback along the way to see how it operates in real life so okay so I think does anyone have anything else on this list that that we missed that we that was pink and we forgot about it that okay so um then at this time the first thing we would need to do is to close the public hearing right now the public hearing is still open once we close the public hearing there are no more questions to anyone online is everyone ready to do that yes okay I'll take a motion from the floor meeting I'll make a motion to close the open hearing for uh 949 Homer Avenue uh special special perit and site plan approval I'll second it Anki I Marcel I Katherine Jers I and Trisha Kendall I all right so is there any further discussion about this project or comments or all right is there a motion on the floor if there are no comments I'll make a motion to have to do one individually for each process uh yes yeah so I'll make a motion to um approve this move on through other agenda items and after the uh at the conclusion of the meeting I will ask everyone to sign and then tomorrow morning I will file this decision with the town clerk's office and so uh a copy will be sent to the applicant and that will Kickstart the 20-day appeal period all right um Charlie I see your hand up I just want to thank all of you for your patience and time to and the approval of this project and I appreciate it and we'll make it come out nice make everybody happy and I I thank you for your patience as well obviously we are constantly working to do better for the town um and uh I know that puts some frustrations on developers as we go through and try to have a better and better process so we appreciate your patience as well any other have a good night thank you all right I just say okay so um next on the agenda we are Switching gears Roberta you are on um we're um going to have a presentation um regarding the Ashland open space and recreational committee's um open space and Recreation plan so okay Peter yes oh you have a hold up do you want uh do you want me to control it from my computer so I can share it it doesn't matter I'll just tell you if you want to do that I'll just tell you is your last name pronounced Su sulman mm sulman yeah I always feel like I get it wrong hold so I'll just share it from this screen I have to tell you to find it tell you oh man okay that's on you robera EMG can you just explain upfront that we're not what we're doing here tonight because I don't sure I want everyone to be um thinking that we're approving something um all right so if you want to start the slideshow there go okay so first of all I want to thank you all Forbe we should wait just a minute till Marcelo gets back okay so I made you a co-host okay so therefore you let's see if we can do this yes okay so then you can just toggle okay back and forth and then um and this obviously is just there but you won't be able to see that on the screen okay thank you no sweat okay so those are your toggle B okay great thanks so much okay hi thank you everybody for maybe this will be like a little refreshing break for you I hope um thank you so much for giving me a little bit of time from on your meeting tonight I really appreciate it um what we what I'm here to do tonight is just to explain a little bit about the open space and Recreation Plan and the New planning process that we're about to embark on and the reason that I'm coming here to the planning board is that the while we would run the plan by um for review by all kinds of committees and commissions in town it starts with the planning board in the sense that the planning board is the only required review and comment that we are required to have by the state and attached to the plan before we submit it which we're months away from doing so um what I had emailed to all of you before uh what was emailed to all of you is the plan that is currently in existence that expires at the end of April because the state requires that you periodically update it because Community conditions change development affects open space all kinds of things change the community demographics change and what people want will also change so um this particular plan the open space plan is very prescriptive in terms of the structure and the content and the requirements um in that way it's a much deeper dive into open space issues than the open space portion of the comprehensive plan that the town is currently embarked on so while they may intersect and overlap a little bit there's much more that that happens in the open space and Recreation plan with regard to open space and uh preservation conservation restrictions historic preservation th those kinds of issues okay I was instructed to toggle oh it's not going it's not moving did I do something wrong yeah that's weird what happened and actually you could put your microphone on yeah okay yeah there you go okay great so these are some of the required content areas and pretty much each one of these topics is a separate chapter in the plan there are about 10 chapters in the plan including all of the references and and the maps that we're required to do so we need to set out what our planning process is and how we're going to engage the public you're required to have a certain number of public forums you're required to do a an open space and Recreation survey you're required to do specific Outreach to the environmental justice neighborhoods in Ashland and every one of the nine census blocks in ashin is an environmental justice neighborhood um determined so by the state according to the criteria of the demographics which in this case is minority demographics and one of the census tracks is is an environmental justice neighborhood based on minority and income so we're required particularly to do handle that neighborhood which is a lot of the downtown area along Pleasant Street and um Cherry Street and and that area is is tagged as um a specific environmental justice neighborhood for minority and income we have to do Regional context which means do a demographic portrait of Ashland Visa the other five towns in the Metro West area Holliston hopkington Sherborn Framingham um we have to put it in the context of all six of the towns six of the towns together we have to talk about the history of ashin the archaeological finds um history since you know with before 1846 going back um a long time the demographics current demographics at the time the plan was is being done but also demographic trend changes um growth and development changes increases in population changes in the types of developments from single family homes are there more Apartments now or more all the condo developments whether we're at buildout things of that sort we also have to do a natural resources inventory of water bodies and open space and forested areas um and a list of environmental challenges like if we have Wetlands what does that mean in terms of protecting open space and development if we have floods what you know chronic flooding what does that mean for open space and development how does that have an impact and other kinds of environmental challenges we're required to do four L land inventories survey all of the open space that's state-owned all that's town-owned all that's um owned by nonprofits in the area and then other Parcels that are undeveloped at this time that have protection and are privately owned or Parcels that we might be interested in protecting in the future and then uh Community Vision with goals what is the community want in terms of open space and protection and recreational opportunities for their population we also have to do an analysis of different kinds of needs around resource protection Ada needs how accessible are the recreation areas how accessible um is the open space how accessible are the trails when we did the Riverwalk we put in a piece of the trail and an observation deck that was the first Trail Public Trail in the town that was handicapped accessible and and gave people an opportunity to um enjoy what the rest of us can enjoy by having easier mobility and ability to get places we also have to do an action plan based on um serious input from the community so that action plan would have a set of goals objectives and activities and we have to prioritize them um in terms of like high medium and low um what's going to be most important under each objective to do what will be medium importance and what is low importance at the moment we have to record public comment and submit that with the plan and then there are lots and lots of required Maps GIS maps that have to um visually demonstrate the narrative if you say that there are environmental challenges where are they we have to locate them on the map Point them out if you say you want to protect open space where is it we have to show it on a map where are the water bodies and each one of these Maps has a different overlay and is is going to be very different these are the current goals that are in the plan so these are high level goals then there we have objectives under each one of these goals and we have activities under those objectives but this at least gives you an idea of the broader framework and the values that the community um had when we did this plan and we receed their input they want to preserve protect connect and enhance ashlin's conservation and natural Land Resources provide maintain and improve diverse re uh recreational opportunities preserve the quality character and health of Ashland and build a strong constituency of open space and Recreation Advocates through education so if you think about each of these goals you can also realize that there are very real living examples of how we have pushed those goals forward over the last um five to seven years of this particular plan for example preserving protecting connecting and enhancing conservation natural Land Resources we have the town's um prospective tree bylaw we have the wetlands protection we have conservation restrictions on certain pieces of public land because we're required to if we bought them with State money and the CPA we also have storm water management now that is a part of protecting the water bodies and Water Resources in the town under the second one recreational opportunities we have the trolley Brook Trail and the connectivity of mult multimodal trails the Ashland upper child's Trail the Riverwalk um safe roots to school is a project that is listed under the the open space and Recreation plan and generally um making the town more walkable and more bikable for the third goal improving the quality character and health of Ashland's Community we have things like remediating degraded lands such as Cadillac the Cadillac paint site that is moved forward um establishing a downtown historic district and nominating sites for the National Registry to be protected historic sites for protection those are just examples of some of the efforts that were listed in the plan that have um progressed along through the town and then the final one on building a constituency we've done that through sponsoring open space events hikes workshops educational events in Warren Woods in the Town Forest we participate in cleanup Ashland from an environmental perspective we also um staff tables at the farmers market in Ashland day to distribute information and also to collect Community input so our plan expires at the end of April and we'll be starting a new one and these are some of our next steps we'll be establishing a process for Gathering extensive public input because we're required to but also because we want to and because the plan should be based and has always been based on the input from the public and what they value and what's important to them we may need to secure resources for mapping and anything else that might need to be outsourced um we will review other Municipal open space plans from other towns um we've always done done that and we'll review their updated ones you can get a lot of good ideas for implementation from what other towns are doing we'll review the current goals and objectives and activities in the context of new public input and revise them as we need to we'll also update the narrative especially the demographic sections because things have really changed and changed rapidly and we'll be meeting with Town committees and commissions to get their input um as we formulate goals objectives and activities and listen also to the public we'll ask them for meeting time as we're formulating the plan but then afterward for review of the draft we'll also have an open public comment period for the public to be able to review the draft then it gets finalized we go back to the planning board because we'll need a letter signing off saying you reviewed it and you're you support it um excuse me and then we submit it to the ex itive office of energy and environmental Affairs their division of conservation Services which is the agency that has final approval and once it is finally approved Ashland is eligible to apply for state grants through the division of conservation Services um for projects in town they're eligible to apply for States uh grants and get the money so I'm happy to take any questions this will be will be launching this you know soon um trying not to certainly conflict seeking public input at the same time that the comprehensive plan is doing that we won't be ready to be doing that doing ours certainly in April but you know could be over the summer that we'll start doing some public Outreach especially at the farmers market and then into September at Ashland day and doing surveys and and the like um happy to answer any questions I'm happy to um come back again at some other point um to keep you informed of what's going on and I'm also happy to sit down and let you get on with your meeting because you have a long evening I always do um thank you for that presentation I just I just wanted to clarify or make sure it's clear to the board because they they received your initial email as well that originally you said that this needed to be approved at the end of April that there was a rush and and and but yeah that's that was kind of a misunderstanding of the schedule there's clarifica I received clarification today from the state so so even though your current plan expires at the end of April that doesn't mean that you have to have a new one all set in place at the end of April you can't and they don't expect you to they expect that there they are going to be months some some municipalities take a year or two to develop their plan depends if they have a consultant do it or if they you know have volunteers do it or whatever ever but you know you can submit it at some point when you're far enough along and it can get conditional approval which will allow you to apply for Grants but you won't get the check or the money until you get final approval on the plan so so because we're undergoing the comprehensive plan process doesn't necessarily mean that this can get delayed right so because if there's a gap then we're not going to be able to get funding is right right so we we need to get our ducks in a row in terms of our planning um and so we may start some other things other than you know public surveying or that kind of thing because I don't want our survey to come on top of the comprehensive plan survey which is on top of the Dei survey and Survey survey survey people just won't fill them out after a while so I'd like to give people a little bit of a breather um yeah from what I understand and you are on the steering committee the the survey and the meetings in the Box for the comprehensive plan the deadline is April 26th right so I think you're going to be good to go right after I think what I'm I'm kind of curious about is obviously your work is going to be very important to the comprehensive plan steering committee because once you that that plan whatever it is once the planning board approves it can be helpful and beneficial to the steering committee so it seems like the timing is is good and the sooner we have it here the better because then we can deliver it to the comprehensive plan folks as well right and I want to be clear about one thing um that the executive office of energy um and environmental Affairs says in their um open space plan workbook guidelines is that when we do a draft and we come before a board or a committee um for the for their review even the planning board it's not that the planning board or any other Municipal committee your commission approves it they just have to say that they looked at it and they they might have made comments and requested you know changes but they're okay with it because they were very clear that the only agency that has any right of approval is the state the division of conservation Services any questions anyone so when do you um and you may have already said this but when when do you see that having this new document do you have a time frame when you might you might I don't yet our our committee hasn't met yet to talk about that we're meeting in a couple of weeks and um we need to figure out the resources that we're going to need to push this forward and if we're going to need to apply for any money to Outsource any of the tasks so months to a year out probably before it gets back before the end product gets back to us okay yeah all right I would just uh say when that time comes as you can see what our schedules kind of look like to give us as much time as much as possible especially given the length of the document we we'll want to go through so absolutely all right uh any other questions thank you all right thank you I I just wanted to ask um if you are here for a particular reason like were you looking I I know our schedule Sy NBTA communities but we're not we're not talking about that tonight were you so that means we can't comment tonight um you have somewhere in your agenda you have public comment yeah we do we do have place for our public comments that's fine I just that's fine I didn't know if our agenda um no implied that we were having a larger discussion okay all right so that said sorry I lost my agenda it's here somewhere oh okay Starbucks okay so um next on agenda is the um discussion of the proposed modification to 399 Starbucks thank you Anna um Peter give me an update on this or us an update on yeah I'll give everyone an update on it so um I think we've discussed this at our last meeting everyone understands the situation out there is that the electrical boxes were put on on the side of the building so since that point the applicant Greg Salvador who's the owner of the property uh he came to in in Starbucks right uh came to us and asked if we can move the mural from the side originally approved which would be facing uh easterly along West excuse me along Union Street to the front of the building and so I think tonight uh that is being proposed um this is the area that they are opposing to move I cannot um that's the area that we can put you know the mirror would be located um and then secondly uh within the packet Starbucks does and and has in some locations and and is proposing in this location to provide screening elements uh of those electrical boxes uh those screening elements can be seen on a sample detail uh here I just want to make a note that that ladder this is a sample and I hopefully tried to make that clear in my email that ladder is not going to be there it's going to be on the rear of the building so let me reaffirm that's a sample um however this is just from Starbucks there also is a detail sheet of what these kind of screens look like um and furthermore you can kind of see it from this back elevation here the ladder will actually be installed right around here uh if you look at the actual construction drawings of this building with that said I also printed out a landscaping plan as you can kind of see uh there is going to be a Transformer box which is going to be surrounded by um some U's which are kind of uh commonly known as arbores smaller arities and then there are also going to be in in the front area some ink berry Hol um now I've kind of talked a little bit about this with Trisha and I think the idea if approved would be to um allow me and our conservation agent Becca Solomon who has a wealth of knowledge within the plant of plant specimens to try to see if if approved to the front of the building to see if we can work with the applicant to I'm going to say add some Pizzaz Andor some color to the screening around the Transformer box in addition to the screens being located um to help block out indoor um help could you describe that pizaz a little bit more what are we talking about colors on WE colors on like flowers with colors well here's the thing right I was talking to you know there's a number of you know there's there's number of examples you could kind of use right no Evergreen is going to flower right so if you're going to have something 12 months out of the year for screen as a screening element you're going to want it Evergreen right however if you want some flowering shrub you're going to have you're going to lose those obviously leaves right and so there's a couple elements that we could look at um and I'm not going to start naming plant but I think it would be allow us to to work with the applicant to kind of replace those 's which are non non- native arbores with different species with a different species can I just get I'm so sorry I I'm just like a little bit confused because there's like the pizaz idea then there's the the the screen idea maybe the Paz was the wrong term but like which one is being proposed the screening or the trees or both yeah so so let me explain I think that the thing was that oh yeah the electrical stuff got put on there probably everyone's seen it by now right it's not small yes so um obviously the applicant proposed the front to the building um yep place for a mural when you when you're coming down looking at it you can kind of really picture something kind of cool there right so I think I think that was a great plus but to me that still left the discussion we had as a group that this building has three sides that are bounded by public ways and public views and by our bylaws it says that those three sides are supposed to be treated relative equival equivalently they're not this is the back of house side and in order to rectify that when it was a debate we came up they proposed the idea of a mural right which is a was a good idea we like the idea and I think the greenery on this um was in ipation actually of that mural right it's low um it it it allows the mural to express itself you know whatever the mural is supposed to be the important part so once the mural went away to me we go back to the question of having a a facade that's kind of like right so the screen comes into place which is basically just so that you don't see I assume the electrical stuff the door you know whatever and then it goes to the greenery for me like how can we just both right screen first then the green the box has always been there we've always been disguising it that's always been there you know and will the Box be behind the screen no the screen is closer to the building I think you can see that yeah sorry I'm thre dimensionally screen is for the electrical boxes got it the green is for the Transformer now I imagine now I got it so it's kind of like this layers so what I'm saying is that when I when we're all coming out of CVS assuming go there like I do that is there a way to give that facade some layer a little bit more layer it's not meant to overall it's meant to can we trade this plant for that one to give it a little bit more life on that facade MH I don't know a thing about plants and I don't think Peter does either no I do not so do not hence we thought Becca would be the proper person for this job being able to say Swap this one out for that one it's part of what she does anyway um uh to make sure they're native she knows the different characteristics and then it doesn't have to come down to I assume six people seven people seven people that unless someone's hiding a secret Talent don't really know a lot about can I ask if the barrier is meant to be the entire side of that building like the entire will the will the fence I don't know what you call it a whatever that this is is it going to cover the whole side where the electrical stuff is now hanging I believe it's it's it's like right there like 2/3 of the way so the screening that's what I mean was uh Starbucks did I remember that correctly like Starbucks corporate or they wanted it or we asked for cuz I like to me that screening jumps out is like not better it if they want it I'm not going to say you can't have it or anything but I I I'm not seeing that as better yeah I'm kind of feeling more green and less screen screen the screen feels to me kind of it's just another instit pull my eye in more to it than the more natural Landscaping but I think they both are going to play together the the screen looks like a nice screen uh and I think I would rather have that to have like layers like plants the screen and then the electrical boxes that I think really makes it go away I I would prefer to have the it's kind of like it's kind of a layering a depth a layering sure am I understanding the screen would be closest to the building and then there's the Transformer and then there's the plants you can kind of see the line on the pl carefully you can kind of see the the line where the screen is just on the other side of the sidewalk there's a I do not have a secret Talent so I I agree that like that but my one question that I might pose is that like because of where the electrical boxes sit they're here are not small um is there a way to get a second tree to like to have some symmetry with this tree here like that would go a long way towards visually you would Vis idea taking away that those boxes yeah I don't know based on what's underground right there and and you know whatever but there's a lot going on underground out there though I think I would step away from a tree but Becca can make that ass and I think we can make that assumption I mean no we not assumption excuse me we going to make that we'll work with back going to make that assessment yeah yeah mhm mhm so your secret Talent is to figure out balance obscuring large electrical boxes all theologies they're very useful we figured it out we fig she lik so it seems so this is obviously just a an approach um and we're trying to keep it that it seems reasonable reasonable approach as long as we don't start putting a mural on the screen and El are we that was a joke are we going to comment on the mural part on the location of the mural no no at the location I think like we discussed it last time I I just have a question cuz this graphic shows like a highlighted area where the mural can go um and is is is this is this what's being proposed kind of U as a concept because the bilding has a plint and a top with different materiality and I think the mural should be on one or the other but not on both that's just my personal opinion I think the box is what Starbucks is offering oh I see I don't think it has to be what we're taking I see so that said I think the cultural Council and the muralist the muralist have some suggestions oh or maybe but if the planning board has a you know a a preference or a suggestion then I think we can I think all I'm saying is that my preference that's just personal I think we're not just Plastering a mural onto something should be part of it and for that should be following the architectural lines of the building so so it looks natural not something imposed that that looks like a like a bad addition so it should be yeah exactly it should be either on the lower wall if that's what they want to do or on the upper portion only but not I think we should let that line kind of read and and be part of the building so it's a mural with inside a building not a mural that somebody attached to a building it's it's a great time to view it right now because that upper part is yellow right yeah I saw I that's why it came yeah so it stands out as um to me the upper part is what looks like the mural to me like so it's visible from all all the way when you're coming down that Hill um but I'm also not a muralist and so um but that could be if if the whole board feels that way it could be our suggestion with with possible of with the artist and and I would say it depends on the intent of what they want to achieve if you take the upper part it's a mural that is for for for viewing from a distance and and and the content should be developed accordingly if conversely what they want to do is something that has detail that you that you experience when you walk by it then it should be in the lower part so that it accomplishes that function uh so itend what they Tred to achieve part of part of what I recall the planning board wanting to achieve is to connect this to Ashland and have it be visible to the public as we drive by or walk by and and maybe I think some of the things we brainstormed about was you know it could be anything from a rendition of the Boston Marathon to you know some connection to ashlin's history and I think the rendering that we had indicated that historic connection that would be visible to the public so this could be a happy accident in a way where this makes it really visible it's a much more marketable spot and hopefully one that would make it more uh exciting for Starbucks to the extent that they're involved uh to Showcase in a way that they like um but I I I think a suggestion from the planning board is fair like we could suggest that we prefer for it to be more visible and therefore on the upper part but we certainly understand if maybe the budget limitations or artistic preference or Starbucks preference places it towards the bottom um but I for one don't think we need I mean I think if the board feels really strongly about marcelo's position I I support it um but I I think I would trust the artist and Starbucks to kind of if it bleeds into the bottom in a thoughtful fashion I would have no problem with that it could kind of tell a story that is both visible in a distance and and could be enjoyable up close so there there are ways to make the space work for the artist budget Starbucks that I'm okay with whatever happens but I'm also comfortable with the suggestion like we prefer the upper space I would suggest I would suggest um that given our conversation here which seems like we're we're kind of in agreement on the next step is that um is to put together kind of a short letter or memo put something in writing from the board um so that it's documented that that we're good with this kind of solution and uh and and we we can move on and that's something yeah I can write up a quick memo for that and I think that's something that's easy to do uh I agree with you Marcel address into into three items to follow the architectural lines and to make sure it fits and they're not poting something Plastering something up and I do want to just make a note of because I heard it from the culture Council and I just want to make a note the culture Council email I emailed with Stacy Lewis uh and they are in full support of this move uh but also cost right and obviously the bigger mural the bigger cost more maintenance XYZ right and so that's just one element that needs to be kind of looked at uh but no I think we could take your suggestions and then kind of create a memo you know there's one item but I obviously I don't know if it's included in the budget that they're thinking but I don't know how Starbucks sees it but how is the building going to be illuminated at night because well the mural depending on how the light of the building works or the site yeah could right now there are three there sconet going across the just down down and up that's a two-way sconet okay so and at the mural of the mural position would there be others I I'm just curious probably not because that was not plan original I'm just saying that the council whoever is addressing that should consider lighting be considered yeah what the reality of what the lighting is going to be cuz that that mural works at day but it also works at night right so I can work with Peter on that memo unless anyone else wanted to be involved I feel opposite to what Marcelo said it feels like using the verticality would help in this because the material palette is kind of monochromatic for Starbucks and looking at that kind of that rendering on the last page where it's probably an entry feature that one vertical element breaks and actually draws your attention towards that versus all the vanilla um exterior and I think that verticality using that in the front will help um again if those three boxes that you're seeing here are literally light fix pictures that's a fun challenge than the artist is going to have because the light seems to be on the two sides of the light picture but um and then the other thing that I in connection with that tree that we talked about there is this patch of top soil that's on the exterior it feels like if we really landscape that part of it that's really going to help help conceal the kind of that fence Transformer and that's what you're going to see when you're coming out of CVS for example because when you're stand sitting at that light that's what's going to catch your attention not something that's a little set behind so I think Landscaping needs to be Revisited and not do a hotch poch of stuff here that tree do replicating that tree is not going to do not going to help us in any way because that scale of that tree is not it's going to be high the Transformer footprint is so huge the tree will not be successful in that location so uh I to me revisiting that entry landscaping and really looking at this mural as a larger element so that your eyes distracted with mean at least attracted to a mural versus all the other Utilities in the site would be my way of looking at it but I I think the the revisiting of the Landscaping is limited in kind of the it's just yeah I don't think it's up for redesign I think it's up for some swapping um you know but we bought the mural right that mural was agreed for a full whatever that square feet wall was we it was not something that we asked for relocation or redesign it was a mess on their construction part and I think the square footage that we are looking to swap is almost the same what we already had right before no the original was here just the lower part yeah just the lower part wasn't the full height no not in the diagrams we were showing here's the thing this yellow we didn't make this up right they did that's their diagram so if they're offering the yellow that's really generous and I think we should say thank you and take it and and then I think we should say if the budget and the artist allows it please take as much of that as you can I I think to to deepest point I can see it both ways I can see the point that Marcel is making the point that deep is making I think both of you have a design eye that's value ad but this is where for the first time ever I will say I think it's to up the artist and corpor and budget to make this work and I think both views are valid and it can be done in both views art is really kind of within the eye of the beholder um there is something exciting to me about this very generous fix and I don't want to say no to it I that my gut instinct is let's take this this this seems like a fascinating solution to a problem we did not anticipate that could actually end up being even more exciting than what we envisioned yeah I mean I think I think our memo can outline some possibilities but really leave it in someone else's hands so and obviously that's something um that'll come back to the board you I don't think there's a I don't think there there's a rush on this level of detail at this time no I well the culture ccil is trying to move forward with with muralist right to try to get a picture of but I think to say yeah okay you know we're all in agreement that this is a good move and then we'll kind of take one step time when is this opening uh it's a great question Deepa it's not from marath Monday are you thinking are you are you thinking are you thinking pictures of us should be in it and we should be standing next to it yeah we'll be marath M they're trying I won't be that picture you know I can tell you right now they so um the owner has built the shell right and that's that building permit's been kind of closed out now it's up to Starbucks to do the interior so now Starbucks is going to come in and build out the interior and do all that work and so that's the next step in the project and then the site will be kind of finished up and completed I don't want to obviously get I I think it's most likely going to be around July 1 in the month of July IND oror late June okay so we have a way of proceeding then that everyone's happy with okay all right I'm going to um Shuffle up the agenda just just slightly and um we'll move up public comment um it is quarter to 10 so I am going to limit content I am going to limit public comment as we usually do to one time to the mic 3 minutes a person so um but I will open up public comment at this time we're back the rang to jar to High Street burner restaurant the last meeting my husband and I voiced our opinions regarding the MBTA Community zoning then the members of two boards responded I would like to thank Anna for saying that the Homer a project is exactly what you would like at burnhams we absolutely agree unfortunately it is not true that we can have this right now without any issue Peter was almost right when he said that project is 29 units per acre the Homer a project is 29 units but not on three acres as suggested it's three lots for a total of 91 acre that comes to 32 units per acre all of you voted to leave us out of the MBTA zoning plan leaving us at 10 units per acre instead of 32 and to say and and to say we could have this right now is false because without Zone owning by right we would have to go through the special permit process we are a property owner not a developer our only bargaining chip to sell the property is to have zoning by right that meets the goal of a homer resque style project we do not have the time to wait for a developer to go through the special permit process a recent Boston Business Journal article said the following in 2021 the state legislature passed the MBTA act tradition Al developers must obtain special use permits that require a special review process to develop multif family housing units these special review processes Take Years stifling development process the MBTA act enables the development of multif family housing where it is most needed near public transit systems I will give you one example the mixed use project for the mill building the conceptual plans were completed in April of 2020 presentations in public forums followed then the project was withdrawn it will likely return as a 4B so far the process has taken at least four years with a long way to go and blaming the developer for delays is irrelevant to us it's just part of a lengthy process after looking through ashlin's public records recently I would like to repeat that no one who actually lives on Pleasant Street has expressed opposition to or even commented on mixed use development on our street the opposition is from people in other areas even on the opposite side of town there are also two interesting emails in support of hire density near the train station in closing if the select board had received correct information comparing the Homer RAV project to our site we believe that some of the members would have voted different so therefore we are requesting that a new vote be taken thank you thank you is there any further said it All I Have Nothing any further public comment good evening Mar Soni 49 on road I would like to say to the board themselves that sometimes it's like pulling hair and teeth together progress going together I want to say quickly that the agenda you be so long you do one one project that um all the details take good amount of time and this is why CZ participation gets pushed down but that's as that's being said from me I'm going to say to the board and all the members living in this town so long understanding different boards understanding reasons why the boards are around I have filled myself with information and ideas and idealism what things work out that when citizen a citizen comes out to speak like myself I am am informed I am full of not Pon but I am full of information and I'd like to have the boards understand that a person like me can be reached out for ask questions too and maybe get answers that You' be surprised that I do know for that reason Peter is the only one that knows me about the zoning and the um form base coding that I got in this town the rest of the boards I done other things for them too and they got got things going and comprehensive plan is at my next landing spot so I'm trying to say reach out to a person like me I will email me I will email back and if you don't believe that I can be inform informative test me thank you thank you um seeing no other public comment we will move on with our agenda so the next item on the agenda is item six a replacement representative for Precinct one I don't think we no update on that that's still in the town manager kind of um Arena okay I'm just going to express that's really disappointing because at April 26 we're ending the public engagement and I mean that was that was the reach out right to cover to try to get public so whatever believe he's been trying so it is disappointing but not well I mean the trying was supposed to be the the next person but if not it should come back to the select board and planning board and try to do something like I I don't think we should leave it to one person it's something that important can we just step back a little bit because I'm not sure the rest of the planning board is aware of the context of the issue which is that um the select board and planning board in choosing the steering committee for the comprehensive plan wanted if you remember we wanted to have a representative of each Precinct part of the steering committee there is a Precinct rep for Precinct one who has resigned there was a list of original applicants if you will for that position it sounds like it's been difficult for the town manager to reach people on that very short list of I think there was a total of maybe two or three that made it the final list um I I do think that it would be really important for the planning board to think about working together with the select board to come up with to release an a reach out for a Precinct one rep sooner than later because yes we're going to probably miss the deadline of having a Precinct one rep be part of of the of this round of public input there's going to be multiple other elements to this process and so the sooner we have a Precinct one rep the better it would be great to have somebody soon like while the public process is happening if possible so in in my opinion I mean not that I think this is the direction the planning board wants to go this evening but it sounds like there's a list and you're going down the list and it's not happening going down the list finding a person to say yes isn't going isn't going as quickly as you had hoped we don't know I I haven't re I don't do we have an update from the town manager as to how the reach out is going you know what I I haven't talked to him on this topic in a few days to tell you the truth so um I I can't give you a I don't want to I don't want I don't want to speak uh without the correct information without up to date information last I here we still you know we were still talking with the next person on that list and I could not confirm where that conversation went um but I I'm happy to reach out to Michael again um but I know he's been trying his best and it is one of many things on his agenda in or to-do list so do you just wanted to express that we hope this position can be filled as quickly as possible well I think there's alternate ways than leaving all the work with one person that we know is very busy like there but but you certainly you don't want multiple people calling the same person saying please please please join the I don't I don't I mean plus it's was I'm asking what what okay I left the the comprehensive plan steering committee saying I'm going to reach out to the next person I don't actually believe that the project management group had a next person but we don't need to be picky there was some people that got interviewed and if one of them take it I'm okay but if we're getting a stumbling point need to regroup and like maybe you have to open it up maybe you just have to say Precinct one is now open and do that process some version of that process again I don't think um one person needs to be fully responsible for this and it's very critical so I think it has to go back to some process I'm sorry it it doesn't seem like a huge issue that needs a group but um but maybe it does D um sorry I must have missed but how was the town manager nominated did for this task who nominated him the town manager did he he has a list he was in office somebody must have given the Michael volunteered he volunteered yeah I think Michael stepped up and said I'll take care of it so just we I recall we had an agenda with the select board to discuss it at that time there was no information now it's been what what is it a week and a half since then and we still have no information I I think that the next meeting of the board is in two weeks from now and then the closing of the period happens so essentially we just need to come to grips with the fact that by having Michael do it and Michael is busy we actually have no Precinct one rep for the period that is critical which is the public input period so it is what it is my suggestion would be that the planning board can lead here and the planning board can say if we choose to that we have a recommendation to the select board which is that we should advertise for Precinct one we should find the old ad advertisement and we should release it and then we should see who responds and bring those candidates back to the process which was the select board and planning board working together and I would suggest we we advertise as soon as possible so that we have a chance to get somebody prior to the closing of the public okay data period do okay well let go ahead sorry I just uh do we have to go through this select word or can we just say if Michael can't get a hold of people in the next you know this week we open up the Talon Bing form next week I think so sure so that maybe we have some applications or for the next plan but I I also feel like that's to your point like if he's been reaching out since the last meeting like it feels like if he can't get a hold of anyone or no one's sort of biting in the next week or so like we open up the townmate for yeah at that point I think there's no biting for 3 weeks which is plenty of time for us to know that we got to do something okay so let's have a suggestion from the planning board that if Michael cannot fill a position from the list um in in the next in the next what by Wednesday um since he's been working on it that that the talent Bank form opens up before next weekend to fill that spot is that is is that an appropriate suggestion to put to Michael and to the select board who are our partners on this that seems reasonable okay is everyone good with that that seems reasonable okay so we'll compose a email send yeah I can compose an email it's not a big deal okay um and I think we had a prior language that we used to get this out which we should be able to find and just edit to make it about Precinct one I think the prior prior push was like for all Precinct it was all six precincts so we just need to edit it and say one whatever that means we will get that out we'll get that to Michael tomorrow all right that's an easy thing that's an easy left I can put an email together um okay so that leads us to various updates and meeting in a box at 10 p.m.

[Music] welcome to another edition of all politics is local I'm John featherston joined by Peter Chisum who I actually got to go to the Army Navy game with when the Army Navy game was played at Gillette Stadium recently Peter I have to tell you I've been a lot of sporting events over the years and you and I sat just outside the Navy End Zone one of the greatest sporting events I've ever been to in my life it certainly was John I'm telling you well you know I wore my seven Tomy hat back yes you did and you know I wear it here or there on a holiday people say what's a s thy but there I had feel great officers coming over to me it worri when I said un and it was really great it was tremendously exciting about for me oh I love being there just all day long all day long and just everywhere that we went and you're going to see throughout the tonight's uh video and everything like that you're going to see you know shots of us in Patriot Place you're going to see shots of us over barol sports events you're going to see stuff that happen inside the stadium but everywhere you went you really felt the pride of America and you know talking to these young adults you know the students at at the cadets really gives me a little bit of Hope of what's going on in in the world right now because you know we're going to talk a little bit about in the videos that you know not everything's great in America right now but when you talk to these young adults they were impressive they are more than impressive during the halftime the YY cheerleaders were in front of me for about 10 minutes and I went over to them kind of kid and said you know you all can't be infantry officers and they laughed and I said some could go into you know Finance agitant General Court they said infantry and when I sat down after talking with them for a few minutes I said to myself and they were all believe me when I tell you they all looked like you know um prom queens from the Junior from Junior and senior and in high school they're all about 5 for and yet you know in your heart any of them could drop me 300 yards as soon as snap your finger I mean AB they trained to lead they trained to kill yep and they were they but it it was just funny just you know watched it talking to them and it was um and they were bright kids you could tell they were all bright nice moment for me to even observe is you know Governor Mor Hy was there and you know Governor Healey comes right up the Peter in the end zone like what's he doing here and uh she you know spent a lot of time talking to the troops and a lot of time that she you know a lot of time she probably didn't have to do that but you know her comments to me was you know that this is great you know you just you're you're talking to all these people you know the people that are playing in that game are willing to die for everybody watching the game it's it's single-handedly the best time I've ever had at a sporting event I mean we had the best seats in town I did we did we we we had the best seats and um even um before the game I got to talk to the um sajja major who's the uh lead singer for the West Point band and she's a career Soldier and U i' met her before and even she was excited being there you know at uh gillet Stadium it was a great day for the Boston area and you talk you talk about women soldiers um you and I had the opportunity to go up to the top of Gillette Stadium so we watched as the uh as everybody parachuted into the stadium and much to my surprise as I'm walking down I I've talked to one of the ladies who parachuted into the stadium who landed right on the field I said how long did you get to practice you know that and she's like well we did drills two weeks prior but the first time we ever jumped into the stadium was tonight and she's the first one to ever do it in America into a sporting event like that so and they all hit the yard line all the 50 I got to tell you one little anecdote too John's brother by the way was an AAL officer and I went over to um a a field grade Navy officer and said I don't know Navy rank what rank are you and this guy he said well I'm what they call be equivalent to a major in the Army then he should over to another officer he grabs his coat pulls over see that that means he's like a lieutenant colonel and this guy over here he pulled over his coat he's a he'd be like a full Colonel he said you know but you guys are okay we're all a little different cuz we're in the water all the time and this fellow told me he had been an executive officer on a uh on a submarine and just uh talked about a month earlier from uh being out for several months well we've got a lot of great videos and one of the First videos that we're going to go to right now I had an opportunity to go over to the bar stool Sports setup up and we interviewed some of the guys from barol Sports take a look wab here at the barol sports event here at the Army Navy game in Foxboro beautiful day the sun is out the crowd is immense I was talking to a couple state troopers they said they've never seen the type of activity that they've seen Around Gillette Stadium bigger than a Taylor Swift concert bigger than any uh playoff game ever in the Foxboro area the activity here is intense we were in the stadium a little bit earlier the troops are starting to march in this is one of the greatest sporting events in the history of sporting events and waa TV is going to bring you live coverage of it all day long we're with Dan cats better known as Big Cat from barol Sports at the Army Navy game a big cat why is this game so important to everybody it's it's the best game of the year it's uh Army Navy the guys care about it so much they respect each other and also it's a chance for us to try to win an over that is impossible every single year we did it last year we broke the streak this year we're going for two in a row two in a row yeah you know it's a troubl Time in America right now but man when you come here you feel the pride of America you know this I was in the stadium a little bit earlier and the troops are Marching In I mean it's just like Goosebumps yeah no it's the best every everyone like kind of comes together for one day it's exactly right so it feels good to watch plug the coffee uh Stella coffee.com got to go try it it's beautiful it all it's great coffee it also uh we we support uh animal shelter in Chicago so where I got Stella from so if you like dogs if you like coffee match made in heaven thank you thank you so much thank you so we're outside the bar stool Sports setup outside the Army Navy game the biggest guy in college football sports right here Brandon Walker it's actually it's actually the number one college football media personality in America in America yes that's quite the honor thank you very much the honor I appreciate you introducing me like that so talk to us about why Army Navy game is so important because it is Army Navy it is American Amica it is everything about college football that is fantastic we did all that stupid playoff crap last week but now these are two teams that play for the Love of the Game for the love of the country it's Army Navy it's Army Navy I was in the stadium a little bit earlier I I was talking it's the energy inside the stadium already is just unbelievable and I was talking to Big Cat a little bit about it you know America's going through some tough times right now and stuff and but man the American Spirit inside the stadium this morning it just gives you hope you know let me tell you something what was your name John John John this is a great country in America I agree so what are you guys doing today give us a little recap of what to expect today so we're doing a show we'll do a show at 12:30 uh everybody's over here doing the thing we got all the Baro people got all the the great troops and everything um soon as we get done with the show I guess some people are going to the game some people are not you're going to the game I'm not oh I'm not I'm not allowed oh not something about a school being 500 yards from a school or whatever I don't know well hey we thank you for everything you do bar School sports is the greatest and uh you know good luck to thank you tell you got best country in America yeah who's winning the game tell me who you got I got army army all right Yoo Go Army all right we're with Dave pory who Kirk minahan swears to me will be a president of the United States one day so I'm going to hold him to that but uh we're here to talk about the Army Navy game Dave why is the uh game so important it's probably my favorite event I go to the quote that they say it's the only game where everybody playing on the field would die for those watching it so it's a totally different vibe and again uh you know bitter Rivals and then after the game's over they're going to fight Wars for us together so special event special event it's great that bar stool's here it's great that you everything that you do I mean you are one of the greatest guys that I see from the media standpoint you help out small businesses you help out veterans you help out everybody uh talk to us a little bit about that spirit and how you you know you brought bar stool back and you still giving back to you know your fans and your community yeah well it's our fan base helps us do it a lot because they like to give back so it it's it's whenever we see maybe a cause or something that we can help out with we just jump in it's really not pre-thought out um we're just lucky enough to be in the uh position to help a lot of people when we can and that's what we do well the great Dave Porton are here at the Army Navy game thank you yeah you know Peter as you mentioned my brother is uh currently Ser serves as a officer in the Navy as well too but let's talk a little bit about what you you know you talked to a lot of uh veterans dur during and prior to the game and during the game and even after the game game let's talk about some of your experiences there well if um I was very fortunate when the game was getting ready to start and we were walking out to the field through a tunnel I saw a folding chair that wasn't being used we picked it up and of course if you have something in your possession they just assume you you know you have it so we walked out to the field and I sat there right in front of the railing where there was a private party there and um from some company in Boston and I talked to a number of the folks who were veterans and um they were having the time of their lives they had served all over the world and different you know um Beauty locations and different they had been in different branches and U they're all very friendly guys in in gals and um it it was it was very interesting they um and a lot of had never been to an army game Army Navy game before and just really enjoyed that they had the opportunity to watch it in Boston you know one of the great things about the people who attend the games is how many veterans actually attend this game it's Cadets and Veterans and not a lot of sports fans and so we had the opportunity you know one of the opportunities of myself uh been doing this show for 20 years and first time I've ever made it personal but you're going to see an interview here with my brother who is like I said a naval officer and more importantly some of his friends who were tailgating at the Army Navy game so we're here with Jack a veteran of the Navy served uh in the medical unit on submarines and the theme for the Navy today at the Army Navy game is submarines Jack tell me why it's important for you to be here at the game what this game means to America and a little bit about your military experience uh my military experience uh was 25 years in the Navy uh most of that on submarines um while we're here today we look uh towards the younger guys I mean every year we come out here they get younger and younger to me the most important thing is at the end of the game we're all one team okay the 60 minutes they're playing on the field they're fighting for individual individual teams but at the end of the day it's a whole one team it's all one team and that's all that's important it's all it's important have you ever been to an Army Navy game before I've been to about uh 16 of them now all right so tell me what you're feeling about this one and you know how how it's different from the others I think this year Navy's got a really good chance we got a quarterback that can throw the ball okay so it's going to be a good game yes sir so you can end with your line go ahead go Navy beat Army go Navy beat Army all right good to meet you Jack thank you thanks all right this guy right here my big brother Bob featherston biggest pain in the butt that I've ever known but anyway how long in the Navy 37 years 37 years served this country proud why is this game important because we get to gather with a group of friends that we serve with camaraderie is unbelievable um it's it's important to come up here to uh the Boston area we you know with the constit tion in the harbor there it's just a it's just a great experience it's the first time we've been up here we usually go to Philly or Baltimore or New York and uh the weather's beautiful we're going to be able to see all the festivities today so uh my wife is in the RV there we get an RV every year and gather up our friends and um got a whole bunch of oral surgeons here that I serve with in the Navy and uh get to see you and Wendy so yeah it's a win-win so you've been to more sporting events than anybody I've ever known I mean what's I mean what's your flavor of Gillette and you know the Foxboro area and everything like that your infrastructure sucks okay the to get here is really difficult it Legend legendary like every anybody who's been to a pagri game knows that so I mean you got four lanes coming into a stadium but other than that the stadium is beautiful Patriots Place is beautiful the RV lot is it's a nice a lot it's a lot better than uh in New York City uh so uh well Bob Craft's been a good friend of uh wacv and he's been a you know he's been he's an institution here in New England he's great you're going to love what you're going to see today yeah I'm I'm the last time I was here you guys didn't have that big video board I can't wait to see it it's going to and and hopefully we have a good visitor here today so who knows all right love you love you too buddy thanks thank one of the greatest things about attending the Army Navy game this year was what actually what happened outside the stadium we had the opportunity to travel around Patriot Place you're going to see some footage here where we talk to Veterans we talk to current Cadets and we talk to just general sports fans all at the Army Navy game so we're here with Pat at the Army Navy game Pat tell me why you're here and what and what what are your thoughts I think this is a once- in a-lifetime opportunity and from the New England area so to go anywhere else is the perfect opportunity for us I have uh uncle in law that was a commander in the Navy I have a grandfather that was in the Navy so just to come and experience this is a once in a-lifetime opportunity I couldn't pass it up God Bless America thanks for being here today God bless thankk you we're here with Barbara in her senior year at West Point Barbara what do you thinking what's the energy here today and everything I'm excited um you know it's my last game so just excited to go out there and see Army win Beat Navy right Navy all right yeah I mean you're here with all your friends and classmates I mean what have you guys been doing all week um all week we've been preparing um we're actually on the Gospel Choir so we've been preparing for our performance you're going to perform before the game yes we are oh well good we're going to get that that's great so be fun so what do you think I mean you guys have been to a couple Army Navy games what what what makes this different than the games you've been to in the past I think for me personally it's my last game so really just like getting that sentiment uh we won like two years already got to get that third win for my four my fourth year well thank you for everything you do pleasure to meet you God bless you thank you so quite obviously we're here at Gillette Stadium right out in front of the stadium the Navy cheerleaders what are you ladies thinking today we know we're going to beat Army we're going to do great we're excited to be here the Energy's high and yeah that's all we have to say Navy be Army how many army navy games have you been to this is my second Army Navy game great what are you feeling oh we got in the bag beat Army for sure for sure thank than you so much have a great day thank you so we're out in front of the stadium uh as you can see the big uh tank behind us the stadium right in front of us Pete is here Pete tell me what you're thinking how you feeling about the game oh we're loving being here right it's a great opportunity to come out here to recognize all these Cadets and midshipman right who uh who are getting ready to start their military careers for us getting to highlight the M10 Booker program right here which we're about to start Fielding the soldiers this just an incredible opportunity and and there's there's no better colle football environment than the one we are currently sitting in that so true so tell me about the tank you said so this is a new new holy new combat vehicle the M10 Booker is the first combat vehicle that the Army has filled in in in about 30 years since the striker we're going to give this vehicle to our light infantry formation so the 82nd to the 101st we can put two of them on a single aircraft and it can go anywhere that they can go we still love the Abrams tank there is still no better tank in the world to look at another tank go toe to- toe this vehicle though is able to move to some of those places that that the large a tank just can't get to Great wow so exciting times so when is this going to be you know in mainstream uh distribution so this is one of our prototypes we built this prototype we've been uh we we tested it we gave it to the 82nd we saw what they like we've been producing it for about 18 months we're going to see the first one come off the production line and just the next couple weeks uh we're going to do some additional testing and then get it out to the field by the 25 great well thank you what a pleasure it's great to meet you beat Navy right Beat Navy Beat Navy great so we're here with Chief Warren officer Banks right out in front of Gillette Stadium tell me about your little ride over here well I'm a member of the 160 of Special Operations Aviation regiment out of Fort Campbell and this is a mh6 little bird it's used to move Personnel throughout the battlefield uh basically we put two Personnel on the pods and we fly them in and out of objectives so we're to support the military today for the Army Navy game and uh just happy to be a part of the army Go Army Beat Navy so tell me a little bit about your week you know you've got here couple days you've been here I mean what you your thoughts about the game Gillette Stadium everything like that well I'm I'm glad to be here I'm actually from New Hampshire so I'm happy to be here as a part of it I'm glad the game actually came up to Gillette Stadium for this uh looking forward to being here in the future as well so we can come and visit and support the game great fantastic now where are you station know uh Fort Campbell Kentucky Fort Campbell Kentucky Well thank you for your service thank you for everything you do pleasure to meet you thank you thank you for WCTV we're here at the Army Navy guys game with uh some West Point Cadets what are you guys thinking let's talk about it Army's going to take the dub today W Okay Go Army Beat Navy Beat Navy so how many games have you guys been to in the past this is my second second okay this is my this is my third third okay uh this is my second so tell me a little a little bit about your military experience why you wanted to get in the military how West Point has been and how Army Navy game has uh you know added to it so I went to prep and this is my uh second year and just the military is great honestly uh I joined because discipline um is betters you off as a person and uh Go Army Go Army how about you guys um I'll take this one uh it's a leadership just leadership here uh the best Leadership College in the world and I think it sets you up for life and then military just just again just leadership and then discipline what's your MOS going to be once you get out um I want field artillery as my Branch how about you sir um I chose Army I chose West Point because it's a great great Academy great school you can learn a lot and it's one of the Premier educations in the world and so you know the ability to go there and serve my country after it just seemed like a perfect opportunity and also play basketball therez we're on the basketball team great and so uh yeah and then I want to probably Branch field artillery too once once I'm out fantastic well thank you guys God bless you for everything you do stay safe and God bless America the Army be Navy so Peter you know candidly I don't think you and I will ever have an opportunity to attend another Army Navy game so any closing thoughts on Army Navy once in a lifetime opportunity well you know I mean I'll never forget that day believe me um my friends have told me I was in my element that day you were but were you know one thing about being in the military and John knows this too cuz he served in the Army you never forget you know the outfit you in your serial number and for me one thing I always remember I haven't I had an M14 rifle I haven't had an M14 rifle in my hand in 50 years and yet I can tell you it's the it's called the characteristics of it it's a US rifle M14 air cooled gas operated semi-automatic automatic shoulder fired weapon it fires a 7.62 millimeter Nal round and and then I can go on and on about it's just they ingrain this stuff into you and um they uh it's just something you learn and and I'm proud of it because I'm proud I had a chance to serve you know I got drafted and you know reported that day and uh you just go where they sent you in those days and I was watching go to to Europe and in s Tomy but um they uh it's I'm just proud you know that I'm a veteran well you're a great American we met a lot of great Americans here at the Army Navy game you're watching all politics is local right here on waca [Music] TV

good evening everybody fans from all across Western Massachusetts in here in East Long Meadow we are here tonight at East Long Meadow High School for the inaugural first game of the season matchup between the East Long Meadow Spartans and the minog Falcons girls lros game tonight here with me Mr Weiss in the booth my co-anchor from last year back in the booth glad to have you yeah it's great to be back Jeff and really looking forward to this season I think there's a lot of Promise here so yeah everybody's looking to get the season started out on the right foot and certainly East Long Meadow is poised to do that they're ready to go we've got a all things being considered a relatively decent night here the temperatures not too hot it's also just not too cold the rain has for the most part stopped the sky eyes are mostly cloudy but kind of clearing up and we're about to get started here yeah I certainly hope it holds off um obviously it would have a huge impact on on foot and everything and the cutting so um but yeah it wasn't looking too promising before so um hopefully they can get off to a fast start here which is always um something they did last year which was great and we are off to the races right away with Ali Thompson on a draw control to Kenna Marino number one coming down the sidelines flips the the pass down gets it into the Stick of Anna macarini East LA Meadow with their first possession here in the offensive zone as they move it around Megan monno number six touches the ball brings it to the top Addie Jordan setting something up for her she comes right to the middle slows down comes back red doges and this one looks like it's going right in the goal with a start lots of dodging there monno one-on-one that's exactly what you're looking for she has great moves especially when she gets in down low makes some Great Cuts and and that's you know pretty tough on the goalie when you're three feet away yeah you saw it's a good teamwork there you saw Addie Jordan really open up the space set a pick and then moved brought her girl with her and really opened up the middle there so first goal of the Season by Megan morno one- nothing East Long Meadow 3 seconds into the season you know a couple of changes this year for the fans who are watching this season that watched last season you'll notice this year some change to the structure of the girls lacrosse games and we're having instead of two halves you're now having four quarters of 12 minutes so something to keep in mind minog wins that draw one-1 on the draw control they take the ball down they're going to move it around for their first possession of the Season you think a change like that is gonna help East sling Meadow a bit or is it a little hard to say I mean you get a little more of a breather right yeah a little more break it's a little bit for uh you know for player safety and for everything else it's I think it's a I think it's a good thing for the game yeah you can get a little more coaching on the sidelines a little rest in between I mean I don't think Fitness is necessarily A Factor tonight when the weather is the way it is oh a really good almost pass there good save by Jenna Holly just to be awake on that because it was really a pass going through so you know to have her keep her stick up there makes her first save of the Season Talia Weiss not a great pass there but Mack Wht picks it up and brings it around they are chasing her down the sidelines witler The Freshman using her speed to get that thing into the attacking Zone gets it right there to trulio trulio has it to Jordan and oh great yeah one two three trulio to Jordan to uh yep truo to I couldn't really tell not oh you know what it was I think it was witor to trulio to Jordan right you got it and witor clearly you know made a made a great play play there to to change the momentum after not not the best pass by tell youwise um but had the presence to stay with it and and then blew blew down the sideline and and created that opportunity really quickly yeah two nothing East Long Meadow minute and a half gone just about ali Thompson still on the draw using the special gate draw stick hopefully gives a little bit of an advantage the special draw stick just for this one move right here she tries to flip it to herself it doesn't work but a great play by Kenna Marino to reflip it right out of the Stick Of The minog Defender minog offensive player monno is taking it down she's moving she passes off the post kind of I'm not sure wh kind of gets it little Jam there I think that was actually off of a Minto girl's head oh well that's not good no not really that's got to hurt as East Long Meadow sets up its ride as minog tries to get the ball out of the defensive Zone a decent pass there but just not caught moros picked it up she's taking it down Raz of right is going to slow it down at this point it's two on Five GNA let the offense set up great pass it right there good shot by trulio yeah really good pass good cut by trulio she got it out of her stick fast macarini was there to back it up kind of a tough pass there though it's on the ground it's being battled looks like more is going to scoop this one up I think a nice play there looks like she's just going to take this in comes in kind of got it knocked around a little bit duct her head one of the things that uh that Anna macarini does so well as she anticipates um ton of those plays and get to that back line quickly to keep possession you know on those shots yeah a lot of a lot of experience on the East Long Meadow team a lot of Juniors and seniors really other than other than witor freshman up there on the offensive zone here's monno looks like she she's going to try and run this in and she does she gets off to the good races there puts the second one in yeah that's uh again almost impossible to stop that when you're when you're that in in that close right I mean yeah it's really hard for the goalie what if the offensive player gets off that eight meter line and the other players are not able to get in front of her it's really a challenge for the goalie going in one-on-one because the offensive player can just do so many and things like that and the the goalie left it's not like hockey right where they're you know it everyone's moving the offensive player can stop can do whatever they want so it's it's an almost an impossible task for the goalie but the real key there right I mean it on eight meters are tough but the real key is that Defender getting in there as quickly as possible obviously to interrupt if you can right absolutely and for the offensive player it's getting those first couple of steps and again we're going to have Alli Thompson on the draw for the Spartans referee sets the ball flips it up it goes this one looks like it's going to be minoga unless Marino can get in there and this one's taken by minog it looked like it looked like number 10 Cali gagon not sure I think she was out of bounds actually I don't think she noticed that she was oh yeah over the red line maybe yeah it goes back here not sure that looks like it's taed oh a little bit of a long one let's see Tess is gonna try to stop it she's not able to do so really good effort there by testinal using her speed number 28 you can see her hustling back there on defense never a lack of hustle from Tess that's for sure just a little bit too hard of a pass there minog just kind of rushing their offense they really should slow it down try to keep that possession they've been kind of on the defensive side of this game for the first half of the first half already oh a really good catch right there not sure who's running that down I think that's Grace Howard Grace Howard taking it down she made a really nice really nice ni catch on that pass Howard kind of staying uh trying to stay in there I'm sure oh yeah cut by Ma yeah really nice play right there onew punch morno to McKenna witler and witor scores freshman gets her first official goal of the Season see Mom and Dad down there cheering texting away sending all the notes off to their friends and family looks like a timeout by uh the minog coach here uh after a quick four nothing start but three and a half minutes in so probably couldn't be any better for East Meadow and could be a whole lot worse for minog at this point really yeah I mean good idea here for the coach to call a timeout settle his team down a little bit I mean and we're it's you know seven and a half minutes in it's four nothing and the game has really been kind of dominated by Easton meow even when minich chogs had the ball in the offensive zone and they're attacking in the attacking Zone they just they've seemed like they're really rushing it and they I think they just need to take their time settle down so really good coaching here calling the timeout to settle settle his team down you know it's interesting too when you look at their roster it's made up of a lot of Juniors and seniors so you know in one sense you'd Wonder you'd think perhaps they would be you know maybe not so nervous or used to this but who knows you don't know who who came and went over the year and and over the offseason and you know whether they lost some leaders along the way but yeah it's you know obviously it's still very very early in the season and so you know new you know could be a new coach I haven't really didn't really check into that uh for minog it certainly could be a new coach and girls getting used to each other and you know it hasn't exactly been ideal practice conditions either we've had some really bad weather so some teams just not able to really get practices in and even when you can get practices in yeah it's really hard to be focused because the the weather's just been so cold and so rainy but well the other you know the other piece to this of course is that the these long meow girls um because they do have quite a few seniors and juniors you know they played together for a while and you can see that they're in in many ways even anticipating each other's moves um particularly on the offensive end uh and it you know I mean even that that play with uh with Mackey and the way she cut through and Megan could you know really anticipate that was coming she could see it and and made a great pass and you know so yeah Megan you know Megan Megan and Mack have become you know you got your captain you got your you know senior captain and freshman right freshman with some great stick skills and monno is really taking witw under her wing and they've spent some time together in the winter just talking lross playing lacrosse getting to know each other so wht's really spent the time trying to really make herself part of this team and to make this team as a freshman is no easy task so and to start absolutely complete credit to her there's a lot of Highly talented highly talented and skilled athletes and girls on the that are standing on the sidelines here doing some cheers there goes Thompson oh good catch there by Addie Jordan a great catch great cut in good decision though to cut cut it back right there she had oh she kind had a right-handed shot but it didn't really didn't completely work out morno is going to come right down the sidelines here kind of went with a side yeah she she has such a quick First Step there that and I think that's the one thing that you know that sets her apart from so many other players is that first burst and they're they're playing a man here isow you see isow they're just really taking their time they're setting things up they're not you know if it doesn't work out they're just going to pass right I mean that easily oh what a good shot there Kenna Marino one two great pass by Jordan really M great decision making she didn't have it could have potentially been called there could have been a follow against her she could have had an eight meter it wasn't called she resettled herself stepped back saw an open cutter it was an assist by um yeah assist by Jordan goal by Marino yeah I know yeah yeah yeah I think that's right and I think she showed you know great patience I think sometimes when you're there and you want to just go you see small which you saw you know okay let me pull this back and reset and and that was exactly the right thing to do absolutely we got Megan morno here on the draw now they've switched it up a little bit still keeping Ali Thompson and Kenna Marino on the circle for East Long Meadow goes up in the air it gets kicked and it's flying and it looks like it's going to be Marino that gets it she flips it right up to Flips it right up Alli Thompson to Addie Jordan who is going to go flying down she's going to try to get that cut back she pulls it back gets it to whitward whitw files it in there again number that's unbelievable really good stuff there just no answer right now at all Jordan a witler into the goal yeah East metal offense really opening things up they're spreading out they're getting a lot of Cutters it's really it's really nice to watch yeah yeah they're finding those seams too right that there's there's holes in those defense and they're just sliding right through and and you know again people they're they're noticing when when people are open and and and getting it in there as quickly as possible so it's a it's a beautiful thing to watch when it's done well right absolutely yeah I say minog really needs to get ball control here they need to really win this they really need to win this draw control right here very important monno is calling it out for Thompson looks like she's going to try to flip it this way towards Thompson let's see oh it goes back right to gagen so they have it let's see if they can kind of maintain oh that's not a good pass at all right into the Stick of Ali Thompson who is flying down the road goes down the sidelines gets it to Jordan Jordan's coming in here she's going one-on-one she's covered coming around same play as last time she makes a good decision and backs out Gets behind the net setting it up oh they had an opening and there she goes I mean nobody nobody even yeah nobody even went to her yeah she they just left it wide open as they she was faking the passes all over the place they were all looking past pass pass and the defender just lost their spot yeah but your point down here about you know this this pass you know they've got possession they got to do something with it and then just you know throw it away and and and you're Off to the Races yet again on the the uh this the uh stick um how is it different really in terms of the faceof stick the new one that that they're using they used it last year but you know just so people understand yeah it's just different the way in which the head is designed so it's designed and the and the pocket is designed a certain way so that the when the when the referee's putting the ball in there you're just able to get a little more control and there it is there's the flyer oh nice play by that's a little bit aggressive so that's going to be a penalty nice play by slatery there for minog track that down absolutely Thompson chasing again they get this here comes gagnan yep gagan's got it moving now the Spartans play you know essentially man but then you've got tal Weiss's floating around right and and his help if somebody gets through yeah I mean got to do a lot of work back there she's got to be in great shape they're playing uh you know it's I guess it's I think it's called like a backer Zone okay um and she's just the backer so they're they chase her oh that is a absolutely Dart of a pass I mean that is just really fast yeah that was going to be a tough one I mean that's a that that's a pass that's tough for high Lev D1 players to catch and put on their sticks so here comes Jordan's making your way back this goes that's not a great pass but it got through by Holly definitely a highrisk pass right there but sure Weiss was able to kind of keep it here it is this looks like it's going to macarini oh again just same type of thing just a a rocket pass she's wide open you can just you don't need to fire it in there at 90 miles an hour when you can do it at 50 right but you know right little adrenaline still flowing good look there by Marino had the look at it but you know yeah would have been hard for a goalie to save it with a big stick Min just you know being a bit careless with those passes you know I think they they seem to be trying to go a little too far with it too like take some of the easy passes and make your way down the field a little more methodically like I think they they really need to do some of that great pass oh great shot by good shot by truo that's I don't know if you can get two assists there but if you can it goes witw monno truly o yeah really nice stuff right there really good yeah hit the post the inside post it's beautiful yeah I mean it's eight nothing and we're you know we're eight minutes and maybe seven and a half Yeah well yeah that's probably about right yeah no more than that it's 12 minutes 128 16 I mean I've got a very hard time figuring out the difference between 12 minutes and 3 minutes and 44 seconds but whatever that boils down to 8 16 has has run off the clock all right that's good I pulled out my calculator for that yeah oh this is going to get taken could oh just missed close Thompson is just driving down there on defense they've come down the right hand side looks like minog is finally going to get the ball around here they're going to take their time they're going to move it around get it down try to a drop picks up here she comes gets it behind tries to get it in the middle great play I really do like seeing Jenna Holly there yeah being more a little more aggressive out of the out of than net Etc much more aggressive nice play this is gonna get tossed up to witor yeah she catches it she's got Mareno makes the nice fake there draw the defense in whitward oh witw just running a little too fast she's going to try to Red Doge though and she pulls it back out to Thompson Thompson to monno resetting up the offense monno to Witwer Witwer is GNA try to do a little one-on-one dodging here she works hard worked hard on it all winter long Thompson's got it the Lefty over on her favorite side back to macarini from behind the go macarini wants one she don't think she has one yet so she's definitely anxious to get one get get in on the fun now it comes to morno monno waiting oh no that's TR Leo now there it is oh nice save by the a save but it's picked up by Thompson and now it's brought in yeah not a great pass right there though into number two macarini who got it off the back of her head she's grabbing the back of her head also not a great pass but it's sneaks its way through minog picks it up but it's out of bounds Marino has it she brings it in she fires it back to uh Hannah Taft ta to Weiss up to Grace Howard Grace Howard goes over the line passes it down Howard I'm sure wants to get in on the action and she does she's not moving she is staying up there she wants a goal she did not come back to get replaced and Marino is standing over there with their stick in the air saying grace Howard get back on defense and she does and Marino's back oh and truo hit the post oh yeah little a little too close there can't do that either well got got some head on that you know what's you know what's interesting is I've been watching a lot of col women's college lacrosse and there's been a big rule change in college lacrosse where in this Zone here this transition zone I forget what they call it but they're giving anything that you just saw there where it's a restart they're calling penalties and they're sending a they're sending a woman off for a full minute and so what's happened in the college game is that ride that transition period yeah is basically like the center ice in hockey nobody touches anybody they just go yeah because they don't want to take the risk of getting a woman down for a minute so it's really changed kind of changed the game good Hustle by morno there to beat to win that ball you know that's one of the things that East Longo did great last year all year was you know be and she's off this looks like it's gonna be yeah that's not this is not gonna go well oh hit the post again wow they've got some lucky posts on their end right now so y or unlucky freeling don't run on the track always it always scares me end of the quarter end of the quarter 8 nothing eastl meow we're going to take a 2minute break and we will be back at elcat e and we are back in Action here second quarter about to begin looks like we have on the draw looks like it's Addie Jordan she flips it to herself looks like she's gonna take it over oh wow that's an aggressive pass not a really great decision on that pass there but it's going to be good play there by macarini to go in there and get it it was a highrisk pass great draw got the draw control little Dodge and move there a little boom boom moro's trying to reset this up she comes around good not a good pass by monno right there either just really off Target tried to get it back behind to macarini could have caught it but it really wasn't a great pass it wasn't in a good spot not a bad idea though right to reset oh and Anna macarini steals it and it's an easy goal for herself how about that yeah that's a tough one for minog they just had a really good defensive stand there a turnover by monno and macarini in the offensive zone and yeah and again just a an error there by the goalie probably just needed to hold on to that but that's a macarini goal well and those are the kind of goals that are more demoralizing than anything right because you just did what you said which was you had a good good stand there and then give up an easy [Music] one on the draw control again and this one goes up and it's Addie Jordan it bounces over to her and then it's to Ali Thompson who has it Thompson gets it over truly oh has it that was Caroline lucich uh could not have been Caroline lucich she's out this season okay well had the wrong number I don't think that was number was it oh I believe it is oh thought I saw number three there well I don't know we'll have to check out and see what that number is who got in that game it was number two and I'm not really sure tough to see okay oh nice pass nice nice grab there by um Sno really well good pass nice step out there by Howard to prevent her from firing that off yeah very aggressive defense here right now morno getting little break from the Midfield hanging out by the Line Marino chasing that down good try who's going to grab it it's up in the air and it's grabbed Weiss has it hly making a nice run with it I know she enjoys yeah she's just going to get it right over the line she flips back around staying with it gets it to somebody Addy Jordan who's coming around move oh and then she kind of ducked her way through right there with a really good Dodge move got between two girls on the slide and just she was in the duck position as uh she went to shoot and the ball just went high oh good pass from macarini to morau beautiful shot top Corner that's that's that was vious almost impossible to stop that was a great catch too by monno and then that was just a vicious violent left-handed Slammer so now we've got a 10 goal lead so the clock is going to continue to run at all times until they get under that uh under that 10 goal Mark so when you're taking the draw like are you are you adjusting stick like if you're trying to get it to yourself you adjusted your stick like or if you're trying to go back or forward I think it's more about the your the hand movement okay um when it starts whether you go up whether you go forward whether you go backwards you're just trying to do I mean you saw that right that they had oh oh wow good play there oh I don't know oh maybe it doesn't look like coach Moses was screaming so it must have been must have been something wrong with yeah okay oh the Spartans are so good at at knocking the ball away give him another one there so got Welsh down to uh Sno here yeah they're moving around now looks like they're gonna get settled in their offense a little bit more but got to get a bit closer Marino's really putting pressure on out there it's really like a high pressure yeah oh wow oh I mean that that's a highlight real right wow that's a highlight re defensive play right there Jordan racing down the field got Partners on either side which way is she going looks like morau it's a nice Cut oh spins around and gets hit oh and calling a charge that um she did back it kind of backed in there I mean it's a little bit of a tough call yeah a little bit you can't really back in though either so you know oh here we go oh dropped on the ground and it's going to be I mean the ground balls are really here comes is back in a transition and those ground balls are all East Long Meadow they're getting every one of them so it's it's going down still going nice little head fake there and another one into the side perfect placement I mean beautiful shot it looks like these Long Meadow sideliners we're going to get Cal Bree into the game and we're going to get Sabina mne coming in looks like number four Angelina trulio is going to take a little break along with Anna macarini you know the the transition for this Spartans I mean they get down the field very fast yeah they got a lot of speed and they got a lot of speed in the Midfield I mean monno Jordan Marino Ali Thompson I mean there're those are four very fast players they all they all got a soccer background on top of that so their you know their Fitness their stamina their speed they're they're just used to that so it's it's very you know it doesn't really matter who has it then you got Talia Weiss as well who's got some great speed coming out of the defensive end Grace Howard with speed so there's a lot of speed on this East Long Meadow team in terms of getting the ball through from defense to from defense to offense and I think clearly like they're conditioning you know I know coach Moses is is uh you know very into that and I know they're they're all well prepared to to go the you know full 48 minutes and and uh not be tired um so moro's at the top of the circle there gets it over to mne mne's looking to make a move kicks it back out to morau who's surveying the the landscape here makes a move around one Defender around two around three and hits the crossbar who was that that was more no on a wicked shot right off the top of the crossbar it did seem like it might have had a little bit of power on it just a little she had her weedies uhuh Jordan's here she's going to take it let's see if they're going to set something up here they're clearing out for Jordan gonna set a pick they do they set a double pick she comes through the middle she gets caught comes back out which is nice looks like she's gonna want to set it up again oh good cut by Mack wow beautiful great shot good play right there witw little bit of a delay on that shot I mean that's one probably not her best shot of the night it kind of went towards the middle of the net but it still got past the Spartan goenda to be a little shell shock at this point yeah I mean she's a really trust me she's a really good goalie uh I watched her play last year she's one of the better goalies in western Mass she just the defense tonight is just not giving her a lot of opportunities I mean these are kind of wide open looks they're they're really unsavable shots um that she's facing but I do think on that shot were you know had did use a couple players in front of him to kind of Shield it and hide it which was nice yeah I mean she was screened I mean there was no oh nice pass good pass by Weiss and a really good catch by Thompson it goes to morno morno to whitward oh almost picked up by Jordan it's picked up by morno morno setting it up waiting dodging who knows not sure what's gonna happen here looks like that's on minog looks like mono's going to get an eight meter for the most part this has been a pretty clean game you haven't heard a lot of whistles it's y just kind of gone along looks like monno is going to try to run this one in it's going to be a speed test from the whistle I'm guessing she might win it oh and she gives it up to Jordan good pass good play play right there monno gives it up passes it off to Jordan who is wide open goes in assist for morno goal for Jordan and that's a nice little wrinkle right so you know people are thinking she's coming right in I mean they yeah they've been playing together for a number of years now so they've got you know pretty much they're really in sync right now look really good to start the season it's a 13 nothing lead with three minutes remaining they've had I think minog had few shots um so they'll have to I mean obviously you know to get back a little bit into this they're gonna have to get these draws and really work down the field methodically which they've been struggling to do so looks like Jordan on the draw to Thompson Thompson wins that and looking around uh makes a short little pass to Mareno Mareno up to Jordan Jordan's got some space to come in she's going to take this one-on-one I mean it's wide open over there not a great angle but she throws it in top shelf beautiful shot it's just almost impossible for the goalie to save that yeah oh well the clock is moving we are down to 215 so yeah we're got two minutes remaining here and the defense has been absolutely Stellar I mean I know we're watching an offensive Onslaught but uh minog hasn't put one in the back of the net yet Holly's made every save that she's been uh wherever she's been tested her stick has been there she's caught them all she's intercepted a couple passes a good start for her and the defensive unit really looks like it's in sync you know no matter no matter who's been in there y and I think that's again you know last year they early in the year they had to work together a bit and they've got some you know hand atted and um and test and all uh are back and in that realm so you know again you know each other and and uh and Talia Weiss you know helping to kind of Shepherd that back there I think has been a stabilizing Force back there so um yeah and they've added you know they've added jilli and St who's a great athlete really you know super solid soccer player lacrosse skills are outstanding as well I mean she's really you know made that play yeah it's more look at that I mean it's more and there's another one we didn't talk about Jillian Stevens her speed and she's new this yeah I mean her speed her absolutely her length in the back I mean she's her got incredible defensive skills we've seen it on the soccer field and seen it on the lacrosse field I mean once she gets used to the system that they've been running I mean some of the other girls that have been on this team been on this team for years and so they're they're used to it right so nice little play there by number 21 Sno for Char they are they are I mean they just all over they are yeah there's just no room to run Here Comes witw Here Comes monno running down the side wiw's got it he going to slow it down mne gets it to morno and that is the end of the quarter wow yeah really good start for E slum meow 14- nothing at halftime we are going to take a five minute break and we will be back with the lcat 01028 production e and we are back for the second half of the Spartans of East Long Meadow versus the Falcons of mina Kenna Marino for East Long Meadow on the draw early start right there not sure who to award it to but does the right thing and gives it to the underdog minog Falcons flying down the sidelines there stop spin move scalini with a nice well that was also a absolutely spectacular defensive play by Weiss who Slama jamama the stick out of the hands of the Spartans they are going to a delayed they are going to go into delay mode here and really pull people out they're going to hold this ball and try to stop the score oh what was that was I don't oh and almost in and a great catch there by Thompson who's going to slow it down it goes back to Jenna Holly who is going to walk it out kind of slipped out of her stick Jill Stevens is going to bend down and pick it up she's turn oh the line she just didn't yeah she just didn't see the line and that's that that can happen here because they're so used to playing on the soccer lines or something else it's yeah these fields are you know the lines aren't always the best so you just kind of got to get used to it yeah guess what we've welcomed in the rain the rain has started again it does look like that and the hundreds of East Long Meadow fans that have come out to watch this game The Umbrellas are up blocking the view of people from the top row fights are starting down there in the stands nice play by Weiss that up yeah after a couple of be Weebles and Wobbles but she's got it gets it up to witor Witwer is again flying down looks like she's probably either gonna she's just focused she wants to go goal she's so jacked up oh and that one there that is not a shot that you want to be taking in a close game it's kind of going in the wrong direction there body kind of moving away from the goal really an easy save there for the goalie but you can't blame witw for taking her shot there with a score 14 nothing freshman wants to get on the get a few more in the in the goal column and I do think based on ticket sales that it is a sellout tonight so yeah it was a couple of fans have found their way home as a result of the weather you can see a few of them leaving now but otherwise yeah the the the oh macarini had it there I think she had a little alley she didn't want to take it a tough pass there by Thompson whitw picks it up she's running it goes back to monno this is going to be a one-on-one and I just can see a left-handed shot coming yeah oh and they all four people collapsed there they did they collapsed on her that might have been a message at halftime I'm guessing yeah they're going to get some defense they're not going to just let this happen here comes Marino she gets it it goes over to witor nobody behind the goal now everybody wants a goal macarini goes back to her spot it goes over to witler Witwer it's Thompson yeah Thompson's got it comes with the left hand she's flying around she gets it to Jordan Jordan comes in she does oh beautiful she does her patented loopy L with the right hand and it goes slamming down into the low left hand side a bouncer in such an effective shot there uh I think that might have been Thompson Thompson yeah it was Thompson to Thompson to Jordan Thompson to Jordan for the assist Ken Marino coming over to the sidelines to get the draw stick coach Maza hangs on to her regular stick coach Moses and Maza a formidable team back in Action this year I know the players are very happy to have Liz Maza back as the assistant coach coming along from long way away to be at these games and to continue this journey that the East Long Meadow Spartan girls are on with a goal of you know doing a little better than last year and making their way to the state finals and hopefully becoming not a good pass there at all but Thompson is able to pick it up and then not picked up again and now it is picked up it looks like a little hockey match broke up it looked more like field hockey really at the end of the day there and now it's dropped again got it passes it up to a bad pass again there by rapold but really just needs to take her time she's a very good player there's really no no reason to rush it a lot of girls on this team they all can catch there it is to Jordan Jordan's got it looks like she's gonna try to dodge she does Dodges over to the left now she's gonna DOD gets pushed nobody there yeah nobody home I mean there's just no sliding no cutting when she was past her there was just no hope yeah it was a nice move it was so 708 left 16 nothing Spartans it's a tough it's a tough night for announcing quite frankly I mean there's not a lot going on out there for minog I feel like I'm talking to myself at times but the fans at home will appreciate that and then when I do eventually get home no one's going to want to hear me so you know why not well all out now yeah I mean I got some other complaints that I could talk about but it's uh you know it is it is what it is it's always good to have an audience somewhere Jeff yeah you know oh well sorry yeah we've got you know people from all over western Mass are here right now yeah watching I this may end up you know getting picked up by ESPN pretty soon I don't know I wouldn't be surprised I mean as the season progresses and our skills develop we might get picked up by ESPN is kind of what I'm thinking yeah you know could be a couple of oh God elderly gentlemen there comes morno they are that yeah yeah yeah yeah and there she goes yeah she's this is not looking like a pass to me oh it is wow what do you know very surprised it looked like it looked like that was going to be she was just going to try to take it the whole way she had that angry look on her face she's backing out now she's gonna she's gonna get a slide this is gonna be this is gonna be a yeah a pick that's an illegal pick it's a good call actually it is right she knows she's learning freshman she was trying to do a little better job with the pick she moved Marina catch up great call by get there oh great call by the referee I like to see that yeah oh oh off the post wow ball nice run by gagnan wow really was Rio chasing down here balls on the outside Marino defending over to number two Jen scalini to gagn behind the goal I mean you see there's just it's just you can see the it's just the ball for minog it just isn't moving quick enough around now it's a good pass right there yeah now you're seeing Howard just like Chase okay that's got to be covered oh another post wow yeah really nice play there by uh from our team I think it was that Ashley beak it was Ashley be Ashley beak really picked that up on the corner there on that on the wraparound yeah and there's rapold really challenging out deep little switch here come coming in number 22 K Sophia kazoo y has it or had it coming back tough pass going to be out of bounds just not where the stick was I mean it's still a catchable Ball but a wide open is kind of yeah forced her to make an off-hand pass this goes back to Holly Holly sends it over got denal oh oh had if morno is going to get there that was a tough one tried good hustle I mean denal really needs to make sure she catches that that wasn't a bad it was a good look there by Hol denal was wide open just need to connect on that pass and keep it in transition it's the little things like that as the season progresses that hopefully yeah you know you'll see these are the little things that coach Moses will be able to draw upon and right do some coaching and Coach these girls up I mean they're really intense tonight look at the intensity of Marino on defense right now and then another great play by Weiss to get her stick there anticipation here they go and this is going to go up hopefully let's get it up here to mne oh I would have liked oh a tough one there again just forcing that kind of cross-handed pass so kagan's breaking through got down to Welsh um trying to make a move on denal but nice save by Jenna Holly wo and there oh good catch there by monno Mono jogging it up there's a good pass there's a good pass it's right on Stick side good catch there by mne oh nice oh a little far ahead yeah mne just kind of rushed that pass a little bit had a lot of time could have slowed that one down probably could have turned and just ran with it I mean she's so incredibly fast that you know once she had it in her stick she could have just turned and run and called it a yeah you know got herself into the offensive zone and set up so Kazo over to uh slatery who's looking for something there's not a lot of cutting Happening Here Yeah there's not a lot of motion it's a little slow monno coming out of the game getting a rest with two minutes remaining here in the first half oh are we in the third quarter that's good to oh I love that shot right there a little a little I think they call that a Twizzler yeah a Twizzler they call it a Twizzler Weiss has been great on these ground balls all day battling hard that's for sure oh and that one going to go minog way that a 12 meter I think no no yeah just a restart Falcons and kind of Weiss almost just wasn't Weiss but I think it was Thompson almost oh good play there by beak another kind of side winding Twizzler shot really good low angle there yeah I like it so denal over to Holly yeah Holly's looking she's got Jordan oh just missed that one well golfed up there denal got a beat on it should be able to pick it up and do something with it here she does she's going to get it over to to Holly our Holly working on a shut out that ball goes to Weiss Weiss has it looks like mne's there gets it up to mne mne just having a There She Goes don't rush it now yeah don't rush it just use your speed and that's it there you go great pass wide open another Marino that's the second time really Marino just firing the bullets on those passes and they just a little bit low got to get a little more accurate on the passes slow it down great Strip by macarini but I do like that I mean Marino yeah playing really well using her speed it's been great on the draw Circle Thompson there just wasn't don't worry about it allly she's not happy gets it back right there she's just a pat Marino with another very challenging pass tell Cali it was block locked comes back here oh macarini cuts through no call there huh no oh macarini had an opport or tried to intercept it but uh was in the crease I think yeah justess gets called behind in the crease this goes to the goalie and now we are going into the fourth quarter we got a two-minute break and we will be back in two minutes for the fourth and final quarter East Long Meadow leading 16 to zero e and we are back for the fourth quarter of action the last 12 minutes of the game is going to be taking place here as soon as eastlon meow makes its way to the draw Circle it is now absolutely coming down now you may not you may not be able to see it on the TV but it looks like actually from the video I'm watching that you can I mean it is really coming down now and uh Spartans are all out there they're still gung-ho for playing and they're out on the field doing their thing working their magic there are pooches and kittens coming down from the sky Alli Thompson there and she kicks it She Bangs it it gets bing bang boomed around and this one's good oh going to give her that I mean it's here we go it goes over to marino marino has it she's bringing it up all good to trulio trulio has it swings it behind the goal I think that's macarini with her patented move she wants one or she wants another one I should say yeah oh boy there we go good play there by Macar picked up her own bad pass yep she's looking around somebody cutting through yeah here we go they've got it swings it over here to marino marino has it a little Golly Miss mly too much mustard on that one yeah another one it's a little bit too hard on the mustard and kind of in a difficult spot for trulio to catch it this looks like it might oh that's a good play by uh Donna Hugh there oh nice play by by yeah Marino great hustle there on the defensive end for sure that quickness it's yeah swings it back back again really nice good stuff coming down got a plethora of options there to they do I would say this is a uh oh nice's going she's gonna Twizzler it oh mne with a great opportunity she did some B robing and weaving and dodging and dinking and she did a 360 spinner and then she went for a bouncer and it bounced over the goal did everything right everything right but put it in the back of the net and then not sure what happened there Grace Howard might have reached over the line she's going to get called for uh something this gets slung across a good catch there by number nine brings it up over to 21 brings it up Grace Howard chasing her down with a nice move there kcks it down I think that's to Welsh I can't tell who's back there is that Jillian Stevens so no it's um let's see grace Moore is back there number 15 yeah it's just hard to tell for oh they had an opportunity there I thought they were gonna score oh great play by Oh I thought that'd be a shooting space violation but it was not huh and why move here yeah I think they're just letting these letting him play a little bit here Weiss is on the Move Little oh she wants a goal she wants a goal she does she but she doesn't get it no so macarini with it makes a nice Cut there heading to the goal oh it's knocked away and we are going to get ourselves macarini is going to get herself an 8 meter opportunity nine minutes remaining here in the final fourth quarter be nice to see macarini see how quick her first step is see if if it's as fast as her father's coach is setting it up there cheering on the goalie macarini oh got knocked out at the last look at that it did last second just as that shot was gonna go this one's thrown up Slinger little air ma there that one is gonna go into the parking lot gone down the line it goes ski to do a Ashley beak nice little move there oh again well look like got knocked out at the last second yeah here we go this that could be it a nice oh good play there she had it y they put one in the goal I'm happy for minog you know fans are happy for minog good play right there good move she made a nice Dodge and kind of like snuck over there and put it into the back of the net good one onone action Grace Moore is in the game that I think that was Jillian Stevens before well Jillian just came in actually and Grace Moore is is is uh Grace Moore is on this side number 14 Jan that's Jillian 14 is Jillian Grace yes are you sure yes because yes I am you are I am absolutely I don't know I can't tell from this far [Music] away I mean you asked me if I was sure I know all right well I'll say you're sure raise your hands if you're sure all right you're sure all right okay we'll see we'll see then our sheets are wrong I don't know we we need new we need new uh support here well actually I'm going to go to the official scorekeeper over here and I'm going to find out let's see what we got I get if I win nothing you get nothing if you win where are we here that's exciting I don't know number 14 is Jill Stevens number 14 is Grace Moore what no yes 15 is Jill Stevens at least on the sheets all the sheets they did I rest my case there it is all right well I'm just telling you from the sheets on the sheet you're right from the sheets and we can't really see I mean they're they're from this far away it's really hard to tell they play the same position they're both tall they're both blonde I mean they run differently if they're running I can tell but no well I did happen to notice that that Jill had her hair in in in pigtails well you might have got you might have got an early preview yeah so braids not pigtails I'm sorry braids excuse me thank you for that correction and you would think that uh a guy who has how many daughters would know the difference would know the difference between pigtails and braids No I gave up on the whole hair thing a long time ago it was never my forte I did everything else but when the kids when I had the kids by myself they wore a hat to school okay that was my solution well I'm surprised they made it to school when they had the kids by yourself I never I didn't say they got there on time all right all right well here we go e medals got it in the offensive end TR Leo I don't know what's going on over here there's all sorts of things being called out coach is calling out plays and monno is trying to figure out what coach is calling macari's got the ball and making some moves trulio oh T the onetime but trulio did try the one-time monno is looking to set something up she's trying to get somebody a goal I forget I don't know who it is but she's clearly in a passing mode they've trying to set up a particular play it might be for mne could be although she skipped actually here comes coming to the sidelines Jordan coming to the sidelines coach is giving some instructions here about exactly what they want to have done oh Howard had a had a little lane there but held up probably a smart move morno coming here oh tried to go back good defensive play there by oh that's uh ref blew the whistle there yeah I think monno was trying to get that one over to somebody I don't know who yeah we got 436 left in the fourth quarter uh 16 to1 Spartans oh boy I think the Spartans might have trouble getting this one out of the defensive Zone oh and intercepted there by or knocked Away by macarini yeah she almost had it oh oh that was that was almost I mean that was almost a penalty oh very fast yeah we got some speed here oh a tough pass a great catch by very nice number 21 eliso with a great catch oh nice play by morno to intercept that good really good hustle and oh boy backchecking you call back boy yeah that's backchecking that was a bad pass by monno low short armed it didn't have any Pace on it mne really had no chance to catch that nice play by Weiss there to prevent her to it's a little much there yeah I mean it's slightly aggressive with a 16 to one lead by Weiss if I have to be honest you know with three minutes remaining but I'm sure coach is happy to see this still aggressive play all the way through this was a start to finish look at them on defense they're not they're not sitting back I mean they are on it they are still highly look at them they're going after the ground balls they're still slapping sticks I mean they're taking this very seriously Stevens was right there in the mix there got that one kind of intercepted it got on the ground but she got her stick in there to protect the pass and look at this yeah she's play by Weiss there to her out a good play by Holly moro's got this one and I don't think she's going to pass this one until it gets all the way but maybe take her time here we'll see she's got Jord where is it let's find it there it is and it's found Jordan has it spin move there it is Jordan looks like she's focused on the goal oh yeah well I don't think coach wants Jordan scoring right now I think it's there it is Brie scores yeah there we go putting some other putting some other people into the into the record books here tonight exactly y Nice Shot uh I'm from Jordan I don't know if it was I'm not sure it might have been maybe yeah seven Jordan yeah tough to tell tough to tell two minutes left again clock running so uh I wasn't paying attention not surprisingly I did see who scored oh oh no they're back they're back they're back we thought we lost a listener but we did not they came back the snack we're watching the stats unfold here they must have put it on pause or something to come back but they are here I think it's the first time we've been in the thousands right yeah I mean couple it's just good A little run here by yeah I mean oh that's not a great no not a great pass at all oh Stevens was about to fly that one down good great play gets it back smart play by denal very smart don't do anything crazy here Jenna Holly's gonna get it she's holding on to it she's going to need a little bit of help though I mean you can't expect her to pass the ball 50 yards down the field but she's gonna try it anyway and that is inevitably what happens uhoh that's not NE oh wow what a save by Holly on the one-onone she saves herself shut the door she tried to go five hole no no sir nobody home in that kitchen and look at this play flying down the sidelines is GRA Howard oh but just not ready for that after oh mne with the back checking mck's going she is the top of the post and there's macarini behind with the backup they're playing as if the game is tied right now I mean the intensity level is still unreal for a 17 to one game mck's not she's she's hungry she's gonna run she's going the whole way no she gets it to monno monno is just trying to set somebody up I think so she's just kind of oh no yeah she's gonna let it rip no no she's not they got four oh there it was yeah she did let it rip oh good see oh there was no time left on the clock well anyway for all of you out there listeners the final score of the game 17 to1 Josh always a pleasure Jamie Rook production Don Mackey lcat 01028 good night everybody we will see you soon