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And um what drove me back is sort of the distance you have when you're in the state from actual community um and and people and sort of seeing any impact that anything that you're doing is making on a day-to-day basis. And so, sort of driven back to come uh to a community and sort of put all of my energy into sort of um helping transform a community and I think Ashland has been really welcoming to me and so, I feel like all the work that I tend to be behind the scenes um sort of intentionally, um but I can also see the change happening and that's really fulfilling for me uh personally. And so, I didn't have that necessarily when I was working on policy work um even some of the real work that we were implementing um sort of essential services at the at MEMA, um you don't actually see what's happening on the ground and I think that's really important and you can't get that um anywhere else and I really do love the sort of small town feel that Ashland still has as opposed to um some of the more urban areas that I've worked in um because you can really sort of be pretty flexible in some of the programs and some of the larger projects that we've worked on.

We're about at the 40-minute, maybe for cool close to 45-minute mark. Um But before we leave, uh we were going to try to do a a trivia question and Joe, you and I were talking a little bit about one and so, this is what I think we'll do. All right? So, we're going to we're going to have an email address, [email protected] and so, what we're going to do is we're going to ask a trivia question and people who want to write in and give us the answer, uh just send it to [email protected]. Just got to remember to set that email address up, but uh anyway, we will, but Joe, what what is the trivia question for this um this month? So, the trivia question this month, I have to be very careful because I don't want to give it give it away, but there was a project that was done in the early '20s and it was a WPA project.

Yeah, cool. And I mean, I I would say I mean, one of my greatest blessings is actually getting to work with both of you, I think, and just uh the the the commitment that you bring to it to the jobs and the time that you put in. Um Joe, I mean, you're in a volunteer role and and you you put in probably 40-hour weeks and Jen, you know, you you definitely put in 60-70 hour weeks. Um But no, thank you for both going into that and uh thanks, Melissa. Melissa, I was just about to ask uh for for a time check. Um Melissa Hayes uh here, let's give her a big round of applause for uh for putting all of this together as well as WACA and Paul Bowden and Barbara Chisholm. Um So, I think, you know, I think we're going to wrap this episode up.

So, for the folks that were born and raised in Ashland, even some of the newer ones who have done their history uh research, where was the WPA project done in Ashland? So, there was one WPA project project done in Ashland and it was for the entire community. That's the hint. Okay. It was done for the And and where was it? Interesting. Interesting. So, yes, uh WB What was the WPA project in Ashland and where was it? Uh if you have the answer to that, uh write us at [email protected]. Uh folks, that's going to be uh it for this uh this episode, our first episode, our inaugural episode. I want to thank both of my guests, Jen Ball and Joe Magnani, uh for being with us today and and just explaining a little bit about their history here and kind of a recap of the last 10 or 12 years.

We're about at the 40-minute, maybe for cool close to 45-minute mark. Um But before we leave, uh we were going to try to do a a trivia question and Joe, you and I were talking a little bit about one and so, this is what I think we'll do. All right? So, we're going to we're going to have an email address, [email protected] and so, what we're going to do is we're going to ask a trivia question and people who want to write in and give us the answer, uh just send it to [email protected]. Just got to remember to set that email address up, but uh anyway, we will, but Joe, what what is the trivia question for this um this month? So, the trivia question this month, I have to be very careful because I don't want to give it give it away, but there was a project that was done in the early '20s and it was a WPA project.

Again, I want to thank Melissa Hayes, our communications coordinator, for putting all of this together and our friends at WACA, uh Barbara Chisholm and Paul Bowden for uh setting all this up and kind of making it all work. It's like magic. So, uh folks, it's uh it's been great talking with you and um again, I hope you enjoy this. Actually, even if you don't have an answer to the trivia question, if you could just write us and let us know what you think about the podcast and what you would like to hear in the future. Uh again, use that email address and we'll be sure to listen. So, um want to bid everybody adieu and uh thank you very much for listening. Thank you.

So, for the folks that were born and raised in Ashland, even some of the newer ones who have done their history uh research, where was the WPA project done in Ashland? So, there was one WPA project project done in Ashland and it was for the entire community. That's the hint. Okay. It was done for the And and where was it? Interesting. Interesting. So, yes, uh WB What was the WPA project in Ashland and where was it? Uh if you have the answer to that, uh write us at [email protected]. Uh folks, that's going to be uh it for this uh this episode, our first episode, our inaugural episode. I want to thank both of my guests, Jen Ball and Joe Magnani, uh for being with us today and and just explaining a little bit about their history here and kind of a recap of the last 10 or 12 years.

in room 229 and a public notice will be posted on the legislator's website I'd like to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier per bill for people participating remotely please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify when I I call your name unmute yourself and your time will begin after your minute is completed staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and efficient manner thank you okay start with GM 520 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education gubernatorial nominee kahi Duo for a term to expire 6:30 2026 is K present thank you for being here today of testifiers please oh I start with superintendent members of the committee Kashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony and support of this measure thank you very much for the opportunity thank you David miiro why your kids can Vice chair me thank you Shar Nakamura he Coalition Shar thank you Kate Stanley I can't stand up can sure you can you can do anything you want Vice chair of the committee Stanley Andy in support of and all the first testimony and separate testimony support I Ur you to recomend to the Senate confirmation thank you you can tell she's experienced and on Zoom we have rnie Wilson not present on Zoom chair in support thank you kah Faria also not present on Zoom chair also in support monai Peters aloh hako dear Senators my name is manai Peters I stand on my testimony that has been submitted I speak today on behalf of my personal relationship with Ki Duo as a fellow public school classroom teacher from 1997 to 1999 at anoo school in Palo uh since that time I've had many other opportunities to work with kah as you know she has been a public school student herself a public school teacher an instructor at the community col colleges and at uh Mai college and she has shown the dedication and perseverance needed for this position it is often said that if you want a job done go ask a busy person kah is that busy person I don't know how she does it frankly but I'm Amazed by her work and her Evolution as an educator in Havi and I urge this com to support her nomination Mahalo thank you very much we have um a number of written testimonies only and um also uh we are going to hear all the GM before we ask questions so we're moving on to the next nominee oh yeah yeah yeah okay sure okay let's uh bring up our please thank you for being willing to serve um uh just Aloha everybody and um you know I'm I've been serving on the board of education since July of 2023 um I am super committed to public education I'm a product of public education um even in my job we prioritize our Partnerships with public education um and I really am busy but I'm busy doing the things that I really believe in and I really support um and I'm honored to be considered um for confirmation thank you do you want to let the committee know what you profession is uh uh presently I'm the vice chancelor of academic Affairs at uh Maui College um I've been a professor there for 20 years previous to that and um department of education teacher in cop puni for about eight years previous to that thank you thank you very much okay um questions sure questions you don't get away that e got away with sorry um can I continue please thank you would I dare stop you um you know as we know the board is very important and the families and the parents um have many concerns that they often time come to the legislature with their complaints and yet we tell them you know there's a board of education you need to go to the board and sometimes the board does not seem as accessible to them um so I'm hoping that the board will will make themselves more accessible so I just wanted since you've been serving to July 2023 what is your position on um including and making financial literacy uh mandatory and part of the curriculum instead of just an elective um I think I support that especially now I'm a little close to retirement not close close but you know thought oh I should have learned something better no I think it's an important piece um that has to be part of curricul so why isn't that the board have done anything because we've introduced bills time and time again and it's not gone forward and we've brought this up to the doe and they testify and say well it's an elective but you know we're finding that with uh College costs and students getting into debt not realizing the kinds of debt that they're going to be settled for for decades after they get out of school and just being able to manage through life um about loans and and everything else that so that they can they can survive um through all the fiscal issues that arise in our life that this is not part of the curriculum so um if it's so important then why haven't there's been something by the board to mandate it I don't know yet but I mean I think that's something you know there's a lot that is mandated there's a lot that should be mandated and I think um probably the firstest thing is to figure out where it might fit so you know when you have graduation requirements and you know you're you're doing the calculations right sometimes it's difficult but um you know there are also standards that you can use to embed that in different places and I think there are different ways that you can do it um and I would first start with an assessment like is it a standard in a particular class maybe it's not a whole class but is it being done and where is it being done um and if that's not enough then how do we strengthen that and where do we do it well I guess that's my issue you know why haven't it done been done before why haven't is ongoing and you know it's great to have all these other requirements and yeah you know you want to take speech you want to take English you want but you know what if you cannot if you cannot balance a checkbook and you cannot balance what you get paid I don't care how smart you are I don't okay what kind of A's and B's and 4.0 you are you're not going to be able to get through life um doing that and you wonder why people are into bankruptcy or people you know end up committing suicide because all of the stress is on them and we stress so much early college early college great go to college but then you don't know you canot manage your finances so I don't know if we're placing the right emphasis on what should be taught at at kindergarten through high school because we teach them to put put on all these all these um stress and issues on them and yet they cannot even balance sometime they canot give change you they go to you go to a store if register don't tell them how much change to give our students cannot give change because they know how to count the money back because they just T their phone sometimes no but then it says yeah if you give them you know a $20 bill and it's $18.58 and it says give them back a dollar so much that's what they do but if they have to count it out without the register they can't do that I've seen that happen they can't do that so it's going to be the next app when I how to count I mean I do it's a lot right I mean I think things are changing before I know in my generation you would learn by getting a job and having to learn how to do those things as you do it and I think that's happening less like I mean I don't know how come as of now but well I I hope if when if you're confirmed that that's going to be something I'm going to ask all of so I hope all of the people here that are up for confirmation will be ask answering that question and then the other question I wanted to ask is uh you talk about in your questionnaire about holding the board I mean holding a doe accountable so I'd like to see you know how have you held doe accountable can you give us an example the time served I mean I think one of the ways is to be prepared and to not be afraid to ask hard questions when we are being presented with things um I I'm still learning how the board works and how I work um there but I do think that um part of our job is to make sure that the doe is doing what um the public um and the policy say that they should be doing so I think to be um but how do you hold them cuz like were you aware that they had a billion dollars in in um CIP that um yeah just they didn't have enough money to so was on the books yet it's incomplete all those projects have you guys how have you held them accountable for that so one of the things is to find out what the problems were right to kind of dig down into what's happening what's not working and um how you move forward with that and I think that they have done some of that work in the new strategic plan to address um some of the processes that aren't working for CP and um r&m improvements so I think um you know I tell people this all the time it's a hard job it's like running a small country um it's you know almost 300 schools I work in one school and we have issues with CIP and repair and maintenance part of it is procurement part of it is the way you know you work with contracts part of it is you know you not you know you might not have enough money to finish the contract or you waited a year and it went up you know $2 million we encounter that all the time on one campus and you times that by 300 um and it's super complex but I think that they have come up with a plan through that Oreo you know they're calling it we're calling it Oreo but really it's about what has to be done what were the problems and how can we move forward and create a process that hopefully works better so part of it is um looking at the way things are budgeted between CIP and um repair and maintenance um looking at um Contracting things instead of doing a separate contract for all of these things trying to figure out how can how can we group them together but we have a problem now the the contracts are already L and the problem is there's not enough money to finish the contract so what have the board done and in addition to that we have a billion dollars ready to lapse in a couple months you know and yet we're we're we're funding we're appropriating another half a billion dollars for CIP this coming year if you look at the the CIP list and so we cannot even finish the projects uh that's there that's started and we've got projects that are going to lapse yet we're giving more money and I'm not sure how we handle all of this and that's what the board is going to be faced with and I hope all of you board members um that's up here have some thoughts about this because these are crucial issues that is happening now and yes process is important how we got here I mean we had SF ssfa and that hasn't worked so it's like you know U we need the board members to be able to step up and and make sure that we're overseeing and having oversight of the administration and holding them accountable and not just taking what they say for granted but challenging them as to how are we going to do this how are we spending our funds I found out that we're spending money on so many software and apps and applications thousands and thousands of dollars instead of doing surveys by hand we want to have an for everything that's fine but it's going to cost us $86,000 just to get the app and then $63,000 every year I don't know if the board knows that and is holding them accountable for those things you aware of that I'm not aware of that particular one but definitely aware about the budget and the CIP and the rnf and we've been having a lot of discussions about how we move forward to fix that thank you you know you're just one so I don't want to just throw it all on you but just kah just expanding on what Senator Kim is talking about can can you discuss or give us some thoughts on how you think the board might take a more active role in partnering with the doe um and private sector Partners to to help with some of these um issues including um you know the problems that we're having with uh spending down on our CIP um I know that they have some new processes in place that we still yet to see if that's going to work um but it is a strategy forward so I think um you know it's my for us to invest in that um we have discussed different ways of dealing with repair and maintenance um you know right now um the the the way that we are Contracting and and all that kind of stuff um isn't working quick enough it might be working but it isn't working quick enough the process of having to change in order come back increase in price all of that kind of stuff so we have been talking about you know how do you streamline that how do you maybe create a different um a different structure for that so I know um in conversations in the committies and with other people you know they're talking about you know stuff that they did before and maybe they they can Implement again or you know new things moving forward like they used to have repair and maintenance teams go through schools right so you get them for a week and you get stuff done instead of having to do an order for each thing that you know you you need fixed right putting in a work order and waiting for it to happen so just I think we have to Envision sort of changing the system and how um it is presently being done because we are very sure that it's not working well I appreciate that because that is exactly what the bord is for to you know help the superintendent um make some of those decisions and they're not all always easy to see and the answer is not easy but you know we do have some concerns about uh you know lapsing cips Etc we do appreciate and look forward to that discussion that we have with the superintendent the rest board members further questions yeah yeah Senator P you know going forward since we're talking about the cips and the funding I was all ready for talk about economics and all that but since we're talking about cips what I think we should do with the doe and uh the board of education is go out into the field and look how the private sector is run we let the beers know how much money we have not how much money you think this project going to cost we're already telling them we get $9 million for this project putting one bid and we get three biders we take the we take the loser actually cuz usually that's the guy is the lower bidder later on he's the higher bidder after what all the project changes so why did the the Board of Education and the Department of Education go and look at how the private sectors put up the bid let them come and say this radi up will cost 15,000 for Bill but we know we only get 9,000 that's the problem we keep getting the lower bid then we get the shot in the deal then like you said constructions people protest the bid a construction cost cost high in the private sector I going tell you cuz I came I was working for persons nor out Road they put in the wrong amount of money guess who ate it not the state not the taxpayer the developer ate the cost of the mistakes and whatnot so when you go out there and bid on one job you got to make sure you bid on them correctly but because the St get the pockets that's what they do change order we give them prime example Ching Stadium it's one of the ones that is really really disturbing from one one 2 million to 6 Plus million over yeah but that's what we got to change if you got like change anything B of Education Department of Education change the process and how we go about going out and selecting the contractors not necessarily the L biller don't give them the amount of money that we have we told everybody in the stadium right we get 300 to 400 billion a million whatever for build a stadium we don't even have the money so why we don't say hey excuse me Senator Kim how much you think would cost to build a stadium and they let all these contractors do that and then we pick the one it's closer to what we get in a bank instead of brok in a bank before the project starts so that's something that I think if you can consider and the last question I have and you gonna be hearing this as a broken record but give it to you extensive you know being a on Hawaiian um Hawaiian studies um hasn't been implemented in the in the language hasn't been Aur uh in the public schools even though it's was a Hawai 1978 Hawaii revised Statute said English and Hawaiian should be taught taught in a school as that and it was now to this day I hear for a lot of people that English was highly because we never have enough Hawaiian um education teachers but today we have but there is not an equal playing field so are hearing that if we do Hawaiian studies that we're going to lose um some of the other curriculums but it's the same with home economics if we go ahead and teach economics and bring economics back into the school we're going to have to lose something so instead of inquiring these things together to make sure that we don't lose what was given to us should be implemented so I just want you to think about that if you don't have an answer then that's fine but I just wanted to let you know that you know you will be hearing that yeah no I mean I will answer that because I should I know a professor in ha studies for 20 years um I do think I mean you know it also we know that in 1980 right we have fourth grade seventh grade and 11th grade I do think that we have to assess that look at what we're teaching um if those grades are appropriate if it needs to be um strengthened changed um and then we move forward that way I do think you know it's been a long time um and things have to be updated yeah thank you thank you chair appreciate you guys thank you for the questions thank you C sorry sorry C question Senator not not too much of a question but you know I think kah being the Maui rep I think I'm I'm very excited that she'll be potentially serving on the board if confirmed uh I appreciate all of the work that you've done um L far I think your strength is you know the the experience that you bring from the University and the inner working of the University bringing it to the Department of Education I think there's a lot of synergies that can take place between the doe and uh I think a lot of it is amongst Workforce not only amongst the folks that need to go out and get a some type of Workforce training after um you know their time in high school but I think it's even the doe internally needing their own Workforce of teachers and so maybe you can kind of elaborate on your work and your thoughts on developing Workforce not only for the doe but also amongst the community and how we you know you think the university and the doe can can kind of get more on the same page or do do you think we're there um I I know we've had a lot of conversations about Maui specific but from a system perspective what are your thoughts there I mean I think you know education is always evolving right and seems to be the cycles of different initiatives that come up and down I think for Workforce we're in a we're in a time where we see a lot of Workforce Pathways coming up in the high school so in my job at um uh Mali we see them um trying to access early college for before it was just gened right in Liberal Arts sort of classes and now we see it going into things like welding and and construction and teacher Pathways right um so making those connections trying to um figure out how you encourage students to be interested in education very early on which is very difficult to do and our Pathways we have one at Maui high and Luna they're very small they're struggling we're trying to figure out how how we do that um other ways you know um we have another project called the ha teacher pathway program which is just something that we picked up and said you know we have a huge need we have a little bit of money we have plenty of Connections in the community with our doe partners and you know parents and and just community and so we began to create this bridge into teacher pathways so not um you know uh redoing any other programs that are there but just trying to give people a head start into them with free course work so that they can connect to one of those programs while they work I think that's a really important one so I know the apprenticeship program um that um htsb is looking into um I've been to a few conferences where um states have those programs I think that's a really promising way to go because we do have a lot of people um who who are interested in teaching but cannot give up their job in order to to to do that so I think um you know there are ways and you know my thing is always like there's no magic pill I don't believe in magic pills I believe in looking at the problem doing some research getting you know knowing what's going on and then putting together the best plan forward and doing something immediately not working right so I think those are the things that I I'm looking right I think we I look forward to pushing the policies forward at the board level and making sure we stay focused on that at the end of the day we need a thousand new teachers a year right and and we're only probably producing four to 500 here in Hawaii so I think it's it's something we need to continue focusing on but I look forward to your leadership so thank you chair other questions members thank you next we go to GM 710 submitting for consideration confirmation to the Board of Education goral nominee Mary hatori for a term to expire 30 2027 is Mary here she's present on Zoom chair so superintendent please well chair Vice chair members of the committee super standing on a WR testimony and support thank you David miiro Aloha chair kidani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee I'm David sunmo executive director of Hawai kidscan I stand on our written testimony in strong support of Dr Mary hattori's nomination to the board of education and like to offer some personal notes as someone who has known and worked with Dr hatori for close to seven years I would like to highlight the Deep empathy and care that drives everything she does in a number of settings from the work she has done with the doe for multilingualism to the celebrate Micronesia Festival she works to make Hawaii a more s safe welcoming and inclusive place for kids and families even today she is calling in late at night from rapanui because she never stops advocating for the solidarity and empowerment of Pacific island communities she has the expertise experience and heart to make sure the kids who tend to fall through the cracks in Hawaii get the supports they need and deserve I'm proud to support Dr hattori's nomination and to call her a friend and Mentor Mahalo thank you Sher Nakamura thank you Kate Stanley you don't have to stand I'd like to add that unction all the he today I think the Govern governor should be thank for sending down such strong set of nominees this is best I've seen thank you for that yes I do agree that we do have a very good nominee thank you um we have test written testimony from the governor of course and Susie varlam written testimony support um Masa written testimony and Walter kahumoku also withed testimony is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure if not members questions yeah Aloha Mary Aloha thank you for being willing to serve um so I guess I'm not sure who's actually been serving and who brand new so I assume this is your you haven't attended any meetings as of yet correct yes uh So based on the question I asked earlier regarding what might be your stance on fiscal uh literacy would you like to app on that sure you know the implementation plan and Strat uh strategic plan for the doe says we envision a K12 public education system that prepares all graduates to be globally compe competitive and locally committed we can't be globally competitive if we don't have financial literacy um the um the wealth uh there's a publication called the New Wealth of Nations by the World Health Organization and it says that the best most effective way for developing nations to advance is through education of all citizens so education is core uh I also understand that Doe just wrapped up task forces on computer science financial literacy and Civic engagement and the reports will be considered by the board um probably next month and so I think you know the conversations are happening within the doe and now is a good opportunity to to move forward on that so do you think it should just remain an elective or you think it should be part of the Core Curriculum I think it should be part of the Core Curriculum I think um we are coming out of uh the pandemic U severe economic distress how can we we proved ourselves to be resilient but how can we fully recover if we don't have basic financial literacy and there are lots of financial literacy programs going on um but it it I think it is um a basic uh necessity for success I I certainly agree with you wholeheartedly um so my next question is that you we the question was asked about uh the role of the Board of Education to hold the Department of Education accountable so in the case of this where we're talking about um financial literacy and time and time again we've introduced measures and the board has not um Boe I'm sorry has not really doe has not really implemented that um so how would you hold the the the board accountable I know you gave us some statements on the policy and what it should look like but you didn't State how you would hold them accountable sure I think one way we could hold them accountable is through the the standing committees of the board or um there measures in place in the implementation plan so you know my my assumption is that we as board members working through those committees uh will look at uh those uh measures performance measures and actually uh hold the the system accountable but what does that look like I mean what does accountability look like are there consequences are there I mean because we we keep hearing and I keep asking not just this board but other boards including the board of regions is to the accountability issue and you know there is no there's no reprimand I'm not just saying they need to be reprimanded but there is that seems to be absent completely and so it's like there is no accountability well I think you know having a having new board members gives us an opportunity to change our perspective on accountability um I I've served on accreditation committees for many large institutions where we actually have best practices we have standards that we hold um heads of schools or or um people like the superintendent hold them accountable with specific measures and there are there have to be con consequences okay um I appreciate that and that that's excellent response I just hope that um the board will and you know you folks are all busy people and like they said you know want something done give it to a busy woman to handle um but even though that is the case there's a lot of issues that we don't even realize like the issue I brought up about the use of a lot of Consultants the use of getting a lot of um uh Computer Applications and the money that's being spent and while they may be good is there someone that's measuring what are the benefits like and I'm going to bring this up later on probably to the chair since he's familiar with with a lot of the education issues over the years about the kindergarten assessments that we spent a million dollars for and I don't know if the board ever took that up but you know those are the kinds of issues that I'm I'm I'm pointing to as far as accountability uh so uh I hope that it with a new board that we're going to have a a new attitude as to how we move forward so thank you for your willingness to serve thank you thank you so I think um my comment and and this goes to a senator Kim's question about why not include financial literacy we know that there are only so many hours in the school day so if you're going to include financial literacy um what do you cut back on and I think that's something for the board to take up uh to include the uh superintendent and his administ ation but I think that's a discussion that needs to be um had because this issue has come up I guess for the last I don't know Don three years four years yeah and it is I think important because um even in my own grandchildren I know I don't think they they um are that Financial literate to be honest and yet um you know today's students you know have more pocket money than in my days anyway so you know how yeah that makes it even easier so I think you know my request basically is just for the board uh with the superintendent to take up this issue so that maybe um you know next session we will have something more concrete to to look at and to move forward on and uh discuss thank you members further questions yeah just Senator just to in on what you said so we already started session a lot of the bills went in and there's was no room for this but the kids from Campo High School came I was surprising because they all had um special bills and stuff that they wanted to discuss with their Senator but their number one concern is what my two colleagues are talking about that's not enough of that in the school and that if they had a chance to go back they wish that they had that in their freshman year or even before before um going to high school because they see what exactly what my colleague saying a lot of their friends already they stressing out they can't even balance on how they going to balance the situation when they go to college cuz that comes with scholarship funding money they never had that kind I mean even what Senator uh kadani said these kids have more money in their wallet than most of us in this room driving around $5,000 scooters you know who's teaching them economics you know so that's something that I I I you know echo my colleagues that I would want to see next year more so we can go forward and help our kids thank you chair thank you members further questions thank you okay our next GM 711 submitting for consideration Bo editorial nominee Kaya for turn to expire 6:30 here superintendent please chair Vice chair members of the committee Kashi superintendent standing on a written testimony in support of thank you David M thank you Sher Nakamura thank you Kate Stanley do you sit on your rich and testimony thank you kage um other testimony and support Sean Tajima Campbell High School CZ and support lyel deal withth kez kir roselt and support uh did I see Warren Hari here board chair also in support anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure members questions can [Music] you go ahead K thank you very thank you very much for the opportunity um The Hope is during in the second term you know that things that were being discussed by the committee today will be things that we you know we'll be looking at and working on I think one of the things that you know I have written in uh questioner that came up is our review of programs and that's one of the things that you know we've been trying to work on to determine as far as the costs and as far as Personnel needed you know so that it is the type of thing where assessment evaluation of all programs take place we you know we're not going to be able to do all 250 some of programs at one time but it's a process that we need to take place so that we know specifically what is being done within each other the programs and what effect it has on the students so things like what's Senator Kim is talking about the financial things are there programs that can provide that kind of support so that you know we are able to see the growth of [Music] students and I hope that I'm around to see that kind of thing happen because after spending 42 years in the department you know this department has or the Department of Education provided me with you know a lot of experience and knowledge I'm hoping that you know we can do the same thing for all the kids thank you thank you questions members yes thank you Ken um having served on the board um how do you find out some of these things that is the money is being spent on I mean you know the budget is so huge the education budget is so huge and to be able to be aware of some of these kinds of expenditures to determine whether or not uh they're in fact uh necessary or just good to have um how does the board get its hands around that I think we're in the in the process right now of trying to you know set in place a plan um Bor member DLo talked about this what we call Oreo plan basically it's a overall real estate optimization so we're looking at a plan there's six phases within the plan and within each of the phases there short-term goals as well as long-term goals so this plan is to basically take care of the kinds of problems that we're facing right now and again truthfully I think I talked to both you know representative Richards and Hashimoto yes there's problems and you know we need to deal with that and we need to do a better job of like you're saying you know how do we ensure that the the money that is being provided is spent appropriately so you know CIP is one thing because those are large dollars and they're project by project but you also have the day-to-day kinds of operational the expenses like I brought up when these um software or these applications that is nice to have um and more specifically this an application to survey to survey the kids about their lunch to see because so much food is being tossed away and you know and to also have data and yet it's like well what happened to the days where you go to class and then the teacher pass out a paper and say okay who you know what did you like about our lunch and then bring it back and take it in to survey the school instead of having to go to a computer somebody has to program it somebody has to interpret it somebody have to pass out the data I mean it's great to have but practicality I mean you know H how is that benefiting us and the cost does it outweigh the cost that we're spending you know that kind of money when it can go to helping a child in the classroom that may need assistance um you know I struggle with that every day when I hear about the kindergarten assessment that cost a million dollars and we found out before the money was spent raised the concerns to do doe and yet they still went ahead and they still contracted with a Mainland firm and they still spent a bill million dollars that it was good for only that time certain and there's no use 6 months later these kindergarten kids have outgrown that um but yet you know that million could have gone to those kids that really needed the help right in in that kindergarten class the teacher can assess them in two weeks the teacher is really good at assessing them but how does a board you folks get to know that that it's going going on so that you folks can then say wait a minute we need to reassess some of this and yes it was a it was a law passed by the ledge I didn't realize that it was going to be this kind of assessment with the mainland firm and that was going to cost a million dollars and I told them come back to the ledge and we can re redo this bill or amend this bill but that wasn't done they didn't take it upon themselves to do that so who's holding them accountable I think that's one of things like you're seeing the accountability as a board you know it's making sure that we have the information provided I think a lot of it in the you know in the past we weren't provided or the board wasn't providing information to to know specifically what was going on one of the things you know that a questionnaire that Senate kidani provided was what is I think the accomplishment that I feel feel very strongly about I think there's a very good working relationship between the board and superintendent which was not in place prior you know prior to you know the the current situation I think that's important because with that then we get to understand what the needs are and then we get to see where monies need to be placed again this assessment evaluation is key to determine why a program needs a certain amount of money how you going to spend it what personnel you need so that when you move ahead it's like you're saying you know are you spending the money on some program and how is this going to benefit the department is it is it going to be effective in providing us the information that we need so that when we assess a certain child's need it's that you know specific time and place it will take you know care of that child so how do you get that information do do you sit and wait till the board gives it to you do you go out on your own cuz I know it's a voluntary position um do you watch our hearings and see what bills we're introducing because a lot of times if we know there's a problem the public comes to us first we introduce a bill and then the bill goes year after year so does the board look at that and say why is the reason why are they introducing this bill is there a problem that we not una aware of I think again you know it's that type of thing where you know we're spending the time you know again trying to see specifically what bills are in place and trying to ensure that the funding that's being provided well not even what bills are in place but what bills are being introduced because if there's a problem then is that something that you folks should be looking into because I've heard from other boards that say we learn more from the legislature than we do from the administration presenting us information because they don't give you all the information I'm not saying this necessary board there's other boards that they don't necessarily give you the information and you know I go out and I research a lot of stuff before I come and ask the questions and a lot of times I don't want to ask a question if I don't know the answer um and so you know but that requires work right and so I know the board and that's why I always ask board members do you guys have the time because it's not attend one board meeting correct you have to prep and a lot of times they give you the agenda the week before and expect you to vote on something um without having the the time to really look into it Go and ask the parents ask the teachers ask the faculty um that takes takes time but that's the kind of research needs to be done in order to be accountable right yes that's correct I know for myself as well as the you know the board members that are serving now they have and we have gone into the community to get information we've worked directly with superintendent we work with the staff I've attended meetings with specifically you know staff members like directors and things to get information about what's going on so it's not that type of thing like you're saying where it's a okay we're going to meet Thursday and that's all you know it is I'm lucky I'm retired so I have a little more time to to go out and do some of this stuff but all of them every one of them I mean in a situation like the Maui fires I mean you know board member Duo I mean she spent time outside of our job doing those kinds of things so it is the type of thing that we're seeking information okay but yeah because stuff like you know I'm sure you weren't aware of million dollars for assessment you weren't aware of these programs being being done and the money's being spent so those are the kinds of areas I'm concerned about not the really big issues that you're probably aware of but all the day-to-day that adds up and that's why the public feels that they always say you know the uh education is too top head because there's all these expenditures that is unaccountable for yeah and I think that's where again like I'm saying that assessment evaluation of programs has to take place because personel yeah and that's correct and on top of that with that assessment evaluation it is looking at okay do do we have enough Personnel or is this program topheavy does it need to be trimmed do we need to move people around and I know in certain situations right right now is looking at reorg certain you know groups I think that we talked about that Senator ashimoto so we look forward to getting this information and I know you folks only come before us every four years or so but you know we still want to hold you accountable I think you know four years from now Senator uh kidani has reached out to us to say if there's concerns that we have that you know she's more than willing to hear what the things are and we need to take her up on that type of thing also thank you thank you so I think um one of the things that I would like the board to discuss is this issue that we have talked about for three or four years is the financial literacy aspect is that it's important to some of you know um the members of our education committee but also for the future of our students our our community but I know that also entails what do you give up because there's only so many hours in the day onless we shorten some of the class time for other whatever and you know put in another uh class so those are some of the things I think the Board needs to discuss right I think you know again it's looking at programs and and determining you know where possibly it can be fit in you know as part of it's like you know before we had health we had you know home economic and you know all different kinds of programs and you know these programs got cut now the needs may be there there again so where and how do we you know implement this kind of thing where how do we put it back students can't even sew a button on their pants the boys you know I mean you know some of us are HD and Miss because that's what I had to do so you know it's a lot of poking fingers and things but you know okay further questions members yeah chair Senator Richards okay thank you um yeah Ken thanks for the the followup and spent a bunch of time interviewing uh most of the candidates uh just followup thing we've talked a lot about students you and I also visited on teachers and specifically The Bullying side of some of the teachers can you just give a few comments on that and your thoughts and you've heard the the concerns of the Senators when it comes to the FI the financial side and fiscal side I really appreciate that cuz we visited a long time on that one um but then as we're taking care of students I think we also got to take care of our teachers too so just your thoughts on that I think the whole system I mean you know it it takes a community to you know to educate children it's the same thing you know with teachers I mean administrators which I was one you know we look to see how we can support all teachers and I think that's important it's also educ educating administrators how to deal with concerns and problems and that's I think the training that has to take place and you know that may be something that in the leadership academy that the department has where it's going to take up more than just how to do the academic side the financial side but also you know the human relations also okay yeah thank you we long conversations look forward to hearing some of the other com um comments thank you chair thank you just I want to keep talking about so you know I I graduated in 86 and we had all that I never like cooking I never like sewing I like eating um but I just think I mean I I want to understand how did where in the doe that we decided to totally Veer off of that whole plan because you know as as years go by how I would end up waking up to all of this is when Comming core came to town and when my daughter came home with her homework and my wife was trying to help her with her homework and she told my mom her mom that she doing the math wrong you're doing the math wrong is not how we do it there so we we're going back and forth ch um so I just want to know the body education at Department of education got to start Ping ponging around got to stay forward is that you want the parents within the school or you want the parents outside of the school which is it the question I ask this is because when Common Core came to town they had radio ads from the Department of Education saying to ask them teachers your leaders in the school not go home ask Mom and Dad come and ask us for Comming core that was the commercial and that was very disturbing for me because it wasn't for my mom and my dad and wasn't for my teachers I wouldn't be here today but when they took away a short period of time teachers had to take time out of their work schedule to go relearn what they learn in college so those are the kinds of stuff even like with other stuff that I don't want to talk about when it comes to the principles and the theory how much of the teachers and the principales actually get say on the curriculum because none of the teachers in poor care Elementary I going just say them cuz they all gone already most of them transferred out but all the teachers in poor care Elementary not one of those teachers like coming core not one every one of them but they had to do it so how we can have the B of education and the Department of Education work together together with the teachers and the community he start Ping ponging around because there pointing the fingers in every direction but it actually falls upon the school and the teachers teaching the curriculum that they don't have the passion to teach and that's something to me is troubling so I just asking that going forward I mean I know you guys going work good you guys all new but please um don't play ping pong maybe you guys go play pickle ball or something maybe that'll be a little bit different but you see what I'm saying yeah I think yeah I think Senator um the one thing is it's it's again communication you know like you saying um we were or I soon say we but I was a teacher okay so and I'm a lot older than you are I'm a 71 grad so I got a few years but in the Department of Education we went through the same thing you're talking about trying to deter curriculum what we going to do how we going to spend the time I mean at one point in time social studies you had four years you had to take four years of social studies it went down to two as a social studies teacher that's disturbing because that's my job I'm going to lose my job because you're cutting classes that's also Civics education yes that's correct Civics there was a whole bunch of things but why because then it became the focus on you know English everybody's going to college and I think right now we're looking at things and saying you know college is great but is it for every single child it's it may not be but is an education that is in let's say carpentry Plum is that does that make a person not viable or you know a good citizen and it's not it's the interest that they have the passion that they have for education and I think that's what we're trying to build you know the system is trying to get to that point where I mean you know some of us I mean looking at you know Senator Richards I mean he's uh very successful you know as far as went through college got his you know doctorate but he's are also a Rancher so he found a passion that he has and that's the same kind of thing that we need to do for all of students thank you thank you for that now now I kind of understand thank you thank you chair thank you for the questions thank you Mr C for being here you know I think we we too had some great conversations I think a lot of it was around facilities and I I'll just ask one part and this allow you to get some stuff onto the public record so I guess what you know there there is a lot going on in the doe with with facilities and in your position as you know the chairmanship that you hold currently on the board you know I I think you have a big say in how we move forward I think the the position that we're in now is not ideal I think in your in your um questionnaire you said you finally now have a better handle on Do's office of facilities and operations which is a little bit concerning because we we should have always had a handle on that area um moving forward but I think it is what it is we we' lapsed what we needed to laps and I think we need to to move forward but I know you you proposed some you know things that will help us get better you know with your new programming but what is your definition of success in facilities and and from a policy standpoint how will you be pushing to get us to that definition of [Music] success I think you know for me if you're looking at facilities um facilities like the Cornerstone of um The Learning environment it's basic needs it's providing every student a safe environment a environment that they can be proud of um I think the way we get to that is again working with the Department to ensure that the monies that are being provided there is specific steps that are going to be you know taken things like the CIP monies we cannot receive that money and wait two years to decide to use it we need to determine as soon as that money comes into our coffers the do cers what are we going to do with it is it sufficient like you know Senator Kim is saying there's not enough money then why didn't the department say something no but say they it was enough money but because the project took so long and delayed there was costes that was not you know and that's what I'm saying you know that that money at that time may have been sufficient but because we didn't start immediately with the process then it becomes inefficient or I shouldn't say inefficient but insufficient to you know complete the project so we need to ensure that when that time comes the money is provided is that sufficient to to fund the project do we need to set up a system or way to in order to have that contract in place do we need to have people work together to determine yes we can you know create a plan and move forward and then ensure that we when we incumber it we're going to be able to pay that thing off so from a policy perspective when when can we make sure that we see this action taking place well the hope is you know now that we're you know in this situation that this oral plan that we we're proposing that we're working on currently is going to be an immediate you know um Step that we're going to take to see that so so so 6 months one year well I'm hoping you know it's immediate I mean you know is it going to be completed the six phases in a year I mean I like anything else I think it's you know steps that are going to take place and try to ensure that you know that the um projects that are in place are going to be you know done spe specifically within that time period That's provided okay so if we come back in a year when we have the next legislative session should we see some type of improvement I would I want to promise you that and I will well I think I think what what we would expect expect to hear is that you would try your best to push that's but you know yes I don't think we know we we're saying we want to just sit back and wait and see what happens there is an effort on our part and superintendent will be very on upfront with you you know as far as the lapsing of funds he took responsibility you know on himself which to me is unfair it's part of our responsibility as a board too to take the the Bulls by the horn if you want to call it that to get things done and work together with with the superintendent and the people within the department to to make sure that you know the funds are spent appropriately and in and in in a timely manner yeah no I think that's that's all we're asking is we fix this problem I think we will continue to be the biggest supporters of doe projects but I think the problem is is at some point we need people to execute it and want to be there to help you support you in that effort to do that but at a certain point you you know you need to tell us what is the problem right is it better people is it is it reorg what what is it right and so I think if this Oreo thing is what you you're going to stake you know your solution to that's fine but I think as a board we just want to make sure that there's incremental progress and if it's not working we got to try something different right I I think like anything else I mean as we go through this process if there are things that are not working yes we need to change we need to inform legislature if there's concerns that we have also so that you folks know upfront I mean you you shouldn't be caught at the last minute like this thing with the you know lapsing funds to know that there's a problem I mean I mean it is what it is but you know it it needs to be better okay well I look forward to this you know making progress on this I think the first step is saying that you're going to work on it I think maybe it wasn't the top of mind for a lot of people but now it is and so now we just got to make sure we fix that so thank thank you for your continued leadership so thank you chair thank you other questions members if not oh thank you thank you for GM 712 for the nomination of William [Applause] arakaki um good afternoon good afternoon huh good afternoon Senate education committee um thank you so much for this opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas and a little bit about myself uh like board member kah I was a teacher coach I principal principal complex superintendent and um you know um during that time too I have eight grandchildren three on Kawai that are now the next generation of Learners that really need uh this support with all of you and the system like the de we um you know my passion has always been supporting the Kiki um you know being in a system and uh I'll continue every way I can to support and you know hear the many things that is being Express today to be part of the board you know being on a second term you know we have great opportunity to really Implement what um has been worked upon together with um superintendent on a strategic plan so um you know we're going over some things but the next step is really seeing what the the data is as far as what's happening so um yeah that's a little bit about myself and uh thank you so much and I'm ready to answer any questions or my thoughts thank you stay right there we're gonna call this I found my list so superintendent please afternoon chair Vice chair members of commit superintendent Department stands on truth and testimon in support thank you thank you David [Music] Niro support and did want to note that Mr AR is proven he is willing to meet with stakeholders MERS outside of the regularly thank you Sher [Music] Nakamura thank you Kate Stanley I'd like to say one thing that I've been impressed byy participation on the board but he is a very kind person that doesn't mean he's ineffective it means he's kind and that has a lot to be said in times when we need kinds thank you Kate Faria on Zoom not present on Zoom chair thank you and we have a number of written testimony in support at this point members questions lead off anybody else wants to lead off no why don't you lead off president s cocki so you've been on the board for one term yes and in during that one term a number of the issues we've talked about have occurred so how how do you justify all of that what was the issues again the issues on financial literacy the issues on how to find out all the expenses and stuff that money is being spent for doe is it is it uh effective is it worthwhile should we can be continuing on this path um so for the past four years is it four years that you've been on the board two years two years yes um yeah so how have you held the the administration accountable and do you feel that you're getting the information uh that you need to make these decisions uh U thank you so much for the question and uh definitely you know being um in the three years I was the um Vice chair for the student achievement committee and um this year I am the uh student achievement chair and you know uh one of the um great things that had happened was I was very fortunate to have Vice chair Lauren Mor work with me and one of the ways that we have been uh working with the Department of Education is prior to the because you talked about the agenda things coming out you know within a not not enough time to look over the presentations but what we've developed uh as far as establishing what's going to be an agenda for a meeting we have um planning meetings I call it or briefings with the department and others that are within to the uh subject area and and uh we sit with them and we look at what they're presenting and ask questions and why is this why is that what's missing you know uh how is the public uh you know going to understand what is being presented so we've done this this year with the um sack meetings now you what has occurred is that um you know when we go into our our meetings um and again thank you to the testifiers about other many areas you know there was um you know discussion and I see um David here you know we talked about financial literacy at one of our meetings we talked about the um computer science we talked about other areas that needed to be done so what's going to happen is um as we plann for other meetings it's going to be um you know D is looking into um what how it is very important these these um topics or curriculum or content is very important now how do we embedded or change things within the system so a report will be coming out because we have to look at our graduation requirements graduation requirements has been around for a while so how would that look like as far as changing that now again uh the de is collaborating And discussing this matter with uh various stakeholders you know not only the teachers principes and others but also people in the community and so on so you know um 1986 grad back then to now what is the skills or the learning that they need to know so that they can succeed in life you know and you know it's um it's not only about college readiness it's about career Readiness so how is that working you know within the system now with that is okay we're not talking only about high school it's a K12 construct meaning what's happening at the Early Elementary Middle Elementary uh middle school and high school so how do we and the do we if you visit schools because one of my things is um I do very visit thank you to Mr Mar at the complex super on Kawai he's allowed me to go with them on school visit they call it walkthroughs and this year thankful um C deima has allowed me to visit schools at Campbell capap and uh um C do has allowed me to we're visiting schools in her District too so um it it's it's very um for me to be able to see to be able to hear and look at what's happening on the ground level and with that then I can bring up the questions and so on so with the board meetings and you know the big big topic areas but we really need to go out to the field and to see what's happening uh with that because um it's very important to address those matters so when the de we comes back with okay how can we look at as far as the requirements to make it that we can do but like you said there's not enough hours in a day there there's all that graduation work that's there already we canot add more to that so what kind of change do we need to do so that our students will be prepared for the next generation and Workforce and and what's going to happen in the world today and you know in Hawaii which is very important for them to succeed Mr aaki you brought up really good points and I think it is important to to visit the school it's important to know what is going on um but you know you talked about skills to success to be successful in life yes um it just it just makes me kind of laugh to myself because this these basic skills I don't care what generation we're in it doesn't change it doesn't change that you need to know how to balance the book your your your checkbook how to figure out you know your charges and if you don't pay your charge card uh if you only pay the minimum it's going to take you 11 years to pay back because of all the fees I mean there's basic things in life that hasn't changed and so you know you guys talked about oh we talked about this we talked about that there's a lot of talk that goes on but those basic things haven't changed and so yes there is a graduation requirements but how do you have these kids be successful so they can enter College not just necessarily having a GPA or necessarily being able to to pass the SAT and have a high score in SAT but can they manage with other students can they get along can they make decisions can they figure things out um and those are the things that are lacking and a lot of that also that's lacking and it's not the school's fault but it's the family the breakdown of the family and the family values and part of it is you know we want to get the child into preschool get the child into Early Education and they lack some of the family values some of the family Basics that they would learn at home so they rely on the teachers to teach the children that and that's not the teachers necessarily job it's why we wonder about our teachers and why we can't keep our teachers because they have to be nurses they have to be counselors they have to give medication they have to change diapers they have to do all kinds of things that they didn't sign up to do and so it's not just the pay but it's the work that now they're required to do because of this breakdown that we have but so to to say that the basic things in life to be successful have to compete against everything else that you're looking for graduation um requirement to me that's crazy and you shouldn't have to discuss it for years we should be able to to determine that and say these are basic stuff you got to know yeah yes thank you for that um I'm really excited and waiting to see what the results will be from their research on that and you know you it's not only academics like you said it's about the sociate emotional learning the mental health and all these things that go on for the whole child to be de developed them so yes a lot of it we have um the what if the survey says it's not important what if the survey comes out and say no financial literacy not important compared to you know stem well then what are you guys going to do I mean sometimes these surveys are doesn't necessarily reflect what is going on practicality yeah yeah that's interesting because when you visit schools you see different um they do they Implement financial literacy in different ways it may be a course it may be through uh a pathway in which they do the integrate the curriculum within the the classes so there's many um things that are being done so when I'm sure the survey will indicate that schools feel this is very important so how can we support them and see what they say as far as making it but does it achieve what is necessary just because it's brought up in other in other ways in other curriculum can a child understand the stock market can they understand about the interest rates for the credit card that kind of specific things are not necessarily intertwined into some of these other so-called financial literacy uh lessons that might occur so again you know that really got got to get back to the basics and not to the abstract yeah and you know they just went over um we're able to um U look with the doe the uh key performance indicators which is a is a measurement that is used so how do we with that U make sure that how does it align to the student is doing financial literacy and things like that I'm going to ask you and all the boy members can you guys apply common sense to a lot of this stuff and not necessarily indicators you know that we rely upon these these these uh I don't know AI or whatever it is um um applications to tell us what the indicators are that can we apply basic common sense to some of this stuff so we can get back down to the basics thank you thank you thank you sorry we don't take questions I did yeah we'll get to that let's finish with the nominee please um so um Mr araki which committees do you currently sit on on the board um I sit on the I'm the chair for the student achievement committee I'm also a member of the FI uh financi infrastructure and HR Human Resources I'm also um part of the um CTE cak or technology uh advisory something um also working with the um uh hsta and hga as far as negotiations I'm part of the charter school commission group uh also with the legislative investigative aot committee which I learned a lot talking to many of our uh elected officials on what they looking at and what needs as far as Bill introducing bills thank you so is this um issue about financial literature something that has been discussed on the board yes we have and we we will continue to work with the Department as far as what needs to be done and amongst again um in compliance to um the Sunshine Law you know how do we you know um understand what that is all about and financial leaders and also computer science and the others are are just as important too so definitely um it is something that's going to be coming up again on a probably because it involves student achievement it'll be on a Sac committee agenda and presentation because it'll also come up again in this committee yes yes yes definitely I'm just yeah saying that this is uh how many years in a row we've discussed this and I think I know it's a difficult issue as to how to plan the curriculum to include uh financial literacy and you know what do we have to give up but I are there um um I guess uh meetings that you guys are invited to across the United States for Like Other Board of Education um yeah fortunately I was part of the nasby national uh Board of Education um I attend their conferences and so on um so there's opportunity for uh us to and also on Kawai um because Kawai is so small um I support and work with the uh um Kawai Economic Development board we have other um um nonprofit groups that uh ask these kind of questions and how we can really ensure that our students are succeeding you know not only going to college but in in the workforce and in life life meaning some of them you know are looking at different ways to to get their families and and succeed so so you know um what the students dreams and aspirations are how do we ensure that they're able to attain that so I guess my um ask for your your membership on the board and other board members is to look at if there are counties across the United States that have managed to include financial literacy in their curriculum and how they did it um how long it took for them to implement that so that's your homework for us thank you I got homework thank you and for the question Richards yeah thank you chair and Mr arcky thanks for our visit good long talk story um we discussed the size of doe relative and we're a bit unusual also looking through the testimony looks like you are real boots on the ground that you go out and you go look and I appreciate that our structure for doe um from the board perspective and um superintendent I think you got a very engaged board so I want to commend you on that one um is there a better way we can engage so and we discuss rural schools getting enough attention I know you worked on coai so just a quick thought on that one yes definitely you know how do we um provide the opportunity for um schools that may not have come present or or talked to our board members I know you folks go visit them a lot so how do we uh and Tammy Chan just talked to me about how do we uh enable each complex area to have the opportunity to share their successes and things that that we can share within the board at a meeting so right now you know it's all um a presentation you know with all the data and things but again the more the the important part is about having the schools the principls teachers or whomever even the students especially to be able to share so one of the meetings will be dedicated to a we have 15 complex areas I know there's only 12 months in a year but you know how do we provide that opportunity for the ones that are way off and cannot really come here but provide them the time and effort to see that they can come in and share their things you know and I appreciate that um but it's not just to share the good it's to share the bad the ugly too and that's why I think boots on the ground when we actually go look some times that'll save you hours and hours and hours of testimony if you just see something so you know what's interesting is um I'm also allowed to attend uh principals and education officers meetings um there's many events and activities that um I was able to attend and you know when you're there people would tell you uh especially on Kawai you know you go to the store hey mrui you know kind of things so I think how do we uh have that relationship that we can build with um everyone here and not only on the neighbor Islands but here on aahu so you know taking the opportunity to visit um with other cazes and the different areas has been very even though I worked at wo high school you know um and you know at different areas um it it's the change and what's happening in each area is is different from back you even three years ago so to to be able to really be boots on the ground and to listen here and see is I think is very valuable as a board member and I would encourage you to expand on that thank you chair thank you thank you thank you um mrani you want to provide testimony yeah H MERS of the state senate my name is come closer thank you chair um I was appointed to the principal ship in 1991 and have served in that capacity for the past 33 years the last 14 as princi of Kalani High School my Al m i stand on my written testimony and support of the reappointment of Mr William marakei to the Hawai State Board of Education thank you very much for that members questions questions thank you thank you thank you Bill not for have questions for the guy with a green shirt okay I questions for you another guy with a green shirt oh no not you red more green shirt just just going forward I understand you have time but I know you belong to a lot of uh things on Kawai CU Kawai is small and everybody volunteer for a lot of things but you're going to find time to you know the dedication that you and you obviously show that you have continue to do what you need to do for the ball of Education yeah interesting because you know when um the appointment uh issue came up I had to talk to my daughter because I have three grandchildren on kaai and our youngest grandchildren of the eight uh he's 2 and a half years old I've been watching him since birth so whenever I don't have meetings or I don't visit schools or whatever it is I I babysit him oh papa where are you kind of thing but anyway I've told her that um depending on what happens um you know and because of you know the love for the Kiki and the community and so on um I'm going to not be able to watch then as much um and that um it's because of we're here I'm here to support education because you know again it's the children the students that are now that may be seniors or whatever the graded in and it's also the next group of you know prechool all these ones coming up that how can we really ensure and make it happen for them because Hawaii is a great place superintendent is is doing such a great job we just need to you know provide that support and look at the data and and hear the voices to what's going to happen so I am committed to that yeah so how how important you think um signing your name um not just signing your name but actually writing you know actually writing things out writing one story on a piece of paper because it blew my mind um of course this is a long time ago 20 years right when when my daughter started school I was all excited so I go buy all those books right you know follow and Trace so I sent the book to school with her and they said uh we don't need those we don't do that anymore so my daughter had half time writing her name when she was in intermediate for sign her name because everything was digital you just go on the pad thing that they had right new technology boom sign your name ini your name so that's the kind of stuff that we're talking about even now now that they going bring up One bank account you canot just press on button and sign your name you actually got to go in there sign your name so I just wanted to know going forward how important that that making sure that at least that when the kids graduate high school besides being economically intelligent but just graduating be able to sign your name you know that's very important because I was shocked that most of her classmates could not sign the name yes and um there was already junior in high school they couldn't sign the name because all they did was computer to this day everything is on the computer to sign but how important do you think going forward if we're going to be teaching economics and you know Senator K make me laugh cuz she used the word charge card you know bank account a checkbook kids don't want to know what is a charge card you know but going forward you know that's important to know how to balance these things because a lot of kids in my my age and and Below yeah a lot of them filed for bankruptcy um in in 10 years or five or seven years of high school a lot of them went bankrupt you know and that's something that I noticed today is a trend they're not trying to pay off the de say they doing it purposely but they're not trying to pay off the debt they're so in debt they're so frustrated that they just F bankruptcy I'm not planning to buy one car not to planning buy one house I'm single ah just clean band repy and that's happening a lot um in the trend so I mean going forward I mean there something that to think about how important that these little tools that we had graduating back in the days are important to this generation because if you look at it under age 25 you know maybe I'll go look I get the statistics for you guys under 25 how much guys on F for bankruptcy yeah okay thank you chair thank you thank you thank you so much we have three more uh GMS to go through so moving forward GM 713 submitting for consideration tutorial nominee Wesley low for term fix by 630 2027 uh Madam chair um Senators um thank you for your consideration for me for the Board of Education uh just some quick background on myself um uh I'm a pck banker by trade um I um ended up uh moving from banking into um County Government for several years and somehow I got roped into Healthcare which has been quite a journey for me um so I've been in um various uh Healthcare organizations for probably about the last 20 years um most of it as uh running um ran uh the M Memorial Medical Center as well as I run um a large postacute Care Network um throughout the state of foi um you know I'm looking forward to be on the board of education although despite some of the questions I had of why I'm doing this but um I'm excited you know I I I certainly have my personal stories about education and seeing the success stories but I I think that um as I've gone through my career and evolved I'm I'm realizing the importance uh to Senator Hashimoto's point of the workforce and the Workforce Development and the communities we serve and so um I'm looking forward to I I think healthcare and education are the building blocks of society and if we could do it all over again I think those are the two areas that we should um concentrate on so um with that I um happy to answer any questions you may have thank you members questions oh testimony sorry Is there further testimony Kashi my list chair Vice chair members of the committee Kashi superintendent the department we stand on our testimony support of thank you thank you you on the WR page Paige Choy thank you David meiro Sher [Music] Nakamura Kate Stanley Jonathan Ching uh hi chair Vice chair Jonathan Ching uh speak speaking on my own behalf uh stand in strong support of Mr Low's nomination to the Board of Education thank you members we also have testimonies in support questions members Senator Richard yeah thank you um again another good conversation we had uh we've had Educators coming before us now we have a different lens can you expand on that a little bit bringing what your thoughts are as as far as for the Board of Education your perspective as we go into this we've heard about fiscal management and all that we've heard about um project management and moving the needle relatively quickly but from your perspective from a business perspective please um Madam chair um senator Richards um in in regards to fiscal management and project management um um I I think it's it's a it's a journey um when I was on the board of education in 2011 I was not prepared for the size of the organization um and then um over my years I was uh although a large organization it was a singularly focused organization Memorial Medical Center um that has some complications but a lot different than Department of Education um over the last several years I've um now um overseen see about 13 different facilities as well as uh multiple more operations which still pales in comparison to the Department of Education um I think from a fiscal management standpoint um there's a danger of um getting too deep into the weeds at a board level because it's so large and I do think that you have to have metrics that allow you to determine outliers and uh then allow you to drill down from that and um I do think that there needs to be a project me management methodology it sounds like they're on their way to do that so that there's span of control and then there's reports that roll up to you that you can see progress and it's a cultural thing I mean each um for those who study organization charts you have a span of control and everybody needs to have a cultural responsibility around accountability Etc that's where the breakdown can occur um so I I think that um what do they say is you measure you get better and I do think that uh there needs to be measurements although I do worry about measurements because they have to be appropriate measurements they can't be just counts um they have to be uh either process uh measures or outcome measures and I think that's going to be the complexities of this I don't have the answer to it but I've thought about it and um I I don't want it I don't want this to turn into where the board is getting drilling down to the minutia but I think that if if the um variances are such that you need to drill down to it you're notified of that and there's a a culture of transparency that has to roll up to the board um ultimately uh the board to uh the superintendent I know answered your question or not yeah that actually and I agree with you because as a board you should be setting policy not micromanaging but there should be a metric in there and I agree with that statement the ability to okay there is a big problem and we're not going to ignore it we're here to help facilitate it so I like that perspective um and I think that's a facet that you bring from the the private sector that's a different lens that we're looking at that I like the fact that we have Educators because you know where the the problems have been and and you know how to dig and then a Private Industry side where we can put those metrics in place so I appreciate that thank you chair thank you members further questions just full disclosure I met with uh Mr L at length went over all of those questions so he's not getting off Mr L um you in the response to the questions that we asked um you described six core responsibilities for the board can you briefly elaborate on the financial oversight and how you plan to create appropriate measurements um ch chairani um much much like I explained to Senator Richards um I think Financial oversight you need to start with a broader level of metrics that come up um but you need to look at variances um back in 2011 I think I did not do a good job um but the one of the issues was uh transportation and school bus services and I think that um I think over the next year frankly process measures have to be built on how you're going to get to a point of having outcome measures I think that there's a lot that needs to be learned um I I think they use the terms A and B accounts salaries and expenditures and trying to look at what um what those measures are where the variances are and I do think uh agree and I'm not sure exactly how to approach it there are certain areas that there are some expenses that um may not hit the thresholds but we need to figure that out so I think that part of it is going to be um developing these metrics from a financial perspective I also think that uh to Senator uh k um comment about some certain expenses um I talked a little bit about culture I think that um there needs to be um uh Authority limits I I'm sorry I worked at a bank there you have authority limits and people are held accountable to those Authority limits so when there's an expenditure they should know why they're expending it and if it's if it's expensive I know that I have to explain to my boss because something's very expensive I better be able to tell them why whether it's right or wrong I just need to be able to justify that so I think that um it is building this layering it's not so simple of just looking at financial statements and metrics it's looking at that and building authority levels policies and procedures um and layering it down I I I don't think it's going to be easy um Senator Hashimoto I would say that I'm not sure it's going to take a long time to develop that I uh um I've I've been involved with performance- based budgets and they take forever and keep on evolving from year to year but I think that um over this next year I think that you start making progress towards them and you have specific process measures on how you're going to get there um as relates to the um I suspect the might be some thoughts on Capital Improvement things um you know I think that that has to be rolled up I I um I do think that there should be or um consistent reports that flow up to the board again not with huge amounts of detail but enough so that the there's visitability the board and therefore you measure you get better um and then um it should we should concentrate on the things that matter uh to the Senate to the legislators um for example um you know I think they even have a report related to uh funds that are going to lapse Etc or project costs Etc so I think that uh you need to build these reports um I think that we need to find High Lev metrics and consistent reporting to um create that culture of accountability that a long answer for nothing I'm sorry thank you members further questions can I just add a comment thank you for thinking about that and coming up with you know hopefully what those metrics might be I think it's important that we have that um and certainly the amount of time that you're given to review the budget I'm not sure how much time that the board I should have asked somebody that served you know how how much time they actually spend on looking at the at the the budget because we we in the legisl spend not enough time going over the past budgets but just all the new stuff and you know that's why I've been advocate of zerob based budgeting for for my whole career that that's never come about but to look back and say you know we gave you all this money maybe you don't need it anymore maybe things have changed we don't need that much F and mots anymore right so to be able to do that so appreciate that side of your your um experience to bring that to the board so thank you thank you s thank you chair you know I I just not really a question Wes but just I want I thank you for being stepping up and being willing to serve you know for disclosure West is a constituent of mine but I think he he truly cares about the Maui Community and his time is very precious and so I think helping us on the board of education I think is is something that I'm very appreciative of you doing I think we could use your expertise especially in the area of facilities and so I think hopefully they'll put you to good use so you know hopefully the Boe chair back there is listening um and you know I think hopefully we can move the needle as you said I think you you know what the realities are and you know how hard it is to to fix some of these things but um hopefully you're you're committed and and we'll see some progress coming up so thank thank you Wes thank you thank you members thank you R our next nominee is GM 714 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education nominee Chun or term to expire 6:30 2026 members nominee Elin Chung could not be with us today because of a prior commitment on the mainland however I want I want to assure you I do know her personally she has been a principal at the Milani uh area and most recently at Milani Middle School um taught my children and now some of my grandchildren and as a principal at Milani middle school she's highly respected member of the school community and students including my own grandchildren very much appreciated her guidance and her um concerns with that members questions ask yeah I get a question yeah can you go sit you're too young to be having grandchildren oh thank you I'm not sure what he wants thank you yes so to testify superintendent please you chair chair committee members superintend testifying on Department stand Our Testimony thank you David M support you thank you Sher Nakamura thank you Sher Kate Stanley in support thank you Kate we also have written testimony from about 11 people all in support I suppose there's no questions for any other thank you moving on is this our last one um GM 735 submitting for consideration confirmation as the chairperson Board of Education gubernatorial nominee Roy tkumi for turn to expire 6:30 2026 can you please come to the hot seat to it out as long as he can to testify oh my gosh it's been a long day superintendent please chair chair committee members Department supp thank you superintendent David [Music] M Sher [Music] Nakamura when she comes for I don't know Aloha chair Vice chair and members of the committee Sher Nakamura director of he Coalition we support the nomination of Roy tkumi for those who don't know us we're a coalition that Advocates strongly for educational equity I.E our struggling students we do this because we feel somebody needs to speak out for those that do not have a voice our experience with former Ed chair Tumi tells us that he is align with us on this priority we also believe that doe and all state departments need to use taxpayer dollars efficiently to ensure this we have worked on projects with members in this committee to urge the doe to be transparent with data and show that resources are being used judiciously with impact we know that Cher tkumi is on the same page on this as well finally we want to see Improvement in all aspects of doe and most importantly Improvement and outcomes of our students this was also a consistent consistent theme for Cher takuma's Ed chair and we are excited to have him continue this theme as bee chair we urge the committee to confirm confirm his nomination Mahala for this opportunity thank you Sher okay in support I've known Lory a long time and I've supported him and I don't think you could get a better nomination thank you Kate is there anyone else here wishing to test Aloha members of the Senate education committee my name is danen Honda and I am testifying in support of R tumi's nomination to the Board of Education I believe his leg ative experience can help bring a positive change for decades not just a few years um there has been an ongoing debate of whether the Boe is the sole authority to set graduation requirements and if unintended consequences might happen if the legislature steps in meanwhile generations of students myself included have gone off into the real world without necessary life skills such as financial literacy and had to learn through mistakes we suffer the actual consequences during this history there was at least 4 different superintendents and 12 Boe chairpersons Mr tkumi you were the chair of education for many of those years and are intimately familiar with this discussion and I hope that through action you can show that Advocates such as myself don't need to keep coming back to the legislature and requesting both to be introduced 25 states have already committed to teaching financial literacy as a grad requirement we're the highest cost of living state in the nation and it doesn't hope that we're also one of the least financially educated I hope everybody in this room we can all work together to help change that Mahala for your consideration thank you needed your voice thank you okay is there anyone else here wishing to testify we do also have a number of written testimonies in all in support members questions Mr tuni I don't even get you on that seat how does it feel to be on the other side the table maintain the chair not plugged in questions opening remarks none oh opening remarks yeah well you have my you have my background information and you know I do have I have experienced a kind of a vacuum with the Department of Education because I was the Ed chair 5 years ago you know because when I I went from being the Ed chair to the consumer protection committee chair for 3 years and then um I've been I've been out of office for almost two years so a lot of a lot has happened in the department the past five years um a lot has happened in the legislature in the past two years so you know and I found out that um I would have this opportunity three and a half weeks ago so it's all come pretty fast I was happily retired and um but I think I decided to agree to do it because for the same reason and you all the public office as well because public service is a calling and I feel very strongly about that so I realized time commitment that this involves and um you my daughter lives in Las Vegas and um and my wife and I would go to Vegas kind of often and uh so I told my wife I I think I'm not going to be able to go to Vegas that often she said I can always go by myself that's what happens when you married that long you so she's going to go buy herself I think um but um this will be my only Public Service commitment as far as any bard of commission so um I know I can dedicate myself to whatever it takes to um make the board Opera in the way it's supposed to operate so you want me to address your questions financial literacy yes well let me just say that I am pleased like the others that the governor appointed you um having worked with you and realizing all that you know you've done while you were Ed chair uh it's like riding the bike you know you probably get back on and you're right in in tune with it but I think it's important that the perspective that we have been sharing and that I've said to uh other boards that you know if the board do their job of the oversight then we don't have to because we don't want to a lot of bills that are introduced I asked do we really need this measure can't you folks do it anyway why do you need us to tell you and I think you're in that position that you understand that and so having heard the discussion which is not new to you you've heard this discussion and for me who've been around for I'm not going to say how many decades but it's the same thing over and over so if I come over as being impatient or or being like you know it needs to happen right away it's because it's lered and I've heard board members come and go say the same thing you say oh yeah we're gonna hold them account we're gonna do this we're GNA do that but at the end of the day they leave and it's not done it don't get done so I you know I'm glad to see you there and you know I'm going to hold you accountable I have your phone number I have your cell number um and she knows where you live I know I don't know if I know where you live but yeah but so I hope that these issues get addressed and you know and I I I know your word is good and that you wouldn't take this position if you didn't think you could do it so thank you thank you thank you Senator thank you members for Senator Richard yeah thank you um we haven't had chance to talk story yet right but we are going to right um good and um I appreciate you've heard a lot of the comments questions um conversation this afternoon your reflection on what we've talked about we've talked about financial literacy obviously but we've also talked about Direction facilities briefly touched oning ju just a few comments yeah you know well as far as bullying goes the department does have a very good policy on bullying as well but I wanted to talk about the Strategic plan that the department has it's a 25-page document I'm sure all the members of the committee have read that document there's um 127 action items in that document and so I think as a board and all the members here are committed to that is to hold the department accountable to those 127 action items and in those action items you have tax forces and working groups and assessments and reviews and so on and so forth it's it's a lot it's very ambitious and I think the role of the board is to ensure that the department lives up to that document first and foremost and I really agree with what board member L said that um you don't want the board to get too granular and really into the Weeds on the operating side of the department because it's really is a policy setting board and so um that strategic plan is the road map and I expect that we'll have a lot of conversations at the board level and at the dep Department level on trying to achieve all those action items okay and then just again rural District our rural schools I think they're out of sight out of mind more than they should be comments on that yeah you know um when I became Ed chair when I first became Ed chair represented Bob heres um at the time said you got to come out to where I I live and so I jumped on a plane and went out to his district and it really made me aware of because his district was huge geographically and we visited some of the schools in the district and it really made me a were very different from the schools in my district in PE city right and so I think the department is sensitive to that the recent committee on weights decided to allocate an additional $6 million for small rural schools to be put into the weighted student formulas so that these smaller schools have a little bit more cushion to operate in flexible dollars because as you know Senator the way the student formula is to try to get schools as much flexibility and autonomy over their budgets and so um I have a lot of Aloha for small schools the the challenge I think they always will have is capacity right can they deliver the kind of the full range of programs and options that kids fortunate enough to go to Urban schools have so that's always good that's why I'm also a big believer in distance learning because that's where kids can get the opportunity to take classes online that they couldn't take in a bricks and motor school because they just don't have the capacity and I agree with that to a point but um Big Island a lot of these kids going to school the place that they're eating is at school if they're not attending the school worry about their nutrition and then transportation to get to school and that's a huge problem on the big island on the big island so we're not going to solve that that in this conversation but I definitely want to have that conversation with you later sure metime because uh you know we've talked about it's the Next Generation that's what we're setting up for success but if we don't take care of them early on get the nutrition into them get the education availability to them going forward and really set them up for success we're actually creating a problem for all of us in this room for that future so I appreciate the comments and my office will get together will come up with the time good thank you chair members questions y we have minutes just joking anyway um was really nice talking story with you yeah yeah it was very good you know you have a very open mind I'm hopeing you going continue to keep that uh moving forward but I want to touch on something on a little bit what Senator Richard said on I noce when I went to the continent and seeing my brothers and my nieces uh School in up there something that we don't do here but maybe in the rural areas like Hilo and you know certain parts of the different neighbor Islands because a lot of our schools even in ever Beach a lot of our schools was on city and county property and I'm not sure of the neighbor islands is too but we we are one of the only States probably do not get any I Kickback help from the city and going forward as a board of education and working with with the rule schools in the other areas know working with legislation here and the counties the counties and the ru schools should be putting up some funding too because the infrastructure sucks and when it sucks the kids can't get proper you know uses of water and and everything like that so instead of just depending on the state and the kind that the rural areas in the neighbor islands should start looking into getting their County cu the county get plenty tourist k back money all these kind they should start paying paying their fair share for thinking that our kids are a future during the pandemic right Rick Rick said mayor BL J said we never lose money and then he found a billion dollars I don't know if it was under Kurt cwell pillow but he found a billion dollars how you find a billion dollars you see what I mean but they don't pay for Education we're the only state that don't have have any City funds and that should change because their kids on the rural areas on the neighbor islands are suffering when the city still collect their taxes whether we are in school or out of school they collect their land tax and that's what Rick said he said during the pandemic we made money because everybody pay their taxes on time because everybody was home but how is that fair to the state the doe and the bo of Education finding money to help guys like um you know Senator Richards in the ru areas so I don't know if you guys can come to you know it's up to us not to them oh yeah okay sorry sorry but I was dreaming Constitutional Amendment yeah because they're not States okay we better take somebody money back I just wanted to top on one of the things and it was just surprising me so maybe the date might be wrong here cuz you don't look like you was around in 1947 but you was at the noble PR uh Peace Prize um for your service in America uh friends servicing committee you know I don't like ask you what age but that's the correct date they won the Nobel Prize in 1947 okay yeah I wasn't around okay okay all right this just check in close to it yeah yeah thank you thank you okay well other than that other than that thank you okay thank you have appreciate you open mind thank you chair okay thank you members we have a hard stop at 5:5 so questions thank you Roy for being here um you know I think I don't really have a question we we did talk at length before but um you know I think yeah I think one of the big things that we hope gets fixed like like I said to every other you you know nominee is hopefully we can look at facilities make sure we fix facilities get that under control utilize your the people on the board to help you with that think that's going to be very important I think you know what wayed student formula act 51 all those things that you were the you that was your brainchild back in 0434 still very much alive and so hopefully we can get a handle on that and so you have no excuse right of not knowing what that policy was all about and how been 20 years Senator right and so I think that's that will be very important um to get into to make sure that you know what else do we need to do to to make the operations U much smoother um and so you know I I think I'm I'm glad that you're there I think you you know what needs to happen um in terms of policy and oversight um so I look forward to the work that you produce um and the leadership that you bring um I know there's going to be a lot of challenges um but hopefully we can make some fixes and and see see the the needle move so you know you are my former colleague I know you know where you come from you I actually testified before you in 04 and 05 when I was a student member and as when you were the edge Shar and so I think um we we expect big things and hopefully um turn I know so thank you chair okay thank you s questions members okay uh I have one question for you so in your uh response to our uh questions um you noted that if confirmed as chair your role as chair is to hold the department accountable and measurable progress in the key performance indicators can you explain what you mean by meable you know when it really when you really distill what the board is responsible for it's to hold the department accountable and the me measurable outcomes did the graduation rate improve did the dropout rate go down is the college growing rate or the career ready rate going up so those are the things and you know if you look at the nape scores there's been steady progress and so I think the department I think we should all be cognizant of the fact that education reform is hard work and it's slow work if you improve the graduation rate even by 2% that's considered that's considered you win a awards for that kind of stuff and so I think when I say measurable outcomes that's what I was alluded to thank you um having worked with you for so many years Senator chair of the House Education committee I am really pleased to see you your name here and uh look forward to working with you and that you will do um a good job for not just the Department of Education but for all of our students I appreciate that can I ask one make one comment financial literacy no outcomes so I agree with you on that however sometimes the outcomes itself doesn't then justify some of the expenditures which I think needs to be lined up so see the cost benefit ratio right I hear you thank you I hear okay thank you members if there's no further questions let's recess reconvening the committee on education okay thank you members um we are going to take all of the nominees in one vote because our committee members are in favor of all of our nominees and support all of our nominees so with that um members the vote is to take into consideration all of our nominees chair votes I no you want okay so chair is recommending that we uh advis and consent on GM 520 gm710 GM 711 GM 712 GM GM 714 and GM 7:35 so if there are no objections any members voting with reservations any member voting uh no if not chair all members voting in the affirmative so unanimous your recommendations adopted great thank you members J

can I please have a motion to adjourn motion Joan Vivian all in favor I any oppos eyes have it meeting ajour thank you

can I play say that again a board team yes what's that yeah we could uh uh the challenge has been th thrown out I think that is a challenge for next year oh wait Jen Johnson is already stretching getting ready seven okay here we go wrap you in bu W remember needs over this younger people yes yes so each one bring one there we go and as a reminder if you really want to help the your team to get the creative and capture the award for the best fans so yes you can come and win too you can be F so with that I want to thank everybody and we also have some special shout outs from our board members who are going to be helping with that thank you so much start I want to thank the assistant principles because last week was National assistant principal week and these extraordinary leaders show an unwavering commitment to our students and staff in the schools every single day so thank you for all that you do last week was also School librarian appreciation day and Par professional appreciation day we want you all to know how much your care support and hard work are valued in our schools two of our district alums are in upcoming Productions at the paramont theater shout out to Amanda drinkall for her role in a street car named desire which runs through April 21st so get on over there quick get your tickets quickly and uh Tiffany toppel who stars as Carol King in Beautiful Beginning April 24th hopefully you can catch one or preferably both of their shows um and and show your support for both our alumni and local theater nice 12 students from asigo East High School participated in with bansi community colleges automotive department Signing Day committing to training with technicians at local dealerships as a prerequisite for entrance into the highly competitive Automotive program at the college yay Kudos also to ASO high school graduate Ashley Sanders for her contribution to the video game MLB the Show which now offers the option of playing as a woman on the baseball field okay that's right thank you for being uh such a great role model Ashley uh to Future generations of students with big aspirations love it I love that I got this one since I just heard the other day about one of my former students at Purdue who's uh studying engineering was uh on a team that got honored so uh 12 iGo East engineering students students recently competed in the Illinois design Educators association's Regional CAD design competition at wansi Community College and nine of them came home with medals in their events yes two two also qualified for the state state competition at Illinois State University congratulations to these students and their instructors we thank you so much was Emma Kate in that group yes she was all right Mama moment that's awesome and last congratulations to our students and staff who presented an incredible evening at amplify the presentations the ideal sharing the talent showcases and illustrations of collabor collaboration and rightful presence were impressive congratulations all right that concludes our comments okay we'll move on to 6.2 student Ambassador reports all right boy this is probably the earliest you've ever done this I know this is so early the sun's still out oh my goodness sort of sort of a little B it was eclipsed uh since the last board meeting the ssic was granted the opportunity to present our research to the superintendent Advisory Group this Thursday April 11th our dedicated committee is putting in lots of hard work to put together a presentation and develop recommendations based on our research and both the surveys that we provided uh to our peers and our teachers we look forward to sharing our data as we take the next step to improve student teacher relationships in sd308 we want to thank the members of the ssac for all their hard work and commitment to the meetings and the needs of our students additionally uh we want to thank you Dr Kel God and the board of education for your continued support of our research uh belief in the ssac and our missions to elevate student voices within our schools and communities thank you Luke as mentioned earlier right before spring break the ssac supported and some of us participated alongside the sd308 Coalition for our third annual amplify event the event began with breakout sessions discussing a ple plethora of topics including religious freedom racism censorship and rightful presence these breakout sessions were home to many important and meaningful conversations where we were fully able to engage the audience on a oneon-one level from there we all moved to the Performing Arts Center for a variety of per performances along with the panel discussion we were also excited to collaborate with Boulder Hills Bobcat celebrate diversity Club the baby Coalition as Dr Waller fley calls them as they shared poems they created on who they are and gave performance gave a performance on the dangers of discrimination our students put in incred put on incredible performances along with an important and thought-provoking conversation thank you to all our attendees and thank you to the vendors that came out to show their support and also thank you for Dr Waller for being the Visionary behind this event thank you Isabelle all right we'll move on to 7.1 I'm sorry 6.3 the board member comments anyone would like to start um since we're doing shoutouts anyway I want to recognize a couple of students from asgo East this past Saturday um Dr Waller and miss similton and uh Miss Finley and I were at the NAACP Freedom fund gala where two of our East students were awarded Sydney Finley Memorial scholarships so congratulations to Pilar Martinez and also to Hunter Brown job oh I was I attended amplify uh great event along with other board members um you gave a perfect summary um uh right yeah when it resonates there was a lot of resonating so um I also attended that same day um the MSA faston um another great event with guest speakers and students talking about the reason and purpose of fasting um basically um understand what you have and that you have Purl engine that you you know don't take it don't take it for granted um the things that you do have um games followed and a wonderful meal so um that was my last couple of weeks so along with a lot of other things but uh more uh committee work and stuff like that so anyone else I just have um I want to apologize for my absence in March I was sick for the first uh board meeting in March and then um had a planned scheduled uh vacation with family much much needed uh to get away with no Wi-Fi with uh my son and husband so I highly recommend uh disconnecting if you can do that so I want to apologize and thank you to the board for um allowing my me to uh get out of here for a little bit um but I did two things that I really wanted to talk about they were while ago so I apologize but at the end of February um the OE students put on a black student showcase uh featuring black excellence in essence Isabelle was there it was absolutely mind-blowing the talent in our district just continues to literally blow my mind I didn't know what I was walking into it was a fashion show there was poetry there was um the purpose behind step which was so beautiful that I didn't know uh we had students who the band was amazing and students who did their own um original song and I just was blown away and then also the college and treade Expo on 36 that Joe put together just as awesome and I continue to applaud the district for um letting our students know that college isn't the only way um there is trade and there is um armed services and um variety of ways that you can enter the community after you leave here the last thing I wanted to share was that on April 24th but it is in honor of the month of April which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month is denim day so I encourage and invite everyone to uh wear a denim on April 24th with with me um as a district of equity and of valuing and seeing all people uh we must put a stop to victim blaming and destructive myths around sexual harassment and assault and I think our student board members for leading the and Dr Waller for leading the way on understanding that this is an issue amongst students as well denim day asked community members elected officials businesses even students to wear jeans as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions surrounding sexual violence thank you go ahead so I promis what I'm about to start saying is related to something at some point but you'll have to bear with me here right so um you'll see you'll see uh the my my hair is a little bit it's a little out of control but um a few years back probably about four or five years ago uh I lost my oldest brother to cancer and so I decided I was going to grow my hair out I was uh um fortunate I guess to have kind of a full head of hair and mostly not gray um and um then I lost um uh my older brother suddenly um last year and so um why is that related to any of this I'll explain uh for those that don't know this is uh blo blue and green Spirit Week um it is National Donate Life month and my older brother uh was a donor and um the um the theme this year is donors are superstars and for those of us that have lost loved ones to cancer or or suddenly to massive heart attack right either way uh there is that feeling at times of hopelessness right and so um you cling to things if you will and so for me I've already started getting comments about uh my hair definitely from my wife um and so um you you'll see me uh going to try and get through that stage that I hate so much but uh the goal is to donate again um it's the least I can do um you know and so um please know that there are people out there this is a tough month for a lot of people uh as they remember their loved ones and um I've found out just recently the amount of uh donations that my my my brother has been responsible for in multiple countries multiple States although I cry foul when they tell me that they donated his tendon because I played him at basketball and I'm telling you I I have questions about whether his tendons were really worth something but they claim that they claim that they were so um we have family families out there that um have loved ones who are donors and uh thank you for wearing blue and green uh today I I found blue but I can't find anything as blue and green so I got I got work to do I guess so uh to those families out there yes your loved ones are superstars good got anyone else um last week I attended a pre well Boulder Hill has a professional learning um experience that they put on for their teachers the teachers themselves do the um presentations in the facilitation of these sessions and I went over as what they call the referee it's like an opportunity to like motivate and cheer on the um the the staff and so they they have this um experience prior to the students coming in the morning and it was just beautiful to see um the staff pouring into their peers and um they had numerous I mean maybe 10 12 different topics that they were presenting on and they allowed me the opportunity to take um Boulder Hill bucks is what they call them I was able to pass those out you know to the facilitators and to the attentive participants and I mean they were really excited to get them and I'm like I can um they were like you can give them as many as you want so when I would give people two they were like I get two I'm like yeah so it was it was a good time time and um I really appreciate seeing the the transformation that's happening at Boulder Hill just walking in and the whole like the environment itself is so different than what it had been and I could feel it I see I saw it and so I'm just um encouraging that building to continue to to make change and um you know pour into their into their staff and we got them keep pushing okay we're moving on to the consent agenda um let's see can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 7.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on March 18 2024 open and close session 7.2 to acknowledge all foer requests received by the district and 7.3 to approve the field trips for overnight and or more than to 100 miles second okay before we go to the call um Heather I'm I'm I'm I'm going to put you on the spot because I know you can answer it um can you just share with us what we are approving when it comes to 7.3 approval of field trips overnight more than 200 miles I just want to for you to expound on that for us and for the public so that they understand that what why we do this but then what we're not approving as well so right now um we take a variety of field trips we've got field trips that are in town in state um but we currently have a board policy that says there is board approval required for any field trip that exceeds 200 miles or is overnight so those field trips are submitted to our executive director of high school um reviewed with uh the corresponding level director um they come through the principles so the sponsor has filled out the application been reviewed at the building level and then at the district level um there is a variety of information uh collected as part of the application from dates of the field trip number of approximate students chaperon so there's criteria that we look at um for both the field trip and the chaperons um cost of the field trip and then uh most importantly Transportation um so that also gives our transportation department the opportunity to uh schedule or then make alternate Arrangements um so because of our current board policy the field trips um under those that umbrella are the ones that come are the only ones that come to the board so we're not approving um whether or not they go or not we're not approving the process that took place before it got here and what what was or was not happening within that process because I need need our community to understand that we don't approve um field trips no the the board is um essentially approving as presented so the field trips that come to the board through um the field trip process and it is only the field trips that meet those criteria so we have many other field trips um there is you know as I mentioned multiple layers of um kind of part of the approval process so some field trips take longer to make it through the process you know if there's questions at some level they might have to go back and seek more information um but the board is approving just um for the field trips to occur they are first as I mentioned screened and reviewed by both building and District administration okay thank you all right we're ready Mr Gatewood hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson I Mr cheron i m s hi Mr hi M hi motion passes 70 okay uh this evening uh first off we have uh 8.1 financial statements U Mr obafemi will discuss uh any updates regarding that are there any questions from the board regarding our bearance report that's in here for our expenditures to date what I just would like to point out is that uh starting next fiscal year we are developing a more robust uh budget uh tracking report that we will share with the board that is in more detail than what we have here we're cooking that up and it should go into effect July 1st with the 2025 budget now the financial that uh we presented to the board today includes uh variance which looks at the the budget to actual uh to date and then the second page has to do with investment report as it stands right now we at uh 46.1 million dollar in in cash on hand this is the uh the toughest time of the year because we're waiting for a largest distribution of property taxes uh which will come in late May early June so this is a tough time uh financially as far as cash flow is concerned but we feel comfortable that we'll be able to weather it and we will get uh as I mentioned the levy that was approved back in December the 2023 Levy 55% of the estimated amount will be uh distributed by the different uh uh counties that we Levy in uh by June and that is actually the time of the year when we have the most cash and then we make that work till September when we get a second installment 45% of the actual Levy and we got to make that work till next year so okay okay can I ask one quick question sure how so so the funds that we'll get after the um first installment of real estate taxes how soon does that get turned around uh how soon do we spend it no how soon do we receive it we're supposed to receive it uh the majority 55% of that Levy that was approved by the board we're supposed to get that by no late on the end of June end of June yes so June taxes are due June 1st we get it by the end of June and what the count is tend to do they tend to just um they tend to ass sign it out as soon as they get it because they know it's been September since we've gotten any distribution and expenditures are being rolling so yeah do we do we get partials uh we should get some money in may they try to get us some money in May but they they biggest trunk of it will be in junee so we're waiting with bed bread and not I'm not talking categoricals when I ask this question but when do we when do we get the state payments in the federal now the state comes regularly right the state uh ebf comes every month so that is that helps us a lot okay During the intering period when we're waiting for the huge distribution that we getting from uh from The Three Counties so what we've been doing is we've been doing cash flow analysis every month monitoring our cash flow and making sure that we have enough and as it stands right now we do not anticipate running out of cash between now and the end of June we're in good shape no tax anticipation Wars thank you okay thank you so much um next up we have 8.2 Fox Chase is he not going to announce the most important part please okay about the meeting is coming up that he's presenting oh yes so just as a reminder yeah please regarding our financial projections we Dr Kel mentioned it that's why I to take your your moment pleas repeat it then as part of the uh budget development process for the fiscal year 2025 budget we are doing a community budget workshop and we're inviting everyone to come out there will be three of them uh that we will actually Four that will present the first one is next Tuesday and then we have two on Wednesday one at noon on Wednesday will be virtual the next one will be in person and then the one on Thursday will also be in person what we've tried to do is strategically locate these budget Workshop meetings to have one in each of the counties that we Levy taxes from so that's it will be in in Kendall uh uh will and Kane and we're going to absolutely overwhelm our internet on um Wednesday April 17th love it CU everybody is going to be online I hope we we would love to have as many people as possible so we can have a conversation about the budget development process the district uh cash um finances really uh uh we're developing the fisal 2025 budget we would love to share with everyone it's exciting information that we can't wait to share and that procceed the board meeting on April 22nd at which point what will happen there so so April 22nd what we will do then we'll present the tenative budget to the board and that budget will then be on display for 30 days and then uh in uh on June 3r we will approve the budget once we present to the B uh to the board for approval on the 22nd then it will be on display we'll load the Turner Budget on our website we have it available in the finance office for anyone who wants to take a look at it and then there will be a public hearing that will be held after the 30 days on June 3 where there will be public comment available for anyone who wants to make comment about thetive budget and then the board will approve it after the public comment can I can I can I repeat that just in case uh anyone didn't hear so for anyone wanting um transparency on the budget come on down and and take look it's it's wide open right we would love to have a conversation with folks we go and it's a I mean it's it's more than just here's the budget it's a workshop that's um yeah Workshop yeah so that that means explainer right yes yes and we also open to ideas something that we've overlooked we we we know we're not perfect we we're doing the work that we can to get to put the district in the best position so we'll we'll be happy to engage and I've convers and dialogue with folks who show up please come on down and and let's let's work together at the budget workshops thank you and I I do know that um uh some of the comments that we've we've had and you know some of the public comments and like it's been uh taken to heart and kind of helped steer the you know the uh um the conversation and the priority and um just basically acknowledging that yes we need to get there so yeah this is great on April 22nd too when we do the budget presentation here at the board we will answer the question that was raised by board member plure about what will happen if we are three additional scenario during the the March presentation when we did The Five-Year Financial projection uh board member pler asked a question if we had zero increase in evidence-based funding what will the financial condition look like we have the scenario that we'll talk about that the second question is if we had a scenario where there's no increase in CPI in property tax levy how would that impact the district finance and the third and the final scenario that I will call a doomsday scenario is if we have no increase in ebf no uh CPI increase in uh in the uh property tax uh uh Levy rate how would that impact us financially I will be happy to share that uh on the 22nd and it will scare the heck out of everybody I'm sure it will and and can I remind everybody that once you see those numbers for ebf it's an election year this would be a great time to open up those lines of communication with your legislators it has been a game changer for us here thank you thank you thank you board thank you um Fox Chase and Hunt Club we have a concrete 7 asphalt pavement Rehabilitation mrfi and Mr Queen good evening uh on March 21st we uh had open bids RFP for the Fox Chase and Hunt Cub uh parking lot Rehabilitation six contractors chose to participate Geva con Geneva construction came in at the low bid um Administration is recommending the contract be award Ed to Geneva construction for 479,000 with a 75,000 contingency totaling 5 55 5 154,000 any questions I have a strange question shoot does it cost more to re rehabilitate a parking lot or build one from scratch do you know and if you don't know I'm not I'm not holding you to this yeah yeah it cost more to to totally rehel itate depending on when you catch it it's in our advantage to seal and and coope those things when we can so but yes absolutely I appreciate it thank you AB Mr Queen can you just explain um the um the things were declining and why were're the declining them because I don't understand that at all they're wh ifs right so the project coming in at that base bid is good and with the 75,000 contingencies those were extra bids that we were asking for to cush the deal a little bit but we don't feel they're needed in this in this project and we think we can get this project done with the with the amount that we want awarded thank you can you talk about the timeline timeline yes yes so we're dialing in that now this just happened so we're looking to start as soon as school lets out and I was told the process will take from two to three weeks before from start to completion so we're looking to have these wrapped up before the end of June I know a lot of parents at Hunt Club and Fox Chase thank you H hunt club is our by far our worst location that we need to tackle um Fox Chase we're we're we're only doing about 90% but that front half is pretty good and we're going to attack that with some seal coating and striping to get a little more life out of that parking lot and then this is this is part of that that presentation that I was giving you guys being proactive we're going to dive into this and try to nail a couple of these every year like we do at roofs and and boilers and Chillers thank you thank you Mr Queen next this evening board for 8.3 we're bringing back to board an opportunity to review our Equity policy that's been developed and give the board a chance to reflect and Dr Waller and Dr conade will be leading this I know there is a PowerPoint are you going to are we do you all need the PowerPoint we have okay all right I was just making sure I'm like wait so thank you all for um creating the space for us to dialogue around the equity policy um the committee has spent a lot of time collaborating um on what this should look like incorporating all of your feedback um and so we're ready right so I'm just excited to share with with you and and bring it back again so I know that you've seen this but um we wanted to make sure we provided a rationale for why we need this Equity policy and so this is the the data that we utilized um we wanted to make it clear as we look at our district by race um how diverse we are right um 47% of our students identify as white yet we know that there are very U many identity markers within that space um and then 53% of our students just about um our students of color and so from this space um we wanted to highlight some of the discipline disparities that we've seen among our marginalized populations in our district um and so as you can see um our black students and our Hispanic students are leading unfortunately in our OU of school suspension data this is an important percentage because as I said previously um when you look at this our black students make up 11% of the population and our latinx Latina students make up 26.7% so there's a disparity in them leading with our outer School suspensions um Additionally the team pulled together um our IEP information so um we have about 15.2% of students with IEPs in our district um the equity committee pays a lot of specific attention to the intersection intersectionalities of our students understanding that um their Journeys at times can be doubly impacted based on who they are and so from there as you can see um our students who have IEPs um are at a disparaging rate as far as their out of school suspensions um from there we also felt it was important for us to look at our data for our students who have FS um so looking at those demographics as well um and though we do not have many um indigenous students it is still very um important for us to notice that they are leading within that space and so though it is a smaller group that means that we can Target how we support and lift and validate their um identities through this policy and in several other ways um and then as you can see the trends for um our students who are failing in in uh different cours is also black and um Hispanic latinx Latin I have to say all the all the options and so looking at this piece here these are our students with IEPs as well as our um multilingual Learners so we wanted to pull that information as well again um this data paints a picture for why it's necessary for us to move forward with these steps um and so previously when we went around in the circle we did add that we looked at several school districts um to guide us in how we wanted to develop the equity policy as well as the success indicators we looked at District 203 we looked at District 204 we looked at bavia we looked at Elgen um and so the committee worked together to um take some of those pieces but then ultimately determine what's best for our district so this is our intro um for the policy I'm going to be quiet and give you a moment to read and this is our next area kind of give you some weight time um as we continue to delve into Our intention and purpose for our policy just making sure that we're making it clear that um though we do understand and recognize that race is a significant conversation that must take place regarding Equity we are focused not only on Race but also religious freedom identity um language soci socioeconomic status sexual orientation zip code ability um and again the intersections of what that looks like and so the next um a couple of slides or there's three slides these are our sd308 commitments we do have the sd308 call to action attached within that policy and luckily for all of us Mr Jeremy Bell and Bailey Campbell are present tonight if you have questions about that call to action but what we recognize about a policy is that um it's phenomenal to have one but it's not going to be good enough if we don't attach action to it because we need to make sure that we are going to be doing what we say we believe in um and so with this here our commitments I'll pause again the next slide we want to highlight the multiple Pathways we want to be actively positively encouraging and supporting our students having those high expectations um believe it or not um high expectations is one of the number one interventions for all students but particularly for our students of color um and so we've also been in collaboration with every department so we are also looking to make sure that we are living and breathing this in in various departments so looking at professional learning how we are hiring recruiting and retaining um there's a lot of moving Parts here and for fortunately within the equity committee we have representation from all these departments so everyone was able to come in together and name and identify and commit to these pieces and then these are our last three all right and I just want to make sure that I honor the individuals who came together to work so D diligently um on putting this Equity policy together um supporting the districts call to action and then super excited um I know uh the success indicators draft is what will be coming next and so the success indicator also supports the equity policy also supports um what we are doing and collaborating with with Dr Paul um on mtss and the school Improvement process so are there questions questions or feedback and feedback so can I ask so I I I'm not GNA jump ahead but I just want you to think about something and I don't know I'm sure you probably already have around your success indicators right um because for me what I would like and hope that we are going to do is address the systemic inequities right um because you know our that the the data that most people often see is around um outcomes right and we know that students don't fail systems fail so what is it about our systems that are resulting in inequities for our students and if we don't address that then so I didn't know where where that's going to fall but for sure we need some type of um I wouldn't I I I know that there are things out there that are different from Equity audits because you know you want to attack the domains that need changing so what what tools will we use to assess those domains that need changing you know is it you know is it culture and climate we know it's culture and climate we know it's it's student engagement we know it's uh critical inquiry we know all of these things and we just need to address them so how how we going to do it so that's not big at all that was a lot well great I was going to start with the indicators Dr that sounds good thank you so much Dr K we got this um so I just want to start with this um and and obviously there's a lot more thorough information coming so the areas of the success indicators that the equity Department as as well as the committee and working with every Department are focused on is around gifted from elementary to Junior High to also High School looking at representation our processes and procedures on how we um test students to get into that program at third grade and really having an honest conversation about if they do not have access at that level then how are they going to be successful when they get to select these things at the high school level so we've met with everyone around that very fruitful conversations around what exactly we're doing and what exactly we need um everything from having a robust tier one universal all access and collaborating with ntss to reviewing our Benchmark assessment and making sure that it is available in the languag is necessary for our students um we've also worked with the multilingual learner department or El Department we've also worked with special education human resources um we are going to have a rightful presence statement we actually have an lgbtq statement as well we work with the discipline Department um and Elementary discipline and Mastery connect as another piece So within each of those spaces and I may have missed one but within each of those spaces there have been like long conversations about what we do in this district and how um how we can eliminate lessen and un lessen those inequities coupled with professional learning because that's such a huge piece of what is happening but then also making sure that as we are um fostering a clear direction for success for these equ inequities excuse me that we are also working together to lift School Improvement and lift mtss this is this is the part that is is going to marry it where we're saying this is the state of where we are this is where we need to go this is how we're going to get there utilizing these pieces and so um having the experience with working and collaborating and developing these um a priorities honestly has been even more helpful to make sure that we have a clear Direction on where we're going with those success indicators and now I'll pass the mic thank you uh Dr Waller um some two other things that I'd like to just add to the information that was shared is there's already been um discussions in planning uh with Dr Paul and the junior highs about opening up uh course selection um to Dr Waller's point to get additional students on track of available courses so while you know course selection has um gone for this coming fall as we think about new courses and Pathways leading into because it comes fast and furious um in August and September um that's the work that has already started planning for 202 26 the other lens is enhanced parent collaboration and communication around course selection and opportunities that Dr Waller uh has spoken about so I think those are the two other pieces uh to build out um opportunities through an equitable lens to all students so and I would add to that um that's that's perfect and another piece we are looking at an equity toolkit um that um was share with us by some special people so we are certainly looking at that as well um but we are also looking at who we are going to collaborate with um this school year we've been fortunate enough to to have Dr godi Muhammad step in some spaces with our teachers on cultivating genius and that particular pilot we are working with Ernest Crim and developing what that will look like to work with him next school year um so and courageous conversation with Mr Glenn Singleton um as that was a pretty powerful experience that we just had so we are you know making those steps to determine these collaborations so that we can be consistent about how we're moving forward thank you I was just going to add one more thing that the curriculum audit that we just did has a huge focus on Equity um and they looked at so many different Avenues and that will come back in a very formal Report with suggestions to overcome some of those specific obstacles that you were talking about who did the equity audit it was all part of the I just don't just put it on on the name the company yeah sir you can restate it Cur cmsi yeah cmsi it's all part of the curriculum audit but we specifically looked for an entity with a focus on Equity oh yeah that and they did ask me a lot of questions about Equity yeah no that was that was amazing I thought that was amazing yeah so when you said Equity a I got confused because I thought she said curricul I was thinking Equity okay I have not watched the entire last board meeting so I apologize that this has been covered but I did have um and chew over this with Dr katti this week um I've read this so many times and I just want to thank you everyone that has put into the work that has put the work into this and re and recognize that none of the administrators can do anything if the board doesn't make a policy so this is a long time coming um but I have a few questions very specific to the policy in the opening paragraph one of the things that I have been thinking a lot about is where does this Equity policy fit in our policy manual but also in our journey right and it's really about what is the goal of education and I think this board we may not agree on everything but we do agree that this is one of our main goals um but within with that knowing that every single student has a very unique journey I do feel that all students will meet or exceed College Andor career career ready standards is important but I also think that there is something beyond that I think that there are some students and I really mold over what that word was whether it was Community ready or future ready and I think that that's maybe a little bit what's missing in there there not everybody's going to go to college not everybody's going to have a career if you will like an accountant or a lawyer or a doctor um some people are just going to be parents some people are going to be Community activists but as I've sat in this seat over the last couple years I've realized how we really have a little bit of a gap in our community with adults that are Community ready adults that are Future Ready adults that know you know where to vote how to vote when to vote adults that know how things work and so forth so I really would love to see a little bit of that captured there because I think we do have a responsibility for bringing students that are ready to vote bringing students that know how to use a debit card and a checkbook and all these other things but it doesn't necessarily fall into a career or a college or a trade college is important I don't think we should ever stop pushing that but I think that is something that I would love to see there secondly in the third I guess paragraph it is sd38 will continue to modify its practices I think that should be an ongoing continuously Monitor and modify I think that is something that is important that it might be working right now but it might not be working in two or three years or maybe we've moved along our Equity Continuum and but there's still more to do if we ever figure it all out I mean we've really we've really hit the right the golden jackpot so what was the propos the last thing the very last sentence I'm hoping that we can say um updated action plans and progress towards these commitments shall be reported to the board annually and available on the website for community and stakeholder review I think if we do not have it in front of us all the time like I started carrying our values with me so that I always am referencing them I think if we put it up there and we are transparent and it's up there and everybody sees it that we'll be um more prone to making it reality are you just thoughts looking for no I love it I was just wondering okay well one I need to take a picture of what you just said so I can so I can write it but I was wondering because this is under the governing Can it can I frame it so that it's the board requests because I really I want I want the language to be does that make sense I think that's where it stands for girl yes is that okay I just want to make sure and and then um I just wanted to also make sure to capture Monitor and modify so I I'll have that piece in there and then in the in the beginning paragraph which I really love that you push that and Dr Kad has actually talked about the um career college career and Community piece and so in this beginning oh let me go back sorry in the beginning paragraph it talks about them um become to become contributing members to society so what I'm wondering is if we can add a a caveat but can we make it a commitment so like we have these commitments can we give it its own line as far as commitment however you feel in your committee and the team the administrators feel it is necessary I just want to make sure that we are covering everybody and we are what if somebody's like but wait I'm not going to college I'm not I don't even know what I want to do as a career but I need to go out and I need to get a job and I need to create a life for myself have we done things within our our power to make them ha able to do that kind of thing absolutely so I mean I would also love to see a line where we could count back change but okay okay okay I won't do that I won't do that we can make that part of our finances but um no seriously that is that's just what I want I think that if and I'll and I'll use a very personal example I happen to take my son into of his friends recently um to altitude the trampoline park and some things were exchanged with another really large group of kids that was very unfortunate there was a lot of racial um things towards my um friends Sons I went to talk to adults and we could not have a conversation and it really hit home and I was like I just want us to talk as adults we have to get back as a community to being able to talk to each other about things and I think if we can teach our students how to find those ways is where we align and the things that are the same um we had a great um uh I'm sorry like a a a session we attended at um our Board conference and it talked about just starting to talk to someone and say pizza okay pepperoni and then you were like what could we find that we actually agree about the fact that I can't talk to other adults and and and have this opportunity to talk about what our kids exchanged with each other is very concerning to me as a community member and even if those students don't stay in the asgo community knowing that they're out there in another community and they came from us and so we want them to represent us and we want to represent them um I just think is really really important I want to make sure we cover everyone which leads me to one last little really nitty bitty thing is when we say zip code disability Etc I hate Etc it's like who's Etc so um I know why we're putting it in there but it just it's just a personal pet peeve so thank you change that yeah we need to make that okay it's a good C there are other ways to explain the idea and other relevant identities or intersection I was going to say at the same time I I want something noted in there still so I don't want to just takeen out because like when the first I know what he said I I heard him I'm just saying I I don't I don't want it take it out and just completely ignore it I I heard everybody Dominic thank you because um you want to talk about personal stories when first thing I always explain when I talk about Equity is like my son's milk allergy right and and you know for for those who don't um you know like like and the reason I start there is because it doesn't have to be what right right now it does need to have that right absolutely has to but it doesn't have to always be those things and I think some my point is we sometimes cross equity and we don't realize it so I'm fine with us coming up with something besides Etc but I don't want it being yes thank you I got you okay thank you thank you and uh this will come to the board next uh meeting for action but in between if there are other recommendations please send them this way so that we can have a uh representative document that I'm just wondering like if I want to more time yeah does anybody need more time I do want to say one thing which is I was going to say was thank you I want to say thank you because I'm not to call the person out even though they're in the room because I know they're they're like me kind of they're humble but when I when I go to my mom lives in bigford and when I'm driving bigford on a Sunday and I see people in your team working at the ad Center on a Sunday morning that's pretty impressive stuff so um yeah but I don't call them out cuz I I know they're they're like me they're a little humble so they don't want me to do that maybe maybe they do but they'll tell me later no I want to talk oh okay okay all right thank you um next item uh Draft Board of Education meeting calendar 2425 8.4 any questions related to this no okay that's what you thank you all right that concludes our consent we are moving along 9.1 action item approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 4,331 7774 as presented second Miss ven hi Dr Mario hi mrone hi Miss Simon hi hi Mr G hi M Johnson hi Mr cler hi motion passes 70 action item 9.2 approval of high school sports girls wrestling can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the addition of girls wrestling in sd308 second all right now Dr katti you're want to yeah I wanted to bring up why this is coming tonight and uh Dr K yes so when we originally present presented um the additional of uh ihsa sports for school year 25 um the information presented was girls lacrosse boys lacrosse and girls wrestling um but when we voted in action at our last meeting the motion just stated lacrosse so we wanted to make sure that we were clear and transparent with our community so we wanted to bring this forward so that we had girls wrestling also present in a motion a IAL yes make it official and and I'm going to repeat then from what I said last time which is you know uh I appreciate I appre and I appreciate the explanation last time about the process so not we don't have to go back down that road unless you want to um but again um you know anytime something's brought in front of me and you say hey we're going to include more students I'm I'm of course going to say yes I just want us to be cognizant of things that we've done done uh to our Junior High Sports and and where we're at with all those things as well so thank you Dr Maria hi M Johnson hi Mr hi mrone hi Mr G I miss I miss Sim I motion passes 70 action item 9.3 approval of student rights and responsibilities handbook can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the two 20 2425 student rights and responsibilities handbook as presented second and I just want to say again thank thank you to everyone who worked on this it was great job got to get them home so they can watch the game Miss ven hi Dr Maria hi hi hi Mr Gatewood hi M Johnson hi Mr hi motion passes Z action item 9.4 approval of resolution authorizing loans tolling $1,900,000 from the working cash fund to the educational fund and the transportation fund can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize a loan totaling $15,900 th000 from the working cash fund to the educational fund uh $7,900 th000 and the transportation fund $8 million second can we just have a really quick explanation why we do this of course Mr so as it relates to the transportation fund we actually ended the year last year in a deficit of $5 million in the uh fund balance by law we cannot have a deficit in the fund balance so we have to transfer 5.1 million dollar to cover that and this year to date in the transportation fund we have uh negative of about $3 million already so we transfer we're then what we're doing is borrowing from our bank which is to work in cash to uh to plug the deficit until we get our tax receip and we have three years to pay that back and as it relates to the Ed fund as I mentioned earlier we're pretty low to uh right now because the timing of our receipt so in order to so essentially what we doing we borrow from ourselves instead of borrowing from somewhere else the way the uh the state uh school code works is the working cash fund is a bank for the school district so instead of going out and issuing bonds to do a Taw where we borrow money we have all the issue cost of insurance and we also pay interest we borrowing it from each other and we'll pay it back once we get tax distribution in June without having to pay interest and we also have three years to pay but we'll pay it back when we get that money money in and and I think it's important to note that this is the advantage when you have reserves money and Reserve yes yes thank you yes it is well I I would imagine you're having some sleepless nights right CU you was like we're we're cutting it close not really we just not really that's how you because we justs right to get we do our Cal projections we're doing our Cal projections on a daily basis so have a good idea how much we need how much we spend earlier he said comfortable yeah so that's not going to like if I heard G to get close yeah if we if we were getting the to the point where I can't sleep at night we probably have done a TA because we don't want to we don't want to send our paycheck that we wouldn't be able to uh to negotiate so it's not it's not that close thank you thank you thank you thank you for stating it out loud mrone hi Hi I hi hi hi I motion passes 70 action item 99.5 approval of residency program so this item is being there's a motion to move it to the next month Mr Dr zi yes correct um we are in a good a good space with NCT we just have this still in attorney review we'll bring it on April 22nd I'm gonna make it I should make the motion before they have the conversation yeah so can I have a motion to postpone the approval of The Residency program to a future meeting please make a motion to postpone The Residency program with the national Center for Teacher residencies as presented second okay now we can have the conversation go ahead hello again just trying to follow Robert's Rules no thank you getting like really de here what he said um our attorneys have reviewed their attorneys are in the process of reviewing the contract we will bring a contract to you April 22nd okay thank you Dr Maria hi hi Mr hi hi are we voting to postpone it yes I Johnson hi Mr hi motion passes 70 action item 9.6 approval of agreement with asset control Solutions can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the agreement with asset control Solutions in the amount of $37,500 second I just want to say a big big big big thank you ra Raphael Amanda thank you this is huge really appreciate it can you share a little bit about the signific ific just so that the what it is is part of gasby 34 government accounting standard board uh school districts and government and entities are supposed to have a um a way to measure the assets of fixed asset of the organization and I believe for the last eight years or so we as a district we have not complied with that so it's a way to have a true value of all the assets that we have uh that would be any assets over 500 even at buildings the value of it the work that we've done to improve it which raises the uh the value of the asset and you do that for good uh uh annual financial report and also you do that for insurance too but we haven't done that in the last eight years so this is our attempt to actually comply with that uh requirement as a matter of fact we had a meeting with uh with an audit firm today since you H me to speak to it in the past we hav't had a uh annual financial report completed till uh February and you were actually require to have it completed no lateer on December so what we've talked to the auditor about is to have it completed by November we like to do stuff early instead of doing it late so we met with them today and they they they provided us the list of things that they would need in order for us to have it done so they they booked Us in for us August for them to do onsite visit in the meantime we're going to be sending the pre-work document to the firm and they will have most of what they need before they come here they will have it by June so that by the time they come here in August they will have all the papers that they need to be able to do onsite uh uh testing and and to Echo it Jen saying this is how stuff is supposed to run run and look and that's only going to help when it comes to building confidence with the community so thank you huge undertaking and I can tell you that um Mary Joe and Dominic I were a little shocked that we didn't have that going so we're very grateful it's a huge undertaking and thank you more than a little but yes more than a little [Music] shocked hi hi Mr hi Mr I Mr G hi Dr Maria I I motion passes 7 action item 9.7 approval of building administrator contracts can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the building administrator contract as presented sorry second I didn't know if we were doing sign langage Mr hi Dr Maria hi Miss s hi Mr Chiron hi M Johnson hi Mr G hi Miss men hi motion passes 70 and with that we want to uh congratulate Kelly marotz she's here uh welcome to [Applause] s38 all right welcome to the [Applause] community all right action item .8 approval of building administrator contracts for 20242 can I have a motion please M make a motion to approve the building administrator contracts for 20242 as discussed and presented second um sorry you know I got lot but um I just want to say like I remember doing so many school visits and sitting with so many building administrators and we've lost some good ones over the years and and there's some who have stuck stuck with us and whatever we can do to show show them that we appreciate them so they're they're important long overdue yep misson hi Miss Hi mrone I hi hi hi hi motion passes 70 action item 9.9 approval of resolution for dismissal of probationary part-time teachers can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing dismissal and non Reemployment of probationary part-time teachers and teachers hired on a temporary contract second Mr I Mr G I Miss Johnson hi Mr hi Miss Ben hi Dr Maria I miss I motion passes 70 action item 9.10 approval of res resolution for dismissal of first and second year teachers can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing dismissal and non- Reemployment of first and second year probationary teachers second Mr Gatewood I Dr hi Miss Johnson hi Mr hi Miss Simon hi mron hi Miss Ben hi motion passes 70 action item 9.11 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second Mr hi hi Johnson hi Mr I miss Sim I Dr Mario I miss I motion passes 70 10.1 can I have a motion to go oh sorry I'm so sorry can I have a motion to go back into Clos session I make a motion to enter close session under statutes 5 IL cs120 2c1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of certain employees and individuals 5 ilc S1 120/2 C2 Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees 5 ICS 12202 C11 litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending uh before court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the Clos session meeting second hi actually hi hi hi

bhmsd.org and we're going to have some more interviews coming up so stay tuned for those um thoughts all right academic team you guys ready pretty sweet right Audrey you guys want to go first and then we can [Music] like all right we're going to do these two high schoolers real quick and then we'll come back to you guys if you in with some question ideas so I'll just yes I'll just ask like like where were you I guess or like question um I guess uh what were your initial thoughts I guess and like what um like yeah we'll say like what what you thought it was going to be like and what it ended up being like and like what you were e so we're coming back from the totality um of the the solar eclipse um just coming right off of that what were some uh like what were some expectations you had that were fulfilled by it uh I kind of thought it was going to be a bummer coming into it but I was actually pleasantly surprised by The View yeah what about you um I thought it was going to be like a lot darker but like it was still really great to see and experience yeah and uh for for future solar eclipse though the next one is in 2099 is what scientists believe and I mean they were pretty dead on accurate for for this one yeah for this area my bad the next one for this area will be 20299 um what what would you recommend uh the long travels like other people made to come here all the way for totality rather than just the partials that we've had in the past uh I think if it's in your area then you should definitely check it out but if I don't think it's like worth the entire drive cuz sometime in your lifetime you'll probably get to see one in your area so if it's like the only time you're going to see totality then I think it's totally worth it but like if you're seeing it like more than once and it's in your area then I think I'd stay home well I'm glad that you guys had the opportunity to come here I'm certainly excited and I was glad to have been able to experience this um especially just right in my hometown um but thank you for coming on and being part of this interview no thank you and uh up next we'll have the academic team the Middle School academic team come on for an interview e all right we are here with the Middle School the bluon Middle School academic team uh here to ask some questions about the um solar eclipse so I'll begin with this question what did you guys what were some expectations you guys had about the eclipse um that were either fulfilled or what like just came out of nowhere and you were just like wow that was really impressive oh we'll start with you it cool to see the sun's atmosphere with the moon blocking it's easier to see that it's just awesome the thing that I was not expecting is to see is the when you looked at the Horizon it kind of like faded into the nighttime right in a direct circle around the eclipse itself the coldness really sh I did not expect it to get that cold like I knew that it wasn't going to be as warm it was really cold and dark I was surprised on how dark it got I thought it was going to stay a little bit lighter I thought everything was very cool all of it met my expectations and that's it I think it was cool how like everything just got super cold and we're on the we're on the field and the turf almost just got like it almost felt wet it was like super cold it was just crazy and also whenever it was the moon was done passing by that little spot of sunlight just appearing was super cool too it was really cool to just see like the sun fading due to the moon and it met my expectations of getting colder and the turf was like really cold and wet feeling all right thank you for all those responses um and then another question I would ask is just and this can be a simple yes or no or if you'd like to go until you can but for people who didn't experience uh this uh total solar eclipse um would you recommend them make the long drive to come and see it um whether that's in a different area in a future year or for the next one that's in bluon that's in a 2099 I think it's definitely worth the drive it's an amazing experience don't really have any more further comment to that that was the best two and a half minutes of my life and I want I I definitely want more people to experience that cuz that's should have said that that was that was really cool yeah I would I would definitely recommend taking the drive cuz it's something you probably won't get to experience more than once in your lifetime or maybe at all so making the drive would definitely be worth it uh I think it would be nice because you get to see it and it's like a win of a lifetime opportunity 100% you should have absolutely come here it's it's just so crazy everything and we could see Venus and Jupiter it was just amazing all of it yes um uh it's it's really cool like it would not just be the same if somebody said yeah it got cold it was pretty dark there's some orange it it just wouldn't be the same so definitely I would definitely recommend doing it because on pictures it's not really as much into detail as it would be as really experiencing it well thank you again uh academic team for coming on here and answering some of my questions I'm glad that you guys got to experience and be a part of this whole thing and uh good luck with your season and your competitions thank you thank you yes and we are going to stay live um with the eclipse throughout the entirety of it and it'll end around 4:24 um that'll be whenever passes out of the sun's way and we'll go back to normal sun and moon uh not connectedness um and thank you for just staying tuned to this broadcast and I will catch you later on a different broadcast in the future possibly so or not but this is Aiden te signing off e I e for e for e for

and then also rebroadcast on DCTV channel 18 on Monday and Saturday at noon uh and Thursday at 3: so to begin the meeting as we always do I welcome anyone to step up to the microphone state your name uh We've allotted 10 minutes for public comment uh regarding any item on this evening's agenda so anyone that wants to say anything for public comment speaker once here hearing none and seeing no one making the move um that's it so I'm going to turn it over to Dr Sab McGuire to introduce our um got approval of minutes appr I thought I would get at one of these meetings but so I will entertain a motion for the regular session minutes for March 25th so move second okay we have have a a motion by Mr nun a second by Mr Oliver um all in favor I I I motion passes uh and I also will um take a motion for the executive session minutes for that same evening of stipulation that they be held until the matter for which they were intended is completed second okay we have a motion by Miss noons second by Mr Oliver um all in favor hi hi okay and then Mary for um would be ension for not being yeah that's okay one um so it passes four for 01 that would be both regular for both regular and executive session minutes for March 25th 2024 now we'll turn over to Dr s thank you so um I see the Quinn school team is here I'm going to invite who whoever is um going to be presenting this evening so I see the admin team is coming up to the microphone I see some teachers from the Quinn School are also with us this evening um so we're excited to hear and to see what you have to share with us good evening first we just want to thank you all for this opportunity to present present Quinn Spotlight on kids over the past several years we've tried to show our uniqueness uh that Quinn school has some of you might recall that we've talked in the past about our fifth grade peer leaders we've talked about stem initiatives um we've also showcased our entire staff um and how hard they work in their dedication as well as our PBIS initiative this year we're excited to present on how the Quinn School celebrates being inclusive and unified and in doing so we're very fortunate to have some of our staff here and I'm going to talk a little slow because there's about eight of them walking down the hallway right this minute but in the meantime we have Lindsay vafides here who is our past teacher at the Quinn school and Kim Carrero who is one of our Palace teachers um and again this is Dr Thomas and Steph y malovich the two assistant principes here and coming in shortly um they'll be here to answer any questions or anything after it and they are part of the voiceovers that you'll be hearing in our presentation we have Corey Diaz who is an occupational therapist Sandy alpal Roso one of our slps um Katie noise our school psychologist Mike Capello AP and Steph melow who is one of our Pal's teachers who also put together this presentation um that you'll be seeing tonight and unable to be here um who is also part of the voiceover is Maryann Sorenson hi everyone so we hope tonight's presentation provides you all with a really nice inside look highlighting the opportunities of our programs that what they offer to the elementary students throughout the district our staff Works tirelessly to provide an environment where inclusion and unification are at the Forefront of their daily routines at Quinn we have 34 classrooms K to5 and those 34 classrooms 100% of them are always willing and able to provide the integration that our students need to be successful we pride ourselves on creating a place that is shaped around the idea that Equitable doesn't always mean equal but we do everything we can to promote access to all so we hope you enjoy so I yep welcome to the Quinn school being a part of our Quinn Community is important to us we are always looking for opportunities to communicate in functional and organic ways throughout our day to a variety of familiar and unfamiliar staff thus our snack cart was born students sell snacks to staff within the building you say Hi I'm AR ask hi I'm AR would you like a snack would you like a snack which snack would you like did you he said that one can we look for it where is it green chips thank you what do you say Mr what do you say Ari thank you hi I'm AR you say hi but what do we say thank you and hi I'm AR thank you have a nice day have a nice day thank you our students have access to a variety of low Tech and high-tech tools to promote and enhance their learning throughout the course of each day [Music] go find the green circle next to Wednesday many of the students in our programs have a variety of sensory needs and therefore have motor brakes built into their day these brakes are meant to assist with a child's regulation and help them to achieve an optimal level of arousal each child's break is unique individualized to meet their needs under the guidance of the occupational therapist so if you see us on the swing or in the hallway riding a scooter board just know we are getting our bodies ready to work and learn meaningful learning is important and we believe it should Encompass more than just traditional academics students learn to navigate their Quin Community participate in seasonal activities such as pumpkin exploration and carving egg coloring they follow recipes and have building based jobs like shredding paper and recycling to name just a [Music] few program students are very much an integral part of the fabric of Quinn they have so much to offer our community and they help to make Quinn a better more inclusive empathetic and kind-hearted place where all people are welcomed accepted and [Music] loved relationships are so important at Quinn we Foster meaningful friendships for our children the genuine hugs high fives and pats on the back come so naturally and are heartfelt [Music] so I'm going to talk a little bit about the community outings and we are very fortunate that we're able to get out and do a lot of different extracurricular activities um some of the pictures that you see here are we we went to hetland Ice Arena for some ice skating we had gnome surf School come down and teach us some Dryland training uh We've also been involved in one of our favorite things this year has been fun trampoline park um as you can see the smiles and everyone this has been probably our our biggest hit this year um other things that we've done we've gone to Bay State Gymnastics um we've done bowling before so we really try and do provide the students with a variety of different experiences and we really feel like these experiences allow the students to explore some new environments helping them develop some physical social and communication skills and and really building their independence and [Music] confidence so my favorite day of the year is the day of the unified games we call it the school day games and basically what it is is we invite neighbor towns and programs to participate with us and this year it'll be at Dartmouth High School in a variety of different track and field events and just fun motor activities and this is just such an awesome day it provides and promotes inclusion it just Fosters friendships um we certainly promotes a lot of physical fitness and really creates an awareness as we have so many people involved from volunteers of the high school and the middle school to all of our staff and I hope that you guys can make it this year May 17th at Dartmouth High School this year we are very excited and grateful to have added adapted art and music to the program schedules this change to the schedule has provided additional opportunities for students to enhance their self-esteem increase social interactions improve language skills and has given an overall greater awareness of the Arts the students and staff look forward to miss robo's Hands-On projects during adapted art and Dr seagull's engaging songs and interactive instruments during adapted music next up adapted physical education we provide adapted physical education services in a small group sometimes within the regular fizzed class um so there's a lot of different ways that we try and uh provide these services to our students here at quein elementary school and basically what it does it really tries to help individuals respect needs improve their physical fitness motive skills coordination and overall health it also promotes social interaction teamwork and and self-confidence and I think the big part about adapted fette is that ensures that everyone has the opportunity to experience the benefits of physical activity and lead a real healthy lifestyle here at the Quin school we do our best to ensure every student has a voice and access to what they need to succeed assistive technology is a big part of helping students with diverse needs communicate learn show what they know and engage socially within our school community at the Quinn school we are proud to have students who are using a variety of communication devices that help them to communicate interact socially and engage with learning in meaningful ways these communication devices allow our students to be seen and their voices to be heard communication devices open doors for our students and break down barriers helping them to learn language and academic skills advocate for themselves make their wants needs and thoughts known and interact socially with peers as equal members of our school Community boy needs to clean go to actions clean clean up up up up he needs to clean up the car good job in the words of Rita Pearson every child deserves a champion an adult who will never give up on them who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be these are our Quinn School [Music] champions [Music] last year Lori denisio set the ball in motion at Quinn and opened up opportunities for further collaboration amongst staff to provide richer opportunities for our children with Kim joining the team and consistently being present within our building we are confident the students will continue to be supported thank you to all of our staff for all that you do for our children thank you [Applause] so thank you very much um we hope you enjoyed the presentation the people that I had mentioned before are here so um Sandy alom Roso Katie noise um I they were already here who else we have Corey and um Steph melow so again we'd be happy to answer any questions or any comments excellent I'll turn it over to my colleagues to begin any questions Mr Oliver wow so first of all great job putting this together I know there was no all of you and probably a few other people that are not here that put this together so I thought it was impeccably done um just the pieces to it um you highlighted a number of different things there's just so much to impack out of this video um I I think it my opinion is that the highlighting what is actually going on in some of your classrooms is so important um not only for the school committee but also for for the town in general to see what today's classrooms um especially in the the area that all of you uh work in um it it goes without saying that we have a dedicated uh bunch of uh staff at at Quinn and across the district um you know I could I could say a number of other things but I don't want to be too winded but um no congratulations um this was just so important to highlight and see the um the interactions with our students and what what we're actually doing on a day-to-day basis is huge so thank you all Yes um so I agree with everything what that uh Mr Oliver said um the communication with the computers how long have you had that um does every student who needs that or would benefit from that are they able to access it or is there some you know do we have funding gaps um I the physical education I think you know moving your body helps your brain work and um helps a person integrate with their class and their friends um but I'm curious about the computers I'll say so um what you see are communication devices and so there are um are a variety of types um we have some students well most of the students have dedicated devices and so a lot of times parents don't realize that they're a able to access that through their insurance so if a student um is unable to get their communication needs met verbally um you were able to go through your insurance and get a device funded you usually do need a speech pathologist um to help with that process and to write the evaluation and I am very proud to say that Dartmouth has really been above and beyond some other districts with helping our parents get those devices so we have um many more students with devices than you would in other districts but it's because we take that time that's additional time that we just seek out to help facilitate families so if we see that a student isn't able to make their needs um known within our district as speech pathologists in the district we help the families access that so because a student doesn't only need that to communicate during school hours they need that for life and so we help parents navigate that um and that's something we're really proud of we've done that for numerous years in the district we didn't have as many students as we currently do now who required that um and as we know with covid and just the way times have been changing and and the needs of our students we've had more students with that but at Quinn everyone's a part of that process of embracing um students with devices and making it so it's very normalized within our school Community terrific thank you all for your good work Mary I was really impressed to see the range of outings that you do with the students can you tell me about how many you do over the course of a year hi Steph mow um Mr Capello is the one that really um orchestrates that he's the voice that you heard um we do lots of events throughout the course of the year um because the program has grown so much and there are so many students um we typically go uh the cycle for each class is about once every month and a half um so just about every Thursday Mr Capello is out and about with students in the district um but each class goes about once every month and a half great thank you so you're welcome yeah no just unbelievable I'm I'm so impressed and and just blown away by uh what I saw uh your dedication to the students uh the work you know and I'm thinking of you know the the student that was trying to you know clean up type of deal and working to you know here's where you got to go and then you know he finds you know I'm assuming clean up your room or whatever it was type of deal and and the you know the satisfaction and the congratulator that you gave the re positive reinforcement that's the words I was looking for that you gave to that student is is is is topnotch and uh my my hats off to everybody not only here but you know throughout the district as to what goes on so thank you for doing that thank you Mr Nunes so some of my favorite people up here life lifelong friends for sure um and very respected um for the work that you do I won't get emotional um but uh it's been about I don't know like 12 years not 11 years since my son was a a student so um I can the the compilation video was wonderfully done I totally authentic this is the real deal um and the beauty of it is that it was showcasing um a group of students with the highest level of need uh which brings its challenges um I don't know how you do it uh you know as a mom only having one at home it's it's a lot my husband and I it's it's a 247 thing um constantly redirecting and it's beautiful as well uh you do it every day for that times however many students um and so that needs to be commended because it does take a level of skill set um and what you do inspires the trickle down so I wrote down um you first of all the innate skill that you all have in building trust within the families that you work with um for the safety of their children um and and the way in which you facilitate um natural connections with peers it's just part of the fabric of what you do um to build empathy and understanding within those students who don't have those high level of needs um and ultimately of course the goal is friendship but it's also safety um and so speaking personally you know there have been situations where um I have a child who doesn't speak and so he can't really tell me everything that happens and of course the beauty of the work that you do your constant communication with families and it's wonderful but as my son got older it was those kiddos that were in his class at Quinn those peer models that would ask about him that would ask their parents to ask me about him or to share something that happened good or bad with him through the course of the day um and in last year I had the real honor of having a conversation with a young lady um who was graduating and going into special ed and I said uh oh my you know my my son his needs Chang over the years he's out of District um but she said she turned to her mom and dad who were there as well to say remember that we saw as if they talked about my family at home which was beautiful uh to say that he inspired her to go into special ed and that she always wondered what happened to him where where he was and so she was happy to connect um that's what you do so you do it from 3: when they come to you you do it until they move on to to the Middle School um and that's lifelong effect the impact that you have is great um and that the beauty of that video was that it was so playful and loving and so authentic but there's hard work that goes on in between that um and you love what you do and it just comes out in every day so I just want to say that um and I was long-winded but and it needed to be set so thank you all of you and those of you who aren't up here right now um and the rest of the folks in the district that are doing this great work thank you go ahead Mr Oliver can I ask one more question can I put someone on the spot for either for for the veterans that are over there or if you're if you're new to the district why [Laughter] Dartmouth why Dartmouth why Dartmouth um that's a really good question it's the people it's the values it is coming to work in a district that I grew up in and loving what I do and loving the kids and valuing the staff that I work with it's being part of a team it's knowing that when I come to work the support system is here for the kids for us um it's being a part of something good thank you you're welcome the team great thank you very much thank you very much nice [Applause] J great that was incredible very good so next I'll turn it over for our next presentation we have uh Dr M I'll have you so I first I just want to again thank the Quinn School staff um faculty I just want to say that I've been to visited the Quinn school and been in many of your classrooms and I have to say when you talk about authenticity uh having the opportunity to see you all in action uh sometimes uh is really emotional for me when I walk into your classrooms and see the way that you support your students and as uh as zaral said some of our most high need students uh and there you are there you always have Smiles on your faces you treat the kids with such love and respect um it's really an amazing school it's your classrooms are amazing places to visit and beyond that the way that you've integrated your students into the greater School Community is obvious I've seen the cart the snack cart um I've seen that in action and how much the staff enjoy the staff and students enjoy when they get the uh knock on the door and the snack cart even though the students can't get the snacks which is okay I think that's a good rule um uh but watching just the way the students also love to see the the uh your students come to their classrooms it's really quite um it's inspirational and I couldn't have said it any better Mrs Amal so but it also this also provides us an an amazing seg way into our NE next presentation with Mrs denisio who's going to talk about again you you've had these students since they were three years old how do they come to us in the Dartmouth public schools and I think this provides us as a community an opportunity to learn how do we identify our students who inevitably or not inevitably at sometimes end up in your classrooms I just again can't say enough about the work that you do every day and commend you and have feel very fortunate to have seen you all in action so thank you and I'm going to turn it over to Mrs denisio to talk about the the beginnings of how we bring these children into our schools before that um I can't stand up here after that and not um acknowledge what we just watched but um when we look at at the changing demographics of our school Community with over 40% of our students being high needs this is what we're talking about our students and families are protected by privacy laws so we can't we can't talk about a student's educational needs we can't discuss it but this video so beautifully Illustrated what a budget numbers cannot the faces and services spotlighted here tonight require increased support higher Staffing levels which lead to increased budgets and higher costs for things like specialized transportation and I think we can all agree the invest the investment to provide quality education for all of our students is worth it our entire School Community certainly myself our students our families and our staff are enriched when we provide high quality inclusive educational experiences in our schools and now I'm going to try to compose myself and and do this presentation about preschool it is it is and I think um having been a witness to it for so long um and getting to shine a light on it like I said a lot of this happens behind closed doors because of privacy so the fact that these parents allowed um you guys to Spotlight their children um was needed so thank you for that but where do we start um so the the topic of this is pretty timely because uh we are just starting the preschool process getting the preschool process ready for next school year the lottery has been completed the application process um and and we're starting to fill those peer Partners uh slots for next year so the logistics of preschool in public schools are a bit confusing we don't currently have Universal preschool so I'm hoping tonight's presentation can provide some clarity on why we do what we do so the why behind preschool if we don't have Universal preschool why do we have any preschool because under idea the individuals with disabilities Education Act beginning at age three students with disabilities become the purview of public schools prior to age three services for students with disabilities are provided through Early Intervention which is um a program through the state Mrs Amal can um tell you all about that school districts are required to provide developmentally appropriate Early Childhood special education programs and services for students Age 3 to 5 those words are bolded because the Early Childhood special education is actually a department in Desi that guides the work for our earliest Learners this quote comes from the Desi website um the ecsc programs and services ensure that all children with disabilities have a free and appropriate public education that is designed to meet their unique needs and enable them to make progress in acquiring Knowledge and Skills improving social relationships and learning to take action to meet the needs within the general education program uh we measure what matters and desie measures the outcomes for students students with disabilities so when a child turns three and and is evaluated by us uh we fill out these rating skills which rates these three areas the knowledge um skills and knowledge appropriate behavior and communication and then when they leave us at age 5 and enter kindergarten um we rate them again and that's to ensure the growth and the effectiveness of our early childhood special education programs so what that means for Dartmouth when a student turns three and has been evaluated by Dartmouth public schools and is identified to have disabilities that impact their ability to participate in a preschool uh classroom that Stu student is entitled to a seat in our preschool programs um historically speaking approximately 20 seats are needed each school year to provide preschool for students with disabilities turning three the district has to plan for enough seats to provide services and supports for those students with disabilities so where do these referrals come from often the students are referred through early intervention um some referred through pediatricians private preschools dayc carees um some referrals come through Community screenings and because of our child find law the district is required to evaluate a child in the area of suspected disability so far this school year we have completed um 70 evaluations for preschool age students some of these uh evaluations are for related Services only for example speech therapy that's a it's a big hit in the 3 to five population um the reality is we as the public school have the lowest barrier to entry an evaluation completed through Insurance uh you might be on a waiting list for 6 to 12 months um in public school we have 45 days to complete that evaluation so when concerns arise with development people turn to us so how do we provide these services and that's through the use of inclusive practices guidance from the US Department of Education promotes the use of inclusive practices for Early Childhood special education inclusive practices means that students with disabilities learn alongside typically developing peers the peers are there to support the learning of students with disabilities students with this with disabilities are the why there is a preschool program and the peers are part of the how we're providing services for them inclusive classroom have been shown to support the learning of developing social skills um increasing academic achievement fostering a sense of belonging and provide age appropriate models for social and language skills in other words a three-year-old is much more likely to learn how to play um by watching another three-year-old and playing with another three-year-old um than by working with adults so what this looks like um for us our inclusive education is provided through eight integrated class classrooms um seven of those are at kushman and one is at Potter in each classroom there are seven seats um for students with disabilities and eight peer partner seats so the um seven seats with first spots for students with disabilities are cons what's considered rolling admission because when a student turns three they're eligible um to begin school so that might happen on October 3rd so they come to school on October 4th so at the beginning of the school year some of those seats are empty but they fill up as the year progresses the peer partner slots are filled through the application and Lottery process with priority being given to four year-olds um and all of those students start the beginning of the school year in September for next year we had 42 open peer partner slots all of which are filled um primarily with four year olds but we were able to to provide services for some um three year olds as well and there are 21 open special education slots so hopefully that will be enough and if it's not then we open another classroom because that's our that's our job and then I don't have fancy videos because I don't have that kind of technical skill but I do have pictures and really just to point out the fact of this is what inclusion looks like it looks like kids playing the kids at the table some of them might be non-speaking some of them might be uh you're typically developing four-year-old you can't tell when everyone's playing um I love the picture of the kids at the fire with the firefighters cuz no one's p paying attention and that's perfectly developmentally appropriate um we have sta students getting more support from staff than other kids need but again we're all working together um to meet the the expectations of preschool and this is sort of where uh that middle picture this is where our our Unified sports begins again the Mike Capello touch at at kushman um that's where he starts his unified um sport so he he starts him young so that's all I have for tonight does anyone have any questions best and then M well goad yeah okay best and then we'll go to m um great presentation even without the video um so I'm curious about the peer Partners [Music] um and the ratio so is that a mandated ratio is there it is that ratio is set by desie it's 7 to8 there are other ratios like you can have a class of 20 and have 15 peers and five students with disabilities but we stick to the seven to eight model here um and that's it you can't have less than that or more than that that is the number of of students okay and that that works well because to have prek in Dartmouth it's a real Boon for parents um because it really doesn't cost very very much but do the parents of the peer Partners fully understand what the ratio of the classroom that they're entering sure I think that's why I'm here tonight Mrs coflin I think that that's a really good thing to dwell on that that when parents apply that their children would be peer Partners is that ever discussed yeah it's certainly part of our preschool presentation um again it's it's hard for us because we swim in this water so this is what we live and I think parents we might say it um but understanding it is something different right so uh what that actually looks like in the classroom might not be what a parent is envisioning we've certainly said it they know it when they sign up but again I think the reality of that is is um misunderstood sometimes and the peers themselves um they probably this is the water they swim in so this is the water they swim in they think this is the way the world should be this is the way the world should be right they know some of their friends need more help and they are very willing to help them right I think it's more people of an older generation who don't swim in that water who who see it differently right yes okay I really wonderful wonderful wonderful work and um the patience and dedication to do it right is out standand yeah I just make myself an O later I'm sorry I understand something I'm going to talk about later but I just wanted to make a note so I don't forget one of the I think the slide just before this one here it's almost yeah there okay the far right what what are we doing here with these St this is you know it almost looks like they they're trying to throw you know balls or the one with the net the one with oh is that a that okay I butterfly I think it's a butterfly um you know when they make the pupa and they make the butterflies they let them go I think it's that yeah science meading some science standards excellent there we go no that's fine no I you know it was you know they they seriously they're enjoying themselves and such and I I and no one's really looking and everyone's half sitting I mean this is preschool it's beautiful it's great wonderful but in all seriousness you know thank you for thank you for this and you know that was my stomping grounds kushman was for sixth grade and that so I you know a little bit of a love for that that building but uh you know just again taking care of students and that's what we do and it's you know what we have to do you know I mean unfortunately the state you know doesn't give us a lot of money to do it but they make us do it and you know one of those and it is our pleasure unfunded end it's it's and it's it's thankful that you know it's you know we have the staff and Personnel that uh that's their love and I appreciate it thank you absolutely thank you anyone else Mr oliv so first of all Miss Denio thank you great presentation um I know it's a tough act to follow well um they're my people too can't beet them can certainly can certainly appreciate that but it's just so important to highlight the fact that we all know as most of us as Educators know that the sooner that we can get to these students uh that have learning disabilities that have other types of disabilities the better the outcome is going to be right so for us to to have uh seven classrooms across the district um of pre prek speaks volumes I know that we're always looking uh to expand I would love to see Universal prek at some point I know uh the uh the budget certainly uh is not looking uh favorable right now in the uh coming years but I I just love to see um you know the explanation not just so much for the school committee but I would love to see these kinds of highlights as we move forward throughout this school year to Showcase everything that this school uh District does for the students of Dartmouth I think it's so important um and not only is it important for for our our special education students but I think it also helps to grow I can I'm speaking from experience my two daughters were uh you know they went through the the kushman preschool actually I think it was Quinn then kushman preschool program at the time and uh I I I truly believe that uh they certainly are are better people because of that so um I think this program speaks volumes to what we can do uh with early interventions and at the preschool levels so thank you you're welcome anyone else uh yeah I you you actually embed answers to what I was going to ask you about in terms of the Rolling enrollment because obviously students hit that that uh transition if they're in early intervention or if a provider uh you know refers the student for that age three um if it's so um evaluated and and decided upon as a as a need um so you answered that you spoke to anticipating um the numbers for the year for with fingers crossed right I'm sure yeah I'm sure um and and that's just an important Point um but my colleagues kind of spoke to the rest I mean I said what I said before goes um you know in having the importance of this presentation and showcasing this and and um and uh going into detail as to the why and the how really and with your um clear um you know love for what you do and for the people that you work with uh the heart and soul you know it's all about the heart and soul of doing what's right um a you know aiming for those those that progress and those good outcomes um it starts at starts at the preschool um yeah so I don't really have anything else to add but thank you so much this was so important uh this is hard work uh rewarding work um important work necessary work mandated work um and you all make it look so effortless and beautiful it's pre it's it's messy it's dirty it's it's noisy it's lovely it's wonderful um but it costs money uh and that's the bottom line is that these are kiddos who deserve this are entitled to this um and it cost a lot of money yeah and anyone can do the math around the the peer partner tuition and realize that that is not funding yeah our our preschool program right so I think that that was you know something I had heard recently and I thought oh I I'm not good at math but I know that that's not true um you're right it is an investment it is an investment in in their outcomes and our outcomes um as a school district CU like I forgot who said it but it's really that early intervention that's going to pave the way for future um success so yeah and and those kiddos those peer partners are swimming in the water with their with their uh um their peers who need extra help and and it's just setting the stage for a better Society a more uh integrated and more empathetic more understanding aware society and so it's it's just not only do we have to do it of course we're going to do it because it's what what should be done so thank you can I just just add um because U Mr Oliver mentioned that we don't have Universal uh prek and certainly we know that's true we do know there's a lot of attention uh on pre on universal prek at the federal level and that is trickling down to the state level um I just read a memo right before I came here uh from the uh from desie just announcing some additional some communities that had been awarded what they calling a cppi grant which is a Community Partnership Grant and that's meant to expand opportunities for access to prek in collaboration and partnership with local um child care providers and so that's something that I hope as we start as we continue to develop our strategic plan that we can be considering ways that we can examine um whether or not that type of funding opportunity might might help us to expand prek here in Dartmouth because we certainly know the importance of early childhood education thank you very much thank you thank you job Now's the Time now the time has come reorganization of the committee is uh or organization of the committee um is next so I'm going to turn it over to Dr sa McGuire and well yep okay I'm going to jump right in so um so at this time we will seek a nomination for the chairperson of the Dartmouth school committee Madame superintendent I make a motion that we nominate Chris Oliver as chairman of the diamond school committee for the next school year and I second that any other nominations any discussion close nominations okay all in favor hi hi all opposed I think I say the motion carries congratulations Mr Oliver thank you I don't know how I don't know how I how I feel right now I know how I [Laughter] feel no justce me stay there for tonight and just move the the name we've done that before just move the name tags okay make it official I guess and I would um formerly like to uh welcome Mary Beckwith to the school committee thank you welcome we are delighted to have you and I don't know actually you can't take it out no no we you can keep it and you can stay chair she actually did get it out Mr Oliver right do yep do the bottom one again all right because I can't get my name out I can't I can't get my name out all right I don't know either of you are qualified she said it Chris no don't oh wait oh I'm not this yet I'm not I'm not this oh no I'll give that to you for now I don't know who that is so I guess uh first of all thank you for your support for uh nominating me as chair I will uh certainly do my best uh through this upcoming challenging year uh that I Know It uh is going to be I do want to take this opportunity uh like Miss amarell said to welcome Miss mewith if you could um if you want to say a few words um and just uh introduce yourself uh I don't want to put you on the spot but I am putting you on the spot you are um so I just finished this campaign where I had to speak all the time and so I did didn't expect to have to do that tonight but uh my name is Mary Beckwith I um I've lived in Dartmouth for about 20 years um I work at UMass Dartmouth I'm a title non investigator and compliance coordinator um when Kate called me today I was just about to start a hearing uh for an incident that occurred between two students so I was like Kate I have to get off the phone but anyway that that what I do during the daytime um I live here in Dartmouth with my wife Jill and my son Isaiah who is um a senior here at Dartmouth High we'll be graduating hopefully and um just about a month and um I am delighted to be here and look forward to doing this work for the town of Dartmouth thank you excellent how's that for off the cuff I love it I love it perfect I guess at this time uh I will entertain a motion uh or nominations for a vice chair Mr chairman make a motion we uh nominate Elizabeth Coughlin as Vice chair second on the motion any discussion does she accept will will you accept I will I thank you for that um all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously I'll take the regular old Committee [Laughter] Member yay congratulations thanks congratulations get your graduation speeches ready hold on not yet it'll be here before you know it here before you know it he gets to high school you get Middle School oh I didn't know you go excited y so uh I guess at this time uh I will call for the election of a secretary uh typically uh the secretary to the school committee is the superintendent of schools yeah Mr Mr chairman make a motion that we appoint Dr June sa Maguire is secretary to the school committee second motion so I have a motion on the floor by Mr Nunes a second by Miss Amaral on the motion uh any discussion all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously I don't really think I had a choice I don't think you had a choice either nonetheless we thank you for for serving us all right uh next up we have the assignments for uh subcommittees and um other uh committees that the uh school committee members uh serve on uh so the first off and uh no particular order just what I'm reading off of my brief here is the Dartmouth Education Foundation I'm not sure who was uh I don't have that up in front of me yet uh who served on it let's see serve doing it but they never got in contact with me and I have not done anything with them okay so uh what are our thoughts do we want to continue on with this uh partnership or um and elect or appoint someone else or at least why don't we have you um unless someone else wants to can I just say I know that at least for me I've met with them only once this year and we actually have a meeting tomorrow at 5:15 so perhaps it was just I'm guessing an oversight on their part because I think there's been some change in the the leadership of that probably okay board and maybe they just didn't know that you were supposed to be invited so we I'll see you tomorrow 5:15 where's that it's right here right here in the library yes okay anyone any opposition or anyone else that would like to uh be apped to thef well thank you for serving uh next up is the uh Southeastern Massachusetts educational collaborative uh I currently serve on that committee uh I'm currently serving as chair of the executive board for for smck I'm happy uh this is I think now my uh probably my eighth year doing so I'm happy to stay on that board unless someone else uh would like to step in no I'm the treasurer so I'm out so uh I will continue serving uh next up we have our representative uh to masc now um I'm just thinking about this CU I was just looking through the uh the monthly uh newsletter we get from masc now typically uh at their annual meeting in November they they have a meeting of the delegates is is it safe to say Mr that the person that represents us uh that we appoint to this committee would also serve as our delegate should we should we uh take up some of their um their language and and send someone I I would I would think it would uh I will be honest with you I did not get to uh the meeting down in Cape last year I was in Indianapolis with the the with the band but you know I would assume that that's what it can be or you know maybe we can find out exactly if that's the way that would work I would have no problem with that yeah one of the things I would like to see uh this committee do moving forward um after being involved with masc for so long and the need for advocating is um take up some resolutions and um bring them have our delegate bring them uh to the to the fall convention So currently we have me who is on that me thank you no seriously are you are you happy to stay in that committee is anyone else fine nope I'm good with that if if the commit if that's the committee's wish I'm fine perfect so we'll keep Mr Nunes on that uh moving forward I I have the list up I'll just go right down the list now uh negotiating representative uh to the DEA uh for collective bargaining uh currently and we have John Nunes Kathleen Amaral and Shannon Jenkins as backup obviously our backup is no longer with us Dr kins um what is your pleasure uh Mr Nunes and Miss Amaral and does I'm fine with with doing that okay as the backup yep okay sounds good now just just a quick question because I know um how collective bargaining can be um you know it can be certainly time consuming is there any interest in separating out um any of the bargaining units or is it important to have the same person um around across all collective bargaining units I personally I'm again you know depending on everybody's you know I mean know this you guys are working so you know if they're meeting at 3:00 in the afternoon it becomes very difficult for you guys to get there you know 99 times out of 100 I'm retired so I can you know if I know far enough in advance I can always rearrange my skill schedule okay and I've been fine with that it hasn't bothered me so I don't know again Mr you know not Dr Maguire wasn't there but Mr Kylie was there as was Mr TBO they can chime in if that I'm but I'm good with it yeah I just know that it can be certainly a a burden on uh I'm good our members so okay perfect thank you very much uh the technology committee um I am on that uh I don't believe we've met recently I know Mr gashaw has certainly been busy uh since my my background is um technology I'm certainly happy to stay on that although I'm also happy to give it up so if anyone wants to uh you're the computer that Ru um otherwise I'm happy to stay on all right where are we at uh Dr s McGuire or Mr Kylie with the uh Representatives for the town chter committee I could answer that perfect I happen to be the representative so I knew I knew there was someone for the town CH committee okay and it is uh time consuming but we see the light at the end of the tunnel and um therefore I would like to continue continue cuz we're almost done yeah perfect and is uh Miss still on the committee as well is our representative is she I think she is our representative she's still she's the chair okay I know she's a select board member now um but she's still I think looking at it through our lens through the lens of I thought so I have no doubt she is I'm not questioning that I'm just just bringing it up so per I'm happy with that we'll leave that one alone we're really almost done okay fair enough uh where are we at uh Dr s muu with the Dei committee because it says no appointment made where well we don't actually have a Dei committee we are doing Dei work um and the focus this past year has really been with the with the district leadership team and the plan is to continue that work more at the school level uh moving forward but as far as a committee that includes a school committee person we don't currently have that Committee in place I know that I think it was prior to your arrival there was uh quite a bit of back and forth I know uh Dr Jenkins had uh was part of the discussions as well I don't know if anyone else can refresh my memory because it's a little foggy right now as to what this how this committee left it um because it clearly it's here for a reason yeah um because we at one point maybe we were looking to have a representative um I'm think oh go ahead um yeah so I think Dr Jenkins had said that they were rearranging and it might not come back into existence and she wanted to wait and see how that all played out yeah I I just want to assure you this is work that is happening in the district this this past year our our Focus has really been on um building capacity amongst our leadership team and when I say that I'm talking about all of our principles our assistant principes um directors and so that's been the focus of every one of our DLT meetings this P not even meetings PD this past year with the idea that this over the summer we'll be looking at how we're going to roll that out into the schools so that our uh staff and faculty can participate in professional learning and that will be an area of focus for the school district as far as professional development next this um 2024 25 school year okay so I unless someone you know has any other suggestions or thoughts we'll just leave it as is yeah I would leave it as I I just with best sharing that and I think it was um also I I hate to even bring this up but it was around um it was like offshoots and we we were talking about indigenous curriculum and and culture and then we didn't really have um early on we didn't have two um a secondary uh and a primary level curriculum directors at the time and so now it's sort of woven into the fabric of what you're doing as you're you're sharing and as we're seeing um so I think that's why it was not necessarily coming back in in and okay the usefulness of us to to lead that where we have a leader who's leading that in in the work that's being done every day I don't know that's my No I'm I'm completely as chair I'm completely fine any you know and I just want to sorry um we we can update you as to what we've done this year and once we have our a clear plan in place we'll come to the committee and present the direct the direction that we're headed in for next year great all right does that work that sounds good thank you you're welcome uh committee Representatives Town open space and Recreation plan steering committee is this still a valid committee I know we had a number of meetings uh early last year and such and you know they put a huge packet together uh I haven't heard any more on it uh since they kind of had that final meeting probably sometime it maybe it was even this time last year I don't I have to go back and take a look at my minutes in my notes but you know it it's there I haven't heard any more on it okay so I mean I canang I can hang with it I'm good okay perfect thank you and curriculum Council I believe this was fairly new last year or recently that we had an a a uh school committee rep on it I do think it's important that we do have someone I know this isn't uh the the school committee does not have any say of a curriculum um but I think from a budgetary standpoint and just a stakeholder standpoint I do think it's worthwhile to have a a Committee Member on the curriculum Council for the simple reason uh that we're they're able to bring back if they hear concerns in the community or whatnot they are able to be the that voice that speaks to um to some of the stakeholders in the community um any thoughts on who would like to take Dr Jenkins Place I'm happy to thank you thank you and going back up to the top uh since I uh SED off in the middle there a policy committee uh the which is made of our assistant superintendent um the assignment has been best Coughlin and Kathleen Amaral how often did we meet last year um so but again if there's no no uh so here here are my here are my thoughts and I'm just G to speak just give you what I think I think that masc is always coming out with new as you probably see in your in your um newsletters different language and there's always language to be updated I I would personally I I think it's important that this committee does its due diligence uh because that is one of the specific areas that we're responsible for policy and budget um that uh we make a commitment to at least meeting every every other month or quarterly um during the school year um to uh because I know that I have no doubt that there's policies that need to be updated uh with policy language changes um and Ju Just the general stuff that'll be coming up not so much policies but first reads of other documents that need to be brought to the full committee um so I I would just like to see the you know some kind of more some and I'm going to bring this up for the budget committee as well some kind of standing meeting um that we have and it doesn't doesn't have to be monthly but I think it should be at least quarterly thoughts on everyone else agreable um yeah I think it's a good idea I think that our policy should be updated on a regular basis absolutely so with that um bass and Kathleen are currently on it um are you would you like what's your pleasure I'm happy to be on it um i' probably enjoy being on it oddly um but I'd also have an interest in the budget committee so I don't know what other people are interested in there and balancing things out is that something you might be interested in yeah I would definitely be interested in policy does anyone have any and I'm happy to stay on that as well you mind so it'll be be Mary and Kathleen MH perfect thank you both uh fields and Facilities committee uh currently we have John Nunes and Kathleen Amaral um thoughts on that is that um have you been meeting we have we did we did meet several times in the fall I know that so particularly regarding the long-term capital planning efforts Capital plan everything so I I don't know you know how that's going to evolve um and how fast that long-term capital plan is going to you know begin to take shape but certainly that subcommittee can be an important uh play an important role in that process I I think it's important to keep this um School District moving uh with a lens at the big picture of school buildings I think it's important that we we you continue to do this work for sure so uh John and Kathleen yeah you okay with saying I'm happy to stay I'm happy to give it up if somebody has interested I'm good I'm again I'm good with it if somebody else perfect you know this is not all right ego driven thank you both uh budget committee uh so was Dr Jenkins and myself and then John as a backup I am certainly happy to stay in this commit um as well um anyone else I know so I I do have an interest but I don't know if John would like to move from backup and have me as backup uh but I do have an interest in that committee oh go ahead and I'll stay us backup if necessary that's fine I'm good great thank you perfect well thank you and once again like I said uh with the policy committee I think especially uh this ongoing School school year is going to be certainly very important um and I would like to see uh Mr Kylie um we can meet uh later on but some kind of standing meetings in which uh where we get updates on the the different aspects of the budget um because I think with with some of the um concern around some of the finance committee members that it would be uh prudent uh to try to NAB some of these questions and concerns um before before they it's speculated and there there's other other comments that come up and last but not least uh School assignments uh we had decided last year no school assignments will be given and that all members should do their best to keep in touch with all the schools um are we okay with continuing to do that um I I mean I would I just wonder and and I haven't done my best with this I certainly keep myself engaged but not to the point of like calling Dr Thomas can I or you know Mr Grand can I come in to see you know to meet with you I would love to know what the administrators feel about this personally I don't know I mean if we if it's something that we don't decide on today or we keep as is but perhaps learn that they would have enjoyed us being assigned to a particular school yeah Mr you know uh discussions I've had you know and that their comment of to me has always been you're always welcome well I for one always make it a point to you know pick up the phone or send an email and say hey I'd like to stop in you know what's a good time because sometimes you know they're out at admin at at meetings or you know they've got certain things going on in the school so you know I don't make it a point to drop in unannounced once in a blue moon but that's very rarely but uh the ones that I've always t to you know my comment to them has been you need me call me you know and that type of deal and you know they'll call and I'll pop by and that but again however we want to go about it it's fine with me you know I'm happy to talk to June about setting something up in which we can get some maybe maybe it's easy enough to put out an email and just get some feedback from the admin team we can do that we we're actually seeing all of our administrators at some point this week so we can check in with them okay beautiful great thank you very much am I missing anything no I think I've covered it all I got everything checked off y all right uh before we get to anything else I do want to take the I have a few things that I'd like to say uh first of all I'd like to thank uh outgoing chairperson Kathleen Amaral for your uh for your work and your your dedication and time thank you very much uh over the past year um I always I always learned so much from you Kathleen and um I know sometimes you you always you're very hard on yourself sometimes and uh not necessarily uh but I certainly always uh learn something from you and your uh your calm demeanor and always your thoughtfulness and and especially uh around special education so uh thank you thank you for for serving in Ro uh so one of the things that uh the new chair does sometimes is just kind of some thoughts for the upcoming year um and I do have a little something I would like to share with everyone and it's around the uh the times the that we're having right now around the budget um around uh budget uncertainty around um possible reductions in staff through whether it's through attrition or anything else as well as uh using one times funds to solve the budget and uh while I didn't have an opportunity to attend uh the entire finance committee meeting uh last Thursday I believe it was I know I walked in late and uh Mr nun and uh Miss best was there and um they said you really need to watch the beginning of it so I I I did take the opportunity to to watch the beginning of the finance committee um and it's certainly certainly a little concerning some some of the pieces uh that that came out of the chair's mouth and I do have a little just a little something to share with everyone and I would like to fir first of all go on the record to thank Miss ter ham for she a finance Committee Member a past chair I believe who's always been very supportive of the school department and uh is always at our meetings you can typically find her sitting there in the audience so thank you Terry um for always uh coming to our meetings and um listening to what we have to say uh but I'm deeply troubled with some of the rhetoric coming from Members a few of the members of the finance committee while I understand it is certainly their role and their responsibility uh to question uh Department budgets uh at last Thursday night's finance committee meeting in the fourth uh some members had gone on the record stating a number of concerns they had with the school committee most concerning in my opinion was the statement that the school budget had wiggle room in it and implied the school district could continue with the status quo without a general operating override and that what I had said previously that this town is going to need to make a decision on the types of schools uh they want for their children was was simply uh political and hyperbole um that that is certainly not the case uh we could continue everything uh some of the other things we could continue everything we offer currently with the status quo financially because of that wiggle room make no mistake about it there is no wiggle room in this budget in the school department that is simply wrong when the Dartmouth Public Schools budget ranks close to the bottom of 322 school districts across the state at number 270 for the FY 23 school year there is no wiggle room I'm extremely proud at the amount of budget transparency our assistant superintendent of finance and operations Mr Kylie provides to the finance committee to the school committee and to any Department in town as far as I'm concerned that ask for that since I've been on this committee I've made it my goal to push this school department to be as transparent as possible I know for a fact there are other school districts that do not give the amount of data that is very time consuming but worthwhile to other departments Switching gears we are tapping school choice funds to solve this year's budget deficit but yet the chair of the finance committee stated at a joint meeting that it was their recommendation to get rid of school choice a decision in which they were not educated enough to make this leaves me confused in wanting more answers from some of their lines of thinking the only way forward in my eyes is to have open honest dialogue with all stakeholders in this town it is my recommendation that we do a few things the first of which we schedule standing budget subcomm meetings we invite finance committee members to intend in addition to if there's any appetite we can certainly what we certainly welcome Town officials the finance director Mr mcginness if you'd like to be part of this because I see a pattern here uh that there there were a few things that were that were correct in my opinion where're our budget will be at $60 million before before you know it I'm going to look to this staff in central office and this committee to really make sure that we're leaving no stone unturned and I think we're we're seeing the efforts of that right now based on some of uh what's happening with reductions in POS in positions and I thank them for that in addition I would like to and I'm going to look to you at some point we'll put it on the one of the next agendas but I would love to see something that uh that I found very helpful was uh last year the year before uh new Beford vocational had an an Open Door session in which they invited all of their all of the um elected and appointed officials from new bford for Haven in Dartmouth to attend two years ago um and they had Mr um Watson thank you Mr Watson Mr uh commentator himself of all the meetings uh held a a brief uh opening welcome meeting and then he went on and there was a full um tour of the school and all the facilities that it had to offer I would like to see the school department uh extend that same invitation to uh elected and appointed officials in this town as well as um we can talk more on this but I'd like to see some um some more conversations around who we want to extend an invitation to but exactly what we saw tonight by the the Quinn school by by the staff of the Quinn school is why we I think it's important for everyone to see what actually goes on within these four walls across all of our districts this is not your parent School District some of the people um even myself at time you know times have changed and what we're doing today in the doou public schools is not what we were doing 20 and 30 years ago for sure the amount of responsibilities put on a school district and mandates we and that's why I asked that question why Dartmouth we have something special here I think we can all agree on that that's why we all serve on this this board that's why Dr samon Maguire decided to come to Dartmouth she had opportunities to go elsewhere I'm sure of it but she decided Dartmouth there's something special about this town for the people that live here for the people that grew up here were educated Here and Now work here there's something special for all of us so I would just like like to see a better working relationship across the town and this starts with me extending an invitation to finance committee members to attend any of our meetings our subcommittee budget subcommittee meetings and please when we have it I'd love to see a full house here when we have when we welcome our elected and appointed officials for tours of our buildings so uh I thank you for um entertaining me um but I think it was important to say or will say yeah excellent uh next up old business fy2 budget vote discussion uh I will turn it over to Dr sa Maguire so we've been having this disc discussion since December so um I think that I'm hoping that we're at a place now where you know somewhat reluctantly but certainly we know that the committee um needs to make a decision about the budget um you know Mr Kylie had I can't thank him enough you already talked about how transparent he is I can't tell you how much he's taught me this past year about understanding a budget I feel uh so much more knowledgeable uh because he's taken the time to explain every detail and there's still some that uh that I think I have left to learn but I'm really grateful for the work that he's done and I can't imagine working alongside anyone um anywhere who takes the time and spends the due d the due diligence uh to make sure that every single thing that he puts before you is I'm just going to say it even though it's right on the money and and so I've seen him change things in the moment and I've seen him change things um since again the first budget presentation in December so um you know just kudos to the work that he does and and Dartmouth is really fortunate to have him in this position so Mr Kylie thank you thank you very much Dr sa Maguire I appreciate the kind words and yeah it's been a little bit of a different budget process this year than normal obviously we um you know we had some we had some struggles in last year's budget process the FY 24 uh process um but uh really nothing like the U changing Dynamic of this year so um what we are asking you to consider tonight is a vote on the fy2 budget I always feel bad for Mrs Beckwith like brand new school committee member who okay you're thrown right into it now you've got to vote to approve you know 5053 million it's no pressure there um but uh there's a series of motions that I provided you uh memorandum of um we have one conflict of interest uh so we have a uh a way that we need to go about these motions um so I would uh certainly before we do all this be happy to um entertain any questions you might have about the budget um we've had a lot of discussion about it but there's there's you know always room for for more uh thought on it so I'd be happy to entertain that before we move forward questions Mr NES yeah Mr chairman uh do you want my rant about Thursday's fincom meeting now we would you like to wait till later I will choice is yours you're the chair I have no quarms either way well since we are uh on budget discussion we we can vote the budget and then I can do it that's fine too no we're on budget discussions you know that's fine uh thank you I agree with you and I had it on my notes Terry thank you very much for all your help uh at least there's one St stable vote on that committee type of deal uh I think the only thing that came out of Thursday's meeting in my opinion that I agree with anyone on uh and I agree with Mr Gavin on this was the amount of state aid that we're getting and the fact uh you know we've all talked about getting uh representative Maki and uh Senator Mony on board and seeing what they can do and everything else and you know his comment about having uh breakfast with Senator Maki and not getting anywhere in Senator a representative M I should say and you said yeah have an override you know gee thanks you know you going to help us at all or not when like I've said before when you sit here and you look at you know not the Gateway cities though that's a h of a different color I'm not even going there type of deal but when you look at communities around us or anywhere and they have less students than we have and they get Oodles of more money it gets a little disheartening just because of the way the state formula is set you know yes we can't raise taxes and you know 5921 takes care of that from uh you know 19 1989 or 1979 with the proposition two and A2 so it's as simple as that uh school choice well I'll tell you what and I've said it before and if we didn't have school choice we would really be sitting here singing an entirely different tune because we wouldn't have $2 million okay yes we banked it okay because we had the free money well I don't know about anybody else but in my accounting World in government Finance world if I have free money I'm going to use it first before I have to start tipping into my own money if somebody gives me $5 million type of deal I'm going to use that first before I have to use mine because there's going to come a point in time that the free money dries up which we know it does so I'm going to use that type of deal the eser positions we said from day one when we put those positions on that we knew we were walking over that Cliff okay come September 30th and we've talked about it to have a member of the finance committee sit there who watches our meetings and says well why did you put people on with those positions doesn't make sense to me what planet do you on we've talked about that for three years now you know so it is what it is the changes in the budget you know well how come it went from 3 to 6 to three to two what's you know I think Mr Kylie has talked about that in nauseum okay as to how what we came up with when he went and had a discussion with the town folk you know the town administrative Finance director members of the board of Selectmen and they sat there and they said put all the positions back in and we'll see where it stand that's where the budget went from 3 to six you know we're following kind of marching orders that they're giving us so that's simple as that uh pay for transportation well yeah we tried that a number of years ago and there's a couple there's one member of the committee that was there at the time I'm not sure if M I don't think Mr Bulls was on the the committee at that time he had already gotten off but we tried paying for transportation okay remember we got a transport K to 7 so what do you do when you have you know a child in sixth grade and a child in eighth grade in one household you're can transport one and not the other or seventh grade in high school you know how you know come on it doesn't work and you know the paying and trying to account and tickets out and everything else it was an absolute disaster in a nightmare so that just doesn't work I think Dr saber Maguire said it perfectly when she talked about the reduction in force and she just got up there and she just said remember one thing it's people those are people that we are talking about we're talking about people's lives and and you know their livelihood and everything else so you know things of that nature and lastly I think we need to send the slides that we had tonight from the two from the uh Quinn school and what Mr denisio did uh I think those have to go to the finance committee I AG okay because that gives them an idea because one of the wonderful slides that we had at our previous meeting that says selected student populations you know with lwi income disabilities and high needs and it did spelled it out type a deal and again this was a fantastic pres presentation that you know our Administration gave the uh the finance committee but that really highlights that drives the nail home type of deal agre so I mean I think you know you know Mr Garin made the comment about you know they're you know I've made comments about them you know the way they're looking at the budget and everything else you know one of the wonderful things sometimes I've said to people I haven't said it at a meeting but I'll say it tonight you know we could sit up here as a committee and be smart and we're going to vote $53 million and as I say to people we could put it all we could vote to put it all into maintenance or some other different line item and our students and faculty show up you know September 1st for school with beautifully clean modern buildings type of deal but no supplies no P Personnel no textbooks nothing of that nature that's what we do our responsibility is this budget that's our first and foremost responsibility is the budget and the education of our students in this town and that's what we're charged with and that's what I've always taken to hi in all my years here so Madam superintendent I apologize for the rant I did warn you but you did I'm actually very very impressed uh that was that was not bad at all it's amazing what you can write at 3:00 in the morning oh my God no I I certainly agree I I Echo some of your sentiments any other thoughts um I really feel that Mr Kylie has gone through every line and looked at under every Rock um do you see any wiggle room I don't I don't um not unless we want to be the bottom of spending in every category um and that will catch up to us eventually um so I endorse this budget um I wish we had more to spend and uh I hope that we can come together and solve next year agre I I don't have anything else to add you you have all spoken so eloquently um really looking forward to your uh ideas of of just working better working relationships to see how that translates to understanding what we do more um representation of what we do um as was seen earlier today um yeah no wiggle room no so silly mean you can't find $133,000 come on people sorry do you have any thoughts or I know brand new M I do want to say I attended a few meetings earlier in the winter and have been following along and I'm very appreciative of the amount of detail uh that the Administration has provided Us in terms of the budget and the different um the different presentations of amounts that they have given us so I do pr feel prepared to vote great so yeah I will just close with um thank you everyone for long arduous budget process for the FY 25 budget um I am no doubt that as soon as this is approved that we'll be looking to FY 26 um and uh we'll go from there but I'm not going to belabor the point any longer so uh let me just bring up my motion sheet here and whenever anyone's ready Mr chairman make a motion to approve the fy2 5 budget appropriation for part of school classroom teachers in the amount of 23, second so we have a motion on the floor by Mr Nunes a second by Miss Coughlin on the motion any other discussion all in favor is this a roll call no no all in favor I opposed abstentions I will abstain motion passes for is zero with one exstension Mr chairman make a motion to approve the fy2 budget appropriation for the total budget excluding the item voted individually in a previous Motion in the amount of 51,1 143,00 $727 54 second we have a motion by Mr Nunes a second by Mrs Amaral on the motion any other discussion J hearing none all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously 5 to zero thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you for all your hard work thank you Jim thank you June good job all right uh next up new business superintendent update Dr Sab McGuire great we get to talk us about some fun things um like the eclipse I mean it really was a an amazing event uh certainly worldwide um and I do want to say that I'm glad it's over um because there there was some angst that went along with just people concerned that students in um some way you know could perhaps look at the sun too long and I have to say that that didn't happen um we did happen to be out at the potter school this afternoon and we got to see the students with the glasses and the teachers were doing such a great job teaching them how to use those glasses and to go through kindergarten and first graders so if kindergarten and first graders can do this I have complete confidence that the rest of us would be able to get through it um and we did and so it was fun we got to look out the window I even had Kate um try on some glasses and we got to look out the window and and look at the uh the eclipse so it was really fun but again kind of glad it's behind us um but I am also pleased to share that the mcast testing I we I've talked about this the past few meetings but it's well under way and in checking in with principles and some of the folks out in schools things seem to be going really well uh you always get a little bit anxious about m mostly because and I'm sure that Mr Oliver is going through this right now uh because it's so heavily reliant on technology and we all know that um technology as wonderful it is as it is can sometimes uh cause us some some issues so I'm sure you've been out and about in your school buildings as well um I'm going to continue to remind folks about kindergarten registration uh as we discussed it's important that if you have a kindergarten child who will be 5 years old before September 1st 2024 please register them as soon as possible and if you have any neighbors or friends that you know may have a child who is kindergarten ready please go ahead head and encourage them to register as soon as possible I know that we've had quite a few folks take advantage of that and we're about to start um assigning schools to those Stu to the students so the sooner uh that we get kids registered the better just a reminder as well we'll be hosting a districtwide kindergarten showcase that will be at the Quinn school on May 15th at 6:00 p.m. again an opportunity for incoming kindergarten families to hear an overview view of what can be expected and for kindergarten parents especially parents who haven't and family members who haven't had children uh starting kindergarten it can be quite an emotional experience so the more opportunities we have to invite people in to hear about what those experiences will be like the more comfortable that transition is going to be come August September um so I also want to to mention that we are in the midst now I'm so happy to be able to say that of strategic planning we have met uh a few of our school committee members are on that team really grateful to have you there uh you know we've partnered with teaching Learning Alliance and what I think has been uh a really smooth start to the planning process uh given that we've invited so many other stakeholders into this process so we have about 37 plus people who are participating in this process and one of the questions was how did we select folks to be part of this I remind people that there was a core group of people who invest who were already invested in this work through a portrait of a learner and so the most of those people are still part of the strategic planning committee a few may have stepped away and others were invited in but I think that um that what we did to expand membership was reaching outside of the schools themselves and including our school committee members including we have um again it seems like Terry him's getting a lot of uh positive attention but she this evening at our school committee meeting but grateful to have uh her participate we have parents um so we think that we have uh a diverse stakeholder group and the best folks that we have on the team honestly are we have three students unbelievable and uh they they certainly are uh willing to share their experiences and what they think we need to be doing they're not bashful no and when I say that they're respectful and um what they share with us are are things that you know we as adults can absolutely um value because it's not anything that you would think is outlandish they really want what's best for for schools and for the experiences of of other students at Dartmouth High School and so we've already met I think we're at our next meeting we're going to discuss Mission which I'm excited about so there was some talk about I know we've had a very um established U mission statement here in Dartmouth this is meant to not to take away from that but to be more inclusive of you I think somebody said it this isn't the last time the mission statement was Revisited may have been I'm not really sure maybe 20 years ago so it's it's a good time for us to be examining what the mission is of of schooling for today's youth uh so we also have a we have a teaching and learning committee we have a Comm committee this is uh subcommittees within the strategic planning so all 37 people are not working on the same thing um so we have a group that's focused on teaching learning and leading we have a group that's focused on community feedback we have a team looking at facilities finance and human capital uh you can probably look around and guess who's on what team um but yeah we we definitely think that yes the representation we have is going to allow us to develop what I think is eventually going to be a truly Dynamic five-year strategic plan for the Dartmouth public schools and having Community input is critical to that uh so as far as HR work you see or maybe you haven't but we have advertised the position of the Early Childhood director so that's gone out um and we're excited about advertising and hoping that we get very qualified candidates we will be putting together I know Mr Denio's already sent out a a an um survey to staff to ask for their input on what they're looking for in the next Early Childhood director and it will be there will be a an inclusive team that will be involved in selecting our next Early Childhood director we hope if all goes well that we'll be able to introduce that person at one of our at our May school committee meeting I'm going to skip over education support professionals but you know we always have need them substitutes we know and again uh the HR work that comes out of the office especially with Kate I can't thank her enough for making sure that we stay on track and get people on board on boarded as soon as possible I think Mary can probably attest to that she was on boarded immediately as a school Committee Member and had everything she needed to to get going this evening um so climate and culture always great to talk about climate and culture here in dmouth I love that question why Dartmouth and you're 100% right Mr Oliver I am so thrilled to be here in darmouth this is a wonderful community and the schools and the folks in them are doing amazing work and kids here are just really just just such a joy to be around um and we want to keep that going that's important and part of the way we do that is through the budget and the way we support the work of strategic planning but here we are it's spring spring Sports season has arrived so I'm in my this is my first cycle of the spring Sports season even though I was visiting Dartmouth last year around this time but several competitive teams so this is um really something we have eighth graders who have joined a few of our teams this year on waivers Mr Christa foi has made sure that he's gone through that process uh so we have softball um we have baseball girls lacrosse boys lacrosse girls outdoor track boys outdoor track unified outdoor track girls tennis Boys Tennis sailing which is new for me and I'm being told that I might get to go out and see an actual sailing competition um in all we have 367 students participating in Spring Sports so we should um be really proud of that I know when I'm finished Mr noones is going to share the good news about the color guard and the band's recent accomplishment so I saved that for you Mr Nunes um I also want to acknowledge that and you might have seen it in Dart Dartmouth week we had an author's visit that was hosted at the middle school I want to thank again the Dartmouth um Middle School administration and in particular the librarian Laura Gardner who recognized student interest in a certain author his name is Dean ganh har I hope I'm pronouncing that correct irly and she invited him to come to speak to Dartmouth middle school students um Mr G Gart that's a tough one his books and um he talked about this and he focused on um giving students a message that was around the importance of hard work and perseverance even in the face of rejection and he was able to share how many times the books that he had written were rejected by publishers before he finally had his first book published and now he is a nationally known author with several books that many of our middle schoolers are enjoying um so that's great again a great lesson not just for the students but for all of us um also Mr parate informed me just before uh we started school committee that four of our students are finalists for producing a video around burn awareness and that's what the the firefighter they submit the video they submitted I think he said about 8 to 10 videos and two were selected and they'll be recognized April 30th at Children's Hospital in Boston so another again example of how our Dartmouth students shine and finally the trip to Spain and Portugal it's really going to happen um they the students 45 students and seven adults will be leaving from Dartmouth High School on Saturday at 12:00 if any of you want to try to stow away I'm not sure how far you'll get but um I think that everyone is really excited to see uh how that trip goes and and I mean that genuinely Mr Shay has also informed us that there'll be a social media link available via Instagram and that you can pick up this link through the there'll be a DHS travel uh link on the p on our website page so we'll be able to see some of what the students are up to so we're really excited about that trip y maybe next year one of us will be able to go along wouldn't that be nice that would be nice all right so that's all I have so thank you thank you Mr Nunes thank you Mr chairman uh yeah the uh this past weekend was nesba finals for both colig God and percussion uh on Saturday up in Salem both our junior varsity and varsity color guides took first place in their different class divisions that that they're in uh our percussion was here uh yes our finals was here yesterday I can't tell you how many school we must have had 30 schools that went through this building yesterday uh you talk about and i' I've said this before but you talk about a a school building that that's being used I mean it was great you know coming in the side door uh when you come up the walk their big props were coming in and you know stored down in the corner we had tables set up you know the marimbas and they're walking this way the students are walking in the other you know and you know yes all three will meet at some point in time uh but they love being here going you know different areas of the school that they're set for warmups but they come in you know right over here perform and go right you know right out the door to their trucks and that type of deal and it was it's absolutely great but you know our percussion won their class uh they had this high score of the night uh percussion on Saturday is going to be down in uh West Hill High School down in Sanford right there the right on the New York border for the Mac finals and that uh our uh Varsity Color Guard leaves uh tomorrow night 7:00 for uh Dayton Ohio for their w GI finals and uh they start their uh performances uh somewhere around quarter of one on Thursday so they'll travel uh Tuesday night they'll get their Wednesday rehearse and then you know start Thursday uh Thursday at you know quarter of 12 quarter of one or so with theirs uh The Varsity leaves uh the percussion leaves uh next Wednesday for uh uh for Dayton for their their shot so wish them well and you know I had spring sports but Dr sa Maguire talked about that and that's fine hopefully just the weather will hold out so that they can play yeah jeez agreed that's right thank you Mr nun than you Mr chairman anyone else I do not have anything at this time I think I I've said enough tonight uh the next regular scheduled meeting of the Dartmouth school committee is for Monday April 22nd 2024 at 6 p.m.

good afternoon welcome to the senate committee on education today is Monday April 8th 2024 if I didn't have this I would have know what day it is thank you sta this is our 3:00 p.m. agenda and we are in hearing room 229 this meet meeting including the audio and video of remote participants is being streamed live on YouTube you will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and OnDemand video page of the legislator's website this Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include the 3:00 agenda for the committee on education in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to Major technical difficulties the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding bu business on Wednesday April 10th 2024 at 3:1 p.m.

e everyone please stand for the pledge of Alle States we do have one item for public comments Mr oragel um there's the microphone right there in the middle before we get started I like to go over a few things with you um any what you have during public comment the board cannot respond um just know that we'll look at you we'll listen and that's all we can do at this point uh you have five minutes that's your maximum and then uh specific names of Staff or students cannot be mentioned during public comment okay okay do you have any questions no all right go ahead yeah hello my name is wedge orle I'd like you to meet my son Bentley he's currently a student at Big Hollow Elementary Bentley has an IEP and is diagnosed with severe special needs autism speech and muscle araxia he is requires full-time assistance with everyday basic tasks with his disabilities he should be receiving occupational therapy Physical Therapy speech therapy in conjunction with a full-time Aid to assist him with everyday basic tasks as prescribed by medical professionals from blur's children's hospital because of these disabilities he cannot learn as fast or like other children as of now Big Hollow has Big Hollow School District has decided to deny him and reduce times of these therapies he desperately needs them even with a medical prescription and diagnosis requests my goal is to resolve this as soon as possible to help my son Bentley gets Services he needs excuse me Bentley needs to get the services to be as successful as he can be at Big Hollow thank you for your time I'd like to just pass out something to the board president thank you thank you appreciate thank you again for your time thank you very much all right we do have employment items to add to the agenda uh can I please have a motion to add the employment items to the agenda motion Lauren and Joe yes yes yes yes yes yes does anybody else have anything to add the agenda can I please have a motion to approve the agenda motion second Doug and Joe all in favor I I any oppose eyes have it academic Spotlight Middle School vocal instrumental students Miss D good evening board uh we have is it on okay uh we have some of our choir and band students that are going to perform for you um couple of pieces that they performed at the solo Ensemble U contest recently so enjoy all right thank you awesome um hello we are a small portion of the big Hollow band and choir we were lucky enough to participate in this year's solo and unble event held at hawthor middle school and we were even luckier to perform for you all tonight solo and emble is an annual music program for kids in band and choir you can choose to perform a solo duet or a small Ensemble piece and receive feedback from a judge on February 24th six ensembles and 11 soloists all went to Hawthorne middle school and performed for a judge all ensembles had gotten ones which is the closest you can get to a perfect score and in total there were eight ones and three Twos for the solos we are all active students in Bandon choir and wanted to bring our passion for singing and playing beyond the classro so performing at solo and ensemble in here for you tonight is truly a privilege our vocal piece is titled on Justice truth and peace it was composed by Amy F bernon the song talks about the ancient wise men ran shiman Ben gaml saying the words on these three things the whole world stands Justice truth and peace rava responded by saying where Justice is done truth is done and peace is made and now here is our song on Justice truth and peace [Music] uniceu [Music] Unice Justice [Music] trce on truth [Music] Unice [Music] truice truth [Music] andace [Music] name [Music] andice [Music] andice [Music] [Applause] our group chose to perform Cura Tortuga for the solo and Ensemble contest and for you all here tonight CIS Tortuga is a quartet which is specifically written to emphasize each part and each instrument at different parts in the song please enjoy our piece cursive toward tuo the [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] la the great job guys thank you so much for for uh sharing that with us tonight it's a great reminder of why we do what we do so excellent job thank you accomplishment recognitions Mr Gold we want to recognize and uh again the students seeing the students perform and then getting ready to recognize some outstanding individuals is a great reminder of uh why we do what we do here um I want to start with uh Miss Janice coming up and introducing the Primary School student of the month the primary school student of the month is Addison brosi Addison come on up and Mrs weaton is her teacher Mrs weaton would you come up stand right here your teacher's going to talk to you okay um so when I first met Addison at the beginning of first grade some of her favorite things to say to me were I don't know and I need help um but Addison has worked so hard this year and she's gone from being inconsistent with knowing her letter sounds to being a true reader and I don't know isn't a thing that she says to me anymore so I'm so proud of how much she has grown and just how hard she works every day so that's why I nominated her [Applause] awesome and we do have H plaques coming they're uh with the spring break they're a little delayed so Dr ban colana if you want to come up so our elementary school student of the month is Dominic Hernandez so Dominic you want to come on up and his teacher Mrs Lancaster is who recommended him so if she can come on up all right uh well Dom is like a lot of kids and he always shows safety responsibility respect he follows his expectations but why I nominated him is because he goes just a little bit farther actually a lot farther um what I've noticed about Dom this year is he goes out of his way to befriend other students who maybe have a hard time making friends or have a hard time maintaining friendships Dom goes out of his way to be their friend to help them in school to help them make other friends he's really committed to making sure kids work together and I think that's an awesome awesome trait for that Dom has he plays football and he plays basketball and baseball so he takes team and he takes it really seriously and he think takes what he learns on the field about being a teammate and brings it into the classroom and he just does an exemplary job academically um socially he's he's just an amazing kid so I could not nominate [Applause] D conat all right Mr [Applause] cormo uh we would like to recog wow we would like to recognize America kamacho as our student of the month and Mrs swierski can come up and read what she wrote about [Applause] America I wasn't going to let her graduate without getting one of these honors so I'm so happy she won um when I think of America the first three words that I think of are respectful determined and kind she's a model student always completing her work asking questions and helping others out despite being on crutches for the entirety of the wrestling season she attended every match cheering on her friends um and teaching staff such as myself um how to work the scoreboard and the scorebook for wrestling if you've never done it before near Falls reversals you name it I got it um her help was instrumental in helping the wrestling season run smoothly the level of maturity that she exhibits sometimes makes me forget how old she really is um I appreciate her efforts as a student and the example that she sets for others she is dependable and everything that she does she is most deserving of this honor um and if you've ever had the pleasure of have her having her in your class you know so congratulations congs all right we also would like to recognize our employee of the month one of our lunch supervisors Jasmin rosem and Renee Holm is going to come up and share a few words about [Applause] Jasmin conratulations okay okay she's the best um she goes above and beyond to make sure that the lunch room is always clean and the behavior is orderly an example of this is earlier this year when Jasmine and Nicole noticed that the children were all running towards the lunch line because food is so so darn good here and um they took the initiative to implement a strategy so all the kids come and sit at the tables before they get in line of course this didn't go over well right at first but boom within like a week they took it on so um Jasmine made it a list on her phone so that all the tables were randomly selected not just this table this table and then hey you called me first okay so whatever um so this ensured safety and eliminated racing to the food line and I feel that these ladies both Jasmine and Nicole are always taking initiative to find um appropriate answers themselves instead of going to admin y uh so she was also nominated by myself Mr Summers and uh Mrs mcdna so Jasmine is such an asset to the Middle School cafeteria this year she created a system for tables to be called for lunch that made lunches safer and more organized for both staff and students we appreciate her vigilance and willingness to solve problems as they arise Jasmine a lot of times comes up with Solutions the problems we don't even know exist so um and I'm thankful that we don't know that they exist because she found the solution uh Jasmine builds relationships with students and is dedicated to the work she does every day and we are very lucky to have her this concludes our recognitions you're welcome to stay for the rest of meeting if you'd like but all right board member code of conduct review Joe it I will encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and will participate in board discussions in an open honest and respectful manner honoring differences of opinion or perspective thank you anybody have any questions on the consent agenda I have one uh the Food Service The Coop Cooperative agreement uh yeah that's is that new or is that something just Contin we did uh good question we just we do it annually I think I renew it annually um it's just a co-op with several districts that so we can uh they do the bidding and get most bits for us okay any other questions can I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda motion second Lauren and Doug yes yes yes yes yes yes superintendent report Mr Gold all right just going to have Mr McCully come up for a second and talk about an update to the three-year Tech plan start with good evening everyone so there's two things there are two memos in the board packet the first is our eate project for this year um eight years ago we updated all of our hardwire and our Land network we decided or Cisco has brought it to the end of life and we're having some security issues so we are upgrading that this year we're switching products to extreme which is what all of our wireless network is so we'll be uniformed across the district there and then for our three-year plan um we did get ahead of last year's three-year plan this year um thanks to uh you know our team has grown we we have three full-time including myself now so we were able to to take a lot of pressure off of of Holly and I now it's Holly Jimmy and I and we've seen just a vast Improvement of everybody's position because of uh having three of us so with some of the big things that we did this year we we cleaned up the network closets uh those are all uh let say pristine um teacher computer monitors were replaced this year um we did last year during the year uh replace all the wireless uh switches through eates um and then I said the big thing is the Staffing changes um moving into the future uh some of the things that we are looking to do in the biggest project that's coming up is the PA system um right now all the clocks are not synced um the speakers in the hallways aren't well uh common areas like cafeteria in the gym we just can't hear so we're looking at updating the clocks and PA system to be digital so we can in the case of emergency have digital signage in there um hit those large areas like the cafeteria so this messages will be scrolling instead of just hearing um you know make it a lot easier to get that message across and get it across quickly um we're looking at security wise we're looking at the door locks the interior door locks I know that's a project we're looking at which was going to be um analog just replacing the locks but now we're looking at doing it digitally with key fob so every door would be control that way and eliminate those hard brass keys that are all over the the community I would say at this point with the years that we've shared those um for after school activities and things um another big thing that's happening next year is Skyward we're switching over to the new Skyward system so there's going to be a lot of auditing of our current system to make sure that we don't have any extra things or anything things we don't need that our data is all correct as we move over so that we have a nice clean start for the staff um we also in the future here in two years two to three years we're going to have to update the computer labs in the middle school and at the primary um we will'll have to at some point here update the camera system I know that that is more recent purchase however since purchasing it the federal government has come and said that the system that we have hike vision is not something that they sanction and they are not allowing government uh buildings to put them in and they're looking to start having government buildings pull those out I'm hoping because they're trying to force us to pull it out that there's going to be some grants to help us relieve it but uh the security issue is that a lot of the the cameras in the nvrs they do a home run and they head back to company that supports them and that company is owned by the Chinese government so that's unfortun fortunately a situation we did not know that when we put it in and that actually came about two years two and a half years after we put it in so we're looking into ways that we can fund that economically without having a huge hit um the other thing that we'll be looking at is teacher devices in in two years and right now that everybody has two in their classroom their desktop and their laptop we're looking at all our options to to lowering that down to one or maybe um one in a mobile device so it's a lot less expensive it is now that's it any questions for Matt thank you all right thank you uh the only other piece of my report is just we have some upcoming committee meetings uh culture and climate committee this coming week we are going or this week on Thursday we're going to be discussing some cell phone policy revisions that are pretty uh pretty big changes so it's it's a pretty important topic to discuss uh policy committee coming up uh this month and then curriculum committee on April 29th for those on that committee we'll be looking a little deeper into the math curriculum change that will be proposed tonight that's it for my report Kevin all right does anybody any questions on the IG with Gavin and Fox Lake uh for shared servicing and food and transportation there are no changes to this just update for the years yep can I please have a motion to approve the updated intergovernmental agreements with Gavin School District 37 and Fox Lake Grade School District 114 for shared servicing in food service and transportation motion second Vivian and Lauren yes yes yes yes yes yes illustrative math anybody have any questions I have um Miss Stein ciper and Miss St here if you have any questions anything that in the memo they outlined process they went through for that all right can I please have a motion to approve the adoption of illustrative mathematics as a math curriculum resource for Big Hollow primary and elementary schools on first reading motion second Ash and Doug all in oh we got a roll call yes yes yes yes yes anybody have any questions on the summer technology eate project can I please have a motion to approve the summer technology e-rate project motion second Lauren and Vivian yes yes yes yes yes yes water M any questions these two contractors should get the job completed so we will be done we're gonna do it the week the week school gets out right after Memorial Day and then we have a week of time before the kids come for summer school so we're going to start it right away after Memorial Day they think it'll take two days to install the rpcs in the buildings and then the next day we're to flip the switch move things over so and then the well decommissioning they'll come in later and decommission the wells when do our fire hydrants work yeah that was my as soon as we flip that switch yep okay everything's ready to go is there maintenance on those for flushing uh Volo Vol yep they actually came out and painted them already so they're now red we're all excited about this we are ready to go little cheaper huh what's that it's a little bit cheaper the first bid little cheaper the bids oh jeez yeah I think our total is what are we at under 50,000 58 and I think the first bid was 220 230 so I think we're good all right can I please have a motion to approve the completion of the water main connection project motion second Doug and Lauren yes yes yes yes yes questions on phase one contract pricing with ver so can I talk a little bit about this sure um so one of our because this is new for us uh working with performance Contracting and since I've been here nine 10 years now this year nine or 10 um we've not done a project of this size so um we've been able to manage a lot of projects just with uh small bids and um me project managing a lot of it and uh this we're now what I'm trying to do is set the school district up for with a partnership and a plan for the next 10 15 20 years um and that's the reason we we've chosen to go with ver they come highly recommended um they uh you know they had estimated this first phase to be four to 4.5 million we're right at right just over four um the bids came in uh at or below what the uh architect estimated we had some if you remember a year ago we did a our we had our architect firm do a uh needs assessment for a campus and they estimated some costs for roofs for HVAC I think uh the roof bids um were 500,000 less than what Architects had recommend had estimated a year ago but um so we're in on those costs um with all of it together I've got uh so I I will be doing less because of the size of the project I'm not as involved in the project management phase and we're not accepting the risk that we do on these small projects uh the risk is going to shift over to ver uh when we get into these kind of projects so uh we're recommending to do phase one right now I don't know when we will tackle phase two um and uh you know could be next year could be the year after but uh we we'll see about phase two and it's going to come down to some financial decisions for us at that point so um I think that's all I wanted to share are there any questions for me or Michelle's here to answer some questions as well is what's the warranty on the the roof Roofing that we're going to be getting lifespan tiles and stuff do you guys want to come on up you have yeah come on up hello hi yep so 20 years is what we have on the warranty for the roof and then uh I mean was there options for prolonging that or is that the standard commercial like it's pretty much standard as 20 years sometimes if you're considering solar like on a flat roof we would recommend 30-year warranty but since that's not the case here 20 is sufficient um for what we see on these roofs we could certainly look into an alternate warranty ad for that if you wanted um but 20 is what we bed at um the full project has a a one-year parts and labor warranty on everything that we do um and we will have extended warranties on compressors um I don't think anything other than that about five years on compressors what's the timeline for doing the question everything yeah so Roofing we have planned to get completed this summer for all three schools um we're confirming lead times we think we might be able to do some of the split systems in the MDF room this this summer um so TBD on that once we get the final subcontracts out the chiller though has a longer lead time that's um we're getting quotes on was it 12 months or a little bit less than that a little B Windows would spring yeah is this a tear off on the shingles or is it it is a tear sure tear off on the shingles uh you have some flat membrane roof yeah the we're keeping that uh at the rec recommendations of the roofing contractors who came out here they're recommending that you retain that and they're going to put a cover board and then a new membrane on top of that and replace any wet insulation underneath as well and then will that also have a longer warranty as far as for the flat roofs or is that one year oh it's not one year so that'll be off the top my head I don't remember the meming uh the warranty on that we can find that one out okay and then we are adding gutters to the primary Elementary correct we do we are adding gutters as well and a roof hatch actually oh yeah yeah a discovery during the site visit with the roofers uh was that there is a roof hatch as there should be with flat roofs it's boarded up and U that may be attributed to something during the past 20 years um uh where it could been regulatory uh where you were required to board it up but you're going to get a new roof hatch as part of that job at a spot that all Regulators will approve okay is this going to help with the fire suppression system the sprinkler system uh no I don't think it it won't impact with that it won't I mean uh no I don't think there'll be any tie to that because once we switch over to the city water we're going to be good with the fire suppression system Oh you mean the uh the exploding sprinkler the bres sprinkler heads we have sprinkler heads at break periodically um this does not impact that right now I know if the roof came down or now that we have gutter that way it very cool yeah anybody else have questions the wiring did we ever we're talking about like the wiring the control wiring yep good questions so what we're doing with that is that we've got our team that's actually going to provide the layout since you're doing the wiring already that um for it or I'm sorry for security this summer so we're going to provide the layout for it the drawing so that you guys could secure that um and use eate for it nice we could come to an agreement with that yeah we did it worked out any other questions okay please have a motion to approve the phase one scope of work along with the phase Final Phase One pricing motion Jo Viv yes yes yes yes yes yes any questions on the education Sports staff handbook thank you thank you thank you I put in red things that have changed um two things I want to highlight for you one there's a on page seven there's a large section of red you'll see it's it talks about what we do during e-learning days because that we didn't have that clarified in here for our support staff so that basically says to support staff um that if they are not at work that day based on their job some like our maintenance staff will be here and they'll be working unless it's like a huge snowstorm and nobody can get here um we let them we still pay them that day and they make up those hours throughout the rest of the year so that's that's the same for everybody now then the other one was something that we I know that as a board and we tried to mimic this handbook as to what's in the teachers contract and there was one thing we didn't offer our support staff that I threw in here asking for your approval is that uh when staff retire um in our teacher handbook if they have leftover sick days that are not used towards retirement we give them $35 per day so we that was something we didn't offer our support staff and we didn't know that was not in there so i' put that in to mimic what we offer the teachers so just seeking your approval for that everything else is just minor language changes to clarify things any questions can I please have a motion to approve the education support staff handbook for 2024 2025 motion second Lauren Andia good yes yes anybody questions on the March employment recommendations with the additions no please have motion to approve the March employment recommendations motion with additions motion Joe and Ash yes yes yes yes yes yes uh we accepted a retirement from Phil Smith Primary School library clerk effective may28 2024 thank you for your time at our school Phyllis um we accepted a resignation from Kelly Rivera Elementary special services teacher effective at the end of the school year we accepted resignation from Katie Boyd prek teacher effective at the end of the school year and we uh approved the resignation of Jason Merill seventh grade social studies teacher effective at the end of the school year anybody any questions on the fo requests or the monthly reports for the board uh superintendent evil time the time of year again oh my only question was on did it work okay last year I think we did after a regular board meeting right yeah on June 10th is that what you did last year was after a regular board meeting you went in close session and did I thought we did a separate was a year I think we did it separately sear did you do it separate I think there was confusion about it I think we were supposed to do it after board meeting and then we didn't schedule it may that was father I'll have Melissa reach out to you and set a date how about that cool and then she can re reach out back to some of us text us still text you at 20 times I don't know you're talking all right thank you Melissa your diligent she never uh complains about you guys not getting back to her never the next regularly scheduled board meeting will take place on Monday May 13 2024 with close session beginning at 6: p.m.

the ASO Community Unit School District Board of Education meeting for April 8th 2024 can I have a roll call please here present present please stand for the pledge of alleg i al to the flag of the United States of Amica and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible all right good evening we are thrilled this evening to have a special recognition and I'm going to invite Teresa cinas to lead us through it if you could join us out here please all right let's go up all right so this evening the board is really proud to to acknowledge the award-winning efforts of our students who receive state and or national recognition for their school related activities and tonight we're recognizing many individuals for their commitment and dedication to the 2023 2024 Special Olympics State basketball tournament and Miss Jessica Wade the Special Olympics coordinator so congratulations to the students from our sgle [Applause] and so congratulations first to our students from the asigo Wildcats junior basketball team and coaches Michael fulam and lean treken bro these students received a silver medal in the junior division 3 at the Illinois Special Olympics State basketball tournament we're going to introduce them now avelyn brazowski [Music] [Applause] Logan [Applause] llamas Jacob [Applause] Mach Anthony Mueller Ethan [Applause] noski Logan Olen Oliver Sanchez Guan Alden [Applause] Schmidt Andrew [Applause] C Everett [Applause] smoker and Caleb [Applause] Graham okay so athletes that your name was just called if you would like to join join your coaches right up here we're going to take a special picture of you with our board [Applause] [Music] okay and everybody smiling at me [Applause] all right now we're going to congratulate the asgo wild cats high school basketball team and their coaches Michael fulo and Bill canano who earned a bronze medal in the senior division five [Applause] category Colleen Claire damiola [Applause] aun Liam flare there you go will [Applause] Jarvis Brandon [Applause] lavorn Matteo [Applause] morasco Ben nuttle Zach [Applause] petak Jacob perita Julissa Ramirez Benny Robinson Mila Stucky [Applause] Divine nagas [Applause] tagim and Keon [Applause] Thomas okay we're going to do the same thing so students if you want to come on up here and get congratulated by our board and joined by your coaches we're going to take a picture of you come on up I am taking my friend mil [Applause] I hey you remember me julisa come to the front there you go right like this side there you go there you go B turn yours around smil [Music] come on we want to see your smile there you go good job guys okay and finally tonight we're going to congratulate the following individuals and their coach es TJ Wade and lean treken brck who participated in the special Olympic State basketball tournament competing as individual skill competitors Lacy salowski gold [Applause] medal oh yes gold medal Division 1 wow Emma Sanchez garan silver medal division [Applause] one and Andrew Bice gold medal division M2 okay we're going to do a picture of you guys if you want to make your way up here and your coaches we're going to do a quick picture [Applause] Andrew turn it around there we go [Applause] okay so we have one last celebration and that's for the special people that are a big part of each and every one of these students lives and we just want to say thank you and congratulations to the coaches teachers parents and families that are here so thank you so much okay that concludes our celebration for you all this evening feel free to go um we appreciate you coming out yep but you're welcome to stay and come [Music] back [Music] who up car in the [Music] shop did they haven't told me that's the part of it says I [Music] know you [Music] wereing [Music] agree I put two tapes in press the buttons it was like but I was Ambassador for the United States what's up there isone there isone we might see [Music] the okay we have no public comment so we're going to going to move past 5.1 and go right into our superintendent report superintendent report um I have no comment given that it's a final four this evening the spirit in the spirit of brevity uh you all doing great and have a great night well we do have some celebrations coming up we do want to honor it is uh the month of Ramadan is coming to a close soon and we want to honor before them uh the aid celebrations that are coming up for our our members of our community who've been celebrating um uh this month of fasting um also this month we honor autism neur and neurodiversity um this is a month we also reflect on Child Abuse Prevention death history Youth Sports safety and Arab American history um these are all important things to really take to account um and reflect on uh this month I am so proud of our financial team and our district financials office under Mr Rafael bemi and Amanda satar will be hosting four communities discussions next week um the dates are next Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday please look on our website there's lots of information of this we also have a special Zoom session virtual session if you can't join it in person please join us as we think think about the planning of our tenative budget for next year these are opportunity to hear about the status of our budget um questions that are coming up for you and also about how our schools are funded and the way in which we we find our resources we continue as a district to think about our eight priorities last uh at our last board meeting you heard a robust presentation around the eight priorities um this evening we'll continue that conversation as we think about our the alignment between our a priorities and our Equity policy that we are bringing to the board um these are not I would say ending points these are starting places as we think about the work that need to happen um these are beginning points these are calls to action for us in terms of how we we reflect and the systems that we need to put into place around supporting our students and our staff and how do we strengthen who we are as a district and last but not least it is a month of sports and so we want to invite reminder all our employees we have our volleyball tournament this weekend for all employees uh there will be 11 teams representing our schools and departments we invite everyone to join the fund come out to OS to support this this coming Saturday starting at 10:30 a.m.

e perfect say good day not good evening good day or good afternoon what I say good afternoon don't say good afternoon yeah you say good evening say good afternoon blooper real afternoon all right good afternoon this is Aiden tle from live from Fred F Parkfield uh here we are here here today uh witnessing the launch of a weather balloon uh by quest of the stars and Manchester Community schools um I'm here with Mr Tyson Brooks from bluon middle school um and we also will be later speaking with his academic team um and Mrs Amy um Gerber um all right so Mr Tyson Brooks uh I would just like to ask a few questions first so of course have you ever winess totality in a solar eclipse before I've never witnessed a totality uh back in 2017 we got a bunch of glasses and we brought the whole Middle School out for our partial um but this is the first totality that I will have ever witnessed awesome right I was I remember that um what grade were you in I was in sixth grade at the time in Mr Harold's sixth grade science class um so why do you believe that of all places that they would come to bluon Indiana uh we're on the very edge of the totality and Manchester was not and so we got in contact they got in contact with us and wanted to know if we could partner up on this event and I said absolutely and so then Bobby Russell got involved with quest for stars and uh then the Ukraine movement got involved with that and our live streams with them um and so that's what we're hoping to do is just kind of spread some hope and then this balloon launch is actually called Mission of Hope awesome awesome so um do you know like so the total next total eclipse is projected for for 2099 so how are scientists able just to predict like even for this one able to predict that it's even going to happen on this day at this minute so the stars and the Moon and the Sun how they orbit around each other mathematically You can predict that out to Infinity if you want to and so then what they can do is they can just project those models out there and then you know exactly where each state will be and what totality it'll be in so mathematically it's very easy to do yeah of course so um do you know how many different types of eclipses there are we've obviously witnessed a partial and this will be a total but what other kinds of eclipses are there uh there are two types of main eclipses there's a solar eclipse and there's a lunar eclipse eclipses are named for what what is being blocked out not by what is doing the blocking so today is a solar eclipse because the sun is being blocked out and the What's blocking it out is the moon in a lunar eclipse the Moon is being blocked out and what's doing the block is the earth okay and just a few more questions here but um when was the last total solar eclipse in Indiana if you do know that I have no idea and it was before my lifetime that's for sure and what are the impacts um and effects that having an event like this in bluon will have on like our community and just our general area as a whole um already the traffic is is pretty in interesting in town um I just heard that the State Park closed their Gates they had 85 cars lined up trying to get in and they are completely full um our parking lots are still relatively empty and so um I think that people I think that that they're not realizing that it's such a big deal at this point sorry we had a small lift off over here anyway um but I think that when they look back on it and now that we have the technology to record it and live stream it I think that they're going to realize is what a big deal it really was yeah well that's all my questions so thank you for this interview you're welcome and um yeah go cyber Tigers is about time for the launching of the balloon so stay tuned for that um and this is me Aiden tle signing off right EX e okay good hello again this is Aiden tle from bluon high school I'm here at Fred F park fields again today uh we are launching a weather weather balloon with quest of the stars and Manchester Community School right now I'm here with our bluon Middle School academic team um and I'm going to be doing an interview with them so if you guys could all introduce yourselves again I'm Aiden tle who are you I'm McKinley rud and I'm in eighth grade I'm am jamy Brown and I'm in seventh grade I'm Elijah Bendis and I'm also in seventh grade awesome so uh explain kind of what you guys do for academic team and like what you guys have already done and what you guys will do well we've had one competition s far that was at Delta Middle School I think scage it was a scrimmage um our actual subject this year is the 80s and 90s so we're talking about human genome projects we're talking about the space shuttle programs we're talking about technology from that time so like apple and Microsoft we're also talking about the astronomy stars and also natural or disasters such as Chernobyl and hurricane inur cool awesome um and so uh with the solar eclipse and this balloon weather weather balloon launching uh what are some things you guys kind of did to get ready any research or any preparation that you guys did with your teachers um for us in seventh grade we did talk about it in Mr Brooks's class he's our science teacher and during academic team we had two Google meets one was with kind of just it was like an overview of what's going on we had a Ukrainian school with us we had Manchester and then it was us and then the second one was kind of more detailed like what the we weather balloon would have what it looked like and all all that stuff and um so as you've been here today um is it just like what do you guys what are you guys' feeling about this whole event um I don't know if you guys remember like the partial eclipse that you did happen but what are some things that you are looking forward to about seeing this uh total eclipse I'm mainly looking forward towards totality complete darkness 360 view of the hor of a horizon sorry um I'm personally I want to see what the Shadows are going to do cuz normally the Shadows going to be from the light from the Sun but I want to see what's going on during totality if like there's just no Shadows or there's weird shadows yeah I'm excited for like the darkness too yeah um and just as we go uh looking forward to um the launching of the balloon and uh have you gotten to talk to the Manchester kids as well uh yeah I I've gotten to talk to a couple of them I've had a couple conversations I asked them actually what like their their feelings on this and they launched another weather Ballo weather balloon last year but it wasn't for solo eclipse and they just launched it so they're saying that it like it feels kind of normal for them that's what they said well as we're all looking forward to this launching of the weather balloon in 6 minutes um we are just excited to see everything that this will do and um as the eclipse will begin shortly with um begining partial and then moving into totality we are looking forward to [Music] this e so first Contact is happening want me to get seconds all right this is aen live at Fred F Park field um we are 30 seconds um from the beginning of the eclipse so we are looking forward to that well 20 seconds now just getting closer and closer again 15 as as you hear this countdown we us should start to see the moon start to creep up on the sun and start and we'll start to get less and less of the sun one and there we go uh do make sure that if you are going out to stare at it please make sure that you are wearing glasses as the eclipse can be very very dangerous to your vision so it appears that they are now filling up the balloon finally for the launch of the weather balloon they will be attaching a um a a set of um components and like video stuff and electronic that they will um use to like just get a good idea of what the eclipse is and everything about it yeah all right so I'm Aiden tle um what is your name suji I'm curriculum director at Manchester awesome um so some of us um we know the weather balloon is launching but what exactly are we trying to you know achieve by launching the weather balloon we're going to collect a lot of data um one thing that we're going to do since it goes up it's a stratospheric balloon uh we'll be going going up high enough that we should be able to have a really great view of the Sun and we have a 360 camera on there so we should be getting all kinds of video image and camera footage when we launched in in the spring um amazing pictures so that's one thing we also have sensors um the payload that you'll see The Orange Box has um student experiments in it uh we'll have um pressure temperature humidity different kinds of sensors in there and then we hope to launch again on Friday back at Manchester and then we'll do kind of a reverse control to compare the data from what we collect today to what we collect on Friday okay how many um how many launches does Manchester do per year well last year we had our first and then it went so well that we decided we would we would do it again so Bobby came back this will be our second and then next Friday will be our third okay and what what are some things that you had to do to prepare for it like studying wise and um getting all the material all that what did what do you have to do to prepare there's a lot of like electrical components and so our students had to work with we have three amazing teachers that are kind of leading the experiments and so they've met gosh since October uh planning the experiments there's also a limit to the amount of weight you can put on the payload because it has to get off the ground and so have been calculating um and deciding the experiments uh they've been 3D printing a lot of the components that go in there so a lot of physics a lot of chemistry a lot of math yeah sounds like a lot of things I'm not very good at but um so it appears that they are launching it now so what um explain like what is what is going on like currently I guess well you see the the gloves on the balloon uh as they're filling up the balloon with helium everyone that touches it needs to have the gloves on so that the oils on their skin don't damage the balloon so they're working on that there's an anchor there they'll attach the payload to that I believe Bobby is still working on getting the transmitter ready to transmit the video images and then we have two of our teachers working on one of the student experiments getting the finishing touches on I something wasn't uh the contact wasn't working so they're trying to um repair that I think quickly before we launch so it's imp imperative though that we get this thing up in the air at the right time yes of course um well thank you for coming on and interviewing it's Al it's always great to get more information about um the weather balloon and all everything about the solar eclipse on this paranormal day but um thank you yes of course and uh again U as the eclipse is currently happening again make sure that you are wearing um the correct proper eyewear so that you are not damaging your eyes and and also stay tuned for the launching of the balloon here very very soon and this aen again signing off for now see first contact with the moon shading on the very bottom right of the Moon you or the sun you can begin to see kind of where the the Moon is starting to cross over onto the sun because it's as you can see it's not really a full circle anymore now it's kind of almost looks lopsided on the bottom um and that's also very exciting to see as you know everything we've talked about for weeks and months out now we're kind of seeing it in real life and I think that's really really an awesome thing e all right so we're back out here again again Aiden I have my uh sunglasses or not sunglasses I guess solar eclipse glasses on uh so I can look at the the moon and the sun again very very important uh you know don't want to go completely blind over looking at this when you can have these and it's not a big deal so um it appears that they are finally getting this balloon up we had some technical difficulties um and just a lot of just big things going on so their camera wasn't working so they are actually attaching this brand new it's over $1,000 uh phone to the balloon in hopes of getting some footage from the balloon um we are looking forward to see if they can accomplish that um well and efficiently um and like uh in our interview before um we had mentioned to us that we did have some technical difficulties on like the Box that they put on the bottom that has the camera in it um again and we may not have um footage of the actual balloon um up in the air so we are hoping that everything will work out fine e make sure you're not touching it okay just trying to get like conversation what's going on okay with uh who it's it's completely it's completely empty we're done done that's 600 that's more than we need that's going to be a f we bottom whoa but yeah be off you undo that so I can actually twist this without twisting the ballooning all right you guys all right we're good okay kind of scar just kind of scared that off time check it's time to get this thing in the air this comes off yeah so twist it with me okay I got it you heard that the balloon is launching now so here we go everybody watch as the balloon goes you're going to get this the attached everything attached the balloon is ready you got too far away got stay in front the side of the balloon we need to get the payload it's time I have my as part of it too so I'm going ahead and powering we need plug we need power from the court on the side into our uh two Nanos yep got it what is this box called because it's latex I think the payLo will it okay not that knowledgeable help out so this is this is the payload we are going to put the payload on to the balloon and we'll launch it into the air everything going everything is going everything is powered on cameras are shooting uh spots on you need shade yes cut the water off uh no not yet okay so where's that yellow cord everybody was talking about somebody said there was yellow cord in this box electrical cord oh man that got hit okay strobes coming on this is so exciting okay strobes are on all right secure the top we we'll you know what we'll use the the standard stuff if we have to okay we're going to get this thing in the air like now still half and half half on the box so we are applying they're applying duct tape onto the box now they have their strobe lights on so we'll be able to see the balloon going not too big right there get one right here all right uh screwdriver PHS may flip for you nope okay nothing flips for me except smaller okay we're secure we just need the lines now are they underneath I did not see yell ropes is that okay okay what what do we have cord wise under uh one of these got a lot of cordage okay I need two students to hold this no no you're with the blue stay with the blue okay I need one more need somebody you I don't have gloves is that okay no the gloves aren't here you go there you go all right just hold that exciting but horribly stressful payload got a bunch of experiments and circuit kind of things in it sorry I don't know the correct terminology what are your thoughts on this whole experience right now in the moment I don't know stressful are the flags in here one of them yes okay one of yes is brand new brand new cell phone is now going 16 miles up we got to make this even this is when we make yeah so what I'm doing is a single here versus a double I'm just tying these together this time with a bow line Okay so through up no that's not it I can do one I think it's wrapped and then through yes it's wrapped through but what we want to do is we want to get the knot up top so it doesn't tilt sideways see what I'm saying yeah yeah so we'll figure out what that is take a break out with somebody how much do we need just about that okay give me a little bit for a kn time check 11 we're going to go up faster so actually no no no keep coming about right there you want me to go all the way you'll go all the way down to it okay no no no what I'm saying is tie down there you want to go through no tie down here see what I did yeah yeah yeah got you you want it shorter I didn't put a oh don't tie don't tie swivel no swivels I thought I had swivels is it that is it those yes that makes a big deal that's spinning is what that is yep that makes a big deal let's have Ballo without the payload spinning come on get in there there we go okay and I'll get the Carabiner so go ahead something else I think we're good actually yeah so there's a swivel on there uh I already had a swivel is that good that's good yep onlys my okay I'm going to come around that way and excuse me mhm all right payload being connected the reason I went orange on payload and then green on the balloon is cuz at one time I actually put hooked it up backwards where the Shute was upside down and I caught it at the very last second I'm like whoa that would not have been a good day come on really come on get in there okay tracking up want me to cut these cords yeah cut this that up I don't see it up now oh yeah there it is going check in one two three four five all right we're almost ready guys prepare for the count down okay not yet guys real close on car okay we're good to Black up it's already recording I see the red there good deal that stopped yeah it may have gotten hit come on it's recording okay you heard that here the it is recording but we are we're about to send it up the custom flag that you made isn't in there no that's that's uh we signed that for the chase chase team so we can sit here that's what I thought okay we are ready we are ready y we go okay what we're going to do is we're going to we're going to cut the uh we're going to we're going to cut down tie and and which I'm just holding my knee on this to hold it down okay yeah make sure you don't cut the wrong okay we're cutting the red or this one what do you need I got that same knife I think it's yours oh that's probably we good to cut yep good to cut fine nice style points for Sor okay so you know the drill hand over hand all right guys we're going to start walking it up I'm getting from underneath everybody needs to clear out for okay somebody's phone that was the little girls that let me use it all right hand over hand let's go you want me to grab the line behind you oh wow that's huge everything's looking good minus live video sorry Randy sorry we burned up our video somehow also the Arduino the science is had issues too so but we're flying that's what counts okay my fing this okay keep coming quite a tug huh it is right now wow almost took me away I'm with you I will tackle you just just don't let go of that line together yes sir okay three feet oh that' be so scary you know what leave it I just I'm worried about it catching stuff but it is what it is all right all right students are going to hold it just don't touch any of the cameras anybody else want to gather around okay guys we got to watch the uh watch the direction of the balloon okay so this is going to go up fast everybody so be prepared okay let's lift it up okay countdown T minus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 pause pause pause we want it to come back this way all right 3 2 One Zero release bye going the right way it doesn't matter it'll get pictures that's all we care about and we got science on board I just took and there you have it the balloon is launched should I go back up there yeah we'll see what update about how it's progressing yeah all right as we uh as we look at the eclipse now we can tell that um the eclipse is covering about say 25% of the sun um we are approaching totality very quickly just not too long ago we did see that the balloon was uh or not the balloon that the moon was just a little bit and now it's you know a decent chunk of it it's pretty visible totality is coming very soon man that's cool watch that's the Sun e welcome back everyone welcome back to the the broadcast um I am here with Lily welcome Lily to the broadcast I'm Aiden um and it appears that we have a little bit of an experiment here so could you explain uh like what what this experiment is meant to show well when the um Moon covers the sun uh you will see an oval instead of the circle that you're seeing now because the sun's being covered a little bit so it's like and yeah so do I need glasses when I stare at this thing or no you don't so my eyes are protected so this is a an easy way to observe the eclipse without having to have glasses um so I can I can tell by looking at it that it is um becoming an oval instead of a circle and I think that's really cool so did you learn this in class or where did you uh like discover this um my grandpa found it on the internet awesome awesome hey well that's awesome well um um reminder if you don't have glasses that um you can use something like this so it's just a ruler with a box above a paper um make sure it does have a little hole in it cuz that's like the whole point of having it I know some of the gas stations and stores around still have glasses as well and there is plenty of time to still go and see that you can get those glasses to see the total solar eclipse while it is in the sky um but uh thank you for showing this um experiment thank you it's e hello again this is edle with Bobby Russell uh he is uh part of the group quest for stars awesome and you guys are launching the weather balloon today could you uh give us some updates on how that is like going and everything yeah we had a few small glitches and it's going to happen on every flight we had uh some science plugged in that uh tripped out of some of our voltage uh we were able to we couldn't fly with a video transmitter as a result I do have video from my car digital uh but I'm trying to find a way to stream it right now uh we are recording on board so uh we will get the stuff back I I trust that we will so uh yeah awesome and it appears that we do need to make this short because you are about to um go out and search for it correct correct so uh it's going to be near Finley Ohio somewhere near there so uh we're fingers crossed well good luck to you and uh thank you for doing this okay thank you so much thank you e hello this San again uh for live all right from bluon high school um and I'm here with the bluon Middle School academic team uh and we just uh they just helped with the launching of the weather balloon um and so I am going to get some of their opinions on this stuff and so I'll just pass the mic down and you can kind you guys can kind of share your guys' opinions um and thoughts on the launching the balloon we'll start with Jeremy uh me personally I was St helping stabilize the balloon and I just thought that was a lot bigger than I expected it was really big and I just think it's actually really cool because we're going to get a live stream of what it's going to look like from 100,000 ft up so I think that's pretty cool um I help stabilize the balloon as well and I also carried a box I forgot what it was um I thought that the size was pretty cool too like I didn't expect it to be that big yeah um I help uh stabilize the balloon uh keeping it down low I I didn't really I knew it was going to be big but not that big so yeah basically the same as everyone else I H hold it at the bottom and like it kept trying to pull away from where you were holding it and it was just really large and a lot bigger than I think I was expecting it was a really good experience and it was super fun and cool but it was also was super tiring like our arms were like almost cramping and but just after watching it go up super fast and just seeing it disappear in like a minute was super awesome it was a cool experience I've always went to the launch or helping launching a weather balloon then everything else they already mentioned well I hope you guys all had fun and have learned a lot from this experience uh Davis how does it feel that it's your birthday birthday and this is happening it's crazy like I I don't know what to think about it like just the the chances of my birthday landing on the total solar eclipse which will not happen in years is just crazy birthday tomorrow and it's your birthday tomorrow how's that feel nice well uh thank you guys for coming here and doing this interview with us and U stay tuned for the solar eclipse I can starts to feel like it's getting a little bit darker so uh it is about I'd say about 50% covered now the sun is by the moon so we are getting very very very close to totality if you have chickens they may begin entering their hen houses that's something that I've heard um online before all right well e okay this is a non-id explanation because I watched like a 15minute video yeah so the way that it works is the light isn't coming sorry I didn't need to smack it it's not coming directly down it's coming at multiple angles so you know you've got light that's coming from the bottom of the sun that's going up okay and then you've got light that's coming down and then you also have light that's Crossing left and right so that's why it's it doesn't look like the same picture that you'd see if you're looking at it but it's because it's almost like I don't know what that c shape is it's almost it's it's like an eyeball yeah isn't that interesting yeah or a lemon lemon right it's kind of a lemon a lemon shape instead of a circle yeah that's pretty cool isn't it so different sizes make a different shape yeah it's less it's less pronounced on a big hole more pronounced on a little hole for some reason I don't know why but that's kind of interesting so if you are doing this experiment I would say do a smaller hole Yeah you can get it sounds like it sounds like a good plan cool all right we are now experiencing a lot more effects from the solar eclipse um I I feel it getting cooler out um as well as it is starting to dim um the we are about 30 minutes out from the solar eclip totality and the second contact which is the full like the full thing um do you have any comments on the recent um the recent Eclipse um it's going to be very interesting um they say that animals like bugs that chirp at night will start chirping um and so right now it's getting a lot dimmer out um no need for sunglasses at this point um it's about halfway covered um still too bright to look at unless you have your safety glasses on uh so it's pretty cool like we've been enjoying it but it's just it's a nice fruition um a totality so to speak of just doing all this balloon launch and and all the zoom meetings and all the the coordinating that we did to just watch it go up and now we just get to sit back and relax and just watch the eclipse and then get the live stream later of the actual GoPro video will be really cool speaking of which let's uh s back and let's experience this oh yeah let's oh yeah that's about 60% I love it such a good time oh yeah great experiences hello everyone we're back with uh Mrs mitler here Hi how are you Aiden I'm doing so well um just it's awesome to be here experiencing this eclipse and just helping out with everything going on here of Broadcasting and all that um so could you talk to me about um the connection with Manchester absolutely so I had the opportunity uh to know Su gagi who is their um curriculum director we have similar roles and so she and I uh a year ago we were invited to watch their live stream because they did this weather balloon launch before and we were the uh location Destiny for the balloon to land so we had the live stream and a few teachers or students might have tuned in but we really didn't get too involved last year so then this year um Sue approached me and said hey are you interested because our scientist Bobby said that bluon would be a great location to launch and so I uh connected Sue to Mr Rooks and Mrs gerbert and that's how that connection happened so we're very excited to collaborate with another school in Indiana and see where this balloon lands yes I I heard that it was supposed to land in Ohio I heard that as well it's supposed to right now is targeted to land around Finley Ohio um and they have a team that is there now waiting to see if it's there and I believe a couple another team has like started following the track as well so we'll get to see that once it lands yes and I we are looking forward to that getting that footage uh seeing the 360 camera and everything they have on board it was a a rough start getting it off the ground but once they got it up man it was really cool to watch that thing go it's really nice to see all the students involved in the activity as well as the teachers who came out um to support that for their students today so and then the eclipse is awesome as well yes of course um well thank you for coming on thank you for the interview and uh we will now be in three minutes we will have another interview e all right so um 20 minutes till the eclipse and we are beginning to see Shadows um are beginning to change so we have some Shadows that have like they're a bit fuzzy and then some that are really sharp so as you can kind of see um along these circles on um the ruler they look very um they're a little bit hard to see but they are like they're like a fuzzier outline instead of like a sharp um normal shadow that would just be like direct lines yeah yeah so if you look at not the circles my bad um so you look at the like the fatter one it's kind of like like it kind of Fades into it when this one is just like like it's just like sharp right off of it so it's very interesting just like how this solar eclipse affects um different lighting and all these Shadows that are going on um but again 20 minutes until totality so be staying in tune and keep your glasses near and on your face e all right this is Aiden tle back again um here at bluon high school um and I'm here with local celebrity uh Tyler godman um here to ask a few questions um so out and about this today like how is it crazy out there oh yeah I mean there's a lot of people for being in this little tiny Town way too many people than need to be here um and what locations did you drive by that were just like bizarre uh down like the river Greenway and by downtown oh yeah downtown and uh uh what what um effects has this uh solo Eclipse had on your day as a whole well I was going to plan to go run today but I can't do that right now cuz you might get lost yeah I might get lost um and so um just what what are you looking forward to about the solar eclipse and like what what pequs your interest about it um I want to see how dark it gets yeah me too um well thank you for coming on um I do have a few stat statistics so uh totality will begin at 308 and 55 seconds that'll be the start and also will be uh the uh second contact uh 310 and 15 seconds will be the middle of totality that'll be the most dark so that's 310 and 50 15 seconds and then 311 and 34 seconds is when the Third Contact will be and that will be the end of totality so again the darkest point will be at 310 and 15 seconds and the beginning will be at 308 55 seconds and the end will be at 31134 seconds stay tuned e uh welcome back again uh as we are closing in near totality in 6 minutes um animals like birds um turkey vultures and um just other small birds I know like I mentioned earlier like chickens poultry um will begin to go back to their roosts or their nests um because they believe it's becoming nighttime um crickets normally would start chirping but um weather conditions haven't been I deal so I don't know if we hear any today but that is something that would happen during a solar eclipse but birds I we just saw some fly by over there so things are happening um here in about 5 and a half minutes 5 minutes uh totality is in closing e all right as we're moving in we have less than a minute to totality it's getting pretty dark all of a sudden it feels like it's like 8:00 at night um I'm here with Mr Michael Vander from bluon high school Publications um yeah I mean this has just been a really interesting day so far I mean we got here both of us around like 10 and it just seemed like just a regular nice day and all of a sudden like once the action started picking up um it just really just kept going and it's just interesting seeing like the sun just disappearing right now as you guys can see on camera 15 it's beginning to Disappear Completely I'm G to take off my glasses take a look at around feel free to take off your glasses and look around I don't even see the sun anymore who that is really cool wow like this is truly like yeah a bizarre experience right now and stars all you can start seeing a little bit of stars over to the right I don't know if you can get that on camera but I mean it really is just a ring and it's just completely I I didn't expect anything like this light off turn the light off um so we do have newscast light on as well and there it goes so definitely just a haze like almost like a sun set over towards the Southwest uh Southeast pardon me but yeah just this bright white ring around the moon was just never seen anything like it it's something yeah like it looks like something straight out of fiction I've never some people around shooting up some fireworks as well in the neighborhood it I all the pictures I always see online it's always orange which it's like really cool it's like just a bright white Max eclipse in 10 seconds so we are approaching that Max Eclipse so there's going to be the most amount of Darkness we do sadly have some of the parking light lights on but I don't think there's anything we can do about that this is the darkest it'll get it's complete it's beautiful magnificent wow so yeah I mean like to me hearing all the hype about people driving so far to come see this like if you are out of totality today uh like I know my sisters in Virginia are watching like if you're out of totality and like anytime you get this opportunity I would definitely recommend it like this is extremely rare and yeah I'm very fortunate to be a part of this I know our uh our bluon yearbook uh Team are hoping to create a spread uh in our yearbook um focusing on this event um our group always likes to do a page if we have extra pages to um do just a special page and this has been just something that's unique and out of the ordinary of a year like we we've had some students around here so we've uh as the eclipse is starting to go back uh separate from the Sun whoa on glasses on so it's a very quick change as well you can't even see anything through the glasses as you start seeing it PE now it's and it is beginning to Peak out of from where the moon began to cover it which does make sense the direction is moving but yeah do make sure that you have your glasses on um permanent blindness can happen due to uh the blinding this if you look at it too long so yeah I do want to like take this time as well to give a shout out to Jonathan Morgan Ben Dy Scott Ribbit um uh and just the BL and Tech Team uh for helping put this on because like this has been something that I know we were kind of like confused about the preparation but it's been a really cool experience and hope we know we have quite a few people around watching and hoping you guys are enjoying uh all the Insight from the balloon launch and just this different perspective on the eclipse itself enjoy the partial phase phenomena in reverse order next notification is fourth contact here we do that again some St some little girl asked if we can do that again it's like no that's just a one time thing probably won't be able to see it again next time yeah e welcome back everyone after totality so we just witnessed the entirety of just the eclipse um fully in like being in the middle of the sun um and creating that beautiful white ring around it there's a really good picture that Mr Brooks took so what what what were some of your thoughts of this uh this is a first ever lifetime event for me so um I've been in a lot of partials but the totality was absolutely incredible the the horizons were um weird blacked out you could see the stars out uh got noticeably colder butterflies started coming out um not in my stomach but an actual nature so it was really really cool um all the stuff that we put into this to just kind of get together and launch a balloon and do it it was all worth it it was pretty cool of course and what about you Noah um I thought it was pretty cool because the last time I saw Eclipse was when I was like elementary school so I thought that'd be I thought it was cool a lot different uh from a partial to a full I mean just how dark it got and like I think the thing that surprised me the most is how quick it was how quick it went got dark and how quick it went back to brightness yeah I know that they were saying put your glasses back on and I did but like right at first when the totality ended there was just this pinpoint of sunlight that was just like a laser beam just started to grow and I was like I have to look away put my glasses back on but it was it was awesome it was the coolest thing I've seen in a long time um yes for sure um hey thanks for watching guys and uh we'll see you later on tv.

e [Music] he [Music] good evening everyone I'd like to call to order this meeting of the school committee for April 8th please stand if you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you everyone uh I just want to say before we start that this um oh roll call that's what I want to say before we start Amal here Oliver here best Coughlin here Mary Beckwith here John Nunes yep uh so um this meeting is being recorded um for um well live streamed and recorded for uh people to watch after um rebroadcast on DC TV channel 9 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5:00 Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Saturdays 8:00 a.m. Sundays at 2 p.m.

right here in the Dartmouth High School library media center uh at this time chair will entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session for the purposes of an update on Union Personnel not to reconvene so moved second motion by Mr Nunes uh second by Miss Coughlin on the motion any discussion roll call please Kate Kathleen ameral yes Chris Oliver [Music] yes

and then also rebroadcast on DCTV channel 18 on Monday and Saturday at noon uh and Thursday at 3: so to begin the meeting as we always do I welcome anyone to step up to the microphone state your name uh We've allotted 10 minutes for public comment uh regarding any item on this evening's agenda so anyone that wants to say anything for public comment speaker once here hearing none and seeing no one making the move um that's it so I'm going to turn it over to Dr Sab McGuire to introduce our um got approval of minutes appr I thought I would get at one of these meetings but so I will entertain a motion for the regular session minutes for March 25th so move second okay we have have a a motion by Mr nun a second by Mr Oliver um all in favor I I I motion passes uh and I also will um take a motion for the executive session minutes for that same evening of stipulation that they be held until the matter for which they were intended is completed second okay we have a motion by Miss noons second by Mr Oliver um all in favor hi hi okay and then Mary for um would be ension for not being yeah that's okay one um so it passes four for 01 that would be both regular for both regular and executive session minutes for March 25th 2024 now we'll turn over to Dr s thank you so um I see the Quinn school team is here I'm going to invite who whoever is um going to be presenting this evening so I see the admin team is coming up to the microphone I see some teachers from the Quinn School are also with us this evening um so we're excited to hear and to see what you have to share with us good evening first we just want to thank you all for this opportunity to present present Quinn Spotlight on kids over the past several years we've tried to show our uniqueness uh that Quinn school has some of you might recall that we've talked in the past about our fifth grade peer leaders we've talked about stem initiatives um we've also showcased our entire staff um and how hard they work in their dedication as well as our PBIS initiative this year we're excited to present on how the Quinn School celebrates being inclusive and unified and in doing so we're very fortunate to have some of our staff here and I'm going to talk a little slow because there's about eight of them walking down the hallway right this minute but in the meantime we have Lindsay vafides here who is our past teacher at the Quinn school and Kim Carrero who is one of our Palace teachers um and again this is Dr Thomas and Steph y malovich the two assistant principes here and coming in shortly um they'll be here to answer any questions or anything after it and they are part of the voiceovers that you'll be hearing in our presentation we have Corey Diaz who is an occupational therapist Sandy alpal Roso one of our slps um Katie noise our school psychologist Mike Capello AP and Steph melow who is one of our Pal's teachers who also put together this presentation um that you'll be seeing tonight and unable to be here um who is also part of the voiceover is Maryann Sorenson hi everyone so we hope tonight's presentation provides you all with a really nice inside look highlighting the opportunities of our programs that what they offer to the elementary students throughout the district our staff Works tirelessly to provide an environment where inclusion and unification are at the Forefront of their daily routines at Quinn we have 34 classrooms K to5 and those 34 classrooms 100% of them are always willing and able to provide the integration that our students need to be successful we pride ourselves on creating a place that is shaped around the idea that Equitable doesn't always mean equal but we do everything we can to promote access to all so we hope you enjoy so I yep welcome to the Quinn school being a part of our Quinn Community is important to us we are always looking for opportunities to communicate in functional and organic ways throughout our day to a variety of familiar and unfamiliar staff thus our snack cart was born students sell snacks to staff within the building you say Hi I'm AR ask hi I'm AR would you like a snack would you like a snack which snack would you like did you he said that one can we look for it where is it green chips thank you what do you say Mr what do you say Ari thank you hi I'm AR you say hi but what do we say thank you and hi I'm AR thank you have a nice day have a nice day thank you our students have access to a variety of low Tech and high-tech tools to promote and enhance their learning throughout the course of each day [Music] go find the green circle next to Wednesday many of the students in our programs have a variety of sensory needs and therefore have motor brakes built into their day these brakes are meant to assist with a child's regulation and help them to achieve an optimal level of arousal each child's break is unique individualized to meet their needs under the guidance of the occupational therapist so if you see us on the swing or in the hallway riding a scooter board just know we are getting our bodies ready to work and learn meaningful learning is important and we believe it should Encompass more than just traditional academics students learn to navigate their Quin Community participate in seasonal activities such as pumpkin exploration and carving egg coloring they follow recipes and have building based jobs like shredding paper and recycling to name just a [Music] few program students are very much an integral part of the fabric of Quinn they have so much to offer our community and they help to make Quinn a better more inclusive empathetic and kind-hearted place where all people are welcomed accepted and [Music] loved relationships are so important at Quinn we Foster meaningful friendships for our children the genuine hugs high fives and pats on the back come so naturally and are heartfelt [Music] so I'm going to talk a little bit about the community outings and we are very fortunate that we're able to get out and do a lot of different extracurricular activities um some of the pictures that you see here are we we went to hetland Ice Arena for some ice skating we had gnome surf School come down and teach us some Dryland training uh We've also been involved in one of our favorite things this year has been fun trampoline park um as you can see the smiles and everyone this has been probably our our biggest hit this year um other things that we've done we've gone to Bay State Gymnastics um we've done bowling before so we really try and do provide the students with a variety of different experiences and we really feel like these experiences allow the students to explore some new environments helping them develop some physical social and communication skills and and really building their independence and [Music] confidence so my favorite day of the year is the day of the unified games we call it the school day games and basically what it is is we invite neighbor towns and programs to participate with us and this year it'll be at Dartmouth High School in a variety of different track and field events and just fun motor activities and this is just such an awesome day it provides and promotes inclusion it just Fosters friendships um we certainly promotes a lot of physical fitness and really creates an awareness as we have so many people involved from volunteers of the high school and the middle school to all of our staff and I hope that you guys can make it this year May 17th at Dartmouth High School this year we are very excited and grateful to have added adapted art and music to the program schedules this change to the schedule has provided additional opportunities for students to enhance their self-esteem increase social interactions improve language skills and has given an overall greater awareness of the Arts the students and staff look forward to miss robo's Hands-On projects during adapted art and Dr seagull's engaging songs and interactive instruments during adapted music next up adapted physical education we provide adapted physical education services in a small group sometimes within the regular fizzed class um so there's a lot of different ways that we try and uh provide these services to our students here at quein elementary school and basically what it does it really tries to help individuals respect needs improve their physical fitness motive skills coordination and overall health it also promotes social interaction teamwork and and self-confidence and I think the big part about adapted fette is that ensures that everyone has the opportunity to experience the benefits of physical activity and lead a real healthy lifestyle here at the Quin school we do our best to ensure every student has a voice and access to what they need to succeed assistive technology is a big part of helping students with diverse needs communicate learn show what they know and engage socially within our school community at the Quinn school we are proud to have students who are using a variety of communication devices that help them to communicate interact socially and engage with learning in meaningful ways these communication devices allow our students to be seen and their voices to be heard communication devices open doors for our students and break down barriers helping them to learn language and academic skills advocate for themselves make their wants needs and thoughts known and interact socially with peers as equal members of our school Community boy needs to clean go to actions clean clean up up up up he needs to clean up the car good job in the words of Rita Pearson every child deserves a champion an adult who will never give up on them who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be these are our Quinn School [Music] champions [Music] last year Lori denisio set the ball in motion at Quinn and opened up opportunities for further collaboration amongst staff to provide richer opportunities for our children with Kim joining the team and consistently being present within our building we are confident the students will continue to be supported thank you to all of our staff for all that you do for our children thank you [Applause] so thank you very much um we hope you enjoyed the presentation the people that I had mentioned before are here so um Sandy alom Roso Katie noise um I they were already here who else we have Corey and um Steph melow so again we'd be happy to answer any questions or any comments excellent I'll turn it over to my colleagues to begin any questions Mr Oliver wow so first of all great job putting this together I know there was no all of you and probably a few other people that are not here that put this together so I thought it was impeccably done um just the pieces to it um you highlighted a number of different things there's just so much to impack out of this video um I I think it my opinion is that the highlighting what is actually going on in some of your classrooms is so important um not only for the school committee but also for for the town in general to see what today's classrooms um especially in the the area that all of you uh work in um it it goes without saying that we have a dedicated uh bunch of uh staff at at Quinn and across the district um you know I could I could say a number of other things but I don't want to be too winded but um no congratulations um this was just so important to highlight and see the um the interactions with our students and what what we're actually doing on a day-to-day basis is huge so thank you all Yes um so I agree with everything what that uh Mr Oliver said um the communication with the computers how long have you had that um does every student who needs that or would benefit from that are they able to access it or is there some you know do we have funding gaps um I the physical education I think you know moving your body helps your brain work and um helps a person integrate with their class and their friends um but I'm curious about the computers I'll say so um what you see are communication devices and so there are um are a variety of types um we have some students well most of the students have dedicated devices and so a lot of times parents don't realize that they're a able to access that through their insurance so if a student um is unable to get their communication needs met verbally um you were able to go through your insurance and get a device funded you usually do need a speech pathologist um to help with that process and to write the evaluation and I am very proud to say that Dartmouth has really been above and beyond some other districts with helping our parents get those devices so we have um many more students with devices than you would in other districts but it's because we take that time that's additional time that we just seek out to help facilitate families so if we see that a student isn't able to make their needs um known within our district as speech pathologists in the district we help the families access that so because a student doesn't only need that to communicate during school hours they need that for life and so we help parents navigate that um and that's something we're really proud of we've done that for numerous years in the district we didn't have as many students as we currently do now who required that um and as we know with covid and just the way times have been changing and and the needs of our students we've had more students with that but at Quinn everyone's a part of that process of embracing um students with devices and making it so it's very normalized within our school Community terrific thank you all for your good work Mary I was really impressed to see the range of outings that you do with the students can you tell me about how many you do over the course of a year hi Steph mow um Mr Capello is the one that really um orchestrates that he's the voice that you heard um we do lots of events throughout the course of the year um because the program has grown so much and there are so many students um we typically go uh the cycle for each class is about once every month and a half um so just about every Thursday Mr Capello is out and about with students in the district um but each class goes about once every month and a half great thank you so you're welcome yeah no just unbelievable I'm I'm so impressed and and just blown away by uh what I saw uh your dedication to the students uh the work you know and I'm thinking of you know the the student that was trying to you know clean up type of deal and working to you know here's where you got to go and then you know he finds you know I'm assuming clean up your room or whatever it was type of deal and and the you know the satisfaction and the congratulator that you gave the re positive reinforcement that's the words I was looking for that you gave to that student is is is is topnotch and uh my my hats off to everybody not only here but you know throughout the district as to what goes on so thank you for doing that thank you Mr Nunes so some of my favorite people up here life lifelong friends for sure um and very respected um for the work that you do I won't get emotional um but uh it's been about I don't know like 12 years not 11 years since my son was a a student so um I can the the compilation video was wonderfully done I totally authentic this is the real deal um and the beauty of it is that it was showcasing um a group of students with the highest level of need uh which brings its challenges um I don't know how you do it uh you know as a mom only having one at home it's it's a lot my husband and I it's it's a 247 thing um constantly redirecting and it's beautiful as well uh you do it every day for that times however many students um and so that needs to be commended because it does take a level of skill set um and what you do inspires the trickle down so I wrote down um you first of all the innate skill that you all have in building trust within the families that you work with um for the safety of their children um and and the way in which you facilitate um natural connections with peers it's just part of the fabric of what you do um to build empathy and understanding within those students who don't have those high level of needs um and ultimately of course the goal is friendship but it's also safety um and so speaking personally you know there have been situations where um I have a child who doesn't speak and so he can't really tell me everything that happens and of course the beauty of the work that you do your constant communication with families and it's wonderful but as my son got older it was those kiddos that were in his class at Quinn those peer models that would ask about him that would ask their parents to ask me about him or to share something that happened good or bad with him through the course of the day um and in last year I had the real honor of having a conversation with a young lady um who was graduating and going into special ed and I said uh oh my you know my my son his needs Chang over the years he's out of District um but she said she turned to her mom and dad who were there as well to say remember that we saw as if they talked about my family at home which was beautiful uh to say that he inspired her to go into special ed and that she always wondered what happened to him where where he was and so she was happy to connect um that's what you do so you do it from 3: when they come to you you do it until they move on to to the Middle School um and that's lifelong effect the impact that you have is great um and that the beauty of that video was that it was so playful and loving and so authentic but there's hard work that goes on in between that um and you love what you do and it just comes out in every day so I just want to say that um and I was long-winded but and it needed to be set so thank you all of you and those of you who aren't up here right now um and the rest of the folks in the district that are doing this great work thank you go ahead Mr Oliver can I ask one more question can I put someone on the spot for either for for the veterans that are over there or if you're if you're new to the district why [Laughter] Dartmouth why Dartmouth why Dartmouth um that's a really good question it's the people it's the values it is coming to work in a district that I grew up in and loving what I do and loving the kids and valuing the staff that I work with it's being part of a team it's knowing that when I come to work the support system is here for the kids for us um it's being a part of something good thank you you're welcome the team great thank you very much thank you very much nice [Applause] J great that was incredible very good so next I'll turn it over for our next presentation we have uh Dr M I'll have you so I first I just want to again thank the Quinn School staff um faculty I just want to say that I've been to visited the Quinn school and been in many of your classrooms and I have to say when you talk about authenticity uh having the opportunity to see you all in action uh sometimes uh is really emotional for me when I walk into your classrooms and see the way that you support your students and as uh as zaral said some of our most high need students uh and there you are there you always have Smiles on your faces you treat the kids with such love and respect um it's really an amazing school it's your classrooms are amazing places to visit and beyond that the way that you've integrated your students into the greater School Community is obvious I've seen the cart the snack cart um I've seen that in action and how much the staff enjoy the staff and students enjoy when they get the uh knock on the door and the snack cart even though the students can't get the snacks which is okay I think that's a good rule um uh but watching just the way the students also love to see the the uh your students come to their classrooms it's really quite um it's inspirational and I couldn't have said it any better Mrs Amal so but it also this also provides us an an amazing seg way into our NE next presentation with Mrs denisio who's going to talk about again you you've had these students since they were three years old how do they come to us in the Dartmouth public schools and I think this provides us as a community an opportunity to learn how do we identify our students who inevitably or not inevitably at sometimes end up in your classrooms I just again can't say enough about the work that you do every day and commend you and have feel very fortunate to have seen you all in action so thank you and I'm going to turn it over to Mrs denisio to talk about the the beginnings of how we bring these children into our schools before that um I can't stand up here after that and not um acknowledge what we just watched but um when we look at at the changing demographics of our school Community with over 40% of our students being high needs this is what we're talking about our students and families are protected by privacy laws so we can't we can't talk about a student's educational needs we can't discuss it but this video so beautifully Illustrated what a budget numbers cannot the faces and services spotlighted here tonight require increased support higher Staffing levels which lead to increased budgets and higher costs for things like specialized transportation and I think we can all agree the invest the investment to provide quality education for all of our students is worth it our entire School Community certainly myself our students our families and our staff are enriched when we provide high quality inclusive educational experiences in our schools and now I'm going to try to compose myself and and do this presentation about preschool it is it is and I think um having been a witness to it for so long um and getting to shine a light on it like I said a lot of this happens behind closed doors because of privacy so the fact that these parents allowed um you guys to Spotlight their children um was needed so thank you for that but where do we start um so the the topic of this is pretty timely because uh we are just starting the preschool process getting the preschool process ready for next school year the lottery has been completed the application process um and and we're starting to fill those peer Partners uh slots for next year so the logistics of preschool in public schools are a bit confusing we don't currently have Universal preschool so I'm hoping tonight's presentation can provide some clarity on why we do what we do so the why behind preschool if we don't have Universal preschool why do we have any preschool because under idea the individuals with disabilities Education Act beginning at age three students with disabilities become the purview of public schools prior to age three services for students with disabilities are provided through Early Intervention which is um a program through the state Mrs Amal can um tell you all about that school districts are required to provide developmentally appropriate Early Childhood special education programs and services for students Age 3 to 5 those words are bolded because the Early Childhood special education is actually a department in Desi that guides the work for our earliest Learners this quote comes from the Desi website um the ecsc programs and services ensure that all children with disabilities have a free and appropriate public education that is designed to meet their unique needs and enable them to make progress in acquiring Knowledge and Skills improving social relationships and learning to take action to meet the needs within the general education program uh we measure what matters and desie measures the outcomes for students students with disabilities so when a child turns three and and is evaluated by us uh we fill out these rating skills which rates these three areas the knowledge um skills and knowledge appropriate behavior and communication and then when they leave us at age 5 and enter kindergarten um we rate them again and that's to ensure the growth and the effectiveness of our early childhood special education programs so what that means for Dartmouth when a student turns three and has been evaluated by Dartmouth public schools and is identified to have disabilities that impact their ability to participate in a preschool uh classroom that Stu student is entitled to a seat in our preschool programs um historically speaking approximately 20 seats are needed each school year to provide preschool for students with disabilities turning three the district has to plan for enough seats to provide services and supports for those students with disabilities so where do these referrals come from often the students are referred through early intervention um some referred through pediatricians private preschools dayc carees um some referrals come through Community screenings and because of our child find law the district is required to evaluate a child in the area of suspected disability so far this school year we have completed um 70 evaluations for preschool age students some of these uh evaluations are for related Services only for example speech therapy that's a it's a big hit in the 3 to five population um the reality is we as the public school have the lowest barrier to entry an evaluation completed through Insurance uh you might be on a waiting list for 6 to 12 months um in public school we have 45 days to complete that evaluation so when concerns arise with development people turn to us so how do we provide these services and that's through the use of inclusive practices guidance from the US Department of Education promotes the use of inclusive practices for Early Childhood special education inclusive practices means that students with disabilities learn alongside typically developing peers the peers are there to support the learning of students with disabilities students with this with disabilities are the why there is a preschool program and the peers are part of the how we're providing services for them inclusive classroom have been shown to support the learning of developing social skills um increasing academic achievement fostering a sense of belonging and provide age appropriate models for social and language skills in other words a three-year-old is much more likely to learn how to play um by watching another three-year-old and playing with another three-year-old um than by working with adults so what this looks like um for us our inclusive education is provided through eight integrated class classrooms um seven of those are at kushman and one is at Potter in each classroom there are seven seats um for students with disabilities and eight peer partner seats so the um seven seats with first spots for students with disabilities are cons what's considered rolling admission because when a student turns three they're eligible um to begin school so that might happen on October 3rd so they come to school on October 4th so at the beginning of the school year some of those seats are empty but they fill up as the year progresses the peer partner slots are filled through the application and Lottery process with priority being given to four year-olds um and all of those students start the beginning of the school year in September for next year we had 42 open peer partner slots all of which are filled um primarily with four year olds but we were able to to provide services for some um three year olds as well and there are 21 open special education slots so hopefully that will be enough and if it's not then we open another classroom because that's our that's our job and then I don't have fancy videos because I don't have that kind of technical skill but I do have pictures and really just to point out the fact of this is what inclusion looks like it looks like kids playing the kids at the table some of them might be non-speaking some of them might be uh you're typically developing four-year-old you can't tell when everyone's playing um I love the picture of the kids at the fire with the firefighters cuz no one's p paying attention and that's perfectly developmentally appropriate um we have sta students getting more support from staff than other kids need but again we're all working together um to meet the the expectations of preschool and this is sort of where uh that middle picture this is where our our Unified sports begins again the Mike Capello touch at at kushman um that's where he starts his unified um sport so he he starts him young so that's all I have for tonight does anyone have any questions best and then M well goad yeah okay best and then we'll go to m um great presentation even without the video um so I'm curious about the peer Partners [Music] um and the ratio so is that a mandated ratio is there it is that ratio is set by desie it's 7 to8 there are other ratios like you can have a class of 20 and have 15 peers and five students with disabilities but we stick to the seven to eight model here um and that's it you can't have less than that or more than that that is the number of of students okay and that that works well because to have prek in Dartmouth it's a real Boon for parents um because it really doesn't cost very very much but do the parents of the peer Partners fully understand what the ratio of the classroom that they're entering sure I think that's why I'm here tonight Mrs coflin I think that that's a really good thing to dwell on that that when parents apply that their children would be peer Partners is that ever discussed yeah it's certainly part of our preschool presentation um again it's it's hard for us because we swim in this water so this is what we live and I think parents we might say it um but understanding it is something different right so uh what that actually looks like in the classroom might not be what a parent is envisioning we've certainly said it they know it when they sign up but again I think the reality of that is is um misunderstood sometimes and the peers themselves um they probably this is the water they swim in so this is the water they swim in they think this is the way the world should be this is the way the world should be right they know some of their friends need more help and they are very willing to help them right I think it's more people of an older generation who don't swim in that water who who see it differently right yes okay I really wonderful wonderful wonderful work and um the patience and dedication to do it right is out standand yeah I just make myself an O later I'm sorry I understand something I'm going to talk about later but I just wanted to make a note so I don't forget one of the I think the slide just before this one here it's almost yeah there okay the far right what what are we doing here with these St this is you know it almost looks like they they're trying to throw you know balls or the one with the net the one with oh is that a that okay I butterfly I think it's a butterfly um you know when they make the pupa and they make the butterflies they let them go I think it's that yeah science meading some science standards excellent there we go no that's fine no I you know it was you know they they seriously they're enjoying themselves and such and I I and no one's really looking and everyone's half sitting I mean this is preschool it's beautiful it's great wonderful but in all seriousness you know thank you for thank you for this and you know that was my stomping grounds kushman was for sixth grade and that so I you know a little bit of a love for that that building but uh you know just again taking care of students and that's what we do and it's you know what we have to do you know I mean unfortunately the state you know doesn't give us a lot of money to do it but they make us do it and you know one of those and it is our pleasure unfunded end it's it's and it's it's thankful that you know it's you know we have the staff and Personnel that uh that's their love and I appreciate it thank you absolutely thank you anyone else Mr oliv so first of all Miss Denio thank you great presentation um I know it's a tough act to follow well um they're my people too can't beet them can certainly can certainly appreciate that but it's just so important to highlight the fact that we all know as most of us as Educators know that the sooner that we can get to these students uh that have learning disabilities that have other types of disabilities the better the outcome is going to be right so for us to to have uh seven classrooms across the district um of pre prek speaks volumes I know that we're always looking uh to expand I would love to see Universal prek at some point I know uh the uh the budget certainly uh is not looking uh favorable right now in the uh coming years but I I just love to see um you know the explanation not just so much for the school committee but I would love to see these kinds of highlights as we move forward throughout this school year to Showcase everything that this school uh District does for the students of Dartmouth I think it's so important um and not only is it important for for our our special education students but I think it also helps to grow I can I'm speaking from experience my two daughters were uh you know they went through the the kushman preschool actually I think it was Quinn then kushman preschool program at the time and uh I I I truly believe that uh they certainly are are better people because of that so um I think this program speaks volumes to what we can do uh with early interventions and at the preschool levels so thank you you're welcome anyone else uh yeah I you you actually embed answers to what I was going to ask you about in terms of the Rolling enrollment because obviously students hit that that uh transition if they're in early intervention or if a provider uh you know refers the student for that age three um if it's so um evaluated and and decided upon as a as a need um so you answered that you spoke to anticipating um the numbers for the year for with fingers crossed right I'm sure yeah I'm sure um and and that's just an important Point um but my colleagues kind of spoke to the rest I mean I said what I said before goes um you know in having the importance of this presentation and showcasing this and and um and uh going into detail as to the why and the how really and with your um clear um you know love for what you do and for the people that you work with uh the heart and soul you know it's all about the heart and soul of doing what's right um a you know aiming for those those that progress and those good outcomes um it starts at starts at the preschool um yeah so I don't really have anything else to add but thank you so much this was so important uh this is hard work uh rewarding work um important work necessary work mandated work um and you all make it look so effortless and beautiful it's pre it's it's messy it's dirty it's it's noisy it's lovely it's wonderful um but it costs money uh and that's the bottom line is that these are kiddos who deserve this are entitled to this um and it cost a lot of money yeah and anyone can do the math around the the peer partner tuition and realize that that is not funding yeah our our preschool program right so I think that that was you know something I had heard recently and I thought oh I I'm not good at math but I know that that's not true um you're right it is an investment it is an investment in in their outcomes and our outcomes um as a school district CU like I forgot who said it but it's really that early intervention that's going to pave the way for future um success so yeah and and those kiddos those peer partners are swimming in the water with their with their uh um their peers who need extra help and and it's just setting the stage for a better Society a more uh integrated and more empathetic more understanding aware society and so it's it's just not only do we have to do it of course we're going to do it because it's what what should be done so thank you can I just just add um because U Mr Oliver mentioned that we don't have Universal uh prek and certainly we know that's true we do know there's a lot of attention uh on pre on universal prek at the federal level and that is trickling down to the state level um I just read a memo right before I came here uh from the uh from desie just announcing some additional some communities that had been awarded what they calling a cppi grant which is a Community Partnership Grant and that's meant to expand opportunities for access to prek in collaboration and partnership with local um child care providers and so that's something that I hope as we start as we continue to develop our strategic plan that we can be considering ways that we can examine um whether or not that type of funding opportunity might might help us to expand prek here in Dartmouth because we certainly know the importance of early childhood education thank you very much thank you thank you job Now's the Time now the time has come reorganization of the committee is uh or organization of the committee um is next so I'm going to turn it over to Dr sa McGuire and well yep okay I'm going to jump right in so um so at this time we will seek a nomination for the chairperson of the Dartmouth school committee Madame superintendent I make a motion that we nominate Chris Oliver as chairman of the diamond school committee for the next school year and I second that any other nominations any discussion close nominations okay all in favor hi hi all opposed I think I say the motion carries congratulations Mr Oliver thank you I don't know how I don't know how I how I feel right now I know how I [Laughter] feel no justce me stay there for tonight and just move the the name we've done that before just move the name tags okay make it official I guess and I would um formerly like to uh welcome Mary Beckwith to the school committee thank you welcome we are delighted to have you and I don't know actually you can't take it out no no we you can keep it and you can stay chair she actually did get it out Mr Oliver right do yep do the bottom one again all right because I can't get my name out I can't I can't get my name out all right I don't know either of you are qualified she said it Chris no don't oh wait oh I'm not this yet I'm not I'm not this oh no I'll give that to you for now I don't know who that is so I guess uh first of all thank you for your support for uh nominating me as chair I will uh certainly do my best uh through this upcoming challenging year uh that I Know It uh is going to be I do want to take this opportunity uh like Miss amarell said to welcome Miss mewith if you could um if you want to say a few words um and just uh introduce yourself uh I don't want to put you on the spot but I am putting you on the spot you are um so I just finished this campaign where I had to speak all the time and so I did didn't expect to have to do that tonight but uh my name is Mary Beckwith I um I've lived in Dartmouth for about 20 years um I work at UMass Dartmouth I'm a title non investigator and compliance coordinator um when Kate called me today I was just about to start a hearing uh for an incident that occurred between two students so I was like Kate I have to get off the phone but anyway that that what I do during the daytime um I live here in Dartmouth with my wife Jill and my son Isaiah who is um a senior here at Dartmouth High we'll be graduating hopefully and um just about a month and um I am delighted to be here and look forward to doing this work for the town of Dartmouth thank you excellent how's that for off the cuff I love it I love it perfect I guess at this time uh I will entertain a motion uh or nominations for a vice chair Mr chairman make a motion we uh nominate Elizabeth Coughlin as Vice chair second on the motion any discussion does she accept will will you accept I will I thank you for that um all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously I'll take the regular old Committee [Laughter] Member yay congratulations thanks congratulations get your graduation speeches ready hold on not yet it'll be here before you know it here before you know it he gets to high school you get Middle School oh I didn't know you go excited y so uh I guess at this time uh I will call for the election of a secretary uh typically uh the secretary to the school committee is the superintendent of schools yeah Mr Mr chairman make a motion that we appoint Dr June sa Maguire is secretary to the school committee second motion so I have a motion on the floor by Mr Nunes a second by Miss Amaral on the motion uh any discussion all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously I don't really think I had a choice I don't think you had a choice either nonetheless we thank you for for serving us all right uh next up we have the assignments for uh subcommittees and um other uh committees that the uh school committee members uh serve on uh so the first off and uh no particular order just what I'm reading off of my brief here is the Dartmouth Education Foundation I'm not sure who was uh I don't have that up in front of me yet uh who served on it let's see serve doing it but they never got in contact with me and I have not done anything with them okay so uh what are our thoughts do we want to continue on with this uh partnership or um and elect or appoint someone else or at least why don't we have you um unless someone else wants to can I just say I know that at least for me I've met with them only once this year and we actually have a meeting tomorrow at 5:15 so perhaps it was just I'm guessing an oversight on their part because I think there's been some change in the the leadership of that probably okay board and maybe they just didn't know that you were supposed to be invited so we I'll see you tomorrow 5:15 where's that it's right here right here in the library yes okay anyone any opposition or anyone else that would like to uh be apped to thef well thank you for serving uh next up is the uh Southeastern Massachusetts educational collaborative uh I currently serve on that committee uh I'm currently serving as chair of the executive board for for smck I'm happy uh this is I think now my uh probably my eighth year doing so I'm happy to stay on that board unless someone else uh would like to step in no I'm the treasurer so I'm out so uh I will continue serving uh next up we have our representative uh to masc now um I'm just thinking about this CU I was just looking through the uh the monthly uh newsletter we get from masc now typically uh at their annual meeting in November they they have a meeting of the delegates is is it safe to say Mr that the person that represents us uh that we appoint to this committee would also serve as our delegate should we should we uh take up some of their um their language and and send someone I I would I would think it would uh I will be honest with you I did not get to uh the meeting down in Cape last year I was in Indianapolis with the the with the band but you know I would assume that that's what it can be or you know maybe we can find out exactly if that's the way that would work I would have no problem with that yeah one of the things I would like to see uh this committee do moving forward um after being involved with masc for so long and the need for advocating is um take up some resolutions and um bring them have our delegate bring them uh to the to the fall convention So currently we have me who is on that me thank you no seriously are you are you happy to stay in that committee is anyone else fine nope I'm good with that if if the commit if that's the committee's wish I'm fine perfect so we'll keep Mr Nunes on that uh moving forward I I have the list up I'll just go right down the list now uh negotiating representative uh to the DEA uh for collective bargaining uh currently and we have John Nunes Kathleen Amaral and Shannon Jenkins as backup obviously our backup is no longer with us Dr kins um what is your pleasure uh Mr Nunes and Miss Amaral and does I'm fine with with doing that okay as the backup yep okay sounds good now just just a quick question because I know um how collective bargaining can be um you know it can be certainly time consuming is there any interest in separating out um any of the bargaining units or is it important to have the same person um around across all collective bargaining units I personally I'm again you know depending on everybody's you know I mean know this you guys are working so you know if they're meeting at 3:00 in the afternoon it becomes very difficult for you guys to get there you know 99 times out of 100 I'm retired so I can you know if I know far enough in advance I can always rearrange my skill schedule okay and I've been fine with that it hasn't bothered me so I don't know again Mr you know not Dr Maguire wasn't there but Mr Kylie was there as was Mr TBO they can chime in if that I'm but I'm good with it yeah I just know that it can be certainly a a burden on uh I'm good our members so okay perfect thank you very much uh the technology committee um I am on that uh I don't believe we've met recently I know Mr gashaw has certainly been busy uh since my my background is um technology I'm certainly happy to stay on that although I'm also happy to give it up so if anyone wants to uh you're the computer that Ru um otherwise I'm happy to stay on all right where are we at uh Dr s McGuire or Mr Kylie with the uh Representatives for the town chter committee I could answer that perfect I happen to be the representative so I knew I knew there was someone for the town CH committee okay and it is uh time consuming but we see the light at the end of the tunnel and um therefore I would like to continue continue cuz we're almost done yeah perfect and is uh Miss still on the committee as well is our representative is she I think she is our representative she's still she's the chair okay I know she's a select board member now um but she's still I think looking at it through our lens through the lens of I thought so I have no doubt she is I'm not questioning that I'm just just bringing it up so per I'm happy with that we'll leave that one alone we're really almost done okay fair enough uh where are we at uh Dr s muu with the Dei committee because it says no appointment made where well we don't actually have a Dei committee we are doing Dei work um and the focus this past year has really been with the with the district leadership team and the plan is to continue that work more at the school level uh moving forward but as far as a committee that includes a school committee person we don't currently have that Committee in place I know that I think it was prior to your arrival there was uh quite a bit of back and forth I know uh Dr Jenkins had uh was part of the discussions as well I don't know if anyone else can refresh my memory because it's a little foggy right now as to what this how this committee left it um because it clearly it's here for a reason yeah um because we at one point maybe we were looking to have a representative um I'm think oh go ahead um yeah so I think Dr Jenkins had said that they were rearranging and it might not come back into existence and she wanted to wait and see how that all played out yeah I I just want to assure you this is work that is happening in the district this this past year our our Focus has really been on um building capacity amongst our leadership team and when I say that I'm talking about all of our principles our assistant principes um directors and so that's been the focus of every one of our DLT meetings this P not even meetings PD this past year with the idea that this over the summer we'll be looking at how we're going to roll that out into the schools so that our uh staff and faculty can participate in professional learning and that will be an area of focus for the school district as far as professional development next this um 2024 25 school year okay so I unless someone you know has any other suggestions or thoughts we'll just leave it as is yeah I would leave it as I I just with best sharing that and I think it was um also I I hate to even bring this up but it was around um it was like offshoots and we we were talking about indigenous curriculum and and culture and then we didn't really have um early on we didn't have two um a secondary uh and a primary level curriculum directors at the time and so now it's sort of woven into the fabric of what you're doing as you're you're sharing and as we're seeing um so I think that's why it was not necessarily coming back in in and okay the usefulness of us to to lead that where we have a leader who's leading that in in the work that's being done every day I don't know that's my No I'm I'm completely as chair I'm completely fine any you know and I just want to sorry um we we can update you as to what we've done this year and once we have our a clear plan in place we'll come to the committee and present the direct the direction that we're headed in for next year great all right does that work that sounds good thank you you're welcome uh committee Representatives Town open space and Recreation plan steering committee is this still a valid committee I know we had a number of meetings uh early last year and such and you know they put a huge packet together uh I haven't heard any more on it uh since they kind of had that final meeting probably sometime it maybe it was even this time last year I don't I have to go back and take a look at my minutes in my notes but you know it it's there I haven't heard any more on it okay so I mean I canang I can hang with it I'm good okay perfect thank you and curriculum Council I believe this was fairly new last year or recently that we had an a a uh school committee rep on it I do think it's important that we do have someone I know this isn't uh the the school committee does not have any say of a curriculum um but I think from a budgetary standpoint and just a stakeholder standpoint I do think it's worthwhile to have a a Committee Member on the curriculum Council for the simple reason uh that we're they're able to bring back if they hear concerns in the community or whatnot they are able to be the that voice that speaks to um to some of the stakeholders in the community um any thoughts on who would like to take Dr Jenkins Place I'm happy to thank you thank you and going back up to the top uh since I uh SED off in the middle there a policy committee uh the which is made of our assistant superintendent um the assignment has been best Coughlin and Kathleen Amaral how often did we meet last year um so but again if there's no no uh so here here are my here are my thoughts and I'm just G to speak just give you what I think I think that masc is always coming out with new as you probably see in your in your um newsletters different language and there's always language to be updated I I would personally I I think it's important that this committee does its due diligence uh because that is one of the specific areas that we're responsible for policy and budget um that uh we make a commitment to at least meeting every every other month or quarterly um during the school year um to uh because I know that I have no doubt that there's policies that need to be updated uh with policy language changes um and Ju Just the general stuff that'll be coming up not so much policies but first reads of other documents that need to be brought to the full committee um so I I would just like to see the you know some kind of more some and I'm going to bring this up for the budget committee as well some kind of standing meeting um that we have and it doesn't doesn't have to be monthly but I think it should be at least quarterly thoughts on everyone else agreable um yeah I think it's a good idea I think that our policy should be updated on a regular basis absolutely so with that um bass and Kathleen are currently on it um are you would you like what's your pleasure I'm happy to be on it um i' probably enjoy being on it oddly um but I'd also have an interest in the budget committee so I don't know what other people are interested in there and balancing things out is that something you might be interested in yeah I would definitely be interested in policy does anyone have any and I'm happy to stay on that as well you mind so it'll be be Mary and Kathleen MH perfect thank you both uh fields and Facilities committee uh currently we have John Nunes and Kathleen Amaral um thoughts on that is that um have you been meeting we have we did we did meet several times in the fall I know that so particularly regarding the long-term capital planning efforts Capital plan everything so I I don't know you know how that's going to evolve um and how fast that long-term capital plan is going to you know begin to take shape but certainly that subcommittee can be an important uh play an important role in that process I I think it's important to keep this um School District moving uh with a lens at the big picture of school buildings I think it's important that we we you continue to do this work for sure so uh John and Kathleen yeah you okay with saying I'm happy to stay I'm happy to give it up if somebody has interested I'm good I'm again I'm good with it if somebody else perfect you know this is not all right ego driven thank you both uh budget committee uh so was Dr Jenkins and myself and then John as a backup I am certainly happy to stay in this commit um as well um anyone else I know so I I do have an interest but I don't know if John would like to move from backup and have me as backup uh but I do have an interest in that committee oh go ahead and I'll stay us backup if necessary that's fine I'm good great thank you perfect well thank you and once again like I said uh with the policy committee I think especially uh this ongoing School school year is going to be certainly very important um and I would like to see uh Mr Kylie um we can meet uh later on but some kind of standing meetings in which uh where we get updates on the the different aspects of the budget um because I think with with some of the um concern around some of the finance committee members that it would be uh prudent uh to try to NAB some of these questions and concerns um before before they it's speculated and there there's other other comments that come up and last but not least uh School assignments uh we had decided last year no school assignments will be given and that all members should do their best to keep in touch with all the schools um are we okay with continuing to do that um I I mean I would I just wonder and and I haven't done my best with this I certainly keep myself engaged but not to the point of like calling Dr Thomas can I or you know Mr Grand can I come in to see you know to meet with you I would love to know what the administrators feel about this personally I don't know I mean if we if it's something that we don't decide on today or we keep as is but perhaps learn that they would have enjoyed us being assigned to a particular school yeah Mr you know uh discussions I've had you know and that their comment of to me has always been you're always welcome well I for one always make it a point to you know pick up the phone or send an email and say hey I'd like to stop in you know what's a good time because sometimes you know they're out at admin at at meetings or you know they've got certain things going on in the school so you know I don't make it a point to drop in unannounced once in a blue moon but that's very rarely but uh the ones that I've always t to you know my comment to them has been you need me call me you know and that type of deal and you know they'll call and I'll pop by and that but again however we want to go about it it's fine with me you know I'm happy to talk to June about setting something up in which we can get some maybe maybe it's easy enough to put out an email and just get some feedback from the admin team we can do that we we're actually seeing all of our administrators at some point this week so we can check in with them okay beautiful great thank you very much am I missing anything no I think I've covered it all I got everything checked off y all right uh before we get to anything else I do want to take the I have a few things that I'd like to say uh first of all I'd like to thank uh outgoing chairperson Kathleen Amaral for your uh for your work and your your dedication and time thank you very much uh over the past year um I always I always learned so much from you Kathleen and um I know sometimes you you always you're very hard on yourself sometimes and uh not necessarily uh but I certainly always uh learn something from you and your uh your calm demeanor and always your thoughtfulness and and especially uh around special education so uh thank you thank you for for serving in Ro uh so one of the things that uh the new chair does sometimes is just kind of some thoughts for the upcoming year um and I do have a little something I would like to share with everyone and it's around the uh the times the that we're having right now around the budget um around uh budget uncertainty around um possible reductions in staff through whether it's through attrition or anything else as well as uh using one times funds to solve the budget and uh while I didn't have an opportunity to attend uh the entire finance committee meeting uh last Thursday I believe it was I know I walked in late and uh Mr nun and uh Miss best was there and um they said you really need to watch the beginning of it so I I I did take the opportunity to to watch the beginning of the finance committee um and it's certainly certainly a little concerning some some of the pieces uh that that came out of the chair's mouth and I do have a little just a little something to share with everyone and I would like to fir first of all go on the record to thank Miss ter ham for she a finance Committee Member a past chair I believe who's always been very supportive of the school department and uh is always at our meetings you can typically find her sitting there in the audience so thank you Terry um for always uh coming to our meetings and um listening to what we have to say uh but I'm deeply troubled with some of the rhetoric coming from Members a few of the members of the finance committee while I understand it is certainly their role and their responsibility uh to question uh Department budgets uh at last Thursday night's finance committee meeting in the fourth uh some members had gone on the record stating a number of concerns they had with the school committee most concerning in my opinion was the statement that the school budget had wiggle room in it and implied the school district could continue with the status quo without a general operating override and that what I had said previously that this town is going to need to make a decision on the types of schools uh they want for their children was was simply uh political and hyperbole um that that is certainly not the case uh we could continue everything uh some of the other things we could continue everything we offer currently with the status quo financially because of that wiggle room make no mistake about it there is no wiggle room in this budget in the school department that is simply wrong when the Dartmouth Public Schools budget ranks close to the bottom of 322 school districts across the state at number 270 for the FY 23 school year there is no wiggle room I'm extremely proud at the amount of budget transparency our assistant superintendent of finance and operations Mr Kylie provides to the finance committee to the school committee and to any Department in town as far as I'm concerned that ask for that since I've been on this committee I've made it my goal to push this school department to be as transparent as possible I know for a fact there are other school districts that do not give the amount of data that is very time consuming but worthwhile to other departments Switching gears we are tapping school choice funds to solve this year's budget deficit but yet the chair of the finance committee stated at a joint meeting that it was their recommendation to get rid of school choice a decision in which they were not educated enough to make this leaves me confused in wanting more answers from some of their lines of thinking the only way forward in my eyes is to have open honest dialogue with all stakeholders in this town it is my recommendation that we do a few things the first of which we schedule standing budget subcomm meetings we invite finance committee members to intend in addition to if there's any appetite we can certainly what we certainly welcome Town officials the finance director Mr mcginness if you'd like to be part of this because I see a pattern here uh that there there were a few things that were that were correct in my opinion where're our budget will be at $60 million before before you know it I'm going to look to this staff in central office and this committee to really make sure that we're leaving no stone unturned and I think we're we're seeing the efforts of that right now based on some of uh what's happening with reductions in POS in positions and I thank them for that in addition I would like to and I'm going to look to you at some point we'll put it on the one of the next agendas but I would love to see something that uh that I found very helpful was uh last year the year before uh new Beford vocational had an an Open Door session in which they invited all of their all of the um elected and appointed officials from new bford for Haven in Dartmouth to attend two years ago um and they had Mr um Watson thank you Mr Watson Mr uh commentator himself of all the meetings uh held a a brief uh opening welcome meeting and then he went on and there was a full um tour of the school and all the facilities that it had to offer I would like to see the school department uh extend that same invitation to uh elected and appointed officials in this town as well as um we can talk more on this but I'd like to see some um some more conversations around who we want to extend an invitation to but exactly what we saw tonight by the the Quinn school by by the staff of the Quinn school is why we I think it's important for everyone to see what actually goes on within these four walls across all of our districts this is not your parent School District some of the people um even myself at time you know times have changed and what we're doing today in the doou public schools is not what we were doing 20 and 30 years ago for sure the amount of responsibilities put on a school district and mandates we and that's why I asked that question why Dartmouth we have something special here I think we can all agree on that that's why we all serve on this this board that's why Dr samon Maguire decided to come to Dartmouth she had opportunities to go elsewhere I'm sure of it but she decided Dartmouth there's something special about this town for the people that live here for the people that grew up here were educated Here and Now work here there's something special for all of us so I would just like like to see a better working relationship across the town and this starts with me extending an invitation to finance committee members to attend any of our meetings our subcommittee budget subcommittee meetings and please when we have it I'd love to see a full house here when we have when we welcome our elected and appointed officials for tours of our buildings so uh I thank you for um entertaining me um but I think it was important to say or will say yeah excellent uh next up old business fy2 budget vote discussion uh I will turn it over to Dr sa Maguire so we've been having this disc discussion since December so um I think that I'm hoping that we're at a place now where you know somewhat reluctantly but certainly we know that the committee um needs to make a decision about the budget um you know Mr Kylie had I can't thank him enough you already talked about how transparent he is I can't tell you how much he's taught me this past year about understanding a budget I feel uh so much more knowledgeable uh because he's taken the time to explain every detail and there's still some that uh that I think I have left to learn but I'm really grateful for the work that he's done and I can't imagine working alongside anyone um anywhere who takes the time and spends the due d the due diligence uh to make sure that every single thing that he puts before you is I'm just going to say it even though it's right on the money and and so I've seen him change things in the moment and I've seen him change things um since again the first budget presentation in December so um you know just kudos to the work that he does and and Dartmouth is really fortunate to have him in this position so Mr Kylie thank you thank you very much Dr sa Maguire I appreciate the kind words and yeah it's been a little bit of a different budget process this year than normal obviously we um you know we had some we had some struggles in last year's budget process the FY 24 uh process um but uh really nothing like the U changing Dynamic of this year so um what we are asking you to consider tonight is a vote on the fy2 budget I always feel bad for Mrs Beckwith like brand new school committee member who okay you're thrown right into it now you've got to vote to approve you know 5053 million it's no pressure there um but uh there's a series of motions that I provided you uh memorandum of um we have one conflict of interest uh so we have a uh a way that we need to go about these motions um so I would uh certainly before we do all this be happy to um entertain any questions you might have about the budget um we've had a lot of discussion about it but there's there's you know always room for for more uh thought on it so I'd be happy to entertain that before we move forward questions Mr NES yeah Mr chairman uh do you want my rant about Thursday's fincom meeting now we would you like to wait till later I will choice is yours you're the chair I have no quarms either way well since we are uh on budget discussion we we can vote the budget and then I can do it that's fine too no we're on budget discussions you know that's fine uh thank you I agree with you and I had it on my notes Terry thank you very much for all your help uh at least there's one St stable vote on that committee type of deal uh I think the only thing that came out of Thursday's meeting in my opinion that I agree with anyone on uh and I agree with Mr Gavin on this was the amount of state aid that we're getting and the fact uh you know we've all talked about getting uh representative Maki and uh Senator Mony on board and seeing what they can do and everything else and you know his comment about having uh breakfast with Senator Maki and not getting anywhere in Senator a representative M I should say and you said yeah have an override you know gee thanks you know you going to help us at all or not when like I've said before when you sit here and you look at you know not the Gateway cities though that's a h of a different color I'm not even going there type of deal but when you look at communities around us or anywhere and they have less students than we have and they get Oodles of more money it gets a little disheartening just because of the way the state formula is set you know yes we can't raise taxes and you know 5921 takes care of that from uh you know 19 1989 or 1979 with the proposition two and A2 so it's as simple as that uh school choice well I'll tell you what and I've said it before and if we didn't have school choice we would really be sitting here singing an entirely different tune because we wouldn't have $2 million okay yes we banked it okay because we had the free money well I don't know about anybody else but in my accounting World in government Finance world if I have free money I'm going to use it first before I have to start tipping into my own money if somebody gives me $5 million type of deal I'm going to use that first before I have to use mine because there's going to come a point in time that the free money dries up which we know it does so I'm going to use that type of deal the eser positions we said from day one when we put those positions on that we knew we were walking over that Cliff okay come September 30th and we've talked about it to have a member of the finance committee sit there who watches our meetings and says well why did you put people on with those positions doesn't make sense to me what planet do you on we've talked about that for three years now you know so it is what it is the changes in the budget you know well how come it went from 3 to 6 to three to two what's you know I think Mr Kylie has talked about that in nauseum okay as to how what we came up with when he went and had a discussion with the town folk you know the town administrative Finance director members of the board of Selectmen and they sat there and they said put all the positions back in and we'll see where it stand that's where the budget went from 3 to six you know we're following kind of marching orders that they're giving us so that's simple as that uh pay for transportation well yeah we tried that a number of years ago and there's a couple there's one member of the committee that was there at the time I'm not sure if M I don't think Mr Bulls was on the the committee at that time he had already gotten off but we tried paying for transportation okay remember we got a transport K to 7 so what do you do when you have you know a child in sixth grade and a child in eighth grade in one household you're can transport one and not the other or seventh grade in high school you know how you know come on it doesn't work and you know the paying and trying to account and tickets out and everything else it was an absolute disaster in a nightmare so that just doesn't work I think Dr saber Maguire said it perfectly when she talked about the reduction in force and she just got up there and she just said remember one thing it's people those are people that we are talking about we're talking about people's lives and and you know their livelihood and everything else so you know things of that nature and lastly I think we need to send the slides that we had tonight from the two from the uh Quinn school and what Mr denisio did uh I think those have to go to the finance committee I AG okay because that gives them an idea because one of the wonderful slides that we had at our previous meeting that says selected student populations you know with lwi income disabilities and high needs and it did spelled it out type a deal and again this was a fantastic pres presentation that you know our Administration gave the uh the finance committee but that really highlights that drives the nail home type of deal agre so I mean I think you know you know Mr Garin made the comment about you know they're you know I've made comments about them you know the way they're looking at the budget and everything else you know one of the wonderful things sometimes I've said to people I haven't said it at a meeting but I'll say it tonight you know we could sit up here as a committee and be smart and we're going to vote $53 million and as I say to people we could put it all we could vote to put it all into maintenance or some other different line item and our students and faculty show up you know September 1st for school with beautifully clean modern buildings type of deal but no supplies no P Personnel no textbooks nothing of that nature that's what we do our responsibility is this budget that's our first and foremost responsibility is the budget and the education of our students in this town and that's what we're charged with and that's what I've always taken to hi in all my years here so Madam superintendent I apologize for the rant I did warn you but you did I'm actually very very impressed uh that was that was not bad at all it's amazing what you can write at 3:00 in the morning oh my God no I I certainly agree I I Echo some of your sentiments any other thoughts um I really feel that Mr Kylie has gone through every line and looked at under every Rock um do you see any wiggle room I don't I don't um not unless we want to be the bottom of spending in every category um and that will catch up to us eventually um so I endorse this budget um I wish we had more to spend and uh I hope that we can come together and solve next year agre I I don't have anything else to add you you have all spoken so eloquently um really looking forward to your uh ideas of of just working better working relationships to see how that translates to understanding what we do more um representation of what we do um as was seen earlier today um yeah no wiggle room no so silly mean you can't find $133,000 come on people sorry do you have any thoughts or I know brand new M I do want to say I attended a few meetings earlier in the winter and have been following along and I'm very appreciative of the amount of detail uh that the Administration has provided Us in terms of the budget and the different um the different presentations of amounts that they have given us so I do pr feel prepared to vote great so yeah I will just close with um thank you everyone for long arduous budget process for the FY 25 budget um I am no doubt that as soon as this is approved that we'll be looking to FY 26 um and uh we'll go from there but I'm not going to belabor the point any longer so uh let me just bring up my motion sheet here and whenever anyone's ready Mr chairman make a motion to approve the fy2 5 budget appropriation for part of school classroom teachers in the amount of 23, second so we have a motion on the floor by Mr Nunes a second by Miss Coughlin on the motion any other discussion all in favor is this a roll call no no all in favor I opposed abstentions I will abstain motion passes for is zero with one exstension Mr chairman make a motion to approve the fy2 budget appropriation for the total budget excluding the item voted individually in a previous Motion in the amount of 51,1 143,00 $727 54 second we have a motion by Mr Nunes a second by Mrs Amaral on the motion any other discussion J hearing none all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously 5 to zero thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you for all your hard work thank you Jim thank you June good job all right uh next up new business superintendent update Dr Sab McGuire great we get to talk us about some fun things um like the eclipse I mean it really was a an amazing event uh certainly worldwide um and I do want to say that I'm glad it's over um because there there was some angst that went along with just people concerned that students in um some way you know could perhaps look at the sun too long and I have to say that that didn't happen um we did happen to be out at the potter school this afternoon and we got to see the students with the glasses and the teachers were doing such a great job teaching them how to use those glasses and to go through kindergarten and first graders so if kindergarten and first graders can do this I have complete confidence that the rest of us would be able to get through it um and we did and so it was fun we got to look out the window I even had Kate um try on some glasses and we got to look out the window and and look at the uh the eclipse so it was really fun but again kind of glad it's behind us um but I am also pleased to share that the mcast testing I we I've talked about this the past few meetings but it's well under way and in checking in with principles and some of the folks out in schools things seem to be going really well uh you always get a little bit anxious about m mostly because and I'm sure that Mr Oliver is going through this right now uh because it's so heavily reliant on technology and we all know that um technology as wonderful it is as it is can sometimes uh cause us some some issues so I'm sure you've been out and about in your school buildings as well um I'm going to continue to remind folks about kindergarten registration uh as we discussed it's important that if you have a kindergarten child who will be 5 years old before September 1st 2024 please register them as soon as possible and if you have any neighbors or friends that you know may have a child who is kindergarten ready please go ahead head and encourage them to register as soon as possible I know that we've had quite a few folks take advantage of that and we're about to start um assigning schools to those Stu to the students so the sooner uh that we get kids registered the better just a reminder as well we'll be hosting a districtwide kindergarten showcase that will be at the Quinn school on May 15th at 6:00 p.m. again an opportunity for incoming kindergarten families to hear an overview view of what can be expected and for kindergarten parents especially parents who haven't and family members who haven't had children uh starting kindergarten it can be quite an emotional experience so the more opportunities we have to invite people in to hear about what those experiences will be like the more comfortable that transition is going to be come August September um so I also want to to mention that we are in the midst now I'm so happy to be able to say that of strategic planning we have met uh a few of our school committee members are on that team really grateful to have you there uh you know we've partnered with teaching Learning Alliance and what I think has been uh a really smooth start to the planning process uh given that we've invited so many other stakeholders into this process so we have about 37 plus people who are participating in this process and one of the questions was how did we select folks to be part of this I remind people that there was a core group of people who invest who were already invested in this work through a portrait of a learner and so the most of those people are still part of the strategic planning committee a few may have stepped away and others were invited in but I think that um that what we did to expand membership was reaching outside of the schools themselves and including our school committee members including we have um again it seems like Terry him's getting a lot of uh positive attention but she this evening at our school committee meeting but grateful to have uh her participate we have parents um so we think that we have uh a diverse stakeholder group and the best folks that we have on the team honestly are we have three students unbelievable and uh they they certainly are uh willing to share their experiences and what they think we need to be doing they're not bashful no and when I say that they're respectful and um what they share with us are are things that you know we as adults can absolutely um value because it's not anything that you would think is outlandish they really want what's best for for schools and for the experiences of of other students at Dartmouth High School and so we've already met I think we're at our next meeting we're going to discuss Mission which I'm excited about so there was some talk about I know we've had a very um established U mission statement here in Dartmouth this is meant to not to take away from that but to be more inclusive of you I think somebody said it this isn't the last time the mission statement was Revisited may have been I'm not really sure maybe 20 years ago so it's it's a good time for us to be examining what the mission is of of schooling for today's youth uh so we also have a we have a teaching and learning committee we have a Comm committee this is uh subcommittees within the strategic planning so all 37 people are not working on the same thing um so we have a group that's focused on teaching learning and leading we have a group that's focused on community feedback we have a team looking at facilities finance and human capital uh you can probably look around and guess who's on what team um but yeah we we definitely think that yes the representation we have is going to allow us to develop what I think is eventually going to be a truly Dynamic five-year strategic plan for the Dartmouth public schools and having Community input is critical to that uh so as far as HR work you see or maybe you haven't but we have advertised the position of the Early Childhood director so that's gone out um and we're excited about advertising and hoping that we get very qualified candidates we will be putting together I know Mr Denio's already sent out a a an um survey to staff to ask for their input on what they're looking for in the next Early Childhood director and it will be there will be a an inclusive team that will be involved in selecting our next Early Childhood director we hope if all goes well that we'll be able to introduce that person at one of our at our May school committee meeting I'm going to skip over education support professionals but you know we always have need them substitutes we know and again uh the HR work that comes out of the office especially with Kate I can't thank her enough for making sure that we stay on track and get people on board on boarded as soon as possible I think Mary can probably attest to that she was on boarded immediately as a school Committee Member and had everything she needed to to get going this evening um so climate and culture always great to talk about climate and culture here in dmouth I love that question why Dartmouth and you're 100% right Mr Oliver I am so thrilled to be here in darmouth this is a wonderful community and the schools and the folks in them are doing amazing work and kids here are just really just just such a joy to be around um and we want to keep that going that's important and part of the way we do that is through the budget and the way we support the work of strategic planning but here we are it's spring spring Sports season has arrived so I'm in my this is my first cycle of the spring Sports season even though I was visiting Dartmouth last year around this time but several competitive teams so this is um really something we have eighth graders who have joined a few of our teams this year on waivers Mr Christa foi has made sure that he's gone through that process uh so we have softball um we have baseball girls lacrosse boys lacrosse girls outdoor track boys outdoor track unified outdoor track girls tennis Boys Tennis sailing which is new for me and I'm being told that I might get to go out and see an actual sailing competition um in all we have 367 students participating in Spring Sports so we should um be really proud of that I know when I'm finished Mr noones is going to share the good news about the color guard and the band's recent accomplishment so I saved that for you Mr Nunes um I also want to acknowledge that and you might have seen it in Dart Dartmouth week we had an author's visit that was hosted at the middle school I want to thank again the Dartmouth um Middle School administration and in particular the librarian Laura Gardner who recognized student interest in a certain author his name is Dean ganh har I hope I'm pronouncing that correct irly and she invited him to come to speak to Dartmouth middle school students um Mr G Gart that's a tough one his books and um he talked about this and he focused on um giving students a message that was around the importance of hard work and perseverance even in the face of rejection and he was able to share how many times the books that he had written were rejected by publishers before he finally had his first book published and now he is a nationally known author with several books that many of our middle schoolers are enjoying um so that's great again a great lesson not just for the students but for all of us um also Mr parate informed me just before uh we started school committee that four of our students are finalists for producing a video around burn awareness and that's what the the firefighter they submit the video they submitted I think he said about 8 to 10 videos and two were selected and they'll be recognized April 30th at Children's Hospital in Boston so another again example of how our Dartmouth students shine and finally the trip to Spain and Portugal it's really going to happen um they the students 45 students and seven adults will be leaving from Dartmouth High School on Saturday at 12:00 if any of you want to try to stow away I'm not sure how far you'll get but um I think that everyone is really excited to see uh how that trip goes and and I mean that genuinely Mr Shay has also informed us that there'll be a social media link available via Instagram and that you can pick up this link through the there'll be a DHS travel uh link on the p on our website page so we'll be able to see some of what the students are up to so we're really excited about that trip y maybe next year one of us will be able to go along wouldn't that be nice that would be nice all right so that's all I have so thank you thank you Mr Nunes thank you Mr chairman uh yeah the uh this past weekend was nesba finals for both colig God and percussion uh on Saturday up in Salem both our junior varsity and varsity color guides took first place in their different class divisions that that they're in uh our percussion was here uh yes our finals was here yesterday I can't tell you how many school we must have had 30 schools that went through this building yesterday uh you talk about and i' I've said this before but you talk about a a school building that that's being used I mean it was great you know coming in the side door uh when you come up the walk their big props were coming in and you know stored down in the corner we had tables set up you know the marimbas and they're walking this way the students are walking in the other you know and you know yes all three will meet at some point in time uh but they love being here going you know different areas of the school that they're set for warmups but they come in you know right over here perform and go right you know right out the door to their trucks and that type of deal and it was it's absolutely great but you know our percussion won their class uh they had this high score of the night uh percussion on Saturday is going to be down in uh West Hill High School down in Sanford right there the right on the New York border for the Mac finals and that uh our uh Varsity Color Guard leaves uh tomorrow night 7:00 for uh Dayton Ohio for their w GI finals and uh they start their uh performances uh somewhere around quarter of one on Thursday so they'll travel uh Tuesday night they'll get their Wednesday rehearse and then you know start Thursday uh Thursday at you know quarter of 12 quarter of one or so with theirs uh The Varsity leaves uh the percussion leaves uh next Wednesday for uh uh for Dayton for their their shot so wish them well and you know I had spring sports but Dr sa Maguire talked about that and that's fine hopefully just the weather will hold out so that they can play yeah jeez agreed that's right thank you Mr nun than you Mr chairman anyone else I do not have anything at this time I think I I've said enough tonight uh the next regular scheduled meeting of the Dartmouth school committee is for Monday April 22nd 2024 at 6 p.m.