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[Music] good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting um let's see would the secretary take the role secretary genive I'm here Vice chair Martini here chair Johnson mad here mayor dorer here member seon here member Childs I'm waiting for it to turn green here we're all present and you have a quorum all right we are convened at 6:29 6:30 p.m.

[Music] good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting um let's see would the secretary take the role secretary genive I'm here here Vice chair Martini here chair Johnson mad here mayor dorer here member seon here member Childs I'm waiting for it to turn green here we're all present and you have Quorum all right we convened at 6:29 6:30 p.m.

e all right I told I'll get money from her I have it everybody all set for the meeting of the April 10th U Board of Education the Bethany Community School open for business at 6:32 okay call the order and I'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance flag United States of America stand nationen all right PTO report year up States your name hi everybody uh Melissa zaldo uh BCS PTO president um so let's see we have quite a bit going on in the next few weeks leading up to the end of the school um tomorrow is our April meeting we moved it up a week to accommodate for um spring break that's happening next week um we're actually meeting in person this time will be meeting here at 6 o' uh year books uh yearbooks are available for purchase now they're available for purchase uh until April 24th uh there is a link online if somebody wants to purchase yearbooks we are asking that parents not purchase a yearbook for sixth graders um it is a tradition that the PTO gifts the yearbooks um to all the graduating sixth graders so there's any parents of sixth graders out there don't buy it if you have anybody else in another grade then you absolutely have to reorder by April 24th um we are in the middle of April which means we are in the middle of yoga month we are participa we are partnering with um at sa yoga uh there's a studio here in town There's a studio here in Milford um if you go on her website and when you purchase a class or a pass you put in the pass code Bulldogs they will be donating 20% of that purchase back to the PTO um her class is always changing and I know she's added a bunch of classes for children um younger children and older children um so always check out their website um I love her classes by the way the beginner class is fantastic uh teacher appreciation week is happening the week of May 6 and the PTO is planning on providing ledge for the staff as well as um we did this not last year but the year before we had members of PTO at the doorways and we were giving flowers to the children as they were walking in and the children were walking in and gifting them to their teachers we've been collecting vases so that the teachers have somewh to put them and they can make these really pretty bouquet and then for the non-classroom staff we're going to be gifting them potted plants for um future appreciation week uh speaking of um potted plants and flowers our spring plant sale is happening on May 7th and 8th uh during school hours be back out in the Pavilion back there um this is timed around the time of Mother's Day that way students have an opportunity to purchase uh flowers for their moms grandmothers aunts um or just anybody it doesn't have to be you know a mom or anybody but just if they want to make that purchase for a special person in their life we are also taking pre-orders um for the larger hanging plants and the larger patio plants um and I was on the website today there is a way to um designate how you want to pick that up um you obviously you don't want a kid carrying one of those big Pao plants on the bus but there is a way to let us know how you want to pick up those plants um quasy night uh quasi night is a night that we hold with uh Beacher Road School in Woodbridge uh quasi closes down for to the public and it's only open to BCS and beer Road students uh tickets are now available for that that's going to be on May 17th um and then Spring Fling the ever popular Spring Fling is going to be the following week on May 24th uh tickets are also available for that everything's available for purchase on our website um including in the cost of that ticket is all the food trucks all the events we're planning a lot of different events this year not just the bounce houses there's going to be a lot of different activities going on it's huge fun night um and then our last for the year is going to be June 14th is going to be um family night at the Harford yard goats tickets aren't available for that yet but they should be available probably in the next week or so um and then in the next week or so too we're also going to be um holding our elections for next year's uh board we have several positions that are going to be open that we need to get build thank you thank you very much public comment is there anybody here from the public that would like to speak going once going twice sold the am uh approval of minutes does anybody have any comments errors and omissions I have a comment when you're recording the items uh under public comment there were three people that spoke if you can just summarize briefly what they said or what the discussion was about it doesn't have to be you know Declaration of Independence but just to be you know sentence that um just summarizes what was discussed okay make a motion to approve the minutes oh okay thank you we have a motion do we have a second Sean all those in favor post no yeah I'm sorry abstentions where come froming he's stuck in the back okay um committee reports curriculum Angelo you're you're fired seems like seems a long time ago um actually there wasn't much of an update right because everything has been pretty much the status quo like of moving forward all the things that you've been discussing throughout the year um we talked about some future items of things that we would um potentially hear some reports on um some uh possibly looking at like report cards and some of the different ular areas we've heard a lot of math and um reading but possibly looking at some of um and we've heard from the specials in the past but social studies and science possibly hearing updates from them as our future items I'm sure if I missed anything Mr ke will cover it facility Sean all right um you've been busy yeah yeah facilities did not meet um as a committee this month we did sit down and um meet with Kay uh John Paul and Kevin with an architect we walked the whole building got an idea of what we're looking at we identified our target areas for him um he's going to go back and visit some quick things in regards to the ramp up top and the stairs maybe eliminating them and he's going to come back with a quick little um summary of what we can do what we can't do and he's going to get back to us um Kevin is still working on the quotes if we're going to do the stairs in the concrete up top he's looking for a couple more bids and he's working on the building automation system and getting some final quotes with that um and then we're probably going to have to sit down and have a facil committing next month and when we bring all this back and uh bring everybody kind of up the speed there's a lot going on right right now with the building and some deferred maintenance and all these things are going to come together and we're going to have a meeting in kind of come up with a plan so that's kind of where we stand right now with the building yeah the intent is and and you know Sean discovered it when he and Kevin walked around that there's a lot of deferred maintenance on the exterior of the building so it was our discussion among the bunch of us that we should bring in a pro um we're using silver petracelli he the guy we're talking to now guy by name of David Stein he's one of the partners silver Petra were the people that did the bus shelter they did a nice job for us and that's where we back to them and they also understand the ins and outs of um of the state of Connecticut Finance uh for school projects so they can help us there so he's going to come back in um he's going to work through K and come back in with a proposal and um one of the things we're looking at which he actually brought up is um revamping we talked about revamping in front of the school getting rid of all of the ramps um the stairs at the North End are disaster that's what Sean was talking about they have to be fixed as soon as possible and we'll figure that out but there may be a way to make the front a little bit more attractive uh get rid of them consolidate them uh there's new things we can do uh plantings but we have to come up with a capital plant so that's what Sean and these guys are going to do in K and we and part of our walk through Chan before I forget is we did identify one area on the other end of the building that needs immediate attention I didn't even notice it neither did Kevin he's the one who picked it up and identified it so that's something that's going to need to be taken care of immediately and we'll talk about that a little more in the facilities committee meeting when Kevin gets some uh prices so that's going to be happen in the next month or two um so is silver Petra they strictly an architect or they have an engineering arm to do mechanic stuff too no but they would when you hire somebody like silver Petra Sly they would they would be a One-Stop shop they would have a landscape architect they would have a mechanical engineer electrical engineer that they would if if that's needed that may or may not be need or we may decide to go separately there's right now we're concentrating on the exterior of the building there's doors that are rushing through stairs concrete these ramps are terrible um The Brick needs parging uh the brick needs cleaning and uh and uh we have some areas of water penetration there's the rim board around the building is starting to deteriorate there's a there's a hundred little items that add up to a site and that's why I I discussed with K and and Sean and everybody the thing to do is I think bring in a professional that can identify everything put together a comprehensive plan one of the things he suggested was uh well one of the things he recommended is if we're going to do any grading I got to get a site plan ready so I'll have to talk to K about that um we may have to do some kind of a half aight plant uh to give him some elevation so that he can work out the uh the ramp issues because one of the things he suggested is maybe getting rid of this ramp and circling it around to the side so that it softens the front of the school um there's there's there's a bunch of things that it's it's all part of one package and there may or may not be funding available you know they know the ins and outs of the school funding uh game they know who to talk to they know how to talk to him and they know what's available so he can advise us on whether or not any of the stuff we're proposing qualifies for for funding um so that's why it's it's it's a start of a process but it's a process that needs to get done soon or it's like Sean said you know like the doors the doors are atrocious shape there's 19 doors that are in atrocious shape uh so that's what we're doing and and I know we we we briefly talked about about an me for the uh upstairs the AC we're going to kind of keep the two products separate right now okay so that that's on the burner too all right and how we're going to address for the rooftop units and stuff so yeah that's on the burner too but the outside of the building we have some serious issues we need to address in a timely fashion okay I was just trying to figure out who the consultant oh wow well they they're not on board they have to give k a proposal yeah and you know we have to vote on it but it's something that I'm recommending that needs to be done because I was just trying to understand no that's right that's no ask any question you want please and he's also involved in the Woodbridge project right now which is going to go out to bid very shortly Oh I thought I went out to bid I thought they uh he he said next week oh um so it'll give us a better idea of some real numbers because they have some very similar um issues and concerns at beer so we might get a good Benchmark kind of where we stands which is a a positive thing I think true okay they do a lot silver Petra does I would say they're probably one of the top five in the in the state that do schools there's four or five slam silver Petra s anazi Associates there's four or five architectural firms that seem to do most of the schools in the state and silver pet is one them so they they know what the ins and outs and we were happy they they did a nice job on the buest shelter so Finance I was not here last night I'll leave it to oh Amy was here good excellent thank you okay in your packet you will see the um operating budget summary as of of 2024 under general education uh the salaries stay status quo from last month with a surplus of $ 6,682 benefit projections are now showing a surplus of $ 873 Which is higher than last month still largely due to salary and benefits under the special education section you will see that it remains status quo from last month as we have been utilizing our grant dollars for required year-end spend down special education ends the month with a surplus of $1,162 under operations and overhead you will see that all accounts remain status quo from last month with projections equal to budget requests or adjustments have already been made operations in overhead now ends the month with a surplus of 31,38 uh you'll also then see that the overall budget is showing a total Surplus at this time of and they have until the end of April to finish their spending once this occurs they will have be able to better determine where we think the final numbers will land with regards to a surplus um as Brandy usually tells us it's never an ex exact number at this point as there's still two months of invoices and there these are only estimated projections as of the end of April uh then she also said that we have received the first excess cost payment in the amount of $4,310.27 received sometime in May this year we have been spending excess cost directly to student Professional Services so there isn't an impact to the budget for these dollars and as of February 29th the prek account balance is $8,991 16 and the balance in our 10 248a account is $344,500 discussion about I I it was Joe and myself and we had a small discussion about um I I had questioned Brandy and said you know knowing what we have left like you know with the amount we have in the 10 248a with whatever that percentage is I know typically we have a 5% we have our 5% cap and we try to put Surplus to that do we feel like we have to use some of these funds for anything budgetarily as far as like Staffing and such and it was sort of a no but there's also the thought that we know that everything that Sean has found with facilities that you that that's our option to dip into that at some point if necessary so we just kind of tapped on that little discussion briefly knowing that until next month when you got all the numbers ready and that transcends what we have to do so it was just a little little item that we kind of just chatted about briefly so I think that's still you're right I think you're 100% right yeah so so that's about it um the insurance company their insurance number is finally firmed up right correct there's no impact or change to our budget okay and no Finance or otherwise no okay thanks Amy um we have to uh to accept the U the finance committee report so do I have a motion make motion SE name you seconded discussion all in favor all opposed policy committee Susan you're on hi uh we met last night we reviewed uh there was eight remaining policies from the December 2023 agenda that U had been marked mandated and so we discussed those and uh none of those revisions were caused by any changes of law so they've been reverted out of mandated into recommended land and uh we'll be bringing those forward uh at the next board meeting and I think that you know Su Carpenter was interpreting mandated by what was marked on the Boe website okay so she may have been the policy may have been mandated but the revision was not so I think that's what well confusion yeah okay and we're straighten and we're straightening those out and we're and we're we're resolving that issue yes so that it's clear that there's not a mandated revision it's just a mandated so that's the clarification let's see okay so that's unfinished business last policy excuse me is there anything else Transportation hasn't met and uh commit no other committees ad met okay unfinished business approv to the first reading um are various revisions for policies you want to do those to I'm sorry second read for oh second read they were presented last month as a first read so we have to read them again can question all right there are um there are a number of there's four policies three of them are nondiscrimination and one of them is for the the change then you want to summarize them well what we had done was not to get everybody confused but those were mandated policies that had mandated revision okay but they had first been intermingled with a lot of other legal things that came out sh so we ones that had been proposed were strictly the mandated which did not change a lot but it added another protective class and something to do with criminal record and the age five change was mandated by state law and along with the what do you call it exception requests so you know there was not a lot of langage changed that was what was in those policies all right so then we want to move to accept them motion it's right back some Finance move the p Board of Education approve the revision to policies 118 4 uh 1118 4118 D1 do4 do4 excuse me and that's five that's a Comm and then 511 as presented yeah that's right here okay any motion Amy made a motion Second Joe second Ed all in favor all opposed any extensions so [Applause] [Music] passed all right there's a couple of items under new business healthy food option um if you recommend a new business person inter section uh CGS 1051 5f Bethy Board of Education certifies at all food items offered for sale of students and schools under jurisdiction not Exempted Connecticut nutritional standards published by Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards during the next school year July uh July 1 through June 30th you want to Briefly summarize that sure this just means that all the food that we serve to students during lunch that are part of our USDA and reimbursable meals that it won't be junk food that will comply with the law and only sell the things that they say we can sell or provide to the students that they say they can provide and every year we have to have the board attest to the fact that we will actually give children decent meals all right make a motion to accept thetion Okay Sue second Amy any discussion all in favor all opposed it carries food and beverage exemptions under new business Bethy Board of Education will allow the sale of students of food items that do not meet the connec nutrition standards and beverages would you please summarize I sure we'll summarize so what this means me is that we will allow our pto's and outside organizations when they host events here to sell food or provide food things like cupcakes and food trucks uh at their events any questions or discussions all right move that the board approve the Connecticut State Department of Education exemption food beverage items Angel makes a motion to approve second Caroline any discussion all in favor all oppos any extensions administrative reports superintendent speak all right so in your packet you have the enrollment summaries for the last several years uh and I'll remind you that this year we started with 445 students and as of March 31st 2024 our current enrollment is 448 but we dropped three or two we dropped two we did have a family move oh okay same family uh that moved out um by way of sharing with enrollment I also want to give you an update on kindergarten uh projections at this time our current enumeration numbers indicate that there are 57 students elig eligible for kindergarten um we don't know if they'll all come we did receive two additional requests for information about the appeals process or the exemption for those children that do not have have birthdays um that will have them turned five before the September 1st cut off um but we looked at the dates and I don't know if there was a miscommunication but the children will be almost six uh by the time they arrive in kindergarten so we don't need to schedule those anyone else who has um requested the appeal they we're working through the school to get those set up we did have kindergarten information night and some other things I don't want to steal from Tom so he'll I'll let him talk about that um at this time just looking at the numbers there is no plan to reduce the number of kindergarten SE um that we have given that the numbers that we have in our numeration this year mirror exactly what we had last year so we won't need to add any sections but we're certainly not in a position at this point to say hey we can we can reduce a section or maybe just have some lower class sizes um and again there's I know that there continues to be the chatter online and in the community there has been no official or formal communication shared with the district from the State Department of Education that the appeals process is going to be removed or that they're going to push back the implementation date of the new September one birthday so I know there's again a lot of chatter about that but nothing has come our way when um if we had to make a uh a decision based upon enrollment when does our drop dead what's our drop dead date hope so in terms of well if if you have we have four sections correct if we start to get a lot of kids who are borderline or appeals type students it's one thing to have them it's one thing to be below our Target of how many kids in a section it's another thing these kids send us over I think it tends to to skew the discussion a little bit and what I worry about is that um when do we start the finalize um what our uh what our class sizes look like so we're we're always looking at class sizes for for the future um what I would say to that is that if we found that we were going to have an excessive number of students coming in so that tends to happen we do get a lot of children that move in we wouldn't be necessarily looking to add a section in the past because if you drop it down then it's like the teachers say well having 10 kids in a class is not not ideal right so we would have conversation about whether or not we need to add any Aid support or any of those things it's really dependent on not only who the not only how many children we have but kind of who the who the kids are and what kinds of needs present themselves but when does that discussion finally have to firm up to the point where we start to make decisions based upon the data we usually like to make as solid of a decision as we can by June okay um and then hope for the best over the summer terms of what comes in but good I just want to if I'm I'm understanding what I think you're asking is there with that cut off date then if we're that he's asking about if we're looking at whether or not we want to not add a classroom but maybe add AIDS and things like that in are we looking at we're close will that impact the waivers looking at that will we just take the waivers or is this a not sure yet or it's more of a not sure just kind of it's a wait and see because we don't know what those children are going to present so we could have some students that come and technically and especially by the law they could take the assessment and they could blow it out of the water the kid could be Einstein ready for Mena and we're not going to say you're not developmentally or ready for the rigor I think there's not necessarily A sorry we're filled we're not even going to take that you can never say in public education sorry we're filled so even if we get 25 students that come in the month of August literally the week before school I've got to figure it out I meant for the W for the waivers where there's no saying there's no cut there's no cut off waiver there could be families out there now that are like well let's just see what happens and they could all come and request the evaluation in the middle of the summer there's no cut off so and we're not getting any help from the state I'll just continue on with my report all right uh so Personnel uh happy to report that our business manager position has been filled Miss donov richardi who is currently serving as our food service and administrative specialist has been selected for this role Miss richardi brings a wealth of valuable experience and qualifications to the position with a degree in accounting and prior professional experience as an auditor she's well equipped to assume the responsibilities of business manager her dedication expertise and commitment to our district also make her an excellent choice for this position she will officially assume her new role as business manager on July 1st 2024 in the meantime she'll continue in her current capacity and will undergo cross training with our outgoing business manager Brandy Spargo who's now the Boe administrative executive assistant and HR person uh to ensure a smooth transition and able to hit the ground running uh with the new fiscal year she's so excited um and I have every confidence that her prior uh leadership and experience in the district and her financial Acumen uh will greatly benefit us all so donor richardi is our new business manager and that concludes my report and I think all facts considered I think we've been very fortunate because all we did was one move I don't even think they moved offices did they all you they're pretty set in their spaces I'm just going to change the plaque on the wall you know so I I think we've been very fortunate um it's worked out for for the better we don't have to bring in anybody outside and that both people are fairly fairly intensively cost trained in doing the jobs so that there's uh I I think we've been very fortunate to have this pulled up and welcome aboard Donna thank you um and I'll kudos to UK for putting this together uh director of special services you're up chery thank you so professional development we are currently planning for the April 12th professional learning day the highlight of the day we'll be having amplify come in to share the new components that were added with the right to read Grant which will support vocabulary and comprehension in the area of curriculum uh I shared a while back that um at a prior Board of Education meeting that we received a grant um for after school programming this is a grant that allows us to continue boost this year as well as next year uh the other component of the grant is that um we've been able to start some of our students who in boost are getting to attend Parks and Recreation free of charge so that was really exciting uh We've also been able to provide a late bus uh to have students who are part of the open Choice program be able to attend Parks and Rec as well um um and this summer we're going to be offering a steam program for students and that's science technology engineering arts and math and that's a program um where students will be able to from boo will be able to attend as well as our students from open Choice uh so this grant has really had a positive impact so far and moving forward it will as well and then I had mentioned at the last meeting that we had um I had applied for $5,000 Grant and we did receive that so we have a grant for $5,000 for professional development for our wonderful pair professionals that's it anybody have any questions ask a question SC okay this strategic plan we got all these like you know this like 15 16 bullets I'm not sure who to ask well ask your question ask your question somebody will answer the curriculum and instruction there's goals one two and three and you know it goes from 2020 to 2 I'm not sure if that's the end of the school year or the beginning of the school year how that really applies but uh how are we doing with this that's sort of my question should sure so so we've done very well hitting a lot of the targets and I don't have it in front of me so I can't quote exactly what's on each of the pages um but there are some things that we just did not get to quite honestly because we had a little bit of a blip in the world um so when we meet as a committee um to bring together the next strategic planning committee we'll take a look at it and and really dig deep into okay how far did we get on each of these particular goals and each of these um targets that we wanted to hit did we hit them did we not which things do we want to carry over and continue moving forward because some of the things that we had in our strategic plan are no longer necessary in terms of things that we've already accomplished so we'll be digging deeper into that we've done very well with a lot of our things in our strategic plan okay so somewhere along the way we're going to get some kind of followup yep on all these bullets and uh what what went well what did not go well and suggestions for the future is there going to be another one of these yes for the next five years yes and the committee that makes up the uh strategic planning committee it's a very broad stakeholder group so we've had Parents we have teachers we have all of the administrators participate and we had board members and I think there might be some people here that were on the last committee Shannon participated in the last I was on the committee the last time as a parent Angela was there as well you guys this will as a Bo you started as a board member and ended as a parent yeah so this will be coming you know coming soon I would say probably next fall would probably be the start of this process okay I was just trying to understand where we were with it okay thanks anything else principal's report Tom you're all right uh so um in the vein of we've gotten a lot done and we've got a lot coming up uh I'll try and get some highlights and be as brief as I can uh so in March uh we celebrated women's History Month really great project um across the school we had classes uh creating bulletin boards um and then what we did is we had the classes go around and do learning walks and they've got kind of shout out boards so if you walk through the building you'll see not only their work but then like posters next to him with um Post-it notes and other things from students so kind of kids connecting across and it was really great to see um you know I think it's always really great to see the younger kids kind of going and learning from the older kids but we had all of our students from Summit coming up and going around through the retunda and really um I think taking it to heart and really doing a great job there so uh it was a really neat project um and I think it was just a great way to get the kids out and through the building and connecting with each other uh our community meeting in March uh focused on uh trust and honesty great one presented uh we also had presentations on uh women's history month and a student project that focused on ending bird homelessness so it was wonderful um uh we had 93% of our families sign up for conferences on the 20th and the 21st uh and so we had a really great turnout there a lot of the families that uh might not have signed up for those conferences often are those who have um already had a recent um plan meeting like say for their child's 504 plan or their I um but still even then we had 93% of families um sign up um as always uh an army lives on its stomach and we're always so grateful for the PTO for um dinner and um leftover dinners for the next day um so that was quite wonderful uh our student Leadership Council is doing their toiletry Drive um we had an awesome time with the eclipse on Monday uh we had um we had the students with glasses everyone um had a really great time there um and then as uh as Mrs bird said we had our uh kindergarten info night on the 3 uh last week Wednesday so we invited all of our prospective kindergarten families in uh went through a day in the life of a kindergartener uh which by the way is amazing um and then you know we also addressed uh the elephant in the room around um the legislation there and so what we're going to do because we didn't want to have sort of a a one a one day for a typical you know we have our typical kindergarten screening we didn't want to have like a one day and then another day so what we're doing is um we're trying consolidate um those families that have students whose birthdays fall in that range um we're going to have them come in for one session um and then other families were invited to choose from the rest of the session so it's all kind of one day we keep all our folks together that way um and just work through that so we're hoping to be able to then have information from that to make best decisions in terms of um moving forward uh that being said uh also super fun this uh last Wednesday I also presented which is either really exciting or super stressful or in my case both um our last 8 weeks documents so we really try and get together and think about how we're approaching the end of the year and all the things that we're doing um and so the first part of that is a huge um list of all the events coming up so I will spare you because it goes like an entire page um couple of really big highlights that we have coming up uh our sixth grade science fair is happening on May 1st teacher appreciation week as you heard was May 6th to 10th uh drama club performance is uh on May 10th and 11th our night ofth Arts is May 14th Field day is May 17th and old schoolhouse day for our second grade students is the week of May 27th so we've got a lot more but those are some really um big and exciting happenings um just from the school side as we come into the end of the year so regarding the eclipse were you able to take the kids out in mass or just go out as groups and that they have was it is it a nice teaching moment it was I don't I don't want to speak for Tom but um I think it was a really nice teaching moment you'll get to see some photos of that uh forthcoming but all of the kids went out and they were very excited um some people saw flying saucers some people just saw the eclipse so take it for what you will but it was really nice to to see the students come out they went out as classes um they weren't out at the peak because that was the time that they were going home but the teachers started bringing the students out just around 2:00 uh to see what they could see yeah it was cool I mean it's it's yeah it was it was really cool yeah and I think them having the glasses was really great you know so they could you know cuz I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of great little engineering hacks that you can do with the boxes and the holes and all of that but you're not you're not really kind of fully experiencing so I think it was really cool for the kids to be able to have that so the kids had a good time for the eclipse yeah so did the adults I was going to say like the adults might have been really excited it was really nice to see during pickup um the kids kind of running out and you I saw the eclipse and the parents kind of like looking we like don't look up at the sign the parents CLE you know the students had taken to heart more the the instructions than the parents did but the kids giving their parents their glasses and the parents kind of having that moment with their students standing outside looking the Cass it was really nice yeah see that's that's that's a wonderful thing indeed anybody got any questions I got a question for you Tom yeah we've been seemly wrapping up a pretty fabulous year this year it sounds like from everything we're saying can you tell me a challenge that you seem to be facing going into next year from this year that we or you may have to address um I think increasing enrollment is always presenting a challenge right so if I look at it when I started five years ago um when I did the math on it we've increased like 33% so when I came in one of the first things that Colleen said to me was like here's this building we have space upon space upon space which was super helpful for a lot of things I think you know when we needed separate setting for assessments or we needed an intervention room we had all kinds of things um and I think what we've gotten to now is we are utilizing every square inch of this building multiple times over and so I think that that from a space standpoint creates a challenge um I think programmatically it also um starts to create a challenge in terms of Master scheduling um in terms of thinking about interventions in terms of just overall services for students the more students you have and the more services that you have just by sheer size of number creates overlap and I think like in a perfect practice we have our morning meeting oural time right and we say that's going to be sacren it's not going to be touched and so the challenge is that as we're having more classes more students more needs all of that it's slowly those needs are slowly creeping into something like morning meeting time that we're trying to say hands off you can't use this time and we're finding that we just don't have the minutes in the day and so I think that some of that just you know it creates a challenge of logistics um you know and everybody's thing is really important so trying to be able to balance that and do right by everyone I think that that I've seen that that's been a challenge that's been going now with that said is there anything we could do to support you in getting there or addressing those challenges I put on the spot I don't right now I don't I don't have something you know put on the spot but I think I think here support I think what we try and do is we try and look at what are the you know what are the day-to-day the month to month the year toe challenges and I think um you know when we come with that I think you know being those Partners to say you know if it's something overall like in this or if it's something that we're coming dayto day or month to month trying to help us in terms of solving that problem I think having that open mind to to try and help us get to a creative solution I think is always really valuable because I think that that's the challenges is sometimes you look at it and you're thinking well I don't know if this idea will work you know and knowing that we can bring that forth without judgment to try and think about how we recognize a challenge or a problem and be able to attack it as partners I think that that helps us feel confident in trying to go after things yeah because we're always here to support you I'm just always curious to know what you guys actually need and sometimes it doesn't come out until you're kind of pulled out of you yeah well there's a question appreciate ask there's there's an interesting question that was just raised um you're saying space is starting to get a little cramped Colleen and I talked about it many many many moths ago but the we took the old portable classrooms down the odds of Ever Getting permanent additions to the structure I think are relatively minor but conversely the new temporary classrooms that they're manufacturing or are you know for short term and by short term for most school boards that usually means forever but um we have an architect looking at the overall exterior of the school and then maybe one of the things we could have him look at is if we had to park a couple uh temporary classroom trailer someplace where should we park them you know if if I I truly don't believe you're ever going to see 600 kids in this school again that doesn't necessarily mean we and maybe it it may be worth the discussion with with the architect just to have that discussion if space becomes an option uh if space becomes a problem you know what are our options because you said one of the things you want to talk about is how to reutilize this which is at some point we're going to have to have that discussion with you y um to the Strategic plan it's part of the Strategic plan but strategic planning you know it's we may need that sooner rather than later and so the discussions always take forever the implementation takes forever and there's money involved and money takes forever so that may be something worth you know Sean may have hit something there and Tom may have hadit something that maybe that's something we want to take a a look at or at least put on the radar as facilities can we get through some of these projects first by his mouth the fish is caught you know you you you started but you have a valid point Sean you know Tom's identified an issue you know he's right when we first came here we were What 354 now we're at 450 yeah it's like 30% and we were fortunate we had we we we still got space you know we're not crammed in yet because like I said this school accommodated 600 kids 604 I think uh was the maximum you know but I don't think we can do that again because at that time we had both annexes and the portable classrooms so and the challenges that are are good in our favor right now is there's no rolling stock for sale in town yeah so you know what we have is what we have and they're going to be not like we've seen in the past where there's houses just flipping out well Bethany Farms was we always we could never make a number of people understand that Bethany Farms was an aberration you know 84 Lots just don't that's a big subdivision anywhere yeah but now we have that turnover so now you're going to be looking at you know 430 450 480 maybe 450 430 480 again who knows but we may have to start playing for [Music] that just something to keep in the back of your mind I have a question I I know this is weather dependent and mother nature L has not been her kindness but what are your potential plans on the burner of using the outdoor Pavilion not so much to piggy back off of the space concern but just the fact that we have this beautiful Pavilion yeah just to get the kids outside and you know at some point does even the board do we have a meeting out there although I know that could pose a challenge with um having the ability to do um and I think the insects with have phone but you know you we have it so what are what are our thoughts on using it yeah so I think I think one of the initial um considerations that we have is when we um when we have the the better weather months really looking at our community meeting being out there you know and trying to think about how that translates I think one of the challenges is um the screen projection right because it's it's much easier to project something if you've got say like a video that you want kids to watch um you know but then I think the the beauty of that is it might Force us away from while I love the videos it might Force us away from like here let's watch this video of kids and more of like let's get kids in front of kids um you know so it could present some good challenges to face um but I think that that's an initial one um we've also you know thought about different events or or also um you know trying to think about you know when we get say a whole grade together or something that way utilizing that space in that way as well and if weather works is graduation going to be out there is that the plan as we thought yeah it's a thought I think the challenge becomes with that is that that that event becomes so late in the year that we really run the risk of either a planning for it and it rains or B planning for it and it swelters right and the last thing that I would want to do is because the way in which if you think about the Pavilion and that volume of people we can't keep everybody in the shade so I like the idea of it um I just I want to be considerate of that recognizing that like even when we were out on the field it gets toasty but if you're sitting over there on the black top then you're radiating up on people yeah you know so I I I just want to be thoughtful of that but yeah I think we're we're trying to think about considerations for those things when we have you know greater numbers of folks and thinking about how we can get on there okay okay I think John I was trying to in in the way that you put but I think the other thing that I would ask from the board I if I if I really search my heart and I'll speak from a personal standpoint because I know it affects other folks but I think that there's often times in which the reality of a situation doesn't match what the conversation outside of that situation might be um and I know that there have been multiple times at which a situation that I have direct understanding or knowledge or even participation in and the conversation that happened outside of this building and around it doesn't match what those facts or those situations actually were and while I recognize that part of that is that we're a small community right and people are having conversations and all of that and it it comes to you all I would just ask that we take it with with an aspect of curiosity um you know and not judgment and I think often times it can be a spot at which something can get exacerbated I've had folks who have come to me with something and thinking the complete opposite of what might have happened and I recognize that that could raise alarm or concern but I think the initial to say you know trying to make sure that we're not fueling that and trying to understand what the situation is um and and trying to get that support because I think it translates to challenges that at least I can speak from a personal standpoint become challenges for me in terms of trying to do the job do it well and then also having to fight misinformation or misunder understanding on that and then I think that that also translates to stress that happens on staff who live in that space and I think that that's another aspect where if you're just you know Tom reedo principal like PS went to school again I signed up for some of this like too bad so sad put your big boy pants on and deal with it but I think you know if I think back to being 26 27 28 Tom Reed well fourth grade teacher right I think that that really can strike right down down your spine you know and and can really make you kind of question and so I think that that's an essential part of helping us do the job of helping teachers do the job of loving children yeah and and I'm very mindful of the power of the keyboard yeah and and a lot of times you know I I have a lot of I'll call them tailgate conversations yeah and I've worn the rifle through that and some of the stuff I agree with you it's it's not fair because it's not that somewhere within this realm of this conversations you hear is the reality and sometimes you're you're right the reality does not come out and it's not fair to you guys it's not fair to our teachers it's it's it's wrong but you're never going to fight the power of the keyboard it's easy to hide behind it versus have a conversation so I I think one of the challenges and I'm sure every District in every state faces is that social media as you're saying is just so powerful and taking over and us as board members are taught are understood about foi and what you say because like I mean you know I have left groups in this town that are like parent groups just because I don't want to see the bashing but as much as I want to speak up to it as a board ofed member to support it's that fine line sometimes so um so you hope sometimes people do have an actual conversation to be able to verbally I don't want to say put them in their place but make them understand if you looked at both sides of the situation you know give people Grace you know and um so I know that that sometimes is a struggle so can we hold this for five minutes yeah well we'll come back to this yeah okay let's let's get through reports and then we will come back to that um so we're done with Tom uh Chairman's reports there's a reason I want to come back to it that way okay chairman report um first off uh we had discussed last month um having a fall uh open Forum since then I understand Amy and Caroline have discussed the possibility of doing a spring one my suggestion to K and now we can discuss it as award is that at next month's meeting we're running out of time there's not a lot of time on so in an effort to uh to follow through on that uh we have a truncated board meeting next month and have the open Forum follow I I'd be open to that I just think I apologize I wasn't here last month but no that's okay but I just I I was listening at home and I just just felt that um you know attendance is not as much as we would like from the community members I mean we're 400 and something kids and you get you know 30 parents but it even as we all know lacks just from us as members and I feel like if we don't give the community the opportunity to have that chance to bring forth whatever it might be you know those are the people that voted us into these positions and I don't want to feel like we're stifling them so that's kind of like I was like let's find a way and that's and that's why I suggested um there's nothing there's there's nothing um of any great import on the horizon uh we should be able to get through uh standard board business in 30 to 45 minutes and we have it we're here uh one of the complaints that we heard was that only one or two board members show up now you have the entire board so I think that kind of is an elegant solution uh assuming everybody here is on board with that so I got a question do you do by Zoom or do you do in person well we would be here and if anybody wants to show up the downside to that is I don't know how the techn the technological end of that would work so the technological end of that would work the same way it does for board meetings people would have the opportunity to submit comments as they do um when they submit for public comment but we don't have the ability to in this forum have a back and forth conversation with people online sort of a question coming in and donor or somebody trying to feverishly type in a chat um but there's no ability to respond directly to people um in the form that we have right now and is that because we can't do zoom out of this building we just don't have the technology in this building so then is it even a thought and this could really be jumping the gun here but do we do the meeting out of the Board of Ed building in that conference room I mean we're all you know tight in there then you can't have the public I that was the piece I was just going to say just we hold it as Town Hall Town Hall Town Hall but isn't the whole P of the point of this the forums to have that back and forth interaction that they're not allowed to have all year I think it's important to have that interaction you you're I I understand what you're saying Amy because I thought about doing it over there also because they are set up but if I wouldn't expect to see more than three parents but in the event that all of a sudden 10 people showed up then what we now have an issue so that we're stuck kind of we're kind of stuck here and for the time being we're stuck with the technology that we have uh I would hope that if the parents want to talk to us and when I have the discussion they would show up it's you know I I realize uh it's sometimes an inconvenience but right now it's the only way that works for us I think moving forward once the Town Hall Gym is complet yeah but commission room can you do Zoom from up there I have a question are we talking about Zoom instead of in person are we talking about simultaneously Zoom casting and person that's really tricky yeah to run we learned that all through Co instruction I remember our town meeting where we tried to do that and then the people on Zoom weren't really heard so all it did was frustrate them more like it's a I think we it's either got to be a zoom meeting or an inperson meeting where in a structure where people can question in I think trying to run them s we're just asking the town hall has the owl which tracks people and it's more of an interactive mechanism I know they use it like the Planning and Zoning me but again you're constrained by space you know that's why I I think for the time being given that this is a not a last minute but it's it's a uh you know we're trying to accommodate a um you know request I think we have to work with what we have and that in the fall hopefully by then that if the um if the uh Town Hall Gym is finished then you will have that capability because that's one of the things you're supposed to be doing what about providing an Avenue for uh people to pose their questions ahead of time they always have that yeah they have what could we they can do that now for meetings they just haven't gotten one right but they would be able to do that for this as well yeah AB we you know they can be answered but that's still I but still you can't do the the back and forth could we do the board meeting here the way we regularly do and then adjourn for five minutes and go over to the board of V office so that we're in the conference room but everybody else is on it's still the issue of if people wanted to attend in person so if somebody wanted to attend in person we only have a finite amount of space in that room we have enough space around the table in the conference room for what about what about the commission room that you were talking about that would be aest the town hall I don't know if they have other meetings at that time or anything that happens we have to check the town hall okay so we can investigate that you're not going to be able to set it up between now and getting it published I I think it's it's a um a question of trying to get the logistics involved we can ask the question but I don't think we're going to be able to resolve the logistics in 30 days we can always ask that's what I said we'll ask okay that's the best we can do M so we'll plan on doing a truncated Boe meeting uh and then we will go and move into an open form is that everybody's everybody's okay with that yeah I just wanted to suggest you know there's this owl thing that they've got over the selction room that you know spirals around to whoever's talking I don't know if it's interacted you know people can talk from home or not we'll find out but I just wanted to mention maybe we could put the owl over here but it I don't think it would be much different than what we presently have that's what happens at the board of Select meetings they can have a dialogue between people at home and people in the room can they yeah okay because I didn't know that all right yeah but the owl I mean it's not that the owl is the speaker right it still has to be you still have to have the zoom or the Google meet or something that allows right they have to they have to yeah we can investigate different the other thing you have a zoom account that goes past the 45 minute window yes okay Tock yes I would hope so we're no longer just relying on [Laughter] freezer okay that's the first thing out of the way now we'll server back to Tom's comment and am's com Insurance com there was a letter sent out from the teachers union regarding uh I'll paraphrase this the lack of Civility in the part of a number of parents and the role that um social media plays in promoting that uh attitude um I promise K I would behave myself so I'm not going to go into it any deeper than to say that uh I think as a board we've since I've been on the board I'm 10 years now the biggest complaint we've heard from parents consistent complaint is that we do not keep qualified teachers I've heard that for 10 years uh and then to start to have this garbage start going around doesn't make the job any easier we have a new contract in place which helped to uh Rectify some of the problem there's nothing we can do as a board or as a community as a society it's going to stop these fools from talking on social media the way they do it's unfortunate there's nothing we can do about it so long as the teachers understand that if there's a complaint it will be investigated if it's investigated and the teacher is exonerated or by not Exon that's the wrong word to use the 95% of the time I would assume that most of the stuff is probably just maybe a misunderstanding and maybe it gets resolved by further uh maybe there has to be something just modified but for the most part if a parent has a problem China a command is you go to the teacher they're not happy you go to the principal if they're not happy you go to the superintendent you're not happy and then finally if they're not happy with the superintendent they can come to me but the idea of yapping on social media and and not doing anything about it is aborn and all they are is just pouring gas on a fire and that fire is going to eventually cause the people that were trying to retain and keep to say I don't need this hor let's get and it is and it's I apologize but I don't apologize you know this is bullying pure and simple well that's why I think it's appropriate to ask other parents that may be online and witnessing some of this to step up and help shut it down it's you know I'm not going to ask anybody to do anything the thing that's the thing that Bo the thing that bothers me the most about this whole stupid thing is that not only are they bullies but they're teaching their children to be bullies you know so you want to look at the next generation of School shooters and Bullies you got them right there and these are the parents that are causing and if I have to tell somebody who's 40 years old that they shouldn't be doing this I well that's why I'm saying it's you know BCS is a community the parents are a community and I think that people need to come together and support the positivity and support the mission that's that's being done and I think it's appropriate to ask people you know if you if you see something online that's not appropriate be brave step up and say you know have you spoken to the teacher have you gone through the proper channels maybe this isn't the appropriate place to be you know conducting this type of dialogue i' like to a motion to go into executive session after the public comment so that we could talk about some examples of what's Happening since there are Personnel issues it's not appropriate I public meeting I I don't think I want to go into the weeds with this for a number of reasons not the least of which it gives Credence to some of these people that I really don't want to give any support to the teachers get our support MH if a teacher's found to be um less than uh up to our standards then hopefully the superintendent and her staff have that under control and will help to remedy the situation but I'm not going to give any play time to these people I'm not going to pull personalities into this you know is I'm not even on social media I couldn't tell you I don't I don't have any social media account but I think it's important for us to have a understanding of what types of topics these are circulating around is it a a test grade is it a you know I I think I think we've got and we're going to get dragged into the weeds I think the superintendent has it under control I think Tom has it under control to a point as much as you can control these things these are wildfires and they're going to burn where they go whichever way the wind blows so all I suffice to say is that uh it's an unfortunate situation um hopefully it will remediate itself which I really don't think will but you can pray um and just understand that what they're doing is they're giving um they're giving a lot of grief to the people we're trying to keep to teach their children and that at some point you know you keep doing this and people are not going to want to come to work in bethle they're going to say what the hell I have to put up with this stuff for no amount of money is worth it we're going to start losing the people we have and we're going to start getting the people we don't want so that's as far as I want this to go I mean I I suggested and to be honest with you Joe I did suggest the same thing K and I talked about it um and we felt uh at this stage it's not worth it but personally I don't like bullies and that's all this is is Garden variety bully I think one John Paul one thing I want to to say too that it's important to note is you're going to get people that have an individual concern and they air it inappropriately on social media or out in the community and as you said we're not going to be able to stop that what I think is important to understand is a lot of times the teachers and administrators can't defend themselves because they can't give away information about that child to say big there's false narratives and so they're put in a position where you only get to hear so this is really for the neutral people that are sitting back listening and wondering what's happening they only get to hear one side and start to think that that is the only narrative because the teachers in administration are are put kind of they're stuck in this situation they can't defend themselves so I think it's important kind of to what Caroline was saying it's important for those neutral people to understand that and not give Credence to one person's issue if it's a personal issue about their child or their situation they should deal with with the School directly it doesn't involve anyone else there's a chain of command there's a proper chain of command that's there for a reason and part of it is child confidentiality we go into executive session now we're starting to talk about individuals you can add one and one and get two and I don't think it's fair to the child I don't think it's fair to a lot of people I don't think it's fair to the teacher and again staff can't the staff can't share those individual things with us in executive session about individual students they can't do that so so I I think Tom in in in a lot of respects we share your pain we understand what you're talking about and I think everybody on this board is on board with the idea that we have to support as best we can I mean if there is an issue with a teacher then hopefully you guys find it and correct it so I have a question you have the the the bethney Education Association and what are their expectations from the Board of Education on this topic and you know how do we as a board encourage constructive and respectful dialogue when we can't really address it you know we always feel like our hands get tied because we can't speak directly to something I'm just point at this St I understand that but at this stage the best we can do is what we can do now at some point God forbid we may have to dive into the weeds I hope we never get to that point I truly you know i' I've watch witnessed a number of board of educations that get into that stuff all the time we don't want to go there we truly do not want to go there we may end up getting dragged there and what if one of these persons that uh being unkind uh shows up at our our open forum and then we deal with it at the open Forum okay and uh I don't know if that would be a good thing or a bad thing but you know it could go either way it's future we have no way of of of of governing that so you know to to show respect for the the uh the Bethany Education Association part of our open Forum I think should be targeting a subject of constructive and respectful dialogue between the teachers and the parents and the administration and so there are guidelines that come out like when we assuming we're going to follow the format that we have in the past where it's you know guidelines of what can be discussed you know individual student concerns can't be discussed there can't be any targeting of any you know individuals during that discussion it can be a back and forth dialogue about policies procedures things that are happening at the school but it it can't be about anything about any individual who will get shut down no personal attacks correct yeah and it's got to be so and you know what Sean said before about the keyboard warrior in my time on the board and the open fors I can tell you having seen what those keyboard Warriors say in social media you see their face on zoom and they don't have the wherewithal to be able to say what they're thinking or typing so you you kind of go oh here we go and then they they just they don't have the the guts the lack of better term so you kind of hope maybe we just stay in that trajectory but you just never know okay you have to be careful I I understand that but I don't want the teachers to feel like we're just blowing them off I think the teachers know exactly where we stand and I've said it before and I'll say it again I think we support them and and I think the teachers are well aware that our hands are tied is just as much as their ours a point with with with the response and something someone said to me a long time ago you can't argue an idiot they'll beat you down with their training and experience and and that is so true with a keyboard hero because no matter what you do they're going to type what they're going to type and they'll never put their face to it yeah we just have to accept that and it's a terrible position for our faculty to be in badly keyboard hero but there's nothing you can do about it I I wanted to add to something Caroline said earlier which is like I think for for parents who are listening to this and and wondering what they can do um you know I can talk from my own experience um often you hear when there's a problem and you don't hear when things are going well and so I think you know Caroline's suggestion of like if you see something on social media that you think might that's making you uncomfortable it might make other people uncomfortable speaking up to that I think is a really smart decision um but I also think if you're seeing something that's really good tell that teacher put it on social media tell the board tell the administration um I think the number of people who are having problems um is not the the the noise that we're hearing about it and the amount of time it's taking up is disproportionate to the number of those folks who really are are in the community and one way to man it doesn't solve the problem I'm not suggesting that but I think one way to approach it is not just during Teacher Appreciation Week um to make sure that you know if you're you know like Caroline and I got to go to The Parent Academy last night which was amazing I mean the folks who ran that were great the parents in the room like the conversation was all supportive and encouraging and I'm having this problem too this is how it works for me and like when you have those experiences with a phenomenal BCS staff member make it as loud as you can and I think that's one of the steps that we can every one of us do um to try to address this absolutely agreed okay I think we've beat that dead horse hopefully we beat it to death um anybody else in any comments I've got nothing else I think that covered everything um okay correspondence nothing public comment anybody from the park want to say anything going once going I'll be damn if I said Dam okay any com in online yeah I was going to ask you that if we've gotten any comments all right motion to adjourn so moved second second we be out of here thank you thank you thank you everybody Kim is this thing turned off turn it off turned off

good yes good evening everybody um I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of Brook board for I'd like to call the um to order the regular meeting of thefield board of education on um Wednesday April 1024 me in r Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the here everybody all the board and team and our student representative why don't you pick off with this evening's report Thane yeah of course I hope that everyone's doing well tonight um I have a couple updates just what's been going on at the schools in the past couple weeks so last weekend there was Junior Prom and coming up with this week we're right about to go into Spring Break um AP exams start May 6 so those lasts for around two weeks a lot of those AP classes have started with review and just going over everything from the courses um senior prom is going to be May 24th and going into may there's going to be a bunch of Ceremonies and events for the end of the year some for SE seniors like the NHS induction and some of the spring like the Bandon chorus concert and other types of events like that for athletics I have a couple updates for Mr Baldwin um the spring season has started all those Sports have started up with their games and practices and everything um the Brookfield the co-op ice hockey team BBD the ice cats they were named Team of the Year this year which is really exciting um the tennis courts have been under construction for the past couple weeks but they're done and they were opened on Monday track competed on their new track that was being redone at the beginning of this school year um but they competed on it for the first time yesterday which is really exciting and now for some of the clubs that I'm in for youth commission we had our career fair the other week it went really really well there were a couple last minute changes um and Mr Banda did have to step in for the law enforcement presenter but we got everything figured out and it ended up being a really great event now with that club we're moving on to discuss some other projects the voice for change project is is kind of tied in with that club that's obviously still in the works but um the lockers have started to be be torn down this past week at school so they're making progress on that for National Honor Society we have our Mother's Day 5K on May 12th we decide the proceeds are going to be going towards the Connecticut Children's Hospital so we have a cause for that and finally Morgan's message that's a club dedicated to student athlete mental health we haveed started with planning a fundraiser event for this year that we're going to do in the spring and some dedication games so those are the games where athletes will be wearing something with the Morgan's message logo or something to promote uh student athlete mental health through Morgan's message so they're planning some spring home dedication games for that club and that's all I have thank you thank you and Jun your P was this weekend right yes yeah okay um we're gonna have public comment um and the Board of Ed welcomes public comment I'm gonna um read two uh pieces of policy in an attempt okay um just to try to bring um us closer our understanding and U The public's understanding closer together about um public comment so um it is important to say first that the Board of Education welcomes public comment and each people will have up to 3 minutes to provide input speakers may offer s such objective criticisms of school operations and programs as concern them but in public session the board prohibits the Airing of complaints against School Personnel or against any person connected with the school system so that's where we're coming from that's policy um 1120 um and then we have another angle that's important for the public to know about um it's from policy um 9325 and it's to protect the impartiality of the board um we can't hear public comment that involves a complaint about Board of Education Personnel students Personnel action student disciplinary matter or pending litigation um regardless of whether or not the employee or student is identified in the presentation by name or by another reference which tends to identify an individual so um those if you have that kind of complaint that's very important but that needs to be submitted in writing uh to the appropriate person so with that we're going to have 20 minutes um allotted for public comment on any item included on the agenda and if there's overflow that will be at the end of the meeting so um with that we'll call up the first person and that is um Mr Korea oh yeah so Mr you're the only one who the comment um yes this on I just make sure that it's it's up okay um just you know I I people uh text can ask if this is being broadcast is it is it being broadcast is okay um Andy Korea 45 West wicer um proi um so the two topics I want to talk about is the I think it's called the 1312 complaint or 12 13 complaint that was put in by Mr Grimes um regarding board operations um as well as what looked like an oversight on the consent agenda um regarding a h proposed hiring um I agree you know in concept with uh the complaint that was put in and I hope the board takes it seriously to make substan substantial action in improving their operations in general since the board has been sworn in key issues the board hasn't been operating as a functional board um you mentioned several policies but one in particular that I I have pointed out and you haven't cured is the actual attorney review policy um there was a view for the a request for attorneys to be you know put out for bid to be reviewed that was now 4 months ago and we still haven't heard what's going on with that and you know in terms of you know the the board the board's code of ethics you have to um uphold um public policy laws uh and you have a uh a lawyer that is is in a federal uh discrimination verdict that advised a district to discriminate against an adult that that's a problem the board should have removed that uh attorney as it relates to the um BHS principal inter term position it wasn't on the consent agenda um I don't understand why I do understand that it might have been a contractual position but the was are pretty clear the board hires and fires everybody pieces of the hiring and firing process might be delegated but it has to come before the board um so I hope the board discusses that as part of either a superintendent report or the consent agenda but there are obvious oversights in um and how that person was selected that literally anybody could have figured out just by utilizing Google and so everybody's aware you know literally everybody in the United States have has access to Google if you typed in the person's name and where they last worked T page down twice and you would see about six articles that would make you go oh my goodness that person shouldn't be in our schools thank you thank you okay so um move on to uh Spotlight from wh M Mr Renda yes so Mr Renda has students uh involved with Unified sports and they're going to present this even and I think we have a video as well right d yes little bit we're just bringing up is it up y give us a second here we are okay I am very excited tonight I know that Dr Brill spoke at the last meeting about us being uh recently honored as a national unified Champion school for Unified sports um as you'll see I put on there now we're a two-time national unified Champion school and also passed Michael uh Michael's cup award-winning uh school um and I want to just point out here's the picture of us accepting I'm going to show you the video which is pretty funny um and then from the C CAC is the Connecticut Association of schools and the Connecticut inter Scholastic Athletic Conference this is when they talk about Unified sports seeks to join students with and without disabilities to participate in a variety of athletic events it was inspired by a simple principle training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding at this time I'm going to have one of our coaches is here and um we also had some helpers but uh Miss Roman's going to come up we also have two of our uh student athletes we have Maddie Johnson and Jackson Kramer is going to also uh say something quick I had Miss Roman come on up so I'm Kathy Roman I'm one of the coaches at whiner my co- coach Cory Rafford he couldn't be here tonight but we want to thank first of all we couldn't do this alone it takes a village um first of all our Administration the district the community everybody has to have a hand in helping us out here um the building Mr Renda does a great job making the building available for us to practice um at the high school here um Steve Baldwin does an excellent job offering his support in hosting um are we um do the um what is it the tourament tournaments we have uh tournaments both in the fall and the spring um where we host up to five seven other schools come they bring their athletes and their peers and we have round robin um tournaments in soccer and in basketball and the parents come staff comes the uh students come and it's just great to watch both the athletes and the and the peers out on the field we have ref a whole staff of ref referees come and they come and they donate their time so it's incredible the amount of people and the amount of energy that goes into hosting this event the um the whole purpose behind it is to allow all of our athletes the opportunity to compete in in these sports that they wouldn't they wouldn't have the opportunity to do otherwise so we have our our peers and our athletes are out there playing in the fall we do soccer in the spring we do um basketball and we have the opportunity to then go on individual um uh outings we're going to go in couple weeks we're going to go play the watch the yard goats they're going to host a college day so we're going to take the kids out and watch them play play some baseball and the kids enjoy it and they have a great time so in addition to that CIA has what they call a leadership conference so all of our peers have an opportunity to to hone their skills in leadership roles they get it um they'll come with us they have um five or six kids will join us and they go through a whole day of leadership skill building that they can use throughout their academic career and they'll be able to use that on later on when they in their professional career so I don't want to take any more time I'm going to let Jackson come up and tell you a little bit more about what he before they go I'm going to show you a little um before he goes we're going to uh show you a video and some other pictures this was us from 2019 that was 2020 at the time as you can tell with our masks um but those are the trophies and interestingly the one on the right Mrs raffy I had my secretary Mar ask her I said where's that trophy where's that trophy we don't have it I go what do you mean we don't have it and I forgot that it's like the Stanley Cup you get it but then you got to give it back so we will be getting it back soon I'm not sure for this for this new one but it was kind of like where's that trophy well we don't have um this is the uh video I'd like to show you quickly standard multiple Unified sports inclusive leadership me both partners and athletes active leaders and whole school engagement so that the whole school is included in this inclusion Revolution and we're proud to announce and present National Rec M [Music] [Applause] toi so the reason I wanted to show you that is we had and I I probably should know this before I say this I think there was like five different schools that uh that were at the tournament and it is such an awesome thing to see the excitement of you know the students the peers and just the families and the excitement when a student makes a basket is it makes you cry it is so awesome this year um one of the students from the other team real tall tall tall kid he actually they were counting it down and he dunked cuz they eight foot rims he dunked it at the last possible second the place went nuts so it was really just an awesome awesome thing to see um these are some of the pictures of the this was the basketball tournament like we said that uh Steve Ball one put together uh with all the different teams there's some of our pictures there's M right in there and then um some more pictures that we had of the student the student athletes and the peers playing and then this was uh Kathy had said something about we do soccer also a tournament up here at the high school these were some of the pictures that we had from there and before I let them speak at the end they're gon to talk Maddy's gonna do um use her gaze board and we're going to show you she put something a little bit together for her to introduce herself and say something and then Jackson is going to come up and talk but before we do I think I just want to reiterate what Kathy said thanks to our coaches and helpers that we have Corey raffy Kathy Roman Jen Kramer and Ashley Merrick for all they've done this year to really make it special for all of our student athletes in their peers um again the families that that uh participate are just beyond joy to see the happiness and the excitement that goes on and also a big shout out to Steve Balwin I have his picture up there that was him speaking um that day at the um tournament so Maddie your turn you ready SP around you're on can you spin around so I'm G to show you quick this is madd's gaze board and in the classroom when they're doing activities she'll gaze with her eyes into certain things and they'll say what they she wants to do or uh you know something that she may need so we put this together and hope she doesn't go bad doesn't go to that one but um I just wanted you to see that because again it's really cool would you think about it hey we ready and Jackson you're in the Caboose so get ready ready Maddie bad she heard me say that and I guess I'm not a good teacher I love going to unified sport I get to play game I love going to unified sport I get to play games with friends and hi I'm mad so again I we just thought it'd be something really neat that you guys could see that that she uses in the classroom every day obviously and just a way to present you want to hear one more time huh one more time I love going to UniFi Sports I get to play games with friends all right all right Jackson you ready all right come on we're going to spin you around come on up Jack ready hello hello my name is Jackson Kramer I'm an eighth grader at whisk Middle School I became interested in interested in working with the ELC population back when I was in first grade and I've spent 4 years visiting the students in that room to read to them or play with them when I got to WM I knew I wanted to join the Unified sports program so I could continue to be a peer to the ELC students last May an ELC student and I won the teammates award at the Unified sports banquet I was very proud of the student I work with for accomplishing this I think that this is such an important program because it gives kids with different needs the opportunity to learn Sports alongside a peer and have fun gain confidence and become stronger physically and socially I feel very lucky and proud to be part of the Unified sports program thank [Applause] you told Jackson you guys may want to ask a question I didn't know if anyone had any questions for the coaches or any of us oh Jack are getting off easy hold on hold on I I'll ask you a question what's what's something that you're going to remember most about this past year or even in Unified sports in general I'm going to remember um the big award I won with my friend at the banquet um especially remembering him throwing in the water that's a true story we went out to take pictures and the plaque ended up in the water anybody ever been to the aquaturf oh yeah yeah ended up in the water we had to go get some to fish it out that's a great memory that's a good memory but obviously again you can see um Jackson's been in this since he was like he said since he was younger and the students that we have that were that peers that we have work with our athletes is really just it says a lot about them I know I've sent emails to their parents saying you should be so proud of your of of your child because it takes it's it's a person it's a kid who has a lot of uh empathy and and wants to help other people and one day he'll probably be teaching for us at whiner Middle School does know that yet any other questions no just thank you jackon for being a good role [Applause] model thank you to Mr Renda uh Miss Roman and to andon how do you how do you spell your name m y Madison Madison yes now to uh stud well no to correspond correspondents for the April 10th board meeting Jessica Hansen security task force meeting and state of the district email Matt Grimes complaint under policy 1312 Deborah Casey Personnel Monique Matthews Board of Ed recording Foya Andy Korea board retreat and BHS administrative update Jill Dyer support for educator diversity great let's move then to um approval of board minutes I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting 32024 board retrieve second um great so we have a motion and a second all in favor of approving the board minut I I okay all right so is uh they are unanimously approved let's move next then to the superintendent update Dr BR what do you have for us all right thank you Dr Young Blood um really so many great things going on as as you get to see um I did check in with Ava she will update us at the next meeting of where she's going to college so we're excited about KN that um very important to know our students landed safely in France for our whiner uh exchange trip uh partnership trip with the with the school there and lots of pictures have been uploaded all over the place and on our district Facebook page so we're excited for the kids and the CH rooms um kindergarten enrollment I wanted to jump right to that invite Dr P where's Dr P can you just come up and give us a couple of stats on kindergarten enrollment how that's [Applause] going is this on okay uh so we are currently at 104 14 of those are looking for early admission because they will not turn five by September 1st last year at this time we were at 98 so pretty close and um our plan we're estimating around 163 kids that's that's our projection we're going with that for next year and uh anything else Dave on that are you good we're good all right thank you sir all right um public uh budget hearing um last week the referendum was set for May 21st so everybody knows that May 21st will be the referendum um for Capital and the town operating budget uh Magnet School update um that's me Wendy is our representative from the board so how did that meaning go Wendy um it was uh it was pretty interesting um and so I'm updating the board but also for people who are watching um parents who maybe want to know a little bit more about the school um Dr BR and I were joking a little bit about why would we um you know talk about the bagnet school when we have our own wonderful CES here and I mean yes I I totally get it but at the same time it's another option that Brookfield uh brings to parents and families so let me just um I'll assume that people don't know much about it and I'll um give you a few bullet points so um it's called AIS the academy for international studies it's located in danur on uh the westc campus um the uh West side campus and it's one of three interdistrict magnet schools in Connecticut um Brookfield currently has eight students in grade five um and 16 students combin um in grades K through four uh so the principal is a delightful woman named Merl Jackson and she if you know folks in Brookfield want to know about this she will come and speak to the PTO in the fall she says that's the best time because their Lottery will close in um the mid to late fall I think um just few features of their curriculum um they do uh well project leadway is really um a big thing to know about these they're starting that in in kindergarten um they have Spanish also kindergarten twice a week um they do focus on character with assemblies and like book themes that go with it book of the month where new character traits are explored um they have a bunch of cool clubs um they are using the arc core reading model um and they are doing work with the fourth and fifth graders with some of the Westcon students because Westcon has a really awesome um theater program so um that's just another option for folks in our town all right thank you for that update Wendy any questions on AIS before we move on okay um Legal Services uh RFP update um the purchasing agent Jules capid DOI uh has been in communication with the selection uh for interviews from the board to juwels uh May 8th will be a special meeting of the Board of Education uh to interview the three firms uh selected uh through consensus by the Board of Education uh which at this time are Shipman and Goodwin Canon escalera and male and um Pullman and cley so that's May uh interviews with the Board of Ed CES Paving update we put pictures out on uh the district Facebook page we're really excited um we had heard that the schedule was supposed to start April 8th um and it did which um with some of the site work has been frustrating and it actually started on time uh this Monday um black top is almost covering the entire North lot and some extra space in the center of both parking lots um over the April break the playscapes um will get their rubber mulch poured there's already rubber mulch there but there's a solution that goes in there and a curing time that needs to happen so that's supposed to that is scheduled for the April break and it looks like weather is going to cooperate and be warm enough so we're really thrilled to get that going it appears that of um over the weekend where Monday becomes May 6th there will be a transition in the parking lot and we'll have some different entrance for parents uh for drop off and certainly for buses the old Huckleberry cutout which is going to become our North driveway will be accessible and we're hoping May 6th is that time uh Dave and the team we working on a communication with the VIS excuse me with a visual so everybody can see how they're going to be driving in we'll have Personnel out there some officers Etc to really help make sure we move the traffic along um and of course we anticipate a couple of hiccups there always is something that you can't anticipate so we want to be ready it may take a little more time for uh parent drop off so we want to just be patient with that um the plan is for early August that the driveways and lots will all be done the sidewalks in front of the school that are stamp creete that match the different Bridges will all be installed um leading into the next piece on the superintendent update that leads into Parks and Recreation for the summer and summer school and extended school year we're going to be using whis skiner and the high school for the various programs CES we're going to keep it off limits to student programming um because there's so much site work that has to happen and we only have that 6 to8 we window that's with weather cooperating so we really need to get that work done um buses vans cars all over the place it would just be too difficult to stage and move logistically to get that work done so we'll utilize the middle school and the high school like we did last year um Career Fairs as Ava mentioned the youth commission had the career fair over at the High School it was absolutely amazing um Anna and I were lucky enough to be in with a group and um the kids were delightful actually a couple of groups three yeah it it was wonderful so we were really appreciative to be invited and just so thankful the youth commission doing such a great job um with that it's important to know that our uh school counselors put on a a fabulous career day at the um uh at whis skiner um the electrician was trying to sell me the gener generator and I'm not allowed to according to my wife get one of those cuz we don't lose power enough so it's not you know that's that but anyway um I I wanted to be sold cuz I really want one um but anyway um uh I digress and I it's this week we also have yeah tomorrow right the Candlewood Lake uh Elementary uh career fair as well so we're really excited uh about all those opportunities for kids to open their minds to all the great things that are out there in in our world uh to be in discovery mode and be really excited about things um there's a company that's new to the the town about a year and a half called romtech it's been here right on silvermine Greg dembowski from the town came to share with me that he met with the company and it's a light manufacturing technology company they have about 160 employees now they're very interested in supporting the local community that they have their um home Basin and one of the things they'd like to do is uh support youth they're not sure exactly what that looks like yet but they have some monies um and so I gave them Mr Hill's name and Mr banda's name and folks from the business department and uh we're pretty excited about some opportunities that might come in through technology and Entrepreneurship with uh with romtech so shout out to romtech and works excited to to hopefully get to work with you uh this may just to keep the board updated on what's coming down the pike uh from the administrative team uh we have some presentations and reports that'll be coming up over the spring it doesn't stop even though it's spring we actually ramp up our activity um the new reading program which was just discussed at the cape uh meeting prior to this uh will be brought forward uh at the May 1st meeting along with the uh recycling poster contest our annual contest and the it looks like uh we do have the athletic report it just came in uh think yesterday so Mr Banda uh needs to get a look at that and we need to get a little mini presentation put together to be ready for May early May we're excited about that the special education department strategic plan will be presented on May 22nd for Mr Roland he's been working uh for a long time now with the team based off of the work from the uh the correct reports and also uh some surveys and other things um and at the May 22nd um Board of Ed meeting we'll have our last um installment of teaching and learning and kind of of a summation from Deb and uh and Anna the teacher and administrator evaluation um plan it is um really ready I think today we did a lot of work about four hours of work today we're almost there with our teachers and administrators have the new evaluation tool in place um as you know annually we have to comply with state regulations it is a radical change from where we've been the last dozen years or so that will be presented and shared it really is a compliance exercise for the board but really important to understand and present to the community uh how we're um evaluating our our team um and then we will be putting a report together um regarding faculty and Par educator attendance kind of a last year versus this year and how we did because we've been putting some safeguards in place and really working individually with our uh with our employees uh the next thing actually Casey's just going to pass something out regarding Communications um and we did have a special um policy and Communications meeting last night uh part of that was two weeks ago I sent out the state of the district um there is a nice format there kind of where we were where we are where we're going and it really it's not only a summary of the year but it is a nice look ahead um it was sent out it's typically electronic but I ran off copies for you so you have it and uh if you haven't had a chance to give it a look um it's it's really a nice document I think it's our third or fourth year now of putting it together in this format and it's worked out quite well um I also sent out about two weeks ago a budget update notice to family and faculty regarding the $728,000 in cuts that we had to achieve as a board um we'll be talking about that later uh on the old business part of the agenda um budget flyer we just went over that at committee meeting uh yesterday sometime after the April break probably not right away probably the first week in May uh when we get back we'll get that out to the community so people uh could kind of get referendum on the brain and you know get that on the calendar and make sure they know it's uh it's time to vote and then finally end of year activities uh end of year events just to remind the board uh Lisa and I put together a a pretty comprehensive list of each school's activities um AA started to mention some of those um many of the things um they might be offered during the day um but there's also a lot of evening events for celebrations she talked about National Honor Society there's concerts there's all kinds of really fun and engaging things and board members are always uh invited and people are excited to see board members if you get a chance so we'll get you that list so you can get your calendar set and that is all I have any questions uh John for the attendance presentation will that be for student attendance also will we be addressing that I mean the F the focus in the goals we had talked about was on the uh faculty and Par educator it wasn't it wasn't student attendant so the intention was a report more not necessarily a presentation more of a report to the board yeah I have I have two questions um one's about the communications so the budget flyer how is that getting out to the to families is that going um are you mailing that or is that email School message okay District Facebook page um and then typically the pto's also put it up on their pages and then we make hard copies to put on the counter uh you know over at the senior center at Town Hall in my office uh in the board of office I shouldn't say my office and uh at the schools in the main offices so um the other of the other items are they they're all email everything's electronic posted on Facebook Okay um and hard copies left for the counters that I just talked about in in offices I mean I guess it's it's expensive to do a mailing very okay um okay the last time I think we did a mailing was the major effort back in 2019 probably January February 2019 prior to the uh vote on the school project very expensive um but didn't wasn't there like a 70% I I couldn't tell you what the turnout was it was around two to one in terms of the vote for the project but I I couldn't tell you the turnout um and then the other question I had had to do with the the third item and your your upcoming presentations and reports um the teacher and administrator evaluation um can you share you think about that with us now or no absolutely well Dr man was working with the team uh with Dr Pepi this afternoon so I'll turn it over to Anna a little more upate and a whole bunch of teachers um sure so we um have been working over so our professional development and evaluation committee affectionately known as pedc which is a a state requirement that all districts have a pck um comprised of certified faculty and staff um so certified administrators teachers and then actually one of the new components is you have to have at least one ref representative from the par educator Union um and that's for the professional development portion of the planning um and so this committee is a standing committee and it has to meet regularly um but this year we've had a very clear Focus specific focus on um creating a new teacher uh an administrator growth and support system which is going to serve as our evaluation uh model um and so there were new guidelines released by the state uh last the beginning of this school year um and then they recently released an excuse me a model um program and so we've been kind of crosswalking that model that what was released by the state with uh some former uh drafts that have been created in Brookfield um and so but the the real comprehensive shift here is that it is focused it the focus has gone from um a high stakes accountability model which was based on summi of ratings by the end of the year which was much more compliance driven for administrators and teachers to for administrators to admin and for teachers to comply with um where they would meet certain criteria um to a wholesale shift based on adult learning theory that is really focused on growth and development and kind of ongoing growth and development so teachers will be um will be setting goals around that are focused that are student- centered goals but focused around their own professional growth um and so it really marries together the evaluation system and the professional learning that teachers are you know that the board provides time for um but the teachers will really engage with and create their own own learning um plans essentially so we but it's been a pretty comprehensive shift so we are using a new set of Frameworks um that in that are kind of guiding the work um we're choosing learning FL forward uh for both the administrator and the teacher uh those Frameworks learning forward learning forward is the framework that we're using um and we are we have spent time creating a single competency um rubric for for based on the CCT the common core of teaching or service providers um which is the current rubric that is used right now um and then the the leaders the similar Leadership Model so we're not shifting completely away from what teachers are are are are comfortable with in terms of what they know but the entire approach is a is a pretty comprehensive shift um so we and the part of the requirements so that we present it to the board which is true every year um this will be a little bit more in-depth because it's completely new so I'll want to um really you know walk you folks through it so you understand what's going on but it is it'll kind of become one of the cornerstones of our work um towards the Strategic plan because it really is you know can be married very nicely into or melded nicely into the work we're already already doing with our portrait of the graduate with um you know everything that we're doing to try to make sure um that those four goals of the Strategic plan are realized through supporting our Educators in their own growth and development as they support our youth youth um through their growth and development so it's kind of that extending the concept of learning and ongoing learning well that thank you awesome awesome um okay are any of the it's like the I guess the taxonomy of evaluation changing it all that's probably not the right word like um are you reapportioning how many people get evaluated by individuals or well everyone um reports kind of thing um I we haven't gone that into those kinds of logistics so far we um the the model does uh the plan does identify who is in you know one of two cohorts and that's based on essentially for um certified teachers it's based on tenure um whether they're new to the district or new to the profession versus tenear teachers and that the really the main difference is um in terms of the number of uh observations that are and whether they're formal or informal so th those kinds of kind of standard operating procedures are not particularly different it's really more the philosophical approach to it and the um the reciprocal nature of both of the uh plans where um employee and evaluator really enter into a a relationship in terms of trying to learn and grow from each other and set goals that are um measurable but are ongoing um and are collaborative and specific to the work that they're doing and relevant to the students that they have in front of them that's awes sure okay it all right you're welcome okay um so sub commmittee reports let's start with um policy and Communications okay the policy Communications committee met on March 20th and again as Dr Bill mentioned we had a special meeting uh last night as well so that we wouldn't wait until um prior to the next board meeting which would have been May 1st there are three policies that we really focused on uh that we had referenced in the past and that is uh 616 2.51 which is the student survey policy 514 5.5 which is sexual harassment policy and 6563 which is the school library media policy um in terms of the student survey there we had brought it to the last board meeting for a first read but there was some concern expressed uh about it so it came back to committee um we made some uh specific uh edits to that and so that will be coming back for a first read again on May first the second policy the sexual harassment policy cape has some um very specific language uh that we had read that looked uh pretty good so uh we are going to be Consulting with legal on that and we are uh hopefully going to be adopting much of that language into our own policy and that will also come planning to have that come to the board in may as well um possibly May 22nd for that one it's going to take a little bit more time the school library media policy um we had requested some information about how many titles actually are adopted each year the number we got those numbers from each of the schools they're pretty significant however in the meantime in the legislative session there is a bill uh concerning the removal and restriction of access to books in public schools the legislative session ends on May 8th so we are going to wait to see uh the result of that and uh we may be obligated to adopt some of that language so we're going to wait to see what comes out of that legislative session and then proceed accordingly uh Dr burill also brought uh a new business uh to the meeting which is uh policy number 9324 which is the meeting purpose and Parliament parliamentary procedures and uh the only thing we're going to bring that may 1 uh for a first read as well and the only thing there is about the streaming service that that the that these board meetings will be streamed on an online service so uh there was just a very slight alteration there and the board will see that um in terms of updates or new uh information uh Dr BR basically went over everything um the budget flyer has been cleaned up and uh that should be going out soon and everything else has already already been talked about so unless there are any questions I will end thank you awesome thank you so much Hala um regarding uh Personnel negotiations uh we met on the um Second and um let's see we entered into executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations relating to collective bargaining and unaffiliated salaries for um the 2024 2025 school year and um that was pretty much it are there you guys have questions about that okay then let's move to facilities Robert you ready yes I am thank you um good evening everyone we uh we met on Wednesday April 3rd um we went over some school dude reports from Dan um the average work order that we get is uh done in two days so again shout out to Dan for great work I keep shouting out every meeting I told I'm going to keep going so um we also have a custodial help desk that was set up by the tech department and it basically answers small the requests um that are needed um we have one page of incoming requests and Eight Pages of finished work so again kudos to the uh to the tech team uh AC project update all the paperworks were filled out and sent out we're trying to uh still get the specs down um and all that's being done by uh marks and okubo um f i it uh for Capital projects update the ballards are coming uh money is available and it's been earmarked for the project um we have uh 12K ear Mark for the seven ballards that we're getting and it should be finished the shooting for August should be ready by uh opening up next school year um as far as the boiler repair that we spoke about last time um it it turned out to be a huge project that was down uh that was knocked down from 27,000 excuse me a projected cost of 9 to 27,000 but because of Dan again we was able to knock it down down to $3,800 so um kudos to him and for saving us money and just doing a great job uh as far as water quality all the paperwork has been submitted to Aquarian um to request sufficient volum and pressure we we continue to look into the um Middle School Aquarian water to linking to the Middle School aquarium the Middle School to the aquarium water system and Dan is on top of that and it's a long and tedious process um phase two of the water quality we're compiling data of our existing lines as well um at CES we had some fact issues but the contractors are fine-tuning all of that um and we should be up and running with that so it's been an ongoing uh monitoring process so that's pretty much it unless has any questions all right thanks so much absolutely okay um so now let's go to the consent agenda item 11 security task force oh sorry gosh my bad it's okay it's a quick report um we last met on Thursday April 4th um and then after welcoming our two newest members um Jim Mitchell and Stephanie um we entered into executive session to discuss um security um at the various schools and um we set our next meeting date for Thursday June 6th at 10: a.m.

supp e oh March po post [Music] for present arms I pledge alance toag United States of America and to the it stands one nation God invisible Justice order arms post right Face Forward mark thank you I'm going to ask the vice chair to do the Roll Call Al present Teresa pres Michelle here here here laen here here Jan here thank you next on our agenda we will have recognition and we're going to turn this part of the agenda over to our superintendent thank you board chair Cooper I'd like to uh welcome to the public comment area Tina motra the Bridgefield Board of Education chair who's here tonight to present an award to some of our very hardworking staff everyone good evening my name is Tina MRA I am the rich Board of Education chair but today I'm here on behalf of K to recognize the efforts of the danry public schools and to present present you with this award but in order to receive a Bonnie B Carney Award of Excellence for educational Communications entries must mean all of the following criteria first is the general criteria which includes Clarity of message image consistency and second the specific guidelines of readability editing Graphics type format and presentation design and value of expenditure I'm very happy to present danry public schools with the award for excellence for educational communication for the student parent hand the danry public schools back to school guide so congratulations C has been honoring school districts with the Award of Excellence for educational communication since 1975 in 2016 this award was renamed in honor of a longtime cave staff member bnie B Carney in recognition of her 47 years of dedication to education that was focused in Communications with this award C's goal is to identify and honor the hardworking people in school districts for the continuing effort to communicate effectively so congratulations to all of you great job thank you very much thank and I'd like to have Ann and Grace come up and um some of the other members who went into who worked really hard and collaborated on the content of the guide um that we put together for the beginning of this particular school year so K now for you wonder play the board members it's in [Applause] your than [Applause] an and Grace did you have anything you want to say a little about this award and you want to come up and talk a little about how we arrived at this particular model this year hi everyone thank you this is truly um a meaningful moment for us because in our office and family school Community Partnerships we work so closely with our families and we know that our families are just sponges for information to be able to do better for their children and so our back to school guide has been an opportunity for us to really show everything that this wonderful School District does for our families and gives the families the information that they need to be able to be successful in their um time with us at danur schools yeah um and I I just want to say thank you to Mike C who works really closely with us um in all communication but in this guide as well and so I was trying to get him to come and take the photo with us because he just as much a part of this project as we were so thank you Mike for all your support and it was really exciting for me to be a part of this um and be able to to cater this to our families in special ways with links to information that we know they were looking for throughout the year um TR translated in as many languages as we needed it to be so it was just an exciting project to work on and I'm looking forward to next year Tina you're here awesome I didn't know if you still we will see you thank you so much thank you both [Applause] thank thank you K I just wanted to add you know Grace and the work you guys do over there is just incredible and you have an amazing way to just distill complexity down and to just clear simple messaging that you know everybody can understand and you know not turn it into edge of speak and just break down complex ideas into simple things that people can use and and almost turn key you know into their daily lives so thank you for all you do and I mean this book was all you guys so thank you so [Applause] much all right and next up we have Spotlight your school King Street primary principal matella fera good evening everybody I'm so excited to be here tonight to Spotlight King primary my name is dona as stated um PC primary is unique sense that we are one of the only two primary schools in the district so we only Serv as C with three even though we are a small school in the sense that service K3 410 students there um every day at King Street primary magic happens um and that magic is dedicated is because of the dedication of the staff that I have on the work um I would not be able to do and accomplish what I've accomplished without their support and help um and I'd like for them to stand at this time those that are here to be recognized and for me to publicly thank them for all the det cely we have over 400 years of service to DPS at King Street many of us are liers and we are proud to be there and um I am honored to share this cute little video we did for you tonight which highlights many wonderful things that we do at King Street in our video you will see Snippets of who we are what makes us great uh anything from our King Street um tiger citizens to our kindness capes that we award to our students weekly uh for showing kindness all around school um the children are proud of who they are and they're proud to show their stripes each and every day and five minutes really does not do it justice so I would like to invite any and all of you to come and visit like it would be an honor to have you there enjoy the video what I like about King tree is that the walls are very painted and colorful and makes me feel welcome joyful and cheerful what I like about this school is that it has many nice teachers they're really um kind smart and nice and ch ch has to learn new stuff she is always kind she's respectful she has she has patience for everybody when we're not ready and uh she helpes kids um and she loves teaching everybody and that's what I love about this classic she's always empathetic and she's she's never saying bad things about people um and when I need help I go up to her ask her for help and then she helps me out with what I'm not understanding but every time we go back with her at the once we done she lets us get pick our stickers I I love my teacher when it's time to leave I don't want I love her so much whenever she makes a mistakes she makes the mistake funny we did fun things together we did so many fun things together and now she is like not my teacher anymore and I still like her and like and she been being she always kind to me every morning go fast by your class she gives me a hug she say good morning to me and T she doesn't every time I get something WR she she says all your answers don't have to be all if you get along it's okay mhm what I like about King is that I get to go to the gym and learn new stuff that I haven't done before so just a little tidbit the children um had a jump rope challenge for the American Heart Association and many children had never jumped rope before and even I got in on the fun a little bit um and every child is now before they go out they go out and borrow JS because they want to continue that I haven't done before stuff that I haven't done before is that we do new activities and we learn new stuff with the activities well right now I'm learning about time and I love to learn about time because that's how I get smarter what I learned is to be grateful for what we have already we were doing this and we read a book and we were talking about lessons and and then I saw in this book that it taught me to be respectful what we have then talk about kindness because some people already got AER Citizen and we need to be like them and that the teacher put something in the board um that with words that show kindness and respect they stand for nice stuff like S stand for safety te stand for teamwork I stand for respect I means Integrity p means your personal best there's really kind people like my friends and more other people from second grade kindergarten first grade and third grade in first grade I met my first friend and we was really good together and we and we keep being in the same class as each other it was like so scary to didn't know nothing like from the school and like I lost my other friend and I was like so scared to come to this school and like me she was like from second grade she was she helped me for everything and like she was kind to me and then and then I noticed how to be and and then I have new friends I love King Street personally because there's there's a lot of friends that people can make and there's over like 300 kids around here and I love how they all are not rude I still love making friends and what I like about kingry is that I make a lot of new friends and throughout the years I've had a pretty good relationship with all my teachers okay [Music] let's [Applause] and that's thank you Don I want to thank the staff for coming out tonight it's just another ATT Testament to the culture and we see staff come out to support the principal and we see parents here uh we know there's something really good happening in the school and that's great so that's that's an attributed that's attributed to your leadership um so we thank you for coming tonight and thank you for all that you do for King Street thank [Applause] you now we're going to move into the public participation part portion of our agenda I'm going to ask you if you plan to speak we will limit you to three minutes we have a large agenda tonight uh we have an audience full of people that want to speak and we're going to ask you to be courtes of us and we're going to be courtes of you that you give us 3 minutes and so everybody can get their conversation in or message they want to bring to us okay Lauren the Board of Education welcomes public participation and ask that speakers please limit their comments to 3 minutes speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or def amatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the Danbury public school system um before the start of the board meeting those wishing to address the board and public session or to sign in um sorry 3 minutes may be allotted to each speaker and a maximum of 30 minutes for public participation the board May modify these limitations um by a majority vote of those present at the beginning of the meeting thank you first speaker is Carol if I don't pronounce it right you just come on up and make your announcement good afternoon my name is p m and I'm here today to advocate for the important role of sports in our educational system Sports aren't just about physical activity but they're about shaping the minds and of our students participation in sports teaches students valuable life lessons that go beyond classroom when students engage in sports the importance of teamwork discipline and perseverance these qualities are essential for Success not only in sports but in all aspects of Life by working together towards a common goal on the field core or mat students develop crucial interpersonal skills that will serve them well in their future careers and relationships moreover Sports promote physical health and wellbeing in a time where inactive Lifestyles and time their PR Sports provide platform students to stay active and develop healthy habits regular physical activity through Sports not only improves physical fitness but also boosts mental health reducing Stress and Anxiety levels among students Sports also Foster a sense of community and school spirit athletic events bring students Beyond these and Educators together creating a strong sense of belonging and pride in our school this Collective enthusiasm contributes to a positive School culture and reinforces the values of sportsmanship respect and inclusivity as we strive to provide a well-rounded education for our stud we must continue to prioritize and invest in sports programs by doing so we are investing in the holistic development of our students promoting their physical social and emotional grow I urge the board to reaffirm our commitment to sports and and education and allocate resources to support and expand our Athletic program let us Empower our students to excel not only academically but also as confident resilient and healthy individuals prepared to face the challenges of today and tomorrow thank you for your attention thank you for good evening my name is Matthew G and it's been my privilege to be educated from the D public school system thank you all for your what you do as a board of education and School administration to support D students the education I received and the after school opportunities I taken advantage of have opened me up to new interest in new relationships and life friendships given the budgetary constraints we're all facing I'd like to suggest at no additional cost a change in policy to help make opportunities I've been given more widespread reality for D high school students to participate in High School athletics at DHS you must be focused and committed to an extensive training and participation schedule for many students who were part-time after school help their families with siing care or taking multiple AP classes that commitment is impossible I'd like to suggest that the war and administration adjust the policy for the creation of new club sports you might be able to offer students an available after school Pathway to Athletics one of the difficulties that must be surmounted to cre Club support is finding educator sponsors my suggestion is that policy can be adjusted to have well beded uh fingerprinted background checked Community adult parent sponsors who help oversee and gu from Sports by adjusting this POS the burden oversight and Direction isn't just on our Educators in the system but on volunteer community members more by expand the accessibility of club sports can ensure that every student regardless of their schedule responsibilities has a chance to experience the caderie discipline and every other benefit that comes with being part of Team by broadening the scope of club sports leing care to a wider range of interests and abilities ensuring that more students find a place where they feel they want this policy change is not just about sports it's about creating more inclusive and diverse opportunities for all students to grow learn and Thrive during that time of D High School I recognize that there are material cost involved our community I fully believe that if club sports and DHS can be easily set up the materials and inment can be solicited from the community as donations and kept at DHS for each New Year participants given the burg budget Trace I hope you can see the advantage thoughtful policy change with student and Community input providing space for the the easy development of low cost High student impact club sports thank you sincerely for your time tonight and all that you do thank you dear Daniel oh Dan I'm close so my name is Dan and I'm a sophomore DHS today I would like to point out how the are going to change extracurriculars I understand that the current plan is to have buses for each student back to the main building after each school day few problems that come with this when imagining how a realistic school day would go on we have to provide a bus for everyone it would be unrealistic to beat out those without real extracurriculars and deny them from the bus and a seat for everyone seems like an inefficient use spend bring every kid back to the main canas and potentially sending them from but another issue is the limiting nature of forcing extra into the main campus if the strategy is to allow to bring students back to the main campus then all extracurriculars must be at the main campus if not students won't be able to get there first this means that any equipment we have at the acem can be used in extra which seems like wasted potential specialized acmy seem like a perfect place to create Niche gloves but that won't be possible another more important problem this is the teachers how are they going to run their clubs if a teacher mov the and they have to run a club at the main campus how are they going to get there asking them to drive to the main building during all of the traffic of average dismissal at DHS seems excessive and not fa to ask teachers will start to decline to R clubs because of how much inconvenience it is and I don't blame him I probably would do it too if I was a teacher either a club will be at DHS which means teachers have EXT at the and everyone either way that's problematic for somebody I know I'm pointing out problems here and really not offering Solutions that's because I don't have it if you truly want to fix these problems you have to talk with teachers students that have ideas people that know more than me about theem and can off for real solutions a wide variety ofs is one of dhs's best features so I hope these won't jeopardize that thank you for listening [Applause] Alexander good evening I'm Alexander for as you might as you might know extracurriculars give numerous opportunities and benefits to students they give important skills like cooperation responsibility social interaction leadership time management and Etc these activities also provide students with hobbies and interest interaction and friendship with other students and they allow students to get involved in their schools and communities this involvement could give them opportunities and higher levels of education and jobs all students benefit from participating in extra curriculars however students are unable to because of Transportation most extracurriculars occur soon after school but many students are unable to have someone take them home as a student involved in them myself I can attest to this fact many times I have to from one of my parents to get off work I sit outside of Denver high school for sometimes almost an hour with many other students it is clear that this is a chronic problem when it comes to the accessibility of extracurricular activities most students have other responsibilities like chores homework and other commitments that they can't make time to wait for a ride home as a solution to the problem we can incorporate a public bus stop at Denver High School this bus stop would allow many students to who have to wait for hours School the opportunity to get home and complete their chores and finish their homework while still being able to experience extracurriculars and learn the important skills they provide making these programs more accessible to students doesn't just benefit them but our entire Community not only will more students be involved in their schools but also their communities supporting their Futures and quality of our city as the Board of Education it is your job to be supporting our students in their academic vs whether that be the accessibility of extracurriculars and uh creating the bus stop it is important that you try to it is important that you try to support our extracurriculars thank [Applause] you Cody hi my name is Cody and I'm a junior at DHS any clubs at DHS are unfunded and this is not an issue but some do require minimal amount of funding yearly dues from students May C for cost clubing on the number of people who join year toe some of these are base costs such as fees required competitions however news are not consistent way of uh funding clubs as a number of students can year so a consistent annual budget for each Club will make management funds easier for all clubs and would eliminate required from students this removes a financial barrier for entry into clubs and allows more students to Trav clubs help and financials unfortunately with the budget shortfall this upcoming school year understand if consistent annual annual budget for each Club however I still urge you all to keep this in mind as a way to better our clubs for children and my peers in addition I suggest making the funding of clubs and sports more transparent for parents and students I recommend that a document or website page be published every time that the budget is finalized that includes the funding each extracurricular activity receives compared to how much they requested this could be developed even further down the line funding requests for each track similar to how Congress tracks bills through G tra transparency about how the budget is distributed is as students and parents are unable to make B decisions about education if critical information such as funding is hidden shifting to transparency and extracurricular funding allows students and parents to understand how the budget is distributed and allows them to act on this information to make funding of extracurricular fa for all students uh with these in mind I hope you seriously take my considerations and I thank you for your service thank you [Applause] thank M good evening members my name is Michaela Murphy and tonight I wanted to speak to you about the music program at tary high school we know that we want to increase academic achievement that there are problems with discipline and chronic absenteeism and that students are struggling more than ever with their mental health participation in B could be the KE to solving all of these problems multiple band students I spoke to credit the program with improvements in their grades and their mental health I spoke to a freshman about how difficult her year has been because she wasn't involved in any extracurriculars calling quote lonely and isolating since joining the band's winter programs she's made new friends and quote found her place at DHS her experience is a star contrast to a different freshman who joined band immediately and said that he quote enjoyed meeting new friends and that marching bankrupt helped him transition into his first year of high school one of our eighth graders credit her participation in the high school band with drastic improvements in her grades and her behavior during the fall as soon as the season ended she began to struggle again a study from the University of Kansas stat that quote students engaged in music programs outperform their peers on every indicator GPA graduation rate ACT scores attendance and discipline refer referrals and that quote band is important for creating a sense of belonging and purpose for students they identify themselves as musicians and as being in band and that they're motivated to come to school so they can participate in music currently only 43 members or sorry currently only 43 students are benefiting from marching band at DHS a number that hasn't exceeded 50 in over a decade so what can the board do to help grow our program besides monetary assistance scheduling is the biggest issue Cher High School recently implemented Auto scheduling and as a result their Band program is going to grow over 50% next year Auto scheduling e8th grade band students into the high school band classes triple the size with the band and support nth graders through a difficult transition in Beth students signed up for a performing Ensemble are given a priority and with less than a thousand students in their high school they are the raing national champions scheduling music classes first after course selections helps make sure students get the classes they request districts across the country offer PE credits to students who participate in marching Banner color guard with schools like trumple offering them as daytime classes and multiple districts in Connecticut including Norwalk when face with budget cuts made a point to preserve instrumental music programs at their Elementary School levels Danver can be a district where music thrives the talent is here in our teaching staff in our student body and in our diverse Community your support of the band program and Adoption of some of these policies can make us a mic District that fits the legacies with famous dber residents like Mar and Anderson Mar and Anderson and Charles eyeses thank you for your [Applause] time I'm sorry young okay hi everyone my name is sophomore I've been playing my sport at a club since sixth grade and starting Varity since freshman year that being said there are many things that need to be our Sports prog from my personal experience inspiring student athletes are struggling to perform and better themselves under the conditions we are facing the main issue based on my experience is the coaching sports with more attention like football and basketball gain more funding from the school this allows for not only better equipment but also more knowledge of coaches and staff my sport along with many others gain nearly no funding this decision is reflected by our coach or lack never in my 5 years of playing had I been coached never played a sport though my coach did the very best she could by researching drills on the internet a sports team is much different compared to uh sorry a school assignment you can just research her lack of understanding of my support was clear and it cost her her and my team valuable time and effort I can speak for everyone including the players and the coach when I say each season was stressful and emotional multiple of my teammates that have always had a love with their sport considered quitting including me this is especially taxing considering now being added to the countless assignments responsibilities and time management skills that come with being a student athlete for a long time I blame my coach but how can how much can be expected from someone who's never played the sport for coaching and have little respect from their players based off of that fact dedicated athletes and coaches should have should not have to suffer due to a lack of funding countless of talented athletes have been set back because they gain no new experience from high school season I even found myself get for in developing which puts me at a disadvantage for club to my college future which locally my family I are able to that being said athletes should not have to rely on expensive Club Seasons high school should be there to nurture dedicated athletes the best they can regardless of sports and level of skill there should be no one support that receives a majority of funding simply because it's more popular if my support en countless others receive the resources deserved when athletes will gain more knowledge and be able to reach their full potential making their commitment time and tears thank you so much for your time thank [Applause] you of Education thank you for hearing me tonight my name is Brad Walsh and I want to talk to you about the music program and the CRI position your forces into give a life all people can love but in recent times it's become more repeated with with the recent additions of props and vocal samples many marching bands are able to exemplify the town they want due to their excess of funding comp to ours for example we give $2,000 tax who have been here for years where our where other bands can afford to give starting tax twice the salary is ours they can afford tax to have Mar Blue Devil credit Crusaders the best of the best while we can barely and they can have up to 10 of these tax well we can barely afford to pay four tax one of which who I know personally even been PID yet for for this year's uh season we are forced to buy shows which although many bands do as well limits Us in how we want to express our band such as bands like Norwalk cheser new town and many others can afford to have their own music written into their band strengths in our history we have never surpassed 90 in our score while these other bands with these fundings have surpassed 93 have gotten 93s and 94s consistently at the end of every year um and their students dues are less than ours but we have the and their dues are allow them to uh more exemplify and get extra props while our dues are used to me stay a flat in our bed Beth all neighbors have also been able to fund guard programs all the way down to Primary School which has allowed their uh their guards to excel in every level but our guard can barely compete in Winter Guard which is the winter version of Color Guard and we are barely competitors because we cannot afford the props the music the staff to to in a sense be a competing fact um we we lack the funding for uniforms and instruments which this in a sense limits our growth as a bank because we can't afford to uh give kids uniforms and instruments we have two tubos in our band both of which have huge holes in them and one of which has had mold growing in it for years but we can't even we can't even risk the money to have that fixed at a risk for in someplace else our Band program has been crippled because our needs have been overload compared to others um we need more funding in me times the marching band is the S partner at football G at Pep rallies we are of the school yet in a sense the Pari of the budget and many kids at thhs look forward to Maring b as the H of the day many other kids it is the only h of the day I know personally one kid who's whose only friends the only way he's able to have friends is do Mar and in a sense we we struggle to provide that to as many students if we want to because of our lack of funding and the lack of knowledge of our bank really what we ask is not necessarily a large amount of funding compared to nor because we understand our district doesn't have that funding but we ask for more consideration and more support we appreciate all the work all the kind words that you all say but we request that we get maybe a little more funding a little more publicity for the young for the younger Generations so they understand that we are available and also know that we are available to any school in the Danberry and not just for kids of and we hope that through this we can give our marching band our Band program a to grow and to provide a place where all kids are welcome and can enjoy themselves and as one of my peers before said people who do ban are more likely to do better in school they have better time in is I personally took s g in the same year and B helped me through that thank you Malik even and I'm gr student atool first off thank you all for your time today I want to talk to you about the importance of integ integ sport into deeply into our middle schol our midle schol there drop in high school students participating in extracurricular activities particularly I believe high schoolers should be encouraged to explore new activities but it them experience whether it is about whether it's sports or other interests that's why I think middle school should offer a broad range of including Sports and as Educators and community members we have a responsibility to nurture not only our minds but also the bodies of here are a few reasons why I believe short sport should play a prominent role in education firstly physical activities essential for overall health in an age where screen Domin providing exercise through Sports is crucial by engaging in sports students are not only able to improve their physical fitness but also develop lifelong habits that promote healthy andity secondly Sports teach valuable life skills at far beyond team leadership discipline and resilience are just good examples of the qualities that students learn through Sports participation these skills are fundamental success in all aspects including academic careers and relationship students schools provide Sports programs en overall personally I've been trying school to if I had more CH to play sports on earli it would have easier to track for teams those who can afford outside [Music] teams the social aspect of school ISU crucial without it school and to attend by involving students in sports at a younger age and encouraging contined participation it can make more friends and en more would also improve the attendance a significant issue Nationwide while funding for sports programs may an obstacle and Community Support cover a large portion of to students engag in activities espcially sportser a wi of EX options is essal [Applause] evening I Howard and I'm Junior schol School many talented so much said lowering the funds for would eliminating excuse me we uh could you put the mic so we cannot hear you thank you if more money is taken from these programs will probably be less children them and certain sports with the amount ofers they have these are to [Music] children are already not sore school today I would like to speak to you about the importance of supporting atic extracurricular schol firstly I would like to say that we all should realize that education was alici did mic so we can first I would like to say that we all should realize that educ while [Music] extra students expl lears joining onlys also the problem is that extra supported by the schools I noticed that in many sports teams there isn't enough money to provideers Andes mats needed to succeed as a team leav coaches with the only option which is using their own money if we care about players and students growing on theirs and Fields it is important that we as a community invest the time and money into supporting them as well investing into these student athletes can help our sports teams grow and encourage other students to join them as well for money it's the importance of coming out and Sh up these games and as well the and support us as a for example many of the basketball games our schoolers we as a community need to make sure that these athletic teams get the physical funding and emotional support they need in order for them in our athletic reputation as schools get better get better as well thank you thank you [Applause] pull it up close [Music] mys most people ask about really know that the exists and it's not really care about at all head coach and we the only team in the FC league with no diving coach and no assistant coach most of the teams we ver are double schools or large schools that have divers on teams this is the reason why so many more points can be made but we don't have it D coach diving is an event at our we participate in other teams school also does not have a regardless of being School schol or double schools with pools we have to swim at West time due to the pool availability and conflict with other sports at Westcon the swim team has about half the full time of other FC teams which makes it hard to compete and the head coach of the DS swim team has taught many on swiers how to swim effectively this is a lifing critical skilless thank you for thank you so we have three more speakers okay so Patty then Adam and then mam okay so let's Okay P okay good evening Dr Casmir members of the board with the announcement of a significant reduction in force due to our District's current economic struggles I have some thoughts and some wonderings first are we still holding fast to the need to make every effort to keep operations intact at the building level that affect students second the district has purchased the ark core reading program and professional development and is implementing the illustrative Mathematics Curriculum has consideration given to the possibility that you don't need individual curriculum administrators for the time being since our enrollment will not decline and certain classes will need to continue to be taught will the department heads chairs and chairs teach classes that will support the students on all levels fourth I thought that was third um fourth with the increasing number of students that are disregulated throughout the district and based on their IPs will facilitate s and supervisors be considered to support students in need and fifth considering reading and math test SC pre and postco and the fact that we have amazing teachers who have in our following District directives what can we do to promote success and Improvement for our students with far fewer resources as we are making Cuts we must consider our future I do want to say all of the um high school students have done an amazing job so they I know everybody is here promoting their interests and and what they're believing in and um I just hope that really considering what we're cutting and where we're going from here thank you for your time no thank you okay Adam hello schw thank you for hearing me tonight uh I'm coming you today as a concerned parent and concerned Uncle as to the fact of why we are allowing boys into the women's room at the high school why my niece and my daughter should have to feel uncomfortable using a woman's room because they're allowing Boys in there on top of that they're being told if they're uncomfortable to go find a private bathroom or go to the nurse's office or something why is my daughter and my niece being told to go somewhere else where they cannot use the woman's room like they are supposed to be and feel safe in there because I don't even know what we're accommodating here but I I would like to answer I would like to know why my daugh and my niece should still text me and say Daddy unlead I don't feel comfortable using a woman's room and when I tell teachers this they tell me to go find the private bathroom or go to the nurse and I would really like a legit answer as to why this is going on at this point we do not download with you back and forth the superintendent is sitting I called the superintendent man' and I got no response okay I left message I've got no call back someone we will not dialogue with you with the conversation you want to finish your speech and then at some point someone will contact you what do you are you push me away I'm not supposed to be heard I'm not no I'm not I'm saying you can finish you can complete yeah your remarks or whatever you want to say and I'm just saying we do not dialogue back and forth with parents someone will contact you and have a discussion with why can't we dialoging now because that's not a part of our our procedure now this is where this is where you you you coming before us you coming before the board showing us or telling us a concern and we are listening to that concern and someone in the administration will contact you okay I I get that however however I have contacted superintendent before and when I spoken with the uh the secretary at the superintendent office they told me to come here tonight to voice my opinion so I can get some answers and I'm literally just getting around the the the loop here I'm not getting any kind of response I'm literally getting pushed this way and that way trying to avoid an answer I would like an answer I I don't want to hear somebody's going to contact me later cuz they're not they're not I would like to legit answer with all respect well with all due respect again we do not download back in and I have given you I have given you the the process that we go through and I can guarantee someone will contact you tomorrow or later on after we after you continue with your message that you want to bring forth to us okay my information to contact I love that thank you so much thank you muham good evening members of the board of I'm Mohamed ner and a senior in DHS I'd like to start off by saying that extracurriculars aren't just about filling up our schedules uh they are also about shaping our character developing crucial skills and preparing us like beond the hallways robotics club for example is more than just building robots it's about problem solving teamwork and creativity sports teams they also play a crucial role they teach us about teamwork leadership and the importance of physical health when we advocate for funding in these clubs we're investing our future Engineers programmers innovators and it's through these skills that individuals are able to become successful and navigate throughout the world when I came into DHS as a freshman I made friends not only that but I grew to know that these programs were underfunded the equipment needed was pretty worn out all I'm just saying is that when we Advocate about extracurricular activities it's not only about the fun after school activities but about shaping the Future Leaders innovators and compassionate individuals that are world needs thank you for your time thank you on behalf of the board I certainly would like to thank you all for participating in our public session tonight and as we move forward with our agenda now at this point at this point we have an agenda to attend to and we have given a half an hour to speaking and it's almost 8:00 and I'm sorry we're cutting off public participation okay thank you could I have a motion to move forward with the agend could we move forward with the agenda with the action item the consent calendar want need consent calendar the motion is that theard education approved the items on the consent calendar exhibits 2476 and 2477 as recommended and in accordance with the minutes 31824 finance committee and 32724 regular motion was made by W second can I hear a second by second second by Kate are there any questions concerning consent calv say n all in favor I motion so Carri thank you um we have uh anyone our student reps here action item a Richard now the motion that the Board of Education set Thursday June 133 2024 as the 2024 graduation date for deny High School motion been made by Mr janelli could I hear a second second by toon and there's any question should not be no question about graduation date okay all in favor could I hear I motion so carried thank you action item B Kate I'll make a motion that the Board of Education accept for second reading adoption the following policies ver exhibits 2478 through 24-85 as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with each of those policies motion made by Kate could I hear second it by Al are there any question concerning any of these policies and I know that we the policy committee and most of us as board members have been working hard trying to get everything and admin and the lay on person working with the group has been trying to put all these policy in place so if there's no other questions uh all the in favor of the motion can I hear I I I motion so Care thank you all and thank the committee our superintendent report thank you um so we just have a a few short items uh tonight um one is the AIS update I've been updating on a semi regular basis about the um status of AIS and our continued concerns with getting out of District placements to come um as you know the the tuition and the students actually that we get from our disting town helps with the funding of the school itself so a lot of our staff is paid with magnet State dollars that we get by on a per pupil pupil basis um so right now we have three kindergart classes across and we are struggling to fill one um currently and we're getting late in the year so we're going to switch it up a little bit and try some different strategies to increase some of the participation and one is going to be to um work with some of the surrounding towns to um offer um a students additional students who are on the waiting list um a tuition waiver to come in so that any students beyond the cap that they have we participating agreement so if a school has a 15 students on the cap um that they would have um they would be able to beyond the cap still send a couple of students from the waiting list we only get about um next year $1,247 a student from the Ser from the sending um schools but what we get the real money that we get is when we get that student we get the state aid uh reimbursement Factor so that's about $722 so it's kind of a g to get get some aid from the state so we going to work to work with surrounding towns to um see if they're interested in increasing some of their participation by offering a few more seats on the waiting list um so that's uh that's very important the other thing we're going to do is we're going to Market it um in many different ways we've had a little bit of a a campaign um to get have a video get created to offer additional open houses for the super for the uh principal to go out to those towns to do more advocacy um in addition you know we'll be talking and and getting some information out to our D Public School Employees that maybe they they too can also offer they can have students come uh their own child come for AIS and then whatever Town they're from would be responsible for the for the tuition piece on that in addition um marketing to Westcon uh staff as well will may be in the area an idea can be your place for their child to go to school so um we're continuing to pull out all the stops on trying to get recruitment but we don't want to lose those State dollars so we're looking for creative ways to to generate that yes thanks Dr apprciate that U what does it what does it look like in terms of the timeline for this so that we can understander yeah this is late we're we're we're very very late we're past our you know we should we should have everything we're we we're a to so Dand families have have apply to as as well but because of our ratio are unable to to invite the Danberry families who apply for the lottery to come because we cannot go over our ratio balance right now so we need more participating towns in order to invite the danburry students so it's a very frustrating situation right now so again try to different creative ways to try to bolster that participation you're welcome Mr do you know in terms of numbers apart from what the short call is that we're looking to F num students oh well right now you know right now we have we had last week we had about 12 students um that that were committed we're up to about 17 now for one of the classrooms so um it's two classrooms really short um for next year so maybe like 50 students yeah is it possible to go to other towns or is it just too far out it's open so we have we have partner agreements so we have some surrounding towns that are partner agreements so there's a predetermined number that we work with so they've already pre-committed um at the at the um formation of the magnet its Inception you know that agreed to 15 or 20 or 30 seats they paay for those each year there's a tuition bill the kids come um but any any town in Connecticut can actually participate any student from any town we just they don't have to be a partnering District but they they're can be a participating District can with anywhere thank you um where would the video be shown yeah so Mike stepped out but um we just um it's been on local TV I don't know if anybody seen it pleas say seen it um if not we're going to have to bump that up but it's been on some local um push out on some local it's a very short video it's not super long but it's also been sent to those boards um and I believe it's now on our website so if it's not it will be we just we just put a video together yeah and I'll send it to the board so you can see it the first um are we allowed to solicit in the dayare dayare uh yeah yeah as long as they so we had we just had a partner agreement so that we had we brought all the superintendents in and that was one of our asks is that um that you allow us access into your District into your your your town fairs or whatever like to let us know it's we can set up a booth and we can talk to folks but yes um we can it's a matter of whether or not they want us to do that so about is being um so low um superintendent the state w't give no consideration no no we've been working very closely we've been um as you know we're on a corrective action plan because the number dipped over ratio um so we're working very closely with them and they've been they've been very informative and it has taken a while to really understand all the dues and notes and what we're allowed to do but um there's not a lot of flexibility on the on the state backet we we you know we can get creative like said around the edges of it um to draw more in but not on not from the state themselves Mr J if things don't work out in no favor I know there's a penalty if we go over the whatever the ratio is 7030 is there a chance that we can apply for an exception to that penalty and have more about kids in the district that are on possibly the waiting list to get into the school the seats so I think we've already John this year we already took a little hit on the funding right yeah we took a little bit of a hit and that will continue what I'm hoping is that you know we don't reach a point where we lose all the funding because we're not operating as as intended um so that would be that would be difficult but um there the state is not flexible what I do know is there there are Dr Rock was in the back there like 30 or 60 other schools in the similar situation around the state there's a large number of of schools like AIS and in towns who are also on corrective action plans also going through the same thing so I'm I'm wondering if that will force the hand of the state to actually come up with something because schools are facing a similar around the state similar a similar issue with this is there a reason for is there a financial reason that the the motivation is dropped off and as you said it seems not only to be d d but perhaps so is there any specific reason that you think of yeah youve got a couple things so Brookfield was a was a bigger partner Brookfield just built a brand new beautiful elementary school so you know right off the bat you're going to have a draw in that area um you know we continue to be popular withfield to Milford but they're only willing to send so many they don't want to go beyond their cap because they budget for so many dollars and um they have to you know transportation is always an issue that kind of falls on the sending District um so it's a situation really a once St budget like I had a couple people call one of the local superintendents and said we renegotiate our participation agreement we're having a tough budget year and um so it's also a budget issue for them as well and it's little bit tough heading into this climate all districts are looking for weeds to to trim so they don't necessarily have to send but I have asked them to consider um really look at their enrollment patterns because for example it could be beneficial to them if they have three second grade classes or first grade classes are on the verge of having to open up a third could be very cost effective for them to let more students into our into the lottery because it prevents them for having to add another FTE and and all the things that go with that than um Westside uh Middle School toring just a little update there mik is M has stepped out um and I did put this in a a board report earlier but there was some there's some damage to the section of the flooring there was actually a hole right through the floor um that was caused by uh either some Tor sudden type of a lack of moisture barrier that was underneath the Portables when they were installed so did an inspection and you can see that it's probably aging a little bit more quickly than it than it should um as a result of contact with moisture so um we had someone come in and they replaced a section of the Flor um so it is safe but just to be on the safer side uh we wanted to bring an engineer in to come and just take a look to make sure that the all the structural there's nothing compromised there so more to come there but definitely some damage on one of the portals um how old are those Port um maybe 10 yeah should they should not be happening I was say what's the life expected it it varies it depends on the quality of affordable that you buy when you buy them there's a good better best and then there's a you know economy version and I'm they still look good I think they're you know I I shouldn't say that I don't know but um you know we'll have to go back and and look at that I think they're definitely past their manufacturer warranty that's for sure okay and then the last uh piece was obvious the budget and that's a a serious um situation and I I appreciate employees that come out and speak on that we all just as concerned um especially the students when they come out and they talk about their extracurriculars I appreciate you I appreciate your concerns I'm going to be following up with a couple of you um but you know last week we presented our our 2425 budget and we presented the rationale for that budget um maybe in a little bit of a different way that it's been done before and so while it was difficult uh we did receive some good feedback from many people that um that the presentation helped to bring greater Clarity to the need and and in that I think they we opened up a door and a dialogue with the city um that maybe perhaps wasn't there in in the way that maybe it needed to be in clar the ways that needed to be in terms of clarity um you know it was our duty to really discuss the potential effects of the funding and the shortfalls and while there's a a risk to doing that in terms of Staff G what set um kids getting stressed out and administrators in the board it was very stressful I think it it's necessary um to begin the process of Y we have a shortfall and now we have to address those short calls and move forward and so you know once we get past a certain point in this budget um you know it's really going to be about rebuilding there's a lot of amazing things still happening in Danbury uh in our public schools and um you know we uh we're going to work really hard to make sure that the cuts and reductions impact the least um I'm very sensitive to the the things that students enjoy and come to rely on in terms of their programs and Athletics and schools um there will be you know the every Department every bargaining group is going to feel um the effects of the budget there's no there's no other way around it um you know to what extent you know in the in the coming weeks will'll be um we'll be talking about that a little bit more um the team has been working around the clock to analyze every GR every contract every opportunity every instance and ways that we might be able to rear rearrange uh what we have in place um create economies um that maybe didn't exist before um so sometimes um you find things in the in the midst of this process that maybe you haven't seen before so I'm I'm excited in the sense that we having different conversations and I feel um that you know we're going to as we continue to work with that process that um we're you know we'll be able to to attend to some of the things that some folks are are most worried about um it will still be difficult but we're going to be working to that process um we're continuing to work through some of the Staffing that we have here um analyzing positions that may have been opened and and our have been funded so we're looking at those um we're looking at all the alignments with our staffing um we are interviewing and working with leaders oneon-one to hear any ideas that they have things that they' noted um that could be potentially cost savings um and we've had some great discussions about that we're asking uh folks to start thinking about different models or approaches um so that we're not kind of digging into the status quo of holding on to certain things that in the past and looking at uh different approaches and delivering services in different ways um and uh we are working with our bargaining groups and our Union folks um as we move forward as we begin uh that process that we've already begun to have um open the doors on dialog to make sure that the the process itself is communicated and that's fair and that um you know we're working together on that so um I don't have any specific updates I know everyone is waiting baited breath on the guts I know that that's a a stressor out there but um you know it it's incoming upon us to do have due diligence we going through very carefully uh to make sure that you know as we put that together that it's done well and that we do it right the first time so um that's my update Mr I just want to recap that evening that you made that presentation to say that going Echo what I've heard during the presentation that was one of the most outstanding presentations made but I think equally as important the atmosphere in the room of the council people it's completely different than what I've ever experienced and I felt they were absolutely sincere in saying paraphrasing sorry we can't deal with things right now but we're willing to continue to work on that behalf and I think that bridge is something that we haven't had before and therefore I may be putting my neck in the news with Mrs Cooper my next statement is I think on behalf of this board you like to say personally I think I can speak for my colleagues you've done a fantastic job with the presentation and may have outspoken to Mrs Cooper in terms of speaking on behalf of the board but I sincerely feel that thank you thank you so Mr Janel what do you think that I should do to [Laughter] you all group s yeah thank you Mr Janelle uh before we move on and it would beho me uh Mr Farley Santos uh like to always welcome you and thank you for coming out to our meeting who's uh one of our state rep and he also he works two little offices so we're happy to have you here tonight to listen to our young people and and hopefully influence uh our counsel and our mayor to maybe look at some more things as to how they can continue to support the board in a positive way thank you thank you hang um under information we have our teacher of the year award ceremony on Tuesday April 23rd at br Middle School the reception starts at 5:30 and the program starts at 6:00 p.m.

605 committee members attending this meeting tonight Teresa Kate myself absent Mr and ju principally looks like we have most of the board members here to join us at the meeting so it go quick at the board meeting we won have toap things to you thank you that being said John I'll pass it over to you my thank you thank you uh rich I think we'll we'll start with the financial report and I'm going to ask um Mike to walk us through itone so this is the monthly report for the 9 month sat day March 28th 2024 we finished a few months uh few days early I'm sorry just because of the timing of the Clos closing of the month it's about a day early monthly expenditures were at 11.1 million and when you look at the 8 month average were is about 1.3 so it's been in line um with the average monthly spending there are some variances you'll see month a month and that's due to timing we'll talk about that a little bit um from a year dat perspective we have 91.9 million another 58.4 incum on a total budget of 1 15.6 million you'll see we have a favorable next slide we have here which is a general fund summary 281,000 unfavorable unfavorable variance but when you add any the additional uh 62,000 uh for additional Appropriations are still possible I just want to clarify that our favorable balance $20,000 the next few pages you'll see the next three pages are again this is the newer report that we've added in for the monthly some of that um some things I wanted to point out uh and CH perhaps you could speak a little bit more to this but there were some positions in the general fund that were moved to grance and when that happens you move the future also anything that's been so incumbered but the historical amount and with that amount goes the benefits so you'll see there is a small downturn uh in in the benefits line in the six benefits lines there because those expenses were moved to to the gr's that that that's correct um we're going to talk in a minute about I'll call it the deficit reduction plan and uh you'll see that's Ono so we've been moving things uh into the grants as part of that plan the following page about halfway down under other purchase Services I just wanted to turn your attention to the first two lines for the month of March is uh Z and 166 4,000 those two items are for transportation student transportation and transportation special ed um for this fiscal year we have just about $6 million in each one of them which is about 600,000 per month um those bills we we're on a cash basis so those bills are being paid realizing the financials Happ so this month we did not have them however uh the entire amount isn't covered at the beginning of the year so although you don't see it accounted for here in this monthly summary you'll see it um in the annual summary and again when we get to that portion about the transportation any the other lines you'll see the same thing under supplies on that second page about 34 of the way down for natural gas and electric um there is two two amounts one under another for zero and again that's just due to time because we didn't get the bills in uh we in or we didn't get them out in time to Mar the next few pages we have are the general fund line item report this is where you're going to see the month-to date actual with the Year date buget year-to dat actual and this is where you'll see that fourth column year-to dat incumbrances where I said we might not have the actuals in the monthly data but we do have the expenses in covered you'll see those numbers are in the in that second the last column Year date cence and then the last column being the Year date budget balance on the third page about halfway down that report there's a line that says Transportation special and if you look at what our year-to dat budget is we have budgeted 5.89 million our year to the actual so through March is 20 uh 2.62 with another 5.0 incumber and when you add that together it's uh it exceeds the the budget number u i we believe that that number we still looking at it but we believe that that number might be slightly uh High over encumbered um I am personally a little hesitant to remove that encumbrance and loow that purchase order amount that's in there just because special education and transportation um typically a very variable so if we come up with um additional expenses for special education um specifically in transportation that will U that will cover us and then the last pages you'll see there's two pages that are the grand fund summary and that's our in our usual format budget year to date with the incumbrance and the budget balance any questions for Mike yeah mention I just like to explain to somebody I had asked them to put in that sheet which gives us the monthly the monthly expenses for the month for me and going to look at something it helps me but there were certain and Mike mentioned the the issues with that that's basically on a cash basis so to the point if you don't put something into your paying it today it's going to show a distortion but I look at that for other reasons and as long as the other reasons and the distortions pop up and we have explanations for it such as it wasn't overlooked but it's encumbered the the year-to date figures is really the Bible to look at so I look at the monthly thing for me just to to get a feel for how the numbers are going to some people it may be confusing I think to look at is is the the year dat because that includes all of the Cash Plus all of the appr that we have the other thing is we're 9 months into the the uh N9 months into the year and we're running this close variance of $300,000 positive uh during our prelimary meeting last week uh John conveyed to me that there believe it's next month may be additional expenses coming in that are going to reduce this uh by some 70,000 John so we just want to give you a heads up on that is that as long as we're aware of something that's going to occur we like to give you a heads up that next month it will be reported but to at least give you a heads up here because that that variance is so close what the impact of that is okay so so connected to that um I I'll call it the deficit reduction plan I have a sheet I'd like to walk walk you through and I think it puts the whole general fund together what are you Hing that at I was talking about the special a cost yep the um excess cost no yes, page you're looking at sort of the it's the sheet I would keep on my desk as we've gone through this to remind me of the things that we wanted to do were they done what still had to happen and uh as it's as it's finishing up I just put a on it and thought I'd show it to you and what it does is it it Chronicles things from the very beginning of the school year actually a few days before that our our June of 2023 meeting you can see that was the meeting we came and we reduced some of the lines in our budget we reduced some uh supply lines we reduce some utility lines and we move some positions into grants it was that million six and the difference between those first two numbers that's the 3,44 that's you see in some of the printouts Etc and these are not in any particular order but Roman numeral 2 uh that's the expiring essr Grant the sr3 grant that expires in a couple months we asked the state to approve an amendment where we could take some expenses out of our school budget and they were eligible for Esser reimbursement it it took a number of weeks for the state to approve this but they just did on MAR on April 8 so I move that over into the column of resources U that are available we also had uh what is called a carryover grant or the a remaining Title One grant that when you don't spend it the first year you can spend it the second year and as we get into January and February we noticed we had not been drawing down on this grant so we took some salaries out of the school budget eligible for reimbursement and put them into the grant that was the second thing the uh third third thing although it didn't generate uh real dollar savings where you could take an expense away under the superintendent leadership we Clos down spending about a month earlier than we normally would do asked all the principles program leaders do your planning for June let us know what it is get your orders in now and they were very uh cooperative and helped us out in those regards many of the things that we do every year in June we've now encumbered and set aside we needed to know that so we knew how much where we really stood at the same time we've uh put in what we'll call a soft freeze on hiring that um essential positions uh would need a special U okay before they're filled the thinking was U sort of well it's April we've managed to get through so far who knows what the future brings let's see if we can get to the end of June with the staff we have so there's no savings there we're not hiring any new people right now unless it's Mission critical so that that was a step we took the alliance Grant uh we had an amendment to that approved on March 28 of a million dollars and what that really did it took it took some flexibility away from us but it did not it will not negatively impact the programs and services and what I mean is there are a number of things in the alliance grant that we would order at the end of the year so that they'd be in the classrooms for August and September or some of the technology and and software I've used the example of our student information database Power School we've all heard of that that's about $300,000 we had been getting build for that uh in May every year and we pay it out of the alliance Grant but the Bill's not du till July so what we're going to do is use the new alliance Grant to pay that so when they say we we took away some flexibility we'll do it that's sort of a onetime savings you can take you can't do that again but um this is the time to do it so there were some other things like that we're going to uh purchase in the new alliance grant that comes out so that that was approved March 28th by the state Ed department so that goes in the completed column we also uh look carefully we have a priority School grant that uh pays for was U eligible to reimburse summer school expenses and what we noticed was that when we had summer school last summer uh July and August we didn't use this grant to charge the expenses it's not too late so we went in reclassified those expenses as priority school reimbursements and picked up about A4 million dollars that way there were two o there are two other strategies we were looking at um just mention here because that was my list if something didn't work or we didn't U get what we wanted from the state we had other contingency plans the magnet school subsidy that's an amount that we put in the school budget to help with the declining out of District enrollment at AIS what we thought a month or two ago was that we had more in our budget than we really needed and we were use that to help with the deficit but what we found out um the 1 of April was the state Grant was reduced so we just didn't have the Surplus we thought we might have a couple just a couple weeks ago uh we also looked at the alliance Grant again there's an appropriation there for substitute teachers we thought maybe we could do something with that but the more we the closer we looked the substitute teachers right now are paid out of most of them are paid out of our sr3 grant so we would have been taking an expense from one Grant and putting it into another that wouldn't have given us relief in the school budget that was at the time we thought maybe it could and then the last thing that's I just for my own records I kept that amount that maybe we need from the city but as you can see right now the the strategies we employed uh five of them give us 4.9 million from the 4.7 we were looking we needed to to balance so there's a $200,000 uh extra that you'll see next month when when you see the balance you'll see the effect of these some of these uh some of these changes as I was referring to earlier some we've done journal entries some we've done the record keeping there's still a few more uh that we have to do so that's that's where things stand so to put this into some sort of a event situation when we came on the board this year there was this big Hollow about the the budget being shorted $4.7 billion and shortly thereafter um there were some adjustments made by 1 Point some OD million dollar to reduce it but there was some $3 million that was left and if you recall Kevin and John went before the the ad hoc committee and and sort of requested that we take down from the reserves $3 million but not really giving it to us because they said they weren't sure because they had a plan as to if they needed it so they sort of asked if you would give me the opportunity to draw down I needed it make a long story short that's passed so all of the strategies that they utilized for this difference had come to materialize in our favor which is good so at this point here the request that we had before the board to to take down the $3 million relative to last year years differences no longer exists not to say it may not exist this year we have to watch it but at least that part of the conversation ends up and it was through the different strategies that we that that was implemented here so I I thought that was important that at least John fill you in on on how it would came about and also the the Comfort level that we have to know that at least the reserves as of today going to use the word free I'd like to say free for out taking if we need in the future but we don't have to use any of it for the the prior year the prior Year's adjustments um I I did also want to follow up on something it was during our conversations last week that and this what I was talking about about this individual coming into the district that was going to have a uh an additional cost on us uh for special ed yeah we a high cost higher cost student placement right we're not expecting them did the budget but it will have an impact next month yes okay and it will take that $300,000 subsequently adjusted by this favorable variance and drop it by some $70,000 correct okay uh if you want to go into a little bit more on that to explain what it is uh board understands I have another question follow on that balance that were talking about before it okay to ask Mr about that um uh John and Mike thank you for the presentation um I just want to clarify this [Music] 220,000 um um balance that we have meing as a result of these reduction strategies so this is $220,000 that we having um at our disposal is that reflected in the uh 320k that we have or that will reflect next month next adding it to that correct okay thank you so Kelly I wasn't looking to reveal Secrets just talking General numbers okay we've already got detailed on one specific student so we know we'll have an extra expense so by that um so I think that pretty includ the financial part of this um the the other thing that John brought to my attention was that in the recent week or weeks you've heard a lot about the of course the city budget and the cap as the city has relative to spending expending cap and John put something together just basically for information to us as to what this means who want us just briefly go through that um this is just a matter of information so that uh those of you who don't understand what the St is this a briefly explain some of the charts behind there are ter complicated we get so it came up at the uh city council meeting when we were talking about our budget you mentioned there was a sort of a side conversation that broke out with the City Finance director and the mayor and they talked about hitting this cap and how that um affected how much they could spend and I I thought it's kind of a rare thing so I want to take a minute and just show you what they're talking about uh particularly as it might relate to next year when we're looking for a boost for the Academy I thought it was important to to hear about it did everyone get of everything okay so um let me first um take a look at the one that says expected state aid and what what that has what's on the top is what this what the city of danburry uh expects to receive in state aid next year if the governor's budget remains uh as it is still not finished but you can see there's U seven or eight different AIDS and they're called categorical AIDS because they're for a category and these are the ones if you looked in the mayor's budget book you you'd see the total here they they break them out a little bit just I'll give you the names the the pilot program nothing to do with airports it's payment in L of taxes so for example uh for Westcon which is here we don't get any tax for that uh some of the churches and things um the state will give cities and towns money because they have those tax exempt properties that they can't get anything for but there's still a burden from having um those facilities in your town um the revenue sharing I I'll get back to that in a minute because that's the one that's important the uh Casino money you see here that they call it mash and Tucket pquad and Mohan that's the slot machines that's not the sports betting that's not here but uh Town Aid Road a misnomer it should be called Town Road Aid because I call it Town Aid Road and that's money that cities and towns get to repave and and things like that from the state losp is a program certain capital projects the state will provide Aid on uh when you conduct them so they they know which projects they are and they'll they'll get their entitlement Municipal grants and Aid that's just um a general state aid that goes to cities and towns there's our educational cost sharing that's a that's a revenue for the town you can see that's the only one that was going up under the governor's budget everything else was flat and then there's some adult ed state aid you you've heard us say how we need to put some money in our budget there's a local share you have to spend in order to get this so we we budgeted that but um and then what I put next to it the it's this is what we call the the runs when the governor releases his budget or the assembly you first look for the runs and it shows you town by Town who get who's going to get what um and you the numbers that I have in the cover sheet are coming right from these runs so you can see the payment in Le of taxes if you look down to the damn Barry there's our number so so these six or seven things are the entire state aid that the city gets and and other than for the alliance Grant which we spend they use those grants to lower the tax level so you can see that's why I put at the bottom 290,000 or 300,000 that's what the city plans to spend they'll get state aid of 57 or 60 million so the tax levy uh is the difference primarily along with some other things so that's that's first what you see now the cap that they're talking about is in on the next handout that has a little yellow in it and it's a it's a piece of legislation it's that old but the point I want to make is it's not a cap on total spending like the state of Connecticut has you know there's some statutory language the state budget cannot go up more than a certain amount we read about a lot these days what this cap does is it says that if you go above a certain amount either I think it's here either 2.5% higher or the rate of inflation then you pay a penalty on that overspending um someone told me was like the luxury tax in baseball I don't know too much about that but apparently it's the same thing um and but there are some exceptions when you you do that calculation special education is an exception there's some other things and that's what they were talking about the other night what was the cap with these exceptions but the point is if you go over the cap uh for every dollar you go over your that one particular categorical Aid the supplemental Municipal Revenue sharing goes down by 50 CS so the most you could possibly lose by going over the cap is in our case a million too we could choose the city could choose to do that and give up that state a you can see it's I put over on the far right column it's 410 of 1% of the budget so it's not a lot when you compare it that way but that's that's the cap now they have the city has options I I want to bring this up now because for those of you who saw that the three-year budget we were asked to do for the ad hoc committee you see the um the acad expenses coming in next year next budget and that would push us up over the cap but what the city can do is they could set that set this money aside now a million to they have a couple sources to do that um they have their own Surplus their own fund balance uh a last time they counted it it was I think $24 million they could take a million two out of that and reserve it so that we can go over the cap or there may be some other things they could just you know budget out of it too but um okay so so that's I I want you to to know that they'll have some choices I thought I heard the mayor say he didn't want to do that right they they don't like to um take money from the Surplus it it's um you know it's a savings account it's for um you know you use it for unexpected events uh activities and things but I was telling Rich today um we're so insured for almost anything that can happen it's hard to imagine something that's not insured that we'd have to dip into the savings for I'm sure there are things but it's not like it was uh before we had some of these really sop at policies my judge again Teresa we're not here to make recommendations or statements it's more information relative to terminology so that for those that you want to enhance their knowledge they have a little bit knowledge what the terminology needs and what the consequences are and not to get two in the weeds but just briefly the second page there um this particular budget that um governor on presented they shifted some things around and they put this particular Aid in with some other things and what this pay it's sort of a a mixed bag they take part of the sales tax um part of the casino money uh they put some other money in they and it's and they from it they they pull out some motor vehicle reimbursement you know the the same Honda cord in Harington may not pay the same taxes is a Honda Accord in New London and there's some Equalization there but this particular Aid along with its penalty went into this big bucket that's that's new this new this year and of course be new measure so it's a little more than we probably need to know but that's um that's what the spending Cap's all about thank you are any questions relative to stat from the committee members any board members have any other questions uh if I may could you just adjust a minut to show that one here so the only one is Mr Hol um that one thing I'd like to say is I'm constantly looking to improve the financial statements to make them informative and basically fun to read this is an interest that I have but if there's any recommendations that you feel that we could do to enhance this just to let me know or if there's anything that you would like to see in terms of further reporting let me know we can try to to get that implemented uh so but the more knowledge we have the better off I think we are to be able to to govern uh and I think the the better understanding we have of these numbers the more comfortable we are in in basically understanding what we're up against or what we're looking to to to accomplish so with that just call formal I'm not formal I'm sorry so I will ask the comme if we could make C agreement to make a recommendation to the full board to accept thek second second thank you all in favor I I thank you very much thank you Kate okay that I thank you for your participation thank you John and mik Y please thank you all in favor

e presenting of the [Music] color okay ready salute I of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all [Applause] dist the whole okay that was the um Cadet Corp on the whole Bass Lake District we also have a special presentation of the principal citation ribbon sure um thank you Mr seals and the board for having us here today to present this special award to one of our Cadets the cadet Corp has been having a great year uh we've seen a lot of growth in many of our students both in this their personal accomplishments and their leadership skills we have one student that we'd like to honor this evening with the principal citation award this award is given at the discretion of the site principal and it is given to a student who not only excels in leadership within the California Cadet Corps but also excels in other areas um on campus this student uh competed in The Penton with the oci pentalon team in Madera County and he won a third place award for an essay that he wrote based on the book Cinder that we read he also serves as our commanding officer for the California Cadet Corps for both the oci and wasuma combined course um he's shown excellent leadership he leads with consistency he leads with um kindness he comes alongside Cadets and he helps them become the best that they can be I'm very impressed with this young man so we'd like to honor um Cadet staff sergeant uh Noah skyers this [Applause] evening [Applause] congratulations that's awesome I also wanted to thank everybody who's in involved in the Cadet Corps and over to oci we have major Ronda Baker Colonel Terry Baker and Captain Jennifer Bodin who's been they've all been integral in putting together what's happened here and creating these uh the great things that are going on through K so thank you all [Applause] also okay uh moving on number five the consent agenda is there motion I motion to approve second uh any discussion no discussion roll call vote I I I I okay um item six monthly items and financial reports the monthly approval of the warrant is there a motion I motion we approve the work is there a second second need discuss um I think was a question and I'm sorry that I didn't send these to you in advance so if you aren't not sure it's okay um I just wanted to ask about um on page three um there the portable restroom stair repair what happened with that um we had the restrooms that we had rented that were at wasuma when they were returned we aren't sure what happened but when the company got them back the stairs were damaged so somehow in returning them um Robert and his team even reviewed the camera footage and we didn't see anything on our end but um because when we signed the agreement we were responsible for any of that damage and we couldn't prove that we hadn't caused it we had to pay to the damage Fe but we didn't he didn't find anything so I'm not really sure something in transporting I'm guessing it got right okay um and then I have a another question about the there were several charges for a gate for the new apartments coming in and so I was just wondering if you could describe that project if it's done if there's more future expenses for that um so that's along the back fence line of OES there um where the apartments are being built um I think Robert could maybe speak to was there a gate there I don't know exactly we already had a gate there but it is now set up for the card reader the digital yeah so that they can do that we uh we set up additional cable there so that there to be a camera in that area as well in future since there'll be more traffic back that way yeah okay all right um thank you any other questions uh I just wanted to shout out to the Kanas grant for $1,900 for an electric keyboard for the choir club so they're always so generous and that is a wonderful addition to the music we got to see it firsthand Michelle and I attended a luncheon that they had in the choir came and performed and it was great actually they had it at the last meeting too that was the keyboard they had set up here so it g gives them ability to go to more events and performances by having that portable keyboard any other questions about the warrant no okay roll call vote i i i i item seven hearing persons wishing to address the board do we have anything no speakers not seeing none action items uh a approve the tenative agreement between the Bass Lake and CCA local 757 I make a motion we approve the tenative agreement between the district and cdaa local 757 is there a second second any discussion roll call vote i i i i b approve the updated classified salary schedules for 2324 school year is there a motion I make a motion that we approve the salary second discussion um I think the only question that I had in looking at this a few of them was that you know some of these if after six years they kind of time out or 10 years they time out so how does that affect people's salaries if they're their longterm employees um basically then anytime there's a negotiated raise like that this is when they would get a bump okay um you know so they kind of would count on that there were some that were um six that we made 10 um some of the classified support like the confidential positions as well as the superintendent secretary and the speech language pathology assistant a couple years ago we added a couple more steps of that and then in classified we had add some steps back in a few years ago um but yeah basically people are stuck at that TOP Step it's last year they had got 8% this year 4% so they just get whatever is agreed upon applied okay yeah get talked out other than what they may qualify for with longevity pay as well yes that's another way longevity okay that helps okay all right thank you I I had a question which is probably more of a clarification since we just went through the negotiation and everything I was wondering if um this may sound really naive but was there a reset did everyone go back to the to square one on the on the U no they say where they're at and so if you were a step seven you're still at seven but now you're 4% higher rate okay I just wondered if that changed when everyone started AR fresh for like a full reset no we even have some a few years ago we had because of minimum wage we had dropped the bottom three steps and added steps on at at the top um so there's even people who still haven't gotten to 10 yet based on that they're at nine now so this next year they'll be 10 but um I thought I thought that would probably be the case but I that's a good question yeah any other questions roll call vote I I I I okay next item uh approve the updated classified salary schedules did I say that [Music] twice oh year schedules for 2425 school year sorry I make a motion we approve the updated classified toar schedules for 2024 2025 school year I'll second good any discussion the only thing I will say is this one's much easier because after all the movement that we talked about for 2324 this is simple it's 2% across the board all steps Bo two any questions comments vote um I I I I okay D resolution 2411 legal holidays is there a motion I motion to approve a second any discussion are these the total amount of days that can be taken I mean can you add or add any other days they can take off this these you know these are just paid holidays like people like myself that are 12 months these are the 12 holidays we get but on top of that you get sick and vacation time that you acrew each year so yeah they also could have paid vacation or sick time on top of that this is something that has to happen each year whenever we're going to observe a a national holiday on a day other than what the holiday actually falls on right okay I'm still not clear on June 19th or the Jun there we are the ending of slavery yeah uh well I was going to suggest that uh Monday December 23rd you guys take off but I guess if you don't you can only take 12 so otherwise it really splits up the week yeah sometimes that holidays around Christmas will fall at a better time where we could do two days like Thursday and Friday the way well some years it doesn't work out that way and has this been um discussed with our neighbors up the street do they are they following the same yeah because this pass in 2022 in collaboration with [Music] them in those sessions we also had shanii present not sure if they're going to adhere to what we we do but they were part of those discussions great he uh roll call vote I I I I approve public disclosure CBA form classified so you'll see this looks familiar but when we have the one for certificated sorry that's okay can I have a motion please I make a motion we approve the public disclosure CBA form for classified a second any discussion or presentation this campel so this is a similar form with what we did with certificated so it's just it's a required form that the county asks us to send showing that you know we can meet our financial obligations in doing this race so we work on this with them for a couple weeks for the board meeting making sure it's all squared away um and it's just a formality um saying that we can meet the cost of what was negotiated and we're presenting it publicly great yep any questions for the board no roll call vote i i i i and F is scheduled board self evaluation um we have in our bylaws that we're going to do a um I guess it's an action item it could be it's a possible action item um is there a motion to have a board self- evaluation I'll make a motion we have a board self- evaluation is there a second I'll second okay so okay any discussion yeah wer weren't you looking into something regarding that yeah we got that email that you sent with the from that organization and there was a certain there was some documents that we could potentially pay for that would help us with that yeah I did do that yeah the I need I was uncertain if we were gonna move forward but the bylaw states that you will do an EV self- evaluation annually um it appears on this month's agenda because that's where it was last year uh we have done this item at various times previously yes sometimes in the fall sometimes in January um last year I got pushed to April U the discussion that I had with President Greenwood was the possibility of pushing this to the fall um with new governance leadership coming in with uh superintendent to be Townsen it might be a nice opportunity for the new governance team to do this together as opposed to doing it now um I'm just going to throw that out there I'm happy to do whatever the will of the board is but that's also back to school time which is always busy so maybe we could do it early in July Late July I don't know I actually I know but we could have a it's a self evaluation it's a workshop yeah it could be even October um let's table the scheduling of this now that we know that we want to do it let's table the scheduling until you have a motion on the floor with a second you can suggest it but yeah if the motion wants to do change your motion well the motion motion please uh motion to schedule a board s okay choose a date choose date well we don't have Rhonda here either right so scheduling a date doesn't make sense or you could amend your motion to schedule it for sometime in the fall yeah you want to do in the fall yeah can you amend your motion yes please I amend my motion to have schedule our board evaluation in the fall does the second agree I'll set uh roll v i i i i all right okay uh item nine approve the updated Esser plan so as you know the covid Esser funding is coming to a close at the end of the school year I'm sorry I keep jumping it's okay do we have a motion she's ready all right I'll make a motion we approve the s plan oh second okay discussion so the funding is coming to a close at the end of this school year so part of it is every year we revisit this original plan you'll see some dates and things that are older but because we first uh released the plan in 2021 when we first heard about the funding and then we've updated it annually every year around this time just to keep up with um when the Auditors come they match the plan to the expenditures and they want to see that you know you have that on your website and you've gone over it just saying what's changed because obviously what we started uh you know three years ago could be very different from our needs now and um at this time we just adjusted some of the expenditures to um be more up to date in the different categories um most of the same projects and things we've updated you on at previous meetings hasn't changed the only thing is we did recently just purchase uh new student Chromebooks that come with the the warranty service um which we had with our previous batch that were Le and the lease is up so now we're in transition of getting in the new Chromebooks Stephan worked with different vendors to find some great uh plans for us and we were using the last of the covid funding for that as the lease being up means if we did a new lease it could be um 100,000 or more a year and with us being unsure about the budget we thought the best strategic move was to use the Esser funds we had enough left uh for the purchase of these devices and the service that comes with them and they'll have a good life for is it four years or five years four to five years I think we can get at least six out six years so we'll be covered um anytime there's an issue it's like what we had now with our lease we just they send us a label we mail it in they fix it um and it's really helped um you know with stefen so we're really excited for the students to get the new devices originally in an older plan you would have seen the money um kind of spread out differently we were talking about different things like the wasuma bus barn um but as the funding is coming to a close and a project like that could take a couple years to complete we've tried to um we've moved the funding to a different area that was in one of our goals with the students and um we're still going to purchase a like a carport type building for the bus barn out there to at least have that but in terms of doing a large scale project by June and building it and hooking up utilities and such so we just kind of had to all discuss it and rep prioritize and this worked out perfect because if you talked to me and Stephan A few months ago we were like how are we going to come up with funding for this lease you know we got to send our computers back and it's going to be very costly every year so it it lined up and it's an allowable use of the funds and um by updating this plan we're staying compliant with the state and the Auditors showing what we're using the funding for thank you so much it also includes stuff since 2021 so you can kind of see different things we've done over the years with these funds that if we hadn't had them um the capital expenditures like the cameras and the locks and the different different things we would have never had the budgets to do that so it's really helped our district abolutely any questions no roll call vote um I I I I okay item 10 information items um enrollments uh attendance percentage reports now I uh so you can see there it's it's not much of a change from last month in the purple section we had 819 it's up a little which is nice to see this time of year with 824 currently as of the second when I did this report sure if you look today it could be even different um with uh one more in Bliss and it looks like oci stayed the same wasuma went up oh it went up four look at you guys and OES is the same so mainly with suuma huh if everyone wants to hang out with Heather since you mentioned Bliss I did want to find out do all the parents really realize what that entails because yes when they the students sign up for the program there's a whole process that they go through with the school site and there's a contract and it's pretty lengthy and it explains the requirements of the program you know with them keeping up with the work and regularly checking in um so and they sign off on it so so hopefully um you know they're moving through that And discussing it with the site to realize if that's the best fit versus being in the classroom setting and I think since Co we've seen that more that when some kids um you know my kid didn't do well on the computer some kids did better in that setting so it that's why it has stayed with a steady enrollment because that really does that model really does work for some of our students di are you asking about the parents of the program or parents in general parents in general I mean I from what I have heard a lot of parents would like to homeschool they just don't feel they have the resources to do it on their own so I don't know if they realize what Bliss actually has to offer yeah and they have a the teacher through our program so I know I've heard other homeschool parents they want to do the teaching so it's a little bit different you know here where they'd have to log on and have the interaction with the teacher um so that could be a reason if people look into other things but it might be an area that we need to look at to Market better to yeah to explain that obious lines are the is that parent Square U is everyone using that does that get a lot of play I think we have close to 98% or n of people uh that are on there every time our messages are sent out the our principes can see how many parents actually opened it up and read it and it is the totals are over 98% do it does it look like all of them or just just a few here and there I I know it's not Facebook or anything most are reading it we we actually see who opened it up we can't see individually we can see the numbers come back it's a majority is it a significant it's over 98% actually reading the message so yeah it's getting and then the other report on there is the average daily attendance summary this is one I started recently providing that shows you um the comparison between uh the attendance and the enrollment so you can see you know the attendance percentages there on the right um and you can see where somewhere where they might have 270 students like Luma but 250 is the average 253 is the average attendance um but the numbers are over uh over 90% which is nice to see because I know a couple years back um when we first reopened it was definitely in the low 80s so it it's getting stronger we used to be in the 95% range but it's good to see it climbing back up pretty close you know about 92% average and the top one is the specialed uh students um at um in in the preschool program okay and those those ones come every day yes any questions okay moving on to Item B in District transfer report there were three inter District transfers from Eed Unified School District to B Lake since our last meeting no transfers out incoming is good item C academic achievement and differentiated assistance nothing really to report on that tonight other than um I sense a an email out to principales to um we have to start our next committee for the differentiated assistance for the um students with disabilities for English language arts so we're working on that with the county and um it looks like some of the things that we've been doing for chronic absenteeism is helping so that's good so we're just continuing to work on those plans and and work on that and then um next month I'll have some data on some academic achievement they finished um districtwide the third diagnostic for I ready and um there's some other stuff that that we'll be able to look at next [Music] Mee item D first reading of proposed updates to board policy administrative regulations board bylaws and exhibit revisions so this is our first reading there's a lot of them yeah yeah I was just trying to count everything that's on there and forget it I don't have enough figures toes um there are a lot U for the March batch um and I just want to remind the board that these are not items that we get to self choose these are items that are sent from csba upd for update um but what what I did include for you was the uh the documents that show all of the changes being tracked with all the notes provided by C ba legal as to the reasons why as well as the final draft version and um also the short version The Cliff Notes if you would the summary of why I I didn't see anything that would be eyebrow raising a lot of stuff on comprehensive safety plan that we knew was already coming as a result of some change of legislation last year year as well as a lot of food services uh Child Nutrition program type stuff um free reduced meals uh reading through nothing really CAU my eye to really point out tonight to you but you may have taken the time to read through them you may have something yeah I think only yeah go ahead oh no ladies first yeah the only thing I saw was the discipline the board policy by 5144 and I realize it's a new up please uh board policy 5144 discipline policy Aid reflect a new law which beginning with 2425 school year prohibits a staff member from denying a student recess unless the students participation poses an immediate threat to the physical safety of the students for one or more of the students peers so I just I know that that has been a tool in the past for teachers a little you know trick up your sleeve to try to keep a kid in line so we just keep taking more and more of those I see societally away from teachers so how are they supposed to discipline kids that they can't touch them they can't you know take their recess there's can't you know not like you have to touch a kid to discipline them but you know what I mean just I just feel like just more and more the teachers hands are tied but the behavior seems to be getting worse so yeah we we've had a lot of internal discussions by we me and the principles and I and Michelle in our weekly meetings about this topic uh we we've known that this was on the on the horizon um and the idea is that the child Who's acting up in class is squirly to where recess allows them to get all the squirrels out and then they can come back back focused to sit um that may work in some cases it's not across the board we know that um but it has it has forced us to take a look some of the discussions we've had is we've looked at how effective is taking away a lunch recess or a morning recess from a student and we're not seeing a lot of positive Returns on that um so it's really forced us to look at our PBIS program and and try to reinvent ways of reaching today's student as to how we can correct their behavior or or bring their behavior into alignment with what expectations are right um and it's a work in progress absolutely so all right so that was the first reading these will come back next month for approval Stephen did you have something well um if we go to regulation 615 the a board policy one in the in the first paragraph I wanted to make a comment yes I I did I'm afraid I read these um so did I okay um on which page where was it it's just a pet be of mine and it comes up all the time when uh we we insist that we're a democracy when in fact we're not we are a representative a constitutional republic and uh I just really like to correct that wherever I see that I I a pet peeve of mine to see people and elected positions in government and all kinds of offices that still think we're a democracy and it's like you blunk out of civics come on let's get this right you know we are not a democracy it's not a mob rule we are a constitutional republic and that's why we hear about our constitution all the time so I watch for that you know and I I don't like to see it and where in our in our um own policies even what paragraph Was that in that you were is it the policy or regulation maybe it is the regulation oh I'm right I'm right below it very I think it's the first one on the left on top there we go yeah very first paragraph there's like uh four pages on that on on the on on the list there's the board policy and then to the right is the regulation and anyway there's four of them and one right on the top on the left is the ceremony un observances the policy first paragraph and it says and it says the um uh so that they may acquire the knowledge skills and principles essential for informed responsible citizenship in the Democratic Society and I just think think that should read in a in a in a constitutional republic instead of a Democratic Society so you you all may think I'm nitpicking but the these things add up there is a difference okay well I'm gonna spend some time researching that see what I think next time when we vote on it thank you foring we we are in fact a constitutional republic we're not a democracy that is what we are in this country so why we have representatives in all all fields of government a differ that's correct versus put put it this way if we were a democracy minorities would have no rights whatsoever because it would always be majority rule I teach Civic class anyway just spell that out for everyone all right that's my only comment on this consti constitutional republic there is a difference between the two and it's a it's a positive difference we should be glad about it okay everybody do their own research looking forward to that anybody else have any concerns please I might save it till the next time we have opportunity to look in this more in depth okay all right um moving on E March 2024 District technology department update sure do you have the laser show ready is um all right so lot of stuff going on the district mainly the door project door projects going on uh since what did we start that September I think uh we have oci and OES pretty much complete we're going to start wasuma installation next week during spring break and we're going to be starting the reing of oci and OES to Rey the sites to uh match key only one and it will force all our employees to use our new badges that we have so um we're kind of cleaning up all the security and all the randomness that come with the locks and and trying to really focus on everyone just having a key card um that goes with your employment and then when you leave it automatically suspends it and you know some more tightening of that infrastructure um occi o have implemented bathroom badges for the classrooms so it allows us to keep the doors locked and allows the kids to not interrupt by going in and out to the bathroom so we've been able to compromise and keep those doors um a little more safe since we're going open campus um let's see as Tera said we had some new Chromebooks coming uh they're actually in my office now starting next week we're going to be redoing all the carts and classrooms with new Chromebooks and then we will work on transitioning the uh fourth through eth graders that take them home um to the end of the year so they'll have a new Chromebooks by the start of next year um what we got here working on adopting a new ticketing system for mot and it as well as the other departments to help better support uh staff members when they need help uh knowledge base included so they can some things that can help them a little better organization um it'll look like uh an email that teachers and staff can just email and the system will interpret it and give it to the right Department it's a maintenance issue or as they have a TV issue it'll actually populate the first three steps to try as they're typing and if it doesn't work it can go into a ticket so things to help uh maybe uh streamline support we definitely recognize it being a little CL um I'm happy to announce that wasuma started orts which is pretty cool um that that seems to be getting really popular O is just killing it with it and now that we have another site coming online we may to we may be able to coordinate competitions hopefully ooc is next um so hopefully we see some adoption of East fors in the mountain area I I assume that this will John and we will see in the next couple years uh OES playing River and course and I think that's going to be a thing coming up so it's it's definitely over year over year has blown up and um we do have some after school funding to help support that so it's pretty cool um I want to recognize Genie's website she's really made that thing look nice um it works with parent Square so anything parents goes on the website looks fantastic so appreciate you taking the re on [Applause] that cameras are doing good we're full force um but everything's coming along just good some good projects and I think we're focusing on safety and um oh one last thing we've finalized the Panic buttons and in the uh offices to where secretaries have a panic button to hit that will lock all the doors put the display on the screen and make the alert go out for Capital so so we're just really trying to focus on kind of tightening up all these things that we can putting in that by next year will be 100% access control and key card any question thank you thank [Applause] you hey item 11 accomplishments and other reasons to celebrate throughout the district Oak Elementary School can I cast today I don't see NPR My Board Room yes or not oh I stop probably it's been a while I'm out of practice okay um lot of still not working let's try that again there we go okay lots of great things happening at school here at o um and March we had our um spelling bead um and so there there are a variety of pictures of our finalists competing um really proud of all the hard work that all of our students put into that um the spelling be the district or Regional Madera County Regional spelling be will be at River Gold um on April 22nd for grades K4 and then on April 23rd for well grade five through eight so um whoops so we're gearing up for that there we go we have Smokey the Bear come it's always a favorite here and so they did a fantastic job we had um here we have Miss Neil's second graders in the library the uh calfire that's what I'm looking for did a fantastic job they always come in their gear and show the kiddos you know what it's like when the firemen fire people are in their um gear so that the students aren't scared if there's ever a fire and they have you know somebody coming in they did a puppet show so that was fantastic and then of course everybody's favorite is smoking the bear which hes it's the best um first grade they did a group presentation in here and so here's pictures of our amazing first graders checking out um the puppet show and getting some hugs learn all about player safety um Mrs Etta's class I wasn't sure because for a lot of students Smokey can be scary and they loved it so I was so excited to hear that so there they are closing with smok there um in Mrs Elliot's class I mean not only her class there other classes as well but she has some really fantastic volunteers helping out in her classroom one of the parents uh her that we the class was going to create space themed art for our Scholastic Book Fair and so this parent Caitlyn Phillips came in and decided to lead an art an art lesson with the class um she did they did watercolor and experimented with different techniques salting it was tons of fun so um that was excellent and it created beautiful art for our prayer orle Smith also is a volunteer she's a retired teacher I believe from Madera and so she comes in and Volunteers in Miss Elliot's class I know too Diane comes in and works in this Elliot's class too so um yeah very lucky uh we had open house that was our our big thing and it was the timing we were we always try to coordinate with their book fair and so this this original time we had planned Scholastic couldn't do and so the only time we really had was right before Good Friday and Easter but it actually turned out really well we had a pretty good rate all things attendance rate all things considered you know lots of families were leaving and so on average about 65% attendance rate K's barbecu hamburgers and hot dogs family shop with the um book fair and students went around and showed their parents the amazing they do uh shout out to Mr Matt he really a lot of the time you know the teachers we open up our classroom would display all this stuff that he wanted to get in a little extra parental support and and get them involved in their students academics and so he put out a library um applic like a brochure and a library card application and just resources to helping the parents involved so I thought that was amazing can't believe I never thought of that as a teacher so I'm so impressed you're setting a good example um lots of amazing art in the classrooms and projects lots of learning happening second grade did animal reports and created diaramas of the habitats to go with their animal reports fourth grade did the amazing missions right we love that tradition keeps on going um let's see fifth grade Had State hats and reports lots of good things happening here um we also have some we have some good professional development happening here at OES uh Garrick and Michelle Burton became quizzes certified yes it is with two's twice it's not till uh quizzes is a fantastic learning platform that helps increase student learning um but and engagement but also decreases the the workload of the teacher so it's amazing uh so they reviewed with teachers how to get that going in the classroom and then they also showed of course with AI there's all these crazy things and so quizzes has an AI feature it can read aloud um in accents it can you can choose students names and plug that into the problems that they're and things um simply bying directions like you can customize it to go with their learning needs so super fantastic so they shared that um Mr Max also been working a lot on uh Google websites and increasing again parent involvement and student learning and so um I just wanted to show you a little preview of what he had set up on his web page pretty much every single thing on his web page is like a link and so there's multiple ways to get to the same thing so that parents really can't go wrong when they come to the website they can find a variety of ways to get to different places there's the schedule there's my bulletin he has a link to that the classroom syllabus pictures of what's going on in the classroom um there's scheduling buttons so that parents can get a hold of him and and so I think that this is hopefully kind of the way that we're heading it'll all sync up with parents square and hopefully you know parents always say I don't know what to do to help my kid and get involved so hopefully this will improve that um and then field trips of course are always a hit and so uh OES second grade went to yhs Orchestra uh to see as part of our music education program Tamar dent and mean rice organized the event and are hoping that it will become an annual trip the kids loved it was a hit um our TK and Kinders went to the sane River Parkway and learned all about bugs and did a nature walk so that was a huge hit um oh and this is so cool at the C Conference the computers using Educators the California state parks is doing a courts program and so it's a Virtual Field treend and it's not like a video you watch it's actually live stream and so this Ranger from the Santa Cento mountains came on and like walked the kids through and did a virtual field trip it was incredible so we have another one set up we will come back from break I think for Gold Rush and so it's really cool and it's fre so very awesome um they also at the queue learned a conference learned about the academy California Academy of Sciences they do live stream events and so they had one um on April 3D about the solar eclipse so they fifth grade watch that in their classrooms in preparation for our event and count on Monday and there we go that was really long thank [Applause] you thank you next up we have wasuma Elementary hello hello hello okay let me [Music] cast okay so um I have some pictures for you guys and then I'm going to just kind of fill in the gaps for you as soon as the Scrolls there you go there is the beginning of Esports wasuma so as Stephan mentioned um Michelle Burton and gar D came over and they've been working with Miss egund and Mr Coram and getting orts up and running uh we have it open right now for for third through fifth graders these are some of our super excited third graders um the only space we have that we can do it right now is in the library but that's okay because they're they're well supervised uh we have about 25 kiddos right now they're in the library on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and it was really hard to find the right time to do this because we have that that horrible problem of having too many opportunities for our kids right so we know that they have to choose at some point they have to make their choices um so right now we've got Wednesday Thursdays it I imagine that when we go back after the break there will be more students there track will be over so that'll free up more kids who have their afternoon so we'll see there's super excited that's super great Focus right there from those gentlemen um our goal prize the messenger with um our goal is to engage in tournaments with our counterparts at OAS in the short term and then going further out see where we can take it um they are super excited excited it's not just for boys either and um the coaches have done a great job of strategically setting up the teams so that there's learning going on there's competitiveness there's sportsmanship and there's also the opportunity for um some of these boys who like to call themselves teacher call of Fame Gamers to learn that the sixth grade pretty girl standing next to him is going to smoke him in Mario K so there's some there's some humbling going on too it's really good for all of them time but it's a pretty sweet setup with the TVs and we roll them in and out so that they can have it all going on it's fun um okay uh Mass concluded a wild season uh I think they might have gotten in half of the dates that they had planned and unfortunately they had much more snow before the season and by and the season ended um miss eckan this is her last year taking care of the mass program and I think it's been 50 years but she's been our Mass coordinator so she went out on a wild one there uh kids were super excited to get up there and we had a number of them cross over into their more advanced D levels by the time they ended but I mean you can't be it um so Mrs Frank do something unusual at wasuma well unusual just in general um she has a kindness challenge every year no matter what grade level she SE she has a kindness challenge so these are pictures of some of her kids they chose what they want what they wanted their projects to be and they chose to create personal hygiene packages uh they donated them to Madera County Sheriff's department and the sheriff's department gives them out in emergency situations so that was really cool some of the kids putting the the bags together um they also decided they wanted to raise money for St judee's hospital so they collected Recycling and they raised over $200 to donate to St judees which is awesome she does a great job uh getting her kids outside of himself a little bit um they are also in the middle of their wax museum project so I didn't have the dates of her presentation when I created this but I can tell you now that her kiddos will be Pres their wax museum projects April 23rd from 8:30 to 9:30 and I will send you guys an email invite this was the last class that she did for wax museum project with so you'll see the kids actually have they have to do a board they have to do the research and then they dress as their historical figure and they have to present so you kind of come by you know you push the button and then they go into their little so you'll see Elizabeth blacko there she's one of the first female uh femals that graduate from medical school with a lot of practice with a doctor uh you'll see Harriet tman there on the left that's my personal favorite that was my daughter uh and she's asleep right there because har Tu took a Blow To The Head and so she used to just fall asleep periodically and then you see Sally Ride it was fun to practice uh you see Sally Ride there on the lower right hand corner but some of this year's historical figures for her second and third graders include Albert Einstein and Frank George Washington Teddy Roosevelt um she allowed a couple of her boys who were super in love with soccer to uh choose lonel Messi even though not American historical F necessarily uh and a couple of other I think poah Haas is one and Walt Disney was another one that made cut yeah it was very cool um this is our second graders wrapped up a unit on community and they did that by creating their own Community using recyclables and repurposing everyday items the kids decided what the most important facets of a community were and they built skyscrapers airplanes airports homes bu stations hospitals schools and really fun modes of transportation so it was a fun construction zone in there for a very long time and they were they were having a blast their skyscrapers were pretty awesome I did not get a picture of the biggest skyscraper before it fell I apologize um and Mrs star only sustained about three three burns from her H glue gun that airplane so it was a good day it was a very good day they were cracking me up the things they were coming up with uh Outdoor School sixth grade science camp we did that just last month now it's a joint venture between OC and was sixth graders sponsored by our district uh six High School seniors use this as their experience use their experience as cabin leaders for their senior project at yhs um we usually have anywhere from four to probably six or seven kids who use it as their senior project and they are there 247 um they are exhausted by the time they get done they give a little tip of what it's like to be a parent really good for them I think their parents should send us thinking that's uh we had about 85 six graders a t um here are some pictures of the things they were doing they're on the left they're building Emergency Shelters they were studying Wildlife ecology and adaptations they had team dance offs and define gravity marble challenges Mr mcg's Son charlie went as one of the cabin leaders my daughter went as one of the cabin leaders and uh they came on tired oh yeah oh yeah uh they have climbing walls that's part of the Marvel challenge there in the middle and then uh I always send proof of FL pictures to parents who are most see Feld in there they learn about John Mir laws and and I assure you Adam seals came home tired as well good good I bet he did right to bed right uh so it's always a good time and the weather was absolutely perfect uh there's Mackenzie gter she's another one that was one of the dance offs they had and um Mrs Boden got to go that's her ringing the rooster Bell to wake everybody up uh so Mrs Bodin went nurse Jordan Wright went with us again she always does a great job Mr messenger and Mr Corgan were up there at Camp too and um Mrs Smith and Mrs Mills from oci covered all of our classes so we can make that happen so that was really great that got in on that and yeah it was a good time uh PTA we have a movie night with Super Mario Brothers our PTA book is going on right now and it's a pirate theme if you Steve you want to know about parents Square hop on parents square and search book fair in the search engine and the search bar there and you'll see the Pate name is pretty awesome this morning we had our Pati with parents event and I think we probably had about I don't know over there 150 parents over the course of the morning it's hard to find parking after a certain point uh cross country just ended and it was a clean sweep for the wasuma team they won all three of this season we meet again mostly beautiful weather so uh coaches always do a good job Mrs Peterson Mrs Frank and Mrs ma are the dynamic oh my gosh I can't keep up with them talking about coming on working with those three they wear me out uh and they're worn out yeah uh Mr P is fourth graders he's been having them practice some writing skills in a less challenging way I guess they're a little overwhelmed by writing so he took some paragraphs apart and then had the kids work on reconstructing them in small groups so it took some of the pressure off they did a good job uh and then little skill building confidence building and then they were off on their own um Mrs Seal's fifth graders went to Columbia State Park uh they had a scavenger hunt learn all about the town and no matter where they were in the town they all managed to find their way to the ice cream parlor so it was a good day it was pouring rain and dark and stormy here and it was sunny and beautiful up there so it was a perfect day for them to go uh lunchtime in jals our Volleyball Champion title goes to the eighth grade girls got a lot of the kids out there involved and no there is not a filter on my camera that's actually what it looks like out there I don't have the energy for that just what it is um you're all invited to our upcycle rally we're having uh the month of April we do a lot of Earth Day festivities and um we are having an upcycle rally sorry 10 were long I forgot it was a lot um so so Mrs Mac and Mrs Peterson work together to create this presentation for our kids so they can learn about what up cycling was I'll go through it and you guys can read that on your own and so they had a rally where kids learned how to create games using upcycled uh activ or upcycled Goods to get the kids excited um so there you go there are different categories the rally The Trash to Treasure uh presentation will be on April 24th April 24th there you go okay I hav't put that picture m in there um our kids go compete in the math P one this Friday which is going to be awesome we had a little staff fun we had a surprise birthday party for Miss Molly and um The Wellness committee with Mrs ma as the B rep created or came up with the March Mana Step Challenge and our kindergarten teacher I really thought I had a chance at this but our kindergarten teacher won she had an average of over 15,000 steps a day yeah and and she yes she's a Shaker so she is flat moving absolutely um I did while I leave this slide here I did want to say that Michelle mentioned that we just finished our Diagnostics um most of our kids are done they weren't done last week but I just want to share sh some really great numbers with you in I ready reading uh the from the beginning of the year we had 30% of our kids who were on grade level and now we have 52% we had 40% who were one grade level below and now there's 34% who are at one grade level below but this is the one 30% of our kids were two or more grade levels below in reading and that that percentage has cut in half and Dr to 15 right so it's we're moving in the right direction and then in math we had 133% of our kids who were on grade level and then we are 35% um 47% the beginning of the year were one grade level or below or one grade level below now that's 44 39% of our kids were two or more grade levels below and now that's down to 21% so and see we send all of our report cards out via parents Square so parents are encouraged to get in there so that they see what's going [Applause] on so much [Laughter] for so she she's giving me grief because I said it's yours as long as C I don't think so okay to your credit to your to your credit and just to Fan the Flames of competition between the three which I'm prone to do we need help with that you were the one that got yours in first I I um but why am I not able to show this as a presentation what's that PDF no attached to the oh you know what is it okay attached okay I'll just show it here I'll leave it here in the interest of time uh all right so we have uh all right first thing I have going on here was we have Rockets elective and um Mrs longcore had the elective for Rockets this quarter third quarter M you will again fourth quarter they started out by making uh simple stuff and they were working on like stomp Rockets with a 2 L um soda bottle kind of deal and and putting things together and making their own stuff they weren't buying anything or whatever the kids got totally into that they were making like paper rockets with tons of tape and things like that but they were totally into it they were shooting them 30 or 40 yards with just that with just that the culmination uh was building Rockets from kits um how many of yall have built a a kit rocket and fired up yeah they're pretty fun so here we are these pictures that they're showing right now are uh the students launching those at lunchtime so we could come down everybody could come down and check them out and uh they launched them uh at lunch and got a couple good shots of that it was super fun it was pretty windy day but actually they didn't go super high so they could come up and come down and kids were having F like trying to catch him and that kind of stuff it isn't all about physics it's mostly a Hands-On rocket class you know um so it's it's cool it's a it's a popular one for sure uh we had an egg hunt um a little bit ago and there is our coyote dressed up as a as a rabbit you know so we have that going on we've never done this one before but we had over 2,000 eggs we put out a parent Square saying hey guys we need we need plastic eggs and um and we got like 2500 for real and um then Mrs Hatfield's class the leadership class brought some of those to kindergarten right to the kindergarten here and did egg hunts with them one day right before we did this so that was a blast we had Parents coming out and um we didn't even there were so many of them we couldn't even hide them it was just they were everywhere all over campus we had parents there kind of you know directing kids and that kind of stuff and then it was a competition uh to see which grade level could get the most classes and then they uh pardon me the most eggs and then they got a an ice cream party at the end you know at the end of that so it was just again something fun to do and the kids had had fun with it even they were having blast with it when it was happening afterwards you're like yeah whatever you know whatever um but when it was happening I mean the middle school kids it's the way it is um it just wasn't that cool but they were they were seriously running down to the field and then running back to the library some of them were about ready to die just because of the Run um and they could only bring as much as they could carry in their hands and so had to go back and forth it was the sugar probably we weren't we weren't feeding them again no no no these are empty eggs yeah all there were a few with C it was just how many you get rais most of there were a few that had some candy in them actually but probably maybe 40 or 50 of them all of them because it's just like I said 2000 of them it took a long time just to put them all together and put them in buckets um what do we have here this is a um a cool one here so a student was having a hard time uh getting to school and not wanting to be at school and so Mrs Bodin started looking at okay what might be helpful to have this to get this person here there were some different things going on some anxiety and things it became uh clear that this student likeed to write by bicycles but didn't have them and so she put out something on Mr bu and put out something on Facebook and said hey anybody have a bicycle they can go here and so then my club said hey Jen got hold room said we we'll pick up a bicycle and so pardon me Jennifer Bodin went out and got the head gear and a couple other things you know the helmet and that kind of stuff and and brought him in and gave this bicycle to the student and as we were talking to her at that point to student um it became clear that her older uh and younger siblings also like to ride but they don't have bicycles so um Terry and Rhonda said we got a couple bicycles at home and so they brought those in and Jennifer bought a couple more helmets and things we got a couple tubes that need to go into those so so we're ining up and to get uh three students in the same family bicycles so they can ride together and the one who wasn't showing up is showing up more often she's actually able to ride the uh the bike to school and then they can ride them on the weekends and that kind of stuff so it's a it's a very cool thing that happened um because one of our our teachers was paying attention to what was going on trying to make something happen and then the community support kicked in as well as other people work in there so um The Bakers so that was very cool um and I also found out that we don't have the old bike store in town we used to yeah is what's what's that Al glow yeah there used to be one right over there right there's one here is still there Street oh it's across street all right because I'm like oh going grab some tubes up there like all right whatever um all right so check it out here we have the uh the academic fantastic we heard a little bit about that before uh nor Dyers got third place in the sa competition the T the kids did a great job we had a very um small team we'll just put it out we didn't have a ton of students that were participating but they worked hard they put in a lot of um lunch times and that for studying and did a great job I got to uh be one of the judges or whatever during some of the test taking and that and hang out with them a little bit um while they're while they're doing that Saturday there so they also gave up a Saturday to do that and uh shoot we had Lura jees um Jack um Jen Bodin all coaching that and they put in a lot of their personal time also so that was very cool um we have new electives we just signed up for just to give you an idea what we have Spanish legal robotics KET core puzzles and games leadership History of Rock and Roll book club band rockets and drama and the drama um class will be performing I um Mrs NE and Mr pet are putting on uh in charge of putting on not just putting on but in charge of putting on a talent show performing in the talent show so the uh the drama club and they will I don't think far I know we don't have a a DAT set June 10th it's on June 10th we have a DAT set turns out we do um all right we have a date um wow all right that's gratulation sounds perfect all and our bfield trip you know we got do these earlier what notot um M was in first um the uh the bfield trip was something that was going to happen but didn't because that was on the snow day so um so anyway that was there so it didn't end up happening but you know the snow day was interesting I guess so anyway thank you thank [Applause] you that is some great stuff happening love it um superintendence report I'm stuck on June 10th staff performance what could possibly go wrong uh just a few things that need mentioning tonight uh in my report uh first of all I want to give a public shout out and thanks to um the members of our classified staff who volunteered to serve on on the negotiation team this year uh the collaborative nature of our negotiations uh certainly RI that of our negotiations with our blta partners as well uh very very pleased with how it turned out but the the team was a a nice cross-section of our classified staff and I have in front of me the poll report so when our local chapter chapter 757 of C CA voted on the tenative agreement the result was a 32 to0 unanimous decision for approval and that that would not have been possible without the hard work of those who served on that negotiation team so I want to give a shout out to those who who did that on behalf of their their partners and their colleagues um also some of you may have heard there is another plan that school districts are required to prepare uh this one is called the model uh written workplace violence prevention plan okay um so you will be seeing that come forward in the next couple of months I'll be working on that um my promised the incumbent superintendent that I would have the final draft for her so she wouldn't have to take that on as well as one of my last asks being recorded in the minute yeah um also it was mentioned earlier in our principal reports uh about the mass program uh coming to an end this this year or for this year um but huge public shout out to Peter Lio and and the mass volunteers for keeping that program um alive and thriving so thanks Peter and team uh lastly AXA the association of California school administrators of which all the administrators in the district are members um each year the Mariposa Madera County acts a chapter um hosts a golden apple Awards dinner and each district um is able to nominate an individual from from their District their Community um let me get the verbiage correct an individual who has um has made outstanding contributions to your District's uh students staff and or community and um our district is going to award a Golden Apple award this year and the recipient will [Music] be the director from my club Jennifer Simmons Jennifer Jennifer will be recognized at that Golden Apple Awards dinner which will be held on May 30th U of this year and there'll be more information for anybody interested in attending that I can send out and I know Michelle's planning to be there um to present that award to to Jennifer for all the work that my club has provided not only to the students of our district all of the districts in Easter midair County yep a lot of hard work there and that concludes my report for this thank you very he board member comments Steve I don't have any tonight thank you uh I got to go to the open house so it was so fun it's not every day you get the opportunity just to wander freely through the school and pop into classrooms and meet teachers and I got to meet a few teachers that I haven't met before and see a lot of student work and it's just such a great going on here and I had a delicious hamburger a great night thank you yes so I got to go as um cat said to the second grade uh field trip and it was to the Yus High theater and it was so wonderful these kids were so excited it's like tapping into that musical creativity the little boy I was sitting next to and he's just tapping away you know they uh Mrs dent and Megan rice uh talked about they isolated the different parts of to the orchestra they showed them what the brass section was the percussion and all of that and just it was really wonderful these kids I think every child should be exposed to music you know we I think we were created to make music and such a a in a an outlet and especially with all that's going on with these kids nowadays I think it's a it's an excellent opportunity to release a lot of those emotions and get connected to your talent and gifting so anyway was quite an opportunity [Music] anything else okay I don't have any comments this evening um next future agenda items anything we need to bring up standard issue okay and our next meeting date will be May 8th [Music] whoa that's may already okay anything else all right is a JK thank you all for coming I appreciate it thank you for your Pres

agenda for the committee on education 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 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 before we begin I'd like to take a moment to congratulate Jade fam of kaana Naka middle school and Rory enoy of Waka High School these two outstanding Educators were recently awarded the prestigious milin educator award for their exceptional leadership and unwavering commitment towards their students and the teaching profession their remarkable contributions have made a significant impact on their school and community congratulations to our Hawaii teachers who go above and beyond thank you very much and with that let us begin uh we have a bunch of Governor messages on our committee agenda and the first is for our uh GM 715 for our early learning board for gator nominee Joie onishi and for a term to expire 6:30 2028 and to testify we have yuku AR Arawa Cross stand onestim support thank you also Sher Nakamura I am [Music] here [Music] okay um we also have written testimony and support from an SCH in Dean Career and Technical education Hawaii Community College from Lisa hukum Su Leanne urasaki Michelle everol and AA aamu all in [Music] support [Music] so for GM 715 for Joie onishi I am is she on Zoom not present on Zoom chair thank you okay is there anyone else here who wishes to testify on this gorial nominee if not let's move on to GM 716 to advise and cons consent for early learning board G gubernatorial nominee elain yashita for a term to expire 6:30 and you you stand testimony support thank you also we have written testimony in support from a Brenda wanabi assistant professor Early Childhood educator and Terry lock director Early Childhood educator excellence and Equity project uh College of Education is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this issue not is is yo here I'm sorry is this has been a long day is elain Yamashita here please come forward yes you like to tell us about yourself what would you like to know I would like to know what makes you so interested in wanting to do this and um I have time to perform your duties oh I'm retired from uh Mai college so yes I have time um and I have been in the field of early care and education for over 40 years and have watched this board evolve from State advisory Council to to Advisory Board and now to the Early Learning board and I've worked in one wanting to move policy forward in early childood in early care and education for all these years so I am excited to um be part of this well thank you congratulations on being nominated to the Early Learning board and uh um I guess my questions would be what goals do you want to see the executive office on early learning achieve during your ter during my turn well I would like to see um eel continue to work towards creating our system a more coherent system for early care and education in our state we still kind of operate in silos and we still need to be distinct but I think there are ways that in other states they figured out how to kind of work together and I think we're on that path and so I just want to continue supporting that thank and just being more coherent cuz having been in the system for many years it's just it's a very it's very different from the doe it is different funding streams a lot of different issues and a Severe Workforce issue so you are being appointed to represent the Hawaii medium Early Learning providers no MA county of Maui correct okay County of H of Maui Early Learning providers no there there is no I'm I'm so sorry Senator there is with the new formation of the board there's representatives from Hawaii Maui Hawaii City and County of Honolulu and at large so there is not a specific Hawaiian Early Learning are you from the island ofi I'm from the island of Maui Maui yeah sorry so as a board member how will you ensure that EO meets and continues in its statutory obligations to create an early learning system that is widely accessible and voluntary for both those served and program and service providers what I would do is help the board understand where the system is now and with um eel director cross um Arawa cross help everyone to come to a common vision of where we want to be and fig figured out how we get there given the different funding streams departments regulations Etc thank you members questions yeah yes you talked about the silos yes can you expand on that a little bit please sure um currently early if I say child care that means DHS funded programs then there are home visiting programs that are in the Department of Health then we have Department of Education that has the ready Ki programs and the eal programs then we have family child interaction learning programs then we have the Hawaiian medium programs of the punan Leo in the state and continuing on um we also have family child care so there are many different um entities within the early care and education system and sometimes if you're in one sector you don't necessarily understand what is going on or how the other sectors especially as far as funding is concerned um operate so one of the things I've seen is that sometimes unintentionally Federal funding has has been supplanted instead of supported and supplemented by state funds so an example of that and it doesn't happen anymore this was way in the beginning but federal funds the FED funds Head Start and when and Head Start is for very low-income families and sometimes if you have a very small community that has a limited number of children but they have low incomes they have a head start and what happened in one Community was there was a head they didn't have enough children to be in that Head Start and then um one of the doe schools and they didn't know how the funding streams work so the principal goes yeah I want to have a department of Ed School uh preschool and so then families went to that even though even Head Start is free and the doe school was free but then there were not enough children to have in both programs so the head start funding from the feds got pulled because there were not enough children so that's a kind of coordination and understanding of the funding streams that I think needs to happen does that make sense yeah it it does and um and so are do you see part of your function is to help coordinate some of this conversation I would I would like to yes because I think unless you understand where the funding comes from we're going to continue to have this supplanting instead of supplementing whereas I think we can get to a place where we can really maximize the use of the federal and state funds and we still need State funds definitely but we don't want to supplant federal funds in order to funds okay thank you thank you chair so when did this happen how long [Music] ago maybe 10 years ago or so it was It was kind of in the very beginning of EO so you've not had those problems I as far as I know I haven't heard you know this is it's kind of like you just hear things cuz it is kind of a small community Statewide so I haven't heard that happening since because especially since EO has put in uh a process of principles understand what is happening so I think since that has happened I haven't heard of that happening thank you members further questions thank you okay moving on to GM sorry that 717 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Early Learning board gubernatorial nominee Alana Balman for turn to expire 6:30 2028 Alana here please come forward please tell us about yourself and why you're interested in this position ala Cher kidani and members of the education committee um my name is Alana Balman I am uh born and raised uh from kaii um and look forward to serving um in this capacity on the Ford I currently sit as the Early Childhood system uh coordinator uh at kaai planning and action Alliance um supporting the Strategic expansion of Early Child Care um uh programming um and early learning opportunities on Kawaii I work closely with um many state county and uh private agencies to support the Early Learning sector um and the expansion across the state um and look forward to continuing to support eel um moving forward thank you um we have a number of written testimonies in all in support and we have [Music] also director yo on car cross thank you memb those questions I'm sorry you're not on my list please come forward Aloha chair Vice chair and members of the committee uh I'm testifying today as Sher Nakamura as an individual and I support the nomination of Alana Balman I've known Alana for a few years as we worked together on a data analysis project on Kawai because she had not been back too long from getting her Masters on the mainland I thought that I would be providing a lot of guidance on the project especially since our we have a difference in age but I was mistaken she picked up quickly and got to work her background in economics was also extremely helpful as Kawai ECE system coordinator she not only has overall systems view of the Early Childhood system there but she has a very good micro view of the landscape as well I think she will do well on the Early Learning board and urge the committee to confirm her nomination thank you for this opportunity thank you Sher anyone else here wishing to testify I'd like to testimon ver I did not write oh please come forward committee I'm C Burgess I just like to submit I'm so happy that she's I'm not even going to cry I'm not but it's just that um when I worked at k we had we were looking for someone to support Kawaii with their ECE coordination and um I remember just hearing so many good words about her and hearing sher's uh testimony it's obviously true I recently retired uh it's just so nice to hear that you're doing so well and I'd like to just ask that you f support her nomination Mahal before I need a box a tissue soon thank you co that was very nice members questions our nominee yeah good question CH Senator Rich um you worked at the food basket or food bank um what would that work that was during the co time what was your specific job doing uh the reason I'm asking the questions so oh I was a um Emer Mercy hire um I was volunteering at the time and then got hired on through um I believe rise to work funding that the county supported um to help uh facilitate uh Grant Administration as well as um donor recognition and appreciation okay where's going with it um big Allen from Big Island uh we were food insecure for children one out of five going into the pandemic one out of three during the pandemic we're just back to 1 out of four you talk about early childhood development nutrition is a big component of that how do you see this all time together and what you're going to be working on um I think raising Awareness on children nutrition for families as well as ensuring that uh programs that children are en rolled in have um access to Quality and um nutritional food programming is very important so depending on um the type of programing it's offering but U raising awareness about that for Child Development I think is very important um and seeing how uh eel could possibly you know help create awareness about that or ensure that students within the um program have access to um Quality nutritious food during throughout the day I I completely agree with you on that I think we're learning more about the need for high quality protein going in um into the children at a young age rather than trying to play catchup later and so I'm um I'm I'm excited about early childhood development education CU a lot of time our our Alice families they don't have enough food at home and so at least if we can get them there maybe we can help out the kids so thank you chair thank you members further questions yeah she feel like I just was talking to you a few minutes ago oh I was anyway um no just just a couple of comments I just you know when I had the privilege to talk to you before you came you know I feel confident and um you I'm happy that um you know you can be part of it and be you know well founded but same like with Senator Richards I talked to you about the food bank and I don't want to go into the details but I was sharing with you on the trials the tribulations to getting food to the neighbor Islands in a timely matter for the nutritions um that our families and kids need and I you know thank you for coming together and trying to get grant writing and because that's fun you know try to get the food to the neighbor islands is very challenging um I work closely with our food bank here and I know that when I seen that that's why I asked you the question during the pandemic because they reached out to us knowing it was a difficult time and be able to ship on time and the amount of poundage that you guys need in there and I just want to thank you for participating in that that's all I have chair thank you thank you for the questions members thank thank you so Alana in our previous discussion we talked about um one of your concerns which was program accessibility can you elaborate on that and uh how you think the board could be um better assist our families sure I think having a county representation on the board really supports understanding you know what type of program uh in what location would best fit a community so understanding the rural Landscapes of um each County and how to meet families where they're at so eating an expansion of programs um that might support again family child Interactive Learning programs um home visiting programs or a traditional preschool program ensuring that we are strategic in where we place those types of programs so that families can take full advantage of them and they have access to something thank you appreciate that so um you are aware that you know this is um Tak takes time your commitment and you're willing to um serve and commit that time to this board yes thank you are questions members if not thank you Elena thank you um I do believe that um a previous testifier is now on Zoom Joanie onishi or and this is where GM 715 want to go back there she is I'm sorry our previous uh Nomine is she yeah there she is oh hi Joanie un yeah and I don't know if we have anyone here that uh wanted to give further testimony on this nominee GM 715 members were there any questions that you may have wanted to ask no I thought I had questions uh so Joanie what goals do you want to see the executive office on early learning achieve uh you know as I mentioned in my letter of interest and I quoted former Hawaii County mayor the late Billy kenoi because he often said that education is the greatest equalizer and although he was addressing higher education because I'm um from the Hawaii Community College it is just as relevant from prek to lifelong learning and because it evens the um the playing field and so one thing that I would um like to see es especially I mean I'm speaking you know from the neighbor Island and from experiences with working with our rural communities is accessibility for all um of our youngsters uh you know because there are places like in Ocean View where you know the um children have to maybe work walk like s to just get to a bus stop and then um you know to get uh resources to them is um very problematic and for and transportation is also problematic but then you know if um accessibility for everyone I would say would be one of um my goals for the um for um the office thank you I appreciate that because that was going to be one of my questions as you are being appointed to uh represent the Hawaii medium but you do um also recognize that you um have to objectively meet all the statutory requirements even if it negatively impacts or does not prioritize the Hawaiian medium earning uh providers m questions if not thank you very much Miss onishi thank you for the opportunity and sorry we had technical difficulties no problem thank you for being able to join us thank you okay where was I 718 okay we finished with bana let's go to GM submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Early Learning board nominee Lindsay heathcock for a term to expire 6:30 2027 and to testify thank you Sherry I I support thank you I've lost my place so forgive me 718 okay this is for Lindsay hiop Early Learning board and this is the City and County of Honolulu seat [Music] okay so is Lindsay there is that Lindsay can you hear us oh yes I can hear you can you hear me yes thank you yes hello thank you for having me um so um Lindsay do you believe that you will have the time to commit to serving as a board member yes I do excuse me I'm colleagues with Dr Mari urara who is also a physician and uh has talked to me about the time commitments and how she has fited into her um professional schedule so I do believe I'll be able to thank you so in meeting your statutory obligations as a board member you stated as a member of the national and local chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics are excited to promote collaboration between EO and AAP and what is AAP uh the American Academy of Pediatrics thank you members questions of our nominee um chair Senator Richards yeah thank you uh I don't know if you are listening in previous um candidates but we talked about nutrition in early childhood um as a pediatrician I assume you're on board with with what we need to do in our state especially our rural districts uh can you comment on that what your thoughts are as far as how we can enhance nutrition into these areas yes absolutely I think just having the opportunity for kids to have one or two um free or reduced price meals is a huge opportunity um that is very exciting that that will be a component of more kids going to Early Education um I think that there are exciting ways that we can enhance the nutrition uh that kids get while they're at school and especially things like incorporating um Local Foods uh to promote our local economy as well um that would be something that I would be excited to see okay thank you um thank you chair thank you Senator Kim thank you Aloha thank you very much for your willingness to serve and I guess this question probably or this concern that I have probably they should go for um all of the nominees um but since you are a pediatrician um what what is your sense about the balance of Early Education as well as balancing with the need to have to be with family to have family values to be nurtured in the household um in you know I think the rural areas have it better in the sense that they have families probably have more time to spend with the child uh whereas in urban areas where the families are pulled apart by you know the traffic the commute as long as it takes to um or it takes to what it takes to be able to earn money to be able to take care of all the family needs uh tend to want to just send the child off to whether it's preschool whether it's daycare whether it's Early Education um and somehow as the child progressed into Elementary School and on uh we're seeing more and more issues of mental health and uh issues regarding um stress place on the child to succeed stress on a child to be able to read before they're four you know the kind of peer pressure that comes from sometimes being in these early early classes Early Education classes so is that something that um as a pediatrician that you can opine on and is it something that you can bring to the board so that there is a balance and it's not just all you know Early Education Early Education School kind but family and and Community as well yeah I think that's a really great question and consideration I have a few different thoughts um one is that there's a lot of different ways that Early Education can look um and a lot of different needs that families have and so I think having a diversity of offerings including uh full day schedules or part day schedules or multiple days or or all days things like that can fit with family's needs and values um another thought I have is there are multiple ways for An Early Education setting to look and um and I I have seen studies that certain types of um Early Education can not be as helpful like if you're like you said trying to push straight academic learning too early um that might not always be a great idea but I think that a lot of schools um do such a great job of working on um things that kids do need to learn at their early age like social emotional learning and um play there's so much that can be learned from play um and I see in my patients every day that um so many families who are in Early Education are so thankful for the ways that these settings have helped their kids I had one the other day who um their child had had a speech delay um and had started doe at 3 years old and she was just gushing about how wonderful the experience was and how fast he was growing with his speech and it was really beautiful for me to see that um because I do think that um especially kids who are be behind can can really benefit and um and I think a lot of families are working during the day and don't have the time to really invest in the same way that a classroom setting can and um and are really grateful to have the opportunity if they're looking for it um and then the last thing I'll say is that I think schools often do a really great job of working with families to have family participation when possible and um help families have things that they can work on at home or um give fam's ideas for how to connect with their kids at home and so I think if we if we uh approach it from a family standpoint and have parents and families involved that's another great way to to promote family and um and and make sure that we're not losing that even though kids are spending time away from their homes I appreciate that response and I hope that is something that we integrated into Early Learning with the family the need and the importance and maybe even mandating that families be involved uh at at that age so that the families as well will will be able to work that into their skill schule and make that a priority as well yeah absolutely thank you thank you I appreciate that answer also I think that was a great answer and very important for youngsters as they get started in the school setting um members further questions thank you for being with us thank you so much Senator I just a question um we always talking about the food and um in Ral areas my my thing as a pediatrician your H his opinion I I only know one thing and how the food would change the way it is of the food food is in the rubbish can is when we was mandated to do the Michelle Obama complete meal for our kids coming from from what you see as a pediatrician um some of these kids are not able and don't even eat these Foods at home so in your opinion do you think that they should have a warm meal in their stomach or complete federally mandated meal the feds oversee our state kids that don't eat vegetables and fruits at home because they cannot afford it um so as an honest opinion be having a complete meal that is wared to their stomach and and good enough for the them throughout the day till they go home or having a balanced meal that the balance of the meal is in a rubbish can oh that is such a tricky thing and honestly I nutrition is such a tricky thing I it's such a we have such a systemic problem um with our nutrition that is so hard to solve um on an individual ual level and that that breaks my heart too to think of all the food uh being thrown away and kids going home hungry so I do I do think it I do think there needs to be a balance and I I think it goes back to also educating families but not just educating because I know fruits and vegetables are so expensive and so I I never blame folks who don't who can't afford them so I mean ideally in an IDE world I would love to be working with families to get these into their homes as well so that the first time a kid sees a certain vegetable is not at school I I think that would be ideal and a great thing um I think meeting kids where they're at and having some kind of a mix is also a good idea um and so it's I I think we need creative Solutions um but I think meeting people where they are is a good thing and and also uh helping them put good things into their bodies but not just the kids the parents too um and starting at an early age is is the way to go I I try to talk to to parents of six Monon olds about about nutrition because if they start the earlier they start the better um but I do think we need Creative Solutions that um are based in our our local community the only reason I want to bring that up is because we're we're um we we're Hostage to the federal program that gives us a lot of federal dollars for the meals but yeah you know our federal dollars should be spent better in the sense of not having um most of that as food waste so that's why I wanted to ask you what was boring important um a balance total balance meal the kids don't eat at home or when noodles or mod and P cash uh in a school because that's what they're doing in my community they go to the monopo truck they go to lnl they go to Lo Moko the higher up kids don't eat school lunches because of they don't eat that so I just wanted that um honest opinion thank you chair thank you further questions thank you Dr Heath I think your experience and your expertise and your knowledge would be a great value to this board Mahalo for being willing to serve appreciate it Mahal to you all thank you so much thank you okay [Music] members [Music] recess [Music] reconvening committee on [Music] education members on the agenda we have uh gm79 for Erica maen but uh the governor has withdrawn 71 GM 719 from consideration so we will move on to GM 720 for consideration and Confirmation to the Early Learning board goral nominee Ka Burgess for a term to expire 6:30 2027 Howe come for please aloh Alani chair Kim members of the committee I'm Co Burgess I um met you all before in my previous life I uh recently retired from KEH schools in October of 203 not quite I am uh I do provide early learning for my my granddaughter uh Kola she is 20 she's 2 years old and uh um my home looks like a little preschool with charts of numbers and alphabets and maps of the world and the United States and Havi on my walls and colors and shapes it's pretty fun but it is um probably one of the reasons why I did not become an early learning teacher I was a teacher in my past uh I did teach Health in uh at na you have seen my resume but uh just a little bit about myself and you may have already seen my testimony so I'm just going to give some highlights from that uh this or saying means to nurture the child to care for the child and the people will Thrive it is something that I strongly believe in and I truly believe that if Hawaii is able to get unified on this concept of caring for our children we will Thrive as a people I believe our economy will I believe we as adults uh grandparents the prison system the food system the housing system we will keep our leaders here um I just really feel that if we cherish and care for our children that the people here in Hawaii will Thrive that saying comes from kamehame schools as noted in my uh my testimony um it identifies the priority for Kam and uh I helped to create it but I strongly believe in it but about myself a little bit about my background um so again I am a grandmother of one I am a mother of three adults and my oldest is 31 but when he was four no sorry when he was three we were living in Hilo I'm a graduate of uh Hilo lived in Hilo for about eight eight years after I graduated from high school my family is from Hawaii uh Island from from uh community of w and uh that is where my mother my family home is our family lands that's where I'm from but uh when my son was four we were struggling I mean I worked at nailo as a teacher my husband was working at uh University of Hilo and we were one of the Alice families uh back then it wasn't talked about but today we were asset limited income constrained and employed with two children there was no way we could afford Early Learning but thank God my husband also believed in education because we both were willing to do what it took to put our two children through Early Learning in Hilo um well my my second child ended up going to Early Learning here on Oahu we ended up moving to Oahu in 98 and so she went to Early Learning here and then we had our third child but I know what it's like to eat rice and eggs for dinner I know what it's like to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because you're trying to get your children to school and it's not it it can't just be me I mean it's everyone you know and talk about our food eating eggs and rice and peanut butter jelly sandwich but uh I just I I strongly believe in um our our ability as Hawaii to achieve the goals that are in the plan that of uh that Yoo had set the state plan as well as the the uh road map for ACT 46 I strongly believe we can get it and I believe that I can ca with that and that is why I'm asking for your support in my nomination to the Early Learning board um any questions for me yes thank you co so act 46 of 2020 is to expand the capacity resources flexibility of child care facilities and I um in question one of the questionnaire you submitted you stated that you would like to see that act 46 carried out to completion by the year 2032 so how will you work as a board member in attaining this goal so when that act was even written uh I was working for Kamehameha and uh helped with the language in that act I strongly believe it and I will do whatever it takes I am known as a person to get things done um I believe that I bring to the table I bring to the board um relationships that can help with that experience in um the building of a collective or a collab C oration I have in the past put groups together uh to advance goals for the the public um or for native Hawaiians and one was during the pandemic one was during uh well my whole time at kamama created a collaborative of native haai organizations so that we could work together to bring money to Hawaii mostly Congressional know of uh Federal funding but also here in the state so I have the E the experience of collaborations and bringing people together I have the relationships to do that as well and I believe that I can COA with that um yeah yes thank you co members questions Senator failla yeah just as um you know uh going forward as you know as people moving forward and you knowing the challenges of what you just said shared as the a spring of our people going in our identity and you know I'm just I'm going um here work but if I don't have opportunity to ask the question I'm not going to know but through our Hawaiian language going forward in classes in in being a core uh class in high school I use high school because it's it's different but if I had a way to work this through to every grade from prek to 12 but was more so of my community asking especially the kids in my district which regardless know a lot of them that belong to the Hawaiian club with the anything to do with Hawaiian he not a Hawaiian it's mostly Filipino but they strive to want to learn the culture that they never got to see or need to hear or not even having historic books so how would you feel that um what is your thoughts of having Hawaiian language as a core class in uh High School in high school okay okay real fast um first of all I believe that ha language hawne culture is important for every person in Hawaii not just Hawaiian yes Filipinos everybody why because it is the land that they are living in it is the water they're drinking from it is the air they are breeding it is the land they are living on it is the land they are caring for and so knowing and having that relationship knowing our culture gives them a a an in to having a relationship with the AA having a relationship with the water that they're taking that they're consuming and the air that they are breathing this is their land amen and therefore they should know what our values are it is good for everyone and you know what okay I got to get all titto over here sorry sorry CH sorry chair but you know if everybody knew the culture that is a Competitive Edge for people from Hawaii this is for all of us it is a Competitive Edge for every child that comes out of Hawaii they go to a law school in New York they got their culture from Hai that they can lean on that nobody in New York nobody in La nobody in Georgia can lean on they got their values they know what the AA is to them they know what the water is to them oh my heart is beating I'm calm down but yes my simple answer is yes it is very important and I can be very passionate about that um but I feel every child will benefit from the from knowing the culture of Hawai knowing knowing the Hawaiian culture specifically and knowing the and the language is the culture is in the language you cannot have the culture without the language and therefore when our Lang anyway I got stop there so so the reason why the reason why I say this CH is as the resilience of of our people and I and I always go back because not because I am a republican but because I really love the ideals of Prince coohill and as I learned here being in this building with my colleagues going forward how much Prince kohil loved everybody y exactly what you just said y 110% it wasn't just for our people was for all his people Y in in in under him so that's why I bring it up because it it's it's so I don't say funny but it's so um unique for a non Hawaiian asking me why wiam more mday why we no more certain things like other schools have when it comes to cultural we have cultural day but cultural day we have more Spanish and and other nationalities than just a fish and poy so that's the reason why you know I keep bringing it up sound like I'm BR work sorry chair but it's it's it's something that I just totally believe when I got into this Square building since 1978 I think in the Hawaii rev statute said that English and Hawaiian should be taught in our schools in our curriculum and that's the reason it it should as the okay official language and while those cultures are important I I truly believe they're important to learn even for native Hawaiian amen it is very important but for any child living in Hawaii the culture of Hawaii the native Hawaiian culture culture is important because they they will have a Competitive Edge that no one else from any other state can fall back on thank you anyway thank you chair you appreciate you for questions quick ones chair um okay your passion is self-evident so it's a TI so it's a TI side yeah um do appreciate what you're you're talking about something that um Senator Kim touched on as far as the family structure take care of the children will end up taking care of the community I agree with that what I think we work so hard now that we don't have enough time to have that family structure and I think long-term loss we do it all shortterm so it can make ends meet but how do we how do we work on getting that family structured so there's more family time you talked about grandkids and that family structure but I think we'll be a healthier Society if we have more of that family structure the way I see that happening is you start generation the this generation you do it Generation by generation you need to start with the children now I agree because when we raise these children correctly we we raise them with the values we raise them with love we raise them with the right Foods they will become those parents that automatically will be jumping into the early learning school and automatically jumping into Koka and helping the preschool you don't need to mandate you raise the children right now nurture the children now and our economy our families our people everyone will be good for it but we got to start someday some where okay I got to jump in on this go ahead no no because I agree I agree with what you said but you know what we've raised this generation that we have trouble with okay we have raised them the problems that we have with this generation is that we the baby boomer Boomers thought we were raising the kids right and look what we have so yeah I agree that you know you teach them your culture you teach them this you teach them that and everything's going to be you know this this Rosy picture but apparently it's not you know so we have made many mistakes and we continue to make those mistakes and I just want to make sure that we don't just say oh just have early education education is the key education is not only the key by itself you need a whole lot of other stuff culture is not only the key not the only key no yes so it's not I mean I my family raised five kids and of the five kids two of them have issues so you know it's not necessarily even within the family but you make up for a those too but I'm just saying so you know I just don't want you folks go into this this this um commission or this this um um board and that with the idea that yeah we just got to we just got to make sure that everybody gets an education because as we said there's a balance to this education and how we do it and no matter what you teach the children at some point they're influenced by other things and they grow up and if they're not going to if they think that they can just grow up and throw their child into an Early Education and that's going to be it and if that what we're teaching that we're not going to better the society so question who are you saying we who are you saying we all of us this whole community so right I raised my children yeah and I feel like I did a darn good job you did too by the way um my my thinking is where does everyone else come in we as a state unified where does our well that's for your board the board exactly so that's why I'm saying why you need say as a board look at the state of Hawaii that's that's what I'm talking about the board the state of Hawaii and the EOB board we can demonstrate that we value I read it on the eoeo site about um uh valuing or um oh gosh what is the word valuing a longstanding oh or demonstrating long-standing values for our Ki of caring for our Ki that how are we demonstrating that how are how are we demonstrating that you know how we did we got the $200 million in 2022 to to fund the development of some classrooms that are so necessary but that kind of demonstration of prioritization is caring for our children how do we as a state care so so my kolana on the Early Learning board would be to bring up these kinds of questions to to respectfully say yeah but I think yeah but what about this well that's what we yeah but what about that and that cuz get this that that and that and get the food system too right so that's how I feel and and obviously my passion is evident and I'm not um not that I'm not afraid but I am bold to not be afraid to to share my thoughts and and respectfully say what are we really doing though how are we really demonstrating our longstanding values for our children how are we doing that right and have we been doing it since I was a child have we truly if you think about it tonight in bed have we truly as a state trly said our children are number one our children are going to be at the center of our decision making when we do housing why because it's for the children when we take care of our water why because of the children their health yeah I hate to tell you this but you're not the first to bring all of this stuff you're not the first to have the this an opportunity it again for the decades I've been serving I've heard boards come and go I've heard people come and go and we and we are where we are today we still are where we are today and what and my question is what does it take then to change it well that's what you and people like you so that's why we you right people like people like me I'm very very vocal I mean not that vocal but not a bad thing but I'm not afraid to speak right and you know what just just to say I look hey I look forward to working with some of these I mean all of these I saw the uh the hearings for the other two uh Gandhi and oh gosh I forget the the second Stephanie yes I mean all of these women are people like hammers it would be great I am I'm known to do things to to get things done and these are the kind this is the kind of team I'm looking forward to working with I'm looking I want to work with people who want to get things done and and that's what I see in their eyes during their testimony that's what I hear from today um that's who I want to work with I want to do that with him appreciate that anyway take time thank you look forward to working with you to Mah thank you thank you and for our last item on the agenda Governor's message 721 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Early Learning board nominee Cheryl camat for term to expire cherl oh you cross you have testimony thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify the floor is yours Aloha chair kidani Aloha Vice chair Kim and the members of the senate committee and education I'm so excited to be here I feel like it's been a long time coming I have been the director of Ki care center of hav a small humble preschool PE City for the last 16 years going on 17 years and I can literally remember the first day when we opened um that was a stir in itself uh another preschool in our community St Timothy's children center if some of you have been familiar they had marked its 30th year in 2008 but was abruptly closed down unfortunately due to dire repairs so literally overnight a lot of the teachers again who have been working there for some of them 30 years got the pink slip my husband and I just truly felt it was wrong I'm probably one of the most unique members here um actually I wrote something but I'm not even going to read it um um I actually do not have a education degree in education I actually have an MBA in marketing and Communications and uh for a long time my husband and I have run our structural engineering firm and just giving back to the community has been just throughout our lives you've been part of the JC's the rotary what have you I've been president um so leadership is definitely hopefully not in question for me uh but again for the past 16 going on 17 years living and breathing running a preschool has been our lives we have four children um I have a son who's a sophomore in Japan at kyota University I have a son who is graduating this year from St Louis um thankfully we just found out going to USC this coming fall and I have two daughters at Sacred Hearts um a sophtware in seventh grader some of you may be wondering if you saw my resume to how would I possibly have the time it's because I am very blessed to have great teams and all of our companies and I will absolutely do everything in my power to make time for this like I said I have been living and breathing running a preschool I don't see myself as a director I see myself as a team player absolutely I go into the classrooms whenever my teachers need help and what I have to tell you today which I really wanted to share is that the children today long story shorts are the most challenging ever I don't know whether it's because of Co but to be be honest I don't think it's that I think it's because of this I think too many parents are on this and it's not just in Hawaii it's not just the US it's Global my husband just went to the Philippines for business I mean it's everywhere you go the parents are using this giving their children oh my gosh like there's not when they can't even talk I can tell you um I have a lot of friends and I make a point to make friends um kindergarten teachers I'm like how is it oh my gosh they will talk to me for hours how it is talk to every grade level children are just different today but bottom line why I'm here today is because we can make a difference it starts with Early Learning so again I thought about this for literally 16 years how can we make a difference I'm so glad to have a pediatrician on the board but you know what I thought about it let's start with the Obstetricians let's start with the people who get pregnant because we have to educate the parents before the baby comes out that's when they're most attentive right they don't have the baby there they'll come to the workshops what have you they have to do their monthly visits anyway put the pamphlets there they're sitting in the waiting room anyway you know there's so many opportunities before the children come when they're so busy right gosh we can do so much social media today I'm not even techsavvy okay I'm not techsavvy but there's others who are for parents to day there's so many Avenues and with the board that I see today I know that we can make a difference but it starts with Early Learning when I first U I know can talk forever but let me end with two more things um even when we opened the preschool there was statistical data in Europe in Asia that if you invest in early childhood education at the Young ages there is less homelessness there is less welfare you guys I'm sure on this committee know that but the other countries are already doing it so we in the US are so far behind Hawaii has an opportunity to be an example and like like how said uh we totally believe in the children and Aloha let's be an example for the whole us because Preschool teachers are the lowest paid and I don't know if you folks know but we also have the highest overhead of a lot of other businesses we have the highest health insurance did you know that I can tell you that preschools have the highest health insurance so we are stuck having to charge High tuition so you mentioned about why parents don't have time to spend with their children is because they're working two or three jobs some of the professionals are having to quit their jobs so their spouse can work the two or three jobs and never see their children so I really believe again it's about the money if we can somehow and I don't know if it's even in our power but if we can help give subsidies not just for the low income I can tell you those who get subsidies today no offense are the low income they hardly come to school they hardly come to school and it breaks my heart sorry I can get emotional breaks my heart to see families the middle-income families who maybe make $20 too much and can't get subsidy and they're the ones struggling it makes no sense we have to change we have to change the mentality of all the lawmakers that first of all that preschools are not daycares that's the first thing we have to change and we have to educate parents as early as possible so yeah even before they're born they start educating the parents and maybe there's even a hope there's even a hope that we can make a difference okay sorry for that I'm open for questions thank you members questions just a comment if I yes I just want to thank you um I you know think it's so important and necessary that we have a well-rounded uh view as to what is needed and again it's not just putting the child in early Ed but like you said you got to take them from the the parents you have to teach them before they even have the child of what is needed and what's important and then we have to all work work together to do it so it is valuing our teachers valuing the caretakers um valuing them as well but again also recognizing that um we have to balance all of it right I mean it's easy to say let's raise everybody's salaries but then when you look at all of the demands upon that one tax dollar that comes in that one dollar how do you divide it up and and do that and so those are the pressures that have to be Vic and so it's so important that as we move forward with our Early Education that sometimes we do focus on those most needing but like you said those are the ones sometimes that are that are not responsible enough to to have the Childs in the classes and it's the middle inome families that need the help the most help and I know cuz I came from the lower middle income family whose mother did not want to take $1 of government funding not one snap dollar not one food stamp dollar and struggled to to make ends me wow I her yeah um five kids you know so um those are the kinds of things I think that's important as we move forward because there's so many people scamming the system oh yes yeah scam the system and then it makes it hard for those who really truly need it yes yes and there are yes let me just make a point there are some families on subsidy that truly value it yeah one thing I must say and thank you for mentioning um I forgot to mention I am a numbers person I love numbers and I think when it comes to serving on this board I think that's one area that I would love to be in because it's where is the money coming from is there money that we can find I love that challenge I know it sounds funny but I do I do thank you yeah thank you questions members yeah chair yes Richard um I think the diversity of this board is going to be interesting to watch I love it and I'm going to actually tune in and watch some of your meetings cuz I kind of fun pleas please yes the personalities well yeah just that the energy um and you know I appreciate the fact that you're a numbers person and a marketing person because I think part we have to Market our education yes yes and so looking at it with a different lens is important um one of the things that we've sort of circled around is we have a challenge between educating giving opportunity and sometimes pushing to hard and we're under this illusion that accelerated programs are really good and I would argue that they're not as good as we think they are um Early Education sometimes kids need to just play too that's part of the education process comments on that yes oh absolutely yes that is my motto learn through play so you're talking to the right person when I talk to parents when I do preschool tours I literally say you know that I'm probably one of the old school preschools today because I do not have any Electronics in our program no iPads kids today don't even know how to turn pages of a book They are tearing them I'm literally buying books all the time which which is so expensive um children don't how to do puzzles today why because on the you know what they're using um so yes no I believe in learn through play and I absolutely tell parents this you could have the smartest child in the world but if they can't make friends it's all for not social emotional development that is the philosophy um coming from St Timothy's children center again coming through our program that is what we preach all the time and actually I don't know if there's even a way we can mandate it that is actually one of the core issues I'd like to fix with DHS is that there is no curriculum there is nothing you can call yourself whatever no offense Academy and call yourself and do this and do that but there is no continuity no consistency in any of the schools today no consistency so I run my school one way and I you know tell parents hey go visit another preschool because it's literally right your home away from home but I tell them straight you know this is what we do I really don't know what they're doing because there is no curriculum standard in preschools so that's number one yeah okay thank you thank you for asking this is going to be a fun board to watch questions members so Cheryl and um your comments you said that um your goals is to provide actual achievable recommendations so there is consistency between our Early Education facilities so how will you work with your board members to achieve that yes that is definitely a big goal in My Hope um first of all getting to know our board like with any organization you have to see what resources what strengths we have and then we have to utilize those members in those particular areas getting to know and hearing some of the members today I'm very confident for the first time I think that we can make a difference um like for me myself I run in I run a preschool day in and day out Monday through Friday 7 to 5 I know exactly what it takes and the and the gosh the hardships that the teachers go through that is again super important something that we should never forget because I think it's the most difficult jobs that you know are out there but the most fulfilling one thing I wanted to add today um I apologize to kind of digress but um again just something I really wanted to mention that if we don't find the continuity especially with the preschools coming you know through the doe did you folks know Senate education committee that the doe did not even communicate with DHS when opening these preschools so in in a way it's like why are we Reinventing the wheel again another like like like how we brought up today all the different departments this is yet another sector that's going to be running a silo why are we not working together I don't know it makes no sense and what what you know um sen Senator Richard has brought up you know if we don't have continuity like with our programs like I literally fear that if you don't have the right educator or just experienced person in a in a in the classroom you could be damaging a little child's life when it's only the beginning it takes someone who's nurturing and experience and and not just education I have hired um those with bachelor's degrees but if they don't have the experience or the love for children no no thank you no thank you you have to first and foremost be there for the children and I Feel Again hearing from everyone in the board I sense that with all of them I sense that with all of you um so again just coming up with tangible goals I know two three four years will go by very quickly I don't have the answer to that but knowing that we'll work together we'll definitely do our very best well we hope we get some kind of piece of recommended legislation for next session where we have continuity in the bring up a really good point and if you guys don't come up with it then you're going to have some of us dream it up and we're not the experts and so and even very basic yes I hope that's the first thing that you guys yes tackle is is to come up with some and communication within the Department of Education Department of Health and DHS yeah simple thank you I think that the seven of you um this is going to be a firecracker I just can't wait for you guys to get together um and doe and DHS is going to have a lot of um good things coming from your board so with that let's take a short recess thank okay thank you we are reconvening our committee on education um and we the committee has agreed that we want to confirm all of our GM and our nominees for the Early Learning board joonie onishi elen Yamashita Alana Balman Lindsey hipop Erica ma shank K Co Burgess and Cheryl c c so members for the vote I'm sorry taking off the yeah not er sorry yeah so this is recommendation is to advice and consent on GM 715 716 717 721 chair votes I any member voting in the M any member voting with reservations hearing none all five members present recommendations adopted all congratulations all of you be awesome awesome meeting aour

one let me get down there okay 8.1 discussion on PO possible action to adjust rates on peer model preschool program tuition and this was presented last month uh discussion that says uh we're right now lower than our surrounding districts and so the recommendation would be to to raise the rates to uh 150 day or $150 uh starting next month for 4- day week and so unless there's any questions I would recommend and uh approval is presented no next school year I'm sorry all right so if there are no questions I'll take a motion I'll motion to approve the education young children peer model preschool program tuition for 2425 as presented I'll second okay we have a first and a second all in favor i i i v passes 5 all right that takes us to 8.2 um discussion and consideration of approval of 2425 uh student growth stien yes it's as part of the budget negotiations or budget conversations with both CCC our our Colmes collaborative committee which is made up of employees as well as our leadership team uh we're going to be bringing to you recommendations over the next we we brought some stuff last month or last meeting with uh health insurance and this this meeting we'll bring a bunch more next meeting what a student growth stien is is it's it's a uh being done it's been done for the last I believe three years two years for sure but I believe three years in the district and what it is is is we're funded on current year funding so if our numbers were to go up in the district we would get additional dollars next spring so what the student growth dipen says is we set a Target out there districtwide of a growth of 200 kids if we receive that by the 100th day in comparison to last year's 100th day we would go ahead and provide all employees um with a 2% stien it's a one-time stien for the year it doesn't carry over into future years so there's no harm in terms of the next year uh uh with the budget uh obviously uh we would look at individuals depending on when they are hired and they would be pro-rated if we do not hit the target then we don't give the stien I believe it was three years ago or coming out of covid we hit the target so everybody got it the last couple years we haven't hit it so it it's really doesn't hurt us uh both for long-ter planning as well as uh but it's a but it's a way to get everybody on the same page to say we need to work with student retention uh and student recruitment so it's a it's incentive based for uh staff um and again you would have to approve I know some of you aren't running uh next year so you wouldn't be there but the board would have to approve the list of names in March before we distribute any money so this would come back to the board uh before we distribute money if we if we did it um but because of uh what we're trying to do in terms of Recruitment and Retention of students uh because of the positive it is for our our staff I would recommend uh approval of this uh gross diap as part of the budget recommendations and more than happy to take any questions right I think it's a great idea anybody have any questions or comments I think it's a great idea all right so I'll take a motion I motion to approve the onetime student growth stien for all staff for the 24th 25 as presented all right I'll second okay we have a first and a second all in favor I I all right vote passes 0 that takes us to our next section to 8.3 discussion and consideration of um principal for Ranch Elementary and we have an option of going to Executive session if anybody would like to do that I don't feel any I'm going I'm just chasing okay I'm kidding all right all right before we go on I'm I'm G to read this I just okay I just want to make sure that read I read this I think you read it the go the governing board was in ongoing communication with the District administration regarding the hiring of the new principal at Ranch Elementary the Recruitment and hiring process that was utilized relative to The Ranch Elementary principal position is consistent with the Recruitment and Hing process that the district has had has utilized for over a decade that process includes screening all applicants that are received are reviewed and candidates are selected to proceed to the to the next step committee review there is an initial interview of selected candidates by a committee which determines three or four finalists for a second interview superintendent interview finalists are interviewed by the superintendent and assistant superintendent Community Forum finalists participate in a community for in which questions are asked of candidates and then candidates meet with the public the public is provided an opportunity to provide feedback on the candidates the emails phone calls and other feedback we have received regarding the process and the candidates selected or not selected as finalists are appreciated board members have had the opportunity to read and hear Community feedback and we appreciate the time and effort that the district took in considering and presenting this finalist so with there aren't any other questions I'll agreed good job so with that background that makes my job easier uh again the process was was uh followed um and we came down uh to two finalists uh the overwhelming uh individual that was recommended by staff as well as Community coming out of the community Forum was Mr Peter Quinn currently uh assistant principal over in the C Grand Elementary School District and so it's with a great deal of Pride uh that we would recommend to you for the new uh principal at uh Ranch Elementary he has big shoes to f pH um but we know that he can do it uh would be Mr Peter Quinn so I would recommend approval as presented and after you make a vote then he can speak say a few words if you like it I'll make a motion to approve Peter Quinn as the principal of Ranch Elementary for the 2425 school year I'll second all right we have a first and a second all in favor I I all right I vote passes five zero all right congratul [Applause] good evening everyone I want to thank everyone I want to thank the staff and faculty of Ranch Elementary for your support and the opportunity to join your team I would also like to thank the Ranch Elementary students families and Community for speaking with and welcoming me dur during our public forum last week I am honored and excited to join Ranch Elementary and the J School District I look forward to supporting our mission as we continue to implement the systems Miss Cruz and her team have established at this A+ School of Excellence thank you thank you all right congratulations yes congratulations all right that takes us to 9.1 discussion and information on student achievement good evening Mr President members of the board Dr Wyman Miss wigner and um audience members um we have a couple of updates to share with you the first is around professional learning so wanted to share with you from our March professional learning um starting with some qualitative data from the surveys that we give to our staff the first one was around our campus learn about it which focused on the use of an AI tool to help them unpack a standard um in their content area and we chose to do that to offer a Clarity partner for them because we know unpacking standards is a lot of work and sometimes it's difficult to go through that process so they're rating out of a scale of one to four for being the highest was 3.7 on their comfort using that information that they learned in that session our next phase of learn about it were some Choice sessions where they had the same options some of the same options we offered in January and we had two additional new sessions around planning for small group instruction and using our illuminate and fast bridge data and their feedback on whether or not that was um helpful for implementing their learning objectives was again a 3.7 our Workshop time our practice it time is where they actually get some work time to implement the things that they learned in the learn about it and overall they felt like 92% of them felt like they could create something they could use with students and those that did say a no that 8% were more around hoping for more time to plan with role specific groups so we're looking at making some adjustments for that for next year and the last piece was the overall day how they felt like the learning was from that day and it was also a 3.7 so we had some successful feedback uh the qualitative feedback was more of that survey piece where they get to type in and their uh more narrative answers and so new ideas that they gained was again around Ai and feeling like they were able to use that to kind of jump start their planning as a PLC uh the workshop sessions they really appreciate the collaboration over and over we see more of this more more of this time so really making sure that they have time to implement what they learned seems to be successful so far the overall feedback was that they had those takeaways from Ai and they were celebrating again that work time to actually come out with creating some some plans um areas of growth that they offered to us is more time to plan we never have enough time for that and again those role specific opportunities for them to have more of that collaboration and if we move into the 2425 planning we are going to bring in solution tree a representative from that team to support us with Essentials for plc's we know we have those foundational pieces but we really want to shore up the PLC and the focus on data and instruction so we have these different groups we'll have representatives from those groups coming to that meeting it's all day on the 28th and then when we move into the July PL days um we still have some essers money so we're going to have the three days one day will be that work day like we did last year where it's an untouched and then the 12th and the 15th will be professional learning uh we'll have one day probably at the high school where we do that Collaborative Learning and then move into some campus time so they can really dig into those plc's and then continuing that work for the the remaining three professional learning days next year so what questions might you have around professional learning I want to use a analogy kind of a sports analogy you can only watch film for so long right so I love that you're taking taking the time and you're stopping and thinking I we give them time to implement and to collaborate because we can only train the kids so much or the students or our teachers so much before they need time to implement so keep that in the back of your mind your teachers are going to appreciate to say you put the effort to give me stuff let me try and implement it because by the time hit the classroom they're going to lose probably most of what you gave them so give them that time to plan after you've given them such you put your heart on the table as a district let them reciprocate it and let them let them jump in and be able to plan and put into practice keep that in the back of your mind I think it'll always be appreciated y thank you good job thank you okay and we'll move into the state and federal programs with Miss hyam good evening um tonight we're going to do a few updates on some of our programs that we are um currently looking at using and some we are applying for in the next um school year so one of the new grants that we have applied for is the called the 21st Century Learning Grant so this is been applied for at three of our schools um and what this grant does um is provide up to $120,000 worth of funding um per year for three years and then at at 75% funded the following two years so at $90,000 for the second two years um and there's the key components that the grant really addresses so academics in the way of tutoring or after school before school time um involving Community Partners and what they call Youth Development so it's looking at clubs activities and things for the students as well as their families and how we can bring families in and what can we do to engage them in the school community so um it also provides for each of those sites to have some summer programming um at their site with their own students and their own teachers hopefully um during that summertime so um it is um a very competitive Grant we have applied like I said for three schools those would be Simington Harmon and Ellsworth they um all have little bit unique uh Twist on their their clubs and some different things but overall they're all looking to really engage their Community um and work with students um in those intervention times as well as in those Youth Development times so we will hear back um in the beginning hopefully of June end of June um and that would start July 1 if we are awarded that Grant um so we are we are anxiously awaiting and very hopeful um for that so I have a question what what um what why how did you pick those schools so there's certain criteria that you have to meet and the first one is that you have to meet the 40% free and reduced lunch threshold so right there that take some of our schools um that are not eligible and so then we really spent time talking with leaders on those campuses as to what um their needs were and would you be interested in supporting the grant it is a heavy lift at the site level they do have to hire a site coordin Ator and because it's federally funded there is a lot of paperwork and things that go with it but the benefit um that can happen for our kids is very great so um those were the sites that had things in the works that they wanted to continue to improve um and so we went with that along with the free and reduced lunch they also consider academic performance um and things like our location to a rural or um suburb community so all of those are weighted in the application um so again it was just a decision number one the free and reduced lunch count and then who would be willing to support the work for the next 5 years I know the high school had it before and that's how they did the tutoring and the and the busing so yeah and we are looking um it looks as though all of our schools will qualify for title one next year so that will open up some doors in terms of application ability for some other schools in the future absolutely um and then we have the art consumable Grant and when we applied for that in December you were asked um we asked us to give an update as to what was going so with that so um this a this grant has been a little challenging in that it was paused for a while by the state and so we actually hadn't received um the funding until just this April so we have everyone's orders ready to go um and now that we have received the funding we're going to submit those um but it's very exciting to see how the teachers are planning to use these materials one of the things they have to do is provide a little narrative on how those will be used in the classroom so um currently we have photography and Ceramics materials primarily at that High School level where they have some of those classes a lot of items for drama and play production um we have a lot of preschool um teachers because the grant is preschool through third grade really working on bringing some themes and things alive in their classroom incorporating science and social studies into their learning and then lots of paints and sketchbooks and and all kinds of things for kids to um really involve and show um what they know and they're learning so so those will be purchased soon and hopefully delivered soon um now that the funding has actually gone through so it did take a little bit of time unfortunately and for next year um some of the grant opportunities that we are looking at currently so there is an SE grant that provides funding for teachers of our elll students so we are applying for that um it is due May 1st we are also looking to reapply for the targeted support and Improvement Grant we currently have that Grant supporting five of our schools and we are eligible again to apply for that so we will be doing that this one specifically targets um populations such as our students with disabilities and our elll students in helping them to reach the academic achievement levels of their peers um and then we are currently working um through the homeless and a minig grant that we received purchasing those materials working on setting up some Community Resources through that and we are also exploring the office of Elementary and secondary education there's several um very competitive and specific grants that they have available there but we are looking to apply for a couple of those that we might be eligible for um as well as right now we are creating that budget for next year that is again due May 1st um and we are currently awaiting information on our migrant education program for next year but anticipate that award to be given to us pretty soon um in the next few days any questions on the federal program so far yes um when you say we are applying who actually in the district is doing the paperwork you are okay me um it's actually a group effort I will say that because um there's a lot of collaboration so like with the 21st century Grant I met with the principals they provided some input um I wouldn't have known all the things about their schools um that they wanted to use funding for without that um I often ask my team um or I look back in some of the other things um and we've talked a lot about what we would like to do moving into next year so as the principles are currently creating their needs assessments then those are also driving some of those grants that I'm looking for and trying to apply and information that I can put into them yep any other questions okay so um in the future we are going to bring to you next month an update on experience core um the tutoring program through ARP that has been implemented at Ellsworth um some information on the curriculum adoptions um some summer school updates and some assessment updates we're currently in the midst of State Testing and so that finishes at the end of the month so um we won't have official information till later but we will have some updates thank you thank you all right is that it okay that takes us to 9.2 discussion information regarding proposed K8 General music physical education and Technology curriculum adoption all right good evening Mr President members of the board Dr Wyman and Miss wner um so an update here for you on our curriculum adoption process for this year um we got to do a little lighter lift this year which was great um and utilize some of our remaining ERS funds to look at our our technology uh music and physical education classes in the K8 realm primarily our k6 with the PE goes into that eighth grade piece you remember back uh year ago we made an expansion of the elementary Special schedule and so this kind of complements that to bring some curriculum into play um this is one of the areas that we sometimes struggle um with Staffing on uh because it's challenging to come in and not have the right materials so we're trying to make sure that we have that in place not only is this great for our kids because they love these opportunities to take those breaks and day but it's also great for our teachers because this is often when they get their their planning time so all right so just a reminder that these are some of the elements that we look for in our curriculum adoptions and this is our adoption schedule we ideally would be on an eight-year adoption cycle we did succeed with that for math um these electives pieces we have a little bit more limited funding this year so we're probably looking more at a five-year piece um I'll share that at next month's board meeting uh these are the folks who served on the adoption committee so representatives from each of the campuses and these three areas um our process began back in November um been a part of a curriculum adoption process before there are some timelines we have to meet so it starts very early in the game um and getting together and creating that vision for what the teachers want um they develop a rubric then that helps to guide their process um we do it as a three-tier approach in our district of things that we must have things that are nice to have and the bonuses or the cherry on top and so we create our rubric accordingly and we have an example here for you to see so um here's the the music materials adoption you can see that things like being aligned to standards and having age appropriate student resources are some of those mus haves um we get into the nice to haves if it com compatible with Google and some of those types of pieces um some similar elements you'll see here in the PE rubric um things that they were looking for that they felt they really needed to have um and then finally the technology piece and some of their most critical elements we then move forward once we have that in place and we um through the finance office we work with Karen Finn to get out bids um to vendors we share with them our rubric on the front end it works best that way because then they know exactly what we're looking for sometimes they self- select out because they can't meet our needs folks send in those materials to tell us um that they would like to have their materials reviewed and we go go through that U review process which happened um over the course of those couple months primarily in February and then we invited um some folks in that we wanted to hear some more from so they they selected using that rubric these folks um so we had a couple come in for physical education spark and Quaver physical education we had Quaver Music and um I ready curriculum Associates um learning.com um was the other one that one's for the tech technology piece so we did those vendor presentations and they scored those out and made their recommendations of three finalists so that's Quaver for General music um spark for physical education and learning.com um for the the digital literacy technology piece so those materials are now on display as per our regular process um and they're open for Community um input we work with the with Kayla's office to get out information on that so that's being posted on the website so that we can go through the review process so these are our finalists they're up for public review right now we'll come back to you in the future pending pending anything in the public review that they tell us that they have concerns or don't like it these are all pretty straightforward innocuous fun things for in music and Technology um and physical education um but pending that we'll bring that back to you for approval down the road so any questions on the adoption yes um for the public review where is the material located so the public can go and see it so these are digital so we'll we'll put it out both as a digital access resource we also you'll if you notice when you walk in the front desk there's a computer setup with information on it uh there's multiple browser windows so they can check out each of these resources um these are all these three are all pretty readily available um via the internet as well because they're their digital Resources with each of these excuse me not with each of these but with the general music and the physical education um part of the recommendation will be towards the curriculum itself and part of that is some uh materials that will support that so we want to make sure that we don't just adopt a a PE curriculum and say Here's this great curriculum now you don't have any of the stuff to actually do it um so we've invested some funds for that as well um and the teachers are working on putting a list together that would complement that so we know we've got materials for kids um same thing in music The Literacy we have the majority of it already in our technology adoptions right we'll be back with that next month thank you all right that takes 9.3 District instructional time model for 2024 2025 Mr President members of the board Dr Wyman Mrs Wanger and Community today I am here to talk to you with our first public hearing about our instructional time model that we will be presenting again at the next board meeting and then also asking you to to vote on at that time as we're talking about budgets and looking at next year and how we can improve our current funding sources there are ways that we can do that and one of those ways is by implementing the instructional time model the instructional time model allows districts throughout the state to provide instructional opportunities outside of the confines of the school um typical school schedule some of these approaches are not new to us such as makeup work while others are are newer and more Innovative such as Project based learning and M based learning OCC pieces in addition to oh I did not move that did I okay with the purpose of the um instructional time model first we're really looking at this came about from originally from the pandemic our state legislature allows school districts at that time to um be able to apply for the instructional time model which provides opportunities for when students were out that they were still able to make up that work and then be able to be uh named as present during that school day um within our Arizona revised Statute the that language it talks about that flexibility and meeting that instructional time and then instructional hours through alternative models the one thing I do want to state is that this is not based on remote learning this is our brick and mortar on campus students we already have another we have our online program for our students that want that flexibility completely with online but this is specifically for an opportunity for our students that are here brick and mortar within our school buildings we talked about this with our CCC and our leadership team as part of our budget priorities we looked at um focusing these changes with the instructional time model and including an attendance campaign that really highlights the importance of attendance within our with within our rationale one of the pieces that we're look we looked at was our first reason was that increased instructional time what does that look like for us what changes um how do we align with our hashtag forward outside of the school day in addition to meeting the learning needs of all students how can we incorporate some of the Mastery based Project based learning pieces I know Mrs Tucker had talked about PE and how are we able to provide credit this is an opportunity for us to do exactly that be able to apply those uh that time spent outside of the classroom towards that Mastery based that Competency Based piece and be able to apply it towards credit within that classroom piece so again it's giving us that Innovative um outside of the typical school day and then just third uh our third reason is really looking at our district Revenue we currently are looking at about 25% average of chronically absent students what that means chronically absent means that it's 10% of the the school days so about 18 or more days we're currently at about 25% average for our school district and we're hoping this will um align with that and be one of the components that we can increase that um increase that School attendance piece and specifically with looking at uh as since with the pandemic we've had some of our parents that want more of that flexibility since that time can I ask a question Sor got a question um when you said 25% of all the students in our district have 18 or more days Aver fourth of our kids are not showing up to school yes for 18 or more days 18 or more days and this is not unique to our district it's an issue that's happening across the country so why why why do we know why kids are just not coming to school it some of it is that flexibility piece in in talking with different parents and um even I was talking with Dr Fountain today even friends of mine since the pandemic it's been a lot easier for some families and some parents to say okay if a kid wants to stay home that they're able to stay home when they're not really feeling well or for a couple of days or even if something comes up we have some students that do Club ball and they miss out with that so there's different um there's different areas of absences that we we're looking at and seeing how we can still incorporate and bring back those pieces it is truly a so Dr wman you believe that this 25% of kids that aren't showing up the effort that we're going to put in is going to be a good bang for a buck I mean are these kids actually going to say I've missed school now I'm G to make up the work is that what we think's going to happen well well that's what we're going to work with parents to get it happen so so as an example you first of all I think you have to look into the data and and Dr Fountain I were talking about it today are you talking about you know a lot of times you go to solve a problem and you think the problem is is this issue and with everything you got you can incentivize it a lot of people in the past had say hey we'll give you perfect attendance Awards what that really does is award the kids are already perfectly attending and so but the kids that aren't don't so we're trying a different way to to work with with families uh and it's it's new it's being used I know mascott has done it in another District but it's a chance to do let's just say there's a situation let's not make it a negative that we have to go on a family outing for a reason maybe there's a a a wedding or something and they're going to be gone but they're going to go somewhere and as part of this process they're going to go visit a particular site you could set up work ahead of time with them that they could go ahead and go to while they're at that at that particular City they could go ahead and visit some historical sites they could write a reflection piece on it submit the reflection piece on it and you could count them absent so the dis the issue I mean count them present excuse me the issue is that just like when I was in school you did the makeup work so so that's not changing the difference is we can use technology to do the makeup work a little bit different the difference is they will now count them as present Not absent if they do this work so I don't know if it's going to happen but right now we're not getting anything out of it if we get three% were better off than we were this year we would hope that we would change and reduce the absentee rate by significantly more than that and so that's what we're trying to but it's going to take a communication issue with the community and with our am it's not just hey we're doing this it's our teachers it's everybody having a communication so this the reason we're having this conversation now is because it's going to take a full-blown effort by the time July rolls around to make sure everybody understands what this is but it's allowed under the law it's different why not give kids that opportunity and families that opportunity to to make up this work um because right now um the the absentee rate and again we have people I think both mscott myself are on a uh a webinar that's coming up and there's some other people this is a national problem this webinar is for school districts across the entire country that are talking about how do we resolve this issue and this is an availability of a statute that allows us to do something unique and different to take care of the issue and we would hope if if we're saying 100% fix by first year nah it's not going to happen but maybe the first year we're this much and then the next year we're a little bit more and we we continue to build on what we're offering and so we would hope that yes it would make a significant difference if I take it as a negative message Bob I'm telling you you can be absent just make up the work I'm taking a negative negative aspect to it right if our absences start to increase then that would be a problem right then we're just saying hey we're actually dumbing down the curriculum for the way that maybe we're presented oh just write a reflection I know you're not saying it that way right I'm just trying to take it in a negative way for to to anticipate maybe problems CU if you're telling me I can just be absent and I'll just do some makeup work we're going to see an increase in in absences which is going to make the problem even worse right so there's still parameters we're meeting with all of our stakeholders including teachers leadership after hopefully this passes after that happens and creating specific parameters so as that is not the case we don't want this to be a free-for-all right because again when students are not here they're missing out on integral pieces correct we want to be able to still have that opportunity but there's also times that there are family emergencies whether it's a death in the family or something happens and they're rare you that's that's I don't think we're talking 25% kids on you know family emergencies I don't think that's what we're talking about right but I mean if you're gone for two weeks and then you show up like oh we just didn't want to come to school is that someone that can just say oh we just do some makeup work or you talked to us before and say hey we're going to be out this happened what do we do to make it up let's work with you right and remember if they're out for a significant amount of time for over 10 days and they haven't communicated with us there we still legally have to drop students at that point so again that that is not the purpose of this our purpose of this is really to provide kids still that opportunity and then also be able to look outside of the box at other pieces because the instructional time model it gives us that opportunity within all of our courses at the high school pieces some of the pieces at the element at the middle school so that it's not just that absence piece that is a big focus of it but it also gives kids different opportunities we have kids that um do Rodeo we have kids that do Club ball they're gone quite a bit for those specific sporting idea what percentage of kids are absent for that reason I mean we can't I'd be interest annoying the kids that took advantage of this what other end result test scores and is there de and and I think I think the issue that you're going to have right now just so you're aware is that this was approved in 2122 2021 at the legislature but you have very few districts that that saw it and and kind of latched into it right now this is being talked about across the state because of the attendance issue that's occurring again not just here but everywhere so you have districts across the state that are starting to look at this to say what does this really mean how does it look uh mcot was at cap Creek where they did it along with their Valley Paradise Valley Dart and Poria we're talking with them to say okay what's the model what's what we're not going to reinvent the wheel if we don't have to what have you done to do this because they've had it for two years one year and two years Poria Clos in three schools I don't if that's a good school to so right not por Paradise Valley Paradise Valley yes they close yeah right okay right and and there's but there's and and but it's an issue because of Any number of factors including uh absenteeism as well as declining enrollment declining enrollment is happening across the country not just in Combs and so we're looking back to the issue that we talk about um at the end of the day if we don't figure out a way to create more revenue and I'm going to turn this into a business proposition if we don't figure out a way to create more Revenue then we're impacted even greater and so we build our budget when we're going to build our budget next year and we bring it to you and Mrs cook presents it it is a predicated on the notion that we would have a normal group of kids showing up every day if you don't have that occur we will not get funded to that level and so now you have a you've compounded the problem so we can sit back and do nothing or we can say hey here's a different and creative way we don't have all the answers and won't have all the answers but here's a different and creative way that we can go ahead and change the revenue projections for the district and keep them where they should be within the budget because if we don't the impact is significant okay I followup question on that 2 5% I'm still B how does it split between elementary middle and high school do you have that data I do just amazing 25 how do teachers teach in a classroom and got a you knew I was going to ask you that when you talk to a teacher that's got six kids out in their class they can't teach I think that it's also a society issue I mean now more than ever both both parents have to work so if they're gone and your kid doesn't get on the bus you're staying home yeah it's it that's just how it is so we can either say okay you're absent or we can reach out to them and say hey guess what we can do this now and at least they're doing something okay so our elementaries range from anywhere from 133% to 27% um Middle School to high school ranges from 28% to 33 yep there you go okay so the older kids is more of a problem yep and a lot of times that's because they're going to Babys and they get they get them there middle school and high school they're supposed to get themselves there and I don't know I have my kids and I was getting them up hey you're late get on it you know and if they were late I took them but there so PE parents these days don't have that luxury anymore they they miss the bus they miss they miss it so I mean everyone I think this is in society right now everyone is struggling and again I think if we can be Innovative and provide parents that flexibility and really look at our community and how can we help we're going to have to do something absolutely so yeah so I'm going to go to this my last slide thank you for letting me interrupt by the way please not a problem I'm just happy I was prepared for your question so uh the components of the instructional time model now also I wanted to say that we were actually talking about this with the East Valley curriculum that this is also these same conversations that Dr Wyman's talking about are happening here in the East Valley so as to how they can look at it and again how we can incorporate that Competency Based and Mastery based piece that you were talking about um so the four components are we will Define that instructional time model what what does it mean what are what's our approaches and Dr fountain's going to talk a little bit more about what that looks like how what will that time look like and then how are we going to be tracking attendance that key piece is again that tracking attendance and ensuring that we have the voice of all of our stakeholders as to what's going to work best what's going to be efficient and then also understanding that flexibility like Dr Wyman said it might not work amazingly well but hey we're we willing to listen we're willing to try and we want something Innovative for our families we're going to have to compete with Esa 100% And as we were seeing more of those the kids homeschooled and that flexibility if we can provide some of that I agree okay you're up next hey you guys are you listening sorry I'm sorry having sidebar it's great they you ask Nancy all the questions so um yeah I mean I think that to Mr Beach's point I mean I think that with any intervention and to me this is an intervention tool with any intervention we're always having conversations about who is our audience so staggering as that number may feel for those chronic absenteeism kids this is not the answer for them there's some other pieces we need to talk about to answer them this is more for that middle of the road kid who on occasion misses a day and actually has that work ethic to to chime in um as we went through this process I will say that uh my own child was a great example of this I had my oldest child was a high achiever in high school and several times throughout her High School career said to her mother and I can I stay home today I just need to get caught up because she was in theater and she was doing all these things and we begrudgingly said Okay and she did she genuinely stayed home and worked all day she got her work done she didn't get the school didn't get credit for her being there so I think there are some nuances like that um one of the things that we'll talk about when we take this back to the stakeholder group is what parameters do we want to put on to start so this may be something as simple as saying we cap it at three days like it doesn't have to be a free-for-all where we say oh you can have a hundred days this year being home right but we can give a little bit of Grace and flexibility and try it out and see if it helps our families and if it doesn't we go a different direction so mine stayed home they had to watch The History Channel there you go um so I can I can agree it's better than doing nothing they just from the if you look at tilting it the other way of now I've just thrown out hey you can be absent whenever you want and do makeup work I know that's not what you're intending to do I know that's not it but I could see the message being received that way by people that are already chronically absent oh now I can just do makeup work you know but that's not what we're looking for I understand that just and I assume it's still baffling to me it's going to be like the teachers are going to stand up and go by the way if you don't want to come to school like I think it'll be more more like when they're ABS we'll be handing out makeup work in then of the day for those who want to come to school tomorrow no that's not for sure and yeah I think those are you know those are those pieces where and we talk about the relationship component in classrooms right where you build those relationships with kids so that they want to be there every day and this really becomes the exception to the rule you know and I think in the heart of most of our Educators that's what they're all about you know um I started my career as a middle school teacher and we were a bunch of hooligan teachers but you know what our kids didn't miss school because we had a good time and they didn't want to not be there so um but these are some good flexible options so um just to continue on and reiterate a few of these pieces so it looks at things like direct instruction Project based learning Independent Learning or Mastery based learning so it could be a project in lie of um some of our teachers already utilize some of those flip classro models that you might see in direct instruction U for example like I know at the high school our High School Math teachers had started doing some work where they were recording their lessons and kids were doing that as the homework and then they were doing the supported work in the classroom during the day so this is a model where they would be able to watch that video at home and do the work bring that in you know as part of that process I'm sure you've already thought of it I'm sorry I'm trying me again just all right seems to touch my heart a little bit whatever you can do to lighten the load for the teachers jump on it whatever you can do right because all of a sudden and you've been there right they show up they're they're leaving in a week can you give us all the the work for the week like are you are you kidding me you're not going to do it anyway right right or they come back and they want it like no they're not going to do it so I I lighten the load as much as you can for teachers keep that in mind please sure and and I and just so you know that's where I think the the technology in the old days all you could do is make paper to give to the kids that weren't there when they came back they had to do the work then you had to grade the work when you have stuff in Google Classroom right now you have kids that can do the work the same day that the other kids in the class did the work and therefore when you're doing the GR in it's all at one time with it so the use of Technology will make it easier for teachers if I don't have to try to teach a kid because we have a swivel lesson and they can watch it or we've done it online it just makes it easy if we have paper and we have a documentation that they work with a paper tutor for two for an hour or something you have ways that you can track it that a lot different than it used to be where what you had as paper to give to them when they came back they had to do the work and they had to come back so we're hoping that keep the teachers involved yeah just just talk to them what's going on what would be the easiest way for them to take care of it and I'm sure you guys will come up with a fantastic solution so they will be part of that I think a good I think a good illustration and example of that would be to put in that piece of you know as I think about teacher frustrations one of them is always that makeup work right and it trickling in throughout the semester so again as we build our plan one of the parameters that we could put in place is that we could limit the amount of time so you got you know 24 or 48 hours or whatever that is to get the work in and you get a dual benefit not only do you get credit for the work but you get credit for you know you don't get that absence on there and that might help incentivize kids to turn in that makeup work right away instead of dragging their feet so um lots of things to consider um these are some of the ways that we might be able to measure the time because we have to measure the time um in attendance so through Google Classroom um some of our pieces automatically log students attendance that's part of what we do like through programs like Ingenuity um teacher communication the potential to zoom into a class there's lots of different ways we can go about it and again the next step in the process process is building that again as Dr wman mentioned you know really the most basic concept is that that idea of makeup work and how can we do that in some flexible ways um to give us some opportunities here so um part of the requirements here are the two public meetings so we're starting with this month um and then developing that instructional time model so we have some work now to do with our stakeholders um the next intention would be to bring back to you some of that framework with what we've talked about with the stakeholders and how this would actually look and work in our district we just wanted to get started uh this month um so may board meeting will bring that back to you with the attendance plan uh then we would need to submit to ad for approval and obviously we have some professional development to do around that to to train folks well I'm excited to hear about it actually so looking forward ex I I think it's going to be great whatever you come up with it's gonna be great so I'm excited any other questions comments used them all on Nancy I like it she did well you did well all right and and so you know this presentation was given to CCC and so the teachers on CCC have seen this and we have we've had a conversation what I told them when we we presented it was out of fairness to them we wanted to make sure they aware of it before um it came to the board as of initial meeting was also uh talked with with uh leadership team so this conversation is has been ongoing because the the one of the driving priorities for this discussion on the budget was student attendance and the number of kids that are missing and so that's why we even looked into this and so uh they had some very good questions but I will tell you as a general rule for the teachers in the room for CCC they were not against it um uh I think they were open to the uh understanding that this may be another solution so uh it is being shared uh we asked them to take it out to their to their sites to share so this isn't going to per se come as a surprise we're trying to get the communication out so so just know that all right any other questions okay that takes us to 9.4 I shared the last month's uh uh student uh enrollment numbers with you and so I don't know if there are any questions or concerns but if there are um this is the time that we can discuss I don't have any questions I looked at it but I have no questions but thank you for getting that to us I think it's very good information okay 9.5 discussion information regarding the purchase of a van new van for evit transportation yes as part of our a with evit um uh there's a requirement that kids are transported in the morning in the afternoon uh right now we transport signif all of our kids in the afternoon that or not all of them but the majority kids in the afternoon that want to go some kids drive their own on their own in the morning we have not trans supported kids in the morning because when you look at the the schedule it's prohibitive within their schedule if they're gone all morning and by the time they get back to school there's not a lot of hours left uh as it is you have to pick up an online class if you take an eve it if you do it in the morning um you'd have to pick up two at the same time the agreement with I with evit says we're transporting both times they have given us a waiver in the past for any number of reasons I don't know the all the historical basis for it um we're the last District that uh was given a waiver and as of this year they're saying no more waivers and so we have to come up with a a way to transport kids uh in the old in in probably pre 2018 uh there was uh I don't know exact year but there was an accident where uh a college teams were uh students were killed in an accident in Vans and so they stopped the use of Vans 15 passenger 11 to 15 fashion Vans for any school district in Arizona uh with coming back out of 2018 and into 2021 uh quite frankly in in some cases based on on uh Charters not wanting to uh purchase buses they push through the legislature the ability to use Vans again so when we take a look at how we're going to transport these uh kids if we have them uh is it more cost effective to get a big bus is it more cost effective to get a mini buus or is it more cost effective to get Vans it's more cost effective to get Vans and since the law allows for that um I just want bring it to your attention that will be coming back next week or excuse me next month uh we'll be asking for approval for up to two Vans the reason for two Vans is because you have uh the downtown campus uh for evit which is off of Maine and I think Elma school and then you have the power campus and so the ability to get kids to both campuses it's not necessary we'll start with one and then see what the kids want we don't necessarily have a ton of kids that want it again because it doesn't fit into their schedule but that way we're in compliance with the IGA um because they're not going to wave that portion of it um and so therefore we're going to have to come up with the solution the funding source for this given that we talk about budgets is out of CT money now that will mean it the BS will be restricted um on a daily basis it's restricted already because they'll be transporting kids to one of the sites um but then on the weekends and stuff if CT happens to have a field trip or a competition then we can use the Vans but because the Vans are going to be purchased out of CTE funding and not M or Capital um there will be limitations on on other entities using or other clubs using those vans um like I said we'll come back to you with one and then depending on uh uh how it goes in terms of students signing up for uh for different courses um we may come back at a later time and say we need to not go out for a second one um and it's just a way to to to go ahead and address a concern that's that's Arisen this year because the evit board has refused our waiver requests um uh I I have two questions approximately what is the cost of one of these Vans not exactly just ballpark I'm going to assume neighborhood of 75,000 um is would be our Al Ball Park uh the second question would be we're having trouble getting bus drivers how are we going to get someone to drive this van right the the one issue with a with a van is you don't have to have a CDL and so because you don't have to have a CDL and that would be the other reason you could do the Mini Bus you don't need a CDL but a mini bus still runs 125 145 so you you're still significantly less than a than a a mini buus and so uh you could have anybody that could go ahead and drive it so it opens up the pool as to who could drive it obviously we do background checks they're still driving kids and so they still have to go through all the stuff but they don't need a CDL license so that opens up the possibility significantly I assume that evit does not have transportation um funds that they get from the state uh no they don't have transportation funds they do have other funds uh we' gone back and forth for several meetings including attorneys um and and this is a the best position we could get ourselves into um irrespective of any other issues can CT rent the buses out um I I I don't believe so but I'd ask that I mean no Julie okay is it so once they're purchased by CTE that's it forever and for always is there any only CTE can use them because it's coming at a CTE fund yeah y okay weell it there's can we get that baby wrapped like home traditional like I'm talking doing some some advertising for us but yes we would ultimately if we get rid of it we'd have to restore the funds back to the federal government y what about the white buses that they use for sport for the sports teams yeah we can use those um uh with with the the amount of times we use those buses the concern's been that are they going to be available every day to transport kids because once the kid gets a schedule then we're going to have to transport them every day and so if we were taking the white buses as an example on a Friday for a wrestling tournament somewhere they wouldn't necessarily be available so our thought process was if we could get dedicated ones then we at least would know they would be available uh on a daily basis to take the number of kids we need we need to take so we've looked at had to go on something but they couldn't because they had to used the CTE they wouldn't be able to go to that game don't want that right I our issue right now is we don't have enough regular buses to transport the kids on a regular basis um based on our number of drivers and our number of routes and so that's why we're looking for Alternatives because we don't have enough to go ahead and do it on a regular on a regular ongoing basis um and so we looked at the three options and felt this was the most economical that would still allow the number of kids that actually want it because we don't again there's not a thousand kids out there saying I want a trip it's a very small number uh we anticipate it to be less than the 15 uh but we're finishing up um uh the high school's finishing up uh uh part of the uh student schedules as we speak so we don't know the exact so also they can't they don't have to if you use a regular bus you have to get a bus driver but with the mini bus and the and the van the coaches can drive them so I it's makes it a lot easier I I I would assume I know it did for chair all right okay any other questions on that all right 9.6 discussion and information regarding the 2024 2025 District tional videos yes uh Kayla had a family emergency and had to step out so I'm going to pinch hint for her uh what we've done uh going on now for probably four or five months was uh go ahead and and take some uh dollars uh that are available us to deal with issues and this happened before all the conversations about uh enrollment so about La about a year ago this time maybe a year and a half AG this time Kayla and I were talking about how do we go ahead and update some of the videos we have and how do we do some more videos to to go ahead and do um marketing for our district uh in this particular case we did not take this money out of M uh we purposely said we're going to take it out of our rooftop fees uh because this is a one-time hit and we didn't it's not a reoccurring expense uh but we felt it was important to have uh updated videos of our of our schools which were released to you probably can't remember the end of the fall or the beginning of the spring uh at the same time we also had five more uh uh video videos that were for specific areas uh and those are being released as we speak as well as there's 5 30C videos that are being released too so in total we end up uh having a significant number of videos that are that are available to us we just wanted to share uh in a public meeting a couple of the videos just so you can see the quality of these so I believe we're sharing the district video and then the one that we use for recruitment so we'll take a few minutes to watch this and then I can answer any questions as a parent what you want for your child more than anything else is for them to be prepared to be successful at the next step and what we can guarantee you in our district is that's what exactly will happen rather than trying to fit your student to our learning environment we're trying to fit our learning environment to your student so that means that we offer multiple Pathways for Student Success we offer students opportunities to differentiate their learning environment and we really try to cater to what works for each individual student instructional model and the portrait of a graduate is really about Youth Development not only youth academic development but youth social emotional behavioral skill development they can achieve to their highest levels not only academically but intrapersonally and interpersonally red okay one of the ways we prepare students for success is really looking at the whole child I think that we are very fortunate to have a social worker and a counselor on our campus and those individuals are able to provide some social emotional support to our students we are really intentional in trying to evaluate students needs and then provide them those supports what I love about coms is the small feel the support that we provide our desire is that they see us as working together to help their child have their best experience and learning we're all just one giant team with the common purpose of helping each child be their best my staff works so hard for every single student they work tirelessly to find solutions to figure out how to bring out the best in every single student I am a part of this community and I am truly invested in this community and I believe in this community I am a champion for this community this is my community I love the environment I love the opportunity that I have to interact with students I love my peers just making those students feel that they're L that they matter that they they belong I love Colmes high school because this is my community and I've always believed in investing in my community and so this is not only where I teach but this is where my kids go to school and I know they're getting the best education possible we want to help prepare them for their college or career path of choice knowing that they're going to leave us with communication skills the ability to collaborate critical iCal thinking creativity being able to adapt to an everchanging global environment Career and Technical education has always been on the Forefront of providing experiences for students to learn and learn best we have 13 programs currently at the high school and it ranges from students who are in our stage craft program we have three medical programs my youngest daughter Chloe being able to be a part of the medical assisting program it has opened so many doors for her and has brought her out of her Shelf she is thriving at her new job of employment and is excited to further her education with her associates degree in medical assisting I am grateful that coms has these programs for our students and gives them so much opportunity for the future right out of school we have communication media technology courses TV and film digital Communications graphic design and digital photo so our students have an opportunity every year to compete at either the local or national level and our students have done very well we've had students travel across the country to receive recognition for some of the accomplishments that they made whether it's hashtag forward whether it's the small groups we pull no matter what it is everything that we do revolves around getting our students to be as successful as possible when they leave us it's about them it's about where they're headed After High School and we want to give them a competitive Advantage for whatever it might be that they do in the future ACC Colmes High School does a good job of making sure they have teenss clubs club sports opportunities for students to connect and if we don't have an offering that a student feels like is in need on campus we will talk with them about that and see about how to bring the opportunity forward what are you going to haveen it has a happy feeling a a family feeling a friendly feeling where kids can come and be safe and learn and when you watch kids and amazing things that they do it just makes it all worthwhile I'm continually astounded by everything that our students do how they rise to the as we have something for every single family and what we guarantee is that when your child leaves our system they will be prepared for the next level HR one that we can use when we're out on recruiting so we'll show you that one and then we'll move on the reason to choose col as much as anything else is you're choosing family we're a smaller District we're getting pois to grow but family is still what we're all about I have been working in the comes District this will be my 15th year here I actually started student teaching here in the district and I've just never left I love the community out here I love the people out here and it's just really become my home away from home what I love the most is the amazing staff and students and family and the community but our staff is so supportive so helpful so thoughtful always there to meet the needs of other staff members and students I've been in education for 38 years and it's truly about people it's truly about the staff that go above and beyond to take care of our kids to teach our kids to work with our kids I have the opportunity to work with teachers who then impact student lives on the other end of things I work with administrators that are very supportive Elementary School Middle School and High School principles are all there ready to jump in one of these is the most the thing I like most about working for Combs is the fact that they invest in their teachers the district supports me as a teacher with a lot of different things I feel like having a coach on campus to go to if I have support with something or have questions and have that coach being able to model and go through some of those things has been very important to me the com School District we seek to support our teachers at a variety of levels we have district-wide professional learning opportunities as well as site professional learning but we also have a robust instructional coaching staff that supports in a job embedded manner so those folks are in working in classrooms with teachers within PLC teams we even have systems in place for teachers to request support in their classroom and that might include support within their classroom directly or giving them opportunities to visit and reflect in a peer classroom to see what's happening in there and learn best practices in my 20 years of education I've never networked how I do here at Colmes with other school districts and teachers Across the Nation directly that are doing the learning that we're doing the teaching style that we're doing sharing ideas working together that's right CU how many words are in the sentence I would have teachers come here for the home field feeling that we have the people the students the families really make it worth working here coms is a family and they would be welcomed and valued and heard and we're doing all the right things for kids and you always have people to encourage you and help you and I've had amazing mentors I couldn't imagine working for anybody else we have an incredible benefits package for our staff that our staffs have taken advantage of we're part of the retirement system in the state of Arizona and we match 100% of the retirement it's a great opportunity for staff members who want to be a part of that growth we all have the same goal in mind is that to help the students become successful I think the favorite part about working with the staff here is the individuality the ideas and the commitment that they have to students when you work together in that way it's powerful because it's always s about what's best for the students it's always been about that ability to make a positive difference in the life of a child and to see our kids grow and the see our staff do the amazing things they do with you uh Kayla will go ahead and share all all of them with you tomorrow as well as the 30 second slots um and so that puts a 13 of them out there we also have asked for two more one is a hasht forward for parents so they have a better understanding what hashtag forward and modern learning is all about and then one is a hasht forward modern learning for prospective teachers so that they have an idea of what it means uh uh coming back in and it's just a way that can be utilized a ton of ton of different ways we have all the raw footage so we can make additional ones coming up and and I know she's not here but I want to thank Kayla for for leading this effort um I came up with an idea but then she asked to actually do something with that idea and she did an amazing job when you take a look at at what took place with our schools and the way they really tell you a story about our schools and then when you see these that tell story about our district and the different things that are happening in our district we think it's a piece that can be beneficial uh as we push it out again uh number of these are already on our website others will be loaded up as we speak some of the 30 second slots would go into like I know uh is it uh uh Jake's whatever the one down there the uh fat cats thank you she know what I was talking but Fat Cats has already got a 30 second piece in for us so we would put that in Harkin potentially um would have one uh we have to look the value for for how much they cost but that's why we did 30 second slots versus two-minute slots because they can go in a different couple places so I do want to thank Caleb for all of her work wonder they have possibly there too yeah that's what we're looking at but we wanted to make them and now we can go ahead and and push them out hear what said pan Lakes the new the new the new entertainment yeah um I love the idea yeah I love the idea these are on the website how about putting them on YouTube yeah they're they're on our YouTube If you go to our YouTube channel Jil Colmes uh as part of the YouTube channel they're on the YouTube channel yeah yeah they're actually they're already there but we wanted to kind of launch and then we'll send them out but they're there wider distribution that way so we need every parent to share it out to family and friends everyone that's what we're hoping for it's require no I can't require I'm just kidding you can't requireed but it should be nice all right part of that thing if they were absent I'm just just throwing it out there they could do a review all right thank you that brings us 9.7 discussion information of 2024 2025 jom School District budget last but not least we finally got something on the budget in here Mr President members of the board colle colag community members is um this time of year annual expenditure budgets for the current year and for the next year are everyday topics I'm sure everyone sitting here is tired of me talking about the budgets um this presentation though is to provide you with a quick overview of the budget reporting cycle and the agenda items that I'm going to be bringing to you for review consideration and adoption over the next three governing board meetings I know you're very excited Bob is yeah Bob is I'm very excited with him I know he is okay so this is a calendar of events that I took directly from the uniform standard of financial records it's also called the usfr by those of us that have to look at it daily we call it the you suffer um this is uh for Arizona schools and it's published by the Arizona Department of Education and the Arizona auditor general in summary it says say the proposed budget has to be out no later than July 5th of each year by July 15th the governing board must adopt a proposed budget and we must post by July 18th to the Arizona Department of Education website by October 15th we are to bring you an annual financial report that would be based on the prior year our current school year um activity it's basically a document that summarizes all the financial activity for every single fund for the current school year that we're in Now 23 ironically we've had to bring you revisions twice a year we are not required to bring you a revision unless it's dictated by Statute in uh December we receive actually we receive it in November we received notification from the super intended of Public Instruction that tells us if our adopted budget is in excess of 1% of what ad says our budget should be this often happens because we calculate our proposed budget using our free and reduced lunch counts we include our K3 reading program as of December those two items are usually not identified by ad that's why you usually receive this uh Revision in December your final vision is due by May 15th and that is so that you can identify any overages or under under estimations to your budget and that will be your final budget for the school year so what does that look like for us May 8th next meeting I'm going to bring you the revision number two of this school Year's budget I'll look at any of the changes in our budget lines lines that we've budgeted money for maybe we overestimated it on some lines underestimated on others you notice the report that I load up each ye each month some of the lines will have a negative that's because our estimations were off we'll be making those Corrections when we bring in the May budget we will also by then have our 100 day ADM right now the March reports Still project ADM they have not finalized my ADM yet so the May budget report revision number two will have those numbers and those adjustments that again makes us meet our May 15th deadline in June the following month I'm going to bring you the proposed budget for next school year again we'll meet the deadline which is the 15th and what we will use is all of the data that we have used to calculate the revision number two and then any changes that we know of for instance the base support level for the students any classroom site fund we know that change as well any projections that we are we are going to do for next year in our ADM which we've already talked to you about then the following month I'll be back and we will have to adopt that proposed budget that budget must be posted to ad before July 15th on October 9th I'll bring you the annual financial report for the current school year on December 11th if we find out we're over by 1% we receive our budget 25 letter from uh superintendent of instruction then we will bring you a revision there on May 14th of 2025 I will be here that night asking you for the final revision for the 2425 school year and then I will probably walk out and go immediately post it because this has to be posted by May 15th so that night will be a very busy night we'll get you to uh approve the budget then I'll go get it posted to 8 so we're still in compliance so you can see there's a lot that has to happen consecutively getting your signatures getting everything adopted posted it's an ongoing process but instead of me coming to you every month and telling you here's what I'm going to bring you next month we thought we'd do a really quick recap for you um so that you would just be aware this is what's coming every single month for at least the next three months are there any questions the only other thing I would put up the only flying anointment so to speak may be uh the state budget uh there still haven't really started the negotiations on the state budget uh if you remember last year it it ran long into late June and early July that kind of throws some of the numbers a little bit ad usually gives you some some estimates so we'll have to meet those deadlines but just know that if if they if the state budget doesn't come out uh things may get a little a little bit different on that and they really have not started that negotiations very well yet I do have a question sure uh on June the 12th proposed annual expenditure budget is presented for the school year we've talked in the past and You' presented to us all the different considerations and things that you're looking at so you'll at that point will it be just one look or will we have some options to consider I will bring the proposed budget in June I'm trying to think of how best to get you what you need I understand what you're saying usually in June we will tell you this is how we've come to the numbers without having the budget forms and having all of the final number final information that Dr wman just mentioned from the state in May I could tell you where we're looking or where I'm looking based on the revision I could do that for you and give you that so that you would know here's what we're proposing typically we don't have uh changes between the proposal and the adoption but there are there are times where the state information will change we don't have the necessary budget forms there could be some extenuating circumstances but what I can do in May is bringing it to you and say Here's what I'm looking for here's what the projections are and what we're forecasting for the proposed budget in June so that you have that and then you would know where we were going to be in June for the adoption in July I think that would be helpful it doesn't have to be very much in depth just you know an overview so we have an understanding of what's going to be coming the following month okay and Al also as we bring the budget recommendations in May that's going to drive some decision making anyway and so so when we say as a as a as a CCC and leadership team we've decided to go ahead and and make a recommendation for this salary increase or for this uh issue or that issue in some ways the approval of those budget REM recommendations in May are going to drive what the proposed budget is in June and then adopt it in July because once you say yes we're doing this we're we're going to tell you that we're building this off of this this amount of ADM and then we think with this ADM we can go ahead and give this raise or not give this raise or give this or not give that and so in some degree when you do may it takes some of that out um you could always come back if Miracle Miracles they gave us more money which they're not going to um and you could do something different but but note that as we bring some of the recommendations forward in May it may drive and answer some of your questions just like uh Julie was saying good thank you thank you all right thank you okay any other requests for future agenda items it's not8 o'clock yet we can't leave H yeah we can I'll make a motion right now all right I'll second are we done with the yes so I'll take a motion to adjourn all right so shell put the first shelle's making a motion okay okay and thenon Jason second all in favor I all right at 754 at 754 74 oh all in favor oh I we we voted I did say that oh you did okay we voted yeah I didn't hear it okay no one said

for the ssbu semifinal maybe kamakazi in the future who knows probably not but we'll see we'll see that being said thanks for watching we hope you love the stream peace love you bye get hyped for the future where what [Music]

just ch just changed uh this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chairperson at this time don't see anybody great we will begin with um public comment or is anyone signed up for comment tonight you have three minutes just say your name and my name is Melissa Webb and I live in Greenfield so I guess one thing that I like to always talk about is redistricting because that's a Hot Topic but I have some I guess positive news through the calendar fundraiser which raised over 17 I say that's right $17,000 um through a lot of dedication from all the pto's pulling together and working together um the three Elementary ptos are hoping to get together at some point and come forward with some ideas of our own as a way to help with the redistricting process so that is what I have to say on that oh oh the and wellness policy here I'm coming for you now um so the fifth grade did an amazing job they had penny wars where they raised almost $3,000 and less a little over I think a little over $3,000 and less than a week pretty impressive got very competitive was very awesome they donated 50% of the profit to Shriners and the other was left for them to do kind of Within boundaries of what they wanted so they have come up with multiple ideas on how to do it and one of them was to bring in an ice cream truck and now with the health and wellness policy they are not able to bring in an ice cream truck and I'll have a little bit of ice cream uh that was just one of the things so you know when we're making policies and trying to come up with better ideas and better ways sometimes something that maybe unhealthy in like a large quantity could be a nice little treat for these kids who really work their taals off to bring in $100 bills and boxes of pennies that is all thank you any other public comment all right hearing none we will move on to our process of electing a new school committee member um we had uh letters of interest from Keith urel Melody Goodwin Isaac Mass hazes SLA and Shan Hoy Shan Hoy has withdrawn his name from consideration Isaac Keith and Jesus could not be with us tonight for various reasons Melody is here Melody do you have a statement you would like to make to the committee please come forward you have three minutes who's got the timer okay tell me you when good evening my name is Melody Goodwin and I would like to be a member of the school committee I respect the work you're doing and I would be an asset to your committee I've been an educator for 41 years and can proudly say every decision I made as a teacher and administrator was based on what I believed was best for children children always come first I've taught grades G through 12 I've been a student council adviser yearbook adviser math counsil coach and a member of many committees I come from a family of teachers two of my aunts were high school English teachers my sister was a special ed teacher and my mother was a home teacher which is why I don't cook education was a priority in our family and service a way of life somebody was always studying at our kitchen table I was also a vice principal principal and District administrator as a vice principal I designed a project that required seventh graders to pass the US citizenship test to participate in a field trip to Washington D.C a few years ago I took some friends to DC and I contacted Jim McGovern's office to get a tour of the capital for our group our guide from the govern's office walked up to me shook my hand and said you were my middle school principal when you brought me here in seventh grade I knew I would come back here to work the hearts of teachers expand when we find out we make a difference Educators make a difference I served as an administrator in Greenfield for 10 years I've watched the Greenfield school committee meeetings for over 20 years first as a resident and then as an administrator some people watch reality TV shows Prin principles watch school committee meetings the amazing Buzz nimow Carol Jacobs Jim deine and Mike Smith were the leaders when I first started to watch school committee on Sunday afternoons later Mike Smith would become my superintendent in South Hadley and later I would dedicate a school in his name Michael E Smith Middle School was my first school it serves 800 students in grades 5 through eight and there're still taking children to Washington DC I lived in Greenfield and worked in South Hatley for nine years fate would have it that I would meet and learn from the people I watched on Sunday afternoons I retired from Newton School three years ago I served as a GPS administrator for 10 years I worked for four superintendents in Greenfield and have watched the challenges the school committee faces I know the history of Greenfield I know the GPS schools I know the children and the families of Greenfield since I retired I've been subbing at Franklin County Tech and enjoying a K12 Life I share classrooms with young adults adults who I watched learn to read and tie their shoes children are the future and they deserve the best education we can give them and a special shout out tonight to Jay pinsky's journalism class they had to write speeches this week so they graded mine so I know they're watching tonight and making sure I didn't talk too fast the three minute limit was tough today and I was told to breathe so I've been breathing and a really great thanks to the children and they want to know how come you guys don't get paid so it was a real example of how a speech makes a difference thank you for your service to the Greenfield school district thank you excellent thank you very much so uh just a little orientation to the process or how we um vote on oh first I want to check um I for neglected to check my computer if anyone uh joining us by Zoom wanted to participate in public comment if so please come off mute now okay not seeing anybody um so the process for the school committee to select a new member to join us is that we um we vote and if we have a majority of members voting for a single candidate that person becomes a um a school Committee Member uh the mayor has agreed to swear in if we uh select somebody tonight um they can be sworn in tonight and come right up to that chair and start serving on the school committee that's how I came onto the school committee in May of 2019 I think it was um if um if we hit an impass and there our it's a tii vote uh the city council president per our city Charter um selects the um successful candidate and so thank you um president bottomley for agreeing to be here tonight in case we hit an impass I'm very hopeful that we as a committee may be able to select our our own um member without having to rely on that but I appreciate you being there as a safeguard um so any questions about that about how the that that part of the process will go all right um my proposal is that we um not begin by making motions for one candidate or another but rather that we kind of uh suspend our normal Rules of Order to have a consensus building discussion that I would facilitate to see if we might be able to reach um at least some consensus or at least narrow the field down to to um to two candidates um before we vote um because otherwise it can be a little bit chaotic with this many number of people um applying and um I feel like that might be a useful um way to go so um could I hear a motion to suspend or normal Rules of Order for a consensus discussion there's a motion from mayor dorer is there a second seconded second from Member ston any discussion all right let's vote all those in favor say I I I I any opposed any abstentions um all right we have suspended our normal Rules of Order for a consensus building discussion um when in my days of uh facilitating um strategic planning sessions with nonprofits what we would do is um a method not of of voting but of polling to get a sense of kind of where the energy is around around a certain choice and so I'd like you to imagine that I have given you each um two stickers um and that the names of the candidates are on a on a flip chart on the wall Keith Melody Isaac and hazus and you you have two stickers you can do whatever you want with them you can put them on two stickers on one candidate or one on two different candidates um just to get a picture if you had to choose um where to where your energy was in terms of uh selecting a school committee candidate where would you put those stickers so that's how I'd like to begin the discussion maybe just um going around could we start with you mayor just because you happen to be there on the left um my two stickers are Mel Goodwin and Isaac Mass okay thank you Elizabeth remember Den Eve I'm not sure of my two stickers yet you want to think a little longer I would like to think a little longer all right remember Martini Goodwin and arel okay and um I will put my two stickers on Jesus remember ston right now both of my stickers are going for Melanie Goodwin all right two stickers for Melody and M child's well I think any of the people could do a great job and I would highly recommend that uh if you're not picked tonight to go ahead and run next time please uh that said my [Music] stickers I think I'm going to have to go with the mayor with Mel and Isaac Mel and Isaac great okay so with that we have um one sticker for um Mr urel one for Miss Goodwin one for Mr mass and one for Mr Lea um I mean I'm sorry two for Isaac mass and two for Jesus SLA so one five two and two um as part of our oh we haven't come back to member Den sorry where are your stickers my stickers will have to go with the uh mayor and member child's on uh Melody and um Isaac Mass all righty excellent so to update our sticker tab we have one for um Keith urel one two 3 four five six for Melody Goodwin three for Isaac Mass two for Jesus Lea and um so that is where our stickers are at the moment um I'm wondering if we could have a consensus decision at this point just to remove Mr urel from consideration with only one star so right would there be any opposition to doing that I'm not hearing any so for our consensus discussion let's assume that our choices now are between Melody Isaac and Jesus um I guess one place to start would be just to hear from some um some people about why they're supporting different candidates so could we hear um two people say why you are uh supporting um Melody Goodwin yes Mar's orer um I am would be voting for Mel because she has extensive experience and knowledge in education and not only does she have experience as a teacher and an administrator she has crafted budgets as a principal and these are the strengths that will help me and I believe all of us as we Face extraordinarily extraordinary challenges with declining enrollment and skyrocketing costs but I'm delighted that we had so many people that stepped forward great thank you anyone else like to speak for Melody Goodwin I feel like as the only person who put both of my stickers on one candidate that I should probably say something about why I did that um I'll say that when I was first coming around and trying to get involved in education before I even made a decision to to try to join this board um Mel's name came up as someone that I needed to know who could help me understand the pulse help me understand history and help me understand what's going on in our schools so I never forgot that that that was already without me even really asking who should I know they were saying if you're involved in education you should know this person um second uh since the nomination period I have received several veral um emails or pulled aside conversations in the store you know people contacting me voicing their support um having witnessed what Melody has been able to do in the district having witnessed the work uh and and being very active in the community being able to think creatively about the solutions to our problems and I think that those are things that we desperately need right now um as part of our leadership team uh because we we do have a lot of work that is that needs to be doing um and we need someone who's got the experience and the energy um and who's an anchor in in the community thank you very much uh would anyone like to speak to why you put a sticker with Isaac Mass yes please M Childs so one of the things that people might not know unless they do a Freedom of Information Act request is that Isaac emails the committee and from that we can tell that his heart his investment is in the school system additionally his prior legal experience and city council experience do give him some institutional knowledge making him one of the candidates who was more likely to be able to Jump Right In and be effective quickly and I mean he's such a big part of the community with the movie theater and I know one of my biggest experiences with that movie theater are the school fundraisers there that the kids love and helps him so much so he is someone who does do a lot of service in the community thank you anyone else like to speak to Isaac mass please remember Den I spoke with each of the candidates um all all three of them I didn't get a chance to speak with Sean but I spoke with all three of them uh Jesus Melody and Isaac for about an hour each and um it was really wonderful and and Illuminating and I had great conversations with each one of them and I would feel comfortable with either of our stickered candidates moving forward because I think everyone's heart was really in the right place and everyone was showing bravery putting their name forward and um real care and uh thought for our community and my conversation with Isaac was actually really good and I think that he has some great ideas and I was pleasantly surprised that we were aligned on quite a few things um so it was was nice to have a conversation with um somebody that I maybe wouldn't have had in the first place so uh I think we made a bit of a friendship and um so I think that he would do a great job on this board as well as I think uh Melody Goodwin would okay thank you very much um I will speak about Jesus SLA having been the the person who put both my stickers there and he has um total of two stickers both for me right now um I think that Jesus has been uh committed and interested in the schools and funding for the schools um for a long time and has been watching us closely and is very impassioned and cares a lot and is very very bright um and I I really appreciated having him with us at the legislative advocacy training that was put on by the Massachusetts Association of school committees and I think it just it just speaks to his is uh engagement um and caring about about um making sure that our students have what they need to uh reach their goals so um with that I think one um one piece of context that might be useful um um since Isaac has a spouse who works in the schools there are certain kind of rules that need to he'll would need to um abide by related to that or certain votes that he'd have to recuse from so supera could you share what you learned about about that just so folks know I just have a note the notes on my phone so um there would have to be um a conflict of interest disclosure um the state um ethics commission has conflict of interest form that would have to be filed with the city then anything with a um potential financial gain would require the Committee Member to recuse themselves examples of that could be health insurance issues grievances um the budget line relevant to their spouse or family member any negotiation um discussion or any impact any issue that generally impacts their spouses um Employment Group group generally that member would have to recuse thems thank you good information for us to have uh yes mayor dor that was my one concern that I had because when he served on city council he always recused himself in the whole school budget okay good good to know all right um are there any other additional comments that any school committee members would like to make this time all right I'm going to propose another round of sticker voting but this time you only get one sticker so if we can um we will start with you member Childs and go around the other way this time mine goes for Mel okay mine also goes for Mel okay mine stays with Asus okay remember Martin M Goodwin Mel Goodwin okay member Den I will change my sticker to Jesus Jesus okay and Melody Goodwin no any good one all right um well with that um let's see I guess it's a consequential decision so I'll extend the conversation a little bit longer but I guess one I'm wondering if we might at this point decide to um remove um Isaac Mass from consideration any opposition to doing that uh not hearing any so I think we have now narrowed the choice to two candidates with a strong preference um with four stickers for Melody Goodwin and two for Jesus um let's see I guess I just like to have um go around and allow each member who wants to make a statement um or share your thinking um to do so so is there anyone who'd like to begin with where your thinking is now miror Oran I'm where I started with but um I think that was the consensus of the group so um and I think that she has the experience and the knowledge like 25 30 years of experience in every part of this so I definitely voting for me all right great any other comments member Childs I believe that Mel will be highly effective all right great any other comments yes M Martini I would just say that I have a personal experience witnessing uh Mel Goodwin's commitment to student achievement the outcomes of our students and uh to evidence based in instruction ahead of her time and I uh can't forget that and will always appreciate it I do um greatly appreciate Jesus um for his advocacy for school funding um that is something that not very many people take the um time to invest themselves in and uh really Crunch and understand numbers and involve themselves at the state house um for and and I really respect that uh but when it comes down to having to make a choice U my my sticker goes for now any other comments all right um I guess I will say that I uh well I I do really value um the experience that um Melody good one brings to the application I I feel it also has been a bit of a double-edged sword in the past sometimes for the school committee to have former um Administration leaders uh serving on the committee so that's that's one of my um my reasons uh against against um Miss Goodwin's candidacy so um all right well with that I guess I would um uh take a motion to resume our noral Rules of Order and I will initiate a voting process unless anyone else has anything else they want to add before we do that motion okay we have a motion to resume our normal Rules of Order so moved uh a motion from Member seon and a second from a member child's is there a a motion to appoint um Melody Goodwin to the Greenfield school committee so moved motion from Member Martini is there a second seconded all right let us vote um can we do it by roll call please member Jive uh yes um secretary Jive I'm a yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad no mayor dorer yes member seon yes member Childs yes okay the vote is 5 to one congratulations Melody Goodwin on joining at the Greenfield school committee if you'd like to come forward the me the mayor will administer your oath of office and you can join us at the table and president bottomly thank you very much for coming but your services are not needed right yeah did you make the motion to see let's second the last motion to app you made the motion to appoint and who was the second I asked Shane to come up because we've done this on oh nice uh city council before and you couldn't hear it on television great lovely all right raise your right hand I think so too I state your name Melody good one hold the mic right up to whoever is talking I Melody Goodwin do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and impartially that I will faithfully and impartially and to the best of my ability perform the duties of the office and to the best of my abilities perform the duties of the office to which I have been appointed to which I have been appointed in accordance with the ordinances in accordance with the ordinances and the charter of the city of Greenfield and the charter of the city of Greenfield constition and general laws of the Commonwealth the Constitution and the general laws of the Commonwealth and the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the United States congratulations thank you thank [Applause] you all righty great we are moving on to a report of student representatives to the committee student representative tonight all right um this one's rather short tonight so um student council had a very successful trip to the state conference last month in hyanis we'd like to give a shout out to Carly Blanchard who is the unsung hero of Western Massachusetts um Greenfield was once again a gold Council of excellence and an additional highlight was Raising $1,500 as uh as a school for the Special Olympics Polar Plunge on March 22nd we held our annual bleach Awards and spring Olympic Games and the gym looked amazing the seniors won first place for their Men In Black theme and with this and with their points they also earned um the class cup competition for the 2024 year um student council is encouraging everyone to get a blue bag and pick up trash around town for Earth Day um that will take place this month bags are available at the school from Miss Bennett um weather has been wreaking havoc and in the athletic world according to Coach K um boys and girls are the only for track have the only let me restart that boys and girls track are the only teams that have competed girls beat Turner Falls 94 to 45 and boys beat Franklin Tech 89 to 52 we're wishing for better weather soon and you can go to Arbiter live to get Sports schedules 25 ghs Travelers depart this evening for attending Adventure in France during which they will visit Paris the lore Valley and the Normandy Coast please wish wish them Bon voage um French Club is also looking forward to their spring coffee house on Thursday M May 9th as well as co-hosting a group of French students from ntis um France with Frontier and Hopkins from May 3rd to May 12th the library club club welcomed the best-selling author and illustrator Jared krasa to ghs last Tuesday he spoke to the entire school about his career path writing graphic Memoirs and the challenges he faced growing growing up with parents struggling with addiction there was a reception for a small group of students afterwards in the library where they got to meet the author individually and have him sign a copy of his graphic Memoirs that they got to keep this program was generously funded by the friends of the Greenfield Public Library the opioid task force the Massachusetts library Board of Library Commissioners and The Institute of Museum and Library Services AV club will be working on student projects in preparation for the film festival next month and last but not least spectrum is celebrating the Day of Silence break the silence day this April by asking members of the ghs community to take a vow of silence for a day or wear a rainbow ribbon in support of the lgbtq plus Community for of staff and students um that concludes the brief report for today but if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you very much Shane now we'll move on to reports of the administration and we have the uh business manager Andy pette here by Zoom so let's see if I can get the uh audio working for that Andy do you want to come off a mute yes uh everyone uh you have your reports give me just a second to do a sound check here Andy I think you're not quite loud enough let's see try again I about now that's good let me check with our gctv friends is that loud enough for you all yes testing one two testing gctv is that loud enough for you one more time test one more time testing testing one two testing that's good go ahead okay you have your in your packet the year-to DAT budget report for both the local budget uh the revolving accounts and the capital projects uh nothing new to report from the last month other than we've been uh routinely reviewing open purchase orders encumbrances and salary encumbrances and making the changes as we do our normally the year-end closing process um we've been meeting with uh technology regarding the the purchasing of the the Chromebooks that they're going to be doing for end of the year uh and uh also getting ready to do our final reclass for special education tuitions uh for the required amount of circuit breaker that we need to use for the year um I can answer any questions that you might have on anything on any of these reports any questions not seeing any questions for you Andy so I think you're all set okay and if you don't mind continuing to watch via gctv I Can Am shut down my zoom absolutely okay bye bye all right next we have the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning Karen patod a few updates on professional development um the district admin administrative team rolled out uh part one of the scaffolding and checking for understanding at March 27th's faculty meeting and this afternoon we delivered part two at today's faculty meeting we have met and done learning walk number one with the ssos team members and we have uh passed out the aggregate data to all of our principles along with their instructional leadership teams that will be reviewing it and using it to do next steps for instructional strategies some curriculum updates with our Civics Grant uh Miss emmerman took 8th grade to Old stbridge Village and they had a great day today even with the bad weather unfortunately but um over 80 students were able to attend a recreation of an 1830s town meeting and I heard it was phenomenal so very happy that they got to do that Mr Martin has organized a field trip to ammer Cinemas tomorrow they're going to view One Life a documentary about Sir Nicholas Winton and the power of how one person can make a change this directly links with his World War II unit that the students are wrapping up and their continued conversations about agen and what one person can do and make change in in the world we had some Title One sponsored Elementary field trips our third and fourth grade students at each Elementary School have or will visit the Greenfield Public Library over the course of the next four weeks they get a tour of the children's room they engage in a scavenger hunt they learn about the library and summer programming and then at the end they get to engage in an art activity where they decorate their own book Mark that they take home I heard back from Darlene reor the principal at Newton and apparently it was phenomenal so thank you to the Greenfield Public Library uh for hosting us and then tomorrow the third and fourth grade students get to go to the high school well they're they will enjoy a Pioneer Valley Symphony concert um the concert is about Oliver Town who's a mountain lion lost in a big city and he finds his way back home by talking to animals that he encounters and this experience is all done through their orchestra music so what they're really looking forward to that and something I didn't add that Shane reminded me of uh the author that visited the high school uh found an hour and a half in his day to come to the middle school and talk to the fifth graders and he wrote a middle school book called the lunch lady series and Title One funded a book for each of those students and Jarrett was so kind to the fifth grade and did a nice presentation and we thought that he wouldn't be able to sign them but he stayed for uh the remainder of the time so each child got a signed book by him so it was really appreciated and uh the kids were really excited to have that experience so I wanted to share that as well thank you thank you very much superintendent so just a brief reminder about the Staffing process that we're going to be going through you'll see post positions have been posted and more will be posted um that doesn't mean all of those positions are vacant anyone who has a waiver of their teaching license we do need to repost the position um so it's the same process we've been utilizing so please don't panic um I'd also like to share we have hired a few positions already for next year we've um filled one of our school psychologist positions very happy that someone who did um an internship with us this year is staying on and we have also hired our two music teachers for next year the Elementary music um vacancy has been filled for next year and we were able to fill the instrumental music teacher for the elementary level so that's very exciting and we were able to fill an English language learner teacher um that's filling a vacancy that was created earlier this year so we are moving along with some of the positions and then Karen and I are going to GCC tomorrow for a job fair so hopefully that will be fruitful um with other positions we also will expect to have an update about our elementary principal situation shortly um the budget at this point the mayor has forwarded um a budget for the schools that would be a 4% um school committee had voted a 5.8 6 but with the 4% increase um I do not anticipate the need to impact any of our staffing um and I know the vice chairs we've we're working on scheduling a budget subcommittee meeting which should be in the near future May 1 okay you can talk about that later though and then um I know well I'll talk about the eclipse because we haven't talked about that enough we had an eclipse in case anyone didn't know um we did have it we all made it but the important thing is I wanted to share that um the Greenfield Education Foundation very generously purchased um about 500 pairs of the eclipse glasses for the district um UMass astronomy Department um donated 750 Pairs and then the district purchased the rest so every student and staff member was able to have a pair of the eclipse classes um and it does does appear that everyone was able to follow all the safety information that I had been sharing in the schools shared which is fantastic and I will not have to do another eclipse as superintendent so um finally the Green River a little bit of an update I wasn't able to attend the subcommittee meeting last night but um so the process is really the issue is the msba mass School building authority is the overseeing agency that is dictating process and the reason that we need to be I need to be so careful in terms of doing the process is because if we don't do it correctly it will impact the district or the city's ability to get msba funding in the future so clearly we need to make sure we do all the right steps so um right now what ha I have to create notice that I need to ask the mayor and the chair of the school committee they will need to sign off as will I and then um what happens after that there is an audit of the finances around Green River there would be a um I can't think of it can't think of the word just lost it basically they would do um evaluation of the building and then there would be some determination about the status of the loan so um I have a contact out to my contact with msba so that I can clarify the exact protocols so that we don't make a misstep but I just want to share it's going to take a little bit of time the building has been vacant for about four years so um you know I I am going to need a little bit of time to finish the process and then some of the remaining process is going to be dictated by how quickly or not quickly msba does things so it's not going to be a situation resolved prior to my departure from Greenfield Karen's being kept updated on the situation will be kept updated as will all of you but again we need to make sure we're doing it very thoughtfully and correctly so just wanted to make sure I know there's some urgency in the community but we need to balance that with accuracy that's it thank you any questions for the superintendent or assistant superintendent yes mayor disorder I like to thank you for your hard work on that and I I I actually can't imagine but I I had a question about the job fair um well my first question I was going to ask you and you and Karen aren't looking for jobs are you no I I most definitely am not okay just adding a little humor to the evening um so could you just uh tell me a little bit more about that is that for like see who goes to the job fear I is that I believe I'll defer to Karen on this okay I've attended in the past um they have tables set up in the um large room they call their cafeteria I think maybe over at GCC and it's anything from schools to uh Bay State Health to uh attemp agencies so they just host it but they offer uh folks to come and have tables and they can represent whatever industry they're representing with all of their openings so we've had a lot of success in the past because it's a lot of Greenfield folks um we also try to do as many of these as we can so that we can have the pulse on anyone out there that's in the education field last night I spent the night at UMass with their Department of Education with four other administrators and just trying to talk to uh graduating seniors who might be staying in the area looking for jobs so gcc's just one in many that we try to attend so that we can get Greenfield Public Schools name out there and uh really advertise what we're all about and hope to get quality employees out of any fair that we attend okay so it's open to the whole community so um they've advertised elsewhere so it's not just GCC students who attend right I guess I was I was thinking oh the city's always looking for people too so you're going looking for people that might be interested in going into education is that right sort of we are but um as Karen said we're not going to be the only employers prospective employers there they going to be a lot of different employers that um candidates can speak to or wander through and pick up information from different tables so we'll have Flyers available and our flyer has a QR code so even if a prospective employee doesn't want to stop and talk with us they can use their phone take a picture of the QR code it links to the employment page of our website so they can just scan you know walk by and scan everybody's information last followup I premise so if I I was I was thinking of it the opposite way from where you are but I'm just going to follow up with that if if I may if um sometimes we're looking for people to actually come to work for DPW or for something else and would I reach out to you or who who would I like I would have to I can send you the contact information from the GCC folks that reached out to us MH can do that okay thank you sure any other co uh questions hearing none we'll move on to the next item which is our consent agenda our consent agenda is a list of items that we can pass all in one Motion in this case approval of minutes from the March 13 2024 meeting vote to approve the inter interdistrict school choice seats for 2024 2025 vote to approve the G ghs field trip to New York City vote to approve the job description for instructional assistant and acceptance of security camera and door hardware bid so um any member who wishes to may have asked to have one or more of these items removed from the consent agenda if you don't wish to vote on all of them all at once or is there anyone who wishes to remove something from the consent agenda could we remove item e yes we will remove item e acceptance of security camera and door hardware bid any other items okay so we're take a motion to approve the consent agenda agenda which is now items a through D so moved motion by member Martini is there a second seconded second by member Childs any discussion all right let's vote all those in favor I any opposed any extensions the consent agenda items a through d uh passes unanimously we'll move on to uh acceptance of security camera and door hardware bid Andy was um a primary on our work with this could I call him so he could weigh in oh sure Abol if that's okay thank you okay great well we'll pause for a moment for the superintendent to reach our business manager I did read it I think it's on it's online I did okay we're looking yeah the information is in our electronic materials what page oh sorry Andy it's Glenn we're in the school committee meeting and we need you is it okay if I put you on the the speaker again okay great so just to catch you up um we removed the item acceptance of security camera and door hardware bid from the consent agenda so we're going to discuss that item um separately so I guess um we'll start with um a motion to accept the security camera and door hardware bid as ex as presented is there someone who make so moved motion by member Martini is there a second second second second by member goodwi um so uh discussion yeah I can um share that the primary reason why I wanted to pull it out is because unlike the other items I didn't feel fully qualified to understand if it was appropriate for me to consent because I didn't understand like yes I can read through all these documents but does this say what you wanted it to say does it do what you wanted it to do and are we all comfortable it's and and I also want to be clear that the work being proposed is modernizing and updating but not fundamentally adding or increasing and I want to I I need to be clear on this so yes it does what we want it to do okay um the process is that we um the school committee had previously voted for us to enter into a contract with a designer they work with us to create the bid specs and to put it out to bid um Diana Schindler the city's um mcppo reviewed everything prior to it being being posted and then following the period where it's out we also did a vendor walkth through where there were a fairly large number of people who came they walked through the facilities with the designer as well as our facilities director and Our IT director and then bids were submitted they were all submitted electronically and the designer conducted the bid opening so to speak looked at everything online and the bid um was awarded to to the lowest responsive bidder meaning the lowest bid that did reply with all the documents that are required and all of that so yes it does do what we wanted it to do um there are additions to the security measures but um security is one of the um topics that it's appropriate to have an executive session so I just want to be mindful of the Q&A just absolutely yes yes there are some conditions as well as some upgrades yes any other discussion or questions okay are we ready to vote okay um so the motion has been made and seconded for the committee to accept the security camera and door hardware bid as presented um so um all those in favor I all those opposed nay uh member den and member seon are saying nay and I will abstain the motion carries 4 two one great thanks Andy we're all set after all that thank you sure all right um we're moving into uh policy section J and it's listed as first read um however because this um policy section affects so much involving the kind of operation of the schools and in light of wanting to start to prepare for next year at all um we uh I would like us to see if there if the school committee would um accept this um policy um or approve this policy for um immediate implementation um and to do that in the past we used to we have a policy that asks us to have a first and second reading for policies in the past our process has been to vote to um approve it on an emergency basis but I learned today that our what is recommended is that we have two motions the first to temporarily suspend our um requirement for a two read um a true read policy a true read um approval process and just to accept it on a first read um so and then after after that then we would vote on whether to approve it or not approve it so the first vote is basically to say for this particular set of policies um whether the committee wishes to or not to suspend its normal practice of having a a a practice of having two readings for policies or sets of policies and then another um motion to um approve the um revised policy section as presented any questions before we do those two votes about what the process is I see a question remember good one can you maybe you can say what you heard me say as well as can and I can see what what was missing in my explanation do you mind up pushing your green button yeah some push twice yeah there you go the first motion is to read it and come back to it is that what you were saying uh no okay so the the first motion I guess first of all you have to it starts with knowing that the school committee has a policy that requires polic changes to go through two readings so for example the normal process would be we'll do section e we'll do policy EAA Walkers and writers for a first reading tonight and then in may we would do a second reading the policy would only take effect after the second reading and the second vote but in some cases it helps the um functioning of the schools if we can enact policies effective immediately to do that we need to temporarily susp spend our own policy of requiring one vote on one month and another vote on on the next so that's what our first vote would be about so I move to suspend the current practice of two reads yes a motion to suspend our current two reading practice for uh section J students second and there's a second from um mayor dorer any discussion okay hearing none let's vote on that um that motion which would allow us to um pass this um policy section with one reading um uh all those in favor say I I I I all those opposed all those abstaining oh one opposed oos one opposed and um I'll I guess I already voted well I'll change my vote from a yay to an abstain so we have five votes for um for yes one vote no and one AB abstention great so now we will consider section J's students um and uh the motion would be um to um approve section J students as presented effect effective immediately we have a motion to that effect so move a motion by mayor dorer is there a second second from Member Goodwin uh any discussion yes mayor dorer so so could who's the on the policy committee again which ones our policy committee currently member den and myself and member pretti was on the committee but um no this was the long one this is the long so I just like to ask and admit I hadn't quite finished all of that I apologize could you give us the highlights of the changes in that one or would you care to do that or not well a significant there's a significant number of changes I saw that but the general um approach for this is part of our overall overall overhaul of our policies and we are being Guided by that by the Massachusetts assoc iation of school committees um the the changes are largely to bring our policies in line with the law and also to bring them up to um to best practices so for the vast majority of the policies in this section that was really the the the process I guess or or what what you will see in in the revised policy um document thank you look like you did a lot of work on that well we're very lucky that the superintendent actually does the mask does a lot of work for us and the superintendent does it um and so if there are any items that the school committee would like to see us take a policies you'd like to see us take a closer look at you can do that you can pass this and also send certain items back to us to bring back so if there's any items that anyone's concerned about I'm sure we'd be happy to to put them on a future policy agenda but I my personal um perspective is I really want have want us to be in line with the law and best practice so one in doubt I encourage uh encourage approval of this any other comments or discussion okay with that um all in favor say I I I all oppose say no no one knows and any abstentions I'll abstain so oh uh two abstentions so member martini and myself uh abstained everyone else approved the motion passes thank you very much now let me have pull up my handy a cheat sheet for the uh section e EAA okay I move that we amend uh policy um EAA Walkers and writers as presented on first reading I say that let me try that again I move that we approve the first reading of amendments to policy EAA Walkers and writers on first reading as presented ah so that was a me motioning and who seconded um remember good one great uh discussion I guess we could give a kind of over orientation to this one so there was um our previous transportation coordinator Jake had brought up the fact that we were um the district had at some point in the past begun transporting in a manner that was inconsistent with our policy in that some areas of Greenfield that were within the mile and a half that were previously identified in the policy for elementary the students in those areas had been receiving Transportation while students just beyond that um had not so the request um that we made administratively was could the committee just clarify what the policy should be whether you wanted to amend it to make it look more like what the practice was or if you wanted the practice to look like what the policy was and so Karen and I met with um the bus company to make sure that any recommendations that we were talking about could be accommodated by the buses and they said that yes they could and so um at this point the recommendations that were talked about at the policy subcommittee um are now in line with practice so the policy has been amended great any other discussion or questions I just wanted to flag for folks that that updating the policy to reflect practice technically does impact some of our considerations regarding redistricting and how we will provide transportation moving forward to students who whose parents opt to keep them in their in their school even if it's not the one that they would otherwise be redistricted into and so just keeping that in mind I don't think it's a problem but it is something we just need to be aware of when our when our policies impact our other policies got it thank you any other discussion okay let's vote all those in in favor I all those uh against I'll abstain so motion carries great um move on to school committee reports um uh I just want to take a moment to uh thank um member pretti for her service on the school committee um as she gued us through some very difficult times with covid and uh several different superintendent changes um and so many appreciations for um your service member prti if you're listening and also um want to just thank everybody who um submitted letters of interest to Phil the vacancy um we're very lucky to have such a strong qualified uh candidate pool the the uh choices were were difficult but I appreciate everybody who uh expressed interest in congratulations again to our new member Goodwin um and so we'll move on to uh reports of the subcommittees um budget and finance budget and finance subcommittee will next meet on May 1st at 3 o'clock I anticipate we will discuss a update in regards to our current budget season for fy2 and the creation of an annual budget calendar sounds great any questions okay uh policy and program subcommittee um in addition to the item we voted on tonight um member Den did bring forward the idea of us um creating a policy that would require uh super majorities for certain votes um such as hiring or firing of a superintendent or approval of a budget or approval of a redistricting plan um I got to speak to our attorney about that today um it in practice as you saw tonight the policy can by a simple majority vote um suspend its own policies um so if we had a super majority vote uh super majority policy it could be um it could be suspended by a majority of the committee so so we'll explore it a little bit more but I guess we're not seeing it as that much of a uh you know we we hope and encourage ourselves and future School committees to consider um having as many members at meetings as possible for important votes um but it sounds like our tools to enforce that are limited to say the least um so uh that's kind of the status of that particular policy that we've been we explored at our last meeting uh member do have anything you would add I did read that um letter from the attorney thank you for going down the rabbit hole of that uh the reason that I brought it is because when we go to do a professional development with masc they give us best practices and that was the best practice that they said that we should adopt so um I immediately thought why can't we just have a policy that says a super majority has to vote to change the policy rules and then it would just sort of solve itself but it definitely seems like maybe instead of having policies Collide we could just explore it a little bit more and maybe that's not applic to applicable to us but I did see it happen last year and I'm thinking of the future people in the future who are going to be making these decisions um when we're not here anymore and um I would hate to have anything be taken advantage of thank you um the executive subcommittee is myself uh Vice chair martini and secretary genive and we did have a meeting and uh it was a very Lively discussion and uh we discussed um different goals of the committee and items that are already in the queue um so um I don't remember a lot of details of this moment about about to share with few other than things you already know about such as um next month we will be having um a representative from Mas come to do a training with us about superintendent evaluation so um uh so stay tuned we'll keep meeting and keep bringing things to you in this forum um redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee great excuse me so I for those who don't know I'm the chair of that committee joined by merus orer and member Childs we met just yesterday I will fully admit AA Kula I did not record that meeting I didn't I didn't press the record button uh I will note that there is a setting on the zoom back end that we can click that automatically records anytime you open a meeting just a thought you can always pause it you can always pause it it would help anyway um we uh had we have two standing agenda items so far that that are print and one of them is Green River school which I think our superintendent gave a phenomenal update around and I don't feel the need to go any deeper into it um but then also uh redistricting specifically what's our plan with actually making this happen getting a timeline Etc um our one remaining question that we had unresolved was actually I think just solved SL postponed by the vote we just took about Walkers and writers because our question was do we understand the impact cost-wise on on transporting people transporting students to their school of choice or their school that they will choose to remain in even if they're redistributed we just wanted to know the cost but now that our transportation might shift and the actual routes the suggestion from the super was to was to wait a year and understand how that actually shakes out before we get quotes about what any additional cost might be might interpreting that your note correctly I do think you are accurate in that I think we need to see what this will look like from the bus company but I don't necessarily think it it has to be a year okay I think because they'll start running the routes for next school year very soon so I think we'll be able to get um some additional information faster than that but great I yes that that's fantastic and we can we we'll touch base offline about exactly when that is happening um uh we I did ask uh on the agenda for additional future agenda items that came up from anyone and the one that we sort of all discussed and would like to make a plan around is developing some sort of communication plan and strategy to the community about when exactly these changes will be happening and when parents might need to make certain decisions about whether they're keeping their kid in in a school or not um but just to make sure that everyone knows what's happening when it's happening when they might need to do something about it um and and basically be as supportive as we can making this transition smooth for folks that's that's it any questions thank you uh let's see um I don't think we have an update on it collective bargaining and uh Amy PR was our representative to the collaborative for educational services so that um at the next meeting I will um I'll make appointments to fill the the spots that Amy formerly held um so City Planning and construction representative anything on that so we met yesterday and there were just three things that were School relevant one of them uh the committee talked about the need for an online dashboard that has certain long-term plans and studies specifically referencing the school you study from the elementary level so the committee is looking at publicizing and making these long-term plans on the note of long-term plans there was positivity positivity expressed towards and this is a long-term not in the works right now but a goal to move towards of one Elementary School for all of the kids rather than maintaining three buildings long term and the final biggest thing goes back to the Green River School uh the uh planning and construction committee is very keen on being kept up to date with when the school will be decommission IED and will go back under City's responsibility to do things with any questions or comments okay great um our legislative representative member Den I have a report before that though oh sorry school committee handbook adoc committee oh sorry I skipped over you that's that's okay I just I have it in front of me so maybe I could do that one first yes please do um we met um that would be member ston me Vice chair martini and I are in that subcommittee and we met on March 25th in a working session format and created headers and a table of contents we made a list of operating procedures and we discussed that we would like to retitle the document to be GPS School Committee Member and community resource handbook in doing so the document will accomplish the need to accommodate current and new school committee members as well as community members so I have an entire we did so much work I'm so proud of as I have an entire list of headers so some of these are going to need some input from the full committee uh we recognized that there were some topics that were that needed more deep discussion so I'm wondering how you would like that disseminated would you like like me to read it to you now or would you like it to be sent in a format that would work to gather input I'd love to hear it now and I'd love to hear which items um you think the PO committee should consider all right warning because it's long okay that's why I asked of time um our suggested headers subheaders and topics are a statement of inclusion that is something that we think will need a little bit more of a deep discussion mission statement also a deep discussion item code of conduct with consequences Community frequently Asked question and their needs potentially something that we would survey our community and conduct that through the summer an acronym breakdown page a goal setting process for the committee our budget calendar our connection potentially to an academic dashboard which is a set of metrics um and data that some school committees have put in their um in their handbooks and we found several um mentions of that in some of the samples that you sent us um but that would require some more deep discussion about what metrics and data we would use the annual visitation to schools for facility assessments school committee Partnerships with local community members developing a section for current and new members utilizing the resources we already have online creating a section for community members to obtain information on the role and function of the GPS school committee and how to work with them getting a list of outward facing members that are points of contact for families and community members um making sure that our statement of inclusion and our mission statement that we develop is aligned with the district district and our policies develop the code of conduct and refer it to the policy subcommittee or do we do it as the handbook subcommittee that was a question that we had for you that's something that came up and um also something that we wanted to talk about more in depth that we had some other questions about was how to create a community frequently asked questions database how can we interact with the community through a survey so all of these thoughts we had and wrote down and we are going to need more input from all of you in order to fully flush this out okay thank you very much um let's see how to proceed I guess one thing would be to ask if there are any what your burning questions are that we might uh discuss right now okay yeah burning questions right now h um some of these things we've already talked about and sort of informally agreed upon already like the acronym breakdown page we've mentioned that that's something we've identified that that's needed um Vice chair Martini's already mentioned the budget calendar um but um and we do our annual School tours so that's something that's sort of already in the work so there are things that are already in place but the things I think that we really needed to talk about was the statement of inclusion and the mission statement and how we can take our mission statement at GPS and maybe expand upon that and bring it into the handbook so I'm sort of curious what people would like to see from that aspect of it and [Music] um the connection to the academic dashboard might not be something we can discuss tonight um and also get part of it too is just getting an idea of if there's any thing that we didn't mention in this long list are there things that pop out that you thought you would like to have in this handbook that maybe we' have not covered okay great thank you um well I guess one thing I could say that might help narrow our discretion a little bit is for things that are very obviously in the scope of a of a soci Committee Member handbook that if you want to craft things and bring we can get them on the agenda and have a discussion and vote on them or give you feedback or what process you would like us to follow that seems like one bucket of things like the inclusion statement and the mission statement seem very obviously within the scope of a of a student handbook um which is part of your charge um and then there are other items where I feel like um well first I should take respons ability and that it's my job as a school committee chair to give ad hoc committees a a very defined scope of like what to do and what not to do um so in my mind I would say that some of the elements seem a little bit outside of the scope of what I was imagining so I would love to hear I wonder if the handbook committee would consider um I'm wondering what the best process is maybe you um uh maybe you as chair um member D could share with me kind of like a what you think would be kind of like the scope of the handbook committee's work and then we could discuss that and um I can um we can figure out from there what what will be in the scope of the handbook committee's work does that make sense okay um so uh yeah and so since and so um I guess the other another bucket was your question to the full committee about um if there were other items that the school committee would like to see included in the handbook so let me see if there are any is there any feedback from the committee on that besides the items that were listed yeah m ston I'm not sure if I should be making a point of order or something like that for this but it occurs to me having heard a list read once people are unlikely to know what's missing enough to know to give you an answer right now I think it would be really helpful if they had a document to look at um great and given some time okay I would like to agree with that completely and also I I just want to say that I really like the community focus of the vision that you've laid out and that it is a document not just for the committee but for the whole community and I think that would really help people thank you um so maybe that is a um a next step is to ask the committee to um submit that outline and um to to us for basically approval and discussion I guess um but I know there was a we did share with the committee the work that you had shared with me so did committee members not receive receive I did not see it in matal okay all right okay um that may have been my mistake so um we'll maybe we should bring it back then I can but I I think that well personally I have a one thought of something that I that I didn't hear you list um and I think if members do have items like that is okay to share them tonight but we can certainly revisit it um but I you know the the law requires that we as school committee members attend charting the course and I think we're supposed to submit our um certificates to the city clerk's office but there isn't much of an enforcement mechanism I'm I'm not sure it how it gets addressed how we keep track of which members have attended and submitted their certificates and which ones haven't and how to encourage people to do that if they don't get around to it um so maybe that's something that the handbook committee could take up absolutely okay any other feedback for the hook committee I have question okay and then member good one so who keeps track of then if you everybody's done their ethics test the clerk keeps track of that yeah yeah the city clerk I just wanted to say before I submitted my my letter I was very impressed by the website um you know to see school committee and then to see for new school committee members all of the different pieces were there and I was really impressed with that that's never been something that's been available to people on our website so I think that that's something that you should be very proud of that's definitely a section that we're going to sort of add in so this would just be a more of a broadening yep and those materials have been up there for at least uh at least five years I think so it's a really wonderful resource and I hope the community as well as uh school committee members take advantage of that since it all is all up there on the website um any other any other uh feedback for the handbook committee well thank you very much it's a kind of a new uh project for us and I appreciate your patience as I'm kind of feeling my way as chair and I appreciate you're feeling your way as a as a committee I really appreciate your work on [Music] it um are there any other items I've missed so far on our list member deneve sorry me again I have the legislative and the division five report great um on March 27th we had our masc sponsored day on the hill event prep with Jason Frasier in our new library we had members from jolio cadley Pioneer Gil montigue and Mohawk School committees present and it was wonderful that Greenfield could host and I hope that we can do so again we discussed three main goals number one was rural Aid that we'd like to see fully funded at 60 million rather than the 5.5 million presented in the governor's budget um goal number two was an implicit price deflator of 1.35% % that more fully reflects actual inflation 4.5% and goal number three a commitment by the legislature to form a special education Transportation tuition study group as described in the Thrive act um then the next step is to finalize meeting times with different legislators for the day on the hill which is May 6th as well as reach out to our other sister committees for carpool possibilities a detailed schedule I will send out next week to you about that this um day on the hill prep day prompted a request for an expanded event which will be taking place on April 25th via Zoom from 5:30 to 700 p.m.

just ch just changed uh this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chairperson at this time don't see anybody great we will begin with um public comment or is anyone signed up for a public comment tonight you have three minutes just say your name and my name is Melissa Webb and I live in Greenfield so I guess one thing that I like to always talk about is redistricting because that's a Hot Topic but I have some I guess positive news through the calendar fundraiser which raised over 17 I say that's right 17,000 um through a lot of dedication from all the pto's pulling together and working together um the three Elementary PTO are hoping to get together at some point and come forward with some ideas of Our Own as a way to help with the redistricting process so that is what I have to say on that oh oh the health and wellness policy here I'm coming for you now um so the fifth grade did an amazing job they had penny wars where they raised almost $3,000 and less a little over I think a little over $3,000 and less than a week pretty impressive got very competitive was very awesome they donated 50% of the profit to Shriners and the other was left for them to do kind of within boundaries of what they wanted so they have come up with multiple ideas on how to do it and one of them was to bring in an ice cream truck and now with the health and wellness policy they are not able to bring in an ice cream truck and I'll have a little bit of ice cream uh that was just one of the things so you know when we're making policies and trying to come up with better ideas and better ways sometimes something that maybe unhealthy in like a large quantity could be a nice little treat for these kids who really work their tails off to bring in $100 bills and boxes of pennies that is all thank you any other public comment all right hearing none we will move on to our process of electing a new school committee member um we had uh letters of interest from Keith urel Melody Goodwin Isaac Mass hazus Lea and Shan Hoy Sean Hoy has withdrawn his name from consideration Isaac Keith and Jesus could not be with us tonight for various reasons Melody is here Melody do you have a statement you would like to make to the committee please come forward you have three minutes who's got the timer okay tell me when good evening my name is Melody Goodwin and I would like to be a member of the school committee I respect the work you're doing and I would be an asset to your committee I've been an educator for 41 years and can proudly say every decision I made as a teacher and administrator was based on what I believed was best for children children always come first I've taught grades K through 12 I've been a student council adviser yearbook adviser math Council coach and a member of many committees I come from a family of teachers two of my aunts were high school English teachers my sister was a special ed teacher and my mother was a homech teacher which is why I don't cook education was a priority in our family and service a way of life somebody was always studying at our kitchen table I was also a vice principal principal and District administrator as a vice principal I designed a project that required seventh graders to pass the US citizenship test to participate in a field trip to Washington DC a few years ago I took some friends to DC and I contacted Jim McGovern's office to get a tour of the capital for our group our guide from the govern's office walked up to me shook my hand and said you were my middle school principal when you brought me here in seventh grade I knew I would come back here to work the hearts of teachers expand when we find out we make a difference Educators make a difference I served as an administrator in Greenfield for 10 years I've watched green field school committee meetings for over 20 years first as a resident and then as an administrator some people watch reality TV shows principles watch school committee meetings the amazing Buzz nimow Carol Jacobs Jim deine and Mike Smith were the leaders when I first started to watch school committee on Sunday afternoons later Mike Smith would become my superintendent in South Hadley and later I would dedicate a school in his name Michael E Smith Middle School was my first school it serves 800 students in grades 5 through eight and they're still taking children to Washington DC I lived in Greenfield and worked in South Hatley for 9 years fate would have it that I would meet and learn from the people I watched on Sunday afternoons I retired from Newton School three years ago I served as a GPS administrator for 10 years I worked for four superintendents in Greenfield and have watched the challenges the school committee faces I know the history of Greenfield I know the GPS schools I know the children the families of Greenfield since I retired I've been subbing at Franklin County Tech and enjoying a K12 Life I share classrooms with young adults who I watched learn to read and tie their shoes children are the future and they deserve the best education we can give them and a special shout out tonight to Jay pinsky's journalism class they had to write speeches this week so they graded mine so I know they're watching tonight and making sure I didn't talk too fast the three minute limmit was was tough today and I was told to breathe so I've been breathing and a really great thanks to the children and they want to know how come you guys don't get paid so it was a real example of how a speech makes a difference thank you for your service to the Greenfield school district thank you excellent thank thank you very much so uh just a little orientation to the process or how we um vote on oh first I want to check um I for neglected to check my computer if anyone uh joining us by Zoom wanted to participate in public comment if so please come off mute now okay not seeing anybody um so the process for the school committee to select a new member to join us is that we um we vote and if we have a majority of members voting for a single candidate that person becomes a um a school Committee Member uh the mayor has agreed to swear in if we uh select somebody tonight um they can be sworn in tonight and come right up to that chair and start serving on the school committee that's how I came onto the school committee in May of 2019 I think think it was um if um if we hit an impass and there are it's a tii vote uh the city council president per our city Charter um selects the um successful candidate and so thank you um president bottomly for agreeing to be here tonight in case we hit an impass I'm very hopeful that we as a committee may be able to select our own um member without having to rely on that but I appreciate you being there as a safeguard um so any questions about that about how the that that part of the process will go all right um my proposal is that we um not begin by making motions for one candidate or another but rather that we kind of uh suspend our normal Rules of Order to have a consensus building discussion that I would facilitate to see if we might be able to reach um at least some consensus or at least narrow the field down to to um to two candidates um before we vote um because otherwise it can be a little bit chaotic with this many number of people um applying and um I feel like that might be a useful um way to go so um could I hear a motion to suspend our normal Rules of Order for a consensus discussion there's a motion from mayor dorer is there a second seconded second from Member seon any discussion all right let's vote all those in favor say I I I I any opposed any extensions um all right we have suspended our normal Rules of Order for a consensus build discussion um when in my days of uh facilitating um strategic planning sessions with nonprofits what we would do is um a method not of of voting but of polling to get a sense of kind of where the energy is around around a certain choice and so I'd like you to imagine that I have given you each um two stickers um and that the names of the candidates are on a on a flip chart on the wall Keith Melody Isaac and Jesus and you have two stickers you can do whatever you want with them you can put them on two stickers on one candidate or one on two different candidates um just to get a picture if you had to choose um where to where your energy was in terms of uh selecting a school committee candidate where would you put those stickers so that's how I'd like to begin the discussion maybe just um going around could we start with you mayor just because you happen to be there on the left um my two stickers are Mel Goodwin and Isaac Mass okay thank you Elizabeth remember Den Eve I'm not sure of my two stickers yet you want to think a little longer I would like to think a little longer all right remember Martini Goodwin and urel okay and um I will put my two stickers on Jesus remember ston right now both of my stickers are going for Melanie Goodwin all right two stickers for Melody and M child's well I think any of the people could do a great job and I would highly recommend that uh if you're not picked tonight to go ahead and run next time please uh that said my stickers I think I'm gonna have to go with the mayor with Mel and Isaac Mel and Isaac great okay so with that we have um one sticker for um Mr urel one for Miss Goodwin one for Mr mass and one for Mr Lea um I mean I'm sorry two for Isaac mass and two for Jus Lea so one five two and two um as part of our oh we haven't come back to member denie sorry where are your stickers my stickers will have to go with the uh mayor and member Childs on uh Melody and um Isaac Mass all all righty excellent so to update our sticker tally we have one for um Keith urel one two three four five six for Melody Goodwin three for Isaac Mass two for hazus Lea and um so that is where our stickers are at the moment um I'm wondering if we could have a consensus decision at this point just to remove Mr urel from consideration with only one star there would there be any opposition to doing that I'm not hearing any so for our consensus discussion let's assume that our choices now are between Melody Isaac and Jesus um I guess one place to start would be just to hear from some um some people people about why they're supporting different candidates so could we hear um two people say why you are uh supporting um Melody Goodwin yes marage is orer um I am would be voting fale because she has extensive experience and knowledge in education and not not only does she have experience as a teacher and an administrator she has crafted budgets as a principal and these other the strengths that will help me and I believe all of us as we Face extraordinarily extraordinary challenges with declining enrollment and skyrocketing costs but I'm delighted that we had so many people that stepped forward great thank you anyone else like to speak for Melody Goodwin I feel like as the the only person who put both of my stickers on one candidate there that I should probably say something about why I did that um I'll say that when I was first coming around and trying to get involved in education before I even made a decision to to try to join this board um Mel's name came up as someone that I needed to know who could help me understand the pulse help me understand history and help me understand what's going on in our schools so I never forgot that that it was already without me even really asking who should I know they were saying if you're you're involved in education you should know this person um second uh since the nomination period I have received several um emails or pulled aside conversations in the store you know people contacting me voicing their support um having witnessed what Melody has been able to do in the district having witnessed the work uh and and being very active in the community being able to think creatively about the solutions to our problems and I think that those are things that we desperately need right now um as part of our leadership team uh because we we do have a lot of work that is that needs to be doing um and we need someone who's got the experience and the energy um and who's an anchor in in the community thank you very much uh would anyone like to speak to why you put a sticker with Isaac Mass yes please M Childs so one of the things that people might not know unless they do a Freedom of Information Act request is that Isaac emails the committee and from that we can tell that his heart and his investment is in the school system additionally his prior legal experience and city council experience do give him some institutional knowledge making him one of the candidates who was more likely to be able to Jump Right In and be effective quickly and I mean he's such a big part of the community with the movie theater and I know one of my biggest experiences with that movie theater are the school fundraisers there that the kids love and helps them so much so he is someone who does do a lot of service in the community thank you anyone else like to speak to Isaac mass please member genive I spoke with each of the candidates um all all three of them I didn't get a chance to speak with Shawn but I spoke with all three of them uh Jesus Melody and Isaac for about an hour each and um it was really wonderful and and Illuminating and I had great conversations with each one of them and I would feel comfortable with either of our stickered candidates moving forward because I think everyone's heart was really in the right place and everyone was showing bravery putting their name forward and um real care and uh thought for our community and my conversation with Isaac was actually really good and I think that he has some great ideas and I was pleasantly surprised that we were aligned on quite a few things um so it was nice to have a conversation with um somebody that I maybe wouldn't have had in the first place so uh I think we made a bit of a friendship and um so I think that he would do a great job on this board as well as I think uh Melody Goodwin would okay thank you very much um I will speak about the Jesus SLA having been the the person who put both my stickers there and he has a total of two stickers both for me right now um I think that Jesus has been uh committed and interested in the schools and funding for the schools um for a long time and has been watching us closely and is very impassioned and cares a lot and is very very bright um and I I really appreciated having him with us at the legislative advocacy training that was put on by the Massachusetts Association of school committees and I think it just it just speaks to his uh engagement um and caring about about um making sure that our students have what they need to uh reach their goals so um with that I think one um one piece of context that might be useful um um since Isaac has a spouse who works in the schools there are certain kind of rules that need to he'll would need to um abide by related to that or certain votes that he'd have to recuse from so superintendent could you share what you learned about about that just so folks know I just have a note the notes on my phone so um there would have to be um a conflict of interest interest disclosure um the state um ethics commission has conflict of interest form that would have to be filed with the city then anything with a um potential financial gain would require the Committee Member to recuse themselves examples of that could be health insurance issues grievances um the budget line relevant to their spouse or family member any negotiation um dis discussion or any impact any issue that generally impacts their spouses um Employment Group generally that member would have to recuse themselves thank you good information for us to have uh yes mayor dor that was my one concern that I had because when he served on city council he always recused himself in the whole school budget okay good good to know all right um are there any other additional comments that any school committee members would like to make at this time all right I'm gonna propose another round of sticker voting but this time you only get one sticker so if we can um we will start with you member child and go around the other way this time mine goes for Mel okay mine also goes for Mel okay mine stays with Asus okay M Martin Melody goodw Mel good okay member Den I will change my sticker to Jesus Jesus okay and Melody Goodwin a good one all right um well with that um let's see I guess it's a consequential decision so I'll extend the conversation a little bit longer but I guess one I'm wondering if we might at this point decide to um remove um Isaac Mass from consideration any opposition to doing that uh not hearing any so I think we have now narrowed the choice to two candidates with a strong preference um with four stickers for Melody Goodwin and two for Jesus um let's see I guess I just like to have um go around and allow each member who wants to make a statement um or share your thinking um to do so so is there anyone who'd like to begin with where your thinking is now MERS or I'm where I started with but um I think that was the consensus of the group so um and I think that she has the experience and the knowledge like 25 30 years of experience in every part of this so I'm definitely voting for M all right great any other comments member Childs I believe that Mel will be highly effective all right great any other comments yes MMA Martini I would just say that I have a personal experience witnessing uh Mel Goodwin's commitment to student achievement the outcomes of our students and uh to evidence-based instruction ahead of her time and I uh can't forget that and will always appreciate it I do um greatly appreciate Jesus um for his advocacy for school funding um that is something that not very many people take the um time to invest themselves in and uh really Crunch and understand numbers and involve themselves at the state house um for and and I really respect that uh but when it comes down to having to make a choice um my my sticker goes from now any other comments all right um I guess I will say that I uh well I I do really value um the experience that um Melody good one brings to the application I I feel it also has been a bit of a double-edged sword in the past sometimes for the school committee to have former um Administration leaders uh serving on the committee so that's that's one of my um my reasons uh against against um Miss Goodwin's candidacy so um all right well with that I guess I would um uh take a motion to resume our normal Rules of Order and I will initiate a uh voting process unless anyone else has anything else they want to add before we do that motion okay I have a motion to resume our normal Rules of Order so moved uh a motion from Member seon and a second from a member child's is there a motion to appoint um Melody Goodwin to the Greenfield school committee so moved motion from Member Martini is there a second seconded all right let us vote um can we do it by roll call please member Jive uh yes um secretary Jim I'm a yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad no mayor diser yes member seon yes member Childs yes okay the vote is 5 to one congratulations Melody Goodwin on joining the Greenfield school committee if you'd like to come forward the me the mayor will administer your oath of office and you can join us at the table and president bottomly thank you very much for coming but your services are not needed right yeah did you make the motion to see let's second the last motion you made the motion to Appo and who was the second as Shane to come up we've this oh nice city council before great lovely raise your right hand I think so too I st your name I Melody good hold the mic right up to whoever is talking I Melody Goodwin solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and impartially that I will faithfully and impartially and to the best of my abili perform the duties of the office and to the best of my abilities perform the duties of the office which I have been appointed to which I have been appointed will in accordance with the ordinances and the charter of the city of Greenfield and the charter of the city of Greenfield the constition and general laws of the Commonwealth the Constitution and the general laws of the Commonwealth and the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the United States thank you thank [Applause] you all righty great we are moving on to a report of student representatives to the committee student representative tonight right um this one's rather short tonight so so um student council had a very successful trip to the state conference last month in hyanis we'd like to give a shout out to Carly Blanchard who is the unsung hero of Western Massachusetts um Greenfield was once again a gold Council of excellence and an additional highlight was Raising $1,500 as uh as a school for the Special Olympics Polar Plunge on March 22nd we held our annual bleach Awards and spring Olympic Games and the gym looked amazing the seniors won first place for their Men In Black theme and with this and with their points they also earned um the class cup competition for the 2024 year um student council is encouraging everyone to get a blue bag and pick up trash around town for Earth Day um that will take place this month bags are available at the school from Miss Bennett um weather has been wreaking havoc and the in the athletic world according to Coach K um boys and girls are the only for track have the only let me restart that boys and girls track are the only teams that have competed girls beat Turner Falls 94 to 45 and boys beat Franklin Tech 8 9 to 52 we're wishing for better weather soon and you can go to Arbiter live to get Sports schedules 25 ghs Travelers depart this evening for a 10-day Adventure in France during which they will visit Paris the lur Valley and the Normandy Coast please wish wish them bon voyage um French Club is also looking forward to their spring coffee house on Thursday M May 9th as well as co-hosting a group of French students from NES um France with Frontier and Hopkins from May 3rd to May 12th the library club club will W the bestselling author and illustrator Jarrett kosasa to ghs last Tuesday he spoke to the entire school about his career path writing graphic Memoirs and the challenges he faced growing up with parents struggling with addiction there was a reception for a small group of students afterwards in the library where they got to meet the author individually and have him sign a copy of his graphic Memoirs that they got to keep this program was generously funded by the friends of the Greenfield Public Library the opioid task force the Massachusetts library Board of Library Commissioners and The Institute of Museum and Library services AV club will be working on student projects in preparation for the film festival next month and last but not least spectrum is celebrating the Day of Silence break the silence day this April by asking members of the ghs community to take a vow of silence for a day or wear a rainbow ribbon in support of the lgbtq plus Community for of staff and students um that concludes the brief report for today but if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you very much now we'll move on to reports of the administration and we have the uh business manager Andy pette uh here by Zoom so let's see if I can get the uh audio working for that Andy do you want to come off a mute yes uh everyone uh you have your report give me just a second to do a sound check here Andy I think you're not quite loud enough let's see try again how about now that's good let me check with our gctv friends is that loud enough for you all testing testing one two testing gctv is that loud enough for you test one more testing testing one two testing that's good go ahead okay you have your in your packet the year-to DAT budget report for both the local budget uh the Revol accounts and the capital projects uh nothing new to report from the last month other than we've been uh routinely reviewing open purchase orders incumbrances and salary incumbrances and making the changes as we do our normally the yearend closing process um we've been meeting with uh technology regarding the the purchasing of the Chromebooks that they're going to be doing for end of the year uh and also getting ready to do our final reclass for special education tuitions uh for the required amount of circuit breaker that we need to use for the year um I can answer any questions that you might have on anything on any of these reports any questions not seeing any questions for you Andy so I think you're all set okay and if you don't mind continuing to watch via gctv I can shut down my zoom absolutely okay bye bye all right next we have the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning Karen patod a few updates on professional development um the district admin administrative team rolled out uh part one of the scaffolding and checking for understanding at March 27th's faculty meeting and this afternoon we delivered part two at today's faculty meeting we have met and done learning walk number one with the ssos team members and we have uh passed out the aggregate data to all of our principles along with their instructional leadership teams that will be reviewing it and using it to do next steps for instructional strategies some curriculum updates with our Civics Grant uh Miss emmer took eighth grade to Old Sturbridge Village and they had a great day today even with the bad weather unfortunately but uh over 80 students were able to attend a recreation of an 1830s town meeting and I heard it was phenomenal so very happy that they got to do that Mr Martin has organized a field trip to ammer Cinemas tomorrow they're going to view One Life a documentary about Sir Nicholas Winton and the power of how one person can make a change this directly links with his World War II unit that the students are wrapping up and their continued conversations about agency and what one person can do and make change in in the world we had some Title One sponsored Elementary field trips our third and fourth grade students at each Elementary School have or will visit the Greenfield Public Library over the course of the next four weeks they get a tour of the children's room they engage in a scaven hunt they learn about the library and summer programming and then at the end they get to engage in an art activity where they decorate their own bookmark that they take home I heard back from Darlene reor the principal at Newton and apparently it was phenomenal so thank you to the Greenfield Public Library uh for hosting us and then tomorrow the third and fourth grade students get to go to the high school where they they will enjoy a Pioneer Valley Symphony concert um the concert is about all of Town who's a mountain lion lost in a big city and he finds his way back home by talking to animals that he Encounters in this experience is all done through their orchestra music so they're really looking forward to that and something I didn't add that Shane reminded me of uh the author that visited the high school uh found an hour and a half in his day to come to the middle school and talk to the fifth graders and he wrote a middle school book called the lunch lady series and Title One funded a book for each of those students and Jarrett was so kind to the fifth grade and did a nice presentation and we thought that he wouldn't be able to sign them but he stayed for uh the remainder of the time so each child got a signed book by him so it was really appreciated and uh the kids were really excited to have that experience so I wanted to share that as well thank you thank you very much superintendent so just a brief reminder about the Staffing process that we're going to be going through you'll see post positions have been posted and more will be posted um that doesn't mean all of those positions are vacant anyone who has a waiver of their teaching license we do need to repost the position um so it's the same process we've been utilizing so please don't panic um I'd also like to share we have hired a few positions already for next year we've um filled one of our school psychologist positions very happy that someone who did um an internship with us this year is staying on and we have also hired our two music teachers for next year the Elementary music um vacancy has been filled for next year and we were able to fill the instrumental music teacher for the elementary level so that's very exciting and we were able to fill an English language learner teacher um that's filling a vacancy that was created earlier this year so we are moving along with some of the positions and then Karen and I are going to GCC tomorrow for a job fair so hopefully that will be fruitful um with other positions we also will expect to have an update about our elementary principal situation shortly um the budget at this point the mayor has forwarded um a budget for the schools that would be a 4% um school committee had voted a 5.86 but with the 4% increase um I do not anticipate the need to impact any of our staffing um and I know the vice chairs we've we're working on scheduling a budget subcommittee meeting which should be in the near future May 1 okay you can talk about that later though and then um um I know well I'll talk about the eclipse because we haven't talked about that enough we had an eclipse in case anyone didn't know um we did have it we all made it but the important thing is I wanted to share that um the Greenfield Education Foundation very generously purchased um about 500 pairs of the eclipse glasses for the district um UMass astronomy Department um donated 700 50 Pairs and then the district purchased the rest so every student and staff member was able to have a pair of the eclipse classes um and it does appear that everyone was able to follow all the safety information that I had been sharing in the schools shared which is fantastic and I will not have to do another eclipse as superintendent so um finally the Green River a little bit of an update I wasn't able to attend the subcommittee meeting last night but um so the process is really the issue is the msba mass School building authority is the overseeing agency that is dictating process and the reason that we need to be I need to be so careful in terms of doing the process is because if we don't do it correctly it will impact the district or the city's ability to get msba funding in the future so clearly we need to make sure we do all the right steps so um right now what h have to create notice that I need to ask the mayor and the chair of the school committee they will need to sign off as will I and then um what happens after that there is an audit of the finances around Green River there would be a um can't think of it can't think of the word just lost it basically they would do um evaluation of the building and then there would be some determination about the status of the loan so um I have a contact out to my contact with msba so that I can clarify the exact protocols so that we don't make a misstep but I just want to share it's going to take a little bit of time the building has been vacant for about four years so um you know I I am going to need a little bit of time to finish the process and then some of the remaining process is going to be dictated by how quickly or not quickly msba does things so it's not going to be a situation resolved prior to my departure from Greenfield Karen's being kept updated on the situation will be kept updated as will all of you but again we need to make sure we're doing it very thoughtfully and correctly so just wanted to make sure I know there's some urgency in the community but we need to balance that with accuracy that's it thank you any questions for the superintendent or assistant superintendent yes mayor disorder well I like to thank you for your hard work on that and I I I actually can't imagine but I I had a question about the job Affair um well my first question I was going to ask you and you and Karen aren't looking for jobs are you no I I most definitely am not okay just adding a little humor to the evening um so could you just uh tell me a little bit more about that is that for like see who goes to the job feere I is that I believe I'll defer to Karen on this okay I I've attended in the past um they have tables set up in the um large room they call their cafeteria I think maybe over at GCC and it's anything from schools to uh Bay State Health to uh attemp agencies so they just host it but they offer uh folks to come and have tables and they can represent whatever industry they're representing with all of their openings so we've had a lot of success in the past because it's a lot of Greenfield folks um we also try to do as many of these as we can so that we can have the pulse on anyone out there that's in the education field last night I spent the night at Mass with their Department of Education with four other administrators and just trying to talk to uh graduating seniors who might be staying in the area looking for jobs so gcc's just one in many that we try to attend so that we can get Greenfield Public Schools name out there and uh really advertise what we're all about and hope to get quality employees out of any fair that we attend Okay so it's open to the whole community so um they've advertised elsewhere so it's not just GCC students who attend right I guess I was I was thinking oh the city's always looking for people too so you're going looking for people that might be interested in going into education is that right sort of we are but um as Karen said we're not going to be the only employers prospective employers there they're going to be a lot of different employers that um candidates can speak to or wander through and pick up information from different tables so we'll have Flyers available and our flyer has a QR code so even if a prospective employee doesn't want to stop and talk with us they can use their phone take a picture of the QR code it links to the employment page of our website so they can just scan you know walk by and scan everybody's information last followup a premise so if I I was I was thinking of it the opposite way from where you are but I'm just going to follow up with that if I may if um sometimes we're looking for people to actually come to work for DPW or for something else and would I reach out to you or who who would I like I would have to I can send you the contact information from the GCC folks that reached out to us can do that okay thank you sure any other other uh questions hearing none we'll move on to the next item which is our consent agenda our consent agenda is a list of items that we can pass all in one Motion in this case approval of minutes from the March 13 2024 meeting vote to approve the inter interdistrict school choice seats for 2024 2025 vote to approve the G ghs field trip to New York City vote to approve the job description for instructional assistance and acceptance of security camera and door hardware bid so um any member who wishes to may have asked to have um one or more of these items removed from the consent agenda if you don't wish to vote on all of them all at once or is there anyone who wishes to remove something from the consent agenda could we remove item e yes we will remove item e acceptance of security camera and door hardware bid any other items okay so we're take a motion to approve the consent AGA agenda which is now items a through D so moved motion by member Martini is there a second seconded second by member Childs any discussion all right let's vote all those in favor I any opposed any abent itions the consent agenda items a through d uh passes unanimously we'll move on to uh acceptance of security camera on door hardware bid Andy was um a primary on our work with this could I call him so he could weigh in oh sure Abol if that's okay thank you okay great well we'll pause for a moment for the superintendent to reach our business manager I did read it I think it's on it's on I didn't okay we're looking yeah the information is in our M electronic materials oh s Andy it's Glenn we're in the school committee meeting and we need you is it okay if I put you on the the speaker again okay great so just to catch you up um we removed the item acceptance of security camera and door hardware bid from the consent agenda so we're going to discuss that item um separately so I guess um we'll start with um a motion to accept the security camera and door Hardware bid as ex as presented is there someone make moved motion by member Martini is there a second second by member good one um so uh discussion yeah I can um share that the primary reason why I wanted to pull it out is because unlike the other items I didn't feel fully qualified to understand if it was appropriate for me to consent because I didn't understand like yes I can read through all these documents but does this say what you wanted it to say does it do what you wanted it to do and are we all comfortable it's and and I also want to be clear that the work being proposed is modernizing and updating but not fundamentally adding or increasing and I want to I I need to be clear on this so yes it does what we want it to do okay um the process is that we um the school committee had previously voted for us to enter into a contract with a designer they work with us to create the bid specs and put it out to bid um Diana Schindler the city's um mcppo reviewed everything prior to it being posted and then following the period where it's out we also did a vendor walkthr where there were a fairly large number of people who came they walked through the facilities with the designer as well as our facilities director and Our IT director and then bids were submitted they were all submitted electronically and the designer conducted the bid opening so to speak looked at everything online and the bid um was awarded to the lowest responsive bidder meaning the lowest bid that did reply with all the documents that are required and all of that so yes it does do what we wanted it to do um there are additions to the security measures but um security is one of the um topics that it's appropriate to have an executive session so I just want to be mindful of the Q&A just absolutely yes yes there are some additions as well as some upgrades yes any other discussion or questions okay are we ready to vote okay um so the motion has been made and seconded for the committee to accept the security camera and door hardware bid as presented um so um all those in favor I all those opposed n uh member den and member seon are saying nay and I will abstain the motion carries 4 two one great thanks Andy we're all set after all that thank you sure all right um we're moving into uh policy section J and it's listed as first read um however because this um policy section affects so much involving the kind of operation of the schools and in light of wanting to start to prepare for next year at all um we uh I would like us to see if there if the school committee would um accept this um policy um or approve this policy for um immediate implementation um and to do that in the past we used to we have a policy that asks us to have a first and second reading for policies in the past our process has been to vote to um approve it on an emergency basis but I learned today that our what is recommended is that we have two motions the first to temporarily suspend our um requirement for a two read um a true read policy a true read um approval process and just to accept it on a first read um so and then after after that then we would vote on whether to approve it or not approve it so the first vote is basically to say for this particular set of policies um whether the committee wishes to or not to suspend its normal practice of having a a a practice of having two readings for policies or sets of policies and then another um motion to um approve the um revised policy section as presented any questions before we do those two votes about what the process is I see a question remember good one can you maybe you can say what you heard me say as well as you can and I can see what what was missing in my explanation do you mind up pushing your green button yeah some you to push it twice yeah there you go the first motion is to read it and come back to it is that what you were saying uh no Okay so the the first motion I guess first of all you have to it starts with knowing that the school committee has a policy that requires policy changes to go through two readings so for example the normal process would be we'll do section e we'll do policy EAA Walkers and writers for a first reading tonight and then in may we would do a second reading the policy would only take effect after the second reading and the second vote but in some cases it helps the um functioning of the schools if we can enact policies effective immediately to do that we need to temporarily suspend our own policy of requiring one vote on one month and another vote on on the next so that's what our first vote would be about so I move to suspend the current practice of two reads yes a motion to suspend our current two reading practice for uh section J students second and there's a second from um mayor dorer any discussion okay hearing none let's vote on that um that motion which would allow us to um pass this um policy section with one reading um uh all those in favor say I I I all those opposed all those abstaining a one opposed one opposed and um I'll I guess I already voted well I'll change my vote from a yay to an abstain so we have five votes for um for yes one vote no and one AB abstention great so now we will consider section J's students um and uh the motion would be um to um approve section J students as presented effective immediately we have a motion to that effect so move a motion by mayor disor is there a second second from Member Goodwin uh any discussion yes mayor dorer so so could who's the on the policy committee again which ones our policy committee currently member denev and myself member pretti was on the committee but um this was the long one this the law policy so I just like to ask and admit I hadn't quite finished all of that I apologize could you give us the highlights of the changes in that one or would you care to do that or not well a significant there's a significant number of changes I saw that but the general um approach for this is part of our overall overall overhaul of our policies and we are being Guided by that by the Massachusetts Association of school committees um the the changes are largely to bring our policies in line with the law and also to bring them up to um to best practices for the vast majority of the policies in this section that was really the the the process I guess or or what what you will see in in the revised policy um document thank you look like you did a lot of work on that well we're very lucky that the superintendent actually does the mass does a lot of work us and the superintendent does it um and so if there are any items that the school committee would like to see us take a policies you'd like to see us take a closer look at you can do that you can pass this and also send certain items back to us to bring back so if there's any items that anyone's concerned about I'm sure we'd be happy to to put them on a future policy agenda but I my personal um perspective is I really want have want us to be in line with the law and best practice so one in doubt I encourage uh encourage approval of this any other comments or discussion okay with that um all in favor say I I I all oppose say no no one knows and any abstentions I'll abstain so oh uh two abstentions so member martini and myself uh abstained everyone else approved the motion passes thank you very much now let me have pull up my handy cheat sheet for the uh section EAA okay I move that we amend uh policy um EAA Walkers and writers as presented on first reading did I say that let me try that again I move that we approve the first reading of amendments to poliy EAA Walkers and writers on first reading as presented ah so that was a me motioning and who seconded um remember good one great uh discussion I guess we could give a kind of over orientation to this one so there was um our previous transportation coordinator Jake had brought up the fact that we were um the district had at some point in the past begun transporting in a manner that was inconsistent with our policy in that some areas of Greenfield that were within the mile and a half that were previously identified in the policy for elementary the students in those areas had been receiving Transportation while students just beyond that um had not so the request um that we made administratively was could the committee just clarify what the policy should be whether you wanted to amend it to make it look more like what the practice was or if you wanted the practice to look like what the policy was and so Karen and I met with um the bus company to make sure that any recommendations that we were talking about could be accommodated by the buses and they said that yes they could and so um at this point the recommendations that were talked about at the policy subcommittee um are now in line with practice so the policy has been amended great any other discussion or questions I just wanted to flag for folks that that updating the policy to reflect practice technically does impact some of our considerations regarding redistricting and how we will provide transportation moving forward to students who whose parents opt to keep them in their in their school even if it's not the one that they would otherwise be redistricted into and so just keeping that in mind I don't think it's a problem but it is something we just need to be aware of when our when our policies impact our other policies got it thank you any other discussion okay let's vote all those in favor I all those uh against I'll abstain so motion carries great um move on to school committee reports um uh I just want to take a moment to uh thank um member pretti for her service on the school committee um as she gaed us through some very difficult times with covid and uh several different superintendent changes um and so many appreciations for um your service member pretti if you're listening and also um want to just thank everybody who um submitted letters of interest to fill the vacancy um we're very lucky to have such a strong qualified uh candidate pool the the uh choices were were difficult but I appreciate everybody who uh expressed interest and congratulations again to our new member Goodwin um and so we'll move on to uh reports of the subcommittees um budget and finance budget and finance subcommittee will next meet on May 1st at 3 o'clock I anticipate we will discuss a update in regards to our current budget season for fy2 and the creation of an annual budget calendar sounds great any questions okay uh policy and program subcommittee um in addition to the item we voted on tonight um member Den did bring forward the idea of us um creating a policy that would require uh super majorities for certain votes um such as uh hiring or firing of a superintendent or approval of a budget or approval of a redistricting plan um I got to speak to our attorney about that today um it in practice as you saw tonight the policy can by a simple majority vote um suspend its own policies um so if we had a super majority vote uh super majority policy it could be um um it could be suspended by a majority of this committee so so we'll explore it a little bit more but I guess we're not seeing it as that much of a uh you know we we hope and encourage ourselves and future School committees to consider um having as many members at meetings as possible for important votes um but it sounds like our tools to enforce that are limited to say the least um so uh that's kind of the status of that particular policy that we've been we explored at our last meeting uh member do have anything you would add I did read that um letter from the attorney thank you for going down the rabbit hole of that uh the reason that I brought it is because when we go to do a professional development with masc they give us best practices and that was a best practice that they said that we should adopt so I immediately thought why can't we just have a policy that says a super majority has to vote to change the policy rules and then it would just sort of solve itself but it definitely seems like maybe instead of having policies Collide we could just explore it a little bit more and maybe that's not applic to applicable to us but I did see it happened last year and I'm thinking of the future people in the future who are going to be making these decisions um when we're not here anymore and um I would hate to have anything be taken advantage of thank you um the executive subcommittee is myself uh Vice chair martini and secretary genive and we did have a meeting and uh it was a very Lively discussion and uh we discussed um different goals of the committee and items that are already in the queue um so um I don't remember a lot of details of this moment about about to share with you other than things you already know about such as um next month we will be having um a representative from mask come to do a training with us about superintendent evaluation so um uh so stay tuned we'll keep meeting and keep bringing things to you in this forum um we districting and reorganizing ad hoc committee great excuse me so I for those who don't know I'm the chair of that committee joined by mayor dorer and member Childs we met just yesterday I will fully admit AA kPa I did not record that meeting I didn't I didn't press the record button uh I will note that there is a setting on the zoom back end that we can click that automatically records anytime you open a meeting just a thought you can always pause it you can always pause it it would help anyway um we uh had we have two standing agenda items so far that that are perennial and one of them is Green River school which I think our superintendent gave a phenomenal update around and I don't feel the need to go any deeper into it um but then also uh redistricting specifically what's our plan with actually making this happen getting a timeline Etc um our one remaining question that we had unresolved was actually I think just solved SL postponed by the vote we just took about Walkers and Riders because our question was do we understand the impact cost-wise on on transporting people transporting students to their school of choice or their school that they will choose to remain in even if they're redistri we just wanted to know the cost but now that our transportation might shift and the actual routes the suggestion from the super was to was to wait a year and understand how that actually shakes out before we get quotes about what any additional cost might be am I interpreting that your note correctly I do think you are accurate in that I think we need to see what this will look like from the bus company but I don't necessarily think it it has to be a year okay I think because they'll start running the routes for next school year very soon so I think we'll be able to get um some additional information faster than that but great I would yes that that's fantastic and we can we we'll touch base offline about exactly when that is happening um uh we I did ask uh on the agenda for additional future agenda items that came up from anyone and the one that we sort of all discussed and would like to make a plan around is developing some sort of communication plan and strategy to the community about when exactly these changes will be happening and when parents might need to make certain decisions about whether they're keeping their kid in in a school or not um but just to make sure that everyone knows what's happening when it's happening when they might might need to do something about it um and basically be as supportive as we can making this transition smooth for folks that's that's it any questions thank you uh let's see um I don't think we have an update on it collective bargaining and uh Amy PRI was our representative to the collaborative for educational services so that um at the next meeting I will um I'll make appointments to fill the the spots that Amy formerly held um so City Planning and construction representative on that so we met yesterday and there were just three things that were School relevant one of them uh the committee talked about the need for an online dashboard that has certain long-term plans studies specifically referencing the school Youth Study from the elementary level so the committee is looking at publicizing and making these long-term plans on the note of long-term plans there was positivity uh positivity expressed towards and this is a longterm not in the works right now but a goal to move towards of one Elementary School for all of the kids rather than maintaining three buildings long term and the final biggest thing goes back to the Green River School uh the uh planning and construction committee is very keen on being kept up to date with when the school will be decommissioned and will go back under city responsibility to do things with any questions or comments okay great um our legislative representative member Den I have a report before that though oh sorry school committee handbook ad hoc committee oh sorry I skipped over you that's that's okay I just I have it in front of me so maybe I could do that one first yes please do um we met um that would be member ston me uh Vice chair martini and I are in that subcommittee and we met on March 25th in a working session format and created headers and a table of contents we made a list of operating procedures and we discussed that we would like to retitle the document to be GPS School Committee Member and community resource handbook in doing so the document will accomplish the need to accommodate current and new school committee members as well as community members so I have an entire we did so much work I'm so proud of as I have an entire list of headers so some of these are going to need some input from the full committee uh we recognize that there were some topics that were that needed more deep discussion so I'm wondering how you would like that disseminated would you like me to read it to you now or would you like it to be sent in a format that would work to to gather input I'd love to hear it now and I'd love to hear which items um you think the PO committee should consider all right warning because it's long okay that's why I asked out of time um our suggested headers headers and topics are a statement of inclusion that is something that we think will need a little bit more of a deep discussion mission statement also a deep discussion item code of conduct with consequences Community frequently Asked question and their needs potentially something that we would survey our community and conduct that through the summer an acronym breakdown page a goal setting process for the committee our budget calendar our connection potentially to an academic dashboard which is a set of metrics um and data that some school committees have put in their um in their handbooks and we found several um mentions of that and some of the samples that you sent us um but that would require some more deep discussion about what metrics and data we would use the annual visitation to schools for facility assessments school committee Partnerships with local community members developing a section for current and new members utilizing the resources we already have online creating a section for community members to obtain information on the role and function of the GPS school committee and how to work with them getting a list of outward facing members that are points of contact for amilies and community members um making sure that our statement of inclusion and our mission statement that we develop is aligned with the district and our policies develop the code of conduct and refer it to the policy subcommittee or do we do it as the handbook subcommittee that was a question that we had for you that's something that came up and um also something that we wanted to talk about more in depth that we had some other questions about was how to create a community frequently asked questions database how can we interact with the community through a survey so all of these thoughts we had and wrote down and we are going to need more input from all of you in order to fully flush this out okay thank you very much um let's see how to proceed I guess one thing would be to ask if there any what your burning questions are that we might uh discuss right now okay yeah burning questions right now um some of these things we've already talked about and sort of informally agreed upon already like the acronym breakdown page we've mentioned that that's something we identified that's needed um by sh Martini's already mentioned the budget calendar um but um and we do our annual School tours so that's something that's sort of already in the work so there are things that are already in place but the things I think that we really needed to talk about was the statement of inclusion and the mission statement and how we can take our mission statement at GPS and maybe expand upon that and bring it into the handbook so I'm sort of curious what people would like to see from that aspect of it and [Music] um the connection to the academic dashboard might not be something we can discuss tonight um and also get part of it too is just getting an idea of if there's anything that we didn't mention in this long list are there things that pop out that you thought you would like to have in this handbook that maybe we have not covered okay great thank you um well I guess one thing I could say that might help narrow our discretion a little bit is for things that are very obviously in a scope of a of a soci Committee Member handbook that if you want to craft things and bring we can get them on the agenda and have a discussion and vote on them or give you feedback or what process you would like us to follow that seems like one bucket of things like the inclusion statement and the mission statement seem very obviously within the scope of a of a student handbook um which is part of your charge um um and then there are other items where I feel like um well first I should take responsibility and that it's my job as a school committee chair to give ad hoc committees a a very defined scope of like what to do and what not to do um so in my mind I would say that some of the elements seem a little bit outside of the scope of what I was imagining so I would love to hear I wonder if the handbook committee would consider um I'm wondering what the best process is maybe you um uh maybe you as shair um member de could share with me kind of like a what you think would be kind of like the scope of the handbook committee's work and then we could discuss that and um I can um we can figure out from there what what what will be in the scope of the hook committee's work does that make sense okay um so uh yeah and so since and so um I guess the other the another bucket was your question to the full committee about um if there were other items that the school committee would like to see included in the handbook so let me see if there are any is there any feedback from the committee on that besides the items that were listed yeah member ston I'm not sure if I should be making a point of order or something like that for this but it occurs to me having heard a list read once people are unlikely to know what's missing enough to know to give you an answer right now I think it would be really helpful if they had a document to look at Great and given some time okay I would like to agree with that completely and also I I just want to say that I really like the community focus of the vision that you've laid out and that it is a document not just for the committee but for the whole community and I think that would really help people thank you um so maybe that is a um a next step is to ask the committee to um submit that outline and um to to us for basically approval and discussion I guess um but I know there was a we did share with the committee the work that you had shared with me so did committee members not receive receive I did not see it in matet okay all right okay um that may have been my mistake so um we'll maybe we should bring it back then I can but I I think that well personally I have one thought of something that I that I didn't hear you list um and I think if members do have items like that it is okay to share them tonight but we can certainly revisit it um but I you know the law requires that we as school committee members attend charting the course and I think we're supposed to submit our um certificates to the city clerk's office but there isn't much of an enforcement mechanism I'm I'm not sure it how it gets addressed how we keep track of which members have attended and submitted their certificates and which ones haven't and how to encourage people to do that if they don't get around to it um so maybe that's something that the handbook committee could take up absolutely okay any other feedback for the handbook committee I have a question oh okay and then member good one so who keeps track of then if you everybody's done their ethics test the clerk keeps track of that okay yeah the city clerk I just wanted to say before I submitted my my letter I was very impressed by the website um you know to see school committee and then to see for new school committee members all of the different pieces were there and I was really impressed with that that's never been something that's been available to people on our website so I think that that's something that you should be very proud of that's definitely a section that we're going to sort of add in so this would just be a more of a broadening yep and those materials have been up there for at least uh at least five years I think so it's a really wonderful resource and I hope the community as well as uh school committee members take advantage of that uh since it all is all they're on the website um any other any other uh feedback for the handbook committee well thank you very much it's a kind of a new uh project for us and I appreciate your patience as I'm kind of feeling my way as chair and I appreciate you're feeling your way as a as a committee I really appreciate your work on it um are there any other items I've missed so far on our list member deneve sorry me again I have the the legislative and the division five report great um on March 27th we had our masc sponsored day on the hill event prep with Jason Frasier in our new library we had members from jolio cadley Pioneer Gil montigue and Mohawk School committee's present and it was wonderful that Greenfield could host and I hope that we can do so again we discussed three main goals number one was rural Aid that we'd like to see fully funded at 60 million rather than the 5.5 million presented in the governor's budget um goal number two was an implicit price deflator of 1.35% that more fully reflects actual inflation 4.5% and goal number three a commitment by the legislature to form a special education Transportation tuition study group as described in the Thrive act um then the next step is to finalize meeting times with different legislators for the day on the hill which is May 6th as well as reach out to our other sister committees for carpool possibilities a detailed schedule I will send out next week to you about that this um day on the hill prep day prompted a request for an expanded event which will be taking place on April 25th via Zoom from 5:30 to 700 p.m.

at TSO Rosa can I share just a couple of quick things regarding security um so yes in in welcoming uh Jim uh it's important to know we when we talk to parents we ask their kind of background in terms of what they are able to bring to us and the value that uh Mr Mitchell besides being a parent brings is he is a secret service agent and so um he has all obviously his entire background is Safety and Security so we love having him on the on the team and thank you uh very much Jim for participating and being involved um uh last public comment there was a suggestion brought up um about staff members wearing uh ID badges staff members do wear ID badges um if they happen to forget it it is addressed by School administration or security team um it's very important for people to know that and I didn't want anybody to leave last meeting thinking that we don't have ID badges the idid badges also are uh beneficial for other things for entrance and copy or access and things like that so it's valuable um uh not a nuisance for staff to have them on um and so we make sure for that for safety um Connecticut Center for school safety we are part of uh I don't know maybe five or six schools that are working with Connecticut centers for school SC safety who are writing an anti swatting Grant to the state to get us some training um and actually some anti- swatting software which is really interesting to see how that works so anyway know that that's out there we're taking a lot of effort in in moving that forward um a number of us from uh the different crisis teams at the school and at the district level um the last two days there's been um two different uh days and multiple sessions that the FBI out of Massachusetts is hosted uh for an online uh training regarding swatting so we were a part of that um and then one of the things we did talk about at security task force among many things is looking at all of our different emergency procedures and we may have some updates to lockdown procedures that might be something we work on over the summer and then Institute and train up the staff and the kids uh come come the fall so those were just some extra things I wanted to get get out there for everybody thanks Ros can I ask a question um so if people have questions about the um Connecticut centers for school safety and the uh anti- swatting training who who are the lead folks on that well Connecticut Center for school safety is Amry burnhard uh he's employed through a massive State Grant regarding school security so Amry is a retired officer who runs that um there is a link in the um state of the district for anybody had read that and was interested they could actually link right to the to the website there and I did mention the grant there as well okay great thank you and again it's these are typically competitive grants so we're hoping we can get it um we're certainly putting the effort in did you have a question you all set yep awesome okay now now let's go to item 11 um to the consent agenda I move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended resignations and retirements okay um all in favor of approving the items on the consent agenda uh please say I I I no opposed okay so the um motion passes thank you very much Wendy I I I have a couple things I'd like to say because we've got a lot of retirements here so the first thing is uh it's important I just like to correct um for Miss Spalding um the retirement effective date is June 5th not June 3D so if we can we'll adjust that um but you can see we have a lot of longtime Legends some greats from uh Brookville Public Schools retiring um so not only Mrs sha last month we got her retirement but miss t uh Mrs longtime secretary Mrs Sarah soy I we're talking 25 years uh with the district from Miss T Mrs Sarah so that currently been the secretary for a number of years now at whiner but she's been across our District 34 years uh Kathy Malik has uh one of our par Educators has been with us 22 years and our speech and language pth pathologist at the elementary school Miss Spalding has been with us for seven years um when we add in Miss sha we're talking about 125 years of experience retiring so um they're just great people have dedicated their lives to Brookfield and we can't thank them enough and uh that was a very important um point so thank you thank you for doing that um and happy retirement to those folks okay so we'll move then to uh new business um the first item is the last day of school for the 2023 2024 school year um and maybe a possible motion so um uh the recommended action is that we discuss as a board and maybe take action regarding the last day of school um for 2023 um I can take background a little bit of background I think I think everybody knows at this point in the long history of public education in Connecticut we're obligated uh by Statute to um have 180 school days uh in public education um in Brookfield we have 182 um this year we had four emergency emergency days three three for weather related and the one for the swatting uh that puts us um at June 19th as the last day of school right now which is a Wednesday um and that's that's the basic background of where we're at um there is in my tenure I believe there's one time where we were going late into the year it may have been the macro burst year um where our 180th day was on June 29th which was a Friday and so we the board decided not to uh have school for two days um and so we didn't um if the board was to consider cuz that's been you know questions from parents and staff when is the the actual last day for students um when we look at all of the bargaining units it is not a major impact at all because there's um bargaining units different unions you know uh nurses or par Educators or whomever um the way their schedules work it's it's by day and as long as they get their contracted days in um or they work hourly over the summer um it really isn't a big impact there um our faculty um we are scheduled to pay them for8 7 total days if their if the last day of of school is the 180th day that would be 185 for the teachers when you include their professional development days um we have plenty to do for for uh staff uh related to strategic plan related to the work with portrait of The Graduate um other uh business to reflect on from the year and move forward and prepare as we get ready for fall that we could really uh be chock full of uh effective activity for uh the additional two days and and um the last day if it was 180 days if the board elected to uh move in that direction it would be Monday the 17th the next thing to understand is that June 15th is graduation um which is a Saturday so just understand that for Brookfield High so those are some things so that's just a general background for everybody and there's one more Factor right about isn't J uh June 19th is a Federal holiday June 19th is juneth which is a Federal holiday uh not recognizing any of our collective bargaining agreeing contracts at this time um It's relatively new so it hasn't been bargained into to you know so it's not it's not even if we're in school on June 19th it's not an issue for us gotcha gotcha so the teachers are going to go two days past whatever that's the determination of the board we can that's the discussion that's part of it okay so we can adjust that and we can adjusto the the board's discretion do yeah well the teachers the the teachers will work till June 19th right right they do I wouldn't recommend yeah that but if you want to have that further discussion you can have cutting the teachers yeah wait can you clarify that the teachers are are scheduled to be compensated for working 187 days correct if we if the 180th day which is Monday the 17th is the last day for kids it's the 185th day for teachers they still have to work two more days I think it's still work two more on the schedule of compensation the taxpayers are paying them for 187 days of work so and we have plenty to do so we can have the teachers work that Tuesday and Wednesday but you just said you're not recommending that no I'm recommending that we keep the schedule as okay that's why I was confused or second adjust that we adjust the teacher schedule correct correct I I wouldn't recommend that if that was something we lean toward I wouldn't recommend that yeah exactly yeah yeah it gets confused this day and that day and which date totally understand and we have six collective bargaining um six Union contracts and there's a lot to consider okay but we've we've that groundwork is known because we've been down this road a couple years ago so we understand how to handle it I'd like to um you know honor that the students are in school till the 19th to make up those days that were lost okay that's my priority um sorry go ahead no you go um I recognizing that it's the first year that we are celebrating we're not celebrating I don't know the way to say it that the state is recognizing juneth as a holiday is second year the second year okay but we weren't in school last year wer we had gotten out previous to that yeah um I think we should consider how that could impact families who feel that that's an important day for them Educators who want to celebrate with their families cuz they we've learned in recent years that that's culturally a really big deal and I think in the way that we consider um that being the last day of school okay might impact how that affects families so I I think I would I would lean towards Monday being the last day um and kind of having the emergency day off that Friday kind of wasn't can wasn't anyone's wasn't a fun day I mean that's not a reason to to have or not have the last day be uh cut but I feel like it's unfairly impacting the students um so I'm leaning towards Monday being the last day so to speak to your point Stephanie um we can embrace it just like we do on Veterans Day where the students are in school celebrating that day um we also have to consider that there's working parents and when schools closed that impacts working parents um and many children in our district rely on school for um for nutrition for their services uh peer interactions social social mental not just academic so um I think our priority is a students and that if school was if schools closed for five of four emergency three weather you know whatever the reason what is we should honor that respect the day should made up especially for working parents who have been impacted so my recommendation is to I'd like to make a motion to have the last day of school for students be on June 19th point of order I don't know if you need to make a motion for that because that that is what it is by default you would make a motion to somebody would need to make a motion to change it but I would agree with that okay yeah because it's already the 19th that's the established calendar it would go in that direction um I'd like to approach this from a slightly different angle um and the the factor of graduation being the 15th that exams at least at the high school will have been the previous week um I see those those days in the I I see students so eager to get what you're talking about outside of the school space um and I think that um it's it can be challenging to have meaningful learning be done um after the summi of experience of final exams um coming at it from an elementary perspective you you might feel differently about that but I just know that the high school level it's it's hard after because kids are really like we're exhausted we just gave you everything we have and what's what's the point now um I don't know I I would I hear what you're saying um and those those are compelling those are compelling points um but even with those I I think I would go for the the day release um going back to 180 days I think high school students are mature enough and old enough to make the decision for themselves if they want to stay home that can be a family decision um if they want to opt because they feel like they've given their year they're all yet I don't know if we should speak for all high school students um so I think they have that option to stay home they can not come to school but it it should be an option that we offer can I make another point is it okay if I make another point um speaking to your point Joy of like having them missing the day of instruction if it wasn't the very last day of school I would tend to lean more towards that because of course we don't want to take instruction days away from our kids but to Wendy's point being the last day I think it's we're not necessarily taking an instruction day away and all of the things that they're getting that they would have missed out on I don't know I feel like we have to be careful with that statement because anytime that our kids are in school we want to value that as instructional I'm not devaluing the instruction that I didn't say it the correct way I'm just saying if it was not being considered as the last days of school I feel like I am not seeing it the right way so would anybody like the floor just in terms of scheduling purposes prior to the three emergency days that we had for weather and um whatnot safety the the original end date would have been June 14th correct the the 182nd day originally was a Thursday the 13th then four days missed three weather one swatting that brings us to Wednesday night oh four days missed okay so in terms of planning just for parents they would have they would have planned for the 13th as an end date prior to these emergencies coming up these emergency closings so um they you know if you're looking at the year and vacation and summer camps and whatnot the 13th Would have been on their mind in terms of the planning so okay I just wanted to clarify that but in their planning they I think they know they have to possibly plan for later CU consistently but they don't plan for when the school's closed right so that might be a and I think that's where Factor we're hearing from the principes and uh teachers and my office we're hearing from parents they just want to know um they're kind of itching before April break and I I've let them know we typically let formally formal announce if we have these discussions after April break but perfect time to have this discussion a couple days before the break and let everybody know we tomorrow whatever we decide the board decides tomorrow we could let everybody know I mean technically once it wraps to the next week it kind of like oh we're in the next week anyway so plus or minus the de is it easy to explain why we went to 182 in the first place um from 180 When in Rome when I got here we were at 182 so we've always done it in Brookfield as far as I know I knew that yeah and everybody you think there would be full days or we think about doing half that's the the the last day of school traditionally is a early dismissal so the 19th right now would be the early dismissal day full days on uh Tuesday and Monday and um but the board has discretion there are districts that the last couple of days of school are all early released so there's that decision can be made here as well that's a choice uh one thing we do have to think about is and we're in a room right now that doesn't have air conditioning um the high school especially gets super hot so it's just something to think about at the book ends of the year we have a lot of heat too and sometimes we get into these decision or it may snow what's that or it may snow it could snow you know it is New England so who knows right Jo um so that's another thing to think about where we end up there's been a couple of times where we've called an early dismissal mainly because of how hot the high school is frankly um CS is fully air conditioned now and most of whisking a is air conditioned so just so you know that well you had mentioned there's a lot for staff to do as well for the if we did the last Monday I can definitely understand completely so I'm I'm definitely okay with that Monday last that makes sense I think they I think staff would relish the time as much as you know everybody is antsy for the summertime staff know there's a lot of work to do and connect with colleagues connect with Administration before the year's out um a lot of the the pathway and pck work that we've been doing all year so there there there's plenty to do we don't have to worry about that I can tell you be EAS without the kids there yes so I um I'm gonna I'm going to dissent with what I think is probably the majority of the board right now but um you know we we always talk about how precious instructional time is and how we have to do so much in the 182 days that we have these kids for and to take away two days that those particular days might not be filled with a ton of instruction as we know we've all been in school what the last week of school looks like but it's two more days that back up maybe two weeks before that so it's to me cutting out school days is cutting out instructional time at some point in the year so I'm I'm almost never in favor of getting rid of days just to get rid of days they're going to be there on the 17th which is a Monday I and I understand the whole the whole issue with the graduation being on the 15th but they're still 2third of our district that is not graduating um and they need instructional time as well um so I'm probably in the minority but I'm okay with that and that's kind of where I'm at it's sort of don't along that I if we take away the day that we were was sort of out of our control what if we go to the 18 kind of split the difference because that day you know we can't control weather but the other stuff is very unfortunate so maybe we recognize that that was unfortunate sort of like yeah compromise the Monday versus the Wednesday board's discretion you know all of that's out of our any of our control right the weather and the conditions and those kind of things they're all safety decisions right that's paa did you want to share some more thoughts I think I'm I'm just kind of reflecting on it everybody's saying if the kids go to the 19th um then staff is here till when 19 the 19 still the 19th so there's there's no time there's no time for staff to be in the building without we had our professional days already would be half days half day for kids for the would that be uh Monday Tuesday and Wednesday would be half days the board would have de I think just 19th a half day just the 19th now got it so they basically have a half day on the 19th on the 19th the staff does okay got it um do you guys feel like you're ready to to to vote we need to have a motion on the table no but I mean like like in order to okay okay then then I'll I'll move that we uh change the last day of school to Monday June 17th um for students for 2023 2024 I'll second it okay all in favor say I I I all oppos say Nay n okay the motion does not pass all right um thank you for your discussion moving on let's go to uh the next item educator diversity approval so Stephanie there's a motion for [Music] you I move that the board approve the educator diversity plan as recommended by the personnel and negotiations committee Dr barell and Dr man second um all in favor of the board approving the educator diversity plan um as recommended by the p&n committee um say I I oh okay we're not getting any presentation or anything no one's presenting on it okay we're prepared to talk about it if you'd like to talk about it I just don't know much about it then should um okay we haven't found ourselves in this uh place before uh we were in mid vote um then uh in this situation I think maybe make a motion to withdraw yeah I'm moveed to withdraw the motion um pending um discussion or yeah discussion um with Dr bril and Dr man second okay um all in favor of removing the motion I I okay um any opposed okay great then we remove that motion and um Dr man can you tell us a bit about the um educator diversity plan please so before Dr man goes I just want to U the first thing that everybody needs to know is is obviously educator diversity is quite important um it becomes more and more challenging in a time of teacher shortage um to fill any position especially those in shortage areas so that's one piece from HR we have been making um a lot of effort over the last number of years um I'll be it um we're not really increasing the diversity of our staff to be very candidate um there is a lot here that we do in practice that is being codified in this plan that we are now mandated to put together this is um uh a another legislative mandate there is not necessarily a cost to this it's not a budget impact uh but there's work we to do it's a lot it's a lot of um uh reporting uh uh and form filling out to be very honest with you to comply with the state mandate um but there's some really good things in there and some goal setting we can do uh as a department for HR and as an organization so I'll turn it over to Anna on that one thank you for your effort on this work pleasure thank you um so actually in some respects this couldn't have come at a more timely um I always look for opportunity as you can see in situations um but it couldn't have been been more timely for us in terms of our kind of refocus on our human resources department and um since I uh came on board kind of our efforts in hiring practices so it's always a good thing to review um you know your processes your protocols all of those kinds of things what this particular um and what you have in your packets that was sent to you on Friday um is a memo from me to Dr burill um explaining kind of giving some context for the purpose of this submission um and you know to be in compliance with Public Act 23167 section 10A um which specifically uh requires uh local Boards of Education in the state of Connecticut to submit for um essentially for compliance purposes to the state department a um what they're calling an increasing educator diversity plan um there used to be uh the statute used to read a uh the title used to be a minority recruitment plan um so they have taken that language out and uh supplanted it with uh increasing this educator diversity plan um and so really what it it it's focusing in specifically on um on Race within dver within the concept of diversity and requiring districts to come up with a pretty comprehensive plan for recruitment retent recruitment hiring and retention so there's three parts to the plan so in your packets you had two two Port two representations of the same thing this um legal paper which is the template um is the required template that the state is that I have to submit to the we have to submit to the state after um it's presented and hopefully approved by the board so that's why I wanted to make sure you gave this this is all that the state requires um in doing in preparing for for this to complete this requisite plan um I kind of wanted to give it some context give us create a document that we could post on our website um that kind of outlined what our goals are and um you know kind of held us to some task oriented um approaches that will help us improve um not only not only focusing on the data of our uh increasing our educator diversity but just it'll help us reflect on our hiring processes and so our recruitment our hiring and our retention in general um so I am happy to to briefly review both um I just I want to let you know that the three parts recruitment retire recruitment hiring and retention are all requisite um and and you can so you can see the required parts of the um of the plan that are on the document but the vision um in the first part and again same language in both of the two documents but I'll just kind of go through some of the highlights uh the the vision uh was pulled actually um was inspired and pulled pretty much uh directly from the vision that was originally developed by the uh subcommittee of the board that we if you remember um actually uh absorbed last year last spring last summer in August um the diversity equity and inclusion subcommittee of the board one of the um products that came out of that group was the first part of this vision statement um I did a little bit of tweaking to be more actually more inclusive and more comprehensive in terms of um the language but it that comes right from what was already uh approved and adopted by the board um and that's true for most of this document I didn't necessarily come up with a whole lot of uh novel ideas um the next part down are the current uh policies one of the questions from uh districts across the state was we have have a policy we have multiple policies can we just submit those the answer is no you'll see it's actually not anywhere on our doc on the uh template that you actually need to identify your policies however um I wanted to make sure that it's highlighted that we do have policies that guide our work the next part because the requirement of the plan is that you set um kind of data driven goals um I wanted to put some data in there and so the um the graphs that you'll see which are pulled from edite um which is one of our you know main websites that we use for our um the first graph is the racial demographics of our students um and because that's really the purpose and the the impetus behind this uh this act is to begin to um close the gap essentially between students of color and uh teachers of color and administrators of color um and so this is our uh data for this is the context for our work you know we always want to keep students at the center um so that graph um and I have a narrative I know I apologize that that the numbers very small um I can certainly help you with those if you um if you need some if it's hard to see but I did want to highlight some of the changes in our population um and I use 10 years uh going back a decade so 10 years prior um and the CH the shifts in that um I also included our graph for our high need students um and as a reminder um High needs are um students who uh receive special education services are English Learners or who are eligible for free and reduced um they don't have to be all of those uh in any all of those components they could be in one of them or multiple um but that's just uh kind of more information um just to show again to show our our increase in our um needs of our students and then the last part is a um the last section of the uh demographic data is um the adults so the first graph is our educator diversity in Brookfield versus the educator um diversity in the state and I think it's really important to include the state here because um we have heard over and over and over again um not just in Connecticut but across the country that we have an educator shortage and recruiting Educators in general has become quite challenging um and so I just wanted I thought using the state as kind of the Cornerstone and the the focus of um you know what where what they're doing um could give us some a little bit more of a reasonable Benchmark to try to um aim for um and so the the goal then has become um for our because you have to set a measurable goal um so the goal that is true and is consistent throughout all three the recruitment the hiring and the retention is to more closely match the gap between students of color and educators of color so the gap for the um for the state it has um as you see in that last part uh went from 136 points so the difference between the uh students of color and the educative educators of color was 136.28 at 10 years ago to 28.5% so it it reduced um 5.79% over 10 years we actually increased our Gap um partly because our educators of color have gone down but also because our students of color population have gone up um obviously we serve all of our kids and we're happy to have all of our students so we're going to um this plan will help um have a road map for how we might increase our um educator diversity there are no guarantees um we are not uh changing our hiring practices to focus on any particular race or ethnicity um but it's really more keeping uh a mind mindful approach about our hiring practices um and so the rest of the then there's a theory of action which is part of the requirements and then the rest of the um document is really kind of the strategy who's responsible and who's what's the time frame um to try to and we will we will work on all of these strategies um and then we will re-evaluate and reassess as we go through um definitely on an annual basis if not on kind of a you know buy you know like maybe every six months to look at where we are um to see if we're making a difference we're adjusting and then eventually we will have our Ed site secure data that we can kind of uh look to compare where we are versus the state um and then the other parts on the under each goal there are indicators of progress resources risks and mitigation so the risks are the full bullet point the mitigation is the open bullet point and then consultation and communication so things that we will we will do in the with HR and across the district with our um hiring committees um some of these like I said we can control and we can really kind of work on and some of them will be um Less in our control but we will Monitor and all of them will be good hiring practices for us to Institute um and so that's kind of again I'm I'm if you have any specific questions about any of this I'm happy to answer them but um or try to answer them um but really this this would be the document that would be forward- facing on our on our website I just think it's a little more user friendly and accessible versus this which you can't even read even if it's sitting in front of you so um but it's the same information and I don't know if you can answer this but I I understand this is a mandate coming down from the state um for this document what does wested have anything what is the connection that is the the um the consultation company that the state is using okay who put together um the template and um is going to help uh I don't know exactly if they're vetting the uh the plans as they come in but they're the ones who provided support for districts if we had so I actually consulted with folks from West when I went on to sign up for a consultation support ass set session so they're the ones providing the consultation to us through this for this process contracted by the state cont yeah I have a excuse me I have a question I was say and they this company has been been vetted through the state I I you don't know I have no idea to with the law and okay yeah it's from the state department good my question is just um if you can just briefly address how the strategies are different from what we're doing now what have we what are we adopting here that we don't knowing that we do want to hire the best people and have you know the biggest pool of candidates what is different about this so some of the things that are different some of them are not particularly different um it's they go may may extend on um some of the things that we already do so for example we don't currently um uh collect demographic information about our candidates um what what one of the strategies in here in terms of uh the recruitment piece um or in the hiring is to ask for a voluntary survey um for to collect demographic data it's not required and you're not allowed to I read that and I saw that it's voluntary so being that it's voluntary you know changes the the picture a little bit because if people don't provide that that so that's that's one marker that you're not going to have necessarily is there so is is there so besides that is there anything that we're that this would propose doing that we not doing now um I think that it's so again it's more of the extension of things that we do currently so for example um reaching out to uh College fairs um that may be um sponsoring uh you know a minority College uh teacher college fair or um recruitment Fair um we have not historically participated in any uh recruiting fairs so that's something that I've been interested in doing anyway but then specifically working with local um or with our state uh higher education groups and seeing if they do um like I know for example there are a few schools that do actually sponsor uh minority teacher prep uh fairs um so attending you know those and kind of working more closely with the I mean in general we have to increase our relationships with um our teacher prep programs we have done done some historic reach out um not necessarily at universities but sort of state sponsored fairs and things like that and because everybody in state is working on this um hopefully you know kind of high tide will raise all boats and um it'll help us everybody work together to um it not only hire more uh folks that are highly qualified um and you know diverse but also get kids into programs so that they're actually looking to exactly I guess that was going to be my follow and this is nothing that you can control at all but I'm just wondering if there are any initiatives Beyond just the school district level where there where there's incentives for people to go into the field of Education minority incentives to go into the field of Education because that's kind of where it starts right many many of us are involved in higher ed and AD junk Professor work at private and state universities and um you know years ago I've known about some of those and they just haven't come to fruition they just haven't but um that's one of the reasons that I wanted to align our data with the state data because my hope is that you know if the state has some really great ideas um and that they're going to reduce their Gap then you know we have we'll be aligned to that and we'll try to do some of the same practices of reaching out to the folks that they are partnering with and I think important an important piece is uh one of the things we really talked about with the spring results of the smarter balance assessment last year is we did work um and had demonstrative results that we closed the achievement gap between High need and non High need students so the learning is happening that's really important to know regardless of plan like this thank you I also just want to point out one other thing that there is no um there's nothing in the state statute that says that the board has to do an annual or biannual review there's there's no information in the state statute of what happens if you don't meet your goal um so that might be coming but at currently the pro the what you are approving or are being considering for approving um this would be it possibly as of now of course I would come back if you were interested in an update but the state would not require that and the state actually just put in the Board of Ed requirement piece which I think is a good thing it's important for the Board of Ed to know what's going on in the um with these kinds of things but that wasn't part of the original act that was added later are there other questions for Dr man is uh is West Ed the only option is that because it's through the state you said yeah this is so West Ed is the um is the the organization that the St yeah that the state has um hired to uh C come up with this template process this template and support folks as they filled out the template okay so we don't we basically have to corally work with them corre yeah I mean we're not really we're not work I'm we're not working too much with them I submit to the state through through a portal but they're the ones who this is the that's the one they don't care about my little report that I did they don't want to see that they want to see this in addition to the state colleges um on in Connecticut what about the arc program have you guys ever worked with because that's like centered in Hartford and I know looking for student teaching positions out in this direction is very challenging so that could be a good other place for you to absolutely yeah thank you for that and actually um Mr Blanda met last week with um the do you want to talk a little bit about it this is just a little update it's kind of an aside but to your point to certification it's for uh non teers to ass go through a certification process yes so um two weeks ago the dean of the Yukon School of Education actually reached out to me as an alumni of the program and wanted to meet and just touch base and check in to see how things were going here down in Brookfield they didn't often get too far um past 84 and 91 past Hartford so uh and he recognizes that the school of education has a presence both at their Stanford and Waterberry campus um and they're usually um tcpg graduates uh people who have an undergraduate degree already and go through a master's degree program they have them at both campuses and so some of the suggestions and conversations we had the exact conversation about you know uh minority recruitment across the board it's a huge piece that he's working on and all the schools that he goes to in terms of recruitment um he's putting me in contact with um some of the leaders over there at both Waterberry and Stanford and has encouraged me and HR and Dr man and Dr BR to reach out to those schools put a face with a name um and particularly schools uh in Waterberry in particular there's a draw certainly to come from Waterberry if you're in that general area to come down towards Fairfield County in terms of pay and benefits and those sorts of things versus where you could be Stanford's a little bit different it's a little further south in that southern part of Fairfield County um but he talked about having a presence and really wants to try to work he understands that we have to recruit within um and there's also some other programs you'll be hearing from me in the next year or two about uh internal uh ECE programs with uh for Education actually to even continue to further grow our own here in building and come back so yeah thank you thanks Mark other questions or comments all right then then I am going to um try again and move that the the board approve the educator diversity plan as recommended by the Personnel negotiations committee Dr John burill and Dr Anna man ex second okay um so now that we have that motion out um all in favor of approving the educator diversity plan say I any opposed all right so with that the um board has unanimously approved the educator diversity plan thank you very much and thank you that's comprehensive too bad it's in font four okay so we're going to move to the next item of new business um and for the consideration of complaint I'm going to relinquish the chair to uh the vice chair okay um thank you Wendy um so in consideration of the complaint that you are all familiar with um this relates to policy 1312 receiving complaints about the conduct of schools um just uh as sort of a summary this policy um clearly relates to school Personnel um employees of the district um so um it's it's clear that there's um we as board members are not employees of the district um we are not the administrators that the policy refers to to um deal with such complaints and nor does the superintendent have a role um in dealing with complaints against board members so um are there any other comments that board members would like to make here you SC that wording again the policy uh it was just titled receiving complaints about the conduct of schools I don't have the full policy in front of me but I hav oh perfect so we did just just so that the public is aware um because of this complaint um on our board chair's uh recent actions in an e in an effort to show this transparency we are having this conversation um she's here to answer any questions by board members um so I would you know encourage any of you to ask them now if you have any sure uh I would like to move to dismiss the complaint and take no action I will second then that motion um moving to discussion on that motion would anybody like to say anything so you were just you were just you just mention that it doesn't apply in this policy because um trying to find it in the policy um concerns can you just repeat what you said because I can't see it sure so in that in that policy it it basically outlines how complaints of school Personnel should be help dealt with um first with administrators and then if there's a dissatisfaction with how the administrators handled it then the superintendent would handle it um that's very clearly not referencing board member activity but rather employees of the district okay okay any further discussion on this okay so the motion is to dismiss the complaint all those in favor please signify by saying I I okay that's for all those opposed please signify by saying nay okay abstentions I okay three abstentions and four yay so the Y's have it and the motion to dismiss without any formal action is passed and I will relinquish the chair back over to our board chair great so moving on to Old business um we're going to talk about the um board beds adopted 2024 2025 budget um and we will continue our discussion okay well that's right uh Casey has um some updates for us is that correct Miss di yes do you want to oh sure yes so Wendy did you have anything or do you want me to just build a little bit of context of where we're at um and kind of walk through an updated chart that we have no I understand that the the pieces are moving on a daily basis and so what I learned yesterday uh already has been updated yes okay um we're trying to uh as always be as precise as we can in a nearly $53 million budget um so just for a little little history a very very brief history in uh February the for Selectmen and I think ultimately Board of Selectmen uh reduced our budget by approximately $500,000 through the board of Finance process it was reduced uh another $250,000 into that range for total in cuts to the board's adopted budget from late January to um by $728,000 the chart that is up on the screen and you have a hard copy in front of you um we have gone through a version uh over the last week a couple of drafts um we shared with Personnel negotiations uh because this impacts Personnel um uh and collective bargaining um we also talked uh with finance committee yesterday at its meeting and went through this and we've since made a couple more uh adjustments because we're constantly fine-tuning and looking ways to do the best we can um in really approaching Cuts uh with the scalpel as we've said in years past and not a machete and we want to get in there and be very very very selective and stay as far away from students as we can um so you can see in kind of that uh purplish light purple color at the top uh operational cuts and then there special education uh reductions these are cuts that we've talked about um that were initial cuts um over the U past couple of months this is public information we have talked with the board of finance and board of selectman about this and continually through my communications with the board let you know where we stand uh we were able to get to almost 500 uh just about $500,000 in reductions uh based on on uh some efficiencies and favorable news that continue to come in through the course of the last two months um so the first piece is the operational Cuts health insurance the increase is only 2% the original budget I presented at the beginning of December was 7% um that's a significant reduction getting us $300,000 right off the bat very close uh almost halfway to the $728,000 um electricity some continued fine-tuning with the actual rates uh coming in more favorable um $80,000 reduction uh was able to be achieved toward the 728 uh workers compensation estimate is $12,000 less than originally almost $113,000 less uh in special education one of the things that Mr Roland and the team are doing they're reaching out to families um uh of all kinds students who are in District students who might be outplaced and really looking at their programs seeing how the students have progressed um and when there's an opportunity uh seeing if students are uh ready and interested in coming back and so you can see special education transportation and tuition um and the requisite excess cost Grant calculations there for a savings of approximately $170,000 so we're we're really on our way to the to the 728 this is that 500,000 or a little 500 change that I was talking about earlier the cuts get more challenging after this you'll see what under the light blue in the middle called programming this is where we really had to sit start sitting down with the principles um and our director of instruction and um fine-tuning um areas in technology um make choices with investments in some things like the enrollment study uh investments in library books or textbooks um and find Alternatives um in that regard uh the rationale is is to the right I won't read to you but just kind of the general sense and then we can maybe go through questions after that in total um in the last couple of weeks we found $67,000 in those uh areas that we can cut a lot of the technical areas are on looking at uh student usage these are things we've done with the cape committee before the board is aware of these kind of techniques you go in there and take a look what's most efficacious as a program um what are some of the things with the K3 science of reading new program we're going with where we're going to have new technology that we'll use and maybe it'll phase out current technology uh in learning programs so uh moving on to the next piece is getting into Personnel this is where it gets really hard you have to look at your Staffing as a reminder for the public and for the board this current year we had reduced an administrative position the Center School principal position was eliminated going into this year with the consolidation plan um of the elementary schools now we're a year into uh having Consolidated the middle school and uh consolidated the elementary schools and right size the uh Middle School really taking a look at what do we need and how do we keep impact on any staffing reductions to get to the full $728,000 how do we get there and so there's a couple of things we've had to make a decision on looking across our different bargaining units and the impact they're having on the organization uh the first one uh which is a relatively significant savings is one of our uh instructional coaches the technology integration specialist um we have made a um decision that that's a position we will reduce it's not in the core subjects it is not student facing um and it's a tough decision we have to make if we're going to meet the the 3/4 of a million dollar cut that we have to face um there is you'll see at the bottom of this chart some requisite professional learning that we're putting in because we won't have that person on staff to help us out um this will likely slow down some of the digital tool workor that's in our strategic plan and integrating with uh curriculum development um but we'll continue to forge ahead the next position is a secretary position um with the consolidation of the elementary school and 200 less kids at whiskin ear we are going to look at our secretarial team districtwide and see how we can um still continue our functions uh but reassign work um turns out we have a retirement from um uh the secretarial team which just came to us last week um so the timing actually works out so through attrition uh it won't be a secretary who's last in to be first out with this particular reduction so just so you know that and then um a lot of folks don't know we are obligated we have seven and a half nurses uh in District we are OB all um school districts in the state are obligated if they have a private school in their town to support Health needs of students at the private school we had to do that when St Joe was operational and we still do it christian life um so with that there is a half nurse dedicated to Christian Life one of the things again that we're going to do uh is look at our seven core staff of nurses and how we could reassign them based on having three at the elementary school two at the high school we kept two at the Middle School nurses and um again there's 200 less students at the uh middle school so 600 Kids versus 800 kids they're seeing less students even though the needs are high and it's wonderful to have two nurses um in working with the nurse Union having that conversation there may be some rotation or some other ways to assign and make sure we're still covering uh Christian Life Academy so those are the Personnel decisions we had to make and then the next step I'm going to turn it over to uh Mrs di we did have some operational increases that are adjustments again when you're working with a 50 or $53 million budget you're always you know fine-tuning um and we're really getting down uh to the nitty-gritty with this budget so can you talk a little bit about that sure of course so there was just a um a few uh operational increases that have come about since uh the budget has been adopted our liability insurance this net um increase of $ 26,1 159,000 is uh for the addition of CES coming on to our liability uh insurance plan um so we've included that um and that did it does seem like it came in late we've been open at CES all year but we did just get this figure um on March uh March 13th from kerma so uh we've had to account for that um you'll see uh uh just under $112,000 and some salary adjustments to um that are recommended for some unaffiliated staff um which will be discussed in executive session as they relate to personnel and then some programming increases we have um because it is a a difficult decision to remove the 1.0 technology integrator coaching position that will have an impact on you know moving forward with our district goals so we have um set aside $115,000 for additional professional development um at each school for our staff to um get some some you know intensive technology uh professional development and that could be in terms of um you know professional development of some perhaps somebody from un Advance coming in to provide support or extended Duty um to have the the individual who was the um Tech integrator uh coach to offer you know some different uh programs and and um ideas IDE curriculum extensions exactly um and so that and that would be paid through um our contracted our our CBA um uh extended Duty rates um so uh and then ASL uh American Sign Language we do have three students at the high school that um are completing their first year of American Sign Language um we do want to see that they are able to complete their second year um to to um complete their 2-year uh foreign language requirement and so there is an uh a virtual high school program uh that's $900 per student so we have put that in the budget to to ensure that those students can can complete that program so the total increases were 55,57 um with those increases in the and the total cuts that we've um found uh we are able to meet our uh our requested reduction sure there's some questions I just have concerns about the enrollment study um I think that's really important given enrollment study the enrollment study given the all the changes that are happening and all the building that's happening in our town um because when was the last time we've done it we did it we we had an enrollment study um a uh not as comprehensive as uh you're familiar with Malone they did really comprehensive studies uh Dr PR is a known um consultant around the state who does uh enrollment studies in 2021 he conducted a study for us charges about $2,000 for for his studies and then he reports out um I can share the one from 2021 pretty much spoton um with his last projections uh with the exception of kindergarten or was some and he talks about the rationale and you know where the Miss was um we certainly could bring him on to conduct another study for $2,100 um and make a hard choice to delay a more comprehensive study um um until next year when we have perhaps less Investments going forward that was the thought process when was the last time we did the really comprehensive I believe it was 2019 18 or 19 19 yeah and actually and we look back at both studies when we look at our projections and develop the budget that you're presented with in December but there there was so much movement during and because of covid and then we've had the housing starts here um it's just I don't know and we have the new kindergarten law with September one so you know he'll take that into consider generation as well that could affect classes deping on start dates and things like that yeah so that was the thought process there join we wrestled with this one because to exactly your rationale the other thing I think it's interesting in terms of personnel so the technology integration specialist um the reduction there uh we talked about it at the Joint meeting with Board of select on board of Finance but while we're having the conversation publicly and it's recorded for everybody uh it's important to think about um that teachers like that are typically you're more senior teachers um so they don't just um you don't eliminate that position and then they're just gone through the collective bargaining agreement they bump a less senior teacher that's typically how that works and so this is what we have we have to look to at all the different certifications that we're in the process of bumping rights in the teacher contract to see how this will affect our staff um so um if there is there is a May 1st deadline um for non-renewing non- tene teachers so if um and we're still working on this scenarios with the teacher Union if there is a non-teacher non- tene teacher that um will need to be non-renewed I will inform uh you all and let you know that we have to have a special meeting to notice that and consider that because the board non-renew I don't non-renew and that's under teacher 10e law in Connecticut hopefully we don't have to do that we're really being as creative as we can with everybody's certification to see um because the last thing you want to see is someone lose their job of course are there other uh questions or comments about the budget just the mclass intervention is that that's not part of our mclass assessment that's it's only so that it is part of the mclass assessment but it's not the comprehensive part it's actually because the Boost reading will be coming in with CK um so that would be the intervention tool and they actually have found that while they love the M mclass as an assessment tool that intervention piece has not um been as much value added as as they had anticipated So the plan is for next year to see how boost goes and then we'll have experience with both mclass and boost and make an informed decision for the next fiscal year okay what grades uh is mclass 4 I don't that's the tool I don't know that's for K through five for math and reading and what's formative again so formative is another platform um that was piloted uh last year and this year it's um and it was just at the middle school um and essentially it's a tool that allows teachers to for students to submit work through the platform they're able to give kind of real-time feedback adjust their um lessons uh you know use it for differentiation it can be used across all all um I see Roberts said he probably knows about it um so it can be used across uh disciplines the math uh folks used it a lot last year math and World Language um it just hasn't really I think it's probably you know a little bit of a glut of online access for teachers so it just didn't really take off it's a really nice tool it just isn't it's one of those things that when you're making those hard choices um we had to pair out for next year and it's only in the middle school that it's really been focused on so we figure that it's not a huge impact across the district anything to add Super Chat yeah it's a great platform too B it's not it's a good platform all right with that um thank you very much okay um let us move then to uh public comment we have a couple people signed up um Mrs Scalera it looks like you're [Applause] first and just as a reminder I know you know what you're doing but please start with your name and address Aon Scara 5 Jackson Drive let's find it I was really disappointed by the state of the district email blast that parents received on March 27th I stand before you and I ask you if you truly believe some of the fluff presentations and the smok and mirror that are happening right before our very eyes we continue to hear that everything is amazing in special education but I'm here to make it crystal clear that everything isn't awesome and it's far from being factual as some students are not receiving what they need the entire District mailing list was told and I quote we embarked on a comprehensive special education program review which I will happily remind the board was pushed by a few parents as the district recommendation was only to look at less than % of brookfield's identified students how's that for commitment to all our kids correct reviewed and analyzed District resources organizational processes structures student learning and outcomes communication and collaboration the recommendations from this report served as a guide for the work of our new special education director and all the faculty and staff this year I'm pleased to share that we have addressed all the recommendations on our way to Excellence in the special education programming end quote by addressing all the recommend ations please tell me why I'm aware of many students that did not receive legally required services for months how children have absolutely no measurable data driving or targeting instruction by any service provider or special education teacher how families were misled that their children were being serviced by people who were not qualified in the positions they were serving I just found out that my son's being serviced not by an OT for the last 3 years but by an assistant I will share that his disability requires intensive OT he's not getting it State complaints are piling up which does which which hardly screams Excellence to me my child's program is using four-year-old testing we just simply missed this trianal we skipped over it and I stand before you asking what exactly did the correct review fix it was said that initially it would take initially 3 to 5 years to plan but somehow every box has been checked how's this possible the correct review will end up being completely useless if the only one driving the much needed changes is the new director who can't possibly wear every hat in every building and every day day in and day out because the people underneath are not working in their capacity they were hired for the special education program has absolutely no consistency from school to school which is not the least bit helpful for children heading to another school sadly the special education department is nowhere near achieving excellence and continues to be a needs a major overhaul the longer the district chooses to ignore the pressing issues the special the spe in the special education department the bigger they will get and cost a district much more in the long run you can't your budget can't support many more out placements can it you need to immediately rip everything apart from the start and start over over because a framework or structure if you will is nothing more than a deck of buckling cards visibly close to imploding progress monitoring is absent in our district for our children and mine on IEPs but when children receive srbi intervention to avoid special education classification data is collected and track thans thank you Mrs Scalera Denise will finish okay so Mrs Rice good evening yep N Rice three old Hemlock Road I'm finishing errands it seems a bit backwards don't you think I ask you all how often do you think data be collected toward goals the answer is D daily weekly or bi-weekly and an IEP team should discuss these factors and determine what intervals are most appropriate for each goal for each individual child but it rarely happens that day Behavior data should be collected daily academic is often collected once a week the frequency that data should be collected is related to how often measurable progress can be expected in Brookfield I am here to tell you I just learned earlier this week that we track nothing chart nothing graph nothing and expect every identified child is learning and making adequate progress thus claiming everything is awesome I don't know about you but this hardly sounds like the lovely picture painted in the state of the district that we are all well aware on the way to Excellence I know you are likely sick of hearing this meeting after meeting but as parents we have an obligation to our children so until you fix what is broken we will continue to show up and speak out until every child in this district is adequately serviced and receive the exceptional education of all the students of Brookfield deserve thank you thank you Mrs Rice and finally Mr Korea when you are ready no I got to think so Andy Korea 45 West whis Road um so what was just described was you know ongoing failures that had occurred up to the past eight years and was just discovered really last year after that correct report and when the when the uh correct person from C came and discussed it one of the senior administrators response was oh that's great I love to write strategic plans my question would be why wasn't it in the Strategic plan 5 years ago why did it take eight years to to find right you know we we had hires that were incompetently hired that impacted special education last year we know about that right why did we just have a problem with a a high school um vice principal higher how did that not happen how did that person not get Googled there was no discussion here um at like I asked about hey why wasn't on the consent agenda for the board to manage that tell me why didn't you guys discuss it and as it relates to the policy um I'm sorry as it relates to the complaint the policy reads the purpose is to improve the quality of schools or School District to perform its Mission more effectively the board conducts the district business that policy applies board policy was clearly violated the Board needs to follow its own policies you're either going to follow the law the Boe policies and the town code of ethics or you're not so far you're not across the board federal law state law your own policies the town code of ethics please figure out how to do your jobs effectively thank you thank you very much all right so let's move on to the three main points um Stephanie you've been writing very busily um and you are not alone so I'm sure we have lots of good ideas what did you come up with um so my suggestions for the three main points are the whis caner Unified sports presentation M um a security update since that had a lot of pertinent information and a budget update Co I was ni said last day of school last day of school okay just because it was big like we discussed it a lot is this where I say put down the people who voted for extra days of school go ahead I know I know you guys had you guys had good arguments um is there anything that we're missing we covered a lot tonight budg yeah the budget upate that was okay I I'm good right so um upcoming events then and thank you Stephanie sure uh the only upcoming events I have have already been discussed which is well spring break is next week for the district um the I've lost my notes here somewhere um John gave all the and the the budget flyer and it was the budget Fier um the referendum oh the referendum date find the ref I apologize I have too many things in front of me um and career day for L CES tomorrow sorry um and then uh for isn't a town meeting on the 7th and they could change that date isn't that correct no we already had it we just had town meeting was last week to schedule the May 21st referendum I don't I haven't heard anything else yeah the the referendum will be on the 20 the budget votes the 21st of May um and then we will be meeting um on the 27th we as a board and then we also are meeting on Thursday May 8th for interviews yeah so everybody should put that on their calendar those are in person right are they in person in person um the thought is to organize them at the Town Hall at our curriculum room um special meeting executive session uh a 6 a 7 and an 8:00 the way the inter work out 45 minutes a piece 6m 6 starting at 6 what's that no I meant for the um retreat that's April 27th April 27th you're it's a Saturday that's that's a morning Retreat yes May 1st regular meeting May 8th special meeting for legal uh interviews May 22nd the day after the referendum for okay so this is the the legal um interview interviews thank you s and8 you said 6 o'clock 7 o'clock 8 so you call call the meeting to order at uh 6 I will have to change Kate yeah correct yeah we can decide if we it okay you and I talk okay yeah yeah that we talked about that Jo did you say that's at Town Hall yeah at the at the TSO TSO Town Hall Board office whatever you like to call it it took me like two weeks to figure out what they meant by TSO you twoo all right um so with that that will I believe that concludes U the public portion of our um meeting thanks to everybody who came uh that was awful nice of you guys and we are going to um enter well I'd like to move actually yeah that we enter into executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations as it relates to collective bargaining and unaffiliated salaries for next year okay all in all in favor of um moving into executive session say I I anyone opposed okay so the motion passes and here we go thanks Tech Team for everything you did yeah

so we're looking forward to that next is the board chairperson report I would like to encourage all our board members as possibly can tomorrow night to be at City Hall when the mayor presents the the uh budget and open it up for the public this is the first time that I have been on this board in 32 years that they didn't do it during spring and we have been asking for years other community groups have been asking for years not to have it happen during spr break so I would like to say thank you to uh the mayor his delegation or whoever thought that it was need to go ahead and have this uh before spring break when people are away making a vacation friend so I encourage my board members to go down tomorrow if you just want to say hello support budget please don't let your board chair just do it all by herself we are group working together I need you to come down and voice your concern that's showing to me that you are supporting what our Administration is putting for okay thank you uh Memorial Day Parade let's all have beautiful smile and Lauren is going to check in getting the flo one Memorial be apparently I won be able to got a family Miss send me pictures and then just one last thing uh you know sometime we talk about our email and have you read this you know most of us so busy we're up in here over here to that meeting over here run and doing two meetings sometime in one night and I appreciate um superintendent because everywhere I show up she's there and U you know she's representing us very well and um the other night when we had a Citywide PTO meeting the question Camp kept coming up from parents and she explained the difference between um shelter in place versus a lot them because some parents really didn't get that so do you want to S briefly so the the shelter in place is when you're a you're in the school the school's locked from the inside right no one can come in or out but the students have some ability to move inside the school we don't want them moving around unnecessarily to go to the bathroom you've got a change to go to lunch um they're in the building so you know they're not out in recess or not out the gym in the field or inside the school and that's usually as a precaution and and us the the school a quick ability to Pivot should we need to move to a lockdown if something were to change quickly so it's it's the shelter place is really a safe catch to just alert without alarming so much um to keep the kids safe and the and the the lockdown is really when we are lights off away from the door get you know you're hovering down there no devices and you're really it's much more of an imminent threat in in the immediate area um and that we want students to be as invisible as possible so um there was some concern around know the terminology and interpreting that and so we we had some parents that wanted that clarified and they they were satisfied with with understanding them than I have nothing else on uh my agenda I will ask for a motion at this time to adjourn if no one have any other question I make the motion to adjourn second motion made I ask second by Michelle all those in favor could I hear

we will form teams and work together to hone our messaging and leverage one another's legislative reach to advance our three goals after the meeting I will send out more scheduling information and a poll to see who will be attending and we will have prepared documents to present to legislators at the event welcome and now member Den mask division five representative that was one and the same all together very efficient thank you very much any questions for remember Den on either item nine or 10 member mayor disorder I probably should know what are the three goals do you have them already yes the three goals were the rural Aid well I can actually send it to you it's quite wordy okay um so I will I will send that to you um but it's the rural Aid the implicit price deflator and the and our our desire to form a special education Transportation tuition study group as described in the Thrive act and there are some things maybe that might be particular to Greenfield um so I'm hoping that we can discuss that a little bit more at the April 25th Zoom or if if anything is stewing in your mind that you want to bring forward about that but the time will come soon when we will have to um put in writing all of these requests and be prepared to present them great thank you uh member ston I did just want to note for those follow following along at home who are like but wait Greenfield's not rural they're right so rural Aid doesn't necessarily help us as a district but it does help our sister districts it helps our friends and we just at this at the meeting that we did had we we that we have already had we discussed wanting to work in solidarity with one another because individually as districts if we keep competing we lose all around we all lose but if we can find commonalities or ways to support one another in achieving our individual goals then we can win together so I just wanted to note for someone who is like but why is that a goal why are we working towards that because it helps our friends thank you any other member Martini I don't have a question but I just wanted to um publicly thank member genive for spearheading uh the bringing of this training specifically about the day on the hill and how to Be an Effective Advocate when we are there um to us and to the other uh districts from which school committee members attended um I feel much more uh enthusiastic and prepared uh and and looking forward to what comes out of the upcoming um deeper dive there mentioned um later this month and having things prepared uh to hand to legislators um and be making a coordinated effort uh we did not have this last year and although we had a good time um out in Boston talking to people I uh I just feel much more confident about it this year so thank you very much you are very welcome Hey second that you're uh breathing life into our legislative representative role which has been long dormant so thank you for that thank you and our mask division 5 representative not to mention great and uh member PR was also our district Wellness committee representative so we don't have a report on that unless the superintendent has an update at this stage I believe because the committee has endorsed the wellness program um now it goes to periodic meetings to review implementation so okay great all right and um now um we will vote to enter the executive session pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21 section A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or Federal grant and aid requirements approval of executive session minutes March 13 2024 meeting the committee will not return to open session may have a motion to that effect so moved motion for member Martini is there a second second second from um member ston and any any discussion do we need to do a roll call vote for ex executive okay member Den will you call the rooll secretary denim I'm yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member sexon yes member Childs yes we are unanimous and entering into executive session at 7:59 p.m. [Music]

we will form teams and work together to hone our messaging and leverage one another's legislative reach to advance our three goals after the meeting I will send out more scheduling information and a poll to see who will be attending and we will have prepared documents to present to legislators at the event welcome and now member Den mask division five representative that was one and the same all together very efficient thank you very much any questions for member deneve on either item nine or 10 member mayor disorder I probably should know what are the three goals do you have them already yes the three goals were the rural Aid well I can actually send it to you it's quite wordy okay um so I will I will send that to you um but it's the rural Aid the implicit price deflator and the and our our desire to form a special education Transportation tuition study group as described in the Thrive act and there are some things maybe that might be particular to Greenfield um so I'm hoping that we can discuss that a little bit more at the April 25th Zoom or if if anything is stewing in your mind that you want to bring forward about that but the time will come soon when we will have to um put in writing all of these requests and be prepared to present them great thank you uh member ston I did just want a note for those follow following along at home who are like but wait Greenfield's not rural they right so rural Aid doesn't necessarily help us as a district but it does help our sister districts it helps our friends and we just at this at the meeting that we did had we we that we have already had we discussed wanting to work in solidarity with one another because individually it's districts if we keep competing we lose all around we all lose but if we can find commonalities or ways to support one another in achieving our individual goals then we can win together so I just want to note for someone who is like but why is that a goal why are we working towards that because it helps our friends thank you any other member Martini I don't have a question but I just wanted to um publicly thank member genive for spearheading uh the bringing of this training specifically about the day on the hill and how to Be an Effective Advocate when we are there um to us and to the other uh districts from which school committee members attended um I feel much more uh enthusiastic and prepared uh and and looking forward to what comes out of the upcoming um deeper dive there mentioned um later this month and having things prepared uh to hand to legislators um and be making a coordinated effort uh we did not have this last year and although we had a good time um out in Boston talking to people I uh I just feel much more confident about it this year so thank you very much you are very welcome he second that you're uh breathing life into our legislative representative role which has been long dormant so thank you for that thank you and our mask division five representative not to mention great and uh member pretti was also our district Wellness committee representative so we don't have a report on that unless the superintendent has an update at this stage I believe because the committee has endorsed the wellness program um now it goes to periodic meetings to review implementation so okay great all right and um now um we will vote to enter the executive session pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21 section A 7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or Federal Grant in Aid requirements approval of executive session minutes for March 13 2024 meeting the committee will not return to open session may have a motion to that effect so move mov motion from Member Martini is there a second second second from um member ston and any any discussion do we need to do a roll call vote for ex executive okay member Den will you call the role secretary denim I'm yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Goodwin yes member seon yes member Childs yes we are unanimous and entering into executive session at 7:59 p.m. great did you get Melody good one yes I did excellent okay um and [Music] now [Music]

e e good evening everyone and it's 7 o'clock so welcome to the Clifton Board of Education general meeting April 11th 2024 please stand for the flag salute and a moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation indivisible withy and justice for all thank you uh Dr Dany is uh is out today it's her Spring Break um so Mr uh shahat please um call the RO miss bassford here Mr brunak here Mr Kenova here Mr Mahia here Mr Santiago here Mr siano here miss Suarez here president Paris here we have a quum the mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal Community Partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong Learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a Democratic Society and an everchanging world the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clifton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office Clifton Public Library administration building senior citizen Nutrition Center on cable TV V in the local press on the district's website and mail to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy 0168 so we'll start off to me do we have a student representative report hi Jada welcome um good evening so I'm going to start off with clubs so Key Club the Clifton Kanas family is consisting of CHS Key Club W wion middle school Builders club and the school 17K kids um will be holding a collection in May to the to benefit the St Joseph's Hospital in the pediatric hematology and oncology department they will be collecting coloring books crayle crayons Playdoh character colorful colorful Band-Aids um arts and crafts kits and monetary donations but please note that there they're only taking Crayola crayons um please miss Turk with any questions our mock trial Club um the CHS Mo trial team is the best in New Jersey they are number one out of 250 teams that participated in this year's tournament the Clifton Mo the Clifton mock trial team defeated the Mainland Regional High School from Southern New Jersey and the front New Jersey Supreme Court Justice rabar and the honorable Judge Clark as the US Defense government and Ellis V kirkin our next stop is Wilmington Delaware from May 2nd to 5th to represent the New Jersey National High School Mock Tri Championship the team will argue both sides of a case in a two-day tournament with four rounds so please wish them luck our robotics team qualified for the world championship they are third last week in the New Jersey SL um the Delaware District championship and they won the autonomous award our Mustang ambassadors will be selling ID holders in the Croc jbits for $1 each the sale ones every Wednesday after school in the Clifton High School Media Center um and for sports there have been a lot of great things happening with our Athletics and that includes our girls flag football team our flag blackag football has been rising in popularity since um our our our team has been rising popularity and the Clifton High School is no exception they continue to win um their games and they're on a streak after an impressive win against our Rivals pcti and their last win against Union City one of our captains K Koy shouted out Megan valo and Amanda pido for their hard work and commitment to the team and as always please make sure to come out and support our Mustangs so that's it for tonight good evening thank you thank you [Applause] Jada okay we will do uh start start with our Awards presentations we're going to start with our students of the April students of the month and Ninth Grade I believe Mr President thank you sir thank ninth grade Tiana rubab kova our freshman of the month is Tiana Hub rubab kova as a frequent traveler Tiana enjoys learning about new cultures and languages so it's no surprise her favorite subject is Italian along with her older sister and best friend her eighth grade teachers have been the most influential and impactful throughout her life teaching her independence and lessons she will use throughout high school and her future Tiana keeps herself busy by teaching others how to pronounce her last name playing volleyball in Lacrosse at CHS and is also a part of the Heroes and Cool Kids program Tiana strives to maintain good grades and keep herself involved throughout her years at C CHS she can also see herself taking part in the CH College CHS College programs in my future years in high school such as the Bergen M pccc program certificate of achievement this recognition is certified to Tiana kav kova on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education Administration for CHS student of the month April 2024 congratulations Tiana [Applause] do we have parents here tell Mom to come up do you want to come up I'll take the pictures for you with your camera if you'd like ready [Applause] next up is our sophomore student of the month and that is going to be Lucas Chen our sophomore student of the month has developed a keen interest in chemistry due to his exploration of the different components of life Mr iwan stands out as the most influential teacher for Lucas appreciative for his cond demeanor and will willingness to resolve issues Lucas finds Inspirations in his parents who consistently demonstrate love care and a commitment to doing things that are right his extra extracurricular activities include um being part of the soccer team as well as contributing to success in high school to completing his work diligently listening listening attentively and showing respect to other students previously Lucas participated in the computer science academy indicating a will willingful to engage in academic programs offered by the Clifton Public Schools certificate of achievement this recognition is certified to Lucas Chen on behalf of the clion Board of Education and administration for CHS sophomore student the month April 2024 congratulations [Applause] autoc to much handsomeness in one photo that's funny congratulations congratulations [Applause] sanago no I have her oh commissioner Flores sorry that's fine out of I have the honor to present nasle JIS our Junior uh student of the month nasle JIS our Junior student of the month finds joy in subjects like math English History and Ceramics inspired by her dedicated teachers especially Mr Rogers and Miss Anderson she values critical thinking and overcoming challenges with purpose nasle active AC l participates in extracurriculars such as Key Club mentoring ESL students and contributing articles on medium despite starting as an ESL student she has progressed to honors in AP classes demonstrating resilience and growth with aspirations to become an Eco minimalist architect nasle plans to pursue higher education while balancing her personal and academic Pursuits please uh let's give it up for nle J student of the month Junior conratulations [Applause] yes 12th grade Abel Chong AEL Chong our senior student of the month finds his passion in history valuing valuing its significance and understanding the world around us Dr Cal stands out as his most influential teacher imparting valuable life skills and lessons Abel's mother serves as his Greatest Inspiration guiding him to strive for excellence and supporting him in all his Endeavors he participates in football as an extracurricular activity where he faced challenges during junior year football camp but found camaraderie and growth through the experience looking ahead Abel aspires to become a physical therapist and plans to attend Sean Hall University to pursue his Doctorate with sincere congratulations on your meritorious achievement with recognition by resolution of the Board of Education the desire to excels the formula to a lifetime of success your efforts have brought distinction to you your family and Clifton Public Schools congratulations [Applause] able nice to meet you back a little bit there we go three two one sound like the paparazzi congratulations [Applause] congratulations awarding employe ofri award thank you it is my pleasure pleasure and honor to give this award out I requested to to say this uh District level Vincent Constantino District residency investigator Vincent institutes random residency audits of school students in addition to targeted efforts for students suspected of non-residency he investigates and cons conducts a limited number of residency checks of students selected at random he is part of the security team in visiting schools during monthly drills to ensure all drills are conducted with maximum Effectiveness and safety Vincent has gone above and beyond for all his colleagues such as security and other staff members with different position all throughout the district always manages to keep a smile on his face no matter if a bad or good situation gets the job done when asked to no questions ask a real team player by heart Vincent it always always positive hardworking and ambitious to get the job done Clifton Public Schools district distinguished employee of the month for April 2024 presented to Vincent Constantino for outstanding service dedication and commitment to the Clifton Public Schools Learning Community congratulations friend [Applause] it's okay I can take the picture why don't you leave it I'll take it for you go ahead leave it get in there all right this is who's is who's was this Jess's okay ready this is for Jess 3 two one and then for me hope I didn't break your phone congrats Ben [Applause] pleasure he's an all Hudson County boy you may have to get him Elementary level uh Angela B basan basan School social worker Angela is an exceptional employee Who services half the elementary schools and woodro Wilson Middle Schools working with the most vulnerable students in our district she uses her expert clinical background to effectively assess and work with students in a safe and supportive therapeutic environment Angela is a natural positive and warm individual she provides a sense of calm and security to all she works with she offers an empathetic and supportive ear offers re re reassurance guidance and perspective she adapts to a wide range of students meets them where they are and encourages them to reach their full potential Clifton and the studentry services are fortunate to have her this distinguisher award of the month for April 2024 presented to Angela basan for outstanding service dedication and commitment to the Clifton Public Schools Learning Community [Applause] congratulations of thank you no no are you going up there too huh do family family first I'll take a hug I'm a hug all right Mr Paris you're not visible there you go there right there there you go three two one and then I don't know whose phone I yours right okay all right whoops what's that that wasn't your phone Jess don't worry three two one I'm gonna come all right one more time three two one [Applause] [Music] congratulations midd scho isting next we have our employe of the month for the high school that would be Mr on high school level it is Steven sarano history teacher Stephen pushes his students towards being self-guided Learners step is an expert in his course content and has a keen sense of how to motivate and Inspire high school students Steven empowers students voices and develops them into mobile citizens by emphasizing textual analysis and analytical writing step prepares students for academic autonomy and college preparatory work Stephen has a lifelong has been a lifelong resident and graduated from the Clifton Public Schools district Steve is always building Partnerships with his colleagues friendly relations with the students and shares ideas on how to make CHS the best place it can be Mr sarano goes beyond the call of duty every day he is highly involved in his work with the eras Club kickball competitions ESL tutoring scorecard work during sports events student versus faculty sporting events Junior and senior prom PBIS and countless fun and engaging activities with his social students he always promotes all school events and is an attendance of all of them Stephen I have a PL for you [Applause] I was st's [Music] teer Compu in school English [Applause] I'm just getting to a microphone okay I have the honor and privilege of recognizing uh last month's District level winner who unfortunately wasn't with us last month but is here this evening Samantha DeRose our communication technology [Music] specialist Samantha doose tirelessly navigates the district capturing all of our special moments that tell a visual story of our Clifton one students Clifton one students and staff she is at every Board of Education meeting making sure to share all that happens through our social media platform from our district website to Flyers and posters or banners she is consistently creating for our district at a moment's notice Samantha has been a supporter of Key Club service Endeavors for the past 17 years as a teacher she shaved her head to motivate her students to do well in school and was always to go-to person for Tech help and guidance often leading department meetings and taking her personal time to help her less techsavvy colleagues her intellect and welcoming presence is always visible in everything she does congratulations to a well earned award [Applause] saman got a let her take her picture I'm taking phot hold on you want [Music] me know ready [Applause] you know I I do want to say that I've been with the district for 23 years and in multiple capacities and I have my mom and dad said thank my mom worked in in HR many years ago but in this role as a communication specialist it is an absolute joy to highlight our incredible staff and our phenomenal students it it brings me so much joy every single day and I couldn't ask for a better job because of the staff and the students so I thank you really [Applause] a quick Mr go right ahead Mr President if I may um absolutely little known fact about Mr Rose is that um she's also a rapper and I don't mean like a gift rapper I mean like 50 Cent rapper um she wrapped at a one of the talent shows and I'm not going to put her on the spot tonight but Sam if you're feeling a little frisky later and you want to rap for everybody you know just uh just just we'll we'll let it all out but yeah she's multi multi pent no no I would never I would never do that but I talk about somebody who's multi-talented did you see what happened when all of a sudden nobody could take a picture it was like chaos God forbid she's not here like nobody we know what to do so congratulations to all our uh students of the month and employees of the month all right congratulations to everyone um yes um we would like commissioner bassford please uh read the expression of condolence this [Music] evening thank you it was a heavy heart that I read this whereas on March 21st 2024 the community noted with soloro the passing of Greg dicki and whereas Mr dicki has served the Clifton Board of Education and the children of Clifton faithfully and conscientiously for 15 years until his retirement in July 2013 Mr dicki started in 1998 as vice principal at the high school and in 2002 he became the principal at school 11 until his retirement in 1976 he joined the United States Secret Service as a secret agent Mr Dicky served as a special agent for 20 years working in various positions in New Jersey New York and Washington DC including several presidential campaigns and details Mr Dicky loved science fiction books and movies and cherished spending time with his family now therefore be it resolved that this resolution be forwarded to his Bev family to serve as an expression of the great Regard in which Mr dicki was held by the Board of Education the Administration Employees and the pupils of the Clifton public school system and be it further resolved that the contents of this resolution be noted in its entirety in the official minutes of the Clifton Board of Education for future generations to peruse um dated April 11 thank you commissioner bassford at this point uh I usually like to let people know that um you don't have to stay any longer if you're here for an award Etc um you're certainly welcome to um but it's it's up to you um president uh Parish I just want to note that um the dicky family is in the audience tonight um and maybe um uh you can Dr wazzi maybe you can say a few words to them thank you yeah uh if if if anybody would like to say a few words please you're more than welcome to say a few words um I did not know um M Mr uh dicki but I've only heard incredible things about him so if if if you would like to say a few words please feel free to come up to the microphone and introduce yourself um my name is Abel Chong so I actually had him during my kindergarten years at scho 11 and I'm very sorry to Mr Dicky's family I'm not sure where yeah I'm very sorry for your loss because uh I could tell he really did care about the students and you know it's just sad that he has passed away so I'm sorry for your loss that was very nice of you thank you so much thank you very much able that was nice got an award exactly exactly thank you wow that's awesome that there was a student here it really is um thank you very much to the Clifton Board of Education for that recognition tonight my name is Kim Dicky pentangelo I'm Greg's daughter um and I'm also an educator I've uh I work for the Westfield uh Public Schools as a as a school counselor um my dad passed away three weeks ago today so it's still um pretty fresh and and pretty raw um and it's it's funny because there were a few teachers who um from the Clifton Public Schools who came to my father's wake and it was interesting because they spoke so highly of him and as his daughter you know it's your dad so your impression of your father is always very different um and they spoke so much about how he cared about them as people and I think as a counselor in a school system when you hear that your father cared about his teachers as people that's really what matters um and that's that to me was so important to hear and you know when someone passes away you're always looking for signs and I was talking to Sandy my dad's partner for for the past 20 plus years that I've been looking for signs so often and when we found out that tonight you guys would be doing this recognition of him I started laughing because my grandfather passed away 41 years ago today my dad's dad when I was only nine so my dad used to call me every year on April 11th and say do you know what today is Kim and I would be like yes Dad I know what today is and so today was the first year that he didn't call me to ask me that question so I think it's pretty fitting that today is April 11th and that we're here today acknowledging him Clifton held a very special place in my father's heart he cared very deeply for the work that he did here for his students he cared very deeply for the teachers that he worked with every day so the fact that all of you are doing this tonight means a lot to my brother to myself and to his five grandsons so on behalf of the entire Dicky family I thank all of you very much from the bottoms of our hearts for this recognition and I hope his legacy continues so thank you very much you [Applause] you uh Miss regosa we'll wait for the um Exodus that occurs good to see everyone that's you stay yeah you stay oh okay yes all right good evening everyone um president Paris um Dr roosi who's currently not here but thank you all Commissioners thank you for uh the opportunity to once again showcase what we're doing the wonderful things uh good night everyone um I you know drawing inspiration from um what uh from the dicky family um and for what it means to to be part of the one Clifton community and to be a Mustang tonight's presentation is is really inspir ired by uh something that Miss bassford um asked at one of our most recent meetings um miss bassford you asked um is this working what we're doing in in one of our meetings and we come together every month to Showcase and highlight our staff students and our building administrators on the PBIS uh framework implementation and one of the things that we do once a year usually around the summer is provide you with outcome data from our conversation commissioner bassford um I I thought that it if if one person has a question that means there's more than one of us that has a question so I wanted to provide you all with some um current outcome data on the effectiveness on of the implementation of our framework in in uh Clifton Public Schools you'll see a little bit more of this during the summer months because we'll have complete data uh for some sets but so far this is what uh we have and really really what really grounds all of our implementation are guiding forces such as uh the systems or the place the things that you see in place that drive all of the practices that we recognize our folks for um the data that you'll see in front of you before um in just a few and ultimately all of it is based around equity and the um the really the aspect of everyone in our district mattering from students to all staff in our buildings to all of our parents and caregivers in our community so here are some um I I'll try not to bore you with some of the data but I am a data geek uh myself the first set of data that you see in front of you is called uh the district Fidelity inventory tool and this is a tool that is nationally used by all of um the technical assistance centers out in Missouri where all schools and all states um identify the districtwide implementation of PBIS now from year to year we've been we we started to Pilot this for the center during covid in 2020 and you'll see that we had a significant increases and then something happens from last year to this year that causes some of our domains to decrease you'll see things um by the way this this uh inventory is taken by the district collaborative PBIS team team in which 23 participants on that team answered these questions around these different domains and so some of the things that were interesting to us as we um took the survey uh earlier this winter and started to analyze the trends are the is the idea that there was some decrease I want to give you all an a picture of why most recently this year we have parents and students that joined our collaboration team and so one when folks are taking some of these um when folks are taking these surveys what we instruct folks to say is if you don't know the answer to that you mark it as as if it's not there doesn't mean that it's not being implemented it just means that we have to do better at educating everyone around the table as to what is going on so that's where you see that dip but it's interesting because those responses came from that that the beauty of this is that our team is growing across all of our shareholders not just our um School staff next we have for years um our schools self-rate their implementation and and these these um surveys and tools are utilized to develop uh a uh instructional planning for our students and staff and it measures the implementation of the univers tier system the national average is about 70% year after year this is for our 17 uh K through 12 schools now just this backdrop prek has follows the pyramid model and they have similar data sets but with a different tool so that's why you see 17 schools being measured um year after year Clifton Public Schools continues to to be light years ahead in districtwide implementation scores like this afford US the opportunity to present at a at a state and National level but more importantly it provides feedback to our own staff to say this is what we're doing really well and we want to maintain or these are the areas that we can improve upon again if the data is not there the anecdotal could be great but the data really backs up what we're doing um this next slide so the Benchmark of quality was what the national centers were using in previous years they've now um between last year and this year have turned over to the tiered Fidelity inventory so this is the updated boq for this year right it's called the TFI and um again I think we are getting asked to um officially present at the Northeast conference in May based on our district scores if you notice we have an overall uh overall average across the different subscales of way above average implementation and this all happens because all of our staff is fully really believes in our students um growth and ability to really make a change in the world and that starts by feeling part of the one Clifton Community um last but not least we partnered um thanks to Dr Rob to we've spoken about this with the ruter uh with ruter University and the New Jersey um Sky climate survey platform and so all of our buildings as I mentioned before have uh are have devised the plan spearheaded by um Mr jenera and miss kusal levage and and and uh building administrators to really uh utilize the climate survey results for all of our teams but tonight I wanted to show you our climate survey a a parent portion of it because I thought it'd be fitting for us all the scale for this data set the highest possible score is uh four and um the what the state average is looking for is anything above a 1.75 right because this is their first official year last year they piloted um and so what we see across our schools we're certainly way above that in particular um in particular how so how our parents feel about the Safety and Security of their students of their children and um students one of the things to note is the negative student interpersonal oops behaviors now this particular item is scared is is uh scored inversely meaning that the lower the score the better um this is the way that that platform is set up and one of the things that our our counselors are joining force with us and our teams are around this negative student interpersonal behaviors all the questions deal around how students feel um about uh social media uh influences how they treat each other outside of the school and of course we know that carries over into our building so those things are a little bit more challenging for us to really um to really make an an effect right we can't control what's outside of our buildings however our counseling um teams and our PBIS teams are really trying hard in developing those skills and those uh and those character Ed lessons so that we're teaching things like digital citizenship we're teaching things on how to just interact and be kind humans outside of our school um outside of our buildings and so we did see a decrease in that number as well which which is what we want to see for that particular category um very important to note um I'll have uh the schools in particular will each have plans developed around for the student and staff climate survey results and the the all of these pieces are uh are joined or all the data is triangulate triangulated to really make an an extensive plan on uh how uh how all the different teams can utilize so we have our security specialist using this data so as I mentioned our counseling our PBIS teams are uh building collaborative teams um and and I'm just really excited to provide you all with that because this is all of our work come to life um I want to thank you once again for all of your support because Dr Robos Mrs cus levage uh m Mr shahada and Commissioners this all happens with your full support thank you so much um if you have any questions let me know question thank you very much Paula that was great and it's it's great to see the impact the programs having and how well really really Clifton is is leading um Dr arosi you have comment um M regard go to thank you um data is critical right we we spend a lot of time doing this and we need to know is the time and effort and money we're putting into this having an impact so I think clearly this is um just one question I have did how how we know it's difficult to get people to fill out surveys how was our parent turnout on surveys what was our response rate so all right cuz I well In fairness statistically I know you you don't you don't you don't need a you know you % to be in fairness we In fairness statistically we say if we have 30% feedback we count that as a win that's huge huge 30% feedback and that's on average with five to six different prompts right whether it's through black Blackboard emails roll calls it's it's it's uh so our buildings varied by response where um some of our buildings had as high as 23% response rate which was and some of our schools who really had less than 1% response rate so we're all across the gamut the one thing that I will give the administrators a huge shout out for is um when Mr jenero met with them in October and subsequently in January there were there was a lot of planning on how to get parental and Community involvement so the surveys were kept open longer um to encourage folks for back uh we started that survey collection process in back to school night we we had it in multiple opportunities when when folks were coming in they uh some schools had laptops set up so that parents just visiting the building had availability to do that um we had some schools Who provided uh technical support in multiple languages for when parents came in so um they the administration really worked hard at getting those numbers to increase this year I think that um as as Ed administrators saw what was beneficial and what increased those scores some of our other admin said oh you know we'll try that next time around as well so in all fairness it was all across the board thank you so much you're welcome next on our agenda will be board committee reports and we'll start with uh residency and commissioner Santiago please thank you president Paris so we have two since uh we met early uh March so the first one is um residency security technology committee meeting minutes Tuesday March 12th which was my birthday and we still had a committee meeting but that's okay uh dedicated so the meeting took place on Tuesday March 12th and began at 50:2 in attendance from administration were Mr shihada Mr do missola Board of Education members and attendance were myself commissioner Kenova commissioner siano and president Paris Mr doctor explained that registration for the 2024 2025 school year is now open and we currently have over 265 students in the process of registering that's the first committee report so 265 students it was also brought up that a total of 14 potential non-residents have been identified since the last meeting and current currently being investigated for removal finally Mr doctor discussed some discrepancies with other schools claiming Clifton students the district's lawyers will be consulted about steps moving forward Miss zenola described the security drill of the month and that the drills were completed successfully throughout the district finally Mr doctor provided an update to a question concerning concerning formatting of board docs while the feature is not presently available the company is working to create and will update the district when it might be available the meeting adjourned at 5:35 questions GS I'll read the April committee meeting pleas I read the April okay great so um meeting took place on Tuesday April 9th and began at 5:02 in attendance from Administration where Mr Jenaro Mr shihada Mr doctor miss anola Mr Mountain Board of Education members and attendance were myself commissioner Kenova commissioner siano and president Alan Paris Mr doctor provided an update that registrations for the 24 2025 school year is current is currently at over 350 students either completed or pending miss anol explained that the security drill of the month was completed by all the buildings and that the observations of these drills were positive she also commented on the sidewalk repairs which occurred at school 9 and that she requested from Clifton PD to be notified if construction or repairs will impact any of our schools this topic has been brought up previously at Municipal Alliance and will discussed again Mr Mountain commented on a power outage which occurred due to an out issue outside of the school district's purview generators began working and one server needed to reboot which took less than 20 minutes any long lasting or large scale outages or disrup disruptions will be communicated with board members the meeting adjourned at 5:26 p.m qu questions thank you thank you commissioner Santiago uh commissioner Suarez could you read our policy minutes please certainly thank you president Paris uh the meeting uh in in attendance uh at the meeting was myself uh commissioner Mahia commissioner Santiago uh president Paris and the meeting took place on Tuesday March 12th 2024 began at 4:05 PM an attendance from this Administration is Dr D Danny robero Amed shahada Michael doctor Maggie Miller Board of attorney uh I had mentioned the Commissioners that were present as well Mr doctor reviewed the change to policy 6620 to reflect assistant superintendent of business instead of the title of assistant business administrator this was agreed upon by the entire committee Mr doctor then explained the requested addition and additional specific disciplinary categories to better detail infractions which occur this was agreed upon the entire committee Mr Santiago raised his concerns regarding staff attendance and Associated accountability Miss Miller explained that she had Mr Jenaro have been working on appropriate procedures to address staff attendance which the district can follow moving forward and will bring them to the committee when complete the Mee adjourned the meeting adjourned at 4:37 p.m.

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm going to call to order the workshop for Bullhead City School Board on Thursday April 11th at 5:30 p.m. roll call present Melinda saski Charlene Diaz here Fred rushon here barari here Sheila Barnett here and we're at 1.3 are you going to fill us in well no I'm not but Jen is okay um uh Jen does the title program and a number of other grants but uh she's got information for you Jen this goes with some of that other stuff yes that we have later on okay okay so um we are required by ped meeting so at the meeting these are the things that we're required to go through what P one is um how we do our improvement process and then family and Community engagement and so those are a couple of the procedures agreements that are in the cons first the title one overview um this is what title one is one is based off of our free and reduced lunch um percentages so in our district currently it's anywhere between 70% and 98% depending on the school um it does not the C which is the pre lunch pre-breakfast for all our students is not included in that so what is the forms we still have to send out forms for parents to fill out to see whether they qualified or not for one even though it doesn't affect the actual me School um and what we do with the money is um we have to put it towards helping students who are having difficulties with standards um and the supplements that need to go into that so we do Staffing we have um Title One math and ELA teachers that street and then we have Tas for title one at um elementary schools tile one also pays for School teachers and two pres school paros we pay part of part of my salary all of our instructional coaches um sh our homeless as well as part of a c of the fox so all um part of shar's job besides doing homeless is also doing family engagement and Community engagement um so that's why s for is also included in the family engagement and then we which we haven't done in the past we can use the cred money to actually do things so like um if we were planning a little more ahead than what we did this year we probably could have helped P for some of like our Synergy training next week if we need to pay somewhere to come we could have done that we can pay for parenting costes those so the state changed the process for improvement this year so in the past we've had this huge rubric we've had to go through and and it took at least half of the Daya just through the rubric with with the staff at each school um which is part of the reason last year instructional empowerment came because we weren't getting true results from that from that rubric this year they changed it so first we looked at a bunch of graphs that the state U provided for us where we looked at our free and ruc lunch percentage and then it compared us to other districts in the state with the same or similar percentage ofing look at Matha pred so to see where where we do it in conjunction with the other other districts we had to answer some Focus questions are the eight questions that are on the bottom but they they had manyi rubrics so maybe three questions for three sections per question um to answer and then from those we were to create only a math goal a reading and a reading goal uh we required the middle school and Junior High to do a science goal because the science and then for the district we also did so that the state really cut it down we had a lot of trouble doing this because we're used to having to put a whole bunch of detail into all these Improvement plans and they wanted us to go really broad this year so we all kind of Str with making it a little broader so from all of that information from the schools I put together kind of a spreadsheet that showed what each school was doing in their school Improvement plan and then um Kate tall um Amanda sh Carolyn and I all met to kind of go over what how we could support the schools based on what they were putting in their plans so on the left you have our goals for Math and on the right you have our action steps and like I Broad and you'll see very similar action steps also for meing and for science because some of what we're doing or most of what we're doing supports all of the subject areas I think Fred do you need tat explain to you yes that would okay yes y yes because I I'm picking on you because I needed to explain to me so okay yeah I'm I'm catching on to some of the acronyms but there's so many there all so T is teacher assistance team so what that is is a group of teachers at each school that works to create um like interventions for students who are struggling so they could be struggling academically or with behavior we could have t teams for even attendance if we needed to so they come together they bring in all the data from that student and invite the parents that they can also participate in meetings and they create an intervention plan for the student and that's in place for 30 days at least 30 days and then they meet again and is the student improving or is the student kind of stigant if the student's improving then you know your interventions are working and you just keep going of interventions if the student is not improving then especially in the area of academics you may refer for special ed um testing so the main purpose is give them the intervention so they don't have to be tested we're having some issues in the district with the procedure having too many kids being referred that shouldn't be referred and that thing that kind of thing so Kate is having a committee that's going to revamp all of those procedures to make sure the students are the interventions they need we don't have to keep referring students and really helping the students that need it yep and part of it is recognizing that special ed is not somewhere you send a child so they're no longer your responsibility it's making sure it's just an additional service you're giving a student succeed and that's another kind of a mindset yeah I had a casa kid that uh went through this and it really worked we really thought she was going to end up special ed now the interventions work just figuring out what that they need yeah not always very youa once again our goals are on the left and the action steps are on the right right very similar here um the big difference is for well not a difference but for math we're looking for screeners so we don't we have math tests we have benchmarks but we don't have a screener so to figure out exactly where a student is struggling in map to Target a specific skill um we do in reading and we're we do in reading for elementary but we're working on figuring out some better screeners for the Middle School and and those get used a lot when we get new students you know they come to us from someplace else and and we don't have any idea what their skills are what you know what might be missing we use it with Littles when you know because they're new but it's really helpful when a student transfers in because you have no idea where the student is and it gives you a real quick uh idea of where they are Jen you might want to explain Bo Y and EO y oh sorry oh thanks I was going to ask ask that um Bo is beginning of year and E end of year okay sorry it's okay I'll get there that's [Music] okay the reason we're going from last year's testing to next year's testing is because we don't know the results for this year because we're in the middle of testing right now so we don't know what our Baseline would be if we started from this well I think based on what I learned yesterday is that they're they're really expecting to see a an increase in the uh learning activity of the students because as um oh Kevin was explaining it is that this year's been kind of like this and now everybody's starting to catch on at the end of this year so next year he's expecting the curve to be much different and that makes sense to me I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt but I did okay open Mee I'll add one thing that Jen shared with me I and I recognize that it's kind of a oneoff um but we never have seen this before so Jen was telling me yesterday that one of the sites called was it Fox Creek that called about the student who wrote more than the space that was allowed on the test for writing for writing for the writing test and um so they called the state and said what do we do you know he's not done thought there was a problem with the test yeah and so they said no he'll just have to edit and make it fit the space I I don't think we've ever had a student who wrote more than the space alow so um uh that to me that's that's indicative of kids taking more seriously um uh what they're doing you know I know it's one student but sometimes that sometimes that outlier student reflects what everybody's doing and it was nice he have just submitted what he had written or typed in there but he chose to go back and well I think the excitement among the students is is kind of catching on and it's evident yesterday one of the classes I visited Mr too's class he asked who wanted to tackle this next next question and this one kid just about jumped out of his seat I want to do it you know and that was unexpected because you know I'm I'm still expecting because of um the results that we have seen I wasn't expecting that kind of enthusiasm but I I think and Miss Veer was explaining that this is probably all because of the IE um influence that's going on so yeah it is thank you engagement so we are still um do our we to do our resource like we did last year in November I'm not sure when we and then our strategic planning committee has already started taking on some of the other parent workshops that we're doing one is I know I'm holding this up I'm sorry guys but number two the dot dot dot after because it has a huge description of do we ever get 20% of our parents parents are signed up to come on Thursday of next week forgy par meeting like children to come for start well that's that is that's a good sign thank you that's a went back and especially since James said initially because he's he's on that committee and and he said I'll be really happy if we have five families and so when he walked in yesterday and told me so it's gone up since yesterday when he walked in and told me yesterday he said we have 49 parents signed up I'm going whoa this is amazing so uh yeah so and we've had good advertising yeah we had to move in move it to the cafeteria at Coyote from the library and um but Lance has put out good you know put out good stuff to the press and we've had good coverage in the press as well as social media so uh it's kind of exciting that's our so the next piece is our parent involvement agreement and that's also what's in the and I just kind of went over what we change that it's the same as it was last year this is a format that we get from the state and we can change it it's just not a full L of changes from last year but what we did do is remove first things first um from preschool we are pretty sure we're not going to get scholarships next year and that's for um people who can afford the preschool and then um we also which I didn't put up here took out out age 12 so that's another preschool grant that we have that ends this year so there that as well and then because we did not apply for 21st century for next school year that covers our Flex Fridays and after school programs and so that's why we took that out this year I don't know if anyone had any suggestions on anything they wanted have we got anything to replace that funding for preschool with no what we're going to have to do is go to P preschool um we've been operating two classrooms this year using m&o funds and and um and I because I felt we needed them and didn't understand that we can't really use we're not supposed to be using M funds for preschool so uh I made the decision learned this about November and I thought it's not a really I don't think it's a really good thing to do to our parents to tell them in December that in January they need to start paying for the pre school so we will start uh we will have two foray preschools next year um we will have three special ed preschools we will have classrooms at Coyote we will have one Title One classroom so we will still have six classrooms it'll just be funded differently and I don't want you to think we've lost first things first funding because of anything we did or didn't do um first things first is funded by tobacco tax uh in Arizona and uh fortunately fewer people are using tobacco uh than in the past but that also means that that that funding has dropped the other thing is that uh in the first things first world uh the regional is laas and Mojave County and I am on that Council now uh so I have a better understanding of how it works U but they realized in their um data Study last year that there were a couple of areas in Mojave County that had been underserved and so uh in the in the uh the planning that that they were doing they focused uh what money they have pretty much in those two areas because they've been underserved for you know a long time many years and um so that means the rest of us you know are are taking the cut so it's not anything we did or didn't do uh you know that would have changed it it's just that areas that need the services are getting them the next piece is the School parent compact so for this we did meet leip team which is all of our principles and the directors in the district to go over this because I felt like it was kind of outdated just based on some of the things we're doing now so the changes that we made were under parent responsibilities we added those two things um we do have a what it called a familyfriendly environment statement that you'll see in those schools we decided to add some of that similar ver to this and then adding in the school handb to and then student responsibilities we added the actively participating in their own education and we changed math practicing math backs pring skills and then our responsibilities we added in the child find meeting it's not necessarily required because Ida is separate from title one but it is something that the district does do to inform parents the other piece we made was adding Coyote Canyon as an actual School in the docum so before wasn'ted as own scol is there anything that anyone it's just too bad we have to remind people to be respectful engagement there we go that um we should add as an action St right do do you still offer cookies and treats the night of the family meeting because I know that was the only way we'd ever get to come as we had we are planing um well we can offer that stuff if it's at least a half an hour after the end of the school day but we are doing we do have um first next week we have pizza for that family meeting and then we do have an e meeting for parents and families planned in May and it's to Ser ice cream I believe we do yeah you know usually food will bring bring them in do you get a lot of participation from the parents at these meetings no now we've done pretty well this year with our specific e night but we can only invite um parents and families of English language Learners um in the winter our big draw we believe was because we had Santa come and visit a lot ofation that night and then we plan on doing kind of a BG ice cream party type theme um hope we'll get the same response from that we tend to have a good response when we do fun things like our carnivals our math and science nights those kind of things but when we actually hold parent informational meetings that's when we struggle withits so that's one we're super excited about our meeting next week to have that many parents is a good start good thank you thank you thanks J I Need a motion to adjourn the workshop I make a motion we adjourn the workshop I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb ziki I Sheila Barnett meeting is a j all [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] it's back on okay James I call to order the regular meeting of Bullhead City school board on Thursday April 11th at 6: p.m.

e good evening at this time I'll call the meeting to order let the record reflect that all board members are present and we'll rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice thank you uh next up we have item B1 audience with individuals we do have a couple this evening I'll go ahead and read the statement this is a time for the public to comment members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.01 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration decision at a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each individual or group addressing the board when you approach the podium please state your name for the record and first we have Rebecca Howell I feel like I need a step stool thank you very much good afternoon thank you for hearing me um my name is Rebecca Howell I can spell it if you need me to um I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you guys this afternoon I'm originally from Louisiana uh I was a parent advocate in um Louisiana I'm certified uh worked many years with children with disabilities and developmental delays um I'm currently working with parents here in Surprise um we have two a set of twins in Western Peaks um the reason I I was not prepared to speak tonight I didn't know until 5 minutes ago I was going to come and say anything so bear with me I know I've got 3 minutes and I tend to pontificate um I am from south Louisiana so we talk a lot um but I did write down a few things if I get off track I will try my best to to course correct and come back so we do have um we just recently this week had an issue with our twins um a and I believe that it was handled very well let me say first and foremost because I believe that there there is a balance should be we as adults should try to maintain a balance between um saying what we we think could have been done better and also acknowledging what we think was done well so we did meet with the principal and the assistant principal uh the parents myself um I am very um pleased with with how it went at at Western Peaks I will say that um I will give anybody um what the due that they have coming and they worked very well with us it was handled quickly um I am not as much um I'm a little concerned with with resolution um but without violating anybody's privacy I will say this that um my concern is directly related to the disciplinary process and proed procedures that we have in place I did read the parent handbook um I've been in in Phoenix for two years now so I'm there are differences between the educational system in Louisiana and the educational system here and I get it uh I may be unaware of the completion of all of that because I I'm just now currently getting into it but I did read the handbook um before we met with the principal on this issue this issue particularly had to do with um first graders we're talking six-year-olds um wonderful that we have youth coming up wonderful that we have an opportunity to to help these children become better than than we are um also very Cheng in day ande and knowbody that child I'm very sorry but time has passed Dr cardo can you follow up with the speaker Madam president that's great I'll have Mr M's Department follow up perfect thank you thank you thank you and then next we have Dominique weeks okay my name is Dominic weeks I am the parent of what happened at uh to my child at Western Peaks Elementary School there was first graders involved my son was had a death threat on him saying that the kid before he even got his butt beat that the kid was going to kill him when he got older said that to his twin sister the resolution is not good enough and I'm sorry missing recess and where my son is having he had night tears that night and we my son has already been through enough I just came from Ohio I'm out here to work and this is actually my children are doing so good in this school it's not even funny um after the fight excuse my language uh this kid decided to beat up not only my son punch him in the stomach throw him on the ground and kick him in the stomach another first grader but he also at that time hurt another hurt another student and my daughter got in the middle of it because she was scared for her brother this kid before he beat my son did the death threat saying I'm going to kill your brother when he when he when I get older then after he was done beating the crap out of my son he told him that he was a [ __ ] [ __ ] a first grader we're talking about here do I feel comfortable with my kids in Western Peaks Elementary School right now do I feel safe with them right right in right now with them there no because this kid is in my daughter's class my daughter has to be next to him all the time sees him in class this is not okay and I'm not okay with it taking recess away from a child until Monday is not okay me not able to grab get the incident report because of HIPPA and everything else is not okay I have a problem with the disciplinary actions that were taken and to be honest I was actually very nice at the school because if it was anything else I have three children to take care of if I was in Ohio this wouldn't have happened stuff is different out here and I understand that I get it we're out of Towners and understand that too but something needs to be done no TMT you know the threat management stuff this is a first grader saying this to a first grader doesn't get suspended doesn't get expelled nothing nothing was done and I'm not happy about it and something needs to be done because of my son is having night terrs because of everything he's been through and now my son is getting a death threat there's an issue and something recessed getting taken recessed away is not okay and that's all I have you thank you very much Dr Crono um can you also follow up with this parent Mrs weeks yes ma'am we will okay thank you that's all we have all right next uh up is item C1 student update thank you madam president uh Mr muy will introduce our student yes Madam president members of the board Dr Coto uh rayy rff is ready to go and she's got our student update from student councils um good evening everyone so um the main thing that all the student councils have been working on is prom coming up um this um Willow and Shadow are hosting their prom this Saturday and daar is going to host their prom April 27th and um Valley Vista our prom is May 4th um next Tuesday um we're having our dslc conference hosted by Willow Canyon and we're really excited we have a lot of breakout rooms um planned and a guest speaker to come and talk to all of our councils together um one of the bigger things that is coming up next weekend all the district choirs are attending the Oceanside choir competition so we're all wishing them luck and um Valley and Shadow are planning a color Wars and spring um spring activities for the school to close out the school year and like all the senior festivities with our graduation practices and senior breakfast and Senior sunsets and that is all thank you thank you next we have superintendent update thank you madam president uh tonight I'd like to recognize some of our uh essay winners each year the city of surprise and the city of El Mirage hold a dice art essay contest and we have some winners so I'd like to just briefly read their names and recognize them so in the grade three4 category for City of Surprise we have Kaylee Garcia um who I just said is in grade four at Surprise Elementary our 58 category is Connor kimnet grade five at Assante and Grade 9 through 12 category is Mo Morgan goats grade 11 at Shadow Ridge High School so those are our honores from the city of surprise in the city of El Mirage um we have a first second and third place in the grade third three through four category first place was Caleb uh Figaroa at Surprise Elementary second place Carly schol from El Mirage Elementary and our third place in our grade three4 category is uh Noel Cervantes Landy also from El Mirage Elementary so congratulate to those um winners and the 58 category um in the city of Al Mirage first place was Alexa Cervantes Rea from dier Middle School uh Second Place Adam Campbell from diar middle school and third place was DEA Jones from diar middle school so a clean sweep for dier Middle School in the 5'8 category and then the 912 category um we had a first place winner Oscar Delgado from valy Vista High School uh second place was Kaden Brun schreuer from Valley Vista High School and third place was Landon Navaro heaps from Dice art high school so congratulations to all those winners uh for doing a great job with that and then my last piece um just like to remind you invite you to our dice art hero dinner it is one week away on the 18th at 5:30 so we are looking forward to celebrating our dice Our Heroes and our PR department has been hard at work getting that event ready so we are going back to uh the formal event this year so we're looking forward to so one week away and that is all I have next we have governing board update I was just going to um add that last was it last week already um attended the state of the city um at the at City Hall it was just great to um hear about all the accomplishments that uh the City Surprise has made um as well as all the growth that's occurring um so it's just a great night and um just appreciated the opportunity to attend okay um I attended um on March 26 the mom and Sun bowling at Freedom um Freedom PTA put it on we had a blast I just this is the second year I've done it and I've I just love it um of course I didn't win my son beat me but that's okay um I also attended the state of the city um it was it was a neat experience that was my first one I've ever attended and it was nice to see all the growth um that surprise has experienced so far and what is to come um and then on April 1st and April 2nd I attended a safety Summit in Glendale um we had um a lot of great speakers um including our attorney general Chris Mays uh County attorney Rachel Mitchell and the Maricopa County Sheriff uh Russ Skinner did a couple breakout sessions um did one for the SRO SSO duties and best practices and then also did a breakout session um for active shooter protocol um that the FBI put on so that was that was very interesting a lot of good information so I just want to thank the district for um allowing us to attend so thank you I also attended the uh state of the city address and as everyone else has mentioned is just it's um it's nice to see all the growth and surprise um but it also kind of just makes you think how can we uh support those uh new incoming residents um without a school you know out there in those new developments um so lots to think about I also attended the school safety conference uh in Glendale and um just always a lot of great information to bring back uh as far as keeping our uh students and staff safe uh and that's all I have did you have anything Miss Grant no okay I would just in my quick update I would just like to express my continued gratitude to our SRO and our ssos for showing up to our schools and making the choice to be there to keep our kids safe so thank you to our law enforcement thank you for adding that okay uh next we have item D1 I'll entertain a motion I move the board approve consent agenda items as presented was there a second sorry motion carries okay next we have item F1 Dr croo thank you madam president tonight we have some information on our core values and Dr saai will introduce this topic good evening Madame President members of the board it is my pleasure to present to you tonight on what we call diert core values we hope to Brand It success starts with you colon diert core values but we are checking to make sure that name is not taken anywhere and it is legal to use so in the meantime we have diert core value um the first question you might ask is why do we need to come up with core values we've had programs like character counts through the years and be kind but different schools use different programs and we really can't control how those programs evolve over time I can't guarantee you when I open up be kind's website today that it'll have the same things on it five years from now three years from now so creating our own in-house character program with daer core values really helps to stabilize that through throughout time it also will provide continuity throughout our school districts so one school's not using one thing and another school is using another why schools can retain some individual uh unique things that they value these will provide values overall um their values would fall under that most schools have things like be safe be kind which would be embodied here as you'll see as we go throughout we believe that the way the core values were developed will help also to develop successful citizens these are things that we want all kids to leave with as desert graduates and it also really provides a framework for our teachers I think in today's day and age and climate our teachers almost get nervous to teach things because they don't want it to go one way or the other so this will allow us to aligned resources and gives teachers resources to say hey here's how we talk about these things and not only this is how we teach kids to talk about things but this is how we treat each other in our system making our system a better place for adults and children children the first value is citizenship and citizenship has four uh has four traits active participation Civic engagement adherence to school values and digital citizenship we would go through in the Summers and uh this would be part of our curriculum mapping if it's a natural overlap with our curriculum we would lay it in some of these we might uh really emphasize more at certain grade levels than we do others with kindergarteners we might not hit as hard on digital citizenship but active participation and adherence to school values would be more strongly emphasized at that grade level as it's appropriate our next value is communication which would include Clarity of expression active listening respectful communication and collaborative communication we know that commun in today's age with communication both written oral or even doing it in Fil A film version that we have an a real need for these things so to teach our kids to communicate accurately clearly and in a professional manner cooperation is our third um active participation again flexibility and adaptability accountability and shared responsibility our fourth is creativity uh because we know that the uh when our kids go out they're going to need to be creative uh those are where the jobs lie tomorrow we need to teach them to have their original thoughts what does that look like to go through maybe the engineering design process to create their own their own piece of music to be able to present things in original ways we want them to challenge themselves uh we want them to challenge themselves to take AP and dual enrollment classes to take maybe something that's outside their normal uh their normal um things they're comfortable with I'm sorry I lost my thought there uh collaborative we want them to be C collaborative when they create and we also want them to have adaptability to be able to adjust when things go wrong our last value is critical thinking using evidence-based reasoning uh we do this all the time in our classes drill having kids go back to text but really having them be able to support their idea and why do you believe what you believe to be able to problem solve to be open-minded and I don't have to agree with you but I have to respect your opinion and we can disagree respectfully and to be good decision makers um our next steps are to work with staff on the success criterias for these core value components to work to weave these into our Curriculum maps to create districtwide recognition programs when kids show exemplify these values and adults do and to be able to measure the success in our schools and I do want to give credit to the team that really worked on this uh uh Kevin kette Dana Noble Katie Q Carlos Pera Andrew griel and Sarah Casey they did a fantastic job really going through and asking stakeholders what do you value and how do we put those into to a program any questions thank you so much I appreciate you doing this and I appreciate all the hard work that everybody put into it um just a quick question are we teaching cursive as a way of communication I believe we teach cursive in third grade Dana starting at the end of second thank you I I appreciate focusing on the written as well as the verbal communication that way you know LMK you know let me know so thank you and having emails it start with a greeting yes hello thank you very much I think this is great um I love the idea of having a consistent um tool to be used across the district um I I do think it's really important as you mentioned sometimes we adopt these um tools um but they may change over time and they no longer align with what we initially were looking for so I I just really appreciate the all of the effort that put that was put into this and I'm looking forward to seeing um hopefully some good results with it we are too and the committee especially I I don't think Katie Q is here but I mean she just really embraced it and owned a lot of that along with the rest of the committee thank you she done a great job can I ask follow-up question so we teach the students cursive right do we give them plenty of opportunities to practice that in later grades so where it's not just like I learn it and then forget it they can still sign their name in high school I can't guarantee you that that's emphasized equally across schools it's something that we can have a conversation about okay and emphas and work with our teachers to emphasize more okay thank you um wouldn't it be maybe um with the with where we're piloting like the Spalding and things like that that would probably be more emphasized at those schools I do believe it's emphasized more at our traditional schools um like I said I don't want to give you a firm answer I can't tell you that it's across the board right I I do we do teach it across the board but that accountability we haven't focused on a lot so okay it's something that we can probably do better on to be honest okay thank you and just a a quick notion on the communication part um is that where your student Le conferences would come into too I think definitely we could talk about that under communication um it could be creativity too because it's a different it's a creative method by which to assess my learning and communicate it to my parents right okay thank you anyone else okay thank you again all right thank you all right moving on to item F2 Dr croo thank you madam president uh tonight we're going to do a little presentation to for you on Title One funding as you may have seen in the news and and with emails there's a lot of information floating around about Title One and what's happening to our Title One funding so we want to bring you some information we have nice new up-to-date information and Dr saai will introduce our speaker Madame President members of the board it's my pleasure to introduce our director of federal projects Dr Ashley Loria good evening Madame President members of the board and cabinet I have a voice this evening so I'm excited to be able to use it um tonight I'll be providing those Title One updates so just really quick a recap on Title One um we are funding is all based on the poverty data and the whole purpose is for student achievement that has not changed uh most of our fun is in Staffing and positions and each year when planning the budget for the following year we usually plan for about a 5% decrease so we did the same thing initially planned for a 5% decrease for next school year we had a budget ready to go and then we received a memo from ad Arizona Department of Education stating that our allocation would actually be reduced by 20% um but I'll go through that plan as if we were reduced by 20% but I'm excited to say that we just found out today that um we actually are only going to see about a 7% reduction so this plan was in place but we no longer need it so I'll just run through it and then if you have questions let me know so this school year our initial allocation was a little over $5 million and as you can see a majority of that funding is all in positions like interventionists and instructional assistance for next year if we had been reduced 20% our allocation was set to be a little bit over 4 million so as you can see even with that reduction a majority of our funding was still going to be all at to people and I can talk about how in a minute um but our most recent update with only that 7% reduction we actually our allocation will be actually about 4.8 million instead of the 4.1 that you see here so what would we have done if we were were reduced 20% um our main goal was to make sure we were not reducing positions or Staffing those people are important they were already in place um so our plan was to reduce the amount of money um at tital one set set asides for schools to start and then we were going to shift positions from One Federal fund to another um so title two with that shift that could have impacted summer workshop funding for next school year not this June uh but luckily we do not need that plan anymore and so we are actually going to shift positions back and and move forward as originally planned so that's all I have for you any questions I do have a question yep are we continuing to hire is it math coaches right are we going to still have those math coaches at our Title One schools yep that's correct we've actually already hired them all for next year so that is um still in the the budget for next year yep thank you so much absolutely I have a quick question just hypothetically understanding how this funding can be used hypothetically if ever um there are ever discussions about would we be able to use this funding for perhaps providing incentive for teachers to go and ATT title school there there is salary wise yep there's an allowability for that um I don't know the specific details but that is an option and allowable cost yeah okay thank you and just to confirm I know that the communication came from ad but this is a federal funded correct that's correct yep Federal um releases their budget and then the States from there do their calculation to then fund the school districts with the funding that they have and when you say the the poverty levels is that based on free and reduc Lodge or is that based on else for combination good question um for district school districts with boundaries it's all based on census poverty data okay okay and so census poverty data I mean the the levels like the they haven't been updated correct correct with the inflation and that's correct yep it's as 2022 census okay MH great thank you very much you're welcome thank you can call her back Dr Loria sorry we still have one more question Sor no that's okay I just had a question um on Family Outreach what are we using the title funds for for that great question it's for a position so we employ four Family Outreach specialists at our title sites okay yep okay thank you you're welcome can you explain a little bit can you explain a little bit about what those positions what that entails yep a great example is at dier high school um they have Gina ayal and she has a whole classroom dedicated for families to be able to come in they learn how to do fastf applications they learn all about school credits so they can come in during the school day but then in addition to that they run events after school so um the whole purpose is to build the bridge between schools and community and family and get families into the schools great I think we're done okay thank you next we have item F3 Dr CTO thank you Madame President uh Dr saai will also introduce this item good evening again Madame President members of the board uh it is my pleasure this time to introduce Dr Corey monano our director of exceptional student services good evening uh president denmore members of the cabinet and sorry the board and guests it's my pleasure to present to you tonight kind of two uh opportunities here one to update you on exceptional student services department and then another one just to let you know about some of the transfer process when students transfer into the district or from one school to another when they have an IEP so to start I thought it would be a good idea to give you a little bit of an overview of just our numbers so you can understand just kind of the volume of students that we're working with so overall we do have um approximately 16 18.96% that's based on an October 1 count of uh the percentage of students who receive special education services uh that is about average for the State of Arizona Across the Nation it fluctuates a little bit but you can see between 12 and 19% as a range and it really does vary from state to state um so one of the things that we do see here in daart is that we do have a decrease in our general education population numbers and then a slight increase in our special education numbers so that can attribute for some of that percentage change um we do serve preschool through 12th grade and so we have um a number of programs that provide what our students need at all ages and so preschool is a very inclusive setting where students are able to be early Learners and get what they need uh for their services as well as some uh curriculum instruction to have them ready for kindergarten we provide services to students in a resource setting in a several different ways so we have students who receive services within the general education curriculum from a special ed teacher who either co- tees with um sorry a special education teacher who co- tees with a general education teacher and that could be for the duration of the period it could also be a pushin model where the special education teacher goes into the general education classroom and only provides the specially designed instruction that's that instruction that the student needs in order to um have access to the general education curriculum and meet their goals and I'm so sorry my medical device is just buzzing at me so I apologize um and then the other res the way a student might receive services from a special education teacher in a resource way would be a pull out model so maybe we're working on something that is not quite um aligned with what's happening in the classroom in that moment but it's a a a standard aligned that we need to pull the student out of the classroom in order to provide them some specially designed instruction that will help um make that skills Gap smaller so that they're able to access all of what's happening in the general education classroom then we have specialized programs our specialized programs um more traditionally in other districts I think they might call them self-contained environments but for us we're really focusing on some students might need to be self-contained and be in these programs for the duration of the day but other students might have parts of the day that they're able to participate in a less restrictive environment or with their non-disabled peers so these specialized programs serve the needs of our students with more significant needs our structured teaching classroom or STC uh provides support for students who have more significant communication needs as well as um cognitive needs and so these are our students who meet the criteria for our alternate alternate assessment um most typically we see that these are students with um mild or moderate intellectual disabilities and maybe also autism where it's really sign significantly impacting their learning we are very excited to introduce a new program next year that we will be piloting at Rancho Gabrielle elementary school as well as sonor and Heights um Middle School where we will be doing much of what we're doing for the structured teaching classroom but it's going to be kind of one step above that where the students do not meet the criteria for the alternate assessment so they don't have that signitive cognitive um impact but they do have the sign significant um communication impact that is uh making it so that it's very difficult for them to be able to access the general education curriculum in a large setting and they also require a very highly structured environment with lots of visual um prompts and routines and so this will meet the needs of some of our service our students who are currently out of the classroom a lot of the day in the resource room but they don't have that sense of community and classroom because there's so much coming and going and they don't have a routine and also some of our students that we privately placed only because we didn't have this level of service for them so not our students with more significant behaviors but really they re needed that routine and structure so we're very excited and we're piloting to get it right before we grow it and make sure that we um are able to meet their needs in the right way our Aspire program meets the needs of our students with more significant medical needs we have that on Kingswood campus as well as Shadow Ridge High School and it's pretty amazing what our kids are doing in there but um they do require a lot more more support and there is even a program nurse to make sure that their medical needs are being met these are students who have um tube feeding might have a tra Etc so and then our phase program meets the needs of our students with more significant behavioral disabilities going to go over uh just a little bit of the way that we're organized I'm not going to go over every single role but I thought it would be more important to go over some roles that are a little less um uh typical in terms of it can look different in every District so if you were to start on the left hand side in green we have the leads um we do have five leads that oversee the different departments that are underneath them so school psychologist speech um motor a motor includes occupational therapists and physical therapists um and then below that group of folks we also have um licensed uh classic ified staff members so speech language pathologist assistant um certified occupational therapist assistant physical therapy assistant we do have an audiologist we do have several um adapted PE teachers a teacher of the visually impaired and two teachers of the hearing impaired and so those leads um are quite critical because they are experts in their area in the licensed or credential area and they're able to provide oversight to the um members in their respective groups as well as uh profession development ensure for compliance that we are meeting the federal and state legal um aspects they also are monitoring for um just to ensure all of that as well as um doing a at least a day of full-time working with students and services if you move to the second column um right next to that under behavior analyst so in the gray we have uh Behavior coaches so one thing that we were really hearing from our Administration um our administrators rather was that we were seeing students with more and more behaviors and more significant behaviors and so in the 2223 school year we really changed the role of the behavior coach and also added the role underneath that which is a classified position the student support technician and so we do have um 23 approximately 23 Behavior coaches across the district we have one at each um prek through fourth grade campus one at every p prek through 8th Grade Campus one at every middle school and then we split them at the high school level so if I'm at a high school I going to be serving two high schools as a coach um and what we did is rather than just having them support students who are on IEPs which was what was previously in place we expanded that role and so they are now also providing um support to staff and students who are not on IEPs so the way in which we do that is they participate in response to intervention meetings where we are focusing on more of the behavioral aspect we help um they help write the Behavior Support plan so bsps it's new to dier versus a bip a be a behavior intervention plan would mean that a student is on an IEP it just helps us differentiate the students um and also who's helping to support um those plans pardon me um they are also there to help coach on what those behavior intervention plans look like when we're implementing so they might help a teacher they might help um a pair of professional who's helping to carry that plan forward in the classroom room uh this they are the creators of the skills-based intervention that we've introduced in daart so skills based intervention is an intervention where when we have a student who has um violated some school Rule and the administrator has decided a resolution they can do um a resolution that includes teaching the skill to that student that they were lacking in the classroom and it could be combined with an oncampus reassignment or any other um disciplinary disposition that they would um that they would like but this we do see that we are some of our students just don't have the skills so we do a short um opportunity for them to learn so for example if they were um they were using their words in an inappropriate way to express their frustration we would help remind them of the ways in which they could express it so that they're um not going to be removed from classro and can remain in the instructional setting um let's see so the student support technicians are on our our um only through the preschool through 8th grade campuses and middle schools we do not have the SS at the high school level um and they do help model interventions for the staff they help complete that those um interventions that the behavior coach is trained they help model um and train on Fading supports so when we have PA of professionals who are providing supports to students ultimately the goal is that those students become more independent in the skill that we're supporting and so they could help the fading of that they also might be mapped in for a short amount of time when um we have new students who come with a pair of professional but they're not yet um but we don't have that staff member yet if you'll move to the right hand side of our chart we have our coordinators we have four ESS district office coordinators if you think of principles um having assistant uh principles coordinators are kind of the assistant um principles if you will to the director role um so they are they support um typically five or six well actually six or seven campuses really at this point um and they develop and oversee the programming that I talked about earlier um the specialized program the resource programs um and they also uh are supporting our campuses when we have more difficult or litigious situations um I do think we ask a lot of our site administrators they have to know a lot about a lot of things uh the coordinators need to know a lot about one thing so they need to know special education law and um compliance and our procedures very well and so they know them very deeply and they're able to provide that support to the teams on the campus the administrators um and they also provide professional development for those programs and they ensure Fidelity and compliance to all those State um and federal items with the IEP and evaluations um under them is um ESS Specialists ESS Specialists there are 12 they've been compared to TLS the teaching and learning specialists in some ways um and it is similar except there's an added component so our ESS Specialists are are both instructional coaches but then also IEP compliance coaches and so at this time they're helping support teachers um we have a lot of young teachers or I say young career um special Educators who may not have come to us even in a traditional pathway and so what they're able to do is provide a lot of support in for the teachers in what it looks like to create specially designed instruction for a student and then what strategies would you use given a certain profile of a student with these strengths and these areas of need they also are able to um provide professional development to the par professionals and then working with their site administrators they do serve at least two campuses but able to work with them on any site level things um we do have some um oversight with them both through the site Administration as well as our coordinators to ensure that they are um where they need to be and in terms of if we have a a campus that might need more support or younger less experienced teachers on one campus we can kind of e and flow a little to provide that support and when needed if we have a vacancy they're also able to step in and help with either giving the the instruction Andor creating the IEPs or the specially design designed instruction for any substitutes that might be in those classrooms so that ensures that we have high quality instruction U materials and lessons for those students and then of course we have our PA of professionals who are really a big just a part of our um everyday way in which our students are able to access their learning um so we do have PA of professionals that support for in a resource setting so it could be in a general education classroom it could be when they're receiving their instruction um in in with their special a teacher and then of course in all of our specialized programs they are just the life of our programming um I'm going to skip over this a little bit because I did just review it but before I move over from here and move into um I think it's our goals do you have any questions about the organizational structure I have a couple of questions in general but it's not necessarily um so I don't know if you want to answer them now or we can do it after but my question are generally um number one can you elaborate on the phase program yes and then the discipline skills you're talking about how if a student wasn't using the proper language you would give them the opportunity to practice is that with our ESS population or is that with General ed students yep that great question so thank you so the phase program and I apologize I didn't go into that um deeply I think I got too excited to move on um the phase program meets the needs of our students who have more significant behaviors and so um when we have done a lot of prevention and intervention and teaching of skills at a site and we are not seeing the progress and they're um truly impeding their own learning or the learning of others and we have kind of exhausted what we think we might be able to do for this student a team might determine that they need a more restrictive environment and the phase program allows it's about no more than 12 students per classroom there's the special education teacher we do have a behavior technician that is um trained higher on behaviors and then a pair of professional in the classroom that are able to support their learning and this is really trying again to make sure that we're kind of embedding the skills that the student needs to be able to be successful in school because if we don't have behaviors under control they can't learn and so we're really putting that through everything that we're doing in that program as well as the instruction and it is um the if their students aren't successful there typically they will um go to a private placement which is as we know not always ideal but sometimes needed but it is um you know further from our neighborhood schools and it is also more costly so and thank you and what is the process sorry what is the process for a student to get into the phase program is that just again is that just the ESS population or is that general led to yep so all of these programs that we're discussing are for students who are on IEP so students who um are in special education and with any um special education student their least restrictive environment so where they'll be learning is always determined by an IEP team so that individual education program really determines it and the lot there are things in place from the law that just ensures that we've gone through everything we can do starting with general education first adding supports adding all of the instruction that we can and then we can move down that Continuum I apologize the Continuum of more and more restrictive environment so if a student's going to be in the phase program they will probably have had a series of supports and IEP meetings and interventions that have been added and layered goals that we've worked on behavior intervention plans and ultimately the team has said gosh you know we've done everything we can we've done it well we've done it with idity the student requires more than we're able to give unless um in this campus or in this setting and they require the phase program and that was true of all of the programs thank you and you had one more question did I answer it actually had a couple more questions okay so yes you did answer that with this everything that you're talking about is specific to the ESS population students with IEPs thank you for reminding me yes and no so the programs yes however the behavior coaches are able to support um the uh teachers and the RTI team in developing good interventions and Behavior Support plans and then um going in the classroom and giving feedback or or helping model what that can look like and then the skills-based intervention the SST also can provide help and services and support to general education students so that skills-based intervention that an administrator is able to assign as a resolution could be for a general education student as well so I guess one of my concerns is is as a high schooler mhm or a middle schooler MH you're thinking oh well if I act out all they're going to do is send me to skills-based intervention and there's no consequence that's a concern for me I understand and so I can defer but what I will let you know is that it is not the only thing so often times it's paired so what we find is a student might have a removal a suspension it could be a on campus off- campus the administrator has that ability to do that and add this so that we have that removal what you did was big enough it's not okay it's not accept you can't be here but then also when you come back we're going to let remind you of the expectation everyone gets to learn here everyone gets to be in a safe and respectful environment here's what we're going to teach you for the expectations so typically we do see it paired for the youngers there might be more of an opportunity to have the teaching and then they layer on the other components but there's a lot of flexibility for administrators and they don't have to go that route they're able to look at what the student needs and what's appropriate on the discipline Matrix and Dr mono if I can interject too I think we have historically had some J of Justice gone bad um with a school that might have tried that and failed with oh we're going to talk about it every time uh we we don't do that uh we haven't done it for a few years and this is the idea of okay well you messed up you're going to take your days but then we're going to work with you on skills to overcome that when you get back I understand that and and that makes more sense it's fine to use that as a teaching moment but kids are smart yep AG agreed and that's why we've been we are trying to be very consistent that's why all the discipline throw flows through the principal Mr kette and Mr mcy too and then are we also holding our behaviorally challenged students when I was growing up we had two different types of special ed you had BD behavior disorder and Ed educational disorder which was the cognitive so for our students who are struggling behaviorally are we still G are we still holding them accountable or are we just saying they're just self-contained we're just going to let them destroy things so that's a great question so it's never okay to do that however sometimes it is we there are protection in place and so we have to ensure that we're doing the right thing for the individual student as well as the classroom and the school so it just means that we have to ensure that we're respecting um their disability that we're providing what they need and that's where we talk about adding layers of um uh I apologize of supports and services but it can also be paired with discipline so students with disabilities and even if they are emotional um disabilities are able to be suspended there's just a pathway after 10 days where there's some checks and balances to stop and have certain meetings to make sure that we're meeting the legalities of um it's called a manifestation determination meeting where we're just stopping and checking and pressing that pause button to say is it because the disability and if it is there's certain things we have to do like um a functional behavioral analysis and then it would usually lead to increas in Services goals Andor um placement elsewhere thank you and then are we differentiating within our self-contained classrooms because in the past I've seen the self-contained classrooms both the cognitive disabilities and the behavior disabilities are all lumped together and that's not a good recipe because then as a teacher you're trying to do both and you can't focus like if you have behavior disorders you teach one way if you have cognitive disorders you teach another way and it just it's difficult yes thank you for the question I would agree as a teacher who had a self-contained environment that was very difficult to have it and that is something we're really strongly against it's we don't have what what you're referring to is often called like a cross-categorical behavioral classroom where it's kind of like a catchall and we've been very careful not to do that and keep it very separate and so they are separated we do not have a lot of overlap and with that and um I do think it makes it so that we're able to differentiate the instruction within the classroom of what the student needs but they don't have those competing needs thank you it's it's very important to make sure that especially with our behavior disorders kids know and they know what they can get away with and so it's very important to me to by all means adhere to their disability but also set those boundaries and say no you you destroyed our classroom yesterday you're not doing it again and we need to figure out how this does not happen agreed well and just to kind of piggyback off that I'm glad I thought of another question I'll ask in a bit based on what you just asked but that is really true because I when I referenced the conference I went to they had talked actually it was a special education a former special education student who who had behavior issues and he talked about how it was handled and that was one of the things that they mentioned and I remember a previous special ed director that we had would say for us to not address those behaviors because of their disability just in general I know we have to be careful because of the manifestation hearings and things but you're you're almost failing them because then they go out into the real world and if they punch somebody in the face they're going to jail so if we let them do it in the schools because it's like well it's part of their disability and just that's just how they are we're really doing them at a service so I 100% appreciate your point um side note can I ask you a couple questions before and I appreciate you taking the time to split it up so um the questions are more relevant at the beginning and I was scribbling down questions when you were talking so give me one second to make sure I can read my own handwriting okay um so let's see the student support textt I remember when we added a lot of those in are we seeing a difference because one of the concerns was we are having so many staff members go to the ER or get hurt um or CH other children getting hurt in the classrooms because we just needed a higher level or a higher more specially trained individuals for behavior um have you no noticed a difference in injuries and er visits for staff since we've made that change yes thank you for the question I can't tell you that I've done an analysis side by side of that I can say that I do believe that when we're using it um well that we are seeing a difference I think when we're not using it well and we we've made some mistakes along the way where that we can assign it too much and so after once or twice of assigning it to the about the same skill that's not an effective intervention and we need to move on to something different and so I think that's where we just need to be careful to not over assign it and we've learned that lesson pretty early we have I am pretty fortunate to say that we have not had a lot of um concerns about staff injuries we are very focused on providing our staff the training that they need to be successful so we have NCI training that which helps deescalation that's the biggest thing that we want to do but then they are also trained to physically manage a student if we do get in an unsafe position and that is also something administrators participate in as well to ensure that they have um the right skills and the safety should we get there and never want to get there but it's better to have that training and know how to do it safely do you are are there more um staff members on campus other than like your behavior team that have NCI training so is there an administr like on every campus yes so we do have the administrators both administrators on the campus take it annually we actually are a little bit ahead of the curve so we make sure we offer Refreshers multiple times for administrators in the summer as well as throughout the year pair of professionals teachers um Behavior coaches and there's usually a couple other folks who will also take it so there is multiple people and not just Behavior team okay and then did you mention that we don't have student support texts on at the high school level or did I mishar that that is correct we don't have it at the high school level the behavior coach the case manager and the administrators have been working with the high school students we have not assigned um student support technicians to high schools at this time is there not a need or CU I don't think that we're seeing the need or that it's a um we are able to also fulfill it with the other staff that exists and we want to be fiscally conservative and if it's need then that can be something we can discuss but I think we've been managing that better I think we see a lot more of these behaviors that that intervention is effective for at our younger students okay thank you and then in regard to the coordinators um how you say that they they have about six to seven campuses each how often do they go to each campus how present are they so pretty present and some more than others but so at least monthly they have a a meeting with their campus leadership team and they're meeting with them they do walkthroughs on campus as well for the classrooms and they can focus um on classrooms that the administration wants them to or otherwise we also do more visits when we are looking at specific students if we have more concerns about a specific student and need some supports so what we would like to do is have more of that opportunity to do I call that more of our construction hat um unfor a lot of the time however unfortunately we're kind of living in our firefighting helmet and helping with some of the issues so that is something that each year we are focusing on getting more and more on campuses and moving from that firefighting and we do think if we are more active involved in the beginning of things instead of maybe being informed later so we're working really hard with our administrators to be more involved earlier so we don't have to be informed later and we can be more present on campus okay and then the ESS Specialists um it I'm glad to hear it sounds like there's a lot more built into that role now and um a lot more coaching like directly but let me ask you um does that particular position have does it have teeth to it I know I know in the past with coaching positions you could go in you could have your people in there they would coach the teacher model things but they weren't the supervisor they didn't what they said or they could leave and draft up perfectly and then they leave and there's no follow through so how do we ensure that all the work those Specialists are doing in the classroom is is like incorporated into what happens in the classroom yeah thank you for bringing that up I think it's really important and valuing their role um so we are going to do a little bit of a shift next year so what we are finding is I described to you how there's two kind of roles that that instructional coaching and then that IEP and compliance coaching and what we're finding is that we're um it's more and more difficult to find real true experts in both those areas in the same person and so what we want to do is we want to concentrate on their strengths and so we are going to separate those two roles we're going to have half of the specialist so we're not changing the numbers of Specialists we're just going to divide that out so we're going to have our folks through their strength really lies in instructional coaching do that and the ones who um rely more on the um IEP and compliance side do that which is going to have them have twice the number of schools because each school will have two Specialists and they'll know exactly who to go to for what it will be in alignment with their coordinator so everybody has the same people good sense of team but we will be able to work more closely with the site about here's what your teachers were coached on we're going to be sharing that Weekly with the site Administration so that they can do walkthroughs check out here are the next steps here's what your look fors are um so I do think we have some high levels of it but that is really frustrating and it is something that we are working on and I think we can do better um but we are partnering with the administrators to help us at that site level to then follow through with the procedures the coaching and things that we've done from the coordinator or the specialist level okay so right now as far as um and do you guys even do like IEP Fidelity checks in general we sure do okay are and is are the Specialists responsible for that or the coordinators responsible for that so it's a little bit of both so the Specialists have the primary responsibility but then we also do spot checks and then also when we have cases that we know are more complex or our um maybe just we're not in agreement the whole team isn't in agreement we we are looking at that more deeply when I go over the goals in just a little bit you'll see how our checks went when the state took a look at us as well okay so should I save my compliance question for then you could okay and then so this this might fit into here otherwise apply it later but just in general with that what happens when um well I'll wait never mind it'll probably apply better when you're going through the goals so I'll just wa so thank you no problem any further questions before I move on to the goals I have a few I haven't had a chance to get in um absolutely sorry so when when you mentioned you mentioned the phase and thank you for explaining that I know so but this is a follow-up to that um at what what is the process of doing the referral I guess um I guess my broader question is does it require parental approval to go into that program or can a parent require Quest it um so there's not a yes or no answer I'm just going to describe so okay um parents are part of the IEP team and it is an IEP team decision and so typically if we think we're getting close to needing phase it's something that we have conversations with the parent about along the way we are trying all of the things that we can we're going to continue if we're unable to meet the students needs we might require more which could look like and then when it's time if we're there if we think we're there we speak as a team we look at the data and we make that decision together now I would love to be able to say that we're always at consensus um that's not always the case so if the data at the table and the conversation of the table is supporting the need for the phase even if the parent is not in agreement their the district has the right to move forward with our offer of fape or free appropriate public education and that means that we say we hear you we hear your concerns however this is what we feel we need to do based on our data and we have an obligation to provide your student with this um fre a free appropriate public education anday they have of and if they want their so to speak to the data leading up to that so if we have a teacher whether it's you know the the the small classroom you know ESS teacher or mainstream if we have a teacher that is struggling and other students that are struggling because of a behavior issue with one of our ESS students um at at what point does that get documented is it with an office referral is it with the all of it so when we look at data we look at multiple points so it can be classroom level data it can be office discipline referral data it can be data toward growth on their goals and so we really are encompassing all of that data in it all as part pieces of the information the classroom teacher is part of that data as well the conversation of the amount of time and effort that it's required the intervention um if they've been in place all of those things are pieces at the table that we talk about if I can interrupt for just a minute one of the things that we' found that hap that's happened at our schools sometimes is the teacher will just send the kid down to the office and there won't be a referral written there won't be things documented and then we'll have a a principal calling going this kid needs to be placed it it definitely doesn't work like that there has to be because we have to show over time that we've inrease the interventions so that's one of the things I think Cory's coordinators really work with is working with school administrators to maybe better understand the process and to move that forward in an expedited timeline because nothing's worse than thinking you're going along and then finding out nobody collected the data right and could I ask what is that what is that timeline because I'm thinking if you're a classroom teacher and you've got this kid who is interrupting on Monday interrupting on Tuesday interrupting on Wednesday interrupting on Thursday you got an entire week you making the phone calls home you document it in PLP you give lunch detention to document in PLP you do this you do that you do this and yet this kid is still showing up in your classroom being very disruptive and nobody else can learn and this process goes on for weeks I would hope I think that the administration had issued consequences and you know it's that fine line between the school has a responsibility as as essess so I I concur that if nothing's done it's very frustrating but we have really worked with our administrators Corey Holts meetings with uh Kevin kette for our discipline APS to really talk about what does that discipline with special education look like because uh if nothing's more frustrated as a teacher than sitting a kid out just to have them come back and that shouldn't be happening and if it is Teachers can raise that concern in different Avenues thank you sorry and it's not just the it's sorry but this play right in it's not just the academic piece though it's the and that's sad that you lose all that time but I'm thinking about all the behavior pieces there's kids in classrooms that are hurting other children throwing Ducks things like that it's like okay you have to collect six weeks worth of data be and okay that's a long now I'm not talking about you know irritating annoying behaviors I'm talking about full out people getting hit and dust being thrown and things like that is that still the case where in those extreme circumstances teams and teachers and children are expected to endure that for six weeks before the district will step in so I think thank you for the question I think what you're referring to is most typically when we're collecting data we typically look to four to six weeks of data to really see if it's a pattern when we're talking about safety though that's a that can really change and so it just depends on what the I don't I wish I could give you one answer but we're not going to make extreme behaviors to that extent with things in place where people are multiple times getting hurt well sit and collect six weeks of data we're going to step in we're going to add people higher trained we're going to remove we're going to do the interventions along the way and it could be a much shorter timeline we are doing a balancing a Act of keeping the students in the classroom safe keeping everybody learning and keeping the rights of that individual and so it's a little bit of a gray area where I where we have to teach each we have to take each circumstance at a time but it is not a where I'm going to sit and mark my calendar for six weeks when we have students and and um being hurt or teachers being hurt and no learning happening okay okay I'm going to finish my questions um so back to the referral process I I guess um we I know we just went off on a little bit of a tangent but where I was going with that is are any of our teachers or Educators at anytime ever discouraged from doing an office referral or making a phone call home I'm not sure that I could answer that not to my knowledge I think that that is something that we are pretty clear about is clear communication with parents clear communication with the office okay I I would concur with that in fact we have told Administration we need to write more referrals because that's how we track them in the system how we get the data if you don't have the referral we don't have the data right okay all right so if that is happening um it and if I were to give someone your your contact information you could help them with that absolutely it's the expectation that it's written up if it's warrant set thank you okay um the other question I had and this is my last one I promis on this piece um the pair of professionals you mentioned how important they are and I can attest to that um I know that some of our PA professionals especially with the ESS population they may um be third- party yeah so they are contracted with different companies um agencies to your knowledge do we ever discourage um communication between like a one-on-one Aid par professional of an ESS student and their parent so typically we ask for a communication to go through the classroom teacher because they are the supervisor and should know what's going on with the student the information could be coming from a par professional but we have with all classified staff members that is kind of a district practice is that we really want the classroom teacher to have all of the information and being the primary Communicator with parents we wouldn't want to say oh I can't talk to you however I do think we could say let me get your questions I will work with the teacher and we'll get back to you so we do want to make sure that we're being very careful to ensure that somebody who knows the whole picture is able to communicate with the parent but also that there's not a shutdown in communication between a par professional and a parent but we have asked and guided that they are allowing for their classroom teacher to be able to be the primary Communicator okay but if it's not something about primary you know communication with a teacher um I guess what I'm I'm asking is can a parent you know include in addition to communicating with the with a teacher they could also communicate with the par professional um if you're I just want to make sure I understand the question so for example if you if me as a parent wanted to write to uh an email I could include the par professional in that communication and as a teacher I would do the same because my goal would be to have clear and open communication so there's no discouraging of including a par professional on Comm that's going back and forth perfect thank you very much all I had on that piece anyone else on this I just have a quick question how many par uh professionals do we have oh I wish I brought the numbers with me I'm going to look over to Dr I can tell you how many we have vacant for next year because I just did that number today but I don't want to give you the wrong number are you okay if we get that exact number and get back to you on it this way okay thanks and before we go forward are you okay yes I'm fine to keep going yes I am thank you very much it'll yell at me again if I need something okay thank you all right so I'm going to move forward um like all schools HOH I might need next slide help thank you um like all schools and departments we also have a Continuum continuous Improvement plan this year we focused um one more on the compliance side and one more on the instructional side so our first goal was focused on um providing com comprehensive support to all of our ESS teachers are related service providers and evaluators to really meet those Federal compliance um and in order to increase our student outcomes and we did this with purpose it is it was actually a monitoring year for us last year into this year from Arizona Department of Education and so that was one of our goals the other goal is more focused on instruction and we were really looking at four of our Focus schools so El Mirage elementary school daart middle school and Tom uh Thompson Ranch and um Riverview and really working with them on their systems and instructions for students um in ESS in order to increase the percentage of students that move from one um proficiency to another in the A aasa and we wanted to see that Movement by at least 10% for those students in ESS so as we do a check-in on our progress right now we did meet our first goal we were um monitored through last year through October we did have a couple just individual student level errors that were able to be rectified but we were and um then they found us fully in compliance so all of our procedures processes and compliance with with regard to systems were um as they should be and found to be compliant and then like I said there was three small areas of and errors that were at the student level that we were able to self-correct and move forward for our second goal we um are we utilized um a checkin with from our benchmarks uh as just a kind of a dipstick to see where we are and we have found that we're on on track at three out of out of our four schools for that growth um and you know with Thompson we have identified some barriers to that and so we have provided more support for the administration and the classroom teachers to ensure that our students are following the schedules getting the services that they need and then providing additional um ESS specialist support so I do anticipate to see all of these meet our goals by the end of the year um based on the additional support and these preliminary numbers have you identified what was the cause for the two that did not meet well so I would be hesitant to say they didn't meet because this is just the check-in right now we're not there yet but um daart actually is moving towards the right direction there was some both of them actually schedules was one of the biggest um issues that we needed to provide support on so with daart middle school we worked very closely with uh the administration in redoing their schedule so that the students minutes were being um optimized and that they were in the education the general education setting to the greatest extent possible where we know that their um exposure to their content it will make the biggest uh difference in combination with the services that they're prescribed so last year into this year we focused really heavily on um creating a schedule for all of the students at daart middle school that was just that that balance of being in their content with their teachers who are their content experts but also receiving their specially design instruction and then at Thompson Ranch it was similar I think there was a lot um we had a lot of students m in all of a sudden at one time and I think there was a lot of support and movement to support those students and get things in place and there wasn't necessarily the adherence to the schedule for the students as there should have been so I think that there was um some support that was needed in order to do really take a look and see where are we falling short with our schedule what can be done and so we did sit and go side by side with the administration and provide some additional supports and then some accountability for all of the teachers to ensure that what needs to be happening is happening and when you say adherence to a schedule maybe that's what I'm not understanding like is it just students aren't going to class or what do you mean or to their special education services so perhaps um I'm supporting a student and I'm working on something and I did not pull my my other group in that moment and so I did not follow my schedule of those four students I was meant to pull and receive services and provide services to so they may not be getting their IEP minutes so there are some students that we are going through and we will be working with parents to offer compensatory Services because there were some minutes missed okay thank you and you you're involved in this we're all involved thank you so as all of us have we we have our challenges and I'd like to talk a little bit about the challenges but then also how we're addressing them um so recruiting and retaining of appropriately certified esss staff is not just a dice art challenge it is definitely an Arizona and even a Statewide challenge um we have identified some areas that um are helping us with that and so we have created our EP our educational preparation program that ad the Arizona Department of Education has approved so essentially we are able to work with our currently it's mostly our par professionals former par professionals who already had a bachelor's degree that are in a program with us now to become um certified special education teachers so that we have 11 in our first cohorts and that is preschool through third grade so it's Early Education special education and next year we'll introduce our second cohort and that program will be for kindergarten through 12th grade special education we also are finding when we were um surveying our stakeholders that many of our teachers stay because of the support that they get from The Specialist because they know um that they that they have that person to go to for the additional help because the administrators are not always um as they're not able to answer all the questions with such dep depth as um our Specialists are able a to we've also had some challenges with creating programming so that we can keep the students um all of our students uh on our home campuses or in one of our public school campuses as much as possible we know and we want our students in our neighborhood schools we also know that it um is very costly to have our students in private placements so that can cost for one student $40 to $75,000 for One Singular placement in a private school and so um one of the things that we're doing it for example is that stc2 program where piling it on two campuses that will help to bring some of our kiddos back from um campus from programs where we really think we can meet their needs we just didn't have a classroom that was unique enough for them as discussed earlier about ensuring that all staff are actually implementing the best practices in ESS um and that can be general education um special education par professionals and other service providers everyone needs to be doing what we need to be doing so general education teachers need to be providing the accommodations that have been agreed upon in the IEP special Educators need to be meeting the service minutes as do related service providers so we are a large district and even when we have procedures and processes in place um there are some times when it's difficult to maintain that and so that is where we are increasing that partnership with administrators so that they know the look force and how to help support on a day-to-day um at a higher level we are also as discussed uh struggling like many districts with just managing more student behaviors in general and working for um our teachers and the students to overcome those challenges alling behaviors and I did describe to you a lot of what we are doing to address them more at a site level and then um again just working to ensure that we're following all of the processes and procedures that are in place for um working with students with disabilities with challenges can also come celebrations um so we are seeing that we are moving our students from one proficiency to another um we are seeing good growth ratees so our students uh in a four-year Trend I think it was we looked at they are growing at the same rate or closing that Gap as um as compared to our general education peers um we do have a lower than average vacancy rate so per hr I was looking into that um oh I apologize I wanted to give you the percentage but I think in approximately 20% is the state average and we're at approximately 11% for vacancy rates for special Educators so that's something I think we should be very proud of um because our students need need the teachers um and the related service providers and then they the staff that are here need um their peers otherwise they become overworked um we do have some great post uh sorry we do we did see a decrease in due processes and state complaints over um the past four years I will say there was an increase during the year of covid I think it was very difficult for some families to have in person offered as um the main method for which their students needed to be um educated but um we have seen a significant decrease in due process and state complaints over the 10 years uh the past 10 years except for that one year our post School outcome data is measured um every year we basically um get to survey our seniors after they have um left us for a year and we have a high rate higher than the state um requirement and average for them being actively engaged actively engaged can be in a post-secondary program College um vocational um uh activities or other things that are making them engaged individuals um we have we are very good at having a stakeholder participation in our change process so for example um the ESS specialist change that I talked about the stc2 program we had stakeholders from all different levels be part of that um conversation and we included research um as well um we are we added additional resource uh curricular resources this year such as touchmath um and the SR um uh it is a the reading program so it's a it's a reading Mastery corrective reading and read to achieve from Agra Hill which is a supplementary curriculum to help where our students are more significantly behind so for example when we have a sth grader who's reading at a third grade level we need uh a special program in order to help close that Gap it's not just strategies and so we were able to introduce both of those over the past two years um and then we do have a program that is um we're pretty proud of it's Unique to diart we have a partnership with westch and essentially um we have a tops program so um students in their last last year of school so typically their senior year they can attend um as a transition opportunities and postsecondary skills student and so half their day they are on their home campus and half the day they get to go to West Mech and participate in um activities where they are aligned with the career that they are interested in so students who qualify for this program are typically able to be employed but maybe not meet the the strict criteria for that certification and that CTE area so it increases their um ability to be employable afterwards and they do get um credit for that as a CTE student would so that is another celebration do you have any more questions that I didn't answer before I just go over the transitions for students who or transfers I should say for students have question um yeah in regard to the compliance again um in the event the IEP compliance is really big for me I just because I feel like um that's where kid will lose kids they're not getting their minutes and then they can't learn and and we just have a short period of time to get them where they need to be so they can interact with their world after graduation and have opportunities available to them so um you know I'm concerned I I appreciate you being transparent about um the challenges that exist with a couple of our schools in particular um but it's concerning obviously that we've those students aren't getting their minutes when it comes so how often are how often do we do do Fidelity checks again as far as IEP compliance I know you kind of touched on that but just to clarify in my head so um so Fidel we're checking for compliance and IEPs um there's doing we do a minimum compliance of making sure that things are there on every single IEP however we're deep diving into about 20% of them next year I'm looking at introducing um it's actually within our our internal program that we utilize for our IEPs there's an internal audit system where we're able to message back and forth so we can be a little bit more efficient at providing more feedback to a G number and having those coaching sessions in person or if it's a small fix being able to send that message back and forth to the um teacher and have a due date and have it sent back and we can track all of that so if we see a pattern with any individual area of compliance or any particular person or school that we're able to give targeted support and instruction and coaching for it so that's one of the ways that we're looking at increasing our ability and our accountability with uh compliance so as far as bigger samplings I understand that but as far in regard to each each child or each student I mean is there someone on each student's IEP team that's responsible for ensuring that that child is getting their minutes and everyone's being compliant with the IEP thank you for your question so I think you're asking more about and just help me if I'm I think you're more interested in answering the question about whether the students are receiving the services that are in their IP that side of the compliance yes so we do rely a lot on the site Administration to hold to the schedules that are there and going and check but Specialists are the secondary check on that and we do that with walkthroughs as well so it's a shared responsibility we really have to count on the sites to follow it the sites have the knowledge and the um schedules and they have the access to the IEPs to be able to do that with the support of Specialists and then the next layer would be coordinators so but so every student's IEP someone between the principal or the coordinator or the specialist would you say every student that's on an IEP because they're going to have someone assigned to their building it's everyone's being reviewed it's not like anyone's going to fall through the cocs I would love to guarantee that but I again I I cannot solely speak for exactly what's going to happen because while we put procedures and expectations in place I don't know if it's going to be carried out at the site level so what we are doing is trying to add more and more layers to where they are required to do it I'm going to look to Dr asai a little bit so for example right now we have a campus that we're providing that support to where we are going we're walking through and with every single student and looking at the schedule and going and checking a student schedule walking to see if they're where they're supposed to be and getting what they're supposed to so that would be an example of what it should be looking like on every campus I guess I would I would ask ask Administration to to come up with a process to where we can ensure that someone on I mean I understand there's a difference between what ESS does and then you've got the principal of the school and you know who has the authority to kind of Ensure whose responsibility is to make sure that that that student is getting what they need so if that's a gap I guess I'm just asking maybe that Administration to come up with a way to ensure that every student's I there's someone responsible because you have several people on IEP team that's making sure that that student is getting all the minutes and all the services that their IEP says they should be getting and I think we could probably come up with a better procedure for that I would say the majority of our schools are doing a a really good job of that it is I mean as a principal at canion it was my responsibility to make sure my kids were getting their minutes that being said we have had instances this year where that wasn't happening you know and then we've tightened that we've had the coordinators go over Cara's spent extensive time at one school mapping all the kids and from there we have been doing walks surprise walks or hey we're coming over to follow that schedule um to be more proactive with that you know we can't we can't establish that and add an extra layer in I'd appreciate that because again we're talking about students and we have them for such a short period of time and so then ultimately if it's the principal then maybe that goes into the assistant superintendant is responsible for evaluating that principle to make a point to check on those because lots of times too our special class are far in the back of a school and I just feel like so many times these students are forgotten you know or they're not the attention to what they need you know this is my next question and I'm hoping this has changed there's been times when I've I've heard from parents and I've I've seen grinded years ago but still seen when it comes to um making changes to a student's IEP it's like well but do we have the Staffing for oneon-one and then that'll drive whether or not it goes in the IEP and to me diser issue shouldn't be a child's issue and if they need an oneon-one then we put it into the IEP or whatever it is whatever resource it's not their fault if we don't have the resources they get it and then we all as adults have to figure out how to make it happen has that been refined over the years I mean are we making sure that students first and we figure the rest out thank you for the question it's part of what I love about my job I get to ensure that we are able to say yes when we have something that a student needs and so it might be more difficult but that should never be a conversation at the table if we were talking about what does the student need how can that be provided and if there's an issue in the background that is a background fix that we get to work on and so that is why we do work so closely with some of our agencies is because we do need to have an ability to if we can't find some if we do not have a high level of for example pair of professional applicants I'm able to reach out to an agency and say I have a fourth grade student who has needs in these areas can you send me resumés in addition to that I do want to let you know that we do have a small group of um Behavior technicians it was a older position that we save at the district level for there's five right now and so that if there is that immediate need if it's in anep and we haven't hired somebody yet we are able to or if a student moves in with a one-on-one we are able to for a short time have them go four to six weeks provide that support while we're finding it but we are not making decisions based on do we already have that here we're making decisions based on what does the student need and what does that look like and then we figure it out in the background so we've done things where we've mapped multiple people throughout the day but it's consistent for that student and that they have what they need when they need it but it might look like a couple people fulfilling that role to ensure that we have it while we're seeking that so that is one of the things I really love about my job is that I get to do what we need to do for students and that is you know rewarding for me okay thank you any more questions before I go over just last two slides you're almost done with me I promise or maybe um so we are a large district and some of our populations are a little bit more transient than others and so we have students that move from one campus to another or we have campuses that move in or sorry we have students that move in from um non-district schools um we have a very very thorough process that is quite long and we I would be happy to sit down with you and go over everything but I thought I would pull out some of just the main points that we do when a student is new to a campus so when a student transfers from one school to another the parent does um typically will register we now have that online uh registration and or they could come in person but there is actually a box that they check to indicate if they have an IEP or if they're um if they are on a 504 as well and then um if they're already within our district their records are actually in our system and it's quite easily um um moved over and we're the campus is immediately able to access those and typically we're able to implement right away we review we can call the previous case manager school psychologist whoever we need to if we know about it um sometimes we know sometimes we don't so if parents inform us um sites will often talk to each other and let them know and do a nice handoff and I really like that um we would prefer if families were able to communicate with us so we can do that nice kind of Baton Pass um but then all of the re when a student is there all of the relevant information is shared with any of the um teachers administrators and staff that um will need to have access to that who have access to that student to ensure that they are if there's a training that needs to be had or they have knowledge of the student's needs and then if they are on anybody's roster they have full access to that student um general information page of the IEP right through infin campus so it was great enough to make it so it's a very easy link that um all of our teachers are able to access well and staff um right through the infinite campus um system and um if the student is coming from out of District it's a little bit more intensive in that same thing happens the parent is able to uh indicate if there's an IEP or not I would love to tell you that parents are always know that answer and so sometimes we get yes but it was no and sometimes we get no but it was yes um and so if we know about it we're able to immediately reach out and get official copies from previous districts we do rely on them getting back to us so I will tell you sometimes at the start of the school year it's more difficult because we open so early and sometimes we're waiting for um uh another District to get back to us that's maybe in the east coast so we often have to go to the district level and get it from the district instead of from the site but if a parent brings a copy with us that's an unofficial copy and we're going to act on that we are going to presume that this is where we're starting from and we offer a fape upon enrollment meaning that right away we're going to implement what is in the IP to the best of our ability in with commen Services if there is anything in the IEP that is not as oh and sorry and we do the same thing so just as we reviewed and let all of the um people who need to know about the student and any of thing that's in place like a bip accommodations Etc we share that with everybody and again it's accessible um when we do not have um what we need sometimes we get IPS that are not up to diart standards or not um compliant then we would meet within 10 school days to get that into compliance if they are in compliance but there's something that's not as it needs to be but we need more time and opportunity to have data in order to meet than we meet 30 days um so that we have the opportunity to get that information um I will tell you that we have some great systems in place but we also are human and have some errors so for example recently there was a site who missed some steps and uh Dr asai and I spent a day and a half investigating what happened why where did this go wrong how could we do better um and we did Identify some several small errors that led to um an issue where we have now gone over it we've reviewed the process we put some um more structures in place some additional training to um prevent that from happening again so um even when it's in place we're constantly looking at it and saying what more training do we need to do or how do we need to adjust it um but we uh generally have a good communication and generally we the students that we're receiving from out of seate or other districts are very communicative with us and are willing to have those conversations and parent parents of course want their students to be successful so we get a lot of information from parents about what the needs and what they might be what questions might you have about the transfer process um did you say that the teachers are involved too when there's a transfer so again since it's going to be in their classroom if there are any behavior issues or things like that they're well aware um and then can prepare in all ways yes thank you for the question so um the case manager is made fully aware and then the case manager is um part of that um team that helps um inform the general education teachers and then we actually have the general education teachers sign off on the that they've received the accommodations that they understand the needs of the students so that we kind of have those checks and balances to ensure that they're aware and then again they have the access afterwards as well if there's any training that needs to go into it we also plan that and we do that quickly as well and if the if you've requested the IEP from the other school and is there somebody that's keeping track of hey we haven't received it yet so and then what happens I mean we don't want to just wait and then never comes and then the child never gets their services so what's that process correct so typically it's the um primary evaluator so in this case most typically it's the school psychologist that's requesting the records They will request they will record they will request again and then I often ask them to elevate it to us um at the district level so coordinator or myself because sometimes unfortunately it takes us picking up the phone and calling to get it but they are meant to follow through if we haven't received it in a reasonable amount of time so typically um I'd say if we have a unofficial copy we can wait a little bit longer if we don't have anything we're going to expedite that 10 days or so is too long to wait to not then schedule a meeting to do our own action so it could look like having to start from an evaluation process or we take whatever we have and start from there okay thank you any other questions this was clearly a very long presentation you put a lot of time and work into it and I really appreciate it because I think it was valuable well I appreciate it and I appreciate a lot of the um the that you have because I think it's valuable and I appreciate that we are thinking about all of our students so thank you thank you very much thank you next we have item G1 Dr croo thank you madam president uh tonight we are going to recommend one of our new members to our administrative family so Dr polling will do the recommendation yes Madam president members of the board cabinet and Community Administration is proud to present Miss car Miller as the Kingswood Elementary School principal for the 2425 school year Miss Miller is currently the assistant principal at Luke elementary school and has extensive educational experience she will receive salary and benefits for the position her education and experience her resume is attached for Board review a comprehensive selection process we used to identify Miss Miller for this position uh with that I will take any questions and and Miss Miller is also here with her family tonight I moov to appoint to approve the appointment of caram Miller as the elementary school principal second motion carries congratulations next we have item G2 thank you madam president uh tonight we bring to you a recommendation for the adoption of school calendars for the 25 26 school year and the 26 27 school year um this year was a little different in the 2526 calendar uh since the rotation of the weeks the school will start a little bit earlier on the 2526 calendar so we're looking at July 31st in the following year the 20 uh 627 school year does go back to August 6 since the calendar rotated and started a little bit earlier uh we besides having the calendar committee we went out and did some surveys with our staff so 1453 staff members uh responded to our survey um we gave them the option of eliminating fall break eliminating 2 days from fall break um start school in August 1st or eliminating Thanksgiving or keep it the same uh 61.79 of our faculty and staff said they wanted to keep it the same uh we also then went to our community our parents and 1513 parents participated in the survey given them the same options uh for that and a 39.1 n% of our which was the highest um with the same options said to stick with the calendar with the start on July 31st um so uh it does uh start a little earlier but it does um keep the options of having the full fulltime at Thanksgiving the full fall break and as we build the calendars uh a we Tred to balance them and we need to uh end the school year before Memorial Day so there are some it's not just throwing a calendar together and doing all that there are some parameters that we have to work within um and that's how the calendar falls for the 25 26 school year so with that um I will present you the item for approval or discussion just as a point of discussion I I well just to make a statement on this I think it's absolutely absurb starting in July but uh I appreciate all of the work that that everyone has put into this I and I value the opinion um given in the survey but I think from a cost perspective and just just you know running our running our schools in the you know in July it's it's I think it's absurd but I want to honor the results of the survey I will say I agree I not I'm I'm not a fan of starting in July I think it's a disruptive to family vacations potentially um I understand staff uh really wanted the July start time but I that I asked Dr cro to put together an a survey for our families and community members um since it highly impacts them as well which um thankfully uh he did and I appreciate that so we tried to um to get feedback from our community obviously before any vote there's always opportunity for call to the public nobody is here opposing um presenting any opposition so I felt like I did my due diligence and trying to get um give parents Community opportunity to come forward if if it was um disruptive like I would think it would be for my family personally um but kind of as Miss denmore said I mean if it's if I wasn't on this board I'd be down at that Podium I would too I would not I would not like that I have a question and a possible solution but I don't think you're going to like it what if we reduce the early release Mondays have longer school days then we get our instructional minutes in and then we don't have to start in July amen amen you know I just you know I I I'm always the anomaly here but teachers in general do not like Mondays nobody wants to sit in their PDS and we had an entire study session on it and I I I nobody likes when school's out at 3:15 staying till 4:30 and it nobody likes that nobody likes it nobody likes it and honestly if we reduce Bo the early releasee Mondays that would give us more instructional time and that would push back our start date Madam president if I may um member chaff and I I do remember the study session and do that we also did a survey um as requested by the board and it was overwhelming by our support by our staff that they do want Monday early release so that is why we stayed at it we're looking at that um but again we listen to The Voice of our our staff and they did value the Mondays so I am going to ask for a point of clarification if I remember correctly the majority of the people who took that survey were not classroom teachers and I could be wrong I could be incorrect but if I remember right the majority of the people who wanted their Mondays were not classroom teachers but I could be wrong cuz I haven't seen the survey we can go back and double check that so anyways that's just a that was just a a solution I don't know if anybody else I don't remember so that's okay you know me I speak my thoughts and in order to do that we'd have to delay this process once again um and go back to the committee and we'd have to calculate um what those are so um it's not something we just can do it's this is a committee recommendation from a calendar committee um so obviously can be done but um I I do think we have commity members and all that they're wanting to know the schedules um and make plans so we're late as it is right now but uh we sit for direction from the board so yeah like I said I I want to honor the the results of the survey um and I think that that feedback is incredibly important just personally I don't necessarily agree with it um with that said I will make a motion to approve the adoption of the school calendars for the 2526 and 2627 school years as presented motion carries thank you next we have item G3 Dr Coto thank you madam president Our Last Action and discuss and discussion item this evening um is a report on our financial audit so miss badel the floor is yours good evening Madam president members of the board Dr Coto cabinet and Community um it is my pleasure tonight to introduce this agenda item um as you know there's much preparation and time involved in gathering the information requested throughout Audits and so it takes sometimes months throughout the process and so I do want to thank all the staff that's involved who places an importance in gathering this information um as well as our Director of Finance Miss Francy wolf Balman um as she leads this process so she's here tonight along with Miss Jennifer Shields who is an audit partner at heinfeld meech and they will be presenting tonight's information uh good evening uh Madame President governing board members Dr Coto cabinet and members of the community we're here this evening to share with you the financial information and audit results for fiscal year 23 I know we're over halfway through like almost looking you know partway through 24 but here we are I'm going to turn over the first part of this presentation to Jennifer Shields and then I will provide the overview of our findings once she's completed with her presentation good evening Madam president members of the board Dr Coto thank you for allowing me a little bit of time to spend um doing what we like to call our um audit communication to governance and um as has been noted the audit does take quite a long time so you can see before you the audit timeline um the 20 we're here presenting the the results for fiscal year 23 um which that fiscal year of course ended last June 30th um and you can see from the timeline that we actually started the process back in April of 2023 when we first issued the engagement letter and then we conducted some preliminary fieldwork um a time in May when we um our audit team comes out on site we do some work on site we do some work remotely depending upon um the procedures that are being performed but we're on site in May and then we are also on site again in October and that's when we do um kind of the bulk of all of our um analytical and you know really intense um financial statement work and then after the field work concludes we then um go back to our office and we assist with the preparation of the financial reports so we do that back at our office and then those reports were submitted to management for review and approval in November and ultimately the audit report was issued in December of 2023 that um audit report for the um for the financial statements has a due date of December 31 in order to be submitted for um a couple of uh Awards in for excellence in financial reporting and so I'm happy to report that both um or that deadline was in fact met um in terms of the scope of the services that we are hired to provide we perform the audit in accordance with three different set of Standards we um we comply with us generally accepted auditing standards also with government auditing standards and then last but certainly not least the uniform guidance standards so I'll talk a little bit about each one of those we are also hired um to complete the uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire um which we'll talk about um at length later um in terms of responsibilities there are various responsibilities that we as your external Auditors are required to fulfill and there are um additional responsibilities that are the um responsibility responsibility of management so so with respect to fraud Communications um we our responsibilities are to make inquiries regarding fraud non-compliance and we interview various Personnel throughout the district during our audit procedures as well as conduct various tests um you know to kind of test what management has reported to to us um responsibility for fraud prevention and setting good internal controls of course rests with both the board and management and um our audit is of course designed to provide reasonable but not absolute Assurance um if we were to provide try to provide absolute Assurance I don't think it could be done but we would never leave here and even then we probably still would not be able to provide absolute Assurance um so ultimately with respect to the financial statements these are your financial statements they are created from your books and records and so our job is to um compile that information um and put it into the um the um format required by um by us Gap so um this year we there was a new accounting standard that was required to be implemented and I'd like to just commend um all of the finance staff that worked on this project it was quite an involved project to gather information related to subscription-based Information Technology Arrangements which is quite a mouthful um basically a lot of um longer term subscriptions for software and things like that had to be evaluated for determination on how they would affect the financial report so it sounds really easy but it was actually a really complicated and very lengthy process so the policy or the new um accounting principle was in fact implemented this year as required um in any audit there is a um there are estimates that are included in the financial statements so in the case of diart schools um the two most significant estim estimates that were included include the useful lives of depreciable assets so management makes um estimates on how long a an an asset will last so for example a bus how long do we think we normally keep our buses for and then we expense those over a period of time and then um the estimate for insurance claims related to Employee Health and Welfare so as we um go through and we have employees that we provide health insurance for there are claims and um such that you know those are estimates based on when events happen and when those expenses will be paid and ultimately um you know the like say for example you go to the doctor and how much that cost will be so those are the two largest estimates that you have um we required as Auditors to report whether or not there were any audit adjustments there was one um adjustment that was required to be made which was related to expense cut off and that was in fact corrected by management so I'll um so that um that adjustment was made in order to make sure that the financial statements were accurately and fairly presented as your external Auditors we are also hired to do some non- audit services and those non- audit Services include the preparation of the financial statements as I mentioned in accordance with the framework that's required by us generally accepted accounting principles so we do that and then we also assist with the preparation of what's called the ca or the schedule of expenditures of federal Awards which is part of the single audit under um uniform guidance and we also um assist with the related data collection form that's related to that um that Federal piece of the audit so other required Communications there were no disagreements with management over Financial Accounting reporting or other matters so I would like to um thank again thank management for always being um just so helpful and agreeable um management is required to pres um to uh to provide for us various representations basically it's um it indicates that everything that we asked for management provided so that we could do our audit procedures and then lastly um as your independent Auditors we are required of course to be independent and to follow our own um profession standards of Independence and ethics and we con um are continually making sure that we don't have any violations on our end and so I'm happy to report to you tonight that we had no violations with respect to our ethical requirements or Independence so in terms of the actual audit reports that we issued there are three different reports the largest being your annual comprehensive financial report there's a single audit reporting package and then that usfr compliance questionnaire that we talked about um and we'll continue to talk about a little bit more um so I'll just kind of give you some highlights the annual comprehensive financial report it's the largest document that you were provided that contains your actual audited financial statements it's over a 100 pages long but I've highlighted for you um um some of the PDF page numbers that you might want to refer to for additional information I'll point out page 20 is the independent Auditor's report so those those three pages are the three pages I'm responsible for all the rest is Management's responsibility um but I'll report that there were um again no material misstatements that were noted within the audited financial statements and that then makes the district eligible for a clean opinion which is called an unmodified opinion and then those other items up there like managements discussion and Analysis it sort of does a a two-year comparison of kind of um the financial activity of the district to give readers of the financial statements some perspective on what happened last year versus what happened this year and then if you drop right down to the end there's also a statistical section which does a lot of the information um in a in more of a tabular format or numerical format that the the managements discussion and Analysis does but it's over a 10-year period so you can see a longer term Trend in terms of like what what the revenues look like at the district what the expenditures look like and that type of thing uh moving on to the single audit reporting package that's the um the report that gets get issued because of uniform guidance and because of government auditing standards and so it's a much shorter report but there are two letters within that report one of them reports um whether or not there were any internal control deficiencies or non-compliance items with respect to the internal control environment here at the district and the other is related to the federal um Federal portion of the audit so you'll note on page 10 there's What's called the schedule of findings and question costs and that's where we did note there was one deficiency internal controls and it related to that audit adjustment that I spoke about a couple minutes ago and um to my knowledge that has been resolved and corrected by management so there's there should be no further action that needs to be taken um and then in the federal realm um the the reason for the single audit is because your District expends more than $750,000 of federal assistance and that is um that's just what the federal rule is any agency spending more than 750,000 in federal dollars is required to have a single audit daart last year I believe spent over $42 million if I'm not mistaken so that's well in excess of that $750,000 excuse me and with um with that single audit we are required to look at um specific program compliance requirements a and last year for 23 we looked at two Federal programs so those were um the Child Nutrition cluster you spent about $10 million feeding students through the free in reduced um school lunch program and also the universal summer feeding program that was kind of a carryover from covid and then also we audited the um what's called the education stabilization fund or as you know it the SR programs and I think with so with um Child Nutrition being about 10 million in expenditures and then Esser being about I think it was either 12 or 14 million I can't remember now um you know we looked at probably almost half of the total federal expenditures that were made by The District in last um fiscal year so um just real quickly um I know Miss wolf Bowman here will talk a little bit more about this but the the usfr um compliance questionnaire this is the document we talk about it annually it's put out by the office of the auditor general and it's got 36 pages of well over 400 questions that the Auditors have to design audit tests for to um answer yes no or not applicable to and it's very Broad and you know i' I've noted that there are 18 different areas that we have to look at and I've just given you up there on the screen a few of the areas that we look at it is definitely not um everything um but it it covers a lot of different areas um my last comment before I'll step aside and I'll stand up here with Francy for questions if there are any um after she's done but I just want to um give a very big thanks to miss Miss Vel Miss wolf Balman and the entire Finance staff um everybody that we work with here at the district um has been great at you know just being incredibly timely with information that's requested that enables us to do our work in and complete all the reports in a timely manner so that you can meet your filing deadlines so I'll step aside thank you Jennifer um so I'm going to kind of summarize a little bit so while there are um 400 uh questions in the uniform system of financial records that is provided to us by the Arizona auditor General's office and they kind of condense them down so like one area so we show 171 items that one area will have multiple questions in it so there's multiple opportunities for a no in one question and so um you will see that uh this year uh with that 171 we did have eight total usfr um compliance questionnaire findings and uh we had one related to conflict of interest one related to Capital assets one related to human relations and payroll and five related to student attendance um I would like to speak a little bit to student attendance in that statistically uh we would anticipate student attendance to be more of a high-risk area for audit findings uh given the number of transactions that occur on a daily basis for each individual student in the district during the school year and while stating this it's still impressive that um our percentage of yes or incompliance areas is still maintains above a 95% um the one there is one finding um that um Miss Shields has uh had did refer to that was not related to the uniform system of financial records and that is the single audit finding uh the audit process um is conducted because of those Federal monies that we received and it was related to a transition in June and July uh related to payments for our employee benefits program uh this is not something that uh would regular occur and the financial statements were accurately uh stated for the fiscal year you have been provided in advance uh the detailed information of each finding it does continue to follow the same format as previous years indicating the compliance question the auditor notes that detail the finding District action taken that represents the responses from the areas that oversee the those areas within the district and the history of the audit finding for previous years I'd just like to take a quick moment to thank the finance team for their continued focus on maintaining compliance school and Department staff uh that are responsible for doing that Frontline compliance every single day and uh the support that we receive from our administrators cabinet and governing board as a pertains to audit compliance we are fortunate to have this in this District not every District um does receive that kind of support and it is what allows derer to have successful audit I will be happy to stand for any questions thank you so much for all that you do um and just you know I think every year we it seems like we maybe have to suck a few little issues with the attendance but I mean overall I think we have done a fabulous job with finance and um and with these audit findings I mean they're usually very small um in comparison to the amount of transactions that we're doing so just appreciate all of your work thank you I will also Echo that and say thank you I know Miss fedel and Miss wolf Bowman is that how you say it absolutely I know you guys are recent to your positions and I thank you and your team for doing an exceptional job thank you definitely appreciate you thank you very much okay thank you thank you all right um next we'll move to H1 request for you got oh sorry oh my gosh I didn't want to vote on it I just want it to be [Laughter] over why do I not see the oh there it is okay that's why I was I moved ahead too fast I'm so sorry at this time I will motion to accept the financial audit and compliance questionnaire from hinfi meech and Co PC uh certified public accountants for fiscal year ending June 3 30th 2023 second Madam president uh this will be a roll call vote and Jenna will do that by law we have to do roll call okay I yes M Dr I and okay perfect thank you do we have any requests for future agenda items okay motion to adjourn motion carries meeting is adjourned thank you

okay we're returning from executive session would any board member would like to request to put any future agenda items on the on theend okay future meetings our next board meetings are May 9th June 13th we are dark in July and then August 8th all at 6m can I get a motion to adjourn I move we adjourn second we are adjourned thank you for attending yeah