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L more invol I it there good evening everyone uh welcome to the serest time of your life as how many you guys are parents of first time drivers okay I I raised three three boys and so I still shaken from that I we were sitting in the room and they did uh the very scary tactic of you picked a card as you walked in and then you were statistic of how the accidents happened and and I know my son and I was there was a scenario that he had multiple people in his car and what his life expect expectancy was he violated um the rules of the road being underage and so uh being an educator we obviously took that very seriously and then um I ended up buying one of them a scooter because so they couldn't take any passengers so your kids are going to push the limits on you but I do want you to let you know as the administrator that when they start driving to school we want them to be safe um and lock their car one thing I need to tell you guys your kids need to lock their car um because uh our kids don't lock their cars and things sometimes disappear so teach them teach them the rules of the road and also the safety of otherwise for their stff to be protected um exciting times we are going to respect your time this evening uh Julie Cen and Dan Buck are and then uh Mr Schuster will also be the three instructors for this summer and um I have to understand these are not BHS rules these are the state department rules um uh for driving and we just have the opportunity to host it here teachers who are have taken classes for that and are certified in that area and so uh as Julie said this is her first time as the head person in charge and so we're going to answer as many questions as we can try if not you'll get the opportunity to write this down we'll get back with you on those uh so again enjoy good luck to all you little drivers um out there and that's why I park in front of the school so well good evening um my name is Julie Hardon and I am the a teacher here and also the driver's ed instructor um I do want to first of all before I get started apologize someone this week left me a voicemail the ladies in the office said it was about driver's dead so we sent it to voicemail I couldn't open it so if one of you left the voicemail hopefully I will get your question answered tonight um and then if you still have it afterwards that's great but I'm sorry so I it was not um on purpose but um again welcome to drivered I'm going to keep this as um fast as as we can can go and get through all of your questions so um again thank you for coming tonight thank you for supporting your students in um in them wanting to drive and hopefully um we'll get all of your questions answered but tonight we'll be covering um some goals of the program the length of the program and the calendar I know that's a big one um attendance and then parent involvement and just our policies um that we have through both VHS and the state um um so our goals of the program is we want to familiarize parents um with our program and what we do um so that your teenager can experience the best driver's education course that we can give them um and ways you can show support um so that it is a smooth one for them and to make them a safe driver as we go through the course so as far as parent involvement um we would love it if you would take more students out ahead of time possible and drive with them it makes it go so much easier for us when you have been behind the wheel before um hopefully legally behind the wheel but uh when you have been behind the wheel um as students and and it's not your very first time uh getting behind the wheel so parents um and Guardians if that is a possibility for you uh we really encourage you to do that we also encourage you during the program to take your students out and drive with them some of them may be struggling with with uh behind the wheel competencies and if we know what those are and we can kind of send them home with some homework to work on it makes it Go much easier and and hopefully give them the pass rate uh that we want and then of course after we want these drivers to be safe we want them to be able to drive around town and and I don't want to have to see a kid and be like oh my gosh I had them in driver's ed I I don't want that I want them to be safe drivers when they leave um and they're coming into that school parking lot um you know at 750 7:49 in the morning trying to make it for the 750 belt um so it will help the students complete the behind the wheel portion um of the program also it is recommended but not required if they can get their instructional permit prior to coming to driver ed that's great if not we will help them be ready to obtain that um and we will do the paperwork so that when they are done here they can go and get that instructional permit when they leave um from driver's ed so if they can't get it no big deal but if they can that's great it's one last step that we have to worry about in the driver's ed process so um up to you as a parent and I know a lot of it may depend on their age and when they will turn 14 so if you want and drive with your kids or especially at age 14 who can drive with these kids as they have their instructional permit um an instructor a parent or guardian or someone who is over the age of 21 and has a license a an actual driver's license they need to have that um to be driving with someone that is 14 that has an instructional permit and then also they need to be in the front seat with them and please wear your seat Bel um but those are all things that need to happen as you go out and drive with your teenagers so this is a two-phase program there is a behind the wheel portion and there is also the classroom instruction and I there's something I really want to hit on just because your student passes the classroom portion does not always that they will pass the behind the wheel portion or vice versa we have had some students in the past that have completed the classroom portion and they did not complete the behind the wheel portion um and they've had to come back and and either retake it or get their license a different way so don't this does not guarantee that your student is going to pass Driver's Ed just because they show up they have to be able to complete all of the competencies for the behind the wheel portion and also um the classroom instruction so so it will take approximately two weeks of classroom instruction to get through all of the classroom portion of it so 10 class periods are 10 days so um so two weeks of school weeks um it cover 17 chapters of the drive right book that we have we provide that um for the students we also provide study guides for them to use and then we'll also um they will take the Kansas uh drivers the handbook test and we also provide the handbooks for them so really they have everything they need we will provide computers as well um the school computers will have them keep their computers if they are on the driver's ed list I turn it into the tech program so they will have a computer in front of them um we would like them to not take those home so if they do need to study um I can email them extra study material if that's something that they need to do and that they can do that at home um preferably on their phone or on a home computer just because we don't want that computer getting left at home for the next day and then they don't have it aailable that so they will have their computers behind the wheel is typically 5 days of instruction um I do have people always ask well can I test out of this can I hurry up Kansas State Statute says we cannot do this in less than seven days no matter what so we have to provide seven days minimum instruction and so how we have it set up is 10 class periods in the classroom and then five days of instruction those May overlap and I'll show you a calendar kind of how that's going to work work but those often times overlap the behind the wheel session is uh a 2hour session so your student will go with another student in the vehicle um and they will drive and trade off at different times in two hour blocks um so approximately an hour a piece sometimes that last days is a little bit longer um than two hours because we do go a little bit farther and do a little bit more driving on that last day so um that is we we do to our blocks and then I have extra time blocked off if your student needs some extra drive time to complete those competencies we do have time set aside to be able to help your student uh go ahead and complete those competencies and then certificates of completion can be picked up at the end of the entire course so if your student is done um at the end of the second week we their certificate of completion will not be done until the end of the course because I have to go in and print all of them off at one time through the portal um through the state of Kansas so there is a date for that that those can all be picked up this is St students must be 14 by the first day of class the first day of class is May 20th if your student is not 14 by May 20th do not send them um I'm I know that sounds kind of harsh but um the reason for that is there is a Kansas State Statute that says they must be 14 to test they will take the handbook test on the very first day of class so they will be testing which means we have to have them be 14 by the time they come into this classroom on the first day so May 20th is the deadline to be 14 um so please make sure that they are 14 also uh this was a question that I had um how like if my student has already taken for example the driver's test and they failed it once even failed it twice at the DMV can they still test yes they can they can test with us um we give them three tries on each test after that third failed attempt we do excuse them from class so they have three tries to pass each test there will be a chapter test um for each individual chapter and there will also be um the Kansas handbook test that they must pass also if they fail after the the third try um we'll ask them to come back the next year so uh we do provide study guides um and we will help them as much as we can we also have par support so if a student needs needs some help or needs a test read to them we have no problem making those accommodations and helping the student so um and we will go through and cross reference um I'm probably going to go through that with you um and make sure that um we are providing all of the support that we need to for your student to be successful through the program uh because that is the number one goal is for your student to be successful um so we will have pair of Professionals in here usually at least one depending on how many students we get um that are signed up to go ahead and help with the course so before I go any further are there any questions so far because I'm going fast I'm throwing a lot at you no by the way we are recording this so if you have questions and you want to go back and look at this it will be available to you so attendance I took this directly out of our uh driver Ed handbook that has all of our course material in it and I copied and pasted it so that it was um very clear but students must be present for all classroom sessions um abuse of this policy will result in dismissal or no credit for class and administration reserves the right to make the final decision on an individual case students cannot complete the driver's education course in fewer than seven days so and I'll go through what happens if your kid gets sick or something like that here in just a second and again the testing procedure all tests must be pass with 80% Mastery that's what it you have to pass with 80% Mastery for each module or chapter that we are going to do so again students can retake it an additional two times so three total times in order to pass uh to reach that Mastery level um so it's very important that they do if they're struggling a little bit and we tell them hey we want you to come back and retake this test tomorrow we'll send them home with some study materials so that they can go home and study and make sure that they do pass um again uh no student will be eligible for credit unless that student completes each instructional classroom and behind the wheel module in the stated criteria so they have to be here and be present for class so if a student is truly ill I need to know before class um that way I know that we can make Arrangements um and then Arrangements must be made up uh for miss classes and or drive time especially on the drive time they've got to get that made up so if they just choose not to show up and we call that a no call no show um I'm probably going to tell them you're you're done you didn't even your parent did not contact me you didn't contact me it was not important enough for you to let me know that you couldn't be here or that you were sick and you'll need to come back next year so please be in contact with me and I'm going to show you way to be in contact here real quick um so if a student um misses more than one driving day they're going to need to repeat it we can make up one driving day but if they miss three driving days it's impossible to go back and make all that up so um unless it's extenuating circumstances and and if that's the case Mrs Grover and I will address that at that time but so far we haven't had any of those issues um things you must have for the program uh you might want to take a picture of this one if you have your phone again we're going to post this but this would be a great one to take your picture take a picture of um you need a birth certificate on file or a copy brought to class I believe we should have their birth certificate hope maybe if it's not on file they will need to bring a copy of it um or if you don't want to send a copy of the birth certificate I'm going to give you my email you are more than welcome to scan and email me a copy so that we're not having you know a birth certificate floating around out there um if you do not trust your soon Tobe freshman or however old they are to you know make sure they get that paperwork where it needs to be the other thing this is new uh this was new last year you have to have a piece of mail verifying their address so it can be even something as simple as a grade card um piece of mail that is come to them um that verifies that address that they are a resident and so we have had to start that to make sure that you are in fact a res um of the state of Kansas so that apparently has become an issue with the state don't ask me why they started it but that was new last year so um and it's still new or it's still going to be in effect this year um you can bring it to class or you can scan it if you want to scan it in an email and email that to me that's perfectly fine too um I'm fine which with whichever one you want to do mail address to the student yes I know here they are like four half you know these are 14y old kids and like we need it for mail address to you it's I know it's great um not my rules so sorry I think they have their add it if they already I think that yes if they already have their permit they should be so if they already have their permit they should be okay I will double check with I will email my person at the state and double check and make sure that's good if they already have their permit because they've already had to verify those kinds of things as you did that if they don't and we're doing the d99 with them uh for that but I will I will make sure of that so um I will email her if your child uh wears prescription glasses contacts or hearing aids um they we will do vision screening at uh for them during class so please if they have glasses um or contacts they need to wear those so that we can use them during the vision screening um please make sure they have those with them hearing aids if they have those just to make sure they can hear um and then we need to we'll have to F out some additional paperwork but that's not a big deal um proper Footwear when they are doing their Drive days I I really don't care what they wear as long as I I mean I want shoes on their feet but I don't care what kind of shoes they wear in the classroom but when they drive they need to wear clothes toed shoes no flip-flops um or sandals so um that is a safety issue so they do need to have proper Footwear on the days that they drive and then again the computer will be Prov by the school and then a writing utensil um pen or pencil just to take some notes if they need to um we'll have paper if they do need to write stuff down so that's not a big deal so the calendar dates um these will these These are pretty much set but it will begin Monday May 20th at 8: a.m.

we'll call the meeting to order it is 7 PM welcome everyone to the mon are we April Edition already so can we start with a roll call please Kim fre here ad hkin here Andre Cory here Kelly Moyer is absent tonight Greg Meer here Lisa shoeer here Tyson search here perfect we have a for everybody stand and recite the pledge of leades with me please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all perfect thank you got a couple people in attendance some of regulars here welcome any public comments this evening all right perfect uh correspondence I believe is going around any correspondence no correspondence all right easy enough we'll get right into our business with our consent agenda Mr SC if you could walk us through that please all right well you've got your reports and your minutes and your finances um Personnel items we've got Julie Patt is uh resigning she is um possibly going to be hired back we're going to post for that position and hopefully find somebody um she is retired and she is resigning to stay retired and will hope hopefully find a middle school high school business teacher CTE we do have a a person a Wade Brady is the name not Wayne Brady Wade Brady uh no leave of absences extracurriculars a bunch came in today Brody mount for freshman boys basketball we also have Auggie hangle assistant football Zack George and Mark Stewart are going to be Volunteer football coaches and Ellie Butner Butner for girl bner Bitner Bitner that UE is an i okay Ali Bitner girls basketball uh for freshmen those are the extra curriculars that I've got and uh we've got James Carver we missed him last month effective 3824 he should have been moved from class one to class two as a driver he's been here for two years and then we've got vacancies we've got a middle school high school business teacher that needs to be added behavior interventionist and then we've got the summer workers that we do every year where we're looking for four custodians two painters one student ground keeper one student Tech and four student custodians um given all of that Administration recommends the board approve the consent agenda as presented allf right any questions comments concerns hear none would anybody like to make a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented I'll make the motion thank you Tyson do I second I'll second Leisa seconds roll call please Mar yes ad hin yes Andre Cory yes Meer yes Lisa schacher yes Tyson search yes perfect takes care of that we'll move on to our Communications reports and presentations enrollment report is in the packet next item is the administrative reports welcome thanks for having tonight first I want to start off with some of the past events that have just happened at the high school on the left we have two pictures from our Soaring Eagle night every staff member picks a a student and gives a great speech it's a it's an awesome night I have Miss Arnold and Zan Bergman and Mr Germaine and Adam woen we've recently also had our sweetheart Cabaret and our top picture is is Nick elrich singing with Cole giler and Cole GES playing guitar middle bottom we have Bridget wayy singing Logan Han in the drums and Lucas de group and Gabe James on guitar and we have Grace Crossley and uh Mary brocklin singing duet as well it was a great night there a couple nights go to the next one please uh upcoming events well in about 25 minutes we have the Jazz concert that I I did not put on there but that is happening soon tomorrow night we have the FFA banquet that's why we' moved to tonight Friday morning we have Ace Olympics which is a a great morning event if you can get out to the multi-purpose field athletes from a couple Local Schools come and compete and it's it's a great morning Saturday night we have prom there's the flyer for on the left as well a couple of pictures I'm sorry also over some of our Ace Olympic athletes last year UPC upcoming is our pencer banquet it's our Sports banquet next Monday night we have the erder banquet which really the Roe puts on and it's uh as I was saying earlier it's Dupo waterl Jabo valmire and us and it's the top 15% of the class with one scholarship going out to each building by the erder foundation uh Illinois Science assessment is our last major assessment that is State assessment I should say that is coming up on our half day a Juniors take their Science assessment and we have band concerts the foll we have a band concert on the 29th and a choir concert on the 30th one more and then there is a they're adding a senior music banquet this year instead of doing it at one of their one of their concerts and what every seniors wanted to here is their last day is May 9th part of that will be the senior breakfast where we award the scholarships are are released and announced uh we will have our senior signing whether they're going to college or going to the workforce we'll have that where the whole student body comes down and uh watches them and later in later that afternoon they're going to do their walkthroughs through the different buildings as they go back to Eagle View Park View and the middle school to get clapped out kind of as they walk through their building see old teachers and there's graduation on the 19th which again if you're interested in coming please please let me know so I can have the right seats those are two of the Flyers we sent out to seniors and Senior parents to let them know what events are coming and to be on lookout for things so on top of that we have all of our baseball softball track and field and girl soccer so we're busy up at the high school there you have it awesome thank you very much move on to our assistant superintendent report I can follow Mr Reeves that fast but I'm G to try so starting with some shout outs I'm going start at Eagle be with Jen Welker um so she's one of our first grade teachers um Jen just does a fantastic job um obviously doing whatever is needed for the kids but she is always so positive she always has an optimistic Outlook even when things at this time of year are getting crazy um she's always smiling and she's like we can do do it it's and it just is contagious and it definitely helps um because we all have our moments we all have our days but um so she we appreciate that um here at Park viiew I want to give a shout out to Megan reck who again is always positive but um what I love about Megan as well that I think is commended is just her willingness to um not only do what's needed for kids but ask when she's not sure um a lot of times you know teachers take it on themselves that it's all on their responsibility to do it um because they want to do what's absolutely best for their kids um which Megan does but she also is not afraid to collaborate with people and ask for help and what have you tried and she uh will give anything a try and then when it works it's great and when it doesn't work oh well let's go back to the drawing board and just keep going at it um Annie Dent um is currently our drama uh sponsor and then obviously we've hired her next year for fifth grade um I get to see uh susal JR this morning and um it just I actually was standing behind Annie watching her watch the U Musical and it was just again such a positive person um but what I thought was really cool too was she took the day off she took one of her days off from her current position so that she could come here so that our Eagle View kiddos could go and watch the musical this morning at the middle school which was super exciting to them um they enjoyed it I think their favorite part was one of the young men in the play does backand Springs across the stage and every time he would was like like it was the coolest thing ever um but just really appreciate what she does and she will absolutely be a great addition to the staff next year in fifth grade um Carly outwell at the middle school as well um again just positive just always doing whatever is needed for kids um it's very clear when you look at the numbers um when the middle schoolers were picking what electives they want to take and to look at her numbers and how many students I mean I'm sure Spanish is very exciting um but to see how many kids want to be in there and I think a lot of that is attributed to her personality um and all of that and then at the high school also I want to give a shout out to Rob post who um again is just one of those people that is constantly trying new things what's great for kids um and then again trying to collaborate with peers with um administrators to get some feedback so that he can kind of revamp um he's been working a lot working on Socratic seminars and trying those out in small doses because that's a New Concept for high school kids to have to lead the class and be the center of attention and and really lead those discussions um but he just does a great job with taking risks and trying things out with all of that so wanted to just like I said shout out a few of those great things going on in our district with people like Mr reev said State Testing we're wrapping up I um but Fifth eth and and our juniors are getting ready to take the Illinois Science assessment coming up so those there's those dates and then I told Mr Grody this morning I felt bad recycling this slide yet again but this is we're still you like working on those Curriculum maps tomorrow I'm with the PE Department again to kind of finalize some things that are going on with them next week we have U math going on curriculum mapping and alignment and all of that and really just fine-tuning our essential standards with our Focus skills and our assessments making sure that we're getting good quality stuff um so hopefully before I leave but if not we'll have it all laid out for whoever follows me to bring to you guys to kind of present the new Curriculum maps for you to take a look at with all that curriculum that's going on so I know I was not as fast as Mr Reeves but I felt the pressure so it's quality not quantity all right and now to our significant Les hairy superintendent yes I I I've had a haircut since the last time we met I'm going to start with a shout out um not everybody is aware but uh Alyssa Smith has been working on her doctrate and um this week she defended and it is now Dr Alyssa Smith wow congratulations congratulations the dissertation was on the um teachers opinions of professional development online and in person correct yes yeah so w I'm looking forward to being able to download the PDF she is putting it into proquest you'll be able to search it sometimes they don't allow people to if you need something to fall asleep too that's it is quite the accomplishment and I bet you you are very happy to have that over Dr yes all right congratulations thank you um I did get a haircut I did that with the snow angels we raised 72,000 wow $161 in total which for um Childhood Cancer it's just a wonderful wonderful thing uh we are going live with link our financial software people are getting their new accounts and the new systems where they'll be able to log in and see their W2s they'll be able to see their um pay stubs all of that stuff so this next payroll at the end of April will be the first one that goes live in link and um I think of last count today we were just under under 200 people getting in and getting their accounts um this has been a long process and I'm looking forward to it being finally at the next steps but this is going to be the key after this we will start incorporating online uh requests for leaves and things of that nature so we're going into an automated system um I sent out an email to everyone today regarding the PTA they are looking for a vice president and a secretary and I urge anyone that's interested and the bylaws I was notified do not matter if you're a teacher um some districts some ptas don't allow teachers to be on the EXA boards but they do and so anybody with a child or wants to be a part of the PTA they need a vice president and a secretary the things that the PTA does for this District the funds that they bring us the trivia nights we get to look smart at or not so smart in my case um it just it's a good organ organization and we'd love to see some leadership step up for that we will have executive session today um we will have one action item outside of it I'll have some things to update you with but uh sh that that's the superintendent report perfect thank you sir all right move on to our items for Action the first one is item a which is approval of the science club field trip to is it fmy lab FAL lab firy Lab yeah we have Mrs Kish here uh to answer any questions I I've been to fery lab back it was a field trip when I was in high school physics um it's a very good trip I can't imagine what it is now it's got one of the fastest computers doesn't it in the world at fmy lab largest particle accelerator in the world yeah with um the CERN being the first did you yes please I think are those the ones that in the packets were they in the yeah they were in our packet they them in the packet um so you have most of the information where the who how many are plan on attending at this point it was limited because we were assuming we would take a white bus how many did you get how many how many are going to well we we have more than 12 who want to attend but you know again we were figuring we have to take the white bu so we we CED it there are 30 members in the science club and I think 18 responded that they would like to 10 out of those um it would be in the summer June 20th is I think the date we decided because a lot of the members are seniors and this time of year is just crazy for them to try to get away and go anywhere um it requires approval because it is over 200 miles away it's slightly southwest of Chicago Illinois by about 45 minutes southwest of Chicago that's thousands of Acres um I'm sorry hundreds of Acres they do all kinds of research besides the particle accelerator and they do free tours to student groups uh the tour would be 3 and 1/2 hours long um we would tour the grounds we would uh toward the track for the particle accelerator uh they don't let us see the center array like get to see the control room and they get to talk to some scientists who are currently working on various research projects scientists from all over world work there um and uh they're at The Cutting Edge of particle research right now administrations the board appr so what can what can we do that so that they can all go yeah only we're leaving away yeah can we get along we get a bus driver to take the old bus yeah I mean that's just CDL is the is a limit you're trying to get under the 14 for the yeah the driver CDL can get a yellow bus or we can get a yellow bus I mean we have drivers do that pretty often yeah yeah I'm sure we could find a driver yes any other questions maybe like to make a motion maybe in a to alter this proposal just slightly I would imagine I think that what we would do is have a recommendation for the board to approve the trip to fery lab um allowing all the students that elect to go to go with the transportation so not limit the transportation are are you good with that or yes okay I don't want to throw more on you either so well you have to get another chap Ron or will that Cho that should be I have a mom on deck and another teacher who I could talk into it if I had to may you like to make a motion I'll make a motion thank you Adam I'll second that perfect roll call please Adam hin yes Andre Cory yeser yes yes sech yes yes perfect thank you for coordinating that that's great A great experience for him all right next item is the approval of our amended school calendar for 2324 yes and as I said last time with shy of no emergency days this would be the final calendar I'm going to say that again shy of any emergency days this will be the final calendar we did take an emergency day for um the 8th and so Administration recommends the board approve the 2324 amended school calendar questions concerns comments anybody like to make a motion to approve the amended school calendar I'll make a motion thank you norin do I have second I'll second and seconds all in favor I any opposed any extensions perfect next item is C approval of the 2024 25 student fees ah this is the first step to start getting next year's registration all set and I forgot to say in my superintendence report um if you know anybody that has a child that is five or is going to be going into kindergarten please have them contact Eagle View because currently our numbers of kindergarteners that are identified and registered is um strangely low like half of what we've had in the past and so uh I'm I'm confident that this is not a year where children weren't born so um if you know some kindergarteners please let Eagle viw know but the so that we can get the registration that was a side little squirrel I was chasing uh Administration recommends the board approve the student fees as presented any comments concerns suggestions discussion there are no changes from last year so okay maybe we like to oh the planners were the only ones it's a slight change gotcha okay we like to make a motion to approve the student fees for 2425 I'll make the motion Thank you Lisa second second Adam seconds roll call please Andre yeser yes Mr Sher yes Tyson search yes noran fried yes Adam hkin yes all right item D is approval of our Consolidated District plan this is that yearly task where we put all of the information from the prial schools into a form we say that we will follow all of these guidelines and rules and regulations um I I strongly recommend that you approve the Consolidated District plan it is what allows us to get all of our federal funds and state grants um I I suggest you approve it as presented because it will if we edit it they will probably tell us to edit it back so the state likes things worded certain ways and yes they do comments are welcome as long as you don't have any right you can have all the comments you want but I'm not wanting to change the plan because it will be approved as presented any other comments or questions concerns would any me like to make a motion to approve the Consolidated plan as is without any I'll make the motion thank you Tyson there second I'll second thank you Andrea roll call please yes yes yes yes yes yes moving right along our next item is the approval of the 2425 Board of educ meeting dates that's us that is us next step for getting ready for next school year we always meet on the third Thursday and I know the irony of us meeting today on a Wednesday when I say that is not lost on me um I I do think that the keeping the meeting dates the way that we've always had them and the times I see no reason to change them so Administration recommends the board approv the dates and times as presented and we got a couple Cavs to that with budget review iasb convention yes and a Federal holiday mixed in there so all right any comments concerns questions for the December meeting do we know will still school still be in session or will the kids be on winter break by the 19th will still be they will still be in Christmas this year is one of those 20th is a Friday okay the 20th is yes yes any other questions like to make a motion to approve our Board of Education meeting dates I'll make the motion Norine do I a second I'll second least the seconds all right all in favor I any opposed any extensions unanimous next item is the approval of athletic trainer agreement with ATI for 2420 25 yeah we've looked into many different options um we have experienced some turnover with our athletic trainers that we were not always happy with the price is going up um or went up last year so this is a one-year contract I recommend that we stay with the one-year contract we did meet with SSM to see if they would be interested and it just didn't seem um right at this time we're going to keep exploring that and maybe look at them next year we also looked at possibly posting it ourselves the regulations and the process of ensuring that your athletic Trader stays certified is a huge hurdle and so hiring an athletic trainer is not um there's some logistical things that need to be dealt with uh M scuda just hired their own athletic trainer and we're going to be interested to see how that goes for them um I did come when we met with the SSM I I did say that you know it might be nice if we don't go with an ATI or SSM maybe they could provide the professional development at a reduced cost if we hired our own person but there's a lot of options at this point in time though we need an athletic trainer for the summer and for next school year um I would recommend that we continue with ATI and approve the um agreement for the 2425 school year as presented how many hours does an athletic trainer provide how many hours of service it's a full-time job I mean there they're at most of the events it's uh they come in every day around what after just after lunch and start meeting with kids depends on if there's a night event that night but yeah works with students when they're in PE with getting them through some therapy also so there is time during the school day that they're in every they're in every day yeah and then they're at our Saturday events and then they're on call for the parents if there's issues or referrals that need to be done and whatnot so any other questions comments would anybody like to make a motion to approve the ATI El trainer agreements I'll make a motion thank you Adam do I hear a second second Tyson second all right roll call please L sh yes Tyson search yes yes Adam H yes Andy yes yes all right next item is the approval of the first reading for the stien job descriptions yeah we did not have job descriptions for our stien positions and our that includes our coaches and our clubs um that are in the contract so I went and found a template and started adding things to it um put the things in that I thought were logical and made sense I then shared the document with the people that actually do the stip in and got the edits from them went over it cleaned it up included their edits um you guys are having the first reading here uh we recommend that you approve the first reading I will then share it with the cea and we will um discuss it in our last bit of negotiations we had discussed that we need to get these job descriptions together and and and talk about the percentages and everything but it's hard to talk about the percentages because a lot of times the clubs would e and flow based on who was running them and so having these job descriptions for the minimum is uh the first step to that and so if you have any comments on these um typos I have a few corrections I need to make on it that I was sh that I had a board member share with me before thanks Lisa yeah exactly welcome but uh those are the details that we get but anyway I'll be sharing this again with the association and next month we'll have the uh second reading and formal approval and Adoption of the job descriptions perfect and for the public watching the first reading is pretty much just an introduction where we put this information out publicly so everybody has a chance to review it not just us but the public as well so any other questions comments Corrections would anybody like to make a motion to approve the first reading of the stien job description I'll make a motion please thank you Andrea fa a second second since there's money involved let's go ahead and with the roll call please Tyson search Marine Fred yes Adam hkin yes Andre Cory yes C Meer yes Lis iser yes all right we're going to continue with first readings here so next one is we have another update to our board policies this is press issue 114 some of these were the the yearly review that you have to do every so often um a lot of them had to do with the changes in some of the legal languages uh the the sexual harassment grievance procedure is now just the grievance procedure um Title Nine also had some changes there was one that had a question and it was wondering if we wanted to add more information that was um 5100 on staff development and uh Alyssa and I Dr Smith and I discussed and uh we we feel like we should go with the default and not add the extra language um so Administration recommends the board approve the first reading of the press policy as presented perfect any questions concerns comments would anybody like to make a motion to approve the first reading of the board policies as presented I'll make a motion Thank you Lisa second second thank you Tyson roll call please yes ad yes Andrea Cory yes Craig Meer yes this schacher yes Tyson search perfect that concludes our items for action for the regular session anyway I'm going have one more after executive session here uh move on to our facility study our discussion item excuse me the first one is the facility study who wants to do that one um I will say that uh I will be reaching out to the architect to find out what's going on with the parking lot I would have thought the last few days I know the rain kind of the it looks to me like it's ready for the black top to be poured or whatever the process is for the blackt but that should be getting done shortly um they were rolling it today oh they were rolling working through some look like high spots just getting I walked it before we came in okay I saw the roller out there I didn't see anybody every time I went by so yeah they were rolling it this afternoon and looked like they were working through just getting everything okay just just right as far as the prep work for asphalt and I believe asphalt is scheduled for this week or next right to start asphalting correct good um and as far as the other the the the high school everything's been going well I think we're getting down to the finy little bits for phase one for phase one yeah phase two is coming along nicely though as well the the the gymnasium plans are are it seems to be going easier than the administrative offices and the auditorium but anything else no really you're never lost for words I know it's been a long day it has it is um yeah I just wanted to do a shout out to Tim ER with the city he's a engineer with the city of Columbia and he actually has been inspecting our project at least once or twice a day so I ran into him and doing the same thing so we got a lot of eyes on the project and it's it's nice to have some hands on and and uh somebody I'm not sure which one of you two figured out that we might have a problem with the Curve and we checked it out measured and make sure we're holding our feet to the fire and so uh yeah this is a little bit different organization to deal with I think so so but it's it's very good I think we're very on top of stuff and uh I believe I've spent more time in school this this year than I did my whole senior year of high school so it's good for me so all right individual board member comments Lively group tonight all right I'm not going to bore you with any more board president prerogatives so we'll do that we do have an executive session and we're do that for the purposes of appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of a specific EMP employee of the public employees of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hear hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body body to determine its validity 5 ilcs 120 2c1 now would anybody like to make a motion to adjourn into executive session I'll make a motion thank you Andre on to our second go ahe that was real close you going to give it to her go ahead nor guys are too nice Lisa seconds thank you she gave it to roll call please yesy yes yes yes yes yes all right we're going to go into executive session now we do have one item uh for Action possibly as a result of our executive session you're all welcome to rejoin us after that if not thank you for attending have a great night e e e all right welcome back we've concluded our executive session we do have one action item as a result of our discussion this evening which is item a approval of the administrative and non-union raises do you have do a roll call we have do roll call back in no we already did that I don't think so yeah we're just in regular fession again I believe all right any further discussion questions or comments regarding the item a hearing none would be like to make a motion to approve the administration SL nonunion raises for this year I'll make the motion thank you Andrea d a second I'll second least seconds perfect roll call please Adam henin yes Andre Cory yes Greg Meyer yes Lisa Schumacher yes Tyson search yes Norine Friedrich yes that concludes our meeting this evening last thing is a motion to to adjourn I'll make a motion thank you nine second I'll second wants to get out here I know every wants keep keep going all right Motion in a second all in favor any opposed perfect that concludes meeting thank you for joining us have a great night

[Music] he [Music] welcome to round three of the IHS in postseason today our third seat cyber tiger team will play against the number two seed uh Oregon Davis High School this is the semi uh final round for the state finals and we'll have to uh win to compete in the state championship on April 27th at Ball State winning tonight will make uh will make us go to state um the match up if we do go to state will be our uh cyber Tigers versus Blackford currently Blackford has an undefeated record so it will most definitely be a tough battle a win tonight would also mean that all three Esports at bluon will be heading to State this year Sam Holloway has already secured the first place position in tetrio and OverWatch varsity as headed to state to compete against I City interesting sometime something different for this postseason play is that we are now competing in a best of three formats so there are no ties as we have uh as we've had in the regular season they should serve Blu and well as our strength really lies in our strategies about playing which cyber tiger in their character against the opponents as for the structure of the match we will still be doing a 4v4 crew battle players from opposing teams take turns fighting in One V one matches uh with the winner of the match carrying their remaining stocks which are lives to face the next member of the opposing team coaches must disclose with one another in private the fighter or the for the first player on each team in the set after a player has lost a game they will be eliminated from that set after a player's lo oh after players won a game they must continue playing the same fighter until they lose within that set any stocks or lives that a player has lost must be relinquish at the beginning of the next game they must do so by jumping off the edge of the map once a team has no remaining players all four have been eliminated the opposing team will be considered the winner of that crew battle game our starting map for tonight is small battlefield of course the loser of the first match gets to pick the stage for the second match let's get into it looks like we're already contacted the ear good oh I guess we're yep where're just getting in there now we're waiting to go in very exciting that we have a a really good chance to be able to make it to State this year yeah that's really good which I has uh Super Smash ever even like got even second place just uh apparently last season we failed in like the second the second week yeah so this is big stuff for us the farest that you guys have made it in terms of getting to State yeah yeah definitely looks like we're heading into our first match we have Jaden playing Isabelle going up oh boy Mario the Mario's falling for the pots sounds about right I that wasn't like a that wasn't a dirty joke or anything no I was talking about like the pipes Oh no you're right you're right that's my bad that's my bad but we do see that J have a pretty big lead in terms of damage here getting uh like zoning him out like really well no it defin it definitely seems that they have one link or they had one link last time but all the other players seem to be good but not like insane yeah on the same waving already that's normally good I think what being on the same L wi I mean yeah Jayden going for those fishing hooks usually works but oh he just W to the rocket I'm going to have a hard time not saying urinal because that's what our coaches call it what the rocket yes why uh apparently I think it was coach Brooks said that it looked like a urinal floating into the sky oh but he does pick off the first stock on Mario goes to Jaden oh Jaden's been pulling some some goofy Behavior recently traveling underneath the stage to hopefully bait the opponent to crossing over his quote unquote urinal oh so he like sets it on the edge and then he like oh yeah okay and then when they go to Edgard and yep smart plays from our Varsity Captain that's always fun to see special teams and even special players he almost does throw into the rocket okay so uh I think the throw percent for uh Mario is like 120 so he gets thrown further uh no he gets thrown far enough that it automatically kills him oh that's what you meant by like throw yeah if Jaden gets the fishing hook and throws it up he will die or you could just side air and okay immediately destroy him okay so it it appears that this Mario is definitely not stupid yeah like it's I guess quick adaptation it's like he's probably going to try to do the same thing again mhm it's just about learning this game is a lot about just trying to figure out what you're doing I mean it it's like a 2d fighting game so you know it's pretty much most of the matches are just simple adapting yeah yeah it's just about like understanding each other's patterns breaking through if you play the game long enough you're going to like face against every character but you're not going to like know every character that you're going to face against like you know like no their weaknesses it's just going to be like you know after like you know like um a little like few like back and forths that's a three stock baby when I didn't even notice the second stock I was too busy yapping all right looks like we're off to a good good start you see what our plan is this round I don't know if I'm allowed to say this but I don't imagine that they're watching right now but what if they are our plan for this our plan for this one was to put in our best player hoping that they would put in their best player to hopefully try to knock ours out they last time had a link that destroyed most of our team uh without us taking any stocks off so in the second round of that same match we ended up actually learning and adapting and overcoming and yeah all that good stuff and then we won that that set I think they put in who' they put in I didn't see yeah the plan worked the plan worked now this is their best player we believe so unless unless like a different link that is true it could be I don't M no it's the same guy he's doing the same things oh welcome to McDonald's that's what that's called Welcome to McDonald's it's a combo that Jaden does I'm not sure why it is welcome to McDonald's it's just what it is uh peculiar it's the down throw into a a forward air into another Forward Air hoping that it works and if you're heavy he can Forward Air you like 15 times Jaden is just absolutely destroying him do you think that this link might fall for the same thing like theop around well and it's kind of like an an IQ test yeah it's not really like a memory like a bit of memory cuz like if you know if you like let's say place on the right and they just fight on the left he's not going to remember that the like rockets on the right so if he does it he's probably going to get hit by it well and when he goes down there it drags the camera down there too so they can't see where it is so even if they know he has one planted he's they don't know exactly where it is so it's just a bit of a guessing aame so right now I'm I'm really really proud of Jaden right now What's um Link's like throw percentage with the fishing hook links link is like I don't know I don't know links if if you had like a rough estimate like what would you say it is I'd imagine he's definitely at it right now so like 130 to 140 I'd probably put it lower like 125 uh 115 115 120 so like for it to be I guess like a kill like how like ooh that's kind of commentator curse yeah y do you have a pencil or something no I don't that's crazy there's a pencil over there but not going to leave my station just to knock on some wood yeah I don't I don't know what these are made out ceramic or something maybe just plastic but back to the game this link managed to pull a stock away he was at like 100% And jayen was at like 17 hey me just get like off chip damage from range I'm yeah oh okay so it definitely does seem like this link is just learning Jaden so well which is surprising because I I've spent days upon days literal months with Jaden and I still don't understand what he's going to do next M so that just proves to you how good the link actually is yeah also Al 172% for not a heavyweight is a crazy score to be at that is wild he's about probably like just one hit away from dying so he just has the block button ready just on standby yeah yeah oh oh that wasn't even a strong hit either yeah so it doesn't it's not going to take anything for him to die okay come on now you got it jayen I'd like to see this happen 200% as link is kind of a crazy number throw yep and that's that's the stock we're good we're good the link did see the as I think you said coach Brooks calls it the urinal it's actually called a called a Lloyd rocket Lloyd rocket mhm from the game Animal Crossing since this character is from the game Animal Crossing I've never played Animal Crossing no it's kind of boring mhm is it like stardo Valley but like chibi uh yeah it's like stardo Valley but less mystical aspects like stardo Valley has a lot of and stardo Valley has a form of fighting and Animal Crossing doesn't basically Animal Crossing but kid friendly more kid friendly I guess less less fighting and you know all that good stuff also you can't like marry people in a all right let's see so the damage is surprisingly pretty even yeah Jayden managed to work him work him back up that's really good oh getting the pot nice Jayden hasn't got a pot on us in a hot second because we learned that he does he did like barely manage that like sword spin though just just enough yeah oh he takes the the link barely catches it grabb that l l let I'm just going to stop yeah yeah same uh okay both at really high percent oh he does hit the boomerang it's good good damage good chippies oh Lord okay is I mean it's it's surprisingly Fair yeah there's nothing like super insane jadden getting a good hit with that interaction he gave a he gave away the uh disadvantage State on Link's part for some reason maybe Isabelle is just not good in that situation yeah it could also just be matchups it could be I I don't know smash so uh I think jayen has said that it it's a lot of matchup kind of stuff because Isabelle uh gets she's a zoner as far as like what I've been as like what I've seen well link is a better zoner though oh he does to recover so you got it Jaden yep let's do this okay going for the forward eror out out of nowhere re just trying to get the reads all right the he's very cautious they're both very jayen has a good reason though yeah he's seen what this one can do and he's at a very high percent I mean yeah so like a solid hit away from dying yeah oh manually activating the rocket tripping it up o you got a little bit of the sword spin 182% doeses he recover he avoids the bomb get a few more hits in before you die yeah that's like the goal when you're just like at such a ridiculous percent yeah it's just like wait wait wait he waited him out was that the strategy wait so what's the rule what is the rule does it automatically just is that a wait this this has never happened I've never seen this before wait I don't know how to um from how they're reacting that might just be a win I think that's just genuinely a win best case scenario they just reset from that and Jaden just has like clean two stocks on him that's the if that if that's the if that's the scenario I mean yeah like I I'm good with either one personally he got waited out that's crazy I didn't even notice that wait what's the I'm so kid I don't they're probably the coaches are probably talking over right now now Jacob do you do you know what we do here in this situation like what do what are the rules call for Jay still has two stocks so I guess we just won that round I guess yeah that's that's awesome that's brilliant good job waiting him out that wouldn't have even occurred to me I would have been like oh no my time is running out I got to kill him no just chill yeah I like I don't even think because of our like our like name tags and everything like on the screen like from our point of view I don't even think like we saw the timer no no I didn't even I didn't even look up and see the timer I'm I'm still just baffled at that that's crazy yeah wow just sitting here like admiring how mad do you think their link is right now that he just got weighted out like that probably very mad he's Pro like next time he plays against Jaden like if they do like the same thing he's just going to be just hyper aggressive he's not well that link might be a senior so well no talking about like next round not next M like next round cuz we're going first to two so if if like once we win this in the second round if he does face Jaden right right right yeah yeah I don't know what's wrong with me he's over here explaining it to me I guess we taught him well it helps that I'm just yeah a little bit slow you just agree with me what do you want me to do no disagree with me and let me yell at you for disagreeing with me but I'm just kidding okay we're both sitting here either team could just press the plus button and smash we're ready to go not sure what's happening so um how was your day long agreed at a test lonely mhm even though I'm surrounded by people okay what is fur fur what's going on what's my brothers there's you just said that I'll say it again what's up brother we need something to fill the time there's nothing here um want to do an ad read yeah actually that's that's perfect very special thanks to the Wells County foundation for a special grant that allowed us to purchase the computer this stream is currently running on without their support we wouldn't be able to provide the quality programming you are now enjoying it's pretty cool oh also shout out to Miss V for letting us use her room very useful good AC sticks big idea room view maybe or something room view like a camera even further out back no like for them like we so we can see them oh yeah yeah yeah switch it to room view if it's not lagging if you want yeah okay so they're selecting okay I think we're I think the thing is happening maybe we're waiting even more they might be discussing the thing still whether time oh we're getting in a cloud okay so I guess it is just an insta win if you do run timeout it is just straight up I guess that's what it seems like all right cool that's good for us yeah I mean so I guess like oh that's probably why it took so long cuz they were trying to figure out like whatting yeah it's like all right we're ready to go both of them have taunted cuz I I I thought like to me it makes more sense that it'd be just like clean like just like star at the like same not same stocks like you know like the stocks they were at before timeout cuz I mean like we've seen even though he was at like I guess a losing position he still definitely could have came back from that yeah so you know it's it's like I mean although it benefits us it wasn't like a little bit cheesy it's yeah unfortunately that's just part of the game yeah a lot of what I found out about this game is you you have to use everything in your power o those are clean clean stock yeah uh things like combos strings TRS uh anything you can get your hands on to be able to just take more percents more stocks do anything you can uh and if it's a big enough problem the community will fix it like the Steve uh thing where he just banned yeah you can you can use Steve in a combo that goes infinitely doesn't he also have like something that gives him INF like invincibility or something mhm there are a few different uh infinite uh combos with Steve that have been banned in this game uh just because the community say nah that's too cheesy but like you think with like the invincibility thing the de would just fix it you would think but this is Nintendo I this is Nintendo we're talking about do they care yeah all right Jayden already getting the uh ooh o pocketing the blades you can pocket that beam yeah you can pocket almost any projectile nice two stocks if Jayden wins this he will have officially taken out three of their four people uh while also having dealt with their best player yeah oh did he just SD or did he just mess up no he he messed up I believe okay good good job Jaden now oh o the room view looked yeah go go to the room view watch him celebrate on like our side celebrating now we can hear them through the wall yeah like so oh okay I thought he was talking about them okay waiting on the next round to start yep oh we have the inkling the inkling is going up we faced them last time just as the same as the rest of them actually no we didn't face the cloud last time did we I'm I'm not sure I commentated the game but that was like a long time ago and I don't remember all right getting the Inkling yeah and like a good thing about I guess the reset is that Jaden loses all damage that was dealt to him yeah he was at like he was at like 80 something I think which I mean he was at enough to to die yeah he was out enough to die after like a short combo okay this is a lot different from how I remember it being this person has clearly worked on their engling very hard yeah jayen getting the true combos in actually the welcome to McDonald's combo starts as a true combo but the longer he tries to do it the less true it becomes true combo basically just means there's no way to get out of it yeah which can be annoying if you just like can't get out of it or their movement just better than yours so it's like easier to like get caught into it okay something weird is this inkling has clearly developed their craft pretty well props to them keeping up with jayen that's I guess from like zoning and like I've never I've actually like never seen an inkling play I believe this just looks just I'm on this side of the map now I'm on this side now I'm on this side now I'm on this side is a little bit like that yeah and then she just throws a bomb I'm not okay Jaden is starting into to get a little bit of little bit of an edge yeah he's he's St to I guess like you know learn how to deal with it that's probably Jaden's biggest talent is that he's able to learn very quickly uh can recognize patterns immediately which is very valuable in a fighting game I mean especially one like this where the only difference between winning and losing is being able to learn other people's patterns especially with the roster having like 50 plus characters oh for sure I mean it's so weird yeah trying to get Jen oh oh he barely gets the recovery let's see can he take a stock off he's had 140 there up for yeah so now it's now two two oh the inkling ability to remove the Lloyd Rockets with the dash not Dash with the side be that's probably the most useful side be in the world for fighting Jaden cuz I run into those Rockets all the time it's so annoying and then it's just a get out of jail free card essentially yeah you just run oh here I got you I got you is that why it was like it was on my lap oh there you go got to help him out real quick yeah we're good okay uh does that bomb the inkling throws go through the platform I don't think so I kind of swore I saw Jaden like standing on the platform and it didn't do anything but it's hard to tell maybe it looks like it does inl does have a pretty high amount of HP would you say like inkling is another one of those characters where it's like easy just to get like the like hook like the hook kill um I'm not sure not really I mean I would I would put inklings weight around the same as links so like oh be like 12ish I think so I'm not sure the inkling almost SED you know what I would love that yeah Jaden solo Jaden does lose his second stock but he does still have his last one and we still have everyone else so yeah and we have a whole entire team waiting to get to play and they're just ready they all showed up hoping they can contribute and then Jayden's just like sorry guys I don't need you nah he'd win no he's just he's just better he might be that guy okay watching the a what Cal the coder's curse no no no it's no I'm saying in my kick in cuz oh all the all the good ooh no it's fine it's fine jetting got that every time we start saying something good it it normally ends up bad yeah it turns around immediately you can like look back at like every other smash stream and it'll it'll definitely be there rocket we do it every time too yeah we don't learn we should like try to do it for the anime comment that doesn't work either have you tried it no it's like a double jinx kind of thing where like the universe knows what your true intentions are so it's like if you say anything about it at all whether it's to them so so so if we try to Hype them up they're going to do better Jaden solo first round no that's not not quite not quite they still have another player so oh wait he said two stocks left I thought he was talking about Jaden but that that was their last player right cuz it was who who they start off with uh they started off with uh why am I blinking what okay yep see Jay absolutely rocked their team all right I guess that is all four St yep I told you he might be him let's see will the other cyber Tigers actually get to play okay the penguin it looks like we're going for Eli now I think under the code name exploded yes yes come on cuz I've seen his penguin the penguin look very fun to play and very devious IND IND I love commentating with you this is fun um waiting to get into the match while we wait let's do another ad read let's do another ad read if only Jordan was here to do a super smooth segue into the ad reads I can do good ad I can do a good ad read with that one that one yeah that one I I I've had good ad reads I mean sections do you have a favorite nonprofit that can use an awesome fundraising idea auction is a good and inperson auction it platform auction platform that can help your nonprofit host a great shity the auction find out uh you can find out more auction.io that's auction.io they also sponsored our jerseys which are in the link of the in the description shamess yep wow some check out the link in the description to and like And subscribe too we want to get monetized for more money like and or subscribe if you like the video like it you don't have to subscribe unless you want to see more subscribe did they have a me apparently they have a me oh they have a me now penguin time I mean oh I thought I didn't recover okay that is just straight up PK Fire no wait can you like customize your me to like have like yeah M can there's like what three choices for every attack oh the only thing you can't control is uh Aerials mhm is like Aerials tilts smash attacks things like that this me's going crazy on Eli do you think this might have been the link and you like just like switch to Mia it could be it could be sending in the best player first thinking that they're going to fight Jaden yeah very big possibility cuz like Eli he's also like pretty good so well Eli is very good but his strategy a lot of the time is literally just like get in do damage and yeah it's very random and uh irrational I would say yeah Eli is not irrational he's a very smart intelligent man but his plays are quite the opposite yeah he he definitely kind of just does stuff he presses buttons and hopes it works although 9 2% isn't that bad of a of a especially for a character like DDD it's just like if he gets like one good hit in you're you're You're gone yeah I mean we were playing before the stream today and and Jaden and Eli were fighting and Eli released a gordo into Jaden's urinal the urinal exploded and shot the Gordo at a million milph into to Jaden Jaden was at one stock and IM or 0% and immediately died that quick zero to death immediately let's see I I okay what if that could happen with their me but Eli does pick off a stock on their me which best case scenario that's their best player I mean I'm hoping this is their best player cuzz wow yeah they're doing very good to them they could have subbed in someone who's like I guess like their trump card that is true he's just holding the suck button I mean sometimes just holding a certain attack can work yeah that's that's what I with d it's just like he holds it and just Waits well and especially against the me Gunner who just has projectiles for days uh for days anything that DDD sucks up he's just going to spit right back out yeah but I mean it can just be blocked if the they're just that far but I mean it's like he does like between like link he like he's playing like kind of similar um as like he was with link obviously like different because it's a whole different character but so do you have to be like right in their face for them to be like in his mouth yeah yeah you have to be pretty close I doesn't really reach that far I mean you're sucking that's all it is a Big Gulp okay going for the dash attack he's going to Shield he does get the kill off on Eli but Eli did manage to take a stock that's all right yep Eli played well very good that's all that matters my hair is stuck I wonder who we're going to put in next are we GNA immediately gun for jayen or um we going to let other guys that doesn't really seem like a smart play you know what I mean just like it's just like a situation like hide behind the captain like you know like yeah for sure yeah I'm predicting Sam's coming in next Sam yeah I think it's Noah because of the not card it was Sam wow all right man I got to flex on stream the viewers got to know that's fair oh it's another it's it's me Gunner again k r can same it's the same guy cuz he cuz he didn't die I'm just going to walk off the stage you see that's why you don't put all of the the the blood into your arm that's probably what H did he SD or am I am I trecking no he did okay it one of stock was it when I was going yes okay that makes sense you were too busy worrying I was too busy crying oh wait it's another me Gunner that's crazy can DDD can like deflect the projectiles right yeah but with this with the short little like short little blasts it's not really necessary it might be necessary if the short little blasts are getting you to 107% yeah if he's just boom boom bo boom boom boom uh but no his counter doesn't last quite long enough for it to really be able to do anything against those attack attacks his best plan is probably just to get off the ground oh he does get the suck with the gun he's going to he's going to suck he's going to he's going to suck his opponent so hard that they that they fall off the stage pear the power of sucking we mean sucking as in uh being bad at the game oh he does get the same wow yeah words you get the stock off of Sam Sam Sam has been playing very well recently yeah I mean he's playing I think about as well as uh Eli has actually that's nice and as we saw Eli did get a stock so hopefully Sam can do the same Eli and Sam's character are I would say somewhat similar at least in my experience yeah but like their play sty are completely different like physically they can both suck uh they both have a surprising amount of projectiles for being like big big boy Heavies why are they listening to me there is that like theall uh that's probably the cheerleaders nerds tell me about it yeah we're totally not nerds we do Esports you know I disagree I think we're quite nerdy I got to know they don't got to know but um going back to the match Sam both of them are at like a pretty high amount of HP does he does get a stock off gets a stock a stock from sucking and now it's z0 last stock and everything best case scenario Sam uh you know gets the kill I think I would do pretty bad against this me Gunner here that that's like a 50% uh true combo I think that's which is almost as good as B I don't know how HP works is that like a lot for a true combo in my experience yeah kind of I mean people have said like wow that's a that's a 49% uh true combo on bth that you got there and I'm like it that's so that's a lot they're like yeah so I'm guessing that over 50% is also a lot big it's big boy damage which is what we don't like to see happen to us it's good it's good when it oh it's good when we when they do it cuz he's such a heavy character he's just not going to die from that normally he would I keep expecting uh to die I no I keep expecting him to try to suck the bullets like Eli was yeah can uh King K like deflect them back or is that just like a uh DD thing no k k uh has a slip counter what's that mean and it a counter the part it's his down B it's the one that he he turns green uh and his belly like flashes oh good good ledge guarding Dash attack killing him that's awesome amazing perfect now if that was their best player which is what we're hoping because if they still have that link it's looking if they still have that link it's going to be hard yeah it's going to be really hard but if that was their link I think we got this I think this is going to be a good match for us it's best of three right yeah so it's first to two wow yeah this is exciting yeah this is going really well for the Cyber Tigers if we get this we're on the state why are we I guess I just Swit the map link Waluigi Waluigi oh that's War Waluigi I saw the W Waluigi I don't want to talk about it I don't want to talk about it okay W I don't want to talk about it okay so we pick going Pi Wario for reasons I guess uh I hate Wario so much I hate him because he's Wario okay so this dude is definitely playing a little bit aggressive well I don't to I don't think he hunted oh when people have to SD to take off their own stocks they got to taunt to like you know hey I'm ready to go yeah they initiate the battle by taunting this guy just teab bagged like okay he didn't like teabag but he crouched and UNC crouched over and over again which that's what we call teabagging and gaming really I they're playing that music really loud yeah I wouldn't be surprised Mike can hear it yeah if our mics can hear it we're both really dumb yeah we're both just like like messing up I don't know how to speak you know what same you could ask a lot of the people in my everyday life sometimes words just don't words just aren't words but Sam takes a St Sam being able to take a stock before 50% W that could mean some pretty good things almost hit me there I apologize no W's I do apologize W's W's in the chat can we actually get a w in the chat if we do have a viewer you know I'll be a viewer if we have half of a viewer say du du W that's three consonants how do you split three consonant I don't know oh War you getting the fart on the end where's all the energy good question that's a good question I just died yeah real um somebody go out and buy me a uh buy me a monster I don't know yeah I don't even like monster give me something more passion okay so he's saying more passion I've never felt anything more passionate in my life real we're just really tired just kidding this is this is fun I love actually we're sending out Noah makes sense he hasn't got to play so I mean if if we sent jayen out there no would have gotten into play so they're technically winning yeah for now for now hopefully Noah only has to get five stocks to catch it up though wait only two actually but cuz to even I think right yeah two is even five is isn't this is their third isn't it or is this their second this is their third this is their second I think maybe this is our third and their second I know it's our third okay I think I don't know it's this is hard to keep track of okay we have snake doing snake things placing bombs literally everywhere he goes big boom did he just throw a motorcycle yes he you can the motorcycle turns into an item and quite literally just is an object that you can throw oh taking him out take it take 31% taking him out at 31% that's crazy imagine being Wario imagine being Wario imagine being Warrior and having a Pikachu throw your own motorcycle at you no a Pichu even worse I was I see in my mind I said Pikachu but in my mouth I said Pikachu CU Pikachu is Big he he's more known yeah Pikachu the electric Mouse Pokemon why did you sound like him like the Pokédex yeah Pikachu the electric Mouse Pokemon you just need like a little bit more I I need the auto tune like like the editing effects of the of the voice yeah and then I need the script what is what is that uh jumping kicking move I think that's a down air maybe big boom boom from Noah having three stocks sets off a mortar in the end that's crazy it's good wins good wins that's my name mhm that's his name it is is or is it you're Dominic Bolan no last names that's my bad cut that out we'll cut it out in post mhm that's my bad that is that's I did not mean to do that right no what no ja behind the screen says uh says uh you just got doxed Mr gaming watch on Mr gaming watch let's see how we do interesting character for sure sorry for doxing you there goes your life my turn what uh the people know who I am I just got that name the name everybody knows I don't know you I've never met you a day in my life except for right now yeah I don't I who are you I don't know I'm trying to figure that out real TV H people people hate when I say h instead of TBH so I say I'm going to start saying Zed to make us to make us americ zra it's a zebra man it's a jebra fetching me a a but the gam of watch it did take a stock off of Noah that's sadly a little unfair yeah honestly seems like the game Watch knows what he's doing props to him for but no one does like the stock back which is good for us and now we're even good good to see okay wow that was a high combo that was not very fun no is probably getting a little bit frustrated I think I could see it through the screen he's moving faster and attacking quicker yeah it's like he was also kind kind of like having like I guess like a bad practice like before the match yeah I could tell things weren't really going right yeah he has been MVP the past few matches matches yeah and I I guess it's Jaden's turn now so it's it's also Game and Watch which we we had a game and watch on our Squad before mhm very hard player to fight I do not like fighting game and watch it just seems so like Goofy and random it very much is none of the attacks look like attacks he literally have has an attack where he goes That's it he just and then that's that's the whole entire thing he just hits you with his head I don't like fighting this character it's TR he seems weird especially cuz he's the only like 2D person truly 2D I mean yeah it's just like weird to look at when everything else is 3D well and he I think he moves at a totally different frame rate from the rest of the the cast too like that like that cartwheel just now was like it looks so like glitchy it looks like it's lagging your game out but in reality I wonder what Game and Watch looks like with lag probably even worse horrible just just like he teleports basically he already basically teleports in some of his [Music] attacks I also hate that it's so bad like it's the hit box just looks massive and it it juggles you very easily and it stays out for so long the the little air PFF like if you if like not to mention like I assume like since his attacks match like what color he is it's like if you pick a stage where I guess like his like things like blend in he can be like very annoying to fight I mean yeah is there oh almost a potential tie you know what stage we need to make a legal stage uh for uh most championships what little Max boxing arena there oh are there like ropes on it that like yeah let's see the game has it's a weird map has one stock this is is their third yeah okay so Jaden has to get four stocks with his three which as we saw last round very possible very very possible say has Eli played yet but like yeah he played first yeah so it's jayen to take out game and to take out two people yeah yeah essentially did you not notice that they got two people hopefully they didn't notice the what now they're going to like scroll back oh yeah I'm definitely going to like at as soon as the stream's done I'm going till let's see what time is this 24 yeah I I I'll check check Eagle check Eagle check Eagle I knew I had to give you a chance to do something oh what like carwheel I hate it it's so bad but like I I love it but I hate it at the same time I mean it would be good if you were using it but it's just so it just looks so weird to look at it's disjointed that's the word it's just like why so bad someone like turned their ping up so it looks bad yeah I'm going to stop now I'm never gonna no no those no don't ever stop that was amazing I N don't can we edit that out stop that was can we edit that out on post Jacob that's not how it works we're currently alive I know I think we can it out and post something like that with the like two second long delay yeah um I know one no he says I don't know w w tell Jomo to just edit all of that train rck out and post think it's a little bit too late for that I mean but like after the stream ends he'll he'll cut it out trust trust he's not gonna do it but Jaden did take uh the took the win yeah do we have another ad read mhm do we have this one let's go ahead and get this one thank you to our sponsor Adam Wells internet Telecom TV your local service provider with gig speed internet get Speed Internet TV and telephone services for business and residential C customers in Adams and Wells County all done by Adams Wells we live there that is that is a thing isn't it or do we I mean I don't we actually live in California actually I live on the moon actually I live in the sun it's pretty hot in there it's a little bit more impressive it's a little hot in there but but trust trust I got I see you do you have like a gym yeah on the face of the sun yeah I I I I binge press the Sun yeah you got a huge gaming layer yeah on the sun he's got everything on the sun guys I mean like like considering the sun is like thousands of times bigger than our planet I I'm like I can pretty much for like whatever I want on there and I'll be fine okay looks like we're uh selecting our characters getting it getting it going of course Jayden's just going to play the same character as always obviously one trick pony one trick py is he actually uh more or less I'll say he's not as uh experienced with the other characters as he is with this one trust when Isabelle becomes s tier y'all are cooked we have not been commentating like at all um yeah we you just been talking well I mean you talk about the match and then you talk about how it relates to you and then you talk about the match and yeah purple being able to reflect that that's a very good ability all right you do I it's my favorite color is it really my I think it's my second favorite umbrella nice fishing rod having a good very good very good uh there's something called an interaction which is basically every time something goes down uh and Jayden seems to be winning like all of these yeah he's just he like I I think out of everyone on like the team CU like I said with him at lunch like you know I talked to him like every now and then he seems the most I guess like hungry to go to state in like I guess in that sense like he like he wants it the most he really wants it Jacob it's all right you know no comment yeah yeah get out of here buddy boy actually don't we need somebody to run the stream yeah Jacob is behind the screens he's The Mastermind beond all this yeah we're just a couple of people we're we're freshman freshman event freshman freshman I don't even like the Freshman neither do I like it's like you're 50/50 I mean yeah he lost the coin flip I'm kidding are you I I am I don't know I swear Oh Oh I thought be like a from the great okay 173 on the second stock it's good for jayen but Wow's he's going to pocket IT pocket his way and he's just going to put out the reflector over and over again reflector oh can can the reflector reflect Jaden's uh forward erir which is his uh crossbow not crossbow slingshot okay it's two stocks to one see that so yeah I guess that um Gunner me definitely was the link yeah I would imagine I mean they were both similar skill just like similar movement patterns I mean even when you switch characters and you get different move sets and different things a lot of the times the places that you put yourself on the stage is going to stay the same yeah um that's something I'm struggling with now is not rolling every 4 seconds because I do that all the time and they always they read it they can tell what I'm going to do so I mean we're just constantly growing it's all about just making yourself better oh oh the Lord rocket does hit unfortunately does not kill that's all right we don't need a kill right now yeah I mean Jayden could literally just run round yeah okay so I mean he has three minutes I don't think I mean like at at a place like this I don't think there's really an advantage not really yeah I mean might as well just kill him yeah I mean there's definitely way more of an advantages going on the aggressive and you know taking that last dog yeah if he gets this and the vity Cyber tiger smash team is going to State going first time in forever or ever actually this is the first time ever we're going to State who took off their Jordan took off his shirt Jordan took off his shirt can we get bring him in bring him in for interviews oh my Lord that's hilarious let's go we're going to State baby we're going to State yeah good job Jaden good job wiping their whole entire team get get everyone in here we at State baby everyone get everyone in here where's no one we're not actually in Smash Bros all yeah no we are no we're wor I'm kind of in here this is Mrs V's come here everyone get everyone in here all the coaches yeah first time ever going to state so yep yep hang on so who do do we want to start with the coaches or you want to start with the captain let's start with Jaden Jaden you had an amazing performance today on theam just soloing the first round like your entire like by yourself never seen one person take out the whole see like me me like whenever that was a team though yeah I mean whenever you were uh stalling like when like after like that match we were just like sitting here like B like just like thinking like what's going to happen cuz like my first thought was like you're going to like reset at like 0% that that was my like first thought but then like the more I thought it's like you know in most fighting games if like you know you win by time it's just it just goes to you and like you know you have more HP yeah I had one more stock yeah two more stocks yeah at that oh yeah two more no I had one more St he still had one stock left okay yeah that that was so nerve-wracking I was like I might just fight him head on I can't stall for one minute and then I proceeded to stall for one minute it's crazy and then they stalled out forever like checking the rules to make sure that it was all legit they just said what were you guys doing during that we were trying to figure out what baffled just like think it's like we as Jacob a few times like what even are what's going on like you know yeah what yeah that's okay well you're going to State yeah we're going to State we're going to State I know I know you personally have been wanting this for a very long time no going get the mic knew only um person no Sam's also going twice for tetrio Eli Eli's going twice as well every team on Esports is going to State yes we are look at us bunch of Gamers Gamers but um like you also had like a really good performance um this match so um like what like what are your thoughts of also like you know going to State like for two different games um I got to practice both so that's I have to like split my time up between which game I play which is kind of difficult what's you're going to be your main focus main focus is probably Super Smash Bros and I think I can it's easy to play uh OverWatch 2 and maintain the same skill level but Super Smash Bros it's harder you got to be consistent just like constantly I think so too and then I think um it'll be pretty awesome going for to state twice for two different games that are completely different different true just shows a wide demonstration of uh skills versatile yeah I assume it's like the same thing with you YouTube Eli take the mic man man a few words doesn't need much to be able to man a few words yeah look at do you do you feel good about how you performed today you really got to ask that huh no the whole team did good the whole team did very good I watch watching you play I knew you did good despite the loss it wasn't it wasn't anything like you just messed up player and over again you genuinely yeah that was that was the link but yeah like that's what we were say like is that the link or cuz like after like you know he like played and like like you know he's doing like that well like yeah that's probably like the link yeah and then you know Eli got a stock off and then Sam was able to pick off two socks and then from there it's like we were thinking if that was the link it's just smooth sailing from here yeah yeah it was the link no way the projectile spammer plays a different projectile spammer that's crazy oh what a guest oh his spacing was also similar too he's a good projectile spammer he's very good do you want worse from the coaches hey all I can say is I'm super proud of you guys you put in the time the effort the work you listened to us and made some changes and uh if you play like this how we played today I think we can beat Black for no problem let's do this guys wrap us up see you guys all right thank you for joining us this evening that concludes this year of streams but join us at Ball State on April 27th for the State final match for OverWatch tetrio and Super Smash Bros let's do this yeah hi Mom want to say that real quick he's so sneaky hi Mom hi Mom hello hi [Music] brother e [Music] n

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

e High School District Board of Trustees meeting of April 18 2024 is called to order at 3:30 p.m. the following members are present Brian O'Neal cathine H Smith Jessica Guerrero and Anar Rand tro staff has requested the following am to the agenda so we're replacing page two of the agenda to correct wording of item 6.1 exhibit G replace page five to make Corrections exhibit Q replace page 41 to make Corrections exhibit RR replace page 11 to make Corrections so that was gqrr do I have a motion to adopt the amended agenda all in favor I any public comments seeing none the Board of Trustees will now hold a close session to discuss items 4.1 through 4.7 on the agenda we are at three

hello good evening everyone the Board of Trustees meeting of the berasa Union School District is now called to order at p.m. uh president J shasan is not here he is out of the country at the moment and trusting kangin will be here he's just stuck in traffic but he will join us later on in close session however my other colleagues are here so items to be discussed in close session are the following a student discipline or other confidential student matters Education Code sections 35146 and 48918 and 48900 it's SEC 48912 B and 4906 it SEC and 20 USC section g b conference with labor negotiators government code sections 54957.6 agency designated negotiator roxan fenes Ed and other members of the negotiating team employee organizations California School employee Association California teachers Association of beresa teamst local 150 management Public Employee discipline um dismissal release complaint government code section 54957 item three public comments on that's it you want me to go oh are there any no no public comments on close session items in that case we journ to close session at 603 thank you see you later e e e you chunk of that responsibility but yeah and I will be our darness to get that up good evening everyone was that kind of loud good evening again um the Board of Trustees meetings will now reconvene to open session uh trusty could you please lead us in the flag salute to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic which stands one nation under God inded with liberty and justice for all thank you for that trusting truste how could you please read the mission statement of the school district of course barious Union School District provides all students the skills to become lifelong Learners and successful 21st century Global Citizens thank you trustee Himes please read the Norms of the Board of Trustees barasa Union School District Board of Trustees agreed to focus on the best interest of students at all times be respectful listen openly address problems and process not persons keep each other informed maintain confidentiality work toward the future learn from the past equal participation from all members and stay on task thank you uh item D no action was taken during close session item e adoption of the agenda could I please have a motion to adopt the agenda move to adopt second thank you very much it's been moved and second it to adopt the agenda all in favor say I all right oppose motion is carried we shall continue to item seven yeah public com ments on consent calendar agenda items do we have any public comments on consent calendar agenda items none thank you very much we shall then I could I have a motion please to adopt the the consent calendar I move to adopt the consent calendar I'll second that thank you it's been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar all in favor say I I oppose motion is carried thank you very much now we shall go to what is that now um did I miss anything no section nine section n okay section nine all right is all right section nine this is section nine item nine really is comments from the public on non-agenda items do we have any speakers none thank you um item 10 reports and presentation we shall continue on 10A is school consolidation process overview um superintendent please yes thank you this evening I'd like to introduce the board to Mr Harold Freeman of Lozano Smith he'll be providing you an overview of our school consolidation process so you know we've been talking about about um this review for quite some time and it's one of the recommendations that came forward from our board stabilization Committee in the fall and the board taking action that we go ahead and move forward with this process uh review uh in December and so here we are ready to commence welcome great thank you thank you for having me um well I always have to say when we're talking about school consolidation because that immediately sets off um alarm bells for some folks so just to make clear to everybody this is very much the start of a discussion and the start of a process no decisions are getting made anytime in the immediate future um and really what we're going to talk about with you briefly tonight is your process to get to the point where there can be information available to be making decisions somewhere down the road and we're always very careful to refer to this not as school closure but School consolidation because it can look like a number of different things uh it could involve closures of schools it can involve reconfiguration of grades it can involve moving of programs from one place to another um so just to get a few Concepts out of the way up front that we wanted to just share with you all um but just a few points of background for you um this is something that school districts around the state are looking at right now for the obvious reasons that we're all experiencing a lot of enrollment decline um we put some numbers up here for you just to think about 160 ,000 student drop in enrollment in the state of California uh an 11.4% drop in enrollment by the year 20131 which is really quite severe um and as many as 80% of school districts in the state are or expected to be in its state of declining enrollment and I I've seen this number 80% I think it's going to be higher than that I think that is a very conservative number varasa is no exception to this you see again the numbers of enrollment decreases 1, 66 student decrease from 2016 to 2023 and another 2,237 decrease expected by 2028 for your uh demographers so again very eye-opening numbers and it's a lot of different discussion in the state about what's causing all of this uh economic issues declining birth rates uh folks leaving the state of California you name it and there's theories on why it's happening but it's happening it's not just your District in fact we're working with many others that have much more severe drops and enrollment projected um which is why we're here to talk to you about having a consolidation committee um to talk about what to do because ultimately what happens is school districts end up with more facilities necessarily that they need for their kids um and getting that lined up we often refer to as the right sizing of a school district to make sure that you have the right number of facilities for your students sometimes it means building new facilities because you're experiencing growth and sometimes it means condensing uh facilities because you're in you're experiencing a decline um one of the techniques of going about doing this is to have a committee so a school consolidation committee very commonly used by school districts these days to get input from your community and as we go through tonight I'll talk to you just a little bit about why it is um that the law has kind of LED people in the direction of having these committees to have Community input as we talk through it um but the concept of the committee is really to get informed about all of the data um I think of it almost like a funnel of taking the information that ultimately will be coming to this board helping digest it um helping make recommendations around it and putting it into ultimately what will be a report to come back to the board um with some options for the board to consider um and obviously part of that is becoming very familiar with District demographics so that something that the committee will absolutely be engaged in um there'll be publicly held meetings and I want to emphasize that the committee is a a public body of the meetings will be held in public um so this is as transparent as possible um as we go through the process there will be agendas made available um there will be information put up on the district's website um the district has uh bringing in a consultant School Services of California very highly uh qualified and well-known consultant around the state to help facilitate all of this and to help bring information forward to the committee um and we put up here just a few of the things that the committee will be doing including um considering the potentials of school sites to host particular programs so this isn't just about facility it's about program as well and where programs get located um that meet the diverse needs of the district um developing criteria to use to have objective standards to go through and consider the demographic data as you look at closure consolidation and potentially the moving of programs um the committee then ultimately comes up with a recommendation it's a St basically they take all their study they put it in a report that is delivered to the board the committee is an advisory body so it does not make any decisions it comes to the board with information and recommendations again that ultimately will be a written report and you will hear from the committee members when the time comes to actually present that Port report to the board um and part of what will be discussed along the way obviously is when you're talking about a potential consolidation you also have to think about transfer you have to think about how this is going to work as far as where kids are going to be going to school it's all going to be part of the discussion of this community-based committee U one of the things we wanted to clarify is there's a two-step process here and we're only talking about the first step some districts do these together which is a lot to bite off um some districts do them separately which is the the goal here the first one is to talk about the potential of what school facilities might be closed or Consolidated um the second part of that is what to do with those sites if they're then vacant or partially vacant um and the district has some experience dealing with properties along those lines the Education Code requires you have what we commonly refer to as a 711 committee to advise on the ReUse so are you going to sell sites are you going to lease them out how are they going to be used in the future um I always have to explain the 7-Eleven committee very sophisticated reason for calling it that you're not supposed to have fewer than seven members nor more than 11 members um one of the reasons that that we are not wild about trying to take that 7-Eleven committee process and mix it with the school consolidation process is because it means you only have 11 people looking at it and so the opportunity to have a bigger committee to have more Community input um but at the same time typically and that will be the case here we we try to look at for those committee members can they still cover the same bases of what the statute contemplates for folks who would be on a 7-Eleven committee it'll just be broader than that committee so as we move along um here the committee is going to be made up of we have between 20 and 25 members we'll find out on a later agenda item exactly how many it will be um and I've listed here just as bullet points what the requirements are for the seven 11 for the ReUse committee because we wanted to include all of those again for your committee members although your committee can be broader so you see it's a it's a broad range um it's an attempt to get the socioeconomic representation the ethnic representation of the district as much as possible um have business owners land owners uh District staff administrators parents uh and then we always have this category which is sort of a broad one somebody who understands and has experience in uh issues dealing with entitlement of land land sales land use because there's an underlying element in all of what we're thinking about with that as well um so that's the basic concept of the committee as far as where this comes from Legally and I wanted to to just spend a little bit of time helping the board understand this um the education code is very quiet about what you're supposed to do when it comes to school consolidation decisions you see the language here you were supposed to have the community involved that's the extent of the legislative input for you all on what you're doing and so these committees are usually used as a way of getting that Community input that Community involvement and again obviously when the board ultimately makes decisions they're done in public at public meetings with an opportunity again for public input um so there's very little on the law on this um you'll see it goes on to talk about the use of surplus space assuring buildings use that's compatible with the community we'll save that for the 7-Eleven committee process down the road um there is one interesting law that went into effect in 2022 that I wanted to mention which is ab1 1912 you see a little bit about it up here um it applies to four school districts in the state and you are not one of them it this bill only applies to school districts that were financially distressed that had to get an emergency apportionment from the state basically to stay in business um so again only four of them out there Oakland UniFi is one Englewood is one I'm blanking on what the other two are you may know them um but interestingly while this law came out to apply just to those the Attorney General came out with an a letter that was sent to All school districts in the state that recommended just recommended this is a good process for you to follow as well um so not surprisingly the process that has been planned for your committee somewhat tracks this bill um and the whole purpose behind the bill was to make sure if you're making School closure decisions that you are not resulting in any segregational effects you're not unduly impacting protected populations and that ethnicity is considered as part of the whole equation of what you're doing but really the thing that ab1 1912 did and that the attorney general has picked up and the California Department of Education recommends now is to have objective criteria so that you know whatever decision you're making it's databased you're doing it for the right reasons um one of the other legal requirements just to throw out there it's not anything you have to think of yet but it's something that districts sometimes forget about and sometimes get sued over so I'd like to mention it is the California environmental equality act um if you are going to be moving students in different ways than they moved before there are sometimes needs to consider what are the impacts on safety on traffic all of which the committee will be looking at and Advising you on but before the board makes any fin decisions down the road there may also be some consideration needed under squa again California environmental equality act as well and I don't have it on the slide but the Attorney General also pointed out the Ada Americans with Disabilities Act so thinking again about are how are you impacting particular student populations if you move them from point A to point B for different schools um so the CDE guidelines and I'm not going to dwell on this for a long time I'm just going to touch on them briefly these really have been now increasingly adopted around the state and they come straight out of ab 1912 again and the AG's attorney general's recommendation are these objective criteria that you can consider and that ultimately um scoring systems will be developed and your committee will work on going through them so just to run through through them really briefly and trust me the committee that gets appointed is going to spend a lot more time talking about these I just wanted to make you aware of them um the first one is the condition of school facilities obviously if you're looking at two different schools and the district just put $20 million into one school and redid its HVAC and another school has $20 million of needs that may factor into your considering if you have to close a school which one might be closed um operating cost of schools people ask me what that means I'm never quite sure I know that part of it um as we think about it is energy use that is listed in the criteria so if you had one school that had solar that had double glazed windows that was very highly energy efficient you had another one that had a lot of leaks needed a lot of monetization older HVAC system the cost of operation if you keep the kids at the school that has the more modernized approach again is going to save the district ultimately it's going to save it money um capacity of schools to accommodate excess students you can't just think about let's move students from point A to point B without thinking about issues like is there space in the receiving school to receive those kids and that starts factoring into decisions on school consolidation as well if you have a very small School site that's not going to be able to handle a lot of kids it may make more sense to look to that one as a possibility for closure than a larger site that could take more students and one of the things that the Attorney General stressed is also thinking about if you move the student somewhere you're GNA have to add a lot of Portables if you add a lot of Portables are you going to eat up space for playing fields um for playing space so those are all considerations the committee will be looking at um special program facilities I always think of labs as the example a middle school science lab if you have a a middle school that has great science labs or has a larger gym for athletic programs or if you have um special facilities for special needs students at a particular facility that has to factor in as well because you can't for example just pick up middle school students and move them into an elementary school gym you have to think of about how you're going to do that um environmental factors I've yet to work with the school district that this is really that highly relevant of a consideration but what the uh the concept is is have things change so much that it makes more sense to close one school than another so an example would be if you had a school because of changes in use that used to be in a more rural area that has gotten somewhat more urbanized and now it has facilities around it that are noise generating that just as an example um that again might factor into your thinking about what makes sense to keep open or potentially consolidate um ethnic balance we talked about that's absolutely part of the consideration are you unduly impacting any particular class of students uh particularly uh protected classes of students and that was a very grave concern of the Attorney General's letter um there focused a lot on African-American students because statistically if you just look State and Nationwide school closures tend to be um statistically more impactful on African-American students schools that are more predominantly africanamerican are often more likely to close there's a lot of reasons for that um one of the districts we worked with faced this dilemma because they happen to have a declining population of African-American students so the predominantly African-American student school that had existed for years was also the most underpopulated school so those are all things you factor in um trans portation obviously um it it will affect you less than some but um if you're talking about Kar High School District which is one of the largest Geographic school districts in the state and I think in the country you have to really seriously think about if you close a school somewhere how are kids going to be transported you're relatively more compact but there's still going to be considerations about Transportation costs Transportation needs um and one of the things that's mentioned here is existing drop off and pickup um one of the pH on that's happened in California is some school districts have closed a site and provided Transportation but have not taken into account that the receiving School may not have a place for for example the Bus drop off so all considerations um having a neighborhood school this is kind of one of there supposed to be objective criteria this is maybe a little more subjective but are you closing a school that's a central part of a neighborhood and keeping open another school that's not really affiliated with a particular defined neighborhood all considerations to be done um educational programs most education programs are mobile but there are some that are rooted in a particular facility because of the way the facility has been built for that program so consideration of those programs as well um Aesthetics this one I I don't even know um it's it's there it's in the criteria everybody I talked to about this it's a little bit hard to separate this from the condition of the buildings but it probably goes back somewhat to the condition of the buildings um and then the last one which is one that this committee won't focus on is value that's really when you have the 7-Eleven committee where you are factoring into school consolidation decisions where can the district make the most money by selling a School site or by leasing a School site because this committee won't be weighing in on sale or lease can certainly be part of a topic of discussion but it's not the focus of the committee the the value added part of this is not the critical piece um but we did want to mention it because it's out there in the criteria um so a few best practices to talk about and I say this both from the attorney general's opinion from what I've seen work well in other districts and not work well in other districts one is to be transparent um the fact that you were going to have the committee meet in public that's a huge step towards that transparency uh putting information that's going back and forth to the committee on your website another big part of transparency so people understand ultimately when a decision gets made it's being made based on a great deal of input a great deal of thought uh and discussion being open to ideas and I know this is something that's near and dear to your superintendent um it's not just a matter of here's a school building it's what can we do to actually make our programs better is there an opportunity for consolidation where we actually improve a program so it's not just about buildings it's about program um following the data is really important so making that data available and and really listening to what the data says uh involving the stakeholders that's what your committee's purpose again is to get the community involved and represented in this process um and then just a few thoughts for after your decision gets made and I know I'm getting ahead of myself here because you're a ways from it but as we're thinking about the overall process as you go through it um one of them is communicating your decisions clearly on this communicating them up front and communicating them in a repeated Manner and by that what I mean is that sometimes a school a decision is made on school consolidation and it's announced and then that's the end of the discussion as opposed to there's ongoing discussion about what resources are available for parents that are going to have to make this move and then somebody's going to miss your announcement they're just going to so having that be prominent letting people know about it not not doing it quietly is important um planning for transition that's going to be a huge part that comes down the road that will fall largely on the board and the staff once it's faced with actual decisions on potential consolidation um how are we going to make that transition happen how are we going to make students feel welcome at new schools um how are we going to support parents on these decisions um addressing facilities and equipment needs at receiving schools um I worked with one school district and they had Bond money that was available and one of the purposes that could be used for the bonds was improving play fields and playgrounds so they significantly invested more than the originally intended and improving those recreational areas if you will at the receiving School sites to make them as as welcoming and available as possible and then sometimes it's as simple as you've done a grade uh configuration change and you don't have the right playground equipment for the grades that are going to be at that school so really doing that planning in advance um addressing staffing needs at receiving schools obviously that goes hand inhand with this uh and then beginning to consider the future use eventually you will get to the point if you've closed a school or part of a school um what to do with that building how can it become something that is a revenue generator as opposed to something that you're losing money on because you still have to pay for security and lights and hbac and all those good things to keep the buildings in good shape um this is the proposed schedule of committee meetings once the committee is fully appointed um so you'll see the first meeting is fast Upon Us on April 25th these are going to be in-person meetings which um I think is a great idea I'm tired of Zoom uh I know others are as well but it's also a great opportunity because it's a time for flowcharts and exchanges of ideas and breakout groups and and meeting in person really allows for that so that first meeting is really organizing uh the committee stating its purpose kind of giving it its overview and then you'll see um basic meeting monthly with some exceptions because there's no July meeting so there's a little compression there in June um the topics that are going to be dis discussed and if you think about the criteria that I just went through from the state you sort of see it there um demography and Capacity Analysis discussion of facilities conditions uh educational and student Support Services that's program discussion fiscal and other impacts and then getting to the analysis and ultimately to the draft report that will come to this board for consideration so that's a an overview of something that's going to take months to go through gonna take a lot of work from a lot of people a lot of digestion of a lot of data so I'm going to end this and I'll throw it up to questions where I started it to make sure that everybody understands this is very much the start of a conversation um no decisions have been made and it's going to take a while to work through that process and once decisions are made it takes a while to implement them so this is not something that's going to happen overnight um but with that I'm happy to take any questions any questions from the board no comments oh I have some comments actually I just have a couple comments thank you so much for the comprehensive overview of you know the start of a long process that we're going to have you know I just want to emphasize I know a lot of folks are watching online you know this is the start of a conversation and it's going to be a long conversation and I really encourage you know everyone involved we're all in the ship together this is some rocky seas that we have to get through but we're not alone we have each other we have the rest of the state the rest of the county experiencing declining enrollment we see families moving out we see families not being able to afford to live here and that's going to impact you know how many students are at our schools and you know I just want to encourage you know all of us all the families you know all our labor unions CTA CA team THS the administration to go deep in your Communications you know I'm really encouraging of you all having T budget Town Halls having these conversations openly you know I'm so incredibly thankful that we have such a comprehensive plan scheduled especially with this schedule of meetings and it's going to be public all this information is going to be public and we need to be pounding the drum you know this is going to happen next school year and we need to be prepared for that and I really want to encourage everyone to stay engaged and really engage with us ask questions and we want to be able to be as transparent as possible and so we're all open to questions to the process and you know it's going to be a hard conversation but it's a needed one but this is also an opportunity for us to look at our students and say Hey you know this could be an opportunity to improve the programs at our schools you know you're going to meet new friends at your school at your new school you know does this doesn't mean school closures it also can mean consolidations you know combining schools allowing people to meet other people and it could really mean a lot for our district and the budget that we have you know moving forward so this is happening um this is not an illusion you know we need to be prepared for what's moving forward and I highly encourage everyone to join those meetings you know in person you can St a public comment and I also encourage us as the administration and the board to go into the community and let people know this process is happening our budget situation is dire but so is everybody else in the county so as everybody else at the state and so you know we need to be prepared and really communicate and you know be together on this so thank you thank you for that comment trust yog anyone else comments uh Mr Freeman thank you so much for this presentation excellent presentation this gives us an opportunity to really think deeply thank you so much again thank you thank you for having me thank you Item B 10B is the review of comprehensive infrastructure renewal and utility Savings Program Dr Fuentes please yes thank you and for this item I'm going to pass it on to Mr Frank Franklin to share who we have here and their purpose all right so we have representing climatech who is doing this project for us is uh Ashley low um Amber frit and Donnie leas to here to present thank you thank you good evening um vice president boak members of the board um superintendent Fuentes members of Staff the Bara Union Community we're really excited to be here tonight to present to you the comination of our efforts with staff um over the last six months my name is Amber frit as Kevin mentioned and this is Ashley low so overall the program objectives are number one first and foremost to improve the safety of the learning environment and the comfort of course of the students and staff also modernize failing infrastructure and hbac and all things that are connected to your utilities and then also just reduce energy load um throughout your facilities a little bit about our process today and where we've been um the district selected us through a competitive RFP process in December of last year we then put together a comprehensive utility Baseline and analyzed all of your um infrastructure and your utilities including gas water electric and also looked at your solar system that you currently have at the at at the district then we took a team of our Engineers out on site to do a comprehensive site assessment of all of your sites and that was about a weekl long process and then we developed a preliminary assessment um which we shared with staff over the last couple of weeks just a few of the items that we've looked at throughout your facilities building automation systems which is essentially the brains of your operations and of your HVAC equipment we looked at all of your HVAC throughout all of your sites your interior and exterior lighting your building envelope being Windows Roofing anything that is the exterior of the building your solar system as I mentioned and then high efficiency Transformers um that are essentially owned by the district these are some of the items that we saw out there on site just your hbac units you have roughly about 200 50 units that are past their useful life yeah and so you know the the California energy commission says that useful life is about 15 years you have some units that are in the 26 to 28 year range so just a few of your sites that have really really old old equipment out there but your staff is doing an excellent job on keeping keeping them up and running for your students your building automation system you have a hot pod of systems out there which it makes it hard for text to really work on and your facility staff so it makes it a really difficult process to just actually pinpoint what the problem is when something is actually going on interior and exterior lighting the district did a really good job with a a a previous grant program called Proposition 39 it was for Energy Efficiency and it pumped a lot of funding into the State for California school districts to up upgrade their equipment although it you guys did a really good job on upgrading your LED equipment that just really took care of you know it just scratched the surface on what a lot of districts are need are needing out there high efficiency Transformers these provide a lot of savings for the district so when they're P their useful life upgrading them can really help to um provide a lot of savings for the district so overall this is a very preliminary scope of work um and this is the H the hbac as I mentioned there's about 250 units and we're in the process of doing a detailed assessment right now our Engineers will be out on site walking um to do a more indepth analysis you have three sites that have big Chiller and boiler systems it's um Toyon Brook tree and magistic way so we're looking at hopefully in including those into the upgrades of these different um upgrades that you're wanting to do lighting you did a really great job as I mentioned with prop 39 trying to do all of your LED lighting modernization however there is still about 3,000 fixtures throughout the district that haven't been touched so as part of this program that would help to really bring everything up to LED Standard Building envelope um window film at this site this probably this takes a lot of heat load from the Sun so implementing that film would help to reduce the heat load and be able to provide substantial savings for the general fund solar you you the district implemented a a solar system about 10 years ago and it's maintained really well however there is also room for improvement to allow for additional solar at some of the sites um so and to increase savings at those sites as well and provide savings for the general fund and then as I mentioned the high efficiency Transformers there's about seven sites that are in need of those to be upgraded and these are this is just a um a picture of a couple of sample solar structures that have been implemented throughout the state over um playfields and parking structures and I know you guys have a ground Mount system too so that we we took that into account and would be upgrading some of that as well hi good evening my name is Ashley low and um the district I just wanted to just point out um you know first and foremost that you couldn't have picked a better time to think about improvements like this doing energy modernizations in renewable energy at this time allows you to take advantage of some of the the most funding that we've ever seen um in the market from federal programs State programs and local programs uh anything from the inflation reduction act which is a federal program that invol that provides incentives and other Grant programs for Energy Efficiency and renewable energy is available to you and part of our program would would include uh completely applying for all of that and making sure that you qualify for that and the the scope of work that is included tonight that Amber just reviewed uh would would qu would qualify it was designed to qualify for those programs there's also a state program that is really relevant I think really at the top of the list from what we hear from your staff is that HVAC is the largest headache and having that deferred maintenance is um you know just it creates a lot of challenges for your staff bandwidth and just even just your maintenance budget so the good news is is that Cal shape is a state program that provides um money for doing a very specific type of study it's an indoor air quality like very endup study for HB and then it also provides up to a $6 million grant for replacing HVAC units and then locally there's some Air Pollution Control District uh grants and other under funding so our goal will be to put together all of those funding sources into a single funding plan and kind of TurnKey that for you um all of this is preliminary like Amber mentioned we still have to finetune the scope of work but based on what we're seeing right now we believe that the scope of work is going to be in the range of about 17.5 million could be a little bit more could be a little bit less but our goal is to have the savings generated by those improvements pay for the cost of the program and so the savings is going to be commensurate with similarly to what the cost of the program is and then there's going to be an infusion of Grants and incentives and then the rest the balance of that would be paid for through bond funds and these are all line items in your in your bond um some of the programs for federal monies and even the calate money require the district to pay for it up front and then you essentially apply once the systems are online and get a rebate this Beyond just the the savings benefit and obviously the Improvement to your facilities there's a lot of things to consider you I know that there's a number of construction projects that you guys are currently um you know trying to complete and over the last few years you've really experienced the type of construction climate that that we're in things like change orders and inflation and scope changes and just um having kind of a lack of uh quality contractors or contractors that even have the capacity to do this kind of work is a big issue that school districts and public agencies are facing so that one of the other benefits That You Don't See in the financials of just having the savings pay for the program is also um you know the the opportunity cost of what happens when you get when you do a program like this that's comprehensive that's uh design build because what we'll be providing is a guaranteed maximum price that is free of change order risk and free of any type of scope changes so the only change to the scope would be if we if the district uh wanted to change something or or modify the scope um so that helps you to save on inflation and change orders and then ultimately obviously just remedying your deferred maintenance proo promoting environmental stewardship I is the um conversation that was given previously about school closures this will also help to provide a lot I think a lot of clarity in your conversations about what schools to invest in and what not this he he mentioned Energy savings and infrastructure is one of those conversations and then staff and operational efficiency lastly I'll just mention that every year the um utilities um over the last five years have been raising your rates in the double digits so this is not just about saving at today's rates but also mitigating those cost increases in the future because many districts are seeing their utility bills double every five years so this will help to protect your general fund from that down so the next steps again this what we're here today tonight to share is just very preliminary um our job over the the next uh couple of months if the this is something that the board wants to see come back for implementation will be to fine-tune the scope of work in the funding plan and work with staff to make sure that we get that we get the scope right and then um the goal right now is to come back for board consideration for the implementation agreement on June 12th a part of that what I want to point out is that there's a special procurement type of process that needs to be followed when an energy program is being considered by the board when you do an energy program it's under what's called government code 4217 and that requires a public hearing so two weeks before the board would consider the implementation agreement you would have to notify for a public hearing notice and then before considering the agreement there would be a public hearing typically nobody speaks in those other than support and relief that um improvements are coming um but just wanted to point that out that that would be part of that and then um if approved we would finalize all of the um engineer ing to get mobilized and then the construction period would be approximately 18 to 24 months we really think it's going to be closer to 12 to 18 months cuz some of the supply chains and uh you know issues and delivery um timelines have improved recently and we'll open it up for questions now questions from the board none I have a quick question thank you so much for the presentation I actually was telling Dr fentz I was so excited to see your presentation tonight because this is something that um myself and uh president sh Boston has been wanting you know trying to figure out how we can be more efficient and you know be more mindful of the climate especially with our facilities um I just have a quick questions on the grants so I know that there are deadlines coming up for different grants through I believe the EPA and also some like state agencies like how are you what is your Grant searching process look like and how do you take those um deadlines into account when you're creating that scope of work be I'm just curious sure so for Cal shape the good news is that the deadlines were recently extended oh great um so that's really helpful there is a uh RFP process that needs to take place for selecting the study provider there's a very specific type of study that needs to be done by a certain type of engineering company and so your staff and Bonnie have are working on getting that out some of the local Air Pollution Control District Grant programs H those deadlines um some of them have have passed pass but the pro the deadlines that have passed there's not really any specific scope of work that would directly qualify but they have a lot of other um funding that's coming in it comes from the California air resources control board and the that funding gets renewed every year so even if the deadline that was in March was missed um next line next year gets refunded so um there's that and then the inflation reduction act you just basically have to apply um within a year and that's that's something that's going to be going on for at least we we anticipate the next six to seven years and um you have to apply for that after the systems are online so you're definitely not in danger of U missing out on that okay great I also just want to mention if there's any programs that you can't find grant funding for we also can do advocacy efforts on our behalf because we were we were able to secure $10 million from the state um just this past year for our gym so if there's anything specifically that like you can't find a grant for um please let Dr VZ know or Kevin no and we can we've been chatting with uh rana's office as well they're very interested in climate infrastructure projects so thank you absolutely so maybe we could put together a memo and then share it um through staff and if we need to have another debrief on it that'd be great any more comments from the board Ashley and Amber thank you very much for this excellent presentation sure it's educating me as well regarding everything that's happening in our school district sure thank you thank you so much thank you for having us thank you good evening um item 10c quarterly report and Williams complaints do we have any Dr ventes yes I'll pass this on to Dr mccre so there are no complaints filed with any school in the district during the quarter indicated from January 1st March to March 31st 2024 thank you very much that sounds very good you got it all right 10 D measure L and measure U construction Bond program update um superintendent please yes I'd like to invite Dr uh Tony to call you drct Tony I like Tony kistov our bond director to give his monthly report to you all and he's earned that doctorate in so many other ways um thank you okay so again we're gonna go over measure L and measure U um actually the first picture is the toy the Toyon restrooms that we actually just completed and they opens about a week ago um I think the staff likes [Laughter] them um again we'll go through measure L and measure U um excuse me measure L we actually have a presentation later on how we're going to spend the remaining funds for for measure L moving on to measure U again the projects we completed this last month were the additional restroom project at Toyon and we completed the exterior signs at sierant things that are still in progress are the Landscaping at the pedmont gym and the site electrical for the Portables um again we have door numbers for the remaining schools again we should have those done by the end of the summer again the PA replacement at pedmont and Morel they're proceeding with that again we expect to be completed by the end of May um security alarm systems at pedmont Morel those are actually almost completed we hope to have the first one on actually up and running by May 1 um fire alarms again the those four schools will have those completed by the end of summer um projects that we're actually bidding currently are the indoor replacement at three schools which are there's sets of at the sister schools all the double doors that basically go into the PNE admin we're replacing all of those um and then School Monument signs so at each of the elementary schools we're actually going to put a new monument sign in so that they'll all be consistent and all look pretty nice and some of them are basically still held together which is paint um next thing is projects we bid this last month was the HVAC for 1376 pedmont Road um again we had um one bid it was over budget we're going to recommend that we actually reject those bids and then rebid um the roof project for um 1376 we actually received four bids that was under budget and we're um later in the board presentation we'll have um recommendations to award that contract and then the window replacement for pedmont which again was part of the grants um we bid that project um again we had three biders that was a little bit under budget and again we'll recommend for approval later in the board meeting um things that are currently in design are again still we're finishing up Toyon Vincy Park and Northwood fire alarm projects one thing we added is we are actually going to tear down the existing warehouse this summer so that we can actually give pedmont their playground back um so that'll that's starting actually right now um and then the um Warehouse replacement in general that's still in design we're still finalizing the contract with the architect so hopefully at the next board meeting we'll be able to bring that so we can move forward with that and then the PA security for all the remaining schools and then again the comprehensive infrastructure renewal and utility assessment we just talked [Music] about and then again pictures again here's the different view of the Toyon restrooms um again there's they're a lot bigger than I think we all anticipated um one thing you'll notice we don't have toilet partitions in here and partly because it's for smaller kids and we figured that the partitions would get in the way of everybody helping um and they are gender neutral both sets again this is just looking at each bathroom at different different angles and then these are the this is an example of Monument sign at each of the schools and in the schedule of how we plan on completing everything do we have any questions questions comments from the board none Tony as as always thank you for this excellent upate thank you so much we will continue then item 11 is the superintendent's report Dr Fuentes please thank you uh first just a reminder to everyone that we have uh begun our open house season in the district so uh we started last week uh with a few open houses we have to tomorrow and several more all the way through the first or the second week of May I believe and so gives everyone an opportunity to go out and visit our sites I encourage our families to go and see the progress that their students have made this year uh you know having gone to the open houses that have occurred thus far the classrooms are very welcoming and it's just such a good time uh to see uh how much the students have learned since they started the school year so uh thank you to all of our staff and teachers in making their classrooms a welcoming and open to all the parent visitors and and potential new parents coming up the grade levels as well that they get to meet in addition I just wanted to say thank you to all of our music teachers in the district so this week they brought back the district music festival and it started last night with the emphasis on the Middle School bands but they also Incorporated this year our elementary students which was really cute so they had our um all of our fifth grade students were uh were represented across all 10 elementary schools and so it was a good opportunity for them to watch the middle school students perform to see you know when they go on to Middle School uh you know the type of music they might learn to play Etc and then it also uh just as you know the babies of the group everybody was there just to applaud them and cheer their learning on and I've always said how talented our students are and you could really hear it as you watch them play from fifth grade through to the you know intermediate and advanced levels of band and tonight the orchestras were performing so it was the district orch Orchestra Festival so just hats off to our music teachers for coordinating that I know it's always a great opportunity to to see our students perform and our parents really do appreciate uh those opportunities too so um with that like I said lots of continued opportunities to be on sites lots of family events happening across the district too so welcoming our community to come and join us thank you thank you Dr Fuentes item 12 are there any announcements or comments coming from the board none in that case we shall continue to review an action um 15a superintendent let's see thank you it is recommended the board adopt resolution 2309 order of election specifications of the election order and consolidation request any comments I move to adopt the resolution do I have a second second okay it's been mov and seconded to adopt this resolution this is a roll call vote uh Miss Gomez please I hi hi thank you very much it it's been moved and seconded and um it's been approved and the motion is passed all right uh let's see item two A2 is 2023 2024 regular board meeting dates revision superintendent please it is recommended the board approve this revision it's a change of date for the month of May 2024 thank you comments from the board may I please have a motion I move to adopt second thank you very much it's been moov seconded all in favor say I oppose motion is carried thank you I let's in A3 2024 2025 regular board meeting date superintendent please it is recommended the board establish the Board of Trustees regular board meeting dates for the 2024 2 school year thank you any comments from the board may I have a motion please to approve approve second it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I oppose motion is carried I thank you item A4 board policy 045 zero comprehensive safety plan it is recommended the board Rev review and approve board policy 0450 comprehensive safety plan for a first reading this uh policy um is updated to reference new law SB 323 there are two new additions there um the first is uh if there is a it allows for any employee parent Community member who may have any kind of concerns regarding our safety procedures that are described in the the safety plan to be able to bring that forward to the site principal and to give their input for further discussion and review and then the second item here also addresses our students with disabilities and making sure that appropriate modifications are addressed in the safety plan to be able to meet their needs thank you may I have a motion please to approve second it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I oppos motion is carried we go to five right or yeah A5 let's see board bylaw 9 9320 meetings and notices superintendent please is recommended the Board review and approve board bylaw 9320 meetings and notices for a first reading this is also to add language for new law AB 557 which allows for a board member to tell a conference in to uh a board meeting due to just cause or a personal emergency circumstance thank you may I have a motion please any discussion second it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I oppose motion is carried we shall continue to item number six Roman numeral 6 board bylaw 9323 point2 actions by the board superintendent please it is recommended the Board review and approve board bylaw 23.2 actions by the board for a first reading this is um also somewhat related to the previous item in terms of the teleconference it provides the language of the steps the Board needs to take in order to allow that member to have the teleconference opportunity um there's also language uh regarding civil action that can occur during a meeting and how that gets addressed thank you uh comments from the board if not motion please to approve it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I oppose um motion is carried Roman numeral seven I think board exhibit 932 3.2e one actions by the board superintendent please it is recommended the Board review and approve board exhibit 93 23.2 E1 actions by the board for first reading this is the attachment to the previous policy thank you very much any comments from the board if not I will ask for a motion second it's been moved seconded all in favor say I I oppos motion is carried we shall continue on to business services uh School consolidation advisory committee superintendent please School consolidation advisory committee applicant names have been provided to you they're located here on the dis we also have copies for our public there on the table uh you had the presentation done today our committee is comprised of individuals um we want to first of all just thank everyone who submitted an application of Interest we know that this isn't necessarily A a popular committee but it's a critical committee as we learned this evening and how important it is to have representation across all of our school sites so really grateful to have parents come forward to represent each of their schools we also um thank all of our labor partners for working with us and providing representations uh Representatives that will also be part of this group work group and uh community members that also have some of that expertise of our facilities work of uh being partner within the city that are also going to be added to this committee and some of our District staff thank you very much this is a very very important committee and I certainly I thank everyone for volunteering this is all a volunteer um position and um and it will require a lot of time so for that I want to thank them all do I have do we have any comments from the board please none uh could I have a motion no do we need a motion yes could I have a motion please move to approve second thank you very much it's been move and seconded all in favor say I I that's unanimous in that case motion is carried Roman numeral 2 uh Commercial Energy of California Inc agreement for natural gas service for 2024-25 school year superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the commercial energy of California Inc agreement for natural gas service for the 2425 school year thank you comments if not motion please second it's been moved and second C thank you all in favor say I I oppos all right motion is carried let's continue on to letter C Human Resources uh Roman numeral one public hearing resolution 23-10 Declaration of Need for fully qualified Educators for the 2024 d225 fiscal years superintendent it is recommended the board first host the public hearing and then adopt resolution 2310 thank you very much I'm opening the public hearing now any comments from the audience if not I am going to close it right now and therefore um do I have any comments from the board if not may I have a motion second it's been moved and second to adopt this resolution 23-10 this is a roll roll call yes it is a roll call uh Miss Gomez please I I thank you very much motion passed um see where am I now I'm public it's uh let's see I Roman numeral to they're just so many numerals right now in here a public hearing acceptance of the Teamsters Local 150 2024 d225 school year proposal to the bar barsa USD government code section 3547 superintendent please it is recommended the board first declare a public hearing and then accept the Teamsters Local 150 2024 2025 school year proposal to be USD thank you very much I'm going to open the public hearing now any comments from the audience if not I'm going to close it now and comments from the board if not may I have a motion please to approve it's been mov and second it's been mov and seconded oh this is not a um resolution no yeah all in favor say I I oppose all right this motion has passed let's continue now thank you to Roman numeral 3 resolution 23-11 resolution to issue final layoff notice to classified employee for 2024 2025 school year superintendent please it is recommended that the board adopt resolution 2311 to issue final layoff notice to a classified employee for 2425 school year thank thank you superintendent any comments from the board if not may I please have a motion approve it's been moved and seconded this is a resolution okay so um Miss Gomez pleas please roll call I thank you very much motion is passed Roman numeral is it four four yes four proposed 2025 to 2026 school year calendar it is oh excuse me superintendent yes thank you um first I'd like to thank our calendar committee for for their work they come together um every so often to review any updates of what's happening with our uh partner High School District and what works best for our families here in beresa and it is recommended the board adopt this 24 or 2526 school year calendar thank you very much comments from the board if not please motion second it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I oppose right motion passed letter D um Education Services Roman numeral one board policy 61 42.8 Comprehensive Health education superintendent please thank you uh for this item there's new language for health education for students that's being introduced um one is putting more emphasis on just student well-being and then the second is incorporating the impacts of social media on children and adolescents thank you very much any comments from the board if not may I have a motion please approve all right it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I opposed motion is carried Roman numeral two board policy 6143 courses of study superintendent please it is recommended the Board review and approve board policy 6143 courses of study for first reading um this policy is updated to expand the list of characteristics for which the district may not on the basis of a student's actual or perceived characteristic uh provide any course separately or require or refuse participation of a student thank you comments from the board if not may I have a motion to it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I board passes thank you um motion passes excuse me um Roman numeral 3 board policy 616 1.1 selection and evaluation of instructional materials superintendent please it is recommended the Board review and approve board exhibit E1 uh 616 or I'm sorry six not the board exhibit the policy that's the exhibits coming up next 61 61.1 selection and evaluation of instructional materials for a first reading um as we know uh around instructional materials there's been a significant number of laws that have been introduced to ensure that there's a thorough um review process with uh representation when we're looking at those materials and so it's quite lengthy I won't go through all of that but this is bringing in all of that new language um into this policy piece thank you comments from the board if not motion please second it's been move and seconded all in favor say I I motion passes thank you very much Roman numeral four board exhibit e161 61.1 selection and evaluation of instructional materials superintendent please it is recommended the Board review and approve board exhibit E1 61 61.1 selection and evaluation of instructional materials for a first reading thank you for for that comments from the board if not motion please second thank you it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I motion passes we will continue then to letter e Bond program um Roman numeral one request the board reject all bids for bid b-07 d223 24 hbac replacement at 1376 pedmont Road superintendent it is recommended the board reject all bids received as stated for this project because it would not be in the best interest of the district to proceed thank you very much any comments from the board not please have a motion do I have second second thank you it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I motion passes let's continue to Roman numeral two um alal specialty Contracting Inc agreement for roof replacement at 1376 pedmont Road superintendent please it is recommended the board approve an agreement with all call Specialty Contracting Inc the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for bid b06 2023 24 for replacement at 1376 pedmont Road thank you very much any comments from the board if not motion second it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I motion is carried Roman numeral three thank you Gold Coast plumbing services c u p CCAA I assume that's cup lump some agreement to provide investigative window demolition for the window replacement project at pedma Middle School Superintendent please it is recommended the board approve this agreement thank you very much um motion from the board or comments approve all right okay it's been moving seconded all in favor say I I motion is approved thank you very much uh Roman numeral four is is that pron pinguo pinguo pinguo P pinguelo Construction Inc thank you Tony I think it's p yeah pinguelo Construction Inc agreement for exterior window replacement at pedmont Middle School superintendant please it is recommended the board approve this agreement the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for bid 5 20232 24 for exterior window replacement at pedmont thank you um any comments from the board if not could I have a motion please approve it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I okay thank you very much uh motion is passed we'll continue to Roman numeral five measure L Bond program project list for remaining funds uh superintendent it is recommended the board approve the attached measure Al Bond program project list for remaining funds and Tony will do a review of what the adjustment is here hello again so again we have $268,000 left in measur we proposed to use part of it for interior and exterior cafeteria tables for Majestic Way Noble Toyon and pedmont originally we had purchased interior tables for all the schools but Noble and toyan so that's why we're doing it as part of this Majestic Way We actually used some of their tables for Vincy Park this year so now we're replenishing them and when we were at pedmont one day some of their old wooden tables were all just falling apart so we decided to propose to replace them um next item is uh the special ed smartboards for 16 classrooms at Brook tree Cherrywood Lane view Toyon and camont um again one of the suggestions was parking bumpers at some of the schools so at Cherrywood and Vincy Park we actually need I think there's 26 total parking bumpers that we need so that the cars can't pull up to the sidewalks um next thing is storage shelving at the Summerdale Library we did something similar to this at Brook tree and Majestic earlier and then the last thing and this will basically cover whatever we have left in the bond but we don't spend here or there is the energy loan for when we did part of the prop 39 that we had talked about before we had a we actually got a loan for three of the schools so and we're still paying that down so we proposed to use whatever we have left towards that b again I think we have about 600,000 left still to pay back but this will pay some of it back and that's it thank you any comments from the board thank you so much Tony okay um may I have a motion approve thank you it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I I all right oppos is zero in that case motion is carried item 16 any staff followup request none any items for future agendas request none in that case may I have a motion to adjourn toj move and seconded to for adjournment all in favor say I I thank you motion passes uh meeting is adjourned at 8:22 p.m.

e e e uh this is the board of education for chica Unified School District regular session for April 17th 2024 uh we will be going into close session and reconvening at 6:00 p.m.

Monday May 20th at 8 a.m. we will not have classes the week of May 27th which is that Memorial Day um Al driving probably will still occur with Mr Schuster um I will not be here to teach the classroom portion um since I am an FFA adviser I have state FFA convention that week um and it's just how it falls it would be no different if we had state track or anything like that we usually actually don't have class that week because of state track or state FFA um the classroom portion will conclude Friday June 7th so they will be done with the classroom portion Friday June 7th that's our two weeks unless we're doing makeup unless somebody is sick and has to make something up uh we'll be done Friday June 7th the behind the wheel portion will start at noon each day and conclude by 400 p.m um and depending on what block toour block your student is doing so they may drive from noon to basically 2 or and then 2: to 4: okay 8 to noon classes generally from 8 to noon um there may be days they get out a little early um if they if they pass a test or they don't have to make something up and everything's going great they may get out a little early um we're still here so if they get out a little early and you can't pick them up till noon don't worry someone will be here but uh we do start driving at noon so um I know that's kind of a pain because you're like what do we do for lunch and if your kid is driving at noon and we're ending at noon I would say bring your lunch and SN it down real quick um because we want to get them through um most students should be able to master the behind the wheel portion uh in five days unless they are needing that extra drive time and if that's the case we will contact you we will talk with the student we will schedule that I do have time built into the calendar if they do need extra drive time we can make that work um to pass the competencies so that your students are confident drivers um again all driving we're hoping to conclude by June 21st at this time with the number of ened students we have right now that could be longer if we have a whole bunch more that have not like if you haven't enrolled your student yet and you're like well I just want to come to the meeting and find out um that could change just a little bit um and then again they will be certificates will be ready to pick up on the 21st also so I will go in and I'll print everything off um that needs to be printed off so that is the plan as of right now uh unless we get a bunch more people signed up and we'll let you know you guys want to go ahead and um the by the way the has changed I'm write it on the I I'm WR we do have a remind I will try to send out any reminders that we have but through remind but if you have the remind app it's great so BHS driver z44 BHS d244 that is the app to add on remind so if you have something if you need to message me and you don't have my phone number um you can message me through the remind app if I need to send out an announcement um of something to everyone I can send that out through remind um if your kids want to add that to it's for parents and kids so um please have that remind on there that is my cell phone number so if something happens your child is sick can't be there you've had a family emergency whatever it might be um that is my cell phone number I will tell you though if I driving with a student I will not answer it so if we're in in driving I'm not going to answer my phone kids so um you can also text me if it's super biger something and I probably get it better that way um that is my email so if you need to email me that is also uh Mr sher's email so if you are driving with him as your instructor and you will find out who you're driving with when I make the calendar um that's who you get a hold of and then um Mrs Rover our principal if you need something from her that is her email also and if you would like to get a hold of Mr Buck since he's working with us student teaching this summer it would be debuck at usd244ks.org so if you need to reach him [Music] also I will try to send updates through the remind just because it's handy Okay so We have basically reached the end of our meeting I told you I would try to get you out of here in 30 minutes so I'm going to we have some time for questions what questions do you have for me so far okay what I need for you to do is if you can please scan the QR code what that's going to do is that is going to that is your certificate of completion this is how we know that you were here and that you um completed this you attended it and that uh we know who your student is and if you have questions um that maybe you don't want to ask right now um please fill them out in there there's an area for questions so that you can um ask those on that form and if you do not have a cannot do a QR code let us know um I can take down your email so if you're not a QR code person at the end of the meeting you just come um and if you have an email I will just send you the form I can email instead and only if you have both parents here really only one parent needs to complete the uh QR code I guess the kids can sign in with kids kids with their school sweet you got ITR go [Music] on a Friday on Friday I don't remember that to be honest I'm not going to lie attitude remember what I was talking about any questions comments if you not have any fur questions you're free to go if you have talk

thank you have a good evening oh

e e e good evening welcome welcome to the regular session for the Chico Unified School District Board of Education for April 17th 2024 uh the board was in closed session and are now um returning to open session during closed session the board unanimously upheld the recommendation sorry recommended termination of a classified employee um it was unanimous but we do have one member absent all right with that I think that we can please pleas stand for the flag salute salute pledge I pledge allegiance 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 it's been better it's been worse all right we'll move into student reports and I'll hand it over to you superintendent Staley absolutely thank you um tonight we are going to see some Hands-On activities from some of our CTE programs at Chico high school and I'd like to introduce Doug Williams who will introduce our staff and students FFA should have led the flag salute hello Bor how are you thank you for having us here this evening um it's always exciting to come and and show off things that are going on at our high schools um I put a little flyer in front of you there um when I thought about um representing our school we often talk about trying to combine uh academics and classroom instruction with uh real world life skills and work skills and so I can't think of a better group to represent uh the balance of both of those than some of the students in the faculty that I brought here for you tonight and they're going to obviously do the speaking for themselves I'm just going to say that I'd like the three teachers to step forward I have Elva Anderson representing a and FFA I have Tammy Taylor uh representing a medical Pathways and our HOSA program and I have John Andrews representing our it Department because he does so many things in there we just say [Applause] department so uh we're going to let the students speak and uh I just want to thank the board for this opportunity I know you guys have a busy schedule and I want to thank also all the students for coming because I know they have an extremely busy schedule with activities and academics and so without further Ado we're going to have our FFA uh group come up and explain some of things they do at our school and outside of school thank you hello hello my name is Emerson Christopher I'm currently serving as the chico FFA Treasurer where I've also been able to serve as Chico FFA secretary and a superior region officer being an FFA has given me multiple opportunities to not only talk to adults get to know Career Technical advisors but also I've been able to grow as a leader myself and improve my public speaking I've competed in multiple public speaking competitions job interview extemporaneous but I've also been able to lead meetings work on agendas and improve myself as a leader by myself and with my chapter I've been able to learn so much from my advisers and my fellow students and go beyond just my chapter my region my section and all the way up to the state thank you so much for this opportunity hello my name is Marie huitt I'm a senior at Chico high school and I'm also the current Chico FFA president and at Chico High we have been given many opportunities uh to compete in different compe itions all of that as Emerson said and one thing in particular that we get to do is we get to take a science classes so we have three of them which is a biology a chemistry and we also have advanced interdisciplinary a science which sounds scarier than it is but it's a lot of fun um and so through all those classes for the last three years that I've been in them I was able to um make a Agro science fair project and take it to the state level during my junior year and I placed third in the state and it was about how to graft queen bees with Royal jelly and through all of that I learned how to do many different things with my um projects that I do and I wouldn't have been given any of those opportunities if I didn't have the a science classes which helped me make all of those um different projects and everything thank you hi my name is lesli Perez I'm a senior and I've been part of CH fa for four years so I'm here to talk about Agronomy Agronomy is one of our CD teams CDE stands for a career development event Agronomy is a science and studies of crop and Productions Agronomy participants can help participate in a contest and this opportunity has let me learn to become a better speaker and to involve myself in being involving with other chapters during my time in the your team I have learned to be most more social and be become more of um a follower and a leader choai if you want to become if you want to be part of the Agronomy team I suggest you take the Horticulture class horiculture is a plant science class Horticulture can be very valuable if your student wants to pursue a future career in that field this is a huge part of the agriculture industry by helping plants grow better and helping the world have better food in Palestine thank you [Applause] hello I'm Sienna I'm a junior at Chico high and this is my first year in the patient care pathway I'm in sports med but this year is my first year joining the HOSA club which is healthc care occupations for students of America and this year we traveled to Anaheim to compete in various events and go to different workshops and learn a bunch of new things and I'm very happy I was giving this opportunity because it was a great experience I learned a bunch of new things and yeah thank [Applause] you hello my name is Felton and I'm a senior at Cho high and I've been in the patient care pathway for two years and so right now I'm in the Medical Careers path where we've gotten a bunch of opportunities to intern at different hospital facilities and Shadow different doctors uh So currently I'm at the Skyway Surgery Center where I get to observe a bunch of different cool surgeries some procedures and I've been able to just be exposed to a bunch of different stuff that I wouldn't be able to see otherwise like I would have never been able to walk into a surgery normally and so the the class has been granting me a lot of different opportunities to be able to see where I might want to be in the future in the medical field thank [Applause] you hi my name is Tilly Stadler I'm also in the career pathway for two years um and this year I'm in the medical Cruise pathway where I get to intern at multiple different places so right now I'm currently located at Dr Barnes oral surgery which is so cool I've never thought I'd ever be able to like see something that when people are normally under so it's been super cool learning about that kind of connection that the doctors and patients have and just seeing the everyday thing that you only get to see a brief moment of but I get to see a whole hour so it's been really cool and I'm super excited to see where this opportunity leads me thank [Applause] you so uh as Mr William said I um representing the industrial technology department we have two halves On's information communication technology uh if they're holding something they're in that particular pathway and the other two gentlemen to my left are uh in the architecture engineering pathway and so I'm just going to hand them a mic and they're going to talk about what types of events they've worked on this year hello I'm Kylie nitzki and I'm Eli who um we are a freshman at Chico high and we participated in the humanoid robotics competition at a state level uh I'm Brian who I'm a junior at Chico high and I'm taking the Robotics and drones course this year uh as part of the uh programming and software engineering CTE pathway uh this year I competed in Vex robotics uh which is a robotics competition across uh Northern California and I also went to skills USA to participate in the commercial drone contest uh this is one of our drones and uh yeah hey I'm Francisco and uh this robot is uh also for vex Robotics and we built it this year in our robotics class uh to participate in competitions and this robot is uh for skills USA Urban search and rescue um hello my name is De n a sophomore Chico high and we built this in class for urban search and rescue and for vex robotics hi I'm Mason I'm in the architecture pathway and I have been for the past four years and over the past 3 years I've been doing a lot of different competitions uh the first of which is create which is exactly what you think it is you create something and that thing is typically an architectural project typically residential or mild commercial and it's a Statewide competition so teams compete with other high schools all over California mainly from the bay area in Sacramento and three years ago we actually won and then in the next two years we received other awards for best presentations best physical model and the like and then I have also been doing skills USA for the past 3 years and last year I competed in architectural drafting at the state level and I was um I got first place and which allowed me to move on to architectural drafting at the national level of which I was able to place uh eighth [Applause] nationally uh hi my name is Nathaniel Eis uh I am in the engineering and architecture career Pathways and I also participate in skio to which I competed at a state level for engineering uh technical design and I won Gold uh beating everybody else in the state so we had four medalists come out of state this year um that was uh gold medal in both technical design and Technical drafting technical drafting will go to the National level in Atlanta um the technical design is a state only contest and uh we also got Bronze in both of those contests um everyone on this end did compete in the three events that we had at for vexar box competition at Chico high school that we hosted ourselves so guys all want to stand up one more time that whole group so uh I actually want to thank the board because I know when you're sitting there and you're trying to make decisions about classrooms and supplies and funds I want you to see that when the rubber meets the road stuff's getting done because decisions that you do inclosed session your arguments your debates it really does matter and you can see by the passion that the you have teachers you have students uh that they're making lifelong connections um and what I really like about all these students is they represent varied personalities varied interests some students are just doing it because they want to try it and some students it might be a career and I think that's exactly what we want in an in a high school educational program so I appreciate the time appreciate our uh do for inviting us here and I appreciate the board for what they do and I'd like to give them one more round of applause before wait before you disperse really quick I don't know if this is too much pressure but I'd love to see maybe simply just a show of hands for um where you're at now if you feel like you're going to maybe continue down this pathway in the future you know even postgraduation or if you think you know if you think it's like a hobby and something that's going to be really great for you know a side thing that's cool too but like do you guys all feel like you might be going this pathway you can raise your hand maybe or and if not like that's fine too like I love I love that like and or to the side if you're like I'm still I'm still exploring yeah and thumbs down if you're like I'm not doing this ever again just kidding awesome thank you so much for being here it's um really fun to to get to see what you all are are doing out there so thank you for being here [Applause] and with that I will turn it back to you Madame President thank you let's see we will move to announcements um at this time are there any board members that have announcements that they would like to make thank you Madame President Mr Williams beat me to it but I was going to comment on the flyer from Chico he school but he also mentioned it and and if anyone out there watching has an opportunity to pick up one of these at school or find it online I I would um suggest you do that the other thing that I had in the way of announcements will come in a few minutes if I can get my computer to turn on when I was going through reviewing the [Music] um the agenda item where we handle a whole bunch of stuff at once consent yes the consent agenda there was one item in there that I was going to ask be pulled so that I could thank the people that have donated to the school district and under the consent uh agenda it does list donations to the School District it's absolutely heartwarming and um wish to thank the people that are continuing to donate to the district and and um tell you how much we appreciate it and I know that those funds and items that you're donating at the different schools are being put to very good use as you can see from the demonstration of what our students are doing right here thank you um I also it's not really necessarily an announcement just a appreciation I was um able to get over to Fairview last yesterday evening for their Multicultural Fair event and um it was just really nice to see everybody out and um the different foods and dances and just you know the general sense of community there was was really great so that was um that was awesome that they were able to to do that for everybody I recommend it for next time um okay if there are no other announcements we can move to items from the floor uh items from the floor are for speakers who wish to address the board regarding a topic that is not currently agendized uh at this time we'll take public comment from speakers who wish to address the board for uh topics that aren't on on this agenda um the oh yeah as a reminder speakers have three minutes to address the board the Bell will buzz when 30 seconds of speaking time remains um and then for items from the floor the board can listen to public comment but cannot respond to any speakers under the items from the floor um and so for tonight so far we have um one speaker for this item and then we have another speaker signed up later um under a different item rules are the same uh so uh I'll ask elain Ward to come up to the microphone please we can run small group instruction teachers are seen as equals by students students are seeing through two sets of eyes that can observe many things they have two teachers they can go to for help not only meets the needs of the IEP students but also the students that need a little more help 30% of my students in the three math classes have an IEP these are benefits shared by teachers two years ago when talking about the co- te program at Chico Jr in Parkview these statements made me excited for what my son's secondary level education would look like imagine my disappointment when touring Junior highs for my son when I was informed that co- te is no longer happening at the secondary level one principal told me we moved away from caught as we were unable to maintain the caught teachers that made effective teams another principal told me budget cuts were made and dedicated teachers to the co- te program were leaving or have left I've seen the success of a co- te program um that a co- te program can have for students my son is a living example of this at his tri-annual IEP where we reviewed all of his information from the last three years his fifth grade teacher stated it doesn't even sound like we're talking about the same kid and I know it's because of the co- teach model at his school at the secondary level there will always be budget constraints and when it comes when it comes to co- te more teachers are needed which equals more money but as my husband has told me before everything is figure aable teachers will leave but we have to ask how can we get them to stay how can we support them also two years ago Diane Olson stated that co- te is at no added cost at the elementary level and training for the co- te model would be happening that school year it was shared with me that a training did take place at one School site at an elementary school site but it was never implemented for the 2022 23 school year why co- te is a truly inclusive program that gets your students that are on that would typically be in a mild mod classroom into the Gen Ed classroom experiencing their education with their peers where they learn and benefit from that peer modeling where your inclusion Specialists enter the classroom and they can help support your students in the classroom even more important at the secondary level there you have those students that don't meet the requirements for an IEP that are still would benefit from the co- te curriculum we need to reeval this and get it back at our secondary level and elementary schools thank you John I feel you should be good at that it's always G to be John's fault from now on thank you elen um okay so we'll move along then to the next item which is consent calendar um are there items that need to be pulled from consent at this time Madame President yes uh item 8.3.2 we need to pull the Aries contract um that will be coming forward um at the May meeting okay thank you so are we pulling the whole item and then bringing it back or just just the one contract within 8.3.2 okay so we can we can approve that minus that line okay um I would like to pull a chunk of um items uh it'll make sense in a second so it's 82.7 8.9 10 11 and 12 it's the basic um new course new courses for um the basic uh curriculum um and that's going to be just something that I want to kind of give an opportunity to better explain what those courses are for um did anybody else want to pull an item from consent okay um so do we have a motion to um approve the consent calendar sure I will approve I move to approve the consent calendar less the pulled items okay and then do we have a second second great um okay let's do a a Voice vote if there's no further discussion on on those consent items okay I'll um start with Mr con con and I Dolby I Lando I Robinson I um and then we have one absent great then it's unanimous that passes um Jacqueline I just just for clarity are we that is pulled and I we'll go through the approval of that minus that one line my understanding is that contract was pulled not the item but we can certainly go back to that item and say all contracts except the Aries contract no I think that it's okay I think we all approved that under that understanding I just wanted to make sure we didn't have to like actually vote over it separately um the items I pulled are um new course proposal requests for high school um there's six of them that are um basic American government and Civics basic biology The Living Earth basic economics um basic physics of the universe basic basic United States history um and basic world history and when this came up um when it was published it was the first I had seen or really heard or or UND well didn't understand at the time and I had a lot of questions and I had a good conversation and I thought it would be nice to just um invite Sarah pus to just give a little brief explanation about about those courses and what it means for um Chico high school so thank you so much for being willing to give us a brief a little brief about it hi I'm Sarah pus assistant principal at Chico high school and you just want me to kind of give you the overview of the purpose so three or four years ago there have been some changes in the state of California in the special ed model and at that time Chico Unified the Diane Olsson was the director at that time and there was an urging to move um teachers from the SDC resource model into a more inclusive model that um had a classification called Ed specialist so at that time we started um structuring a master schedule that had inclusion of co- te classes and and um more access to curriculum for students with special needs and in that process we have been using excuse me been using modified classes when students are actually receiving a greater level of instruction than the modified classification and so um because of the way transcripts and things work it we need to add new courses with the basic classification we already teach basic English we already teach basic math courses um it's the same name across the board we will just now have offerings of basic world history basic US History basic government basic economics uh basic biology and basic um physics and so all of those classes will be in the basic category which will give students who are enrolled in those classes who are only eligible to be in those classes through the IEP process these are not general education classes they are still classified very specifically as special ed um but even greater access to um to that curriculum and at Chico High we've really worked it's a work in progress I don't want to overstate it that it's all the Kinks are worked out but we are definitely working towards more collaboration between our special education teachers and our general education teachers and the teachers who are in the co-top model who are actually in the classroom working with um the gened teachers in a world history class or in a science class they are also the teachers who are teaching the basic classes and so they're bringing more opportunity for that gened curriculum and we're using the same textbooks um the reading assignments might not be the same there's much more scaffolding um there there will be adjustments made to the curriculum so that the access is appropriate for the students but it is a greater level of access for the students who are enrolled in those classes and so it's just the next step in the model to increase the access for all students to the general educ the general education curriculum and in order to do that we need new course proposals so that the so that the numbers match and we can get those kids in those classes so any other questions about that um are the courses Standalone sections uh that entirely depends on enrollment um I can't you know there might be more than one section of a particular class and only one section of of another class it it all depends on they're not I guess my my question is more like they're not Blended you don't have like history and science basic history and basic science oh no though yes so you're not having Science and History taught in the same classroom there would be a section of History a section of science it's it's the master schedule will look almost from a from a special education standpoint the look of the schedule will look nearly identical it's just changing the the names of the classes through new courses in order to be accurate to what we're teaching and just to be clear the first priority is to to get students with IEPs in the general classes with their peers um that you know with that the other model is like a but this offers uh another level of intervention needs you know for the the students who need more a lot more scaffolding and in correct so we're always looking for the least restrictive environment um and so it's through the IEP process you really we're working very closely with our syes to look at student skill sets and so there might be some students for example who might be in a general education English class because they have the ability to do general education work and they might have an academic support class to help them with that work um but then they might be in a basic math class because the math skills might not be where the English skills are so it's really looking at the needs of the individual students to make sure that they're placed appropriately um and right now we don't have basic classes for the course proposals that are on the board's agenda tonight but we do have basic classes for Math and English so we're just increasing those offerings um and you're finding that successful and that's why the expansion yes yes we are um I guess so just for everybody else's context my red flag that came up when I saw this on the agenda without any context was are these you know a workaround to having our students take the the three course model science classes which we did talk about um about two years ago ago now and make sure there wasn't like a Dumping Ground class where you know students who were just struggling um and that you know try to like segregate them into these are classified as special education classes and you can only get into these classes through the IEP process a generaliz student is not is not eligible to be placed in this class um co- talk class the whole the the gift of the cotat model is that you have special education student students in a general education class with additional support in there so a co- talk class is a supported general education class but the basic classes are special education classes that are using as much of the general education curriculum as we can to support the learning for those students on the master schedule um I'm just my brain has been around science this last so um when you look at like the science offerings on the master schedule that is available to all students um is there a is there um a way to are all of the classes Co co-taught um under your model or are there certain ones that have that extra support built into them we have a co-taught biology class um like one section well I don't want to like I'm not looking at the master schedule right now so don't hold me to specific SE I guess the point is it's not all of them but there are certain no no it's the details are in the yeah no you're good theal isens I believe we have seven classes now go between math English social studies and science so the question is right now we have Fant mod as that one become successful next LEL I think yeah I think it's a win I don't think there's anything wrong with kids being successful I love it thank you thank you and I just wanted to give this opportunity to kind of celebrate that so thank you no I appreciate it so thank is that it yeah that's it all right thank you you're out of the hot SE have a good evening thanks okay with that I'd like to move the rest of the items um on consent I'll second that motion any other discussion question question are these um at both PV and Chico high or just exclusively good question are these courses just strictly for C chicoi they can be offered at both high schools right now they're just offered at Chico High okay so us passing this means that it's available for both schools to use but right now the it's only being implemented at Chico High got it thank you I know you want to say something well just that I might abstain from this one honestly I really um I appreciate uh learning more about why we have this basic um these basic series of courses but um it does raise a couple of flags for me and I'm I'm going to think about a little more I know it's probably going to pass tonight that's fine I understand that you guys need the courses for the master schedule but don't be surprised if this if this comes back at some point yeah okay I'll start Doby I Manda y Robinson I Conan I great thank you um okay we will move along to our discussion action calendar 1.1 is an informational item for the overview of the league of stars good evening I am here with some friends tonight that you'll hear more from in a moment but I am here to introduce uh the league of stars as an informational item to the board this evening I want you to sit back relax and enjoy what they have to share with you the league of stars was created as a partnership between the student transition and retention center at California State University Chico and the Chico Unified School District shortly after students returned to school after the pandemic the purpose of the League is to provide a sense of belonging efficacy building opportunities and an increased college goinging and college staying atmosphere for its participants this is facilitated through mentorship between Chico State and cusd students of color currently the league of stars serves approximately 100 students at Chico high school Fairview High School and pleasant Val High School the program also involves student volunteers and staff from both Chico State and but College just a little information about mentoring here the league of stars follows a long line of evidence-based practices that support mentorship as a beneficial intervention for both mentees and mentors in this case college students get the opportunity to gain and practice newly developed skills such as public speaking conflict resolution group leadership planning Etc our high school students get the benefit of connecting with older students which in some cases just graduated from their High School increase knowledge of Collegiate life and a more diverse support network additionally as the league of stars is fairly new we have had the opportunity to research other universities that engage in similar programs in their own communities for example Sac State CSU Dominguez Hills Cal State ferton UC Berkeley Etc so it is my pleasure tonight to introduce you to the real star of the show um Martha mmore Malcolm mmore and um some special student guests kaani and uh Mark hel here tonight and I want to just like I said sit back relax and uh listen to what they want to share Tina do I recognize the gentleman right there from graduation last year a ma masterful job thank you yeah yeah yeah hello everybody uh my name is Martha and mmore and one of the wellness counselors at perview high school thank you for coming everybody that came out yesterday um um so I um also helped coordinate the league of stars um and today I have like Tina mentioned three other people that are going to tell you a little bit about what we are doing so we're going to start kind of with the story Malcolm is going it feels weird to call him Malcolm um because it's my husband Malcolm is going to start telling you how it started um and then I'm going to tell you a little bit kind of what we're doing right now with ch unified and kind of what um other schools are asking us to do um and then we're going to um end with the best um two students that have been in the league for many years um one former student that now is a bu college and goes back and Mentor the the the students at Fairview um and the other one that is a a a senior at PB so I'm going to introduce Malcolm to tell her a little bit more about the story of how um the Leo star started and then I'll come back and then I'll introduce the last two awesome actually I don't want to move it too much uh I had more to say but Tina read my whole part so no problem uh my name is Malcolm J mmore I'm the director of student belonging and empowerment at but College uh formerly at Chico State uh which is where uh the league of stars started uh and so since I don't have a script um It's All Off Script um preo uh even though many of us might not want to think about that preo uh John Shepard had uh kind of a gathering of Minds to talk about some of the the issues challenges and achievement gaps within Chico Unified uh and uh I had never met him before uh that moment and uh through who being volun told by my wife uh told me to go and just see what they're all about uh it was a great conversation that we had and unfortunately almost immediately after that discussion uh covid happened uh but what uh what sprouted out of that discussion uh was an opportunity for me to connect with John and and to connect with other stakeholders uh within Cho unified and so fast forward to when uh our students were able to come back on campus uh we had a meeting of a Minds with a number of stakeholders both at Chico State uh and within Chico Unified to talk about how do we support our students uh in re acclimating to oncampus education uh to help them feel a sense of support and belonging uh and validation uh and all the other things self-efficacy on down the line just to make sure that our students were supported and from that discussion we created the league of stars uh what Tina had talked about was that the league of stars uh really is or it was a collaboration uh between Chico State uh and Chico Unified uh over the years it is now grown to be a collaboration between Cho State Cho or Chico Unified School District and now but college and so I will not over step because we will go into that uh but really at the seed of this program is really making sure that our our students feel validated uh one thing that we've told pretty much every cohort that's come in uh through the program is that life is a team sport we're just trying to give you more team members uh additionally at the heart of this whole program is that possibility promotes probability and I think that all of you have seen that with the presenters before us that the more we are able to uh provide opportunities for students to see their future selves for students to see uh people who may reflect their identities people who may reflect where they want to go in their lives uh the greater possibility it is that our students are going to be successful and so with this program uh I've seen a number of students over the years personally uh literally change their trajectory in terms of of where they are and you you'll you'll hear from two students uh shortly about that uh I'll end so you can hear the students with with one antidote and this uh speaks directly to Markel uh earlier when we started the program um I think yeah a few years ago when we started the program uh at the culminating event of the year I was on the mic at the front and I think Marquel received uh some award or some recognition and so I told him if you come to Chico State I'll give you a job that's what I told him fortunately before he graduated I moved over to but college but he's now at but college and he works for me um so so it's pretty amazing this program has has been pretty amazing from the beginning because I've seen a number of uh students mentees mentors uh both graduate high school and college uh right now we're talking about really the impact at the high school level uh but it really began as a discussion about not only affecting the students at the high school level but also at the Collegiate level uh if some of you don't know a lot lot of the students that um go to Chico State transplants they come from different communities and so in our discussions about this program it was really about how do we get students invested in this community to get them to stay um and luckily you know I've hired two people under me that said they were never coming back to Cho as I did um because they were invested in that program invested in the community and they're still here and so uh that's the 30-foot view of this program and then I will pass it back I'm going just say my wife well the hype different is going to go um go up and down so um like Malcolm mentioned um we really uh focus on providing a partnership for all the um the students of color right everybody is welcome and we have very diverse groups in every of the high schools um it tracks um the beauty about our program is or this group is it has no grades requirement we just want students that want to be successful and Malcolm talked a little about the achievement Gap well a lot of the time is those students are not straight A they are not on extracurricular activities that they are falling through the cracks so this program is if you want to hang out if you want to see yourself reflected if you want to invest your lunch every other week and hang out with us then you are in this program right so because again we is a program mentoring and building them up and connecting them um like they mentioned um every year I've been part of CH UniFi for the last three years and I've been involved since day one um every year it keeps growing um every year we started you know the beginning at Fairview we will be able to transport them in our little van you know that I said seven people now we have to um get buses every single time for Chico High PB in in Fairview um and um the other piece is um I keep getting emails from the junior highs how can we get the league at every Junior High and even the elementary levels right and so one of the biggest PS that we're really wanting to be um mindful is that a lot of the times we can start programs that are amazing that you're going to hear the impact that it has if we don't talk about sustainability and ways to maintain that program then the program is not going to work right one per if I leave then where does the program what it it shouldn't depend on one person it should be a program that is backed up and you know supported by by the institution so that whoever leaves this is something that is a legacy that it continues because we see the results that they are um again I'm and that's one of the pieces that anytime we have a conversation I want to jump and be like yes let's get into the junior highs and then you know now Pedro is like let's talk about sustainability right let's make sure that what we have is working which is working and it can only work better and at the bottom of everything is you know um support and buy in from all the schools and anybody that can see the value in this program and also support in money right if we need buses if we need um different um things um it's going to need some support and figure getting creative on how can we support those students that are not the straighted students that are going to you know have that motivation of I'm going to do well at school so that I can go play sports is how can I do better um because I feel connected because I feel reflected and as you know as you'll hear a lot of the times and and it's something that we've talked in in Chu UniFi for example CH at Fairview um there's not a lot of staff that reflects our student population right so if a student walks on campus and they don't see another black teacher then we you know research shows that unless they see the themselves reflected in imp possessions that they they cannot um at times feel like they can be there um and so little by little building it right like Malcolm talked about is um how do we bring mentors then they love Cho unified and then they end up getting hired by Cho unified and then they're here you know we're kind of Tina and I talk about growing our own right so even from the high school level that students that want to come back um and support and you know continue stay in the community so that it provides that diversity that um amazing talent um and you know really reflecting the student population that we have in all of our schools so um with further Ado no further Ado I'm going to introduce um first we're going to go with kaani wera she is a current um PB high school student senior um and she's going to tell you a little bit about her experience with um the league hello everyone how's your guys's day going so my name is kaani WTA I am a senior at PB and even though I was born here in Chico I was raised in Corning and so the African-American population there is was just me I left right and so I'm black and Mexican and so I didn't really feel represented within my community because I never really fit in with one side or the other because there was no other side so the Mexican kids never believed me the Hispanic kids didn't believe me that I was like Hispanic and so I had a really hard time growing up and I would also get picked on because of my size cuz I've always has been a bit of a bigger girl and so I had a really hard time growing up and that was definitely a blow to the ego and the self-esteem and so growing up I really did have a hard time feeling represented within my community and so I moved here sophomore year and I kind of felt like a shell of a person I felt very Hollow like nobody really saw me for who I was and then I met Martha and Malcolm so my counselors told me about this new club that was sprouting up on campus well it wasn't relatively new but to me it was new because I'm not from here I didn't know anything about it and so at the time I didn't have very many friends and I didn't really know how to express myself or put myself out there and I'm not going to lie to you I've always been a pretty social person a pretty outgoing person but being able to be part of legue of stars has really given me that outlet that I needed to be able to find my confidence and regain that back that one that I lost when I was younger and I think I wouldn't be up here without them 100% because the sense of community that sense of family that we have built through League of stars not just inpv but through Fairview and Chico high it's just a really strong community and I love all right now I'm president of the section of it at my school and I love all my kids well I think of them as my kids they're not really my kids they're like my age but I love them wholeheartedly and I love knowing that one day I'm going to be able to help them out as a mentor myself because the mentor Ts that we had when I was younger well not that much younger like two years ago they really helped me they shared my experiences and I felt myself reflected like I didn't in you're reflected before in courting so the experiences that I've had here in League of stars are something that I wouldn't trade for the world and I would hope for every student to be able to join it not just students of color but all students because it's a community where we can all be one and feel that love that we have for each other because genuinely I believe that it be not just in high school level but in a middle school level as well and younger just because you don't just struggle when you get to high school sometimes life happens and we have no control over the situations that have in our life so if we feel represented from that AG on and we have a good support system we'll Thrive because without a support system we crumble like think of a building and has a weak support system and an earthquake happens what happens the building crumbles so when we start thinking about League of stars as a whole and building up a foundation for the students at a young age it's really important that we implement this not just in high school but in those levels as well thank you for your [Applause] time uh I hope I pronounced this right but Eileen I got I gotta say I love that you remember me uh and except for their nervousness uh it feels good to be at back up here again uh but quick introduction my name is Marquel Hardman uh currently I'm in my sophomore year at bu College in a sociology major um like like they mentioned a couple times I was a mentee and a mentor in the league of star program and the league of star for me was a program I wish I had growing up in Chico uh I think yeah grew up here since I was in uh elementary school left Middle School and came back for my high school years and so yeah wish it was a program I had growing up cuz when I was young I needed a program that sat me down with people that look like me and and so that I could talk about what I was feeling as a black student in a in predominantly white uh schools and the program helped not only me uh not only helped me understand myself but how to understand the people around me like my uh what was it peers yeah that's the word but um but that wasn't around then and it wasn't until I left Chico that I would find programs where I could feel comfortable with myself and give me one second and when I came back to to Chico and found out about the league of stars I took that opportunity very quickly you can even ask Martha and I had an amazing Mentor shout out to kamani Davis he ain't here right now but if you know who he is you know he's the man uh and he reinforced the notion that I could survive College even done my uh academic history and he even continued to help me after even after I graduated like Malcolm mentioned as soon as I got to campus uh kamani introduced me to the at the time the person that ran or we named it now the black leadership and Cultural Center and got me my first job there two years ago and I've been working there since and so yeah even after I left he became an older brother to me that like reinforced the notion that even after I graduated the league of stars has pretty much helped me throughout my whole academic relationship and yeah and since then I've been on the path to actually become a counselor like Martha and Malcolm behind me and even like a kamani is not a counselor but he was an amazing mentor and he he's the reason I actually chose this career path cuz you know he was D I wish he was here right now but he was such a big help uh in my senior year at Fairview and even now I had just started the uh the black student union so I'm the president of the black student union uh bu College as of like a week ago and and again that's that's thanks to the league of stars um but yeah and I did an interview a while ago and someone had asked and the interviewer had asked me what would I want to tell people people and I had told him uh you shouldn't students shouldn't have to feel uh shouldn't wait till senior year to feel comfortable with themselves cuz as soon as they leave the uh the high school level the world is going to be even harder on them so I wish I would have started in Middle School um yeah that's kind of kind of what I said I hope hope that wasn't too much mumbo jumbo again I was nervous [Applause] um I do want to share um last uh at every school we have staff that are stepping up in um in in supporting all the students so the way the program kind of works is we have um mentors from Chico State um and now expanding to BU College some former students are coming back um a PB student is mentoring now at PV fairv students mentoring um and so um and then what we do is we create um curriculums per set to topics to talk about every week um and there topics from racism mations um identity family college um about once a month or so or every other month we take them to either Chico State or bu College to again expose them to different uh opportunities engage them different topics um and at every site we always have um we have staff that are stepping up in offering their time to help support right recruiting the students um making sure that they remember hey we have a meeting today and it takes a lot you know um and it takes the right heart and so again for me is just um it's a team work the same piece um and it's a team work within all the um the high schools and our hope is for um for it to grow and have a place that it could be sustainable and that it could be a legacy for Chico UniFi thank you so much for your time [Applause] questions that's it no question just a big thank you we appreciate everything you guys do and the effect of this program it's important and something that we're committed to pursuing and following up on thank you guys thank you I would like to invite you to stay stay close here and I'm going to invite John Shepard to join me um if anybody noticed on the agenda we did skip over the superintendence award earlier on in the agenda and that's because John and I get the honor of presenting the superintendent award tonight to two uh to two folks here so I'm going to go first and it is my honor to present Martha mamore with the superintendence award this evening come on up I have known and worked with Martha and the league of stars for the past four years in that time I've come to know her as an intelligent vivacious and compassionate counselor and educator the league of stars started small in numbers and when it began included only the men of Chico while the spark was lit in our partnership with Chico States crosscultural Center Martha was instrumental and starting the women of Excellence branch of what we affectionately call the league with the main goal being mentoring between adult and Collegiate Aid students of color and our own cusd students of color the program gained traction and peaked interest ensuring that every student had a comfortable place to go was primary on Martha's mind in the design mentors were recruited and students were soon made aware of both the men of Chico and the women of excellence and we were Off to the Races while we can all agree that gathering in person is a lot more fun than Zoom it is important to know that that the league even continued during Co with meetings being held via Zoom remember that with students and mentors while this did present challenges Martha never let it stop her desire to keep the mentorship program going even in the most unknown of times the year finally came where we could go back to meeting on campuses and I was fortunate to be paired as a mentor with Martha's Fairview women of Excellence Cadre Martha Lear Cadre is the main Mentor with Grace kindness and honesty these young women of Excellence had many questions thoughts to share and things to say they were open to sharing unique challenges they were experiencing and they were also clear to open dialogue and ideas to consider to move forward positively and with strength I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a mentor with the Fairview women of excellence and as always students taught me more things probably more than I was able to teach them Martha has continued to leave lead our district league program this year she has worked to develop a consistent plan of instruction and support that is rooted in the original purpose of the League this has shared her positive energy and skill set in organization and problem solving with all three high school programs I deeply appreciate Martha's can do attitude and willingness to look at all aspects of problem solving with our students in the direct Center of focus I know many other cusd staff who feel the same as I do she's also a kid magnet and loved and respected by students she meets and works with on a personal note I am fortunate to call Martha my friend she has listened to me and offered advice and expertise when I needed it and I do the same for her in a world where we where we all increasingly need to work together it is comforting for me to know that Martha walks alongside all of us here in Chico Unified congratulations Martha on receiving recognition this evening for being you I have me give you certificate I'll give you but I also want to invite up here as being another amazing female leader and we're going to give you this and we're going to turn around and take a picture okay thank you for right here Tina get in here thank you for your leadership please get rid of the wrinkles you congratulations thank you so much okay we're not done yet we're not done yet we're not done before I there you go Malcolm now we'll be good before I introduce our next recipient I also want to um just recognize J marant assistant superintendent of ed services you know Martha talked about sustainability and without a budget and a vision um we wouldn't be standing here so Jay just want to thank you for all your work um to support this program but it's time to celebrate Malcolm so when provided an opportunity Describe the impact Malcolm J mmore has had and will continue to have on the students students and staff in the educational communities in which he's worked a multitude of descriptors flooded my fingertips I wanted to describe his wonderfully welcoming personality I wanted to speak about his amazing ability to listen without judgment I wanted to explain how he has a knack for maneuvering through the inevitable bureaucratic red tape and turn barriers into hurdles he's really good at it rather I would like to describe my perception of him as the epitome of transformational leadership in addition to all you've heard tonight about the incredibly meaningful success of the league of stars it's important for the board and our community to know how Mr mclamore has impacted the Chico Unified School District community and other ways for example a few years ago the ed services team was challenged with identifying a speaker to provide professional development to our staff when Mr mmore became aware of this challenge he immediately contacted a mentor of his Dr Derek Greenfield to see if he would work with us a connection was made and when we fast forward to this year Dr Greenfield has provided us with opportunities to self-reflect and how we perceive those around us and coached us about how we allow those perceptions to affect our interactions in our various roles within the Chico Unified School District Mr mmore knew what we needed and found a resource to support us additionally it's important for people to know how connected Mr mmore is to the students he works with just last night he and I were standing in the middle of the recently remodeled shade structure area during the Fairview of Multicultural celebration and a student from one of the be College tables came by and said hi after the student walked away Mr mmore turned to me and explained that the student had made it to be college and was thriving the former Fairview High School student had connected with Mr mmore through the league of stars 3 years ago and that connection had paved the way for the student to now be out in the community Community representing higher education all because of the strength of Mr McLemore's leadership Mr McLemore's Mantra of possibility promotes probability has manifested itself all around our educational community and I can only imagine how the effects of his ability to create sustainable change will continue to spread everywhere he lands Mr mmore is a transformational leader thank you Mr mmore for all you do for every one around you and while I've been referring to Malcolm all night as M Mr memore soon while juggling his professional duties his powerful commitment to his kids and I don't know where they are I was hoping to see them because they are a lot of fun and of course making sure Martha has everything She Wants Mr mammore is fin is finalizing his dissertation and will soon be Dr M lore we cannot wait to see where that takes you give you this and this and a big hug Mar you come on up too thank you just I not I graduate in June amazing almost there all right thank you thank you all here get the board in the background come on do your magic people in the front am not literally that's just me [Applause] all righty that was great thank you um up next is 9 1.2 discussion action for chica Unified School District but Community College partnership College connection program calendar with Mr did I miss one this is all on me oh uh we kind of flew right past we did have some public comment Stars yep you're right thank you okay sorry good J I thought about it right at the beginning too and then I was just um uh my name is Mandy Browning I have a five-year-old that's in kindergarten um my wife and I were fortunate enough to attend one of the bipac um Community engagement meetings and in that presentation the league of stars presented and we were absolutely Blown Away um it they said it a few times about how when you see yourself when you're younger and you see what you could become how that can be transformational and my wife and I were so excited to take that home um our son is named Malcolm and he is stoked to meet another Malcolm so I hope to one day introduce him um to Malcolm and marted together um the reason that I wanted to give a public comment today was um about this program about how special it is I would love to to see this program I know they talked about sustainability and I agree I think that's an important component I would love to see this program extended um to the junior high levels with Outreach to even Elementary School levels um my son is like I said he's five um but that doesn't mean that he hasn't experienced some of those microaggressions that they were talking about that they have conversations in their meetings um some of those microaggressions have sadly even come from family members and that's been hard to navigate um and having those conversations in a safe space I think could be really beneficial for him and others like him um representation matters and I think that seeing leadership roles that are held by bipot community members is so empowering um it's empowering for us as moms of a child and it's also empowering for him um that's why I'm so eager for him to meet them is because I think that he'll immediately take to their beautiful spirit and um I cannot wait to get him involved in this program in any capacity so I'm very excited that the um funding is in place I would love to see that continued and I just um cannot say enough good things about this program and how excited we are to be in part of it thank you madam president um thank you uh my grandaughter Chanel is a woman of color and uh she had to come live with me in Chico because she had been going to school in Walnut Creek and she was as mentioned she was the only black child in the school and they did nothing to intervene on her behalf and so in order to survive and stay in school she came to Chico and enrolled at Fair View and even though there there's not a representation of um black people at Fairview the attitude toward acceptance is there and my granddaughter graduated and is thriving and just turned 30 thanks again um I think that it's going to be great to watch the program continue to evolve and hopefully grow and we'll we'll make sure that all of our students in Chico are are feeling represented I think that's very important we all do so yeah thanks again for being here tonight um okay with that I will now invite Mr Caldera up here for our next item please uh this is for I already said it out loud but it's for the community col College connection yes yes it is this is the annual presentation of the but College uh program calendar for the 2425 school year just want to let you guys know that Elaine Elmore did want to be here tonight but due to prior commitments she was not able to be here she is the program coordinator for the be College connection program it serves up to 35 students from both Pleasant Valley and Chico High School who are interested and spending their senior year at B College um the students complete their high school requirement ments through a combination of SE time and independent studies students can typically complete an average of 22 College units some of the things you may notice on the calendar is their earlier start date the calendar starts earlier to onboard students with the be bu college program and to teach students how to use and interface with the bu College learning management system canvas that's the name of the program the calendar is also created in this fashion to satisfy the instructional minutes required by California Education Code and our district requirements as for uh as of uh 412 uh there are currently 30 students participating for next year I thought you meant 412 like the time today you just looked that up huh day and month sorry and this is a discussion action so are there any questions from the board uh now it looks as though the um coordination of the spring break that includes March 17th [Music] and the winter break has an extra week right correct yes okay then I read it correctly okay I don't have any questions great and we don't have public comment on this item so um with that is there a motion sure I'll move to adopt the vi College connection calendar as presented second fantastic um because we have an absent tonight I think we have to do a roll call all night so we'll just um go ahead and start start with Mr Lando this time Lando I Robinson I Conan I Dolby I fantastic let's move on that's uh approved thank you thank you um next up is uh Business Services 9.2.1 is a discussion action item on Charter Schools measure K projects request hi Maria hi okay so on March 11th 2024 the the charter school facilities committee met and has brought forward the gy floor repair project at Chico Country Day for your approval does the board have questions no no no any public comment no motion I move approval of the um request for Chico Country Day School seconded fantastic thank you um we're gonna vote really quick uh we'll have to do roll call vote again this is the procedures uh let's start with Miss Robinson Robinson I I have a question Madam president there's there's four different items on this do we approve everything in in the one vote is that the intent I'm not sure what she looking at Mr Robinson are are you alluding to the over here are you talking about the four attachments yes yeah so it's one item so just an uh area of clarification so Chico Country Day at their last um submitt had submitted for the remaining of their measure K dollars so what they're doing is they are pulling back on some of the outdoor shade structure components of that last proposal in order to do the 35,000 for the gym reflooring okay so the attachments are to show what they did before as well as the gym U repurposing now thank you great yeah you want to go ahead and and start us off with the vote Yes Robinson I con and I Doby I Lando I it's approved thank you thank you I could have you know asked more questions for you to come and tell us more about the project okay well thanks for being here okay 9.2.2 is a discussion action for bid approval rooftop HVAC package unit installation at five sites yes so this item actually the facilities department and the M Department were working very closely together to coordinate the procurement M and the bid process and installation which we're doing joint um back in 2021 April 21st um the board approved the air and climate quality H climate control filters Etc in the amount of $3 million since then the M department has procured units over a 100 units and they have been delivered to our Corp yard to theard Yes uh in March of 24 the facilities Department issued a bid notice for the rooftop HC package unit installation project for 5 sites since then it has been bid um the bids were received April 9th and we received one bid uh for the amount of $874,900 for installation of these units only this is a very tight project um tight span uh we will start June 10th and we will be finished up before school yeah finished up before school any questions yeah any questions um okay I'm just making sure that I've got the um the 3 million in the first [Music] sentence was for the units am I correct and and now the 800,000 is for installation of those units so the 3 million was the aggregate budget in order to do HVAC in any climate control so out of that 3 million we've already ordered the units took a very long time to receive them due to the delayed supply chain um they've now all been received on site they're sitting at the Corp yard um but because of the rooftop mounts um related to these HVAC units we're going out for bid and we're hiring an outside contractor to be able to do that so what's left of the money is over over almost $900,000 to be able to install those units that are currently sitting at the couryard I have no further questions which organization was the bidder United building contractors out of Chico thank you okay we'll see no more questions um and no public comment we'll ask for a vote I mean sorry um I'm not on it today my poor brain emotion thank you I a move I'll second all righty um any further discussion board see none let's start with Miss conin Conan I Dolby I Lando I Robinson I all righty it passes let let's get it done thank you hey Phil my Chromebook won't let me open the board agenda so I can't open any attachments over here okay thank you but we don't have to wait for me we can move on uh we'll move on to 9.3.1 under Human Resources discussion action item for resolution number 16 38-24 recognition of classified staff Appreciation Week all right so it's my pleasure to um bring this resolution forward for classified Appreciation Week um resolution resolution number 16 38-2 4 I'll read it just so you know what it says and it's on the record so sorry I don't have my glasses today all right the week of May 20th through the 24th is hereby designated as classified Employee Appreciation Week hereas the education of Youth is essential to the future of our community State country and world and whereas classified employees are the backbone of our public educ ation system and whereas classified employees work directly with students Educators parents volunteers business partners and community members and whereas classified employees support the smooth operation of offices the safety and maintenance of buildings and properties and the Safe Transportation Healthy nutrition and direct instruction of students and whereas our community de depends on the trust of classified employees to serve students and whereas class ified employees with their device diverse talents and true dedication nurture students throughout their school years now therefore be it resolved that Chico Unified School District Board of Trustees if approved proclaims May 20th through the 24th 2024 to be classified employees appreciation week and be it further resolved upon approval that the Chico Unified School Board of Trustees strongly encourage all members of our community to join in observance and recognition the dedication and hard work of these individuals thank you thank you I don't think that there's any questions for clarification um or public comments so I will ask for a motion I move approval of resolution number 16 38-24 classified Employee Appreciation week I'll second it that's a motion by Robinson and a second by Doby um I'll also start the vote Doby I Lando I Robinson I con and I thank thank you thank you and a big thank you to all of our classified employees out there we really do depend on you guys all righty um also under Human Resources my gosh wrong packet I am losing it tonight uh 9.3.2 is discussion action for resolution number 16 39-24 recognition of teacher and certificated staff Appreciation Week week thank you Madame President in the spirit of Celebration we also like to recognize the certificated staff so we created resolution 1639 d24 whereas a strong effective system of free public school education for all children and youth is essential to our democratic system of government and whereas the United States has made considerable progress in the social techn Tech ological and scientific Fields due to our system of free and Universal public education and whereas much of this progress can be attributed to be to the qualified and dedicated teachers and certificated staff entrusted with the educational development of our children to their full potential and whereas teachers and certificated staff should be accorded high public esteem reflecting the value the community places on public education and whereas the Chico Unified School District is keenly aware of the importance and impact of teachers and all C certificated staff on children and whereas it is appropriate that teachers and certificated staff be recognized for this dedication and commitment to educating students therefore be it resolved that May 6th through the 10th of 2024 be proclaimed teacher and certificated staff Appreciation Week in the Chico Unified School District and urge all citizens to pay tribute to our Public School teachers and staff furthermore the teachers and staff in the Chico Unified School District should be thanked every day for their dedication professionalism and for the services they provide to our students thank you Mr Shephard uh board questions no no public comment so I'll ask for a motion I move approval of resolution 1639 d24 second okay we have a motion in a second so we'll start the vote with Mr Lando Lando I Robinson I Conan I Dolby I it passes thank you madam president I would like to highlight that during the week of May 13th through the 16th our uh Pleasant Valley High School Food Services and Hospitality CT pathway will be providing some snacks to all of our staff during that week so we're really excited about it District Y how many how many employees do we have no we we guesstimate about 1, 1500 about 750 on each side just kind of fluid right roughly it's a good number that'll be fun okay um moving right along to 9.3.3 is uh discussion action for the adoption of the 2026 to 27 student calendar thank you madam president as you know each year we try to stay three years ahead with our student calendar adoptions so people can make plans we can um we can take a a look at how we're going to plan our professional development so I'm bringing to you the 2026 27 student calendar with uh a a process of vetting this through our administrative team Business Services uh ensuring we have multiple sets of eyes on these on these calendars so we don't have to bring them forward too many times to have them be reopt not yet seeing any questions from the board no public comment now the calendar seems to be in sync with what we approved for but College uh connections so I have no questions all right um I'll call for a motion sure I'll move for adoption of the 2627 student calendar as presented I'll second that motion all right with no further discussion let's start the vote with Mr Lando Lando I Robinson I Conan I Dolby I it's unanimous plus one absent um up next is the 9.3.4 discussion action for resolution number 16424 elimination of classified staff due to lack of work or lack of funds thank you madam president so um I'm here for the resolution 16 4-24 elimination of classified staff due to due to lack of worker funds I presenting three positions none of them are um actually they're all currently vacant so there's no people in the position position these are um positions that have either been um vacant for a while over 5 years or um due to lack of funds um due to a sight lack of funds um i' noticed that so it's for the 24 25 school year so for next school year yes ma'am um what is the nutrition services area coordinator position supposed to be so um these were um basically coordinators um middle level management positions that um go out and oversee certain areas um in in the in nutrition service services so they they work directly with the the director like right under the director and went out and oversaw um the sites directly but we actually have um changed the position and there's there are different positions there's still three people in these positions so these have just been kind of sitting um vacant and so um kind of morph they do the the job of what the coordinators used to do so these are sitting not not being utilized so the the roles that these positions would be filling or being fulfilled by their staff right now currently in other classifications yes okay am I correct in remembering that um the uh nutrition services area area coordinator positions um we're heavily involved with approval of our free and reduced price lunch program applications as well as the um creation of the what we bought list the can't think of the name of the like the purchasing list the we bought um I I don't know the answer to that was a little bit before I I came into this role I wasn't sure if they did that specific role but let me jump in here so back in I think it was 2018 or 2019 um there was a concern the area coordinators were overseeing all our sites um but there was a concern about evaluation so they were seeing them on a daily basis um but they couldn't actually evaluate them so it was brought to the Personnel commission about how do we change these positions to do the same responsibilities but enable the individuals to actually evaluate and so it was that point in time where the nutrition services supervisor position was created created those individuals moved from this area coordinator into the supervisor position and in some review of position control over the last couple months we realized that these two positions were still sitting on our books just unfilled um so that's why it's been asked that these brought forward for elimination for next year so they're not we're not budgeting for positions that we're ultimately not going to fill that was going to be my next question so like this year they had been budgeted for actually manually backed them out because I knew that we weren't going to weren't going to fill them so this this is part of the cleanup you're on the position control side of things that may need to be brought to the board that are sitting on our books that we know we're not going to fill so we don't want to budget for them sure okay thank you thank you thank you all right seeing no further questions um or public comment I will call for a motion I'll move adoption of resolution 1640 d24 oh second that motion Mr Lando all right and seeing no further discussion we'll start the vote with uh Miss Robinson oh I Robinson I con and I Dolby I Lando I I like to keep my myself on my toes to just rotate it through whoever votes first I don't know if you guys have picked up on that all year or two but yeah sometimes I don't remember where we left off um it passes thank you thank you all right um next is 9.4.1 discussion action for the approval of uh revised updated new board policies so we do have a board policy that first came to you at our last meeting for a first reading it is now being brought forward for adoption this particular board policy uh is related to a compliance review that was underwent by nutrition services uh in that compliance review there was a request that we change the board policy I do believe it was one word uh that had to be changed but the updated one that brings us into full compliance is in front of you here for approval Adam president I have a question of the superintendent Kelly the uh first reading did not contain the word change suggested by the Auditors and this does contain there's not a problem with that onew change being adopted uh because we can approve something on the first rating but shouldn't it shouldn't it be clear that this would be considered the first reading because the first reading technically didn't had the word change in it does that make sense probably not I'm not sure I'm following you but to answer your question yes we may adopt on a first re right yeah I I believe the word change was on there last time but how it been before the I've been wrong before I I that's the whole reason we brought it Forward is because the compliance review requested a change so I believe it was on there but I look to Erica who knows everything who's the compliance coordinator so from a nutrition services perspective um the lead is Vincent Sero um but depending on the elements that are that are spelled out in this policy um Sydney Rosa is also our nutritionist so if there's components complaints related to our meal program or meal menus or any nutrition component um then she would assist with that what's her title or her classification she I call hered our our District nutritionist but Sydney what is your actual oh you're here hello yes nutrition specialist nutrition specialist fantastic thank you for being here cool I'm glad I asked um I am curious about what Eileen brought up but I have no further questions or concerns um anybody else nope okay I'll call for a vote I mean I'll call for a motion what is wrong with me tonight I'm of approval of the uh nutrition program compliance second all right well uh seeing that there's no further discussion we'll start the vote with Miss Conan Conan I Doby i l i Robinson I it's unanimous I feel like it's been like that all night we go a lot faster if we didn't have to read our names off thank you it passes good job um all right up next is items from the floor um not seeing any items from the floor uh so we can move along to board member to request um request to agendize but there are no requests at this time and so with that I would ask if there's a motion to adjourn the meeting I'm having so much fun I think just so moved it's done [Applause]

e e e the April 18th 2024 meeting of the anabor renters commission the purpose of the renters commission is to advise the city council and the city administrator on matters affecting renters in the city uh and the rent the Anor renters commission is made up of voting members who are appointed by the mayor and approved by city council two nonvoting city council Liaisons two non- voting members representing different landlord perspectives and a non- voting representative from the University of Michigan Student Legal Services um to speak during any of the common public common opportunities you'll be able to speak through the webinar link or by phone and the instructions will be given during that portion of the the meeting okay we can move on to item two roll call so we'll go through and please as always just state where you're calling from uh I am here calling from Ann Arbor commissioner Chen yeah and I'm calling from front and michingan nice to see you commissioner Kelly could not make it commissioner dman here in Ann Arbor hello commissioner else here in an arbor commissioner Lowe's not here commissioner Tibbits here and an arbor commissioner Rosen hi here and an arbor commissioner Ratliff here and Ann Arbor hello commissioner Thomas is not here commissioner pittz here Ann aror hi nice to see you commissioner good here in an arbor hello commissioner excuse me council member Rina here in an arbor right council member Harrison is not here and and she texted me that she is running a couple of minutes late she should join us shortly okay great okay let's see it's one two two three four five six okay we do have six voting members we do have a quorum although narly okay um I item three um approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda is presented move to um approve the agenda okay move by rosanita do we have a second second second by Julian all those in favor say I I I I all those post say name okay so our agenda is approved go on to item four approval of minutes do have um a motion to approve last meeting's minutes so moved by Julia do we have a second oh second second by rosanita thank you all those in favor say I hi I I I oppos say n okay with that we've approved our minutes and I see Jeff you're just tuning in um nice to see you could you tell us where you're calling from hi yeah sorry I'm late I am calling from am am Michigan great no worries okay great to have you all right then we can move on then to item five ver general public comment right um public comment can be made by phone um at 877 853 5247 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 941 or um you can join by Zoom um by joining the meeting at a2gov.org g/r meeting if you'd like to address the r commission about any topic you can um use the raiseed hand feature if you're attending with zoom or you can press star nine to raise your hand we do have a hand raised um David Santa CR go ahead um and unmute I think I did can you hear me yes I can't I don't understand why my video is muted but uh forgive me I can't quite figure it out um anyway let me be quick about this so my name is David Santa croch I'm a um uh calling you tonight uh from the uh from my house in Cary town I've uh been teaching at the law school since 2 the year 2000 uh and my job there there is I practice law with students in a kind of a residency program and the vast majority of my practice all these years has been defending tenants from eviction and Prosecuting landlords when we get the opportunity for poor conditions and and um that kind of thing uh all in the county a lot a fair amount in an arbor uh I'm here in my individual capacity I want to just say I'm um supportive of the mission and the work of commission I've worked with uh Gail and Zachariah and some other lawyers at times uh looking at the at the various um changes that that you've all implemented and I I I I I I believe and I certainly supported the last round of uh changes but all the changes uh I'm also an empiricist and what I'm about to tell you is purely anecdotal but I think it's suggests maybe asking some questions of the constituency in add ition to being a housing Advocate uh my wife and I own three small houses in an AR in an arbor one's actually got four separate Apartments the other two are just small houses all in this market um in in in the Cary town area um two of them just became vacant and I rented them over two weekends where I would post on a Friday morning and do showings on a Saturday morning uh I followed the right to renew ordinance as revised I think there's some question out in the community as which one were op which set of revisions we're operating under we saw that with the with the when the first one went in the place um but I followed it as revised uh the these places are nothing special they were at market price and within 24 hours I had a dozen showings on each Saturday and turned down at least that many again um I talked to tenants and a lot of prospective tenants and a lot of parents and there felt like there was a lot of panic in the market I've never seen that kind of response to a to to to a to a posting I've been doing this I don't for 20 years I'm a small a small little player it's not what I do for a living um I've never seen this kind of demand and this Panic um the number of requests I had a number of offers just let me rent it the four pictures on Facebook Market Place are good enough I had several offers to double uh to to pay us another month's rent as a finder like it's as a finder's fee like and I didn't I did I went in order but I was just uh amazed at at at at what was out there I talked to some other landlords and the uni uniformly basically reported in a more frenzied highly compressed Market many of them who are filling buildings well into August are full right so it's it's it's we the the the and a lot of that's because a lot lot of students are leaving in a couple of weeks so the my un my view of this based on on what I'm hearing is that the market has been compressed and it's affecting behavior in the market again this is all anecdotal but I think it's it would it would behoove uh it would serve the commission well to go back and ask the constituency which is uh certainly on the right to renew it's mostly students I have clients who aren't students and this is just isn't on their radar uh what their experience was in this last Market um o and that to see whether this is just noise in the data or whether this their experience is because of the compression haven't gotten any haven't gotten any better and may have fact gone in the other direction I don't know but I think it's uh I I would suggest it's something U worth thinking about um thank you for your time thank you ban did you have a comment I forgot are we not supposed to respond to commentary I forgot the rules for this meeting rules for this particular set up generally there's not a lot of back and forth with during public comment but if you wanted to make a comment yeah I think I appreciate um you coming and sharing that feedback with us so we we operate similarly as a landlord um and I think there's you know we we have talk to students a lot of us do talk to students and I think the other thing just to kind of piggyback on all of this is a we've we've just made changes um that we hope will help and that there's two other kind of parts to the frenzy number one is just the how housing shortage right so I think a lot of things are getting kind of turned back and blame on these ordinances that are actually just there isn't that much housing and that's what you're seeing when you're getting 12 emails we are getting the same a lot more emails but it's not it's not necessarily the time frame it's that there there just isn't that much to to take from I think um is a big part of it and the second piece being you know the the weight list fees and the other things that have made it very competitive have really upped the anxiety and so um you know just to give you some assurance that we we as a commission are very much strongly um supporting working on those I know that there's legislation being drafted and so we hear you we know we're hearing that too um it is it is hard to watch and it is um upsetting to see the level of competitiveness and and a lot of that is because of the housing shortage rather than just a a time frame it's just they're admitting more people every year than we are building and that um is a big challenge as a city right it's just it's not just the renters um but we we really appreciate you coming and talking about those things too there are no other hands raised okay so uh I think we're good to move on I see that there is one more attendee and just if you do want to make a comment just raise your hand but uh we will move on moment okay we can go [Music] to here we are item six unfinished business uh we have none and then we can go to item seven uh new business start with 7- a uh recommendations for work I suppose I had I must have mentioned right to counsel last time or it had been brought up and I wanted to say some things about it um I will interpret this item in the Brad sense that was mentioned earlier which is just some ideas to give to all of you before I leave um so I think that one of the main things has already come up which is the supply issue it's impossible to ignore and uh the I think we haven't touched it a whole lot because it's it's a tri it's a broad question I think it's a tricky one too um but there's a lot of components to it and in my opinion um I think we need to be thinking about zoning it's just impossible to ignore that much of the city is zoned to only have a single family house in it built on it um and a lot of that probably needs does need to change beyond that there's other things there's other Solutions as well that I I hope the commission will explore including trying to um learn about um funding opportunities for public and social health um there's in different states across the country they're talking about um setting up new funds to help pay for new you know fund new developments of public and social housing I think one of the biggest problems why we don't have more public housing in the city is that uh we just don't there's not enough capital and uh public housing authority the Housing Commission with um um which you all know about uh has to go through all these jump through all these different hoops and get a little bit of money from this program a little bit money from that program and just it's really not sustainable um and it's no wonder why we don't have more and um to build off of the the public comment that was made um I I think that uh Mr Santa croch was right that we do need to talk to to renters about these new rules and continue talking to them uh one of the ways we have done that in the past is through a student government survey I'm more than happy to you know even when I'm done in the commission act as a conduit and make sure you guys have a contact uh with student government if you want to encourage them to rerun that survey with the same or similar questions to see how public opinion among students is changing since this is an issue that predominantly affects students the early Leasing and and all that um now onto right to counsel um I think that you know there was interest I had heard from a council member about right to counsel um I think mostly because of Detroit's program on right to council uh they in introduced this program uh after a lot of public pressure to um guarantee tenants who are facing eviction uh an attorney so they would have representation and I think one of the big reasons why is because I think it's are only about like 3% of tenants are are represented in eviction cases whereas over 90% of landlords are represented by an attorney so there's this huge disparity and in Detroit the big this they're really pushing for um the big thing is funding and um I think it'd be really great if uh you all consider exploring a right to council program not just for the city of an arbor but on a larger area because um while there are certainly evictions in an arbor some of our neighboring cities have areas with much higher rates of eviction and it seems like those areas might be better impacted in a positive way by a program so it might be best if you're going to approach that if you're going to approach the issue of right counil to do it on a larger scale although it doesn't that's not a a silver bullet either because um a lot of times when it comes to eviction the problem is the tenant doesn't have money and in attorney is not going to really help unfortunately a lot a lot of things to think about um I also hope you all will consider uh working with the inter Cooperative Council I know they have some demands related to housing uh which I think the renters commission should take a look at they have a website uh about this I think it's icc.org zoning I think I can send it out something like that um anyway um one of the proposals is to have a um uh right of first refusal for tenants so if they landlords are selling their homes or selling the rental units they have to first make an offer to the current tenants do you want to buy it and the tenants could could get together apply for a loan and then purchase it and turn it into a Cooperative which is why the the inter Cooperative council is very interested in this idea I think it's a very interesting proposal and it should be explored certainly um I I can't say I have a I have plenty of things to say but I'm going to leave it there um I uh I'm not sure if there's any questions or discussion you all want to have on this um I'm I have plenty of notes and plenty of ideas and I'm happy to share them with anybody yeah Rita [Music] um as I I agree with what you said especially about if there is going to be um a I just lost the name the right to councel that at at the county level um and I think that that would also help with cost sharing which might make it more affordable um or a little bit more pleasant uh fiscally um and the newest term that like I was hearing is no longer wrer or first refusal but tenant opportunity to purchase um I was learning more about that and yeah it's just I don't know names change all the time yeah thank you and honestly I think it's a better name it I can understand better what that what the idea is just from the name yeah and you know one thing I forgot to say is um the university I can't be ignored here um I I think that there that you know we need to consider why there is seems to be more panic in the market and consider a number of hypotheses here definitely um I don't think it's just the the the dates anyway I don't think that's that's the only reason why if it is one um and the reason why I say that is in I don't know if you've you all read the papers last fall but the university has admitted so many people that it can't even uh uh guarantee its students dorm rooms in fact they had to turn several wreck rooms Recreation rooms into dorm rooms because they overpromise students and that's probably going to keep happening um and they do have plans to build more dorms but it's not it doesn't even keep up with the with the expansion and enrollment so I'm extremely concerned there and I know that that's a bit outside of the scope of the commission however as community members I think we all need to be aware of it and seriously think about how can we exert influence and pressure on the University uh because you know the city council obviously can only do so much but as community members we need to do something I mean this is really getting uh crazy I mean um and and also the uh I've seen some landlords using the high prices of the dorms that already exist as an excuse to keep their prices High and I I have it in text you know I that was pretty shocking to see as well um so I hope these are you'll also consider the role of the University here yeah Bob uh just to point out that there's a uh construction of a new dormatory with I think 12200 bedrooms actively going on in uh well more or less in in the neighborhood that that uh I'm in uh near uh on the site of old lbell field and there's there's plans for at least one more um kind of in the same sort of area so they're talking about 2400 uh rooms uh within I think the new the one that's uh currently under construction will open in uh for the two 2026 school year and thanks Bob yeah it's exciting that they are making movements a lot more than they have in long time it still doesn't keep up with I think some of the increasement increases they've they've had in the past decade um but it's definitely the right direction okay any other points you know points of discussion comments questions thank you all sincerely for uh all the work you've put into this commission I know it can feel kind of like a sisian task to try to have a positive impact on this rental market uh but in the time I've been here I think that people what I've noticed is that tenants have become a lot more aware of what um what's going on and what their rights are you we know that booklets those rights booklets are going out much more frequently which is a positive development and I think people uh are really ready to to engage in Democratic processes on this issu that's pretty exciting um and I think I I hope that the at least the spirit of the rules like the right to renew rule will um continue to positively affect people um so thank you again and let's see we can move on to s- oh yes just a second before I move on just that I want to thank you also Zachariah that it's been wonderful having you chair the commission um and all your work in housing is greatly appreciated thank you Julia that means a lot especially coming from you thank you um oh yeah and I I hope you all pick like a t like a focus you know I I know sometimes we didn't have like a PR like a one thing that we're working on I think it' be good to look at our work plan uh whoever the next chair and CH or or just as a commission and just pick one of those things and just focus on that for a little bit um I think that's something that we should have done more frequently um great okay we can move on to 7-b officer elections so since I am stepping down as chair that seat is uh vacant so would anyone is anyone would like to nominate themselves or uh I don't know if you can nominate another person for I guess yeah you can nominate another person for uh the position of chair wasita um I don't know if anyone else is interested but I would like to be chair um to continue on the work that that the commission been focused on including some of the recommendations that Zariah has made okay um I'm sorry it sort of cut out there for a second you you said you're nominating oh yes I'm nominating myself okay okay gotcha terrific um and I'll have to defer here again do we need a second for a nomination okay do we have a second okay um great I second by Jeff um are there any other nominations for this position of chair okay great um so I assume we still have to vote on this um all those in favor of rosanita becoming the next Chair say I I Hi I hi okay all those opposed say Nate thank you yeah congratulations rosanita and thank you so much for stepping up thank you and I'm sorry to see you go you really did a great job of I know for me onboarding me on to the commission um and are you sure you want to go and leave us for medical school I'm very touched by you saying that and some other people on the commission have said that too it's really kind um yes I am it's been my dream for I tried to twist his arm this [Laughter] week and I think Zechariah too just like the general community building that you have worked toward right like there's so many spaces that you're in and you're always leading with kindness and compassion and setting an example for us all and I just I think we all really are grateful for um just even the privilege of watching you work over the last couple years it's been a really beautiful thing for me so I'm really grateful about that same here yeah I feel the same way too is this thank you very much Zach is this your last time to attend or yes it will be I'm I'm actually leaving to this my family overseas uh next month so I won't even be around for um the next meeting so this will be my last one oh sorry I'll just be in Detroit guys you're welcome to visit everybody come come see my new place so you can still get on Zoom then that's good to know you can join their renters commission and make changes there no you need to stay here no too busy zachari I second what second third what everybody has said I mean it's just been amazing to sort of watch you develop this and your thoroughness and your compassion and commitment is is pretty amazing and uh if you take even a little bit of this to your medical school I know you're going to be amazing thank you so much and thank you um commission council member Rina for creating the Commission in the first place I know it was the whole Council the voter on it but you really proposed it I'm glad it exists and this is about praising you right now I've had enough thank you it's not not only your passion I believe you do it with elegancies and you do it with honor and respect this is very important thank you thank you thank you I don't think I'm I'm the chair anymore so I can't call on you Cynthia uh council member Harrison okay it's gonna take a lot of getting used to sorry I just I just kind of wanted to chime in and and piggyback um just to really thank you Zachariah for um you know your work as chair on this commission um I've you know really appreciated the work that you've put in and um you do it with Grace and honor and um you know with a lot of Pride uh and um you know you you're just natural at it and uh rosan has got bigo to fil um but uh I think I think I mentioned to you when I saw you last that you're going to be real great doctor um we're we're gonna miss you uh but we'll I'll have to make sure to stay in touch with you is uh yeah I just really appreciate um you know what you've done for the for the commission so thank you so much Cynthia and you really flatter me all of you and thank you so much for the kind words I I will note that the often the elections will take effect at the next meeting so that rosanita wouldn't be thrown into suddenly running without preparing so we're not gonna let you off the hook that easy I think you just because I'm still in the mode of waiting for zar just say okay now we're moving on to the next item okay fine I'm back at the risk of at the risk of repeating myself everybody I should say Zachariah all I could say is you have been a phenomenal chairperson and this committee would not have accomplished half I think of what it has without your leadership so thank you for all that you've done thank you so much Jeff and I know I texted you this earlier I know uh you know just let us know even email the commission members how we can support for the aaps stuff please it's been on my mind a lot um okay well we actually had a very light agenda um I think one we could kind of do it oh go ahead Travis sorry I just wanted to confirm do we only have the one officer that needed to be elected because of your vacancy or do we need to elect all officers maybe that's a question for Kristen uh we don't need to elect a new Vice chair which Julia is remaining the vice chair um but uh I should note that um I believe it is June um so rosanita was elected to fill the remaining time on your term we'll do another one um this summer for chair and vice chair thanks I just just wanteded to make sure on that so then yeah we'll continue with that term until normal time okay thank you yes of course thank you okay great um I think it would be good if we all opened up the work plan and took a look and maybe started a conversation about what this commission should focus on uh going forward so let me open that up and I can share my screen it take me a second to find this sorry well while we're doing that Jamie is this your last meeting I think I will be here for next month's meeting but that will be my last one okay wait we're losing you too yeah I believe I'll be with I'll be I I maybe next month is my last one too you to done done so if anyone wants to continue serving even if they um their term expires you you can just uh submit another application and please do if you're interested continuing yeah Jordan it's also super easy so it Imports all of your stuff so it takes like three minutes yeah I just did mine uh about a month ago and it was it took yeah three minutes they send you an email so check your still interested and uh um you just say yep I'm still interested and you're done so please do it yeah Dandan are you interested in continuing or do you think you're gonna I have I have uh submit the um applications yes I have I have thank you yeah great yeah Travis yeah so I was going to save this for my Council comments but since we've kind of gone there as a conversation to to fill some time um I believe that everyone who's here currently who term is expiring in May has reapplied except for Jamie um and we knew she was rolling off and so um that's a pretty easy process to get people kind of reappointed um and so um yeah and if anyone has changed their mind and doesn't want to continue to serve let us know but I think that everybody who is eligible for reapplication who's here tonight has done so do I have to do anything done anything I don't know that your term is expiring yet oh you're you're also not appointed by us I don't think let me let me check on that because you're kind of appointed by the university yeah okay I'll just hang out until I hear otherwise yeah okay can everyone see it yes okay um yeah so I this should be is this the most OPD the 2023 calendar year is that the one we're no this would be 2024 calendar year right I'm sorry guys Kristen please if you if you know where this is I'm having the hardest I'm finding it for some reason I one second I'll share and I just found it okay go ahead and share I'll let you do it oh okay U actually you know what put yours back up mine has a bunch of edited so please just put put yours up in no worries thank you so much okay yeah so um like I said I think it'd be good if the commission just chooses um one thing to start with and really focuses on that to uh um oh I'm so the beginning at least no worries now I got it okay there we go so I'll that's right we had split it up into three different sections uh rental housing reform sorry um rental housing reform in our legislation commissioner education and stakeholder education so let's just I'll open the floor and if anything if one of these items really stands out to you please um speak up yeah Jeff and Rosen uh thank you um just in in listening to some of the um the comments today already and um you know in light of of the stuff that we we've just worked to get changed and passed in the city council I wonder if um at least for uh the first little bit here our um one of our focuses should be uh stakeholder education you know get the the info out there that there's a new you know a new ordinance or changes to the existing ordinance I should say um and um like that survey you mentions might be hard to do right now with students leaving but um maybe Revis that for um Gathering new information and how the the ordinance might be affecting folks and um what they know about it and then going from there sure that's a good idea thanks Jeff rosanita um I agree that's important I had a couple of questions that I think it might be more for the council members um in the proposed 2025 budget I saw something in there about adding um new people in or at least one new staff member for um was it building inspection is that is there did you see anything um about Staffing for enforcement of the housing rules rental for rental housing um I don't is that so oh yeah go ahead I'm sorry no please go ahead I don't I don't think so but not 100% I don't graab and yeah and I would say I am also I'm just starting to dig into the proposed budget and so um uh it is not something that I've come across at this stage but it's a question that I that maybe we can submit as part of our budget questions thank you and Jeff is your hand up from earlier oh yeah sorry about that no worries is it down now yes thanks okay anyone else Julia um I think I just want to Second what rosanita said um I think that there's you know issues with the process of writing tickets for um the right to renew in the early Leasing and and you know what do people do when there are violations what do we do when there's like like I saw there's somebody um on the list who uh Communications to the commission um you know that that one landlord keeps coming up a lot and doesn't seem to care that they get written tickets they just keep doing what they want to do um and some level I think think of better enforcement um and you know this is very antidotal but back in the day the the rental inspectors were pretty strong and it generated um you know they paid for themselves because there were violations and they issued tickets um and the housing stock in an arbor is obviously older but you know when I'm comparing back in the 80s with what the building inspectors used to do the housing stocks really gone down in the community when you walk around um the rental housing is really looking shabby and I and I think that building inspectors could play a positive role and fixing that thank you J Jordan I'd Echo that too and I think the you know the idea of really connecting with CSG to kind of have a plan in the fall um for a survey would would likely be helpful um and I think that can touch on both of those things right like um the last survey talked about how things were being maintained were you getting notice before things you know it's pretty comprehensive and I think that that could help guide our our education too since we know that at least in the student body we're getting 50% of people who um were covering with what their needs are um so yeah I think I just another voice for kind of making sure that we are prioritizing um prioritizing checking in I I had thought Am I Wrong Zachary I thought at one point that there that there had been a repeat survey sent out and that we were like waiting for results did that not does that sound familiar to you I for some reason like maybe six months ago I thought I thought that there had been some sort of repeat survey in relation to housing but maybe I'm maybe I'm misremembering I don't know I thought we were waiting for results at some point recently it's a good question I don't recall that I don't know if they did win last year I know we we did wi the year before um I can check in and and try to get an answer on that Travis know need yeah I just wanted to touch on enforcement also and just also kind of remind folks that part of I think part of the reason we realized that um enforcement was becoming an issue was because there were a lot of um at least identified by the city issue there were a lot of issues that the city wasn't enforcing against because they felt that they actually the the ordinance itself wasn't strong enough at the time and so that was part of the the reforms that we just passed as well and so I do think um as the new ordinance is now taking effect and and is in place and um staff feels more strongly about kind of the stick that they have have uh to enforce in some of this that I think we'll need to also keep our eyes on that in terms of determining whether or not now we see enforcement picking up because I actually am not confident that um the lack of enforcement previously was necessarily a staffing issue versus a making the determination that it wasn't a technical violation even if it violated the spirit of the ordinance and so part of part of our ordinance revisions Were Meant to tighten that up and close those loopholes and so um so I think time will tell in that respect too over the next um you know leasing period playing out Rosita and then Jan is it anyone hearing rosanita okay I think she might be frozen okay let's move on to Jamie and we'll Circle back yeah um related to enforcement and ordinances I think um and I don't even know like quite how much this would be like a responsibility of the Mission versus like something the city could do um but as a tenant recently I have found um the stream I think is the new version of where you can look up like permits for where you live I found that to be really helpful um and I think like maybe a little more promotion around that for tenants could be beneficial um I think it's really kind of empowering as a tenant to be able to see you know what whether or not your landlord has let that certificate of compliance lapse or you know even look up maybe past issues um that may be creeping into current issues that you're dealing with um but yeah I found that system to be really helpful I think it's relatively easy to use but there could still be like a little more um a little more effort to help make it more user friendly um I agree Gail sorry having a little trouble unmuting myself um I agree that that stream could be a little more user friendly I found etrack it to be easier so it might be helpful if someone could explain to us kind of where to go if stream doesn't seem to be giving us all the information but back to um the enforcement I I'm wondering if we used to get I thought um redacted versions or you know of complaints that have been filed and I'm wondering if we can get those again because you know I think people are are filing complaints as they're trying to figure things out and especially since the ordinance has been amended and it might be helpful for us to see kind of what's been filed and what's happened with those um with those cases and and just even how many complaints have been filed yeah I think we had specifically requested those uh complaints uh about ordinance 8530 or 8531 it's early leasing ordinance are right to renew um I'm guessing could probably ask Chris and do the same if you all want to do that um do do you want to I guess let's s on that for a second do you want to do that now or do we want to wait a little while and then request well I guess I would prefer to request it now I think you know at least for the students anyway the leasing period is kind of you know almost done now you know the the 15 days for Mo or the you know the the releasing dates for for most of the properties has already come and gone so at least for the students they know whether they were um able to renew or not renew or you know those those issues have sort of played themselves out already I think primarily okay um yeah Kristen would it be possible to get an updated list of redacted complaints for um those two ordinances absolutely thank you rosanita I'm sorry about that apparently my Internet isn't happy right today um after is after a certain number of code violations um is a landlord's ability to be a landlord uh taken away like do they lose the certificate of occupancy do they lose the ability to operate as a landlord or a property management company within the city or is it just continual fines my understanding is fines but I don't know uh Travis yeah there is nothing in the ordinances that we have passed that would that would do that thanks so like 100 safety violations and it's still allowed to be a rental I mean I've seen some of the places around campus having grown up here and some of them still look the same some of sorry I would I would have to I would have to get a different I would have to get a different answer for you on that nothing in the ordinances we have recently passed that came from this body have anything related to revoking those are those are fines um if there are safety violations things like that I don't know I I don't I would have to look into that with our staff if you could that'd be great and good to know um because those are some of the issues that have also come into play in some of the court cases say as well Julia um you know this is ancient history but um back in the 80s when I worked for legal services for Student Legal Services we did with the tenant Union file a complaint um at the uh housing variance Commission um because there were landlords in town where the fire department had on record that firefighters were not allowed to enter the places they were so unsafe but the building inspectors were not taking away their certificates of occupancies um so we had to like file within the city to fight that and we did get one taken away and then he did like two little repairs and they give it back to them so they do they I'm sure they have the power they just don't do it and and honestly it probably doesn't come up because I don't think they issue multiple violations like that I think stuff just slides okay so a number of things here but what I'm hearing mostly are um some concerns about the complaint process especially when it comes to the newer ordinances we had heard from the city administrator that there is some concern about only Janet frell uh processing all these complaints and not having enough you know staff hours dedicated to that and where you know we what the process would be I think it would be good to follow up and make and see if they found a stable solution for that um I hope that our council members will will consider that throughout the budgeting process um because maybe a solution has been found I don't know uh but it seemed like the city administrator was concerned that's one is complaints issues and then a second one is education of tenants that came up I think a couple times here um making sure tenants know about the new rules when it comes to right right to renew and also uh about stream and how to access that sort of information so complaint issues and tenant education issues are what I'm hearing a lot of is there another major thing there that I'm skipping over I know there's some other issues mentioned definitely but okay well UL Ely it will be the you know all of your decision on what to focus on next but I think it would be great if you all investigated that complaint uh process question and make sure that they did find a solution um and I guess this this is kind of going into our next um our next agenda item I think which is planned for next meeting but um like guess let's just move on to 7-c which is planned for our next meeting and I hope I I'll propose that you all put on your agenda discussion of the complaint process and TR maybe we can get some um clarification from staff to see if those issues have been fixed from the administrator's memo and also talk about Outreach regarding 8530 that's the the new combined right to renew ordinance and stream so tenants know how to access complaint information regarding their unit so guess those are two agenda points yeah Rosen rosanita um sorry back at the I don't know why I'm saying the beginning of the month but a little over a week ago um Jamie had sent out a survey about meeting for attended educ um education is it committee uh because we were supposed to talk about you know meeting for table when what events we were going to table at and um what not and now finding out that she's leaving um what are we going to do about that I think that's something else we also need to discuss that's a good point I I that slipped my mind um I think until we have more people unless someone here wants to take that on I guess let's first put that out everybody is there someone who has the time and energy and wants to find a meeing time for this committee and figure some of those stuff out regarding tabling I will just say I only got rosanita was the only person that responded so I I did just email Kristen I was like should we still I mean I'm happy to meet with you Rosita before I take off to um plan things out but I wasn't sure without knowing like who would be taking that forward um so I think it's still like to meet to know to learn a bit more about the tenant education committee and about tabling and how of that works but I think maybe zachariah's right in terms of waiting until we have the new Commissioners who may have more time and a heavy heavy interest in sitting there and talking to to people at events okay I will um I'll get that scheduled with Kristen because I think she would be helpful to be in that meeting too just from like a logistics standpoint thanks great um Julia um yeah and if you could send out when a meeting is set to all of us so that if I didn't answer it because my schedule is really he I and I figured oh well if I can make what they pick I'll make it um but I think even if we don't have the strength to have this as a separate committee that we could still discuss tabling at a regular meeting um so I don't know if Kristen if you can come up with a list of like Community you know City sponsored s um if there's a calendar out that makes sense or if you could direct one of us to do that I you know I'd certainly be willing to sit at a table even if I can't always make the committee meeting Absolutely I'll look at um some parks locations also that may be available for reservation I know that one of your past events ended up being kind of in carry town but I think you wanted it kind of a little bit more the plaza area so I'll I'll check in with parks and see um what the reservations available are offer thank you uh Kim hi yeah Jamie I forgot to answer you as well I was just gonna make the meeting too so I apologize okay thanks Kim so um how about this how about you all plan to it sounds like you do want to meet is that right before the next next general meeting they okay you will try to meet um let's also put that on the agenda so we will have um this my train of thought here um on the on the next agenda there's the discussion of the complaint process there will be discussion of educ tenant education um and I guess we can split this up into a couple points uh tenant education on the questions of 8530 and I guess a530 and stream and then also tenant Outreach events I guess like tabling we can put that as a separate thing so three points total um and then that way the if you all have not had a chance to meet we can still discuss it or you all could discuss at the next general meeting that makes sense okay anything else for the next meeting okay great well we can move on then to item eight reports uh 8-a report from city council you have anything else to share go ahead um so we started talking about this a little bit I wanted to give an update on the the um appointments process and um upcoming vacancies um so I know that we mentioned that four of the existing Commissioners whose terms are expiring at the end of May have reapplied um and then we have one current um General vacancy uh that existed and so we have made council member Harrison and I and chair Farah have made a recommendation to the mayor um to reappoint the four who have reapplied um and to fill the vacancy with an an applicant who um who submitted their application I've talked to her um if she is appointed she is a student which I don't believe we currently have a student perspective on the body um and an undergraduate student which is a perspective I don't think we've had um in a while Z Zack I don't remember if you were still in undergrad when you first got appointed but I remember but we've had graduate students but I don't think a lot of undergraduate students and so um My Hope Is that she will move forward to fill a full two-year term because the vacancy that we would be appointing her to actually also would expire at the end of May so I made clear we want we want her for the the full term um and then I was just doing kind of the math year and um with with commissioner uh Jamie rolling off if Arthur is not reapplying um and then the existing renters Advocate attorney vacancy and when chair Farah uh resigns we'll have four additional vacancies we need to get filled and so um we are looking to make sure that those get filled as well I made sure to give the mayor a heads up that we hope to have recommendations for them as well since it's a two-step process we've got a uh we're going to be moving pretty quickly here so that we can try to get those seats filled um by the end of May so that we're up to full strength in June um so that's kind of what we're looking at but we are moving forward on some of those and I know that that's been uh an issue here we have a we actually have a lot of members of this body but a number of them are non- voting so obviously despite a lot of people around the the uh Zoom screen here um not everyone can vote and so they don't count towards Quorum and so I know that that's been an issue um so that was really the big thing that I know has been on folks radar and wanted to give you an update that we are working to get those positions filled um and and I will just add again I was going to do this at this point anyway and then we kind of went around but just wanted to thank you again Zariah for your service um really has been wonderful working with you and you really helped to get this commission up and running um when we first launched and your advocacy and all of the the organizations kind of adjacent to this commission um and obviously uh just in general uh has been really helpful and helping to bring people in and thank you very much I obviously wish you well as you head off to medical school but I'm still very grumpy about it so thank you thank you thank you thank you for the report um all right uh we can move on to 8-b report from hhsa liaison I know actually Jeff you were not able to make the last meeting and I didn't I was away I was on um was not in town I wasn't able to contact our alternate so I don't think we had a um a representative at their last meeting but correct me if I'm wrong there Jeff um um no that's that's correct um uh unfortunately I was not able to make it because of the ongoing aaps issues so um um no one was able to attend that last meeting but I have plans to be the next one thank you Jeff understandable okay we'll move on to 8-c report from staff leison so Kristen let us know if you have any reports um I believe that I emailed out that the new Complaint Form and um guide for the updated right to renew are online um I provided the information on rental housing but I don't know if they posted it or not yet um I can check and then follow up with them if it hasn't been posted um and then after I confirm that it's posted on rand's website I can um be sure to do a [Music] subscriber okay thank you Chris then um and thank you so much um for your all your diligence and organization all skills I'm very impressed as always and thanks for always like coming to these meeting so late I really do appreciate it um this is my last chance to tell you on the commissions so thank you so much as always um all right uh yeah that would be great if uh rental Housing Services could get that on our website um soon 8-d report from Commissioners do any Commissioners you all like to give a report on anything you're working on anything you've seen it's coming up um I would just say Kimberly and the um council members were I saw them all at the um groundbreaking uh for the new uh building going up on Katherine like a cross from the farmers market and it was a really good event and it sounds like it's going to be a great building yeah very exciting Jordan yeah I just wanted to give a little plug for any landlords that are listening Bob or any others um there is a like a land landlord sorry it's late networking mixer event next week um it's going to be held on the 23d and it will be from 4 to 7 and it's at corner Brewery in Ipsy we're just trying to come together as um washut area landlords um just to kind of figure out how we can all do better and work more collaborative collaboratively and also help um you know just build community talk about opportunities for um ways that we can impact the um large number of folks that are on housed in our community and our neighbors um but also just kind of connect and work together and and learn about um each other's businesses and so there are light snacks provided so we are asking for an RSVP um if anybody is interested um Kristen I guess since you're the the funnel person I'll funnel it through um Kristen so you can just email the renters commission email um and get those to us and I can get you the invite um but anybody's welcome and honestly if you don't RSVP we'd rather have you there than not so it's open to all landlords property managers um anyone kind of in decision-making spaces or in community spaces in those roles in the greater washing County area so again next week the 23rd Corner Brewery 4 to 7 hope to see you uh landlords and property managers there thank you Jordan anyone else okay we can move on to item nine uh second general public comment um public comment can be made by phone by calling 877 85352 47 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 881 941 and you can also join um the zoom link and that is a2g .or g/ renters commission meeting and if you in the zoom meeting you can go ahead and use the raise hand feature if you'd like to be called on to speak if you are calling in you can press star n to raise your hand um if anyone would like to address the rental commission can go ahead and raise your hand now and then we will um call to speak we do have one attendee your hand was previously raised if you are interested in oh I see raised awesome I will move you in now all right go ahead okay I don't know if you can hear me can you guys hear me okay yes all right I just want to say my name is Carol and um I'm a landlord in the area I've been a landlord for five years now I'm also in a lum of Michigan um but um I just you know I just wanted to attend and learn a little a little bit more about your group and what you guys do and I'm very impressed um with u how polite you all are and how good you all are to each other um and I just yeah I just wanted to say hi and introduce myself and thank you for what you're doing and um considering possibly joining but um I I'm just here to learn more about you guys and what you're doing so it looks like you're doing a lot and you're doing good work so it's nice to see all of you and meet you at least you know orderly here that's it really just want to introduce myself thank you all right there are no other attendees thank you and thank you Carol for your comment please feel free to reach out to us via email any time if you ever have any questions about what we're doing um and uh if you um need help finding where the application is if you're interested in applying um just send us an email and we'll give you all the information thank you okay now we move on to item 10 our last item before adjournment um okay uh communication start off with this email um regarding uh unannounced entry to a rental unit by the landlord um yeah I almost certain that they're violating I mean if this is accurate then what what would be the landlord would be violating the the law because they're supposed to give um make a good faith effort to give notice I believe um Bob I saw your hand went up yeah go ahead my understanding is it's 24 hours for a non-emergency um so yeah I find this inappropriate and probably illegal but I'm not a lawyer yeah I'm glad that it went that Sarah was able to respond and give them the complaint information because that's probably the next step is to IED to that unfortunately if anyone's interested there is a a specific ordinance that creates a two-tiered created a two tied system for privacy as they uh called it in an arbor um so everyone gets like the base tier of privacy and then you can also set out kind of more ground rules if you notify your landlord and only under certain conditions are they allowed to come in uh you can look it up it's called I think the Privacy ordinance or that's how it's commonly referred to as and there's some explainers online oh yeah Julia um um Ju Just that there are cases that unfortunately start out like this [Music] um where it does bleed over into being sexual harassment yeah definitely I feels like it has those undertones um I did find a this I literally just searched a privacy ordinance in Arbor um and it explains here the tier one and tier 2 system um I think very few people know about that at Le tenant and that came out of it was not uncommon for landlords to be assaulting their female tenets um so that's where that ordinance came from that makes sense um did that come out of Tenants Union as well or would that part of tenen um it was along with um the the women's crisis center also I see wow good to know I didn't know that um okay this one seems like it's a tenant who is not in an arbor it's contact of the an arbor tenant rights commission which sounds like probably our commission but we don't file we don't actually you know we don't manage complaints here so um yeah Kristen did we receive anything that might match this that's what I'm aware of okay got maybe the thing about parental Housing Services okay um right CMB it's not giving out physical booklets so okay um yeah go ahead Julia well just that I have concerns that um CMB hasn't given out booklets for years and they have it online um they have the older version online they haven't updated we've heard complaints about them not updating it um I know it's not the city's practice or at least we were told it's not the city's practice to write tickets on this but when somebody's out of compliance continually um I I think they're just telling the inspector that they're doing the right thing now shouldn't be good enough that they should get a ticket a lot of people complain about CMB with early leasing in the city did pursue one ticket but not all the other tenants that complain yeah um I think I think I I'm curious to see what would happen if you know they go through the proper channels of submitting a complaint through rental Housing Services about this Travis you are muted thank you um yeah I was just going to say that too I think the appropriate responses to um file the formal complaint I think you know the unfortunate reality is this is this may be one of those situations where what what I know used to happen all the time when I was renting which is you know when you're going to sign your lease they say oh and we have this booklet and they point at it and they offer it um but they don't necessarily put it in a packet or give it away and then that is you know that satisfies the requirement of making the offer of the the booklet even if the person doesn't take it um and so but I think this is one of those situations where we would actually we would just need somebody to actually investigate the the facts of the case and so like I I don't think we can based on the information we have I don't I don't think we can necessarily say there's for sure a violation but there certainly could be and so I think there's definitely enough for the person to to file a complaint which it looks like um that recommendation was made to them yeah Travis and um I know I've been in touch with with some CNB tenants and I'll I'll talk to them as well and see if um just kind of encourage them to do the same okay um yeah this was regarding renewal okay thanks Kristen for responding to this so it sounds like so they haven't received an offer to renew um that might just require them asking the landlord for the offer and they might just come into compliance that way but um if that doesn't happen I guess they I hope they file a complaint I think some especially smaller landlords just don't know and they forget i' I've heard of that a couple times as especially for non-student tenants where they're they usually offer renewal very late in the game and you know I wonder if that's happening here okay any comments questions on those four Communications that we we just saw okay thank you well that brings us to the last item item 11 adjournment so uh do we have a motion to adjourn I to ad by rosanita do we have a second second second second by Donan I heard all those in favor say I I hi all those post say May and with that we are adjourned thank you everybody we miss you thanks very much good luck

it'll tell you the location to go for that we have I think a few grades that are going to be working on some birday pictures chalk art we have some students that will be working um with our Garden Club and our Garden Club sponsor that are going to be working behind where our rain Garden area is no behind that's facing the back parking lot area Okay so just make sure you look at that chart the Google teachers so you know where to go if you head to a place and there's there's a lot of people there and every kind of being taken care of then you'll look at the map that Mrs ctis sent out yesterday and you can divide and coner piing up some litter and utilizing our recycle bins so make sure you bring those out to the assembly on Monday morning bring out your class recycle BS okay so on that not we're just getting ready we have some really great presentations that our green team has been working really hard on so that we can all be on the same page for Earth Day on Monday and talking more about what recycling means how how it's important to us and how many of you ra show hands have been bringing in plastic bottles thank you that's amazing all right so I'm going to go please know real quick please know please know that it's really hard to present in front of people and as you guys are taking the lead I we see so many leaders around this campus we want to make sure that we're supportive of all of our classmates who are presenting today and some a lucky teacher for a few that might be doing a little competition up here okay so have some fun listening and [Music] learning welcome everyone to our skin title the E Heroes redu reuse recycle today we follow our friends Emily J and Maya as learn about ways to protect the environment me Emily Jake and Maya they're hanging out to together when Emily decides to share some exciting news hey guys did you know that we make big oh here we go again with the E watch the big I think it's awesome tell us action before we get started with our actual game we need some teacher volunteers we need at least four teachers if you want [Music] [Applause] I Welcome to our special teacher version of AR smart today's theme is our teachers Mr [Applause] fo and our wonderful stud [Music] [Applause] welcome for our very special game our teachers are going to be answering some questions and our students are going to see if they are smarter than the [Applause] teachers so our wonderful energy conservation teachers you nominate one person to be your WR or person so our question for seconding one glass bottle Sav the energy to life a 100 wat light bulb for how long is it a 4 days is it B for hours or is it C for minutes [Applause] [Music] lock your we have C for minutes and B for hours [Applause] [Music] congratulations students you have won [Music] 5000 teachers you choose [Music] top recycling symbols is what they have chosen let's see where can you recycle plastic bath is it a the St B the recy or recy [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] like the teacher go now [Music] are [Music] but are they not more expensive [Music] back from our commercial break teachers you got the first two R let's see if we can do better on the next subject you Rec what do you need to do [Applause] final [Applause] for [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] you 50,000 wood and, [Music] [Applause] students are going to teacher answer answer students can decide they want to take that answer or if they [Applause] show te [Music] congratulations $100,000 all the time 4% [Music] students let's keep quiet real quick 5 4 3 2 1 I look what I we by them into something new what how about turn into shopping b h that is actually pretty Co action now we're back on our commercial break teachers you have one more op we are on we on environmental recycle approachs the environment a energy in is [Music] recycling aluminum up 95% [Music] St has cut down if all Americans all of their newspapers could 250 million we are on to our million question let's see have each team their the mil question is what is one way you are going to ruce and recycle te e [Applause] [Music] see our [Music] [Applause] [Music] congratulations both teams are correct mil [Music] [Applause] 1 2 3 4 C4 recycle [Music] hours [Music] wow our power e [Music] to protet me and I to be e e her to and with that thank you for this jersey to your [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] almost there so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] close I would also like to I to introduce you a couple of my is that I a couple of my friends can I introduce you to this Mr [Applause] [Music] John helping us remember that we need to and by helping us make our things're going to learn about so make sure you stay safe weekend that we hey kids I've been doing this for a long time would you show me you can listen for a minute thank you I just want to really praise you for all the things you're doing because you really are the Next Generation to make a difference so congratulations and job love [Applause] I believe going to start [Applause] [Music] I

e e e hello everybody Welcome this is a a special meeting I'm sorry you ready Mackie yeah there you go oh okay welcome welcome everybody this is a special meeting for all of us and I guess we'll get to know all your team members soon um but for the steering members um I would like to call this uh meeting to order um should and our roll call is done if you've signed on the paper that was that was being handled by Tony then you're all set um we have a quorum um has everybody read the minutes I just wanted to know if there is any edit or any correction that you might want to suggest minutes approved um okay take the vot okay okay so there's somebody um you need to admit Michael heret Peter machic here this is for not for this is forting approve it this is to approve the minutes yes mik okay Peter BR Brandy not here Yolanda yes cat Kate yes Anna yeah she's in the zoom Okay Okay C here okay okay Roberta Chuck Lids Allan Ed Burman Stacy Stacy okay Karen Karen Coleman she's on the she's on over there someplace yes she is just skipping I was I was Tony Lewis I was absent so I abstained Kyle hackinson Steve Mitchell he's on Zoom okay can you guys hear us yeah now we can so it's actually very difficult to un unmute ourselves for some reason I was getting some errors and I think Steve might be getting them too because he's raising his hand I couldn't mute I can I just to speak to this Anna Town planner Peter magic last night the selectboard got Zoom bombed and so I'm making any any member a co-host but I I have a very lock down security and you're not allowed to uh turn your camera on and I'm unmuting and I'm making everyone co-host as they come in and if I recognize you and you are part of the committee got it just be aware for minutes that you can't really hear everybody but we are here okay Mo moaa Beth Beth Reynolds oh okay You' taken the notes right no okay Nathan okay Mike Mike is on okay yes Cara okay Bill Bill naski he's I was okay okay um the the person that took over prent one is it is this his first night jaob okay okay Le Leah Suarez David iano Aaron Mano Haron rerry hi Lisa hini she said said yes okay well that's it okay thank you um it's the me are the minutes passed yes okay um I just wanted to welcome our uh a newest member of our steering committee would you please uh get up and so that we can all wish you all the best thank you thank you for joining us um I had sent out an email about two dates I would like a show of hands so that the goson get to um put this on their calendars so the two dates are June 13th and 25 that's one option the option b is July 3rd and 18 so if you if you're just to clarify it's June 13th and July 3rd right yeah and June 25th and July 18 there will be two weeks between those weeks between those they can collect the data right can repeat those one more time so June in the month of June it's 13th and 25 in the month of July 3rd and 18 so it's the two meetings in June I thought it was a meeting in June a meeting it's a meeting in June meeting in July so 13th and 3r 18th and 25 25th and 18th keep the so there's one month one day in each month right so we have to decide on that by the end of the meeting yes or if if you can decide now that might help because then we can focus on the presentation can I have a show of hands for TW June 25 June 25 June 25 25 is okay with you David anybody elsee July same so I think can do July 18th and June 25ths July 3r and June 13 okay those on Zoom can you give us the dates 2th 18 okay so should we go with that is that a majority it seems like that okay yes is that all right okay okay so um over to Rob I think Rob he wanted to do something Rob just had to open the meeting we just have to open the plan Bo meeting then we'll over the consult all right I I call this meeting the Ashlin select board to order at whatever time this is 7:08 and I see a quorum present and virtual than Trisha Kendall calling the planning board meeting to order also at 7:08 and I do see a quorum as well okay so at this time we will hand it over to the Consultants uh just for everybody on Zoom uh just please note just as a reminder um due to a uh Zoom bombing situation I have uh made members um co-host so you can turn on your camera and you can unmute themselves any public if you do want to speak if we do or open it up to public comment you will have to raise your hand and I will unmute you uh and ask to be uh and ask you to unmute yourself with your question so thank you so much so with further Ado I will pass it to the consultant uh the goson team wonderful well I'm so grateful to to be here with all of you and um we'll get that PowerPoint up Pete is that something you're doing okay perfect so just as by way of introduction you'll hear from each member of our team just as they're about to present we thought that would be a little less cumbersome than having everyone come up one at a time and then present later on uh but we're really excited to have our representatives from our full team here as you know most of the time you see me Katan and Brena at these meetings and we're the jam Goldson part of the team the prime consultant but we have all these wonderful technical experts doing things more a little bit more behind the scenes so far and we like to kind of bring them in at you know really important milestones we also so they're here tonight and we're very grateful that they're here um we also like to bring the planning board select board and the committee together once at the end essentially to kind of Mark the end of each phase so that we can share this is what we've learned these are the next steps and so each of the four phases you'll see we'll ask for a meeting a meeting like this and we think it's important for accountability we don't want the planning board and the select board to get a document at the end of the you know 18 months and and have had nothing to do with it before then so that's why we're here tonight um we spent the first phase really trying to understand Ashland and uh and you may have just raise your hand if you've already seen the profile summary that we submitted I don't know when we did it a few months ago okay some of you but not all of you so that's certainly a document that you can look at it will have a lot more information than what we're presenting here tonight um and even that summary uh doesn't have all the information we gathered we also collect all the data uh for each of the areas of the comprehensive plan in Excel spreadsheets that we just share with you because we think it's important for you to have all the data but we just pull out the pieces that we think are most interesting or important to share the story of how we're seeing Trends and issues and opportunities in your community but you have access to all of those Excel databases or spreadsheets rather as well so if you're really into the data you can find all of it there all right so let's go to the first slide um oh it's right there perfect so we'll spend most of the time you'll see this is not a brief presentation because we want to make sure you hear from all of us and uh and we'll kind of uh hit some of the the key pieces of Trends and and issues that we've seen and then we're going to each end with what I like to call sometimes a wicked question like it's basically a rhetorical question for that we're not expecting you to answer right now but through the course of the process you may want to think about is this something that we want to Grapple with and so that's how we'll end each section and there may be other Wicked questions that you can think of but these are just some that our consultant team thought of when they're really looking at what are the trends issues and opportunities does that make sense so far okay perfect so and then at the at the uh sort of at the end of the presentation we'll just go through where we are right now in the process because we've already launched phase two and you may have seen a lot of Engagement opportunities out there so we're going to give you an update on where that is what you can still do to help with that process and then I think you may have some time to ask questions and and discuss the presentation after that all right next slide so what we'll um just do very briefly is share the uh schedule in terms of where we are right now so we've uh basically we have four phases there it is um the first phase was yesterday and today just trying to get an understanding of where youve where you've come from and where you are now and that's what we'll be sharing the results of tonight the second phase we're kind of in the middle of it's helping the community by providing you with lots of different kinds of Engagement tools to help the community Envision the future where do they want to go so we call that Ashlin tomorrow and then once we close that out that phase out in a few months and that's part of that those two that pair of meetings we're trying to do that's that's when the committee is actually writing the vision and goals themselves um based on what community members are telling us through those engagement tools once we close that out we'll go into the the third phase which is achieving Ashlin tomorrow so you know your vision by then you know where you want to go in a very broad way um and achieving ashin tomorrow is what sometimes people are waiting for they want to get into the strategies what zoning changes are we going to propose what uh what Capital Improvements are we going to propose what kind of programs could we could we have that's the third phase and then at the end so well that'll bring us into 2025 at the end we'll basically be pulling it all together into what we think will be a very beautiful plan for you and that that'll be the first time you'll see it all together in a more of a uh master plan comprehensive plan format all right next so I'll just go through generally what this uh summary profile we call it uh includes and then each member of our team will present the section that they worked on next slide and I believe this is available uh on our website so anyone here is welcome to look at that summary document and uh and it includes all the normal things that a comprehensive plan would include so you can see the list here and we'll go through each of these sections in our presentation so we have demographics is actually one section housing is another section we have economic conditions transportation and Mobility uh historic resources and cultural resources for open space and Recreation we actually called it or I'm sorry for open space we actually called it open spaces natural resources ecosystems and sustainability because we know it was really important for Ashlin to integrate sustainability in natural places so we thought that was a appropriate place but you'll see as we go through the plan that will probably start to weave through lots of elements and then we have Municipal facilities assets services and Recreation is there um and then at the end we'll talk about land use and Zoning which sort of pulls it all together in a lot of ways so so let's go ahead and oh and so what are these based on so we collect a lot of data most of it's open- Source data a lot of census data uh you can see a whole list of um you know sources that we've used we also use local knowledge we work very closely with with Pete and his staff to to collect a bunch of you know different information that we've kind of woven in next so we're going to start with um Brena trolinger who is from the JM Goldson team she's going to talk about population and Dem Graphics Brena hi everyone I'm Brena um I am a planner with uh James Goldson and you probably recognize me from a lot of our committee meetings um so I'm going to start us off today talking about population Trends and the demographic makeup of Ashland so Ashland has seen micone is that better yes okay so since 1980 Ashland has seen a pretty significant amount of growth and is projected to continue growing um by about 6,000 residents by 2050 um next slide and so when we look at the breakdown of this growth we see that older adults ages 35 to 65 will sort of be driving this growth pattern as well as senior citizens 65 plus um and these uh age range breakdowns are pretty consistent with County and state comparisons um next slide and so over time Ashen has also become increasingly diverse um and since 2010 the percent of the population that's black indigenous or people of color um has nearly doubled and with that information it's also important to note that there are some Equity gaps in Ashland where black households are earning less than their white counterparts in 2020 and that can also be seen as um women in Ashland are earning less than their male counterparts um so this is also important as Ashland is an environmental justice Community um which are communities who have historically faced more negative environmental impacts than others and this is typically determined by things such as income and the percentage of minority um residents and so ashin is considered an environmental justice Community Based on both income and presence of minority populations next slide so as we're thinking about um growth and change in Ashland that sort of leaves us with a few questions in the fact that Ashland is growing and we should think about how Ashland can welcome new residents um as its growth occurs and we should think about how um this increased number of residents may put strength Rin on Municipal services and so how can Ashland continue to um provide a high level of service um for these new um residents um and then in terms of environmental justice and Equity um Ashland is increasingly diverse and with that we should ask how can we put these Equity issues and how can we uplift marginalized voices within the planning process okay thank you good evening everyone I think I'm going to put my mask down so you can hear me better um so favorite part for everybody today in my presentation is housing uh my name is Kat a spass I'm with jmg um and I am the housing and Equity planner for the company you've seen my face several times as well um Pete if you can go to the next slide all right righty so we're talking about population changes and what does that mean for the actual development that's going on in town so as you see here there's a map talking about development over the last centuries um most of the developments actually happened between 1980 and 2013 and um since your Inception from 1846 those two de two two generations that's really when the development picks up um but you'll see here the little red dots on the map are the um n sorry 1700 to 1799 but all this orange I would say mid orange colors that's all the new development going on in town and you see it's very spread around the town itself whereas the older um buildings are really spread through the downtown of Ashland but if you go to the next slide please Pete what does that actually look like in terms of makeup of housing what's the tenure or the type of Housing and so you've actually built a lot more multif family housing than your neighbors of Holliston and Sudbury so kudos to you um you'll see here that also you've built more multif family in the county so Ashland here has about 60% of multif family housing in 2010 um I'm sorry 30% and that goes up a bit um to I would say like 45% or so um currently you have about 50% of single family housing so that also ticks up a bit you'll see that in the middle sex County and in the state you're um just a tad bit over the multif family but you're also a tad bit over the single family so you're kind of balanced a bit but still much more over the the middle County and the state um you'll see also oh sorry sorry thought that was a few no okay about 25% of residents are actually renters as well so the uptick in multif family housing Al has also meant a decrease in single family housing and the makeup of home ownership has decreased as renters have increased all right and you'll also see that there's been a shift in and household size so over the years there's also been smaller households including household um excuse me home sizes so there are a lot less four to five bedroom homes than there used to be and that kind of reflects the household sizes going from 1 to Two and Three Families versus four to five and up and so you can't talk about housing without housing cost and so you've probably seen yourself how how much housing is actually increased in town and also in the surrounding area and so cost bur is one of the thing one of the terms that we use to look at how much affordability or non- affordable is the town and about 1/4 of families or people in town are cosper and so that means that they're spending 30% or more on their income on housing you'll see from the rest of the pie here that this is the more of the the rest of the breakdown between the lower income family households and so about 70% of those who are low income or Exum low income are actually spending 50% or more of their income for housing and so that actually takes away from other things that you need to pay for your family household Insurance food Transportation all of the things that you don't necessarily think of when it comes to build time and then more into housing affordability so we looked at also just rent changes over the years and as you've seen um rent increases has actually has actually increased 94% so back in 2013 it was about $1,00 a month for rent in 2022 that's 2, 200 and you're actually higher than your your neighbors of Holliston and hopkington and and Sudbury as well this also goes into housing sales and affordability of home ownership So currently your meet and household income is about $124,000 but you'll see here to actually afford a home you'd need 500 or sorry $241,000 that's double the income already in town from the median household income you'll see also from the chart that the actual single family price has been $735,000 so there's a $515 gap to actually what folks can afford with the median income household and what homes have actually sold for SL please and so that goes into your subsidized housing inventory I know that there's a lot to that and I'm going to try to condense it into a little summary as much as possible but the Shi is basically a way of looking at your low and moderate income house housing in the town um and so the state currently has a mandate of about 10% for all municipalities um and you're are currently at 5.83% which is about 435 units you need quite a bit to get to the 10% I know you all can do it but you're still underneath the threshold and a couple of of your developments actually fit into the Shi so you'll see that the village of the amas is a homeownership um area that that counts in Shi and then the 12 Pawn Street is a rental that accounts towards the Shi so Shi includes both rental and home ownership and so this really makes you think about what does affordability look like and how can you increase your Shi which includes the ability to create affordable housing um so that you have more affordability in town and how can you get to that 10% and then again as a population increases you'll also have more folks in town they'll have different housing needs and again affordability comes to mind so what measures can you take to increase affordability for folks who are not only in town already but folks who are coming into town that might need some more affordable opportunities so that's about it for my presentation thanks got to bring the mic up um hi everyone I'm Eric alerson I'm a prin with rkg Associates and um our role on the jam Goldson team is the economic development component of the plan um than thanks um ashen's a really interesting place in its land use composition and also I think from my perspective the opportunities for where our Economic Development activities business activities uh commercial activities industrial activities are taking place in the town today um versus the sort of composition of the town as a whole from a land use perspective we get to when Jen team gets to the land use chap um section of the presentation at the end you'll see a lot of open space and a lot of land that's dedicated mostly to you know the single family housing and also to residential but the map that's up on the screen shows the sort of geocoded locations of where business activities are taking place today and is probably no surprise to many of you it's you know along Pawn Street and it's kind of in the area that we are in right now which is the downtown uh in the new Corridor area but what as I was looking at those two they um they're very different in the businesses that they support and the economic development activities that are going on there and and sort of the size and the scale of commercial development or other types of Business Development that's that's in those areas and something that when we get to the questions that we put together I wanted to think a little bit more about but it's really kind of those those two areas that I think we're going to be thinking about uh as we go forward uh with the plan next please and you know to no surprise I mean this is sort of happening all across the Commonwealth but also all across the country ashlin's unemployment rate is 2% which is extremely extremely low um labor force AB uh availability Workforce availability is pretty much almost an alltime low uh we hear about it almost every day and Ashland's no different but what is kind of interesting about Ashland and probably as a result of so much of the Town comprised of sort of non uh non non-commercial um land in the community is your job growth has been slower than both the county uh and the state as a whole about 6.6% job growth uh or about a little over 700 jobs in the last 10 years um and it's been interesting as as I was looking at I was thinking well okay it's interesting to know too where has that job growth actually occurred because that kind of helps um to sort of paint a picture about what's happening in the community and a lot of your job growth has been in sectors like retail food accommod food and accommodations um General government Health Care um uh construction was also another Big Industry sector so that then leads me down the road of well okay well who's working here versus who lives here and works is a really important question so we started looking at that and that's sort of what the colors a little faded I apologize but we started looking at at that and what we noticed is um a lot of folks who are working and live in Ashland um and you'll see it in some of the demographic data they're really high income earners and high income households and that's been changing over the last 10 years that those those folks have been coming in a lot more so than lower income households and lower income earners and that also corresponds to the educational attainment of the folks who have been coming in over the last 10 years those two things usually go hand inand so what we saw in the commuting pattern data is that a lot of folks who live here are leaving the community to work they're mostly in professional technical scientific service jobs finance and insurance so much higher paying which reflects the house the high household income here but interestingly the jobs that you have here you need to import workers because not a lot of people who live here actually work in the jobs that are here today so that not only has implications for economic development as implications for housing also has implications for transportation and traffic and how people are moving in and out but if we think about the jobs that are here today they tend to be in lower paying industry sectors than the folks who are who live here and are leaving they tend to be in the higher paying jobs the people who work here can't afford to live here um the over the over that last 10year period from 2013 to 2023 the average wage of almost of 82% of the jobs that were grown here over that 10-year period was about $51,000 when you adjust for Massachusetts High Cost of Living um as you just heard in the housing uh piece your you know your median rents $2,200 a month and you need $240,000 a year to afford the median um for sale price so there's no way you're going to get that as a single person or a single earner household at 51,000 so although I'm talking about Economic Development has ties to a lot of the other components uh of the plan itself particularly housing and you know how do we try to support a place where people can live and they can work whether they're here today or they want to be here tomorrow so that kind of leads me to the to two of our questions um that we come up with one is should we start to rethink the land use and the zoning framework along pwn Street Corridor I know this was uh the Cecil group did a study on pwn Street 10 or more years ago um the infrastructure is in place or is was very close to being in place now is it time to sort of look back at the zoning and start to rethink that now that some of that infrastructure is in place the other one is how do we maximize um some like what I would consider to be the Fairly limited land resources that the town actually has for economic development and I think if you haven't seen the numbers yet you'll see them in the landuse piece they're they're very small and probably the most important question is is that actually a priority for the town thanks all right good evening everyone my name is Megan Melo and I am a transportation planner with kson and Associates you may have interacted with my colleague Sonia earlier in the process and she'll be back in the loop in future phases but I'm excited to be here tonight um especially because my mom actually grew up here um in the 1960s she and her four siblings grew up on Warren Road so excited to be here tonight um and I'm going to be talking about transportation and mobility in the town so next slide please when we look at the overall Trends in Ashland um looking at census data for how people get to work uh we could see that nearly 3ars of residents commute in their personal cars and this probably isn't super surprising um we also see that the percentage of residents working from home has nearly quadrupled since the last census in 2010 and I think we can all understand probably why that has gone up um if we compare that to the rest of the county it's actually a little bit of a bigger increase um but there's definitely folks that have changed their commuting patterns since the pandemic despite just over a third of residents living within a half mile of a Transit stop so whether that is the MBTA Commuter Rail or the uh Regional Transit Authority bus routes um only 6% are taking transit to work so there's all sorts of reasons why that number might be low uh often it relates to the frequency of those transit services access to the stops um but that's just something to to think about next slide please so transportation and safety obviously go really hand inand um I know that safety Safe Streets pet infrastructure came up with some really critical issues early on in this process between 2018 and 2022 that 5year period there were just over a thousand crashes in Ashland um and you can see on this map they're really concentrated along the major routes in town so Route 126 135 in the downtown area particularly um crashes involving people walking and biking are kind of concentrated in that downtown area and at the Main Street and 135 intersection um the majority of those crashes are just resulting in property damage to vehicles but there were nearly 20% that resulted in some sort of injury and so one of the effective ways to increase safety on our streets is using complete streets design principles so for those who might not be familiar you know that's an approach to the way we plan and design our streets and then the way we maintain our streets to really provide safe access for all users so not just people driving but people walking biking using Mobility devices really people of any age any level of ability so Ashland is a participant in the Massachusetts Department of Transportation complete streets program they've received funding on complete streets projects over the years um and they've some of those are in process and they're continuing to kind of work down that list of prioritized sites so that is a that is one way to really improve safety on the streets here all right next slide please um oh I skipped here's an example of some of the sites that uh have received funding or some of the projects that have happened I think uh most folks in this room are probably pretty familiar with what's going on and downtown and and some of the other projects that have been developed from the list in 2018 next slide please so when we think about Transportation facilities um beyond our roadways uh there are sidewalks around Ashland they're a little bit scattered though you can see in the map so the network has some gaps in it um they're in some key neighborhoods and places around the town um but there's certainly some areas where you might not have access to that dedicated infrastructure when we look at Trails those are really limited to the paths in some of the state parks and the Town Forest but I know there has been a lot of momentum around the upper Charles Trail extension um a lot of great work around that project um I'll get to that back to that in a minute but um thinking about bike facilities as well um those are also limited but they're are bike facilities in development um and that's something that I know is integrated into a lot of those complete streets projects um so to touch on the upper Charles a little bit more uh we can stay on the slide um so the proposed extension uh that route was approved in 2019 um and that was after there was a committee formed in 2014 and in 2017 the town worked with a consultant team to look into the feasibility of that extension and if that it comes to fruition it's going to be a really great way to connect a lot of key places in the town so both the middle and high schol School the MBTA station the State Park Market Basket some really important generators where people are going to want to be able to to walk in bike and get their outside of their vehicle um there's been a lot of progress lately kind of chipping away at that Vision there's a long way to go but really important um progress has been made the trolley Brook Trail that section opened in 2021 and those other sections too that the town has worked to um acquire and kind of work on so we know that it's a long road ahead but um there's a lot of important work happening to realize that Vision all right and I will leave you with three questions for reflection so first just thinking about the the larger Trends in the area we know that most people are driving to work and and driving in general around town but how might the town prioritize other modes of transportation particularly walking and biking um not just for recreation but also for getting around to the places that we need to go and then next thinking about uh safety I think can you help that one perfect oh sorry Transit um so again compared to the region there is a slightly lower percentage of residents that are taking transit to work so how can the town increase access to these existing Transit stops and routes by especially by foot and by bike and therefore hopefully encourage some ridership of those of those routes and then lastly again thinking about the upper Charles Trail like I said that could have some really important impacts on connecting key places in the town but in the meantime how can we make some of those connections better more comfortable more safe for folks all right thank you all right you get me again hopefully this musical chairs makes it a little more interesting as well all right uh so I'm going to talk about cultural and historic resources so you can go to the next slide and uh and what we learned is you actually do have a lot of historic resources uh and I I always uh like to to emphasize to communities that we're showing a certain number of resources that have been identified in surveyed but that's almost never the full amount of historic resources that you actually have in the community it just means that you've gone out and and had the ability to survey these uh but it's often sort of uh just a proportion of what you really have in the community so what we found is that you have 232 surveyed resources if you're curious to to find them you can go on the Massachusetts uh historic commission website and it's very easy to search under Ashland and you can find all of these um there are no local historic districts despite that I was confused when I first came cuz I saw the signs downtown I thought oh there's a local historic District here but there actually isn't and what I mean by that is it's actually a protected area that the state recognizes it's a it's a very specific program that would give a a historic district commission the authority to review every exterior change that you can see from a public way um on private private and public property and so you don't have that here next uh you also have a demolition delay by law which is one of the best practices in historic preserv World especially in the Massachusetts area and you just strengthened that so that you can now uh have a a year basically a year delay on a historic resource if somebody tries to pull a demolition permit and uh your historic commission determines that this is an historic resource that they want to put the stay of demolition on then you have a year to figure out is there a way we can save this building or move the building or incorporate it somehow into the new development proposal and you also I believe this was also part of the newest change you have now a rolling so sometimes communities say anything older I don't know what your original time frame was you can shout it out if you some of you know 1950 okay so communities will sometimes say anything older than 1950 as an example will be considered uh potential to have a demolition stay um pending review for its historic significance but it's it's actually and I I think it's smarter because as we march on the years change and things that we thought when we first established these weren't historic become historic eventually so they have a rolling to 70 years which makes a lot of sense next so looking at cultural resources you have a lot of um very active sort of events and cultural uh of coming together in community building and there are several components to this the farmers market a Corner Spot which we have the photo of uh and when we first interviewed there was actually some program going on so we we were able to kind of see it firsthand uh the library and then other spaces that may be at religious centers or or other places and so those are all very important for uh kind of the cultural health I would call it of the community which is really about celebrating people who are here bringing people together next and uh and so your questions for reflection the first one is really about you know how how much do you want to do with protecting private historic resources other than the demolition delay and you've done you certainly been very proactive in going out and trying to acquire uh you know historic resources to save but there aren't a lot of um Tools in place like a local historic Resource as an example uh which is kind of the primary way in Massachusetts we can protect private resources there are no lot there isn't much else that you're doing right now and I guess one of the the questions is do you want to and the answer may be no um or the answer may be yes and that's why I I bring it up next so the other question I have is just around um indigenous peoples and Indigenous histories um how might Ashland expand Community understanding respect gratitude um you know there's lots of different ways to do that and I know you have some resources that you've identified I have you know a picture of the Devil's Den here um but there may be other ways that you can honor that culture as well next and then we have uh question for reflection around cultural resources and so I would say that Ashlin has a a rich cultural um infrastructure but you also have a very U you have a lot of growth that's that's projected in the future so you're going to have Brena said before 2050 probably going to see another 6,000 residents you're also becoming a much more diverse Community you saw that uh socioeconomic diversity um doubled essentially if you look at the bipo population and so what does that mean for cultural offerings are there ways you can strengthen your offerings are there ways that you can strengthen offerings and Facilities to embrace New Growth as well as cultural differences um and further build community so again rhetorical questions not expecting an answer tonight next all right so I think I'm done here yes and now we're going to introduce Brian creamer from Niche hi good evening all this a little bit closer my name is Brian creamer work at Niche engineering U I'm here to talk to you tonight about two separate but obviously linked topics uh one about open space natural places sustainability uh and then sep about Municipal facilities uh recreation resources uh and how intricately you know linked those are to all the rest of the topics you've heard about tonight um if I could ask for the next slide please so uh the map you're seeing up here um indicates how much open space exists um in in town today about half of the total land area of Ashland about 4,000 plus acres um is characterizes as open space right or natural lands of that half about 25 or quarter or so is uh permanently protected right that that has a you know protection or a restriction on it where um take a article 97 or you know an act to change that but it's largely not going anywhere um the other quarter would be considered unprotected open space um that some is owned by the state some is owned by the municipality um and then some vast majority of it is owned by private entities could be nonprofits could be you know private land owners or institutions uh if we go to the next slide that's a little bit more about the unprotected um so the unprotected in sort of the darker red color is the open space that we're um concerned with per se but you know want to be mindful of as all the other competing you know resources competing interests you've heard about tonight uh from um other presenters you know might want to consider re other uses for that land um make it housing or industrial uses um and what level of priority is it for Ashlin to continue to acquire um or uh permanently protect Open Spaces contiguous or or separate from the other Open Spaces in town um the other piece I wanted to go to is on the next slide so of that uh unprotected I think it's important to note that you control about a quarter of that um so that those municipally owned unprotected uh parcels equ to about 430 Acres um and about 188 or 10 10% of that is within your of rail Transit District around the rail Corridor itself the next slide please another piece I want to talk about land but also about watersheds so I think it's important for us at particularly at the comprehensive scale plan scale to uh think careful about where that land drains too uh and and what Water Resources um are impacted by the the land use patterns that we um uh that will change over time um so a vast majority of the of the Town certainly drains to the Sudbury River um the the green Hues that you're seeing there um are the Watershed areas that drain to the Sudbury and then the yellow basically the Warren Woods and Southeast portion of town um actually drains to the Charles River Watershed um I wanted to call out and and highlight some of the more recent work and that's been happening U both with the city of Framingham and residents in Ashland about wasum Pond that the vast majority of the wasen pond Watershed you know certainly within the boundaries of Ashland um but I want to point out all the water quality um and you know Pond resource work that's happening um that's been Grant funded as well as volunteer based U to protect and restore the quality of that pond and its Waters um next slide please I also want to commend really um you know of your peer communities and the communities I work in um you're really doing a fantastic job with attacking and and you know promoting an idea of sustainability and reducing um your carbon footprint both for municipal uses um and private uses um and you've all set a very um intent and you know aggressive goal uh by about 91% reduction from 2017 Levels by 2050 um and and the and the way we get there the road map that you've all developed over the recent years years um largely relies on electrification um transition to electrical ve vehicles um and and that's you know sort of in line with many of the other strategies that we're seeing in other communities um and and it I think puts you on the right path for a 25e horizon to decarbonization uh and reducing you know uh Ashland's carbon footprint and next one be remiss if I didn't mention um you know nian a site I do not want to be up here talking about um that I'm an expert in in Brownfield or super vun site uh but it is a critically important aspect of of your town and how this cleanup process has been over the last you know several decades and how it will continue in the future um we understand you know the importance of the residual contamination work that's happening with mass DP um you know is anticipated to continue in all the work that's um happened in recent years um with the you know bipartisan infrastructure law to you know continue that work NOP that's great yeah next one thanks so um some of the key questions there's obviously been a lot of talk tonight about how um development pressur is are going to uh push into some of those uh unprotected open space Parcels that were highlighted on that second map there in red um how critically important it is to identify and prioritize um adoption and protection of uh certain Parcels um and how that overlaps with um topics such as you know habitat and quarters and really key Watershed um know scale moments of of land protection that can have uh Downstream water quality impacts um next slide and I toly to keep with the theme and really sort of keep he beating the drum of how critically important it is that ashin meet those you know goals of 2030 the benchmarks of 2030 and 2050 um as you as you go on the road to um reducing carbon footprint um how how are those that there's going to be a lot of pain points there um that that both the the town as an actor and the town as an advocate will have to coach residents through incentivize residents to um adopt um and we'll leave it at that thank you so secondly and and certainly linked are uh the municipal owned facilities um services and this this runs the gamut from um the cultural and you know uh public resources that that Jen was referring to including the library and The Corner Spot all the way through your you know athletic fields and and um those things specifically as well as your utilities uh infrastructure so we going to highlight a couple key moments from the um existing conditions report if you could the next one or profile sorry I said report but um so some of the key findings that we heard through the interview process and getting to know your town a little bit better um where three key moments um where that the pitway school you know is is obviously Kudos on on the menes school it is uh a a really great resource I'm glad it's um opened up pretty well uh the way school is obviously one of the more aging elementary schools um and updating and you know that resource um is an important consideration of of a capital planning um as well as the town CPW site and then certainly um you know what to do with um aggregate indry site um potential acquisition of that um and and when that lease comes due um in just just a year next slide as wanted to um highlight the overall population projections that we were showing that Brena was um highlighting at the beginning of this um that also comes true for school age populations as well um so what you're seeing there is projections from the New England School Development Council of an increase of approximately um 390 or so students or about 14% increase of the next decade um that is going to put a strain on Elementary School populations but really throughout the the district thanks um I want to talk through briefly about uh sewer rate so approximately quarter of residents are currently still on a septic system either um because of topographic issues or just not in connection to uh the MD sewer system but a vast the majority of residents in town about 75% um are connected to the MW system um that was coupled with an increase in sewer rates back in 2022 I don't believe there's been one since then I don't think there was one this year couple just did a I missed it all right apologies so there's another one recently um and we recognized that um there's a relatively high cost burden for for the the rayer um we're going to talk through what the strategies are to either mitigate those costs mitigate the the burden on the rate payers um and how the that's benchmarked with peer communities as well and going forward next slide so a key question um how does a town really accommodate those additional capacity all the growth that we're talking about at these um you know U new residents over the coming decades um and how are those residents connected to either you know wastewater treatment plant in town or the M sewer uh system and what kind of rates are they paying um and then lastly um next slide how are the uh bipartisan INF infrastructure law or funds that um need to be expended in the next um two years um going to impact and and help the Deferred maintenance uh concerns as well as new capital needs I think that is my last one I'm going to turn it back over to Jen thanks all right we're almost through the whole thing so hopefully you're still paying attention not getting sleepy um so we'll talk at at this closing section about uh land use and Zoning so let's go to the next slide um so you can see we looked at uh what is your current land use how is your land used and we looked at uh what percentage of your land has single family homes this is not zoning this is how is the land used what's built on the land or or not built on the land so single family is about 33 a little over 33% uh multif family is about six a little over 6% and you can go around the circle I'm not going to read every single one but you can see that this also uh highlights what Brian was talking about around the percentage of protected open space and unprotected open space which is uh you can see you about open space is about half of your uh community's land area right now but a lot of it is unprotected and some a smaller sliver you can see that it says limited protected open space 1.51% that's probably uh partials that are enrolled in one of the chapter 61a tax abatement programs which gives the town some right uh to acquire under certain circumstances for fair market value uh but it's a small amount of land all right next so uh the current zoning code uh really prioritizes more single family home growth uh two and three family homes are allowed on about 16% of your land and you can see that chart on the bottom so the big blue line is about 76% % of your zoned land is uh allows single family homes about uh 10% allows two families and about 6% allows three family or above and you and this is by right by the way so this is do people know what I mean when I say by right so you don't need to go and ask for a special permit uh or any kind of special review you can go to the building permit uh building department and basically get your permit to build um that's what we mean when we say bu right and you can see you can't do any accessory dwelling units by right um so that's just something we wanted to to highlight for you next slide so we did has anybody come across the term buildout other than looking at our scope okay so we looked at your total land and we looked at how it's zoned and we looked at Parcels that are undeveloped but zoned for something whether it's single family or commercial development and we looked at uh also properties that could could potentially be redeveloped um there's a kind of a formula we use to just see is it kind of ripe or is there a marginal use on the property or uh uh perhaps the the property is not fully used in the way that it could be so we also looked at that and what this is telling you is not what will be built what it's telling you is what your zoning says could be built and so when we look at all the developable land or redevelop land what we're getting at we're going to give you two figures the first one is how many residential units could you build uh by right under your zoning and then I'm going to show you how much commercial and industrial property uh square footage you could build so the first figure I have here is 323 residential units could be built given your current zoning and um and it's a pretty small proportion of your your total units I actually have it on a note that I can't see right now uh but it's a small percentage I can get you that when I sit down and I can look at the note in a minute um and then if you go to the next slide you can see the Industrial and Commercial so it's about 2.8 uh million square feet and you can see as this kind of highlights what Eric was saying you don't have a lot of um areas that you could really build on right now you could see the basically the red you can see that probably more clearly on this map is showing areas that you could build new commercial and then the the the lighter that gray color are areas that you could build uh industrial all right next and so the questions I think I have two or three I can't remember um so one question is given that population growth that's expected about 6,000 new residents if you look at H the household the current household size average household size um about 2.42 people on average live together right now so household size just how many people do you live with do you live alone do you live with four people and then the uh uh the census basically gives you an average and so if you just look at that and let's just make an assumption that about the same household sizes will stay you know that will stay true in the next few decades I don't know if that's true or not it could be that households continue to get smaller it could we could see a different Trend happening but let's just take that as an assumption for the purpose of making a calculation you following my logic so I want to know well if you're going to have 6,000 new people and the household sizes are about 2.42 people how many units might that be to accommodate that level of people and um and it's about 2,500 additional homes and so you can see that disconnect between what your zoning says you can build and and what you might need given those assumptions and those are big assumptions and they might not be 100% correct but you're way off and then the other piece to think about is that since most of that zoning is probably saying to build single family homes you may consider if is that a conflict with your open space goals do you want more open space to turn into single family homes there'll be a great Market pressure and what happens when we have Market pressure but not enough housing I think we all know the answer to that cuz it's all over the news um there's a supply and demand problem and housing costs go way up and so Kad talked about both the rental and the ownership costs and the reason it seems so unaffordable is because even though maybe you felt like you have built a lot um it's also you know it's also a regional issue uh so there's lots of factors at play but that's a that's a red flag for us when we look at what can you build under your zoning what kind of development do you want and how much unprotected open space you have so we just we're not telling you what the answer is um but we just want you to think you know how can Ashlin ensure it allows the market to produce an adequate amount of housing Supply to meet population demands and then the next slide um gets at there's a large market demand for for housing Ashlin has for 1,420 Acres of unprotected open space that's privately owned Brian went through all of these different figures that's the that's the the amount that's privately owned um now we what I don't have up here which I actually want to understand this better is how much of that land is environmentally um constrained and can't be built upon we actually do know that because we did the buildout I just don't have the number here but that's the other question for you um but then the question I I have here on the slide is how can Ashlin best balance its need for that additional housing production with open space protection and how can land use policies improve so that you can grow in a sustainable way Brian mentioned uh your decarbonization efforts but uh sustainability also has a lot to do with land use um people will drive more if they live further out if they don't have ways to get around very easily if they're not clustered there's also a lot more just uh eating up open space that provides natural tree coverage uh and uh uh absorbs carbon so um does that all make sense the way I'm framing these question questions yeah they're big questions all right next is a oh that's it all right so now we're going to have kise I think come is it Cades or Brena I'm sorry who's giving the overview okay perfect so Cades will close us out with what's happening right nowk Al righty so we're in the thick of engagement right now which is our phase two of all the four phases and so I think most people here are from the committee so we all know what's sort of what going on but for those who are new to this we have about three different tools that we have during this engagement phase there's the community survey um which basically asks a general questions to the community about what they want to see from in Ashland what are some issues we should tackle and address um and then the crowd map really is a fun interactive activity where you kind of pinpoint what you'd like to see in the different parts of town whether that's um you know fun and play or work or things of that nature and then there's also the meeting in a box which is a take meeting have a meeting with family co-workers friends whoever and give your your thoughts in that way and so we're in the thick of it right now we have about a week left of Engagement so really push to make sure you're trying your best to get to as much of the community as possible um but that's what we have so far goe thank you and so Brena was very kind to update the numbers for what they look like today and kudos to you congratulations you've reached 233 participation points which is a very good number so pat yourself on the back um so far from those participation points you have 1,267 survey responses 556 responses from the crowd map and then 210 participants from 38 meeting in the boxes um I understand that there's more meeting in a box notes out there that we still haven't collected so if you have them please make sure to give them to us so that we can transcribe them um and then this equals to 72% of your goal so you're on the right track keep pushing and then we just wanted to shout out the folks who have actually given us our um some meeting in a boxes so if your name is up there congratulations and kudos to you if your name is not up there get in your competitive spirit and try to get it up there but that's so far what we've gotten um and I think if you go to the next slide Pete yes may I just chime in and you may have said this and I didn't hear but I just want to make sure you understand this engagement goal is not does not need to be completed next week the engagement goal is for the entire project so you have two more phases to continue to gather so the fact that you've reached 72% of your full project engagement goal in in this phase is actually amazing um you have another week left and I would really continue does that make oh can you guys not hear me no we can hear you [Laughter] surprised well if you can that's wonderful but really you have the whole project to get that done Jen Jen opened up the can of worms you know this do not mean that you can slow it down this just means that you've got so phase two is the biggest portion of our engagement phase that's really where you're going to get the bulk of Engagement points this next phase in three and four you'll get some in there but there's not it's not going to be the same as the second phase so keep pushing to get those uh engagement points up and you're and get closer to your goal because there will be an opportunity like Jen said during this whole process but it won't be as large as this point yeah next slide thank you and so as I mentioned our uh deadline for engagement phase is 26th of April um and so after that closes we'll be able to take all of the responses we received through the crowd Mac the survey the meeting in the boxes and summarize all those things and analyze them and put them together with a nice bow for us to talk about our conversations around visioning goals and core themes so now that we've chosen dates we can go ahead and put those on the calendar and we can start working towards that yeah so that's about it so thank you all so much right how is oh let's see they last I know were 400 and something surveys but they only did five weeks of Engagement all right so if you keep pushing I mean you're already beating them but their your is over we open we going open up for questions or okay just as a note everyone who's going to ask a question in the room the only way to have the audience here is to come up to the microphone uh up to the podium and then anybody online if you do want to ask a question uh just please raise your hand and I'll call on you uh via Zoom so we'll start in the room does anybody have a question Jeff do I give my name and address no no I'll um Trisha kendle I'm on the planning board um and in some of the meeting in the Box questions maybe one in particular it had about things that come into conflict I think between things two things you might want or synergies synergies and there was another word for it um so the big question for me is about housing you know come maybe coming from planning board both in both in two respects I mean on the one hand I I think I hope that most of the residents of Ashland are welcoming to to to other people of of of all different types of people in our community on the other hand I have heard many times from different sources not one more unit of housing in Ashland too much right which you know is another impossibility right but how do we start to balance and I don't think that's a question for here I'm just wondering if that's you know I assum part of your process that how do you balance those two things like we have all these 6,000 people that are expected to come in and we have at least sections of the community that are saying wait our schools can't handle this the parking is already bad the traffic's already bad how do how do these two things how how did they MH right and especially in light of um as we know uh 40b projects just in the last few weeks that we know are um looking at our community and does this process um takeen to continue to take into account these things that happened two weeks ago you know that are con that are now going to be things that we as a community have to address is this part of the process as well um that's kind of a big question but I think it is a big question let me see if I can tackle it thank you um so the process is really designed to pull out those synergies and tensions I think you were talking about we start by you know obviously tonight we were trying to point some of those out to you as well um and then in the meeting in a box and also the crowd map and even the survey we'll start to understand what are people people feeling where do they where are they seeing those tensions and we you know we can guess at some of the things that we might hear some of the things that you mentioned then as we go into having the committee we we do feel it's important that the consultant doesn't come up with those answers for you on how to balance we can come up with well if you want to do this here's a way to do that um that's you know either through zoning uh through changing your land use or through uh different Ty of Capital Improvements or um you know we can look at Best Practices we can give you case studies we can give you technical information but we want to have the vision be written by you we actually quite different in that way um as a as a team we feel it's important that as a as a committee that you take all that feedback that you're Gathering now will help you digest it but we really want you to then come up with well how do we balance that um how do we we see that people are concerned about X Y and Z how do we come up with a a 10 to 15E Vision that acknowledges those tensions and starts to to kind of tease that out and put it into that big overarching Vision once we understand that from you all in the next few months um then we'll start to look at okay well if that's the way you want to start to balance this out and I don't want to give you examples because I don't want to bias what you come up with but there's probably lots of different approaches you can take to to try to balance those those tensions and and also recognize those synergies and reinforce and leverage them um but once we have an understanding of that Future Vision and you're and the next step actually in meeting one in June June 25th that's what you'll be doing then on July 18th which was the second date you picked earlier you'll be focused on the goals and the goals we like to encourage you to start to think about measurable goals so that they can really be something you can actually track um so you may say we in the ne and I don't don't get don't take this as a recommendation this is purely an example of what you could say you could say in the next decade we want to create X number of housing units and we want them to be in this kind of Housing typology and we want them to be in this General location or locations in the community because it helps us do these other things so I'm hoping I'm I'm being I'm trying to be abstract by not I don't want to put words in your mouth but does that make sense the way that I frame that that's what the second meeting is about those goals and we try to get you to think about you know what uh either percentages or actual numbers or or just that you want to increase something maybe you don't know the number in July um and that helps you become very concrete when we start to think about in phase three well how do you do that how do you create that number of housing and how do you do it in those locations or how do you preserve that percentage of unprotected open space and what areas do you prioritize and of course looking at your existing plans you know your open space plan and whatnot is going to give you a lot of answers as well in terms of priorities so that all kind of layers on itself um and then our phase three when we're helping you with strategies that how do you do it that's when we start to really look at those tradeoffs and look at your capacity and we bring in working with the department managers as well as uh various board and committee you know representation to really balance out what's feasible here out of all these different ways you could go about reaching these goals and this Vision what's actually feasible what can you do what other funding is out there um and we'll help you with all of that that from a technical point of view but we try to provide that framework so that you can actually make those decisions yourself about how do you eval it out that's a kind of a long-winded response I hope it seems like I was answering your question in an effective way thank you okay thank you I think Anna was next yeah so next up uh Anna uh Anna can you please uh State your question sure thank you Peter um Anna Tes minitz I'm also on the planning board I appreciate that um that answer which I think leaves leaves us as the committee with a lot of um a lot of empowerment to figure things out and I have two questions that that are kind of my way to step towards that one is in order for Ashlin to meet its 10% affordability requirement if you will by the state and no longer be vulnerable to 40b what is the official number of units right now that we need to get there and my second question is if we zone or work towards um building fully subsidized housing as a town not private not not private development but actually public development um are we limited in in meeting those 10% in other words does can we for example build it fully for our Elder Community or does it need to be um multigenerational yeah thank you those are my two questions thank you yeah thank you an I'm happy to answer those so cadas is going to pull up the exact number but it's you have 435 units and you're at 5.8% so it's probably somewhere around 400 maybe a little less yeah I I won't do the math now because it's going to take a bit but it's about 800 units or so um 800 total total toal toal so difference right so we're at 5.83% so if we were to just round up there um that equals 435 so if you were to round it up it's about 800 total units to get to your 10% total that you need so it's probably around 400 or something it's the Delta we can get you the exact number and I'm sorry we just don't have it at our finger ticks but that I think that would be helpful for the committee yeah absolutely that's easy for us to do um in terms of your second question you you really can't build housing that restricts to you know um residents or very specific populations um you know you really want um the I mean the other piece of this you said can the town do this can the town build subsidize housing that's that's pretty difficult for lots of reasons um and what I what I would recommend is you really look at your zoning and then using 40b strategically um to help the private Market really raise those funds and use their expertise and you're going to end up with mixed probably mixed income uh you're going to end up with probably uh intergenerational housing probably not all age targeted and uh and that's really what we're seeing a a big need for um but also if you just look at fair housing issues you really want to open up housing as broad as possible uh for lots of reasons including that it's probably best for the community as well thank you thank you so Steve Mitchell Steve Mitchell you have your hand up next please unmute yourself and and uh and ask your question great thank you Peter um so a question actually it's a two-part question there's been a number of uh recent articles about net migration out of the state and kind of the demographics by which uh folks are migrating so number one is this a a problem as far as UCS consultants and if so how do you factor that into your your projections so we rely on um State projections essentially and I know that I don't know all the factors that they look at but I do know they look at more Regional Trends um I don't have a specific answer as to how that's factored in and I don't know Brena I know you had put together the demographic section if you recall specifically um but that's all I can say is that it it's you know they look at these bigger Regional Trends but I don't know specifically how the formulas will work okay I it just seems to me that uh you know there's enough of a concern uh out in uh whether it's the uh um Economic Development Arena the employment Arena and so that it would be something that would be factored in at some level uh I would ask or suggest that maybe you get a little bit more information on that for the for the committee yeah sure we can look at the projections that we've used and I think give you a little bit more information on what they factor in and and uh yep Kad is taking a note on that yeah we use the mass uh dot um projections um and I think the Donahue Institute also provides uh some projections but because they're looking at the future it's really variable and so what they're based on is like usually the census um and so even now from 2020 things are already looking pretty different um and so it's hard to get more specific especially looking out several decades um so I don't have a specific answer for you but we can um gather more resources okay great thank you do you want say no of course I'm sorry please thank you Eric definitely um hi Steve this is Eric from rkg um great question if you read the globe the last month or two you've probably seen three or four articles about this um from my just speaking for myself and our experience in the region I think it's a huge problem um our communities and our Workforce are aging and Ashland is no different what we're also seeing is a net out migration they call it domestic migration so those who live in the state now and then are migrating either to another mostly to another state within the us or maybe even out of the country um they tend to be our working age residents between the ages of 25 and say 44 uh research that we did a couple of maybe about a month ago we looked specifically at suffk County which is generally Boston the folks who are moving out of Boston who are out domestically out migrating are our highest income Workforce they're typically um earning over over1 $125,000 the folks who are coming in and I don't say this as a negative it's just the data you can take it how you want the folks who are migrating into Massachusetts are typically International International IM migration and the incomes that they have are very low but they're critical to to supporting and sustaining huge swats of our economy so that's why I say it's not a bad thing that they're coming in we we need those folks but we also need to retain the folks who are leaving because they're a different segment of our economy so unless the folks who are coming in with less education and less training unless we can get them trained very very quickly or educated very very quickly and moved into the jobs that other folks of the working age are vacating we're going to have this imbalance and it's going to continue this is not a covid based Trend Massachusetts and many other states in New England we're doing a ton of work in Connecticut exact same issue as Massachusetts in migration is dominated by International immigration outmigration is dominated by domestic and it tends to be high income earners they're just going elsewhere um I would just say it's difficult to say what the reasons are people come and go for a whole bunch of reasons family reasons personal reasons relationship reasons money reasons job reasons housing reasons so I think as a community it's important to try to figure out what can you actually address as Ashland and what role do you want to play and can you play because I think as someone mentioned before a lot of these are Regional and state and even sort of Northeast challenges so we're going to have to tackle them as Mega regions or as as States but I think as part of the the comp plan we'll want to think about like what could we actually do as ashon or what are we comfortable doing and like how can we be part of the solution both locally but also regionally yeah well just to followup to to that uh um is that I I suspect it might be um more uh specific to certain Lo locations uh and maybe not affecting all locations but it also seems is that you've got a prime um wage earning group that seems to be the bulk of the migration out of the the community out of the state and I think that's got huge certainly huge implications and and clearly it's related to the cost of living in Massachusetts I'm sure you've seen the article the other day $900,000 I believe is the a average house in Metro Boston is that do I have that correct so you can see the pressure on uh you know the cost of living and uh you know it's again I don't know how you factor all this into you know the projections that we're going to base our comprehensive plan on so uh I appreciate your answer thank you so I know I think we have a couple questions in the room so I'm just going to ask you to proceed to the microphone I will not call on you everybody uh Michael Herbert Town manager not in the suit tonight so um I just had three points um first of all thank you for your presentation thank you for putting all of this together it was really good um you know I had an opportunity to look at the documents uh but seeing it up here on the screen and having you present it really kind of brought a lot of it to life um number two I just think it's important to tie in Steve started going in this direction is that at least what we're hearing from the state is that we need to build more housing because we have this outmigration of people you know these high income high-skilled workers who can't afford to live here and so the concept or at least the theory is the more housing that's produced the more it will drive the price down and people will stay here um at least that's what that's the Theory right that's what we're being told um and then finally I just uh had those Shi numbers and the 10% numbers that Anna had uh had asked and I think it's important to note uh for everybody here that that 5.8% um that is that is a real figure but it's also important to note that there have been a number of units that have been permitted that have not been built yet for several different reasons and actually um a few of those include um the development on aund at 100 Chestnut Street um which I believe 18 of those units are going to be classified as affordable um 100 or 501 Pawn Street which is um 120 units 25% of which are affordable and since they're rentals you get to count all 120 units towards your subsidized housing inventory and then also several years ago um the zoning board permitted the Arbella at Ashland project which was an age restricted uh development on munko hill of that's 180 units uh that was a 40b and 25% of that was affordable and so you get to count all 180 units um unfortunately those latter two have not been built yet for several reasons but once those are done we actually are at our 10% just barely over it at 10.09% um so just thought I'd present everybody those numbers and Pete put those numbers together so if they're wrong blame him so but he did it he did it several times okay Mark s 49 hathon Road informative saying things but to me it's the housing is not my cup of tea I want to get more business so I'm going to be going down Pawn Street and the municipalities combination what would be a scenario if businesses have more permits in the spaces on Palm Street would that be a balance act to go by can anybody answer that in what in what vein Mark what can you explain can you unpack that one for us okay py was was a dream years ago about 10 20 something years ago and what it was going to be a business and Commercial Highway through to get the economic up here for for the town it's it's good Highway through the town through through the state and stuff like that but the businesses has been going in and out of some buildings on some Lots what percentage of buildings on Pawn Street only can be attractive for there if you can if you can view what's there at the time I don't know if that was part of the scope of this first phase Mark okay can there be in the future down the road for open space ecosystem and before buildout single family houses that can have a have a mixed use in each for economic go and future business growth so looking at com combining housing and and Retail or commercial uses as a mixed use projects is that what you're uh not in retail but in um green climate control local state college graduate business master's degree in the sciences and stuff like that can that be a growth aim a growth aim I think so yeah absolutely so why is it all been about the single family housing and not using it for that MH thank you thank you thank you Mark hi Katherine Jers I'm also on the planning board I have two questions um I tried to take notes I didn't get all the housing but since housing is on everybody's mind important the in the calculations so we are MBTA Community we are currently studying MBTA zoning I don't know what'll happen at town meeting but let's just say it does pass that will be by right 1,124 units so we should at least be updating and factoring that in conversations um um and then I wanted to find out so this June 25th meeting which will provide information to the July 20 July 18th meeting how can we get a or what did you build in for like a public check-in because our committees really I mean we tried to be representative but I mean there's no way that 29 people should be completely speaking for the town so I'd like to find out how either between the 25th and the and July 20 July 18th or after the 18th we can check that this that our the way we're kind of heading does meet the intent of the public so so the work sessions on the 25th and July 18th they're not necessarily your words they're the words coming from the community that we've collected through the various tools and engagement phase um so that's one way that you're reflecting what the community is really wanting from this this process and then we'll also be having a community comment period after we've done completing the vision and goals and core themes so there is a back and forth with the community around what work you're doing as a committee and making sure that that reflects what the community uh continues to to want to share with us okay did I I I heard there's a community comment period not a committee comment per corre okay yeah thank you yeah hi I'm Chuck lids and I'm Vice chair of the sustainability committee and I want to begin by noting that you need to work on the that part because the town meeting voted to be Net Zero by 2040 I hate to ask I'm sorry could you repeat the first part I miss the the the um the town meeting voted to be Net Zero by 2040 not 2050 um you're using state things and I'm not saying we're going to do it God knows I'm very aware of the difficulties um the other the second observation I'd have of course if we're going to have X number more residents only if we build the housing um I by the way I'm all for building the housing I'm not trying to but you know saying we're going to have 6,000 more residents who knows it we could have 10,000 more residents if we built the housing um the and now I forgotten what my question was going to be anyway thank you I by the way I think this was a spectacular report I really do thank you hi I'm Bill novakowski from design review uh you mentioned that about 25% of the populace is cost burdened and a health emergency away from financial disaster um did you uh have do you have the data to determine what percentage of those people in danger are renters um we do have them in the workbook that you have access to okay I can try to bring it up in a little second okay also um has have any differences been made between people who are renting in say two and three family homes and I emphasize family and homes as opposed to the big boxes that are going up on places like Chestnut Street and 12th Pond Etc do you mind just re stating that question Sor yes what P what percentage um have you broken out the um percentages between people who live in two and three family homes versus the people who live in the big box structures that are going for cost burden yeah yeah I don't think we have that data but we can do the we can show you the rental versus owner data okay I'm I'm just concerned because you know what what passes is affordable in some of the newer developments isn't affordable so yeah part of part of that is um all affordable housing is calculated by the 80% Ami and so the area meting income really encompasses a large portion of the land and not just Ashlin or the or the the communities around it so a lot of municipalities have had the issue of is This truly affordable and for whom so um I think that's a general question that a lot of communities struggle with okay thank you thank you hi I'm David iano I'm the uh representative of the third precinct um question I've got for the data you guys got on housing you have I don't know if this was captured in your analysis uh like housing based on like square footage per home uh just kind of curious how many homes might have in town that would be just picking a number like with under, 1500 square feet that might be considered like a starter home or something that would be more attainable for a new family or just cuz I know a lot of stuff that was has been built that is single family in the last few decades has tended to Trend larger and you know is much more Out Of Reach for folks coming into the market I'm just curious be it single family Town Homes apartments like do you guys have that broken down by square footage I don't believe we have it by square we didn't look at it by square footage um I don't know planning if the planning Department's looked at that at all with Assessor's data I don't think we have either no is there any chance we could get that I would I would we I think first off you got to look at the assessors data to see if it how it breaks down okay yeah I think if the data is there we can try to dig it out but you have to you're only as strong as your own data when it comes into the circumstance right so you have to first go and see obviously how much how the how the Assessor's data is organized thank you guys love the report thank you thank you I I remembered what my question was going to be um did when you were thinking about open space that's potentially developable did you take out of that Wetland area the short answer is no it's by parcel and that's what Jen was hinting at in the land you section too a an overlay would that we intend to do is to sort of take out the undevelopable portion of the open space that is unprotected yeah I know around me there's a lot of open space but you can't develop it so Brian's analysis didn't do that but our buildout analysis did consider uh environmental constraints so we could we could we could add that layer into the report or to our presentation yeah we do have it thank you you're welcome Claudia Bennett I'm a member of the select board thank you very much for your presentation I enjoyed it um as you can see I think a lot of what we're discussing these days is housing and how it's going to um impact our community and I and I just wonder you know of late I personally have been feeling a little bit like there's a lot of things that aren't in our control and here you know we're bringing our community together for their feedback and what they envision our our community to be um and yet how do we align what the things that we don't control with what our our what everyone is envisioning I feel like we come together and we're in a little bit of a vacuum um and then some of these things aren't don't come to fruition the way we plan yeah that's a great process question so part of the committee's job and then ultimately the the planning board and the the select board will be to add a layer of um you know your perspective from what's going on on things that you know you can't control um we can also help just in terms of technical um advice and assistance with that but the reason we have the committee write the vision and the goals uh you know as Kad said we want you to take the words of the community when they give you their engagement results but we also want you to add your own perspective from your uh understanding of the community and what's going on and what's realistic thank you rajish from Precinct 5 um wonderful presentation so thank you for that but what a tease I won the answers to the questions that you send out um one of the things that I've seen through the six M ABS that I've done um and then looking at brena's document I see that the responses have been the maximum among white women 70% and above all through through the weeks um and here we're talking about the fact that there has been a change in the demographics so there is this discrepancy and how do we as community members reconcile with that and take that idea forward um because we're saying okay there are some people who are coming into town and who are who are going to be bip or whatever or else um how do we how do we adjust that in our reporting yeah thank you rajashri so um what we typically recommend is looking at I know brena's been giving you weekly reports with um advice uh and we look at the demographics reported um in the survey in particular and uh and trying to do some targeting targeted Outreach around especially around if there are events in those you know in communities you're trying to reach if there are also uh groups that you can pull into the meeting in a box it's a really great way to try to offset uh if there are any gaps that you're seeing in the survey um you know you can continue to do that in the future phases but we would you know advise that you you know work hard to do that right now as well and I and I don't know Brena if you have on your fingertips kind of what some of those gaps might be at the moment rajish stre mentioned that in the meeting in a box you were seeing mostly uh White women uh participants yeah and I will say white women typically um we see that across communities it's not just you guys um where women in general are um more active and more engaged um and the percentage of white population overall is more represented um so that's not just a problem in Ashland and I also will say that there is a huge caveat with this data and we're only collecting demographics at the very end of the survey so the numbers reported are for people who made it to the end of the survey and chose to share that information with us it's totally voluntary and these other groups may be better represented in places we're not collecting that data so it is hard to extrapolate that across all engagement because I know you guys have been doing really great work especially with the meeting in the boxes to Target these um Gap communities that we talked about in the network mapping assessment and so we do have some some gaps um but those are really only reported in the survey um so I don't want to put too much emphasis on you have this huge gap when that's not necessarily the reality of the whole picture um does does that make sense I'm still troubled by the discrep yeah thank uh Stacy Grant Lewis I represent the cultural Council but this is not a cultural Council question um first of all great presentation very informative and like rajes said it's a very much a tease for to the rest of this but my question is about recording in progress the surrounding the surrounding employers around our area because our our community typically or in the past has been a pass through Community a bedroom community where people like you said work elsewhere so if they're be how the behavior of the surrounding employers that are not reflected in the data that you showed like of the Rons and and those large employers um how that's impacting the influx of people coming into town and their needs I know that even today although Google isn't headquartered here but they are certainly sending their employees in different to different countries um and and so that affects um you know people leaving their community so I just wanted to know if that's worthwhile looking at to look at or is my question clear do you want to weigh in on this one I'm just goingon to ask for clarity um so is your question about commuting patterns like for Ashlin residents and where are they going right yes so that's partially the question um and uh the influx of people who might be coming through to live here if they're going to surrounding employers and if that's worth looking at got it um I think the way that the community is structured in terms of its residential versus job opportunities balance sort of the jobs housing balance obviously this is a bedroom community by and large compared to some of the other surrounding communities uh Framingham I mean even nact to a certain to a certain degree um when we looked at the so I think the way that things are structured today unless something radically changes you probably will continue to be a place where people reside not not necessarily where people are where more people are coming to work than who live here versus a community like you know like a Framingham for example where there are a lot of people whatever it is 70,000 people who live there but they have a ton of jobs too um so I unless something radically changed National I think the trajectory may continue to be the same you might see some slight fluctuations uh when we looked at the commuting data we can look at it by Ashlin resident Ashlin residents who work and where they commute to on a daily basis for their job it was pretty interesting to look at like the top 10 locations for that um it was number one was Boston it was also Cambridge uh Newton walam places that are not near here Framingham was in the top three so that is a big draw for people who live here and are engaged in the workforce um a little bit of maror I saw on there so again I think to your point it's like people come here it seems like to live because it's an amazing Community to live in there's a lot of reasons why people want to live here but then that jobs Bas especially the jobs in professional technical uh services that are in the Boston the Cambridge the wall fams um even you know up near um 990 in Framingham you know places like that so I don't know if I'm answering your question but we did look at that and I I think what you what I interpret you were commenting on I think is is accurate like people live here and then they're they're going out but I don't know I don't know if I helped or I answered your question or not yeah I just wanted to I guess I just wanted to see if we could get more granular and who exact like the surrounding large employers how that impacts you know the housing needs and the things that we can control in terms of for for the town and how do we we want to go economically like things like that so I don't know if it's worthwhile go to the mic can sorry can I just ask can I keep going or not yeah can you restate your question just one minute pal so just so I can try to understand a little bit more let's say math Works continues to grow in niic are you saying what is the impact of that growth on ash from a residential perspective thank you okay uh Peter match to Joe manani Joe did you have a question uh I did and thank you thank you Peter for acknowledging me uh Joe manani to hopan a member of the select board uh thank you for the presentation uh it answered a lot of the questions that I had um one of my concerns is that I believe it was on the first slide when you were talking about your goals I think there were seven seven seven items that you had up there and believe the very last one had to do with planning and and Zoning uh to me right now that should be foremost uh one of the most important things we should be looking at especially where we're being uh you know bombarded with uh these different projects that are coming into town for with with new growth uh don't mind the new growth but we need to be able to um moderate uh moderately handle the growth uh so that the town grows with the growth and can uh keep up with the growth uh we've had this issue back in the in the early 90s when the uh the condos were were going crazy and we had a difficult time as a town catching up to the growth and I think that's one of the issues and I hope that's something that you folks will address uh for the future uh and and I'm I strongly believe that uh we are way behind when it comes to uh zoning um and I hope that you folks will really discuss and and put forward uh the inclusion every zoning bylaw that needs to be addressed to help uh give us another tool to help fight this uh this bombardment of uh projects that are coming on you know coming toward to our town so I don't know if you have any comment on that or is that something that you folks are going to do but I appreciate all all your efforts so far yeah thank thank you so much I I'll make just a couple comments you know absolutely Planning and Zoning is at the core of what the the strategy ideas will uh will be kind of focused on um and the I just the second point I want to make is the order of the the topics was in no way reflective of priorities I typically put land use and Zoning at the end because it ties a lot as you noticed I referred back to what a lot of the prior presentation presentations included so it kind of ties it together at the end thank you thank you and and Peter uh just one last thing I didn't mean to interrupt uh the young lady but if someone needs a follow-up question think you get to the microphone because we couldn't hear what that follow-up question was in her response that's what I was trying to get attention for oh okay okay thank you okay we have one person online Anna say Anna you have your hand raised please uh State your question my question is regarding Economic Development are there particular economic Trends uh in our area you mentioned marbor and Framingham appear to be attracting job growth should we should ask be thinking about resoning in a certain way to attract a certain kind of business to kind of fit in with what's happening in Metro West are there economic opportunities for us as a community to think about for the next 10 years 10 to 15 years as we grow so that we can augment our tax revenue um more commercially rather than uh being just a bedroom community um great question and yes that'll be part of the goals and strategies component of this and also we be working with Jen's team too because I I think some of it the buildout needs to probably inform what can get built where and then tie back to the prior uh question that we just heard around land use and Zoning so one example is um with Co we saw a huge boom in like transportation and Logistics warehouses which can range from 150,000 square feet to 3 million square F feet in size those require a lot of land both for parking of semis uh access and just the general size of the building so if we were to look at some of the available say industrial Parcels that Jen had showed on the build app map and we don't and I'm just making this up but let's say all those Parcels were three acres in size we're probably not going to Target a large facility like that but when we look at industrial and Manufacturing maybe there are other kinds of Niche manufacturing that maybe have barriers in the zoning or require special permits or have really high parking requirements um so we can look at those things and try to reduce the regulatory barriers to Economic Development um in Metro West there's a lot going on um there's been actually a pretty fair amount of that industrial Logistics up until the last year or two things like lab was going but I'm not sure that's really a great option at this point in time um medical office and medical uh manufacturing device manufacturing continues to also be a strong point in Metro West so we'll be looking at all that stuff as well as you know maybe you want to have some more walkable commercial nodes that are supported by mixed use right that's another way to have Economic Development just at a very different size and scale right supporting small businesses local entrepreneurship um in addition to the large uh businesses and players that we might be thinking of Elsewhere in the region and is Hospitality still a hot spot in western Mass or is that impacting this area uh that I will have to look into I'm not sure thank you all right thank you hi hi everybody I'm Rob share the current select board chair um and so uh one of the things I want to do kind of ceremonially is thank you all for being here and just um just kind of reiterate our uh our support for this uh Pro uh process um and the um thank all the work of the folks in the steering committee for going through this and we started this what a year or a year and a half ago was an idea um and it's um it looks like it's going strong I I do want to say as someone who's um kind of wrestled with all these issues as a municipal official for going back for more years than I at the moment care to re remember um you know you I think you've hit on this existing conditions report you hit um all the kind of major issues that we've been dealing with um and you know the themes of uh sustainability walkability Transportation housing Economic Development uh quality of life I didn't actually hear that term very much but you know in in a community like Ashen that's really important that's why people come here it is a bedroom community it's um one of the more Blue Collar towns in this area and you know I really appreciated your um I think you got it right in terms of the housing in our record and housing um in this area we have been housing provider for Metro West really U besides say Framingham and uh you know Marboro um so uh you know I just um I did I did want to hit on you know just kind of thank you all for thank you for your efforts and the efforts of the steering committee and I think um you know going to some of the questions you I feel like youve put together a great framework for these folks to work on because they come out of this I really want to emphasize the need for concrete tools and as you can see that you know events are always moving we're always behind a step or two behind right so now we have 240b projects we're dealing with um and so all the kind of numbers you're putting together all of a sudden they're outdated you know so um but uh you know I think this is a great process the a strong process and it really gives us hope for the future and I just want to emphasize coming out of it with strong tools that we can put in effect because we've talked about many of these Concepts on and off for years I've been open space how to protect open space buildout uh things like that um you know the idea of having the need to have concrete tools and specific numbers and then coming out of this with like things like a sidewalk plan you know and a complete streets priority list that's you know kind of institutionalized um so I I want to emphasize that and as you folks get into this process and start putting together these concrete recommendations um you know you know ask for whatever resources you need and the tools you need to to get that straight and um you know so that's where we are racing Against Time as usual but uh anyway thank you uh yeah that's all I minutes okay everyone we have about five minutes to go in the meeting okay uh we have about five minutes to go in the meeting if there are no remaining questions I make a motion to adjourn um second okay motion to adjourn okay all those in favor okay nobody opposed all right the motion is passed [Laughter] items committee that you have for the next meeting we're scheduled for May 16th so you can just email those to us okay

call the role pres pres here [Music] here he was here a minute ago who oh thank you um if you we could all rise for the pledge of allei please I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands na God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay first on the agenda is our student Representatives Ella and Andrew you have a report for us hey everyone hope you've all had a great April so far um I can't believe we're almost towards the end of the school year which is uh we've got one full month left to school but um there's a lot been going on in April so far so uh first the Chester baseball team hosted a home game for Autism Awareness on April 8th versus West Haven the game held um had Raffles prizes and opportunities to donate to local organizations um the main one being sun moon and stars that which provides services to families who have children with autism the chesher high school robotics had a great weekend their alliance with teams 1099 and one 5142 placed them in fourth place in the playoffs and won them the industrial design award the team is currently ranked 23rd out of 185 teams in New England the CHS marching Ram band and band parents Association were recently recently recognized by the Southerton chure community YMCA at their annual meeting and awards dinner the groups were presented with their youth youth development award for service enhancing the youth the experience of Youth in chure Andy Conrad attended along with the BPA co-presidents amser and Denise tasus as well as well as their students who are both children at CHS and most and recently girls lacrosse became the first team to practice on the new turf at bartlam which began a new chapter in Cheshire Sports now moving on to some um some con congratulations to students and teachers at our school so we had a couple students who competed in the New Haven local section of the national chemistry Olympiad in mid-march James Boyd Jack de Joseph Daniel idala uland du dipd Raj Mony Matthew Reid Matthew Watson and Peggy Wang good luck to James and Peggy who placed top 10 in the New Haven County and and have qualified to compete in the National chemistry Olympia exam on April 13th at Quinnipiac the C Cas Connecticut Association of schools celebrated students receiving Fine Arts Awards Michael Anastasio and Maya katovich were the CHS recipients um so moving on to some teachers Gina curado was selected from over 1,800 teachers with for yukon's instructor award for excellence and course course instruction in her ECE Spanish class additionally my AP Physics teacher Mrs Barker was honored as a silver silver jubilee recipient for 25 years of ECE participation Miss Michelle katuchi was appointed by House Majority Leader Jason roas to the building education responsibility with greater Improvement net networks commission um at uh also known as Bergen because of her position as executive director for the Connecticut school counselor Association and her experience in public education recently 50 students from the CTE courses and Mecca Rams attended the manufacturer connection fair at the state capital the event organized by representative Liz linan ready Connecticut am and the State Office of manufacturing connected the new generation of innovators with Connecticut manufacturers who have booths and handon activities I think it was aming was an amazing event for students who are interested in going into engineering and Manufacturing and I was for forunate to attend and learn about these uh these different places um another congratulations to Mike Federico um the Connecticut Association of schools Cas friend of Education award was awarded to him for the Triple B sandwich buffalo chicken barbecue sauce and bacon and I urge you all to go try it um finally over April break there were two different uh major trips um one was through chorus who went to Virginia Beach and the other was through the Latin and Italian um language classes who went to Italy which I was a part of and I thought it was an amazing experience and something I'd recommend to other people to go do in the future hi everyone I missed you last month I hope everyone's doing well um on my end I have some things to report on right in the high school itself um in terms of some things going on for the whole District actually we recently hosted the elementary school and middle school leadership conferences through the peer Health Educators class run by Mr Dan Lee we had 94 Elementary School students from all of our schools and two schools from other towns and they came to the conference with team building activities um a video some guest speakers which were panelists at our school which was awesome we also had a middle school conference which hosted students from DOD as well as students from three other elementary schools um middle schools sorry in the area that had really similar activities and next week we have the high school leadership conference which will have adult panelists of very professional impressive people um people a guest speaker from the YMCA in Southington and various activities the National Guard will be bringing things it's a really big deal and we're really proud to have an event like this that can foster leadership in students at Chester high school and in surrounding towns in terms of some other things districtwide we hosted the eighth graders today and in the last two days at Chester high school for tours of the school to help prepare them for their next four years at Chester High School which is very exciting we also have Chapman School participating in the Ry of light challenge basically what this is is in honor through Pure Health also in honor of our teacher Coach Lee his son passed away many years ago and in his honor they have created the Ryan T Lee foundation and they sponsor many fundraisers throughout the year but specifically this one is at Chapman school students are participating in a poster making contest and the winners will receive money that will be used directly to go back into the Chapman School environment to help Foster kindness which of course is already there but to encourage students to continue to spread kindness and inclusivity in their school environment in terms of inclusivity we actually have this weekend for Best Buddies the second annual lacrosse event coming up this year it's going to be a two-part event with our group attending both a pasta dinner and the gaming Clinic uh so shout out to coach Mike dine and all of the lacrosse boys this event really helped us Kickstart other sporting events through Best Buddies which has been an honor and a great way to get more people involved in spreading our mission next up in some music related things uh like Andrew mentioned the chorus just went to Virginia Beach but this weekend the band is traveling to compete in Boston they also have a concert coming up on the 24th and there's course concert coming up on the 30th on April 29th the musical Mean Girls is up for some nominations through an organization called the sonheim so we'll be finding out if we were nominated for anything and if we will be attending a special Gala coming up in May so that will be hopefully exciting um some other things around chesher high school going on right now everyone is in the midst of preparing for AP exams and even though they're not until May our extremely dedicated teachers have already started making review packets before and after school review sessions to help prepare students and that has been a little bit scary but also good also students are going to be able in very early May going to be able to test for a seal of biliteracy on their diploma which is something that is newer and we're excited to be offering that in I think five languages which is very impressive and helpful for students graduating next week we also have the impact assembly which teaches students about the dangers of driving while under the influence and it is an interactive presentation that is assisted by the police and fire department and we've both attended last year and it's a very helpful and beneficial presentation so that will be good and lastly this weekend there's the chesher road race and numerous chesher High School clubs are volunteering to have water stations to show their support for the community and that is it on my end excellent thank you very much um any comments or questions from any members of the board for Ella or and or and K thank you uh thank you for your comments tonight this is not actually for them but it is directly related to what they said I think this is probably a question for Jeff or Marlene the I know we don't normally get an update on DOD we're sitting here right now did Dodd have any uh trips over the spring break I think so no no okay yeah that's not typical their their big trip is in May Washington right before uh Memorial Day weekend they go to Washington DC for three days okay so that's what everybody's focused on here got it thank you any other questions or comments for Ella and and Adam thank you um I just wanted to comment that thank you for all the the great reporting uh you've done uh through the year so far I just want to apologize for the small table that you have it's close but cozy Mark you're you're all good good I'm gonna ask um maybe an unfair question so uh Ella you reported on best buddies and inclusivity in particular and I'm wondering if you Andor Andrew um maybe both of you could just Enlighten us as to um why inclusivity is important to to a high school student I can start with this I might have no you can hear me now okay um so I can kind of start with this one I think that the importance of inclusivity in our high school environment and this also trickles down into the other schools is that students can't be the best version of themselves and they can't learn all of the material and create the social connections if they don't feel comfortable and safe in the school climate and feeling included and feeling supported by both students and staff is absolutely necessary for that um I've been with u so many students with um with intellectual and developmental disabilities since when it was at Chapman and elementary school and I feel like it's an amazing opportunity like it's it's amazing with what Cher High what CH high school has done for those students to um not I I'd say make them feel included but that's not the right wording um to include them with everyone else um have them be a part of all the sports teams treat them like other students in the school who don't have those disabilities that they have um so I think through best buddies and all the events we have at the treasure High School um I think it's amazing for them and for everyone else to learn and promote inclusivity here and throughout um everywhere else they they're they are thank you very much for your comments um I'm always interested in like a variety of insights on on topics and uh to know really what it means to high school students um is helpful thank you um I don't think we have anything else for you to so you know you're free to go if you have to but you're also welcome to hang around if you'd like to okay next on our agenda is a presentation which I will call on Mr White to present the school partnership award for Norton school okay the TV thank you so thank you Mr superintendent for giving me this these these kind words I appreciate it the school partnership award at sorry I'm getting old I need bifocals I think at this evening's meeting the recipient of the school partnership award for Norton school will be recognized oh wait sorry I told you I was um so I'd like to introduce Melissa rier did I say it okay okay M rier keeps Norton school a float with her donations of balloons at various times during the school year Miss rier has a daughter at Norton and when she has made aware of different activities she kindly donates the balloon displays from her own business some of the Creations have included a neon balloon arch for our PTA Bingo night a balloon display for her trick or trunk Booth during Halloween and an amazing black and white Dalmatian balloon arch in the front of the building for our 1001st day of school Miss riro adds to our Norton school festivities with her thoughtfulness and generosity the Board of Education thanks MS riro for going above and beyond for the students of chesher public schools [Applause] pleas than [Applause] uh next up on the agenda is public comment I would ask if anyone would like to uh address the Board of Ed um we have a microphone set up here and please come to the microphone State your name and address here in town and uh we'd love to hear from you good evening everybody you all know me Doug Noble 30 JY Court here in chesher um my questions are about the upcoming discussion on equity and diversity policy we already have a pretty robust program set by uh I believe it's in 2018 was re revised which kind of encompasses everything that we're talking about this evening and you know going through the policy I'm like H it's a little little wishy-washy here um so as a compliance officer I look at legal documents all the time and you know I'm looking at number item number seven here um it says Identify and remedy any practices including assessment that lead to an over representation of any one group of students EG based on color gender Etc well isn't that segregation didn't we fight that back in the' 60s with Ros of parks and now we're bringing that back again I mean this is ridiculous that is not what we're about here everyone's on an equal platform and we want to make sure people are on equal platform now put certain groups above others okay so that's that's that's a lawsuit open up here right here for the Town of Chester for that uh one issue and another one in here the district will employ Staffing Pro processes that support an Eng gender racial and gender diversity in its staff the superintendent shall provide annually to the board of a report on Staffing and efforts made to ensure that the staff represents the diversity and the student body and the community well isn't that hiring by race isn't that that's that's a total violation of the Equal Opportunity Act of 1972 signed by Richard Nixon so what are we doing here okay we already have a program in place and now we're going to open ourselves to a legal lawsuit and create racial tensions in this town it's ridiculous I have two young children in the school system I certainly don't want to be seeing this stuff thank you talk D 230 Oregon road so I also reread this um proposed change what struck me was on page two racism it's a prejudgment bias discrimination by an individual based on race individual racism includes implicit bias conscious and unconscious wait a minute are we going to have a Cadre of polygraph officials at the door to make sure that everyone has pure thoughts how do we know what's in one's unconscious sounds like a quantum entanglement to me so moving on we end up in implementation and responsibilities plans and procedures established shall include clear accountability for actions and oversight okay now does this mean we're going to have some type of re-education camps uh somehow we're going to have to get others to follow in line with the thought of the current day um I'm little confusing exactly what that oversight is so the general comment would be the more we talk about race and diversity and equality and all the rest the more we all think about it you know the world gets along quite well without the preoccupation of our minds on race and discrimination in gender it gets along just quite well we have to micromanage every little thing you know our students are young aren't they their C cbum hasn't even been perhaps be a kangaroo the next day and then we all have to call them Mr or Mr Kangaroo or whatever no we're endowed with certain sexual apparatus and that's the way it is let's just keep it simple folks you're getting way too deep thank you [Applause] good evening thank you for letting me speak it's good to see you all again um so in the interest of inclusivity and diversity um I'm going to read a short list um about 10 names or so I'd love you all to raise your hands if you've ever heard of them before um audience included this is multiart participatory faculty also if you want um Thomas Su okay good anyone on the board Shelby steel good how about Ian row okay Carol Swain okay uh Jennifer rice green uhuh Rob Henderson he's new on the list okay Glenn Lowry I'm yeah Glenn Lowry okay uh Coleman Hughes how about Janice Rogers Brown from California okay John mcarter okay um I understand that the board doesn't like to participate I'm hoping that's the reason why I didn't see more hands um FYI these are some of the most Count's most accomplished thinkers on race and relations race relations in America and they're Black and Hispanic they've argued that policy such as the one you're considering is not only unnecessary it's unnecessarily divisive if you aren't familiar with these people then you don't know as much about di the deie debate as you think you do this policy is a cut and pce from Canton Public Schools it is a prescription for a problem in that town you're now proposing that we adopt whole cloth without any data to demonstrate an established record of racism or bias to back it up this policy is not cheser we should have two complimentary goals in our district for both instruction and hiring excellence and Merit we're seeing the Fallout of diie policies everywhere incorpor ations like Google institutions like Harvard media Outlets like National Public Radio do you really want to bring this into our schools um do you want to bring in a policy that measures a group measures group representation rather than individual achievement the bottom line the treasure Board of Education should govern without prejudice or bias and our students should learn the same way my advice ensure the district has a rock solid anti-discrimination policy that it abides by the law and that it always acts justly then get down to the business of teaching our students facts virtues and the means by which to become productive individuals dedicated to the flourishing of family and Community now um if you could if I could just add one more thing about yesterday's ugly dust up on um Facebook and probably shouldn't go here but I'm going someone with malign intent um or a stream in a steeming heap of ignorance or both posted a gross lie open choice is a wildly positive program for everyone involved it is so successful I'd encourage the District administration and board to seek out even more opportunities for this kind of exchange parents put their kids on those buses at 5:30 in the morning every morning because they long for their kids to get the education that chesher provides the education that politicians in New Haven and and Hartford will not give them so they're seeking it here now and by the way a d policy would not have stopped that ugly post it would have happened anyway that's unfortunately the way some people think but given the immediate and Universal condemnation of that post one would would not be wrong to say that our current policies worked quite well thank you [Applause] so from for those that don't know me my name is Joe kulus I have two children within the district one in U actually both in high school uh Ella is going to graduate this year and Aiden is a freshman um I I just want to stand to uh support de eii policies within any board within any uh government agency uh within any Cor Corporation the the truth of the matter is when you look at individuals of color if you name any criteria any variable from in terms of health in terms of financial outcome in terms of representation in a variety of boards in terms of uh success at a variety of measures and this also includes women it's not just simply uh individuals of of different races um they always perform worse every single variable in research across the board so to make the argument that we have made uh enough progress putting into place things in the 1960s is simply not enough we need to do better we need to put into policies to make sure that representation occurs and that we can make sure that individuals do have the chances that so many of us have had so while I'm not going to support specifically any aspect of a partic particular policy I do want to say it is very important to consider these things consistently and thoroughly in any hiring or any educational policies thank [Applause] you hello my name is Pam Salomon 659 Cornwall Avenue I just want to say that I'm very confused maybe disappointed um and some of the board when I look at this policy I look at a repeat policy that we've been discussing for years and years we have everything in place already we have everything to the best of your ability to deal with any of these Dei issues we have anti-bullying policies put in place I feel if we're not following through there's no sense in adding more if we're not using Hardline data and we're just going by feelings you're hurting the kids right if we still have problems which we always will unfortunately bullying is a human nature thing that happens all our generations for everyone of us as kids including Now does not mean it's acceptable but if we're still having problems where you all feel that we really need another policy of the same nature that I'm going to call you out and say you're not really caring about these kids because we all know there's one answer and that is the parents have to be responsible I was at a meeting here a couple of months ago and one of your members mentioned that she did not believe in quote parent shaming if parent shaming means holding a parent responsible so that that child can grow up to have the most successful life both business socially personal relationships if that is considered parent shaming then I'm all for it it's time we start involving the parents if you need a new policy that policy needs to be parent-based and you all need to be not afraid to go down that Avenue you're having trouble with behavior in any way shape or form that parent comes into school there's no reason that parent can't take a day off of work can't sit beside their child until that child can behave appropriately if community service is needed then that parent should do it right alongside that child I implore you to stop being afraid of going down the parent route and separating these kids with these other policies you're putting things in their heads that aren't necessarily true and that's really what's more decis divisive and not really giving them the future that they really deserve they can easily have as long as we start embracing the parent side of it thank [Applause] you good evening Tom Bartley 60 Brigadoon Drive Chester Connecticut I think the last time that I was in this Auditorium my younger daughter was playing the trumpet on that stage we still have the trumpet but nobody plays it sadly you know we do have a specific example that we can actually begin to anticipate what this policy could do to this community and I think I want to run through it next year we're instituting a new stem program in the middle school I ran some some numbers um according to Niche which is a website that tracks statistics across all school districts and communities around the country it helps homeowners when they're purchasing uh their home homes our our student population is made up of 74% 9% white students 99.4% Asians 88.9% Hispanic 3.5% African-American 3.2% M multi-racial and then 1% other so I ran some numbers and I also took some time to read this policy a number of different times figuring out what the potential implications are of this policy and how we would implement the new stem program well I ran some numbers 50% of the population in this of the student population in our district are female when you do the statistics if we implement this policy my question to the board does that mean that we're going to limit the number of white boys who can participate in the new stem program to 37.5% that's part of the equity policy now begs the question if the answer is well yes Tom you're correct this policy will require that to be done then the community needs to know that right now if the answer is no of course not and I'm misreading this policy the community needs to know that also because we need to know how this is going to be implemented within the specifics of what we can anticipate next year if the answer is we haven't thought about it well that begs a different question as to why so in addition to that that specific stuff I think I want to key off of of some of the comments that were made before about the divisiveness this policy or similar policies have been implemented across many parts of the country we can name California Washington Virginia is an excellent example and what you see in the news is consistent conflict where communities are torn apart over arguments just like the one that we just talked about here well how we allocate programs across based on statistical analysis and perceived needs of equity as opposed to the individual qualities and capacities of the students and I think that's the challenge that this Equity policy and and the Dei policy in particular the EI this new policy in particular is really going to challenge not just the board but also the community I haven't been able to figure it out the answer I came up with was that yes based on this policy that's being proposed osed there are a percentage there's going to be a limit on a percentage of white males that can participate in the stem program the other thing I want to bring up is that there was a rush in 2020 to implement Dei policies across the country in both businesses and educational institutions and the country was an uproar on racial issues at that point and this Dei policy execution was something seen to be a remedy for what was perceived as a series of social ills particularly in 2020 when it really came to the light well here we are a few short years later and what's happened JP Morgan Chase Black Rock American Airlines Lowe's meta Tesla door Dash Lyft Home Depot Wayfair just to name a few large corporations which had rusted a apply these Dei policies of which this policy is a derivative are now backing off those policies because they've recognized the divisiveness and a costic impact on their organizations if we look across what's going on across the country multiple States multiple University Systems are now relooking at their Dei policies again of which this is a derivative because of the costic impact the Supreme Court and Harvard University can't even get it straight and yet here we are look to take this policy and superimpose it on a community that has been darn successful in educating its children I haven't been able to figure out the rationale I do figure out and I can speculate as the potential problems as I've just laid out through the stem issue now again if this board of education come out and take the broad language some of which is extraordinarily vague and figure out and explain to this community how we can begin to execute it and in a fashion that meets our community standards then of course perhaps we can agree with what's going on I can support diversity conversations hell I'm a corporate product myself I went through the training I know the value of understanding and recognizing people for who they are and the talents they bring to the table and knowing that perhaps I'm better off not hiring or promoting or actually looking for talent just because they look like me that's not what this is about this is about adopting policies that moving from Individual the valuing the individuals to valuing the group over the individual because all these policies are based on group analysis and group review what do we lose in that process we lose the student identity the identity of the individual which is what this this particular school district has been so successful in being able to do thank you for your time [Applause] good evening Robert ham 633 courland Circle and chesher some excellent comments out here tonight I also don't understand what we're trying to accomplish uh I see the Dei Mantra going across the country and I see us in chesher following when in fact I thought we were paying our superintendent and our our principles to lead I don't see that we're solving anything with a de Dei policy in fact I'll call it Dee because that's what it is it's diversity inclusion equity and it solves nothing as a taxpayer I resent it because I look across at my taxes being paid in the state and across the country for large organizations to hire people to say I'll divide you by the color of your skin I'll divide you by what you believe I will forget the fact that you're an American I'll forget the fact that we were all brought up to know and to be able to have the opportunity in this great country in which 56 signatories signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 pledging their lives their honor and their fortunes for an opportunity to succeed merit-based success by somebody getting around an an individual or a group of indiv of individuals saying I'll put in a policy and I'll try to make it better for those that are less well served number one that's racist and of itself to my opinion number two that's saying to those UND served groups if that's what you're pointing out they don't have the opportunity to do it they don't have the ability to do it that in itself is undercutting their abilities and basically telling a story that I don't like to hear u i look across at what we're doing today in terms of divisiveness as a nation and diie is a big piece of that in my opinion uh Doug Noble spoke about law suits I happen to see just today that there's a lawsuit the Supreme Court decided nine zip in a case called St Louis against mold and I won't go into the details other than the fact that basically what that case is doing is saying that the standards for lawsuits where policies for D are in place are now lowered to the point where nearly anybody could prove that they've been affected by a deie policy I don't think I've heard this in other forums inside cheser where we're concerned about lawsuits I've been in one Forum in this in this town where we were concerned about not standing up to the state for something that we as a town thought was abusive of our tax dollars and chesher I'd like to see us stand up and say folks let's stop spending money on silliness let's recognize that everybody is has individual rights they have their own individual god-given capabilities and to have a group of people say I know more than you do and I will then just help uh form this at tax dollar expense to be able to help make things easy for you I don't think that's the right way to do it the country was built on competition I am a pilot I served in the military and I I saw Merit work across all spectrums socioeconomic as well as ethnic spectrums and I don't think anybody in this room wants to get on an aircraft where diie is the sole criteria for a pilot I know I don't want to and I'm seeing what's going on in law schools I have many friends that are doctors and their children are going into med school and things like that and diie is taking over there where they have to have a statement of what they are going to do to make life better for D diversity and inclusion things like that we are weeding out Merit we are creating a society where we're going to be down to the lowest common denominator I'd like to see a stop it right here in chesher thank you for your [Applause] time hello Alicia he uh 1761 Tuttle Avenue I want to start by saying thank you faith for your comments on open choice I appreciate and agree with those um so I didn't actually read the policy before we came here I see people have papers so I'm just making some general comments about some things I think I hear people taking away a lot of different ideas from what is in the policy on paper and I think we have to see how these things are implemented so I heard people say re-education camps quotas elevating people not based on Merit divisiveness and I think we have to see how it's implemented because I don't think all of those things could be true um my general philosophy is that for inclusivity and Equity I think the basic idea is that if we have 50% female students we would expect something closer to that to be in stem classes let's say we have 10% black students we would expect there to be about that same representation in stem classes or advanced classes and my understanding of this is that that's the idea so if some barrier is standing in the way of classes or opportunities reflecting what the general population looks like then maybe we should look into that are they not being welcomed do they not know about these opportunities and that doesn't necessarily mean quotas I don't think I think if we believe as I do that all groups of people have similar levels of abilities talents and positive qualities like work ethic stick tutiven conscientiousness then we would expect those people to be represented in these different places and we don't need quotas we just need to understand what barriers May potentially be getting in the way so so I don't think we have to say that people are would be elevated despite Merit right I don't think if you say if we have someone other than who we would expect in that slot and we're trying to help them get there that they're getting there without their Merit without Merit I think that's actually not great to be jumping to that idea right and I don't think anyone has proposed that so I'm really interested to hear as time goes by how this is implemented so that's it thank [Applause] you Jane bait 454 Riverside Drive I am a 197 2 graduate of Smith college and I want to give you a glimpse of the utter failure of and Damage Done by Dei a few short years ago at Smith the matter was covered by the New York Times Forbes and other notable media Outlets since I do not have enough time to cover this thoroughly I have photo copied a New York Times article to fill in the Boe members on more of the details during the summer of 2018 when a young group of students was also in residents Sutton campus a cafeteria worker noticed a blacksmith college student was eating where she should not have been due to accommodating those younger students the cafeteria worker alerted a campus policeman who reminded the student where she should be eating as word got around both the cafeteria worker and the campus policeman were hounded mercilessly by students and administration including posting their pictures on Facebook where the students identified the pictures as being of racists resulting in the hospitalization of the cafeteria worker worker her lupus having been aggravated as well as her not being considered for future employment elsewhere due to to the negative PR by the students in the following months the college announced anti-bias training for all staff but there was no apology offered to the workers involved in the end a 35 page report from a law firm reported no discrimination A Smith economics professor James Miller summed things up this way quote my perception is that if you're on the wrong side of issues of identity politics you're not just mistaken you're evil in addition to that A Smith graduate jod Shaw who was employed by Smith at the time Dei was adopted was told she should not follow through with the plan to introduce new subject matter by rapping why because she's white during the last six of my 20 years teaching instrumental music here in chesher I happily spent time arranging finales filled with music around a particular theme the kids would enjoy for our spring concerts if our school system had been using Dei at that time since I am white I might not have been permitted to use Michael Jackson's Thriller to headline the medley of scary music that I titled scales from the Crypt nor could I have taught my students Anasazi a great piece for beginning bands and one they loved we would all do well to remember Martin Luther King Jr's efforts to focus us on character which helps unite us rather than the divisive matter of skin color and if all men are created equal why do you now seek to divide us to some sum up Dei is very likely to create an inhospitable and possibly dangerous School climate as well as to not broaden but rather excruciatingly limit students and teachers experiences thank you [Applause] evening everybody Mike Shen chesher I apologize for rehashing some of the points already made but here we go um I would like to call attention to a particular part of the equity and diversity policy that will be discussed tonight number seven quote identify and remedy any practices including assessment that lead to the over representation of any one group of students based on color gender Etc in areas such as special education discipline and under representation in programs such as gifted and talented honors classes and advanced placement end quote so I'd like to begin with some of the figures that people have already went over according to recent statistics there are 1300 students in chesher high school 76.7% white 11.42% asian 6.7 Hispanic 3.5 African-American 1.8% multiracial point2 Native American and 50 2% M female and the 48% male so I am curious as how you are going to address an over and under representation based on color or gender and the previous stated programs in particular when the policy calls out the assessment of a student let's use AP classes as an example in May 2023 289 chesher students took AP exams not everyone enrolled in AP course takes the AP tests but let's say just for argument 289 students enrolled in AP classes last year hypothetically if 60% of the students were white 35% of the students were Asian 2.5 Hispanic and 2.5 African-American how would you remedy these disparities that show over over representation of Asian students from my understanding when a student enrolls into AP class in chesher they must secure the teacher's approval when a teacher is assessing a student to give approval to take the AP course would they now be asked to not only evaluate a child's grades and prerequisites but would be asked to evaluate the student skin color what happens if there are limited spaces available for an AP course and decisions must be made will a white or Asian student that may have better grades in school records than a Hispanic or an African-American student be discriminated against because of their ethnicity when the latter student is approved because they are Black Or Hispanic and the former is not approved because they are white or Asian yes that is discrimination let's say this is let's say there's over representation of certain ethnicities ethnicities because not enough of the underrepresented classes may qualify for AP courses according to current assessment criteria are you going to lower the St standard of approval to register for such courses by doing so I can guarantee that a lot of the underrepresented classes that do meet current standards would view this as a racist act and an affront to their dignity it implies that they cannot reach the current standard because of the color of their skin I could spend at least an hour disecting the entirety of this vague new policy and give hypotheticals that in my opinion would prove that this policy promotes the very things it claims to be trying to prevent but I will end with how I began percentages 46% 52.1% and 47.9% 46% is the amount of cheser high students meeting math proficiency standards according to public school review website 52.1% 52.1% of the 280 Chester students that took the SATs last year met or exceeded math proficiency that means 47.9% of students did not meet math proficiency for an institution that claims it is one of the best in the state these figures are abysmal this board and administration should be focusing on these statistics you want to serve all students and CPS system to ensure they all have the advantage of a prestigious education start [Applause] there good evening board members my name is Thomas White I reside at 44 IES Hill Court when I heard that the uh the policy committee was reviewing a equity and diversity statement I took a look at a excuse me a um video of the meeting from uh of the committee and uh I noticed you know some were already very much uh in favor it seemed to me others were questioning some detail but my thought was and correct me if I'm wrong but uh is this a standalone statement or is this somehow a replacement of or an update of or a component of the uh cheser Public School Systems equal opportunity equal employment opportunity and equal uh education opportunity mission statement is it separate or an update um I assumed initially that it would be some sort of an update but clearly it's a freestanding uh statement uh I learned later also I always assume that anything that uh municipalities are doing are not necessarily something that they came up with it's often uh theer by the state legislature but I learned that uh this was not the case here it's not required it's something that apparently uh was introduced by the the new chair uh as a uh as a a goal and achievement and I assumed also I mean if it was required by the state legislature that there would be some some guidelines so instead what we my assumption was that uh this was somehow uh a uh guided to the uh the board as a requirement and I'm learning that it was not it was something that is somebody's uh perhaps Personal Agenda so I think we've heard some good points made here tonight uh and I just want to make a point that um uh the board should not be working on any group's Personal Agenda it should be something that's that's Rock Solid I mean the the statement that is already in place as far as equal employment education it's mostly boiler plate but it serves its purpose and there are so many laws in place to uh protect the children protect staff uh I just I'm just questioning whether this is something that the board should be spending its time on thank [Applause] you hi my name is Helen Wilson Brier Court in chesher 25 Brier Court I'd like to say some words to the other side since we're hearing mostly from uh I think think a view that is not the majority of you uh we live in an affluent Suburban town in Connecticut Connecticut is one of the most segregated States in um the country um there are reasons why we uh segregated mostly to do with lack of affordable housing I think anything that we can do uh to promote more equity in this town would enrich us studies have shown that students who uh are learning in a diverse welcoming Community do better um those are the studies on the other side that you haven't heard about tonight and um our kids are going to have to go out as mine did into the real world which is very diverse it's not 75% or 80% white so they need to learn how to uh live with other people and work with other people and go to school with other people they should be learning that right here in chesher before we send them out into the real world there's a reason why a lot of them don't come back to Cheshire after they finish school because it's you know it is not a diverse community and young people who aren't represented here tonight uh young people Embrace diversity they're not afraid of it uh it's it's the older population that is hanging on to this and let's be honest a lot of our white males who are somehow threatened by this as we see um they're afraid of it it's the young people who are not afraid of it so I I ask as the uh superintendent of schools and the Board of Education to stay strong and do what you're trying to do for the kids not for the old school uh town of of affluence thank you is there anyone else who would like to speak that's a lot taking multiple turns you know three minutes I'll be in like 30 seconds first of all I don't appreciate being called Old I'm only 46 and I'm I consider myself a younger population here in town secondly I'm pretty worldly I travel over oh yes I am excuse me well I'm be talking about your comments okay excuse me I don't appreciate being called Old first of all that's again a a rude comment secondly you know the assumption is that we're all white and you know you know not worldly I traveled probably more places around the world than most people in this room and I'm going to make that assumption how many in this room has gone to Mongolia okay how many have gone to China how many have gone to Israel let's go Hungary Croatia I'll keep going down the list okay so and not only that I was a history minor so the assumption is that I don't know anything about maybe African history I'm sure everyone here read you know the Epic ofal sundada Doug does this have something yes it does because the Assumption here is that people in this room are not diverse I think chesher does a great job in diversity and educating people I myself went through Prospect and I went through college and I learned a lot of diversity traveling around there studying all different races ethnicities I love it it's in my I just love doing it it's one of my favorite things to do and that's I'm here making a comment because I don't appreciate some of the assumptions that are made in this room thank you very much thank you um close uh we're closing off public comment at this point I think everyone who wanted to speak has addressed the board so thank you very much for um coming out tonight and addressing the board and we will move on with our agenda we have some business to take care of tonight reports of standing committees is next on our agenda I'm G to give you just a minute the first committee report will be ccul committee I'll ask excuse me we're conducting business now yeah you could walk out in the hall and conduct that business Michael say up he's he's hooking up here I will call call on an Marie cullinan to uh give us a report on the uh curriculum committee meeting good evening the curriculum um committee met on April 15th all members were present and um there are two um items that we'll be discussing this evening the first is approval of a textbook it's called Krueger's macroeconomics for the AP course it was reviewed by the high school math department um economics Department it was presented and reviewed by the curriculum committee um following the public viewing period which is over um it is in front of the Board of Ed tonight for approval so I will put the motion on the floor and then we can open it up for questions the motion reads that the Cheshire Board of Education approve the purchase of the textbook krugman's macroeconomic ics for the AP course as recommended by the curriculum committee do I have a second Mark seconds thank you um are there any questions or discussion for Miss Cullen and and maybe Marlene if it gets really into the weeds Tim you want to start us off thank you yeah so as soon as I as soon as I saw the name of the book from Paul Krugman I I got a little nervous um economics I think for most people is probably not a really hot topic but there is generally like two very different worldviews and let me preface actually I I will be supporting this tonight but I just want to ask a couple questions of the superintendent or maybe of Marlene I'm not sure um there there's from my perspective economics has two very different worldviews the worldview which dominates the world today is largely that of what I'll just call Fiat money which is generally supported by Paul Krugman there's an alternative economic theory called sound money the general idea as I see it is Fiat money means you can print as much money as you want sound money means it's backed by some sort of commodity you know 100 years ago we had a gold standard and I'm not endorsing a gold standard or anything like that and I wouldn't do that but basically the idea is in my view we should not be able to Simply have a couple of um I'm sure extremely well educated and intelligent people making these decisions on the money supply using Fiat money the problem I see with it we see it right here now today which is inflation we have a certain amount of goods in the world when you have a certain money supply related to it the cost is stable when you turn on the printing presses but the supply of goods stays the same all those goods become more expensive because there's more money chasing after it so generally speaking I prefer sound money over Fiat money Paul Krugman generally supports Fiat money so I see his name associated here so my question and I will support this because I am confident that this book is not about specifically what I'm talking about it's really about AP and kids taking an AP class to advance their understanding of Economics including at least the Fiat money but my question for the superintendent is when we teach this AP economics class is there um I presume there because this is Paul Krugman I presume the focus to whatever extent it is uh it would be on Fiat money over sound money does the course that we teach at least touch on sound money in some way with the idea being that kids would be aware of it and they could go off and research this stuff on their own time because I get where the world is and I'm not looking to change that right now by virtue of voting on this I'm comfortable voting on this but I just want to know are kids exposed to it at least as a concept so that they can think about it I'm going to pass that off to assistant superintendent salano who's had a lot of conversation with the business department about the nuances of macroeconomics thank you thanks so this just to clarify for for anyone this um is an AP course and it is tied very closely with um also the Yukon ECE Course and there is a very strict set of of criteria that they're looking at and it it really is a Basics even though it's AP this is a high school um early uh introductory type course so they're looking at basic economic Concepts economic indicators um the financial sector and uh folks have a copy of this um at the table and Mr White has one as well I I will say that there is very little dedicated to um Fiat money I could only find it on two pages page 207 and 216 and it's just a couple of sentences they do talk in the book about scarcity and stability and resistance to markets um while this book doesn't cover anything about kesian or or hyek Theory Keynesian sorry um they are it is a topic that is made um that the students are made aware of I can't say that it's made aware of by every single teacher who teaches the class but this is not a book on krugman's philosophy of Economics although his name is on that book um there are also three other authors and he's sort of listed there I'm not sure if being a Nobel Prize winner he is able to to sell more books for the company and that's why his name is associated with it but I find through thorough review and through talking with the other business department teachers who reviewed this that there isn't um a slant one way or another that it really is a a basic course they found nothing controversial and no specific Theory um I hope that helps yeah no I mean what I thought I heard you say is it does generally get touched on you're not sure about every teacher that teaches it but the idea is it does get touched on teacher are teachers are aware of it and hopefully they make the kids aware and and I'm not asking for anything more than that really just to expose kids to things that I view as being significant it's not I don't feel like it's a minor detail so with that I'm I'm happy thank you okay thanks thank you other questions or comments Adam um yeah I I just sort of wanted to to Echo Tim kind of covered a lot of what I was going to say um I wasn't going to get into sound money but uh uh just as a when I hear the name Paul Krugman I have an adverse reaction um but this is just meant to be an basically a macro 101 course that's taught at the high school level so you're talking about in elastic demand you know equilibrium that sort of General economic topics and nothing to more involved in that I'm assuming yeah they're not discussing the different theor this is really laying the foundation for that students who continue with this in college will definitely get into the otherist No Doubt okay thank you any other questions so we have a motion on the table that the chesher Board of Education approve the purchase of the textbook krugman's macroeconomics for the AP course all those in favor it's unanimous from those who are here thank you very much the second item that came out of um the frone committee was um the discussion of an outof country field trip the teacher who put the trip together has requested permission to take students to the Dominican Republic in April of 2025 Dr Solen has recommended approval of this request um although he does reserve the right to cancel the trip should n security issues warrant so the motion is that the cheser Board of Education approve the participation of chesher high school students in the educational field trip to the Dominican Republic from April 12th 20 2025 to April 20th 2025 do I have a second to that motion Mr White thank you um any discussion or questions on that item Mr grippo um I guess apologize for not watching the last meeting I guess this probably was fleshed out um so what is the educational benefit of going to the Dominican Republic sure so this is a trip run by Don Deo Don and her colleague teach the Black and Latino studies course last year they had taken a trip to Puerto Rico where where students were able to sort of have brought to life some of the concepts that they talked about in the class they're hoping to do that same type of thing in the Dominican Republic this trip also has a service component where they will be talking about some service experiences while they're there so it's both it's a both and um lots of colleges are looking for community service and Donn felt that this would be a a good way to incorporate both oh that that that's great to hear because I I I hear Dominican Republic and I I hear Sun and Fun you know so and and I think you it had mentioned before uh the Dr s about National Security I still don't quite understand how that Island Works how there can be so two just distinct countries one is a complete turmoil right now and one it's you can entertain vacations um so I I guess however that works it you you have an eye eye on the prize and you know you we have uh travel insurance and all that to cancel if needed I suppose if we correct okay could I could I add to that because I'm on the curriculum committee and we did discuss it I'm sure you did indeed in quite some detail and we asked all the questions I promise sure you did um there was also um Miss Deo also talked about an Eco uh side to this and marine biology ology and and that area also because that's a big part of their of their culture I just wanted to add that because I think that's important as well other questions uh so we have a motion on the on the table that the cheser Board of Education approve the participation of CHS students in the educational field trip to the Dominican Republic from April 12 2025 through April 20th 2025 uh all those in favor it's unanimous for those who are here do you have more for us miss col okay okay so we're moving moving on to finance I would toss this ball to Mr Mariana please I thought you would miss harrian good evening all the board members do have the financial report as of March 31st I will just tell you quickly that um we completed nine months of the budget year we um have expended or encumbered 90.6% so we have n97.9 million you know we're remaining in in the budget balance we uh in April which we're mid April now we've already begun work on year-end planning we um are preparing for our summer Works um our summer purchases we have been able to effectively manage the budget I have no concern about uh meeting our budget this year um I will just highlight two quick things that's in the written report one is that the special education uh outplaced tuition line which we know has been going over budget since January um we reported in March in this report that we would be over budget by 480,000 it actually improved a bit as we got through the first two weeks in April as we were able to reduce some of the incumbrances because um students um left a district so that's a little bit of an improvement and then on the Food Service program which I've been updating the board as to the negative balances and the report that I wrote the negative balance Ed was right around 20,000 it's actually dropped below 18,000 as of um this week so you know we continue our efforts to try and and collect any unpaid balance uh towards student lunch and really that is the um report on the finance side if you'd like I can do medical benefits and then ask a lot for for questions yeah would you do you want to wait to get any questions from either way your call let's take some questions okay on the first part of the report before we go to medical benefits any anything for Vin Mr Gro um yes I just wanted to um at the special education outplacement um did you say it improved or increased no improved improved it went down from 480 uh by about $100,000 so as of now we're about $380,000 negative instead of 480 negative okay all right because because it reads increase the 480 from 374 um said so so that was an update from March then from March to April that so that new the Improvement is from March to April correct okay thank you thank you and so is the unpaid meal balances apparently yes what was that Sor been here the unpaid meal balances improved from minus 20,000 to about just under minus 18,000 great okay thank you you're welcome Mr White thank you U so Vin you just with regard to the unpaid meals you continue to do everything that you can in your power to try to get those collected yes we are making calls sending out weekly uh notices to the parents um and again part of those calls is to encourage parents who might be eligible for free and reduced lunch meals to take advantage of that and as I had initially reported this several months ago the because we were trending up at a rapid Pace I was uh fearful that the unpaid balance would be in the neighborhood of 40 ,000 that is not going to happen at this point um you know we'll probably end the year somewhere around where we are hopefully a little bit better um we'll continue the efforts and we do so in a respectful manner um but you know parents that owe a balance we've made them aware and we've asked for them to pay those student meal balances okay thank you and also just um hope I hope that the long-term Supply contract generally solar to save money still on your radar just point reminding you it is um and I'll I'll answer that question with just a little bit of information that I haven't had an opportunity to tell you but um both the town and the board of EDS electric contracts expire in the fall October for the town November for the board we um have and we share the same consultant so we've um reached out to the consultant she's doing a um bid analysis right now I've asked if we can include in that analysis um you know not just one to three years but to go out 15 and 20 years if there are contracts available um whether they're solar or otherwise sure so um she's in the process of doing that and I we will have to hold a planning meeting when I excuse me have that information available sure so yes it's still on my radar thank you V okay Vin's going to move on to the medical medical benefits Reserve fund okay again board members have the report as of March 31st um as of the end of the month our Reserve balance increased this month by 122,500 , 369 um the claims this month though were 1.39 million so those claims were above the $1.1 million expected the reason our Reserve balance increased is because if you look at the top of the report you'll see that our prescription rebates year-to date total 51,000 562 so that that increased $175,000 this month it is part of what we expect to receive it's actually a little bit higher than we expected um and I will add one more piece of information that's not reflected in the March report and that is that we expect an additional $275,000 in stop-loss reimbursements and that will be added uh to our balance so if I factored that in right now it would take our um Reserve balance to about $2.2 million that would get us very very close to two months worth of claims you know so that is the good news that we are getting those reimbursements but the reason we're getting those reimbursements is we have seven claims uh that are above $175,000 so you know that is you know the bad news that we have some very large claims because you know we do have employees um or their dependents you know that have serious illness and that always affects our premiums for next year so you know we are um we did budget for an increase for next year and um you know other than that the you know I I do believe that we will meet what we intended to meet this year we started the year with a a Reserve balance of about 250,000 and I expect that we end this year with about $2 million in our Reserve are there any questions for VIN on this Mr Mr Mari go ahead Adam uh Vin uh I know it's I don't know if it was tonight or last night I know that the council is uh finalizing their budgets um had there been any discussion about medical benefits in general as will the will the system we have in place remain unchanged for the year going forward and that the allocations the allocation we expect for next year will remain pretty much consistent to what we're planning for well the council did his meeting this evening um Dr Solen and I were there for a portion of the meeting uh Dr Solen did present an overview of where we are with the budget and provided some updates uh medical the medical benefits um increased that we asked for for next year about 8% I don't think we should change that the council if they do reduce the budget as you know those whatever the council reduces is a on line reduction and that has to be applied to our account lines at the board level so I I certainly don't think we should touch that I think we're going to need exactly what we budgeted based on what we're seeing in in the trends I I think maybe I didn't answer the question or ask the question correctly I more meant was the council looking at any alternative systems to the ones that we're using now because I know every year we talk about oh did we go with the uh the full boat plan that you just buy from etner or whatever oh and versus our self-insured system that we use now I think that's that's more what I meant was there any thoughts changes there I know that we haven't initiated any sort of conversation like that every time we've examined it it's been substantially more expensive to go that route uh the real challenge here is the man management of the reserve fund and I did make a real point this evening about um indicating that the money we've budgeted on that line for next year reflects the Actuarial projection no more no less we're not trying to uh support the uh Reserve balance nor are we you know playing a little bit of risk with uh undercutting it so uh I think that the many times that VIN myself Sean Jim jascot we've had these conversations about how do we best make sure we budget this it always comes back to just fund the fund balance or the Actuarial projection uh no more no less and hopefully both sides can adhere to that and U we won't have any more you know turbulence in that that account thank you sure any other questions I have an easy one um you mentioned the 270,000 stoploss reimbursements that's expected when when does that usually come into our the it gets paid through the stoploss insurance company on a monthly basis so as those claims come in there's a process that's followed and that cash will come in it'll show up on the report um next month to the extent that the the town is responsible for adding that into the report that I provide to you but I know what the what is expected based on the claims I received so I guess what I was asking is March about when that happens it it happens monthly by the time you'll see that each month March April May we'll start to see that stoploss balance increase every month it starts though yes that's when when the number really goes up correct okay thank you Mr Mariana do you have anything else for us tonight for finance I do not excellent okay let's move on to Personnel committee and the chairperson Miss cullinan will give the Personnel report okay good evening again um we held an April 8 meeting for the um Personnel committee all members were present myself Mr perini Mr White uh Miss Rosenberg board chair was also present along with Dr Solen um the one agenda item was to review the um chesher Public Schools Connecticut increasing educat diversity plan um this plan came out of a committee of eight District team members who met many times over the course of the year um to discuss the policy um and Dr Solen explained um that the state of Connecticut requires districts to submit an increasing educator diversity plan prior to May 15th and that this plan needs to be formally approved by the Board of Education prior to submitt taking into consideration um a lot of the discourse this evening I'm going to before I put the motion on the floor I'm going to ask Dr Solen to give us um the context in which this plan was derived for chesher thank you Miss cullinan um as Miss cullin mentioned this is uh coming out of Public Act 23-1 167 requiring every Connecticut District to submit a plan uh that highlights recruiting hiring and retention of a diverse cand candidate pool our committee got together uh and there's a template that is required of school systems to complete and so we U were asked to develop a vision which indicates that jeser public schools aspires to provide our students with a highly qualified staff that reflects the racial ethnic and linguistic diversity of our students to best support their development is complex thinkers and social emotional Learners um and then if we uh establish Equitable practices for increas increasing racial ethnic and divers linguistic diversity of our Educators and will provide an inclusive Equitable environment that will provide opportunities for students to prepare for transition into a multicultural and diverse Society um Research indicates that um students perform better when the body the the teaching staff is reflects the diversity and the makeup of the student body uh our student body is approximately uh 80% white and uh 20% made of other uh races our teaching faculty however is about 97% white and so over the last many years we've engaged in a variety of practices to uh recruit and hire and retain the best possible people that are out there with particular efforts to try and recruit uh more diverse teaching staff that is more reflective of our student population and uh unfortunately you know like a lot of other communities we haven't been terribly successful in that uh respect um at this point it's frankly quite challenging to hire teachers of any racial background just teachers certified people period And so certainly we are uh as the the vision says to try and identify high qual high qual highly qualified staff that um is diverse in nature uh it it continues to be a goal for us there are strategies that we've identified that'll be available on our website um and you know we certainly hope that we can do better for our students by providing that high quality staff that's uh reflective of our student body thank you Dr Sol what I'd like to do now is put the motion on the floor for members of the Board of Education to have the opportunity to ask any questions moved that the Personnel Committee of the chesher Board of Education approve the increasing educator diversity plan for chesher and give the superintendent or their designate authority to make any necessary Neary plan revisions with the understanding that said revisions will be communicated to the Board of Education have a second to that motion Mr grippo uh any questions for Dr Solen or miss cinin Mr White thanks um I'm gonna start off with a comment um so it was this past Chris I I think the idea here is uh is a good one diversifying our Workforce the this past Christmas time my my son's uh our next door neighbor and also my son's best friend who happens to be African he came over to our house sometime in early December super excited and he showed me his new so they're in second grade the two of them he showed me their uh his new elf on a shelf and he was so excited when he spoke the words to me and he's the same color as me and it was to me it was extremely powerful and I I really it meant something to me back to the motion diversifying our Workforce I I do think that there's there is real Merit to it I like it and I will support this motion but I'm supporting it primarily because it's state law we're required to do something and I just have to point out what I mentioned during the meeting which makes no sense to me uh there's as far as I know there's no real way to uh measure and verify what we're doing here and I say that because this is all based on self-identification so I look at Society in general and I see people get celebrated when they self-identify as transgender um at the same time I've seen in the past few years a couple times since people have self-identified as black and they've been you know ripped apart in the media Senator Elizabeth Warren my recollection of her is self-identifying as Native American for stuff that happened decades ago and then more recently people saying huh what and there was a real problem I from my perspective for her in how she self-identified so it's really difficult for me to say that using self-identification is a is a good way to go about this but as I understand it that's really all this is I I can't look at somebody and say what they are I mean you can get an impression and what you think but to actually measure it and verify it in some sort of uh tool that would be governed by the state I just don't know how they're going to do it and that uh that makes me really kind of uncomfortable because we're going down a path and then are we going to be held accountable for this and I just don't understand how that would happen how that would work so again I'm going to support this but it really just doesn't make sense to me how this would be enforced thank you uh Mr grippo um I also will be supporting this motion uh because of the fact that it is a state law um I have concerned as to whether or not this usurps Federal equal opportunity hiring practices and law um but I guess we'll we'll set that aside for now um so I'm not sure which takes precedent um but uh I guess Mike the the question I have is there is a mention of a make sure I the Right box here something about a uh preh hiring committee so how is how do you propose that that is going to work is that part of the HR department is it the staff that is listed at the beginning of the document how what is the plan to what what is the purpose and and how does the pre hiring committee uh influence the hiring process uh that's really just more of a a gathering prior to hiring first of all we're required by law bless you to have uh all people who engage in hiring must uh all certified staff must watch a video on diversity uh and sensitivity and awareness then the meeting which we generally convene anyway prior to interviews we'll talk about you know what are we looking for in candidates um you know we we do that pretty much anyway so does so the pre hiring committee is not it's not the same as I'm assuming that this it would be the committee that's hiring okay yeah um and so does this rubric establish hiring goals as well no in terms of I mean there there is that or the our goal is to uh over time diversify our teaching staff to be reflective of our student body okay um which is what we've been trying to engage in for many years certainly right yeah okay I think yeah it's actually a three prong process around recruitment hiring and retention and we we see a trend um nationally about really retaining teachers so it's it develops on E on each piece of that like who you um crew who you hired and then are they a match for us and so was the law explicit or is it more as a lot of the law that's that's written is in vague and then it was left to you to yeah this figure out this is super open-ended like everything generated here came from us other than the the framework so you just sort of interpreted the best you could and then no we we established goals we uh did research and um had conversations with other districts we uh reviewed data um so it wasn't just you know top of Mind sort of uh spitballing but the template was provided by the state to every District we collectively you know filled in the strategies that we would felt like we could employ who would employ them and when they would be employed by um so yeah so I think maybe you answer just answer this question so the template it has a West Ed sort of graphic on the top so the template was supplied by the state but we did not use like a consultant to help facilitate uh you you and your staff basically came up with everything that's in here yeah it was myself Britney Culver uh Kim Taber Amy O'Brien John parisino Key Garden Nicole Griffin Angela latch rhr thank you and to answer the question federal law would Trump anything okay so we're doing our best that if and until Federal Law changes or says you can't do what we're doing federal law trumps everything state law so we know from title and then we worry about was it Title Nine right Title Nine yeah yeah Miss Mr eki so it's these are goals we're not establishing a quota system it is we want them to obviously we want the staff to reflect that the student body but there's no no quot system there's okay no yeah yeah it's good for us right yes I also just want to point out that it came out of our committee um stating that any necessary plan revisions need to come back to the board of ENT so there's oversight by the Board of Ed as to the plan and its implications for the town great thank you miss Colin and um I'm gonna have a conversation with with my friend Tim White because I I don't have a problem with people self-identifying because that's what we get to do we get to say who we are and how we identify based on how the world treats us so we're going to chat because I'd be really interested to know why that's problematic for you but we can do that off mic okay any other questions we have a motion on the table do we yeah um it has been moved that the chesher Board of Education approved the increasing educator diversity plan for chesher and give the superintendent or their design authority to make any necessary plan revisions with the understanding that said revisions will be communicated to the Board of Education all those in favor it's unanimous from those who are present tonight thank you Miss cinon do you have anything more for personnel thank you what is next on our list next up is policy committee I will call upon Mr eki to give the policy committee report and the readings of policies thank you uh we met on April 1st and spent a good part of our time discussing policy 0523 equity and diversity um it is a work in progress it is something that we spent uh a lot of time discussing um members of the committee have questions about uh definitions some of the language that's in there but you know we uh working with Dr Solen um this is a lot of this did come from Canton uh a lot of this did come from cab if I'm not mistaken as well um so it's out there again this we're having a first reading on that policy tonight um I'd like to thank everyone who came out to share their opinions and their input I I took a lot of notes and I have a lot of questions that that we will uh we will discuss um brought up a lot of good points so for the first reading of policies all I do is say that we're reading the first policies correct all right first reading of policy 0523 equity and diversity and policy number 6200 adult continuing education and there is no action required on those um we also have tonight the status level sports program it's the third reading and approval of that policy number 6145 point21 status level sports program I'm going to make a motion that the Board of Education give a third and final rating to policy number 6145 point21 status level sports program and direct the superintendent to put set policy into immediate effect do I have a second to that motion Mr grippo thank you uh what are your questions board members Mr grippa um I have no questions except a a comment that uh I think that uh we all we all work pretty hard on this uh status level policy um I think we uh we ironed out a lot of the uh the bumps in the road to to lay out a uh a great um I guess uh pathway for uh a team an aspiring team to become a Varsity Sport uh at the high school level and that this uh is a great framework uh for uh teams to use uh going forward uh to to do that so I'll be definitely supporting this thank you Mr grippo and I would add I agree with what you just said and um we have spent good time uh talking about this and making sure that we got everything included that needs to be included but I feel that the Simplicity of it is what makes it a really good policy it's easy to follow it's easy to understand it'll be easy for um teams to or potential teams to grasp what it is that we need to know and the reasons that we need to know that um Mr White yeah I may have missed it but did could we did you give like just a one minute recap of that framework it uh establishes what the prospective Sports need to do they need to have an established uh an established history they have to they have to uh provide rosters they have to okay uh demonstrate that they can be sustainable as Sports before we'll accept them got it thank you makes sense I just want to add one more thing I just wanted to thank Dr Solen and the athletic staff I believe who who worked on the policy Mr Perino and the uh uh the the policy and the question I guess it's the questionnaire I guess yeah we created a form for submission that um I think as an was alluding to really just walks you through the process of what you need to know and I appreciate the three of you with your thoughtful feedback it helped us uh create a a real clear policy that will um hopefully limit the amount of angst that people have to feel going forward in any sort of process like that and will put us on the cutting edges we are we are we are the now we will now be the model for the southern Connecticut conference everybody's going to come to us yeah nobody in the state apparently has one of these policies so they all said yeah when because when we were asking what do you have it's pretty typical in the policy world what do you have show me your cards nobody had any so now they all want to see what we have and they thought it was pretty good so okay are we ready for a vote on this motion um it has been moved that the chesher Board of Education give a third and final reading to policy 6145 21 status level sports program and direct the superintendent to put said policy into immediate effect all those in favor it's unanimous yeah before it's unanimous thank you I just had a question on the first reading if I could on reading of the first policies yeah yeah we can we can continue discussion on that then I think it's probably for the superintendent okay um so uh Adult Ed adult continuing ed uh as you know I am a bit of a pest on alternative Pathways post high school and one of the things I'm wondering about is in the past year or two I've spoken with a number of um mostly men who are in the trades probably in their 20s I've asked them about education opportunities for the trades and costs and one of the things I've been told is that you can go to the first thing I heard was you can go to a school and spend $25,000 and basically with a few years of apprenticeship and I'm sure I'm missing stuff here but you could become an E2 which basically means you're an electrician you can make good money with a relatively small investment at least relative to college but I've also talked to another electrician who was telling me he spent $6,000 to get the same education primarily via Adult Ed programs I don't think he said chesher I think he was saying in the valley someplace Antonia or Shelton he was doing something I'm just wondering what is what does our adult ed program offer in relation to entering the trades do we do anything and I I will tell you historically chesher did not have a trades based Adult Ed option um however I regret I don't know due to our partnership with Wallingford um when we partnered with Wallingford a lot of our options and opportunities expanded that's part of why we did it and I'm not aware if they have a a trades connection but I will certainly get that information and we can discuss it at the next meeting sure put it put it together for the next meeting yeah no thank you and and I don't even know if it's I don't know that it's even that high a priority my goal is to um increase public awareness of the opportunities that are out there and I'm not I didn't verify this anywhere I didn't go online and look at any Education costs or anything like this but this is what an electrician told me he did his similar sort of 18-month program probably over more years but it cost him $6,000 instead so not only is I guess I'm viewing becoming electrician or any of the trades as an alternative pathway but even within that pathway there's alternative there's uh multiple Pathways there that have differences in cost thank you Miss C Dr Sol would we be able to get some numbers as to how many Cheshire residents are actually taking part in the um ringford adulthood they have a extremely robust program and in particular I'd like to know the number of um GED students and ABA adult basic education students sure I don't think I want to say it was next to n zero I saw the data like a month ago maybe and but I I will double check that but it it never has been high for both yeah we've never had much of a a enrollment in the adult basic head or GED programs do you think that is in part I'm thinking GED because we have humus in school that so yeah if a students helps is um we do everything within our power and usually students uh are pref prefer to work through a pathway toward a traditional high school diploma in rare cases students May um deviate from that wingford also has a credit diploma program which you actually taught in for six years but um you know that that option is available too but in chesher most people don't pursue that uh they complete their traditional high school diploma you know sometimes at hon with tutoring um or whatever we need to do but I think that's a big part of it but we do certainly have people who move here after high school that maybe participate but I I know the number has historically been very though and I want to say it continued last data that I saw but I'll I'll definitely pull it I me I don't want to put more work on this but okay is it possible then those chesher residents who are participating in either of those two could we get some ages on them y because they're probably not typically what we do is uh the the highest rate of participation is in English learning uh opportunities but yeah yeah English learning just went up 27% throughout the state yeah it's de it's exploding yeah y even even K12 we have a large population growing I should say anything else for policy Mr grippo um Mr eki had alluded to our extensive discussion about the equity and diversity policy and our subcommittee meeting and um we all agreed um that the concerns that I had about the policy would be brought to the full board for discussion uh specifically the inclusion of the uh language uh in the racism definition to include uh imp implicit bias as well as unconscious and conscious um I'm guessing that means conscious and unconscious bias as well as the defin the inclusion of the definition of institutional racism um and that the board should consider whether or not those definitions should should continue to be included in this Equity policy and if they are um do they agree with the stipulation that this should be uh part of the um you know part eight of the policy also says that all students would be educated about the implications of this policy which means that they would then need to be educated about the defin about what unconscious and un what conscious and unconscious bias means as well as what institutional racism means and its implications so I uh you know we agreed that the rest of the board should um comment on that before we move further with the policy and that we wanted to get commentary unfortunately um uh Mrs Rosenberg and Mr peren Mr peren perini AR here tonight but um certainly Mrs Colin and uh Mr White are uh and we would certainly appreciate your feedback uh on the inclusion or exclusion of of those things in the policy Mr White sure thank you thanks Adam um yeah I as I've I think I've mentioned a board meetings before I'm not um I'm not particularly inclined to support the Dei policy um probably particular in relation to what Adam was just talking about uh I do think I do think that there is real value in what we already do in terms of Dei and to me the most the best example from my perspective is equity we have kids who come here to Cheshire from other countries who don't speak English and they need to learn to speak English so they're given extra help learning to speak English that most of the kids in the schools don't get and don't need so I do think that there's real Merit in uh Dei but I don't see the need for a policy and I'm like I said I'm not I'm just not particularly inclined to support it particularly in relation to what Adam was talking about a second ago thank you Mr White um Miss colan did you want to make a statement or reserve your comments for another time thank you um I actually would wanted to add something in light of um some of the discussion that we heard or some of the comments that we heard here tonight um because it during um policy meetings where we have been discussing it and we've been discussing it and looking at other policies and looking at um where they come from what other schools are doing what cab is recommending and cab lawyers are um also proposing some of the language or we're borrowing some of the language um from the Connecticut associations of boards of EDS um so what I wanted to say was there was a there's always this question in the back of our minds that do we need this policy and I heard it in comments tonight do we need this policy and I've thought a lot about it and I went out as we started these conversations I went out and I spoke to many people tried to get a good uh cross-section of people teachers Elementary High School school um parents uh future parents future Chester Public Schools people who are buying homes in chesher because they want to come to our schools and I really came to the conclusion that the question is not do we need this policy because there are parts of this policy in other documentation that we have um in our documents for um cheser Public Schools but the question maybe should be do we should we have a policy or do we want a policy and because I talked to several dozen people um the I arrived at that conclusion because after I asked um do we need a policy should we have a policy on equity and and diversity for chesher public schools my second question to everyone was I I by the way I got it unanimously across the board yes we should have a policy but the reasons for having a policy were varied uh there were a lot of reasons why people thought we should have a policy on equity and diversity and um I think it's enough to think that people um feel that they are supported when they make decisions when they have to talk when a teacher has to talk with a student because of an incident that may have happened at school that was race related those conversations are difficult and for a teacher to feel like there is a policy so I'm supported in what I'm about to say to this student it makes a difference uh there was a comment made tonight among somebody that uh said something like the more we talk about it the more we think about it I'm of the mind that we should be thinking about it we should be talking about it and we should be talking about it with our kids of all ages age appropriate conversations of course um but we should be talking about issues of race class and gender in our schools and we shouldn't be afraid of it uh somebody else made a comment that young people Embrace diversity um they understand the world that we're living in and and they want to know more about it and what better place than with guided conversations with um with our teachers and other Personnel that Personnel who feel supported because they know that as a school district we have a policy um that's as far as I'll go with this but I did want to address um why I'm working on this committee um to implement this equity and diversity policy I think it's important and if I if I may um yes you may the all of the things that you just spoke about I agree with and this policy does nothing to further those goals at all we have policies in place at the end of this very meeting if you go and watch the video Dr suen goes through the uh The Bullying form the Discrimination form and all of the laws that support everything all of the concerns that anyone who may be mistreated or uh is uh bullied or have a a racist act committed against them there are uh uh Tools in place teachers have training all the time to help support these students if something occurs um this uh policy is more punitive than aspirational and all it does is is is uh uh stoke the Ember that that we saw on Facebook this week um we you know we know the Ember is out there but this just takes a big giant flame to it a big giant uh uh fan into it uh when now we have to discuss what institutional racism is um which uh in my opinion uh reaches all the way back to potentially even the founding of this country if we want to talk about systems of government and economics uh institutional racism goes uh deep into all of those topics uh to to have to educate uh our our students about that when it's a dubious Topic at best um but you know I think the most the probably the best thing that's been said uh on this topic uh the best was I believe that there was a high school student or someone who claimed to be a high school student who posted on Facebook today about the um the the racist comment uh that was made by apparently a false comment there but uh about how that you know how our uh open Choice students are are well regarded and and that the whatever the incident was uh uh talked about never occurred uh but that the the the the the statement the phrase that stood out the most is that I think it was a female she said that we all bleed the same blood so I think that's what we should really think about um and not about putting implementing a a policy that that in my opinion seeks to divide instead of unite so that's what we should consider thank you Mr Grio I just I don't see that it's divisive and I don't see any talk of quotas and I don't see any talk of punishment abely that policy but we will be discussing it more in policy me Mr eky do you have more on policy for us I think we're good right now this this will uh we will continue to discuss this we will just so that people understand that was the first the first reading and we go through three readings and before we approve or disapprove um next on our agenda is approval of the minutes um you should have had access to and you should have in your packets the minutes um from which meetings just one March 21st April 11 March 21st and April 11th do I have a motion moved at the Tre Board of Education approve the minutes from meetings held on March 21st 2024 and April 11 2024 do I have a second Mr eki thank you and um any comments or changes that need to be made or no seeing none we have a motion that the chesher Board of Education approve the minutes from meetings held on March 21st 2024 and April 11th 2024 all in favor it's unanimous from those present tonight thank you very much um next we have correspondence Mr grippo do you have any correspondence to bring forward tonight I have no Corr respondents spring forward then we shall move on to the superintendent report M Dr s thank you very much Dr heran I'm going to keep this short and sweet uh I as we get toward the end of the year here got a cou we've got a couple of special visitors in the audience um and I just wanted to acknowledge them uh the young lady in the right with the beige sweater is Kristen Bruno she's my intern and has spent the year visiting the chure public schools uh she's a special education supervisor excuse me um early childhood education supervisor in Fairfield and sitting next to her I think by happen stance which is kind of funny is huny Young no she is a u visitor from all the way from Kang samando do province in South Korea she is an experienced uh Elementary educator and administrator and has been spending several months in Connecticut observing education and spending three days here with us uh we are very honored to have both you guys working with us um both of them came from a distance obviously we've got to give the nod to miss no she a little further travel there but uh thank you ladies for uh coming to our school system um just a couple of important dates coming up uh is part of an update on nextg school building committee April 30th I believe it's next Tuesday we have uh meetings set up for members of the community we specifically targeted everybody who lives within a mile of Norton school and everybody who lives within a mile of the North End property the corner of Maran in Jarvis to learn about the phase one of the construction plans for those two schools um we encourage anybody to come that meeting will be held at 7 o'clock in the Norton cafeteria again it's open to the broader Community but uh we'll be talking about the construction plans for this summer at those two locations uh the actual groundbreaking for construction won't really occur until till December but we do plan uh a fair amount of site work at both those locations and so we wanted to give the opportunity for members of the community to meet up if you can't make that date no worries please um go to our website the chesher public school website on the bottom lefthand corner says school modernization and there's a lot of information information shared on the 30th will be available on that site uh shortly thereafter I also want to invite folks to our May 2nd Board of Education meeting I know you're going to I want to steal your thunder talking about upcoming meetings but um school security is a a very important topic that uh our team has spent a lot of time on we uh subscribe to What's called the Alice strategy it's an acronym that stands for alert lockdown inform counter and evacuate uh we'll have information for the public uh we are finalizing a video to go out soon where we will be providing this training all of our staff for the last several years have been trained we are now uh in the process that got put off right before covid um and it's just taking us time to retool uh and we'll be educating the high school students throughout the rest of the remainder of this school year uh with a developmentally appropriate process and then um hopefully next year re-educating high school students and then uh pushing it down to Elementary all the way down to Elementary over the course of next year so uh just want to put that on people's radar that will be 7 o'clock at the treasure High School cafeteria and that's it for me thank you Dr Solen um questions for M Dr s yeah just a quick question uh Dr Solen on the April 30 meeting yes sir um is that going to be posted on your say I know members of my HOA are very interested in attending and so I I know if I can email something to them or to sure yeah we direct them to a website I put something that I mean Carol we wrote a letter and send it out we can sent it out we can easily put those letters up on our website um that notify people there were separate letters to the different communities but in essence the same details about the meeting and being held that time in place great yeah we'll put those on the website thank you thank you yeah thanks for bringing that up uh Adam I uh I got the one for Norton school district you got the one for uh the new school yes right because you've moved out of our district yes yes all all this time right um and I don't have those meetings or dates here but it's because they're limited to those communities that that um that April 30th meeting we did not include on this but that's why I really wanted to announce it to make sure that people were aware um the subsequent showcase meeting is listed on the upcoming meetings great and the Showcase meeting is uh the one on the Alice train yes okay what we're doing at cheser high so in place of the chair's update as I am standing in tonight as Vice chair I will um make an announcement of upcoming meetings on May 2nd 7 PM is the Board of EDS showcase meeting at the high school that Dr Solen was just talking about on school security and I have to wonder whether whiteboards are involved no not for this one because all the other showcases had white boards yeah we unfortunately have to do no math problems yeah we're not going to torture you have to do math you're done um on Monday May 6 at 7 pm is the policy committee meeting where we will be discussing probably um the second reading for the equity and diversity and um I would like the public to know that you are also invited to come to um any of our subcommittee meetings as well I think everybody should come to as many meetings as I go to so I'm inviting you on Monday May 13th at 7 pm is curriculum committee meeting and those both those meetings take place at humiston boardroom h school and on Thursday May 16th at 7:30 p.m.

e e e test live stream test 1 2 3 test [Applause] that e e e evening and welcome to the April 18th Board of Trustees meeting Open Session uh we will reconvene uh begin with our Pledge of Allegiance and Moment of Silence with our student representative to the Board of Trustees Daniela Ruiz please stand put your right hand over your heart ready begin to the FL of the United States of America and to the for stands Nation Gody and justice for all thank you we are nearing the end of the school year where graduation is right around the corner for our seniors our hard work is displayed in paper certificates scholarships medals pins and sashes I want to remind you that these artifacts can never amount to the sacrifice our students have made to achieve them I want to congratulate our seniors and remind them that their hard work is seen and appreciated everything you guys do amounts to something even if you think otherwise let's take a moment to reflect on the beginning of new chapters not the end of a story thank you thank you Daniela and before we begin I would like to acknowledge our guests um not sure if they're here um we'll just give a shout out to them uh Jeff Morgan Stern ASA president I saw James garan vice president of Asa I believe Grant Schuster was in the air uh Heather hutner president of CSA and is Lacy Munger here or Britany Bowa from apga and uh Jennifer sisai right here all right and I believe uh Lisa e give her a shout out as well welcome uh next we will have a um closed session report by clerk thank you 4.1 no report of action taken regarding public employee performance evaluation superintendent 4.2 the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the settlement between the settlement agreement in oah case number 0010 resolving all issues in dispute by providing Assessment Services and other reimbursements 4.3 the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the settlement agreement in oah case number 20476 resolving all issues in dispute by providing compensatory services and other reimbursements 4.4 no reportal action regarding existing litigation 4.5 no reportal action taken regarding negotiations 4.6 no reportal action taken regarding Personnel 4.7 the Board of Trustees took formal action by a vote of 0 to approve the expulsion of students 23-12 23-18 23-20 and 20-22 and that concludes the close session report thank you trusty Guerrero um we have recognitions um on our first item of agenda our Simon Scholars and I'm going to defer to our superintendent Michael matsuda thank you madam chair we are so honored and privileged to be the recipient of Ron Simon's Legacy he is a former cabinet maker who built a national business uh in cabry and in uh home redesign he is 90 years old and he is committed to uh supporting lowincome students of color in Orange County and out of all the districts he has put his money into our kids and tonight uh in a program called Simon Scholars now there are other Simon Scholars scattered throughout the district or throughout the county but he had told me that he feels that ahsd is actually preparing kids for college careers and life so um the total amount and this is the second year of this is about $590,000 in total scholarships uh and that's he's going to continue that as long as he can and tonight we're here to recognize the Simon Scholars who were selected um at the in the spring of their sophomore year it's from four schools it's going to be expanded I think to two more schools next year and uh we're so proud of the work that the students are are doing and the way this works is upon High School graduation they will be honored with a scholarship and if they continue to complete uh leadership requirements while in college they will be receiving $166,000 in scholarships per student so uh let's give Mr Simon he's not here but give him a round of applause for his work going to read the names and uh if you're here please join us up at the deis we'd like to uh shake your hand and congratulate you uh and these are in no particular order I apologize but um we're going to go Samantha [Applause] Aguilar AA eria [Applause] Ella Hernandez [Applause] Calderon dang Lee Bruce [Applause] WI our own oh come on in [Applause] thank you our own Daniela r [Applause] aan Tariq Leslie katarino Alexander [Applause] Flores sit L Gutierrez [Applause] Eduardo [Applause] nandez kangho Tiana Hae laa Moran Deon [Applause] Alexandra [Applause] Perez Danielle [Applause] Santana JIS Buu Andrew campasano cusano pardon me [Applause] apologize Andrew uh Marissa and [Applause] nandz I will pause kayen fa [Applause] MC Hanan louan [Applause] yeah Steven Nava [Applause] Emma [Applause] Ortiz Alexa Reyes [Applause] sedo Rafael Sal Salado [Applause] Amy valades [Applause] Amy rufino Brito Natalia [Applause] carbajal Elaine Gabrielle [Applause] janisa Medina Brian [Applause] Mendes Emily [Applause] Munos Ryan Rodriguez [Applause] David [Applause] Torres Valerie Torres Alexis Vasquez and I apologize in advance Ariana [Applause] Veri and have I gotten everyone anyone making their way over here all right let's give them another wonderful Round of Applause [Applause] all kind of squeeze together picture for your parents and [Music] sure you can be SE window all right we got them all [Applause] B you can stay there you can stay there all right I'm so glad that many of them were able to come tonight item 6.2 Anaheim Union High School District teachers of the [Applause] year so um the Board of Trustees would like to recognize the Anaheim Union High School District 2023 24 teachers of the year so each School site selected a teacher of the year and submitted him or her for consideration for the auhsd teachers of the Year Awards a committee so they've already won at their school sit sites a committee had then had the very difficult challenge of reviewing the nomination letters for each of these outstanding teachers and selecting three district teachers of the year who exemplify the best of the best these three teachers will now be considered for the Orange County Teachers of the Year recognition program so five County teachers of of the year will be honored at an award ceremony in November uh I'd like to start first with uh because they're not here but timoth but we need to recognize them nonetheless Timothy Reid from Kennedy High School so the subject is special education he's had 23 years in auhsd the special contributions Timothy Reed a walker junior high school and Kennedy High School alumnist leads by example and diligently creates lessons that Inspire connections with students allowing them for allowing for them to feel seen heard and valued as individuals Mr Reed strives to meet the needs of students by developing strong mentoring relationships while individualizing and differentiating instruction so that each student can maximize their potential he encourages and challenges students to think critically and creatively in a safe and inclusive environment Tim is an accomplished educator Who develops positive relationships with parents and students he is a mentor coach and approachable School leader who models Exemplar core values and principles on a daily basis let's give him a round of applause another outstanding teacher is Dr Elizabeth [Music] hind the subject is English 23 years and ahsd the special contributions Dr Elizabeth Hine constantly inspires students to excel in their language profic proficiency creativity and overall Literacy By employing Innovative teaching methods that create a Dynamic and engaging learning environment which Fosters communication collaboration critical thinking and culture appreciation she uses a variety of tools to deliver content and creates a safe and comfortable classroom where students are celebrated for taking risks and are able to appreciate others Dr Hine hangs a mantra on her classroom door that reads come as you are she meets every student where they are and inspires to develop as young scholars as well as valuable kindness and understanding along with academics leaving a lasting impact on the lives of students in her Care thank you so much and Bravo [Applause] right and we have Joseph King from Hope School the subject is adult transition he spent 17 years in ahsd the special contributions are Joseph King adale Junior High School and Magnolia High School alumnus is passionate about supporting students with disabilities and giving back to the community his genuine commitment is reflected in his daily interactions with students and colleagues alike Mr King empowers his students to unlock their unlimited potential through his individualized and creative instruction particularly through the vocational skill development within his adult transition classes where students Thrive and discover their passions purpose and capabilities Joseph's lessons are designed to prepare students for lives of purpose quality contribution and Independence he understands the importance of connection and engagement with a broader community and how this impacts the school environment his exemplary service to his students allow them to flourish academically socially and emotionally and we thank you we're so proud of you we know where the Hope family is here do we have any family members as well [Applause] is po me me pop me kayen pop meai [Applause] all right moving on to item 6.3 Anaheim Union High School District counselors of the year the Board of Trustees would like to recognize the Anaheim Union High School District 2023 24 counselors of the Year nominations are submitted by past and present students of auhsd as well as families staff members and community members a selection committee then had a very difficult challenge of reviewing the nominations and selecting three District councilors of the year who exemplify the best of the best up first is Mary Benford from Cypress [Applause] Mary has been with ahd for nine years Mary Benford establishes connections with students and assists them with their postsecondary plans she cares about the students she serves and communicates effectively with parents Miss Binford is available to students listens to their concerns offers them support and connect them to resources she is also involved with various campus activities and attends student extracurricular activities her genuine care is evident in her daily interactions and we thank you so much and we appreciate you congratulations [Applause] think [Applause] and next up from Ball Junior High School Natalie salivar Natalie has been with ahsd for nine years I'm saying it wrong Natali oh you know what they missed off they left off an e pardon me Natalie salivar is committed to the academic personal social and career development of her students she goes above and beyond to ensure that every student feels valued and supported fostering a sense of belonging Miss salivar Works diligently to implement core lessons that incorporate student reflective practice her efforts have significally contributed to creating a posit positive School culture where students thrive academically emotionally and socially congratulations to you [Applause] so cute [Music] [Applause] all right and next up Kenya salivar Rodriguez from Gilbert High [Applause] School Kenya has proudly served three years in ahsd Kenya salava Rodriguez positively impacts students lives by fostering a safe and inclusive environment which supports academic and personal growth she inspires hope in her students through her optimism which is uplifting and motivating to students through her encouragement in particularly th those most vulnerable and in need of support Kenya has also been named one of the eight ocde school counselors of the year [Applause] two US Hol y [Music] [Applause] there you go hey awesome [Applause] congratulations yes board we're staying up here the next item is 6.4 kindness matters Awards and I'm deferring to Celeste [Applause] Krueger good evening Bo president Rand tro Board of Trustees superintendent mats matsuda exec cabinet staff students and guests my name is Celeste Krueger and I'm the Director of Human Resources with me tonight we have Scott jent Dr Scott Jensen uh who is the other Director of Human Resources and Teresa Rodarte a senior Administrative Assistant who's going to help so we are honored to present the recipients of the kindness matters award for the spring 2324 school year so when I call your name please come forward uh but the kindness matters Awards began in 2011 as a way to recognize and show appreciation to our staff students and community members to be a recipient of this award one must go above and beyond to De demonstrate compassion kindness and care for others the following people have done that first we have Lizette lazette bario graian Lizette is a teacher at Gilbert High School and she was nominated by mayel aru Miss thank you sorry so Lizette deserves this recommended recommendation for the kindness matters award because she goes above and beyond for her students and even her colleagues she is in charge of the Teen Pregnancy program at Gilbert on her [Applause] own on her own she has applied for Grants which have already brought in new funds for the program and now her classroom as a new stove refrigerator classroom tables and chairs new pots kitchen appliances Etc Lizette has added a cooking day for her students and not just that she sends an email to all staff at Gilbert to come by our classroom to grab food and that her girls have learned to cook some examples of the food the students have prepared are meat soup pancakes quesadillas hard tacos Etc she also uses organic ingredients that she grows herself as well as food from our permanent merido here at Gilbert High School her actions are above and beyond the Call of Duty because she is honestly putting her heart in the program that she runs by including all staff to be part of it she successfully created a safe environment for our teen moms or soon to be moms everyone is welcome in lizette's classroom thank you Lizette [Applause] h all right our next winner is principal Gary [Applause] Brown so Gary is the principal at laera High high school and his nomination was forwarded to us from amarie Randall tro so Principal Brown is a great example of how a campus leader practices what he preaches one of our leera students with a disability with a disability came to school without a sweater and was cold the student's instructional assistant walked the student over to leera's Family Center to look for a jacket for him but were're unable to find one that fit him Principal Brown happened to be in that room room and overheard the conversation he offered the student his personal sweater from his office the student and the instructional assistant were shocked and pleasantly surprised that the principal offered to share his jacket with the student at the school site we often talk about the five C's and implementing them in various ways but principal Brown's actions provide a simple but awesome example of a site leader practicing our five c's with our most needy population this is a perfect example of literally giving the shirt off your back thank you Dr thank you Principal [Applause] Brown all right our our next winner tonight is Wendy dotton from laera high [Applause] school Wendy was nominated by Katherine low Wendy has one of the most caring and generous hearts at our school she spends her own money and takes action constantly to bring positivity joy and comfort to both staff and students for example Wendy brought pickle ball equipment and a net to the site so that the students could play in the courtyard during lunchtime she also regularly bakes and makes treats to share at our department meetings Wendy is generous and kind with her time and attention often staying long after the bell rings to help students and offering a listening ear to them and to our fellow teachers being a teacher is an incredibly stressful and emotionally and physically taxing job and most of us go home needing to take a break and to address our personal lives however Wendy still makes time to bake treats shop for little gifts that will brighten people's days and practice generous Hospitality by hosting staff parties at her home as well as arranging Friday get togethers with a focus on getting the newer younger staff members connected her kindless kindness truly Knows No Limit thank you Wendy [Applause] all right our next winner is Crystal EDS Chris crystal is the the record secretary at Western High School and was nominated by Diana Reyes so Crystal is very intelligent and knowledgeable she is one of the district's most experienced record secretaries every time the district has a new employee in the record secretary position crystal is always willing to share her knowledge and trains them at their site or invites them to come over to her site so they can learn handson Crystal does not only focus on her job at her site she makes sure the other record secretaries are understanding their job and frequently contacts them she is also available for anyone that needs help regardless of position or tile I'm thankful for having her as my coworker because she's always willing to step up when others are struggling thank you [Applause] Crystal our next winner is Dave [Music] [Applause] mandine Dave is the director of training for getafe he was nominated by our gil Gilbert adult transition students and teacher Candace Sosa so Dave is an energetic engaging and knowledgeable presenter with get safe he typically presents to all of our adult trans transition programs and some High School classes within the district every year the training consists of three days reviewing personal boundaries what to do in case of emergencies how to be safe in the community and online you using your mind body and voice to communicate and more I've never worked with someone who is able to relate engage with every student in the classroom during the whole lesson with understanding smiles and laughter Dave is always flexible working around the varying ATP teachers schedules additionally he makes an effort to call or email the teacher prior to the lesson to see if there is any one area he should focus on specifically based on student need making every lesson individualized we have had other presenters from getafe come to our classroom and though all although armed with the same knowledge and care no one is quite like Dave his enthusiasm and commitment to his job and our students is uncomparable the students wanted to nominate Dave for all of his hard work and dedication he is the definition of going above and beyond the Call of Duty thank you Dave for all you do hand my son in my right [Applause] our next winner is erisel [Applause] Portillo aricelli is a teacher at Savannah high school and must be doing such an awesome job she was nominated by six different people for this recognition Martha mat Brenda Prato Bri Nichols Erica ye Britney Bowa and Alisa cologne all all nominated Arelli so miss poro gives 120% every day she is an amazing teacher in and outside of the classroom and she is dedicated to making connections with her students she stays after school almost every day to make sure all of her students get support and can meet her expectations she supports students beyond the classroom by attending multiple sporting events she is at almost every home game football basketball soccer Etc and is even seen at away games that require two or more hours of travel time she even attended our girls basketball semi semifinals in in atanto Arelli does not have to attend these sporting events but students have come to expect her presence there because of her unwavering dedication to the rebels Athletic program Miss ptio has also contributed monetary support to students and their families one of our amazing Scholars has been living in a shelter for almost a year and she has given gift cards so the student and his mom can have groceries she is our Rebels biggest fan she's literally kind to everyone she inter interacts with she cares about her students not only academically but emotionally as well she truly cares about her students and stays in touch with them after graduation thank you [Applause] araali okay our final winner tonight is a student in the gil Gilbert adult transition program Roy sedeno yes Roy was nominated by his bus driver Sandra Pitman [Applause] Sandra says Roy is a student from adult transition program who rides my bus he makes sure to greet everyone on the bus every day exchanging the bus handshake with them he is kind even when we have challenging students on our bus if new stud students are added to our bus route Roy asks me for their name and then greets them when they Bor the bus and shows them the bus handshake my bus has both students from the adult transition program as well as high school students Roy is a friend to everyone and make sure everyone is welcome on our bus all students greet Roy with a handshake that he has taught them he has ridden by bus for two years and has been consistently kind to everyone he meets he goes out of his way to make everyone feel welcomed on our bus it is an honor to know Roy thank you Roy can all of the winners please come forward and we'll get one big picture together [Applause] please love your T-shirt great thank you so much thank you to everyone who nominated and to all of our nominees and winners thank you Celeste Scott and Miss RAR for your wonderful presentation next up will be item seven our student Representatives uh report to the board Daniela Ruiz take it away starting with Anaheim Anaheim would like to say congratulations to Angel Ruiz Nunes for getting into Harvard creating a path for future colonist Cambridge Virtual Academy would like to highlight that their RSVP raising student voices and participation through a pie a teacher day shending to sprinkle some happiness raise funds for furry friends at shelters and spread some good old Community love everyone got a slice of Fun by playfully pieing their teachers showing off the creative Fair big hearts and Community Vibes Cyprus want to say congratulations to Amy buerer for being so elected as ASB president Lera wants to highlight that their ASB hosted the annual International night on March 21st 2024 the audience sailed across the sea with cultural performances from loera's vssa and K-pop Club alongside Magnolia's VI FICO and individual performances from great talents furthermore many clubs fundrais cultural foods such as esas Chet Tha pusas Tahoe and mansanitas catella would like to highlight their media day in which ASB ambassadors and sports were professionally photographed Kennedy would like to highlight that their Shamrock regiment traveled to Ireland to perform in the St Patrick's state parade in Dublin loera wants to highlight that their Magnolia would like to highlight that their choir was invited to the Cal State flon Coral Festival thanks to their exceptional quoir director Mr Garcia their choir has scored Superior at a majority of their shows Oxford wants to highlight Olivia King her team has now gone back to back years to the National Tournament competing as one of the top 16 teams in the nation for girls hockey in her age group Savannah wants to highlight their Community School Rebel exchange led by Miss Maldonado the Community School's lead at Savannah the rebels have built a community closet called The Rebel exchange all the goods in the room have been Don donated by Savannah students staff and community members students are free to drop by and take anything that they may need Western's school football team was acknowledged in the House of Representatives for their committee to academic and athletic Excellence State Governor Luis Cora was the one to deliver the speech and are very proud of what our Pioneers are doing here that concludes the March 2024 Ambassador report thank you Daniela and um today is a special day for Daniela can we all wish her a wonderful happy [Music] [Applause] birthday and Daniela you next are the student speakers item 7.2 we have see seven okay we have seven student speakers uh please can we have our student speakers uh close by so when I call their name they can come up our first Speaker Elena soell and I believe uh Haley soell is with her soell welcome audience me please uh allow our students to speak and uh let them uh have their time please do not interrupt with clapping or cheering let them finish and then you may proceed to clap for them or cheer for them give them their all of their enti their time tonight thank you dear members of the board dear members of the board my name isana satell and soon I will be joining hold on sweetheart hold onou okay we want to hear you li thank Bravo dear members of the board my name is Elana selo and soon I will be joining the Anaheim Union High School District my big sister Haley has taught me to use my voice to advocate for myself and gave me the courage to speak tonight I'm concerned about the teacher layoffs because I don't do well with large class sizes it giv it gives me anxiety and I get distracted easily I also look forward to having those teachers who have poured into my sister do the same for me I ask you to please take me and other students with similar needs into consideration thank [Applause] you are you wishing to as well you may yes ask a question what grade was she in or is she in element I didn't catch what grade she's in fifth grade thank you [Applause] welcome thank you good evening members of the board my name is Haley soell and today I'm here to support my teachers as well as talk about how the decision made will directly affect my education the bigger classes the less time teachers will have to run clubs or give students extra help if they need it obviously this is not their fault at all and does not reflect their capability to teach in any way if there are too many students in a class it's not beneficial for anyone imagine having to deal with 39 plus kids and that's not including every class period as a student I'm concerned for next year because I know this will have an effect not only on me but in the younger students coming into our district the reason any of us are coming up here to speak tonight are because the teachers you have given us have done their job and they've done incredibly well today I'm speaking on behalf of all the students in this District when I'm asking you to not take away the amazing teachers you've gifted us with because they have shown us how to engage civically and respectfully as students we are all incredibly disheartened by this decision but we thank you for taking the time to listen to us thank [Applause] you espa Yer is spea and I apologize if I'm not pronouncing that correctly welcome uh good afternoon my name is Runa Spar and I'm a sophomore at Western High School and I'm here to urge you to find a different speak in your microphone and I'm here to urge you to find a different solution to your to uh your money problem there are many any cons to the situation some of them being that classes would get bigger and students there are barely room any there is barely any room to walk in the classrooms as now and if they got bigger we'd have to add more desks and more chairs and that could cause a safety hazard for many students because you'd be tripping on them by backpacks desk chairs and sometimes also other students a lot of your students and students in new wheel will have a more difficult time getting to their classes um it also really really big safety hazard because if there was a fire drill or if there was an earthquake or an active school shooting we wouldn't be able to get to safety in time without accidentally um getting someone else in danger or ourselves in danger um an award-winning teacher and bestselling author Wiston kingck said the max amount of students that should be in a classroom is 18 and that I don't have a single class that has only 18 students if you got rid of more teachers it would only go up increase and increasing the safety hazard that there already is um I hope that you go with a different solution to this because it will affect all of us in the long run and I would really like to avoid that thank you for your time thank you Pearl T Pearl [Applause] T welcome hello hi my name is Pearl T and I'm from luera high school okay ahsd board I'm quite pleased that there have been resignations sent as well as some improvement and insightful videos about the process on rafs I heard that some teachers are or received rewards for their hard work and other achievements congratulations however I feel like there's always more we could do this whole issue affects all teachers in multiple forms but I want to highlight temporarily funded teachers I'm in pente a college readiness program I have two years of English class with my pente teacher and like I have mentioned before she and a class have helped me grow my leadership skills my little sister recently got into pente and she was waiting and checking for updates to get into this program mailboxes messages preparing for this moment she was going to have my teacher next year but I wonder how my little sister may feel if that opportunity was taken away from her my teacher is a temporarily funded teacher I don't know what will happen to the class would my sister her friends and classmates no longer have a point class or will they have a new teacher what would be the point of having a new teacher and replace them I do see that hiring another teacher May save this pointy class and this new teacher could just be as wonderful but my teacher has more plans for her class and students in the future that I would love to see happen but may not be possible if she gets fired we were talking about upcoming events how to set up involvement ideas many possibilities I honestly do hope that she'll keep her position for next year because she's also an avid teacher you are not only taking away pente but also Avid classes both college readiness programs and I also thought you have programs like these as a priority to keep because don't we want our students to have a thriving future when they go in and out of college the videos by Mr matsuda does demonstrate communication however I feel like more should be said there were some solutions and possibilities discussed to raise money to keep teachers that were in the other states and there are also more deeper processes within this RAF process that a lot of y'all may not know like how students can make up their absence to help the district earn money since funding comes from attendance there are Saturday cies to make up for this as well as just letting school know beforehand hand and like how RFS aren't determined by teacher evaluation because a judge May view that as biased I believe Michael M I believe Michael matsuda along with his board should talk more in depth about these processes but have it recorded to be heard all around on their commun all around on their Communications Channel I keep saying possibilities but that's because knowledge is power and if we all have knowledge about what goes down in the AGC District we all could use this power to work together to strengthen unlimited you to decide a teacher's Fates before it's too late thank you wow thank you Pearl Andrew compus kusano hello everyone I once again find myself up before this di advocating advocating voicing and fighting for so many things I would like to start off by thanking the board for recognizing this Simon Scholars Program and the wonderful students who have worked so hard and pushed through so many adversities and setbacks you Scholars are the true leaders on campus I have an endorsement letter that I went ahead and printed out for you all it's from Natalie rubalcava and it's in concern of the regalia I went ahead and made copies um I'll hand them out later um I am once again here strictly as a student advocus and I want to make it I want to make it clear that I am in no way affiliated with ahsd as to or any other organization what I want to make clear to the board is that I am here as a student faced by many issues and so many things caused by this school board ah hsd's vision statement is to create a better world through unlimited you now what does this look like to me unlimited students in classrooms unlimited Rec regalia recognitions at graduation or unlimited spending on E Cadence I said it once and I will proudly say it again what you folks need to do instead of laying off teachers is expand various programs on campus a possible option is offering more CVA courses creating more AP classrooms we are cutting down on so many English teachers let's work on our ELD programs let's cut down on EAD and spending the majority of your students and I bet C on campus staff would agree with this let's stop denying teachers access to Google Classroom this is a free and effective tool that many teachers have demonstrated interest in I hope someday I can invite some of you on that dis over to Anaheim and just have you look at how many students are in our class or even hopefully at one of our practices through Sports so you can see how our coaches are so dedicated to our students I have a few friends who haven't been doing too well academically and ultimately you can look at a decline in enrollment in various ways and a regular student teacher to student ratio a lack of courses lack of programs offered and most importantly than anything else student and parent morale as a dedicated Community member former City Commissioner Simon scholar and proud Anaheim student I come to you folks as a Statesman and a diplomat please work with your students and teachers what are you folks accomplishing through policymaking if your constituents are not happy I do hope you do all you all do better there are tough times ahead and what I want everyone in this beautiful Community to know you teachers have trained the future generation the future generation looks beautiful and I will not stop fighting for you thank you [Applause] Jana AMA gaana igama welcome hello my name is Giani agama a junior at Kennedy High School and I assume You' have all been overwhelmed with the reactions of our district upon the teacher riffs but I also hope to assume that you are proud of the unity in our community I want to speak amongst how a to see teachers on my campus and Beyond have ignited my ability to believe protect and love myself ever since elementary school I have had a 504 plan for my anxiety and depression this plan is sent out to all my teachers in the beginning of the year so that they are aware that I may have some learning impediments such as needing more time for assignments or simply a break from class if I'm overwhelmed this infiltrating mentality of anxiety has reigned over me recently and the only way I was able to recover was because of the love of my teachers I was recently involved in the every 15 minutes program at my school at Kennedy if you are familiar with this program students take two days in educating themselves and others on the dangers of drunk driving by presenting a realistic car crash scene to Juniors and seniors where one of our peers ultimately dies I had the honor of being arrested during this program which quite frankly led me down into a spiral of depression I began to see the scene that I was in as real I began to hate myself for something that was pretend and I began to not give myself a chance to breathe only when I returned to school lacking my usual Smiles or laughter that I was able to find my old self again because of the teachers who supported me because they regarded me Beyond a student in their class because they cared about me and my well-being all my teachers made sure I was okay all my teachers gave me Grace when I couldn't have done that myself and I am forever indebted to the teachers who don't even have me in their class who took me aside and made sure that I wasn't plaguing my mind with self-deprecating thoughts because in totality they saved me my teachers are kind Humane and deserving Souls of respect and the chance to continue creating an impact towards all students parents staff members Future Leaders future inventors future performers future lovers future dreamers and future teachers of the world my teachers I have had the honor of knowing now inspire me and my friends to not only achieve our goals but achieve a capacity of love for ourselves and others we could not have gained without their help I want to protect my teachers as much as they protected me my love and my life I hope you will do the same thank you thank you Tiana Sarah alak Sarah I apologize Sarah for mispronouncing your last name welcome unlimited you a phrase plaster on nearly every wall of ahsd schools a phrase that ahsd galvanizes to create a false reality that if you try your best and have no limit you two have a chance to create a better world a world where everyone sees eye to eye and takes feedback in order to avoid future conflicts but the future is now we stay limited not only as students but as teachers trustees supervisors and most most importantly colleagues we might not work together but we all still have the same goal the goal to provide what's best for 31,000 students teachers aren't able to force whether or not a student pays attention in class graduates or become successful in their career but they are able to influence those around them they are able to guide them to being the next brain surgeon to inspire them to have abilities to learn how to love to learn to influence those around them for the better to create a future for the world not just for them to live without limit but to see themselves in the future with a reliable source of Education because if we students aren't able to Envision ourselves in the future then we are limited limited not only to our minds but our resources a resource like teachers the root of all learning the reason high-paying jobs like doctors and superintendants got their start they learned so why can't we continue learning and acknowledge the fact that they applaud the reductions but are still withdrawing 31 teachers and they are affected nevertheless the fight is like dominoes because no matter what the positions at stake will always be labeled as their process bound to happen due to budget cuts but in reality districts are our district prioritizes revamping School Decor rather than than our teachers pay so let's view 88 not as PR but a wake up call the a which is D these teacher cuts in this quantity under no circumstance should be normalized let's view 88 as a new number to beat because teachers have paved the way for success in students so let's fight for those positions we save save our teachers thank you Sarah Gabriella Sera Gabriella welcome good evening everyone as representatives of our Anaheim High School PTSA we are here tonight to express our Collective support for the students of Anaheim High School and the requests were honor stashes chords and other regalia they have earned during their years at ahsd our students have dedicated themselves to their education and extracurricular activities participating in such programs as Avid dual Language Academy buente National Honor Society and various Pathways like biotech culinary arts and vapa these programs have not only enriched their educational experiences but also have contributed significantly to their culture and reputation of our school district the honor sashes earned by our students symbolize their hard work dedication and achievement throughout their academic Journey these sashes not only recognize individual accomplishments but also serve as a testament to the Excellence of the program offered by our school district by allowing our students to proudly wear these sashes at graduation we are not only honor their achievements but also celebrate their success of our educational programs as a whole furthermore permitting students to wear honor sashes ensures that all students are recognized and celebrated for their efforts and achievements additionally seeing their peers being honored can Inspire younger students to strive for academic excellence and act actively engage in various programs offered by our district the visible colorful unique sashes and chords that represent each program differentiate students and mark them as members of specific groups and Pathways creating a sense of belonging and kinship amongst the members of the group these sashes allow students who have gone above and beyond in various ways through academic achievement service and extracurricular participation to stand out amongst their peers representing all of the be all the best of our school's programs and our student body's achievements some may argue that pins attached to a common stole can do that same thing but we are here to argue that pins are not recognizable and cannot be differentiated at a distance at and this is the biggest problem students want to be recognized for their efforts in the most iconic moments of their graduation when the crowd watches from the stands as they take the field to Pomp and Circumstance and when they walk across the stage as their name is called it is important to note that our students have been advocating for this change for well over a year demonstrating their commitment to this issue as representatives of PTSA we stand in solidarity with our students and urge the school board to support the request by calling for a vote today thank you for considering our Viewpoint with this matter we believe that by supporting our students in this endeavor we not only promote equity and student purpose but also Foster a sense of Pride and belonging within our school Community thank you thank you FR [Applause] Sanchez Freda Sanchez welcome hello okay good evening board members and District cabinet my name is Sanz a 10th grader at anahim high school and I'm here to express my opinion on the importance of graduation sessiones and the impact of teacher layoffs teacher layoffs in the ahsd have far-reaching consequences that expand Beyond budgetary considerations these layoffs not only lead to an increase in class size but also resolve result in the loss of invaluable teacher U student relationships a decrease in the quality of education and overworked Educators ultimately compromising the educational experience for students with fewer teachers available to instruct students remaining classes become overcrowded making it challenging for teachers to provide personalized attention to each student this overcounting not only hampers the learning environment but also diminishes the opportunity for Meaningful interactions between teachers and students the loss of teacher student relationships due to layoffs has profound consequences on students academic performance and overall development teachers play a pivotal role in guiding motivating and nurturing students serving as mentors and Role Models when teachers are lay off these crucial relationships are severed leaving students without the support and encouragement they need to thrive academic mically and personally moreover the decrease in the quality of Education resulting from teacher layoffs is undeniable overwork teachers face with larger class sizes are increased demands struggle to maintain the save level same level of instructional excellence in addition to these academic concerns it's essential to recognize the symbolic significance of high school graduation sashes these sashes deserve as uh serve as tangible reminders of students hard work dedication and achievements throughout their High School Journey they represent not only academic success both resilience perseverance and support of family and Community for many students especially those from immigrant or first generation backgrounds these sashes hold profound meaning they symbolize the sacrifices made by their families and aspirations for a brighter future as a first generation student myself I firsthand understand the importance of these symbols of achievement seeing my older sister adorned with her graduation sashes inspired me to strive for academic excellence and pursue my dreams relentlessly therefore as we contemplate the ramifications of teacher layoffs in the ages District we must acknowledge the critical role that Educators play in shaping students Futures and making the attainment of graduation sessiones possible teachers not only impart knowledge but also instill values Inspire ambition and Empower students to reach their full potential let us not undermine the significance of their contributions or jeopardize the educational opportunities of future Generations instead let us prioritize investment in our teachers and commit to ensuring that every student has access to a high quality education that prepares them for success in Academia career and life thank you Freda [Applause] hey uh next up are our our reports of the associations uh I think I saw Jeff Morganstern [Applause] welcome are we still at five minutes all right just checking good evening board president Randall tro board trustees superintendent matsuda cabinet teachers parents and students just like an individual or a family your budget tells the story of your priorities I want to start my report by following up on two points made during the March 7th board meeting first it was stated from the Das that one of the reasons the district needed to cut 10% of our teachers was because they received a 4 and a half% cost of living increase all district employee groups received the same four and a half percent increase as I said last month we are not asking for any other employee to be laid off but no other employee group lost positions because they received a salary increase second it was also said from the Das that the reason why the district needed to cut 119 teachers was that every teacher was given an additional ,000 to cover increases to the cost of their health benefits all district employee groups receiv received an additional 1,000 toward their health benefits again we are not asking for any other employees to be laid off but no other employee group lost positions because they continue to receive their health benefits so I continue to ask what story is your budget telling about how you value teachers last month when the board voted to cut 119 of our teachers it also officially adopted the second interim budget the following Staffing numbers are taken directly from that adopted budget in addition to the proposed 10% cut to teachers the district is planning to cut another 3% of teachers each year for the next two years in comparison classified staff is set to gain a 7% increase this year and will remain also maintain that level of Staffing for the next two years management supervisor and confidential staff is set to gain a 34% increase this year and will maintain that level of Staffing for the next two years according to the district's own second interim budget the primary plan to address the loss of funds due to declining enrollment is simply to cut teachers this plan will leave gaping holes in our instructional and EXT extracurricular programs at are schools that won't be filled I ask again what story is your budget telling about how you value teachers this choice is not due to an inability to pay it's simply a pref preference not to pay just this school year Anaheim Union received 188 million in new and ongoing funding why is it then that the amount of unrestricted reserves increase by over $31 million this year the district has over 2117 million or 38% of its annual budget in unrestricted reserves the average High School District in California has 22% of its annual budget in unrestricted reserves that's a 16% difference amounting to over $88 million let's put these numbers into perspective it would take approximately 8% which is a very conservative estimate of Anaheim Union's unrestricted reserves or approximately 20% of what Anaheim Union has over and above the average high school district in California to stop teacher layoffs this year appropriate reserves are prudent savings for a rainy day the storm is here and it's time to use a small portion of these reserves to show that we value our teachers and the learning conditions of our students we should not value them we should value them not only when times are good but also in the challenging times ahead we've seen a total of 88 riff notices rescinded and we share in the relief that each teacher feels let's not forget that 167 notices have not been rescinded next week nearly all of the 167 will be attending a three-day hearing at catella high school to argue to keep their position next year this is a huge and complex process to manage and it must be said that the district has chosen for over two months now despite our repeated requests to withhold critical information that teachers need to prepare their case before the administrative law judge in fact the district just responded to our Discovery request at 5:17 p.m.

is our May Board of Ed business meeting that will be held in town council chambers so we're saying goodbye to DOD Middle School next month um May 27th should be noted is Memorial Day and schools across the district are and the offices are closed that day and the only item left then is adjournment could I get a motion to adjourn the meeting some Mo Mr grippo moves second Mr eki thank you um all those in favor it's unanimous thank you very much everyone

last night this has created Mass confusion and has significantly contributed to the anxiety and stress of our teachers since day one of this layoff process we have asked that any teacher who is laid off continue to receive their employer provided health benefits for themselves and their family through the summer months while they're looking for another teaching position we have yet to receive an answer these teachers will have completed their full work year and deserve to receive their full Year's worth of benefits that they have earned let's dig further into the layoff numbers of the 119 probationary and permanent status positions to be eliminated 24 of them have been covered by retirements and add an additional 14 temporary positions that's 40 positions that are simply going away it was shared by the superintendent yesterday that 33 of the remaining 95 probationary and permanent status teachers will have their layoffs rescinded and 62 will not 33 that's approximately one out of four of the original 919 now I want to acknowledge that this is a step in the right direction and I appreciate the board's change of heart but we can go further those 33 positions represent just 2.8% of the district's unrestricted Reserve what is the solution that we propose first roll back the current layoffs we know the reserves are there as well as almost 100 million in supplemental and concentration block grants that will be directed by the recommendations of the elcat process through retirements and providing individual class caps we can manage the coming years with little or no layoffs second let's commit to an open dialogue with all employee groups the community District leadership and the school board let's come together to figure out a transparent and structural plan to deal with the loss of funds due to declining enrollment a plan that doesn't negatively impact our students and shows that we value all employees I look forward to discussing our proposed solution when our executive board meets with the cabinet on Monday thank [Applause] you welcome Dr sasai good evening Madame President Randall tryo Board of Trustees superintendent matsuda members of the executive cabinet students parents and our community both here in person and joining us online as we're in the final quarter of the school year we're fully immersed in the busiest period it's time for both celebration and preparation as we look forward to wrapping up this year will laying the groundwork for a successful start of next school year our school sites have been diligently crafting the master schedule wrapping up the end of the Year activities in athletics as well as hosting student Capstone showcases our open houses districtwide our mindfulness representatives in collaboration with our student ambassadors hosted their second semester mindfulness Summit AT Brooker Junior High this student Le event Drew over a hundred students from across the district to learn more about themselves and to empower themselves with strategies to stay proactive when dealing with their wellbeing we want to extend our heartfelt appreciation to all of our dedicated Personnel at our school sites for their hard work meticulous planning and unwavering commitment to ensuring the success of all of our students we also want to convite all of our community members to join us at our upcoming stea paloa event on April 20th at Lera High School this event promises to be extraordinary with highlighting our programs our students and their passions at the heart of our institution is our students we want to celebrate all of them a special shout out to Walker Junior High show choir who competed for the first time this year in show choir competitions they had an undefeated season winning first place best show best music in all three competitions beating some very tough groups Kennedy singers equally have performed well this season at various show choir competitions including all groups winning grand championship at the Los Almos competition Grand championships at the esparanza competition and Grand championships at the Cyprus competition we are proud of all of our programs throughout the school district in closing I want to Express gratitude to both all of our site and District members for their ongoing collaboration connectivity and proactive approach in addressing our challenges we value our Collective Strength and commitment to finding Solutions together thank you [Applause] Heather Heather hutner welcome president Randall tryo Board of Trustees superintendent matsuda executive cabinet staff parents students and community members thank you for the opportunity to address you on behalf of classified CA members while the past month has been a roller coaster for our members we would like to focus on the positive we're thankful to have come to an agreement with the district in negotiations and we're excited that the district has once again agreed to provide CPR um training for staff members and we hope that in the future this means that both staff and students will be safer in the event there ever is an unfortunate emergency on our campuses our Behavior Support IC Ally fragile visually impaired deaf heart of hearing adult transition and special ability instructional assistance support our students not only in the classrooms but also in the cafeteria the community and when needed even in the bathrooms this month we've seen some amazing evidence of the impact that quality instructional assistance can have via Capstone projects if you haven't had the opportunity to watch um the YouTube video title it catella talk 2024 Nova n OVA I highly recommend you do so it's pretty amazing it's one of our special ability students um who is speaking via her um instructional assistant I remember her from when she was a seventh grader tomorrow over a 100 IAS will help uh their students participate in the Hope cup while District floating LVN are standing by to ensure everyone stays safe many district office staff including secretaries admin assistants and Senior administrative assistants have worked to set up events for both staff and the community including the multiple elap meetings our faces and plural lingual employees been helping families and parents to participate in both the elcap and parent education events the plural lingual staff have already tested over aund more incoming students this year than all of last year with the same number of staff and they're still working on their outpack testing too s staff and especially the registers and records are busy trying to get their outgoing files ready and still provide the amazing customer service that our parents and students deserve so we hope that and we know that we can all get through this year and hope that next here is even [Applause] better it's apga here all right thank you so much um item 7.4 is there anyone here representing PTSA secondary okay moving on to our public comments Open Session items opportunities for public comments occur at the beginning of each agenda item and at this time for items not on the agenda persons wishing to address the Board of Trustees should complete should have completed a speaker request form available on the information table at the back of the room and submit it to the executive assistant prior to the meeting each speaker is limited to a maximum of three minutes but I think we have see okay we have uh well over 15 uh we're gonna we agreed for two minutes two minutes for each speaker okay um and the board members cannot immedi respond to public comments as stated on the speaker request form I ask that everyone please allow everyone to have their full two minutes um if you you know Hoot and Holler during their time uh they miss their time so um I will not ever restrict you from applauding anyone um after they speak so please adhere to those rules we appreciate that first up Julia lindellen welcome jul Lind lindin apologize hi um today I will be your substitute teacher um uh I I would like to address the board because um we've had some issues regarding our teachers um I had noticed that we have an increase in days um paid sick days we're supposed to have 40 hours as of January 2024 and none of our substitute teachers had been aware that they had PSL at all they have had PSL you can if they're eligible they're eligible for PSL if they have worked 30 days for a school district after the 90th day they are allowed to have now 40 hours paid sick leave prior to this it was 24 hours but but none of our substitutes knew that they were even entitled to 24 hours none of them the reason I know this is because I set up a message board with substitute teachers um they' never spoken to each other before many of our problems are the same our Eis system has only recently been updated we have not been receiving our paid sick leave because we have many administrators ERS who do things differently at different sites there is no there's no overhead there's nobody at the wheel I'm very concerned that this is going to continue to happen and we must be reclassified in order for it to not happen again we must be employees of the district we must know our students we must know our schools we cannot do that under this employment classification that's all thank you so much Kimberly rengel good evening members of the board my name is Kimberly rangale and I am a District representative for state senator Josh Newman whose District proudly encompasses a large portion of the city of Anaheim Senator Newman has asked me to convey his strong support for your efforts in the face of fiscal impacts from chronic absenteeism and declining enrollment to preserve as many Anaheim Union High School District teacher positions as possible the perspective layoff of over a 100 teachers which would constitute roughly 10% of all teachers in the school district should be caused for concern layoffs of this scale would necessitate an increase in class sizes and make it that much more difficult for teachers to Foster valuable relationships with their students it would also mean that 2third of your student body would lose lose at least one of their former teachers California public schools are meant to be places in which students can study learn and grow in that context it is easy to see how detrimental teacher layoffs would be teachers serve as the backbone of our education system and their impact on students lives go well beyond the classroom as Educators counselors role models and lifelong mentors teachers play a vital role in guiding students many of them first generation through their transition into post secondary education and eventually the workforce Senator Newman respectfully urges that any measures taken in the face of the fiscal constraints the the Anaheim Union High School District should to the extent possible minimize the impact on your teacher Workforce thank you thank you Dina Wilson orina I apologize good evening I'd first off like to start by saying ditto to everything that the students said tonight I only hope that I can be as articulate as they are but good evening uh president Randall tro and members of the board my name is Dena Wilson I'm a resident and property owner within the Anaheim Union High School District boundaries I'm a proud parent of a student and I'm also a professional educator who believes in the power of public education and also the importance of local control and that's why I'm here asking that you as the elected and governing entity of the school board put ensure that you're putting students first in your decisions and remind you that you're here to represent us as the community and you have an important role to fill it requires you to ensure transparency stay informed use critical thinking and uphold the vision of this District the parents ask that you spend time in the classrooms and speak to students outside of special events this is especially true um to know that we have empathy for our students and for our staff we need to know that things are now different than when you were in school or your children were in school it's important that the board have the supportive relationship to the district but that does not mean that you have blind trust in rubber stamp decisions has the board asked Dr matsuda and his staff to present alternatives to this massive reduction in treat in teaching Force have you asked about all of the different additional funds that the state has given outside of Esser including the over $2 million in equity multiplier funds and over $4 million in proper 28 funds the state is prioritizing and asking that these funds are used to lower class size but do you know how these funds are being used as I repes Representatives we ask that you keep students first and if you do so you would look and keep Cuts further away from the classrooms and you would think about how we are recognizing our students for the hard work that we do we are clearly proud to take credit for the hard work they do yet we're not willing to recognize them stols are not that expensive and you Pride yourselves with the multiple Community Partners that we have throughout the district and I cannot think of an easier thing to raise money for also a speaker mentioned a few weeks ago that e EC Cadence costs $300,000 more than Google classrooms that's at least equal to one to two teacher pay plus salaries please ask about that my child has over 41 students in her honor math class and I ask will it be more next year I ask how this practice is academically appropriate and how it meets The Wellness of the staff and students that you pref you profuse to prioritize and this is aligned to the vision of this District thank you and I look forward to hearing the board ask more questions laor [Applause] hernandz Lori Hernandez good evening just to clarify do I have two minutes or three minutes I'm the only speaker on action item 9.14 so I should actually have three because it's 20 minutes per topic thank you all right so good evening I would like to voice opposition to item 9.14 the agreement to spend thousands of dollars on a service to publicize the Cambridge virtual Academy for the purpose of recruiting students at some point this Board needs to start asking the tough questions about the future of CVA according to your website CVA has 197 students but employs a coordinator serving as the principal an assistant principal one family and Community engagement specialist two counselors and other classified positions for 197 students due to low enrollment students in comprehensive high schools now have the option to take a period of their day off free free time and take an online course instead through CVA so for example my son who's going to be a junior at Kennedy can take a period off and take AP English online is this what is best for our students considering the district's focus on the 5c's is an online mostly asynchronous environment better than in-person instruction for AP English many districts created online schools before during and after the pandemic some of those have closed or collapsed into other programs because they are bleeding money and pandemic funding is gone because most districts have an online option there is no demand for this service the district is laying off more than 60 permanent teachers some with more than 15 years in the district here's an idea if our declining enrollment is so significant significant enough for these layoffs then take one of our smaller comprehensive high schools and absorb CVA a school like Lera or Savannah could manage the 197 students with no disruption to the service to students let those administrators absorb those duties and through attrition the administrators counselors and other staff can be moved to other positions in the district that would save a million dollars that's five teachers jobs the declining enrollment and Bud budget issues are very real Mr matsuda has been sending updates to us parents what we're waiting to hear are Creative Solutions to this issue that are not just teacher layoffs one of Mr matsuda's speeches mentioned shared sacrifice the community doesn't care whether or not the superintendent takes his raise that's not shared sacrifice when people are losing their job jobs shared sacrifice would be doing a deep analysis of the district's programs and administrative costs and cutting more than teachers the district has more directors and coordinators than ever before has a topheavy Virtual Academy Academy and needs to show the community there have been efforts to accomplish shared sacrifice through collaboration when I see the my teachers my kids best teachers losing their jobs at Walker and Kennedy it is devastating humanize this issue Miss woo Miss sutz Miss doy are losing their jobs while we use that money on a Virtual Academy that is sucking a million dollars out of this District hire a consultant instead of action item 9.14 which is spending $166,000 more dollars on CVA instead of recruiting from the outside let's look inside let's hire someone that can do a deep analysis of the district's programming and find other places to cut $18 million should not fall just on your teachers Coraline Romero Coraline Romero welcome I have 2% so let's hope that it lasts long enough all right so my name is Caroline Romero I wanted to come out and support my fellow Educators today because I am a direct result of their unwavering dedication to students I was born raised and currently still reciting in Anaheim I attend multiple schools in Anaheim like Walt Disney Betsy Ross ball Lera High School go Saxons I was able to go to college with the motivation of various High School teachers and now am an educator at the CSU system I am out here to show solidarity across institutions so that we can recognize that the attack on teachers here in the ahsd system is not isolated and that the auhsd system is blindly or Worse knowingly following the negligence that can be felt at every level of our educational system these first lines of attention should be our teachers they are the ones who see our students every day they are the ones who dedicate their entire time to the education of our students they are the ones who curate lectures and engage the minds of the next Generations which I saw a few of y'all today amazing amaz amazing students they are the ones who continue to support our our Scholars not you to hear that the first place the board has decided to attack is our teachers is unfortunately not surprising the recommended class size for the most effective class environment is 18 to1 and in the brief conversations that I've had with the teachers here today I am hearing that classroom sizes average 25 to 40 students and PE sizes can go up to 50 students per teacher I find it ironic that we are able to recognize our amazing teachers today who go above and beyond y'all said it yourself go above and beyond to sacrifice their time their livelihoods for our students and the most they get are your thank yous it is not enough it is superficial at best what they really need is lower class sizes for you to offer them a paper award and then go behind their backs and increase their class load is shameful I want to emphasize that this board is not being intersectional enough and the effects that will go across and be seen across our educational system are going to affect our marginalized most marginalized and I see a lot of y'all are part of these marginalized communities it's going to affect our most marginalized communities and that is simply unacceptable thank you graan welcome good evening good evening ahsd family good evening Anaheim family my name is Lisette bario gracian I have been teaching at the district for over 20 years and three of my own children graduated from a uhsd I come here to voice my disagreement not only with the massive teacher layoffs but with the skipping process that is being used to decide who will keep their jobs and who will be let go while the teaching profession has never been known for High wages there has always been job security once a teacher gets tenured job security that came with seniority this job security allowed for teachers to make a long-term commitment to the field and it also allowed for teachers to voice dissent without the fear of losing one's job you claim that 100 new teachers were hired using one-time Co money why then are you laying off teachers who were were never hired under th those resps why should teachers who have been G um given 10 15 20 years to this District now be under the stress of being laid off you made the decision of hiring or over hiring why our teachers with so much seniority paying for this mismanagement the skipping process leaves us vulnerable to being singled out for speaking up it gags and instills fear which is the complete opposite of those emblems of democracy we proudly painted on so many school walls there is no democracy when Senor seniority is endangered Please be aware that your actions are a discouragement for our younger teachers for those thinking of joining the teaching profession your actions are also a discouragement to those of us who for years and years have gone beyond the Call of Duty Miss Verona GES has been in this district for over 20 years always skips lunch to coach basketball at Gilbert Mr Nakayama who also you can't find that man's classroom empty during lunch Miss Nikki rash who stays at Gilbert High School after 5:00 p.m Miss arisu who Nom nominated me for the kindness award who also lives at Gilbert High School Mr um Torres who um has now started 3D printing these are the the teachers that you're so Bly laying off this is our community and our kids will pay for this and I ask you to please reconsider I have one more child who's about to enroll at ahsd I want her to graduate from here but I am now rethinking that Ariel a Ariel AG a I have Ariel air he's coming welcome good evening members of the board and Mr matsura I'm one of the over 200 teachers that have been affected by the riffs this is my second riff notice in the six years I've worked for this District I have nine years of experience as a a high school English teacher in the grand scheme of things that's nothing compared to the dozens of teachers who have been a part of this district for decades who have dedicated their lives in service to the Anaheim Community I've spent the fast past few weeks after the Riff notices watching my colleagues Educators who I respect and care for wander the hallways purposeless and defeated the skip criteria that was shared in regards to the Rifts only served to divide teachers even further and promote a culture of negativity and unnecessary competition we called it the hung games the morale in our campus has never been lower and I have never seen so many teachers beat down and broken I have to ask what's the point of tenure and loyalty if we can get be let go at any given moment Mr matuda you don't deserve our gratitude for sending resent notices for acting as if you have saved teachers and that you stand in solidarity with us through these trying times you don't deserve to get or ask for any appreciation for attempting to fix a problem that you caused in the first place on February 22nd you expressed to an auditorium full of teachers that there was no room in the budget to accommodate smaller class sizes that if we wanted to see smaller class sizes we teachers should take a pay cut it still baffles me to this day that teachers bear the burden of fixing the budget issues within the district that the first thing you all decide to do is cut teachers money is being spent on projects cronis Consultants business Partnerships and new initiatives that serve a small population of our students hundreds of thousands of dollars were approved approved in the 2022 2023 year to be spent on these Consultants $45,000 to inflection LLC AKA Manuel cologne for 5C's coaching under 72,000 to youth engage LLC to consult and planning and marketing of the AI deeper learning Summit the 23 24-year approvals reach a combin of $870,000 to pay for EC Cadence and teacher FX Consulting the Consulting contract with teachfx gave them full access to Student Records and the owner retired from his own company six months after after receiving this contract this is money that could be used to actually support student needs on March 7th it was mentioned that without board members there would be no school district I would like to respectfully disagree with that statement there would be no school district without students teachers parents or the community members it's because of the community this district has a purpose the term transparency has been tossed around a lot lately as if this district has been open and honest with the community about decisions that have been made I'd argue that this district has been translucent blurry and pixelated with these conversations sharing only enough to Plate the masses this is a gilded District it looks shiny and great on the surface but at its core this district is falling apart and suffering from immoral and unethical practices that serve the outward image instead of focusing on the internal culture the purpose of this District of this board is to serve and represent the voice of this community if that truly was the purpose then over 200 teachers would not have been rifted in the first place thank [Applause] you [Applause] Rodriguez all I hope everyone's having a good day today I want to take a moment and talk about our incredible teacher Miss rash she's not only a teacher she goes above and beyond to make sure we're not only Excel and academically but also grow as individuals teaching us not just academics but also life lessons she she always she's always there to lend a helping hand whether it's staying to answer questions or go out of her way to make sure we have the resources we need but truly what sets her apart from apart is her genuine care for each and every one of us she invest her time and energy into making sure we're not just good students but good people she encourag us to be kind compassionate and believe in ourselves I remember countless times when she would check on check in on us make sure we were doing both um well both inside and outside of school she creates a supportive environment where we we can Thrive and be ourselves Miss R thank you for being more than just a teacher thank you for being a mentor a friend a role model um your dedication and pass and passion inspires us every day we are so lucky to have you in our lives and I truly believe keeping you as a teacher is a decision that that would benefit not just us but our future students as well together we can make a difference and ensure that she continues that shape and and continues to shape young minds and hearts that have years to come how much of an impact have you made in our lives words can explain thank you I'd like to I'd like to um note that this is not just one of teachers this is or I'd like to note that this is one and many teachers that have impacted me and for other students as well thank you [Applause] Karimi Kam Karimi hello my name is kurro um I am an organizer with the PSL the party for socialism and Liberation and I'm here today also as a resident of Anaheim Unified School District here to support our teachers our parents our students who are also here today because um we feel like this is a horrible decision that the board has made um firing teachers should never be a solution for any type of Crisis that is the exact opposite of what our community needs uh children's education should be our highest priority our teachers having um Ure jobs in class sizes that are efficient and small that is what our community needs and that is what um we ask for you to prioritize to do the right thing and listen to those who are here today uh in this room in the Overflow room in the red shirts the people who are outside chanting um you know these teacher layoffs have got to go there's no other way to say it the money is there you know it's there we know it's there we want our children's education to be the most important thing for this board to fight for so please do the right thing thank [Music] [Applause] you Monique Rangel and I I apologize I pronounce the last name go ahead and state it for us please hi my name is is Monique rang sorry my name is Monique Rangel onia I am also an organizer with PSL and I am a Community member North Orange County who um houses many of the um feeder colleges that uh the district sends its students to and so I'm here to talk about um you know teacher layoffs are obviously wrong you can't have a school without teachers and you can't have a successful school without small class sizes um you know um the signs show us exactly who's being laid off and who isn't and this you know is very easily understood as an attack on our teachers and when our teachers are under attack we fight back for them um enrollment low enrollment is not an excuse and that's actually a fallacy of an argument um small class sizes are key to Student Success this is something that private schools for example offer to their students and that's what keeps you know taking them away from our district it's what creates the holes and openings for Charter type programs to come and poach our teachers and pillage our campuses and our schools and teacher layoffs only exasperate the enrollment problem if your school isn't successful your school isn't offering what students need to be successful they're going to send their students somewhere else this affects the entire Community you can't you can't feed unprepared students into colleges and wonder why we have so many structural problems why we have leading groups making really bad bad decisions um a auhsd must reinstate laid off teachers and fulfill the demands of the teachers we've already heard these amazing students articulate with such a deep sense of clarity and Justice why these teacher layoffs are detrimental the community incredibly intelligent and politically active students don't just drop out of the sky out of nowhere they're produced by their amazing and politically active teachers in this room and in the Overflow room and in the third overflow room perhaps the board is maybe afraid of developing more of the leadership of the students that we've seen in our classes and that's why they allow our students to not receive that the the the treatment that they deserve in their classes but we the community are not afraid of our future perhaps it's easier for to have students on the brink of homelessness living in encampments and talking about not having enough warm clothes for school to tell really heartwarming anecdotes and Pat yourselves on the back when you could be using the money that you're using to give yourselves rais and bonuses to solve and deal with these structural problems affecting our students instead of bragging about them like that's such a great thing that we have homeless students that's not okay especially when we have so much money in the district it's not like we don't have money we just have to wonder where it's going successful and enriching education can only incur in conditions that allow students and teachers to thrive not conditions that put profit over people there's money for the teachers if it's not there well then we have to ask where it's going [Music] [Applause] and I'm not sure if it's Martinez I apologize Jennifer hello my name is Jennifer Martinez I am class of 2017 graduated class of Anaheim High School um I'm also an organizer with party of socialism and Liberation so I'm just here today in support of our teachers they have done so much for so many people in my family um so many of my friends so many current teachers as well they uh that my classmates have become um one of my classmates is also a board of trustee um so it's just very upsetting the fact that teachers have been threatened in this manner um and we really need to work harder to find a solution uh this shouldn't have even been on the table to begin with it's very frightening that public education has been what we've decided to threaten during these trying times and it's also very concerning especially for the incoming seventh graders I feel like they've already gone through so much through the pandemic and having bigger classrooms and inadequate like conditions is just even more threatening to the public security I guess so yeah thank you so much for [Applause] listening Gonzalez thio Gonzalez please correct my pronunciation oh it's uh T Gonzalez so uh sorry my name is St Gonzalez I'm a union iron worker and I'm also an organizer for the PSL uh but more importantly I'm a Community member um I've grown up here in North Orange County my whole life there's probably not a school district um in North Orange County that I haven't been to all the big ones all the good ones and uh much like the gentleman before me uh these teachers are like foundational like they really shape who you are as a person um I I don't know who I would be without the teachers that I met they like you can't there's so many there's so many people in the community who like go to school and that's the only like that's the only Refuge they have like they go home and they don't have much to do productive at least nothing that's going to get them anywhere and these teachers really like their father figures their motherly figures their brotherly figures and to just rip that away from the students is like it's disgusting no matter like no matter what it costs it shouldn't matter the cost you should put these teachers first you should put the students first because they're the future and that's not what's happening where's this money going I saw a sign out there that said audit the board where's this going like it's ridiculous like I don't even know what to say it's just that's all I have to say thank you thank you James Gan James James Goran good evening board president Matt suda I'm sorry good evening board president Rand tro Board of Trustees superintendent matsuda and cabinet teachers parents and students it was shared in the March 7th board meeting budget presentation that the cost of retirement benefits was one of the factors of in the decision to lay off only teachers according to the district's own Slide the district's contribution to Cal sters on behalf of all certificated employees will remain flat for the next 3 years Cal Pur which primarily covers classified employees will see a 2% increase in the district's contribution over 3 years from 26% to almost 29% how does this lead to the conclusion that laying off 10% of our teachers is the only option for as long as I can remember and I've been negotiating since 2000 Asa has proposed that previous years of service earned outside of the Anaheim Union High School District in teaching should count towards anniversary steps on the salary schedule the school board has always rejected this proposal because they wanted to reward loyalty and service to the Anaheim Union the current reduction in force notifications that dig deep into years of service tells us a different story dozens of teachers with 11 16 21 or more years of service in auhsd have been laid off or have been notified and are anxiously waiting to learn if they have a teaching position for next year so to mirror what Jeff said ASA is looking forward to further discussions with uh the cabinet to help resolve this issue thank [Music] [Applause] you Germaine Newman [Applause] good evening good evening I'm a parent I spoke at our last meeting um I'm here to talk about some of the issues that I've seen that have come up since that meeting um one of the things that was voted on at that meeting was $450,000 for E Cadence's Scrappy it seems our board was not familiar with the issue and that they thought it was e Cadence that we have a free trial with so I went and looked at some of the information that we have that our district and our board has approved over the past year and a half so besides the $450,000 that was approved the same night you agreed to lay off our teachers a year ago you guys voted to pay Dr John Anne who owns e Cadence $30,000 so he can research and investigate bringing F1 Visa students from Asia to ahsd which we already do and have done for many years included in this contract was a trip to Asia um as a resident of Anaheim uh taxpayer I think it would be fair for all of us to see this report that you guys P paid for I think we should see what that $30,000 bought us because right after you paid him the $30,000 Dr John Anne and his partner Timothy WN with M uh with Meridian link and the owners of EC Cadence which is a nonprofit decided to form a new organization it's called lumison lumison brand new company decides to they're going to recruit F1 Visa students from Asia So within a month of us organizing this new company Anaheim un Union High School District decides to write them a $70,000 contract to bring five students from Asia to ah uhsd so we have paid these two gentlemen who own e Cadence $100,000 for five students and a report that included a trip to Asia as a taxpayer and a resident I'm thinking that's at least one salary for a teacher that would be great but we know we actually already have a full-time administrator that we pay to organize the F1 Visa students program at ah uhsd we PID somebody's salary of over $200,000 a year so we've got $300,000 invested in this program that has retained us is it right Dr freed 68 students that we get $1,500,000 on and it costs us $115,000 to educate those students so it's a flat wash except now we're paying the guys who own e Cadence all this money so that they can take trips to Asia besides that we have David brazer David brazer owns tfx co-founder organized tfx we went out and contracted with them a year ago for $150,000 so we can Institute teach FX in all our classrooms and I know from all our teachers how much they use teach FX right so teachfx which is a software program that I'm sure we all love and adore I'm sarcastic right so Mr brazer decides to retire from tfx not even six months after he signs his contract and then he starts his own educational consultant firm but guess what our school board and our school administration decides that they want to sign a contract with him for $165,000 so now he's up to $315,000 so he can research our students using what using tfx using EC Cadence and using Scrappy which hasn't even been approved until last month when you guys authorized the use of it and the development of it for $450,000 these are just a few of the contracts that you guys have approved in the last year and a half thank you Mr but besides that with with Mr brazer Dr Mr matsuda decided to co-write a book with him yeah and that book all of our student information and it's all about ajd so I'd like to know how much revenue School get District gets from the book that you are selling M Ripon Matt Ripon is next thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hi I'm Matt Ripon um last month I introduced myself as a long-term teacher and techie at Anaheim high school I have other roles on that campus as well I'm the Ed Tech coach for this school and also the was coordinator uh I arrang coordination for the school's accreditation which approves all the students diplomas on campus I'm here to speak to you stakeholders today uh about for um using a democracy model with adopting software uh with this District I speak in the spirit of we as we should make inform form decisions decisions together I have printed out two emails one that I mentioned last month uh that one that supports Cadence from a fellow teacher colleague of mine uh and also one from a parent who is very afraid of the use of AI in in the classroom in the virtual classroom setting the ekn support uh shows it demonstrates all of the great uh Rich feature Rich uh tools that eaden provides uh it is definitely a functional LMS uh and this two-page uh email reflects that it stresses the importance of a virtual learning environment uh the parent uh points out that she's Afra of the AI model uh she says that that Gemini produced by Google um is very has been published as a very bad and scary AI tool I tested it uh and it told me that uh in the novel of of M and Men the boss knew about Lenny's checkered background which no the readers know more than the characters in the book so that's going to mislead students in their knowledge uh also I used AI uh just after our edtec coach meeting uh yest yesterday with a padlet AI uh tool called I cannot draw and uh after the meeting I I don't know if Ruben saw but I tested it using a teenager brain uh and had uh I asked it to draw an ape administering uh controlled substances and It produced that image on a on a page that was shared would be shared with other students so we need to be very careful with our decisions when adopting software and we need to probe our stakeholders our students our parents and teachers first before adopting software thank you efim [Applause] [Music] jolon hi thank you very much my name is eim Jolson I'm with the uh Israel action committee of Orange County I'm going to be off topic here apparently and I wish it was comedy relief but uh it is a serious topic um you know anti-Semitism in Orange County on school campuses has gone up by Leaps and Bounds over the last six months unfortunately um the Israel action committee U of Orange County has been involved with um multiple school districts uh throughout the county and we're reaching out uh we want to be uh interact with the board and um and uh we plan to reach out in the coming months to uh collaborate and um educate and really work through any anti-Semitism that's occurring on on your campuses and other campuses um uh within Orange County we we'll be working with multiple uh School boards um I I really um I I'm not aware of any incidents happening on your campuses and and it's all about um communication information education collaboration and just wanted to let you know we're here and uh we we plan to interact with you in the future thank you very much thank you Erin bonski welcome good evening board members um I'd like to introduce usel Edwards who's with the he's with The Epic Times and I'll be really brief um so we are actually on a positive note um Epic Times is bringing an opportunity to the entire Orange County School District to raise money for schools and I I just want to know if I know there's a lot of teachers in here and as educators you know the importance of real news as we as we stand here right now think of the number of kids and I'm talking like kids teenagers and young adults that are exposed to fake news and also extremely illicit viral social media that actually leads to high rates of mental illness so I'm actually a psychologist by training and I'm here on behalf of the Epic News to discuss the importance of actually bringing real news media to um young young um students but also to parents so that they understand the impact of actually having um viable educational resources it starts with kids and it's also their Advent into college so The Epic Times is actually very popular newspaper with college students and so this campaign that they're doing on behalf of Iselle Edwards who's leading it we are proposing to offer this for you to take a look at and to spread the news to the entire Orange County School System including Anaheim district and our mission is not just to spread um um Quality news but also to get the civic pride in the community of young people to really look and have a voice so we're not just a newspaper we're actually about truth justice and tradition and I invite you to take a look at our campaign um if it's okay we can leave a couple Flyers at the front and also um I can send uh an information to you all um if you want to contact with with um uzel has some business cards to hand out you can leave them at the front but I really appreciate your time and my heart goes out to all of you um for all the voices of the students and the teachers and I I really do pray that everything works out and know that as business people we're here to support the community as well thank you thank you [Applause] Gail gaon and please refrain from that uh last Behavior it's not appropriate not you yes good evening as a concerned Community member retired Public School educator grandparent of four schoolage children I'm here this evening to share my concerns about the rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate in California and the United States Jews are 3% of the population in California and they are the victims of 62% of religious hate crimes according to the statistic reported by the Anti-Defamation League there has been a 2,000% increase in hate crimes on college campuses since October 7th compared to the same time a year ago incidents at K through 12 schools increased by 135% to 1,000 162 incidents students are experiencing bullying harassment intimidation and sometimes the victims of violence not only on college campuses but in public schools all over the state our Jewish children and grandchildren are not feeling safe they are seeing graffiti painted on walls SWAT stickers carved into classroom desks and and Friends being harassed I'm looking forward to the Anaheim School District implementing Governor Nim's state plan to counter anti-Semitism through teacher training and an Administration that makes Jewish children feel Hur and safe thank you for your time thank you C Clark cat Clark hi um I'm actually a former um student parent of a Gilbert student she's here with me today um my my reason for coming here is because um the teachers are not just um teachers they are literally the other people people that help us raise our kids you know they're with our kids for you know like I don't know 8 10 hours sometimes if they have stuff to go you know they have a huge impact on our kids and um when she was in the 10th grade and she went to uh Gilbert we had a death in the family I'm trying to open my phone and I can't remember my code and um it was her uncle he lived in the house with us you know and they were in an accident in in Vegas Miss freeze Chef Jay Miss buer arisu Miss Rush these were the people who took care of her during the day while she was going through this in the 10th grade this person was very very close to her and if it were not for her for these people who were her family and most of them still reach out to her for things things like this for good stuff and and this kind of stuff a lot of people use the word attack that is exactly what you are doing you are attacking the very people who we entrust our kids to all of you have entrusted your kids to teachers how dare you attack them and and say you know we have these nice cushy jobs but hey you're in the trenches so bye you know how dare you do that how how many of you actually were listening to everything that everybody said said here I've been watching all of you some of you have been on your phone some of you have not even looked at every speaker that came up here the only ones you really looked at were the ones who were shouting and getting um passionate about this these are our people these people take care of our kids they take care of your kids there are corporations out there who CEOs are stepping down and taking pay cuts so that they don't have to lose their employees so their employees can continue to live and take care of their families we come from a low income Latino family you know my daughter got to speak at graduation she's the only person in our family who ever got to do that she has been here with Chef Jay and had awards for culinary because he is an amazing teacher and yes I know he's leaving but he was an amazing teacher a male role model to her who grew up without her father you know how dare you attack these people who are caring for our children these people Miss freeze Miss Rush all of these teachers they're those are my my co-parent those are my friends those are my family you know you can't attack our family find another way find another way you guys all have your jobs and guess what without these teachers and without our children you wouldn't be sitting here you would would be driving those nice cars would be having those nice and I don't care what you think your financial problems are over here that you guys don't even know it so don't you can't attack our kids I wouldn't normally come to a board meeting I wouldn't normally speak like this but when she told me the day before yesterday this was happening I'm on three hours of sleep because I worked graveyard and you know that's why I looked I do but I could not not come here and not back up Wonder Woman and miss miss Rush and and the on the other ones that are here that you know are on The Chopping Block B you guys can't attack our teachers we love them they take care of our kids they helped us raise our kids and she is an amazing person not because I'm an amazing mom but because she had amazing people with her every single day every single day so rethink you what you are doing don't attack our teachers these are our family thank you [Applause] this okay let's get this here um good evening exem board members um cabinet parents students teachers and Community my name is Marita bmes and I probably serve as a community organizer with the Orange County congregation Community organization organ ation also known as okal tonight I stand before you with the with the heartfelt plea for Unity and mutual respect as we navigate the challenging issue of teacher layoffs and the district's decrease in budget at OKO our vision extends Beyond education we aspire to cultivate public schools that Foster a profound sense of belonging for every individual we firmly believe that our schools should serve as a the Bedrock of a thriving multi-racial democracy where each member of our community can flourish and Thrive to realize this Vision it is imperative that students parents teachers School staff and administrators alike have a voice and receive unwavering support the Community Schools model stands as a Beacon of Hope in our pursuit of inclusive collaborative and participatory education as a district that stands as a Statewide and National model we ask you to to Bear its principles in mind as we we grapple with the issue of teachers layoffs and the declining of the district on budget this model offers a platform for all educational stakeholders to contribute meaningfully ensuring that no voice remains unheard through S decision making we firmly believe that the voices of parents and students are indis indispensable in bridging bridging divides and forging meaningful connections our hope is that we can join forces as partners United by Common goals and shared human need needs to address this issue with Grace and dignity through our tireless efforts in fostering relationships and nurturing the principles of co-creation planning implementation and sustainability within Community Schools we remain optimistic that a solution can be reached one that honors the interest and concerns of all parties involved I urge each of you to embrace the spirit of cooperation and empathy as we navigate the pivotal moment together let us seize this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the principles of unity respect and Equity ensuring that we remain beacons of Hope and opportunity for generations to come while creating racially just and relationship centered Community Schools thank [Applause] [Music] you concludes our public comments thank you uh that concludes our public comments moving on to items of business Educational Services 91 School sponsored student organizations this is an action item so moved second moved and seconded um I just wanted to make a comment on this um item um I'm thoroughly um just uh Beyond excited this is breaking the ceiling because this is a student who um in the automotive we don't always see Automotive um uh persons um that are kind of breaking the stereotypes so I just wanted to point that out and Bravo to this student who is um I think breaking some barriers so all in favor I I resolutions 92 resolution number 22324 DB D15 temporary temporary interfund transfer action item slow moved second this is a roll call vote Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith hi Miss Guerrero I and I vote I 93 resolution number 2023 sl24 db16 school lunch hero day action item so moved second moved and seconded uh I I also want to comment I I work with school lunch clerks every day and um they provide not only nutritious meals and the folks that cook the food but they also provide um role models and actually you know true friend of school's uh students so um want to honor them in this pivotal role they don't just do lunch so this is a roll call vote Mr O'Neal I miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and I vote i 94 resolution number 24-hr d05 day of the teacher this is an action item some moov second roll call vote any comments I think we had a wonderful demonstration of um what we know and I think I can speak for everyone up here contrary to what some might feel we honor teachers we love teachers we always have and we always will roll call vote Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith hi Miss Guerrero I and I vote I resolution number 2023-24 DHR d06 national school nurse day some moved second movement seconded any comments all right they want me to speak national school nurse day we honor all of our um hardworking folks who work in this industry um we could not Thrive without nurses we all know that um when there's a a doctor around uh a nurse has already done all of the work to prepare for that doctor We Love Doctors but nurses are fantastic and we uh honor our school nurse day action item Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith hi Miss Guerrero hi and I vote I 96 resolution number 20232 4-hr d07 certificated reduction in force First Amendment action item no moved second moved and seconded uh any comments or questions yes I'm just very happy that we've been able to almost cut the uh reduction of force by in half and I'm looking forward to hearing more positive results in the future I would uh Echo those comments and then I just had uh one question if you can uh Brad if you can explain the process that came from March to April and how we got to these numbers uh sure um so um over the last month since uh since the original resolution was introduced um staff has worked to clarify um what the actual versus projected needs were known at that time and as more clarity has um has uh become um available regarding the master schedule and actual course offerings and schedules and what have you um uh we have been able to to use that information in order to reduce uh the number of actual positions in the resolution thank you we appreciate you um and the team for working on that and I'm also um glad we were able to reduce the numbers and look forward to hoping mitigating um as as much as possible and then my second question was um some of the concerns from the comments um will there be an increase to class load uh to student load so so the student um the we have uh contractually negotiated student load uh caps um uh in the contract uh and so uh the the we will still be uh well within those ratios okay thank you can you clarify what the master schedule is that's kind of our language can you explain uh sure well our our master schedule is is actually um the course offerings that are that are offered based on um you know the actual um wants and desires of the students uh as well as required courses um Dr freak I'll explain it so essentially each each uh January um Council begin going out working with students and they solicit them along with their families to do a course request and that's when the students sign up for the courses they're interested in taking the following school year and then from that information the counselors with the AP in charge of master schedule and then the principal they work to build a master schedule based on the coures students want to take now some of those courses are requirements English math history science for example and some of those courses may be electives whether it's in the CT pathway visual performing arts class um world language as an example um so they build a master schedule BAS B on those requests and and as we do that we see how many students would like to take certain courses versus how many students maybe don't take other courses and then that master schedule helps us understand how many sections are needed at each given site uh which helps us better understand Staffing is this the usual time that we make the master schedule yeah there this it's always in the spring that we do this the idea is before we leave school to have um for the most part the master schedule built knowing that obviously at the beginning of the school year in registration some students will show up that maybe weren't a part of the initial course request process and some students who did may move out of town or leave for a variety of reasons so it's a fluid process but we try to leave the school year with the master schedule set so we have an idea of the Staffing and where they're going to be placed based on their courses at each site um some folks were um are really concerned about the over what they're calling overreach of the 200 plus um can you explain why 200 people if we had a number of a 100 and why that why that occurred uh sure so um the number that's indicated in the resolution in terms of the number of positions um that is being recommended to be reduced uh is not the same number as the number of notices that go out to teachers um we actually do have an administrative hearing um and um uh in front of an administrative um uh law judge where um where uh determinations will be made uh in terms of um you know if if if for instance if there's a position to be reduced in a particular subject area uh there could be four people that share the same seniority date so even though there's only one person um that would would would ultimately be reduced in that position um there's still a requirement to over notice you have to notice all four of those people and that's something that's worked out later on uh in the hearing um also too um you know there are areas of um uh as was discussed areas of skip um and as a result of that uh there may be uh multiple people that are issued notices and those are issues that are that are worked out later in the process thank you any other questions or comments okay seeing none this is a roll call vote Mr O'Neal hi Miss Smith hi Miss Guerrero hi and I vote I okay item 9.7 resolution number 2023 sl24 dbot t-05 compensation for board meeting action item moved second moved in second and this is for our trustee Anna piery all in favor I I I this is a roll call roll call roll call it is a roll call I apologize Mr O'Neal I Miss Smith I Miss Guerrero I and I vote I and we all have Miss piery in our prayers item 9.8 selection of leas leaseback contractor for cook Auditorium theatrical ragging upgrade RFP number 2024 D14 action item slow moved second okay moved and seconded all in favor I I 9.9 agreement Transportation Ivy Chris montor school action item so moved second any questions or comments on this okay all in favor I I nine10 piggyback bid purchased through public corporation of agency action item this is flooring services so moved second questions or comments okay all in favor I okay 9.11 picky back bid purchased through Pacific Public corporations of agency video surveillance camera maintenance action item so move second any questions or comments on this item okay seeing none all in favor I okay 912 Amendment agreement Pharmacy Benefit Management Services Anthem action item so move moov I'll go ahead and second it with reservation oh yes I had a questions to okay questions Mr an questions I don't have any questions it's just very poor service okay that was uh going to be my question um so I attended the insurance committee um on behalf of my colleagues um and I know carolon X was there and they were um addressing some of our concerns but I did want to ask um um ensuring that the contract language allows us to terminate should we have any further issues with the vendor where's L just coming thank you yes so um Le um who is our director for risk management has been in uh contact with them as well and so she can give us a better update but obviously um many of us including myself were there at the committee meeting we voice um our extreme um unpleasantness of the service they have rendered so far and and so um they heard us loud and clear we do have the option down the road to terminate um as we um see fit as well so please give additional update that you have received as well thank you good evening Board of Trustees cabinet members there is truste Guerrero a clause a 90-day clause for termination prior to the actual date so yes okay appreciate you working on that and I I appreciate Caroline for um Coming forward and um addressing some of our concerns and I look forward to Contin Contin addressing them uh throughout and I do want to um shout out to the the the all the union Representatives at the insurance committee as well you know including Lisa and a lot of other folks there as well I think by showing up by letting them know how we feel um and you know we are a big district and so they should be able to take care of us and so we do have other options as well and we did put them on notice as well at this point they know that we're not happy they need to do a much much better job to keep us and so so we do have the um termination cause in there as well and we will continue to meet with them and we will continue to talk to our employees as well and we do encourage our employees to let us know or uh either call the office or call um your union rep so that they can um let us know and bring them to our attention we do meet uh every month so it's not we are a very consistent group and every every um bargaining group is in there and so we do take their comments very very seriously and we want to make sure that every person who needs help um it's provided it's not okay that they cannot get their medication that's not something that um that we say it's fine no every single person regardless of what they need they should get it and so please do contact our office um you know right away if they have any issues especially with refills and things like that the person from Caroline that was in the meeting were they just a sales rep a customer service person or or what level were they within the organization she was our account manager she's the supervisor of our account manager okay but we've been talking I think to a an account manager for the last well four months so we've had a change we've had a change in account managers um within the last month has that made a difference that has made a tremendous difference a tremendous difference we have an account manager who is actually hearing our concerns and paying attention to what we are wanting for our members they understand that we take our members concerns very seriously and that we care about what happens to our members and so we continue to communicate that and they have shared with us that they're they're going to do their best to make it right for us they have admitted that they um have had some some faults in the implementation process and they will do their best to make it right for us will they be back to your uh committee next month and give a report on their uh progress progress in resolving issues they will will not be at May's meeting and then there is a break from June through uh through July June and July there's a break we have not scheduled to have them back they usually just come out once a year I'm sure we can schedule some time in either the November or December meeting after all the decisions are made for the next plan design Next plan year that we can ask them to come out and provide us an update they should have a lot more data by that point and they should have a lot of other answers to the concerns of what has has been happening with our members we're looking at 8 to nine months down the road after we initiated the process the transition and and who knows what they're going to say at that time are we still going to be having issues My Hope trustee O'Neal is that we will not again they are taking our concerns very seriously um and that was it there was a sense of um trust when they did switch the account managers well I suggest that if if you continue to have um here from our associations uh and other employees U after we go on break you know in June and July that you go above the account manager then and talk to whoever their supervisor is you can't wait until September and have them come back understood it needs to be resolved understood we now have full access to to our account manager supervisor good thank you wel we always have the option to um do go out and solicit um to with other um carriers as well so we that's something that we can work with our consultant to do that as well um and so it just it's regardless of who we go with it is hard to transition and so just have to keep Dy in mind but we're gonna you know well I just remember when we transitioned to to uh uh Express Scripts Express Scripts I never heard of a single issue there was it was so smooth so clean and this one has just been nothing but a pain and pain I don't disagree with you making more people sick I'm sorry okay thank you you're welcome so we will monitor that and within a couple weeks and see how that goes um so reluctantly all in favor hi hi abstain abstain okay uh 913 Award of viid renewable natural gas and low carbon fuel standard renewable identification number credit program action I item moved second any questions or comments seeing none all in favor I I oppos okay uh 914 agreement n.com action item slow moved second moov to seconded any questions or comments on this um yes just have one question uh will we receive a report from the vendor um about the status and um how they were doing and promoting CVA yes we'll not only get a report we'll get the number of clicks on the website and obviously the data report will come straight to us okay thank you any other comments okay all in favor I I okay moving on to 916 opening uh public hearing disclosure of collective bargaining agreement with I skipped so sorry that's okay oh I skipped a good one sorry 9:15 revised board policy 8708 sexual harassment students first reading information item any questions or comments on this item okay moving on to 916 public hearing disclosure of colle bargaining agreement with CSEA anyone wishing to speak okay moving on to 9117 adoption of the 2023-24 collective bargaining agreement with CSEA this is an action item slow moved second moved and seconded any questions or comments okay all in favor I hi 918 opening a public hearing disclosure of collective bargaining agreement with MMA anyone wishing to speak all right moving on 919 adoption of the 2023-24 collective bargaining agreement with MMA this is an action item so moved second moved and seconded questions comments all in favor I I okay item 10 consent calendar anyone wishing to pull an item uh 10.6 v as inv viictor move the balance okay a motion for the balance sorry did you have something no I was seconding oh the motion all right moved and seconded uh for the balance all in favor I I item 106v so moved un seconded all in favor I I abstain stain all right uh trusty Randall tro before we move on to uh the remainder of the agenda there was a uh an error a typo brought to my attention in item 4.7 it is the student expulsions item from Clos session the last student number is is incorrect it says 20-22 it should be 23-22 so 2312 238 232 and 2023 no 23 22 2322 correct yes we don't need a motion or anything on that do we I don't think so just being a typographical error that we wanted to correct error so we don't have to do that we are on item item 11 superintendent and staff report the only thing I want to just remind folks and I was said earlier I think with Dr sasai but this weekend we have our stee of palooza uh so I really hope everyone can attend a lot of great work has gone into making this showcase uh special between our Esports tournament robotics soapbox speaches arts and crafts are empowered students will be there selling all their items to bring bring cash right uh so it should be a great event so I'm looking forward to the event being and I understand we're bringing in our feeder schools again yes so we've worked with all of our feeder schools matter of fact some of the feeder schools who traditionally haven't come have reached out in interest so we'll see they show up but it should be should be exciting all right thank you good report no report no report today thank you Nancy you're everywhere yes oh you know what yes let me um since um other the Dr SCH isn't here I attended the Sala um CAC War yesterday so is where SBA employees um give um stff sta um recognitions um you know for this um for their service I mean obviously for EXT amazing service so we have four recipients in our district that received that service uh one of them was my um transportation supervisor Rob Lewis and I do not know the other three I'm sorry I can't remember their names but um do wanted to thank SAA for giving sta this amazing recognition I mean a lot of times you know people just they do amazing jobs and for the fact that they bring them onto the onto the Sala uh meeting and recogn nice and that was um extremely nice and thank you um poor president for being there as well to um um to thank everybody um for for their amazing work as well thank you thank you I forgot that yes thank you just on the on the uh heels of our Simon scholar recipients who obviously you saw how many were named and $116,000 in scholarships along with a lot of other services we also had on Monday this past Monday we had our ocde Avid senior standout recognition um and uh we had uh I believe about SE another seven students recognized um at this ceremony and also recipients of of of uh scholarships ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 so just another testimony to the great work being done on our campuses by our counselors teachers students families and just just obviously a beautiful thing to recognize great thank you Robert do you also want to mention the anim collaborative Summit tomorrow I think that's worth mentioning from we do have our our anim collaborative Summit so it's uh um at the culmination of each year we we celebrate all the work being done at our sites uh with our partners with our our staff obviously and supporting our students with college career and life Readiness so if you have a chance feel free to stop by between 8 and 11 in the L room all right thank all our partners will be there and so we look forward to to seeing you there if able to all right thank you Mr O'Neal okay um from our Roop board meeting we uh uh were able to recognize a designbuild uh competition including uh Savannah High School Anaheim High School Magnolia and Western so all participated in that and so it's a great learning experience for them and uh it is a definite definitely needed out there in the industry uh we need new Craftsmen out there so I think we're doing a good job in promoting that um attended U Roop meeting a presentation of the uh patient uh care pathway for the dental assistant program and the retiring teacher that the they had students there must have been a half a dozen students that just you know just raved about the program that we have and U and the teacher the teacher who's retiring and I don't know Mr Rand TR who the replacement is to you I don't I don't know yet either she's Irreplaceable but I I know from what the student say she is that it was more than just being a a teacher to look in their mouth and support them um uh also I helped out with the Roop Student of the Year award uh I went to the Cypress College Americana Awards which is where they Seven Cities recognize one person from each City uh for outstanding service uh I attended the color and light event at the Weston which was uh very nice different kind of venue um is that something that we we're looking at continuing on or are we looking at other venues also just out of curiosity it's a great question I'd have to speak with Mr bsk I think it depends on what's available when we typically would do it based on the time of the year and also if there is a cost involved this was one of our city Partners facilities so I don't think there's a cost um I think we've had at the convention center before but um I think that's harder to to to get and then we've also had at the Museo before so many times at The Muse depends what's available I think is where Brian and the team kind of Select okay um I attended the B girl boys and girls club Gala event at the uh anahe Arctic where um they recognized a number of students and their achievements and their recognition of uh relationships there so that was a nice event a little different you don't like normally have a live band in if you've ever been in the Arctic picture or think about hearing or being able to talk to someone sitting next to you with a live band and there um they have some work to do on that one so they recognize that uh I I participated in the k Kenedy Capstone uh presentations and the every 15minute presentation at Kennedy last week where they um do it every other year uh hopefully it was as meaningful to all the students as it was to the people that were watching it on the other side of the street meaning the adults um I attended the Kennedy open house this last week uh looked like they had good representation there on the campus and as a a good night fortunately weather was good uh I also ATT at the Hope School prom and uh there was somebody on the dance floor that really had the moves I was really surprised at how how Innovative that person was and I think we may even have it recorded on some cell phones but so we'll have to keep that in bance for a while but anyhow I know he was having a good time I won't say who that he is but who's up the Das um then I attended the uh Gilbert openhouse and Magnolia openhouse and I I was fortunate to go be invited into a classroom at Gilbert uh where they were doing some capstones uh presentations uh a few students well all the other students were out at tables with teachers and doing their presentation but the ones in the classroom was really uh really something where I won't go into real graphic details but some like one of the students when he he was four years old his dad went to prison when he was 6 years old his mother went to prison he went into foster care and foster care and Foster Care he was fights with kids fights with fights with teachers uh expelled suspended it he was in jail uh but he came back and he's graduating so it thank you so much amen thank you um I had the opportunity to attend the ahd years of service Awards um also attended the color and light exhibition um and then um got to attend the soapbox speech finals and all the students were amazing um some really passionate speech speeches um I also had the opportunity to attend the attend the student Forum on the reduction and force process and thank all the students that came out and voiced their questions and their concerns I also attended the community Forum on the orange virgin high school and Western High School consolidation I want to thank all the teachers and staff uh that were there um thank you to our staff for being there to present and answer our questions and also there was a a big turnout of Western High School lemonni so I want to thank the lemonni for being part of the process and sharing their experiences um and how we could uh continue to work together as we uh work through the consolidation I also attended the insurance committee meeting that I mentioned and then attended the okal Community Schools event uh where they highlighted uh the work of our continued Partnerships I want to thank everyone from ahd that presented that that participated I know our director of community service car Carlos was there we had a few Community School coordinators attend as well as many of our parents and students so thank you everyone for attending that and then I attend an open house for Sycamore Junior High School and Magnolia High School and um looking forward to seeing everyone at the steam of pla this Saturday thank you thank you I attended a um liaison meeting with um mayor of Anaheim and the assistant City Clerk and the chief of police um where we had a wonderful discussion um and and we really asked um uh the hard question about support uh from them um we know that our um the chief uh is very interested in working further with us to uh build that relationship and um we we hope that our U mayor as well um will will do so uh I attended uh meeting uh and last night as um Dr Nan talked about the CCA CAC Awards um where I serve as a a board member for Gela and we actually had five people represented we're a big district and uh wonderful event um the CAC recognition Awards um is uh is held by a committee of um of parents Who oversee um and uh the the the um um they don't oversee but they um what's what's the word um support the gasela um and uh let's see their names are Robert Lewis um Mark rean Pamela Renning Stacy Williams and kince guardian sorry I don't have my glasses on but um it was a really wonderful event um these are folks that don't always get recognized um uh as a whole and um same as the um the kindness Awards they they they they do uh big acts and and small acts of of kindness and so they were recognized um I also attended the Avid uh senior standout Awards um amazing students and uh it was very thrilling they all knew that they were going to get some sort of a of a scholarship but it could be uh from $500 up to um 20 grand and uh our students did very very well so uh Valerie Velasquez James Castillo Tatiana fali and Ruth WN and Emily Munos and um Emily I think had to work the hardest to get hers she was awarded uh the angel scholarship in the um eighth grade and so she had to stay in Avid all four years and so she won a $10,000 scholarship and a couple of our students receive the 5,000 but it's renewable every year they're in college so um fantastic job to um our students and our teachers who um work that program attended also uh AXA um uh ocba joint dinner meeting where the speaker um uh tired to talk about the importance of AI in education we've got to talk about it it's coming um ahsd color and light show was extraordinary um and um the years of service we were there and that's the the end of my report thank you okay moving on any um items uh business that you'd like to move forward okay uh we will meet here uh next Tuesday May Tuesday May 7th 6: PM um now I'm supposed to ask for suggested agenda items I'm no all right hearing none adjournment so moved all in favor I hi hi all right thank you good night everybody good night you

[Applause] hello and welcome to Marathon Monday I'm Yolanda Greaves I'm here with Josh Abrams Josh welcome to Around the Clock thank you Yanda it's great to be here we're both on waa but you and I have never actually been on camera together before we haven't so this is a nice treat but it's appropriate because it's Marathon day right and you typically do Sports so what sports do you do for waa uh we do a little bit of everything it's become a Family Affair both my kids chase and Logan we all do some announcing along with Rob silver and uh we run the gamut football basketball volleyball baseball lacrosse and we even got a swim eat in there at one point oh fun fun good now so how long have you been in Ashland I've been in Ashland for over 20 years okay how about you uh uh it'll be 34 years on Memorial Day wow but I'm I'm still considered a newcomer so well we are here at Marathon Deli we try to mix up our where we broadcast from last year we were at the new public safety building today we're back in front of marathon Deli which is very appropriate for Marathon day absolutely and what's really fun is ashleen gets numbers from the baa and one of our Runners this year is Meg who is married if you come to Marathon Deli and see Doug his wife Meg is running with one of our Ashlin numbers this year sounds great big fan of marathon Deli yeah great place for lunch or dinner even absolutely so and they make some kind of a is there a marathon wrap or a sandwich something special they make there Marathon Club the marathon the marathon Club we're being told okay we may I I may have to try that I don't think I've ever had the marathon Club okay uh so we're also going to chat a few minutes there's a lot of stuff going on in town if you're interested uh and of course uh we have our cleanup Greenup Ashland mhm on Saturday May 4th and of course we're all counting down to the opening of the farmers market which I believe is the second Saturday in June sounds great I always look forward to the market and uh and you know what else I also I read Michael Herbert's Weekly Newsletter I get everything I need to know about what's going on in town from that so have you filled out the survey yet that's at the bottom of his email I filled out that survey I think the last email had about four or five different surveys that I need to fill out so I try to hit about one a week yeah Town elections are coming up people may not realize but on uh Tuesday May 21st our next uh Town elections no contested races this year okay maybe we should can see some right in candidates um but we still need people to come out and vote even though there's no contested races so May 21st and we'll talk about more about that later okay good well Josh welcome to helping me out on Marathon day here at around the clock thanks for having me it's so good to be here and we've got a beautiful day here for the marathon and just always great to see so many people out here it just feels like such a great Community event even though it's actually International but it just feels so local here on the streets right here on the marathon because it all started here it all started here it maybe starts in hopkington now and they're celebrating the 100th year that it has started in hopkington but we all know it all started here in Ashlin that's right well stay with us we're going to bring you more coverage of the Boston [Applause] [Music] Marathon welcome to Mar on Monday here in Ashland I am Yolanda Greaves and this is Josh Abrams good to be here Josh thanks for joining me this year we are out on the course we're back at our spot near Marathon Deli and the excitement is mounting as the lead Men Elite Runners come by Josh quick thoughts I love it this it's a beautiful day and we've already seen the wheelchairs go through and now here come the elite men and uh just a spectacle out here today let's see they're at 1452 so that's quite a pace oh yeah oh we also have team hoit driving by just now um not the hoists of course but the people supported by team white absolutely you know something we learned earlier today Yanda is uh the elite Runners are getting they get water bottle stations every 5 km so they are just about to hit that first 5 km Mark just past us and uh then they move on part of the great things about Ashland and watching the marathon is all kinds of people come out tell us your name hi I'm zop Cowa and uh you live here in Ashland how long have you been in town my whole life whole life and what brings you out to watch the marathon today I go every single year and it's always so exciting just to watch people come do you have a favorite thing about watching uh I like high-fiving the people nice good good so every year you've been here and how old are you now I'm 15 15 good uh do you walk here you live close yes I run here every single time it gives me motivation to actually run nice nice now I see you have a swiming dive shirt on are you on the team of course what's your specialty I like 50 free 50 m freestyle nice and how how long have you been swimming my whole life nice good well thank you for talking to us and enjoy the marathon you too okay take care speaking with some of the First Responders that are here I'm going to pass the mic down if you could just tell us your name your role and where you from Sarah Connell EMT and I live in Sherburn sha Sweeney EMT from Holliston hi I'm Brian Grace the captain on Engine 4 from hollison as well as an EMT so we always here we bring so many different communities in wasn't too much of a commute for you guys have you done the marathon before I did last year and it was freezing and raining it was horrible so this this year the sun I'm looking forward to that have you done it before sh no first time I've done it a couple of times it's been a great experience bring it back uh so second year what was other than the cold and rain did you have anything did you get any people stopping or have to do anything I think we had more people Spectators who needed help across the street we did have one person drop out that but we didn't have to do anything so I like it's good safe so first time working but you ever been to the marathon no it's actually my first time to the marathon too and you're from Holliston and you've never been brief already this morning oh my goodness yeah first time are you born and raised Holliston yeah I've been there my whole life okay we have to talk we have to talk to your parents that's what we have to talk to oh that's too funny Brian how about you yeah I've been in uh in hollison for 10 years in Massachusetts and I've been to the rais a couple times as a spectator and a couple of times as an EMT uh helping out we have dealt with a couple of scrape knees some Falls and things like that but nothing serious uh thankfully um so it's been a good experience so far we're looking to keep it that way today we are continuing our conversation with people here on the course we are now with uh Lieutenant Anthony Duke asham and how many races have you been at I've been living in Ashland for 56 years so I think I might have missed just a couple of them so at least 54 I'd say okay so you watched them as a kid and watched them as a kid at the Old Clock Town package store we used to give out oranges and water and with my family way back when so this is a tradition big tradition yep do you have a favorite thing about the race uh nice weather it's almost like the first day of spring I guess you could say I like it when it's when it really is a nice day like today and that's probably my favorite part what's your least least favorite part about a day so we are about to see the elite Runners and we just got some Intel from your son yeah just by breaking news he was in there at Honeydew recently and uh the elite women were at the 1 km Mark but we're expecting them really soon you can see the state police rolling through and they're the leads so and there but there was one woman one one Runner far further out from the other or something we have limited intelligence at this point we didn't we didn't get the name but whoever that is has got a big lead and uh favored to win this one this year okay so there are uh 15 Ashland run ERS who get our number and they then raise funds and it goes into the select board Grant the baa grant program where those funds then get spread out to different organizations in our community so many sports teams youth sports teams get things some of our school sports teams get things our library our Farmers Market a lot of organizations benefit from the people who are going to be running through Ashland for Ashland that's some great background information so Josh any any any willingness to be a runner one year no my time is coming gone here they are and here come the elite women oh they've bunched up [Applause] again so we're watching the race and we found some people who knew one of the elite Runners how crazy is that what's your names um Elise Morgan and Katie sulter and who do you know that's running we know Lauren Ames who is a complete rock star she is on quest to qualify for the Olympic trials and she just got the bib for the elite Runners this is her first time running with the elites but she's amazing how long has she been running I think she's been running probably like her whole life as soon as she came out of the womb yes so how do you know her so we work with her um she has two little boys and she is the director of Athletics at St Mark's School and she gets up at 4:30 a.m.

to train so she can be done by 6:00 to be home for her kids and then she crushes it in work in life she's just amazing wow she's a mom of two a teacher an athletic director an inspiration to so many kids at St Mark school so we're so proud to be here and to support her candy nutrients feels good the energy is perfect so well you had me tricked cuz I was looking at your hair on Saturday and I'm like how the heck is she going to run with that no my daughter my daughter did this last night so Ash I this is one of their B you know I Bor that says Ashan so it's good thank you Ashan for supporting my fundraiser see you in Boston in Boston thanks Maggie keep going you got [Applause] this well this wraps up another Monday Boston Marathon here in Ashland and waca TV we've had a great day we got to see talk speak with some of the volunteers we caught some of our Runners from the Ashlin that were running by some of the people who are raising funds for Ashland and of course all the other people and support and wonderful atmosphere that you have on a Boston Marathon day so I'm Yanda Greaves your host of Around the Clock and just want to say thank you for watching this episode of Around the Clock happy Marathon day

please stand for the St here present thank you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay well this month we've got some exciting things we're going to begin our evening with a pride recognition I'm going to invite the board to the the center and invite Teresa Kamas to lead us through honoring um our staff who really represent the best values in our district and we want to thank you all and your families for joining us this evening okay tonight the Board of Education acknowledges our pride winners for the month of April Pride stands for proudly recognizing individuals demonstrating Excellence the Board of Education implemented this program in the fall of 2015 to recognize promote and celebrate the many contributions made by teachers and employees across our district we thank our generous District Partners serve Bank Huntington Learning Center Chick-fil-A and Culver who helped make this program a success we would also like to thank all of those who nominate individuals for consideration of the awards awardees after your name is called and we share your nomination please come forward to be congratulated by the board and Dr katti we'll start with our April teachers of the month Rachel Barry Prairie Point Elementary school psychologist Rachel's dedication and commitment to supporting students colleagues and families at Prairie Point as well as her proactive approach to learning about the deaf and heart of hearing community and students is commendable Rachel creates a supportive environment for both students and colleagues through her calm collected and caring demeanor ensuring every student's needs are met with empathy and understanding congratulations Rachel [Applause] next we welcome Mary iner Thompson Jr High Avid teacher Mary is a highly committed educator who consistently goes the extra mile to support students not only in the classroom but also Beyond in her multiple roles as teacher Avid adviser yearbook editor active member of schooles she demonstrates an unwavering dedication to her Student Success Mary's dedication to enriching the overall student experim experience demonstrates her commitment to promoting a positive and engaging School environment as well as setting a commendable example for Future Leaders in education congratulations [Applause] Mary Carrie sumar fax Chase fourth grade [Music] teacher car definition of a phenomenal teacher going above and beyond on for her students fellow teammates and other staff MERS in the building she is always welcoming understanding and willing to help through constructive feedback policy she is a lifelong learner that models the importance of this mindset for fellow staff and students te she teaches her students the emotional social and academic skills they need to be successful in their future careers she builds relationships and connections with her students and creates a sense of community in her classroom that is truly remarkable congratulations Carrie [Applause] istrators here this evening froms to join us for the picture Bill where's your spotting [Applause] next we will award our amazing support staff winners awardees again as your name is called please come forward so we can congratulate you for support staff Priscilla guis werh Hill Elementary crossing [Applause] guard Priscilla has helped Boulder Hill in so many ways she generously gives of herself and is always there to lend a hand to both students and staff with smile and joy while her primary responsibilities this year are cross Guard Office support and monitoring lunches and recesses there really isn't an area of Boulder Hill where she doesn't help support her good nature and her spirit are invaluable to Boulder Hill she represents her school in an awesome way and is a true example of a team player [Applause] congratulations Patricia Luna De pasas transportation bus driver [Applause] Patricia is positive inclusive and goes beyond to make the trip to and from school enjoyable and safe for all of her students when children are anxious and scared to ride the bus she helps make children feel safe when stepping on she is an All-Star and the transportation department is so lucky to have her she truly cares about all the students congratulations [Applause] Patricia next up Martin pindo transportation bus [Applause] dri Martin demonstrates the highest quality of Integrity he is reliable in servicing students both during pickup and drop off he is kind to students and teaches them lessons in integrity and respect by holding them accountable for their actions takes it upon himself to learn about the kids about their families and their interests by introducing himself and having meaningful conversations with kids and their parents [Laughter] parents are grateful and feel their kids are safe and secure in the hands of Martin and we congratulate you okay so if we have any of our administrators for these winners if you could come up for a photo please congratulations everyone okay and next up we have special recognition for our Fox Valley Therapy Dog Club if we could have the members of the club come up forward [Applause] please so tonight we are on behalf of the asgo community Unit School District 308 Board of Education we're thanking you for your service to our students and staff your volunteer service through Kan therapy has made a positive difference in countless lives of many students and staff and we want to thank you so congratulations for being recognize and thank you so very much for all you [Applause] do and stay up there when you're done so we can do a photo please B's ready for her moment we have dog treats for all of our furry [Music] friends Miss Bella if we could do one photo please kind of come in front there you go oh Bella what a good girl there we go you got to make kissy noises that's okay she looks pretty yeah Carol you go over there here Carol thank you so much they are in our schools almost every day and play a pivotal role in working with many of our students so we really do appreciate all that you guys do thank you so much for being here okay on to our student recognition so tonight we are also proud to acknowledge the award-winning efforts of our students who have received State Andor National recognition for their school related activities our first group of students here tonight we want to congratulate the coaches and students who competed in place at the Illinois design Educators Association Regional competition the asgo East students are coached by Ryan hensin and Dan Orin and the asigo high school students are coached by Gina corac and Brian Allen students as your name is called we'd like to invite you to come forward and be congratulated by the board as weo East High School Jimmy Harrison a senior first placed in state qualified in assembly modeling [Applause] Dominic dadis sophomore second place in state qualified in assembly [Applause] modeling Jensen kunr senior third place in 3D computer AED design [Applause] modeling Haven Haven Barry Connor MCCA senior and Haley sorage senior second place in engineering design team event event Miss Emma K Kate senior Hannah RoR Jr and Adrien tuskowski [Music] Jr third place in architectural design team event and we have one student from asigo high school arlot on two J senior first place and state qualified for in 3D architectural board [Applause] drawing congratulations to all of those winners if we have any coaches or advisers or anything here principles anybody miss Kade would you like to join the photo yes yes you do mama okay thank you all right our next group of students are from asigo East High School we would like to recognize them for having achieved Above and Beyond in the classroom these four individuals have been awarded a $2500 National Merit Scholarship please welcome forward Amu perou [Applause] Jensen [Applause] coonrad SAR [Applause] shanas and Mana sasta we congratulate each of these young students on their well on their way to becoming successful Future Leaders so congratulations and again we would invite up um Administration glor here there you go for a photo congratulations [Applause] students thank thank you everyone for coming out tonight and for all of our um exciting accomplishments I agree I should say I'll say something no I think she knew it to oh somebody need to get a picture of that oh my gosh thank you Bella no it ain't going to be no one more time [Music] love it love [Laughter] it all right 5.1 spoil opportunity for the oh okay 5.1 there is no public comment tonight no one has submitted a comment card and so we'll be moving on to 6.1 thank you board uh this evening we have a presentation of our social emotional learning curriculum presentation want to invite Dr Paul who will uh introduce some of the other guests who will be joining her and we want to thank all of you for making the time to join us at the board meeting I know it's been a a process of Engagement and learning and we have students this evening I will be the first to say thank you students for coming out on a school night and we thank you for your presence here um and can't wait to hear more about what you have to share they still have to go to school tomorrow and we do have school we do have some that's why they're first on the program we have our teachers some students and myself presenting and um when it's their turn I'll hand the mic over to them we're very excited to share with you this evening about our social emotional learning curriculum and Universal screener proposal good evening I'm Sarah Fischer assistant principal at Prairie Point Elementary School and I've had the privilege to be a part of the seal Equity Universal screener committee as we will be discussing our recommended tier one seal Equity curriculum and seal Equity Universal screener we hope that you will notice how the tool aligns with our District's priorities through the use of our recommended curriculum our aim is to promote not just academic Excellence from our students but also Foster emotional intelligence resilience and empathy Additionally the universal screener will assist the district in redefining our culture and climate creating a process for understanding our student social emotional learning competencies as you can see this evening we have a number of Staff members that will be presenting parts of the presentation we're we're so excited for everyone to be a part of this work additionally you'll see some names up there of those that were not able to join us tonight but assisted with the development of this presentation we're also so excited because we have a number of students that will be supporting the conversation this evening this slide provides important data from The District's five essential s survey students study habits safety peer relationship ships and responsibility profoundly impact their holistic development by improving these areas we feel that we can Empower students as whole individuals we believe that by enhancing social emotional competencies it will lead to academic social and emotional success however our recommendation is not just about the data it's about nurturing well-rounded Learners who thrive in all aspects of their lives so what you see in front of you is the timeline of what led us uh to you this evening um we had a committee uh where we were comprised of preschool through grade 12 uh members of our district Community reviewing our social emotional learning uh Universal screeners um we actually took a deeper dive into evidence-based uh Universal screeners and um identified as a committee um our recommendation that you're going to hear this evening and um our goal is to have the community view uh the materials for 30 days after we present this to you and then bring this back to you again uh for further review um in the June board meeting hi Ally Anderson um so when we look at just the universal screener committee um notied that we wanted to make sure that all levels were represented um as well as from a variety of different schools so those are all us worked with the screener portion and then when we're looking at the curriculum and the screener the um the needs and priorities that we had so these were the five um top so obviously we wanted it to be engaging and interactive for students when we think about the curriculum um and also when they're taking the screener cultur culturally diverse um addresses the needs for the whole school um you're going to hear more about the parent and home component later on and also that most important we always need to look for something that's available in English and in Spanish since we have a dual language program good evening my name is harini Kanan and I'm the second grade teacher at Grand Park Elementary uh these are the members that were part of theal curriculum Review Committee the members were chosen to represent our diverse community and incorporate teachers and administrators from all schools preschool through Junior High hi I'm suan Pier g a fourth grade teacher at Old poost this is the rubric that we used as we were looking at the initial curricula um we wanted to make sure that what we chose would align with the needs of our students and families was um what was most important to staff and met the logistical needs of our teachers and also aligned with our district goals and met our social emotional learning competencies good evening I'm Amanda Fulk I teach eighth grade language arts at Bed narc I'm going to give you a little more detail about what we did each month of our meeting so in October 2023 theal curriculum committee came together to establish the priorities that were most important in a new curriculum a curriculum review of 13 different programs began at the November meeting teachers presented their findings from the 13 programs that were explored strengths and weaknesses of each were shared and the committee took their list of 13 down to three possible programs the other curricula La it also has it also has a student and parent engagement piece that is invaluable when communicating about social emotional learning in addition character strong has a digital component that's already formatted to Spanish that supports our dual language classrooms between January and March 2024 the committee piloted the character strong program there were multiple meetings and check-in so that grade level specific conversations could take place students who were part of the pilot were also invited to check in virtually during these meetings to share their experiences and feedback the feedback from the pilot teachers was positive the committee agreed that in addition to the winning aspects that were already pinpointed the character strong program addresses the needs of the school as a whole and has a positive impact on the culture and climate of the building there's ongoing teacher professional development of available from character strong that will especially help with implementation and collaboration and those were some of the ideas that were pinpointed hi I'm Beth jamik third grade teacher at Lakewood Creek Elementary School um during our pilot of character strong we took into account not only the administration's feedback teacher feedback but also our student feedback so I have two of my students here that would like to share some um comments from our class as well as some things that were created as part of the program hi my name is sake I think that my favorite part of the lesson was when we read the book it made me think think more about cooperation I also like the amount of games the activities are fun the class like the brain booster and also when we made the cooperation posters my name is Angela ja I like K strong because I can see other people's point of view I also learned about friendship and working together Corporation is the same as teamwork I like the exercise game because it was challenging I like to learn about coroporation and to create our own posters I liked when in empathy that there there the videos and the little pictures of the little sun and water drop helping each other she didn't if approved character strong will replace our current curriculum of second step for grades K to 8 at this time the character traits included in your packet are the same at all levels character strong allows all levels to focus on the same character trait at the same time within a building this slide shows some of the skills within those character traits that were addressed dressed in our pilot in my classroom we focused on responsibility and organization I have two students from my class to share with you what they experienced with character strong hi my name is Emma and one thing I learned is that I can't control what happens to me but I can control how I react to it gosh so beautiful hi um I'm Avery and um one thing I learned um is I learned different meanings for the word responsibility because I thought about it from a different perspective I know hi everyone I'm Michael Swanson the assistant principal at Old Post I'll probably take credit for these two right behind me uh so I'm here to share about the parent component of uh character strong so one of the things that I heard Ally share was one of these guiding principles we had in our pilot we wanted something that came with a parent and home component so that the conversations that we have at school continue at home so we collected the survey uh after conducting the pilot and I'm going to share two quotes with you tonight here's the first one uh this one talks about the newsletter that's available in the curriculum that teachers can send home and and this family went above and beyond they set goals with their student they talked about perseverance and then they followed up with the teacher to give feedback which informed our piloting process and ideally will inform how it's implemented going forward hi I'm Whitney theer I teach Ela at plank I'm also a district dual language parent um so we got to Pilot the junior high topics in my classroom um sixth seventh and eth have similar topics throughout the grade level and after some introductory lessons that tell you a little bit about what the structure of the program looks like and the expectations um there are at least two lessons per topic the activities are engaging and interactive and the thing that I heard most from my students was that they appreciated it being age appropriate in the representation in the videos in the terminology used and they didn't feel talked down to we got to look at understanding stress empathy and mental health they really liked it and even when I was out on a day that we usually doal they asked to be able to do seal so that was a huge thing for us I have yah with me who would like to share about his experience hi my name is Tiner I like the fact that uh this character strong C curriculum was more interactive than any other thing I've done cuz all the other stuff was they would just hand you a paper and you would just have to write what you see but now we get to walk around we get to say what we think and all this stuff has been helping me not only inside the school but outside with making friends seeing new people talking to people and all that other stuff excellent awesome hi so student engagement in our character strong pilot was very strong and as our uh sixth grader yes sixth seventh sorry seventh grader um was talking about the interaction in this program is wonderful the poster up there you see of that tree is one of of the lessons and that tree poster helped students uh not only in the classroom but outside the classroom at recess the roots are the um size of the problem and so um they are the students can say whether it's a small route a large roote and then they move on to the trunk of the tree which is the heart the feelings how did they feel about the problem how do they and then they go to the branches how are they going to solve the problem and this seemed to really resonate with a lot of the students hi there I'm Jen Riley a second grade teacher at hun Club Elementary um teacher feedback was extremely important to the committee and the feedback that we got was very very positive student engagement was high and we experienced firsthand the transfer of skills that we taught in the classroom um with the students um we love the website it's easy to navigate and it provides a variety of resources like games videos book suggestions posters and of course the curriculum itself the lessons are adaptable with little or no um planning there was also a Committee Member that was able to teach with another dual language teacher they were easily able to switch between English and Spanish during that lesson having a curriculum that fits the diverse needs of our student was extremely important to us character strong met those meets our committee was made up of not only classroom teachers but teachers on special assignment and also administrators we even had students join us via Google meet to answer questions and give us firsthand feedback so you can see in the picture there's some of the commune members and there's all the kids that joined us during their Google meet which was pretty special so here's that second quote from a parent that we collected as part of our feedback um they're on their own valtion recognizing one of theal competencies that we feel like character Sean can address the social awareness piece this comes from a second grade family in the district and they're recognizing how that skill building in kindergarten first grade second grade leads up and will support the children going forward again we're proposing this curriculum k through eight and we're hoping and we're believing that it will serve those needs as kids grow okay before we dive into the universal screener process let's give a round of applause for those really bra kids and awesome staff that presented about our or curriculum okay so I'm now excited to share more information about our recommended uh seal Universal screener so we met starting back in September of 2022 and as a committee that's really when we first started to embark on our seal journey within the district um so through this journey we dove into looking at Universal screeners and so if you don't know what a universal screener is it's a tool that assists in identifying strengths and areas for growth within our students and so in this initiative we are really looking at um strengths and areas for growth in those seal competencies um so to get more information we had gathered um you know some research we attended different presentations and we really wanted to find the best fitting tool for our district and so fast forward to today and we're going to share information about our recommendation thanks all right so we know that um student estl data is something that we've been missing and so when we know more we're able to do more with that information um and so again focusing on our priorities and what were important to us so that we could make a quality decision for our kids um I'm going to go ahead you can obviously see them but highlight just a few um we wanted it available in multiple languages and we wanted to make sure that it was easy to implement um across the district as well as continuing support for that implementation um also that it was accessible for all grade levels but it is important to note that it is going to be starting at third grade and then um when we were looking Sarah had mentioned um different presentations and seeing different options um we used this um rubric and um just important to note that it was tied to the social emotional learning competencies when we were making those choices so as a committee we are recommending Panorama as our Universal screener of choice so when making this decision we focus not just on the right fit but finding something that resonated with the values and goals within the district so what this screener does is it really provides administ rators and staff members with that data piece and identifying those strengths and areas for growth as I mentioned earlier as Ali stated we're looking to um administer this screener to students in third through 12th grade it is available for kindergarten through 12th but we felt like starting in third is a good point uh to start with for our students and we're going to uh recommend that we're administering it twice a year and both the late fall and late spring which will mat match up with our academic um benchmarking dates it's really important to know that when we're talking about this Universal screener we're not talking about a mental health screener here what we're doing is this is going to help us look at the health of our tier one seal curriculum right and how are our students progressing within that curriculum so this next slide is helping us to dive a little bit deeper into what Panorama looks like and so in Panorama you can see that uh we have normed data on how students respond to various questions aligned with those social emotional learning competencies having this normed data is allowed allows us to make comparison not comparisons not only within our district but within other schools around that are using the same Universal screener you'll also notice at the top that it there's a student component and a teacher and staff component at this point in time we're looking to focus on the student self- rating to gather that information of how students feel with their social emotional learning competencies and finally this last one is how our this next slide filters out demographic groups for us and their responses to specific questions so by examining these specific questions that are then aligned to the social emotional compet competencies were able to gather deeper insights on how different demographic groups perceive those various competencies additionally Panorama will be easily integrated into five Labs which is our district data warehouse and so that will um make it more accessible and usable as we're having conversations regarding student support discussions and so staff and administrators within our district have long expressed the need for this data point and having those conversations and so uh recommending this Universal screener to all of you is a significant step in that integration for our students and staff so as we conclude our presentation we wanted to share with you the financial piece of theal curriculum cost annually and also if we were to sign an annual three-year contract and the total cost for your review in addition um just to clarify um our curriculum that we're recommending would replace our current curriculum Second Step which we've had in our district for over 10 years it's also important to note that during this pilot process we did pilot oural curriculum preschool through grade 8 through feedback from teachers and students we decided that we were going to move forward with a recommendation kindergarten through grade8 only next year character strong took our feedback about the preschool lessons being um a little bit um too comp comp Lex for our youngest Learners and they're making adjustments we will pilot again next year and review to determine if we would like to implement character St at the preschool level in the future you'll see on this slide here our uh tenative projected implementation plan we are very aware of our current um literacy uh implementation plan that's going to kick off in the fall and so we really want to be mindful about when we do oural curriculum implementation as well as universal screener and you can see that's outlined there in front of you and we are open to hear any feedback or questions that you might have this evening thank you thank you Dr Paul and to your team uh What a Wonder a wonderful surprise that I want to just lead off by thanking our students again for coming out tonight high five to all of you I'm so proud of you as a superintendent um nothing makes me more excited to see your PO so go to all of you questions board I don't have any questions I just want to reiterate one thing that you touched on at the at the end Dr Paul and I probably said this about a couple things in the past but the the importance of PD so thank you for emphasizing that and you listened at our last when we because this is the we saw this at our committee meeting and I said you know or uh Ela is coming and then is coming so just being cognizant of that that PD load for some of our teachers ESP especially you know 38 you know all that are getting the double um so thank you for addressing that and just to um I'm always in support of more PD as you're rolling out things so that would be um you know uh another you know something I'm happy to support if it comes to that if we need it uh and then my other encouragement another thing I just mentioned that the committee meeting was just thinking more um strategically maybe about high school I think that's a future iteration of what that could look like we obviously have a screener now for it um we know the screener will kind of evaluate our our K8 implementation or our 38 or k K8 with the screener going or you know what I'm saying but um I'm interested in hearing more about high school in the future yes and if I could this is still on can you hear me okay um if I could address what you're sharing because I think it's a really great Point um The High School uh course teams last year worked on integrating social emotional learning standards into their courses and we Embark next year on a curriculum review cycle all curriculum review Maps will include social emotional learning standards and I know our literacy um uh program that we're going to be implementing next year has that embedded within so we're eager to hear and see um how that integration works even at the secondary level thank you and then just a follow up to to the professional development I I was excited to hear you say that um I know that this uh program has the ability to do the teachers as well and so of course we know a well-regulated adult helps us to regulate our kids and so I think that it's very I if if we have not already used something for professional development if this is an opportunity I would love to hear more about how this could be integrated as well Dr Paul can you speak to the coordination you've been doing with Kiana who's now leading our professional development planning process um and um would you share a little bit about that because I think it would be interesting one of the Investments we did this your board was in hiring somebody who would really help facilitate and think about the pacing they're not providing the PD just to make sure clear they're not providing all the PD but they're really important in that role so Dr Paul could you share a little bit about that yes thank you so uh Miss har and I have been meeting on a regular basis to talk about how we can continue to support professional development ongoing uh this year we also had an opportunity to Pilot some leadership Wellness um with principls assistant principls program admen these two are shaking their heads or part that uh we really good feedback we'd like to continue to see how we can continue to support the wellness of all of our staff moving forward thank you so I'm glad to hear that you're thinking about vertical articulation As you move this forward past you know eth grade um I and as it relates to the budget so we've had second step for the last 10 years right and is there any um in in the transition is there any Financial re requirements um as we move from that to here that aren't reflected in these cost so we sign an annual contract with second step so we would need to sign an annual contract for preschool only which would be significantly less but I can get you that information thank you so when we're looking at the first of all thank everyone especially our our students um it's very powerful and impactful when they're here I see some future student ambassadors out there so that's exciting um first and foremost incredibly important work um we we we are not Mental Health Providers we understand that I love that you said that um but we also understand that we can't just say sorry not going to deal with mental health you know leave it at the door so what we're giving is kids confidence to be able to deal students confidence to be able to deal with the things that do arise and do um possibly affect their Mental Health I get very frustrated and it's pet peeve of mine when it is picked apart in the bigger World um as to being something you know nefarious it's not at all um we could have at least my generation could have benefited from a little more social emotional um uh learning in in my time so thank you this is really important work I just want to understand this is a three-year for but these are two separate purchases basically and then the total is for 3 years is 280 560 so the two total costs put together got it but we could if for some reason down the road we decided not to use the curriculum we could still keep the screener so we will put theal curriculum uh and theal Universal screener in our curriculum review cycle so every four years we'll be reviewing its entirety to ensure we're doing this with Fidelity like our other uh content areas awesome thank you so much I would just like to say as well I love seeing whenever there's students here um it's just awesome as a student ambassador to hear that student voice and I know that's why we have a big part of seal is the students and that's why we're here so I love seeing them and I also love that it's it's expanding through 8th grade as well because it's setting some of the foundations that we've been talking about in our student committee that high schoolers are struggling with and so I think it addresses some of that and so uh just from what I've seen today I'm very impressed so thank you all for your hard work thank you li I know it just feels like a night and day curriculum versus what we had I don't know um some of the comments that were shared you know by the students um I don't know seems much more interactive um again a lot of head nods um so that's I don't know it seems almost too good to be true but you know let's hope it uh helps our students yeah improves uh performance and helps our emotional wellbeing I do want to know we have one of our potential partners with us this evening Jesse for Panorama came uh just a support and uh character strong has equally been supportive um on during our journey they're in Arizona so they're not able to be here physically but thank you so much for your feedback and I just say thank you to all um who uh endeavored in this uh it's greatly appreciate so all stakeholders so thank you okay okay thank you so much and uh so 30 days just to clarify 30 days it'll be on display and uh then it'll come to the board on May on June 3 is that correct for its final vote okay have a good evening everybody thank you thank you very much [Applause] has one more meeting oh Luke has only one more meeting don't get me ver CL thank you all right we're moving moving on to 7.1 we'll ask Dr katti to provide us with his superintendent report all right thank you president similon um so uh this evening I want to begin by U just really wishing a blessed Passover to those who are celebrating and who are reflecting this week it's a holiest of one of the holiest of holy days and we want to just uh extend our reflection with those who are um celebrating Passover uh today is Earth Day as well and Friday's Arbor Day both are important uh opportunities to reflect on the world around us and what we are doing to do our part for sustainability in the future um we're also proud of our students who came out tonight um uh shout outs to all of those who were honored this evening and I I have to I know that's in some of the other comments but I do want to give a special shout out to our robotics team if you don't know robotics yet to know robotics is to know about advocacy uh Brilliance creativity uh a spirit of collaboration and advocacy for all that our students um the best of our students so I want to congratulate them for their work this past their competition and we'll be inviting them soon here um we do have a full schedule this evening but it's important that I just say a couple quick things that I wanted to share um one over the past several months as you've heard we've we've dedicated a lot of time to really developing the structure and systems for our eight priorities as we think about a strategic road map to uh a road map to our strategic plan next year um one of those key priorities has been really building a foundation for stability and predictability and collaborating with our Educators and really creating a foundation for those so if you have not watched our board meetings in the last couple weeks U months I invite you to really look on those and you'll be hearing more about that on our website and in our presentations in our schools um our school leaders are also diving into this work and we want to thank our leaders for their patience as we coordinated and got ready to launch some of this work more formally in terms of how it will impact school Improvement planning for next year because at the end of the day the schools are the most important um places in our district we don't have a district school we have schools and tremendous places of learning that we want to support um part of that has been our hiring which is priority number five and I've asked Dr zmy to speak a few minutes about priority five and some of the ways in which this is being reflected and some of the things that have been happening Dr zmy yeah thank you good evening board um our our really three key priorities within priority number five in HR is to recruit retain and reward our staff members and when we think about um those three priorities it's important to understand how many full-time staff members we have uh we have 2,391 staff members certified of 1,498 classified 893 and it's important that that we we think about each and every one of them as as we do um we recognize that we have a number of open certified positions 98.36% [Music] uh teachers assistants bus monitors things like that um our goal throughout both systems is is to develop something for our staff all you know 20 nearly 2400 people that is predictable explainable and sustainable year-over year systemwide uh we've created a a five-step process for um our oea members uh we'll be working on our oesa members uh very very soon um where we had five dis stages um to create a spirit of transparency and volunteerism in the seventh largest school district in the state I think it's very important that we offered our staff an opportunity if they wanted to use another endorsement teach at another level um they could do so nearly 70 did and rather than uh looking at an involuntary transfer process where we would have to reduce and somebody would have to leave a school that they didn't want to leave somebody else might say you know what I'd like to to do that so we created that culture of of really focused in on our six core values and asked folks what would you like to do our both uh both unions all four of our unions are outstanding but both unions in related to Staffing oesa and OA have just been outstanding absolutely outstanding um so we're now entering stages three and four of Staffing uh with um some involuntary transferring where it's necessary we just want to make sure everybody has a home um and then our principal are interviewing uh they're interviewing internal candidates they're interviewing external candidates um I've I've been approving uh some just uh as early as today that will come to you at the the May 6 board meeting for recommendation um our goal also with oesa is really to reduce this year the dependency on contract Service admin uh contract Service folks all the way through eliminating the reliability on contract Serv Serv t uh and and so on so um I just wanted to give a really brief update this evening on where we're at we're very busy um we uh as I shared I know we had uh Miss law here and miss cellario here talking about the recruiting the recruiting paid off um we've been um very aggressive in where we've been we've been very aggressive with our principls our level leaders uh and we have some exciting exciting times ahead of us uh and once we get them our our goal is to keep them uh we're excited to have a mentoring program that will be starting here uh right in uh really late July so uh I'll provide an update on that as as we get ready but we just wanted to update priority 5 this evening thank you great thank you Dr zmy I want to now invite um members of the board to uh extend U part of the superintendent's comments some celebrations and uh reminders that we want to highlight I think you alluded to this one already but so uh I'll go uh off uh I'll go a little rogue on it but our robotics team geared forward just returned from competing in the first championship International Event in Houston team earned their way to this culminating event through hard work this season we're proud of you um I I had the opportunity a few weeks back when they had their event at um at at Bed narc and there was a parent in the district who was affiliated with another District that I'm familiar with and they're like and they asked me they said why don't why don't we have something like this at that District I'll just leave it at that and um you know spurred a conversation but basically you know the part of the conversation I will repeat is I don't think we fully grasp those of us that maybe aren't in um the robotics uh or or directly how much of a a g This truly is here I mean it is it is incredible uh anyone who comes across it uh please um take the time to really uh talk discuss see it is it is awesome it is awesome what is done there it is awesome the competition it is awesome the diversity in um what they do and what they bring to the table um and so we're proud of you just doesn't didn't seem like enough so thank you J oh um Boulder Hill Elementary School recently hosted an avid showcase Educators from other area districts gathered at Boulder Hill to learn more about how Avid is implemented in our district um great job to Boulder Hill uh for being an example for others um shall I continue on thanks this Thursday we're going to celebrate Service Awards and retirees at our annual District celebration uh these staff have contributed over 1400 years to serving our students and staff what an incredible accomplishment and congratulations to each of them additionally at the art connected opening asgo High School received a top 20 plaque for receiving over 2.5 million in scholarship offers One OS artist received a gold medal in painting and two one senior portfolio receipt Awards great job to those students eighth graders from our five Junior highs got together with Mr Robert herrings a guest conductor from Texas and rehearsed for many hours to put together a great program including the world premiere of a new piece for concert band great job to Junior High band students I'm excited to talk about two of the two particular sports that from one from OS the bass fishing team who finished third in their conference and so that was just exciting and another one for we recognize many of the students tonight but the co-op Esports team um they came home with the SPC conference champ as conference Champion so congratulations to all of the students for their performance hard work and their success very good and on Wednesday we celebrate Administrative Assistant Day we thank every one of our secretaries and assist and assistants for all their hard work keeping things organized and running smoothly across the district the board sends a special thank you to our secretary Ursula her organization and discipline are so crucial to keeping everything neat and on [Applause] time pretty good spe you can see she loves that do you do you want a chocolate cake delivered Wednesday or s that concludes the superintendent's comments thank you thank you Dr katti we'll move to 7.2 our student ambassador's report hello everybody um I'll first start off with a little bit that Isabelle wrote for today um she said uh first I would like to apologize for my absence today is the first night of past over a very important Jewish holiday celebrating the Jewish Exodus from Egypt and I am at home having a small seder with my family Happy Passover to all who celebrate uh so uh we wish Isabelle well tonight uh and as we move on since our last board meeting together the ssac got to work on our presentation to the superintendent Advisory Group our presentation focused on the data that was found through the innovate K12 disaggregation of our surveys that we shared with you a couple of weeks ago we were able to have with surve and what we can do going forward to improve and build student teacher relationships so I'll start with the piece that is group uh took part in uh she said our group focused on the generation gap between Educators and students and and the possible misunderstandings that can occur because of that okay hear me better now there we go um so uh she said many teachers cited phones as a source of disrespect but after further examination we realize that sometimes it is not the full intention of students to be disrespectful although student phone use is of course an issue and must be addressed much student phone use is a result of wanting to escape reality and to avoid life stresses along with the feelings feeling of dependence on their cell phones uh many teachers especially um of older Generations see the phone as a personal insult uh but instead sometimes it can be uh that generation gap in there as well um this is one thing that we would like to work on tackling uh as we move on with the ssac um that generational piece of students being kind of dependent on their phones and escaping it as a a way to deal with stress and how we can tackle that um the ssac overall divided into small groups to address our different data results uh my group was focused on the workload and perception of homework uh I highlighted back when we presented our data that homework was a big stressor for students however our teacher survey identified that most of of our teachers assign very little to no homework through that research and looking at this issue through the lens of students we discovered that homework is not necessarily the root of most students problems students are juggling between sports extracurriculars work family obligations and so much more outside of school hours that maybe that 20 minute ass homework assignment at the end of the night is just the students breaking point it's just the cherry on top uh it was also clear through both of our surveys that our teachers are also exhausted and can be overworked this is a commonality between both our teachers and our students finding similarities between our teachers and students within these areas will only further and improve relationships inside of the classroom though we will have recommendations for teachers uh for students we identified the need for students to have opportunities to learn how to take the initiative and communication practice practices with teachers and peers there could be resources um in place for students to better learn how to communicate professionally and effectively with their teachers when they feel overwhelmed it is also important that we open up and do more with programs like uh navian and showcase opportunities like tutoring and especially with tutoring not bringing it down to um a level where students feel less than because they're going into T dream but promoting it as an opportunity to uh grow and get better in their academics as well uh this can help our students Thrive and take ownership of their own success feeling more comfortable with their teachers as a result these are skills that if learned will help students thrive in the classroom and Beyond we want to thank the superintendent Advisory Group for the invitation to speak and present some of this important information information and data that we collected so thank thank you all I know that was a lot thrown at you so if you have any questions I can answer anything for you guys I I definitely um enjoyed because I you know I was attended and uh lots of connections I enjoyed kind of going from table to table I definitely thought about that um about all of you the other day as uh as myself a high school teacher and I'm sitting there and I'm looking at my student in front and uh my student in the front looks like this right and so I go over you know I get my Class settled and I go over and I have a conversation with my student in front I said hey you know are are you okay what's going on and long story short that student had been working till 1:00 a.m.