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it says TB on there to be determined but it's 1 pm. on Monday so also if you'd like to be a part of that please sign in to these any of these events um and the list goes on we have fifth grade parents versus students kickball and they'll be receiving fifth grade promotion certificate that'll be 8:30 on Monday as well we have our amazing Foundation meeting that's taking place our kindergarten promotion is on Tuesday May 21st at 9:00 a.m. in the gym 11:00 a.m. is our senior walk through so these are our alumni that are graduating from high school they walk through and we cheer them on and just a reminder that next Wednesday is a full day of school and then we have our eighth grade promotion and Thursday is the last day of school which is Splash day so that's a half day so it's reversed so remember next Wednesday is a pool day next Thursday at half day early dismissal next Friday the 24th is records day many of you are going to be already on your vacation right and then we have our summer enrichment C that so our theme was world of imagination this school year for our staff just want to say thank you to our students our teachers our staff our Continental families for your support we're nearing the end of this 2023 24 school year and we're successful because of your support your dedication to us to our students many of you come in throughout the year and you're just giving up your time our students have grown a lot this school year and we're very ex we're very honored to be able to see their growth to see their talents to see them continue to grow grow up and we thank you for that for giving us that opportunity we're really exciting for next school year and all that we're going to continue to do and we're happy that we get to do it with you so thank you for another successful [Music] okay time for of the month if we can have um all the and parents and fam when they come up please come up and feel free to take pictures of them and then you can head back there to the table to get their shirt they help their [Music] first [Music] [Applause] edar is a role model to the other students in the class always pushing the chairs in and shows his responsibility by following all the classroom rules he's quick to remind his peers of what they should be doing congratulations EJ Dr Felicia Robin [Applause] Mrs tesle writes Carlos is such a sweet boy and tries so hard each and every day Carlos continues to grow in all areas and is becoming such a remarkable student Carlos is a caring friend who always includes all his friends he's going to do wonderful things I cannot wait to see all his accomplishments congratulations I'm in kindergarten and I go to schools Miss madis is her teacher and she Riley is an extremely kind student she's always a great friend to other students she's become very safe and responsible and is a great role model to others congratulations R my name isay I'm in kindergarten and my teacher is Miss [Music] graia this Gracia right Amaya is an Exemplar exemplary student she strives to do her best daily and as a loving studious attentive and prudent child she demonstrates great care and attention to always staying safe I'm so joyful and proud to have taught her this year congratulations is in Mrs salsbury's class in kindergarten and Camila is a sweet student who comes in the classroom ready and excited to learn she's very motivated kindergartner with a heart of gold there are many times that Camila will go out of her way to help others in the classroom and on the playround she's am safe and responsible I'm so lucky I get to learn with you and watch you grow this year I'm so proud of you keep up the great work with Salsbury Isabella Mrs nck WR Isabella is kind to her friends she always ensures the safety of her classmates and she's responsible with her jobs congratulations cutter is in missis's class and Miss Manis writes cutter is Cult of the month for April he's kindhearted he offers to help in the classroom and his smile is contagious I've watched him grow and with each passing week he's becoming responsible for himself his actions and his school work I'm so proud of you cutter keep up the great work and keep on shining bright CHR next I'm in first grade and and my teacher is Miss he geta right John is such a sweet kid he has the biggest heart he started year off a bit Rocky but made huge improvements I'm super proud of him keep working hard John love MRSA congratul [Music] Emma Miss Nado writes this is Emma's first year being a continental cult and she's quickly shown what it takes to be safe kind and responsible Emma is funloving and charismatic she quickly made new friends thanks to her great sense of humor positivity and willingness to help others in class Emma likes to participate and has a lot of good comments way to go Emma you are a rock star my is and second Miss Miss Mills writes Sawyer is such a hardworking student and pushes himself to do his best he's always so friendly to all the other students he makes sure to demonstrate what it's like to be a safe student as well thank you for being so amazing and I'm going to miss having you in my class next year congratulations Miss Miss Hoff writes Matilda is a rock star in our class she's always the first one to help others who need help lenda shoulder to cry on or offer a little friendly pep talk on school campus playground in Filip she's always safe responsible and kind to All Around Matilda works hard is dedicated and has taught us new things about Arizona's beautiful plant and more thank you Matilda for being a great student and friend to us all congratulations Mrs lean writes Kaden is a friend to everyone who consistently shows respect to his peers he's quick to stand up for others or get help when someone is in the wrong he follows the school rules and always tries his Best in Class congratulations Mrs flow right it is my pleasure to nominate S as my April Cult of the month she's admired and looked up to by her peers and surrounds herself with the most respectful of friends she may come across as quiet and reserved but along with that I see a natural leader students acknowledge her preparedness and classroom responsibility and model that you should see her drawings Siri is an amazing sketch artist and has booklets and notebooks filled with fabulous art that she has created she's simply amazing you will want to ask for her autograph because you may see her writings and drownings and Publications sometime she's that good congratulations Siri for being an outstanding kid I love your individuality your determination and all of your talents your super proud teacher Mrs Flowers Mrs monya writes Del you should be proud of yourself this year hasn't been easy you've had your ups and your downs but you pushed through them you have shown what hard work and effort can do and I'm very proud of you you have become responsible with your work and always want to double check that you're doing it right and you usually are you're always there for your friends or anyone who could use a little help keep working hard girl you are capable of anything you put your mind to this is my is I'm in grade and my teacher Mrs Adams writes Alana has shown that she can work hard to achieve her goals her Improvement in all of her classwork has been impressive she's thoughtful of others and does her best to include those that may need a little extra kindness during state testing she wrote notes of encouragement to her classmates and provided a treat these simple acts of kindness are exactly what we need at our school Elana is an exceptional P congratulations Mr Fox writes has made a 180 degree change in his effort and attitude since the beginning of the year I'm very proud of his new found self-worth and self-respect he has become a good friend to those around him and is now is now achieving academically keep it up congratulations Mr we can have congratulations to all of our cols they're amazing because of you so thank you for all of your amazing work with your your student our F we're very proud of them if they could come up one last time and gather and bring their certificates please [Music] than all right so at this point we're gonna ask that our Cult of the mon that we stand up here and help us honor some of our amazing other people that come to work and to school every single day and so one of the things that we started a few years ago is called the Golden foro award which is kind of like your employee the month if you will and so when we started the administration chose but something we switch this year is the staff members that are recognized are recognized and nominated by their peers um and so they all get to vote to select um who receives the golden vure award for both certified and classified so with no further Ado we will start that now we'll start off with our certificate of appreciation for volunteering and we would like to award this to Mrs Holly W I say every event School event not even PTC event but every school event we've had this year Mrs W has been there to support us she helps us with getting it ready with coordinating with bringing stuff for our events and hyping up our students she's really good at hyping them up at our assemblies so we really want to thank you for your passion for your dedication and for your support throughout the whole entire school year every year since I've been here and I'm sure beond love that thank you for anything that you do it does not go no and it's greatly apprciated one of the things that people don't realize about Holly is it's not just a school she participates in the community she does a lot lots of different Avenues that's pretty much true um she she is service oriented um she's constantly running the soccer program for our youth in the community um and just does you know countless and countless things with the youth and the children not just here at school but it does it does Echo outside into the community for not just our students but all of the children in Serita Green Valley area so um I know sometimes we Overlook that because you are always here we we joke that she should be given a parking spot that's permanent and in office but she's she's sometimes here more than we are so we appreciate her time and her effort and also you know to give up that time and effort um it is a sacrifice to her kids and her family so thank you to them as well and everything that they do and allowing her to be able to to give back to your kiddos Comm also like Mr lean said sometimes she's here right and early and when I'm leaving she's still here and I'm like Holly oh my gosh go home it's late so um like Mrs said if we need chalk art if we need facilitation she works with our um gifts at Christmas with Holiday House the carnivals just all of the prep for teacher appreciation week that she helps to coordinate and we just really really couldn't do what we do without you to keep our students and our got motivated so thank you so muchen award for our teachers was our teachers our colleagues nominated Mrs Donna Mary who is our elementary SP resource teacher and she was very very honored that she was a recipient of this award and she was not able to make it tonight we make sure we get with our staff she is doing homework had some deadlines she needed to meet and she's like I know you guys will understand what Mrs Mary if you're listening we really appreciate you and everything you do you are amazing and you go above the for our students and for our staff congratulations for Mrs Des Mrs Jus disc CS was nominated by our colleagues so if you could please is our special education programmatic assistant so she helps with our special education department one one toone student if you remember last year she also was teaching art for our middle schoolers so she does a lot too go above and beyond for whatever the team needs and her colleagues write Mrs de camps we've witnessed time and again her dedication her passion commitment to her students and the school Community she's always willing to lend a helping hand always has a smile on her face a positive attitude a huge heart and is well deser deserving of this recognition thank you Mrs de counts for all you do to inspire our students and us your colleagues just ended up briefly jice also R Art Club the first semester of the year she's always willing to step up and help with that and then I know your kids are really excited about especially the elementary kids the basketball court that was added concrete so they didn't have to play on gravel um her son and with a lot of her help for his Eagle Scout project did that so she was here for many many weekends in a row overseeing and feeding the crew and sometimes like I said we don't get enough credit for the behind the scenes work but without um all those volunteers um being fed and happy and one day of r on us all day long um that you you made all of us go warm and that's what you do for all of our kids here is warm our hearts and so thank you for all your years of service and dedication parents if you want to come up you boys and girls we have a few awards that you can stick around we have our years of service Awards I would like to call up the following staff members who have been with us for 10 years and we have an apple for the teacher has their name for 10 years plus for 10 years of service at Continental Elementary School District so Mr Ferguson Mrs Grimes M Rita Alexander and Janice disc can you please come on up and stand up [Applause] here if we can have you stand up here in front of the Das and we'll get a group picture and board members if you'd like to come up in front so we can get a snap a quick snap shot of you as well please Mr Ferguson Mrs GES Miss [Music] Ander yes closer like we like each other go CL go 10 years 10 years Y no I don't need there she told me to take pictures I'm gonna let you get out of my shot for okay board members if you can please stay up we have some very special 25 Year Awards to give out and the first one goes to Mrs Flowers can you please come on us so this is for Mrs Flowers and it says excellent our habits are what push us past the limits of mediocrity into the realm of dis distinction and those of you who know Mrs Flowers this is truly her she drives in from Morana every single day and you've been doing it for 25 years she is just an amazing amazing impactful teacher friend colag thank you one two three big smiles Sharon that's all you got come on work hard have to save it for the other 10 there you go that's the right attitude [Music] we have one for Miss romanelli as well for 25 years and her's Journey you measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals so this is for Miss romanelli and her daughter is getting married this weekend so she's busy doing wedding plans and has family but we'll make sure we present this to her at our staff meeting so if you could help me give Mr and last but not least we have one of our very own Colts is going to retire and run off into the sunset um Mr Davis could you please come up we would like you to stand in front also with the board for a picture but we have when you retire you get a Painted Pony from continental and this is crossing the Rainbow Bridge so I thought it was just fitting for you and all your hard work that you've done to impact our Cults our families and your dedication and your positive attitude even though you're retiring is one to be celebrated because he always says when you ask him how are you Mr Davis what do you say I'm fantastically fantastic wonderfully wonderful awesomely awesome although I do have one call one FL I'm abnormally [Music] normal so he's a person that when you encounter him you don't have to seek out other positive people because he really does um bring up the spirits of the staff and colleagues and students so we're just going to miss you but we know it's not goodbye it's goodbye for now and we know that we'll continue to come back and visit us and help us out oh yes he will definitely be on our sub list thank you Mr Davis we'll also bring him back to Santa Claus every year there you go that's right I hope I can handle [Music] it one two three yay thank you thank you everybody thank you students and parents for and take quick while C outcome Tom [Music] con [Music] okay moving right along the consent agenda you guys thank you Mrs yes M Amaria yes yes Mr M Mrs Allen yes report items our district Financial reports um we will have a motion in a second and then discussion approve second discussion I have a quick question the first line in um the the salaries um is the budget balance and net including the incumbrance yes and um we're going to have enough funds within we I just need to move some funds around cover yeah that whole section is fine anything else okay Mrs Le yes Mrs amaras yes Mr MCG Mrs alen [Music] yes unfinished business we have our second reading of the asba policy advisory 763 through um what's this one so there all the policies that we had reviewed for first reading like I mentioned before there were there wasn't anything alarming um in the policies so they're um pretty self-explanatory and good to go some some language updates was it they were language updates and in terms of um where board meeting board members may they took out all of the shell so they're all good to go and we're approving it this time yes all right do we have a motion move to approve asba policy advisory 763 786 one second any other discussion M Leber yes Mrs yes Mr mg yes M yes and that's it' got um some events coming up we went over a lot of them in the reports so lots of exciting events if you plan to attend promotion please let us know so that we can reserve a spot for you in front of a gr promot motion on the seats that we reserve for governing board members um also the tent show because I know that Laura so we'll save a spot for you in the front Okay um does anyone have any bits of wisdom or anything for us we hosted the um a 19 and award for9 it was a very nice production I did a lot of hard work um it was a good day it was really I was proud to see like R said some past Cults that were in high school that received Awards so rer went beyond to make sure that they were recognized as one of hers so I mean it was good too and some kids that had moved schools to other schools that were also past schs so it was a good a good day a lot of young kids this time it was really nice last year it was a lot of older kids you know kids graduating very high Achievers these were a lot of humanitarian kids so that was nice to see let me last last year she did anyone else right we will recess to sign some things stay tuned [Music] I can barely talk it might not have been the light different [Music] we just are [Music] oh sorry all right we are a JT than

so we're going to have a special Board of Education meeting next Tuesday night that is to for the so sole focus of a budget Workshop we have grade four concert this is CIS week next week we have grade four concert next week we have grade five concert next week and we have grade six concert next week and our wonderful seniors have their senior prom this week coming up on Friday at the aquator so it is a busy month in the the camp public schools and I'll entertain any questions out of superintendent's office at this time questions superintending is anybody online for us is Poli online no okay any questions okay thank you for that report Dr grman the two Representatives aren't here we'll pass on that we'll move right into C celebrates with Mrs Cel our principal here thank you for being here tonight so Mrs Corel if I could just start off so we can let the parents families and staff know how this all works you will definitely get Kodak moments tonight we will make sure that you get all the pictures that you want Mrs CTO will definitely walk through and honor the children and then at the very end we're going to ask everybody to come back and take a big picture with the Board of Education and as many pictures as you want we won't leave till we get these pictures done so Mrs CTO okay thank you um we will start with our first student Eli Mania is being celebrated for his outstanding participation in advisory as a sixth grade leader Eli supported and welcomed our new fourth graders into his group he's always willing to help others and his and his leader during each activity his kindness shine bright through his group he started conversations with which tremendously helped Drive the group discussions while making other group members feel comfortable to share their thoughts and suggestions his group is lucky to have Eli as a role model here you [Applause] go and then you call student up okay vegan Carly right oh you can see on up [Music] here you're musicians all right fifth grade OBO studed finan Carly submitted a composition that he wrote for OBO he recorded his composition and submitted it to the Connecticut music Education Association his piece was accepted and he had the honor of sharing his work at the c m conference we couldn't be more proud [Applause] Claire Mason is unable to attend today but I would still like to give congratulations to Claire for winning the Connecticut fire prevention poster contest for Canton and her poster was also named a winner at the Harford County [Applause] level I'll call up Autumn stlm and L congratulations to our sixth graders Autumn St and Luke camp for their strengths in the visual arts citizenship and Cooperative skills Luke and Autumn were honored at the Connecticut Association of school's 25th Annual Elementary celebration of the Arts this past January [Applause] I think for this next set I will ask Mrs Juliana who I know is here to come on up because you can be helpful to me I know this is unexpected for [Music] her sixth grade act students took the year to study the future problem solving six-step method and their teams completed practice problems and then worked to qualify for the state competition in January CIS had four teams that were invited to attend the Connecticut future problem solving State ball and of those four teams we are proud that we had two teams placing first and second in the global issues problem solving competition so I'm going to call up all the members of the future problem solving team and what I think is Stella [Applause] corn NN [Applause] cin Abigail [Applause] Davis Charlotte Fairchild [Applause] Adrien gney L Harrington Brett hay Ben Holland back Brendon [Applause] Hurley Matthew [Applause] J Jackson Lazar [Applause] Claire [Applause] Nelson Baris [Applause] Ramadan Caroline Watson from future problem solvers our kindness and Care cultivator I'd like to um ask Drew Wagner to come on [Applause] up so we would like to recognize Drew for his active participation in Social and emotional learning class during seal Drew is an active participant who frequently provides thoughtful and insightful comments during class discussion he regularly shares his unique perspective and is often able to make historical connections from literature that we've read in class to how it impacts people today jur is an absolute joy to teach receiving a sportsmanship award I'd like to call it Jackson [Applause] elely Jackson always demonstr rates a positive attitude during physical education class he engages in all activities with a high level of sportsmanship while maintaining proper competitiveness and teamwork he's a great role model for all of his classmates no Noel's leadership skills shine in a physical education setting making her a student to celebrate she's a high achiever who demonstrate consistent effort and focus she's willing to work with all of her classmates is a team captain and a leader by example [Applause] we have two special Memorial awards that we give out every year I'm pleased to present them to two very deserving individuals tonight the Jamie L Cannon and the Margaret Johnson Memorial Awards each year these awards are given to two sixth grade students and given such a sell group that we have this year it was not easy rece for core special education and special areas teachers to decide upon the recipients the first award is given in memory of Jamie L Canon to a student who best exemplifies the all-around qualities of excellence the areas of Excellence demonstrated by Jamie L Canon were academic learning music art personality sportsmanship and citizenship and I'm pleased to announce that this year the recipient of the Jamie El Canon All-American award is madam [Applause] and though he's not here this evening I would still like to celebrate um the recipient of the Margaret Johnson Award um the Margaret Johnson Award is given to a student who exemplifies outstanding citizenship and character who is a conscientious worker in all academic and unified Arts areas and who demonstrates appropriate conduct and a positive attitude I'm pleased to announce that this year recipient of the Margaret Johnson Memorial award is Matthew [Applause] G we'll invite all of our students back up and now's that time for that picture so you all come up front you [Music] Oran everybody look right right in the middle girl all right parents your turn everybody see where you [Music] are everybody got their pictures good job so I I just want to say being being a board of education member is is challenging it can be fun at times but the best part about being a board of education number is being part with the students and having the opportunity to see how you've achieve the things that you've done and on behalf of the Board of Education we congratulate you but we want to see you here again next year and the year after and the year after keep striving and all the different things that you do so well keep at it and uh we hope to give you more Awards in the future so thank you very much and thank your parents for encouraging you along the way thank [Applause] you so another another wonderful part about being a board of education member it's actually changed since Dr grman was here it's our opportunity twice a year we get out to see each of the schools and we get to work and hear from the administrative staff on what's going well and where the areas are that they're you're uh bringing new treatments trying different things we look at the test scores so this board of education has been very active in that uh scenario and we we did that uh each school in the fall and they provide a continuous Improvement plan for all of us so that we can see the data where that's all taking us and uh and then they do were the second half of the year last week we had the opportunity some of the board members I think there was five or six of us had the chance to be at Canton intermediate school with Mrs Cortel and she did a wonderful presentation on where things were really starting to percolate and do well different things that are being tried that are working other things that we're going to continue to work at so tonight you're going to hear about the continuous Improvement plan in CIS and turn over to Dr BR so first I'm going to invite Mrs CTO up she is for those of you that don't know all our continuous Improvement plans are on our district homepage under contingent Improvement plans and this is something that really aligns with all the board goals so from the board goals it goes to the superintendent goals it goes to school continuous Improvement goals all the way down to the goals that teachers set so everything is aligned across the district and it it's very exciting to have the the Board of Education members that are able to join us in our schools to really go into our schools to see what is happening each and every day we're fortunate enough as adults and teachers to be able to go any time we want but as board members it's always good I could bring words to them but they can't really understand and comprehend unless they're able to see it on a basis and then there's sometimes that for the board members that can't come we actually bring students in here like we did in the fall that they were able to see a math Workshop an Ela workshop for the board members that can't come it's just very important for the board to be able to see what's happening in our schools so I've asked Mrs CTO tonight to give just a brief update of what's happening at Kon and J School relative to the the the goal areas that the board of education has so Mrs Court tell me thank you Dr roachman Mr richf Mr Daniels the Board of Education I'm excited for this opportunity to share with you some of the priority initiatives uh that we've add our work towards our school goals through our first uh goal is around student growth and achievement today we've seen achievement growth in all the standards for both Ela and in math in all three of our grades in um comparing the fall to the winter we've had 42% of our students make high growth in the area of math in our average reading Lexi levels for each grade is higher now in the winter than it has been any other time in the pre or any other year in the previous two years at that time for the winter and we attribute that to some of our priority initiatives we created a comprehensive plan for interm Block assessments um we administered those both in math and Ela and all of the grades those were used for instructional and assessment purposes we have scheduled number corner and read aloud to be adjacent to flex so that we can service more students through a intervention during our Flex time we've implemented a building fact fluency program for tier 2 and tier three based on student performance data that demonstrate that is in need and we had six we had staff attend six advancing literacy calendar days throughout the year for the area of professional development towards our goal for partnership and Community engagement we communicate on many levels uh with families and with parents and it's quite remarkable the amount of parent participation that we have we have experiential learning that parents are a part of Field Days celebrations concerts um many different types of meetings throughout the year we had conferences in November with a 96% participation rate and in March for our student Le conferences we had 98% of our families participating our third goal is in the area of Financial and sustainability and efficient operations um in collaboration with pupil Personnel Services CIS has designed and furnished an effective Alternative Learning environment in our first year of having a Thrive program at CIS and we also propose what we feel as a responsible budget to the superintendent for next school year in the area of learning and belonging we continue to focus on providing a developmentally appropriate learning environment than support social emotional and academic growth we have a schedule that dedicates time for grade y lunch and recess and we also preserve time for morning meeting and closing Circle every day our sixth grade students engaged in leadership skills training through Empower leadership and they facilitated our first advisory meeting of the year they our sixth graders we held seven advisory meetings um and our field day which is also our school's closing ceremonies will be held next Friday um that coincides with get outside and play for children's mental health day our PBIS coaches work with our leadership team and are in the process of revising our PBIS matrices so we can be sure that we have a safe learning environment for all students our non-certified staff have completed over 20 hours of training um including the completion of two edert modules in the areas of optimistic thinking and self-awareness and we've also successfully completed both beginning and middle of the Year administrations of the Desa and our leadership team has used the Desa data to provide tier supports for those students showing that as a need in the area of embracing Equity we continue to focus on providing high quality instruction that meets the needs of all of our students um by doing so we have narrowed our internal achievement gap between all students and those in special education um in the area of ela by 7% and in math by 6% and lastly our six goal is around Workforce Development we've continued to build internal leadership and instructional capacity and one area of focus this year was in expanding and broadening our expertise in the area of structured literacy we had one special education teacher engage in their rules in practicum and that's will be ending at the end of this school year and another special education teacher completed her Wilson introductory training and will go through the practicum next year we had two reading tutors and one literacy consultant complete their 42-hour oron Gillingham classroom educator training course which meets the requirements of the Orton Gillingham Academy's associate one curriculum we had one special education education teacher complete her certification to become a districtwide CPI trainer which is a huge service to this District that we can then train teachers um by using somebody within our own district and very proud to sure that we also have one other special education teacher who applied for and was accepted into yukon's next aspiring special special education leadership cboard she'll join that work this summer so in summary we are well under our way to carrying out all the action steps that we intended to this year in service of our goals um I look forward to updating you all in the fall after we have our SU student performance data um in closing I think that when you were at CIS I hope that you saw that students are excited to be learning but we also have high expectations for our students to be learn that it's a joyful process but it's also hard work um and I'm proud of the fact that we've been able to maintain that balance in our classrooms so I'm proud of our teachers and proud of our students every day great thank you great thank you questions for Mrs Cel please what it what's a CPI leader a CPI so um it's a way that we can deescalate students and um try to help them reenter a classroom in a safe way um it's a way to use physical holds if we need to but in a safe way that preserves the Dignity of this child any other questions questions um you mentioned the Thrive program and it's the success of that initial startup and it's been in you know the other schools as well is there any area for growth you think that that that area you know that program could use and if so how could we better support that I think every program we has has room for growth um I think for any program that's in its first year it's really about being able to measure for ourselves how successful it is one measure is simply how many students are we keeping in District that previous years we weren't able to provide for um and I'm proud that this year we were able to do that for all the students that are part of that program and I hope that we can continue to do so the other question I was Desa maybe for John Bishop are we is there cost associated with Desa there was not initially but is that leaving to where the Le cost for that program uh great question uh that is funded by the state St Comm any other questions Cindy you get down there Russell okay thank you very much excellent presentation keep up the good work okay uh Financial review for the month of April Dr Gman yes I'm going to ask Mrs Robbins to give us a high Lev View and then we'll ask Mr Bush who is here to just talk about our meeting this morning sure thank you um tonight we're reporting on the um financials as of April 30th 2024 the financial forecast shows that we are um stable over last month by $2,557 Hold Up Hold I don't want to say you know how to clear out of room [Music] but okay why don't we start again thank we need to thank you so tonight reporting on the financial results um as of April 30th 2024 um we are favorable over last month's forecast of um that brings us to a loss of 49147 for this month um there are many um components to um to the results but um there are result OC fing on closing purchase orders finalizing invoices um and working to Aid a smooth Financial close and accurate and time with year and information thank you Mr Robin so the the good news is as Mr Robin said that we're over $30,000 better than we were last month but we're still riding in a deficit of $49,000 for this year full well knowing that when I arrived it was probably a million her deficit that we are are now down to 49,000 so Mr Bush um yes so and good job this morning explaining going through everything this report in detail um and the biggest thing that we discussed in the financial the uh finance committee meeting today was the potential budget cuts and a three tier method that you'll be explaining later very happy with the presentation disappointed we have to talk about it but I think did everybody will be Happ the clarity that's it great I I think the thing to emphasize here is we continue to whittle away a very large deficit it started the beginning of the fiscal year and we've got it down significantly I think board finance will be pleased to hear that on Monday so thank you for all your hard work on that anything else also on finance uh no not right now okay thank you Mr Bishop assistant superintendent report please please thank you Mr Daniels I'm uh I have a brief report tonight we're nearing the completion of the standardized testing uh that we uh engag in in the uh the springtime our Smart Balance assessment is near in completion as well as our next Generation science standards and our AP courses uh which is I believe where we have a number of our uh uh student reps out tonight uh I want to say thank you to Chris woods and Kathy Watson uh two of our instructional coaches at Cherry Brook they continue to do a phenomenal job leading the resource selection process uh for the requirements of the uh Connecticut uh Department of Education for a uh new resource for key literacy in the primary school uh coming in through next year and into the 25 26 school year also want to thank uh Tina Roy and Jess P for their work uh leading the teacher of the year uh revie committee and we're looking forward to being able to uh celebrate FST our uh end of your convocation is excellent any questions out of my office questions SC John okay thank you John for um okay so let's go into the budget Workshop I just have a few comments to make kick this off so um the budget Was Defeated um am I disappointed yes am I disheartened absolutely not if anybody's lived in this town as long as some of you have and myself included which is going on almost 40 years we've had these budget battles in the past and they're healthy and the last budget battle uh when I was on the board uh we uh the budget Was Defeated it came back it was approved and then we went through a brick we called it a Brick by Brick analysis making sure that there wasn't any fat or fluff in this budget and there wasn't um and there isn't any in this budget I'm still very proud of this budget and what it can do um but I do want to make some points about it number one is we've heard you know where increases have been in town and that may be true over the the last three years but the Board of Education budgets over the last 6 years has averaged 4.04% um when you look at inflation which was around 3.6 3.7 uh and then you look at our fixed cost us putting putting this budget together at a 5 um 36 5.36 based on the fixed cost was a very reasonable budget so um and when you look at the surrounding counts when we do that in in contract negotiations you look at the counts between each of the towns in your area we are right in the middle of the pack the the U budget increases for other towns is is significantly higher some are touched lower not many are very low you know they range between three and four and a low and on the high they can range to five to six so um we were right in that that level so having said that we when we started the budget process the superintendent made cuts of an excess of uh approximately $350 $350,000 so there was the first cut as the administrators came up with their with their package and what they think what were the needs of the district the superintendent sat down and he trimed 350 from that budget the next round of cuts came from the board of finance that as they went through the town meeting they looked at things and they cut us at another $150,000 so in in total you can say there's already been $500,000 from cut from our budget do I have that about right Pro from my proposed your proposed December yes yes to now now we're going to get into now what we're going to do with the budget and we have no idea this is a little bit finger in the wind we don't know where the board of Finance is going to come in with the cuts so we've asked the superintendent to come in with incremental cuts that takes us at certain levels what are the things that we may have to reduce uh based on where the board of Finance actually sets um our budget so with that turn that over to Dr Gman he'll go over with us his uh proposed cut super so thank you Mr Daniels so I just want to remind the board in the Republic and there's a lot of people online that when I first came to the The Canton Public Schools I shared with the board and the board of finance that I was going to develop a budget that was transparent and develop a budget that I felt that can Public Schools needed at the time but also recognized the the financial state that not only the the state is in but also the the town of Ken and be respectful of that so we started the budget process early we started it actually in August and I presented to the Board of Education in December a forecasted budget was not the final budget and that's what Mr Daniels was referring to which the forecast budget was approximately 5.39% and that was relative to everything that we needed at that time but to get down to that 5.39% from the administrator proposals there were definitely reductions that I needed to make prior to that and then from that time to the time that the superintendent had to present in in February we went to a 5.36 that was the final superintendent budget that the Board of Education actually approved that 5.36 people may say well how do we go from just a 5.39 to 5.36 that's some of what Mr Daniels is speaking about things changed in in the area of special education that our costs went up in special education that we had to offset approximately $200,000 in new special education cost from the time that I proposed to to forecast the budget so what I'm going to share tonight I'm not going to use the the word cuts um because the superintendent does not make Cuts this is a board of education budget and I will share with the Board of Education some possibilities for some potential reductions based upon where the administrative team feels that there could be potential reductions so I'm going to pass out a document to you tonight and for the people that are online you'll be able to see this online I would ask the the Board of Education members and anyone that is in the audience in the community to just stay with me because I I don't think it's going to get confusing I I think it's pretty clearcut um what I'm sharing with you here today but I think it's important to get the entire picture of of what's happening so as Mr Daniel said that the budget Was Defeated so the next step is that the board of Finance is meeting on Monday May 20th and they are going to discuss next steps of what they are going to do relative to the budget and then on May 21st the Board of Education will get together and talk about the the number that the board of Finance may be providing to the board of education and then I believe on June 4th is going to be the new date for the referendum so what you have in front of you today is a packet in the first page I I just want to really summ the memo and that's why I ask you to stay with me the attach your find outlining of potential reductions to the fiscal year 24 25 board of education budget organizing tiers based on priorities this documentation is provided in response to the potential for further reductions by the camp board of Finance below you will find a summary of the specific potential reductions it's important to note that these potential reductions have been identified by the Administration as challenging to implement and will have a direct impact on our school district so in the first initial reductions to the fiscal year Board of Ed Budget prior to the referendum the initial reduction page that we're going to talk about prior to the referendum totals $255,000 so right off the bat before it went to referendum the board of education budget was reduced by $250,000 the reductions include certified staff non-certified staff and small Capital items as well as instructional resources and insurance and now this is what Mr Daniels was referring to if the Board of Education brings the town budget down to a 4.99% increase I'm not talking the board of education budget I'm talking the town budget overall if the board of education is asked to go to 4.99 that would be tier one which would be an additional [Music] $190,000 additional reduction to the board of education budget so these reductions consist of certified positions non-certified positions and small Capital if we are asked to go to a tier two of bringing the town budget down to a 4.5% increase tier two references a potential of $175,000 more these reductions consist of Technology Athletics Transportation non-certified staff instruction in four extracurricular clubs as well as small Capital if we are asked to go to a tier three that means a 3.99% increase that would be $153,000 more which these reductions consist of certified staff our summer Academy instruction Camp Academy and non-certified staff in closing I I I just want to say before we go into the list these potential reductions will have a direct effect on the camp board of education goals the cumulative potential reduction across the three tiers is $518,000 if you add that to the $255,000 that was reduced before the referendum the Board of Education from pre-referendum to the possibility if it went to a tier 3 at 3.99 would total $774,000 which is a equivalent to about 2 and a half% of our budget so if I if we had a board of education budget at a 5.36 and you take two and a half out you can do the math we're looking at somewhere in the high twos that's what the the the budget would be Everybody follow where I am with cover memo good job so so let's go to the reductions on the F this is page two this is the town of Kon uh proposed budget of the 5.57 all these reductions are related to what's already been done prior to the referendum and what we've tried to do is group it by the description the group on who it affects and what it affects the specific reductions the impact that it will have in everything that we've done from everything that we've done since I've come to the C public schools has tied to the Board of Education goals so there's nothing that we are showing here that is not going to tie to Board of Education goals so in transparency with retirements and uh new teachers that we may be hiring due to vacancies that's a $60,000 uh reduction Financial stability efficient operations we did propose a new math in English tor at CIS as new we heard from the board of Finance at some of their hearings that they would like us to look at any new staff that will be um proposed that is a new staff the impact would be on fewer students would receive tiered intervention and in-class support all the campus monitors except the0 five at the middle school and the high school um have been reduced prior to the referendum and this will affect learning environment and belonging goals and impact campus safety and operations Administration proposed as you all know in you supported in your budget modeling for the intermediate school and CIS and after school technology and subscriptions we are not going to do a a Cloud Server and we reduce two copers around the district professional development and conferences we're going to cut 20 thou reduce $20,000 and this will affect professional learning experiences staff uh the principal office chairs that came up at a hearing that actually was um even after our budget was developed we actually received a donation for that so that would have been taken out taken out regardless uh classroom uh tables for our kindergarteners 8,500 out of our small Capital uh collaborative play based learning opportunities uh the textbooks and instructional resource 20,500 we will'll continue to work with what we have and then the health insurance and liability that was just something that things came in lower uh before the referendum and they were reduced so that totals $255,000 that was reduced prior to the referendum let's pause there and any questions about those cuts tier one okay let good so that that's actually not even tier one I'm sorry that's pre preer preer now we go to tier one yes sorry thank you and then on page three this is the tier one that if the town budget needs to go to a 4.99 that's a reduction of $190,000 these are potential reductions that the administrative team would be working with kindergarten teacher with benefits so right now at the kindergarten we are proposed for six sections at kindergarten and I've shared with the board of finance and I've shared with the Board of Education that we would be monitoring that number closely and we are we feel that we could reduce that at this point in time from six sections to five sections so that is something that if we did if the budget was passed this is something that we would have done anyways that we would have probably reduced kindergarten because the the five sections that we have will certainly fall within the the guidelines the teacher and Residency program $6,000 this was a new program uh limiting compliance with increasing new educator diversity this was to uh increase our minority population within our teaching program the administration feels that with the unknown that we would have a job for that individual next year that that's part of the program that it' be irresponsible to take part of that program here you'll see the0 five uh campus monitor after school for the high school directly related to learning environment reduced supervision a kindergarten PA for $23,000 reduced student intervention support for earli as Learners again student growth and achievement goal and and then the following items below the upright piano and guitar it will limit the continued development of the music program with age resources a graphic printer at the middle school and high school 1500 Limited to continue development of the visual arts our area rugs I know the the board has talked about that this is area rugs within uh classrooms at CIS asked for that they're worn um in not good shape um this would be the whole classroom sitting on tile floor or they just sit on the rug that they they currently have the laminator with bands for ch Brook Primary School impact on the durability of purchase instructional resources the poster maker for 3500 impact on the development and instructional resources athletic volleyball stand uh this was one of the requirement to maintain suitable volleyball program for $800 and the those Capital things as some people have said U that we would just have to work with what we have uh now it it it's not ideal and if anything uh breaks um we just don't have it so that would be if we got down to a 4.99 $190,000 that that would be the potential reductions there any questions on tier one yeah the kindergart just the biggest item on on those financially uh the numbers aren't a guarantee correct uh to start what might we expect that number to move in the course of the summer yeah so we have 81 right now um including two open Choice uh children that we're still waiting on if uh they'll accept the seat and roughly I've been told that and I don't have history with this for the past four years but roughly I've been told that four or five kindergarteners may come in in the summer and we would still fit within the the five sections with that and again as we've said throughout this budget process that kindergarten was our even though we've done two studies on this with two Consultants it was our moving Target relative to the the new kindergarten age and it it's not always a science developing what's our birth rate from five four or five years ago and how many people stayed and so that that's been something that I've been very transparent that if we didn't need this six actions I wouldn't do six sections just to say we had six sections we certainly would have used those parts where are we with the waiver process we have uh 12 students that um are going through the waiver process and the principal and the Consultants are meeting with with the parents and discussing we anticipate that all 12 will want to enroll their children they're included in that number okay in 81 and 81 yes any further questions on tier one let's cut off a number of kindergarten per section so our our guidelines for kindergarten is 16 to 18 so if we go to Five sections that would uh keep us below the the guid so I'm not as concerned um with that and I like I said I've been very transparent with kindergarten all along okay tier two tier two on page four tier two I want to remind you if the budget gets decreased to a 4.50 that would be $175,000 more to the Board of Education uh budget you can see in the first line we would not replace our Chromebooks at the 7th grade level we would ask um our students to uh use the Chromebooks that they currently have we may move Chrome books around the district um but the Chromebook were placed on that 7eventh grade won't happen for 38 five disruptive technology replacement and could impact standardized testing Kent Middle School has an athletic program we're looking that we would ask uh families to help with that and do a pay for play of Middle School just like we do for our High School athletic program we did uh hear in in a public comment at the the Board of Ed at the board of Finance public hearing for us to look at transportation we did we did look at transportation and we feel that we can uh possibly reduce BS reduce buses make Bill buses a little bit more BS a little bit more so we looked at reducing that by $28,000 um here is another kindergarten uh PA in our budget we had 1.5 new kindergarten pairs this is the other uh 0.5 of that and again there we're we're looking at what would be new staff to our budget that is an example our k25 summer Academy I shared with the board when I presented that the k25 Summer Academy was funded by the the grants that we received from the state for Esser grants and then that was not Sunset it that became an ongoing cost for the board of education so we're looking at reducing half of that since it was is grant money and go back to where we were pre pandemic what that would do is larger class sizes less part participation possibly charge for services impact on student achievement and that's directly related to student growth and achievement curriculum writing $220,000 that this would be a reduction in the continuous Improvement of curriculum this would move our Cycles possibly back a year in and um really looking at where we are maybe stall um what we're doing with uh curriculum writing the CM cmhs washer and dryers small Capital for, 1500 contined the use of the broken washer dryer and hope that it it doesn't completely break next year there's also part of our special education Pro um population and life skills students that use that so we have to be cognizant of that for clubs for extracurricular activities we'll look at two currently running clubs at the middle school and high school look at the ones that AR enrolled at the highest level and uh look at that we did propose a middle school field hockey coach a new Middle School field hockey coach and I I believe right now the two that are out there are splitting this sipon if not one of them is a volunteer we would have to continue with that and hopefully the the two individuals that are doing it will will stay um if not there could be possible cuts um to the the student athletes in there and there's a lot of athletes that are playing field this is a reduction to our boys tennis program I don't want the community to think that we are cutting our tennis program what we are doing is cutting the funds to our tennis program our program right now is a co-op with East gry and we actually worked out a nice relationship with them that all they're charging us for is the pay to participate um fee so that that that's a good relationship the CHMS entry door Runners some look good some don't look good um and this was to replace that we'll just continue with the door Runners that we have for 4,000 in the arc Kil for 5,000 at at Cherrybrook um we haven't had the AR kilm that's been broken and it can't be fixed we haven't had the AR Hil for several years so we would just go without the the our kilm that is at $175,000 that is tier two at 4.5 questions on tier two what is that the pay for play what is that increase per student do you have like an estimate no so what what we've done honestly Kim is we've just looked at the the the budget items we're going to have to develop we we put the athletic director on notice today just to let the athletic director know that this is a possibility we've not gone deep into the how this will be implemented we just looked at it from a a fund St during the Chromebooks uh I just kicking the can down the road there yes those are required for State yes we're on a threeyear replacement could we go for we're going to try if if it gets to there uh in the curriculum right that's a cut of 20,000 out of it's it's it's in the book I'm sorry just give me a second sorry about that Mr Bishop will find it and get us back to Jordan are these in any specific order no no so I I if let's say that 46,000 let's say that the town of budget increase was 4.65 and we didn't need to go down to 4.5 we would look at this reduction page and say okay what's on this page that we'd like to keep the administration was very careful and very thoughtful that we weren't looking to do a 10% cut out Cher Brook a 10% cut out C CIS a 10% cut out at the middle school the 10% cut at the high school they really wanted we what I've tried to build here is a team that looks at us as a whole and really looks at us that we're each building upon each other and really trying to analyze what's best for the district as a whole so it's pretty thoughtful of what went into tier one tier 2 and tier three but tier one I mean as you see these tiers depending on where it goes tier one is where we're going to go first two two two three all right two three and the the last one on page five if the Board of Education needs to cut reduce excuse me $153,000 more to get down to 3.99 we've heard some um questioning from the community regarding our second grade teacher that the second grade is currently below our class siiz guideline and that is purposeful for our current uh first grade students that those the children in in kindergarten needed extra support in kindergarten they're being successful in first grade right now our teachers are doing a wonderful job with our first grade students that was in three first grade classrooms yesterday and uh the recommendation by the administration was to keep them in the the six sections that are in for the purpose of social emotional wellbeing for them and for their student achievement but if we did need to go to 3.99 the administration says that they would fall within the the guideline the classroom guidelines that we have so that would be $74,000 the remaining half of the k25 Summer Academy would be eliminated and that would be that we would have to figure out a away how to make that work and it may be that we are uh charging uh students for it or we're just running a a special education uh summer school programming and maybe we'll be able to invite some of our general ed students into that programming the the Ken Academy at $25,000 that is a a program right now that has seven or eight students in it that it runs in the afternoon at Ken High School mainly for special education of 504 students but not totally geared to them students that are struggling with the normal operational hours of a school and then finally and this is Grant related that um we have lost a grant of $344,000 for a part-time custodian so Jour Co we added A5 concerning that has now been up to a 1.0 zero custodian so with the loss of any funds that we would have to use those grand funds for uh something else that fits that Grant so just in summary the the tier one potential reductions is 190,000 tier 2 175,000 tier three is 153,000 and when you add the referendum there's that $774,000 that is potentially here what I want to let everyone know let the entire Community know the administration did not take this process lightly I want everyone to know that we support our staff we support our students we support our our families but we also have the responsibility to this board of education to bring to you what we thought would continue to move our district forward and really protect what we're trying to do but all grounded in the the Board of Education goals so we didn't take this process lightly The Next Step would be for you as a board to discuss and then once the board of Finance sets what the reduction may be to the board of education budget that you would come back here next Tuesday and vote on the the reductions relative to uh what's possibly on the sheet or what you may in in the budget book as I said it's not the superintendent of schools or the administration that makes I gave you um the administration budget already in the recommendation it it it's the Board of Education and and it's a town budget and we're here to support there there's nothing on this list uh minus some of the things that would have happened naturally with the kindergarten that um if I didn't think we needed it I would have put it in our budget thank you I'll take any questions at this time questions just a reminder we we carried over $400,000 hourss into this budget uh that was we did we did we carried over approximately $400,000 and I do have to um acknowledge that our Board of Finance did provide for us which is new the the funds that we received from Harford for special education the administration used St to go back to the board of finance and request that the board of Finance as you all know has allowed us to budget within that our budget right now so but yes we did have to carry over some uh cost from last year to this year from budget to budget okay all right so there's there's the um there's the superintendent's thoughts on where we go with this question Academy small number of the regular day doesn't work um $25,000 Mike what happens to it's a really good question um that's something that we have to really analyze if that if it does get down to there we will have to go back to 504 meetings we may have to go back to PPT meetings and say that that that's not an offering that that we have for kids and we may have to come up with something different something that if it's within a child's IEP that they may develop something that could come back at a cost same thing with 54 54 is mandated as I said we have approximately 7 students in there right now and we may have to develop a a schedule for them that it's starts maybe a little bit earlier instead of starting at 1:00 in the afternoon it may have to start at 11:30 in the in the morning at 10 rather than than coming in later in the day and for some children it's it it's because they just can't function in in the morning and I know you understand that so that was one of the ones that the ministrative team was um looked hard at um so we would have to go back to the drawing board on that it it could result in out placement or cost more money so I I would recommend take this home look at it come to the meeting on Monday here where we are be ready to discuss it on Tuesday well Tuesday is the board of bad Monday is Board of finay backwards go to the board of Finance meeting on Monday and Tuesday we'll meet on this we'll go over your thoughts and uh questions all right I would say that I think this is a balanced approach I like the way you went about it would say that you know cutting each school by percentage I don't think that works as well um you looked at this you came across with a balanced approach keeping in mind our goals and student achieving being at the Forefront so thank you for doing that okay so from there we can now go to public comment so uh as we go to public comment I would ask ask you to state your name and where you live and remember the public comment is about 3 minutes so um does anybody like to speak I'll go to the room first anybody want to speak in public comment [Music] sure B usually I have something to written out but you brought a few points up so kind of going to be a little sporadic here I'm sorry can you speak up just a little bit first point I would like to make is with the increase that you're asking for and you made a statement about comparing other towns look at Harford 110 teacher loss and we're only going to be hiring 20 back by federal one so you over ask you over asking you over ask eventually we're going to have to make some very serious Cuts Mr chairman I'm going ask the board a question you have the floor for three minutes the $118,000 in textbooks how many textbooks is that answer well let well why don't you give us your questions we'll answer it at end well I'd like to know the answer before because I comment on that after the fact so it be for a whole grade level yeah it be for a whole grade level so you don't have a specific number or a specific I'd like to know that number I'm happy to be able to share textbooks typically cost anywhere between $100 and $200 a piece and we are we are required to be able to go to be on uh an updated pathway uh particularly for AP assessments to make sure that we've got updated textbooks in particular classess as well okay um 2 plus 2 and 1800 the score 2 plus two in 1980s was four 2 plus two in 2000s was four both books by.com authorized standard textbooks range from $18 to $50 you take average of $25 times the 479 students every student in the high school is going to get two brand new textbooks by my calculations the salaries under teachers it seems like teachers have a Union contract and I believe they all fall under the same Union in the budget you have teachers with a 3% increase and teachers with a 133% increase that that's totally if you're going to go by a Union contract and i' like to know where I can get a copy of that it's all on the website and what that means is the teachers are on a step so when they move step when it's to negotiated contract the overall increase within the contract is a 3% let's say but some people when they move within that step if they go from step five to step six they could see an increase a larger incre 1% correct I wish I got that the donation on the chairs was that for all of the chairs or was that just one that was for all the chairs so that's $4,000 off of the budget not a th000 no the chair who was when they said principal chair they me in that Bo one the line items you listed it on each School yeah so each school is getting $1,000 principal chair but we got one donation for not it was just that principle getting up one shair 3,00 chairs chairs 300,000 okay you know other statement it's a little misleading is you said the board of finance will come back and tell you where where to cut well that's not true no they'll tell us the board of finance will give you you need to cut $60,000 out of your budget and you decide where it goes corre they can make a suggestion correct so that's why I'm asking my questions are specific things thank you you're welcome any other questions in the in the uh in the room if not we'll go down line online oh I'm sorry Tom Tom black 39 Drive um some in disbelief the board believes that it's aditt a the proud of its budget the voters overwhelm rejected it that there's a 21% turnout the average turnout for referendum this time is about 3% can't hear you the board came to the Board of Education came to the board Finance with what I thought was a a large budget that may be an understatement it was approximately 33.5 million budget the board of Finance cut approximate 200,000 the at the final meeting there was approximate 55,000 that was caught through liability insurance and health insurance so it was really about % decrease and even if we want to use the $255,000 number it's really about 20% decrease um so I'm not surprised that the voters of this town rejected the budget it was just too high and I'm equally surprised by looking at some of these line items of course I didn't have spend a lot of time going through several pages but it seems to me that some of these line items could have been made and presented to the board of Finance before it went to the referend perhaps maybe the at the referendum I still don't believe it would happen I do have a question though is how this board came up with 399 four and a half four excuse me 399 4 and half to 4.99% increase and whether this has already been orchestrated and whether Town leaders have already met on this issue to come up with these figures why isn't it 3% why isn't it 3 and a half uh or what other what the number may be so I guess I a little confused as these numbers but I would like to know an explanation as to why some of these line nums weren't included with the budget that was proposed it was a massive budget I thought it was too high and again I I would be proud of the budget that submitted to the public it was overwhelming with projection and I just hope that this board um doesn't fear monger social media and present a reasonable budget uh to the board finances if not we'll be back for this uh the third round the public puts it down thank you thank you okay online if you're joining us online tonight you can go ahead and use the raise hand feature zoom and I will call on you by your Zoom name you'll be allowed to make your public comment okay okay that closes public comment uh we're going to go to new business we're going to go to superintendent anual report super thank you Mr Daniels so tonight I am going to present the superintendent's annual report that is in your packet for those of you that are online it is posted on the on the screen free right now it's hard to believe that I've been within the camp schools for approximately seven or eight months now as your superintendent of schools and that I presented to you the superintendent goals at the the the first board meeting that we had in September so when I was reflecting upon the the accomplishments that we've had this year within the can Public Schools I I'd be remissed if I didn't thank the community out large from our staff to our students to our families for supporting the the work not only of this board but of me and all the efforts that we are trying to make on a daily basis when I was putting this together there's a lot there and I sent this out to you before so hopefully you were able to read it and I've done it in a way that it's by our goal areas so I'm going to start with student growth and achievement and I'm not going to review the the the superintendent specific goals I'm just going to give you some highlights of what we've done relative to that area I'm really proud of the work that the administrative team has done in implementing continuous Improvement plans and I'm so excited that our board of education has been able to visit our schools and see the outstanding work of our students and our staff it it's incredible of the work that we're doing in a short period of time that we've seen notable decreases in our achievement Gap and I know that has been an important goal of the Board of Education and and the charge that you've had in made very excited that our kindergarteners kindergarten students are working on a a new number sense screening that that is is is a really good thing to really understand where our kindergarten kindergarteners are in relative to numbers and we've done an incredible job at the secondary level of implementing the new algebra course with and also h ing our math interventionist and coach and we've seen a really nice growth in our students at at the math at that in that course and you got to visit with the the staff members those of you that were able to join our high school visitation our special education department I couldn't have asked more of our teachers and Mrs McLean of the work that they've done with implementing and I will call successfully implementing the thrive program I've also asked Mrs mle to look at our 18 to 22 year olds because I feel that we can bring our students back into District or something that is closer to us and we actually had a a student participate in the 18 to 22y Old transition program with the grany public schools the analysis of Canton Middle School that was a a big time goal that we were really looking at achievement and looking at the resources that we provided for the middle school and really looking at the capacity within the the model that we have in the middle school and looking at Staffing and looking at teaming and as Mr Moore shared with you that we are restructuring our teams and a heavy lift with the the middle school has been the the partnership that we are forming with the Connecticut state department Commissioners Network and tomorrow we'll be presenting to the subcommittee of the con I State Department of Education and and I cannot ask for the Middle School staff and Mr Moore to do any more than they're doing relative to the Commissioners Network we really have focused hard as many of you know on the work that we've done at cherb primary school with implementing for next year a new reading program with the new state law of the science of reading and before I even arrived I asked Mr Bishop and that team to join the science of reading m master class and in the next month we'll be finishing that and we partnered with the Watertown public schools and they came in and visited our schools and we actually went to the Watertown schools and were recognized by the state of having an outstanding District literacy strategic plan with Partnerships and Community engagement very excited that we met as a board in August and we development of the new board of education goals that we have a foundation that is going to be set for many years with the board goals we can't change Board of Education goals every year because then we're asking teachers to uh change their goals we have to stick with goals but what we really need to do is we laid the foundation for the the the development of the C Public Schools next strategic plan and it is my hope that this plan will be released in the 2425 school year and that will work together this this community as I said has embraced this new superintendent I couldn't have asked any more of the the community to embrace my family and work with us as a partnership I I'll never forget the the convocation that we had with with the staff I I don't get too nervous too often in that day there was probably little Jitters that were coming out and then I can't wait to greet them on June 12th when we have the the first that I could think of the closing ceremony to end the the school year which you're all invited to attend we've made incredible strides under the leadership of Mr Bishop and Mr shider and the policy committee that in a year tonight you're going to vote on new policies that align with the shipment and goodwind policies that's no easy task and I I can't thank Mr shler and Mr Bishop enough in that committee and the entire board for the work that you've done we've maintained regular and transparent communication with Board of Education Town officials we've had Publications our surveys weekly communication attendance at meeting superintendent Community conversation in the school at town events I I've been to as many things as I possibly can be and I feel that there's a beginning of a a very trustful relationship between the superintendent of schools in the Canton Community Financial sustainability and efficient operations work closely with the business manager to obtain all our successful all grants that we are able to get and successfully obtain I believe we manage as a board uh the fiscal year 2324 budget with Rising special education expenditures in a very high level and I believe we developed a transparent budget for the 2425 budget that will move our district forward our buildings look wonderful there was a charge by our Board of Education to make sure that our buildings looked to a level that we' be proud of our superintendent of buildings and grounds Tom Richardson and his team of custodians and maintenance staff have done a wonderful job to maintain our overall Aesthetics the functionality and safety of the pre premises without those that team working together we wouldn't have the welcome space for our students we've worked hard with the town to explore the potential for the building project to addressing the space concerns at cherb Primary School we've attended building committee meetings to really look at what we can do and we've landed on module of classrooms and as you know there could be a referendum a bond to bring a modu project to cherro Primary School this board has done wonderful job negotiating contracts with the Education Association of Canton and the Canton feder Federation of educational personnel and as you know we're in the process of looking at custodial I commend the board learning environment and belonging I've enjoyed immensely working with K in our student Board of Ed reps and Mr Bishop I'm developing students at the center we have our last issue of students on the center coming out in the next two weeks and and it's all about students which is great I've asked the superintendent to develop programming in the area of Technology with social media with safety with social emotional behavior and we're doing that strategically now heading into the summer and then really kicking it off in the the the fall we've had collaboration with State Consultants Regional agencies facility administrative training in in this area to promote a positive School environment to make sure that we are keeping the health and wellness of our students as a top priority we have District Equity teams we have climate and culture Wellness committees this is all new while conducting led by Mr Bishop our monthly District safety meetings that really focuses on our emergency operation plans and we really have developed a wonderful relation relationship with the state of Connecticut Regional School Safety coordinator and we are looked at as a district that understands and comprehends through our director of security Mr Bishop our chief of police and myself understand the importance of school security embracing Equity I'm really proud of the work that I charge Mr Bishop in IT team to do with developing the K Public Schools Equity action plan this in itive commence with the creation of a comprehensive District Equity plan that we're able to ground all the work that we do and the efforts that we do within this plan I am proud and I continue to be proud that we did recommend to this board of education the TR teacher and service program to in Partnership to bring our staff to a level that children begin to see the the the diversity in their eyes within our teaching population I'm really excited that we partnered with the University of St Joseph's this is a partnership that I did in my previous school district and we did it here that it's hard to find teachers right now and staff so we need to begin to recruit our own so I brought the University of St Joseph's School of Education Department in to speak to 23 students who showed interest in pursuing careers of Education and I'm pleased to say it was a diverse population of students and it was well received and Workforce Development I'm really proud of the work that our team has done we successfully onboarded a new principal and now our current principal at chared primary school we have a new intern business manager a new finance officer through the town and assisted in on boarding a fairly new director of pupil Services who's done a wonderful job throughout the year as you know I chaired the Caps Early Childhood State committee with a focus on preparing for early childhood education and necessary components I attended and then chaired the capital region prek through 12 safety and emergency committee with a focus on safety communication identifying individuals with social emotional problems and other action plans within school districts and finally I attended and shared the monthly state of Connecticut Commission on women children seniors and equity and opportunity meetings and acted as a strategic partner and key legislative priorities so I'm I'm happy with the year that we've had within the cam public schools and I thank this board for the tremendous support that you provided myself my team and my family this school year there's great things that are going to ha that are happening in the can Public Schools right now and great things to come so I feel confident that this superintendent met or exceeded all the the goals that I asked upon myself and I S forth to the board in early September I'll take any questions at this time any questions for the superintendent we're going to have a further discussion in executive session any no I i' just like to comment this is a I I agree with you I think it's been a great year having you on board changes that were made were all very positive the trajectory of the district is is going in in an upward an upward Direction and um you paid attention to each one of the goals and um in a very comprehensive way you you've U made strides in each one of those areas so we appreciate it you know CH the whole District understands the gos we're all pulling in the same direction uh it was obvious when you speak to each principal it's obvious when you winning each classroom of the intermediate school and the middle school and the high school uh there was a connection between what was going on and the district gos that's pretty impressive good job good job okay thank you for that report Dr BR uh let's move into the committee reports we've had Finance so check that off Joe you want to give an overview on policy we're going to take a v tonight I think yes uh the uh review of the shipment policies has been completed by the committee many of you participated in that sense in comments and questions all the comments and questions that we have were addressed uh Peggy did a great job uh John we wore out John is now familiar with all of our policies probably can repeat them in as sleep um and what we're proposing tonight is that we it's a it's a lengthy list so the the uh motion will not to keep each policy we're going this is a group on the first page of policies that we're going to keep we're going to keep those even because sh doesn't have a policy in that area or because it's a policy that we worked on recently and feel we got to keep ours as opposed to change to something that that chip mass produced and then following that and on the next page would be all the policies that uh we have reviewed uh that we've questioned uh that are in compliance with what we think is is best for us and while that list is long it replaces a much longer List It condenses things that needed to be condensed it eliminated things that that were out of date and didn't need to be anymore uh and we feel this would be uh the way to go we passed the first read I believe in December so if we if we vote uh to uh adopt tonight that would be the second second read and we would be done so uh at this point you like me to read the motion you want to do that we'll do it but I I I have to say and I've seen Joe work with this and really the committee but Joe took it upon himself to read every policy go through everyone John covered everyone and did the research when we asked your questions and and I just I I have to thank you guys because you went well beyond the time I know it was a lot of time a lot of personal time way into it thank you on behalf of the board did a great job put us in a good position thank you John for tremendous amount of time and energy and P you know generally speaking I said before we're fortunate with our staff teachers and Paris and custodians but our administrative team from from our our top guys our superintendent assistant superintendent to our business manager to the team that's here the people that take Quia I mean we really have a a really good District you said it best so thank you all right let's move on um curriculum Erica curriculum and Technology all right so at our last meeting in April we uh heard from the assistant superintendent um we received his monthly report um then we did some textbook review we had the final approval for the AP Chemistry textbooks and um we did a first review of the statistics and probability textbook being proposed and then we also uh looked over the or sorry we did a um first review of the C indicator evaluation and growth plan requirements for 2024 25 that John has gone over before excellent and your next meeting is um hold on a second it is it's probably on the meeting May 22nd May 22nd yeah and that's 9:00 the CMS yeah right y so anybody wants to that great work thank you ER for all you guys do you guys come in during the work day so that makes it you hard yourself thank you any of those textbooks already cut mhm oh the ones we approved but that's all right that's right it's good that they're approved but we have to look at AP and and make sure that will be in compliance Mr what thinks we will be that we would have one more year with the ones that we have but so up to see we didn't identify yet but we have APS in there that's why it says instructional resources slash textbooks we still have to make a decision what it would be yeah um we're adopting possibly adopting all these what will happen um in the future will shipment and goodwi come up with like a renewal date are they going to present yes yep so each year the policy committee will look at any updated policies that's a nice thing we ship in good way is that and they will guide to work for an on going F they will continue to upgrade us okay uh nothing else on the standing committee reports calendar events they're in your packet i' ask you to refer to those any board member announcements about anything that's coming forward other than Memorial Day just just uh make sure you get back on that well we'll talk next week is there a deadline or we have a new have a board member being on board would probably be mid June this point mid June any action items that we need to cover okay with that with hearing none then we'll go to recommended actions um motion to move well we're going to remove this is a motion to remove the minutes from May 2nd 2024 special meeting out of the consent agenda so I need a motion on that and you can read why we're going to do that we need to clarify Mr Bar's comments so can I have a motion on that first and second thank you Erica thank you Joe all those in favor okay then I need a motion to resend the public comment received from Richard Barlo the minutes should instead reflect the following Mr Barlo supportive of the budget he questioned whether or not we consider changing the warrior name as I understand it they still find it unacceptable we are one of three towns who are still not getting funding from the Mohan tribe is fiscal blackmail on my mind these times when we're struggling on the budget we should be looking for all the available funding resources chair Daniel stated he didn't know how much foney but he would get back to Mr Barlo I think I have to get back to Mr Barlo can I have a second on that motion that is a motion second thank you Peggy first Erica the motion is to resend the public comment Mr bar would said the follow okay okay so that resends all those in favor post okay that motion carries now the motion is move the C Board of Education approved consent agenda so we modifi the the minutes for May 2nd 2024 to reflect better Mr Bar's comments now we're moving to accept the consent agenda can I have a motion accept the consent agenda Kim and Joe first and second thanks get you on the next one um all those in favor opposed it's all unanimous down the board okay uh Dr Gman you want to talk to us about the approval of the healthy food this is something that you need to do every year relative to us receiving funding from the the federal and St okay so the motion is as follows move to pursuant of CGS section 10- 215f the camp board of education or governing Authority certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the middle in the schools under its jurisdiction not exist from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 20 July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2025 this certification shall includ all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times from all sources including but not limited to school stores buing machines School cafeterias culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school are not school organizational organizations and groups I need a motion s you want to make that one thank you second thank you Peggy so we have a first and second any discussion we'll open this one up if you have any questions hearing none all those in favor I oppose unanimous second motion move to Connecticut Board of Education or governing Authority will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet they do do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 1020 to 21 Q of the Connecticut General statute provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend two the S is at the location of the event three the food and beverage HS are not sold from a vending machine or school store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just regular scheduled practice meetings curricular activities for example soccer games school plays inter inter Scholastic debates are events at soccer practices play rehearsals and debate te meetings are not the regular school day is in the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held must be in the same place as the food sales I think this is generally for um you know the soccer C was selling food at the uh at the end of a play or in the snap Shack it allows us to do that and those don't necessarily meet the standards of Cy pleas do I have that right pretty much sure yeah okay can I get first second thank you so I have first from Erica second from uh Peggy any questions on that motion does this affect the snapshat at the yes this is what allows it the second motion is what allows you to sell non-nutritional doesn't be in anything during the school day is motion one and anything after school is motion two so that allows you to sell J okay very easy people we really have you okay we have a first in second any further discussion all those in favor I oppose unanimous all right I'll leave you want to read this one because this is this your [Music] uh I move to the motion is to comprehensively revise the Cy Board of education's policies the board approv the adoption and repeal of policies indicated in the attached appendix a policies to be repealed and appendix B policies to be adopted and for clarity current board policies to remain unchanged that indicated in the attach and exceed current policies that remain unchanged the administration is directed to incorporate the newly adopted policies into the board's policy manual and archive the policies designated as repeal by July 1 2024 so Mr Shad makes the motion can I have a second by care it thank you any discussion on that I think it's pretty s explanatory okay all those in favor I opposed thank you very much that's unanimous thank you again for a great job on that okay right along all right we're going to go into executive session for a few minutes so U Comm have a motion to C board enter into executive session at 8:43 uh p.m.

we are adjourned or will begin our um Regular meeting at 5:30 thank you [Music] that [Music] okay reread your sentence again I want to play with p h e what does that say I'm the okay start again I want to play with the [Music] c h [Music] e [Music] chill CH spot yes [Music] is the plan is not working how can Don convince his parents to get him a dog now Don gets a mo oh I knew you could get it a bug say tu says I Amad big I am bad I am a lion [Music] [Applause] [Music] the exactly [Music] Get Ready Get Ready Get Ready [Music] B aend it's Al Turismo [Applause] [Music] [Applause] r e who [Music] you go your [Music] one of the great teachers here so um I'll just quickly go over the standards so if you're wondering what standards are they are teachings that the State of Arizona is expecting us to have your students know and right now we are preparing because um fifth grade we took our Arizona um science test um today and yesterday we are reviewing that test so we did the X sequence we did the rule turned it to an order pair the last thing we got to do is we're going to graph this information you guys ready all right what does partner a do explain explain answer so um the first partner when you're looking at that square you'd know which one is a you're going to explain your answer and then what does partner b dock answer if if disagrees what does he or she do Co do we say you got that wrong what do we do coach we give strategies okay [Music] you [Music] l one two [Music] what is a proportional relationship no it's not another word for a bad relationship a proportional relationship is one in which two quantities vary directly with each other we say the variable y varies directly as we'll go ahead and call the today's regular governing board meeting to order today's date is Tuesday May 14 2024 um as I call the meeting to order um I just want to again reiterate as I have U for for each passing meeting um our vision statement mission statement and purpose statement as we as a board want to continue to encourage and especially support not only the administration but each of the um administrators faculty staff who um work through throughout the district and provide um a much needed uh service to the community our V vision statement is our students will be loved encouraged and prepared to Take On The World by embracing our himu our mission statement is we create healthy inspiring motivating developing achieving graduates and our purpose statement is we create a n nurturing learning environment for every child every day with an additional commitment to support our himd himd is the the meaning for our way of life and as a board we definitely encourage and support not only the use of the himu throughout our curriculum and education system on the nation because as a public school on oper operating on tribal lands we definitely want to make sure that we're acknowledging that and as members of the community it is definitely important for us to also encourage use of the language as much as possible uh during the meeting so with that um I'll move on now to roll call Mr zabal yeah and hi to Sy make sure your mics are on please there you go yeah Stevens that completes rooll thank you sir with that we do have a quorum we'll continue with our meeting this evening letter C please stand and join us in 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 thank you moving on in our our agenda this evening letter D our routine business the approval of the May 14 2024 board reading agenda governing board with your um for your information uh superintendent Diaz has elected to remove an extra Duty item from consent which is the extra Duty for the Mt mtss so just for your information that will and for record that item is being pulled and won't be approved this evening that uh action item G3 G3 but it's not the entire item it's only one item in that in that uh section just just the mtss extra Duty uh memo everything else will remain is that okay if there are no other changes a motion to approve is there a second second second by Miss Kathleen Vance all those in favor of the motion Juan M Kathleen Vance M syvia Hendrick El grea motion carries thank you motion carries letter sorry number two this evening is the approval of the April 9 2024 regular board meeting minutes governing board with your approval um I'd like to also approve April 17 2024 special board meeting minutes and May 6 24th special board meeting minutes in one motion do I have um so move that was a motion by Miss Sylvia Hendrick I'll second the motion all those in favor of the motion Juan mppo Kathleen Vance M syia Hendrick MPP El gwood motion carries motion carries number five this evening is our call to the audience we do have one call the audience sir uh Miss Angelica celo one second make sure the mic is on it doesn't like on hello yeah it's working one second Miss celo Oh's not here time I'll be I'll I was epared um persons attending meetings of the government board or addressing the board should observe rules of prepar decorum and good contact conduct personal attacks upon board members dist District staff for students are not permitted discussion of confidential student matters is also prohibited president May terminate the speaker's privilege to address the governing board if after being called to order the speaker persists in improper conduct or remarks uh Miss Salo you'll have three minutes for your call the audience and I'll start when you do Henry Steven leasco Francis Stevens Sandman F Sanders Janine Ren Sanders [Music] J gabrielo CH Thomas Velasco CH armandos Stephanie Margarita chilio h I started a BD 11 years ago fresh out of college with my deepest respect and respect and appreciation I would like to thank the families and community members that I have had the opportunity to meet and to get to know in these 11 years I grateful for every experience as a kindergarten teacher and I promise that I will return home to my nation and that I though I will no longer be a teacher here at B USD I will always be a Community member I keep you all in my prayers and I will work hard to return [Applause] that completes all the call that'll complete our call to the audience this evening um and I just want to really quickly make a brief statement that we're not typically allowed to make responses during call to the audience but I do want to say we definitely will make sure to have some kind of communication with you following following the meeting thank you misso letter e this evening is our information items number one is the school uh Bob K Unified School District students of the month Mr Diaz president members president Bia members of the board uh members of the community parents and students um it is a great honor at this time uh to be able to present our student of the month award um I think every single student has been awarded every single month but especially the ones that are presented this month and next month because it's not who starts strong but who finishes strong just as important so at this point please put your hands together together to welcome is Enrique the principal for our Primary [Applause] School okay good evening president buendia governing board members and Community excuse me our first student student of the month was nominated by Miss Vega from the four-year-old classroom Vernon [Applause] Raphael Vernon is from the house of Al Turismo he has made a lot of progress since last year Vernon is very good at making puzzles and building with Legos when he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up he said he wants to be Sonic [Music] [Applause] it is all conratulations [Applause] congratulations Vernon um I'm going to have Mrs Salo come up to prevent to present her student on the month my student of the month is quo tashquinth he is from the house of river come on up [Applause] quille has improved and grown tremendously since he's joined our class he went from knowing six sounds in January to being able to read he tries his best and when he does not know he is not afraid to ask or admit that he needs help he is shy and it's hard for him to take a leadership role but I've seen him take charge and lead by example in our class he is encouraging others to be better and do better just by showing them he is patient and he is a kind friend and he's been a tremendous sight to see him grow as he's done in such a short period of time uh congratulations quo and congratulations to his family for supporting him through it um when he grows up he wants to be a police officer [Applause] congratulations okay for first grade I don't know if I see her Deja Dre Jose Maria she here um Deja Dre was nominated by Miss cypriano she is from the house of Al Turismo Deja Dre is an excellent student every day she is prepared and ready to learn she is kind caring and respectful toward her classmates and to all her teachers Miss cypriano has seen her progress in academics throughout the year it has been a pleasure having Deja Dre in the class keep up the super workor when she grows up she wants she would like to be a babysitter and a teacher [Applause] for a second grade nominated by Miss Antonio is Elijah [Applause] Pablo Elijah has been working hard and trying his best he has been taking his school school work much more seriously and has improved his grades by his hard work he has paying attention to details on his math and Ela homework and is making fewer mistakes he is taking pride in his work and that is setting an example for others in the class to follow Miss Antonio is happy to see that he is finishing the year strong and looks forward to hearing about his many successes in third grade she has been glad to have Elijah in her room keep up the good work when he was asked what he'd like to be when he grows up he would like to become a teacher or join the [Music] [Applause] military nominated by Miss Holmes from third grade is David [Applause] Juan David is from the house of Amistad he has been work he has been a hardworking student he continues to strive towards Excellence David portrays great leadership and teamwork with his peers he always lends a helpful hand to his classmates and Friends he is kind respectful and always carries a cheerful attitude in class Miss Holmes is very excited to nominate David as this month's student of the month when he grows up he would like to be a teacher [Applause] okay and from our him Thug class Mrs Francisco has nominated Luna Sami from Mrs hel's kindergarten [Applause] class Luna is from the house of Amistad Luna exemplifies an aam student who comes from a loving and supportive home environment who is encouraged to always do her best she is always interested in what we are learning in the himg class she is proud of her community and her family this proves to miss Francisco that a child will go far when the family is part of The Learning Journey when Luna was asked what she wanted to be with when she grows up she excitedly said she wants to become a [Applause] ballerina and what I would also like to add Luna um tested at a second grade reading level [Applause] W and now I will turn it over to Miss beay Lewis from intermediate [Applause] campus teachers good evening board members community members um our fourth grade student of the month is um Aaliyah supriano from Mr fent's class Aaliyah is a great [Applause] leader Aaliyah is a great leader and very well-rounded student in class she is not only focusing on grades but also strives on developing her social skills emotional intelligence and creativity through various activities such as Spirit Week community events and pageants she recently attended the Gathering of Nations po the biggest Po in the US holding the title as Miss San Lucy first attendant striking a balance between academics and community service shows that Ali is indeed a very versatile individual these experiences equips her with the wide range of skills and abilities that enhance her overall development and I'm very excited to see more of her in the future she would like to make this world a better place by not smoking vaping or using drugs instead to focus on studies like math and science [Applause] congratulations and for fifth grade is from Mr hila class is Damian aranella Damian showing shows his upholding Civic responsibilities and being a positive role model for his peers both inside and outside of the classroom he is consistently achieving High grades across various subjects are showing significant improvements in academic performance Daman also maintains Integrity by being truthful in his academic work interactions with others and AD committing mistakes when they occur congratulations I'm very proud of you and he would like to make the world a better place by helping solve the world's biggest problem which is [Applause] hunger and our sixth grade student um is by Miss tuala she is very delighted to award Hannah Lopez for student of the month of April she has demonstrated remarkable growth both academically and in extracurricular activities embodying the values we cherish at our school and especially of the nation academically Hannah has shown a commendable commitment to Excellence over the past month she has not only maintained High grades in ela for reading and writing but also shown significant Improvement in math she consistently engages in the classroom discussions and demonstrated a genuine enthusiasm for learning especially when trying to solve a math problem she tries her best she's a shining example of how dedication and perseverance lead to academic success beyond the classroom Hannah has made valuable contributions to our school's extracurricular activities she won first place in the poster contest with a th them Nation Environmental Conservation department where she drew the importance of dance to bring rain for our plants and she would like to W make the world a better place by helping world crisises first I will find out the needs to be helped out at helped out the most then I would do what I could to help out then slowly go from there [Applause] and high school let's give it out for our high [Applause] school good evening good good evening president buend board members and uh superintendent Diaz and Community uh we have we have well I'm going to read them all for the record we I think we have at least Le three here but we'll see so uh do we have Aaliyah Antonio here nope well we're going to read for her anyway because this is for the record so Aaliyah Antonio is the seventh grade team's April student of the month Aaliyah is the granddaughter of Miriam Shaw her home Village is crang in sh toak District Aaliyah is a proud member of gak key or isab Indi the house of Courage she's a student athlete playing both basketball and softball for the Lady Cougars Aliyah's favorite class is ton aam history with Miss clovia Martin because it's fun in there her favorite teacher is Miss lanis because she's really helpful with math after graduating from Bobby ke secondary Aaliyah plans on going to college maybe UCLA she's currently hoping to become an NBA professional basketball player and she wanted me to mention that it was NBA not WNBA she wants the full thing so uh she's she's currently let's see uh if she could Aaliyah would make the world a better place by helping people on the street find a better life uh keep up the good work Aaliyah um we're very proud of you also do do we have Miss SAR Anton Gutierrez I don't think we do I think she's celebrating she just did promotion today but also for the record if I may the eighth grade team names sah Anton Gutierrez student of the month for April Sarah is the daughter of Diana Anton and shayon Patricio her home Village is topawa in waag gwok District uh sah is a proud member of here I go hamam haki or Aliso the house of givers Sarah is a strong student with excellent attendance she's also an athlete she played both basketball and softball with the Lady Cougars she's the middle school student council president and she was selected to speak at the eighth grade promotion ceremony which she did beautifully today uh after graduating from BSC uh Sarah plans on going to college she's currently considering a career in medicine or law the people that Sarah most greatly admires are her uncle Merl Anton and her brother Devon Anton because they push her to follow the right path and to do what is right keep up the good works sah and keep pushing to learn and grow as a student we can't wait to see what you can accomplish and now a student who is present uh may I please have princess Natalie kones princess Natalie is the daughter of Honey Mak kones her hometown is 7,848 MI away on the island of Mindanao Philippines princess Nat is a proud member of river the house of dreamers princess Nat's favorite class is French with Mr Wagner because she really likes learning different languages and Paris looks like a wonderful place to visit she has no favorite teacher because she appreciates all her teachers equally after graduating from Baba secondary princess Natalie plans on going to college at BYU her current career goals are open as she is interested in many things if she could princess would make the world a better place by going around the world serving the greater good congratulations princess Natalie we are very proud of you congratulations Mr Noah zundo Noah sugundo is the sophomore class student of the month for April Noah is the son of Dorcas Segundo his home Village is VY in chooket cook District uh Noah is a proud member of gak key of the House of Courage isab Indi uh Noah is a student athlete playing count them four sports with the Baba Warriors cross country football basketball and track he is also an officer with student council serving as the treasurer for the class of 2026 Noah's favorite class is culinary with Miss castoria because he likes learning how to cook smart man his favorite teacher is Mr aunia because he makes learning fun after graduating from Baba secondary Noah plans on going to college at pimo Community College or joining the Navy Noah's current career goal is to become an engineer if Noah had a secret superpower it would be teleportation so he could explore the world and still come home for dinner you are doing a wonderful job Noah and we are proud of you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right Mr Jesse buendia please come up the Jesse buendia is the junior class student of the month for April Jesse's Guardians are hanana Antonio and Jesus buendia Jr his home district and home Village are cells so cells district and cells uh Jesse is a proud member of ham Madam hockey or Aliso the house of givers Jesse is a student athlete playing both football and baseball for the Boba ke Warriors his favorite class is PE with Mr me because it's a good class and Mr me is a great teacher his favorite teacher is Miss sedora because she's cool she's funny and she helps him with his math after graduating from Boba ke excuse me Bob secondary Jesse plans on attending trade school to become a welder uh one person that Jesse would like to thank is Wana Antonio because she pushes him to do his work and helps to keep him on track for graduation she helps him to be his best self congratulations Jesse keep up the good work we're so proud of you and our senior class I don't think I see him here but we have Mr Eli Pablo is the senior class student of the month for April Eli is the son of Melissa Norris his home Village is chulik in waok District he is a proud member of gak Kei or isab Indi the house of Courage Eli is a student athlete he's played both footb and basketball for the babre Warriors for three years his favorite class is tocc math with Miss Kinsey because he understands it better than other subjects his favorite teacher is Miss Brewster because and iquote she is a very positive supportive and and caring of her students unquote uh Eli is going to attend Central Arizona College this fall and his career goal is to become a diesel mechanic Eli says he would make the world a better place by cleaning up and caring for the environment you're doing a wonderful job Eli congratulations thank you one and all let's give it off for Mr [Applause] Fox good evening everybody board members president buia superintendent Diaz um this is a real fun one for me cuz this young lady Jalissa Juan come on up so when you come up I can say all this good stuff about family too come on fam so this young lady could have been student of the month on any given month she never once said why am I not student of the month she never once asked she just came to school on a very very regular basis she kept her head down she did her work she's in a role model for what accelerated is whatever how's that like this whatever whatever like this and you can tell she's got a great personality to go with it so Jalissa um not only has great attendance she is the right type of social person she's very cool but doesn't think she is or doesn't act it she's respectful she's mature um anytime we would go and look at our uity report Miss Juan was always blue and green which means on track or ahead of the game her grades are always above average and when asked the teachers every month Jalissa came up as student of the month and I said I want to wait I want to wait I want this one to be the April student of the month because this kid has earned it every single month and we are so proud of her and she's such a great role model for us but Jalissa thank you very very much we look forward to seeing you next year Watching You Pro to graduate and see what you're going to do next you're an amazing young person let's make it happen thank you guys board board members don't move sorry thank you all that'll conclude our students of the month it is definitely one of the most precious moments I think of the of the board meeting especially because it is essentially to celebrate you your accomplishments and the things that you have committed to throughout the school year and throughout the month I know that if the teachers had their way every one of you would receive but I'm really especially gracious when it comes to being able to be here and to show our support as well as the board so thank you all so much for joining us we're going to move right into the next item on the agenda which is which is our him duck award um it is the I'm sorry you you you you can sit down but you're welcome to stay for the meeting we are going to have um student council report which is actually a really good report so so please hang out thank you [Applause] [Music] um I see one I don't see that can we have the student council Representatives please come up um we'll move into number two our barbecu high school student council report thank you president Bia members of the board members of the community just like every single month um it is truly an honor not only to have and col this district with the student council but it is a time in which I have to step up and allow my young leaders to take over the district at this point let's give a big hand to a student council Representatives hi good evening um so today we have our presentation um this is going to a video is going to play shortly of basically our whole year and what we've done and just wanted to say thank you for the support you've given us through along the way [Music] m [Music] ni [Music] okay thank you that was a video but SU now we have our Naas conference um okay so impact Aid is typically what n the nap conference is all about and impact aid funds our schools and local Arizona schools to give them experiences that maybe they don't have and give them um support to get different stuff like technology transportation and provide housing for teacher and staff um next slide so these are all the stucco members that have recently went to the napis conference this year so for the girls it's myself summer baptisto Jessica Ortega and Jordan Jose for the boys is Michael Anton Eli Johnson and mckain Bozo next slide so this is just a couple pictures of basically how the Naas conference has went we were able to go and walk around in some places but while also getting the experience of being in Washington where it's really Lively where it's a real life business place and getting the experience to talk to different senators and representatives about how impact aid helps us and how much it we really do benefit from the dollars so so okay next slide so right now I have Eli Johnson come up to talk about his all right my experience I would say it was fun but it was new a little bit scary especially on the player right there but it was an enjoy an enjoyable experience having our what's the word I'm trying to look for word well I can't look for the word but Mr Cutler there watching over us and making sure we were all right um we didn't have a lot fun over there and it was nice representing ourselves advocating for ourselves our community our district our school school district and our families and the nation as itself and the reason why we went there to Advocate and represent our communities is so we could persuade and hopefully keep other senators in support of the impact dat because it helps tremendously with the technology and it helped fund all students so they can have a computer and I'll give an example for why that's a good reason is that earlier this year and I believe it was January all students and all all three schools had to go home early because of weather conditions and so the next day we resumed online with our computers and then um the technology or Not techn Sorry Transportation I meant so I remember last year the buses weren't some of them didn't have air conditioning some of them were breaking down some of them were running and so this year we used funds from Impact 8 to have a sponsorship with beine and now we have more buses and transportation for both students and teachers um and then of course like Sumer step with the teacher housing which is uh option for teachers who live further away so that they don't have to drive all the way back and forth in their dayto day lives and the last thing I would say it helps is with is the extracurricular like uh our Sports and then the after school tutoring and that will be all for me okay so this slide it basically says when when we went so the femal students went in September of 2023 and the male students went inch 2024 we were able to explore different museums like some you see on the screen like the Holocaust Museum and um the American history and culture of Museum and so it was really nice seeing those cuz you don't really get those over here and going to Washington DC where it's bigger and where they can have more stuff to look at and more information to give you it's really nice seeing everything um and as he said for why we went was to represent our schools and communities and just our teachers and advocate for the students who may not be able to do that themselves but and how it went was thankfully to the sales district North communities so thank you for that next slide oh the Sals Johnson Ali bosd was also able to help us so thank [Applause] you summer Eli before you go just real quick uh I just want to say I know summer you you'll be leaving us kind know I mean us the school anyway but I want to say expressly your participation and the participation of the students this year has been really phenomenal um I think that as a board member of a certain age younger it's really great to see I'm sorry it's really it's really important for us to be able to not only acknowledge but to support that your efforts advocating your efforts public your efforts in leadership are really really important and I'm really super proud and I'm really super thankful Eli as much as I've been able to be a part of what you've been doing as well I've really seen a complete difference and I say that only because I know I know how I was before I got into any kind of leadership capacity role and it was very very difficult and it is and it always will be it's always challenging that's not the point I think the point is that you have that drive that perseverance that motivation to just do it because it's important and I'm really grateful that you guys took the opportunity you're on student council or you're interested or you are going to your communities or you're asking for different things because that's that's part of the role that they play and they need to be reminded of that from time to time we need to be reminded of that from time to time as a board so thank you so much for coming and committing to this monthly meeting and thank you to all of the others um um Miss Brewster I know you're trying to get out of what it is but it is it is truly truly um I I read something somewhere and I probably won't get it right but you know when when you show children the love of Education or the love of what you do it really inspires them to want to do it more thank you so much for putting that into all of our kids as much as you have this year and as long as you've been with us so thank you for that but nonetheless that is just that's it for me I just wanted to make sure to express that and it is something that I want to say that this this graduating class truly and I guess a little sneak peek for tomorrow's speech but this graduating class truly was a beacon for me of that leadership that you all have and you all are ready to and I'm ready for you guys to take over because definitely that is something that we need to have happen um but thank you that that's it for me is there anything else from the board I said it all she said go ahead missia no I just wanted to add that um you know I've been as you know been on the board for more than 20 years now and I'm excited to see and and at my age I I'm just really excited to see you know I was really excited to see these two come on board because they are a lot younger than I am but then again I Look To The Future even Beyond them and and see that and want and I'm anxious to see what you can accomplish and what type of leadership you've done so far I think you're you're at a good start that you can continue and represent our nation yourselves your family your community uh and that that is really exciting thank you very much thank you okay you have nothing else thank you again oh Mr Diaz summer in Eli I cannot begin to share how proud I am from your first board meeting to this meeting the way you have grown the way you have developed and and your confidence you living big shoes behind to Phil it's been such an amazing year to see what you both have accomplished and if this is what you accomplished so young and in one year I so look forward what you going to going to be able to accomplish in your lifetime many of the speeches that we hear or uh stud of the months we hear um how do I want to make this world a better place boy you're not saying it you are doing it it's the way you have made the school a better place the way you have collaborated not only with the the administration but at the theal level it's very impressive farewell I'm going to miss you okay and I'm so look forward to what you guys are going to accomplish next year as the leading class wish you nothing but the best success and blessings for you and your entire class the congratulations and thank you for meing here miss [Applause] Brewster there's not enough words of appreciation on the dictionary or on Google or on chat GT or whatever that is called um you have put your mind your heart your soul your tears into this group and you have poured them with love leadership success and commitment they will never be the same thanks to you and I want to thank you for not becoming a teacher a guide but a leader in all the sense of the word thank you for making this bab Community High School District a better place thank you [Applause] [Music] passion God bless you I wish you all the best [Applause] you're okay thank you all right okay with that um we'll move on to number three this evening which is our baru Unified School District himg award Mr Diaz uh president Mia members of the board and members of the community this is a great moment as well we have celebrated students but now it's time to also acknowledge and celebrate the community as well as staff and at this point I want to ask Dr P to please come forward so she can present um the him award um one of the three h awards for this month let's give our hand for Dr ber Gru our district school secologist can you um the thing that one do I use this one or do I oh look at I'm hoarding all the microphones okay good evening Mr Bunda and um board members and Mr Diaz I am I nominated Kathleen crane speech language therapist for the hedc award because um earlier this year when I was the interim ESS director we um we initially started out with three speech pathologists but then two of them left when I requested that they provide services in person and so it left Miss Crane and she she had the task that I had given her um to keep all of our kids who were identified for speech services current with their individual educational programs which is their IEPs and their evaluations she had approximately 72 kids to keep current at that time and when I told her this she just looked at me and didn't bad an eye and basically rolled up her sleeves and said let's get to work she was um very much a trooper and a team team player and she just she knew what needed to be done she knew knew the task didn't complain and just did it and we now have been able to secure an additional speech language um therapist since January but I felt it was um she needed to be recognized for all of her hard work so thank you Miss crane [Applause] think come number one congratul we do have one more Miss gwood um and for that we have a representative of the Johns Aly and and we have the award that we're going to be um presenting so my understanding is that we also have a movie that I'm going to start showing the movie and then I'm going to read the Johnson Aly um he War recommendation Qui lip well as he downloads I want to begin reading the recommendation oh there it is I'm sorry to provide supplemental financial assistance program in schools designed to meet the unique and specialized needs of eligible Native American students [Music] [Applause] [Music] you are and I [Music] pr you did a sweater shirt or lanyard you can choose your prize for January perfect attendance and at this point I'm going to ask a representative or JM to step up um while I read the letter um as as as a sign of appreciation as we continue to uphold the mission of communi school district which is to create healthy inspiring motivating developing academic um achieving graduates it is my pleasure to bring to your attention the remarkable partnership with at toono autum Johnson males jom committee as well as their ongoing support to increase fluency attendance advocacy and student empowerment thanks to the jom committee support two of our schools have acquired book vendage machines that can be used to reward students with tokens used to buy books directly impacting the reading fluency and comprehension J has also supported our schools by financing incentives to increase attendance and Community participation during our community days such support translate into strong a stronger reader and a stronger Community most recently B uh B uh Buble Community High School District has embraced a challenge to take students to Wasing DC to attend the National Association of federally impacted schools also known as naphis conference in which students had the opportunity to exercise the advocacy and empowerment um on behalf of the Native American and Rural districts across the United States as students have the experience of meeting the congressmen and congresswoman to share their story and how impact their funds make a difference such support owers our young leaders by seeing themselves as agents of change and as an ambass BD as well as at toono aut Nation on behalf of our students staff board and Community I would like to extend our sincere appreciation and recognition to the Johnson males committee their support and commitment throughout this year have not gone unnoticed I would also like to appreciate our gratitude by receiving the hodu award let's give him a [Applause] hand Mr D if I may yes sir um and just for everyone's um information I did receive a message from um Miss Angel Manuel who shared um of course that she was she's she's she's a council woman for San luy District so she's doing Council duties but she did say I just want to share with you that it's been a pleasure working with all three principles and the school administrators who have utilized our funds this past school year y definitely have been helpful in getting funds spent and working directly with me on making making sure that requests are complete before uh before I'm presenting them to the parent committee which of course is duly U great um to get things moving uh kudos to to you your and the BD Administration and of course as well to the jom parent committee so that was from uh Angel today [Applause] heart stuh a heart heart it is go I'm a St [Applause] um just to share on behalf of the governing board um respectfully for go ahead gohe for the uh him the award recipients um especially to I'm sorry let me especially to uh the work that you do especially to the work to do when it comes to not only working with our students but the care love and kindness that you provide um and that goes for even our jom committee parents uh and to the jom funds at all as much as we can pour into these children it is important and as precious as the time and the commitment is I definitely want to say thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts as far as the governing board and essentially uh on behalf of all the students that you impacted and the student you will impact it is not unnoticed so thank you so much and congratulations [Applause] again number four this evening is our barbecue UniFi School District governing board financial report Mr Diaz MERS of members of let's put our together CFO to present financial report for the month of April [Applause] my number one fan over there we're going to do Student Activities first yes okay good evening president buendia board members superintendent Mr Diaz and staff um I'm going to present to you the fiscal 24 for Student Activities auxiliary balances through April 30th 2024 the Student Activities account received deposits totaling $1,373 and dispersements of $1,975 in the month of April the class of 2024 received deposits totaling $6,450 from food sales at the Mark 22nd District Community event and a donation of $5,000 from fre Port mcmun Inc the class of 25 had deposits totaling $1,443 from food sales at the March 22nd District Community event and prom ticket sales they also had dispersements of $1,975 for payments um payments for prom catering and the band class of 26 had deposits of $1,082 from food sales at the March 22nd District Community event and food sales from the babo bloom spring day the class of 27 also had a deposit from babo Bloom um day of $48 Baba High School FFA had a deposit of $430 from March 29th devil claw sales and April 11th drink sales BHS baseball received a donation of $1,000 from the th aam Keek Association and Eighth Grade Prom promo account had deposits totaling $912 from food sales at babo Bloom and January 31 basketball concession sales lastly the high school softball Club had a deposit of $53 from concession sales on April 22nd the ending balance for Student Activity account on April 30th 2024 was $28,269 down lower a little bit on the sorry yep we have student auxiliary down towards the bottom the student auxiliary fund had deposits totaling $2,997 and dispersements totaling $450 $50 in April the high school auxiliary account had receipts totaling $879 194 from Scholastic Book Fair sales and play on Sports subscription and dispersements totaling $450 for sport entry fee payments to Sunnyside High School and Tombstone Unified School District the elementary auxiliary had receipts totaling $2,398 from Scholastic Book Fair sales the ending balance on April 30th 2024 was $1,633 2017 for auxiliary do I have any question on Student Activities and auxiliary questions for the club expenses go ahead now on to April expenditures no that's I'll be the the top first one yes there you go thank you so attached here you'll find the fiscal year 24 expenditures through April 30th 24 yeah the M um reflects a budget balance of 4, 273,000 9672 we are 10 months into the fiscal year and everything remains in good standing we will be re reallocating teacher housing funds um to a different fund and Grants Department is currently requesting reimbursements and reallocating funding between grants for negative balances our purchasing window has closed as of 43024 and the finance department is currently in process of closing open purchase orders and making payments to free up encumbrance to plan for the upcoming year overall we currently have a 49.9% or 16, of9 budget balance excluding incumbrances we received 34 m540 44934 so far and fiscal year 24 in revenues from all funds excluding Student Activities and Insurance Fund do I have any questions for April expenditures questions from the board for the April expenditures I don't I don't have any questions I think Mr Diaz um briefed me enough I feel okay anyone else no thank you thank you so much you're welcome thank you with that um let's keep that energy number five we're going on to Barber CU Unified School District principal reports Mr Diaz president Mia members of the board and members of the community and staff uh at this point Let's help me put your hands together to welcome back Miss Enriquez to present her April report for the primary school okay good evening president Bunda governing board member superintendent Diaz I have submitted my report in writing I hope you've had the opportunity to read it um can you scroll back to the top um so some of our highlights this past month it was a testing month um so we were able to test 100% of our third grade students and they completed the aasa 69 out of the 75 third graders earned their ice cream social for attendance um we had our second Bingo night um we had over a 100 participants this time and they focused on um a them numbers and so it was nice to see cuz even the parents were struggling with the numbers and their child was actually helping them out so that was really good to see um and you can play our video [Music] s eight Earth across s but has these big huge rings around it which are very pretty see through small no they actually made a little pieces of pieces of dust most of them like [Music] B [Applause] [Music] themselves they's El we to what do we need to [Music] backround and [Music] she talk with a big smile they a nice warm fire just for you minutes Grand Andes warm try that one again y got too big I told I told you so so Daddy time for to small small and small sleep then will feel better oh yeah get some sleep baby SW good job everybody say okay job everybody say [Applause] good intermediate now let's put your hands together for intermediate everyone let's welcome Miss uh bigay [Applause] Lewis good evening board members president buendia and superintendent Diaz um I turned in my my principal board report I hope you had a chance to read it I did want to highlight that um the students did really really well on the hovercraft project um because they had to work together as a team to put that whole thing together by them themselves we weren't allowed to help them and then to see our staff to put so much trust in them because our staff got to ride their project and so it was really it was really a lot of fun um to experience that um we got to test what they made and then um the biggest um excitement we had was that um our SFA teachers increased our grade level students from 19 students at the beginning of the year to 78 students so which is really good because this is our first time doing SFA so that shows how much dedication they had into the program and so thank you teachers you are awesome and you can play the video now no [Applause] I [Music] compared to what we might exp a larer PO what I think the histogram of our ages in my class compared to what like what we might expect in a large population is that um the histogram will have like some somewhat different ages CU you don't know if like they have some people that are like what a 100 or something yeah and then but like huge gap age gap between the youngest to oldest what about you guys ie because is the 11 through 20 group will have will still be the highest bar because it's more kids and then their ages their ages is what angle is obuse angle what angle this one can you tell uh Natalia uh why did you say is an juice angle because it is not like any of the others and that it is more wider g e l then one to himself two to himself [Music] down down down [Applause] now let's put our hands together now for the secondary Mr Robert [Applause] Rosell thank hurry up good evening governing board good evening president buendia governing board and Mr Diaz and community members um on behalf of miss Lea I offer you our principal's report she has sent it to you she hopes you had time to look at it and uh read it we have several highlights on there we April was a very busy month we had um a lot of the students uh being themselves and leading the life of of of high schoolers it's been a it's been a wonderful month and I think you'll see that in the video is there anything in particular that I should go over at this point this is my first rodeo here please play the video all [Music] h [Music] [Applause] [Music] decision video the decision video that one [Music] hi my name is Jasmine Stans I graduated class of 2021 of bar High School I attend the University Redlands in Redland California I'm a liberal studies student as well as a city AR student as well hi I'm Susie Garcia barbecue be High School class of 2019 I attended the University of Washington and I transferred to the unity University of Arizona and graduated classes 2022 Bear Down hi my name is Maya lus I'm a BHS graduate of 2016 I graduated with my bachelor's degree in Psychology at the University of Maine in Orno in 2020 hi my name is Seth Carlos graduate from babo in 22 going to T right now my major is computer information systems welcome to Fort Le [Music] go [Music] [Applause] thank you sir thank you thank you and last but not least let's put our hands together for Mr [Applause] Fox okay good evening once again president buendia board members superintendent Diaz um you've had you received my board report um I just want to highlight a couple quick things because you guys did uh we have 15 graduates this year we're pretty proud about that it's a pretty decent number and I just want to make a point of when you see the videos and you hear about the field trips we take every one of those field trips are instructional videos to boot um we don't go to roller Winks we don't go to movies we don't go bowling we go to Kit Peak we go to the U OFA twice we go to uh Museum walks around the U OFA and art walks around Tucson and we had a really cool one that was brand new this year was youth on their own a bunch of kids went into Tucson to view youth on their own and Shop in their mini mall that's available to all students across the district if they meet the parameters of Youth on their own um they are one of our biggest supporters and we really truly appreciate them so much so play that wonderful I say that a little sarcastically video see if we got the new one in [Music] o [Music] so I know we usually don't add things after the video but the cocoons and the butterflies were really really cool um the we had a young lady named christabella who was the first to see that they hatched and then was time to let them go they flew on her finger there was four of them so two of them flew on her finger she took them outside one of them just would not leave this kid so it was pretty neat um and she was able to explain what a metamorphous was after that so it was a very big wi for our little uh eighth grader so so uh any questions please uh I'm here for you guys so thank you thank you sir thank you guys very much I appreciate you I think I just want to express especially on behalf of the board and of course they'll speak if they if they choose to but to our principes administrators those of you who Step Up step in do what you need to it is it is I know it's middle of the Year middle of the calendar year but for you it's the end of at least kind of technically the year um and I'm expressly thankful to not only be a part of but to be able to observe and and witness uh what you do how you do it and to stand um firmly in support of and in respect to your profession um so thank you for what you do every day each and every one of you in here but especially to our principles um for putting up with us sometimes but nonetheless especially standing for your faculty your staff and your students so thank you anything else from the board for our principles if not appreciate you I feel like um because of the commencement speeches I'm just like on a roll with these anyway not that it's not coming from a genuine place truly um number six is our governing board member reports anything I do want to touch really quick on and acknowledge and thank um Miss sandal who did come and visit the district uh how long ago was that two weeks the third week in beginning of this month May May 2nd I remember now um I'm really grateful to build on those um and this is what I expressly want to make sure to to share as much as possible but those acquaintances or likeminded like passionate conversations so to speak when it comes to any individual who's who's willing to come willing to visit um I know in the experience of not only encouraging her to come here but to speak to the students to answer questions it was really really a treat and I'm really grateful for everyone who who helps to make those those possible um I just know the people they just ask me and I just hand them to you guys so that that that's that's truly um what makes it special especially because I know to Rally uh for an individual all the way from operations to everyone else who did everything that we needed to do to make it make it a very good experience um I'm very thankful to have been a part of it and um to have been present and especially to see that we can continue to do that and welcome as many individuals who want to visit as possible oh you know what just reminds me and I'm thinking about it Mr Diaz just or for or for missan uh anyone um kava's office did ask if they could come visit I know he's not doing 100% well but um it would be really awesome if he could come again I know he's come before um or someone from his office so um I forgot who he said to reach out to who he went but I'm sure if we call the Tucson office they'd be more than happy to nonetheless just to just to add uh participating in the um uh any kind of um event um truly is an honor and I'm thankful so that that's all I want to report right now I know there's um a lot going on this week and so just trying to move us along but if there's anything else on the board got a report Ella go ahead I just wanted to mention a couple of things that um uh that I attend which was U Baba uh spring up at the high school I didn't really T the whole area but I did go to U I was at the baseball game and then on the on the May 1 it was U BHS decision day and that that was really interesting you know got this hear all the seniors and know what they're going to do after graduation and um and U or going to the armed forces and was and I was really proud of the students and and we also heard from the lon I think there were two ladies that U spoke and and and that was that was good I like I like to see that when other uh graduates come back and and tell the students you know um what they've accomplished and and that helps our students uh to to drive more you know to um and finish school and um and then on May 8th I went to the cadet um open house and I was really surprised to see all the parents and uh and students there I think there was at least 50 or 60 people there and uh they they're starting that Cadet service and um and the only question that I wasn't at the board meeting when it was approved a month before so I we didn't I didn't answer that question about the funds uh so I had to call Superintendent but uh I found out and relate that to the parent so that was uh really well received and um then I attend the eighth grade um promotion this morning and was um hot but we were there um it was a good good ceremony um and uh the one for uh uh nsba um it it was um the one that I went to was um the superintendent evaluation and uh the important thing that I I know is that um how the board evaluates the superintendent most SLE our budget and and uh make sure we our money is are taken care of and and uh that the business office is run smoothly and uh evaluating the principles and principles evaluating their staff and directors evaluating their support staff so that was important that superintendent needs to be aware of and um then uh that we had a native um presentation from page uh Unified School District they talk about how their students were really involved in the school and how to interact with um with uh the com community and the staff and and um make sure their schools are run uh the the way it should be and they uh also work through uh asba and um they form a um uh um a culture um where they have um they perform um dancing and uh they have a Native American uh club and uh but later on they they had U they started one with africanamerican and and so that's uh that's what I am oh they also did um the the uh the um the boy students uh performed the hook dancing that was so that was so neat I tried it I tried the videotape I don't know what I did didn't come out so and so anyway that's my report thank you thank you Mella else siia yeah I'll just go ahead I think the the one thing from nsba I think I uh I really got a lot out of and I would like to see because we all know that all our students are not College Bound but I think in trading and trade school and anything that we can help them with but I think uh one school district from Alaska had a very interesting CTE program um that really helped students excel in whatever they were interested in and I I think because of the location of the school and just finding different ways to get them motivated to leave or to um um provide uh different opportunities for them I think that I would like to see our CTA program a lot stronger than it is we don't hear very much about our CTA program we do have one I would like to hear more and I'd like to see it more um to know what's going on more with it and um and I think only because like I said you know all our students are not College Bound but they are interested in expanding their Horizon and you know and be able to get a good um job you know especially if they're going to have families so um those those are the that was one of the highlights I thought for myself that I got out of the nsba and just sharing the the the school from Alaska shared I think they even got an award and I can't remember what the program was but I know it had to do with um because of the location the the planes or you know getting out of you know being able to be um to fly planes or something like that but I'll have to look look into my notes further but but again uh I'd like to see our our CTA program uh or no more uh what's going on there okay thank you U Miss man anything um I uh did get a chance to attend the um uh beautiful uh program that Miss Hart had put on in April for some of the young women young girls here um from the school district and I really want to say that you know it was a beautiful Gathering of young women these young women um you know learned about um what's coming for them um as far as um going from being a child to a young woman so the the videos that were shared and the the uh Leons that were there that helped it was just really touching so I you know really um I want to thank Miss Hart and her and her group for sharing because sometimes young women they don't they don't get to hear that and and um they were also the grant that she received Miss Hart for that presentation um they were able to um uh give each of those uh young women uh a backpack and then also a a starter pack for um you know uh to keep in their in their backpack so um I think that you know I really I really enjoyed that and I wish that maybe possibly in the future with another grant that there could be more young women involved there were um parents that did come with their daughters um there was one male that came with his daughter so you know that's uh that's something to see and hear you know that uh that took place and and so I just really want to thank Miss Hart for for that um invitation and then also um you know getting more of the young women involved in more of those kinds of um uh Gatherings for the new school year so you know just I wanted to share that um I haven't really been um uh attending a lot of the the um the programs or you know the um the um promotion ceremonies this year here um due to health reasons so hopefully you know next week when I figure out what's going on with myself then I can you know get back to normal because it feels like I'm not normal and it's it's taking a to and you can tell by the way I look so just thank you for everything that all of you are doing for our our children our families so thank you thank you Miss [Applause] V that will conclude our board member reports for this evening number seven is the superintendent report Mr Diaz president members of the board and members of the community as well as uh colleagues uh for the comme uh for the superintendent cabinet report uh there's a couple of highlights that I want to present U from a couple of departments the first one is from uh operations from the operations Department uh from the desk of Mr Roloff I want to appreciate um the progress on not only on the H facts but also on the roofs um in the in the progress on those two projects and also for transparency purposes and to inform the community we are waiting for additional funding to be um uh approved by sfb so we can begin the work on the weatherization project for a couple of our schools um from the sunrise house which is the next um report eron if you don't mind um pulling out the report um also um I want to Pig it back on what miss van said um it's um the B full parent child Workshop um that we had 23 participants so it was a a great way to bring the the community together um and to also um I also want to concur that it was um heartwarming to see that not only moms but also a father came to support his daughters in this Workshop but I I want to point out from the family and Community engagement um the amount of families that we serve for the month of April uh just on F food pantry it's almost 600 families and I want you to see the amount of [Music] um food that was delivered um which is 1 3 million um over 1.3 million of items delivered um and from the next department and if you don't mind opening up the the uh Transportation report is celebrating a couple of things um two of our bosses made it um over 300,000 miles and I think they're screaming to be retired I'm glad that they made it to the 300,000 miles but um there's a tradition that apparently the um um ad comes and celebrate those buses and there was a celebration for the buses and you can see the celebration as part um of of this report but we also um I'm proud to present to the governing board that we have um received our fourth bus um that is on our yard and it's a little one but it's still every single one counts um and we look forward to bring uh or add three additional buses um in the um on the on on the horizon and that puts us ahead three years ahead of the two buses a year so I want to thank the leadership from Mr b as well from Miss Cornell for being able to find uh multiple ways in how we can be creative and find the the funding to be able to have the most reliable tool that we need to ensure the kids get to school let's give them a [Applause] hand also from the month of April um we can close this one and we can open up the from the month of April it is the it is going to be the appearance Workshop um operations immediate that one uh Mentor that one mhm um I want to extend uh the appreciation to all of the families and parents that have been uh collaborating on the monthly workshops um that also miss an Cordon has been supporting us in facilitating those um not only in person but also virtually so let's give a hand to all the families that have participated and also to miss cordin for her continuing support on these workshops and at this point um um I would like to show that video highlighting all of the events that took place and I want to express my appreciation appreciation to all the staff members um and all of the schools for all of the work that they doing not only to start the year strong but finishing is strong and thank you m Sudan for capturing many moments and putting it together in the video [Applause] [Music] [Applause] any questions questions for Mr Diaz comments concerns if not thank you Mr Diaz number eight this evening is our coaches and Club sponsors uh again board this is just for your information we had already approved this is just information on who will be filling positions uh summer school Foster summer school Foster Sami for security sorry if I'm I'm not pronouncing it right Jamie Barlo for Teacher tan tan norga for Behavior specialist Primary School curriculum work uh Dedra Ortega for prek Gabriela Hernandez and Amy spot for first grade Danielle Nelson and Angela bom for second grade and Amanda gitz and Don Gowan for third grade number nine this evening is the first reading of policy ecab security surveillance cameras um company board um just again for your information um this policy um was originally on your agenda to be approved but was I had asked if we could um please go through the first reading and second reading in the process of approving it because it does coincide with the um District's intention to move forward with the cops Grant um so please make sure you are reading understanding and reviewing um and then Mr Diaz at this time if you'll just share with the public your current what your um what you've done so far to make sure that this has been out and at least provided in presentation to the communities at large president Mia members of the board members of the community and members um of the team um we have spent um time um going through not only different parts of the nation um a couple of the board members I want to thank you in advance for supporting us and being present uh we had the opportunity to uh present the information and also showcase it live um based on last time we checked um based on the video um there were over 50 um families that took the opportunity to watch the video um we also took the time to present it it to present all the information to all of our instructional staff um via professional development through the support of Aon bites um the videos is still available and anyone that has any comments or questions so would like to hear more about it I encourage them to please reach out to me me but at this point we have done uh the due diligence as as requested by our governing board okay so again governing board this will be back on the agenda next month uh as far as for second reading um and then what that b b after that it'll go on to the agenda for action after next month oh next round okay okay okay okay good okay no worries then that's good Ellie had a question or you want to make come yes um so really depending on how going to utilize the system that they're going to get for the cop Grint um this would be for across the board for all the campuses but with Ben's comment now about asba releasing information on AI on their end for policy um we'll have to probably look at it and consider what their recommendations are good siia Cy okay like letter F this evening is our action items number one is discussion and possible approval of revision of barue rified school district annual expenditure report for fiscal year 23 po per a5- 905 board this is what we were presented earlier this evening in our public hearing please um if there are any questions if not a motion to approve is there a second so move second by Miss syvia Hendricks M make sure your mics are on please some you guys are red over there syia HRI moo El may gwood I motion Carri thank you motion carries number two this evening is discussion and possible approval of 2425 School District calendar change governing board um I believe there's only one small change they're making Mr Diaz president members of the board um indeed there is a change on dates um that such change is not going to affect the minutes um it's only F uh flipping two days um and when if we go to the memo Erin at the bottom of the uh memo it it shows the request currently September 27 is half a day for students a full day for teachers and December 20th is no school for students and PD uh all day for teachers and what I'm we are requesting is to flip the the responsibilities those days that way our entire school can participate in the Beyond textbook conference that is free but it will allow us to not only particip participate but also by having that we continue with our schedule so there's no impact and I'm asking for your support to make that change on the uh item I'll make the motion motion by m syvia Hendrick second second by Miss Kathleen Vance M M M El gwood I motion carries thank you motion carries L sorry number three discussion and possible approval of the of the JT home health aid program Mr President Mia um we are requesting the governing board approve the creation of the new JT home health aid program above keep of high school district for the upcoming school year as presented I I don't have any questions I just want to say thank you so much for for for working to help provide some opportunities and options and and definitely um we're excited um I'm excited to be able to support so that a motion to approve is there a second second second by Miss Kathleen Vance MPP MPP what's up I motion Carri thank you motion carries number four this evening discussion and possible approval of a new job description which is the JT home health aid Mr Diaz now that you approve the program now need a person so um what I'm coming to the govering board is with a recommendation to approve the the new home health aid position as presented whena are there any questions if not um is there a job description yes oh it's on one of the attachments number four there's the um the memo and then it's also got the program scroll down I'm just looking at it no description I think it just it's a little bit of a different format sorry I'm looking at darn or who do you who do you want to pose the question to the format of the job description looks a little bit different but I think that's because it's through JT did miss gnell all Miss there is an actual job description oh it's not in the book I mean it's not on the books I think maybe the wrong link was posted on this one I guess who is this position reporting to and what is the salary on it so there is no can can we get a mic sorry look he has a mic right here the there is a potential interest in this program um that can get certified to become the home health aid teacher and right now we just have it as a huh 02 FTE so it would be one class period um just to give it a trial run to see how many students would be interested and then because this is a four-year program we'd be able to open up the the program to more students so level two would be next year the following year would be level three and then level four if they enroll as a freshman because there's I'm sorry go ahead goad silia but my question is I don't see a job description what's the question the job description is right here okay now because this wasn't included do we have time to take until we can get it properly uh that will be my recommendation at this point so we can bring it back so we have all the uh documentation needed um a motion to table number four this evening until it can be brought back forth to the Comm Community Committee Council board is there a second second second Miss syia Hendricks moo thank you um number five this evening I'm sorry so number four for the record is tabled until it can be brought back to the board uh five discussion and possible approval of the 2024 2025 Bud housing lease agreement Mr Diaz president when members of the board we asking um would you support to be able to remove additional uh changes on the lease agreement the change that I'm requesting is for the lease to for those that are will not be returning to BD to end in May that way they will give us the opportunity to to um have a month to be able to do all of the cleanup and all of the upgrades needed before we lease the unit once again so with your support we will be able to make add that change um in the lease and we'll support us a great deal okay questions from the board if not I'd like to approve but i' like to ask Al second no I just I had a question for you I think during our meeting I'm sorry I think I had a question for you I don't think you ever got back to me on was having to do with um audits I have not heard the answer on that um the question was if by making this change is it going to affect the audits um on on the lease um I don't have the answer back yet miss um um Miss Hendrick um I don't have an answer yet um if when it comes to how will the lease affect an audit I don't have the answer for that um in terms of the lease um it will be contined for the whole term of the years I the only thing that is changing it's the starting date and the ending date okay I mean I don't know okay no it's just because you know our fiscal year begins July 1st and ends June 30th but the leases gone beyond going from one fiscal year to another fiscal year so you know I was just just just that fact that whether or not it's going to affect I mean are we going to have a finding or anything like that Mr Rago thank you sure so the leas it's shortening it the fiscal year ends June 30th and they want want to see if the tenants can be out in May rather than June um to be ahead of time and then the our housing units are not covered under our fiscal yet audit they don't go over anything with our with our they don't Che no not with our leases no okay well that's basically all I I need it to okay I was like what audit oh thank you that's good thank you so much for providing that the question was did was ask also to Lego but I have not gotten an answer back as as well given that the question was asked yesterday um I have not gotten a written response yet from Lego okay we got it did you did you make the motion I was going to but I wanted to include um after some discussion with Mr DSO board if you would consider um I'd like to include in my approval um request to amend the maintenance agreement after our discussion I think with the last Pro project uh request that we approved which was to renovate or not renovate basically well yeah the housing units um I I want to approve with request I would say for an uh an amendment to the maintenance agreement which you'll have to clear with Mr Gary anyway or have him do what he needs to do um Mr Man is it man yeah Gary man um some verbage regarding reporting any what do you call it you can't think of the word um for our discussion um some of the recommendations that you were suggesting is to add language to hold tennis accountable uh for any damages due to their negligence in reporting um any in in in any damages um and hold them as a result of negligence accountable financially especially for cost um and I and I only ask and say that because I I want to be expressly um fair not only in the sense of we're providing very low cost housing and at the rate that we're having to repair things or fix things it it becomes a little bit of a it's not as balanced as I feel like it could be we approved to do routine maintenance um or what is it called walkthroughs mhm anyway so my thought is if we include some birds in there that should they neglect to report leaks or things that need to be addressed and allow them to get bigger then they might be liable for cost or damages because of that that was what my request was going to be go ahead so my my question is in regards I guess similar to that is that are are there routine inspections of the homes throughout the time that the um occupant they are occupied so when we do Pest Control monthly um one of the staff members either myself or a maintenance person goes with them and actually looks at the house okay so yeah we do go in their houses and what is what is the time frame did every quarter no it's monthly it's monthly oh okay yep okay cuz I know like with housing they I think that's what they do they do monthly too mon yep monthly inspections um but I guess with that I I would agree with one yeah and if if if you do read through this sorry if you do read through the actual contract that they signed it does say residents are responsible for cost of all repairs and extent repairs as as uh does even say I can't see it my know my glasses repairs are necess Yeah by Resident so we've actually charged people um I know a gentleman uh blew out a door and we actually charged him for the door okay that he took a door so this is actually in here in section 10 under me okay good I think it is okay the way it is so with that if you're going to make the motion I'll was second that okay oh Ben did you have a question what's the motion just to approve just to approve that no but no the clarify that is actually in there I just wanted to make sure we weren't missing that or and then as if you do recall last year the year before we put a cleaning thing in too so that that was added cuz that was not in there okay when they move out yes so we've added a few things to it okay good thank you motion carries number six this evening is the discussion and possible approval of an agreement between Arizona State University and barber UniFi School District Mr Diaz president Mia members of the board so we can continue to host um um our interns um and student teachers we ask that we Rec in the public un High School District a board to approve the agreement between ASU and USD as presented go Devils motion to approve is there a second second Miss Kathleen V allor thank you motion passes number seven this evening discussion on possible approval of an agreement between Northern Arizona University and barue Unified School District mes just like the previous one president Mia um we recommend that barue UniFi School District governing board to approve the agreement between Na and BD as presented I'll second go Lumber JS all right motion carries number eight this evening is the approval of international teachers change of status eligibility Amendment Mr Diaz president members of the board um we do have um a current policy that we approved um previously regarding the um J1 Visa um in the process we can continue to support the extensions however we also manage um and support the H1 visa for some of our International teachers um and what we asking is to be able to add now also a process if we want to continue to sponsor I H1B teachers um and and have a criteria for our support um the only changes that were made is anything that you see on this document in yellow but the form now has a criteria in how our principles can also uh make the recommendation to either continue their sponsorship or not having said that we recommend oh there you go uh we recommend the public UniFi School District Gover board to approve the Amendments as presented any questions from the board if not uh thank you so much for the recommendation and now motion to approve is there second second Miss Kathleen F what what motion carries number nine this Arizona school boards Association 2024 political agenda priority issues board um Ben I forgot to ask and I'm sorry um and it's okay if we if we don't have it but our last year's um priorities do you know okay no worries I I mean it's okay because I feel like genuinely the I think the standpoint especially from the district has been consistent so I feel like I think they all pretty much pertain to us with the exception of the uh taxx credit oh I mean the tax dollars spent on education we don't get tax taxes for that other than that I think the majority of the other items are pertain to us are we supposed to like we would prioritize prioritize them yeah one through five I didn't I'm sorry no it's okay um see when is it due May I entertain maybe a motion to support last year's submission and we'll just go with those same priorities okay I'll do that a motion to do that is there a second second second by Miss syia Hendricks all right letter G this evening is our consent agenda without objection I will motion to approve is there second second second by Miss Sylvia Hendricks m m m letter H is our request for future agenda items I'm sorry Mr Ben sent us some some emails and we didn't respond go ahead did you want to talk about it um the deadline for policy last day I believe and so I went ahead and canel that session and then I'll work on getting some new dates where I get the board members all together okay uh what was the other refence we have that AI policy that we just received going to be coming up that bring it back to board um June you have your summer Leadership are we all going to Summer Leadership I'm going not I'm going no okay let me okay somebody needs to make sure we have everything covered because Reuben's not going oh going any other administrator going no just in your place to be announced okay you want go to flagst I'm just kidding maybe a special board meeting here or there for just waiting for them to come there were some dates that you had mentioned that is correct we have um May 24th which is a Friday 5:30 June 24th which is a Monday 5:30 and then we have the next um will be doing the retreat if needed but those are the special award meetings that we have on the horizon okay so just make sure we have those Calendar please so everybody knows when they are they have been already sent an invite to you guys sorry okay any other future agenda items that your stuff away we're not done yet I'm just kidding just teasing uh if that's it I'll go ahead and make a motion motion by Miss syia Hendricks I'll second it's 7:51 p.m.

minut it goes to 5:00 a.m. thank you all right thank you um next item is a call to the public anybody that would like to address the board we appreciate you doing that now we'd like you to take probably about three minutes if you wouldn't mind and U not yield that time to anybody else and um just the information we we really can't respond to that we can direct staff to do that if you would give us your name and address and Mary has a uh a form for you to fill out so we can put you into the public record all right thank you if you introduce yourself and tell us who you are what's you're here for hi my name is Lacy Rogers um I oversee the children's department at the change point also FYI change Point services are free to your school district um today I stand before you to urge a reconsider of recent district-wide policy changes that um blue Bridge sorry hopefully I don't get emotional okay um that have removed Mental Health Services from the classroom um that have prevented the writing of referral letters for Jake's law benefits so I'm going to present to you guys some compelling facts that will highlight the urgency of revisiting these policies um for the upcoming school year Jake's law was approved by the Arizona legislature in 2020 ear Mark's funding for Behavioral Health Services for uninsured and underinsured children all we ask is a simple letter from the schools affirming that a child could benefit from these Services yet in recent months families in dire need of mental health support including children exhibiting Suicidal Tendencies or self-harming behaviors have been denied this essential documentation from the blidge schools these are children reaching out for help only to be turned away from accessing vital resources covered by access under Jake's law which also would cost bluid nothing statistics from the Arizona Department of Health Services paint a grim picture with Navajo County recording alarming rates of child suicide attempts and deaths moreover data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness reveals the widespread impact of untreated mental health conditions Among Us youth emphasizing the critical role schools play in early detection and intervention change point stands as a Beacon of Hope offering comprehensive Behavioral Health Services to Children and Families Our dedicated staff have been supporting bluid Unified School District students for nearly two decades providing crucial in school and classroom assistance and around services that extend beond classroom boundaries youth workers and dedicated case managers provide not just support for the the teachers when they are struggling to manage problem behaviors but for your students in real time when they need the one-on-one support and tools to be successful and stay in their classroom to receive the direct instruction that they need to learn and to grow change Point staff have the same background checks and fingerprint clearance cards that bluid Unified School District staff have as well as we are trained to abide by Hippa rules which are very similar to the furpa rules light of these compelling facts I encourage you to please reconsider your stance on Mental Health Services in the classroom reinstating these services and educational settings can pave the way for improved student well-being academic success and overall Community Health let us bridge the gap and ensure that every child especially the most most vulnerable have access to care and support that they deserve I trust that you will hear this call to action embracing a policy that prioritizes the mental health in the classroom creating a policy that will support Jake's law and the well-being of all bluid Unified School District students thank you for your attention but I do want to leave you with these last stats since 20120 there have been 680 suicide attempts in Navajo County 19.9% of those were children in 2021 there were 44 child suicide deaths in Navajo County in 2022 there were 39 child suicide deaths in Navajo County in 2023 there were 47 and as of right now 2024 and it's may we already have seven child suicide deaths in Navajo County I need to passed you guys out some information because I only had three minutes so there's some other data in there thank you thank you I I know know we are looking into that and we just uh continue our legal research into that thank you for your presentation anyone else like to address the board at this time if not we'll just announce that our regular board meeting will be June 11th at 5:00 pm at this location um need to have a motion to adjourn have a motion from Chuck a second from Margaret all in favor of adment raise your hand say I I thank you thank you Diana

inviting Dr gr superintendent schools for purposes of the superintendent's end of the year evaluation for collective bargaining regarding the custodial contract motion thank you Kim another second thank you s all those in favor I okay so we are going into an executive session so thank you ladies

we are J than

for now for [Music] y e [Music] to [Music] to [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] for B what [Music] w [Music] for [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] e [Music] [Applause] e [Music] oh [Music] h [Music] St [Music] la h [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] h [Music] la a [Music] la oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Music] [Applause] ladies and gentlemen honored guests from our District administration and School Board esteemed faculty members proud parents and above all the exceptional graduates of the Liberty High School class of 2024 welcome to this momentous occasion Today We Gather not only to Mark the end of one chapter but to celebrate the remarkable achievements of these talented individuals before us at this time would everyone please stand for the presentation of the colors by The Academy School District 20 Air Force J J RC color guard and the singing of the national anthem by Liberty Jazz choir presenting the colors are Cadet Joshua Baker Cadet Amaya Barry Cadet Jeremiah brickin and Cadet Nicholas kovacevich please remain standing until the colors have left the floor [Music] oh say can you see by [Music] the streaming and The Rock r [Music] [Applause] in the night [Music] FL of the and the [Music] home the Brave the [Applause] thank you you may be [Applause] seated good afternoon my name is lean th and I serve an assistant as an assistant principal and activities director at Liberty High School it is now my honor to introduce a group of individuals who have played integral roles in shaping the Journey of our graduates please join me in welcoming representatives from our Academy School District 20 Administration their leadership vision and unwavering commitment to Excellence Have Been instrumental in guiding our educational Community towards success our superintendent Mrs Ginger haberer Deputy superintendent and Chief Financial Officer Miss Becky Allen assistant superintendent for learning Services Dr Susan field director for curriculum and instruction Mrs tacy [Applause] Killingsworth next let us acknowledge the members of The Academy School District 20 School Board their efforts and advocacy for the quality education have helped pave the way for the achievements we are celebrating today today our school board president Mr Aaron salt vice president Mrs Nicole K Treasurer Mrs Amy Shandy director Mr Derek Wilburn and director Mrs Lauren [Applause] yannes I would also like to introduce members of the Liberty ad Administration team who provide guidance and support that Foster an environment where our graduates could find a place to stand and Thrive and Excel our principal and fearless leader Mr Matthew sisen assistant principal for the class of 2024 Miss Kelly Hoy assistant principal Mrs Sarah Ricky assistant principal athletic director Mr David Thomas dean of students Mrs Heather Conor and dean of students Mrs Caitlyn [Applause] erson it is highly important that I recognize a special group of individuals who are instrumental in fostering the growth and successes of our students throughout their High School careers our Liberty High School staff members are among the best Educators I have ever ENC countered and serve as mentors guides and Inspirations to our students they are tireless in their efforts in supporting Student Success in the classroom our staff is committed to Excellence in teaching the use of innovative instructional strategies and cultivating positive relationships with students Liberty staff would you please stand and be recognized [Applause] and finally it is with great pleasure that I introduce our student speakers from the class of 2024 these individuals represent the caliber of this graduating class and the commitment to achievement both inside and outside the classroom they represent numerous programs on our campus including student council National Honors Society Athletics Deca and knowledge Bowl just to name a few these fantastic students are models for academic achievement and they all have Bright Futures ahead of them our valid dictorian Oliver Lambert our salutatorian Avery Turner our commencement speaker Chandler orne and our student body president Briana frer at this time it is my pleasure to give a few more details about our first student speaker she is a model of academic achievement as she has taken many honors advanced placement and concurrent enrollment courses during her time at Liberty as a leader in the building she has served on student council for the past four years and was a link leader in helping our freshman transition into high school she has been a member of our Varsity softball team and the National Honor Society over the past four years she has put her heart and soul into Liberty High high school as both a student and a leader her leadership style is one of kindness and service to others ladies and gentlemen your student body president for the class of 2024 Miss Briana [Applause] frer thank you miss the and thank you to the fellow students families friends staff and especially the instructors who made the last four years as memorable as they were my name is Briana frer and I am so honored to welcome you to the graduating class of [Applause] 2024 Although our start in a new and strange Place completely alone and isolated was not the traditional one to one's High School career the ending was everything we could have dreamed for and more I'm grateful to be here in front of you all and before we continue on about today and what lies ahead please allow me to take a moment to reflect on everything we've accomplished thus far particularly in our senior year we kicked off with one of the largest attended homecoming football games in years with the stands filled largely with seniors Not only was the game packed full that night we also had a glorious win thanks to our senior players down on that field but ladies we can't give the guys all the credit down there we took home the trophy for both our senior year Powderpuff game and were also able to destroy the competition in our junior year as well we went up against the class of 2023 and earned one of the first Junior wins Liberty High School had ever [Applause] seen this year our senior soccer boys stole the show as they Advanced to the 5A quarterfinals in state playoffs but the turf wasn't the only place we dominated this year we also demonstrated our domination on the ice the hockey team made it to the 4A state playoffs for the first time in 23 [Applause] years and let me tell you they earned every minute of it in total we had 13 athletes who committed to play at the Collegiate [Applause] level now while we have great athletic Talent among our group what's migher than our braa is truly our brains as a whole our class has received over 7 billion dollar in scholarships with much more to come speaking of brains though the robotics Science Olympiad and knowledgeable senior members certainly demonstrated their intellectual prowess winning more accolades and first place prizes than you could count on both hands [Applause] our Arts programs such as band made it a state and received a score of superior with distinction one of the highest scores possible to obtain thank you to the 16 seniors who contributed to that result band wasn't the only one killing it in the Arts though choir was also making themselves heard literally where five seniors went to All State one of which even made it to the All State Jazz [Applause] choir finally dance sent one senior to All State where they truly dance the night away our activities like Deca and FBLA earned some State recognition one of which was the state champion in networking infrastructure another club who deserves some praise is National Honor Society with a class of 2024 completed over 1,000 volunteer hours throughout this year which is remarkable the scope of what we've accomplished collectively this year would leave me rambling up here for hours and trust me I wish I could shout out more because there is but the greatness we achieved this year is only the beginning don't forget that while you're looking back on all you've accomplished so far to face what's com coming next because extraordinary things are still to come and it's up to you from here you've all proven your ability to go out and sees what's yours so what's stopping you thank you for the last four years of my [Applause] life and I am proud to introduce the salutatorian Avery Turner to the podium next she yes she has achieved an astounding GPA of 4645 and she is attending CSU in mechanical [Applause] engineering but from personal experience the books aren't the only place you will find this girl she was honored as a girl leading change at the White House for international day of girl as well as the Director of programs for blue military teens here at Liberty she was a member of Latin NHS National Honor Society and a rocky leader she was team captain for girls dive and as four-time Varsity letter earner as well as a two-time state qualifier I could stand at this Podium for hours rambling on about the accomplishments she has made but I would like to say one last thing Avery is one of the most genuine friends you will ever have and deserves all the praise she gets because there is truly no one I've ever met that is as dedicated as her I'm proud to call you my friend and introduce you to her all today please give a round of applause to Avery Turner [Applause] no before I begin I want to thank a few important people for their presence today in support of our graduates thank you Mrs habber and members of The Academy District 20 school board thank you principal sis thank you parents friends and family and thank you class of 2024 [Applause] Taylor Swift says I've spent my whole life trying to put it in words well in this case is trying to explain High School in one word I think I finally settled on it nerd usually you think of a nerd as someone who spends most of their time studying and doing homework they might have a high grades or take difficult classes probably you'd put me into that category but but that's not all there is to being a nerd to me a nerd is someone who manages to pull off a balancing act with school at any level and all of their commitments outside of it it's an impressive feat that takes an incredible amount of dedication this effort is why the word nerd means more than it seems nerds can be the best athletes the best leaders and the best friends you know they shouldn't be reduced to only their academic achievements they're real people with very real lives and so here's the twist if you're here today graduating you are also a nerd you might not see yourself as one but you balance school and the life you lived outside of it so you're what I Define as a nerd it takes hard work to keep your grades up when you can't devote all of your time to them which none of us can really do you are someone who put in the time to be able to graduate today each and every one of us had our own unique journey of nerdom that brought us here we didn't follow the same path and will continue on our own individual ones after today yet still we all share our nerdiness in being here and so I want to thank some of the people who helped me embrace my own Journey as a nerd thank you Miss Goen for always being ready to talk to me and answer my questions thank you Miss alicio for using your math methods that aren't in any textbook to make me feel like a genius thank you Mr Faceman for teaching me the importance of establishing connections both in and out of school thank you Mr St for showing me how to connect history together through cheese thank you Miss paulen for making me understand government through speed dating and an overly competitive election thank you Mr vas Nellis for growing my self-confidence through the ability to read a dead language and thank you Mac for always giving me a place where I didn't need to think about grades where I always felt encouraged to go way beyond my comfort zone thank you to all of my teachers for teaching past the curriculum and sharing your nerdiness with me thank you to my family they put up with so many panics about test grades and due dates and they attended countless events in support of me I wouldn't be anywhere without you and most of all thank you class of 2024 for all being a bunch of nerds with me [Applause] I can be changed by what happens to me but I refuse to be reduced by it these words by Maya Angelou capture the resilience of the class of 2024 as well as this year's selected commencement speaker Chandler orne came to the Lancer nation in 2021 as a sophomore when he his family moved to Colorado Springs from Woodland Park Colorado he desired to be a part of a community that offered a variety of opportunities finding a home at Liberty allowed Chandler to take full advantage of our wide range of course offerings and activities and make meaningful connections to student and staff Chandler has taken pre-advanced placement advanced placement current enrollment classes through Pikes Peak State College additionally he is graduating with a CNA license after completing our certified nursing assistant course this year outside of the classroom Chandler is highly involved he serves as the DECA president and is one of only three students who have been in Deca for the past three years he is also a two-time state qualifier he is a member of FBLA and qualified for state for that organization this year as well well for the past two years chanders has served as student council representative and a link leader providing guidance and mentorship to new freshmen he also worked closely with the superintendent and Board of Education this year as he was recommended for the district's portrait of a graduate Committee in addition Chandler played on the district boys volleyball team for two years at DCC when he has not pres when he has not participated in an event himself he is attending and supporting various extracurricular events at Liberty to support his fellow students he has also enjoyed building relationships with the LHS staff as Chandler has gotten older he values those staff members who have been most impactful and he has learned from it is no surprise that some of Chandler's greatest strengths are his inpersonal and communication skills he loves to talk get to know others and create create friendships there is an immediate ease you feel and authenticity you recognize when engaging in a conversation with him these are Priceless skills and qualities that sadly are no longer as prevalent rivaling his incredible hair arguably Chandler's most endearing quality is his love for his family he takes great pride that he is a reflection of both of his parents for they taught him the importance of hard work and Independence he attributes his desire to travel and sense of adventure to his dad Chandler will be embarking on a new adventure of his own pursuing a career in medicine at the University of Arizona Chandler gives credit to his mom for his ambition outgoing personality and value of connecting to others Chandler lost his mom to cancer when he was 13 years old yet his memories of her are as vibrant as ever Chandler is a self-proclaimed mama's boy who remembers her drive and how much she loved hosting social events she was known as the hostess with the mostest she instilled in him the words think it believe it and it shall be while taking care of his mom may have developed Chandler's initial passion to pursue health care and help others her words will guide him as he chases his dream of becoming a physician's assistant with great honor I introduce to you our commencement speaker for the class of 2024 Chandler [Applause] [Music] orne wow thank you Miss Hoy for that wonderful introduction and good afternoon before I begin I want to give a quick shout out to my family because none of them knew I was giving this speech today so surprise as you may know my name is Chandler orne and I am extremely honored to be selected as your 20124 commencement speaker today we find ourselves in an extraordinary moment not merely as Spectators but as the focal point of a long- awaited ceremony our graduation so with that being said welcome welcome parents friends family esteemed faculty and loved ones who can't be here with us today in person but most importantly I want to personally welcome the class of 2024 I'd like to take a quick moment to thank the board members present here today and a special thank you to miss Haber our superintendent as well in addition to the board I want to commemorate our principal Mr sisen and all of the Liberty High School staff for their endless dedication to teaching the leaders of tomorrow for always making Liberty a place to stand so that we as students can move the Earth you know I knew that Liberty High School was like no other as soon as I watched the class of 22 pop their confetti cannons on my first day at Liberty the amount of students inspired me to become so much more than just a student I wanted to become something bigger within the community and little by little I learned to confide in staff members and learn from them not only in the classroom but in areas outside of high school as well I want to especially thank Miss Evans a teacher who I've had the pleasure of knowing all of my three years here at Liberty Miss Evans you have truly inspired me to step outside of my comfort zone to try new things to smile and to really Chase what makes me happy all while having a good credit score so now that we're all here standing together in our cap and gowns I want you to go ahead and think back to your younger self walking around campus remember the nerves the excitement that feeling of being lost and I want you to think about what you would say to your younger self but if you happen to run into my old self wandering the halls of Liberty I was hoping you could tell him a few things for me tell him not to worry so much let him know that he'll make so many friendships and connections at Liberty and that he'll impact countless lives along the way ask him to redefine his expectations of what a good teacher is and then tell him that the staff at Liberty will exceed them by a long shot tell him that it's good to have a plan but it's also good to take it rip it up and do something wild and daring with your life even if it feels like you're taking all of your hard work and throwing it away looking back I wish I would have known that things can go so amazingly incredibly right but also terribly and disastrously wrong all at the same time so my advice is to just keep going but with confidence even your wrong decisions can be redeemed and transformed into something better than you could have ever imagined whatever choice you make is not a definitive end or the only beginning it's you carving your own path for Success you will get where you need to be I promise because you can't write yourself out of your own destiny so if there's anything that I want you to take from the speech today don't play it safe comfortable is not where the action is being comfortable is not where you're going to find out who you really are now I couldn't possibly know what your biggest dream is or where your true happiness will be found but I know where it isn't it isn't in your comfort zone your destiny is on the other side of a big risk so don't be afraid to stand up for what's best for your future there is so much life to be lived out there and many people ask well what is the purpose and what's the meaning behind all this but I don't think that question is ours to answer as of now our purpose is to live and to have lived a full life and to look back and not have any regrets and to say you know I made the most of being alive because what a small minute chance that you would be alive at the same time as me same time as your best friend or someone that you love so take that chance create those stories learn from your mistakes surround yourself with people who actually support you and finally go out there and live your best life with absolutely no regrets congratulations and good luck to the class of 2024 we all deserve it thank you [Applause] [Music] I used to rule the world Seas would rise when I gave the world now in the morning I sleep Al sweep the streets I used I used to all the the fear in my enemy's eyes listen as the crowd would sing now the king is King King next the walls were closed on me and I discovered that my cast stand upon pill of Sal and pillars [Music] of Cal singing be my Mir my sword and shield missionaries in a forign field for some Reon I can't explain there never in all that was when I R the world [Music] [Applause] [Music] fi for some reason I can't explain all my all his word that was when I ruled the world [Music] [Applause] Thank You choir for that wonderful performance and now it is my distinct honor to be introducing Liberty High School's class valedictorian Oli Lambert Oli has ascended to the top of our class earning a 4.64 GPA through his remarkable achievements and dedication to Excellence not only is he the recipient of the prestigious Daniels fund scholarship but he also excels in athletics balancing his time between track cross country and Tennis beyond the field and Court alli's leadership shines as the captain of the knowledgeable team he's not all about academics and sports though oi is also a devoted member of his church and a member of The Fellowship of Christian athletes andol embodying values of faith and Community his accolades extend further as a distinguished recipient of the order of the crest Liberty's highest award yet if you were to ask him what his greatest achievement in high school was it was probably being president of the pickle ball Club moving forward olly will attend the United States Air Force Academy to study engineering this fall my advice to anyone also attending the academy definitely snag a seat next to this guy in your next math class now I could stand up here forever and talk about all these achievements his friends and his family that got him to this point but I'm going to let him do most of the talking so without further Ado please join me in a huge round of applause as I award Oli his Medallion and welcome him to the stage [Applause] so first of all thank you Chandler that was amazing um good afternoon before I begin I'd like to recognize our superintendent Mrs Haber our principal Mr sisen parents honored guests and most importantly the class of 2024 [Applause] I know we all worked incredibly hard to be sitting here today but we couldn't have done it without the endless support of the people I just mentioned and so many others I'd also like to extend a personal thanks to a few of the people who have been most instrumental in my own journey to Mrs Goen Mrs alicio Mr falman Mrs paulen Mr strob and all my teachers thank you for cultivating my love of learning and helping mold me into the student and person I am today [Applause] to my friends thank you for welcoming me when I moved here two years ago and truly making this place feel like home to my parents and my four siblings Phillip Maria Greta and Eli thank you for having my back no matter what and finally I want to thank God for giving me this opportunity and being with me every second of the way the first thing I want to talk about today is the insignificance of ceilings and by ceilings I mean constraints to what we think is possible Albert Einstein once said once we accept our limits we go beyond them I believe most of our limits are self-placement at LHS in sports academics Music Theater and clubs I've seen us exceed all expectations as we now enter new schools and workplaces and and pursue excellence in all Realms don't be afraid to continue to challenge your limits and reach beyond what you think is possible don't shy away from trying new things and taking risks I've discovered throughout my life that is very hard to overestimate the potential for long-term progress I'm sure that each one of us sitting here to today is capable of much more than even we believe and I can't wait to see us redefine our limits but while we work toward our future we can't abandon the present what makes life worth living isn't achieving goals it's experiencing and enjoying the ordinary moments in each day most of our Lives will be spent in routine most days won't seem special as I've learned over the past four years it's so important to savor these days because ordinary moments within them create the Fondest Memories the friendships you build and the laughs you share will shape the person you become these are the moments you remember so I encourage all of you to live without fears or inhibitions I encourage you to chase your dreams and challenge your limits but most of all I encourage you to find joy in the process once again congratulations to all of you and good luck in your next chapter thank you at this time I would like to introduce our superintendent of Academy School District 20 Mrs Ginger [Applause] Haber Mrs Haber joined our district for the first time this school year and brings with her over 35 years of educational experience she started her educational career in in the classroom teaching science language arts and Mathematics at the high school level as an administrator she served as a principal for 10 years before taking on the role of director of student achievement at Aurora Public Schools she also served as an assistant superintendent of student achievement for four years in the pter school district prior to becoming superintendent for the Ellensburg School District in the state of Washington in her role as our superintendent Mrs Haber is committed to help helping students achieve academic Excellence through a variety of different Pathways ladies and Gentlemen please allow me to invite Mrs Ginger Haber to the podium to address our graduating class of [Applause] 2024 the steam members of the graduating class of 2024 distinguished guests faculty and family amilies we're almost there uh I think you'd all agree as we look out at our graduates our future is in good hands so congratulations Liberty Lancers class of 2024 let's give it up for them [Applause] again you did it you finished your K12 journey and you're ready to launch into your future Beyond High School As We Gather to uh just recognize and appreciate the remarkable accomplishments of our graduating seniors I am overwhelmed with a sense of Pride and admiration for every one of you your high school Journey was nothing short of extraordinary marked by determination the development of strong academic skills and that Relentless pursuit of excellence and as you stand on the threshold told of a new pathway in your life I encourage you to embrace the future with boundless optimism and unwavering resolve in our district we are privileged to be home to the United States Air Force Academy a beacon of Honor courage and service the values instilled within the walls of the academy resonate deeply with the ideals that we hold dear Integrity excellence and a commitment to something greater than ourselves and as we seek to live these values I urge you to remember the words of General Coen pal s there are no secrets to success it is a result of preparation hard work and learning from failure equally important the support from family friends and faculty has equipped you to go forth with knowledge SK skills and character to overcome those challenges that may come ahead and as I look out at all of you I can't help but think of my own two sons who sat in similar seats awaiting their diplomas and as a mom I too sat in the stands as so many families here today experiencing the butterflies and anxiety that come from watching our now young adults take this next step and as an educator I am also thinking of my fellow teachers and staff in this room these students here are here today because of your dedication to their education watching them walk across the stage and just a few moments is the Pinnacle of your success so students please take time today to thank the team of folks that have supported your K12 travels and amidst the formality of this event let's not forget to celebrate with joy and laughter seniors take time today to enjoy the camaraderie of your classmates and cherish those High School memories that mean so much to all of us as we celebrate our individual accomplishments and reflect on the past let us also recognize the collective responsibility that we bear on a broader scale the world is evolving at a rapid Pace presenting both challenges es and opportunities on a global scale believe in your ability to affect positive change in the world and never underestimate the impact that a single act of kindness or a bold Vision can have on shaping the course of history in short live by the words of famous Anthropologist Margaret me never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world in fact it is the only thing that ever has so again congratulations class of 2024 the world is yours for the taking so go forth and make it a better place for generations to [Applause] come for e [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] nah [Music] n [Music] la [Music] [Applause] Miss Haber members of The Academy School District 20 Board of Education it is an honor to present to you the Liberty High School graduating class of 2024 and to certify that every student that walks across the state today and is presented a diploma has met the graduation requir ments as established by The Academy District 20 board of education class of 2024 your graduation today is a remarkable accomplishment you will now Embark upon an exciting new chapter and take the next steps closer to fulfilling your life goals and aspirations you stand on the cusp of a future that is both bright and vibrant through your years at Liberty you have obtained the skill sets the values and the networks to embrace the world confidently and boldly with these you will be ready to navigate your future and create a better tomorrow for yourselves your families and your community Mr Wilburn I proudly certify the Liberty High School graduates of 2024 and present them to you for your acceptance on behalf of the Academy School District 20 Board of Education thank you [Applause] on behalf of the Board of Education of Academy District 20 I accept with pride and pleasure the 2024 graduating class of Liberty High School seniors congratulations on a job well done Mr sisen thank you and your staff for an outstanding job for for know for Sophie Christine Adams [Applause] Emma Nicole Al barano Danny Wayne eler Diego Armando Alvarado Ethan Tate Anderson Jacob William Anderson Seth Carter Anderson Kina Leia antcliff Memphis Quinn [Applause] babbit Benjamin Ry barus graduating with high honors McKenna banan [Music] [Applause] Barner Tyler Blaine barus James Charles beish Callum Daniel Barons Amelia yamina Bennett Ethan Michael Lee BL graduating with high honors Taran Rose Boland Ethan Jess bolock Ry Booth graduating with high honors Haley and boss Mitchell John B graduating with high honors Katie Olivia boss Mariah May [Applause] bovie graduating with honors Katy Lyn Rose burer graduating with honors Matthew John Brooker graduating with high honors Evan Perry Brinker Joey Dean Bridges Jr graduating with honors Lauren Savannah Brown Hannah Lorraine Brown Owen Finn Bruner Brooklyn Ashton Bruce Holden Christopher Burns JC Lee [Applause] bunk Allison Lynn Calderon graduating with honors Brandon Thomas bis [Applause] Cecilia cardas Alvarado graduating with honors Anthony Edward galora Taran Moriah Carter Matthew Aiden kedi John Patrick Kor graduating with honors Evan Alexander Carson Alexis Jane Clark graduating with high honors Monroe Ali [Applause] Castle Gideon robbert Conway Austin Christopher [Applause] Castro Aiden James Council Mason Matthew [Music] consoli graduating with honor Samuel Steven coer Thomas Edward [Applause] Cado Logan Hunter kuta Isabelle Megan Lynn Courtright Caleb Ethan Davis graduating with honors Chloe Jean [Music] Cunningham Conor Jonathan Davis graduating with honors kale Samuel Davidson graduating with honors Mia Amy De clerk Co William Davis graduating with honors Colton Robert deac graduating with honors Ava Elizabeth [Music] [Applause] Doss jayton dickas elissia Rihanna D'Angelo graduating with high honor Sarah Victoria dvar yes graduating with honors Remy Lane [Applause] debolt graduating with honors Hannah Elizabeth Dodson graduating with honors Philippine Julie Jean Del Forge graduating with honors Mason Donaldson graduating with honors so kalista deasio trig Thomas dunion Marissa Gizelle [Applause] Dominguez graduating with high honors Kevin Riley Eichelberger graduating with high honors McKenna Joe [Applause] Donahue graduating with honors Haley Marie escabel graduating with high honors Ellie an inhouse Danielson Frank Estrada Sophia Rose Marie Embry Rebecca Bethlehem Fitch Caleb Clayton Estrada graduated with high honors Hayden Marie Flynn Owen Dwayne Evans graduating with high honors Nadia Aaron Flynn Alton matis [Applause] Fletcher Brandt Everett Foreside graduating with honors gonner Carson [Applause] Foley graduating with honors Cassidy Virginia gagos graduating with high honors Mason Charles [Applause] Ford Alysa Michelle [Music] Gardner Dominic Thomas pooke Sean Riley giry graduating with honors Katie Elizabeth [Applause] frost deani Nel getter graduating with high honors Timothy John [Music] gster graduating with honor Chase [Music] gross graduating with high honors Lauren Elizabeth [Applause] [Music] Gentry Isabella anelise Gonzalez graduating with honors Gabriel Brenton [Applause] Goen Ethan Daniel rber graduating with honors Cameron Everett [Music] Gibson Kylie Joe Graham Abigail Grace gilotti Joshua Riley gruna Meer Aaron Nathaniel Goin ER Logan Hall Jordan Christine Goodman Caleb maros hand graduating with high honors Colin Joseph Graham Ethan Carl havenner graduating with high honors Emma Caroline Granderson bro Shan Hensel Kaye and [Music] hos graduating with honors Maggie and Haywood graduating with high honors Sarah Waverly hamus graduating with honors Jaden Anthony Zion Hill Jonathan Andrew [Music] Hardy Justin Mae Hudson Jonathan Wesley Colton Havens Paige Michelle Hollingsworth graduating with honors Austin Gregory Hinrich Jackson Phoenix hunts graduating with honors Cassandra Joy [Applause] hearen Aiden Joseph Hy graduating with honors Hannah Marie [Music] hopster Kennedy Nicole Inman Andrea J Honus graduating with high honors Ashlin Monae Jenkins Jake Liam [Applause] huget Shane Anthony Amato juwel Haley Simone Holt [Applause] Gabriela Jacqueline Johnson Logan Cade [Music] Hudson Zachary James Jud Christopher card [Applause] Hunter Owen Isaac kegarise Ariana luren Robel Jacob William kellerer graduating with high honors Kennedy Michaela [Music] Jensen Aiden Michael killan Giovanni Amadeo Alexander Jennings [Music] [Applause] Katherine Emily killan Elijah phix rain heenez graduating with honors Carson Alexander Co graduating with honors tracon [Music] justinen Connor David crosy Michaela Lyn [Applause] Kean Jayla Nicole kulakowski graduating with honors Samantha Haley [Music] Keen graduating with honors Landon Reese kuster graduating with honors Olivia Nicole Kidwell Kane Laurer Locker James August kol Brena Elizabeth Christine Lancaster Brook Lyn Kramer graduating with high honors Savannah Kate [Music] lley Paige jenon Kramer Aiden Jackson Lee Christopher Robert [Music] kunu mateline Renee [Music] Lee graduating with high honors Michaela assel [Music] Labrador graduating with hi honors Sydney Marie lenck Eli Michael lamoria Brian James Maron graduating with honors Olivia Marie Lanning Hunter David lindblad Zoe K levit Zachary ausen little graduating with high honors Ellison H Lee Adam Joseph Lovel graduating with high honors Hannah Celeste lmy bam Andrew lvo Zane shello Kim Leon [Music] Guerrero Parker Wilson lble Emma Karin Li graduating with honors Ava ranell lond Seth Andrew Lippert Alexander Jaden [Applause] Lewis graduating with high honors Sarah in Long [Applause] Amelia Grace McAn graduating with honors Lillian Raul [Music] Lugo Maximus Apollo Martinez EMT Charles [Applause] Luhan Cassidy Annabeth math Paige Nicole [Applause] luks Riley Grace mcblair Kate Elizabeth [Applause] londell Ren rayana Rose [Applause] mlan graduating with High honors Ava hope [Applause] manhire graduating with high honors Lydia leadon [Music] mcuny Mia Isabella Marquez Brandon Joseph Melaney [Applause] Vanessa Jaden [Applause] massud Lindy an [Music] mcgonagle Danica Pauline Mayor Michael Cyrus Medina jna pette mayor graduating with high honors John McKinley Miller Matthew John [Applause] mccon graduating with honors Paige Elizabeth Miller Kylie Jean McCormack Matthew James Ming graduating with high honors Kirsten Michelle mcfarren Stevie Jacob mishki graduating with high honors Alexis Christine me Jesus Noah [Music] Molina Dean Russell Meyer [Applause] trayana Lee Morin graduating with honors Genevie Noel Meyer Amani Mutu muso Caitlyn Marie Miller Stevens Emily Pearl new [Applause] Eric Martin Miranda graduating with honors Juliet Elizabeth Nome Jacob Ronald Mitchell James Thomas Nicks Aiden Randall Montoya Devin Michael nurel Avery Linda Morse graduating with high honors Elijah Richard [Applause] ophal Laura Jane Murray Nathaniel Lee Osborne Jacob Dale Nelson graduating with high honors Valerie Isabella Paladino Elizabeth Gail [Applause] [Music] newbie Austin Scott Parker Micah Daniel Newton graduating with honors kayn Ariana pyton graduating with honors Jak jaob Allen nuner Nathan James Peele Patrick Richard oir Sophie Perez Trinity kayn O'Neal graduating with high honors Lily may Perkins Sophie Delilah Hanbury orway graduating with honors tears of Cheyenne Peters Cooper Ryan Owens graduating with high honors Anderson Dean Phillips Sienna Lucia pachella Dylan Conley Pope graduating with honors Connor Keith Pantano graduating with honors Sadie Grace [Music] profet graduating with high honors rehea Elizabeth [Music] patino Ivy Brooke Rackley graduating with high honors Elizabeth Anne pter grad graduating with honors Isabella Marie [Music] Ragsdale graduating with honors Karen I need Perales thank you Kennedy Grace Randall graduating with honors Braden Robert Allen Perkins Jonathan Daniel Riley Cade EFM Peters nelisa annaya Rivera Hernandez graduating with high honors Meredith Devin Peterson thank you Aela Marie Roberts thank you Juliana Marie P Kyler Isaiah Robinson Kyle Eli Pratt and theres Rogers graduating with honors miles Kenneth primis graduating with honor Zachary Allen Rogers Zachary Allen Provost thanks graduating with honors Elijah Paul rupo graduating with honors Rowan Edward R Isabella Nicole Santana graduating with high honors Elise Claire Randall graduating with honors Marshall James shach Wesley Powell reek [Applause] Sadie May schroer graduating with honors Kaden Thomas Rivera Gren Daniel Scruggs Tristan Lauren Rivera graduating with honors Maya gra cely graduating with high honors Emily Lauren Robertson graduating with high honors Mason Hunter seminario Jackson Robert Rocky Nicholas kooper shery Isabella Elena [Applause] Rogers Natalie graduating with honors Natalie Monroe shery [Applause] Alexa Marina Rosales palomarez graduating with honors Mason James Simmons graduating with honors Lucas Rowan samsel Aiden Andrew [Music] Smith Carter Allan sand graduating with high honors Carol and Grace Smith Lucas D Sullivan satri Aiden Jean Smith Phillips William Henry schmidth Madison Marie [Applause] Sparks Isabelle K Schultz Kelly Lynn steinhauser right on buddy graduating with honors Ryan Lamar Cedar kale Aiden Stone Aiden Daniel [Music] [Applause] Siler graduating with high honors Sydney Paige suner Olivia Ray Sarah thank you graduating with honors Tatiana tan Taylor graduating with honors Emma and shaunessy Bruna Baki theer graduating with honors Tiana roselina shoi thank graduating with honors Eric Keith Thompson Gabriel Elijah Singh Davon Javon Turner Ashley Elizabeth [Music] Smith graduating with high honors Micah Benjamin [Music] Valance graduating with honors Shayla Renee Smith Austin Jacob Vasquez Jordan Delaney [Applause] snip graduating with honors Jennifer Lopez Vela graduating with high honors key Elizabeth Stafford graduating with honors Mia Laurel veners Brook Elizabeth Steinberg [Music] Tristan Alexander Ward summer Elizabeth stalk Eliza Anne [Music] Waters graduating with honors Emma Karin [Applause] CE Trista Faith Welden graduate with honors Kylie Samantha Tangen Briana Lynn [Applause] Wells graduating with honors Mata Zoe tenbrink Ashlin Channing Westover graduating with high honors Megan Michelle [Applause] Thomasson graduating with high honors Grady Owen White graduating with high honors stevenh Thomas te graduating with high honors railen Marie Whiting Alexander Nicholas Underwood graduating with high honors Aaron Zachary Willis Wesley Adam Venus Shan Austin will son Aiden Carter mckyle ve graduating with high honors Brena McKenzie REI Nancy Elizabeth Vasquez Lano graduating with honors Emily Christina [Applause] Yates graduating with high honors Ali Elizabeth Bosman [Applause] Gabriel Ryan young graduating with honors Kira Michelle [Applause] Warner Alexandra Marina [Applause] zooki Isaac Kaden [Applause] Wheeland Leilani Melissa Zas Duran [Music] Ryan Andrew [Applause] whan zarena Ava Allison [Applause] zanada Trooper Ry [Music] [Applause] Wells Chloe McKenzie Simmons graduating with high honors Virginia and Wheeler Brooke and [Music] blad Charles Elijah Dallas [Applause] [Music] Whitfield Casey James Wilkinson Adella Sage WIS and [Applause] Reed Parker Chase Yates Leah Marie [Music] young penda atosha [Applause] maramu Lillian Isabelle [Music] Zimmerman Cole Dutch zosi [Applause] Isabella Eve [Applause] curell cadence Marie [Applause] Posas graduating with high honors Oliver Dwight [Applause] Lambert graduating with high honors Avery Lorraine [Applause] Turner Chandler James orne graduating with high honors Briana Lynn [Applause] fraker e [Music] to yeah you didn't yeah class of [Music] 24 at this time as is tradition I invite the Liberty staff to depart to the back of the Arena to wish you well as you exit through the gauntlet to receive your diplomas staff parents as we get ready for the Turning of the Tas I do ask a couple of quick housekeeping pieces uh please look to meet your students graduates rather outside the entrance gets a little congested so be patient also we have a graduation ceremony for Discovery Canyon following our ceremony so if you could please clean up in the area around you that' be very helpful uh to the custodial staff here so I appre appreciate that always one more laugh with you guys wasn't there thank you you never disappoint guys oh here we go class of 24 the Turning of the tassel is a Time honor tradition and a symbol of success the tassel is placed on the right to signify that you've earned the right to graduate moving the tassel to the left after graduating is symbolic of crossing over from high school to the next stage of your life Lancers at this time will you please [Music] rise class of 2024 at this time will you please turn your tassels from right to left left to signify your status as graduates congratulations class of [Applause] 2024 Junior attendants will you please Glide the class of 2024 to their exits congratulations class of 2024 you are dismissed [Applause] [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] w [Music] you oh [Music] you oh [Music] we'll [Music] oh [Music] f [Music] w [Music]

[Music] e [Music] what good morning i' would like to make a quick announcement apparently the gate is still backed up a little bit and we still have quite a few families that are still trying to get in and we really don't want people to miss this important event so we're going to push back the start 15 minutes so please know we're going to start at 10:15 to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to get in so please visit with your friends and family and we'll get started at 10:15 thank you e [Music] e [Music] for oh [Music] e [Music] come I [Music] back [Music] B [Music] we see [Music] take [Music] oh [Music] wait I feel [Music] oh [Music] la [Music] for e e e [Music] h [Music] e [Music] oh [Music] la [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] for [Music] y [Music] all [Music] the [Music] for [Music] la [Music] h [Music] [Applause] ladies and Gentlemen please stay standing for the presentation of the Colors by the academy 20 Air Force junor Roc under the command of Cadet chief Master Sergeant Lizzie tempia and the singing of the national anthem by the one and only miss Natalie huzi oh oh say can you see by the da light what so proudly we head at the Twilight last gleaming who BR stripes and bright stars through the perous fight or the ramp parts we watch were so gly streaming and The Rock red glare the bombs merting in a gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh s us that star spangled B yet W or the land of the free and the home of the brave [Applause] you may all be seated [Applause] [Music] it is my great pleasure to welcome family friends teachers admin and the Board of Education to the cloon arena for the graduation ceremony for the class of 2024 Today We Gather to celebrate the achievements of our incredible graduates and bid them farewell as they embark on their Journey beond these Halls graduates you made through long years of schooling and education where dedication and hard work carried you through exams papers and assignments you made it through late night rehearsals and practices where you found a balance between hardship and rejoicing you made it through broken and restored relationships where the importance of character and a true friendship persevered we have made it through some of the most challenging and strenuous years of Our Lives while still making some of the most unforgettable memories and experiences that I all hope we cherish forever and after a long absence we can reminisce on the beauty of our high school years as you step out into the world equipped with these skills and wisdom acquired during your time here know that you will carry with you the hopes and dreams of those who have supported you along the way embrace the challenges that lie ahead and courage and determination for you have the power to make the difference in this world every graduate has paved their own way while here at Air Academy each journey is specific to each individual and every hour is different and unique however no no matter the variation every trial and every praise has positively developed the characters of these graduates the fact that they are titled graduates highlights this incredible growth I'm beyond ecstatic to see these individuals step out into the world using the character that makes them unique and apply it in every aspect of their life I looking forward to seeing the amazing and unique lives that my peers have created in the future all while remembering the fun we had in high school I excited to hear of all the amazing accomplishments that this class will perform whether it be heart surgery teaching elementary students the class of 2024 will change the world I know this because I've already seen it though many of you may be leaving the school behind remember that you are always part of our community stay connected and continue to strive for excellence and never forget the values instilled in your time here and with that once again congratulations on this incredible achievement and welcome to your graduation Savor this moment and celebrate your success and embrace the endless possibilities that lie ahead thank you [Applause] thank you Avery and thank all of you for attending this morning I would like to give a few thank yous to the people who have made this important event possible from ER Academy High School Miss Lisa Townsen Miss Janie Gonzalez Miss Joanie Coleman Mr Doug Duran and Mrs Anna kylan thank you all for your efforts joining me on stage are superintendent Ginger habber Deputy superintendent Miss Becky Allen assistant superintendent Dr Susan field executive director Dr Becky Harris and my new boss so we all have to be specially uh nice to her so and representing the United States Air Force former board representative to the United States Air Force Academy Colonel Bill [Music] Sullivan and proud papa of one of our graduates Ally Mr Derek wilbourne Schoolboard director Miss Nicole KH School Board director board director Miss Lauren yanz Schoolboard treasur Miss Amy [Applause] Shandy and Mr Aaron salt board president thank you all for your unwavering support to the students and staff of Air Academy High School congratulations to the class of 2024 you made it from the first day of your freshman year through the final events of these past few weeks it has all come down to this I am so proud of you and what you have accomplished during this time it is important to give thanks to all of those that have helped you along your journey I would like to thank the dedicated staff of Air Academy High School for the time they have spent teaching guiding mentoring and encouraging you along the way outstanding teachers like the 2024 best of the Springs teacher Joanne kasano where's Miss casano congratulations she's right over there the senior selected teacher of the year Miss Allison Kelly where's Miss [Music] [Applause] Kelly and the 2024 Glenn hoit educator of the Year miss Charlie grey Bill Miss gry [Applause] bill please give all of the teachers and staff at Air Academy High School a round of [Applause] applause Air Academy high is blessed to be located on the beautiful grounds of the United States Air Force Academy and I would like to thank General Clark and everybody here at usafa for being such wonderful part Partners I would also like to thank all of those who have served or who are currently serving in the United States military if you are a veteran or currently serve if you could please rise so we could show you our appreciation by giving you a round of [Applause] applause your nation owes you a debt of gratitude thank you I would also like to give a sincere and heartfelt thank you to the parents and Guardians for the countless hours they have spent investing in your education graduates please give your parents and Guardians a round of applause but most of all seniors I want to thank you thank you for your commitment to our school and thank you for helping create the best culture and environment in a school possible it is you that we owe that to thank you seniors for everything you have done your class is full of incredibly talented funny smart dedicated individuals who together have made Air Academy a much better place you have accomplished great things you have excelled athletically as a class just this year you have won conference championships in boys swim girls swim yeah give it up boys golf wrestling girls tennis and boys cross country the girls basketball team led by Aller Caitlyn Kramer on her way to [Applause] CSU not only one Conference Championship but made it all the way to the final four great job ladies and last but certainly not least our incredible girls cross country team followed up their second consecutive state championship by traveling to Eugene Oregon and led by the one and only Bethany mccullick second place finish won the National Championship congratulations [Applause] your class has excelled in the Arts music and activities who is ever going to forget our production of The Little Mermaid people are still raving about it from Michael Ellsworth and Natalie H's lead performances to Isabelle Litt little scen stealing portrayal of Ursula it was simply the finest example of high school theater anywhere congratulations to River leam Sarah nuo Nina Guera Lily Wong Willow TNA Amber maluska and the rest of the cast and crew for an incredible show give it up for them [Applause] please and even under new leadership shout out to Mr allenson where's Mr allinson even under new leadership our band Led by drum major Mark Ferris and our Color Guard led by Brie haek continue to shine our band and color guard seasons were capped off by our band making the state finals and our winner guard once again winning the state championship congratulations to [Applause] all our choir continues to be an outstanding representation of the Arts and before I continue I just just want to take a special moment to thank Dr Austina Lee for her contributions for everything she has done to Air Academy High School thank you Dr [Applause] Lee but our choirs under the student leadership of AI Kumar and Ella mcau allowed students absolutely allowed students to find their voice and shine at every event possible congratulations to our choir [Applause] program our Air Force Junior rooc program continues to be the finest unit in the nation they Thrive and continue to produce outstanding citizens of character students like Hannah Bellamy Wyatt bogust and Ryan went are going to continue on with what they have learned in jotc into the military in fact both Ryan and Wyatt earned full Scholarships in the j100 ROC program so they will continue their education and eventually be commissioned to the United States Air Force [Applause] congratulations speaking of our jotc they went to Florida last week for the Raider competition which is the competition for physical Fitness and out of all of the units in the entire country they won so not only do we have a national championship and girls cross country our Air Force Junior RC Raider team are national champs too so we have two national champions congratulations to chase Lanz Ryan bong Christian raker and Daniel day carolis for this amazing accomplishment and I just want to give a quick shout out to Rob Huber our senior instructor Colonel Huber is not only an amazing teacher and a great mentor to these people but for some I don't know how he found the time but he somehow managed to write a book this year I just got a copy so Colonel great job with everything you do appreciate [Applause] you our DEA and FB students continue to do amazing amazing things since our two c coffee shops weren't quite busy enough Miss J and Miss B decided to open up a third business this year they call Cadet Enterprises where they produce shirts and and mugs and all kinds of different things for people in the community and they' have already served over a hundred clients great job to our business folks and those [Applause] teachers but a successful program is only as successful as our students and our program under the heart work and Leadership of students like Abby Weaver Logan Burwell Kellen Greco Jesse sers and Elizabeth Kent Have Been instrumental in creating the very best program in the state of Colorado congratulations to [Applause] all but not only do these amazing students crush it in the classroom and competitions but they also give back into the community so I would like to give a shout out to to Briley Steinman and Max Hower for raising money for their United Way by hosting a pickle ball tournament Kellen and Wyatt raised thousands of dollars for the Tessa organization and Aaron Bailey hosted a 5k that raised money for the Catamount Institute great job you guys giving back to the community and to quote Miss Jay you all slay I don't know what that means but we're going to go with it I don't think a you know after you turn 50 you should be talking like that but we'll go with it Cadet you have excelled academically as a class you have amassed over $10 million in scholarships you will be attending some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the nation Audrey changen and Corbin Cooper will be heading to the Colorado School of Mines our Elizabeth Rose will be attending Princeton [Applause] and both Lily Larson and Elijah Sakamoto are going to stay right here at a little place called the United States Air Force Academy congratulations to [Applause] all your accomplishments have not gone unnoticed Kyle Wilson was a beter semifinalist congratulations Elizabeth Rose was a beter finalist congrat congratulations we also have two of the G of the gazette's best and brightest congratulations to Elizabeth Kent and Chase Lanz for this incredible recognition Chase also won the Daniels fund scholarship Chase where are you stand up can you leave an award for somebody else congratulations outstanding [Applause] kadet I hope you take many amazing memories from the time here at Air Academy I know I'm going to take many memories from you I will miss listening to Brooklyn bomberger and Anna cumins telling Miss Joanie all about the latest Shenanigans in Mr trop's class Mr Trope they ratted you out by the way I don't know if you knew that I will miss watching Noah Helm drain threes or Evan Lawrence driving in a winning run I'll miss watching Jaden fle pancake a defensive tackle I'll miss watching Talia doer rocking it as Crusher at football games how many of you knew that was Talia did you guys all know that didn't she do a great job did an amazing job I'll miss meeting with the averies once a week talking about student counsel and catching up with everything that they're doing I will miss the kindness of the students like Liza lum who went out of her way one day just to check in on me because I didn't seem quite as perky as I usually am we have the best kids I just can't tell you they are the best in the country and I love them all I will miss students like Maddie BS and Bonnie malette who always make me smile and laugh I will miss seeing ranne and Sloan smash record after record in the wait room she is an amazing athlete and I I look up to her in the wait room she does great things kadet you are an incredible incredible bunch of men and women and I am going to miss you all more than you will ever know class of 2024 you are amazing and I can't wait to see you change the world because you have already changed their Academy for the best thank you so much and God bless it is now my sincere pleasure to announce our amazing superintendent of schools Miss Ginger habber superintendent habber it's all [Applause] yours such a privilege to be here I would agree and uh I was inspired with what uh principal Olen said Air Academy is truly a special place and it really is uh because of all of you seniors really making a special place and being that role model for uh the students our freshmen they came in this year for example so esteemed members of the graduating class of 2024 distinguished guests faculty and families congratulations Air Academy Cadet class of 2024 let's give it up for them you did it you finished your K12 Journey and you're ready to launch into your future Beyond High School As We Gather to celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of this graduating class I am overwhelmed with a sense of Pride and admiration for every one of you your journey through high school was nothing short of extraordinary marked by determination the development of strong academic skills and that Relentless pursuit of Excellence as you stand on the threshold of a new pathway in your life I encourage you to embrace the future with boundless optimism and unwavering resolve in our district we are privileged to be home to the United States Air Force Academy a beacon of Honor courage and service the values instilled within the walls of the academy resonate deeply with the ideals that we hold dear Integrity excellence and a commitment to something greater than ourselves as we seek to live these values I encourage you to remember the words of General go colen Powell there are no secrets to success it is a result of preparation hard work and learning from failure equally important the support from friends family and faculty members has equipped you with the knowledge skills and character necessary to overcome those challenges that lie ahead as I look out at all of you I can't help but think of my own two sons that who sat in similar seats awaiting their High School diplomas and as a mom I too sat in the stands like so many families here today experiencing those butterflies and anxiety that come with watching your now young adult take this next step and as an educator I am also thinking of my fellow teachers and staff members who are here today these students are here today because of your dedication to their education watching them walk across the stage in just a few moments is the Pinnacle of your success students please take time today to thank that team team of folks who have helped you during these K12 travels and admidst this formality of this event let's not forget to celebrate with laughter and joy seniors take time to enjoy the camaraderie of your classmates and cherish those memories that have shaped your high school experiences and as we celebrate our individual accomplishments and reflect on the past let us also recognize the collective responsibility that we bear on a broader scale the world is evolving at a rapid Pace presenting both challenges and opportunities on a global scale believe in your ability to affect positive change in this world and never underestimate the impact that a small act of kindness or a bold Vision can have on shaping the course of history in in short live by the words of famous Margaret me Anthropologist never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world in fact it is the only thing that ever has so congratulations class of 2024 the world is yours for the taking so go forth and make it a better place for generations to come [Applause] great job thank you superintendent habber it is now my pleasure to welcome Michael Ellsworth as he performs You Raise Me Up accompanied by Miss AA Lee [Music] when I am down and oh my soul so weary when Tres come and my heart burden be I will sit and wait here in the silence until you come and sit a while with me you raise me up so I can stand on mountains You Raise Me Up to walk on stormy seas I am strong when I am on your shoulder [Music] You Raise Me Up to more than I can be [Music] You raise me up so I can stand on mountains You Raise Me Up to walk on stormy seas I am strong when I am on your shoulders r Raise Me Up to more than I can be You raise me up so I can stand on Mountain You Raise Me Up to walk on stormy seas I am strong when I am on your shoulder Raise Me Up to more than I can be You raise me up so I can stand on mountains You Raise Me Up to walk on stormy seas I am strong when I am on your shoulders You Raise Me Up to more than I can be You Raise Me Up to more than I can be [Applause] outstanding job Michael outstanding it is now my honor to welcome the graduate presenting our sumacum loud address the one and only Miss Elizabeth Rose [Applause] thank you Mr olssen again I'll say it good morning and welcome to friends family teachers staff honorable guests and my fellow members of Air Academy High School's graduating class of 2024 thank you all for coming I am truly honored and Incredibly grateful to be speaking to you all today as we reflect today on our time in high school I'm supposed to offer you some wisdom on an important transition that we're all making together the transition from adolescence to maturity however I'll admit that I cannot give you any advice that is entirely my own like you I do not know the meaning of life I do not know the formula for happiness or success and I do not know what to expect from Life standing here today I feel as if I'm mered on the precipice between childhood and adulthood a precipice that is equally exciting as it is intimidating and like the rest of you as I stand here looking forward to a future full of possibility I can't help but wrestle with existential questions how should I conduct my life and how can I make my life meaningful to help answer these questions I'd like to turn to one of my favorite books Henry David the rose Walden at first glance Walden is an autobiography A poetic description of th Row's day-to-day experiences while living at Walden Pond in Massachusetts in Walden he includes quite a bit of seemingly mundane details about his life at the pond uh like the process of building himself a cabin his observations of animal behaviors um and his process of exploring how to grow beans although these details are symbolically significant if we think of Walden simply as a collection of details we may get misled what is important about Walden is why thorough wrote it as he tells us I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately to front only the essential Facts of Life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not when I came to die discover that I had not lived I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life to live so sturdily and spartan-like as to put to Route all that was not life to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms in short Theo went to the pond because he wanted to learn to live he was not writing a book about a man living in the woods he was writing a book about a man living this is why I think Walden is perhaps more relevant to us today than any other book because now that we are becoming a adults we must choose how we will live our lives and this is exactly what Walden addresses the best way to live what we can learn from theough simple life at the pond is what it means to live deliberately thow is ceaseless in his learning his growing his pursuit of self-improvement and he shows us something that is particularly important to remember today as we reflect on four finished years of high school that learning is not limited to academics and that learning is the only true source of individual growth at Walden Pond Theo learns through experience experimentation and reflection um because he takes the time to slow down reduce life to its lowest terms like he told us and be active and thoughtful he is able to learn more about life in two years two months and two days than many of us could learn from four years of intense reading the road does not need books in order to learn every seemingly trivial piece of learning he acquires at Walden helps him to learn more about life as a whole yes even the time he takes to learn about the birds at Walden the depth of the pond the beans that grow there or the plants that grow there those all help shape the philosophies that he presents to us in Walden if the Rogue can learn enough from his time at a pond to create one of the great masterpieces of American literature surely we can learn more from the simple things in life after we leave High School through his constant pursuit of New Perspectives and new knowledge and new experiences thow also shows us that learning is our choice this is what thow means when he tells us to live deliberately he means that we must not be passive participants in life we must learn everything life can teach us so that every new Day brings new discoveries and reinvigorates our Spirits as thorough says we must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake by an infinite expectation of the Dawn I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious Endeavor I think this brings us to a deeper understanding of what we really celebrate today until now our parents and our mentors have helped us to grow and to develop we have all been forced to do things we didn't want to do which we later realized were beneficial now we must continue to grow without being compelled to do so we must push ourselves to learn to experience new things and to endure all of life's emotions whether good or bad as we graduate we celebrate each of our potentials to continue growing throughout life and to experience everything life has to offer we can only access this potential however if we continue to push ourselves to learn so really even though this ceremony acknowledges that we are getting older it also celebrates something amazing I think this is the most important thing that high school has given us the ability to continue growing even as we age because our childhoods have taught us how to think and how to pursue our goals we can stay young forever as long as we push ourselves to continue learning after we leave here today I hope that even if you don't remember what I've told you you will at least remember what the row has taught us which is that if we are not constantly pushing ourselves to learn and to grow we are not living Our Lives to the fullest I hope that we will all live actively and deliberately and I hope that we will pursue every possible opportunity for growth like thorow tells us when it's time to die let us not discover that we have not lived thank you outstanding job Elizabeth yeah I think she's going to do just fine at Princeton great job next we will be listening to a performance by our choir this performance was originally prepared for their 8th grade continuation however it was cancelled due to covid so four years later this group of students finally gets to perform this version of the song North accompanied by Mr West Sparks [Music] this [Music] the stor will push we will call [Music] and just like a work St [Music] our hearts like doors open wide open wide say B like good us bre Us Salt us wi broken are [Music] theable [Music] we callix [Music] of with each our face slowly areain sh but we will [Music] find to and repent [Music] andent open wide open wide the [Music] us bread give us salt give us wine the heart [Music] us us salt us us us salt us [Music] and the right to call [Music] absolutely beautiful Mr Sparks Dr Lee students outstanding job thank you so [Applause] much our final student speaker of the day was selected uh by a panel of judges and we are pleased now to announce Gabby tempia who is going to present the senior class [Applause] address there we go I'm short guys thank you Mr Olsen to those of you who don't know me my name is Gabriella tempia but to most I'm Gabby please let me start by thanking the ladies gentlemen esteemed faculty friends family and most importantly the remarkable and outstanding class of [Applause] 2024 my fellow classmates congratulations itions on making it after years of grinding effort and year of fighting senioritis to make it here today because let's be honest senioritis really started freshman year and congratulations on making it to the rest of your lives together we stand on the edge of a unique Adventure called adulthood and one that will each craft to be our own both together and separately we are about to embark on the rest of our lives we each craft our own narrative and Define our own paths having witnessed the graduation ceremonies of many peasants here at Air Academy I've often heard the resounding congratulations for making it to this moment I too join in celebrating your achievements yet beyond the Applause I want to pose a question what's next the rest of your lives will not be contained in These Walls Within the people around you sit future entrepreneurs Architects Engineers doctors poets teachers and Poli itions within a few minutes when you turn your tassel that future is yours what are you going to do what's next and no going home and watching your favorite TV show is not an option tempting as it may be as much as we all secretly wish life had a remote control let's face it the class of 2024 is destined for more exciting channels than our living room TV screens to truly answer the question posed I invite you all to imagine and understand with me imagine that the distinguished class of 2024 holds not just not just diplomas but this golden key a key to the world's Grand stage an understanding your key invites you into a world of innovation and creativity as we step into the realm of infinite possibilities remember the best piece of advice I received during my high school years don't settle let me be clear not settling doesn't mean not being happy with what you have it means not allowing contentment to become complacency you see our journey doesn't end with this cap and gown it merely transforms into a canvas waiting for The Strokes of our Ambitions and the Hues of our dreams when you achieve your goals whether it's becoming a doctor a teacher an engineer a politician or an entrepreneur don't let Mo that moment be the peak instead let it be a stepping stone a checkpoint in the Grand Adventure that is your life consider this golden hey key you hold not as a singular entry but as a Perpetual invitation into the world Grand stage your achievements thus far are a testament to your capabilities but they are not the Final Chapter they are the Prelude to the Epic Novel you are about to write the world is not a static landscape it's a dynamic tapestry that creates the breaststrokes of innovation and the vibrant colors of creativity so don't merely settle for what has been done dream big reach high and when you reach those Summits cast your gaze further and remember we are a class with diverse Potential from brilliant musicians such as AI Kumar and Lauren gasio to Star players like Caitlyn Kramer and Tino Gonzalez and gifted businesswoman Elizabeth Kent as well as bright and approachable individuals Like Jesse sers exceptional talents like Elizabeth Rose and kind friendly students like Kai Baka we are all going places creating our own unique paths as you paint your canvas remember that it's a living Masterpiece The Strokes you make today will Echo into the chapters of tomorrow don't be afraid to redefine your goals Chase New Horizons and leave an indelible mark on the world around you in the words of the poet Robert Frost I took the road One Less Traveled by and that has made all the difference class of 2024 embrace the untraded paths set audacious goals when you achieve them ask yourself what's next your journey is an Ever evolving narrative and settling is simply not in our vocabulary so congratulations once again not just for making it to this moment but for the extraordinary Journey that awaits go forth be bold and let your unwritten stories illuminate the world thank [Applause] you great job Gabby all right seniors please rise [Applause] and now it is with great pride that I present the members of the class of 2024 to miss yanz and the Board of Education Miss yanz I hereby certify that these young men and women have met all of the requirements for graduation from the Air Academy High School the flagship institution of Academy School District 20 and Academy School District 20 they are recommended for their diplomas [Music] [Applause] thank you sir I'm going to go off script for just one second I have known some of you since you are running around the hallways of woodman Roberts I have taught some of your siblings I have been to some of your birthday parties and sporting events um I've written some of your names on my hand so I can try to remember to give you your diploma um but I have written all of your names on my heart today because once you're part of the kadet community that means students and staff and administration you are always part of the kadet community I'll take that okay on behalf of the Board of Education of Academy District 20 I accept with pride and pleasure the 2024 graduating class of Air Academy High School Mr Olen thank you and your staff for an outstanding job scet right the moment we've been waiting for we're going to take just one second to set the stage up for the diplomas and then we're going to start handing out our [Applause] diplomas for [Music] [Applause] right work [Music] Reagan Agron David Alexander Batista Rock AG Amaya jayen [Applause] [Music] ball Valentina Maria Alvarez Baron Wyatt Steven bogas [Applause] Aiden alello Brooklyn Beth bomberger Lily Anna Elvis Amaya Jasmine Bell brayen Vito amoruso barari Lamar Bell Chloe Lynn Anderson Hannah Jade Elizabeth Bellamy Tiana Marie antill Ethan Michael bski Connor William Denny Armstrong Mahmud Ahmed Ben Saud Zane R ashtari Nicholas Cruz bobos [Music] [Applause] II Amber Jean Atkinson Isaiah Joseph Blanco Elija Optimus Ayala Alexis Brianne [Applause] Blumenfeld Ashlin asbell Ryan Alexander bong Reed Enid Babcock Sutton Hawk Boswell Kai Benjamin baka Madison Elizabeth BS Aaron Renee [Music] Bailey mirari rain Bradshaw Owen Bailey Avery Ashlin brand Hayden Nicholas bar de Isabella Francis sigd kadney Addie Barnes Courtney Nicole [Music] comr Riley Reed Baron Corbin Daniel Cooper Micah Sloan Bridgeman Carly an [Music] [Applause] Cox Daniel Isaiah Briggs Anna Danielle cumins Maya B [Music] broa Michael Orin Dober Avery Sophia Bruno Isaiah Roosevelt day Jeremiah Bailey day Luke Andrew buo Daniel Nicholas to carolus Madison Kathleen Burton Ryan D'Angelo Deo Logan Reed Burwell Anna Lee [Applause] Divine Sawyer Michael Butler [Music] Sophia Grace [Music] dickerman Nehemiah Blaze Callahan Gabe David dillmouth Anna Elizabeth Campbell Eric Allen Donner Aiden Anthony caperton Colleen elain Doran Roman Francis Carol Morgan Paige [Music] Dockery Audrey Miram Chang Breen Douglas [Music] go Madison laurine Marie chister Talia Annabella [Music] doer Bronner James Cole Carly Ray Driscoll Alexandra Evelyn Collins Jake Logan Driscoll Alice Margaret Fabian Ethan Jeffrey Duff Macy Marie Fabian Elizabeth Victoria Easter McKenna Kate [Applause] [Music] phell Anna zarur Elias Ellie Jacob duenes Ferrera Julia Parks Eller Delaney Grace Fields Michael Andrew Ellsworth Jaden Alexander fle Ryan William Ellsworth Frank Flores Jr Hannah Elizabeth English Adriana NAA Gatey celestino bonasio Modesto Gonzalez Joshua Edward Gaither Santiago Roberto [Music] Gonzalez Lucas sha R Garrett Alysa Renee [Music] graph Lucas Stanley Garrison Kellen Michael Greco yany Maria gas Lex partio Griffin Lauren Rose gate Olivia Matilda Griffin Michelle Gabriella gedi Jillian Ray [Music] Guera saurin James Goble [Applause] Nina Al Nina ly Alani guo Karina Eva [Applause] Gomez Sophia Danielle Gunderson hack Christina Sophia Hinrich Kane Alexandra Marie hacker Noah Robert Helen Jessica meline Hal Ken Ryder heli Emily Len Hall Lance Adam Hendrickson Payton Kathleen Hall Leonor Ilana Hernandez Michaela Marie Hancock Haley Michelle hickey Anthony Michael Hanley Elijah Michael Hildy Olivia Avery harelson Riley Emma Rose [Music] Hogan Dylan Michael Hart Joshua James hulc kefir Carl William Hartman Samuel Matthew hotman Gregory Leonard Harvey Alexander Elijah hopm Brianna Sheree Hayek Blaze Quinn [Applause] horseball Carter inazu vain Houston Griffin Andrew James Kevin Ingram Maxwell James Howry Jackson jarda Claire Jean hughman Dominic Jennings William Phil Hinn Adeline Hannah Jensen Natalie Diane hzi Natalia and Jimenez Kiera Hughes Lake mati [Music] yalis Caitlyn Rose Kramer Jason Jones Logan Lucy Kramer Brennan Jones wall [Music] Shan Paul Kramer Addison Mia mein KD Aiden Andrew cray Elizabeth Jade Kent Arya Antonia Kumar Bailey Grace cadan [Music] avidan Devin [Music] Kumar Asher Kaiser Dasha Berlin [Applause] cunic Abigail Mina Lee Sophia Veronica kol kayn Ray lman Micah Donovan Kyle Carson Daniel Lamberg Gabriel James leino Ethan Tucker lendra Chase Bennett lenise Isabelle Rose little will lamb Caleb Andrew linga Abigail Sarah an Lamere key anene [Applause] Lucan Louisa hria Lane Elizabeth Rue Lum Amy Marie Lang Nathan Ferguson Lum Ian mashio Langley Natalie Elizabeth [Music] mafy Lily an LaRon Bonnie Josephine [Applause] maloit River leam Colin James mallerie Kendrick George latral Amber Faith [Music] maluska Evan Kenzo Lawrence Isabelle Elizabeth [Applause] [Music] Marcy Colin Foster Mar Mia calina [Applause] Marlo Travis Jeremiah Martin Micah Allan massen Tama Adia [Music] Mason Ethan John Montoya Sarah Michelle mat Tyler Isaiah [Music] Morales Kenley May Taylor Diane [Applause] Morse Emma Louise MacArthur Aiden Michael [Music] Munger Nicholas Clifford McCarthy [Music] napu Ella Renee mcau Riley Diane naen Terell McCrae Sarah Marie newro Steven Michael mcgoff next up Larry Carl norenberg not the first not the second but [Applause] Trey Bethany Christine mahalik Jamie Claire [Music] [Applause] otou Ashley Skyler Mills Tiara Pauline Oles Kellen Ashton palasio Abigail Alva Olstead Peter Timothy patchin Jesus Fernando chewy Ortega Alana panelli Patel Kaylee Jade Owen [Music] [Applause] Oliver Kelly Penn Christian Harold raaker Meredith an faen McKenna May redock Mark Ryan Ferris Dylan Patterson Riley Margaret Noel Pier Ka Marie [Music] Ray Joshua danne pittz Elsie Isis Ricky Lucas efim plunket Mason rain riddle Jenna Brook palosi Elsa Claire rigs Camille Dorothy Potter William Russell [Applause] Roberts Jada ryel poite Bailey Elizabeth Rogers Noah Jefferson price Miranda Lynn Rogers Jamie Lynn purle King David Elijah newad Omar [Applause] Rogers Devin Lee quatch Shelby [Applause] Roman Elijah Sakamoto Elizabeth Alexandra Rose Tatum Elizabeth Salamon Joseph Aiden Rose Bria K sanan Landon James Ross coin Katie Marie [Applause] ston Dante mik Ross Johnson Nicholas Hamlin saxar meline Olivia roster Mary Isabella [Music] shimaa Chrissa Mary Cedars Nikolai Ryan Shrek ranan Irene Sloan Caitlyn R [Applause] Schultz Ava Marie Smith Bryce David Alton [Applause] Scott Shamar Eric Anthony Smith Jaden Christine [Music] [Applause] seli Jesse Raymond sers [Applause] Stephanie Marie Marcel Smith Dustin Joshua [Applause] semler Madison chares elander SMI Avery [Music] senov are Adam Joseph Snider Hayden schaer [Music] Briley beatric Steinman Jordan Phillip [Applause] Shane James Justin streer Aaron Murphy [Applause] Sheriff Anon Anson Isaiah stutzman AJ Shirley Allison Quinn [Music] Sullivan Kylie anamy [Music] Thomas Gabriella beatric tempia Marlin Santana [Applause] Trejo Willow Briana TNA [Applause] Carson H Tucker Ella Jolie talbet Sophie Isabella unsel Kira cibil Taylor Jack haral Le [Applause] vanover Caitlyn Riley wheelen Aaliyah Nicole vedro Brad Arthur [Applause] weaker Nathan Vincent shui Jake Andrew White Gabriella Noel [Applause] Walla Jackson Douglas Williams Avery Hope [Music] Wallace mcai latro Williams Sean Clemente [Applause] Warner and Cecilia wilas Abigail Catherine Weaver Kyle Joshua Wilson Joseph John wiland mallerie Jean Wilson Taran Murray whan Natasha Lynn wolf Madison Grace Weisgarber Natalie Rose Wilson ran Kurt Wentz Lily Nina Wong Kyla Rachel [Applause] Wright Daisy Renee [Applause] Zambrano opilia Kathleen Zimmerman w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] graduates of the class of 2024 today we are celebrating our graduation in the start of our next Adventures but let's not forget all the memories we made here at Air Academy we made friends overcame challenges cherished support from others and left our mark on Air Academy once a Cadet always a Cadet as a symbol of our graduation please rise and join me of in the Turning of the Castle from the right to the [Music] left congratulations Air Academy class of 2024 you are officially dismissed miss little Strike Up the Band h [Music] guys oh [Music] oh [Music] for [Music] e [Music] bead

cool thank you everyone for coming up this evening there has been adequate notice of this meeting provided by the Board of Education in the December 208th 2023 notice in the Asbury Park Press the co-star setting forth the date time and location of this meeting similar notice has been posted in the Barrow Hall the Bri School website and the fal clerk has been notified this is uh Quigley Mr Becker pres Dr Dam brosio here Mrs mcdevit here Mr Milano here Mrs wath Mr starky here Mr Vitali Mrs Walsh here she's here she here yeah I think Mr wal all right we could all stand for the final Al to the of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible andice for [Music] all if I could get uh motion that the Board of Education approve the minutes from the April 24th 2024 meeting I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes from the April 24th 2024 meeting a second that motion Mr sty Mr Becker yes Dr dambrosio obain Mrs mcdevit yes Mr Milan abstain Mr starky yes Mrs Walsh [Music] yes all right we have a couple really important presentations this evening they all come in the form of retirements and uh with that I'll let Miss postra speak so we are recognizing um first Mrs Alysa criscolo uh Mrs criscolo has served as a teacher in G for 20 years with most of her time working with students in special education Mrs criscolo is a kind committed professional who cares deeply about her students and she has dedicated her career to helping each student fulfill his or her potential Mrs criscolo is one of the first staffer members to arrive daily she's a very early bird and uh she's prepping each morning for her students individual needs Mrs criscolo is known for her calm demeanor and she has a special gift for cultivating positive relationships with her students there is a level of trust that she establishes that enables her students to feel safe taking academic risks and her high expectations create a learning environment that challenges her students to thrive Mrs criscola will be greatly missed and we appreciate all that she has contributed to our school over the past 20 years we wish Mrs criscolo a wonderful retirement and we hope that your next chapter is full of Happiness congratulations Miss [Applause] and our next retiree is Mr Slater um Mr Slater has served as a technology specialist in Brielle for the past 25 years if you consider how technology has evolved in the past 25 years it's hard to Fathom how much change and Innovation he has led in keeping our students and staff at the Forefront of educational technology being in a small School Mr Slater has had to juggle every facet of technology in the building and the variety of responsibilities that he handles to ensure that every school day runs smoothly is tremendous most of us aren't even aware of all that he does because so much happens behind the scenes but we certainly appreciate how he is able to bring so many pieces together to support our students and staff even with all that he juggles Mr Slater is always willing to lend a hand look at a problem and help resolve technology issues even when all that is necessary is just restart the computer I was joking with that when I saw him before that the thing I will always remember from from Ed is did you try to restart there are many times when I've called into my office and that was the fix uh we miss wish Mr Slater all the best in retirement we know that he will enjoy his time in Vermont but hope he will come back to visit us when he comes to New Jersey congratulations Mr [Music] [Applause] Slater and our last retirement tonight is Mr Savia um Mr Savia is retiring after 25 years in education serving 11 years as the vice principal and director of special services here at bees uh Mr Savia couldn't be with us here tonight but we acknowledge his years as of service to our school and of course we wish him a happy healthy retirement and we will give him his gift upon his return so thank you thank you miss bolstra any comments from anyone thank you for Jessica please sure we do agenda yeah it's an agenda item so we can do right just as long as everybody can hear my name is Jessica is this is this thing on sorry for those at home my name is Jessica wakula start the computer um this will be the third time you heard that joke in a minute so um my name is Jasco wakula and I live in wall but I have served as Mr Slater's technology assistant for the last three years um after 14 years in public education as a teacher building and District administrator I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be a part-time Tech assistant here at breel elementary school however in October of 2021 while Ed was out with covid-19 Chris Carlson interviewed me to be Ed Slater's assistant without introducing us or getting his input first then one day as Ed showed up for work and settled into his office unbeknownst to him 20 minutes later he would meet his new assistant hey who doesn't like a good surprise and what is now our office Ed and I talk a lot about before times of Technology Ed began here in 1999 and has been solely responsible for the knowledge and knowhow to take a school building in District from before times to what is experienced here today I have worked with many educational Professionals in all areas and can assure you Ed Slater is exceptional not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about the nuts and bolts of School Technology his approach and skill for identifying and assessing needs considering short and learn ter long-term challenges liability and Equity among staff and students is unmatched although I also consider myself knowledgeable I couldn't list all the wisdom insight and Hands-On applications of Technology I've learned from him over the last three years years one of the most important lessons he has taught me is don't ever believe someone who swears to have turned their computer off and on again trust us in addition to his professional skills anyone who has ever had the pleasure of having a conversation with Ed knows he is a lover of animals and most especially the Green Mountain State the openness and spirit of Vermont run through his veins and while his retirement will be a great loss to B Elementary our loss is their gain I would also like to congratulate the soon to be approved director of Technology who I here might be a Phillies fan uh Brett Greenfield on his new position as he steps into his new office I'd like him to know that the foundation laid by Ed has been carefully crafted for his continued success and I wish him all the best the time I've spent with EDS Slater in our office has changed me as an educator and as a person I am lucky to be able to call him a friend mentor and any time I have a question because as his wife Carolyn AKA Stella will tell you Ed can fix anything as I like to say good endings make for good beginnings and I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations to Ed Slater on his retirement and gratitude to the board of education for allowing me to service his assistant thank you so [Applause] much that was awesome thanks that's theion of I I didn't prepare anything but truly I feel compelled to speak uh from a professional and personal level that was hammer on the head of the from a personal or familiar level my children have been involved in the school for up to 20 years my oldest is 22 my youngest is still here I don't know if you want to hear me rant and I don't think you do I can only say thank you for helping to raise my children I could never have done it without you thank [Music] you all right uh there is still an opportunity for visitors to speak on any uh permitted to comment on agenda items only at this time we do ask that even if you've been here before that you clearly state your name and where you live and approach the [Music] mic all right there's none Diane any correspondences no no correspondence all right that brings us to committee reports um the first one is District Operations Mr Vitali uh is not here this evening he had a conflict uh but we did have a committee meeting uh just on the uh 8th of May and I was privileged to be there it was also attended by Mrs reath Juliana reath uh Ted uh Mrs Quigley and Miss postra we had uh defined subjects to discuss and make included the media center the playground equipment boiler repair and replacement and budget status all really big ticket complicated things [Music] in so far as the media center the outside concrete and drainage work is now complete with that the architect approved a $50,000 payment towards the $90,000 contract the inside work is next and we are waiting on some rain to see how the draining work Works prior to any inside FL assembly for which we have already have the materials we will need quotes and to engage a contractor for the inside floor we've received a grant of about $10,000 to help offset the cost and hope if the floor construction will not be much more than that Grant the administration is giving some uh thought to arranging the media center and we may need some additional Furniture the hope is to be completed by the beginning of the 2425 school year and so far as the playground equipment the Administration has tentatively selected a design the playground committee's desired design will cost about $260,000 the administration realistically suggests a phase in approach with the initial cost being about $160,000 with Room to Grow of which we have already encumbered $100,000 in the 2324 budget budget we do not yet have either a start or completion date but it is Keen in our minds the boiler repair and replacement we've replaced two boilers in the lower grades and plan to repair two additional boilers in the upper grades the new boilers are included in the current budget and at a cost of $180,000 the boiler repair will require bonds bids excuse me uh the budget status we reviews reviewed a budget status report and the good news is it looks as though we are within Budget on all major line items with two months left in the budget year the administ ation has done well with the planning and implementation projects and educational enhancements within budgetary limits uh there was uh no real further conclusions reached uh the ongoing business uh can included what we just discussed and uh that is his report if you do have any other questions or concerns Mr velli is always available the two boilers that we the two boilers we replaced the other two don't need to be replaced to replace they're not going to be repaired they're being replaced and two are going to be repaired until the next budget season to prepare okay for the 2526 budget year a bandaid until a can be replaced so the work nothing has been replaced yet because we have not yet but it will be over the next several months hopefully before heating season in O September October okay thank you any other questions board members right thank you uh next is representative to Manasquan Mr MWI uh met last night Manasquan School Board uh two big takeaways was uh we approved the hiring and met Dr Matthew Kota he's the current uh hell High School principal he's replacing um Mr good I'm sorry Mr Goodall Mr Goodall which is moving to the superintendent position at Manasquan also last night the CLI program the Center for Learning and Independence were recognized they were uh given Awards there was a a slideshow of them working in the different towns that they work in uh at jobs in addition to kind of what they do on a daily basis so so that was very exciting and uh the children got a lot out of it excited they're so funny and excited Miss W was also there in cheering them on so some of our students that you probably had here were there just really they were so excited to share all the things they've done and do in the community they work with like 25 local businesses on a daily basis they go out into the community and do wonderful things so they were cheering and happy it was really it was really nice yeah and uh everybody that knows Shake Callahan she was there got an award and she was very excited she was telling everyone they're beautiful and how wonderful the place was it was just so cheerful and happy I was like what a nice night I was glad to attend cool she's a good Community Manor all right uh Miss Walsh commun or curriculum in program yeah um I communicated with the administration to see if we could squeeze in a meeting it was a little tight the last time we met met was for the board was April 24th so it was hard to get our group together and we provided such a robust report last meeting and um we're kind of scheduling other trips summer programs and professional development so we'll report back out in a month but I know we just have a lot of going on with njsla so we gave a little break there thank you m Walsh Joe HR uh HR the HR negotiation should have met numerous times with the teachers that many of them are in the audience with their committee uh over the last couple months M pester has been giving us updates on the items in our uh packet tonight on the HR side of things negotiations been going fantastic I think uh they're very you know nice to work with we're I think working well together I just hope we continue that and we'll be meeting tonight so hopefully we're we're not here too too late thank you for sure the Board of Ed appreciates the relationship between itself and the staff uh Mr Waltman is not here was there we did not meet no no and then as well uh Mrs reath is not here this evening does anybody know I did not speak to her we do have some community events coming yeah there's definitely community events happening I don't know there's a new one with the food truck North South I may mention a few of I don't have the food trucks on here but I do have a some things that are coming out okay we'll leave it one of the big ones would be north south if that is not being mentioned it's huge June 1st June 1st and then miss poster we appreciate you uh with your administrative report sure so um as husband mentioned already we are finishing up well we're mired in state testing this week and we'll continue um through next week and makeups extending depending upon students absences the kids have been great our staff has been great it's been really well organized everything's been going smoothly um tomorrow our students will um our upper grade students will have a presentation on cyber security and being safe online um we were also going to bring that presenter back tomorrow evening for our parents but we had a really low RSVP rate so that we are going to cancel or if people did sign up we did notify them that it was canel because I understand you know it's a very busy time of year um so we'll reconsider that for the fall instead maybe that will be a better time um but you're you know Upper Grade children will come home hearing a little bit about what they learned about being safe online uh we also had a water safety assembly this week um just as you know the temperatures get warmer um you know uh this is something that's been done here regularly uh just to remind our students as we get close to that time of you know wanting to go to the beach um you know how to do that safely and um that was also well received um our spring concert is next week so we're looking forward to that that's going to be on May 22nd and uh for our students in grade 6 through eight the student council is um trying something student government is trying something new to bring a couple of food trucks uh between six and8 and have some games and music and all of that set up as a social event for them um as a Mr Becker just mentioned the big north south event is June 1st um I read met briefly with the recreation uh real Recreation a few weeks ago uh we'll be doing a little bit to prep our kids for that around things like sportsmanship and um you know seeing this as a positive Community event um so you know in conjunction with real W everyone is looking forward to that event um another parent program that we have coming up is Hope and healing um you know in light of our our tragedy in February this will be a parent program offered uh really for our entire community on May 29th um Susan tone and Lyn sneer who worked closely with us uh over the past few months will be presenting that evening uh we have also just for everyone's information have extended the invitation um for that evening to the community of wall and brick also in light of their you know similar tragedy so um we hope that we have you know a good good attendance that night and we see that as a way another step toward healing and bringing our community together um we mentioned the media center project um even since the District Operations committee met um I was able to get out into the storage bins and to to take a look at some of that furniture it looks like things are in good shape and Mr AA and I you know had a conversation about the logistics of putting the media center back together Mrs Quigley is working on getting the flooring people in here as quickly as we can um so that will be a really big summer project and you know when you walk into those storage bins and you see all those shelves that have to be put back together and you know um but you know we're confident that we're going to be able to get it done and there was no issues with moisture or anything like that so I think we'll be in good shape with that um and as a followup to the report from District Operations on the playground committee uh we met with Mike Noak from MRC today and like I said we are going to do this in phases um we do have very generous donations from the PTO and the real Education Foundation so we're moving forward with putting the purchase orders in hoping that it'll be four to six weeks to receive most of those pieces um and this will also be a major summer project they will do the demolition you know uh but we want to wait till the equipment is here to do the demolition so they can kind of use the dumpsters and big equipment all at the same time you know we had said can you at least take the um old equipment down you know um but he said let let's wait and see how quickly the purchase orders go through because it might make more sense in terms of efficiency to do the removal of the old one and the putting in of the new equipment at the same time so that is also I hope On Target to be be ready for September we should see a lot of that moving forward uh this summer I think that's all I have very good thank you very much you're welcome any questions board members I'll just note also on the playground committee we're moving forward with the additional fundraising um not events but opportunities for people in the community to um provide funds for the playground as well um so working with the PTO on that uh and we're hoping to have kind of around some of the events that are coming up in the community um have Flyers going out and uh get that underway in addition to what funds we already have and it seems you know me meeting with uh Mr Noak today that the phase in seems all very doable so you know it's kind of nice to know that you know even though it'll be a smaller footprint than what we originally envisioned adding on to it on either side with the additional components that we would like is not going to be disruptive or you know have you have to go back and undo something and redo something um so this seems like a pretty um Not Unusual circumstance that people find themselves in and I think especially with the surfaces and how that works um it seems to be very doable to do it this way so that's great I just want to mention the special person's day I know the elementary school students and the staff you're working really hard to prepare to get everything ready and then invite family members or whoever connected adults in so it's going to be very special day it's on the 29th as well hope and healing so it's a nice program great thank you special person St I know huge but for the right reasons and for the right reasons uh this quigly any HIV reports on uh all right that brings us to the action items on this evening's agenda this is super exciting this part uh all items below are under the recommendation of the superintendent and I asked M Walsh can you put for tonight on curriculum in programs pleas I'd like to make a motion to approve the following items A1 through A7 second Dr de brosio Mr Becker yes Dr dambrosio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr Milan yes Mr starky yes Mrs wol yes motion Carri thank you Mr starky being the soul member of The District Operations uh motion that the Board of Ed approves the following items B1 through b B9 second okay Mr Becker yes Dr dambrosio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr meano yes Mr starky yes Mrs Walsh yes your carry thank you Dr D Osio policy please I don't think we have don't have any policy maybe instead of that I need glasses sorry right uh Mr under T resources D1 through d10 I'd like to move I'll second that thank you Mr Becker yes Dr D Osio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr Milano yes Mr starky yes Mrs Walsh yes motion Carri thank you we are moving along uh we are now at visitors business and visitors are permitted to comment on agenda or non-agenda items at this time again even if you've been here before ask that you clearly state your name and where you live and you approach the microphone all right thank you everyone that's usually a dull part of the meeting anyhow uh that brings us to the the real reason one of the real reasons we're here the payment of the bills and uh again Mr Stark can I ask that you pay the bills motion that the Board of Education authorizes payment of the following May 2024 bills list and that the secretary is authorized to draw warrants of the treasure and the total amount of 1, all right I need a second on that wasn't [Music] a W Mr Becker yes Dr de brosio yes Mrs mcdevon yes Mr lwit yes Mr starky yes Mrs Walsh yes will she car awesome excellent uh there is the board secretary certification for all of us um and the fact that there will not be an executive session following this regular Action meeting uh and that uh brings us to the conclusion which means we just need a motion for I'll make a motion to adjourn second okay all in favor [Applause] I thank you again everybody for coming no

[Music] interpreters can we check your go ahead and check your microphones please testing testing check one two three e e we our assistant principles are not here but we will still recognize flint and Sabra uh welcome Cheryl Whitehead our Middle School teacher for social studies she will present her Awards e you e for e e e awesome thank you congratulations next I will go ahead and introduce Jane Garza our English and writing teacher see me better now all right sorry about that I teach writing and that is what my Awards will be related to this first award is most focused in writing so that student comes in ready to learn every day pays attention focuses on their work completes their work accepts feedback well has great discussion about their work really outstanding and student is Jessica Jessica here we [Applause] go congratulations Jessica stay right there okay our next award is called excellence in in the would write a short paragraph and that was about it but as we went through the school year I saw an increase in the number of paragraphs getting all the way up to a five paragraph essay on their writing prompts they would tell wonderful stories and share those via their excellent writing and took feedback made edits really well in in addition to that wonderful at sharing stories and that is Arya congratulations one more and then I'll turn it over to JJ this next award is most improved in writing this individual would start writing but then ask me for uh how to spell new vocabulary words and do that but then not be done they would go into Google get some um tips on expanding their writing look for um some additional facts and and longer sentences and I saw such a marked improvement in this person's writing and that is Leandra oh leandra's not here darn it but like Cheryl said make sure that when you you tell her how great she did oh hello oh while wait for our students to come and sit Down's here three new students just arrived cool all right hello I teach one writing class with Jane this award is called outstanding effort in the classroom as a classroom leader they come in they're ready to learn they're prepared for class when it's time to go they're they help me prepare the classroom for the next and this award goes to Alexa congratulations great job you can have a seat all right congrats to those students all right next I'd like to introduce our English teacher for reading it is Renee sorry I found this picture of you it's a beautiful picture to me please look away start with our youngest our fifth graders this on R RS focused on helping other people there were some ups and downs in their work but almost every single day they came in with a positive attitude remembering RRS RRS I got to work hard I got to get better and this student is Anna really proud of you great work on us all right next up for six grade man this student just had a tough or this was a tough tough choice this student really liked to try to finger spell Advanced words and this student worked super hard to finish all of their work work they always did an outstanding job on their assignments came in sat down ready to go and I really appreciated this student this is Robert [Applause] Telles all right now for seventh and eth man I had a hard time both seventh and eighth grade classes are huge so it was really hard to choose this student very often set a great example for their classmates finishing their work in a timely manner a little bit of silly side conversations of course but this student showed marked improvement this year and that is Gavin great job Gavin congratulations all right eighth grade you're last my last year with all of you goodness I put a lot of thought into this there were so many of you who made such Improvement but I was also trying not to pick the same old kiddo some of you always do a good job this particular student came in and had a great example great work ethic studied their vocabulary completed their assignments and steadily improved in their reading abilities throughout this year that student is Alexa my fingers can do that right Alexa really really proud of you guys thank you so much for all of your hard work this year big round of applause congratulations great job all right next we will have math we will start with Justin and then next we'll have Pablo so okay hello I'm Justin I'm the math teacher for middle school and I'm a Pablo will do his own Awards as well the first award is more of an excellence in math always attending class always prompt making sure to show all their work asking questions if they didn't understand something asking for any support as necessary also this is somebody who completed assignments every assignment they did all of their work on the test this award goes to Arya congratulations AR the next award is more of a rolling up your sleeves being ready to work put in that effort have the desire to do a good class and if they struggled a little bit from time to time they still showed a lot of passion in the classroom so this award goes to Jessica congratulations Jessica the next award emphasizes more on the act of hard work never giving up never being complacent never saying ah I just don't want to do the math if there's a math problem that's too difficult they don't really just you know give up on it they just persevere and keep that effort steady where they've already shown Improvement in the whole class this award goes to Jesse congratulations okay my final award I want to recognize this student from the beginning of the school year this person started out very shy was unsure of how they were going to present themselves in math and how they were going to follow my expectations because I set some pretty high expectations but they worked through the math problems and at the beginning they didn't show their work but as I preached and I emphasized to show their work and prove their answers they followed and reached my expectations and made huge improvements over the Year this award goes Tob congratulations just want to let you know that I really enjoyed having all of you in class and I hope to see you again next year great job thank [Applause] you all right I'll take okay [Music] okay now we have Pablo signing his video for his four Awards he is not here today but we will announce the names for the awards in his class the first award for math explor Explorer one who has really been in intrigued with math all right this award is called creative calculator and this award means that someone who comes in and looks um at how to solve a problem so they're looking at it critically from different angles going through the right steps and trying their best to find that answer and that person is Owen oops I called the wrong one my bad come on up Owen sorry I said the wrong award it was creative calculator all right this next all right uh we wait more people are arriving okay I I apologize I said the wrong award just now this one was for Creative calculator this next one is the math Explorer this award is called math Explorer and what I mean by that is an individual who's super super curious they want to learn all about math new math skills and they just are so curious about how things work always trying to learn and um always inquisitive and the person I chose for that is Victor all right all right our next award is called the level up learner this award is the leveled up learner this is an individual that I recognized who made consistent Improvement and stayed motivated to learn math U skills math content math differentiation and critical thinking in math and started to learn and new math concepts throughout the year and really became great at problem solving in math that person I chose is Lilo is he here or is he's absent okay oh there he is perfect timing lilio come on up congratul UL ation all right the last award is pro participant this award is called Pro participant that is a person who's always willing to attend to new lessons always participates in discussion and throws out ideas and wants to be able to give that answer or help others find that answer super motivated to learn in that and really a joy to have and that student is Lea congratulations all right Pablo wanted me to let you know congratulations wish that he could be here with you but he is he'll make it up to [Applause] you all right now we're moving on to science with a gray hello hello everyone my name is a sauka this is how you sign my name and I'm going to talk about science Awards what do we do in science we climb those mountains this first a recipient is a student who worked really really hard to rise to expectations I gave them a lot of hard work and challenged them to continue to climb and man did they ever outstanding achievement in science and they absolutely love science and that is Owen all right our next award is a student who is very curious not in the classroom per se but in the lab anytime we get to go into the lab this student is so eager to learn look through things open tools and take a look at how things work and when we gave them um work to create a rocket or to measure a rocket propulsion they were super excited struggled through it couldn't figure it out but finally did figure it out and said tomorrow let me try again and so the next time it didn't work the third day it finally worked and we got that rocket in the air it was incredibly impressive and that student is Brendan okay our next as a creative project scientist and this student Le wanted to learn how to build a car we had a pretty basic design but this student was like heck no I want a more complicated Des design I want this thing to be cool and they wanted to bring it home and work on it at home over the weekend so they did that brought it back to school and it was an incredible car and that is Shaden and you made that car really cool Shen and my last award is my potential scientist and I use the word potential because this student hasn't learned a ton of science just yet but they got to come into middle school and start learning science really for the first time what we call the hard sciences and this student was really patient and tried to learn their best and just powered through made moderate improvements and then made a huge leap in Improvement and that student is my potential scientist who I am super and that is Arya AR there she thank you all for your hard work this year in science and all that you learned all right you can have a seat all right next we will introduce Jessica for technology Jessica Madson hello everyone my name is Jessica I'm the technology teacher for k12 and I've got two Awards to give out the first one um with my that I have this quarter this I am calling the computer Champion award and I am calling it that because this is a person who's super knowledgeable about computers and will even help me with things that I struggle with on the computer um really does so much and contributes so much to their class and that is Zion Parker all right my second award is called the designer award and this is a student who worked um super hard in the Adobe programs um Adobe Illustrator Photoshop um those are the two primary programs we worked on and that student got really good in both of them is able to um really learned all of that on their own and that is Angel congratulations all right good job both of [Music] you all right next we have our PE teachers Scott and Michael is Michael coming okay so we'll just have Scott hello everyone my name is Scott Johnson Michael couldn't be here um he is running our PE classes oh I got to move isn't that better okay sorry about that a little bit awkward here okay I'll say that again my name is Scott Johnson and I am one of the PE teachers this year my first year here Michael is not here right now because he's running one of our PE classes so we had a great discussion and it was a really tough decision because um all of you have been in our PE program and we had to just pick four Award winners this first award is the refuse to give up award this student would not quit this student um you know some students come in to PE with no confidence and this kid was struggling a little bit but we gave them a lot of reinforcement um helped them understand the rules sometimes it was a little bit hard and we just all we had to say was you're going to get it you just got to stick with it and as the student learned the rules and started to understand it they started to really love every single game we played in p and that award goes to Alexa good job all right this next up uh award is called the all around award in PE by all around I meanone has got great behavior is a hard worker is committed and this individual asked a lot of questions to me to Michael wanted to understand why rules were the way they were for certain games why we moved a certain way for certain skills was super motivated to learn and there wasn't a problem that they wouldn't face and they influenced others in a positive way to participate with them and to play hard and PE and that award it goes TOA am I signing your name right is it this way okay theya still learning everybody's signings bear with me you look shocked Lea we are giving another allaround a work and for M student Michael and I talked about this a lot as well because we've got a lot of great students but we had to piig one so this person always showed up on time always had their uniform asked a lot of questions what's where we doing next if we're excited to learn we had to every single week are we going to a new one I want to play basketball I want to play basketball like sorry basketball is not one of our options but this kid who was really fixing it on basketball but didn't let that bother him heed in the other sports with great Behavior great questions understood um our vocabulary lessons for PE participated actively in all of the sports and games that we played and um for the heart challenge I got to say this kid did incredibly on the agility course was our best contributor and that award goes to Zion Parker [Applause] all right and my last one is for great effort in PE what I mean by effort is a student who will try anything even if they think it's boring or it's hard they're going to try they're going to um do every single activity we put in front of them and this award goes to lilio great job lilio let's hear it for all of these amazing PE students great job great congratulations next we have at eighth grade transition trans transition to school with Natalie and Mar Soul hello hello hello wonder why Natalie and M Soul are up here we've got some eth graders yeah next year where you going high school we are so excited to have you uh come into high school next year but with eighth grade we do monthly workshops do a few events here and there learn about what high school is going to look like and we are so excited for you we are giving out two awards today the first one is called ready to level up in high school this student is ready to go they know exactly um what they want for college all they want to go to RIT they already know what they want to pursue this kiddo is ready and that person is Lea congratulations Lea all right and our next award this is a student who we are calling it the most curious award every month during eth grade workshops they would constantly raise their hand ask a ton of questions we had different kinds of presenters that came in um and high school teachers and Michelle that came in and that student asked questions to everyone trying to get a better idea of what next year will look like taking the light rail to events um going to get pizza going to uh do all kinds of things how do I go to work how do I download this app um just constantly participating in everything and ready to go very very curious about the world that is Zion congratulations we're going to see you next year you guys to come to our workshops we'll tell you all about it all right congratulations again congratulations all right next we have the special awards from OD Robin and Mike oh Robin will be here to present the awards hello everyone it's working okay all right so um my award is for assessments my job at pdsd is to administer State assessments and math testing and this award is for a student who showed exceptional hard work and focus during testing I am super proud to say that this is one of my former preschool students and that student is [Music] Lea congratulations great work you did really really well all right next we have Athletics sports with Jeff hello everyone my name is Jeff and I'm the athletic director here in Middle School sports we always celebrate fall winter and spring Seasons when those seasons are done we get everybody together give out some participants trophies and medals um for different things and have a banquet but this is a unique award for this particular ceremony okay so we have a few different um Awards this one is called Road Runner 3 and what this Awards is it recognizes athletes that were involved in three Sports in one year so they did a fall a winter and a Spring sport so we want to recognize those student athletes um with a Road Runner three award so we we've got the names up here when you see your name please come on up and we will give you come on up y let's give a round of applause congratulations to all of these athletes look out here we're going to get a a photo sorry about that great job okay and the next get SE all right the next award is called Road Runner 4 this is for stand light thank you sorry about that um Road Runner four so this is for an athlete who was involved for four years um so for example maybe they were a volleyball player through fifth sixth seventh and eighth grade um so they did four years of volleyball so we're recognizing them with that award if it's four years of basketball four years of clock football um four years of soccer um to play four years in one sport in middle school is awesome and so we want to recognize those AES come on up pict congratulations this next award is called the Road Runner 12 this is for a student who played 12 Sports throughout their time in middle school so essentially they played small winter and spring sports for four Street years and 12 recipients are Al and congratulations all right um Road order 12 is a shows huge commitment and dedication lots of persistence in in all of those Sports and they are on the way um to be a future Road Runner 24 when they get with high school if they keep it up so um they can earn it all the way up to a road 24 which is just incredible so keep it up all right next up we are going to do Mr and Miss Road Runner oh you said next I'll explain it once they get up here so Mr and Miss Road Runner what these Awards represent are student athletes so they have to be both students and a commitment uh attendance to practice and games um attending to their coaches supporting their teammates being strong leaders and also participating in their academics and doing well in school um supporting their teachers behaving appropriately and then demonstrating R RS no behavior issues um and so we recognize these who have set an outstanding example for all of their peers and are also athletes so thank you so much for your wonderful achievements thank you so much all right congrats wow this makes me really proud of our students here and your accomplishments I applaud you all and now I'm going to ask our principal Jill Voit to join on stage with us because we have a special award the road wunner Awards again this is for your grades your hard work all year around your A's and B's your citizenship doing well and respecting being responsible and safe your behaviors are excellent maybe one or two mishaps but continued all year around with that positive attitude and your commitment of attending school and wow that is a high honor and also the not only this but involved with academics but organizations L Battle of the books academic bow student council um as well as involved with sports so everyone is a winner but we only were able to pick four top students our first fifth grader AR yeah it goes to Arya congratulations good job I really enjoy working with you in tutoring [Music] amazing all right sure next we have our sixth grader this award goes to espie congratulations I am so proud of you esie I have been incredibly impressed with your improvement this year good work all right our next category for seventh grade is Owen yay congratulations Owen really outstanding here for you and I'm for you for next year to be in the M competition thank you all right our next award for eighth grade and hopefully next year in high school they continue to stay with that behavior and that will go to Alexa congratulations Alexa keep it up keep up that good work okay all right let's give them one special clap ready [Music] all right now I'll wait for you guys to get seated all right now I want as we close and wrap up I want to recognize all all all of our Middle School teachers and our leadership team you've guys done incredible and I appreciate your commitment and your hard work and Contin to teach all year around we really do appreciate you all a lot yes big round of applause for this secondly parents and or family members or Guardians I want to thank you for your trust into your child for your child in their academics all year around and I hope that you can see your child soar through their achievements throughout the year thank thank you parents and for any support from staff that applies we appreciate all of your hard work and your patience we have tripped through a tough and rough year we definitely have climbed that mountain and now we're near the end and with us we together we climb and in the summer we're excited that you guys get to go home and it's your turn to be parents and take care of them and we are off so thank you so please enjoy uh the cookies and refreshments that are out in the lobby and have a great day oh wait wait one last thing thank you so much to the interpreters as well really appreciate you voicing for us yes please go eat drink yes turn it [Music] up somebody save your soul cuz you've been sending in the city I know too many troubl all these lovers got you losing control you like a drug to me a luxury my sugar and go I want the

[Music] B You'll Never Walk Around [Music] back for e two [Music] all [Music] for [Music] oh [Music] oh for e e just play the just play the that'll be have what think little i' rather St ask good afternoon my name is Dr Curtis Finch as super superintendent of the Dear Valley Unified School District and on behalf of the governing board it is our honor to be here to celebrate with you the accomplishments of your children during another unique and special year we could not be more proud of each one of our graduates dear Valley's vision of educating lifelong Learners who will successfully complete compete lead and positively impact the world is shown here today as we award diplomas thank you for supporting your children along this journey before we begin in honor of our graduates and guests we kindly request that you turn off your phones Stadium management also asked us to remind you to please refrain from entering the aisles during the ceremony please rise for the processional thank you [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] where [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] l [Music] all e [Music] a oh [Music] [Applause] people [Applause] still wait [Applause] got good afternoon graduates and faculty please turn and face the stage my name is Rebecca Bowden student body historian we would like to welcome you to Mountain Ridge High School's commencement Ceremonies for the class of 2024 please remain standing for the presentation of colors the singing of the national anthem and then the Pledge of Allegiance for please welcome Avery Mark singing our national anthem oh can you see by the dawn light what so proudly we H at the Twilights last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars through the P fight or the r parts we watch were so [Music] gly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still still there oh say does that starled b yet wave or the land of the free and the home of the braak [Applause] my name is Paige Keaton student body public relations please join me 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 liberty and justice for all and now you may be seated please welcome Ellie gallagan student body secretary giving our inspiration [Applause] my inspiration is entitled be true to you the author is anonymous as you set out on life's Road unsure of the path you'll go the most important thing that you can do is always be true to you always remember who you are in moments of struggle or fear never forget or give up on the hopes and dreams that you hold dear there will be setbacks and rejection and moments of failure too but you must overcome any frustration to to achieve the potential of you don't forget to smile and laugh and to live in the present no matter where life takes you make every memory pleasant as you travel along your journey know that you're never alone and we'll always be here for you should you need the comfort of home and now please welcome Mr David Vines our principal good afternoon on behalf of the entire staff and faculty of mountain Rich High School I would like to welcome you to our 2024 commencement ceremony it is my honor to be your principal I would like to begin by thanking and introducing our governing board members District administrators and School Administration in attendance with us this afternoon please hold your applause until all have been introduced first president of our governing board Mrs an Elizabeth Ordway vice president of the board Mr Paul Carver board members Mrs Kimberly fiser Miss Jenny paperman and Mrs Stephanie simich next superintendent Dr Curtis Finch thank you for your support [Applause] also we have assistant principles Mr Jeremy Hendricks Mr Tony Miller Mr Paul Strauss and dean of students Dr Kimberly Silverman and faculty members Mrs Kimberly flegel please again please give all of our special guests a round of [Applause] applause we would also like to thank Deer Valley High Schools Air Force junor RTC for the presentation of colors for our ceremony Mr Aaron vogle and our award-winning band thank you for all of your wonderful performance this evening as well as all of your beautiful music throughout the year and special Thanks goes out to Avery Marx for her beautiful rendition of our national anthem and to the Mountain Ridge High School student uh government members Rebecca Bowden Paige Keaton and Ellie gallagan for their leadership and inspiration [Applause] I would like to begin by honoring and congratulating all of you here today as we reflect on the past four years we cannot help but fill a sense of Pride and accomplishment you have worked hard faced challenges and overcome obstacles to reach this moment today today we celebrate your achievements but we also look forward to the future with great anticipation as you embark on your next steps let us remember the pursuit of Excellence that has brought all of you here today Excellence is not just about the accolades you receive it's about striving to be the best version of yourself and putting yourself to reach first to reach your full potential it's about setting high standards and working diligently towards achieving them it's about having the courage to take risks learn from your mistakes and never give up the pursuit of Excellence is not an easy path it requires dedication hard work and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone it requires you to be resilient and persistent in the face of challenges and setbacks but the reward for the pursuit is immeasurable those rewards are a sense of Pride satisfaction and selfworth that comes from knowing that you have given your all As you move into your future we must remember that your pursuit of Excellence does not end with high school graduation it is a lifelong journey it is also about making a positive impact on the world around you be leaders who Inspire others to pursue excellence and reach their full potential now let's take a moment to brag on the Mountain Ridge class of 2024 you have earned almost $23 million in scholar [Applause] scholarships congratulations to all of you we know that we know that none of this could have been accomplished without the love and support from your parents your family and your friends they have been your greatest Advocates and supporters at this time I invite you seniors to stand turn towards the audience and show your appreciation for them you may be seated I firmly believe that we have the best staff and teachers in the state of Arizona at this time I will ask all Educators past and present who have played a role in the development of the class of 2024 to please stand one last time and be celebrated for all that you have [Applause] done you may be seated we will now honor students students individual successes and recognize them for their accomplishments please hold your applause until all groups have been recognized we will Begin by recognizing the top 14 number one GPA graduates please stand to be recognized you may now be seated also deserving of special recognition for their academic success are students who are members of the National Honor Society those students receiving the state seal of biliteracy and those students receiving the Arizona seal of Arts proficiency please stand and be [Applause] recognized congratulations you may be seated and finally we would like to recognize all students who achieved academic Excellence over the past four years by earning academic chts I would like those students to all stand and be [Applause] recognized congratulations on all your accomplish ments you may be seated the Mountain Ridge class of 2024 is truly incredible and I like I look forward to beholding all the amazing accomplishments there ahead for all of you congratulations and go [Applause] ridge again we would like to welcome you to our ceremony and it is my pleasure to now introduce to you your fellow graduate Sullivan giving the senior address if I had to define the climate of the last four years in this speech we would be here for 3 hours our class has lived through some of the most rapid and intense changes of the 21st century a global pandemic eight Taylor Swift albums highly contentious elections artificial intelligence Tik Tok International Wars and Elon Musk yet every problem that has been thrown at us we met because of this we have secured our place in history history is not made by one person but by a community who makes a choice the class of 2024 has been that Community our teachers have nurtured a passion for learning our administrators have guided us our families have encouraged every step we take and our peers have inspired us every day we made a choice to wake up and maximize our days turning one period of learning into a lifetime of Education time and time again our generation has been told that we don't care enough we don't care enough about voting about other people about ourselves in one word we are apathetic when I look at my class I don't see apathy instead I see the faces of people who are ready to make a change people who have already made changes the range of contributions we have made is wide from having a girls flag football team for the first time who made it to states to our nationally ranked band to the successive championships of the palm and cheer team to the political advocacy we have engaged in to the success of our academic competitors to the many other accomplishments that are too great to name we have left our mark on Mountain Ridge still the biggest changes are the ones we made internally while we may have started by logging on to zoom each day and using SnapChat as our main line to the outside world we are not ending that way our last year has been filled with unprecedented growth we acknowledge the end of our childhoods while while still pursuing the childlike Wonder inherence in all of us in many ways it was a year full of last the last time we will yell in the stands at a ridge football game the last time we will throw off our shoes on the dance floor at prom and the last time we will sit in the same class with people we might have known since we were 10 we don't have to be scared of the new changes coming because with every new change we have only made progress we have defied expectations and matured into caring feeling thinking young adults who are ready to take on the responsibilities and challenges of Independence the experiences and people we have encountered at Mountain Ridge will forever be with us as we go forward into the world and bring our light to others class of 2024 we aren't the next the next Greta thunberg the next Barack Obama the next Beyonce we are the [Applause] first and now please welcome Olivia desmar toe and Devon firin singing for good from the musical Wicked [Music] I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason bringing something we must learn and we are let those who help us most to grow if we let them and we help them in return well I don't know if I believe that's true but I know I'm who I am today because I knew you like a c pulled from Orit as it passes the Sun like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the world who can say if I've been changed for the better but because I knew you I have been changed for good it will may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime so let me say before we part so much of me is made of what I learned from you you be with me like a hand print on my heart heart and now whatever way our stories end I know you have Rewritten Mine by being my friend like a ship blown from its boring by a wind off the sea like a sea dropped by a Sky Bird in a distant wood who can say if I've been changed for the better but because I knew you because I knew you I have been changed for good and just to clear the air I ask forgiveness for the things I've done you blame me for but then I guess we know know there's blame to share and none of it seems to matter anymore like a as it passes like a sea drop by a skyb bird in a distant wood who can say if I've been change for for the better I do believe I have been changed for the better and because I knew you because I knew you because I knew you I have been ch [Music] for my name is p Dennis senior class representative Mrs Lindsay fleel holds both a bachelor's degree in math and a master's degree in educational Administration she has been teaching the wonderful world of math for 21 years of which 17 have been at Mountain Ridge she was named a Deer Valley Unified School District teacher of the year in 2018 and is currently the math department chair please welcome Mrs flegel giving our faculty reflection [Applause] welcome distinguished guests my colleagues family friends and of course the reason we are here today the amazing class of 2024 what's up yo today today I stand here as a person who refused to give a speech my entire high school and college career because it is one of my biggest fears when Mr Vines asked me to give this speech I said no immed mediately because that fear crept back in after some thought I decided all of you sitting before me are 100% worth facing my fear of public speaking Elanor Roosevelt once said you gain strength courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face you must do the thing you think you cannot do as that quote sunk in I realized each and every graduate here today has faced Their Fear in some capacity at over the last four years of high school each of you had to step out of your comfort zone in some way or another whether it was the determination to try out for a sports team the confidence to audition for the school play the strength to walk into a club meeting for the very first time or the Poise to perform in band in choir or the courage to come to school each day even though many of you face difficult situations and challenges the halls of Mountain Ridge are in your rearview mirror after after today but my hope is the memories you gained and the friends you made will stay with you for a long time we can't forget the vibe of a Friday night football game with the band playing the football team putting their heart into every play and ridge Army along with cheer and pal getting the student section hyped those late nights that led up to putting on the school play not sure if everything would fall into place but we all knew Mrs Gordon and Miss nardone would have you ready for that spotlight the memory of the last time you stepped onto the ridge field or court with your family to celebrate your senior night in the sport you pushed yourself to the limits for you will no longer have to listen to the debate of who the better Evans brother is or watch Mr Vines and Mr mhler perform their awkward announcement songs that seem to never end the days of cramming for Mr Green Miss Roa Mr rossy's econ and government tests are behind you the Instagram worthy photos that you had to find the perfect caption for from all those events Student Government worked so hard to plan are a permanent your reminder of your days as a mountain Li as the Mountain Ridge chapter of your life closes today I want to encourage each of you to face this next part of your journey with courage and confidence and and do those things that you are scared to do there is a whole world out there that needs your intelligence talents skills and smiling faces Ferris berer said life moves pretty fast if you don't stop and look around once in a while you can miss it wherever your path takes you next stop often cherish the moments be kind to those you encounter and have a positive impact in your corner of the world just like you had on this teacher and this school go ridge and peace out class of 2024 [Applause] and now please welcome Brogan mathys senior class [Applause] representative good afternoon Mountain Ridge graduating class of 2024 thank you students faculty family and friends for being here today on this day we celebrate our hard work and determination that helped us be able to walk across this stage surrounded by those who helped us get here these past four years have flown by just as fast as our parents said it would so I hope we can learn to embrace the times we spent together the lessons we have learned and the friendships that we have created because no matter how bad we may want to we can never come back to high school today is a day that we bid farewell we're saying goodbye to the bad memories and we will cherish the good ones for the rest of our lives this is not a day to be sad we should be excited for our future holds we should be preparing for new adventures the new memories and be excited about the people we will share them with some may be in this room and some we have not met yet whether those people are new roommates a new coworker or the same group of friends you've had since first grade no matter who what or where our future takes us to we will always remember our times here at Mountain Ridge thank [Applause] you we the graduates have a request of our audience during the reading of each graduate's names we request that you refrain from blowing air horns and other nois makers we the class of 2024 want each of our classmates names to be heard we do appreciate your enthusiastic Applause and thank each of you for being here today and now please welcome our principal Mr David Vines I would like to thank Fallon for your profound remarks Mrs fleel for your interesting reflection and Brogan for your farewell president of the governing board Mrs Anne Ordway on behalf of the entire Mountain Ridge High School staff and administration we present to the governing board the class of 2024 graduates who have met the standards set forth by our state and District on behalf of the governing board as its president it is my pleasure to accept this class of graduates from Mountain Ridge High School for the year of 2024 a akaru Diego armenta Brandy analysa Bustamante Joshua Aaron con Logan Ward Dudley Sai Ana gandikota Sophia grabum ARA guler John Kenyan Esther y Kim Fallon Sullivan yumine secondar Katrina Natalie Wilson Claire Shu Rebecca Bowden Avery Elizabeth Marx Paige Katon Isabella Amada Reed Ellie gallagan katrena biki Payton Dennis sad Kath Brogan Mattis Olivia Marie De Marto Maya Moss Devin Renee firestein McKenzie Rose Anderson Riley axon Andre aosta Dakota William Adams Haley Adams Jamal Ali ammed James answorth [Music] gahir Yasser Al bahad Sai alala Noah Zachary alorn Kaden Alexander Malik alfagi Aaron Ali Yousef Al fji Marva alai Abigail Marie alter Seth Michael Alvarado Samuel Edward alvitre Ty Alan Hannah Jolie Nina Amaya Kaden Alise ersy Connor amondson Miriam Hussein Abed priest Anthony assal anun Anthony Antoine sahii ready anugula Kofi AIA Amir Aria ardalon Elise an arm Brewster Maisy Arnold Ronan oroa Nicholas artega Kaden Ashby Emma May Austin Ilana Patricia Austin Madison Elizabeth abalia Chris arim Tara Lotus aanga Elena khed aiz Devin haly bajon Cody Elizabeth Bailey Smith Michael Bailey Lincoln bald denado Adar Banda Sierra Madison Bean Devin Jacob Barlo Alex Ryan Batton Elijah Noah barazza rahan Basha Emily Elizabeth barazza Joshua Barett Madison barcel Xander Barnes Zachary Zachary Kenneth Bosler Dominic Barnes Marissa Aaron Bean Joseph Banks Ella Brin Beal Ashton Michael Becket Ali Marie Belin Kylie Madison Benjamin Haven Marley Benning Sarah Grace bent begna Jace Ford Bentley estrea Nicole bero Campbell burin Sarah catherin bertini Ash Baka hey bib Cohen bigger Aiza bishy Kaden bner abisola Sarah bod Chloe Balon Hannah Grace bowy Kylie Boyce Grace Bravo annah rayan Brown Jake Brooks Giana Elizabeth Brown Brendan Brown meline Ray bun Boston bruan Samantha Elizabeth buris Savannah K Birchfield Israel Lance Campbell Logan Matthew Kane Adriana Nicole cow Caitlyn Marie Campbell Ellie Nicole Cardiff Gavin Rodriguez Elijah Castro Hannah Marie Cardona Isabella Maria cavaler Rees Bailey Carpenter Luca Chandos Mary Grace kavada Malia leua chalk Serena CH Elijah James krer Sheen Chen Fabian Gary Christie Catherine Eleanor shenir Ron Coleman Cole Christopherson Joshua David Conlin Monroe Kalin cober Riley Conway brilin K Collins Jordan Marie Cooper Xavier Isa contras Rihanna Cortez Kora Jane Cooper Nicholas Michael kotoya Adeline May couver Caitlyn Maria crispino Sadi Rihanna Cortez Medina nicolina klyber shenah Lane Crawford Kyle Jackson quiner Grace and cross James Stone Daga Ariana Leah Kiyoko Garcia Christen tuen Deng Frank deul Tobin Charles Davis rafat Dalal Kerney John pangilan darit Julian danielli Mason d Peter Bruno Davidson laurelai Luna Dipsy Brady Delaney Samantha Marie Dipsy Jade V Nina Gabrielle do isan Dixit asley Jane Drake Dakota Michael do constantina Sophia rodopi Dres Addison Paige dowel Angelina dumi Zachary Brian Dre Kier Dumis Jr Kaden drolin Tessa McKenzie Dunn Zoe Elise Ducar Brock John Edrington Hunter Aaron Duncan Delena Maria Marie AIA Erica Dawn Eastland Evan Wayne Eller Jacob eim Brady angler lson George Elias Logan Fogle cadence Marie Emory Dylan Scott Farber Jackson Daniel Barton Estus kayn rienne Farnell Nathan Valour Lamar Charles favers Carman Alysia Farina Danielle Louise Felix Kaden Eugene melali fa Lauren Danielle fiori Joshua Fetti Jackson forbs Austin Terrell Fenton Kaden Freeman Jenna Renne Finley Jade Elizabeth fedur Briana nle Fox Kusha gotami Allison frankenfield AA Nish galand Hayden James fuches Trevor Douglas gend dafer Nicholas fando McKenna Lynn Gibson Nicole Karin galdiano Gavin Michael Gyer Isabelle Alis Garza Leah Gilmore Sophia Marie Garza Caitlyn Nicole Goble Jessica Ray jamron Abigail Elizabeth Gonzalez Julia Lee jamron Alex David Gordon Elizabeth Jane Gillis Evan Lee Gordon James Ryan Gillis Abigail grants Joshua Ethan Gillis Khloe jade green attakus Gonzalez Sierra Ashley groy Maddox Goran Isabelle K Griffith Jonathan gorley Talia Rose G Madison Green kosi Gupta Isabelle Sophia Green Brian Christopher hack Aiden Grimes Mia Alise Haider Alexander GAO Parker Richard halpine Isabella Josephine Gwyn Logan Hansen Kaitlin Gutierrez Kylie Amaya Harmon Jason James Hagerty North jelle Harrison Zoe Christine hallum Anthony sha Hathaway isan Honda Heaven Juan Haynes Malachi Edward Hansen Nicholas Riley heberts Jonah Richard Harris Alexa Jazz heler Zachary Hartman Carter Allen Hemphill Payton Harts Gloria Marie Hines Caitlyn Sierra Hawk Tony hoe Nathan headed Casey Geneva hog Ellie Katherine hegerty Dylan Bryce House Amelia Ray hempen XA Shu Manuel janaro higera Shelby huel Mariam Hermes Tilman Thomas Irvin Aaron John Hodge Ethan William Jackson Jacob honovich Justin Brady jacobe Jackson how Logan Joseph Jasperson Kean Hussein Alena Lee jelenic Alonso Elijah ubara Brook Jensen Murda igore Maxim Andrew Jensen Alysa Brook Jackson Hannah John Joselyn Cole Jackson Zoe Nicole JT Daniel Eric janish Emma Grace Johnson Zachary Benjamin janish Payton Jordan jayen Rose Jefferson Ria kakara Jordan rain Jefferson Caitlyn Elizabeth Kaufman Jace Kevin Jensen Ella Jane Kaylor reys Emerson Jensen Michael Francis Christopher Keys Carson jurgus John Joseph Kano Sienna John Jackson Paul kefir Molly Marie Jones Isaiah Wy King Alexander uas Samantha Brienne Kinsman Ali Lauren caros Michael Anthony KNE Tani kulana Kahu Jace Allen Cree Emma Kars Aaron Elizabeth Ken Braden James keter Nikolai alexandrovic kunowski AR Khan Gabrielle laasri safe Sultan Corey McKenzie kaen lace Shay Madison Kilby Ethan James lamb Joselyn Rael King Victoria lapadura [Music] Dane Allan clender Nicholas Joseph Lara Alex Kish Cassandra Jaden lvie sha Michael kber Elizabeth an Layman Robert Lawrence Coleman Emily an leyon Omar kundan Bryce James leverage arjin kundan Joshua Ryan link Courtney Lake Justin Ricardo Longfellow klin Ryan Lindon Jazelle Renne Lopez Nicholas Cade Langdon Gail Joseph Lewis sailor Paige lson Grant 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Mitchell Hunter Rick Nixon Josh monu Trevor John Norton Nathan Moreno Lucy B [Music] nutting Kyle M Kendall Marie o Conor one more Chloe Drew Carly Faith Ogden nice Carl nabba Carson Austin Aller Kaden James Nelson Landon Andrew ordanza Grant Nichols Natalie Carmen aroso Stephanie Katherine neelon J Aiden Iva Osborne Ella Grace Nolan Aiden Frank Pagan Liliana Rose Noto parth asak Patel Ashley Ellen NY trishna patro Ava Emerson o'haren isias Walter Penman Ian Oliver Gabriel Raymond Perez Bennett only topenga Perry couter Oreo Sven Ruben Peterson Addison Esme Ortiz Ryan Manny picker abis Sola Oaken Brady Cole py AA Peri Susan Marie psky a Maya Patty B Ashton Michael PR Bella Rose peace prush Raj peo Taylor Sky penny Nicole Raiden Isabella Alice Perry Skyler Melissa rage Emma Jane Peterson Vanessa Josephine Ramy Aram petan Sophia Elena Rapaport Caitlyn McKenzie petrovski Eva Lauren riigi Abigail McKenzie Pacha Peter Elliot Reed Emma Grace post Joseph Richard renck zorina Prosperity iy Diane Tang rener Isabella Rose Rocky Davis Alexander riio Zara olabi Ralph Walter Rigden Lucian Ry Xander Dian Rippy Michaela an Randolph Hannah McKenzie Roberts Karin Grace raber cord Austin rhoman Daniel Grant Readington Adrien Nel Rodriguez Giana Teresa Riley race Anthony robuk Aiden Allan rener Cameron Carl Romano Alexander Ren Thompson Jade sadell Rosenberg Jake Kyle Richards Natalia Claire Logan Fleming Riley Ana amartin Rees keani elar Rivera Andrew SAA Becca Robinson jerich Joanne salana Joshua Rodriguez cyan Jade Elizabeth salmon Angelina Alicia pangalan Rodriguez Ryland David Sans Peter romanic Angelina Lauren Santiago Baker roses Cody James scalin Alexis Denise Renee Ross Bailey Lynn Shyer rif Johan Michel rubel Cava laes Connor Randall Schilling Alexandra Marie Russell Carson Schmidt Samantha Christine Russell Jessica Shriner Michael essid Sal Mirage Shuff safe Salah McKenzie Joe Scott Reagan Lynn Samus Jacob Daniel scribbans sha Michael Sans Paulo Leonardo serfino cic sais Kumar Steven cedo Rachel Christine schaer Hayden shinsky brayen shik Connor Allen ship Payton shik Donal sadiki Conan James Schneider Caitlyn Simmons Corbin James Schultz Miller Gary Allen Simpson Nicholas Alexander Scott Caitlyn Ashley sson Hannah Michelle cold Jacob Matthew Smith charves Shanta Tao Eugene Solis Chiron ready seretti Seth Allan sordan Analisa Rose Shepard Zapora martinque Maria Sosa Jude Shipman Nicole Alvarez spear Mia McKenzie shut Troy Lawrence stalman Andrew salagi Alexis Michelle steel Sydney Sims Ella stellic Winnie situ Ena Jean Stewart Tyler Ryan slippi Brook Carolyn stolzman D Smith McKenzie Ray stom Nicholas Sweeney Benjamin David Seuss Evan song Rishi ramama sesh yoseph Manuel sorya Megan Ray [Music] Swan Carrie Elizabeth span Tyler Edwin tachini Alisia Marie stal bom Alexander Leopold Takis Kendra da Stanfield carbin Douglas talbet Sarah Katherine stgm mallerie McKenzie tli Zachary Wayne stanic vickram fa isana sesh Zachary brayen Thomas Elise Melody stter reallyy Eileen Isabelle Tona Caitlyn Joy stter Elizabeth Kaylee tortelli Chloe Grace Stoddard Briel landelle trigger Brennan sord summer Lee chunis Tatum Ray tagert prasar udia Kumar rvic talak kayala Elana Nicole era Tessa Ariel Taylor Isaac Drake van wave Nissa Briel Teran Noah Vincent vas Ava Marie Thomas Joshua Anthony vau Janelle Christine Thompson Blake Lee vuin Michael Peter Torres Elijah vior Reed Jackson too Allison Vogal sang and Andy bow Tran Briana wadlington manasi tripati fangying Wong Ellie Rose Turner Parker David wasburn Nia anuka anger and jealous Jacob whis Tanya vade Ian Hunter wegley Rio Melissa vanderver Lauren Elizabeth Wells Aiden Walter Vargas Hunter wheeler Alexander Velasco Jackson White Law Conor Michael Vickers Hannah Avery Whitaker Matias Visser Trenton Lloyd Wilkins prati vup Pala Caleb Tristan Williams Kylie Rose Walker Sydney Marie Williams Ryan Christopher Warder Juliana Wilson Andrew Watkins Dayton wacheski Edy Kate web mateline May Wright Devin Welsh Gavin Christopher yakes Reed Westerman Laya Jane zavar Isabelle Eden Wetzel Jaylen Victoria zavos Brendan Michael Whitlock Sage Lauren Zoo Kate Wilcock Brandon sha Brewer Jacob Willams mahak Zari Catherine Williams Payton Marie Willis Tia Jean weski Daniel Isaiah Wright Ava Marie wolf Alec John Yates ambrina anamarie zorana Ryan Michael zeesy Jameson Paul zerman Ali zare Jets Paul Weinstein [Applause] my name is Maya MOS student body Treasurer and Alma moer is a dignified and serious piece of music that is both heartfelt and emotional it symbolizes Mountain Ridge High School as a loving mother who knows and cares about each student that has been nurtured within its walls ladies and gentlemen it is my honor to present our Honor Choir under the direction of Mr Abel dragir singing our Alma moer [Music] will [Applause] [Music] [Applause] will us for in our [Music] heart thank you Honor Choir for singing our Alma moer and Mr dragir for Direction all year long well done before we end our ceremony let me remind our graduates that you will be exiting where you entered and will meet your guests at gate one and to our guests please exit gate one and meet your graduates there and now graduates please stand at this time you may move your tassel from the right to the left signifying that you have graduated congratulations [Applause] [Music] it mountain mountain mountain [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm but I if [Music] still all oh I'm good at keep my distance I know sure the feeling I'm missing you know that I hate to ad [Music] [Applause] everything have you I can't that's not you can't without thinking about you is too late to tell you [Music] everything I you one about you can't without you to [Music] late without [Music] [Applause] [Music] even when not around are boundaries I will try CL

e e e right good evening everyone and welcome to the Aston select board meeting of May 2024 uh this meeting is being live streamed live on waca TV and uh on Facebook as well and remote participation is Avail is available using the zoom video conferencing platform however any disruption with our platform result in the platform being shut down and the meeting continue after so I would just um caution anyone from any kind of uh we will we will act to shut down um disruptive and uh inappropriate speech immediately so thank you and welcome everyone to this meeting so as usual we will start with citizen participation do we have anyone for citizen participation of the usual kind of uh citizen participation the usual citizens participation just usual Mark is that you and I I don't see anyone online that I just notice my daughter's online how' you just notice yeah that's funny okay ah the have the family on Zoom though huh yeah Mark Sony 49 hathon Road as I Mass I would like to save my time and have what's going to happen after and then come up after okay thanks Mark we'll we'll we'll do that board amendable to that so I I wasn't prepared for this particular part so I'm going to turn it over to our you want me to do why don't you start cuz sure it's been that kind of day oh I know that feeling I just remind you I can shut down this meeting under the you can you did say you know you have to vote that we you know if we out vote you then no any Shenanigans you're going to you're going to shut us down so Rob um you know it's uh in a Bittersweet moment for a lot of people people including yourself this is going to be your last meeting as a select board me member at least this go around you know you've been known to take a break should you decide to come back next I'm not looking at Marsha as I'm saying so um but yeah so you know we've been able uh youve on this stent you've served on the select board for nine years and um you know I can just tell you personally um it's been a real real honor to to serve with you and work with you you're were you know one of the select board members that that hired me and gave me a chance and I really appreciate that and you know a couple of things really come to mind and and I'll try to keep my stuff brief because I know there's a lot of people that want to say a lot of things but um one of the things I've I was always really impressed um by you is you know you you always were able to kind of stick to your values um even if they were unpopular at the time you know you were you you stuck to them you held firm um you know you were always willing to listen and stuff but you know you didn't necessarily play politics a lot and uh I think that's kind of rare in today's society so I appreciate that um you always you know you and I you know have some disagreements um on things and we've always been able to work them out and we've always had good solid discussions that um you know didn't have any kind of animus attached to them or anything anything you know and you know that's something that I really appreciate and I think you're that way with with with everybody and I think everybody else um appreciates that and I could go on and on but one final thing I will say is a lot of people might not know this but you're like one of the funnier guys I think I you know way do you hear my speech I oh you know you you and it's not planned it it's sometimes I think you're trying to be funny and sometimes I don't it's just funny um but hey you know probably the one that that uh probably the one that kind of resonates the most is um gosh you and Carl were sitting together and Carl was talking about uh going to the cemetery and visiting the cemetery and how you know each time he goes up there he sees more and more names that he's familiar with and you just sit under your breath like well that's the way it works you know P alternative right so um again just uh thank you for for your service and uh and good luck in your next phase all right thank you Michael well I think that wraps it up right is that yeah no so we have some things for you but before we do that I'd like to open it up to the board first and then we're going to open it up to the audience but um you know I would like to also just Echo what Michael said about uh you sticking to your values that um that's something I've known you for a long time Rob um I actually remember when you served um in 97 I couldn't remember the years you told me 97 to 99 on the select board in those days um and and at that time I was on the school committee and I remember that um you know you did I've seen it you know through the years that that's something that you've always done well um that that's important to you you know another thing I feel like you know you are open to other ideas and that um you know you're you're willing always to provide a listening ear to people um and even G giving them a forum here sometimes and and you know I do respect that about you because I might not be as generous as as you are in that regard um and it's important in our world that that we do so listen to others in their um opinions and that and uh you know I I've only been serving with you for a year um you know I just appreciate what you've shown me in that that year um you know I am I'm grateful for that and uh I I really realized to I've learned so much this year too about the relationships that exist between members and other boards and how complex it all is um and so anyone who has spent the number of years that you have um giving your time your energy and you have passion about some very important things in our community right and uh you know I just have a lot of respect and admiration for you and thank you thank you ready um so I'm I've had five years um serving with you it's been 5 years already it's crazy how fast time flies um and you know Rob one of the things that I admire most is you always put the Community First in everything that you do so like cludia said you know you you do give a voice to you you you listen to everyone and you give everyone an opportunity you you stick to that like that that whole Democratic process D with a lower case D you know um uppercase D too but you know we're not going to go there yes um but I always appreciate that you that you really are you're always looking to to um make sure every voice in the community is heard and that's really important and you know um a lot of what we do up here is um you know it's it's a fraction of the work that goes into to to being on this board and to put in the the years of service um and the commitment you know I think of you and I think of you know open space always advocating for open space every single time we're going to talk about the upper Charles Trail I will think think of you like I will literally think of you every single time um and it's been an honor to serve with you I'm I'm like thankful for um for your leadership and um we will miss you and um and just you know I I wish you all the best in the the newest chapter and I'm sure you're going to be on the other side advocating still for the trail so we we won't uh we won't totally miss me yeah yeah we'll we'll still see and I have a recommendation for that so okay okay so but um but thank you very much thank you Brandy great Mr chair nine years wow yeah we've been together for nine years that's not bad it's pretty good put up with you for nine years you put up with me for nine years I mean you you double bell between Masa and me it's been uh it's been kind of hectic um but it was it was a it was a good experience I've known you for a lot longer I've known you for many years within the town your coaching abilities and and what you did on and off the field um you could tell that any of the kids that you had as a coach knew the true value of working hard and and and perseverance uh you may not know what the heck you were doing on the field but that's okay my son set me straight on that all I can say is you you persevered through through it all even look at he even agreed yeah exactly it's awesome um I've known you for a number of years I've known the reny family all my life and uh yeah you you were the little Maria back way back when way back when and um all I can say is your your professionalism has been a key key note in in my mind um your generosity of of time giving people time to speak is well noted by everybody here um your values have not changed and they will never change because that's the type of person you are and that's something we can all learn by and that's a great trait to continue to have uh it's been a pleasure and a privilege to be a board member with you a Community member as well and uh watch out Mas he's got a lot of free time yeah he already told me you've been working on a a a honeydew list for the last three years so God only knows what what you expected what I will miss the most is the jokes we had with respect to the upper child's trail trail it would never go back without a day without a meeting that there would be an underlining comment that that no one would hear thankfully and and you and I would just get that joke and we all would get the joke and it would just move on you would move forward so uh it's been a pleasure my friend and uh I wish you the very best in the in in your future endeavors thanks it's been a blast yeah Madam Vice chair Mr chair it has been a great nine years we haven't always seen eye to eye but I truly believe that is part of the lower D Democratic process that if you don't see eye to eye you can have a conversation and wind up with possibly a better product and a better end result um that's what we do here that's what we do here and I think that is beneficial to our community um Ashland has benefited from those discussions and your willingness to listen and allow other peoples to talk um I got to know your family when I was with Marsha on school committee and then we had children graduate from high school together which is still hard to believe that that's been 14 years now since they've graduated and one of them's online one of them's online one's another one's back there and uh I just think it was great that you came back and I I don't think we can let you go completely I think you're you're stepping off the board but and we have to vote this but you were a member of the upper Charles Trails committee before you became a select board member that's right yeah and you've been working very hard on that and life sentence and and and not at this meeting but I'm hoping that at another meeting we can keep you there to keep advocating for and keep working toward that because um I might not be on the trails committee but I know the real benefit that that could have for Ashland and the region and I really want us to continue working on it I think your advocacy for that will be beneficial great thank you so we'll we'll vote that and see where we get but um so uh I'm going to open it up to the public if there is anyone who'd like to come up and either speak just come line up at the podium Steve Rob whoever come please line up get to the podium and um I can still shut you off you know no no that's not happening she's a sered be already you can uh but uh you know I would when when I served on the board I always tried to look at our service as a link in the chain that goes back to 1846 and uh you know when I look at Rob's tenure his two tenures you alluded to that uh there's a a 20-year Gap basically in between and that's unique in the anals of Select board history there's a lot of folks that got elected voted off came back so on but 20 years is is unique and uh you're first you new sports that's what that's yeah and and you know so I went back and I looked at my notes for when we did our recognition um project and there was uh looking at the board you first served on and the names were bresnik Baker finegan galani Shear oh and Shear there too yeah and then you know fast forward to 2015 and the names are of course manani uh there was hackinson there was Mitchell sheer and Greaves where am I going with this that's I hope you realize Joe you're endangered species I have been told that already more way than one but uh you know I really didn't know you when we first served on the board um I got to to know you I think pretty well I think we've enjoyed each other's camaraderie developed uh and I have to Echo everything that's been said about your passion and your humor your compassion your empathy and so on and I started to think you know did we agree on how much did we agree on how much do we disagree on and you know I think for the most part we we agreed on things um you know it's interesting select board votes are typically pretty routine most of them are 0 maybe there's some 41 thing that's sticks in my head though is the uh we were on the short end of a 3-2 vote you recall for the host Community agreement the way back when and I was good with that vote but uh so tonight I salute my comrade in cannabis okay that was it thank you we got to get that on a plaque who's my comrade in the dog statue that's oh that's your that's [Laughter] hi sorry hi Dave hi everybody David Rosen blo 191 High Street I it's not my thing to come up here or a town meeting I finally got to say that oh boy well thank you for being willing to do it tonight yeah my pleasure literally uh uh I think most of you know but I am the chair of the Ashan Democratic town committee and I'm here representing the committee and myself and uh there are many members here a couple up there and over here and uh Rob of course is a lifetime member of the Ashlan Democratic town committee not meeting that you started when you were born but you been in 20 years yes 20 years of service and I I came in kind of in the middle of that actually and Rob was uh you were an officer then and you're an officer now in the committee and you help plan our events and it's really important to me and other people to have your input and your guidance and you say David do I really have to go to the meeting it's like yes you do frankly when there's a meeting and everything's settled and there a speaker if you want to come to that fine if you don't don't but we we need your input uh planning and you don't tell Marsh about the summer social yet it hasn't but that's been an annual event the last couple going happen thank you very [Laughter] much and uh but um so and Rob you uh my standing here as the chair it's your it's your it's your fault let me put it that way you you you're respons I actually were at a meeting I probably would have still been a member just doing my thing and we needed a secretary at the committee and you were sitting next to me you probably don't remember this and you said David why don't you do that cuz I didn't want to do it yes that was probably one yes and uh I said okay and uh that got me started and I really appreciate that and also it's a very good lesson I found you know if you want something to happen you have to ask something and I'm glad you did and uh people were I want to I have my notes I'm not I'm not going to use use them too much but I to to uh Echo a theme I have Rob says it like it is and brings his insights to the table okay then that's uh certainly very important part of who you are and we really appreciate it and you have uh officially and unofficially you're you're on our agendas as the town update and uh to fill us in on what's going on here in this room and in other committees and uh I'm I'm your friend privilege to do that appreciate that and uh we have we were on the upper Charles Trail committee too are on the upper Char committee and um see um and that's uh and we all really looking at the commit memb okay really appreciate it and you will uh uh and certainly look forward to that and to you continuing and uh Rob enjoy your extra time your extra time with Mara okay and your family and a wonderful little boy over there that's great and uh and but with a with an uppercase D I know you would devote a little bit of your time okay and more than usual to the the elections this year which are just so important yes and um and that's oh my last note everybody in Ashan vote Tuesday okay thanks and it's there's no uppercase D associated with that it's non it's nonpartisan election thanks David appreciate it and thanks for the committee members for coming it's great welcome hey Rob hi everybody a lot of familiar faces um so every everybody's heard a lot of this I'm a native and people might think that's why we settled in Ashland they would be wrong um actually we moved here originally to buy because my mother was a real estate agent and she convinced us to buy a condo in Ashland which now that I'm a mother with grown children I see the wisdom in that that was very smart of her and now I luckily have my kids in town um but when it was time to move from the condo to the house I was ready to look at other towns I love Ashlin but you know I was open by then he was already fully involved on the Conservation Commission and he's like no no we're going to stay in ashin so here we are almost 40 years later um Rob went from the Conservation Commission to the board of Selectmen he was elected as everybody said he was elected on Stephen our third Child's first birthday he was out celebrating that while I was home with the kids but um when that term was over we had the three kids all in school the older kids and we had a fourth on the way and um when he contemplated a second term at that time I said you know you go do that and I'll make the call to the divorce attorney that's fine that'll work not not really but you know we were busy and as it's been mentioned Rob then took on the next several years doing all the kidss stuff and that was great and then uh it was 2015 when I was I was finished with my gig and he started his yeah she talks big about me she was nine years on the school stop not in this not in this room where we're in double digits all over um no anyway um that is notable right I mean that as a family right it went from Rob and then you spent nine years and now he spent another nine years that's that's notable Mara right well and you know and in that Spirit um you know I am so glad I am so glad that the town has had the wisdom and all the great things people have said about him now um and I know that this is like often times people get gifts at this event and so I you know I brought one too and and I want to thank Joe for introducing this topic to me because what it is is Rob's very own clipboard funny d this is for you honey it's got plenty of pages we will fill them all up okay would you mind keeping that for me one more night I'll keep it you get it first thing in the morning but anyway um technically I'm on till Monday right okay we'll talk we can negotiate the election on the 21st you're good yeah we got you until the 21st anyway I'm so proud of my husband and I it's a I love seeing all of you I it's you know and thank you all for your service to be honest it's a great it's a great thing that the town has volunteers who are willing to put as much time as you do thank Masha Ju Just one quick thing Masha thank you for the community service that you and your family provided allowing allowing Rob to take time away from your family that's true to put it all we we all take time away but you know I familiar I know and to all your spouses I say the same so thank you for allowing that to happen thank you thank you Mara Rob S mayor 64 winter street that put your address in in all my communications with Rob I'm known as Rob to at any rate um one of the little things that I do is I'm the property steart for the kawasak the SVT sub Valley truste section of the Town Forest which Cuts deeply into the forest in fact without that pel of land the forest would not really be what it is today and there was a technical issue that recently um came up and so I was handed a a stack of papers like like that and to go through to see if I could find some Trace to answer the question lo and behold some more than 30 years ago Rob and Mara were deeply involved with the acquisition um and of that property we would not have it today so on behalf of you know my role of SVT and whatever thank you because it's I'm a lover of the as you know and that is a beautiful part of it so thank you and thank you for all your service thank you rob good hear thank you [Applause] Rob is that it we can move oh no we're not done yet we still got we still got 11 minutes before our hearing so we still oh you know what I do this hold on before I do this is there anybody online who would like to say anything I see Christine I see Makita I see Christine you want to say anything or are you just listening she may have wandered off oh right right okay oh the host Christine if you want to say something put your raise your hand do your raise hand thing there we go okay so I I would like to say that I'd like to unmute her as well as if we can can allow her to put her camera on if we can oh boy can we do that doesn't want to do we not finee go ahead Christine I'm kind of in a dark room okay you see me we can hear you hi um I just want to say go Dad congratulations thanks um and you know it's it's admirable I I admire all the work you do and you've done for this town uh it's really uh you have such such a uh good attitude about everything you're very patient like I like I just really admire that about you and I and I know that you've dedicated so much of your time to this so congratulations on a great nine years thanks Christine thanks for being here Christine she's she's this is she's in Brooklyn right now so very nice thank you well she's she's anyway so as we do we have a proclamation for you boy and I get to read it I won't stand up I can do it here okay I made my no I can I need my glasses sorry I can Su you tried I tried I tried you know it's it's been 12 years I start need to wearing glasses um anyway Proclamation select board proclamation of recognition whereas Rob moved to ashon with his wife Marsha and really grew to love this small town realizing that this would be a great place to call call home and raise a family and whereas Rob ran for the board of selectman in 1996 getting elected alongside Arnold Baker and filling the seats previously held by Teresa Evans and Gary gani and whereas Rob and other board members work tiously on a water quality issues inequities in state funding MW assessment selecting a location for the MBTA station silencing the train whistles and looking at ways to keep Ashlin affordable while funding capital project at the same time still need to work on that train silencing and whereas during Rob's tenure the board also approved the proposal for building a water treatment plant which was estimated to cost $7 million and whereas Rob has also been very involved in the community with land Acquisitions sustainability efforts and he has dedicated more than 10 years on the upper Charles Trails project and he's not going away yet and whereas Rob was also inst instrumental in securing $2 million American Rescue plan act funds for this project and work with private landowners on the importance of their role in establishing the route and whereas Bob is also a lifetime member of the Democratic town committee and whereas Rob has served on the select board formerly known as the board of Selectmen for 12 years he has served with Barry bresnik Sean finegan David teller Arnold Baker Gary galani John Ellsworth Yolanda Greaves Carl hackinson Joseph manani Jr Steve Mitchell Randy Kinsman and Claudia Bennett and whereas Rob whereas while Rob has been on the board he has worked with three different town managers including Dexter blo Anthony skav and Michael Herbert and now therefore we Robert's friends family current and former board members gather to thank you for all you have done to make Ashland a better place we hereby Proclaim Saturday May 18th 2024 as Rob Shar day we urge all residents and employees to make known their appreciation for Rob's Devotion to the town of Ashland and we wish him good health and good fortune well thank you oh thank you we have three more gifts okay oh wow so we we'll make them quick so you know Rob uh we wanted to to give you a token a clock figure um with the town of ashin you on it um I'll just put it over here great thank you and then two other real gems here so we did find one last a BS coin so otherwise known as a board of selectman coin or select board coin so um I'm I'm sure the board is is okay with presenting this definitely all right and then uh finally uh here's your stamp your signature no one will dare use it now so I guess I can't use use it to like stamp payroll records or anything um but uh but yes you know it's kind of silly but well that's good that even looks like my sign I was about to say it's probably hopefully it's your that's good look at that well thank you you well thank you all that's um you know I kind of um I wasn't expecting much to happen tonight I was just going to do a short I know but then yes but our first thing wasn't until 7:40 this is when I started this to catch on you know I'm the chair I'm in charge here I can figure things out it up till till Tuesday now you know I look at the agenda the last what the heck happened here we had our agenda meeting so um I really do appreciate this um and um you know I do want to Echo the thanks to my family my um you know and Joe I think you made a great point that we all do this at the expense of our families really and me and with their forbearance um and so I'd be a Miss if of course we didn't thank Marsha and my and and little Mason and the children too Christine's here and they've all you know they've been around when I've left for meetings uh and I'm not there for various uh family events so so it certainly is I want to thank them and then you know I'm very touched by my fellow members on the select board and and working with you folks and it really um I have to say um you know it really is a growth experience to get involved in your community and get it and be on something like the select board but any committee you really have to change your attitude I can't imagine looking back if I hadn't been doing this and all the people I wouldn't have met you know I mean and the people I worked with and it really is something you've got to that's great to experience you know because working together with people to do something that people you don't agree with like Diane always had these C crazy ideas and I had to you know the of health and stuff yeah and uh you know so but to move forward and get something done constructively is a real growth experience and I think I'm better for that and for my involvement with all of you and you know thank you Michael and the and the and and the team that youve put together and uh Jen and Diane and Susan up there um and uh working with all the the people over the years it's great and uh Michael you know I really appreciate your remarks we've gone back and forth on a number of things and you know you've really been invaluable in terms of your willingness to work on things identify issues and work on things so I wanted to point that out that's um that's great and so you know um you know and you know why have I been do doing this and why have we all been doing this because we want we want to have an impact on on our community we're looking Beyond ourselves and that's that's something we all share including most of you out there are doing your own efforts at various levels you're thinking about someone other than yourselves and you want to have a positive impact on your community I think that's what brings us all together and what I appreciate about you and I think what you've appreciated about my efforts and you know I I expect to continue to be involved not at this level I think you know things change it's time for change uh but as as people said I I will be continuing and maybe in a little different aspect and something that maybe won't take quite as much time as it does as this does um and you know you picked on some of the you know we've done some while I've been on the board there's been great things that have happened big projects and I have to say I've been supportive of those but I haven't been the key person on those that's a bunch of other people we know these big projects but I I think you picked up on my my um concern for quality of life that's what I ran on originally like what's the quality of life here what are we doing about open space the environment affordable housing you know traffic walkability sustainability all the things that we think about what are we going to leave to our children and our grandchildren um and that's why we're here and those are the things I'd like to focus on and I I appreciate that people understand and have noted that and have made some impact on that um and um so the you know some of the things I do want to just not to take but you know one of the things I look back with pride is the ever sourced gas pipeline and that's you know that's something that um when they came in it was a routine expansion of the gas pipeline through town major disruption had all sorts of sustainability issues and basically this little town banded together and said no you're not doing that you this kind of stuff should be on the uh Ash heap of history and that's what we did here um so I'm especially proud of that um so anyway you know I am I wasn't expecting all this so I'm sorry but um but uh one thing I I do want to um if I give a little chance to give a little advice that we all get caught up in in day-to-day things and we spend a lot of time doing things we'll do an important thing a license transfer later tonight we'll talk about the 40b um but you know one of the things I think I I would say be proactive that's why I think this comprehensive plan and thank you guys are doing it is so important like try to get out ahead of issues and you know when we talk about impact Our Community Helping shape the community Through planning and it's not just up to developers to develop our community it's up to us as Citizens to get involved in that process and that's what we're we're all doing and that would be my major advice and that's why I you know I think this comprehensive plan is so uh important and I think and also this 40b process I'm you know I'm about to bow out of it or I'll still be involved but you guys are going to carry on especially with Michael and I'm I'm cautiously optimistic about it I think we've had some uh Michaels put together a very effective response I've seen the response from the other Town boards um you know so I'm I'm confident we we can have a good impact on that so are I guess cautiously optimistic on that and I want to you know thank uh thank people for that so I will want to I do um want to close with something and um I was just at um the JFK Library last week for a conference and um one of the things if you recall in the early 60s that's when uh and um my son's going to shake his head when he hears this so JFK made a commitment to uh go to the moon and back before the decade was out and people remember that and and this is what he said and I think this's particularly appropriate to everything we do um we we intend to go to the moon and to do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard and that's that's impr my goodness but because they been for the last night you do that at home they don't let me they don't let me but so remember that some things especially things we do they're high you know people don't do this because they're easy they do it because they're hard and that's the most important things that we do so I will leave you with that thought but not everything's hard this was easy so anyway so thank you all I appreciate the good wishes thank you all right all right all right thanks all right so we have to officially open the hearing but then I'd like to pause it and do a group picture cuz I think thank you we have cake oh my gosh cake too you hear that everybody so let's open the hearing like we need to and then um have some cake or do we want to do cake at the end of the meeting yeah we'll do cake at be cake you know what let's let's open the hearing take a picture and I think we might if you want to wait there'll be there'll be cake at the end because we have a full agenda yes okay so go ahead you have to hearing oh God you wanted me to be prepared what did I do with it it's right here all right all right notice is here hereby giving that the select board will conduct a hearing uh regarding a transfer of liquor license and an alteration of license premises the transfer is an all alcoholic beverage license held by Caesar Moreno DBA Cabos Mexican grill and cantina um a public hearing will be held on this matter at Ashen Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashen Mass on Wednesday May 15 2024 at 7:40 p.m.

all right it's 6 p.m. uh I'll call the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the basa Union School District to order at uh 6:00 p.m. uh we have all five trustees um present uh today in close session we'll be talking about student discipline or other confidential student matters um at code section 35146 48918 and 4890 and 48912 section B and 49060 and 20 USC section1 1232g did I get that right okay right and we will be talking about uh conference with labor negotiators government Court section 54 9576 and we also be talking about um Public Employee discipline dismissal release complaint government code section 54957 at this time are there any public comments on the close session items seeing none we will adjourn to close session thank you e e e can you help us with the Norms of the board of es of course the Bera 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 for that um item D disclosure of action taken in closed session in close session with respect to the close session agenda item 2 2A the board considered the expulsion for student matter 716 4565 uh in in close session and we have discussed the recommendation for suspended expulsion the board will now take a vote to approve or deny the expulsion is there a motion in favor of the suspended expulsion for student number 716 4565 I move is there a second a second he been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I the motion carries 5 to zero thank you for that item e adoption of agenda is there a motion or any questions the agenda move to ADT I second been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I agenda has been adopted thank you item six recognition ceremony Dr FES thank you uh this evening we have the pleasure to be able to give some congratulations to uh maril Middle School to their students their staff their community at large for being recognized by the California Department of Education and the state superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurman as a 2024 California distinguished school and I would just like our you know beresa Community to know um how special it is for a School site to receive this recognition there are a lot of factors that are reviewed by the state when they're um looking at the selection process and it's not just an academics piece you know they do look at state test scores and identify um to the extent students are making progress they look at targeted groups of students are they also showing equal progress in their mathematics and language arts and in addition to that they look at other um components that are more attributed towards School culture and environment so they look at suspension and expulsion rates they look at attendance our students coming to school every day you know do they understand the importance of of being present each day and so it's really is one of those um recognitions that honors the whole the whole school learning environment and not only did maril achieve this in 2024 but they also achieved it in the last secondary cycle so they're backtack recipients and so we really want to give them um our Applause for that and so at this time I would like to welcome all of our moral staff that are present here with us if they can each come forward to the front here come to the podium it's really really simple guys just come up to the podium we' got several several up here I know you are you are representative of of your team but just come come forward we've had a few opportunities to be able to celebrate the staff but first I would just like I would like for you to just introduce yourself introduce um what content you teach your position at the site if you could please just introduce yourself to the board really quickly press that that's what I tell my kids sorry I don't need a microphone I have a big mouth um hi I'm Karen chanti um I teach at M sixth grade language arts history and then I'm 678 El um zero period thank you how long have you I caught that I saw that um so I'm just finishing year 26 but um 16 at [Applause] Morel hi I'm Jessica anguin I am the choir and music fundamentals teacher at Mill Middle School of the Year yes that's right our teacher of the year hi Joe Perry I teach social stud seventh and eighth grade thank [Applause] you hi good evening Jamal's playing I think I'm in my 30th week as a principal so I'm delighted to be here thank you thank you and Thomas Carroll coordinator student services and former principal of Marill excellent thank you and I know we we've had opportunity to be on site and congratulate the staff we also had a group of Representatives that went down to Southern California to receive their um their beautiful award from the state superintendent and there's still one more celebration to be had and that's going to be with the Santa clar County Office of Education who will be recognizing all of the California distinguished schools in Santa Clara County and that'll be coming up on June 5th so more details to follow um but with that I want to hand it over to the board first for any comments and then we'll provide another award plaque to the staff and the team here thank you any comments on the board just want to congratulate all of you I think it's wonderful your entire staff you're not just by yourselves you have the whole support of your staff and that truly makes a lot of difference and I thank you very much as a former teacher myself I'm so proud of all of you thank you I so just want to say congratulations and as a former tiger myself I'm so proud so proud that Mel did a second second time literally with the California dis School honor and so I'm just so honored and so proud of all of you for all your work that you do for our students every single day you know this award wouldn't have come without all of your hard work at the school and so thank you so much and congratulations great thank you you so from my side I again I EO the cont the um the sentiments of my my colleagues on the board uh amazing work it's not no easy task like Dr f is talking about there are so many things to be considered to be recognized as a distinguished school and uh you you've you know checked all those um you know checklist items which is which is brilliant which is great and it's no no um easy task and I congratulate all of you for each and every one of you for all your efforts into getting this uh getting this recognition is very well deserved and if it's a second time it's happening then you're doing something right and keep up the good work thank you so much yeah absolutely and it's definitely an effort that is both inside the classroom and outside the classroom I know we have several teachers that are here this evening in administration but also their support staff very influential in creating that positive climate so uh I know uh Mr Carol Dr Spain if either of you would like to say something on behalf of your of the school please feel free well I would just like to say that number one I'm very proud of of our students our staff it really does take everybody working in Partnership to get such an achievement and you know as I've told a few people the first time we got it it was coming out of the pandemic and so part of me was a little skeptical like okay is the data correct you know did we really earn this but to get it the second time was incredibly validating you know not only does it show that the work that we had done previously is legitimate data but it also shows that from that point we continue to grow and so I'm just incredibly optimistic for the future of maril I know that the the staff that they have there is exactly who needs to be there and um you know the students the parent Community really it takes everyone so I'm just incredibly proud and grateful thank you and and with that if we could have the whole team come forward for a photo with the board telling you man she saved me kids tell me to hold it up like little more of an angle come on Grandma yeah have another phone [Laughter] here thank you that was great thank you so much all right okay we are item seven public comments on conscent calendar agenda items are there any public comments on the conscent calendar agenda items seeing none okay St okay um so seeing n we see we have the consent calendar is there a motion or any questions in the concern calendar and items actually I'd like to pull an item can I pull item s item s for the renewal of the contract okay uh is there a second for that motion I second okay um all those in favor say I I I motion carries we'll pull item s for review and discussion okay thank you um is it moveed to approve the consent calendar with the the remove of item s is there a second for that motion I second okay it's been moved and seconded all those in favor of approving the concent calendar with the said change say I I I I consent calendar with the set change has been approved thank you so much yes all right all any comments from the public on non-agenda items okay seeing none we will now move to reports and presentations Dr Fint yes this evening we have uh one report for measure L and measure U our const our monthly construction Bond program update we have here uh Tony conab our director of bond programs hello thank you I was going to say this will be the last measure L but actually August will probably be the last measur L update that we have um again we start out with this is pedmont we put a little uh a little sticker it's a a floor monor mascot in front of the school oh there we go we'll go through measure L updates measure U updates and the schedules for each one uh measure L we actually receive the cafeteria tables the exterior ones for Majestic Way and pedmont I think last week um and we've already received the smartboards for all the special ed classrooms the interior cafeterias will be delivered the first week of June the second week of June when we're out of school so they're going to come the week of June 10th so we'll be out of school we'll be delivered and everything then we'll get rid of the old ones at the same time and then the same thing with the storage shelving at Summerdale again that'll be installed in June and then the last thing is right now we have out to bid just the parking barriers for Vincy Park and Cherrywood and those also will be installed in June and then that hopefully will be the end of meel um and again the only whatever money we have remaining will go to the um Cal for the the uh what was it called again the the energy loan energy loan right so whatever is left for that sorry um next we go on the schedule of how we're going to complete everything and then we have measure you again we have Vincy Park they actually finish the numbers on all the doors um the pedmont gym Landscaping was done during I think last week and then the security alarm at pedmont that was actually turned on last week Wednesday and I I know Dan's enjoying that right now because we're working out the bugs yeah so again we're we're learning a lot so that morel's almost done so we're going to wait and actually test it for a little bit longer so we can make sure everything's working so Dan and Marlo don't get calls throughout the night about doors at being a jar um again things in progress we're just waiting for the electrical panels for the Portables at pedmont and as soon as we get those we'll install those um the PA replacement at pedmont Morel we'll start those in the next couple weeks and we'll have those done by the end of summer um exterior door numbers they're working on Morel right now they should be done anytime and then we'll move on to I think we're moving on to Lane view next and again fire alarm replacement for Brook tree Majestic Way Noble and Summerdale that'll be finished by the end of July um we have out to bid right now is the rebidding of the HVAC replacement at 1376 the old district office um we have the demolition of the old Warehouse that's out the bid right now and then the renovation of the basketball courts at pedmont So the plan is to actually have all those containers moved off of the playground so that we can actually give pedmont their playground back by the start of school and we did have one we received one bid um since the last board meeting and that was for the monument sign again we had five biders it was within budget and later on in the evening we'll hopefully we're recommending the award to Yan Plumbing for the low bid um still in design is the Toyon fire fire alarm with Vincy Park in Northwood Warehouse replacement the remainder of the PA and security projects and last thing is the comprehensive infrastructure renewal and utility assessment plan we should be getting that back from the consultant next week so we can start reviewing it and then bring forward the next projects any questions any questions on the board on the um bidding pro pro projects building sorry the warehouse building demolition is for theot one that was yes the fire one that was in the fire corra we got the claim approved from the insurance and things that we have a lot of it approved it's not finalized yet though oh it's still ongoing yeah it's still ongoing we're still negotiating dollars okay okay and for the basketball court renovation at pedon that's the outside that's the because we took the containers to put it over there for the conru and so now we're gonna move it back and then we have to renovate the makes sense basketball courts nice okay good job thank you thank you so much thank thank okay perfect there was where they go all right um item 11 superintendent report Dr FES thank you um I have a few items this evening first I'd like to um share with the board uh in your consent calendar today under the Personnel report we had there the listing for our new principal for pedmont middle school for next school year and they are here to meet with you you so I would like to welcome and introduce Dr Greg Barnes if he could please come up to the podium I know he has some special family members with him here this evening so I definitely would like to just share um first uh you know he comes with a wealth of experience to our district uh Dr Barnes has been a middle school science teacher a middle school assistant principal and principal he's also sat in various seats at the district office level overseeing different parts of curriculum um mtss work and PBIS work so we know his skill set will be a great match for all the various initiatives that we have that we're working on here in beresa so really pleased to um have him as the the selected candidate uh we had a broad spectrum of pedmont community members also involved in the interview process so I know they'll be excited to learn of your start perfect thank you uh thank you Dr ques good evening everyone um I wanted to start by thanking my family but they've disappeared um my wife Rebecca our six-year-old Grayson and uh little Charlie uh staying up well past her bedtime um and of course thank you to the board for approving the contract and Dr FES with the team just for the opport to join the berasa family I can't wait to have an opportunity to meet the peont staff before the end of the year um and I absolutely cannot wait to get started in the fall thank you welcome thank you thank you so much welcome on Bo welcome and then in addition to that I wanted to share um I wanted to make sure that everyone both the board as well as our audience today takes a moment um after the meeting to take a look at the beautiful artwork that's in the back of our room so that artwor was all done by our students over at maril middle school and art teacher Francis Rivas came over and set all of that up if you if you notice there's a QR code that's also on the um on the screen there and if you use that QR code you will see a beautiful gallery of additional artwork and so um please take time to do that and look at all of the creativity that we have uh with our students and I think this is just a great launch into the expansion of Arts opportunities that are coming our way for our students in 2425 we know we're really appreciative that all of our voters um supported prop $28 to be able to expand Visual and Performing Arts programs in schools and one way that baresa will be able to um expand those funds will be by uh being able to um bring art education to our Kinder and first Stu first grade students expanding our music programming down to include our second grade students and then also um in the process of hiring art teachers again at Sierra Mon and pedmont middle schools so really looking forward to being able to have you know um that added opportunity that we know our students benefit from when they have course offerings that really engage their talents and their creative SL so looking forward to that um I know this is spring and we've had a lot of wonderful uh spring concerts happening across our district both with our elementary students as well as with our middle school students um yesterday there were concerts held at both uh Marill as well as pedmont middle school and again just phenomenal work you know phenomenal work it's really um I think on Saturday at the berasa Art Festival Festival uh we had you know a combined performance from all three middle schools uh but in addition to that we also had the debut of our elementary students performing on the stage representing all of our elementary schools across the district and it's just so great to hear um that starting point of our kids and then how much they grow and develop through their music instruction with our staff and just how incredible they are by you know seventh and eighth grade when they're playing at the advanced levels and so it's really nice to be able to um provide you know uh those opportunities for our kids and again just want to thank everyone in our community for attending the beresa Art Festival it was a well attended event on Saturday um hoping we raised lots of funds for you know for our staff that's all still being counted and that those will be grants that'll go to our teachers you know for different instructional activities for the students um but it was very impressive we received a lot of positive feedback from those who participated in the event and our thanks to all the volunteers that were out there to make sure this event happened um certainly want to extend our gratitude to council member Cohen and the District 4 team led by our Varone here trustee heenez and all of our beresa staff that also work alongside that team to make sure that that this event comes together without a a hitch and I know Dan's in our audience he's a big component to that Dan and Marla and Sally you know we have lots of folks that are out there um making sure that all the logistics are taken care of in the background so wanted to make sure we said Thank you and then uh lastly uh we have at this point have completed our first two meetings with our school consolidation advisory committee uh we had uh our last our second meeting last week on Thursday where they began to unpack the different Criterion that will be looked at for every School site so this last Thursday they were looking at enrollment and capacity of our schools there will be two more meetings before we conclude for the summer and those dates will be June 12th and June 27th but also want to remind our community that one their public meetings so everyone is welcome to come and attend and listen and learn a little bit more about the process we also have all of the information available on our website we have a special web page that is dedicated to this process and all of the presentations the agendas the minutes can be found there for anyone who's interested so thank you thank you for the report any questions from the board how come I never get a shout out for volunteering at Garden V and our trustees as well because several of you were out there uh selling tickets doing security all of that so yes absolutely thank you for that any comments or announcements from the board trusty H oh yes one quick thing I also wanted to say uh myself trusty boak and the superintendent fun has also participated at the assembly member Alex Le's API Honore month event and our very own principal principal Christa Castillo was honored for her amazing work that she's done at the district and it was such a tear-jerking event she was she almost made me cry with her remarks and so I just want to say a quick congratulations and um thank you for also attending and bringing so much joy to our district thank you and anyone else uh from my side I uh always appreciate music uh so I got a chance to attend the moral um um music concert last night um it was just great the just a sheer number of students that participate in in our music program it's just amazing and uh listening to them play uh there's no no better way to spend an evening than to listen to our students uh play so brilliantly and it it's just uh it's just amazing and chir uh kids you know they they they sound so good it's so calming listening to them uh sing and you know challenge themselves with uh new material every time and you know we have an amazing uh choir teacher at moral and we have a amazing amazing um music program in our school district uh the one just clarification or question uh I don't know how you want to take it is with the prop 28 um money coming in do we uh still anticipate support from the music boosters uh program or are they looking at uh changing their agenda correct so with the with the prop 28 funds and we'll have a presentation that'll be upcoming to the board to unpack what our district plan is and how those funds are allowed to be used because there are a lot of regulations around those dollars where um specifically you cannot um you have to supplement not supplant which means whatever we operated prior to receiving this money continues as is and then anything we add above that is considered the supplemental component for prop 28 thank you for the clarification all right moving ahead under review and discussion we pulled one item from consent item s uh for S Yosh Enterprises Inc uh DBA uh or security agreement for weekday unarmed un uniformed Security Guard Services inside uh the r p Drive location trusty himz I believe pull this um item yeah you know we we're uh in situations of our budget being tight and getting tighter so I just first of all you know wanted to make sure we can afford the the contract services and I also wanted to hear just a little bit about why we need these services at the district office as opposed to another school site thank you for that question trusty Jimenez and with that I'll lend it over to Mr Franklin all right so um the main reasons why we have this contract is because you know this building is quite different from the building that we moved from which was one story kind of wide open you know lots of uh employees had view of of people who were coming in from the public but here it's two stories everybody's off in their own secluded Suites upstairs and downstairs there's no view of who's coming in um so that's a person that we have there that can help control where people go because being on this um busy intersection here um I don't know how many people have noticed but we get a lot of police activity of not not dangerous activity but just CHP pulling cars over they come off the freeway they pull people over the first lot they come into His our parking lot um there's also a lot of cars that that um break down on the freeway come off and they pull into our parking lot for some reason instead of the nice big one across the street and so um the the um the person in the front is the one that goes out to check and see if they need any assistance um and provide that for them so that they don't have to come inside and bother staff uh so that happens quite often as well and then they we also have folks that come in here sometimes it's the people who are waiting for a tow truck can we use the restroom and things like that and so that kind of limits their ability to just come in and wander around uh our building and so this building has um around 45 to 50 staff members working here daily and so that's just a way to kind of control um the access and limits the access that people have that are just kind of walking by and there's a lot of people too that just are walking past here so um it just kind of helps control that so also this is a year-to-year contract so if we can afford it this year right um and then so next year if we can't it then we don't we don't have to renew it um so is is there a possibility of maybe another employee who's currently in the building to take on that role that would be something we would need to discuss with our our labor partners and looking at various job descriptions and seeing you know is there a way to um if these responsibilities exist within a current job description or would that be something we'd want to negotiate to to add that in right so it's I mean we don't have any security guards in the district right now no okay all right um thank you I have one question too uh other buildings that are surrounding us like skoy do they also have this position they do and actually they're utilizing the same company um that we have that's how we were referred to um this service I am oh go ahead go the Office of Education which is across the street I know they have do they have the same kind of um security they do that's what I thought okay all right thank you any other con go ahead um so just move to approve the contract okay thank you there a second for the motion I'll second okay in case been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I I motion carries so we approved the um the contract under item s that is pulled from the consent agenda all right um moving forward there no public hearings at this time under review and action item a um superintendent for the resolution 2312 Declaration of the month of May as Baran School District employee recognition month Dr Fus and just for clarification for the record letter S and that discussion was under review in action so um it's an item that's Incorporated in that section and now we're going into item a yes uh review and so under review and discussion we did the so so when correct so when you pull when you pull an item from consent agenda yes it moves into the review and action portion of the agenda for discussion and and voting from the board on that individual item okay I had it under review and discussion by mistake that was my fault so just clarifying that you're perfectly okay and then we can move into item A1 under review and action which is the recommended adoption from the board of resolution 2312 in recognition of barasa Union School Districts employee recognition month for May 2024 so this the month of May we celebrate all of our employees together as well as individually um for example May 1st is National principal month this past week was our n uh national teacher appreciation week and the upcoming week is our classified um School Employees week so lots of fun things happening and um certainly our beresa um staff are dedicated to supporting our students and families and this is a a great opportunity to sh show our gratitude and um honor of their hard work that they do day in and day out not just in May that's great thank you so much uh do we do I read the resolution are we okay you can you certainly can oh okay all right let's do it all right um resolution 23 employee recognition month May 2024 whereas brius Union School District concurs with the go governor and the state in recognizing Public public employees that play a vital role in education educational well-being of students and whereas the berasa Union School District recognizes its administrators and the effectiveness of the leadership team this year the state proclaimed the week of October 13 week of October 13 through 19 2024 as a week of the school administrator and whereas the basa Union School District recognizes the importance of its teachers by joining the state in proclaiming May 6 to 10th 2024 as national teacher appreciation week and whereas biaan School District acknowled acknowledges its dedicated classified staff by recogniz recognizing the designated week of May 19 to 25 2024 as classified school employee week and whereas the Board of Education in the berasa Union School District wish to commend all all employees for their unparallel contribution to the lives of students as mentors and as examples of character who continuously provide exceptional education and who work tirelessly to provide distinctive learning environments to meet the need needs of all of our students and whereas particularly during this pandemic transition year the Board of Education commends all employees for the resolution sorry for the resilience Innovation and unending dedication to their students and for going above and beyond the already outstanding commitment they make during normal times and whereas all employees of various andun School District are committed to their profession and providing high quality programs and services to the children setting exemplary standards serving as role models and motivating the pro promoting success for all Learners and whereas it's timely and appropriate that we recognize this extra extraordinary Endeavor exercised by our community of dedicated Educators and employees that we set aside a moment to Express gratitude for their place in our students lives that we appreciate the unique unique Gifts of those who impart knowledge and integrity and that we lord the individual and the combined efforts of all those who work in serving students therefore be it resolved that that the Bas Board of Trustees of the basa Union School District recognizes all its employees for their outstanding contributions in educating the children of berasa where declaring the month of May as employee recognition month thank you that was great a resolution is there a motion to approve the resolution move to approve there a second I'll second it thank you it's been moved in seconded it's a resolution so we will go for the r roll call vote Miss GES I I I I I thank you resolution carries 5 to Z thank you so much for that next item is under Business Services Public hearing and AD adoption of developer fee justification study for increase in school f facili fees Dr Fus it is recommended the board conduct a public hearing to disclose the recommended increase in school developer fees and adopt the developer fee justification study dated April 3rd 2024 before you open the public hearing I'd like to ask uh Mr Franklin just to give a brief background to these next this item and the next sure so um I think it was even less than a year ago that we we went through this and we had presentation regarding the developer fee increase so again it's time to uh update the fee schedule and so um the recommendation is to increase the fees they're going up to I think $517 um per residential unit and so we get 65% of that so um we're recommending to make that increase any chance we can get more unfortunately not we split it with these and that's Max E side Union High School District we did have that discussion I think I think we did almost a year ago so okay perfect all right thank you for that and we'll open it for public hearing all right I don't see any comments so I'll close the public hearing and entertain a motion um to adopt the adopt this item I move to adopt the resolution before we uh vot on that can I just make a few comments yes please so um as discussed last year uh I talked about increasing the the share that we uh split with the easta Union School District I'm not sure if there's been any followup with that but I just wanted to remind that um this agreement has has been in place for for perhaps decades but it hasn't taken into consideration that the K through 8 level has since Incorporated TK and um back then the agreement didn't consider all the charter schools that the high school district currently has so I'm just of the opinion that um we probably need a higher share I think uh it's closer towards probably 80% where K the TK through eight should have if you consider all the students that we we have in our school district versus the high school level uh because now we have TK and high school districts they have less students because of their charter schools so I'm not sure if you you had that conversation with your peers uh maybe through the East Side Alliance but that's something that we probably need to discuss perhaps move our split the share with East to probably closer towards 80% opposed to the current um 2/3 yeah I mean my understanding is this was agreed upon like 30 years ago and it is with all of the East Side schools that they they split with I know I've looked into this and there there are school districts that uh have closer towards 80% and that's more of a fair share for us I just feel like we're being short changed over all these past decades yeah we can explore it I I think it'd have to be as a as a group um since the agreement is with the group of the elementary schools but we'll look into but we can also have our legal council um take a look and give us Direction on uh how to open up that conversation okay can I make a substitute motion then to adopt the resolution and also renot potentially re look into renegotiations as well just to include that in the motion um it's not on the it's not an agenda item on this though but it's not a resolution this one is just a uh well hang on so we did a public hearing okay and then the resolution second got okay I got you yeah so you can include that as staff followup along yeah it could be under staff followup then so so is there a motion is uh trusty H your motion is to approve the resolution 23-4 increasing school facilities Fierce adoption is there a second on that motion I'll second that okay moved in second a resolution let's go for the roll call Miss Gomez I I okay thank you so much motion carries 5 to zero I'm going to ask you to also go back to the public hearing item it's a public hearing and Adoption of the study so that's why I was a little confused because adoption of it says adoption of the developer fee justification study it's right there so okay all right so I need a motion a regular motions on uh resolution on item number one for adoption of the um devop Fe justification study I'll move to adopted developer fee justification study thank you second all right it's been moved seconded all those in favor say I I I I motion carries 5 to Z thank you for that reminder all right next one one is under Human Resources item one is proposed new job description and salary schedule board certified behavior analyst Dr FES it is recommended the board approve the proposed new job description and salary for board certified Behavior analysts bcba like to thank cab for working with us on this job description it was uh previously an assignment that was a part of contracted Services thank you um no questions I entertain a motion on this item move to approve second has been seconded all those in favor say I I I I motion carries 5 to zero next item is proposed revised job description and job title for bus dispatcher Dr FES it is recommended the board approve the proposed revised job description and title for bus dispatcher and we'd like to thank our Teamsters uh partner for working with us on this revision perfect are there any questions is that a motion on this item move to approve I'll second has been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I motion carries 5 to zero thank you next item is the public hearing um for acceptance of the 20242 District's initial propos proposal of negotiations with the Teamsters Union Local 1 15 according to govern code section 3547 Dr FES it is recommended the board conduct a public hearing and then accept the district's initial proposal for negotiations with Teamsters Union Local 150 all right I'll open it for public hearing any comments from the public seeing none I'll close the public hearing and uh I um a motion for the acceptance of the 2425 initial propose proposal of negotiations I saw move it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I motion carries 5 to Z thank you under ed services um item one board policy 51132 work permits Dr F this it is recommended the Board review and appr approve board policy 511 3.2 work permits for a first reading this is a new board policy being added to our listing we've had some requests from students to re to um receive a work permit uh we hadn't really had those requests before um so in looking at the policy the age for a student to request a permit has been brought down in the past it's been traditionally at the high school level only um but now it comes down to age 12 and for for children from 12 to 17 they're eligible for employment um when there's a holiday when there's a vacation period they have opportunities to pertain work permits to participate in specialized programs that's good any comments on this or motion the item I move to approve I'll second it's moved and seconded all those in favor say I hi I motion carries 5 to zero next item is threeyear exposion expulsion plan Dr Fus it is recommended the board approved the three-year expulsion plan between the baresa Union School District and the Santa Clara County Office of Education this is a a plan that we do in partnership with the county office updating all of our Ed code provisions and the different supports that they offer um when we're working with our students under these circumstances all right are there any questions is that a motion on this item move to approve I'll second this one yeah it's moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I motion carries 5 to Z Item e Bond program resolution 23-13 seq EX exemption for um new modular construction of gymnasium and window replacement for pedmont Middle School Dr Fus it is recommended the board adopt resolution 2313 cqa exemption of new modular construction of gymnasium and window replacement for pedmont middle school and authorize the superintendent or design to file a notice of exemption to meet State funding requirements and state cqa guidelines 15314 thank you um are there any questions is there a motion on the resolution move to approve second it's been moved and seconded we do need a roll call on this correct yeah um all right it's a resolution let's go with the roll call Miss Gomez I I I I I thank you motion carries 5 to zero next item is is it yan yan Plumbing Inc approval of an agreement for the summer Monument sign project Dr FAS it is recommended the board approve this agreement the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for bid B8 2023 24 summer Monument sign project perfect any questions is that a motion on this [Music] item I move to approve second he been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I motion carries 5 to zero uh item 16 requests for staff followup we have the one item that we discussed um earlier today regarding our agreement with Eide Union High School District trusty how I also would like to request a staff followup on just a presentation on the communications plan for the school consolidation process to dispel that information to our community very good that's good anything else nothing um there any items for future agendas if not I'll entertain a motion for adjournment second moved and seconded all those in favor say I hi hi motion carries 5 to0 meeting has been adjourned at 7:59 thank you so much it's under 8:00

e e e good evening I will now call to order the regular Board of Education meeting for chica Unified School District it's May 15th 2024 just after 5:00 pm the board will be going into closed session at this time and returning at 6 PM for Open Session thank you e e good evening welcome it's a full house tonight that's exciting for us um I uh opened the meeting at 5 we were in closed session uh welcome to the uh Chico Unified uh School District Board of Education meeting for May 15 2024 uh we were in Clos session uh a couple actions uh that took place during close session was uh that we decided to pull item 9 4.1 for additional negotiations so that item will not be coming forward on tonight's agenda and additionally uh the board approved unanimously uh Jessica crane for assistant principal at little Chico Creek so let's welcome Jessica where are you there she is yeah thank you we're excited all righty and uh with that we will please stand for the flag excellent Al righty and with that we will move into student reports please well as always we're in for another big treat tonight I see some drummers over there ready to entertain us and I would like to uh invite Chapman principal Christy tacha up to tell us what we're going to experience [Applause] and team uh thank you School Board I want to thank you for having us tonight it's an honor to serve as principal at Chapman Elementary School and I'm joined by our uh art teacher Megan Callahan who also leads our drumming group losan Boris the Chapman uh the picture behind you shows our drummers at an event that they recently uh performed at and it also shows our families so I do while I have you here want to thank our families and give them a round of applause for their support because without them being willing to bring their students to the events and support us through the after school program and at the school in general we wouldn't be able to make this happen so I'm going to give the mic to uh Miss Callahan so she can share about our [Applause] program good evening uh my name is Megan and I am very grateful to be here tonight with all of you to um share a story and also a very special group um it began it begins with our heartbeat the very first Rhythm that we ever hear and in the 1990s um another very special person Jan doni brought World music drumming to Chico Unified and her friend and colleague Kathy nass later at Chapman Elementary in 2010 started Los Tambor day Chapman this after school drumming program program with the goal of creating a community that would um build confidence uh build community and share cultural rhythms uh we're supported through the afterschool program and private donors like former teacher lar Vickers who brings us snacks and um of course our principal uh Christy tea who's just she's driving she's getting us shirts she's at all of our events um we have two former principles who've also supported this program uh Ted Sullivan and Mike Allen are both um have been supporters of our program and then finally we're blessed um this past year to have uh Baba kauna right over here he's been working to teach us cultural rhythms and more more recently dance and so um I'm going to come over here and introduce our drummers now they're third through fifth graders and some of them this is their very first year doing this so this is Kenyon [Applause] Al Mar life is a gift so live it [Music] is [Music] is for [Music] last [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that [Music] [Applause] f C we ready [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] no [Music] stop [Music] w [Applause] [Music] than [Music] one more time new time [Music] Rush [Music] y [Music] y y [Music] ready he [Music] the [Music] w [Applause] thank you once again big round of applause for Chapman thank you guys thank you [Applause] Evelyn okay we are going to give them just a couple seconds to transition um on out I know they have homework have to do tonight and they are headed off to that right now as we are waiting I'm going to ask Pedro Caldera and John Gunderson to come up to the [Music] [Applause] podium good evening board give him just a second I am going to give him a few seconds you can't compete with that Pedro no but Pedro if you are going to try and dance and drum for us we will we will accept that I was a gerbert School seventh grade break dancing champion at one time you can't you can't say that not show off now there was only 12 eighth graders I'm going to need some proof for that I don't believe you just you saying that we'll break out the cardboard and we'll we'll match it up here okay before we get started um there's a group of people behind me um Melvin family I from the bottom of my heart I seriously want to thank each and every one of you you know penny better than we do and I am sure that throughout these years she has come home with her thoughts about her school and everything she needs to do for us and so I really appreciate each and every one of you for bearing with us um and sharing who I call our lucky penny with us and a special thanks to Tom who I know definitely shared penny with us all right this evening I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude and pride for eight remarkable years I have had the honor and privilege of working with Penny Melvin at our beloved Chico junor high school and let me tell you it has been a Journey with Adventures Triumph joy laughter and above all in unwavering dedication to our staff and students when she first stepped onto our campus her passion for education and the deep-seated commitment was evident making a difference in the lives of our Young Learners and staff is a passion that I believe still continues to burn brighter with each passing day as a registar she goes Far and Beyond her role she is a problem solver a facilitator and a beacon of support for our students and their families whether it's ensuring smooth enrollment processes addressing academic concerns or simply lending a compassionate ear to those in need she always strive to go above and beyond for each and every member of our school community she has been dedicated to our staff and knows and is always there in our time of need truth be told she has a knack of bailing us out of problems in fact she has bailed me out of so many problems that I would walk through the hallways and go Penny could do no wrong she walks on water because she got me out of another problem and that is the truth and with that I used to say that Penny was our lucky penny if you guys are familiar with the whole Lucky Penny if there's a a a you find a penny in it's right side upright with the heads it's a lucky penny and having Penny on our campus was like that every single day together we have weathered storms celebrated triumphs and all with one shared goal in mind to provide our students with the best possible education and support system so hats off here's the penny to the past the present and the future of our beloved Penny Melvin may you continue to inspire to empower to make a difference in the lives of all those that are lucky enough to be around you I want to close with the saying that's on the back of every penny ebus UNAM with one small little spin We Are One cougar family big hugs from Mo your Chico Jr family uh first of all I just want to thank the school board and obviously our Ed leader ship for supporting schools um it's amazing to have this level of support um and the next thing is I second everything that Mr Caldera just said um I got to be honest with you as a new principal I wouldn't be able to do my job without that woman right there um she's guided me not just with things that are register our based but just great ideas to make the school better um I think she's constantly working she comes to my office all the time with wonderful ideas um usually requires a lot of work for me but the ideas are phenomenal um the other thing that I love about having Penny on our campus is she's a lot of times the first person that you meet outside of our attendance clerk when you come in the office she is one of the most lovely people that you'll ever meet in your life she's always kind she's always compassionate I love that she models not only for our staff but our students how to treat people properly and really be somebody that supports everybody no matter what they're going through um she is one of the greatest assets that we have on our campus our campus would be a lot less without her and I kind of think that it shows the importance that a single individual can have on the entirety of a campus and she definitely represents that so thank you so much for acknowledging [Applause] [Laughter] her thank you picture thank that was very kind look at all the people brought awesome go next I'd like to invite up Joe Morris and team Joe Shannon Dusty come on up so just so you know I'm not that I'm not that good at that so this is a little I'm a little more to the point so I'm here tonight with Dusty and Shannon to present an award so Nathan Gutierrez who is the senior custodian at Citrus is a rock star just plain and simple um Shannon sees him every single day I don't get to spend as much time with him she does but just knowing from me being a supervisor at the night to the day to now he's awesome he shows up every day I go over there at lunchtime he's interacting with the kids spending T quality time making sure they has a clean environment all the things that you expect out of him he goes above and beyond for it so for me I'm very proud of him um to have this award and Dusty would you like to say anything I just want to say when uh when we first hired Nathan um one one thing that we have to do is is we have to call references and I called his reference and his past manager actually started crying say we're going to we're going to lose this guy that shows you what kind of a guy he is absolutely well they say the custodian is the most important person on campus and I couldn't agree more he is the first person that sees most kids in the morning when they come to our morning program and I tell you the greeting this man gives our students is love and energy I come in the door at 7:30 I'm a little bit tired and he's all good morning and I'm like good coffee he is that all day um I call him on the radio this is my favorite story about Nathan and I say Nathan don't run and then Nathan's right there like Nathan had to get here he's like he's I just what do you need and that is it really epitomizes who he is as a human being on our campus our students love him our staff love him our school is beautiful because of him there's never a no Code Brown or not he's our guy and I um I I couldn't be more proud of him and and what he does for our campus we really appreciate you Nathan you're amazing [Applause] and uh finally I'd like to call up Tina Kean good evening everybody uh this evening I am proud to be here to present a special board recognition to Nord Country School principal superintendent Cathy dalren for outstanding service and dedication in local education Cathy is preparing to retire at the end of this school year from Nord and it is safe to say she will not only be missed by her Nord Community she will be missed from our Charter Community and Chico Unified I met Kathy over 5 years ago when I became District leison to the charter schools that Chico Unified authorizes at that time Kathy impressed me with her calm demeanor her vast experience in education and her love for her school and the students and families they serve in the years since that first meeting I can honestly share that Kathy not only continues to embody those qualities I mentioned but also much more Kathy is an extremely strong instructional leader with a sharp eye attuned to data and making sure that students academic needs are met she understands what data points are important to collect and more importantly in my opinion what to do with that data and information once it's collected as a small school the Nord team is able to have frequent conversations about individual student needs and utilize their what I need or win program for their students Kathy has also LED Nord country school's commitment to the social emotional well-being of their students as well as Been instrumental in growing their Junior High Sports programs just to name a few things Kathy has been an integral member of our local Charter School Community I'm confident that I can speak for the other Charter leaders in our community when I say that Cathy is seen as a leader among them her vast experience is relied upon by all of them I have relied upon Cathy's good listening ear when I've had questions through the years as well whenever I had a charter school question Kathy's always there to answer me with honesty and Clarity I look forward to visiting Nord Country School each year as part of our annual visits not only do I enjoy visiting with her and listening to her Insight I also get to tour the campus in fact this past year Kathy indulged me as one of the things I most wanted to do on her site visit was to cuddle one of the baby goats that were only a few weeks old at the time and I loved it Kathy you will be missed by your friends in Chico Unified you've been a solid and positive supporting partner in education for us for many years while I have no doubt that Nord Country School is in good hands moving forward my wish for you on behalf of superintendent Kelly Staley our Chico Unified cabinet members and our Chico Unified Board of Trustees is that you have many wonderful years ahead of retirement fun relaxation and enjoyment with family and friends you've earned every bit of it with a job in education very well done congratulations Kathy come on up [Applause] and with that I'll turn it back to you madam president awesome thank you that was a lot to celebrate lots of good things going on um all right with that we we'll move forward to number six announcements uh does the board have announce any announcements this evening okay um uh I'll I'll be at the announcement that uh Chico Unified celebrated cusd staff Appreciation Week um this was last week this week this week is Staff Appreciation Week um at our previous board meeting uh the board on behalf of um chica unified ed services uh approved a um a resolution for uh the certificated and classified um appreciation week and so they were combined and um there was some goodies that were provided by students in the culinary department at PV and um and it's a an ongoing weekly celebration but of course uh one week is is nothing compared to the appreciation that I think we all feel for you throughout the year so um just wanted to make sure that everybody knows that right now staff appreciation week so if you see a school person a school staff person please give them high five or handshake or a hug probably a hug if they if they want it um all right any other announcements or things to add superintendent syy no okay um okay we will move forward to items from the floor number seven uh items from the floor is for a time for speakers who wish to address the board regarding a topic that is not currently agendized um at this time we'll take public comment from speakers who wish to address the board uh as a reminder speakers have 3 minutes to uh speak um at the podium and a bell will ring at 30 seconds um when speaking time remains you'll or you'll hear a um a noise and have a timer um on the board behind us uh we do have one speaker signed up at this time for items from the floor and so at this time I will call up Gina back to address the board good evening I am here today because I would like to ask you to reconsider the Mandate for student privacy also known as the CDE guidance and to repeal 51 45.3 as attorney general Rob bonta has stated in federal court that no law requires a school district to follow the advice from the Department of Education regarding keeping secrets from parents your parental secrecy policy was based on guidelines which are no laws or enforceable there are suggestions and unfortunately we have all been misguided schools parents and the whole Community must work together to help children overcome their challenges keeping secrets does nothing but create a barrier between families and teachers teachers are forced to lie and parents are kept in the dark regarding the well-being of our children and since I have a little bit more time on a different subject I was very pleased to learn at the last meeting that most of this school board favors implementing a cell phone policy in our schools therefore I encourage you to check the cell policy the cell phone policy recently adopted by the Roseville city City School District I have a copy with me and I would like to share it with all of you with your permission thank you for the time for your time as always and we don't have any additional uh folks signed up for items from the floor um and so if there's nobody else to address the board at this time we will move on to um agenda item item number eight so agenda item number eight is our consent calendar is there anybody who' like to pull a consent item at this time seeing none I will ask for a motion I will move it up the consent calendar I'll second that motion we have a motion by Mr Lando and a second by Miss Robinson any further discussion board great this is our first vote for the evening so U we'll do a roll call vote starting with Mr Ten tennnis I Conan I Doby I Lando I robins and I all right it passes unanimously thank you board and we'll move on to our discussion action calendar I think I just ski the page maybe nope um 9.1.1 is an informational item for the annual spring Charter School visit report and I would ask Miss cha king to please come up alrighty good evening again uh I would like to invite the charter leaders that are out here in the audience to come on up and join me while I introduce what we're uh talking about here every may we come to the Chico Unified School board with our yearly report not only do the charters provide a report to Chico Unified in the spring but I also give notes from the annual visit that we are required to do per um per mandate per law I enjoy going to the Charter visits each year they um there is always something to learn there is always something to celebrate there is always something to ponder I would say and we do it collaboratively we do it in um the spirit of educating kids in all of our Chico UniFi Parton our Chico Community uh at large from Forest Ranch all the way out to Nord and everyone in between uh Tom from uh Tom from um Wildflower is not able to be here tonight he does send his regrets they have their their um town hall meeting with their school Community tonight as well but uh on your agenda we the the reports that the schools provided as well as notes that I made and as I've said over the years we've uh learned a lot and have weathered a lot I don't even want to say the the pandemic word that we all lived through but at this time I would love this group to come up introduce themselves share the schools that they represent and uh they are available for any questions you have for them ahead hello I'm Michelle yic director of Sherwood montauri hi I'm Kelly Clark from Chico Country Day along with Gretchen and Claudia I'm Susan Dominy from Blue Oak Charter School Becky Brown Inspire School of Arts and Sciences Kathy doen Nord Country School Casey Taylor executive director of achieve charter schools and I'm Steve Wright principal of achieve Charter School Chico I'm Chris J morasco executive director for Force Branch Charter School Travis bened I'm the site administrator at Pivot Charter School all right thanks everybody for being here and like I said at this time I invite our board members to ask any questions anything you're wondering about they um are here to tell you what they know like they do to me the gentleman and the and with the beard and the black shirt could you repeat your name and and affiliation please yeah my name is Steve Wright I'm the principal of a cheve charter school Chico okay got it thank you if you're uh wondering these all of these leaders provide very different um School experiences for kids much like all of our Chico Unified Schools U provide wonderful different diverse experiences for kids Matt you mentioned Steve I happened to to join their uh at their visit on a Friday morning and he was up with a guitar at the school assembly on Fridays that they have and I think he loved it probably as much as the kids did uh I also mentioned the baby goats that I've had the extreme pleasure of of looking at over the year and uh just wonderful visits with them and uh we really do challenge each other we ask each other honest questions we ask what do you do for this what do you do for that how does it work and again we we've maintained over the years a honest and transparent relationship with uh serving all the kids in our community thank you and thank you everyone for the input that you provided in your report it it it does really give us a picture of what's going on at your school sites what is our Charter School enrollment at the moment moment Miss Kean oh well total enrollment I don't have have off the top of my head we do have nine schools and they range from 100 uh in Chico Unified up until five probably high 500s at Chico Country Day so you figure an average in there of the nine schools they do serve quite a bit of Chico students yes thank you and again thank you everyone for um the effort you put into your reports and on that just thank you for the effort you put into our students um chica was very lucky to have a really broad range of educational programs both in chica unified and in the charter world and we're all better for it um I do think that having such a robust Charter presence in Chico actually um makes Chico Unified better too um we see what you guys do we see what works um and I know the energy and effort that you guys put into all of your students um yeah thank you and congratulations Kathy by the way really excited for you the majority of the schools represented behind me are uh TK through through five or into 8 we have a couple of high schools but a lot of the school the the kids that come from the charters do matriculate into our into our secondary schools so there is open communication and dialogue with all of our families Al righty well if there are no other questions thank you for your time and and meeting these folks uh I'm happy to call them not only colleagues but friends as well thank you thank you for coming uh next on the agenda is item 9.1.2 um also an informational item uh an update on the Next Generation science standards ngss yeah we're good okay so uh we get to do a little uh presentation today and and uh provide our school board here with an update with our progress towards the mtss standards ngss not mtss sorry about that too many uh so but before before we get started I do want to say thank you to all our teachers that took time to help us with the presentation and also for being here uh specifically at a such a busy time of the school year so Kenji uh Masuda and Olivia theer thank you so much our elementary Representatives our Middle School Representatives Kelly Kum Kyle Gunther and Lauren duon did I pronounce that right all right okay and then our high school representative is Mark Kesler and Barbara berelli and uh uh congratulations to Barbara berelli for um all her years of service in Chico Unified School District so thank you she is retiring this year we're going to go ahead and get started with our elementary program so I just want to give you a couple minute update kind of where Elementary is with science and what we do with it on a typical basis so 2021 we adopted amplify as our core program um Ng justs aligned so we went through a really rigorous adoption process I want to give kudos Kelly Kum sitting back there also Kelly was the person that kind of facilitated that for us and so she came down we did all kinds of Pilots of various different kinds of the programs are available to look at with it at that time Kelly gathered tons of feedback coalesced it fabulously so um going through all that about a year-long process uh amplifi came out as the number one choice so we went with amplify at that point um when we after we adopted amplify we had 15 hours of publisher provided professional development over a couple years for us we knew that wasn't quite enough also it's always hard to pick up a new program especially with a lot of parts to it a lot of Hands-On kinds of things in particular so we had money so we offered additional hours to teachers to have a facilitated walkthrough of the different units and lessons also and we had people like Kelly and Melinda hilderbrand um it's not hinder brand hilderbrand now it's I forget her married name but Melinda's over at mcmanis right now as the assistant principal they walked through and kind of facilitated let people people kind of unpack the units literally and walk through the lesson with them and all those kinds of things with it uh let's see one of the big shifts that's coming up I think in the elementary World fifth grade teachers have always kind of felt the big responsibility because they are the elementary score for the state in science basically so they've always kind of felt a little under the gun to be above and beyond with those things so one of the things our DLC has talked about and is going to start next year there's actually a state fibb a miniature interim assessment block that's been put out for 30 fourth and fifth grade students in science so we are going to try it next year everybody's going to have a chance to give it a shot we're going to gather feedback but DLC is looking to have a pilot trial year next year where everybody third fourth and fifth grade gives that assessment we can look at the information we get from it so onetime assessment we looked at we think it'll take about an hour or so to do it and the following year if the feedback is generally positive we're going to move and put that as a uh expected assessment and put it on the report card for parents to see those kinds of things also um you said that's being piloted is there one School site that's going to be piloting that no they're all going to do it okay it was a pretty unanimous decision and DLC said the same thing about fifth grade teachers they really want to ensure that there's more science instruction happening with third fourth grade also leading up to that fifth grade level so that was one way to kind of help facilitate some of that is have an assessment everybody gives it um like we're doing it next year we're not forcing everybody to but we really strongly encourag them because we want to hear their feedback want them to go through it take it tell us what's wrong or right with it and kind of see where it goes but they were very much wanting to make it a mandatory assessment the following year after everybody has a chance to take a look at it and give it a try at that point um whoops lost where I'm at here so the next couple things come on there we are uh one of the things it's been really um we're really happy with we've done a big push with science of reading implementation and it has really lent itself to a lot of integration with reading non-fiction in particular so we've got a couple teachers here Kenji and Olivia and really what I would like them to do is talk about kind of how they weave that into their daily instruction I think before we had a lot of storybook kinds of things a lot of fiction reading kind of with this different structure we put into place for reading now a lot of lot of ability to focus on non-fiction kinds of reading like that with those things so I'm going to let these folks talk a little bit about what they do to weave that in and kind of just just to help understand that integration between science and reading and how they go together and how it allows a lot more time for those kids to be doing non-fiction reading IE science kinds of reading also so Ki Olivia come up and share that all thank you Mr solivan um so I had the pleasure of really trying out the science of reading this year I have just finished today the letters uh letters training so with that background knowledge and the big push that chifi is doing I feel more empowered and liberated to teach things that I feel like need to be um taught uh in this case I was actually inspired by my friend Olivia here one day oh of course she was walking with her fifth graders and they all had these science journals these um great little books and they were walking outside and they were started diagramming some trees and I asked what are you doing she said we're doing Power Hour this is English language arts we're we're doing the tier one instruction and I said I have to figure out what you're doing because I need to jump on that so after talking with her and seeing how we can use this framework that we have been taught to and apply it to science text um I fell in love with it and I found out my students totally fell in love with it too so when I teach science I do it nearly Monday through Friday five days a week um and this is during my tier one instruction time I'm using non-fiction text from amplify and I brought some examples here if you were interested in looking at it but um all grade levels have these texts available to them I'm also using another program called Mystery Science and I'm also using wonders so it's just a lot of curriculum I'm kind of putting them together and coming up with really great thematic units so with that in mind um Mystery Science I feel like has all these Hands-On activities and Elementary School teachers are very familiar with that amplify has that really deep uh investigation into phenomenons so using Mystery Science as kind of that anchor phenomenon that that initial experience to get the kids interested I will then intersperse um these texts that really relate to what we are learning in class now using the framework and the St the learning that I've done this year I know to pull out vocabulary words tier two words words that are cross curriculum and um also using the text structure within these books to teach lessons on Fridays we do hand um Hands-On activities or Labs that just continue to push their understanding on these scientific Concepts so I really feel like um I'm able to bring back that thematic teaching using what we've been learning this past couple years and um having a lot of fun I I I feel like the kids are learning so much the discussions are great they're writing they're even kids that are reading at are writing at like a first grade level and third grade they're able to contribute to these discussions and it's amazing what they can um contribute and their reading has also increased well as well I I have a student from Afghanistan that came about a year ago her favorite topic now is science and she still can't read at grade level but the fact that she can talk about it she can write about it she can read about it I think that has a lot to do with just the trainings that we received from the district and being able to apply it to this uh curriculum in a from a different perspective I do have to break it apart a little bit to make it work and it's still like a ship that I'm building but we're having a lot of fun and I just can't wait to collaborate with more people and to make this thing work even better um I'm sorry can you please I don't know if you said it and I missed it but can you reintroduce yourself your name you teach and what level you teach of course uh my name is Kenji Masuda I'm a third grade teacher at mcmanness elementary school hi Bard uh my name is Olivia theer I teach fifth grade at mcmanis elementary shout out to the Mustangs we don't have like a cool yeah we don't have a cool Bobcat call but I want to start the nay or something like that we're going to make it work um I started here at The District in 2021 as a reading specialist where I gained lots of experience um in learning about the science of reading through the letter trainings and also the amazing team that Christy bson has um created with the reading Specialist Team um when an opportunity for me to become an intermediate teacher came up I grabbed it as soon as possible because I know I wanted to integrate science of reading routines into curriculum specifically science and that of amplify um fifth grade science is heavily focused on introducing the natural biological sciences to students so we focus on ecology the water cycle conservation treatment to water we learn about astronomy our solar system and then molecules and matter students are exposed to amplify in my tier one uh Ela routine which happens Monday through Friday for an hour as well and students read Amplified text in step one which is our read aloud step and this is when they're also exposed to slide decks provided by amplify that promotes critical thinking skills um with an knowledge Gap existing at mcmanis our Title One School we're diligently working to ensure that students have experiences that match the learning that is happening within the classroom so providing them with enrichment experiences through field trips um that matches content covered in class is a huge passion of mine um we've gone to field trips this year like at the Hatchery to discuss the Salmon's life cycle for Ecology we hiked up to monkey face to talk about geology and also um the astronomy pit that's over there and um we went to the water treatment center and to learn about how water treatment happens and how important water conservation is for our water cycle unit um our grade level uses field journaling or science journaling as Mr massuda mentioned to create um a cumulative memory of what they've learn throughout the year and what they've experienced so we go out um on campus about once a week or once every other week with their field journals and like the last one we did was the wind it was a very windy day and how important the wind is and what are the observations that we can make around us about that um we're continuing to build positive Partnerships with local agencies so and applying to Grants so students can attend science camp next year and other enriching field trips to continue um for them to gain experiences to the concepts that are matched in the Amplified curriculum thank you for your time Elementary questions yeah so um just I I um am happy to hear how well it's going in your y'all's classrooms um at mcmanis um I I would be curious to know if that is reasonably reflective across the district in other elementary schools or even at your grade levels or if you guys are kind of an exception um or kind of where we're at overall in terms of of getting kids excited and loving science even if they're struggling with with skills but but loving the the process of of engaging with science Concepts and and practices yeah so what we're trying I feel like is pretty new so we're in the infant stages of it still um as for my team um I have one teammate that jumped right on board with me and she's finding the same results that the kids are really engaged with it um but like I said we're still figuring this out because we still have Wonders that we're still using and um we have resources being built for us so that's the main product that most teachers are going to be using right now um I just this is right now another option to show that hey you can use this um my other partner who was um not sure as we were building it like if she want to jump on she's starting to um help us out with a lot of things like she created some slide Decks that now we are using because she's very organized like this is a great way to teach this so collaboration is happening right now but I think um I think teachers right now are just learning how to use this strategy so I think we still need a little bit more time to show that there's other ways and other Tech text that we can apply with that so like I said it's empowering and liberating and I just think um we need to show teachers that you know we have other um texts that we can use um most most I guess more specifically um what you're meaning is is how you're leaning into using the text that you have available as part of your Ela instruction correct correct as you know um time is always something that we battle and it's hard to make sure that science and like things like social studies are at the for front and with this routine we feel like we can bring more non-fiction and um build something out of it um what Kenji said is we're still building the ship I think that's a really good analogy for this and um collaboration is happening it's new and I would say it like a lot of the science of reading trainings that we went to teachers knew that I was doing this already before we were trained because of my background and they were coming to me how are you doing this how are you integrating like I'm so interested let's collaborate let's do things so I think the passion and the interest is there um we just need more time to collaborate and to build this so that it can be districtwide but I I see this definitely being a possibility thank you just follow like what Olivia is talking about the units that they're creating to kind of weed those two things together we actually have paid time for people to put those together we post them on our website or they're on a hub so they're just available to whoever would like to take a look at those and use them within the district with those things also and they're vetted we have a couple of our reading teachers Christy looks at them to make sure they're kind of you know making sense following the steps all those kinds of things as well and I will say our DLC likes what they're seeing with these folks have sharing so next year with our professional development they really are looking to spend about two-thirds of the hours we have available focusing on reading science integration and those kinds of things also so it's a big push next year for us um I have a couple followup questions on that DLC um at the elementary SC Elementary level can you remind me what the makeup looks like one from each one from each school okay one% from me school got it thank you and then um other my other question is um I know this is kind of a tough one to sort of nail down I don't think it's in a like true true policy but I understand or my previous understanding is that there's a pretty big percentage of time you know daily instruction or over the course of the week like a large percent that's dedicated to ELA and a large percentage that's dedicated to math and like a proportionally very very small percentage that's dedicated to science and social studies and all the and and then also extracurriculars um can you can you like kind of firm that up for me I I would say we don't have a set like this is the rule you shall do this I think with the one thing we really we have to do 20 minutes of PE a day of course that's just an ed code requirement the mandated thing yes the other thing is we've really locked teachers in said we really are expecting you to do an hour a day of reading instruction also kind of using this format with those kinds of things beyond that I would say most teachers are doing a good hour of math instruction and they're certainly supplementing more than an hour a day of English language arts also so I think if you were to look and tally up all what the recommendations are from each of the different subject areas teachers would have to be teaching I've heard numbers somewhere between 8 to nine hours a day to kind of Hit the marks from what recommended from the Publishers and those kinds of things with it so there's just really no way to do it short of having an eight or nine hour school day to get everything covered at the level you're talking about how many hours don't I don't want minutes because I don't want to do math right now how many hours are there instructional time of instructional time is there fourth and fifth grade's 300 minutes of instructional time every day so you take out 90 for ELA typically you take out 50 for Ma math you take out 20 for PE you take out 10 for Transitions and you're down to maybe so 5 hours and so sorry I'm just trying to like do a pie in my head so generally three hours is dedicated to ELA um reading and math and then 20 minutes to PE and then and then there's lots of other things I'm not being I'm not being judgmental I'm trying to understand kind of like the makeup traditionally across the district in our Elementary classrooms and so the opportunity here is to have some of that kind of end diagram overlap of your reading time and science instruction so you can grow that number of minutes dedicated to teaching science because you're overlapping it with your reading instruction it's not like an added to it's a compliment well stated that's really what they're talking about doing with reading and science kind of overlapping them like that and and we could probably also look into that with math and I'm sure that there are teachers that are doing that as well I would say if you kind of look at what what's happening with it like like the expectation of reading and writing happening definitely a nice overlap with math kinds of responses also with things well everybody knows this is no secret that this is something I'm passionate about um and I would just encourage any any folks at the elementary level whether you're in leadership or just getting started to please encourage the board or um you know site leadership for that professional development time or whatever we can do to try to support and Foster that growth I think that you're on you're on a good track um to what I think is a a more comprehensive and um holistic way to approach science uh experience you know instead of calling it science learning or science instruction it really is an experience and that's how we that's how we Inspire kids to to lean into those topics so I appreciate you both being here tonight thank you for sharing thank you for your time thank you good evening just really briefly I'm going to share um for each level represented tonight a quick overview of the California science test scores from 2023 um all the charts are the same so I think if I explain it once um I won't have to again um this is the percentage of students meeting or achieving standard on the California science test or cast uh in fifth grade uh the light red line there is the state average for 2023 so what we see there is um a number of our schools I'm sorry I'm going completely blank because like Caitlyn it's kind of hard for me to do math at this time of day um we we see um four of the schools below the state average um six of our our 12 elementary schools um increased um we see which means half of our elementary schools took dip um last year from the year before so there's definitely Room to Grow here and any questions about this um just uh wondering what where the 2023 data is for Emma Wilson and Park View do we know about that oh okay yeah yeah if there's right no change got it okay stayed static yeah thank you um and then just with the caveat that these are fifth graders being tested correct in 2022 and 2023 which means that they would have been second and third grade through the pandemic and I like at this time with all of our testing I kind of take it all with a bit of a grain of salt right and only two years of data right thank you now we get to go on to our secondary group um our middle schools adopted amplifi in 2021 is a core program and then yes amplify is ngss aligned and then our high schools last year adopted ck12 as their Core Curriculum and yes ck12 is ngss aligned and with this I'm going to start to invite our Middle School teachers Bidwell Jr hi I'm Lauren Jan and I teach at Bidwell Jr I'm a seventh grade um life science teacher there um so prior to the adoption of the Amplified curriculum um we started to align our own um units and our own assignments to ngss so um we were asked to kind of give an update about how amplify is going and then how collaboration supports our efforts towards um becoming more ngss aligned and I think because we started already sort of ngss ifying our own um lessons we uh we see amplify as more supplementing us than um us supplementing amplify um we really appreciate and we like the articles that are embedded with an amplify uh students are really able to interact and annotate and um those are really powerful um the simulations are really also pretty well done and students are engaged as long as they only do them once um amplifi tends to go back and back and repeat um and so a 12-year-old and me um can tend to get a little bit um bored of the repeti repetitiveness and we do really also appreciate the the hooks that amplify can provide um they really do try to uh have some of those real world problems that students can relate to um in terms of collaboration Bidwell this year we um started a program uh or idea model called Observation inquiry that kind of roughly followed the AO model that we did a couple of years ago um and what what what we did at the beginning of the year four teachers science teachers myself included um were given the opportunity to um meet together to plan for lessons so we were given some time outside of our classrooms to plan for lessons and we specifically chose to focus on the um cross cutting concept of cause and effect mechanisms um we met we planned uh we actually developed a model that went along with uh claim evidence reasoning writing as well because at Bidwell we're doing a schoolwide cross um discipline push initiative to um get students to really have the stamina for that kind of argumentative writing writing and to give them some Frameworks so we me and the other three teachers included were able to develop a model that had to do with cause effect and then the mechanism in between and aligning that with claim evidence and reasoning and then we had sort of a basic cause and effect uh mechanism and then we built in more challenging one as we go after we uh developed that tool and introduced it to our students um and so we we got to a observe the first teacher doing this lesson and then immediately after we're able to talk about how it went ask questions um and then you know maybe change some of the future lessons um unfortunately for unforeseen and foreseen issues uh like health things our team has sort of disbanded um disbanded I mean uh so uh but I that's a to be continued I assume that we will will continue doing that um to further our efforts in in ngss um and then like I said the schoolwide CER initiative is very aligned with um ngss as well that um argumentative scientific writing um and then we at Bidwell were pretty lucky that if anybody has questions or try something out um we pretty much anybody can come check it out and everybody that is a is a climate that we've established at Bidwell that we're pretty proud of so I I I kind of think maybe this would be a good question to ask many of the the teachers presenting but um over the course of the three years that your students are going through your program um what would you say are the strengths that they are coming out of that with out of out of the way that science is being taught at your school site um I I I think our our students were because of that schoolwide push for the last couple of years with claim evidence reasoning writing I think that those that's something that we have um been really proud of pushing across not just in science in a science classroom using the same language throughout um so that students recognize it and multiple different spaces because they're getting a lot of reading and writing practice in in your in your classes yeah yeah great yeah thank you Chico JR hello and thank you for inviting all of us here to talk about our science programs my name is Kelly Kum and I am a seventh and eighth grade science teacher at Chico Junior High School and we very similar to Bidwell very similar experience um are using amplify as a supplement to our current existing programs due mainly to to the repetitiveness of the curriculum um we've also seen um that amplify has some significant gaps in content that we're having to supplement as well the simulations are really good the introductory phenomena are really good the um reading material is also really really well done and engaging but um it can be a little bit one-dimensional because it gets locked into a store so we just like to broaden it and make it a little bit more personalized for our students based on their current interest levels in sixth grade we're following the dcis for year-long planning and curriculum mapping the engineering practices are implemented when we can Implement them and all of the Cross cutting concepts are integrated in all of our units can you clarify a little bit more what the dcis are the dcis are the discipline content it's the content so it's the um the scientific information that you would have traditionally taught your students but instead of being one-dimensional there it is taught Through The Eyes of the scps which are the science and engineering practices and integrated with the cross cutting Concepts like cause and effect so you might we might be looking at mutations as the DCI just the content and students are engineering genes and U Gene structures and we would be looking at C cause and effect of what happens when an amino acid gets changed and results in a mutation so it's more three-dimensional less less of the facts that we saw with a No Child Left Behind standards um dcis are taught through the lens of the scps so we integrate the science and engineering practices into every single one of our units and we try to implement as many as we can in each of our lessons argumentation is our main focus we have a schoolwide CER Focus where the science teachers met with the English teachers and we made common vocabulary so English teachers tend to use thesis or claim uh textual evidence and commentary and science tends to use claim evidence and reasoning so we include both so that kids are not getting confused when they come from their English classes and they end up in their science classes or vice versa so we have sentence frames on our walls so they can kind of identify the different structures within an argument so I would say in answering your question Miss Doby um that you asked what our kids are coming out with strengths it would be modeling and argumentation associated with that modeling so kids are getting really good at drawing pictures of what their thinking is showing their thinking through Visual pictures and labeling those pictures or bu constructing models and then developing an argument to help explain how that model works at the mechanism level um we are using ck12 to supplement because there is a lot there's different types of reading it's more of your traditional textbook reading um we use that in conjunction with the articles that amplify provides which are more real life applications so we just feel like it's more dimensionally applicable for them and gives them some reading practice um we also use fat simulations to help to help help supplement the learning as well because as Bidwell mentioned the amplify program can often times have kids revisit a single simulation four five six or seven times and that can get pretty redundant for 12year olds who are used to scrolling through social media really fast like lot lots of entertainment said to have them see the same thing over and over and over gets pretty boring for them our challenges um like I mentioned amplify has some significant gaps in content and it can be very repetitive for example um amplifi does teach mutations but they don't teach protein synthesis so without an understanding of how proteins are made and how DNA is replicated it's really hard for students to understand how a mutation takes place uh so they they were coming out the first time with that that unit as it was almost like it was a magical thing that happened um so we supplemented that pretty heavily we've seen we've we've also seen some gaps in um chemistry as well um let's see so we are seeing in our students gaps in math skills and we are going to begin working with our math department to come come up with common terminology seems to us in in science that it's issues with basic number sense and we're not sure if it's a vocabulary issue or what so we need to explore that that's that's our plan for next year um inconsistent vocabulary in methodology especially in math between math and science is something that we need to work on because it's resulting in student in confusion with students an example would be the calculation of slope for acceleration in math it's called growth factor and so when you have a negative slope in acceleration it's just deceleration students don't connect the word of growth factor in their mind growing means going up so there's a little bit of confusion there um we need more access to content related literature but that's something that all teachers struggle with we have to find information that's um valid and meets our students and their interests like right now my fifth period is very interested in football so we're doing a lot of physics through football and my sixth period loves baseball so we're doing a lot of physics through baseball so I I need to find a lot of relevant material to help engage them to find the application of Science in the world outside of the classroom um science is always it's always difficult to do science on a limited budget I think we have $1,800 and that's split across five teachers I think and it science is just very expensive so that's always that's an ongoing challenge that's been since this all started um we do need to have time to create supplemental NG GSS aligned activities due to the limitations in curricula there's no such thing as a perfect curricula teachers have always cherry-picked the good stuff out of the curricula that's purchased um but we have had less time as we shift to ngss to develop all that supplemental information that we can also ensure is aligned to the ngss standards so we would like a little bit more time to do that but you know it's very busy um so one of the solutions that we propose is creating space and time for all the teachers at all three middle schools to collaborate on what's working at each site and to share units like we have done in the past we're feeling pretty isolated at times and that's I think that's just something to be expected as we come out of a pandemic and we're implementing new standards and we're we're faced with a lot of new challenges but um I would say overall it's going pretty good the the new curricula was implemented starting during the pandemic right correct when was the last time that there was collaboration opportunities among the three middle schools for science I think for specifically to focus on science um units I think it was pre pandemic good yeah yeah pre pandemic before 2020 correct okay thank you Marsh come on up good evening thank you for the opportunity to share tonight uh my name is Kyle Gunther and I'm a sixth and seventh grade science teacher at Marsh Junior High um so in our adoption of amplify four years ago uh the marsh team has stuck to using the amplify curriculum the first couple years and similar to Bidwell and Chica JR we've seen that there have been um a number of benefits as well as some drawbacks to the curriculum to highlight some of the benefits the Articles have been um really nice they're short and sweet to the point which I think the students enjoy but it provides us an opportunity to work on reading skills and add in things like how to properly annotate articles and extract information from them also the Hands-On activities and I say that kind of both strength and drawback there are some really good Hands-On activities in there but there aren't a whole lot in quantity um so it's provided us as a team an opportunity to go in and add some extra Hands-On activities that we feel really supplement the material and also the simulations uh there are a number of really strong simulations throughout the curriculum for example the Earth Moon and Sun simulation does a really good job of showing students multiple views how we view the Moon from Earth how the moon rotates around Earth and then the sun separate around the earth yeah sun earth rotating and then moon rotating around the earth um and then some of those drawbacks that we've identified so we we find that the phenomenon that guide each of the units some of them are pretty strong but others um seem to kind of drag on throughout the unit and they don't present a whole lot of interest in the students and so we're we're trying to step away in some of those cases of phenomena and um introduce some other engaging activities the engineering challenges a lot of them are kind of left open-handed to the students as far as here is a proposal go and and figure it out on your own there's not a whole lot to supplement each of those and then the Sims again I bring up um because they they are very repetitive and and 100% agree agree with the other two sites that you looking at the Sim two or three times a week five or six times um in a chapter can be quite a bit and it's nice to be able to step back away from the computers so two of the big things that we've really worked on in the last couple years are introducing more Hands-On activities and Engineering challenges as well as incorporating place-based phenomena in sixth grade one that I'd like to highlight this year was our stop motion moon phases project so at the end of the unit after students had explored how the moon phases occurred we had rented iPads from U bu County Office of Ed which had a stop motion program on it that allowed students to create their own models and then demonstrate the way the moon revolves around the Sun around the earth and while that's happening how what the um Moon changes from our view on Earth looking out at it in seventh grade the microbiome unit uh a couple times comes back to photos and their cartoon photos of pet tree dishes and bacteria slowly growing on those pet tree dishes uh we decided to take it one step further and put together a Hands-On activity where students are given a p tree dish with their lab partner and have the opportunity to do a mouth swab and actually grow the bacteria on the dish and see it firsthand in front of them rather than looking at cartoon images in the in the slides that we're presenting and then eighth grade our eighth grade science team this year uh went through some old curriculum the uh CPO curriculum and found a car in ramp um lesson which actually had a physical car in a ramp and they they used it in the force and motion to look at how raising the ramp caused more speed um eighth grade is not my strong suit I apologize uh but along those lines and then incorporating place-based phenomena we this year in sixth grade did an upper Park field trip to look at the geology currently the amplify curriculum um in the Rock transformation unit look specifically at um the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains and comparing how rocks from the M Rocky Mountains get to the Great Plains and while that's a great example of it we also have in a magnificent example just a couple minutes down the road from here and so to be able to get the kids out and look at this firsthand we felt was really really strong and then our eighth grade science team took our eighth graders to the but and Glen County Career Day and this career day focused specifically on eighth graders and the careers that we have here in our County that align with the the units that our eighth graders are learning so next steps that we feel would be really beneficial um to continue to collaborate together as a team on site and uh look really strongly at amplify and and see where we can continue to fill in some gaps and build those lessons that we're already proud of doing and then also I think a good natural step um as Chico junor pointed out would be to come back and look and see what other sites are doing as well it sounds like there's a lot going on both at Bidwell and Chico Jr um that we could all share and and see how we're adding to our curriculum is it safe to assume that you three didn't collaborate on your slides they're very similar yes yeah um I I love that um you guys took the sixth graders up to look at the geology of Upper Park and it made me think how amazing it would be if there was more opportunities for inner distri cross collaboration if there was you know one teacher that was really strong at doing that and coordinated all three schools to be able to do that field trip and so it takes so not everybody's Reinventing the wheel right I know everybody's so tired and just to do one really big cool thing a year is a huge lift um and so that would be an amazing opportunity to be able to share those you know different passions and expertise across the three schools in the district I have a question for just general Middle School um any of you can help respond um so it's not specifically for you Kyle um can you help explain for us just really briefly how phenomena based learning is different because so many people in this room experienced not that same type of approach to Science Education um and so um ngss really focuses on phenomena based learning and just how how how should we be retooling our brains to to think about what this should look like in the classroom do any of you want to just give like the 30 to 60 second shiel mute how you're the expert with phenomena based learning typically what we do it's 5V learning cycle um we gauge our students to see where their interest level are is and then we find some sort of phenomenon or thing to teach through that lens and then we explore all different aspects so for example with my fifth period class that I was telling you that likes football we watched a football clip and we talked about why the coaches Place certain players at the line versus the ones that are running and that all led into momentum and was really good uh connection for students um I do have a a group of students in my fourth period class who are really interested in cars so we learned that one through Crash Test Dummies and we looked at what happens to the body as it continues to move forward and why it does that so really coming up with these really relevant culturally sensitive too work can on the machupa tribe uh with science projects some of their introductory Phenomenon with um local ecology and and like fire ecology stuff uh finding ways for students to engage in authentic ways with the curriculum through things or phenomena that they find really interesting so I would think that would be the best explanation so the concepts the the dcis are taught not from like specifically just being told the facts but they're they're exploring them and learning them as they explore the phenomenon yeah so the dcis which stand for I just remembered I had like a brain fog are the disciplinary core ideas and those are our content ideas so we find something really interesting and then we talk about like for example momentum which is mass times velocity how that applies with the the crash test dummy that continues to move forward so we find current Rel relevant interesting phenomenon for the students to engage with so that they're more engaged so they're more Curious they ask more authen authentic questions we're moving away from Facts like students will know how to this is more like students are going to interact with the curriculum and learn how to be um um arguers I tell that to all of the parents at back to school night get ready for your par your kids to learn how to be really good arguers based in evidence and to provide sound reasoning um so it's more of a holistic less linear more of a spiraling curriculum that allows students to engage with content from different angles you really think our students need better skills arguing with us I'm not sure about that they their technique needs a little bit of work the evidence the evidence they don't have the evidence down yet because I want it that's the that's typically what we get so thank you anyways president Dolby I I did want to answer your question with regards to what do you see in the classroom and I do definitely want to share this with you because let's be honest here everything and anything thing in terms of facts that you want to know I mean can be found on your cell phone just about right a good 90% of facts and it's growing exponentially by the day every single day so when you walk into a classroom and I think you could say this just about every single science teacher out here I'll tell you what you see you see doctors you see Engineers you see students taking data applying it and problem solving I've seen people die and and and students diagnose and it is the coolest thing for them to say okay you know what uh this uh horse has this issue let's try this to fix this problem it is the neatest thing to watch students and and them to go wow I'm actually doing what a doctor is doing I'm doing what a vet is doing so that's to me ngss through the lame person's eyes and say right um next yes so on the 2023 cast test um which is taken in eighth grade at the junior high levels only so eth grade only uh we saw all three of the sites that presented tonight um well above the state average um Chico Jr showing significant growth um Center for Alternative Learning and um I believe that is Oakbridge as well down there um were below um all three sites that presented tonight again though well scoring well above State average now we get to share High School Chico High got Mr Kesler coming up good evening I'm very excited to be here because I've been looking for an opportunity to thank this board because um a little more than two years ago on it was March 9th 2022 we brought a proposal the district I presented to you and the district brought a proposal to introduce the three course model for Next Generation science standards and you approved it so thank you um I have some really uh really compelling and exciting data to share with you and the reason we brought that model to you is because it it it modernized Science Education it created a more engaging experience for our students and it addressed some P pervasive uh issues of equity in Science Education and be when we came to you we had identified that we were teaching in a two- tiered system we had a tra that was essentially a deadend track that was predominantly populated with students of color low socio economic students students with learning disabilities and English language Learners and it was um it was a track that was hard to get out of and hard to advance out of the other track we had was an advanced College Prep track which had a series of of roadblocks and barriers that was PR Ving those students from achieving at a high level and we had very low enrollment in our AP classes as a result of that so we brought that proposal as a way to remedy those situations and we brought to you the 10 dilemmas I have um can we click on that presentation up there so the link underneath there and go to the first slide uh um yes that one thank you so that one shows this is what we did thanks to your approval of the three course model at the top you see biology physics and chemistry biology of the Living Earth physics of the universe and chemistry of in the earth system these are the three courses and they replaced our two-tier system and created heterogeneous grouping so now all of our students take these classes so we're no longer separating out groups they're all taking together together uh We've introduced we've um are the lead subject at Chico high for the Cod te special ed co- te model we have a CO two coach teach classes in biology and one in physics next year we'll add another one in physics and possibly chemistry so we have three now we'll have four or five this has moved students out of basic special education classes where they were not getting the experience of a general education science class and getting that hands-on experience so we've moved them in there and we've at the same time we've created a pathway where any student can choose the pathway they want and if they're excited about science which they they appear to be they can uh take our for elective courses three AP classes and anatomy and physiology so we presented to you 10 dilemmas next slide we could uh and that's really hard to read um but I wanted to put those up there because uh those are the dilemmas the link there if you want to look at it on your own that link is to the dilemmas that were presented two years ago and I wanted to show that what the dilemmas were and how we've addressed them and how we plan to continue to address them in the future one of those I really want to point out out is we number eight is attracting highly qualified science teachers and that was something we hoped this would do and we were very successful in that we we've hired three new teachers each with about 12 years experience experience in ngss and that's really really revitalized our department and it's exactly what we had hoped um and all of those have been addressed to some degree or another and I'd like to show the next SL slide which is some um some to show you where we've made these improvements so and I want to say that the way we made this work was we really wanted it to work so you passed the proposal and we my colleagues approached it with Incredible enthusiasm they poured hundreds of hours of their own time in the summer after school before school if you come to Chic OHA you're going to find us there at 7:30 in the in the morning and see us there till 5: uh we're collaborating constantly so was this a real enthusiastic approach to this and there's our special aded students in college prep science courses and you can see directly after the this proposal past we've had a steady increase those are 80 students that would not be in general education classes otherwise that are now in our classes and we're differentiating and providing supports for them so they can feel successful one of the concerns was oh no it'll be too hard and they'll feel unsuccessful and they'll be crushed by that but that's not what's happened we support them um we collaborate on how to help them we're working with the Special Education team on a daily basis we meet with them as a group um consistently and I wouldn't say it's been perfect of course it hasn't but um we we are revising and adjusting as needed to support those students uh the next slide shows something we didn't expect the students have really responded to this program we've had our enrollment in science classes increased by 20% in the last two years we have over 200 more students taking science classes even though enrollment a Cho highs dropped 5% and there's an excitement on our campus about science they want to take more they only have to take two classes but we're over three classes average now and they want even more in fact I was just mentioning to a colleague it's almost a little overwhelming they're so excited about science that we're having to open new sections and make room for them our classes are bigger it's a good problem and it's really exciting to see that increase on the next slide we show one of the things we did and this is as a quote from the framework from the California Department of Education it shows that one of their uh statements or one of their challenges to us was all standards all students you need to understand the old system only about sometimes as few as 30 and sometimes as many as 60 students out of 500 took physics and and then many of our students never got earth science and so our two trck system had an earth science track and a physics track and so we took to heart to refute the com notion that learning physics is only for students in advanced math or that taking earth science is only for students who are not on the college track all standards all students so we address that we hire two new physics teachers we've gone from two sections of physics um to 12 this year so now physics is for everyone and so that has been a big part of opening it up students get a choice between physics and chemistry that's really helped because now they're choosing which class they want to take many are doubling up are some of our Advanced students doubling up they're taking physics and chemistry in the same year so that they can get into AP classes sooner and the the next slide shows our AP enrollment which to me is a real validation of what we're doing we've gone from an average of about 40 students in AP classes to over 200 and these are students that are challenging themselves they're excited about science these are hard classes and they're having uh an good enough experience in our three course model that they're challenging themselves and taking it at a very unexpected level so we we had hoped this would work and of course it's early so there's there's more to come uh we' hoped this would work and we're as surprised as anyone is how well it's working and how excited they are I I know you're asking how ngss works and one of our mantras is explore before explain and that's hard for a teacher because we love explaining we love to explain and we're just dying to explain you need a day or two of exploring maybe three you need a hook you need a story you need you need a to to struggle to diagram to figure it out this week we're having to figure out batteries and they have to draw what a battery is but they don't know what they are and and then we we lead them to it when I describe it is you would never lead read a mystery model uh a a history no mystery novel sorry if you went and read the last page first the whole point is you want to draw them along have them excited they want to know what's next they come in the next day what are we going to we want to know the answer you're going to have to find out you it's it's going to take a while to figure this out and so ngss is about engaging them from the start eliciting student questions the student questions Drive the curriculum they decide where we go and I love how Kelly described that she's letting the students decide if it's baseball football or cars each class is different the students Drive the exploration then they're engaged and then potentially they get to the then we get to the explanation I've got a question this has kind of been on my mind as long as we've been talking about this here and uh frankly I've said this before but when I listen to your descriptions of it and when I see the statistics in the in the graphs I kind of regret that it wasn't like this when I was in school you know there was kind of a I was never an AP science person not by a long shot um I was liked the Natural Sciences um based on every description I've heard I think I could have you know done okay and maybe even gotten a thing or two out of the classes that you're describing inspite not having been you know particularly Smart in this category based on the standard that I think existed when I was going through um Chico Unified you know there was kind of an otherness about the AP science students you know I mean they they they were seems to me operating in a realm that was pretty highly theoretical and they had sort of personalities and dispositions that could kind of sit there and take this and and thrive in that environment you know and uh you know I think of like my doctor you know if I had like some serious problem like like that I would never understand you know there's a part of me that kind of still is nostalgic for the idea that that my doctor would be some really wonky you know off in their own world person who this is their wheelhouse understanding this thing that I could never understand you know um I'm just going to ask you a just a question that is genuinely on my mind as we look at this um has have the standards on in some in any way in your opinion in any way have we sort of slipped is it is it less rigorous now that we're implementing this you know than it was once upon a time so yeah great question um I would say it's more grigor and that uh instead of and someone mentioned all the information on our phone instead of the old way which is a lot of memorizing and memorizing facts and repeat them back now they have to solve problems critical thinking diagram explain and I think it's really important to point out that we can make anything hard hard does not mean learning hard's just hard I can make it hard by doubling the homework for no reason I can make it hard by not providing support to my students I can provide make it hard by not explaining it well it can be hard we're Math teachers now it could be hard if I introduce because we don't used to be there was a prerequisite for math get into these classes and so they were expected to know the math and if they didn't they were spit out but now we support them and teach the math so I would say it's not as hard to learn in these class classes but it's more rigorous I have more slides but I've taken a lot of time and these slides that I have after this tell how we're doing this and they speak a lot to our collaboration they speak to the three course um the co- te model um how we're addressing who benefits how we're addressing math literacy scores and science literacy um an Ela in each of our courses we're doing a lot more scientific writing uh they used to be a time when all the tests were multiple choice now we as a department agreed that we give both multiple choice and written or requiring more um emphasis on Ela uh math is is emphasized to to a degree where they understand how to use the math and apply it rather than just robotic do it and the next slide talks about how we're doing it and it's continuous collaboration before school during prep after school during lunch we never stop collaborating uh we're just in each other's rooms all the time we're watching each other do the lesson how's it going for you oh you need to change this and refine that explore before explain which I mentioned we have all common assessments every subject is using the same assessment we're on the same lesson on the same day all the teachers in on the subject so that we can work together and track what we're doing and refine we're using a lot of data analysis we did the interim cast test this year which is new this year so we have data on how our students are how prepared they are for cast for the California sorry use the acronym the California science test and we are reflecting and we're doing a two-day collaboration after school so as soon as schools out we're going to spend two days together as a team and reflect and refine our units and prepare for next year I just have one question um that I I haven't really got a sense of yet um talking with any of you folks um how how for your freshman um teaching team do you feel that that's starting to be a good like continuation that students are coming in having kind of gone through what we've heard the middle schools have been doing and or have been trying to do and and students are used to now kind of this this momentum in phenomeno based instruction and argumentation and writing more writing and involved with the the science classes I know I I collaborate on my own time with Kelly and some of the other teachers at Chico Jr but not not the other schools we need time to articulate that uh we are missing the loss of science DLC has is being felt we used to I I met with you pre pandemic and all the Middle School teachers three three or four times a year that was just um invaluable and so there's any way we can get that collaboration time back it doesn't we we would make a lot of progress if we were articulating between elementary middle and middle and high school better um and I I think that would make a big difference and it I think it would be a small investment that would pay big dividends and two I mean from my perspective it would be an improvement not just for science but also those writing skills and those reading skills and those exploration and Discovery skills and just genuinely engaging with school itself because science is dipping into all of those aspects math as well um yeah I the more and more I teach the more I realized that growth only occurs with collaboration lots of time together building on ideas when teachers work in isolation there's only so much we can do um and so that the more we can emphasize that and support that the better thank you um I want to thank you for having that attitude and uh for taking your job so seriously and I just have one more question for you has anyone ever told you you're the spinning image of Matthew MCC no but I'll take that thank you and now Barbara berelli from PV thank you good evening um this will be my last board meeting as I come as a parent um or a grandparent I have two children grandchildren in the school system now Little J Creek um so our ck12 um is basically our textbook our electronic textbook we're using that for mainly for the dcis that's the discipline core ideas um most units are we have a fantastic team we've been collaborating for more than 10 years using the deor model that John started at our school we still do that um at least once a week most of the biology teachers are meeting two to three times a week um Ry and I have been teaching chemistry together so we meet twice a week so we plan our lessons we plan our Labs um all our units are an overarching question and that the kids have to try to fit solve the answer using different simulations experiments um uh case studies we also use a lot um for the biology the has units um we were part of the medical pathway um at PV and so um a lot of those are ngss also um where the the kids are a doctor or a medical professional and they have to diagnose a patient um they actually run medical tests um we do DNA typing Even in our freshman classes and so for example they had to do DNA typing for PKD polycystic kidney disease to find out if it was passed on that's when we were doing the genetics unit and um so the money that was used supposed to be used for the textbooks is being used to give the kids more Hands-On experiences for models um we still trying to figure out which veneer software we want to use so that the kids in physics can be um using those on on their Chromebooks so so um so that part we're still we'll still trying to figure out um but it has has been a change in thinking using um ngss um I do think you know we tend to talk down the dcis um but really that's the foundation that's holding everything together um there's still content knowledge the kids have to learn there's still content knowledge that they're going to be tested on in in May on this cast test so we have to make sure that they know the knowledge but through this other way of teaching it and so that they can defend their answer but there still is that base of knowledge that they have to have to know so it's twofold it's not just the experiences but it's also the knowledge that they gain through this process so I just wanted to make sure that I kind of brought that back into it um on the unit organiz ation up there says like for example one of the questions for our biology classes is why do some people get cancer and why do some people don't and so we looked at the genetics of that we looked at um how does changes in the epigenetics which is basically how does our lifestyle affect whether or not we get cancer and so the kids had to do some research to figure out why does some people get lung cancer who've never smoked in their life okay or why does someone have a more chance of getting colon cancer so we brought those questions up and the kids had to go through and through different case studies through experimentation through um the gel electroforesis they were able to um come come up with a not a solution but more of an idea of what what causes it so um so in that respect I the the focus is has changed for ngss for both I think both schools and actually all the way through you know 5ifth through 12th um speaking from elementary I'm seeing like my my grandkids are doing more and more science which is fantastic my older two went through the school system and Nary school a lot of times they'd have a teacher who didn't do science all year but I'm seeing it coming up I'm seeing more and more kids coming in with that that enthusiasm and that science background that questioning strategy background which is fantastic do you have any questions I do um first of all hi nice to see you it's been a while um know if I'm qualified to speak you're seeing as I if I squeaked by with a D in your class I would have been a I'll be very surprised um but in all seriousness U looking at the the data that's presented on the next slide um um Pleasant Valley's uh cast scores jumped like 10% over one year in terms of student SCH profis do you have any idea in terms of practices or curriculum or anything that might have contributed to that that we can replicate um boy I you know one part of the cast is the the children I mean you know you'll get different children every year and some are be just really strong and and others just need more more more help so I I can't I can't say that we did anything um extraordinary um I think again the for us I mean when John um introduced the deor model um to me that was um mainly because when I first came to PV in ancient times 33 31 years ago um all the science teachers were doing their own thing and then um I felt that that there was a huge inequity because you'd have someone who is who is following the standards and then you'd have somebody who was not and to me as a parent that was um repulsive that one child would get a different education than another and um so when we went to the defor model and so we all give the same test um we all looked at the standards we all um teach the same type of activities um that was that was to me fantastic because no matter who you got you got the same content you had the same experiences and so the fact that we're still doing it I don't know 12 years later um is is fantastic and I'm and I feel good about my you know my leaving um with regards to that it's in good hands that we still believe in that model um I think the only main thing that's that's changed in the in the ne the last couple years is we're just trying to to incorporate more of the kids figuring it out um but we're still adhering to the content so the kids still have to know the content so that um they have to be able to use the vocabulary the science vocabulary in answering questions um it's not just oh like for example I teach mostly chemistry so it's not who here's the chemicals you know explore but you have to be able to defend it using the vocabulary and use it properly um so that they it's a pairing of the experience and the um DD I don't know if that helped at all congrats on a fabulous career oh thank you in your retirement yeah thank you yeah it's a thing thank you for being here thank you all right so the high school cast uh scores have already been referred to tonight um one of the thing couple things I want to point out about these scores is both of our comprehensive high schools are far above the state average um on the cast test uh as of last year uh another thing I would like to point out in the in the context of tonight's conversation which is um dealt with the three course Model A lot um the first uh Chico Unified students take this test typ most typically in 11th grade next year's 11th graders will be the first 11th graders coming through Chico Unified to have three years of the three course model so I would caution you against um using this as any sort of evaluation of of that implementation moving on to my next slide um I was asked to kind of replicate um some of what Chico High had provided um to add PV to add some to add a comparison between the two sites um these charts are are are going to be slightly different a lot different in some cases due to the fact that I am looking at percentages um all of the data that we're showing here um is derived from transcript data which means students finished a term and received a grade um enrollment in the course um is irrelevant unless a student um received a grade at the end in some cases it's any grade and in some cases it's C or above I'll point that out as I go so first of all in the top left you can see the percentages the percentage of um special education students um completing terms in a college prep science course um this is includes science electives and you can see that uh Chico High grew significantly last year um and even increased a little bit the first semester of this year PV is making a more modest growth there as you can see moving across the top um students completing terms in any science course College Prep or not um has has grown um more significantly at Chico high in recent years but both sites are are relatively similar students uh completing terms in AP science you can see PV um has maintained a little bit higher than Chico High um as of the first semester of this year as far as um sections offered within the three course model over the last couple years you can see the first um four bars in the bar graph there are um The Living Earth um bio and the Living Earth is kind of the the commonly put way of saying it um we can see to start off with um Chico high was significantly higher than PV this year more evened out um in this year chemistry in the earth system you can see relatively similar number of sections then we see a significantly higher number of sections in physics of the Universe um in 23 24 all right so a lot of zigzags here so I want to um take a few moments to explain um what you're looking at here is data by grade level um so we can kind of start to paint a picture of what students are doing by grade level at each site um and and this is students who are past ing an adg science or a science adg uh elective course so we can see um both sites um are relatively similar with a with a quite a large Spike um in the last year um of students earning Credit in ad science or science um adg elective courses the chart on the right gives the percentage of um oh I'm sorry this chart on the left was of all students taking a science class so this gives you an idea are are kids taking non-oled prep science at what rate and what at what rate are they taking College Prep science so if they take a science class again on the left um we can see a significant Rise um in the percentage of students taking a to G courses on the right hand side we look at percentages of all students um earning Credit in an 8 of g science or science 8 of G elect of course um and we can see um in most cases here a pretty big uh increase over the last couple years which is great to see and here what we're looking at is the percentage of students earning 8 to g science credits by school and grade um the chart on the left is any course in the three course model so we can see grades 10 11 and 12 at both sites have shown significant increases um in the percentage of students um earning credits in the three course model over the last couple years um Chico High seeing um more of an increase for 10th 11th and 12th grade it as far as AP courses go um both sites have seen a little bit of a downturn in science AAP course um credit earning um and uh we we have seen the introduction as was presented by Chic oh high the The increased numbers of students taking that um physics of the universe class any questions I know a lot went into that presentation so just thank you for spending the time doing that for us um I don't have any further questions and I don't know if any board members do um this is informational so there's no action to be taken on this item and um no speakers signed up for this item um but I do think that we got some good information to think about um especially in terms of you know how how to help Foster that collaboration that it sounds like just about everybody asked for tonight um and that uh everything sounds like it's going well and is on the right track so I appreciate all of you for all the work that you're doing out there um I I'm speaking for myself but I'm I'm I'm sure that everybody else feels the same way um so with that um I think that we are going to move to the next item but we're going to do a brief um 10-minute break um before we move on so we will come back at e e e all righty we did take a brief 10 minute break and we are returning to our regular board meeting Open Session uh and we will move to item 9.2.1 discussion action for the 2024 summer projects update hello everyone so I'm here tonight to get board approval for summer projects or 820,000 as you can see the projects that we have right now are for a gym at Chico High jym roof at Chico High we have um bleacher work that needs to be done at Chico Jr and we have a courty guard irrigation part at Chico high again so anything that's left from that that amount of money we have will bounce down to the in-house projects that we have at the bottom did you have any questions on this is this all you're going to be doing this summer I hope there's other things well there is other things all of the it all depends on how much we can how much cash each we can get but yes that we will be doing other stuff absolutely and it'll all be it'll all be that stuff will be done in house I knew you were going to do other stuff and this just to clarify this is just the maintenance side yes the maintenance side so we certainly have all of our summer cleaning going on by our custodial staff and Team Cleaning and that's where I was going to head to next yes which is summer cleaning is a big part of what we do it doesn't look like we have any further questions um and there's no public comment so I will ask for a motion I move approval of these projects second do all right we have a motion by Mr tennis and a second by Mr Lando to approve the 2024 Center projects update our last vote was unanimous so we can um all just give a Voice vote for all those in favor I I opposed none are we okay yep thank you thank you you made me think I missed something um all right we're going to move on to 9.2.2 which is an informational item for the potential new Bond for school facilities however we have um some very patient audience members who have been phenomenal and public speakers who would like to speak on this comment so um if it is okay with the board I would ask that we have our public commenters on this item um actually go first before the presentation so that they can go home since it's getting pretty late okay I think that I think that is a go so um same same Spiel as earlier it's three minutes um and there's a 30 second warning um and uh so we have two speakers for this item uh the first one on the list is I'm going to say the last name wrong um Lauren Lauren will you tell me how to say your last name please okay I just can never remember um my name is Lauren Eno yes so I am the parent of three students enrolled in Chico Unified Schools and I'm excited to be up here again kind of agitating on behalf of facilities and the the bond measure um previous Bond measures have been responsibly used by the district to remodel several elementary schools on the north side of town to modernize our two existing comprehensive high school campuses and to update Junior High campuses um as they um prepared to take on sixth grade students several years ago that said there's still work to be done um a number of schools continue to patiently wait for our turn to have our needs addressed and these schools offer valuable programs to the students and families of our community including Elementary campuses um with bilingual immersion Dynamic special education programs stem gate and then also our high school campuses with thriving arts and engineering programs and who also offer an alternative pathway for students to be supported in achieving their High School diplomas these schools are operating in facilities that are no longer functional or reflective of the High Caliber of learning that our staff are attempting to facilitate for their students last school year the district took time to investigate these issues and you adopted the resulting facili master plan which provides a comprehensive road map for um addressing the structural needs of our campuses and I would just encourage for anyone who's um listening and not familiar with the facilities master plan it's a great resource check it out by going to the Cho Unified School District web page and there is a link to the facilities master plan and it's available by clicking on the first image um typically that loads on the page in order to create highquality learning environments for all our students in our district rather than some as it now stands the board and District need to continue moving forward with the implementation of that facility's master plan and unfortunately as we all know um the plan can no longer move forward without requesting funding to do so through a bond measure I believe that our Chico Community will agree that our students in schools are assets worthy of their investment an early polling which was released to the facilities action committee which I have participated in um suggests that this is the case our rosale community specifically is um already aware and knows that we are worthy investment we are excited and already sharing the many reasons why with our family friends neighbors and colleagues and we look forward to supporting this Bond measure as we move forward towards the election in November if you should decide to put it on the ballot thank you um next we have be Beth Bradley thank you what do taxpayers want this day and age I can only speak for myself transparency truth and tangible results if I'm trusting you with my hard eared money I want to know there's a plan and then I want to see results see results where my money is going well we're in luck Chico Unified School District District boasts a plan that has been carefully crafted and developed with input from teachers parents and the community and approved by the Board of Trustees the need is indisputable the need is great there's no doubt about it please come tour my school Rosell Elementary I'll show you around ask any teacher student or parent at Inspire or chico High the need is without question if you're here from a school with facilities needs please stand thank you so much you miss sit um I got involved in my facility's journey in November of 2022 because my first graders class ceiling leaked despite efforts it's still leaking uh in January of 2023 I met with Kelly saley and a few weeks later I gave Julie Kissle a tour of rosell's Campus I had no idea about measures or bonds or that we the parents teachers staff administrators and students are reliant on the chico Community to come together to vote on such issues from then to now I've learned a lot and I know firstand how important how vital it is that Chico specifically or for Chico specifically the 3,496 students and subsequent staff that will directly benefit from this bond this Bond measure will affect five schools it will completely transform three give the fourth a new campus and give the fifth School room to breathe we will come together as a community and invest in safe schools invest in a healthy environment for Learning and growth and ultimately invest in what's so so important to us our children I'm Beth Bradley and if you're interested in being involved I'm talking to you guys are already involved I'm talking to these people if you're interested in being involved or want to talk more about the efforts of a couple of hardworking moms who care about the issue I want to talk to you thank you and were there additional folks who wanted to make a public comment on this item tonight's is informational um and so we will move to the presentation then thank you thank you yes so I'll just open up and that was a a great I would say segue by Lauren and Beth um for this agenda item this evening this is an information item um so as it was alluded to the facility master plan was approved by this board back in September of 23 and per that plan it was identified there was over a billion dollars of need um so then the immediate conversation was how do we get that funding how do we secure that funding um so this evening we have Tom Clifford of Clifford Moss who has helped us with public input and public information and we also have Katie Dobson um with Jones Hall who is our bond counsel legal counsel so I'm going to turn it over to Tom and mat Tom wants to know who he looks like I was hoping for like a Matthew mccon but I don't think that's in the cards I went to high school with this guy um Tommy Clifford Chico High class of 93 started at Hooker o went to Chico junr and then and then and then made it to the big leagues so thanks for having us tonight I'm gonna be like two minutes because the real sort of show is Katie and the resolution in front of you um but just if I can click here do lungren DOL lungren that's who you look like wait wasn't Dolph lungren um didn't he fight rocky rocky four yeah Rocky four rocky four um all right so just as a reminder we're sort of well along in this process right we started some time ago did some early feasibility work some initial polling those results looked um good and we moved into public communication and public education we sent a mailer got beautiful videos of students from many schools including rosale um got about 1300 responses to our open-ended survey in addition to the two polls that we've done and I'll talk a little bit about that we came in for a landing with um some tracking polling that just came in last week and now it's time for the board to take action um and then after the board takes action tonight obviously is just information only um you'll take action in June after that a private citizens campaign will be required outside this building off public funds to I don't know who that'll be but I have some suspicions um so that's really the process as a reminder the other thing I just want to point your your attention to is this little ven diagram there's the darker green circle which is what you need and your needs are tremendous as a district right um your needs are I think bigger than any bond measure can ever address and then there's what voters will support and what we're really looking at is like what's The Sweet Spot there that's from a messaging perspective the most important thing that we need to find as we move forward into campaign I wanted to share a little bit about um the this sort of the the Public Communication program so we sent a mailer out and asked Chico folks all parents and all voters what they thought about your facilities needs and unsurprisingly Chico was not shy they did a lot of sharing I think what does that say I need glasses 12,200 survey results they align very nicely with what your actual facilities master plan says you need to do which is great the number one issue was just fix the basic stuff Beth spoke of leaky RS that still leak just fix that and I think that's actually great news um given where you're going with your facilities master plan this is just the pie chart version so you can see sort of what pulled the highest in the open-ended survey with no controls on who responds and who doesn't um but repairing basic stuff was kind of the biggest the biggest piece of feedback we got from a open-ended perspective we got a number of interesting comments um lots of lots of appreciation for the district lots of go for it fun schools kids need you know great schools to learn in um um lots of support for uh the various things that are in your facilities master plan we did hear some negatives I don't want to dwell on them we do every time you open it up to the community you're going to hear things what I thought was really interesting is we didn't find a lot of negatives that focused on sort of what I would call Unique issues within the district it was a lot of sort of just anti-tax sentiment taxes are too high you've had Bonds in the past um why do you need to do that again and that's something frankly that we see in most communities we do this work it's not something that's unique to Chico and and I think that's actually a a good sign as you move forward there will be people who vote against a bond measure many people but I think there will be a lot of people who support as well so I just want to give a quick update on that and the real show is Katie who will go through the resolution one last plug in case no one says it tonight make sure you get all your questions about the resolution because when we come back in June it's like a it's a heads up heads down vote thank you appreciate your time good evening than nice to see you all in front of you for um discussion only is a resolution ordering an election on November 5th and requesting that the county consolidate that election with everything else on the ballot that day um the front part of the resolution is is really just the legal requirements of accomplishing those two things and the interesting part of the resolution for our purposes if we can flip to appendix a appendix a includes the full text of the bond measure so everything below the line at the top of that page will be included in the voter information guide perfect thank you will be included in the voter information guide so um some of this is legally required language but most importantly on page A3 is our bond to project list and so these are the typ bless you the types of pro projects that voters will be voting on there's a list um of about 10 bulleted items that we think that the projects that the district is contemplating fit into and then there's some additional language and all of this language will be available to voters in the voter information guide before they make their decision um I will also note that 15.4 5% of the proceeds of these bonds are allocated to charter school facilities appendix B if we can move down to that is the 75w ballot question so this is what all voters will see on their on their ballot they'll read this question and then they will vote Yes or no and this cannot read like proper English so don't even try to make sense of it we have only 75 words and we need to fit a lot in there the last part of this resolution that I'll highlight is appendix C it's the tax rate statement so this includes tax rate projections and we will also be included in the voter information guide along with any arguments in favor or against the measure and an impartial analysis of the measure by County Council so voters are going to get a lot of information about this are there any questions I can answer can you just State excuse me for the bottom line for folks that are listening or here um what it is that we're proposing to be asking for and what that means for um folks that own property absolutely please so if this resolution is adopted on the ballot will be a measure um allowing the district to issue $239 million in bonds with an average tax rate of $60 per $100,000 so if you own a house that um costs $500,000 you would be paying $300 a year I'm just quickly making sure that's right mouth you would be paying um $300 a year while bonds are outstanding and it's currently projected that bonds would be outstanding until the year 20 52 53 yes of course I a question in um our our past experience with um mons we've been able to um take advantage of like refinancing in order to shorten the amount of time that those um Bond taxes are being collected is that something that you can project um or are there so many variables involved that you have to just go with what you find say five years from now look at the circumstances and say okay we can do this and save because I know we've saved several million dollars each time we've done that for our taxpayers yes yes the district has had some very successful refinancing and those are completely Market dependent so you want to save money so you have to wait until the interest rates in the market are lower than the interest rates on your bonds so we can't project when that will happen but um your financial team is always looking for those opportuni another question it seems like um the day I was watching the bond sale actually occur um we got really good response because we have a good credit rating right yep okay uh that was a fun day by the way um our credit rating hasn't gone down at all since the last time we issued right no it has not gone down okay because yeah that that was I think Jacqueline and I both sat in on that Bond sale and it was it was pretty fun yeah they were fun and I would just expand on that um as a school district we do have tax exempt bonds um so there are there's an appeal um from investors um to invest in school bonds because of the tax exempt nature so essentially the interest they receive um by putting their money up for the bonds is taxfree from the federal government so um we're able to keep the interest rate down because we don't have to pay a premium um knowing that the investors then would have to turn around and cut a check to Uncle Sam so to say so so to speak um there's so the the list the bulleted list um is relatively broad because there's a lot of things that we could be spending money on um facilities wise we to have a billion dollars nearly in need from our last facilities Plan update um we had uh taken action a while ago now with that facility Bond update prioritizing um some schools with replacement if we have the funds available um do does this amount will this amount allow us to move forward with those projects um and also support the needs of the charter schools that that they've identified as far as we know I think I probably should oh Jack do you I can speak to that so um we will be going into the next phase the facility master plan with this Bond um and the board did prioritize um rosale Chapman and Parkview elementaries so what we would do is when those dollars come available I know Julie's Been Working on on securing an architect so we can figure out what the scope of that project looks like um and the intent would be that those three schools would be covered in the 239 million less the amount we share with our Charter Community yes all schools that's a great Point Kelly all schools will be um touched by the money not just those three elementary schools um we are doing restroom Renovations and there other projects much like we did the secure um fencing single port inventory that too was um how we touched all of our campuses with the dollars and then I I know we still have some Charter folks here in pretty good uh agreement that that this is good for you all to move forward with to okay I didn't know if you had any anything you wanted to add head nods are great thumbs ups are great okay thank you I know this informational item um for the even evening but I would um strongly encourage the board to to read through the resolution as Tom alluded to um we'll be back at the June 12th um board meeting and really at that point um to use Tom's words it's a thumbs up or thumbs down um vote to put this on the November election um and then at that point it's kind of out of our hands and then it goes private campaigning at that point and between now and then excuse me between now and then we can ask questions and we don't have to do that here necessarily okay absolutely and I would encourage questions we want to make sure that it it really addresses the concern by the board and the concerns of our community um and elicits the projects that are reflective in our facility master plan and the feedback we got from our community okay thank you and on that note I think it's important that we and our Advocates uh for the bond share um this document I know one of the big concerns we hear a lot on social media and out in the world is oh it's just the schools just want more money but it's very clearly written out here how we can and can't spend this money it's specifically and only for facilities Improvement for these listed areas so I mean that's just a message that we need to make sure everyone is aware of yes you can tell you exactly where this money is going to go how it's going to help students and create a better environment for education so the more we can make sure that people understand that we have a really solid plan for exactly how this money is going to help students the letter of the lift will be when we get to election season and to add to that I would say um you are stuck with this list so once voters approve it you can't go back and change it it's really important that this covers the projects that you intend to do and then you'll have additional citizens oversight and annual Audits and different transparency measures to be sure that the community can see how you're spending the money someone mentioned the um facilities master plan that's on our website and I would really encourage people to go look at that because on that facility's Master Plan you look at the phases that have already been funded and the schools like this one that exist because of bond funds and because we've done a good job of continuing to listen to our community look at our school needs um and apply the funds um what's the word when you get a lot for your money Julie yeah there we go um i' I've watched us is Chico Unified do a great job of getting matching funds from State bonds and things but they're matching I mean that they're just enhancing what our local voters are being asked to do which is to you know just provide what our kiddos need for good educations I don't I don't see any further questions for clarification um we had our public comments already um and so with that um thank you thank you very yeah or information only so we'll move right along thank you thank thank you okay um next is 9.2.3 discussion action for the adoption of resolution number 1641 d24 increasing the level 1 Fe hi good evening thank you for um your time appreciate it um Dev tailing into funding for facilities the um this will be a public hearing so we'll need you to open that if you wouldn't mind Madam president um that happens with the public comment okay perfect thank you for helping me um so school districts in the state of California um are their facilities are affected by students generated from residential and Commercial growth that occurs in our communities uh the state allocation board reviews uh those fees that can be levied by school districts every two years um this past January the state allocation board authorized school districts to increase their fees um for residential and Commercial projects within our area um the district has developed a a demographic um informational study um the the fee justification study Cal and grber I thank Lynn guber for being here tonight you'll meet her in just a moment for her hard work and answering all of our many questions that Jacqueline and I had so the study has been completed and you've been provided that study for your review the study has also been made publicly available and sent to interested parties as well um as advertised in the newspaper um the proper public notification that this meeting was occurring tonight uh to discuss the increase in these fees um with that I will turn it over to Lyn grber from Calin grber who's going to walk through a summary uh for the for your audience and for the the folks watching at home Lynn thank you Julie and thank you for having me my name is Lyn grber C and grber Public Finance so tonight see if I can do this right um I'll go through a brief summary of the develop veler fees developer fees are a one-time fee that's collected at the time of a building permit for new construction and school districts have the authority to Levy these school fees to help offset the impact of new development on your school facilities they can be used for just the construction and or reconstruction of the school facilities interim housing administrative facilities and operational facilities ities the state has a uh a fee program that includes level one which is what Chico levies and level two and three which uh level one is State uh is set by the the state allocation board level one is the same throughout the state doesn't matter what your cost of living is it's the same per square foot throughout the state and you have to justify it with the fee level two and three requires certain uh qualifications which right now the district doesn't qualify for but those are are typically much higher than level one so level one again are capped and only apply to new residential and Commercial and Industrial Development the feaps as we've said are set every other year at the state allocation board typically in their January meeting and this past January they increase the fees to $5.7 cents and 84 cents those increases are based on a construction index so in order to increase the level one fee we've completed the fee justification study and um again fees are only charged at the request of a new building permit and this is the only opportunity for school districts to um help offset the impact of new construction so the fees justification study um has to go through specific code sections uh primarily government code 66 uh th000 and through the Nexus requirements uh we have determined that the residential impact per square foot is actually $6.90 again that's much higher than the cap that the state has set at $517 we determine the commercial an industrial impact square foot and that varies um rental self storage because they have such low employee count is only 10 cents per square foot uh and then some of the larger ones have an impact of $753 but remember we're capped at 84 cents a square foot for commercial so uh the maximum level one fees are deemed Justified if the costs impacts are greater than the the fee caps that the state has set briefly I'll go through the study methodology we look at the student enrollment projection based on the new housing that is expected in the next 10 years and the estimated cost per seat best ba based on the eligible uh Capital Improvement project and again we go back to that facility's master plan that you guys have already spoken about and we uh look at those costs as they are only eligible to be attributed to new students from new housing and then we get the cost per square foot and if it's greater than $5.7 then you're Justified at the $517 these this is a map of the new projects that are coming on board and I know you can't read those tables so I put them on the next couple slides but we have about uh 3250 projected units to be built in the next 10 years with an average square footage of about 1360 Square ft so we went through the methodology before this overlays the chico numbers to it again we're expecting about 3250 uh new homes uh developed in the area which we expect to generate about 615 new students stents the cost per square foot I'm sorry the cost per seat for each of those students is uh ranging from about 42,000 per seat to about at the elementary uh level at about 56,000 doll per seat um and then we have about $30 million worth of cost attributed to those new students the cost per square foot as we have indicated is $ 6.93 which is greater than the 517 so you are justified in leving the $517 that the that the state has capped us at commercial is a little bit different um we look at the employees generated from the commercial industrial categories and the state defines those categories and the study that we have to use new employees create the need for new housing uh employees also uh typically create inter District student impact and then we offset those impacts with uh the new housing that is being built already and that becomes the net impact so that's detailed in the study and then you see here the different um categories of commercial and or industrial um all of which U exceed the 84 cents per square foot impact other than the rental self storage uh this is the timeline of the fee adoption process uh we started the study in February and then uh the the notice was uh made public and and published on May 3rd and May 10th and available for public review and sent to those who requested it and tonight we're holding the public hearing and then if it's adopted they would go into effect in 60 days or on July 15th the next slide is the historical developer fees and showing the um how they have progressed over over the years um again this is a 38 cents per square foot increase over the current fees and this slide uh is an estimate of what we think we would collect remember our impact is about 30 million um at the $517 we're going to be collecting just under 23 million so again there's still a gap right um and uh on the on the average square footage home uh the difference between the $4.79 you're currently collecting and the $517 that um is is Justified at this point is a difference of $516 almost $517 per house and with that I'm open for questions just um to clarify what I think I heard you say is the developer fees are only collected at the time the permit is pulled am I correct and then and it it doesn't happen again during any part of the process corre that's correct only when a new permit is issued that's the only time it can be collected um and you can't go back once somebody's got a permit issued you can't go back and and pick it up later okay thank you are there any further questions for clarification okay seeing none I will open the public hearing um the public hearing is opened um at this time we will invite uh the public to give comment to the board um same as our um public comment periods of three minutes with a 30 second warning and uh we do have Katie t uh signed up so um call on up Katie good evening and I just want to start out and say thank you for serving our community and you've gotten a lot of information tonight so I hope you got room to listen hear me so my name is Katie tomman I'm the executive director of the chico Builders Association known as CBA and I'm here tonight to speak on the increase of the level one fees we call them development impact fees um we acknowledge that the state allocation board authorized by the Ed code is permitted just as um your consultant um explained that to you and that if uh that development impact fee was raised to $517 per square foot so I want to give this to you in what this means in real numbers so to illustrate the impact of this in this increase consider the cost implications for building a 1500 square foot home three bedroom two bath at the new rate now that the new rate um with a development impact fee is $ 7,755 Additionally the building industry have faced other Rising expenses associated with home construction we've seen significant increases in the cost of concrete and drywall liability insurance for private contractors has gone up significantly and the city building fees are pending for a significant increase later this year these increases contribute to the overall cost of building the home which is now over $300,000 which is actually a conservative estimate the first estimate that I received was 350 and the the folks that I got it from said no use 300 it's conservative it's good and then you add the land costs which are around 150,000 if you can find a lot to to um purchase for a total of $450,000 and furthermore mortgage loan interest rates have significantly increased um adding these additional costs are ult and these additional costs are ultimately passed on to the home buyer so in light of these Financial pressures the CBA is respectfully requesting that as this board has done in previous rounds of development impact fee increases the new fee be phased in over a two-year period specifically we would propose the fee um for next year or for this year would be $44.98 and in then the following year be five go up to $517 and also I want to make a note that we have no remarks regarding the commercial rate so we have no concern with that so um if you have questions I'd be happy to answer them you all want to go home I'm sure thank you thank you ktie are there any additional public comment okay seeing none I will close the hearing that was weak there we go give it some o um okay uh so we've had our presentation and our um public hearing uh and so I will ask the board if there is a motion a motion on this item yeah I'll call for a motion yes uh Madam president I move that we approve resolution number 1641 d24 increasing the um fee to $17 excuse me $517 for um uh residential and I believe it's it's still at 10 84 84 cents for um commercial I'll second that okay we have a motion to approve the resolution as written uh by Miss Robinson and the second by Mr Lando uh we're open for discussion at this time board any further discussion comments I just want to say I have some misgivings uh I'm I'm going to be in support uh of this um and they stem from the fact that um the state has having difficult Economic Times right now and uh our financial future is not by any means certain here at Chico Unified um and I think it would be just um imprudent to um not put the interests of our our constituents and students at the Forefront although I am sympathetic to the higher cost of housing for people who are are moving into a new home so um I regret that aspect of this but um I think we need to act on the interest of the students in this case I would Echo Mr tennis's sentiments um the math comes out at um 1,683 28 estimated dollars that could go back into our school facilities um sooner than later so um that's a pretty good number when we're looking at such a long list of needs that our campuses have um and growing population in our classrooms uh so just the need to house them in general um so I I have no further comments okay uh we were unanimous last time and so I'll call for a Voice vote all those in favor please say I I I any opposed okay it passes unanimously thank you board 9.2.4 is discussion action for the adoption of resolution number 16452 4 determining that the acquisition of approximately 2.47 Acres of real property located in the city of Chico California a portion of assessor parcel number 00 218-228 is exempt from the California Environmental Quality act approving the purchase and sale agreement deciding to carry out the project and directing the filing of a notice of exemption that was a long one that was a mouthful thank you um so as you are aware um with measure k um which was approved by the voters in 2016 15.34% of the dollars were allocated um to our Charter School community so the project before you has come before the charter subcommittee and was approved by that group um and I have Susan demmin Getti here related to Blue Oak so blue Oak is currently in a rented facility um located on East Avenue and the charer school has been looking and desires for a more permanent location so they've been working in collaboration with the district to secure this piece of land which right now it's undeveloped land um to purchase using their measure K allocation dollars um and then they would move forward with securing um brick and mortar or campus-like um facilities so there's been negotiations between the district and the seller over the last two months or so um we have secured a purchase price of 2.1 million for the land um that is contingent on getting an appraisal that supports that um we don't anticipate an issue but it is contingent on that um once the sale is final um then that parcel will be used by um blue Oak charter schools so we'll enter into a facility use agreement um for blue for that property so the resolution in front of you this evening is related to the almost 2.5 acres of vacant land um located in Marian Park um it is right now because it's just a change in title of land and there's no actual development at this point it is exempt from squa the environmental piece um so if the board approves this evening moving forward with the project then we will go into escro within 3 days and I will file a notice of exemption with County Clerk um and we will go into the 75 day of due diligence to ensure that the property is adequate for uh Charter School campus do we have a timeline on the uh uh valuation assessment we don't um assuming it's a board approved this evening um then I will reach out um to our attorneys tomorrow and we can work on on starting that just a add-on question um is it we it would it would get done before we would bring it back um at the close of escrow right mean it would have to be done before the close yeah we would only close escrow if the appraisal substantiates the purchase price okay thank you yes thank you the word appraisal just fell out of my mind and I could not come up with it it's late I'm seeing no further questions um and no public comment on this if I can I'll just say that uh blue Oak Char School Community truly appreciates the work that you as a board and um your staff have done to support Charters and to support this particular project for our school thank you thank you all righty do we have a motion I will move approval of resolution 1645 d24 second okay we have a motion by Mr Lando and second by miss conin any further discussion board nope seeing none all those in favor please say I I I any opposed it's unanimous thank you all right how exciting thank you Susan a a lot of Charter CH chatter tonight it's fun Charter chatter um okay 9.3.1 is a discussion action item under human resources for the de aration of Need for fully qualified Educators thank you president Doby so before you is a an estimate of Declaration of need it's something we file annually for a variety of reasons in um rural suburban Northern California it's sometimes difficult to find um the staff that we um we expect um specifically there are some employment criteria um for some positions that are listed on the attached form so this declaration would support report any emergency credential Andor limited assignment permit applications that might need to be submitted to the uh CTC during the 2425 school year um and hard to fill subject areas so the areas that you see listed in the form are again estimates based on past practice I I have a question uh if this is a total of 12 listed positions correct correct okay well positions yes subjects as you can see here we have we have seven but yeah I I meant the what you said yeah and again these are estimates just based on what we've been able to do in the past it's 11 and I think it's 11 it's 11 yeah I just was making sure I was looking at the right thing yeah okay or that it's not in two different places wrong some and the 11 is for single subject are those who you referring to board member Robinson I'm sorry no I was looking at oh okay I didn't scroll down to page three of four yeah okay many more okay yeah there's actually so just to clarify there are 11 listed foral subject 12 listed for um sort of uh either uh English learner or resource or Library correct and those could be in various subjects yeah so I was almost right oh you were right you were you were right in that section we were looking at different sections that's what I was trying make sure I understood better okay no further questions nobody gets to ask anymore I'm just kidding um all right and then no public comment on this so we'll just move into motion so moved I'll second that motion okay we have a motion by Mr Lando and a second by Miss Robinson all those in favor of passing I I I okay and no opposed it's a unanimous 9.3.2 is a discussion and action on resolution 1643 d24 to allow a credential teacher to teach any single subject class based on appropriate coursework oh we just did that one no we just did this okay yeah we need to separate them out I'll keep it short so this is basically just allowing some people the two teachers that you see listed here have been teaching in these subjects for a number of years and um this Ed code 44263 does allow for us to um keep them in those roles so we I'm requesting um action taken allowing those teachers to continue in those uh disciplines I mean I just want to point out that every year we argue about this a little bit um I think all those questions still stand but at the end of the day we need teachers in in classrooms or I'm inclined to to skip the the interrogation this time around yeah same uh see no further discussion um or questions for clarification and um nobody has signed up for public comment I'll ask for a motion I'll move approval of 16432 4 I'll second that motion all right um all those in favor I I 9.

persons wishing to be heard in this matter should appear at the time and place indicated above interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written comments to select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street ashon master 11721 or by emailing Susan Robi sroy ason mass.com signed Robert Sher shair of his last legal notice all right thank you so the meeting's open do I have a I move that we uh pause the hearing until we take pictures second all those in favor of pausing the hearing say I I I oppose no okay so we'll take a picture and uh then go back to hearing thank you all see if I get my family stay around e e e so this is my first time to Ashley thank you for having me and I can tell by what's happened already with a Lely this is the meting goes my way tonight I'll have to come back for margar che out this upper Charles Trail oh definitely on both accounts also you know congratulations my brother my law partner was a member of the S board at Chumps for 12 years so I know the work that goes into it and it's mostly a thankless job I think the average citizen who isn't involved in the Committees and such may not know all the thank you behind the scenes uh work so it's lovely to see you get some recognition tonight so best of luck okay so I am here tonight to present to you the application for an on premises uh transfer of an all alcoholic license for a restaurant um located at 300 uh Elliot Street in Ashland Mass uh doing business as Los Cabos Mexican Grill in Cantina as well of the alteration of premises to include outdoor seating and also before you should be an application uh for a permit to operate a food establishment so I'll introduce you to uh who is with me tonight I'm joined by the applicant Roberto uh Diaz Carrera who is the sole member of the app of the applicant Roberto DDC Los Cabos LLC and future owner of the restaurant I'm also joined by James bazaz James is a manager uh of the LLC a managing partner of the restaurant also a captain firefighter and a resident of Ashland and also joined by uh Brian Armando Aras buendia who's the proposed manager of the license of the new license um and a future family member of Roberto Roberto this restaurant will be very much a family run restaurant believe three of his five uh children work at the restaurant um as well as uh Brian so uh that is always a good thing to have a family run restaurant or family run business so I'm sure the board is familiar with the restaurant itself Los Cabos prized itself on serving authentic Mexican Food and Spirits within a comfortable friendly atmosphere and certainly that the new owners will continue to operate in that same manner after the transfer so Roberto will be purchasing the restaurant he's been working at the restaurant for 10 years at least um and he's under agreement to purchase the restaurant as soon as the the transfer of the license is approved by uh this board and of course by the abcc Brian's also been the assistant manager at Los Cabos uh for the last year and both he and Roberto will be there fulltime full fulltime um and they both completed their Tam certifications and all other certifications that are required by the town and the abcc to the best of their knowledge at no time during their uh long tenure there have there ever been any complaints filed by the uh abcc or the town any incidents of underage drinking or DUIs or anything of that nature so they're working uh with a clean record and intent to continue that way so you have the complete application in front of you along with all of the supporting documentation along with the transfer to the new owner we're asking that the license be extended to out seating so that when weather permits uh outdoor seating will open per the attached plans that you have in the application and they will close the required number of indoor seating so that they will never exceed the allowed capacity outdoor seating will be completely enclosed with concrete barriers and decorative fencing you'll be able to see from the plan that it's contiguous to the restaurant with a clear view from the inside and of course food will be served out there along with um with the alcohol and there'll be no negative impact on the neighborhood so I believe you have all the other information that you need the hours are in there I'm happy to read those out for you if you'd like of course we're happy to answer any questions that the board may have otherwise I'll respectfully request that this board approve the application for the transfer of the all uh on premises all alcohol license for the restaurant and alteration of premises for the restaurant located at 300 Elliot Street great thank you um Susan are there any administrative issues or unfilled parts of the um application is complete and it did go out to all the Departments asking if they had any concerns and nobody has any okay great thank you so questions or discussion from the board before we close the hearing and move to deliberations I have um one question for the outdoor seating how many how many proposed tables are you looking to so if you don't mind I can pull up the plan or they you might know off the top of your head but you can invite them up to yeah if you give me a moment I can eight I can look eight total yep thank you you're I saw the pictures and then I wasn't sure if there was actually uh the okay thank you very much thank you yeah so it looks like a majority of them are on the sidewalk under the overhang and then there's two tables that jut out a little bit which is what has happened before in that same area when they had their outdoor seating through Co so they're not extending that that area it's going to be the same as it was correct thank you appreciate that that's it for me thank you and Tam is uh replacing the tip certification that's correct for those that didn't catch along the side okay yep other questions or I mean I'll just say um we've been there many times and um seems like these folks are did you say they already worked there or they're already managing there Roberto's been there 10 years I think oh yeah you look familiar you work the bar right he's ready to he's ready to proceed great yeah so it's been well run and hopefully it'll continue to be so other questions or thoughts on that no it's nice to see uh motion to close the here um unless there's anyone who wants to speak for or against oh I forgot to ask that anybody we didn't get anything from right there's nobody Susan said everything no online cool okay motion to close the hearing second all those in favor of closing the hearing say I I I all those opposed none so the hearing's closed and now we'll go to the deliberation and our discussion I have no discussion I think this is a a great thing for the restaurant it's a great thing for our community I think any of us who have been to Las Cabos have seen Roberto there he runs a great ship seeing you know as you said it's going to be a family run his family is already there um so I think for this to officially happen is a nice thing to be able to support and approve thank you I just one one quick question you have you're going to have family members that are going to be working there what how old are they and what will they be doing they 20 18 okay will they be serving alcohol okay and they all have their certifications as well they've been provided with the application okay y just wanted to make sure and they've been one of them has been doing it so okay have to ask I move that we approve the all alcohol license for and the change of premise uh for Les Cabos as presented I'll second that motion's been made in second all those in favor say I I I I oppos okay license been granted congratul congratulations ask one question the um the permit for the operating of a food license is that automatic along with it or is that is that voted on separately so we don't don't got it okay just checking thank you so much great thank you thank you and congratulations nice to see long if they hadn't already really all right let me go check the agenda is there anything else got a few things yeah congratulations thank you good luck nice see you good night all right so old new business well Mark wait a minute you do you want to do citizens participation Mark or anybody else as long as it doesn't involve me that's good again Mark 749 AR on road and yes a little okay we first I and you first met down at the H Street little leag field that's right I was on the same team helping and all of a sudden my brother John came run he was a complete boss yes yes so I I wanted to make sure that that tree it doesn't have the same copy of Limbs and it didn't you were a person that first saw me and said you got you you got to stay calm you got to understand what the game is help the kids it's not you here I am now remember years later and we're still and we're still face to face yeah and you're leaving the board I have Outlast another one that's right sorry okay and um I wanted to make sure that Joe didn't take any of my thunder of that same Trail no okay now that's there this is different goes on it's on the agenda it's about the 40 BS okay I was at the planning board meeting last week and I'm sure that I got around a little bit that I kind of bled the the plans the documents of what they were talking how they want to work together before zoning board had a chance to get some sort of say they said that they were they were making a comment letter through through the town through all the Committees I wanted to know if the state hasn't heard anything yet from anybody and the comment letter comes out and then the Zone board hasn't been notified how is this going to get going without all those steps yeah please sure sure so Mark so we're we're essentially in the first phase which is uh the site eligibility phase so the developer sent a application to Mass housing which is basically a financing arm right and so as part of their review process what they do is they notify the town and so we put together a comment letter that basically talks about our concerns you know things that we support Etc and we send that to Mass Housing and so we have a deadline in May 29th to do that at that point they'll review our comment letter and they will make a decision whether or not to issue the site eligibility letter to the developer or not and if they choose to issue that letter that gives the developer the green light to submit an application to the zoning board of appeals for a conference of for 40b project okay so I I'm just going to condense what I said to the board what I'm going to say here I did some of that zoning bylaws The Zone base the form based the uh what it is now I do know a little bit about zoning I would like to help out the boards get me involved I can set you have my email I told the plan I think four emails yeah sometimes I go ear as um and I just communicate s send me messages any anybody that has to do with this and we I can communicate with anybody to be and I also have I have tried this with the comprehensive plan too of being a Forward Thinking person I would like to have this town go in this straight understanding but not get mixed up in anything that could happen and get the state saying well why can you answer these questions and why did it happen this way if everybody gets involved including a person like myself that has understanding the citizens are going to be living in this town living for the Gen SE behind us and they got to be saying well if it's going good now knock on would nothing messes up and we have to think back of what happened then thank you thanks thanks Mark okay I I don't see anyone else for um citizen participation at this time so we'll move on to the next item on the agenda which is the vote to approve uh the purchase of 8.55 acres of land identified as 12 to6 Union Street for purchase price of $1,550,000 this vote is to authorize the chair the vice chair to execute and enter into any and all documents necessary to effectuate said transaction and I just want to say this is something that Michael and the board's been working on for quite a while and I'm very happy we can take this vote um before I leave the board so with that I'll turn it over to Michael for discussion and background on this yeah not too much more information than uh than what you what we've discussed and what you know um uh attorney me has worked with uh the attorneys for the faford corporation to develop the purchase and sale agreement um and the the vote the board would be taking tonight technically would be authorizing the chair to enter to approve the or the vi chair Vice chair to um to basically enter into any documents or sign any documents associated with this um the date of the closing date is no later than June 14th 2024 um and uh so that'll give us a little time to assemble funding and uh have that ready to go and um yeah that's about it for those uh you know people watching that aren't familiar with this parcel this is the parcel that essentially surrounds the public safety building and it's been identified as a key parcel for a number of different reasons uh namely parking the two main things I would say are parking and then and um as a part of the route for the upper Charles Trail but it also has some ancillary or potential ancillary uses as well thank you any other comments or thoughts on this yeah so one of the things that um that we have talked about is the fact that the um faford estate has had gone in front of the planning board and had been approved as a sub like a it was divided as a sub created a subdivision they they pulled that essentially yeah they they essentially pulled that yes oh okay because the thought was initially the thought that was that the bafford company was going to to develop that into a certain amount of units yeah 72 units so this is one of the ways that we can C you know we can minimize the the impact to that to that parcel so sure and and to piggy back what Brandy just said we could also utilize that additional property for uh the expansion to Wildwood cemetery and the the potential expansion of Wildwood Cemetery as well as um uh the eper child's Trail uh location which I know is uh very near and dear to uh to rub so uh it's it's it's working and trying to fix you know multiple multiple issues in town to make it a little bit easier for the the town's people to enjoy and um so we thought it was a good good purchase in and of itself can you talk a little bit about the funding mechanism sorry sorry same question because of the email that we got exactly sure yeah so so it's made up of a few pieces um so first is actually Capital stabilization funds that were approved and appropriated um wow back in uh gosh I think it was the special town meeting that authorized the um the P the the public safety building the four the four acres in front yeah yeah or maybe you know one shortly after bottom line it's been approved and sitting there for a while um also we received $1,000 per unit um from the Cirrus development uh for Public Safety purposes so that will be going to this and then we'll make up the balance um either using some some money from like open space that you know part of our funding buckets or part of the repurpose of the um the public safety bonds which we just did at town meeting so that's the combination so we're not we're not raising taxes or anything for this and and none of those are impacted by going waiting to go to fiscal year 25 right which was questioned in the email correct right all of those are funds that are currently available have been available to us and they don't impact fiscal year 25 um correct okay correct thank you okay great any other question so yeah I will just second to point out that this is this is one of those I think flexible and um proactive uh things that we're doing to um you know make sure that we have the resources for the things we're interested in doing as a community so want to thank Michael and everyone else who was involved in putting this together and I think it will be an important segment of the upper Charles Trail and gives us some flexibility uh for a number of reasons so thank you for that so we do need to take a boat Rob I just have a quick question um so how how long is how long have you been working on this and um and is there a reason why we didn't do it when we purchased the or took the other land for Public Safety yeah that's an interesting that's a good question um yeah I think um well we we didn't we had identified all of the uses that it could be used for at that point in time I don't think we realized or had had a sense of you know how tight the parking would be on the public safety parcel we knew it was going to be tight um but you know actually seeing it you know built and and kind of practicality that's um you know that that really kind of made the difference um yeah that's and I thought there was always go ahead yeah I also think that when we first initially looked at this parcel for the public safety building and then we looked at that back parcel we called it the front parcel and the back parcel and we were working with faford um there was some other understanding about how we might get this property and unfortunately with the passing of Howard faford different things changed and discussions changed and things like that so it's a parcel it's one of those Parcels that we identified many years ago that would be beneficial to have as part part of for our community um so it's nice that we've been able to work this out and and move this forward for our community thank you I appreciate that information all right so I think I will ask for a motion sure I move that we vote to approve the purchase of 8.55 acres of land identified as 12 to6 Union Street for the purchase price of 1.5 $1,550,000 and authorized either the chair or vice chair to execute and enter into all agreements necessary to effectuate said transaction second motion's been made and seconded all those in favor say I I I opposed none motion carries unanimously vvo thank you thank you very good and congratulations Michael and staff for getting this uh getting this in place yes thank you yes oh the next is the town manager evaluation we can skip skip over that and oh no oh I think we we you get to do that all right one of your last yeah one of my last acts we'll take care of this all right so I did send um send out so just to recap for the um for those watching um every year at about this time uh we have a standard form uh that the select board members use to evaluate the town manager that's a public document online um and we all meet with Michael separately we fill out the form discuss it with him and then hand it into to the chair uh who who was the responsibility chair is to get all the the scores and uh there's a number of questions and they're weighted and um put together the scores and also look at the board members comments for every question and try to summarize it um and that's the the public part of the evaluation is what I'm about to go through uh as part of that I send it out to the board members as a draft to see if there's any comments or changes is there any um any other questions or comments in the summary that I sent out before I get into it the other thing I was going to offer if there's things that people want feel that should be added that they want their comments added I could still I think add that as part of this document later on maybe this week or anything but was there anything else that people it's you know part of the challenge is going through comments from five members and try to include all the different perspectives and um uh uh you know and thoughts that people had uh so and so I did this and this this evaluation is part of the I think the um the documents which I believe are available online now is that right that will be part of yeah so people can look at that so um I will go through and just try to summarize um uh what I said as part of this uh so there are something like 40 questions that we evaluated on a 1 to five scale five being um you know what what is the word we used exceeds expectations I think was the highest or there was for was the highest then there was na as well but so uh just to summarize these and these were multiple questions that go to personal characteristics professionalism public relations communication board support relations Community leadership organizational leadership personnel management financial management Town operations and infrastructure planning and organization then an overall rating and these this was an attempt that and this this form goes back at least 10 years I think um it's attempt to get all aspects of the many responsibilities that the town manager has and have the board evaluate and comment on it so I think I will just spend some time going through each section briefly summarizing the comments and then the overall rating at the end um so personal characteristics so the town manager received high ratings for creativity excellent management honesty um some concerned about burnout given the um demanding nature of the job um um advice on avoiding conflict to F focus on providing information and recommendations so those were and this was um on a scale of one to five was uh rated very high I should say I won't go into it but just you know the overall rating was very high and I'll get to that at the end uh I'm just going to highlight any you know just kind of General summaries uh professionalism uh the board noted a high degree of professionalism and management skills uh encouragement of staff development and um the town manager does use a professional coach to assist him in his work uh noted Improvement this year on the part of some members encouraged to enhance his skills even though there are time constraints of course that's always a difficulty to um work on self-development and training even though you've got very heavy day-to-day uh things that have to be done public relations communication uh strong support for the new Weekly Newsletter that that to managers put together with board support I think we started it last year um that was seen as very effective communication support for the Citizens Academy there were some other you know various kinds of pieces of advice about that um support for handling traditional media and Facebook um so that was seen as a string board support and relations um some uh concern about uh board materials which is always an ongoing thing like how to get them out and uh publish them and um uh provide information um web some maybe some website issues um a suggestion to implement a new select board member process uh but noted Improvement in sharing information and communication with the board and relationship with the board um success and policy consensus among the town manager and the board was noted as well um Community leadership uh viewed as a very strong Community leader visible at town events this is appreciated strong relationship with elected officials noted um suggestion to coordinate the town meeting uh Town manager Office hours with select board members um again High rating in all these uh all these um attributes organizational leadership uh a consensus that the town managers created a strong team this is um you know within the town staff provide strong and effective leadership noted success of the police chief search and the resolution of the recent resolution was uh challenges of retention and delegation to staff noted this is ongoing of course retention is always an issue um and some other um things were noted about future directions uh personnel management this is related um oh the police department leaving civil service was noted as a major success improvements to uh Police Department recruiting and retention successive Union negotiations another some notes need to delegate uh suggestions about effective delegation um uh noted both on the town managers and some members part the the um the desire to focus on operations in the coming year as opposed to like big projects so much much um financial management this has been a tra traditional strength area this is really where Michael came from and he continue uh with the help of his staff um continues uh as a strength area and we've had recent um um you know noted robust budget budget discussion and past successes and but noted uncoming challenges we able to balance the budget this year through some funding but oncoming challenges um suggestion to develop a policy and retained earnings in the Enterprise funds Town operations and infrastructure uh of course we noted the many successful infrastructure projects completed ongoing we've talked about that on many occasions and then challenges how to maintain capacity without increasing uh taxes and fees um Capital noted success of capital plan process and uh uh noting uh Jen balls work is the assistant town manager in this area um a desire to include the ucct and ongoing operations rather than ad hoc I don't know who made that comment I'm not sure where that came from yeah but um and some support V uh voice for focus on operational and organizational efforts kind of more I think the internal versus the external project I think if I got that right um planning organization um consistent theme of too many projects and demands and how to man manage competing priorities um concern about you know can make realistic commitments to things um a number of of members noted the importance of the board retreat to prioritize items um some discussion how to handle time needs of the comprehensive plan um support of all the projects comprehensive plan downtime revitalization uh and need for overall planning um oh in general agreement with the town manager's approach the planning perspective of joint discussion with select boarded Town manager on the process um so the overall rating so on a scale of um I think 1 to five uh the overall rating average was 4.3 which is what was the actual term does anybody have it exceeds expectations or exceed High exceeds so which is traditional what Michael's always been and congratulations for that Michael uh so overall a very high um um there's always you know various bits of advice or issues that people address and try to um you know bring out in this process but the overall was very positive um some diversity of responses on some items but much agreement amongst board members you know the themes were much accomplished over this year that's the select board and town manager have worked well together on many tasks and challenges and we can all think of the different things that have happened um and uh um comments Michael continues to grow as Town manager has strong commitment to the town strengths Budget Finance operations willingness to explore Solutions uh collaboration dedication areas for improvement distribution materials for meetings town website came out um better flow of communication with select board although also a recognition that that's improved uh suggestion to delegate more task institutionalize the upper Charles Trail again that keeps coming up I don't know set realistic goals to said realistic goals to minimize burnout so that was that so uh all in all that's um you know I'm very uh pleased to have worked with Michael over the years and he's a high performer and does a lot of um uh finds a lot of solutions to things which we depend on and coordinate things I just want to you know I'm impressed with this latest coordination project of the 40 BS and how that's going along so um so congratulations on that and I will turn over to my member fellow members to talk and I don't know any particular order Claudia you want to start say anything yeah I just uh you know it's my first year obviously on the board working with Michael and his team Jen and um you know I I really appreciate the fact that you've always been there whenever I have come to you with questions or concerns or um just been very available has it been very clear to me that you are certainly high functioning in terms of the financial end of things and really um in your commitment to the community overall so uh that's you know really you know that's a really significant um aspect I think of who you are is your commitment to this community so um and um so I enjoyed working with you and I still feel kind of a little bit uh like a rookie and you figur it out it's been a whole year I know it doesn't it takes a while and U you know so there were at times U when I was doing your evaluation I felt like geez I really don't know if I have a good handle on that so um you know but certainly the the feedback that you provided was very helpful to me as well so um but I certainly appreciate um what you've done in the community and um and look forward to working with you and continuing to develop a relationship thank you thank you Claudia go ahead Brandy I think um so I think it's been a really good year um we've accomplished a lot like one of the really great things about this whole process is just literally thinking about you know what we've done as a community and and we've made huge progress on a lot of major major capital capital projects that that like we've been working on for years and so um you know that it it's we've had some some big successes this year um when I think of just of the progression over the years I feel like we're improving on a lot of fronts the communication obviously the finance is a big thing um especially going into what has been challenging budget times and will continue to probably be challenging budget times um and so we are very fortunate to to have you as our town manager I I um appreciate the the working relationship you have with all of us um I you know I I I consider it a very um productive relationship we all have so I think that it's um we're we're fortunate to have you as our town manager and I think it's been a good year so that's all for me thanks Brandy Joe thank you Mr chair uh Michael just to Pig you back what Claudia and Brandy has already um have already said about uh the efforts that you put forward uh for this past year a lot of work a lot of time a lot of effort a lot of frustration too and trying to get things done and I can only say that and I and I put this in in your review is that you were able to get a lot of this accomplished because you hired people around you that supported you in more ways than than any of us would ever have thought of um your assistant Town manager your financial manager uh have have come through your your office staff you know within the select board uh office area uh Diane and and Susan have been able to allow you to do the things and get things done in a timely fashion uh which makes it a lot easier um that doesn't mean that the frustration is not there just makes it a little less than tense at some at some point so uh you're right it's been a very good year uh there is some storm clouds facing us coming you know coming forward sooner than later uh but hopefully uh with your conservative approach that you have taken since you've taken this position I think that the town will be in good shape to be able to handle what what's coming down the road um both financially and uh with respect to the the changes that Ashland has faced ing so thank you for all your work and thank you for uh selecting those folks that uh back you up to the hilt appreciate that thank you thanks Jo go ahead you want thank you so um I I always think this is a an important process this is one of the things that's important for us to do as a board to recognize your strengths recognize your weaknesses and and I Michael and I have always had this little bit of a tussle my feeling is I want you to have room for adjustment and for growth and I believe I put this in my in my review that the maturity that you are showing certainly this year and the last couple of years has really led to our town being in a much better place and I remember when we decided to make you our permanent Town manager and and watching you grow into this position and I really think you have grown into this position and this last year as everyone else has said there's been a lot of challenges we've accomplished a lot there's still a lot that we're working on and that as a community we still want to do there's still so many projects that um I look forward to moving forward and trying to decipher what's the most important for our community so we can maybe slow down a little bit and really take the time to work on some of these projects that we've sort of been doing a little bit at a time but haven't been able to get over the finish line but I just want to thank you I I agree with Joe that you have a great staff but to have a great staff there has to be great leadership and management and you provide that and I continue looking forward to working with you um in your role and in my role and thank you for all that you've done you great thank you and the only thing I'll just um you know just to remind people that the board members do meet with Michael individually and there's a lot of back and forth about um a discussion of his role and a lot of advice given and sometimes it's contradictory advice but uh and I the only thing I I want to add I think Michael I observed you're you're at your best when you're bringing people together and creating solutions to problems and that's that's what I really want to encourage you to do to look at all sides and and how do we bring this together and I think this 40b process is probably one of the biggest challenges you'll face yet so anyway so thank you and I want to turn that over to you if there's any remarks you care to say you got about 10 seconds oh okay um can we do this every week um no uh thank you so much um you know for the kind words and um you know your appreciation is definitely noted and I appreciate it too and I appreciate this process um that we have um I always enjoy our conversations I get a lot out of them um you know both like in terms of reviewing what we did in the past but then also thinking about the future and how we can do things better and um you know I do love this community and you know in in many cases I feel like this is probably more my home than you know where my physical location is um and uh you know it's it's interesting you know seeing it change um you know from the 11 years since I've been here it's it's it's very very different and some of it has been um deliberate in things that that we have chosen to do and some of it have been things that have kind of been put upon us and uh you know I think those are present challenges in the future um I want to thank the board um just for you being you and uh the dedication and the work that you put in um people will I don't think unless they sit in the seat they'll never understand how many hours um goes into this not just you know in the select board meetings but just in doing everything you do uh reviewing materials going to events talking to Citizens you're always working um I appreciate the way that that you work together um frankly it makes a part of my job a lot easier um knowing that even when you have differences you have you respect each other enough to um you know work them out civil and and come to I think come to a better conclusion and um you know thank you for your guidance and advice uh for me uh continually um it's something I rely on and depend on and um it's uh I've always found it good good and and useful so thank you to the board and and uh you know look forward to working with you in the future um now I'll I'll I'll switch over to you know really kind of you know what leads me to good reviews and and that's actually my staff you know they are just um absolute absolute rock stars it's such a mixture of you know people who are from Ashlin people who are not from Ash people who've been here a long time and newcomers and um it's just great to see the group come together and continue to come together and um you know be who they are and hopefully I give them the freedom to be who they are and and run and I I just can't say enough about them and I I I really hope I know you do but I really hope the community grows to appreciate them uh for everything that they do there's a lot of members of our staff who are not nine-o FS um they put in a lot of time outside of you know the traditional working hours and um they do it because they care about this community and um you know I'll certainly say you know I I'll highlight you know the ones in my office just because you know I deal with them on a constant basis and they well it's probably more accurate to say they deal with me um but Susan and Diane you know they yeah I can't I can't even look at Jen right now to see what kind of eye roll she's making but um you know Susan and Diane they really keep me on track they they remind me of things they they do a lot of of work themselves and they do a lot of things that just automatically that um you know people just don't understand like the the licensing and the renewals and stuff like that um and watching them grow um and develop has been awesome similar to you know you watching watching me grow and you know I just can't say enough about uh you know Jen who um you know brought on shortly after I got hired April 19th it April 19th um and uh you know she's just been a godson in so many different ways and um you know it's uh you know she's grown a lot I mean in in in ways I I didn't think we we're going to happen but um you know people I don't think people understand just like how much she does because she does like to stay behind the scenes and um and she relishes that like even finding sneaky ways to get out of pictures like we did earlier today yeah um and um you know I it just you know I don't think people have an appreciation for everything that she does so I am truly blessed to have a great team and um I've you know I do a lot of things wrong but you know one of the things I do feel like I do well is do I kind of like put people together and a team together that balances each other out so um thanks to them thanks to you and and thank you to to everybody I appreciate it great thank you Michael thank you great all right so um we'll move on to the next item which is it looks like just a notification of final Paving did you want to talk about that um no we we don't necessarily need to but now I'm noticing that it's nighttime Paving yes don't we need to approve or review that so for our Pro like our projects our projects no um but because so this is considered our project versus a state project yes okay yeah so um but yes they will be doing night Paving obviously to keep the traffic impacts down the traffic impacts are already pretty significant um so 800 p.m.

3.3 is almost the same thing resolution 16442 for to allow teachers with a multiple subject credential to teach a specific subject below grade n thank you for outlining the difference between the two so essentially we have a list of people here um who again Education Code 4425 6B does allow us to have people with a multiple subject credential teach um a single subject credential our list just to give people some background here is essentially the result of us moving our sixth graders up to the middle school and so this list has been shrinking if you look specifically at the the attachment you can see um again it's it's a shorter list and we hope to continue that list to U it doesn't feel like a shorter list from last year okay that's just a feeling I don't have the evidence for that because I don't have the list from last year in front of me it just feels the same um and we did switch fifth graders on this or you know Sixth Grade Campus to to Middle Schools uh a really long time ago at this point just saving that for the record it does I'm not going to touch that one well some of us don't think we'll ever get to retire so but on that note it might be nice um next year when we see this to get to have to be refreshed with a copy of this year's list as well sure thank you yeah um because yes we do hope and I think uh expect frankly that this list will continue to shrink so that we have fully qualified single subject teachers and I understand the argument about how they are take they have taken at least 12 semester units and they do what what they're teaching I understand that right the ultimate hope is single subject where they where they belong right the the the difference being qualified and authorized versus credentialed right correct thank you okay uh no further questions comments uh I think we have a motion by Mr tennis and a second by board member Dolby Erica is shaking her head at me uh but but he he did acknowledge that he will put the motion on the table um and no further discussion um so all those in favor please say I I I opposed none it passes thank you sorry I was being a little bit silly um 9.4.1 is discussion action approval ratification of an amended unemployment oh I skipped one we pulling it we're pulling it oh oh oh sorry I thought I was yep you're right okay I did pull 9.4.1 already at the beginning of the meeting so we're at 9.4.2 uh approval ratification of an amended employment agreement with Chico Unified School District superintendent so in front of you is an amended contract I have been uh in the district of superintendent for 17 years now um and my contract is structured such that in fiveyear increments I get a 5% at the end of that fiveyear um 1% per year 5% raise for longevity uh there is a chance that next year could be the year that I choose to retire so I am asking that the board uh change that 5% at 5 years to 3% at 3 years should that um come to fruition um so just for clarification this is no change in the amount that you would be getting a raise it's just breaking it down more by year by year instead of waiting till you hit another fiveyear Mark that is accurate but it would be the same amount correct okay um any further questions from the board okay I move are you ready for a move approval yeah I don't see any public comment okay I move approval of the um ratification of the amended employment agreement with superintendent Staley second okay um and so for clarification um it will result um in a onetime 8,801 longevity payment and so again we're not inflating superintendent ste's pay just honoring what what has been yeah the intent of the agreement thank you better words than what I have at this point in the evening uh so all of those in favor please say I I I any opposed seeing none it's also unanimous thank you thank you okay it's that the last one kind of um items from the floor do we have any additional public comment at this point okay seeing none uh no board members request to agendize uh I ask if there's a motion to adjourn so moved uh we will adjourn thank you

to 500 a.m. um again for three I believe it's three nights finally got it yeah three nights um so yeah that's that's yeah that's a stretch around like Market Basket with the raay structures yeah it'll be like Market Basket over to it's nothing like going down there and have somebody tailgating you cuz you're not going fast enough over the ra structures I that was me Rob what do you got an SUV so so just reviewing so May 20th to May 23rd so next Monday night through Wednesday Thursday night correct okay from 8:00 p.m. until 5 a.m. correct from the Framingham Town line all the way to Route 126 Self Storage could we just go over um a little about the the final steps and when this project uh when 26 is going to be done done um Claudia how about we we talk about that at a at a future meeting so I can get some more clarification on some things and uh you know we were waiting basically right now they're doing a lot of storm water work um they're doing utility work as well and so the different utilities we're getting the lines moved toward L transferred over yep and then we got to do you know obviously some final Paving and some concrete work it'll be nice to finally get those poles moved and yeah so are you are we and if you don't know it's fine but are we looking at months I I think we're looking at optimistically late 2024 um and probably more realistically spring of 25 in terms of like buttoning up things and finalizing okay thank you so quick question about about the paving so if they are closing from 8:00 p.m.

to 5:00 a.m. is is that are they are both lanes going to be closed is it okay so because I'm I was just concerned about the businesses that are over there you know like Ashland Dale house etc etc that are open later than 8:00 pm so I just wanted my understanding is they'll do Lane by Lane okay and all those business are those businesses aware of the the paving dates um they should be aware um I can double check on that and make sure that they they've been you know contacted and aware and I think this was in your newsletter last week so you'll do it again this week correct to remind people correct okay okay thank you and uh I see we have some members for the store Commissioners wonder if we could move item I up to do that next before we can do the town meeting recap so I will recognize well I don't know Michael did you have did anyone have a um intro on this is a review the request from the historical commission to create a historic district study committee and solicit members except you know Jim you were here before I I was here in Jim neelson um 35 Ramblewood Drive I'm the chair of the ashon historical commission um yeah we I was here in January to explain what the concept was God it feels like it was yeah it feels like it was yesterday doesn't it yeah but it was January and since then we have done a lot of work on the study um which you should all have a copy of it was in one of Susan's emails I do not think they have they don't have it yet I think it was in the packet was it it was in a packet but what I have tonight cuz we've seen just pass these around this is the this is what I'm here just to what I need tonight and this is the general timeline of the whole project okay oh you got a flowchart here this is great I sent these all to Susan this afternoon so I don't think she had a chance to get them to yeah that's yeah too late to get includ well what ended up happening is this just came to my attention at the end of last week we seems to have skipped over a step um that the state requires and that's the appointment of a study committee and what I need well what what the historical commission needs is a select board to appoint a historical uh a local historic district study committee and the what they require is that they send out solicit uh nominations from three organizations the local Historical Society our ashin Historical Society the Greater Boston real estate board and the Boston Society of Architects now I have copies of the letters that can go out with the addresses of the latter two and we know where the Ashland Historical Society is um it's basically a request what the state requires is informing this committee is that you reach out to these three distinct uh organizations and ask if they want to submit anybody to be on the study committee a lot of I'm told the Architects never get back never get back to anybody the real estate board might okay and then the um Historical Society definitely will with names to appoint to this Committee in 30 days so that's another month away from now at the end of that 30 days if you haven't heard back from anybody but you will hear from the Historical Society um you can appoint anybody you want to the historical commission study Comm committee excuse me and the study committee is really just to approve the study report we've already pretty much done the preliminary study report which you'll have somewhere if you don't have it I'll get it out to you it's almost done it's in the final revisions right now we've hired a consultant and and uh you know it looks pretty good but in order to submit it to the state we have to go through this step which I was not informed Med we had skipped until the consultant realized it when she was talking to the state to submit this so they this is for them to just basically cross the eyes and do the do the tease kind of thing um and after that you can see on the chart the uh what what happens next is it once the committee meets the sworn in um and approves or not approves the report then what'll happen is it'll go to the state mass mass historical commission for their further revision and reviews and that kind of thing and then it comes back to us eventually now in the meantime we're going to be having like public events we're going to be at the farmers market we're going to be at Ashland day we're going to have a we we have to have a public hearing before Town hopefully this gets the town meeting in the fall but it's got to go through all these steps mandated by the state in order for this to uh to happen just to review uh the historic district is loc local historic district is just basically the downtown area um you have the map somewhere I didn't bring it with me tonight I was here with the big one before but it starts at the Ocean House and it goes down crosses the street down by the mill buildings which we can't do anything about uh because it's 40b now but that's another story and down along the church around the corner down to Erica's restaurant cross the street up around again to the railroad station it's got to be all contiguous crossing the street again to where the brick buildings are in that 9 to 49 project that's going on that's staying I think that was the drugstore and in the in the supermarket way back when up to the post office crossing the street all the way back up that side of the street to The Corner Spot so it's one small area in the downtown and what the local historic district does is it creates a subcommittee subcommission which will be staffed not necessarily by the historic commission but by different people uh in the community to approve or disapprove changes to any of those buildings um for their historic architectural features and I like I said the whole report will tell you what was going to be looked for there'll be bylaws written about it what you can change what you can't change but basically as I said in January it's anything you can see from the street you know anything from behind or anything like that doesn't matter just to get to but the business at hand tonight so what's this is it have you decided how many members it says three or okay is the State mandates three to seven yeah okay but that's it could be three okay because really all this study committee is going to do is approve the the study um so is that a decision we need to make tonight like how no you need tonight what we need to do is for you folks to decide to send out the letters soliciting um nominations that's it okay and then like I said I've got copies to I've gave to Susan this afternoon of who to send the letters to um and then when they if if they don't come back in 30 days then the board's free to make whoever they want to be on but you guys still gonna decide do you have email addresses as well for those same people believe so there's an email address on The Architects I would think that we might want to just email it rather than sending a hard letter at this point there's emails EMA communicate okay y okay and and then you know and this isn't for discussion tonight but certainly something to think about I know when the tree bylaw and a couple of other things came forward there was discussion of why are we doing this now why not wait until the comprehensive plan is completed and see how this ties in so again not for discussion to what how does this creating a historic district now tie into or should it tie into the discussion about a comp with our comprehensive plan I I've talked to them it fits it fits right in with a comprehensive who have you spoken with uh Kate jerich jik and Anna okay so those are two members of a 29 committee okay well I haven't spoken to the whole commission we will go before I'm just saying that um you know it's a it's a full committee that needs to talk about this and we have a representative on that right so I mean so it's not it's not something they're not aware of okay everybody I've spoken to in the other committees I've been before the planning board I've been before the um oh I've been before a bunch of a bunch of different groups okay um and I've just got nothing but positive feedback because it's very select um there's very few local home is mostly government buildings and and businesses right and I and I know there's been some slight push back slight push back from some businesses so from some of the businesses yeah okay well we I haven't heard that yet okay um there might be you know but like I said we have to bring this go through the stages have forums have listening things and and you know figure out what nothing's written in stone as far as what's in the actual bylaw what they can change and what they can't right you know so you're saying you're going to try and do this before the special town meeting in the fall yes I would say Let There be some further discussion with the comprehensive plan committee as well through the summer to to determine how this can that's why that's that's what we plan to do all summer is to keep keep I've been working on this for over two years oh I know we've been seeing it different ways and hearing about it you know and it's just it's just getting the word out there you know it's a slow process but and we've done farmers markets in the past yeah you know and like I we were going to be at Ash Day last year un you know all right so that going to be there to but just before we go into so but at some point we have to decide you guys all have to decide how we can decide to I think you know if what he's looking for tonight is for us to say okay we're willing to send out letters to solicit members um to the historic Historic Society Boston Society for Architects and the greater B Boston real estate board but I would also say to other open members here in the town right well that that that's those three have to be notified by law okay and if they don't if they if they submit two people with they're asked for two nominations if they submit two you have to pick one okay of those three you have to Y um other than that if they don't submit anything you can be anybody all right so 30 30-day it's a 30-day waiting period so I'm just the larger process receiving the notification I don't know if it's receiving or where the letters are sent out you'd have to I'd have to check the the actual because that is important yeah it's well well I yeah I mean because I I was then looking at this you know 30 days from when the letters go out and when we might receive something and when we then as a board might do something um we have a meeting on June 5th and then our next meeting the third Wednesday in June is actually June 19th which is a Federal holiday so we won't be having a meeting that day so we're going to have to determine when our next meeting will be and look at what we get for submittals yeah from each of these as well as from the public the public hearing is not less than not less than 60 days right so we have to fit that in and so are you guys are you are you then at that time going to decide how many members in this committee and others other recruiting that might or might not happen so I wasn't sure um in terms of the membership if so uh do does the select board decide how many members does the select board uh fill if there's only two um you the select board can pick anywhere between three to seven okay Seven's the max you said only one so so one from each of those three groups if they submit two if they submit two and both I'll tell you right now I'm going to be on the historical commission I mean the Historical Society one along with somebody else probably from the historical commission you know and I have I don't know if you guys remember Jen um paratore who used to be on the um the commission she's a real estate broker and she's like volunteered to be on the commission too that was going to be SP to her my question do you have to send I mean if you know people locally that might be a good fit and are members of these organizations can could the solicit them directly or do you have send it I'll talk to them I'll talk to them directly and say and it and submit their names after the 30-day period I don't think if you don't get somebody so like if Greater Boston real estate board they ignore the letter does not send anything we know someone who's on there that we can then but we have to wait for the 30 days the 30day period okay got once that's that's over we can s select whoever you want up to seven people and then we we will we'll swear them in and then we meet once at least uh with with with the chairman and the whole rig moral to basically establish the uh the commission committee and then we we'll look at the study report which like I said is almost done and I'll you know we'll go through the concept and what we what the vision is and then you know tweaks here and there and then they'll be ready to once that is approved then it can go to the state and that takes 60 days with them so that's why we want to get this going that's why I asked to be on tonight's meeting that's fine I want to get this a motion just to and just a question about the committee so the the committee is going to be shepherding this through the whole process correct no the study committee yes uh yes okay yes with the study committee that's why people who've been doing this for while will be on the study committee okay I'm just making sure like as we kind of look to see who's kind of doing what we're not going to start all over with new people no no no I'm not saying to start over with new people but I'm saying like what is it just needs to be kind of clear what this committee is going to do versus the historical commission versus like I it just needs because it can't be one big group it can't be like it can't be the entire historical commission working on this because no and that's not the point this is going to be this is going to be a split off group from the historical commission which eventually will be the local historic district it sounds like you guys are are going to do that at whatever meeting gets scheduled to approve these at that time it sounds like you're going to then determine the size of this group whether it's three to seven right and who else is going to be on it but it would be good to be able to put out a call to the community to be able you could put out um I think Susan said they were going to put out Talent Bank okay that was going to be my next question she was do that too that's how we pull the people yes but this but this letter thing has to go out in this form for the state my question I mean I think we're going to approve this letter thing to go out right but I think do you what's the s do you want to decide tonight about this committee you want to put it off till you meet I think part of me wants to wait until so we see what we get as a response okay right because if we get if you know we only get three people then it'll be three people but if we get a few more people interested who either have been participating or have an interest to review this then I'd say we can appoint a few more up to seven people and these are people General Talent bank right they would have right so and it says in in the in the the guide which I have sent you also so um okay it say it gives you a list of people who they like to have on the state the mix of people the mix they want they want a mix of people the if you can get them you know if you can get them and I would also say it may not be a bad idea to have one of our board members on that on that committee as well because you know just from a bad idea if if there's anyone on our board that wants to throw their hat in the ring for that but I'm just you just like don't look at me interes well if you've got the you know but don't look at me for that either but I also think this is this is one of those committees that it sounds like a lot of the work has already been completed in regards to the study so I mean whereas it might be nice if one of us are sitting there I don't know that that's necessary if we can at least be kept up to date it sounds like we already have you know as long as the report gets distributed to us as long as everything gets distributed to us and we can be aware if we want to sit in on the meeting rather than be appointed to the committee chance it's in one of the packets it's a whole it's a whole it's a big right thanks I just want I see Jones on if she Jan's on the commission with me I know does she want to say anything John do you want to chime in or just she doesn't have to if she's I think I I think we're good I personally I'm ready to make it you have a motion yeah I have a motion I move that we approve the sending of the letters or emails necessary for the three entities that are listed and also then uh to put out a call for Talent Bank forms if there are people who are interested in being part of the study committee and that at a future date we will determine the number of members on the committee okay uh motion's been made in second all those in favor say I I oppose none okay so congratulations Jim than congratulations Rob on a a long career yeah thank you these is one of those things that we forgot to check with Michael and Jen if they have the bandwidth oh didn't do that and we forgot to ask thank you um okay so the next is town meeting recap I'll be right back okay okay if we move ahead you on yeah so sorry go ahead yeah me recap um absolutely so um town meeting was held uh May 1st right was May 1 um and seems they just all Blended seems like a long time ago now um and uh you know we had a great town meeting um you know there wasn't a whole lot of discussion on all the items there were some that generated some discussion but um you know I thought uh I thought uh you know everything passed um that doesn't make it a good town meeting per se but um I think you know we did a lot of prep work work ahead of time and and Tred to get the information out to people um we ended up having 146 right 146 people at town meeting which um quite frankly was a little more than um what I had anticipated and I saw a lot of new faces I don't know if there was a particular um warrant article that Drew them out um noticed a couple people from our Citizens Academy went to their first town meeting so that was that was great um and uh just I I have to thank everybody who worked on this um you know from the boards and committees all the way to the staff in the moderator you know he he plays a key role but you know Jen Cindy Chris you know Paul you know I'm going to I'm going to miss people if I start you know naming names um but uh you know there's a lot of work that goes into you know putting on town meeting and um the the only problem we had was the guy operating the PowerPoint and behind um you know he he was having a really hard time because he was thinking that things were up on the screen and then somebody would text him say hey can you put that up on the screen and like oh so we'll have to fire him and get a new person so I'll find a new location for him so he can see the screen doing yeah maybe maybe and it's funny no one in the select board told this guy that he we're like oh yeah who cares yeah so anyway so I thought it was really good and hopefully you thought so as well and I thought you know I I glad we we passed that stretch code and you know some of the other things that we trying to remember what else we did the the budget of course that went through and the capital plan and um what was the other item that we did that was God seem so long ago now so we did the stretch code yeah the stretch code that's what I said yeah was there something else uh we pulled the the demolition yeah the demolition delay that was another important thing all right anything else on the town meeting recap um is there any appetite to do the consent agenda just to get it done do you want to give me a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented all those in favor of the consent agenda say I I I oppose none okay consider agend is passed I will note Carlton uh congratulations on being the affordable housing trust you're here you're here sitting through the meeting so have fun good luck with that well I didn't did you want to introduce yourself or sure take a few minutes and we've already approved it but you've been sitting here and though it can get you if you sit at a meeting long enough it'll it'll be surprising what you get involved with well thank you give me some talk time well thank you guys for approving I appreciate it and to the affordable housing trust um all those guys I appreciate that as well congratulations to you rob your service and uh I like your JFK thing earlier you know don't do not ask what Ashlin can do for you but what you can do for Ashlin I love it that's very good um and you too as well Michael congratulations and nice to meet you Mark and everybody and yeah and thank you and I just looking forward to you know doing what I can do my part I'm uh I just a little bit about me I'm an underwriter in terms of like my background and I'm very excited I've worked um towards public policy and housing this this microphone seems short I'm a little taller you can move it up with the uh Federal Home Loan Bank working directly with Mass housing the ahp program a little bit about it just so you know and I know you've done a really great job Michael I've seen some of your your information educating people and that's I mean it's excellent you know so people can know a little bit more but what happens is about 5% I have to go back to the bylaws but 5% of what the revenue is from the federal Home Loan Bank and those that don't know the federal Home Loan Bank is the biggest um mortgage institution in the United States of America about a trillion dollars and I was on the credit collateral team of that about eight guys and all the banks in America belong to it and they take 5% of that Revenue goes to affordable housing and that money and those monies get allocated in conjunction with Mass housing to affordable housing like the down payment assistance program so this is my wheelhouse this is something that I know and I hope I can bring that kind of skill set here to Ashlin that's great well thank you thank you we got a I just want to say we have the big project going on with the Simpson property so yeah yeah all right thank you and thanks for that suggestion Yolanda it's always good to hear from people okay so tell me okay so this is now recap of the 40b public forum and the comment letter to Mass housing outline the concerns and comments from the community and we'll also at some point clarify the difference between 40 B projects in the MBTA communities I just want to say yeah we had a great Forum um and Michaels and his staff have been overseeing a process that we talked about about how to respond to this 40b application and the next one so hopefully we've set up a good model um we had a lot of material in our packet uh hopefully people had chance to at least uh skim over it um I couldn't read the public comments I think section which was kind of small yeah I think so but um there's a ton of public comments so we should talk about the best way to package those as well but I just want to say it looks like a very important and thorough process um and um so I think with with that introduction I'll turn over to Michael if you want to talk a little bit about it and of course we can get into a discussion sure with the members so go ahead yeah I mean I I I agree with you I thought the The Forum was good um you know we had a 40b expert attorney who came and just provided some education the the developer was willing to come here um answer some questions present an overview of their project and then you know open things up to questions and and I really appreciate the community you know um they they really asked some really good questions and um it was it was calm and it was professional so um the process so as I explained earlier um you know we're in basically this uh site eligibility letter phase and so so um Mass housing has asked the select board to provide comment on the proposed project at the Mill site and so we developed a process whereby we distributed the materials to different boards and committees um that would play a role in this and so and ask them to provide comments by uh May 8th uh which we subsequently moved to to May 10th and and uh we we got a lot of feedback um I I do anticipate we'll probably get a couple a couple of other comments from board uh board me or other boards I should say and um so in addition to that we we did do a unique step in terms of putting this out to the public and putting the materials online and then instituting a form to gather public comment and public feedback of which we got you know over 150 responses um so what I've been doing is I've been trying to take the board and committee input um as well as some of the things that we have talked about uh there's some overlap there there's some things that Wen unique and put together a comment letter that um I think gives us the best or at least a the outline right now of one that gives us the best um the best chance of you know either having Mass housing deny this project which is highly unlikely but it has been possible or at least um scaling it down quite a bit and um you know rob you mentioned being a a you know more hopeful about this I I'm a little more optimistic um you know now given where we are and some of the things that we've collected I think our argument is going to be pretty strong and I talked to attorney me about this a bit and uh she thinks you know our our two best best arguments are first of all how much affordable housing or housing we've produced over the last uh last decade and a half and um it's really been tremendous actually uh the amount we're not your typical suburban community that you know tries to block 40 BS or you know affordable housing you know in many cases we in invite it and have approved it there have been a couple of situations where um a project didn't didn't make sense for the community overall and we've taken steps to you know go in a different direction um but by and large uh we we're not the poster child for um for nism um so that and then also when you look at the scale and the architecture of the proposed building and you look at what we're trying to accomplish with um form based code and um you know some of the the zoning that we do have in terms of keeping things in scale uh you know there's a dramatic difference between what we have as a community said that we would like and what this proposal exhibits so uh those are really the two main things would you like me to go into some some of the others or you want to pause there or how do you want to handle this question well I yeah I just had a a couple of questions what about um you don't think it's a really the infrastructure arguments aren't good arguments Oh I thought it put infrastructure it's on there I'm just saying you said the you said the top two were oh yeah yeah the the top two you know having a conversation with attorney me um you know just her thoughts you know going through this she thought the two I mentioned were were probably the most I'm surprised the scale one I guess would rise above the the um infrastructure concerns well it it's basically what gives you the best chance of of of putting things uh pushing things back or scaling things down and infrastructure can you know for all intents and purposes be addressed it can be expensive it can be you know very very difficult but it can be addressed you know things like the architecture of multiple buildings and and of an area and the scale of an area is something that you know you can't really change or or fix unless you're doing wholesale demolition no but you can you can adjust the project right right so doesn't I don't know I just feel like that that's can be changed yeah it's it's interesting I mean we just came across a decision from Medfield um in 2017 where Mass housing actually denied a project because it didn't fit in with the scale in architecture um I I didn't get to read all of that so they denied it was the project then read designed and approved or did it never get built um it got redesigned and approved so it went from 200 units um to 36 Town Homes yeah that was talk I didn't send it to you guys but something Kate sent me that people have been doing some research about um and that was very hopeful I thought because it wasn't like let him build whatever he wants it's affordable housing it's like oh this doesn't really fit with some of the measures you folks have taken so we want you to change it that was like so you know one of the things that is has been on my mind about this you know is just that and and I'm not sure it's an argument that can be used because it not sure it it it you know that it actually addresses the law right which is always a problem but but in reality how does this really improve affordability for a family you know somebody maybe the the rent is less but it it's not as if it's a something that you buy at a at a discount and you have the opportunity to build equity and perhaps then you know like like all the condos in town where people have come bought a condo rob you being one of them have lived there and then Yolanda right and then eventually we're able to buy into the the town in a in a single family home um so I that's one of something that really troubles me is that it doesn't feel as though this law has ever done what it was intended to do so is that is that worth what I'm well that's just it that's my point I'm not sure it's an argument worth making in this if it's it's not something that addresses the actual law what way law we gain anything by saying hey why don't you have of course we were never thinking about condos there anyway I don't think we were looking at always looking at rental but yeah I I mean I just you know I I maybe there's a section of the argument that is doesn't necessarily address the law but rather discusses some of these other points right right because I I think if you look there have been projects that are 40b either just straight 40b or friendly 40 BS maybe not here in Ashland but in other communities that then did allow for more affordable units and giving places for people to live and things like that so but I agree that we need to look at what it means for this community and certainly hearing about a project being denied and actually being reworked I think is is something we can hang our hat on to say how can we work and reach let Mass housing know that th this project is too big for our downtown because of some of our infrastructure things and I think for a lot of people there's still the issues of the EPA in the D right the the where it sits and how it sits and things like that yeah except that if if it's all built above right which seems to be what their strategy is is that does it really although although there was air quality issues too raised right and some of that yeah um and those are kind of technical engineering which I think are kind of I mean we definitely should make those comments because they're challenges but they're either going to be resolved or they're not you know regarding less of whether how many units are built I mean and I think and I think the state's perspective is there's a Hing housing shortage and so rents have continued to climb hous housing prices have continued to climb and from their perspective they want to just create more units of housing which eventually will hopefully drive down the the overall cost because it's not sustainable like the rents that are you know they're not sustainable the housing prices are you know it's not affordable for for someone to to buy their first home it's you know it's it's hard so but but what is the the you know the root to buying your first home so is it living in something that's a 40b unit where it's I mean $2500 a month this is the biggest nut to crack like real affordable housing and how to get it and it's it's it's there's no easy solution because it's really a societ you so how do we um so I guess um so I think the best conversation for us to have tonight is like I think like advising Michael on what how we think this response should go and and it's going to be due before the 28th which we we don't have any meetings scheduled so one question would be if we think the board should meet again before the final thing to review it that's really up to people's sense or Michael's recommendation so it's one thing I think to just at least think about or if this is going to be it and we'll leave it to Michael and the staff to put together response um um and my my own kind of Impressions about I think we got some great Concepts here I I was very impressed with a lot of the responses uh especially the planning board is the is the intention just to include attach all those to your major letter and then I think we we should all should talk about what are we going to do about the public comment and how to handle that but is that you're thinking you're going to have a long kind of and then attach all this other stuff maybe highlight some of it right so so the letter from the select board um will basically extract some things you want my signature stamp back sure I gu before Monday if you do it yeah it's uh is to you know extract you know important pieces from the different boards and committees memo put that in also mix kind of our own thoughts in so yes it's the the comment letter from the select board and I was thinking that we would attach um the memos from the other boards and committees as as as an attachment and then um you know the comments it's an interesting it's an interesting thing um I'm not necessarily sure if it's going to help us potentially could hurt us um but we did make a commitment to you know basically attach those word for word and send those well and I think it's appropriate to allow Mass housing to see the comments from our community you know whether they read them all or not you know as you go through them sure there's certain ones you go okay that's not quite applicable or and there is a couple that actually support it but I think we asked for The public's opinion I think we've been we've used that you've used that to start drafting our letter um I think it's important to share that with with Mass housing to show the input and involvement of our community yeah I wasn't disagreeing with that I'm just saying it's a dilemma you to think about it yeah thought well some of them are very thoughtful and some of them are very thoughtful some of them are hyperbolic and yes some of them are but but that's what you're going to get when you ask for public comment but but so the question I think the Board needs to ask whenever you're thinking when you're thinking about putting this together and if there's things you want to put in you want to you know public comments or the public comments because like you know we did make that commitment and include as an appendix you know something you know I think you know the two things you got to think about when you're thinking about a topic is will this help the argument that's number one and number two and it's just as important is it going to hurt our credibility uh and then basically if if we say something that hurts our credibility is that going to then diminish the impact of our credible arguments right so that's a well I I think that like you know first of all the I think the approach you know the having a comments letter a summary thing because going through a lot of the comments first of all you know thank you to the boards and committees that put so much effort behind um giving giving feedback um some some were extremely extensive and I know the planning board is still working on theirs it's not final um but you know it's it's the the feedback and and the techn tech technical expertise of the comments I think are really helpful impressive impressive so I think you know pulling from that into a you know a summary cover page I think is really important because I think we have to be pretty I would say that the the cover comments need to be as succinct as humanly possible because I think there's so much behind it and I don't my concern is that if we don't if we don't um if we don't clearly articulate our position on certain things it's people it's it's just it's going to be just a blur the rest of it's going to be a blur so you know I was looking through the this the your outline that you had put together and I think think it's really good I think you know my my take on it is I would probably reorder some of these because from from like level of you know importance or and or level of feedback we've received or certain things that are more important than others like I wouldn't put I know that um we have like um parking concerns is like number four and I honestly I would you know parking they weren't done in like any order of that's not going to it's not really uh you know that's not going to be one of those things that that Mass housing is like yep you know what like that's you know so from my perspective I I I feel like you know that needs to the the order of the stuff needs to be kind of reworked a bit it might be even able to create like well I mean do as you please but create categories right so these are safety issues these are um architectural or scale issues these are and then group group them together something like that and then even just link to the documents that would be attached and I also think we need to look at that letter the you know the the the community that got the project denied and what their strategy was and how we can use that because I think there's a lot of similarities right in regards to size and scale and traffic and infrastructure impacts because that's what we're looking at here right to bry's point Point yes parking could be a concern considering some of the stuff we're seeing at other projects here downtown but I don't think Mass housing is going to say oh because they have potential parking issues I think there's no but would that be something that you might consider in putting in like a community of life I mean you know quality of life thank you quality of life category or that right it just isn't the top issues as to why yeah exactly that something that or is that something that Mass housing would even aine on right is that more parking is a but you have to have enough parking so it's one of those it's one of those direct factual things there's standards for parking right there are there are standards for parking and so I think so look the way we got some of our parking minimums right in our zoning and you know how we got to 1.54 cars or parking spaces per unit right so so the theory the planning theory is that you know you basically if you have less parking spaces people will be forced to get less cars because they will be forced to use um you know public transportation or walking biking so here's the thing we've gone beyond the theory we've actually built projects using that theory and we see it doesn't work um because that's an important point you know and I think that that's how we structure that argument I mean unfortunately we've only got anecdotal data but I'll go ahead at at the end of tonight and just take a picture going down Main Street and see all it's not like there's a supermarket this is in Cambridge they can't walk to a supermarket ex what are they walking to that's right exactly right so you can maybe walk to the train station or town hall but that's limited that's not everything else that people have to do right when you make the argument about the you know the last decade was it was it 2010 to 2020 that you were looking at for the the housing that we built well so yeah so we have hard data on that when and we went from 6,000 units B yeah basically it was 6,500 units to 7450 or something but then if you look beyond that as at what has been permitted and what has built five projects I think it's probably more Claudia okay I think it's probably so and and how many units are we looking at there um it was I'll have to look at the table again but it's it's like 500 I think over 500 yeah I think I think the planning board thing and so what everybody needs to know I mean is that those are permitted so they can happen even what's in right now there's one project that's been pulled because they're looking for better financing or whatever and then there's another project that's in the courts those are already permitted and once they settle up those come online yeah and and one of those projects I mean the interesting thing and it's I I think I put it here in the outline and we'll make this point is that so the developer that was permitting the project once the permitting was done he closed on that project and took ownership of it and that was in December of 2022 so he decided he wanted to flip it to another developer but he didn't want to pay capital gains taxes which was what would happen if he sold it within the year so he wanted to wait a year and and basically flip it and so he waited that year and now the financing is such that you know it can't happen so the original developer has decided he wants to do it thing is he waited a year if if that project had pulled building permits within that year we'd be in Safe Harbor right you know we wouldn't have to worry about this along with ugc you know right uh one thing I want to so in terms of the public comments I'm thinking about how best to use it is uh you would at one time you would had that kind of trend like these are the issues right yeah these are comments and then Anna had that comment about trying to put them into some sort of planning issues uh but I'm just wondering so you know we're going to attach them all somewhere so they can be read I guess but is there some way of using them in part of our letter or your introduction letter about talking about public concerns that are useful and help guided our response I mean is there some way of summarizing the Public's concerns that are helpful to the process I mean I I imagine they reflect the same things we're going to be talking about yeah um and maybe there's just ways of you you make an illusion to that many of the public we had X number of comments and they were concerned about this people understand housing we built a lot of housing they think this is too big in scale or more than we we'd only wanted 180 downtown this is 250 you know that kind of thing or or reflecting somehow summarizing and reflecting the public comments then you can refer back to them but you know for them to Wade through all the comments is probably not necessarily going to happen how do we make it useful for them to consider our public comments you know I was I was thinking about structuring it and basically saying that these comments that that we're putting together have been echoed by the boards and committees and citizens at you know different public and we had this kind of Outreach and here's the comments and maybe if we could summarize them as a way of the public concern well see I think these are I mean what we've got here is in your outline yeah so maybe talking about it that way and and also didn't Jen as these comments came in sort of track what people were commenting on that's what she that was the bar graph show right so I would think that is something you know if I'm Mass housing I'm probably not going to you know zoom in and read all of these but if there's the summary for people's concerns as to what people that might sending that along with these comments I think would be helpful so maybe look at keywords that would be maybe the easiest way to to pull together like I I would caution doing that because some of those some of those items on that list are things that would basically uh diminish our credibility in terms of yeah why why do you say diminish our credibility if we're if we're sharing with hous Mass housing the concerns of our residents how does that diminish our credibility so let's take schools and school enrollment right we can't use School enrollment we can't use School enrollment I don't think we want to necessarily say something about crime increase crime and transient um yeah I I you know some of those things um yeah there's certainly some comments on here that were not realistic related to this construction I see what you're saying okay so I would but I would suggest and I go back to Anna's kind of suggestion with this conceptual kind of so the bar graph was good but it was very segmented and maybe you could we should attach that as well but maybe kind of summarize a lot of the concerns were about these kind of planning processes which is goes to our strings yeah ex exactly exactly okay other thoughts or advice or concerns about the process oh I had a question is it what's the significance of the meepa process with the with this yeah so somebody made a comment about meepa meepa was one of the first things Kate's yeah but I mean meepa is meepa I suppose this comes under meepa but meepa lets you do things as long as you meet certain requirements yeah you have to go through studies and everything this mea was one of the first things I looked at this doesn't qualify under oh it doesn't okay um so under meepa you have like different triggers and site alteration triggers that you know one of them have to be met and then you have to meet another standard which um the project has to be receiving State funding uh basically a transfer of state land or needs to get a permit from a state agency not not require state agency action needs a permit from a state agency all right I'm just presuming that all these kind of I there are some technical challenges the whole plume the flood plane the environmental stuff storm water at some point they're either these are technical they either going to meet them or they're not and it may be that if the size is too big they have to down downsize it to meet some of these requirements so hopefully that I mean we know that process will happen regardless storm water you know if they're planning on using underground storm water systems um you know those are required to Main contain 2T separation from groundwater and you know where that is it's already sunk a little bit low and we you know there's already groundwater it's a high water T it's it has its issue surprised the MW hasn't at that project in some way shap because of the sub right there the MW it wouldn't be the MW Mass Water Resource Authority because it's they're they're like Quin and they're not quality I think DCR Joe DCR okay that's okay DCR yeah um yeah they I don't know if they'll look at that I mean the thing is that those storm water regulations um they you know they're they're pretty it's an engineering thing right so they're going to make it or not I mean I presume we're going to engineer I mean the engineers you know we had a good strong letter from them in the concom yeah you know would it make sense for us to have um to include sort of a plan how what we envision would be you know something that that site could become well what was what what did the planning board attach to there I did I looked I saw these pictures yeah planning board had you know basically a cou so one of the pictures that they had attached was the final rendering and it just was that elevation that the working group uh yes came up with worked with the developer con Street oh the from oh yeah yeah I was looking at that going that looks famili I mean not quite that detailed but that idea of the Riverwalk going in back of the property and things like that I'm talking about there there was an elevation view from the front and you know there was you know the architecture was much more in line with what we're right what we're used to um and that was that was a rendering that was shared right before uh the owner decided to basically leave that process and submit in front of the plan because they were yeah it's uh so Claudia it's interesting because I've always said I think you know we're going to get Universal agreement that what's proposed is not there is is not good um I think where there's going to be some disagreement and you know can we've seen can really kind of side rail things is coming to an agreement on what is acceptable if you feel that the planning board the last planning board iteration was an acceptable plan um maybe we make reference to that and um you know basically those qualities and suggest that that would be a more appropriate project for you know that location um because you've already got a little a little bit of cons you got some consensus at the planning board level I think um I don't know it it it what do you guys thought so I think that um you know that version was a much better version than this I think the more you know it had more commercial it had less units my concern is like if I were a Mass Housing person and I'm not a Mass Housing person but if I was looking at this whole application and I and I saw okay so this guy went before the planning board this was all the plans and all the stuff that's not what I'm looking at that's not what they're reviewing so it's almost like I don't this is going to come off kind of weird but it's almost like well so what you know like I would I think it's good to reference it but like I think if if you thought that was such a good project why did you not approve it correct yeah I wasn't really that example that we would they would have approved it they so they so the planning board had had continuously gotten feedback that it needed to be smaller and smaller and smaller and my understanding and I had not watched the last planning board meeting where the developer had come before them but my understanding was that it was a frustrating process that basically what what happened was is it became not financially feasible and that you know what was being asked of the developer wasn't possible so the developer withdrew the application I yeah but he might have got well I don't know that is in the Mass housing application that the developer submitted to to to Mass housing is you know it does talk about has this project been before like the planning board gone through other planning processes and you know what happened there and it does say that yes it was before the plan board for a special permit but the I'm paraphrasing here but like the municipal ass became too much or something this is what the developer said well I don't know yeah I wasn't thinking about using that as what we would plan for it I was really thinking you know more dramatically different than that well I think it it it's still worth saying that we were having discussions no one had said no he just you know for whatever reason walked away from it I mean if we had a proposal that we liked it might be I mean I don't know how muched maybe not a completely implied no to that project but certainly well I'll tell you what I'll tell you what the developer told me during was it the site visit or pre- meeting that this that his this design oh I'm sorry what's that Jo no no I saying there was just a negative connotation about the entire project right what did the new developer told me was that the plan was not realistically constructed in terms of cost he didn't specifically address saying you know I mean obviously he's proposed more meaning not not created in regards to the cost to build it or that it was it was not going to be an economical it was not but it was the kind of design in the proposed construction method yeah the way the the buildings the way that was designed is you know to build that would be um astronomically expensive yeah and so it wasn't feasible but he didn't directly I mean and he wouldn't be in a place to do that but that it just seemed like the whole method of construction he thought was off and it needed to be done a different way yeah but so but he to be you know to be fair he was looking at basically the financial structure that you know he had in place you know if there is an idea to maybe find a way for the town to help make that plan a little more palatable from a financial perspective you know we didn't explore any of that no with them and I don't know if it would work but so I don't know I guess it's kind of a tactical thing does it make sense to say look we were in Earnest negotiations and we had a plan like this with aund I don't even know it was an 180 or 200 units that we thought was viable but it's changed so I don't can and I don't I I read your letter quickly can we talk to Mass housing at all about the the business component and the commercial real estate component did I because well like I said I read your letter quickly can we to them say this is a downtown that need that we've been talking about for many years I mean as long as I've been sitting here on the select board and previously when I've been involved in and listening to conversation that we want to have more commercial downtown and you're not going to allow people to park then you got to give them someplace to go are you talking about the economic development letter or a different one no no I mean no just in general as we prep as we draft our letter to Mass housing is that something that we can speak to the fact that as a community we've always talked that we need more business downtown we need more people to come down town to come and and come to our businesses and here we have a mill building that is now all commercial and we're getting a very small percent back so that's number six right under his outline oh okay like I said I only looked at it after getting maybe maybe to Yolanda's point it needs to have some some of that too because we were talking about just you know the the you know talking about commercial space in our downtown I think is is sort of like the missing link to them right but I think I think like I'm just trying to think of how we're going to move this forward you know do we want to like you know so so are you are is your plan to draft something and then send it to us to look at like so I'm I guess I guess that's yeah let's talk about the process I mean I I could certainly do that um I mean if if you feel the problem is the whole open meeting La serial communication which we just have to be sensitive about I think yeah so I think if you send it just to me it'd be okay so my problem if is if I get five different versions versions how are you going to reconcile that and yeah how to reconcile that well can we take a can we look at your letter now and sort of what's the letter you prioritize the letter to M it's an outline but it's talk it's speaking to right so like claudus Point Park parking is number four should that be a lower concern and loss of commercial space should that be something higher on um you know more important um well the other thing the size of it right I think that's definitely important um certainly based on the decision we heard um previously uh you know so do we do we look at this outline and understanding what worked for another Community do we draft or or or you know massage and prioritize related to that possibil to those things that help them get it get it stopped right and revised but I think it's a good idea for us to see like a full draft of what goes out so let's think about this is due um May 27 20 27th or 29th 27th the 27th is Memorial day isn't it yes yeah so it must be the 28th or 29th I think June 27th is for the is for the second one yeah so so um I guess the there's no meeting scheduled next week for the select board one things I guess for you guys to think about is there do you want to meet with Michael this wouldn't include me unless you do it like by Monday but do you want to meet with Michael to review a different a later draft or just could we do a retreat like that kind of format when would you look to do that though if we were going to do it next week because it would be have to be next week right yeah I I don't I don't know given a lot of stuff going on and then I think I think you know the stuff that we would talk about at a retreat we can kind of get done tonight I mean which is basically the substance like the topic points that you want to put through um because again like this will be you know the outline and it's kind of here um you know I I you know I would hope we would get it to a place and we would be on the same page coming out of tonight to where basically you know the things that we wouldn't necessarily be word smithing you know right right yeah I don't think we I don't think we need to Wordsmith a document for you you can go through the minutes like the planning board um so are we thinking you know the other thing is to to Michael's Point can we come to some agreement tonight as to what we think priorities are and then is it a subcommittee is it one or two people who wants Michael you know Michael can send it to all of us but to Michael's point if he gets then depending on when we send it four or five responses back how does he handle that um but could it be with a subcomittee right so I don't know how you feel about that Michael right if just there's two people that can work with you to finalize it I don't know what people think about that so have each individual we can each respond back to Michael sub but if we have a subcommittee then we have to post a meeting like yeah so yeah I mean we definitely would we no I'm just saying like from a from a timing standpoint yeah right well if it's later in the week next week time to yeah it's going to be next week is going to be tough um to meet I mean what you what you got about finishing is when do you think you'll have it largely completed and you still got probably end next week yeah yeah why don't we what if we posted something for next Friday you know a week from Friday and then thinking everybody or just well you could just post it for the you just post it for the whole board and if whoever can make it makes it yeah and then you can always withdraw it does that work for you Michael that you could get something us for us to look at and then again not that we would be word smithing but just just affirming you know the order or the importance well why don't we why don't we try to take a stab at trying to prioritize the order of this okay so I kind of dur this discussion so I'm happy because I kind of went through it and I kind of started ordering things so I'm happy to like throw something out there and get the reaction from everyone so I I think number one when we talk about Safe Harbor is is how we should lead off y um given the the feedback from attorney me I would say keep number two as number two with with um scale and um what the you know and that includes the historical buildings as well um I would say the next thing for me would be infrastructure concerns which is number five before you we go get off that is that one likely to is that one likely to be good to reduce the size of the project cuz I think that's what we ma our major concern right so infrastructure con is is talking about water sewer the mil Pond bridge and storm water issues so so so that's my question and it's kind of infrastructure and safety right that would be rolled in there I would I would add that because if you're starting to look at that it's going to cause an issue yeah I think I think safety is a would be a way to right right safety as part of the so or traffic con and then and then the next thing I was going to say was do traffic concerns so number three is as yeah as the next so infrastructure going into traffic and but but B I just want to so and Michael you can respond is the infrastructure is this something that possibly There's issues with 250 units but there'd be less issues if there was 180 or 200 units I guess that's you know that's going to be it's going to be hard to say say um you know the like the Framingham IMA um not necessarily sure we could calculate it out to that type of granular level um I mean what what what we do know is right now you know at certain times we go above the peak flow uh that's allowed and certainly if we have 250 units it's could you could make that case so I mean if we can put some language like that and I think it's worth pushing it yeah like Brandy's suggesting but so we could say look you want 250 units these are the potential issues right yeah help us Downs is do you want me to if everybody's in agreement with that I'll go ahead and make some changes now okay to that with respect to what Claudia just said with with respect to safety with with the the three uh components that Brandy just mentioned um there is going to be a major design change God bless you excuse me there's going to be a major change down there by the intersection that intersection is going to have to be redesigned to getting that traffic out of the ramp that's coming up onto Main Street and that's going to that's going to create a design change at that intersection which means you're going to be taking property of of pieces of property of town property and what's going to create a design change for that intersection the ramp with those people coming out onto Main Street that's just traffic flow that's traffic that you're talking about that's traffic FL so that's that should be part of the traffic concerns right that should be part of safety because that is a safety issue for those people who are traveling that road or walking or or going to and from uh work if they're going to utilize that yeah because there's there's a pedestrian crosswalk there uh believe me I saw it again this afternoon MH where a guy almost got T-boned because she couldn't get out a traffic at 4:30 this is coming out like the office coming out coming out no coming out from the ramp oh the ramp to take left or something yeah right and they're not allowing that individual to get out so you're Crossing two traffic lanes and then the third lane to get onto the L yeah I I agree 100% And that's going to be that's going to be a design change in that intersection yeah I don't see how you can build this project without totally changing that inter absolutely and he didn't think that he he didn't he said no absolutely not CU we asked them that at right but and that maybe I'm thinking of things that will downsize the project and is this one of well that could that could be that could be an issue to downsides the project so he doesn't have to pay the the redesigning of that inter I think I would throw it while I'm you know in John featherson I mean I think an internal bus stop is good we should have that somewhere because we don't want buses stopping we want buses yeah but we don't want them stopping on the street and that includes school buses too yeah you know there will be there I mean there will be a school bus stop that has to the current design the way with the current design with the design that we saw there is an interior Courtyard where the the bus could go in could go in right they approval to do thatta could but maybe not a school bus that's the thing to think about so yeah so you incorporate you know under tra I'll do it under traffic incorporate bus stops to get more cars off the road the other thing about uh traffic would be the number of feet it is from the the Train the railroad crossing right I mean that's dramatically changes the traffic in town at multiple day times a day I mean I think that's kind of a big piece in terms of the traffic that yeah yeah right that that that that would be something Brandy did you want to finish your order and then if other people want to do similar maybe that's helpful for Michael so I went from infrastructure to traffic traffic to Niza which is number seven hold on one second I had I'm down I'm right down okay to Niza to nanza 2537 and nanza to commercial space which is six yep and then ending with parking you think J is yeah it's definitely part of the issue but it's not it's nottin anyone else have thoughts on an order or no I think that that's a that's a good order I mean is a good Michael thoughts on that no I I think it's are we missing anything else in the letter that I mean I mean is there anything missing that we I mean I mean I think one thing you should just as we get the final comments and just make sure that everything's Incorporated but I leave that up to your judgment but the outline the general outline we think is the right direction I think and we've got a lot of material from the other boards how did we decide to leave the the public comments will probably be an appendix and you'll reference them at some times here to try to make them I mean to try to include them as part of I think we're going to have a good package put together actually okay all right so the so the next step is you're you'll draft this you'll send it to all of us just to just to review may not be for a while or Friday okay do you week Thursday or Friday or like tomorrow or Friday next week tomorrow I think right no no no so then do we want to schedule a meeting on that 24th a you know I would ask that we do it as a zoom meeting he might not have it ready for the 24th well well considering it's Memorial Day weekend and it's due on Tuesday the 28th I would or maybe Wednesday but I my suggestion for you guys is just to schedule it and you can cancel it next week yeah we we need to do it in the afternoon so oh uh me before like 1 o'clock or two o'clock well 1 o'clock would that work that would work so May 24th at 1:00 in the afternoon okay y it's a it's a public meeting maybe I will show up go for it I have a hard stop at two yes so do I yeah but okay so if we can get that posted and and the only item would be um this letter to Mass housing right it's the only item so this is the zoom meeting not zoom yeah I think Zoom makes it simple Zoom makes simple yeah yeah all right um I just have could I just these are kind of related questions but not specifically related to this letter um and would you send us the Medfield um yeah yeah thank you and then I'm sorry what was your question to send out the Medfield no that was that was just a popped in my head um oh jeez where is it here oh um could you explain a little bit to me about the financing end of this that is it Mass housing that that provides F I know it might not be possible is it Mass housing that that provides some additional financing to the developer based on the number of units I don't know if it's based on the number of units called um but yes mass mass housing plays a role and it's not to the best of my knowledge it's not Mass housing that provides the financing I think it it's like they have something called the New England fund or something which this is to make the 25% no this is just to finance the project generally CA it's 25% it would be eligible for this okay he's and it's subsidized to some extent I I didn't real I guess I didn't realize that there there is um to yeah to a certain extent um interesting yeah and what's the here's another impossible question what's the criteria for for getting that that funding um I do not know I'm sure they have just you know I always I always hesitate to draw comparisons to like a traditional mortgage because there are so many differences but um you know in this case just like when you go to a bank for a loan you know you have to meet you know income criteria you know all this good kind of stuff um I'm I know that they have criteria that they have to meet I just don't know what it is okay CU I was just thinking in terms of kind of what I was saying in terms of you know what would we Invision there if you know I'm not sure that I would or that the community probably would think that 180 units was a great idea either right so um you know what he was going to get that what could be envisioned there that that would maybe still qualify for some kind of assistance to make it attractive to some developer yeah I mean so that's that's interesting um you know that's that's going to be a tough one because if you get it to you know too low a density it's just not financeable and so your choice would be either keeping it the way it is or you know going somewhere else you know you know it might be worth reviewing we do have a bit a strategy to the extent that you feel it's okay to talk about it is later in the in the process the the economic analysis about the justification for the number of units so the fact that they are subsidized could help us because at some point right we can and correct me if I'm wrong but we have kind of a thinking about at some point when you could challenge he he may say I need to build 250 units to make this economical right we may be in a position to push back and say no according to our analysis you can build 190 units and it's fine right I mean and how would that play into and the fact that he's getting subsidized to build affordable units I think help I mean I just want to be careful with using the term subsidize I don't know if it is like what we're thinking about in terms of subsidies and and what that is so we can't bring up the economic argument unless the zoning board issues a decision right with conditions and the developer then appeals it to the housing appeals court saying that those conditions make it uneconomic once they make that claim that opens the door for us to to review that right I remember I remember the lawyer saying that's where this comes in and that's later in the process I expect I expect that the the zoning board is going to issue I mean most likely they're going to issue a decision with conditions right assuming there's not 100% agreement um I I would assume so I mean I don't want to speak speak for right I mean we we I I think we have to be careful about saying what we think is going to happen in the future because okay two years ago some of us were thinking that there was already going to be a project underway right based on previous discussions um Michael I just want to point out if you could check with the planning board M on their me Mo because under section one materials reviewed and referenced they have two future dates on it so it could be a typo that's possib possibility but I'd hate for us to send this memo the way it is I think it's we can't send it the way it's a draft it is rough okay so they need to we they're still working on that okay and that'll be part of this not say I just I actually pushed for Michael to include the draft because I I thought it' be good to get a sense where they were going with it cuz I'm not seeing the word draft in our in our package that's all right yeah I mean it still references people's names like that people are working on things LS is Peter doing the final like kind of and did he give you a date for it or um I don't think Peter's doing the final um who is like one of the volunteers is writing this all upe well actually the way it's hard that's why he said it's hard it looks like each of the groups each each member has split up what theyve what they've done so yeah I think well okay respect to the do you want to do that way the comment I think pardon me no no no I was thinking no I was thinking all these folks are writing their own sections which is great but at some point like somebody like Peter puts the whole thing together and oh this is all you know yeah I would hope that at some point our planning director would read through their full memo to make sure that things like that don't happen yeah I would a planning director would be allow to okay like there's a typo in there they reference Shi and they call it shared housing inventory and it subsidized yeah there's stuff that needs to subsidized housing inventory you subsidized housing it goes by I don't think sending the I don't think sending the old plan no to Mass housing makes sense but I mean it's the planning board's letter but yeah okay so oh I should you oh no no not yet the chair well you know there's no I there's never a guarantee in the vote happens anyway um do you feel like you have what you need Michael from our input in discussion yeah do you see do you see anything missing in here gu that you think should be in here that I don't I didn't see anything talk a lot about stuff I think you're going in the right direction I think the one thing just to add is on the traffic is the whole train situ I think that's a good okay what's the train situation TR proximity and the amount of traffic and I was thinking about the station yeah yeah okay and that's something like you can't time you know with lights or anything it's got to get busier too they're not it's not like there's going to be less trains a lot of ambitious thoughts about commuter rail oh I meant to do that in board reports all right are we good we all good okay it's almost 10:00 where are we all right so did you want to talk about the other related thing about clarification 40b versus NBTA communities anybody want to take that on I just quickly I I'll repeat what I said at The Forum um so 40b Massachusetts general laws chapter 40b is different than what the NBTA community's law is so I'll start with the NBTA communities law so that was recently signed in the law um a couple years ago and it requires communities that have a you know a commun rail or or mass transit station or adjacent to it to Zone um within a certain area and radius for the most part um the the community needs to Zone oh shoot I'm not on sorry U needs to Zone to allow multif family housing to be built as of right so it requires the communities to change their zoning to allow multif family units to be built as of right which means uh very Li limited review there's not much discretion you know um allowed so Massachusetts General Law chapter 40b which has been around for about five decades now so 1969 so that is that is designed to allow a developer to go into a community and if that Community does not have 10% of its housing stock deemed affordable by the state it allows that developer to override the zoning um in order to um build something as long as 25% of the units are affordable and uh when I say you know override zoning that zoning controls things like density height setbacks um just just a number of things um and use um and and so basically 40b allows a developer to override that your zoning says you can only go three stories tall well we're going to do a project that's five stories talk and we can do it because we got 25% affordable right six stories right it just happens one is yeah so it's it's five stories from um from grade from street level which is way the way I think it's measured in zoning so hey that reminds me Michael um in your I think you ought to Echo the concom request to not Grant a waiver on the local this goes back but oh they had in their letter they said we don't there's two things where we have local concom control bylaw and we don't think a waver should be granted I don't know if you want to reference that just that would be more the zba yeah so so maybe it's not something you wanted but I thought it was worth and yeah so they wouldn't make a yeah okay um all right so thank you for that explanation um so the next thing is um this request in process of naming for the public safety building and request interested parties to complete a talent Bank form so if I understand the process we did get a request for naming some rooms at the public safety building and we do have a a policy that we we did last year and I think it includes that the fire chief and the police chief and I'm looking at Susan or Jen if you want to interject or correct me they're already on this but I think we need to name one more person and then you guys at a future meeting can entertain so can entertain a request we did receive a specific request involving specific people having rooms name for them I believe so I think Susan all we need to do tonight is say put out a talent Bank form request to get one more member for that and then that's my we can get the process started is that it that's correct you just need to solicit just open up that your soliciting names okay and do we need to vote on that or can we just tell you to do it we can just ask her so go ahead and do it right anybody else have questions or thoughts just to clarify if you're interested in serving on the committee to uh make to have naming of the public safety building our police chief and fire chief or their designes are already part of it and then we're looking for a c a volunteer from the community to participate in that discussion because we already have two requests for that process and it's not the building itself and when would you like submissions duai I think there's a part of our policy right we have to do it in a certain number of days uh by the June 5th meeting so by June 1st is that too soon Thoughts by yeah so if you're interested in participating in that submit a talent Bank form by June 1st and just to to Joe's Point like it's not the public safety building it's it's benches it's rooms it's trees it's you know it's not is not changing its name putting a plaque in memory of so and so at a certain tree or something like that or planting a tree or bricks right uh interrupt U sure Mr chair make motion to oh go past 10 o' second all those in favor going past 10 o'clock I I my last 10 Post 10 o'clock meeting okay so we go past 10 so I think we're done with that item uh the next one is vote to designate Town manager Michael Herbert as ashlin's representative to the Metro West veteran services District I guess we have to do this what every year or something anyway is that just a simple motion yeah I move that we designate Town manager Michael Herbert as ashlin's representative to the Metro West veteran service District I'll second that motion's been made in second all those in favor say I I I oppose none motion passes thank you we did that one oh discuss additional funding for Stone Park summer concerts Joe yeah I'm going to withdraw that request um the committee decided that we are going to resurrect um and put our paperwork in for uh 50133 status again so uh good we'll have that hopefully we'll have it ready for the summer and do the fall uh status you can always come back if you need to so that's what we're doing awesome great okay thanks Joe um reminder annual Town election May 21st which is next Tuesday right and early voting still on Friday there was some today and then Friday as well 7 to noon on Friday yeah all right very good uh free covid tests are still available Town Hall I actually availed myself of them last week very helpful I was negative okay so that's good um job yeah that's a positive thing they come here positive but who cares it was negative but it was positive y um reminder collection ail no that's passed um yard continues until Monday Monday June 3rd what is this yard waste collection col okay we lost some words there okay correct which is Memorial Day Memorial Day is coming up so that's good I presume we'll have our usual or do we have um are we sponsoring some kind of a memorial day trade or event up at the cemetery or yeah it's usually the VFW that helps put it together um I have not heard anything from Fred I imagine actually asked me that so certainly downtowns in a state that we could do something you know start at Wildwood and come downtown MH so I can't imagine they won't do it but I suppose it's possible so U yeah Claud you should dep um plan on being invited to go to Memorial Day at 10 o'clock usually right 9 o' Susan have you heard anything yeah about Memorial Day I have not heard anything oh yeah but I'm happy to reach out to the VFW yeah thank you do their usual so I have somebody that tells me that the uh VFW and the American Legion do not have anything planned oh wow really well the legion's closed so I yeah right I mean yeah that's interesting same just read yeah they're still they still exist someone's reaching out and letting you know that's interesting whoever yeah but hopefully we put something together okay we did the consent agenda that brings us to town managers report yeah I I really don't have much folks um that's fine PRI project updates anything yeah I really don't I really don't have much on priority project other than we talk I mean we're still in that phase you know working with some of the businesses to basically come up with a plan to um you know how we can least impact them the least when we're doing the um building connction actions but um yeah and I missed the Mendes meeting so I'm not sure oh I will yeah I will say um you know we did sign the some paperwork to move forward the tax rebate issue so that's uh that's good yeah I can give you a quick update on Mendes or I can do it during board reports um well CLA was there too so goe yeah sorry CLA that's okay uh so things are moving forward with the fields they're closing out certain areas they're doing some other things inside uh one of the things that was concerning to me was apparently there has been concerns coming from a member of our concom and they're pushing for resources to be used to do some extra testing that may not actually be necessary and again it's a little disappointing that we could be using resources unnecessarily to do testing for things that really shouldn't be tested um and those are funds that could be used for other things for the project so but things are moving forward okay and just moving on to comprehensive Plan update I mean we' we've finished the public input session and you know we got got close to our goal 15% participation so and we still have some time to go but uh we do have a meeting this week um and the agenda's pretty much you know we we've had a couple members who wanted to talk about certain things at previous meetings and um so this will be an opportunity for them to to going to be at the meeting no they will not be at the meeting and then we have like our visioning s sessions um scheduled for uh late mid late June one in June ju in July what are visioning sessions um so basically essentially coming up with a Community Vision based on the input that we received through the surveys and the meetings in the boxes and the crowdsourcing and that's what the steering committee is going be doing it's not right with Goldson so the the consultant is going to come back with all this input and help us draft the vision and goals yeah and it's a two-step it's a two-step meeting so we're doing three nights one night wow taking that information and then coming back and doing three hours that strikes me it's kind of the heart of the plan being put together there you know I I think I kind of asked this the night of the um joint meeting but I'm just concerned that the the results of this don't are probably not going to align with the fact that we're looking at two 40b projects to the tune of uh what 400 units yeah round it up and that on some level it feels um you know just disingenuous almost that we're putting you know this time and effort into coming up with that plan and yet there are so many things out of our hands that we have absolutely no control over and in terms of the future of this community well one thing I hopeful I mean these projects at some point will be over the 10% and will be back yeah yeah so I mean that's a good point um you know we're we're essentially already at our 10% um not technically but we've got enough units in the pipeline to B basically do that um you know if these two projects go through and let's just say at the unit count that they're proposed I'm not saying that that's going to happen or that should happen but essentially what happens is each sensus that's when they they basically get the housing units from each census and that's what they base their 10% off of so this would be 2020 already 2030 yeah so we're looking at 2020 numbers right now yeah so um 2030 they'll do a census and then you'll probably get the new numbers in 2031 2032 but my point being is that let's just say the 240b projects go through um you know we might be able to save off 40 BS for a couple of decades two or three decades um so I don't know if that's a silver line even no because I feel as though if these two projects go through that this community is drastically altered in the relatively near future and and forever and that who cares if you're in Safe Harbor in two for two decades if the you know the damage is done I mean that's that's what I'm saying and and I know you know that people put a lot of time and effort into the comprehensive plan and uh you know this is I don't want to make it sound or not be sensitive to that but it's just very frustrating I think to think that we're doing all this work to put forth a plan for this community that might not be attainable I think that's part of our job too is to to make sure that we're putting something together for 10 years we're not going to be able to like this plan is not just a snapshot in history like this is so we're looking to prioritize certain things whether it's you know the community comes back and tells us we need more sidewalks or we need to we need to preserve more open space that's more it's it's you know there's going to be more visioning like bigger picture things and then there will be smaller tactical things that we that we do and so there's going to be a couple levels of things and I think Direction Ally we're going to get the feedback from from all the Outreach that we've done and say okay you know the town because it's not going to be feasible for us to say the town if if the feedback is the town shouldn't grow you know yes that's not going to be aligned with what with what's what the reality on the ground is going to look like but we can start planning for okay how do we best utilize the resources that we have to create an environment that the the community is proud of for the next 10 years so it's it's not it's not a perfect it's so not a perfect fit and you know we've been talking about this since the very beginning that when we come up with these goals they have to be realistic in nature enough that we can Implement stuff because the worst thing that we can do honest to God the worst thing that we could do because we've been working on this for what seems like 10 years and feels like it sometimes like 10 years um the worst thing we can do is come up with a plan that looks great on paper and has zero applicability to what we're doing like that's the worst thing and so that's that's what we're that's what we're we're trying to to I and I think to just sort of piggy back on what Brandy said yes it may seem like why are we doing this plan and now we have these 4bs potentially coming in and impacting our community but I think there are still things we can generate from the comprehensive plan based on the feedback that we've gotten already from the forums and the surveys and the the crowd mapping and all that that we can still work to implement for the community even if we grow by these two projects to bry's point right there's open space that we can look at creating and working on the importance of creating the trail and how that impacts our community and once we have the plan create an implementation process as well so it's not just sitting on the shelf and even though we might be impacted in regards to additional residents I mean we're going to get additional residence whether it's through those projects or single family housing that gets built or things like that because there is still buildable land besides those two areas and those two projects if they happen certainly will impact our numbers more quickly but we haven't stopped growing as a community right our buildout that if you took number one thing in this community if we went out and talked to people in this community I I believe and I could be wrong would be density don't make this community denser than I would agree with you not just not prohibit you know um right there are people who say we don't want any more building in town right and we know that's not feasible right right that's I mean and between that and you know the type of density that we're talking about but that doesn't mean right isn't bad and that doesn't mean what we're doing with the comprehensive plan isn't still a positive thing for the community because there are other things besides housing that are going to be addressed right open space uh Recreation Fields things like that are sidewalks are all going to be part of this discussion you're going to have to walk because you're not yeah because you're not going to be able you're not going to be Drive you're going to take your bike on the trail that will get you through yes we do anyway so I I I I hear your your concern Claudia but I think the we need to continue the process for the comprehensive plan I'm not suggesting be aborted I'm suggesting that that the framework in my mind has changed from there has certainly been some things that will be changing but I think the process itself is still positive and how we can use it to continue to craft a community that we all still want to live in right because I know for myself it you know I I look at yes will these things change the community if they get built yes will that mean I won't want to stay in town I think because of the comprehensive plan and the potential of that and what it means for the community we still it'll still be a community that I want to be in it'll just be a little bit bigger and and the other thing is that you know our comprehensive plan deals with Ashland and you know we have we don't have any control over the other communities and like you know all the traffic that comes downtown during rush hour I I would say a majority of that is not Ash tra it's through traff yeah it's it's communities to the South and and stuff coming up to try to get to take a look what's going on at 135 in the morning hton coming in from coming in from the West units 900 un so I have a I have a question uh and and I know I I brought this up at the last uh joint planning board and select board meeting with a comprehensive plan group um it would have been nice to have uh an exclusionary zoning bylaw by now and I know that's on the agenda to to work on with you folks but the question that I want to ask is if the zoning board was willing to do some serious work and Zing board or planning board zoning board because inclusion zoning is under zba not under the planning board well it would it would be a zoning article that would go through the planning Bo so they would have to go okay all right so let me ask you that if there if there was wording for an inclusionary zoning bylaw we follow the process and have open Forum public forum the whole n it needs to be done Could That Could That become an article on the fall warrant this fall this fall I think you're going to get similar push back with some of these other things that are being proposed let's finish the comp let's finish the comprehensive the only reason why I say that is hear you well I it's not being heard it's being able to do something that gives a tool to our zba to to not restrict but at least provide some I'm going to even say the word safe haror but that's not even the right word I want right phrase I want to use but it's at least it gives them an opportunity to look at these developers and say okay we currently have a zoning we have an inclusionary zoning bylaw 25% you have to meet that 25% MH Y and if you can't do that pack up and leave yeah and I think as long as you're over your 10% um you know we can do that it can have a real meaningful impact yeah but can't you have inclusionary zoning even if you're not at your 10% I mean if anything includ zoning will help you get to your 10% I guess I guess what I'm saying is if you have it at like a 25% right your inclusion are zoning then basically a developer if you're not at your 10% your developer is more likely going to say look at that zoning and say I'm going to do a 40 B if I'm going to have to do 25% anyway and do something a lot more dense because because what we had when we were going through the process of developing an inclusionary zoning bylaw when we after we finished our housing production plan um one of the things that that was was clear was like you have to if if you're going to do inclusion Ariz zoning you have to allow for heavier density right so there's a tradeoff so if if I was a developer just like Michael said and if if you know if there's an inclusionary zoning bylaw that is 25% but doesn't quite meet the numbers that the town is willing to to go I would circumvent that and do a 4 be you know so and the other thing and we haven't talked about this but at the state level they're talking about auxiliary dwelling units and making them by right so right now we do not allow auxiliary dwelling units so let's say you have a house do it by Special by special permit okay by special perit because we have one I know that right so it's by special permit so what the state is looking for at is making it a bu right so that you know you have a house so like Joe right he has a house with a a we were looking at we were actually looking at that under the house production plan that was one of the recommendations that was thought we had that so is it going to be part of the comprehensive plan that's going to be the future I don't know that it hasn't been spoken we haven't discussed that detail comprehensive I thought that was kind of lwh hanging fruit that we were looking at so I think like one of the things that we're going to be doing is um you know going forward is looking at those sort of like Focus areas within the comprehensive plan so we haven't gotten we haven't drilled down to housing yet we haven't drilled down we're kind of we're going to get like our um like sort of the visioning you know we're going to kind of come up with sort of the vision for the community correct is we're looking at it and then we're GNA and then we're going to drill down to those specific topics so I think when we get to when we get to housing I guarantee you inclusionary zoning is going to come up probably an Adu bylaw like those things are like tactics that you can Implement and get you know if the if the if the Community Vision says we want more affordable housing those are ways to get more affordable housing so anyway I'm I'm done with my my no that's fine I just so I so I think I I hear you when when you say you want to get inclusionary zoning done as quickly as possible but I don't think we're going to be there yet with Comprehensive plan this started this discussion started when we were doing the charter review oh yeah oh I was Ser I was at the I was at the planning board like I was at the planning board meeting with an actual bylaw in hand to go to town meeting so I I want talk yeah during our first housing production plan so 2014 I think so here's my suggestion and I will but you guys are going to have this some sort of um you're going to have a retreat coming up sometime soon I would Joe I would go back to developing the Simpson property that we put off last year as a you know make that into a priority and build some housing it's already being worked on yeah well that's great so let's already being worked on yes that's great so that's I you know that's what we could anyway uh anything else on this one where are we think so that was comprehensive plan comprehensive Plan update so that gets us to board reports so uh Claudia we'll start with you as usual if that's all right I I think I've said plenty tonight um anything on Memorial Day you want to talk about oh there apparently there is nothing planned for Memorial Day but there will be I think anyone wants to plan something um yeah well I guess yeah okay so anyways um yeah I went to the uh had was participated in the school building minda School building meeting last night and they are are working as Michael mentioned too on the um some tax incentives based on um some of the energy saving sustainability features of the building so it's looks uh very exciting and we might know more about that by fall it sounded like so really good stuff um that's that's it for me thank you Brandy um so I just have a couple things so on um it was April 28th it feels like it was like six six years ago at this point but um uh Michael and I were at um Tommy King's uh Eagle Scout court of honor oh yeah um which was really great and it was actually you know he's he's such a good kid he's actually a classmate and friend of my son so my son actually came along and it's so rare that um I get my 17-year-old to do anything related to my my my Civic engagement um responsibility so it was really good to have him there but Tommy um his uh his Eagle Scout project was was work in um in Stone Park so built a bench and did some work on the trails and did some cleanup and um as always troop 232 um puts out some amazing Eagle Scouts and um we actually have another Eagle Scout um in June 1st which is coming up up I cannot make it so I was you'll be there okay all right um I think Susan did a proclamation so I think I don't know if Rob had signed it or anything yet but um I said happy to if yeah little yeah so he did he did a great job I'll be around till Monday I'll be in office until Monday okay so but um but as always thank you to to troop 232 for all the work that they do and for our Eagle Scouts all the the benefit to our community it's amazing um The Corner Spot is having their culture Fest this uh upcoming Saturday from 3:00 to 7: um it's always a good event there's a whole um schedule of performers and there's going to be food and Beverages and hopefully some sunshine and um that should be a good thing so people should definitely try to come out for that um and then I am volunteering I think Yolanda and maybe Michael as well at the reality Fair which is coming up on the 31st um over at the high school which is one of my favorite things that we do because um I love talking to the kids about what their next plans are after after high school but um Crush their dreams Crush their dreams so I get to talk to them so I so I get to talk to them about um charitable giving and community service which is like a really it's it's it's great because they get to us at the very end and usually um they go through this whole budget process so the whole reality fair is that the students um have a salary and then they go through all the the the booths so they have to learn how about to pay for rent and cars and insurance and dental and all those things that life skills and it scares the beesus out of them which is awesome because I think I think our speaking of of a parent of a teenager I think a little bit of a reality check is not a bad thing so I I love it that so they get a Sal a monthly salary based on the career that they've picked but their credit score and what they can do with it is based on their attendance so I think that's pretty funny that's that's very it is it's good so um looking forward to that um student council puts out a it's a they're the the sponsors of it and they do a they do a great job and there's lots of great volunteers that come out too so and um that is it for me thanks Joe thank you Mr chair that's the last time I can say that yeah to me anyway for you anyway right um I just want to give a recognition to uh a high school senior who uh a local senior who uh won the Daughters of the American revolution essay award and um Emily mholtz was uh elected uh selected as a seven uh seven area good citizen winner award so congratulations to uh Emily uh that's quite the honor and uh how to make Ashan uh be proud and put ashin back on the map again with the daughters of American Revolution um we've had a couple of uh traffic study safety committee meetings and though we would like to be able to resolve all the issues that residents are are providing telling us about uh we can't have uh pedestrian crosswalks at every corner it's just it's just impossible to do um so we ask just to be you know be aware of it but what I did see today uh coming back from um Gillette Stadium in Mass General Brigham's Hospital down there by Gillette Stadium when we went through this uh town of Norton I don't know why we don't have it they have three signs no horns on the tracks have you seen them no but they're massive and I'm saying to myself wait a minute why can't we have those the railroad ra tracks me they have a quiet Zone they have a quiet Zone well they right smack in the middle of the town and and that's all they have they don't have the bars up I think I I think I because I had the same question so I I think I can maybe is it because it's only one tra one track I I think it's because they have the same thing in in Acton South act and there's a warning no horn will be sounded at this something like that at the gate right yeah so I think it's because it's just the NBTA that's my recollection when I asked about it so if you're on a federal Freight Line like we are yeah it's a an AM track okay it's a different set of rules we're a major some of these are kind of not wait did you say Norton or Norwood Norton right downtown Norton there's a there's a ra there's a railroad station right there they're not even a quiet Zone it's just right they're not even a quiet zone I'm not sure so what what has happened um is that communities that had established quiet zones before these new federal rate regulations came in were grandfathered in oh okay and it could be what you said Rob I I I hadn't heard that but I do know that there's a lot of communities in the Commonwealth with with quiet zones that didn't have to do any of like this the infrastructure upgrades because they were grandfathers which is what we had what are the issues that we have and I found all that paperwork I found that the graphic designs of the redesigning of that that whole intersection found it all I had it in a file on I got find our quiet Zone quiet Zone and um I saw the traffic Island I went all the way up to m road so that eliminated truck traffic turning from Park Road down to munko Road it I mean I'm looking at the design I'm going wow I got to bring this back up so at some point no well but but our quiet zone is still being looked at but it's been pushed the funding for it has been pushed out because of the tip process so our quiet Zone hasn't gone away that we know of but there's issues because of the number of incidents we've had on our tracks you would think that that would that that might change they might then to say you know what we're not going to let you do a quiet zone right isn't that one of the we're still researching it and we haven't found out for sure that's a concern I was going to talk about a little bit my board but it is um yeah so that they don't have to they don't have to go along with a quiet Zone that was the astonishing thing right they don't and lastly uh uh one of our finest citizens in town uh said celebrated her I'll say 93rd birthday Marie Kane so happy birthday Marie it was a couple of weeks ago yeah it's happy birthday thank you and that's all I have Mr chair and again thank you for your service to our community apprciate both on the field and and off the field thank you y a couple of things so back on May 3rd I had the the honor of interviewing our Senate President Karen spilka as part of the weimo event which is women elected Municipal officers that we had about 30 or 35 people on the zoom call so that was fun to do then on May 4th we had Greenup Ashland we missed you Brandy uh Greenup Ashland is always a fun day they had a really nice turnout they send out a great email to sort of summarize the amount of trash and it was quite a bit and on that same day we have to thank Mina our uh director at the public at our library she had the first Ashland mini renaissance fair and again it was just a great event the number of people that came in there was a vendor from upstate New York that came in so a lot of people were brought in and it's nice to see events like this because it just brings more people to Ashland and that was nice in strange costumes in strange costumes in interesting costumes right it's the Renaissance Fair uh we talked about early voting is still happening this Friday and then the election is the 21st uh the YMCA little bit upd update there they have hired a firm to start looking at the architecture and the design and moving that project forward they're getting ready to hire an attorney and potentially start filing some forms with the town of Ashland in regards to building that they're looking at potentially doing a phased process based on the funding so we have $5 million from the Federal ederal government to do a Early Learning Center as part of the project and then we also have $2.5 million already from math works so the the first goal is about 40 million with 20 million being raised and then they'll fund the rest uh so there'll be a small there'll be a smaller footprint and then the Aquatic Center is potentially going to be in phase two um but the new design and the orientation of it looks really good uh then as Brandy said the reality fair I'm looking forward to a slightly different role I've usually been in the budget I've usually been those the last person one of the last people that they see to review it and this year a new table has been created for public service government so not necessarily Civic and but talking about the role of a town manager in the select board and Jack Lewis will be there and someone from Senator spilka's office talking about engagement how you can part participate and be part of public government uh and then the last thing not really Town related but if you're not doing anything on Saturday May 25th it is the um Saturday Memorial Day weekend if you want to go see a local company do the ballet capellia at the Norwood Theater there's a performance at 2 and 7:30 should be lots of fun and just seeing some live local dancers great and that's all I got thank you y um just a a few quick things in my last address uh last board report um one thing I I did I did want to give a shout out to Makita Keegan who is still smiling at us there you know it it does it's it makes me good feel good that she'll be coming in uh to this board and I think that's great that she came forward so I want to thank her for for doing that um you're still smiling Makita so that's good all right um and I just a quick uh you know I am I'm still on the MBT thumbs up I'm still on the MBTA Advisory Board until up and less until you folks yank me off it um and um went to um just in terms of your your future planning we saw uh we got a presentation on the future Capital plan which involved a lot of electrification um and new new battery what they call uh electric battery um engines that won't need overhead catary lines which are very that's like Amtrak so and so there's a bit of that they can do but this line is not really slated for a ton of that but it is slated for an increase over the few year over the next few years I don't know how long it'll take them to their goal is 30 minute service so clockfaces every 30 minutes which is great great if you use commuter rail if you got local traffic conditions you know it's it's it means 30 minutes through that uh every 30 minutes we'll see a yeah um and plus the freight plus Amtrak so something to keep in mind you know so maybe that's something M can use to when he talk traffic it's important yeah yeah it is it is a major and important rail Crossing it's not just us it's Freight it's Amtrak you know so anyway so I thought and I just did want to note that recent natic tragedy on the tracks which did everybody you were one of just horrible on the train not on the train that that unfortunately I wasn't on the train the sorry um I wasn't on the train I was on a train behind it yeah um so I had a three-hour commute home until they were able to pull us into NAC Center and then we were able to get off at nix Center and then I convinced my husband to come pick me up so but um but it's but two two people lost their lives and it's always just such a tragedy and it just um so and I did want to as that as well being on a train and our train didn't hit it but then someone else and oh you were as well not this time but probably about four or five years ago so I mean one thing as we think about as you folks think about the quiet Zone these are all complicated factors so we have yet apparently accidental deaths again so we've got some and I've asked for um you know safety information and safety analysis but have not really received any so I'm going to go back again and say what do you guys what are you folks doing on a systemwide basis to look at these things so something to think about um but I told you they did get I got a very negative response about a quiet Zone especially they're starting to feel the pressure the heat when these when people are getting killed you know quiet zones reced in priority to them so anyway think about slowing the trains down instead of going as fast as they had and they don't slow down they don't slow down through our Center but I'm sure na did was all anyway but anyway so um I just wanted to update you on that and so I think that's it as I come to an end here so thank you all again very nice ceremony it's great to be recognized and appreciated um so many of us do so much of this and don't take the time to kind of uh uh have that little discussion or are just appreciation I certainly appreciate and appreciate all you folks uh working with you all these years so anyway I I'll speak for another 20 minutes and then we can go home motion to adjourn we want we want to hear it like Jack Kennedy though motion to adjourn okay move I'll second that all those in favor say I I thank you rob thank you

e e e I'm sorry what you e e e welcome to the May 16th 2024 meeting of the Anarbor renters commission the purpose of the renters commission is to advise the city council and the city administrator in matters affecting renters in the city the Anarbor renters commission is made up of voting members who are appointed by the May mayor and approved by city council two non-voting city council Liaisons two non- voting members representing different landlord perspectives and the non- voting representative this meeting is being recorded during any of the public comment opportunities you'll be able to speak through the webinar link or by phone depending on your method of access to this meeting for phone access please call 877 853 5247 or 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 9358 801 941 to be called on to speak callers must press star9 if listening by phone or using the rais hand feature if viewed through the web link a2gov.org renters commmission meeting you will then be called upon by City staff one by one using the last three digits of their phone number or by username if available for those accessing through the web link you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak please state your name at the beginning of your comments City staff will indicate when callers have 30 seconds left of their three minute comment period after three minutes they'll be placed on mute so that we can proceed to the next speaker moving on to roll call please state the city or Township state where you're attending the meeting from I'm uh commissioner Ratcliffe I'm here calling from Ann Arbor Michigan um commissioner Farah Farah is not present um commissioner Chen yes I'm here I'm calling from anber Michigan thank you commissioner Celly is absent tonight commissioner dran is from an arbor okay oh there you are thank you commissioner um is it Al you got it I'm here in Anor as well good evening commissioner Lo is absent tonight commissioner Tibbits I am here in an arbor welcome commissioner Rosen I'm hearing an aror as well um commissioner Ratcliff I'm here calling from Ann Arbor commissioner Thomas is absent commissioner Pitts here from an arbor welcome um commissioner good here and an arbor welcome commissioner um Rina I'm sorry council member Rina is not on uh council member Harrison here from man Arbor welcome um we do not have a quum so we can't move to approve the agenda correct that's right um but since since without Quorum is sort of informal if there's anything that would like to change or add be kind of flexible okay um is there anything some anyone would like to change on the agenda or should we if not we'll just move forward see I don't see any hands raised so we'll just move forward on the agenda um again we don't have Quorum so we'll wait until the next meeting uh to approve April's minutes um we're g to move on to the first general public comment there'll be another public comment opportunity near the end of this meeting Kristen whenever you're ready right if anyone would like to address the renters commission about any topic for up to three minutes public comment can be made by phone by calling 877 853 5247 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 941 can also join um the meeting from the zoom web link and that link is a2gov.org renters commission meeting just a minute there are no attendees okay then we'll move forward um there's there isn't any unfinished business so we'll move on to new business the uh first item under new business is an update from the tenant education committee and Outreach events um see Jamie do you wanna yeah um I can give a little summary we met I think it was last week um a couple of us met um and I had drafted a just kind of a general work plan draft kind of Choose Your Own Adventure style um with some suggestions for what the tenant education committee could focus on um if they choose you know depending on who um comes on as new Commissioners and who's interested and what they're interested in doing um I kind of split things up based on just my guess of how long um certain tasks would take just so it was a little bit easier um to kind of um parse out depending on you know what other things people have commitments to and how much time they have um so and unfortunately I don't have the ability to share my screen um but we can definitely have Kristen share this out um and I can just run through some of the things that we um talked about potentially um doing uh we discussed coordinating like semi-regular speakers um from local organizations uh sharing local resources for our regular um Runners commission meetings um the thought of a newsletter came up maybe something either monthly or quarterly um and have that distributed to the renters commission um list serve um we discussed maybe some infographics uh describing different tenant education or tenant rights um materials either if someone was interested in producing new materials or um seeing what was out on online already existing um that seemed like a good fit to share with tenants um and then one of the things I think that was discussed um and correct me if I'm wrong but it seemed like more of a higher priority of interest um was maybe focusing on um how to get some of the tenant um education materials like the rights and duties booklet um translated into different languages so that they're a little more accessible for members of the community because right now that it only exists in English um and then I think we I don't remember the person's name Ros need to feel free to jump in if you do but there was like a um accessibility coordinator maybe at the city we have the Ada coordinator um and at last night's Codi meeting what she suggested was um actually like getting a list of or talking with fair housing because they have a lot of the like Ada kind of accommodations and modifications Come Through the Fair Housing Act um and Kodi itself said that they like they said that they'd be interested and that it would we kind of work on that a little bit during the summer what's Kodi yeah oh sorry it's the commission on disability issues um one thing that I had noticed about the the rights and duties uh booklet is that there's nothing in there um that do discusses anything about what to do if you have a disability and you need to like say request a modification or accommodation from your landlord um who has to pay for it if you do what they how that process is supposed to work um also trying to make sure that it's accessible um for example while we have the regular printed versions we don't necessarily have like a large print version of it I think that there must there must be somebody at the city who's responsible for ADA compliance because the the booklet itself and not accessible would fall under the Ada as opposed to fair housing so I don't know right that that is we're talk right and we have an ADA coordinator but the the contents of the book itself um that kind of what the what it says is that it uses input from you know staff community members organizations can all provide input and um we do have individuals with disabilities who are renters in the city and the city itself is responsible for giving out um the vouchers that are specif like HUD you know the HUD vouchers that are specific to people with disabil is the the net vouchers so yeah that'd be good to include some information that that also includes information because people are aging in place and while they may not have had a disability when they were younger now that they're older they might need a bath uh a rail in the bathroom or something perfect yeah thank you explaining that Rosita um and I think the only other thing that we discussed um as a potential um something to focus on for the near future um and we have to give credit to Zachariah because this was his idea um a right to renew like timeline calculator so coming up with something that is a little bit easier to for a tenant to enter in like their lease start date and then spit out you know what is the actual date that they have until um to give their tenant a response or am I saying that right if they want to renew or not that that time period um yeah so I think those are the main things that we talked about um I also offered to um record attempt to record a um like a stream tutorial and that is on my to-do list for this weekend so um I will share that with Kristen once I'm able to um get that recorded and you all can do what you wish with it but yeah I think that's everything that we discussed for the most part um feel free to jump in if I'm leaving anything out though I think that was most of it um does anyone else have anything to add because I think we met twice between the last meeting and this and this meeting um I don't see anyone with their hand raised so just want to say thank you Jamie I know that it's a lot especially the the recording and I think um once everyone has a chance to see the the plan then we can um you know have it on the agenda for next month's meeting to go over it see if there are any questions okay we're going to move on to agenda item 7B um discussing the right to renew complaint Pro uh process um and I'll be honest I don't remember what we were supposed to discuss about this Kristen help I think there was interest in seeing um the complaint forms to kind of see how the updated forms are functioning and like what people are complaining about if there are any Trends um and then we have John Riser here who can provide um like additional clarification if if available for any of them um and maybe John can give us an overview of What complaints they're seeing and update us on what's happening with those well I was in court on one today actually um so the the forms that Christen did on the uh on the old ordinance and the new revised ordinance have been great in um kind of funneling the complaints down to um what violates the ordinance or not the process is really gotten smoother over time as we kind of get our hands around it um a complaint will go will come in and uh sometimes landlord attorneys um or tenant Union organizations or renters commission members direct members of the public to to file a complaint and we thank you for those and and they'll they'll come in with the form I don't did you share the forms with them are they in the packet Kristen so you have the forms you know what the forms look like and then Janet frell kind of does triage she's in rental housing on the first floor and if you know she'll calls it out if if she doesn't think it it uh violates our ordinance and then if she does she'll hand it on over to rental housing inspector Pete H and Then Pete will uh do some follow-up investigation talk to the complainant usually talk to the to the landlord um or the rental you know res the agent and then uh issue an infraction so I've got one going for fail to notify the tenant of the terms and condition of a renewal prior to 180 days violated the right to renew or the renewal ordinance had a call today about the the the the you know the uh six-month Dodge um um have another one that's uh I'm looking at these These are these are actual tickets in fractions that that are that are pending in court but so um like Pete will write the infraction uh and and it's often they didn't let the tenant know and the Tenant was um uh kind of left in the Lurch not having a place to go so that was a ticket we had one of those where the landlord has agreed to pay the two month um uh in the statute so of their own accord they agreed to it and that was a landlord that um you know got an attorney and said we just screwed up we didn't we didn't we missed we oops I'm we're sorry we're doing that so um you know kind if you have specific questions I don't know if Kristen did you provide them kind of the overview that Pete put together in a redemp okay yeah I added Pete so Pete provided like an emailed update of of some cases that are kind of active on his plate right now and I included that in the um uh like kind of like that redactive report that included like date information and then the Complaint Form um so you have that information um would you say that it's like would you they like in the forms are working the way that they should or um are there things that could be improved with them or anything like that I see Jamie's hand is raised too so yeah just a quick question I noticed and I was going to look it up but um I noticed these have a code case number do they get entered into stream they are in stream but I don't believe that they are um I don't think they're publicly searchable and so um I guess that's all the information I have on that the 22 just identifies the year that case was created and you'll see that's consistent I believe with the opened date also on here um so so they're all kind of like official in the system complaints okay Gail I see your hand too so John I'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit about like what happens once once uh Pete decides that there's an infraction how are how are these following up like where where have they gone from there and then I also have a question you you mentioned the six-month Dodge so I guess I'm curious since since the way the right to renew ordinance end was is written is that it has to be think months or more what's happening with those cases right well um if you remember the language was tweaked a little bit to make that clear I'm going to pull it up right now window and what I meant by that coly is that they'll have a tenant sign simultaneously a pair of six-month leases thinking that they're uh getting around the ordinance in the ordinance now says in uh chapter 105 8 530 I think it talks about total duration of yeah yeah yeah I'm looking for that yeah you I both know it does but where does it say that um it says it at B 531b well under the old one or the new one under the I'm looking at the new one oh I'm looking I'm I'm got to go to the clerk's website for that D are you sure that 531 is a new one didn't we get rid of 531 and combine them all into 530 it I'm sorry I it it's 5:30 section one um subsection B right leases with less yes less than eight months total duration yes so that that's so Pete's Pete's looking into one of those right now um so we're getting complaints about those um oh sorry my light just went off in the city hall um and then I guess the other question was back to what happens once there's been an infraction well if there's been an infraction issued they'll they'll uh we always we always set it for a formal hearing and you can infractions can be an informal hearing which would go in front of a magist R and then uh you can't be represented by attorney including the housing officer the rental housing inspector rather so we'd rather I want to be involved on them to know what's going on and I want to make sure that we know about it so there we we we ask for a Fullmer hearing which sets them in front of a judge they go on Judge Perry's docket um and and uh I'll be there sometimes a landlord will have a an attorney sometimes they won't the attorney will call me and I'll some some attorneys know about the law and some frankly don't um like the one this morning that we adjourned they it's not a registered rental they don't have a certificate of compliance they they messed up a couple ways on the uh on the right to renew so they actually had two tickets with two counts a piece four counts so it got adjourned for for all for the the the the owner you know somebody that owned a house in an arbor moved out of state thought it'd be fun to kind of rent in an arbor not knowing how tricky it can be and all the rights that you know that the tenants have and they're committed to kind of getting it right um so we we haven't uh you know usually it's an adjudication and a plea of responsible um and you know we try to you know one of the things Pete and I are kind of focused on is how was the tenant harmed in harmed in this one um you what what was you know what does the was the tenant not able to secure housing somewhere impacted or do they have to get more expensive in housing so you know what what what do the what does the tenant kind of feel about it as a factor I see Ros Anita's hand I don't know if I'm to call or I guess she's the chair she can call on herself I am but you know I wanted to wait my turn right um I guess I had one question but your answer kind of gave me a second question or followup um or they're both related I guess I'll start with since they didn't have an actual um legal rental then does that end up in stream as not complying with that like is there something formal and stream if someone if it turns out someone's rental unit wasn't legal I would think so and I think that would be a question more for Pete or Christian you have access to that database I don't know if you access it to it now you know that if it's not a registered rental or a legal rental you can escrow rent right that that's that's something that can happen um or CFC but I guess I'm not sure I can um look up and stream if I guess they would be C case violations are public but it might not be set up yet if it's not registered let me see what I can find what what kind of violations AR public I'm not sure what um like the registration and information about like being a register rental would be in scen but I don't think got the um code case like the H code 2024 and then the number I don't think that those are I guess while you're looking that at my other question is um with the ELO after you know with the complaint um those it sounds like those aren't also aren't searchable within stream um and so if they do sorry my legal terminology kind of eludes me right now but if they do kind of plead guilty or are found guilty of violating the ordinance then does will that eventually end up in stream down the line like how if like how would it be for like me as a renter to know that say I'm looking at a place to find out oh this this landlord here continuously you know violates this particular ordinance or oh this one here like they're fantastic they you know there's nothing in here about them we certified rental shows in stream and then um from there you can see information about the rental and then I think also possibly the inspection um oh the certificate of compliance and then for inspections um is what you're I think what you're asking is well I don't think there's information on in Jordan or or Bob as landlords or John Riser um kind of like the absence of something isn't end stream but like if something if they do have an inspection or they do have a registered rental that would be in stream but I don't believe that it show that there's um like available information on violations like they don't have yeah that's a little unclear to me about what violations are in there and what are not I frequently will look up a house like say a student or a parent contacts me as like can you look this up and I will look up the house and I can see where like it's been posted on inhabitable or something um but maybe John would have a better idea like what ticket level gets into stream and what doesn't that that's something that isn't clear to me but there are it's not a cut and dry that there are violations don't get into stream because they do and if you have a bad inspection and you fail it that's in there um but I'm unclear on like what level of ticket would get in there and what would not if that makes sense because usually the ones that I see are like more egregious that it was posted non-compliant or posted on inhabitable or whatever um that more agre cases I'm just thinking like with ELO when you're going to have some that are continuous complaints and so at what point is that going to be visible and where would that be visible and that's a good question and I don't know because I don't use the stream database I get my stuff from the rental housing inspector about he gives me uh a complaint he gives me the documentation he gives me the opinion and then really what he gives me is he gives me a ticket that shows up on a docket so I you know I've been texting Pete and I guess a followup question or some you know would be hey how can a how can a tenant or a prospective tenant use the stream database to find out whether a landlord has violated rental housing law either with respect to inspections registration or early lease oring in the future to know what what kind of landlord they might be dealing with I think that's what your query might be rosanita yes it is thank you for making it clear for me yeah like how do I find the Scoundrels that makes sense I mean I think we could probably look at this list too right like I mean there are some companies that are on here that the resolution that says got a ticket so I guess we're kind of moving through maybe I'll take a peek a couple of those um as we're going through and talking about other things too because I mean some of these do say a was issued So in theory if that's going to be in stream it would be in stream I would think um though some of these are closed date of like two weeks ago so I'm not sure but I'll look a couple up while we're sitting here wouldn't the tickets be searchable on the court website well yes you can do that I was going to talk about the JIS uh system so you could go into the court system and type in a name of a landlord to see now I don't know how much detail they're going to have there other than the DAT it was showed up on the docket whether it was adjourned to a new date whether it was adjudicated how much the fines and costs were um and and whether and how when were they paid so you could you could do that I don't know yes that'd be one way the to the 15 district court system yeah kind of going back to what you were saying rosanita um I I just feel like stream would be a really logical place I know we have talked before about tracking um violations for early leasing ordinance and um I think the fact that it there wasn't really a great system um for tenants to know or even I think for the commission I I believe this is the first time we've gotten like a report this is awesome like this information as a tenant would be really helpful um for someone that was you know trying if they had the ability to shop around um I think this would be really nice and a way to improve transparency around some of this stuff um I understand maybe you don't want to put everything in there but I think with the things that are reacted I I would think that would be a fair um a fair thing to have accessible to tenants the information in the report is information that would be provided if um if Foy so if somebody were to request kind of specifically these documents um I'm not sure that rental housing would prepare them in the same format but um the information would be like the city would have to per it I know that's very different from being able to easily search it and you're from a website um it is an option in the meantime possibly yeah because I was just thinking like if you were already going on stream to see like is this property do they have an updated you know certificate of compliance how many violations of early leasing Ordinance do they have um it would take like two weeks by the time I mean it would take less possibly but yeah yeah I I realize it's not super realistic if somebody's kind of looking for housing right now but I mean it's better than than nothing and um it's a good and it's a it's a start to to have it in there right um so would it be better if you contacted rental housing about that Kristen or if John contacted them about that is the question um can you make these visible to the public on stream and I know that instream from kind of the the inside you can select what's visible and what's not so there's all kinds of um I maybe not all kinds but you would just like check to have it be available to the public or not um so I'm not sure if housing code cases like these are set up to do that that's something I can ask for sure that's um if you could that'd be that'd be great so we would kind of know where to go from there right yeah because just the address having a um like a even if the status was kind of like if if they were issued a citation rather than just complaints um because I feel like a complaint in like the unfinished status like I a lot of the maybe not a lot but several of the complaint forms were like tenant wants to remain anonymous but if there's like a date and the apartment or the landlord or something the landlord there's maybe enough information there to to deduce who the tenant is but maybe after the case is closed um so I'll ask rental housing and see kind of what they're what they're thinking on okay thank you um let's see I don't see any more hands are there any more um questions comments concerns about um this agenda item number okay then we're going to move on to item 7c on the agenda um the discussion about the update on the for the weight list or junk fees um really I think the big qu the main question is is there movement on it um and can we ex I know that it's budget season and all that right now so it's not like we expect it on the agenda on Monday but um is it POS is it that's that's on my lap and it hasn't been moving as fast as frankly Travis and uh uh you know council member Harrison wanted to so that's that's on my that's on my plate uh I'm going to be working with a colleague of mine another assistant City attorney and we're going to get a draft together that that we will um share with uh council members Harrison and Rina and hope to have that a draft of that in a couple weeks Gail Rosen was kind enough to supply me with some examples and list things of various fees that that some landlords uh that landlords charge so thank you for that Galaxy your hands up but I appreciate what you sent us and to to me and Jen so is there any other information we can provide to you to help no just some examples of these uh so you know one of the things we're going to have to do is Define them and then we're going to have to just then regulate them so is any fee that that a landlord uh charge outside of rent a junk fee or there's some legitimate fees so and I guess Jordan and and Bob and any other landlords would you know um you can share with with with uh with us or this commission um your thoughts on you know what what's a legitimate fee or what what's a what's a junk fee what's a fee that is something that a landlord should be able to charge and what's just a Shakedown for money you know I I I don't know is a lockout fee a junk fee if the agent has to drive in to let a tenant in I you know I is a is it a junk fee if the tenant incurs something through parking on the lawn or doing something that um the incurs a cost of the landlord that gets passed on so is that a junk fee or is that a non- junk fee so you know defining it and then regulating it is going to be the tricky part it's easy to say junk fee but that's not what our ordinance is going to say Obviously uh Jordan yeah I mean John you and I have talked about this a little bit but some of the things that you and I have talked about are you know I mean these tremendous weight list fees that essentially you know lock people in to leasing from one landlord with no promise of a lease that totally changed the power Dynamic um you know yes there are some costs to operating a business there is a cost to do um you know a a reference check sometimes there's time that's spent to do that there are um yeah costs to have a maintenance person go in but if the fee is you know $350 for a lockout or something I mean there there are levels at which it's that's just not there's no argument for that you're just trying to cover your expenses as a landlord weight list and pre-tenancy fees you know having to pay for a cleaning fee before you've moved in seems pretty absolutely so there's some things that are cut and dry but again I mean I I think we should be deferring to the tenants to Define to us what what are the fees that are affecting them and that are that are you know making it impossible to either stay in a place or to find places like those and and I think the tenants Union's petition does give us a pretty good guide for what tenants are asking for and I think we really need to to make sure that we're working to Center the tenants voices and the tenants experiences and since I know Julia is a renter I will um I will step down for for her comments but I think those are the big things is that we we need to to work with the tenants to figure out what this should be go ahead Julia so I was kind kind of wondering about looking at the um pre-tenancy fees you know the weightless fees have been the kind of really off the charts things you know the late fees have always been a pain in the neck obviously you weren't burden more than $10 while you're charging 75 you know that kind of thing but this having to pay a month and a half or a month rent in advance really feels to me like they're asking security deposits from seven different people people um and I'm wondering if there's not some way to tighter Define the security deposit is if you're taking money in advance for a unit that it needs to be treated like the security deposit right because what I did notice is that some of those weight lft fees they're non-refundable in in some cases and so if I pay $500 $700 $2,000 and it's non-refundable and you know I need to be in a place in two weeks or well in a month and then you don't contact me for three months it shouldn't I should have a way to be able to cancel that and get my money back or not pay that in the first place really yeah um other go ahead Gale yeah and additionally like I you know what I sent to to to John where some of the the fees or the charges that I see through the tenants that that I see and a lot of them are just these hidden fees that you know you don't they're not part of your you know if you if someone says hey we're going to lease this unit to you for $1,500 a month you know and then later you find out and you know you have to get renters insurance which is not a bad idea but you know a lot of landlords require it um and by the way there's going to be an administrative fee just for fun you know there's going to be a no hassle fee you need to get have a valet trash service and we're going to charge you for the valley trash service um I'm just looking at other fees that I've seen oh and at the end of the lease we're going to Define all the charges that we can charge your security deposit so if a screen's broken we're going to charge you $100 the screen might not cost $100 but they're setting up all these fees that are just kind of hidden in in the lease a feed a suble not that there isn't you know potentially um Jordan said work that needs to be done and there are some fees attached to that but they're just they're just all hidden a fee to find someone to take over your lease um you know all of these all of these fees in addition to the the weightless fees which are also onerous it just makes it it makes it ridiculously expensive to um to try to rent and and it's and and it they're so hard to predict that it makes it very hard for at least the students that I see for them to have to be able to budget to have a really good idea of what they're going to the cost they're going to incur when they when they sign a lease agreement so it to me it sounds like between what Gale gave what the tenants Union is set there's enough to go on to have a rough draft of the resolution not sorry the ordinance um and to and to go from there um I don't know who raised their hand first if it was Jamie or Julia um I'll go alphabetical with Jamie oh thank you um I just wanted to throw this out there I don't know if this would quite fit under the junk fe's umbrella um and my suggestion wouldn't be like doing away with it Al together but I do think it's um interesting the way that pet rent um varies quite a bit among different landlords I know some don't let you have pets you know at all um but I think in in my opinion there's an amount that is more reasonable for a pet and then there are amounts that kind of dip into the territory of um it doesn't seem as reasonable um especially when there is that pet deposit paid up front and then obviously any damages that your pet caused you would be responsible for you know taking out of your deposit at least I think um yeah the pet fees is one of those things that I think just really the disparity of you know who is able to have a pet you know the enjoyment of a pet in their home is kind of something I would be curious about I think some of the examples you were giving John they don't you know you were like if somebody parked on the lawn or something there's damages versus fees so when it's the things like Gail listed that that should just be in the rent of course you're going to create garbage right I yeah so I I do have a draft and I have a draft that uh addresses apption fees and pre-tenancy weight list fees but what that needs to be expanded to include fees um that are that are junk fees th so those need to be defined and and uh articulated in the ordinance and so what you sent Gail was very helpful and uh if others want to send me ex to to Kristen examples of fees uh that they've seen uh um the please do so thank you don't have but we're we're interested in seeing them thank you John and um thank you for clarifying that there is that there's a draft um and that letting us know that there's definite movement that's that's happening with this um I think that's kind of been one of the big concerns is until now we didn't know that there was like a physical draft yet um let's see I don't see any more hands and so we will go ahead and move on to the next item on the agenda um which is an update on the city budget and the rental housing um inspector's full-time request um employee request denial uh Kristen thank you um I had shared previously um a link to the budget explaining um that rental housing was asking for a few um staff members and um that was not correct um the budget listed I think like development services inspector or something like that and it turns out that they are for um um uh like trade inspectors like um electric plumbing mechanical dangerous buildings and they're to be paid for out of the construction fund um those in addition to kind of the the other like permit Le aison position um also would be for Construction Services paid for out of the construction fund so there are no um requests for fulltime time employees for rental housing as part of the uh request uh to City Council on Monday my understanding is that rental housing did initially request and that um kind of as the budget preparation process or as part of that process um they did not make it to the final round my understanding is that that's the case for um multiple departments who were seeking uh full-time employees um to be paid for in general Leisa sh that they do intend to request again next year and that after they kind of get through um this budget and posting the new positions and hiring and training that they'll be able to focus a little bit more on um kind of like gathering information to demonstrate need if that's a priority for them simp will say the same for um the next fiscal year and in order to show um that there's a a need um I think we had kind of briefly talked on this one onone but is there is like I haven't seen a form you know that from that a tenant can use to kind of make that complaint request in another inspection saying you know the fire alarm broke BR it's on the floor and it just they've never replaced it I've asked like five times yeah so I'm not aware of a like a general Complaint Form like that I know that um rental housing staff like Janet and Brandy receive complaints like that by email and I think the website directs complaints to be submitted by email so I'm not sure how rental housing um kind of keep track of that data for like what types of complaints they receive the most of and when and how many um I'm not sure um if they're in stream um or if they're kind of like a in a paper file I think those are good um those are good pieces that would demonstrate need I think it would show the volume of work to enforce code um so I think rental housing like I it would be totally appropriate for the renters commission to offer again to help um like with data collection or to appeal to council or um kind of ask if there is any way uh to assist with demonstrating um so I'm happy to kind of relay that if that's what you'd like um or if you wanted to put something kind of more formal together that would be fine too um oh uh Julia go ahead um I think it makes sense uh to maybe meet with them in the end of the summer or something so that we have some time coming up on the next budget where we can have a little bit more documentation and we can actually talk as a group and try to figure it out you know it seems a little bit like if the the regularly time schedule isn't being met because there's a backlog of waiting Inspections just on the regular uh by anual whatever the the schedule is um that that in itself is like evidence that they need it but if there's some other way you know we can discuss to figure out how best to make this argument to counil and it's totally possible that rental housing um kind of prepared that information and provided it to um like City and the city administrator and other staff who kind of prepare the budget that eventually gets to counsel so um if they'd be willing to confirm or share information on that I can ask too um so I guess it's not to say I guess we don't know that they didn't um kind of do that but I I'm just not sure how it was weighted like among other needs at the City by decision makers I can certainly ask yeah if you could ask and um you know let us know what they say then and I think that would help us know how to go forward is that right Julia sorry does um anyone else have any thing on on the rental inspections or Staffing for inspections uh I do if I can I got I've been texting Pete and he said uh uh first of all tenants can search stream to find out with this regard registrations just because there's a registration doesn't mean there's a registration by the owner finally it doesn't mean that there's a certification either usually the paper registrations are followed up with an inspection over time uh so if a tenant wants to look up look it up 99% of the time they'll find if they see the address listed said they find that it has been issued a license they can see it online if there are any problems they should give me a call so you folks might want to have rental housing as a guest and I know chrisan you've reached out uh like hey can you give us a an overview of stream or how to use it or what what can a tenant find out there how how a prospective tenant can use stream to their advantage to to to see if that's somewhere they want to rent or not and that's something we could reach out to Pete to get honestly it's not a database I use much now was that was Pete's answer for complaints or was it for like that that was for that and I'm sure he'll have a good answer for complaints I just don't want to text a guy at n at night you can give him a chance to prepare sure yeah I think I mean we we we understand the function of stream as far as like the certificate of occupancy I think the big question is when people are being issued these citations what shows up in stream um you know to be more clear with questions yeah yeah maybe the tenant guide to City databases whether it's stream or whether it's um JIS for the court systems and you know what what what what gives you what what each gives you by results are those things that we can request from the court and from Building Services or are those things we we'd have to make it ourselves h no it's it's it's a public facing uh uh database that you go oh no I meant I meant the you know kind of oh how stream for beginners yeah know for renters yeah you could develop a committee to do or beg Kristen to help with or Pete or you know staff could do it and then you could review it that might be something that would be helpful it seems like kind of something along the lines of the the video that Jamie was looking at preparing maybe kind of like a companion PDF to go with that would be helpful um and I think rental housing would be a great resource for kind of confirming the information I'm not sure that they would be able to devote staff time to creating it it would be nice to know what information we can get as renters um because you know even with Jamie um making the video this weekend it's wanting to make sure that we we do have the list of what you can find or search for um does anyone else have question or comment all right then we'll go ahead and move forward um to planning for the 7e planning for the next meeting um does anyone have something in particular that they'd like to see on the agenda for for next month um I'll go with an up no well I'll start with an um for next meeting um you know of course approving the the minutes from last month and this month um hopefully a new update from John about the um the junk fee ordinance um and an update about was it discussing the outcomes of the tenant Education meeting that we had um this month as well um Julia um I'd like it if uh council members could give an update on the vacancies and I know that there's been applications and hopefully some of them can move on to city council so we can have a fuller [Music] commission um I do know that we the um after last month's meeting Travis did put forward um Michelle Le is her last name and as one um and I haven't and that one did go before but because she's not a resident of the city um I think it has like a second Vote or something but I think that's on the the city council meeting for Monday so she hopefully will be here in June at June meeting um and then the rest of it yeah getting the vacancy an update vacancy list because I think we oh Kristen if you're finished I can um I'll confirm that the new member should be appointed as long as Council votes to approve it on Monday so you will have a new person next week or next month um and in the past you've asked about short-term rentals I was curious if that's something you'd like an update on I know there's been a little bit of work in rental housing with creating some resources for filing complaints and providing information um to Residents yes please okay uh Bob so what uh I know John was talking about a presentation from rental housing what's the timeline that we would need to get that kind of a presentation scheduled um and should that be a consideration um I reached out to them earlier today with a couple of dates this month based on um I asked about I believe they last attended in June of not June March of 2022 and I know there's been kind of significant change on the commission since then um it was super helpful for the commission I think and very informational so I think it would be good to do it again um I proposed um I proposed the June meeting the September meeting and the October meeting um I think June would be a little quick um and if if they only have availability in July and August I think it's totally an option August would be really difficult for me to um August and July both with with the election because I think it would take a little bit more to prep for this meeting um I think there would be kind of a lot of back and forth with providing them questions and kind of stuff like that but if they don't have availability um otherwise I could certainly make it work um so I think it's reasonable to expect it's hard to say I know they're going into their busy season so I'm not sure um what they would have so um I'll keep the group updated on what they say for a 10 okay thanks Kristen then I mean it's kind of a lot on the agenda for next month anyway I mean well it's our Norm but um you know we can always move something if they do say that yes we can meet in June okay um I don't see any more hand raised so we'll now move on for to the item 8A the report from city council uh council member Harrison do you have anything to update us on no I don't other than we're just it's budget cycle we're getting through budget cycle um so no no no current updates I count that as an update yeah work hard on the budget okay thank thank you uh council member Harrison um and 8B is the report from the Greg but he's not here um let's see uh the report Christ anything to else to update us with I don't have any formal updates um except that the r or that the city clerk's office will be recruiting for election inspector soon and I'll extend um kind of that to this group um we'll be hiring for election day and then also for working early voting um that'll be the nine days before the Monday before election day and um so I'll I'll send that information up to you guys soon but other than that I don't have anything formal thank you and so then we'll move on to the second general public comment um which is three minutes per speaker all right if any uh member of the public would like to address the rent's commission about any topic for up to three minutes um public comment can be made by phone at 877 853 5247 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 941 um can also join with the zoom web link and that is a2gov.org renters commission meeting I'll give it a second see if anyone joins um there's nobody in the zoom room right now give it a second in case anyone no speakers sorry um okay well then we'll move forward to Communications um we did received I think it was three emails um that were attached to tonight's agenda um I don't know if you can show us the emails Kristen I know that one had to do with the early leasing ordinance and a um a was it I'll call it a threat of being charged what is it three times the month L rent I believe um I think is this the one about the mole no okay this one here is a was a homeowner um who lives next to a rental unit where there was allegedly in exchange of gunfire um a young man living in the house was involved the police and detectives came um and the neighbor would like the um landlord it sounds like to evict the tenants um but honestly there really isn't anything that the in my opinion that the renters commission can do about this it's not within our purview that's between um does anyone else have a comment okay then um Kristen can we go on to the next one um yes this is the one that I was talking with uh talking about where said that he would start recuring daily charges of two times the daily rent because they don't have the signed paperwork and each day they continue without the signed paperwork the charges will continue to acrew [Music] um and I think if you scroll up Kristen there was something where threat triple the rent unless he renews the lease um they copied the landlord office and this one then I think this is their response right the response was the lease requires a 60-day notice to renew or to provide written notice to vacate um if and he asked if he plant of renew vacate um and thank you Kristen for your response saying that we don't have any regulations on that only on the um ELO and providing that to him and then the third one was a complaint about mold um and it sounds like the tenant did um receive or submit a complaint form the one thing I wasn't clear about is I don't know if that's a City rental issue or also a county health issue as well if we would just what we say like just refer them to to that I know that it's said that Janet it's at dear Janet on there but that's the only other thing I can think of we didn't provide any resources about that and I don't think we have any on the renters commission website about um things like that I know the renters or the rental housing website has some information about mold um but that's something we can if that is the case if there's like a county in I don't know like inspection process or regulations there we can certainly update our kind of bounceback email we send people when they email the renters commission and we could also um update the website I'm also happy to respond with that resource um if can yeah I don't know for sure it's just normally when I think about more the about health um so I I can look it up and oh Jamie yeah I just Googled it quickly it looks like they do have a complaint process through the health department thank you Jamie yeah okay great so then Kristen if you can send them that um in the response and maybe is that something we should add to the the bounceback email absolutely suggested yeah okay um does anyone else have any questions or comments on the the emails that we received all right then um that's it we don't have a quorum but I will say that um it the last thing on our agenda is to adjourn so I guess I will see you all next month um thanks for bearing with me on my first meeting as chair you did great thank you great job y great job than you good love James thank you have a great have a great month um like I said see you next month than bye e e for

Hi everyone again. Are we ready to begin? Okay, let me hear you make some noise. I am so excited about this. We have a very special guest presenter. Now, I want us all to take a look at this video. James says, "My challenge is communicating with 5 to 600 engineers. I interact a lot. My job is to make sure there are safe flights." Deaf actress in Hollywood Studios, nothing has stopped them from entertaining people around the world. Even this deaf clown has given countless nightly shows in Las Vegas. Joel loves to meet different people and cherish their own country's sign language. He loves to immerse in their daily lives and culture and share their stories with you all. No matter where he goes throughout his travels, he soars. There are truly no barriers for the intrepid. Let Joel show you the way. Let's Let's a round of applause to Joel Barish.