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e e e well I'd like to start off on a positive note my granddaughter started substituting this year in the school system and she just had a wonderful experience with the staff and especially with middle school students she uh I think I'd recommend that you do something about second grade or so for sure in any case um this is one in a series of uh anecdotes about what uh our graduates or our high school students do not know bar American history and uh when uh public education got underway After the Revolution as a new ideal free public education one of the purposes was to instill a sense of a knowledge of their country and its institutions but um I I don't know the reason why exactly I can come up with theories but our high school students the ones I talk to that work at different places and I have a chance to ask them a trivia question what happened in SE July 4th or what happened in 1776 I you get some interesting answers like the one that thought I was in the Revolutionary War myself and uh that was the reason and I might know about it I also had one say when I asked him well what happened in 1776 I got the usual I don't know answer but this one says I don't know because I took United States history so uh I guess that's not funny is it and I don't think it is either because it doesn't bode well for the future of our country if we get him to do reading and writing and arithmetic extremely well which we haven't got to yet and they don't care about our country what is it all about so uh just something to think about that's all I have to say about that as Forest Gump would say thank you have are kids who are excelling and for some reason are not able to attend daily School or have chosen not to attend many school systems in our neighborhood in Northeast Indiana have a online system most of them use EDM modem which is a fully functioning system the high school basically doesn't talk to the kids when they use that system so we've chosen to go with IU online our students would apply for that system they would have to talk with the guidance counselor annually to make sure that they were both on Pace and that they they were ready for their College and Career Pathways there are a number of AP courses in the the package that allows for our best and brightest kids who are choosing not to walk into the school for whatever reason to achieve at a high level so this is very different than the Apex courses that we offer for for credit recovery uh I believe the board has gotten the packet over the last several months I will entertain any questions that you might have and do my best to answer them that is correct correct Andor a student that for whatever reason has chosen not to attend the physical building or unable to physically what we're trying to accom here I want a RoR have inv inl in our district are having success if I could just add that our kids here are incredibly successful I I just received a report that Mr brimberry forwarded to me and of 10 schools in our neighboring area Huntington North earned 23% of the credits that came out of ivtech the Dual credit situation so if I could have whatever I wanted some of these kids who are not here would spend a year in IU online and as they're working with our guidance counselors they would see as they become Juniors and seniors the benefit of coming here and earning dual credits and they would be a full-time student in the building would be my hope at some point might not work for every kid we have kids who are at Riley Hospital we have kids who have some other physical problems that would keep them from walking in but it would return those students to be Huntington North students so at this moment we believe Mrs hering will be the primary person in the guidance Department that will work with them and with IU so she will both help them schedule we will actually schedule here at Huntington WTH high school and then report that to IU online she will check with IU online to make sure that they're making progress a student that begins a course will need to finish that course within the semester so they can't drag it on forever in a day and that'll help us keep accountability with those students en op they have a very high success rate and they're very good to work with both from the students perspective and the school perspective thank you e e e po ATS Rel all right thank you would anyone like to make a motion regarding the proposed curricul ulum for dare I would absolutely make that motion is there two approve uh yes is there a second any additional questions or comments I would just say thank you for bringing this to us it's okay it's clear that you have a passion for this and I think that'll um allow it to be successful implemented so if uh no one has anything else we'll go ahead and vote on the motion to approve motion passes 60 and have fun in Columbus thank you for being here officer Hamill and officer Whitney thank you all right move on to D3 independent contractor agreements for fire and rescue board uh I know that you've had a chance to review this uh as you know and I believe uh uh most of you understand but Mrs Gray in particular understands uh these are active full-time firefighters that will be teaching our course so uh one and uh let or one day at least out of every three uh they're going to be active ly working probably 24-hour shift so uh these the contracts you have in front of you are for when the certified firefighters fill in when our primary instructor is not here so we would uh love to see board action uh for those contracts as we head into next school year all right would anyone like to make a motion regarding the proposed agreements make a motion that we approve the agreements as presented is there a second second any questions or comments all right hearing none we'll vote on the motion to approve motion passes 60 we'll now go to D4 2024 extended school year tonight uh we have special education director Beth husman here to discuss uh our extended school year for the 2024 so thank you for being here Beth I just said a lot of nice things to your soon to be newest director [Music] all right hearing none I'll entertain a motion regarding the recommended extension of the school year I'll make a motion that we approve the extended school year as presented is there a second second all right we'll go ahead and vote on the motion to approve motion passes 60 and I'll go to E1 um hccsc and vidiian agreements regarding ceiling lighting PA and piping board please understand this is a very extensive process for the design uh Mr thornsbury and his team um we do understand this is the the possibly the end of the 22 Bond you're not voting on The bids tonight you're not voting on that you're voting on the design process and it is quite extensive for the areas listed on there so I would ask for your approval uh for Vian architectural design for ceiling lighting PA and piping at Huntington North High School all right would anyone like to make a motion regarding the proposed agreement with vidiian motion to approve the proposed agreement with veridan for high SCH School seiling lighting PA and piping is there a second any questions comments or discussion Mr Burberry this will come back for before we bid it out and all that other stuff so we'll see the work of this before we do anything further oh absolutely yeah um not only will we see it but there'll be open discussion of how the process of bidding is put forward uh we have a budget that we have to stay under and he'll uh fully explain that so the process you'll be able to see it all and then we'll bring it back and say okay on the bid process how do we want to do this and in what method do we want to do this so absolutely I'm assuming he's designing it so if if we have some alternates and dedu if we need to get under a certain amount okay exactly how it's being designed um we hope that uh the 100% of the design would be able to be bid out with the alternates and we'd all come in wonderful numbers but you will see a process that all of it is designed four if the numbers came in higher you'll see the bid alternates later where we can pick and choose what our budget would allow us to complete in what areas of the school um I will tell you focus on classrooms and focus on hallways and focus on areas like that but I'm not as optimistic that 100% of it but I've been wrong on the few other bids that have come in they've come in under uh very competitive bids and and I've been pleased so far and Miss Moore this will come out of the bond that's taking care of the work at the high school correct this work and then where we actually pay for the work that is correct thank you and for those that were at the work session um earlier this month this is where we talked about just prioritizing restrooms um lighting basically a lot of facility needs without the funds to get to all of those um I I did have a question and discussed it with Mr brimberry right before the meeting um you know for this plan the way it's set up we're approving architectural fees for vidiian and I wish Terry was here to to um just provide a little more guidance but basically my understanding is we're paying for 100% of the architect fee to design all of the lighting changes but we may not be able to do 100% of the work based upon what's left in the bond correct that's correct optimistically um the design and the budget and the bids would all match up perfectly if that were not the case I believe you I think he said at the work session uh that he would have alternates that would be allow us to pick and choose now please understand whether we complete 100% And The bids all come in under like we hope uh in our near future or we pick a percentage of that a very high percentage we hope you will still have we will still have the um the ability to then decide at what time in the future to finish if this board chooses based on different funding and so I say that because I think we want to see the whole process what that would look like and then we'll see what it costs and then with this board will have a lot of open discussion of how that looks and and when we want to do which parts and why and so I I think the work sessions have been very beneficial and I think Matt's question is excellent so uh yes your it is for design of 100% and hopefully the bids match that but it's not a positive that would occur great question yeah and I would also just say we're we're in this situation slightly because of the delays in getting the equipment associated with the HVAC stuff no question uh the uh I saw several Air Handlers show up today it was a big big day for me at Huntington North and so um the supply chain uh has caused some issues uh in our past but I will tell you we're at the end of the 22 Bond we cannot do everything that this building certainly needs we know that we've discussed that openly but I would tell you the design being in place I think is a really good plan um optimistically I hope we can meet a whole bunch of the percentage meaning a high percent 80 90% I don't know that till we get to the bid process and what we prioritize uh I know he's going to design it uh for your discussion with again focus on classrooms then focus on hallways then common areas and if you remember in the work session he said uh we will also look at alternates for library for Fieldhouse for different areas that if the budget doesn't meet we can do it all that then the board would prioritize what part they want to do and what parts we maybe want to prioritize at a later time with different funding any other questions um yeah I I guess it's difficult to plan when we don't know what funds we'll have left until the very last month August of 2025 right I mean just looking at the administration of this particular part of the project it has a date range of September of this year to December of next year and so we you know that was just my concern we're going to pay for 100% of the design to the architectural firm but we may only be able to do 20 % of the project with the bond funds left I think the uh from my discussions uh with Terry it'll be a very high percentage I think he's been very very good at bringing us the bids I don't know it till they come but in reality I also would tell the board remember this is the last big part of 22 project um we discussed whether we wanted to do a multitude of things um the board said move forward um with lighting with piping and with ceiling and that's really where you're at right now um the design of that obviously would be critical for us to move forward with a future bid process so I think we have to do um a uh the design process I would not want you to only have 50% of the design for Huntington North High School I think you'll want it all and I think you'll want to see uh what parts we can pull out if the if the bids come in high and I think that's really the discussions over the last several meetings where we're at right now I'm excited that we are there and I'm optimistic that um the continued progress here is going to be great for our kids every time I walk in science right now looks like a you know a challenging situation right now I know by August uh five classrooms are going to look top end I know five more in November on a previous project I feel the same way about the lighting the ceiling and those things that climate culture and updating Huntington North is really important to our kids and uh I'm EX excited for them and uh and our district right now to be honest with you any other questions or comments all right I think we add a first and a second so we'll vote on the motion to approve uh The Proposal with Meridian for sealing lighting PA and piping all right motion passes six to zero we now go to E2 agreement with vidiian regarding Salamon salamony pool demo and HVAC replacement uh board again this is from the 23 Bond and uh the design is what you're paying or you're going to be trying to approve or not tonight as we move forward with HVAC design um for later for bidding at salamony remember it is the oldest system that you have in the district it is the only steam one I think Mr trout said uh through Terry a few times and the other thing is it mentions pool demo the reason that's listed there's been no discussion decision on that what we're asking for is we got to know what we're going to do with that area number one on the HVAC number two if it's there what would that look like if we decide to heat and cool what happens if we tear off what happens if we fill in we need to know those answers for us to move forward with the design process there has been absolutely no decision made by anybody administratively on that area but we need to begin with the design process so we have options based on what budget might come forward again this is from the 23 Bond I want to say that because U we haven't spent a lot of time other than at work session talking about salamony uh we definitely uh rich said to please convey uh this is a very very important project to get moving forward on he's concerned about that system it is your oldest and most challenging and uh but no decision on the pool on which way we'd go one way or the other on that but we do need to understand if we were to B out what those options were in the future it'll be a board decision on what we do with that all right would anyone like to make a motion regarding this agreement with vidiian make a motion to approve the work to go ahead and do the architectural design work for the salon pool demo and the hvbc replacement is there a second second any questions or discussion before we vote I was going to ask about the pool demo and you fully explained that so yeah there's just a lot of options on that Carrie um some places choose to tear off and they get a price on what that' be some places choose to fill in and they then they use it for storage and then the question becomes if you transform it to that do you heat and cool it and what type of storage it becomes and I want the board uh based on what budgets we have to have all the options in front of you based on what you want to use that space or do you not want to use that space and I think the design coming forward will shed some light on that so I know that question down in the warrant area will be important and I I'm glad we got a chance to talk about it publicly tonight thank you and Miss Mo just because I calling on you tonight um this is the 23 Bond yes and that was written in such a way that it will cover this building but actually if we had needs also in other buildings on that particular Bond It Was Written in such a way that we could actually use funds out of that bond for other things as well yes that's correct thank you it'll be interesting to see for those that were on the board the last time we looked at the pool I think the one bid we got and we rejected it was three4 of a million dollars to tear down the pool area and haul away the debris from that so obviously the HVAC um is the primary on this but I that also includes an area if we decide hey we can't afford to do anything with it then do you want to heat and cool it or not well we really would like to right size but what does that mean in the system that we're looking at so Terry will help design all those options for you and uh I'm excited to move forward because every time we get to uh hot parts of the year and then really cold parts that particular building is uh worrisome so we're ready to get designed and moving forward all right heard anyone else have anything before we vote all right then we'll go ahead and vote on the motion to approve this agreement with vidiian motion passes 6 to zero we'll now go to E3 quotes for the prek restroom at Andrews if you remember we asked permission uh to go and quote um what it would be to put in a restroom uh in the preschool classroom I can tell you that program um is doing very very well we're excited how the year ended uh we already have AM and PM filled at Andrews for next year so we're excited about that and so plumbing and heating Incorporated Binger Service Supply in Warren and B Binger Construction in bluon bingers and Warren said they could not do the job this summer and bll Bullinger construction uh took our information but never put in a quote so that's why you're seeing right now before you um two quotes uh we're asking and the recommendation Mr hurdle is the acceptance of the quote from mans Incorporated for this this project all right would anyone like to make a motion regarding the recommendation I'll make a motion that we accept the quote from mans Incorporated is there a second second any questions or discussion all right hearing none we vote on the motion to accept the quote from mans motion passes 60 we'll now move on to the consent agenda board I'll highlight a few of them there's 15 items listed um number one uh we're excited and Beth husband will come up after the consent agenda vote um to talk about our hopefully our newest assistant director and special ed Crystal Streeter so thank you for being here tonight Crystal we'll give Beth and you time after the vote to come up and and talk and introduce yourselves uh if you look at number 12 um second reading tonight of employee handbooks is on there uh 10 and 11 Mr Peters if you have any comments on um kinder camp and jumpstart in terms of those just some generalities for Kinder Camp we're just asking permission we're excited about uh bringing back that program again uh we have 17 teachers uh so far we're around 200 students that have signed up for that uh we're excited um for Kinder camp we partner with United Way uh we appreciate that partnership that we have with them uh they'll be supplying a a stien for each one of those 17 teachers for being a part of that twoe uh program uh for four hours and then for uh jump start uh that's something new that we've not done before and we're excited about that that'll be a jump start two weeks before school starts 16 teachers have signed up for that uh currently we're writing now around 222 students so excited for those two programs thank you also uh for your attention Board number eight additional teacher Mr Draper uh has been doing a great job you'll see that for Huntington North their summer school finishes up this Friday and so we want to make sure that uh you note that also you see uh Consulting agreement uh extension with Sager Consulting Services nhr Consulting agreement with Becky Smith CFO through December and uh those are some of the highlights from there so I uh we don't have I of all the times I've been here but the donations is usually a lengthy One Summer it is not always but uh we're we're way ahead of the game on donations at Huntington schools so very appreciative of the previous ones we've received and so I would uh present one through 15 for your approval all right thanks Mr brimberry would anyone like to make a motion regarding the consent agenda items F1 through 15 motion to approve the consent agenda as presented is there a second uh before we vote uh would anyone like to pull out a particular line item and vote on it separate from the rest pull out 12 I also a question related to number n is this just catching up or something that we missed because that was 20 yeah um 23 I wouldn't say missed but um collected in terms of there's multiple sources involved in jrtc I know you know that I say that for our public only but between what uh you deal with in terms of the military portion our portion and those that has went back and forth a little bit uh this is for uh they were paid correctly during the year but this is for our paperwork side the final version you'll get another one Mrs Gra probably for next year in July August somewhere through there for next year but good catch Ryan I should say it is a correction of past changes that when yeah it's just the accurate one to make sure it reflects all the parties involved in this one but you are correct thank you all right would anyone else like to pull out a line item and vote on it separately all right any additional questions or comments before we vote all right then we'll vote on items F1 through 15 minus item 12 items 1 through 15 minus 12 first was Kevin or Matt second yeah Kevin all right that motion passes six to zero uh that leaves item F12 employee handbooks I'd like to make a motion that we approve the employee guide and the trans Transportation handbook but then we table the administrative handbook and classified employee handbook until we can have further discussions amongst the board is there a second second all right any questions comments or discussion just so everyone's aware of it um I posted some questions earlier about the administrative handbook about a couple of administrative positions that I wanted some clarification on and realizing it's a bad time with Mr trout not being here so I'd really like wait and have those discussions with him and he's being here and also again some additional questions about the classified employee handbook that I just like to have discussions with Mr trout and I know it's not a great time and everyone's busy this summer just additional conversations with us but the other two I'm ready to have approved so all right any other questions comments or discussion all right then we'll vote on the motion uh Ryan just so I'm clear your motion is to approve 12 items three and four no I'm sorry items two and four and table one and three okay so we'll go ahead and vote on that motion I would also like to thank those that were able to get me some of the information I asked while Mr trout was out so I do want to appreciate and thank everyone for helping there you bet glad to do it too for all right motion pass is 60 I would I know it says future meeting but we'll make sure this is on the agenda for the next meeting July 20 22nd all right we'll now move to G1 authorized representative certificate oh I'm sorry District so she used to be in lot of different places um I had an interviewing Committee of seven people uh and we were all very impressed with her knowledge of special ed um her know as well as academic Behavior interventions and so I am pleased to have her on our team Crystal come on up if you would Crystal welcome to uh Huntington family uh it is a wonderful School Corporation we're we're honored to have you with us maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and a little bit about your uh background and uh we won't put you on the spot too long tonight first I'd like to take a moment to thank the board and rest of the administrative team I so excited for this opportunity I've heard nothing but wonderful things about the district and I am just just beyond excited to come alongside the rest of the administrative team and have this opportunity to be able to support students here in hon County um a little about me I like I education um for a little more than 13 years I started as a very professional and I have worked my way all the way up in special education I grown up in this area I'm Homestead grad I live in blon um I've worked in for Wayne and East Allen and Adam County um I graduated from St Francis with a double Masters I done online at State and all my energies have been in this general area all those focus in education the running joke in most of my areas is does know what she wants to do when she grows out going to school and getting degrees because I think education is incredibly important um I believe very strongly that all students can succeed and that education is incredibly important and I just am so looking forward to working with this team and working for all students to succeed and I feel like that's a driving force behind everybody within the school district and I feel like this is going to be a great place to be and I very excited to be here so thank you again for this wonderful opportunity thank you Crystal and I I could not reiterate this more uh you just joined one of the best school corporations in the state we're proud of that and we are thrilled to have you with us so if you don't mind we're going to get a picture here we're gonna ask Mr Butler to come up here maybe Mr Roth and I Y on Come on B all right now we go to G1 authorized representative certificate [Laughter] [Music] to one authorized signer to two the certificate allows the hccc business office to have a backup authorized signature if the main point of contct is out of the office aligning with the district's internal controls both the superintendent and CFO will have the authority to represent HCC as authorized representatives called Des have been extended to both the accounts payable specialist and deputy treaser and the submitter of the appid remains unchanged as always I able to answer questions and request that the get all right would anyone like to make a motion regarding the proposed uh certificate motion to approve the authorized representative certificate with hccsc and Huntington countywide School building Corporation as presented is there a second SEC that was her noted that uh Mrs Heim seconded a motion any question or comments before we vote I have a question so can you tell me about this process just a little bit as far as just explain it to me I kind of know but I want to hear it just again absolutely inal of our proceeds are prepared byas Al and when shees them of um construction invoices are confirmed as uh job complete and um Mr with Meridia provides the A1A architectural sign offs and so she pulls together all of the uh documents for the affidavit then the affidavit comes to either myself or Mr trout for review and Confirmation um as that second second layer of um Authority and then from there once it is submitted to um our I don't want to give up too much information for security purposes but it's uh provided to the um financial institution that holds our bonds and then from there they um the third layer is the Callback process so they would reach out to one of the two um designes in our business department that would either be our accounts cable Specialist or our depy treasur and would confir review and confirm the amount as valid and accurate so having those three layers of oversight ensures that we are um only releasing funds that are allowed to be released that the work has been completed and that the amounts that we're releasing are cor that's what I needed to know appreciate it OPP that any other questions do the board does the board ever see those ioving OPP happen I'm working with Mr trout who's been out we've had conversations about that and what that looks like and the frequency of those docents to be provided more information will be those but thank you for the the current process and is this something that that we've asked for or has the um financial institution financial institution is asking for because currently we only have one both two of the three departments so one in the the department of um of the person of our treasur who submits that can only be one person but the other two layers of review um you know having two people definitely supports Us in operations to make sure that we're um submitting our payments on the time plan any other questions all right hearing nothing further we'll vote on the motion to approve the certificate motion passes 6 to zero we'll go to G2 May 2024 Financial reports to reflect thei as of may24 lots of great information on here I'm always available um for by email or phone with questions happy to answer questions that might not come up tonight at a later date so in the education fund we received 3,223 in revenues for the month our expenses were 26624 leading us an ending balance of 12 m855 I will go on to say that um there are incumbrances in the amount of 56922 so once we pay all of our bills Lees us with 12,793 on to Debt Service so not much activity for Debt Service um I'll have more to report next month as we've um released our debt service payments last week uh for June 2,140 in our and taxes and obviously no expenses um again like I said I'll report back on those next month we only pay have our debt service pment come out two times a year and that's June and December when did we or when will we receive our tax was that is that this weed our our local taxy dollars um last week on the 20th okay so next month we'll show lot of activity exactly gotcha thank you service f725 so having a little bit of a balance in here allows us to account for any shortfalls and levies that we might not receive so we are allowed to have um it's a statutory amount and Val here so it does is operations f 2024 for the month we had $ 24259 worth of Revenue the expenses total 1, 68273 leaving us an ending balance after we PID all of our bills was $10,400 Food Service fund receiv received 36668 in reue the expenses for the month that um was the bul of it was the 222,000 actually so I know it supplies but food falls in the 600 category so those 39,95 b933 last but not least is the curcular materials fund we had 28 39 worth of collections from prior years um on rentals um we had a $99 99 bill that we paid so we round it up that's $100 so total um fund balance after we paid all of our bills were 23215 so again this one has a has a healthy balance where you have a lot of textbook adoptions that we're getting ready to Ren this balance will go down so um I appreciate the work of Jay and T on his team to make sure that our curriculum adoption going into the next year did stay within budget um and and and everything's moving forward as as normal and expected living over to the historical comparisons for the education funds and he's doing a great job A+ um and again this is a help it can be helpful year-over-year comparison of where we have been where we are um when it comes to revenues um and expenses and then ending fund balance is that third column it reads left to right so the First Column is revenue middle is expenses uh far right is ending fund balances so for the education fund for the month of May in 20124 um revenues total 3,223 uh year to date we're at 16 m964 40 which is um just over half a million more than where we were at this point last year expenses 2,664 366 um expenses today 6,969 526 which um had more money in we've got more money coming out in tandem year over year uh m722 319 is the um un the Appropriations that's unexpended at this point so this is how much um dollars that we have permission to spend um and our ending fund balance is 12 m855 we're right on schedule because usually by the end of end of June June we should be at about 50% right exactly exactly even last year we were at 54% at this time so um like I said it's a healthy uh handy little you know year-over-year comparison to to make sure that we are um operating within the scope that we need to so operations just to review real quick used to be our capital projects our transportation and our bus replacement plan um and since Consolidated into one fund so that is at for the month we had 24259 wor of revenue revenue for the year is 3,794 864 which is slightly more than last year Revenue um and mainly at this time let me carry out with that um so when it comes to expenses we have 17321 expenses for the year total6 M 54224 um which is slightly more but then like I said we've got a little more Revenue in t to match so um on expended balance is 1,146 636 leing an end cash balance of 1, 15959 which in comparison to the last three four years looks pretty good believe that was the last financial report yes all right would anyone like to make a motion uh regarding the financial reports that were presented this evening uh recommend we approve the May 2024 Financial reports as presented is there a second second any questions or comments thank you Valerie for putting those together and presenting them to us this evening I will go go ahead and vote on the motion to approve motion passes 6 to Zer we'll move to G3 2025 budget calendar so provided for you tonight is the budget preparation calendar I almost want to start saying like it's the most wonderful time of the year because there's just so many things going on and who doesn't love a good spread sheet pull of numbers so with all that to say um I'm going to highlight three or four um pieces on this very itemized uh calendar um September 9th budget Workshop where we review the 2025 education fund operations fund jet service fund and our rainy day fund budget um we will have obviously you know conversations before that um I'm getting ready to meet with Mr trout um and I've been meeting with Mrs Smith in regards to our 2025 budget lots of things to get acclimated with I've already got my spreadsheets rolling I'm super excited um so but we'll um dive into and um go into all those specifics on the September 9th budget Workshop meeting um once the if and when the board approves then we'll uh get permission to advertise and then we'll publish all that information out so that it's um provided for public review and input on the um September 24th meeting will'll come back in two weeks and we'll have our official public hearing for the budgeted funds um which falls in line with a statutory requirements um of uh advertising and holding meetings in Tandem and then the October 14th board meeting will be our grean finale um where uh we'll review the budget answer any questions and then with the board's blessing um the adoption opportunity will um happen at that time and then on the 15th and I'll submitted Al to Gateway and we we'll wait with baed breath for our 1782 budget order M for 2025 all right would anyone like to make a motion regarding the proposed budget calendar for 2025 I'll make a motion that we approve the 2025 budget calendar as presented is there a second second any discussion or comments before we vote thanks for the calendar and thanks for your passion for [Laughter] numbers all right hearing nothing further we'll vote on the motion to approve the budget calendar for next year I know there's times we were approving those shortly before they were due so this is a welcome change all right motion passes 6 to zero we now go to G4 contract with Schindler Elevator Corporation board for your uh board action tonight Rich hurdle director of maintenance is recommending a 5-year contract from 24 through 29 with Shindler elevator Corporation he did uh reach out for three bids and he feels this is in the best interest of uh our school corporation for a five-year contract for our elevators so board action is requested tonight all right would anyone like to make a motion regarding the proposed contract with Schindler Elevator Corporation motion to approve the five-year contract with Schindler elevator Corporation for 2024 through 2029 is there a second any questions or discussion all right hearing none we'll vote on the motion to approve this contract motion passes 60 we now go to H1 special policy updates I would note this is a first reading very good uh Gary in honor of the College World Series we're rounding third right now and heading for home uh want to thank Mrs Gray she is the queen of niola we know that and uh want to thank Mr Peter ERS Mr M glofin uh Rachel Jer and uh I served on this as well but uh as we look through the policies first reading tonight but there are some policies on there dealing with attendance dealing with cell phones dealing with uh some terminology Etc but uh first reading tonight and I we will bring this back uh July 22nd for the second reading any questions oh I got questions oh this this is going to be an sorry Gary we were held up third don't worry couple short ones so under the definition of personal communication devices I think we should under the section on definitions uh which is policy P0 p0100 I think that's what it is it's the definitions one uh I think it would be smart to add smart watches to the definitions of personal communication devices uh just because I think they're more prevent and I I know I've talked to students that love to have their Smartwatch in the classroom and do Ryan uh good advice we we did talk about that it falls under another generalized category on there as well but we can specifically if the board chooses list it in there twice um we did talk about that with Mr Peters and I it's listed under some other General topic but it would all be included but we certainly have the right to specifically add that and can do that okay and then good advice by the way yeah and then just in general from conversations I've heard around the state about these policies yep are we going to go back and then try to also incorporate them into the student handbook or are we going to do maybe wait and do that next year because I've been told this is better to be done in the student handbook or they should both mirror each other yeah we we had that same discussion okay um we'll have that discussion on July 22nd please know that the board policy and the student handbook are very uh similar uh we went through both in terms of what we're going to bring forward to you so um we did not want any discrepancy either so excellent point and then I read this attendance policy a couple of times but I know the new law specifically States Elementary and the way I was reading ours I wasn't sure exactly does it specifically talk about elementary and the the things that we need to handle in elementary or are we going to basically apply this K12 going to defer a little bit here um from and these are questions that I'm bringing up I don't need an answer tonight they're good questions and I can bring it back to you if Jay or Cindy want to comment I'm not going to speak for that whole group right now but if we don't have an answer on that whether that's Elementary or not we'll certainly bring it back to you on the second reading because I know the I know the law that was passed that I pointed out at the last meeting of Cindy was specifically for Elementary uh attendance and that's what they were specifically trying to address so I just want to make sure that we're covered on that we don't have to do something lat attend yes the attendance specifically and making sure it's covering us for the law that was just recently passed the last we'll certainly review that great Point Ryan yeah well just so everyone knows who may be listening um or watch this at a later date these are changes to policies based upon changes to the law correct by the Indiana General Assembly right so uh if anyone thinks that we are coming up with the phone restriction in the classroom because that's going to be a hot not a Hot Topic but I I already know I've heard from some parents like what do you mean what if I have to reach my child during the middle of the day and um I I don't relate to that necessarily but I think it's if you read the policy it says in there to allow them to focus and I think if you were here for the work session where um our school corporation nurse was talking about cell phone usage and sleeping and distractions I mean I think this is an effort by the general assembly to help with Focus during the day Ryan would that be a that's a very good that's a very good thing and I will just say that Indiana's not alone in doing this uh there there are several other states that have enacted very similar laws to this to to try to get focus in the classroom and and it's all about doing that so it's very good the last question related to that and I think I'd love to have Mr sumter's opinion on that is when we were talking about this at isba and talking about that they specifically said make sure you put an exception in for school issued devices right um I just want to make sure that we're covered because and we'll we'll continue to look our committee um got into the weeds of this too Ryan I appreciate your your attention to this you do a wonderful job of uh not only attending those meetings but bringing back great information I've also talked to other districts on this as well on what they're doing uh for our community and board's purposes um we are not only is it legislative act but it's also Neola approved and then they give you some options within the Neola thing we have chosen what we feel is very reasonable with in the range of the Neola uh options they gave us based on the state law so there is not we've not put anything extreme based on what our options are and so but we will go back review uh the questions that came from tonight before your July 22nd meeting and uh we'll comment openly about those as well thank you for all the work conversation thank you for all the work you guys put into that I know it was kind of short turnaround and and Neola was a little late getting it but it's great well Mrs Gray uh does a great job and keeps us moving in the right direction and uh and then Neola world as well as many others so I appreciate all her work and if you have questions about these let's try and um email them to the group if you get questions from parents about this let's try and share those with the group just so we're all getting the same information and same answers because I I have a feeling you're going to hear from some parents on that and again I'll I'll continue to say after speaking to some other districts um ours is very uh moderate middle of the road in terms of what we're proposing um and I think it fits Huntington perfectly uh yeah there's going to be questions but uh that's what we're here to talk about but I will tell you um we think our we know cell phones are an issue but we also know that our school district handles those situations pretty well um maybe not to everyone's satisfaction but to a large majority and so I did not uh my advice was uh to please consider moderation on these as we examine what works yeah and again just as a reminder the we're doing this because that's what the state told us to do so is not something we chose to do yeah could not agree more thank you all right uh hearing nothing else I'll move on to i1 items of discussion by board members I just would like to say that it was a pleasure going with Miss Moore down to the isba uh Financial seminar that happened a couple weeks ago surprised none ofbody else went with me I I love Finance so much yall didn't go with me uh but it was very eye openening uh and I'll let Miss Moore even speak but uh Dr B from Purdue gave some interesting takes on property taxes and how things are going to happen uh just to keep an eye on for you all I know that and that we also had uh the heads of the summer committee on on taxing as a whole there talking about it um it was a very interesting time I'm not going to bore with some of it but I will tell you a couple of things to start keeping your ears open uh Farmland Farm the base price for Farmland uh was very very talked about because it's going up dramatically because of some of the uh prices that are being seen in the sale of farmr and by the prices they received on corn and soybeans by that uh just just because I'm a nerd and I understand it the farm ground uh is priced based on a six-year formula and the lowest dropped out and unfortunately when the low dropped out the last year dropped out it was low the new price came in was much higher so it's going to affect us and it's going to be there for while uh I just happened to also see not too long much longer after that that this was actually brought up when the taxing committee came up and talked about it and farmers and the Farm Bureau was there talking about it so I'd anticipate them maybe possibly looking at the formula but that formula is not going to change very much in I I don't know if it's going to change but the values are going to keep going up and up and up so that's going to affect farmers coming down the pike and it's it the way that formula is designed it's not good looking up for the next couple of years so it's going up and up and up uh the other thing to that was brought out about that is if you haven't heard about the uncalculated funding from Medicare that basically the state didn't somehow appropriate over a billion dollars that needs to be talked about because that they're going to have to find a billion dollars in this next budget cycle that's coming up so we may not see much growth from what we're doing now uh so that may be also something to keep an eye on and figure out what they're going to do so I would not want to be in state legislature this coming budget calendar it's not going to be a fun time um and I don't know that the economic picture that we've seen in the prior couple of budget sessions is going to be as good as it was this summer um another interesting thing you wouldn't think about budgets but it was another great thing is uh Dr McKibben was there talking about demographics I tell you every time I hear him talk it's very interesting he talked about the state as a whole and the population decline that the state of Indiana is seeing not only that we're seeing but also a lot of the state is seeing as a whole and he does not see that turning anytime soon um I would love to share that presentation with you I'd love to have him come back and talk to you guys about it because very interesting um but just other things coming down the pipe so as you think about what we' got coming up in the future increased student attendance is probably going to be where we that and that we kind of saw that when he gave our conversations and funding may be fun so it's it's going to be fun coming up so just giving you guys a heads up of what's coming down Pike as we get ready to talk about budgets what what's an acre of arm ground tax that right now uh you know you asked that and I may actually be able to because I think the number I recall during the referendum was 1,500 an acre 1600 somewhere it's over 2,000 now and I have that somewhere I just got to remember where I put it I can find it yeah but it's going up because so substantially less than what it's going for when they sell it yes so it's not based on yeah because that's the other thing driving factor in that formula is farmr is now getting sold at over $10,000 an acre right cuz when you sell your your house it's your actual sales price affects the assessed value for tax purposes but Farm ground is taxed at a flat negotiated rate that is significant calculated rate based on several factors yes but it's significantly lower than the actual value of the land yes so bad for Farmers it's going up but it will generate additional tax revenues my guess unless there's changes to the formula or it's going to shift where who's paying what portion of the tax rate so the other minor conversation that happened was I'm not gonna get in that's just too deep yeah there's there's too much talk we can talk after it's way too much fun hearing nothing else I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved is there a second second all those in favor say I I opposed all right we e
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
vote so uh Mr Quackenbush thank you Mr miles Madam president members of the board Dr Smith Jeff Quackenbush with part of borberg it's a pleasure to be with you this evening so tonight you're having a public hearing on the disposal of a portion of the 5760 wallingwood uh Drive property the a portion that's under consideration for disposition is roughly four acres on which the home is located uh the remaining 10 acres that are vacant that are immediately adjacent to the school corporation existing property uh of the high SCH school there would remain property of the school corporation is not part of the public hearing this is required under Indiana Law whenever you plan to dispose a property by any governmental entity and so at this time you would have uh anyone from the community that wishes to speak regarding the possible disposition of this uh property to come forward and speak after that I will then during the resolution period uh summarize more of the resolution at that point in time but this is merely the steps to get you forward to potentially dispose of the property should a fire do we have anyone who would like to speak on the disposition of that property if not let's move forward thank you so the resolution that is in your board packet that will be considered under the action items this evening does a few things first of all the property has been reappraised uh for just the four acres since it was appraised originally for the entire 14 AC AC we had to have a second set of appraisals done just on the four acres uh with the residents those have been received and with Mr Smith and Mr miles and Dr Smith has seen those as well um if you approve of the resolution this evening that is before you it would authorize the public notice of the disposition of that to be published in the newspapers twice and then to conduct a potential bid opening of that sometime in the middle of July if there are no bids received or if there are no satisfactory bids received then the resolution authorizes the administration to engage cers International which is the broker that you've used on both acquisition and disposition of property in the past to go out and do a a public sale of that through the traditional brokerage process where a sign would be put up in the yard and and that sort of thing and sold then to anyone who would provide an offer that would be acceptable to the school corporation uh the current plan is that if the sale doesn't happen by mid July we would publish that notice of Engagement of the broker dealer uh for the property and then at that point it would move into a sale and then at that point uh at some point in future there would be a offer brought back to you all that would be accepted by the by the administration um this process can last for as long as you like uh or until an offer is accepted at that point time in addition this authorizes Dr Smith the Mr miles Mr Smith as well as the board president and secretary to execute any and all documents in connection with a sale of the property there's usually some proposing certificates that have to be signed and those sorts of things so this covers all that so I'd be happy any any answer any questions you may have regarding the resolution or the process as I've outlined I would just like to confirm that the property is still zoned residential only it is not only zoned residential only but the disposition terms require the purchaser of that to certify that they are purchasing it for their primary residents and not with any intent for non uh residential Andor commercial prop uh purposes in addition in the D we will put in there a 49-year reversionary clause uh you may ask why 49 years we'll talk about that in a second but there will be a 49e reversionary clause that says to the extent that that is not used for residential purposes during the first 49 years it automatically reverts back to the school corporation the reason we have to go with 49 years is because there's case law out there that says that you can't encumber property uh forever and so what the case law has has said as proper is anything less than 50 years you can put that sort of a version so over the next 49 years the school corporation would be protected from no other commercial or industrial or nonresidential use being at that time great so no one that currently lives on Walling wallingwood Drive is going to face uh commercial property there that's right it will be it will continue to be the Residence at least for the next 49 50 years yes great thank you I have a quick question um regarding the um appraisal can you tell us how much the property is appraised for approximately uh the average of the two was roughly $815,000 for the four acres with the residents and what is the cost associated with if we were to obviously go through a traditional brokerage firm would we pay 7% or what would be the amount that we would have to pay in brokerage fees that's subject to negotiation that has not been established at this point in time I do know that when we went through the acquisition process those fees were negotiated down from the traditional 3% uh to I think 1.75% so based on the history with the school corporation and this broker they would uh be probably aable to doing some sort of negotiated rate for that on the opposite side with the purchas with with the purchaser their purchaser broker would probably want to continue to have the 3% for to be considered to be an attractive offer thank you very much I had a question too this may be more for the district um the funds from the sale of the property which fund of ours will that go into back into that will go back into our rainy day fund okay thank you and just as a point of clarification that's the fund that we use to purchase the property that is correct initially thank you correct are there further questions if there are no further questions then we thank you and that will end our public hearing on the wallingwood park now we will G in our Schoolboard meeting would you stand with me as we say the Pledge of Allegiance of Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um we move on now to our Blue Ribbon update Mr Smith mam president Dr Smith members of the board uh construction goes on I might add that we've had some beautiful weather uh to to move these projects uh further along but a little warm uh LC pool site work as you can see there the in uh panels are in so site work continues on and pavement here shortly uh LC pool uh tile work continues as well as finished work in the other parts of the pool uh LC multi-purpose gym actually the grid work and lighting is going in as we speak uh painting has started on the walls and the floor will be the last to be done uh Ellen front edition we're real close of making or putting in storefront uh enclosing that full structure and of course our interior work next slide uh you can see continues on as well Lin multi-purpose uh gym is complete has been turned over to the school and uh they are utilizing that uh bser we continue on with the 40 classrooms plus uh We've also moved into the kitchen the serving line and that'll be a multiple state uh renovation process uh site work out front is going real well curving is going in site works are going in stone next week we're hoping the next two weeks to have asphalt down uh bser Auditorium uh coming along quite well the stage is now being painted and finished work continues uh Fall Creek Valley Auditorium Again full renovation moving forward uh the auxiliary gym uh sidewalls that top uh basically a sound barrier is going up uh and then uh new seating and floor refinishing site work that's uh from top of the building there looking down uh tennis courts softball field baseball field uh shop putut and discus will be all new in this area LC south parking lot a lot of concrete work now being done and once uh the concrete sidewalks and curving is done they will then top coat with the finished coat uh tennis courts are get they're getting ready to put fencing up and putting the surface on the tennis court Transportation we're pretty much done there uh we moved started moving in uh uh Food Service technology and operations last week and they will continue that move for the rest of the summer but they are in their office space uh the new LCC you see there they have quite a bit more brick work today going up and that will continue we'll finish up the foundation this week and continue with structure wow that that is a lot bored um we start with some questions for Mr Smith yes Miss Lawrence first off so excited that the baseball diamonds are being renovated I just want to know are the mosquitoes going to be taken out of theing um but in in all seriousness um as we as we approach and I'm sorry to say this for everybody here who's a teacher and an administrator but as we approach the beginning of school what are our plans to ensure that the drop off and pickup lines and that all of that is running smoothly seamless because I've also spent a lot of time in in that that pick up drop offline actually the uh full east side is being uh uh as we speak asphalt and curbing going in that should be completed by the start of school so we'll move the buses back over to the east side and continue with our current uh parent drop off pickup um what do we expect the LCC tennis courts what what will be their use who will be using them hopefully kiddos but uh no as uh the tennis courts here uh we do have uh other schools that use it from time to time so maintaining them for that purpose also public use and uh actually some of the camps divide up from different high schools uh to use the extended courts there so okay great thank you um any other questions M I had a comment and a question um I'm involved with a local Lawrence based track club that has had the opportunity to utilize the newly paved um track here at LCC um complete still with the Craig cougars sign up for the old school people but um the feet I've heard great comments from people about how wonderful it was and how the track was of great benefit and use so they they did an excellent job on the track um it's just nice to see the community being able to utilize that and my question is um with the high schools F coming to the end of the of the renovation which is exciting you can see it every day um it's in the fall we will be having the is it the ribbon cutting is that correct dedication dedication okay is that an official date then for the public okay because I've had some questions on the okay October so when we share with constituents um this is our community this is when we'll be um dedicating the new high schools thank you thank you for all your work um we'll move on then if there's no more questions uh we'll move on to um information on permission to send an RFP um for Crest View oh no permission to send an RFP for our Energy savings contract thank you you thank you Madame President Dr Smith members of the board um I'm kind of excited about this process moving forward because that will put us in blue Revan phase two um the request permission to send out an RFP for guaranteed Energy savings uh contract if you recall in our blue Ren phase two uh the first priority was to do uh HVAC and control upgrades as well as Roofing and this RFP will bundle those two packages together and allow us to utilize uh a state procurement method for a guaranteed Energy savings contract and uh allow us to bundle and at the same time as a result to that guaranteed Energy savings contract we're going to be able to offset some of our operat expenses as we continue to operate our buildings the contract will cover again Priority One of the Blue Ribbon Phase 2 plan which is HVAC controls and Roofing and this contract in process will also guarantee the district to save operating costs to each of the buildings through Energy savings and there are several buildings how many buildings there were about 20 buildings did I see we actually have 23 buildings so each site will be incorporated our emphasis will start off with the elementary buildings first and can you tell us just a little bit about the process how will we pay for this um when we pay for this contract how does it work with the company we choose to manage this for us because this is a process we've not gone through before so can you give us some color and some some information about please a guaranteed Energy savings contract and is a agreement between a qualified uh provider and the building owner uh to reduce energy and operating costs of a building or a group of buildings uh specifi for a specified amount uh this is per Indiana code 36-11 12.5 that kind of guides us through that energy Contracting this is similar to the CMC process where we would hire a qualified company that will work with us and uh build the scope and the cost of that project and just like the CMC had a guaranteed maximum price we would also have that in this contract as well and they have to guarantee a certain percentage of savings moving forward based off what we're currently paying with utilities and just for the public CMC is construction management company uh construction management as a contractor and we've been using that on majority of our uh renovation projects to help us through that process right Lawrence yes Mr Smith I'm I'm wondering if you could explain for members of the public and by the way I'm thrilled that we're doing this thank you for approaching something in in you always have a mind for fiscal responsibility but I think that this is going to be a net great savings plus also Energy Efficiency for the district so thank you for that uh can you explain to members of the public why these um these roofs and uh HBS weren't covered in the initial renovation of these buildings well a lot of it was but we're almost 13 years into renovation so as we have ended up with the high school the secondary buildings uh we put a new operating system in place and we want to bring up the other buildings who had prior Renovations done where this new system was not in place at that time and we want to go back and over the next two years we'll have the entire District on one system to operate and maintain I I know you explained um when we met an executive session um earlier today that it also was during the renovation some of those roofs and HBS weren't yet due and so that was part of the fiscal responsibility and actually we do have a a roof plan in place uh roofs will expand for 20 to 25 years under a warranty and uh again over time uh we did replac them 13 years ago but still had life in that roof so this will keep us going back to those roofs and maintaining and hopefully put our entire District in a green blue State green being the best roofs possible and blue is right behind it so we want to get all of our roofs over 3 million square fet of roofing under warranty can you tell us a little B bit about our um Grant application in terms of paying for this yes we have um actually we received a Federal Grant from uh uh the federal government that deals specifically with uh Energy savings for schools this just come out and I believe there it is it is uh 2024 renew America schools official prize and what they are concentrating on is updating infrastructure and abhd AC for school districts across the country so we came across this and we have uh spent the last uh month and a half going through the process and we submitted on June the 13th and uh we will uh wait eagerly about receiving word uh about uh possible dollars that could fund this project and it could be anywhere from 3.5 million to 14 million that's that's exceptional if in fact we don't receive the grant we still will see savings from uh Energy savings that will help longterm that will help us pay correct okay any further questions for Mr Smith okay well now let's move on to that um construction management contract your permission to RFP for that for Crest View Forest Glen and Mary Castle projects which have become um available because we're we're doing our roofs we're doing our Priority One now so now we can start on our buildings mam president Dr Smith members of the board we request permission to send out an RFP uh for construction management contractor for Forest Glen Crestview and Mary Castle Elementary School editions uh the RFP would be sent out July uh first with proposals submitted by August 1st in interviews the week of August 12 board recommend uh board recommendation for CMC uh on August the 26 and this would allow us for design specs and bids for construction uh as we team up with our Architects and the CMC going through the fall and be able to bid spring and actually start construction uh summer of 25 uh we off we often uh interview Architects for each project can you explain which Architects will be using on these projects and why right exactly uh Crest View and Mary Castle we had Schmidt and Associates who were fully involved in those those Renovations and bringing back the same architect with their experience of the building to expand the building would be a benefit to us and we can hire through a service contract uh Architects uh for these projects um for or Forest Glenn uh we had ratio and Associates on that project they were with uh Forest Glenn and Oakland and we would like to to bring back then uh ratio to help us with Forest Glenn expansion as well and even though some of these buildings were finished very and renovated very recently the reason we're targeting these schools first is capacity correct yes forth Glenn we since renovation uh additional programs have been added that thus took away their spare rooms that we put in during renovation and put them at capacity level so keeping their programs as a whole and expanding uh will allow us uh again to do away with the Portables and put them back in a fixed uh uh facility uh Mary castle and Crestview uh the student population is simply growing and especially Mary Castle we have no additional space that's a good problem Miss Lawrence yeah Mr Smith I just I want to commend you and the team for being able to move this project up I know the board um pushed on this quite quite a bit both um on this de and in our executive session in the winter so I just want to thank you for um doing the best uh job you could to get our kids uh moved into a building and and out of the Portables although I know that they're very plush and wonderful Portables it's nice to have them in the building thank you further questions no okay then Mr miles can we move on please to request to transfer funds yes thank you madam president uh Dr Smith members of the board um at this time as an information item I bring to you um a request to transfer funds um this is a procedural and a statuto step that we make uh every six months uh June and end of the calendar year to uh bring our our funds to hold um so we are we are balancing um our account our expense accounts and our fund accounts so that the the dollars are flowing in the right place so statutorily procedurally we need your approval to do that later this evening and then we will report back in July with what those dollar amounts are great any questions from Mr M I just had a clarifying question just for the public to understand um this amount varies every time correctly based on our needs correct budg yeah based based on expenses our funds yes okay thank you okay then um Mr kosnik and Dr Brown could we uh move on to our board goal updates from this previous year president htin Dr Smith members of the board we bring to you tonight an end of school year update on each of the bo board goals and we'll begin with Mr notor good evening Madame President Dr Smith members of the board we always begin with your first goal which is equity and anti-racism and uh for that goal we are implementing the Equitable student outcomes action plan as board approved um the progress and outcomes are reported on the dashboard each month with Fidelity and we're moving right along with this particular goal the next goals for student achievement excuse me um not all the data is in for all of the reports and so I'll begin with graduation rate um the graduation rate goal is to maintain pardon me a 93% graduation rate while increasing the percentage of students earning an academic honors or Technical Honors diploma by 5% I'm pleased to report that both high schools are on track to reach the 93% graduation rate and we are projecting a 4% accelerated growth for our black subg group for academic honors for the rigor diagnostic goal I reported on this one in our last board meeting in detail this is our instructional goal and our instructional goal is for a rigor diagnostic score of 10.0 or growth of 2.5 points from beginning of the year to end of the year as I reported in in our last meeting this particular goal was in recalibration this year um with our Consultants from instructional empowerment we did see a 1.7 average growth for the school district with two schools at 10.0 or higher our next goal is increasing our student attendance to 95% um we did not reach that goal our average weekly attendance for 2324 was 92.3 eight% as we analyzed our data we noticed um wiins that we were much closer to 95% with our students who were in elementary school and middle school less so with our student our younger students and our older students and so that'll be the focus of our work for next year as we move to the the next slide this one is our average growth um on our I ready our district benchmarks for math and reading assessments uh the goal was 12% and I reported on this particular goal last uh at our last meeting we saw an 29% proficiency growth in math 26 proficiency growth in Reading with every subgroup at the district level meeting the goal of a 12% proficiency growth at minimum um the next one is our I ready goal and we are still in the middle of I ready testing so each of our elementary schools is implementing um a very tight I3 Focus curriculum during jump start with some individualized tutoring for students students in preparation for retesting and so that retesting is occurring this week um and so those results will be embargoed until they release by the state but I will be sharing a very detailed Report with you at that time and then our last goal is about I learn and this is a 10% increase in the number of students reaching approaching at or above proficiency so really it's about moving students out of the below proficiency category and again um those results um are embargoed until the state releases them but I am pleased to report that um each and every school had subgroups that reach that 10% goal and so much more detailed information will be coming at a future time um but we do have really good news to report for that goal our next board goal is the Strategic plan and our first portion of the goal is to begin implementation and we have just completed the end of year one of three years and we have just in our last board meeting reviewed and monitored strategic Plan update with you uh finally and a a portion of the goal is about the dashboard which is updated quarterly and we have an update that is being published as we speak and ready for the public VI and we'll next go to Miss Johnson good evening Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board tonight we proudly bring to you our HR people goals and as we begin with our first goal on professional development we're proud to report that a 100% of our staff is involved in ongoing professional development for all employees on our Equity work as we move through the HR goals our um goal of looking at our diversity with recruiting and retaining bilingual staff um we started with a baseline in 2022 at 12% and um in 23 24 ended that with 14% our racial and ethnic diversity board goal was to increase by 3% and so you can see through the years where we are and at 23 24 we were at 45% so we are recruiting but we have work to do on retention our board goals um continue as we look at retaining 90% of our district effective and highly effective certified teachers um we have all of our data in of course for first semester and this is final week for our our building leaders as they are finalizing all of our teaching staff and so we will have that to you by July 1st of how many of our teachers are effective and highly effective ending that year so it's just it's a it's a process as we look at all the teachers that have been on FMLA and there's just fine-tuning those pieces our next board goal um as we look at our first year of trying to um Implement an anonymous survey for our staff to look at our climate um looking at it at a completion rate of 80% we are really proud that we put together a districtwide committee that worked together first semester and developed questions and did the research and we actually launched our climate survey second sem and our data has been returned this spring we had a participation rate of about 35% and we are bringing that committee together to meet at the onset at the beginning of the school year in August to look at that data and then to make recommendations during the 24 25 year as to what are the areas that we will work upon and our last board goal for the 2324 school year was to create an exit interview to every employee that leaves through resignation or retirement and so we feel really proud that we have created an exit survey that is sent out to all of our employees that are leaving the district from an operations and finance standpoint we're pleased to present tonight uh we had three primary goals from a finance perspective all three goals were met the first of which was our cash balance in the education fund at the end of the year and we achieved that goal the goal was 13 million we actually had just over 16 million in that fund at the end of the year the second goal was to have a positive balance uh no negative balances in any of our funds at the end of the year that was also achieved and lastly we wanted to increase our the amount of dollars and resources that we spend with our minority-owned vendors by at least 3% and you can see we actually uh kind of um vastly uh passed that goal uh and spent uh nearly $4 million more in 2023 than what we did in 2022 so happy to present those uh those amounts tonight Safety and Security again uh a high commitment to keeping our building safe and strong we had four goals meet requirements per the Indiana code uh gold met all school buildings have have submitted their plans and certified at the State uh the second one is annual site and building security assessment uh we've done several of those yes this year and we will continue to do that as we progress forward review and updated board policies and guidelines uh District Safety Committee met and completed updates per our state statute and expand and updated an internal School plan including new equipment and and personnel and we continue to renovate as we finish up our Blue Ribbon phase one uh upgrades and security devices are in place with uh additional upgrades thank you everyone for Miss Pucket Miss Norman comments I can come back Ser have a com please do Miss Morris just wanted to make sure you wanted me and not Amy um thank you all for the work that you did this this last Academic Year to make to make such progress on our goals it's been really amazing to see um especially in some of the achievement data um while we may not be exactly where we want to be to see that we're striving to to accomplish really amazing things for our district and our students um I also uh because you know the Miss Johnson the goal the people goal has always been near and dear to my heart I just wanted to commend the staff for stepping outside of what may have been kind of a traditional comfort zone and implementing new processes I know that it's difficult when we bring in um change like this and so I think 35% even though our goal was 80% of the completion of those surveys I I I look at that as a very positive number given that it is still a statistically relevant number and would just um suggest that we continue to push on that because I think it's a great opportunity for our uh teachers and our staff to uh to make their voices heard so thank you for that no I just had a couple comments I wanted to thank the district down the thank you for that um on Safety and Security my understanding to is the Blue Ribbon updates help address upgrades to saf andur then the other thing too is I know even though we didn't meet all of our achievement goals um the data Mr not that you and your team shared with us is very promising because the needle is moving it'sing all of our and I would just Echo what's already been said I've been on the board almost 12 years and I have never seen the achievement needle move so much in such a short time so congratulations and I think um that goes out to every every building leader every teacher every assistant instructor um certainly all of our Administration thank you thank you to the teams of teachers and parents who study our curriculum and and um to you know to their commitment to Marzano and riger thank you um thank you to each division okay fantastic now um we'll go ahead and move on uh Miss Johnson to our classified employee handbook updates please again good evening Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board this evening we are proud to bring you information on our classified handbook our transportation handbook and our food services handbook and what we have for you is an outline a summary of the changes that have been made in each of those books and we've worked our director of classified staff we've worked really closely with each of those division leaders um at Transportation Food Services and we have sent all of these for a review by our attorney to get feedback and then in turn that we then get back to those super supervisors and made the necessary changes so I'll start with our classified employee handbook um the main changes there there were just two um one is which is leave without pay so that when an employee is wanting to be absent they have to exhaust all of their types of days before they could ever take a a day without any pay and per medical personal and vacation days there we just change the um the amounts to the increments of half or whole our transportation had quite a few any comments our transportation handbook had several changes and um at the very beginning on page five um we just wanted to state that it's a handbook and not a contract and the next change was more of a verbage from base one to maintenance um the next category added time theft category and just making sure we are very intentionally checking um the clocking in and the clocking out system with our employees and that there is a point system that can that is in place that would result in any employees that are not following um directions with their checking in and checking out that could be recommended for termination we have a change in the open field trips and how they are posted they are posted for our our drivers with seniority and then when drivers don't take those opportunities it's posted for all of the drivers to sign up for field trips um we've added some language with the seat belt used by students verbage per board policy so that students are required to wear seat belts and equip buses um per board policy the student Stop Parking breake verbage um just really extremely a safety um addition that the parking brake has to always be set in transmission and in New NE we have a number of changes on page 22 and 23 as our drivers have worked with their supervisors as we looked at the restricted roads and areas um that are listed below when they look at the sizes of the bus and turning left and turning right and backing up and so all of those have been listed there for um detailed bullets about those areas in our district on page 23 we have a revision to a railroad crossing procedure that buses must be facing the track perpendicularly to perform proper safe railroad crossing procedures and those are the edits for the transportation book and we certainly appreciate our director of Transportation who is maintaining a safe operation to make sure that these are included going forward for the 2425 school year and our last handbook that we' like to bring to you for information this evening is from Food Services um food and nutrition the overviews are listed for you we've just updated all of the office staff and the leadership that are new to the Food Services and with their move to the operations wanting to make sure all of those information and lines of contact overview of programs we've updated the language regarding meal elig eligibility options on page seven there's um clarification on approval of hours and the work days where job expectations can be located for employees um also on page seven the attendance acceptable methods of how an employee should communicate with their supervisor their attendance has been just outlined in a little bit more detail cafeteria substitutes and the dress code policy um that's been updated as to what's what is acceptable usage in the cafeteria for our employees good health practices um on grooming expectations kind of goes along with the dress code policy there is an update just a typo in the food board illness section and an updated injuries on the job for workers compensation and how um notifications must be processed and received once again our dress code policy on page 11 and 12 we've just um clarified what's allowable and what's not allowable cell phones um not to be used while working um in our cafeterias page 12 visitors and children n work just updating those policies to make sure we are creating safe spaces for our employees meal allowances does that policy has been updated as well as smoking vaping customer service and an employee checklist we're just um bringing this information so that once later we come for um approval that this can be updated for the 2425 school year and all employees can be able to access and go through some training and professional development on the changes to all of our handbooks thank you m Johnson any questions okay no questions we'll move on to Neola policy updates Mr harburger Dr harburger Madam president members of board Dr Smith I bring to you tonight NE special June 224 Vision packet for first reading this packet consisted of uh one bylaw update one replacement policy and one revision policy any questions about these policies or comments from our esteemed policy committee members okay accept that as information and then we're on Mr miles to our financial update and I and I would say before before you start we did just have a graduation and I do remember what you all look like in your amazing doctoral robes and so I a I apologize for that uh Mr miles thank you madam president uh Dr Smith members of the board in front of you you have our month end uh May 31 2024 Financial reports for both the general fund and the transportation funds as we present these monthly and continue to monitor them uh both funds are are in a good place at this time uh from a general fund standpoint uh our revenue is a little higher than anticipated or originally projected and expenditures a little below leading to a positive balance there uh on the transportation fund we've been watching a couple of things on this and they continue to to Trend um about as expected our expenses are just slightly higher than than originally projected but uh not terribly out of line uh Revenue in a good place and happy to answer any questions I do have one question that excuse me that I had noticed on the transportation that the contracted Services um it looks like there have been um $106,000 in contracted Services is that that we were projecting 75,000 what are the contracted services that we um that are costing so much as you can see that we only have a few line items on under our expenditures here at the board report so it does encompass a lot of different things so anytime we send out uh a bus for repairs uh that would be one of the big biggest expenses so um we're using other vendors other than our own um staff um any of our subcontract work those types of things fall under fall under that do and have a contract with a specific mechanic that does that work we use several different shops um and based on my prior prior experience over there um depending on who who um the manufacturer of a certain vehicle comes into play there um just like if you own a Ford you might take it to a Ford dealer if you own a Chevy you might take it to the Chevy dealer uh also they work on specific things um a transmission versus an engine versus you know other things so like that this also and captures uh uh our software that we use and so I know that was one of the expenses that that's kind of a once annual expense so depending on when that hits the books you know it may may accelerate when you hit your expenses and versus over the whole year thank you welome I had a question too which falls under your former role too um the uh gas prices are under the supplies materials line and that price is locked in once a year is that correct or so we we um we do some different things there um kind of depending on the market um we're we're work we work closely with our fuel vendors our fuel suppliers to to look at futures um different times and even going back to my my previous years um sometimes we may lock in a greater percentage of the fuel depending on what those forecasts look like so we could go all the way up to um you know nearly 100% of our forecast or we may go as as little as say 50% and and we can lock those in anywhere from you as little as a month in advance to as much as a year so it just depends on on what the market looks like at the time so it's it's kind of a moving moving evolving process thank youas we buy a lot of gas we we used to run about two million miles a year with our with our buses did have one other question related to finances is there a chance that perhaps in the July board meeting we could get an update on Esser as that is coming to a close of how that was spent um because I know that was a significant amount of money that was bestowed upon us by the taxpayers of as as we close that out officially um Mr noer Mr miles uh we can share with the board um uh a report on where we are we'll do that it's my understanding that we also when I said taxpayers taxpayers through our federal government the taxes that we pay into um indirectly we cover all those things we do so um just to be clear that that was not local that that was Federal yeah um and do we did have additional time right to spend that money because I understand that it was supposed to be encumbered by the end of SE September of this year but there has been an extension go ahead Mr not there's been an extension for specific Contract Services and so are we going to be able to use that extension or will we have in will everything be gone by September we have budgeted um very very well to spend our money in the original deadline that was given to us so we will see where we end up after jump start and then be able to make a determination super thank you very much great questions thank you board thank you very much we will move on then to um board member committee chair reports um Miss Norman foundations our our Lawrence Township Foundation I don't currently Madame President have any updates unless Miss Lawrence has anything to share it's done for me either yeah quiet in the summer yeah yeah I we may next time have a report out on the golf tournament and the funds that were raised from there okay so we'll move on to miss Pucket Lawrence Parks and Recreation yes I have an update um check out our Farmers Market it is in the fort B cultural campus from 4 to 7 every Thursday from June 2nd to October 6th I was there last Thursday it is a whole vibe in the sense of that you take the family there you have ice cream you have fruit you have just just cop amounts of Awesomeness and so yes the cultural campus for the farmers market peaches were actually really good too um so there's that uh fourth Fest on July the 4th it begins at 10:00 a.m.
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so um we are using the final forms um I've helped a couple other districts these preliminary forms but I was a well do the timing of the work meeing we we do have all the final adjustments from the legislature included in Theo budget so I'll talk about the m and capital as you guys know those are your two main formula controlled um budgets uh session shortly again controlled by the formula and student count and then we'll talk about upcoming budget conversations as we look ahead this year 25 we go to the next slide so the legislative updates so as I mentioned the the budget the kall budget pass of the legislature June 15th at 10m um if you were following at all there were several concerns that it may go well into July or August there seem to be no uh resolution as a lot of their conversation was revolving around various topics other than the budget um but it did pass um they did resolve a lot of the estate deficit so um estate deficit was hovering around 600 800 million they instituted some large scale transfers and cut a lot of onetime funding so um cuts to uh the of the water infrastructure um funding application acronym but um which last year was just appropriated 300 million they slashed that pretty much all um there was uh a do got cut 90 million um there's some other smaller scale TR cuts to the other state budgets but relatively Cas of Education was left mostly un touch so um good news for for Cas 12 education bad news for other state agencies um what was kind of appropriated in that legislative um discussion was the one thing that kind of a negative the capital increases um that were instituted with Governor juy three years ago a threeyear legislative appropriation that had Capital increasing for three years right it hasn't been touched in years we've just more recently fully made poll from recessionary Cuts back in 08 and 09 so we were looking up but the legisl made these increases now one time um so we'll be appropriating them for next year but what it means by one time they immediately come back off the budget so now we're already going to start realizing cap cuts to the capital budget um which seems like just yesterday we just made po so um that was one of the areas where they went and made a kind of a on it's going to make a one time cut to kind of balance the budget so you're good for 25 and 26 we're going to be seeing reduction in capital funding um to the tune about 5% unless some other changes happen so um there was some concern over the the building renewal grants program AO has utilized that program significant you know to the tune of you know $7 million over the last couple years with sever of your Renovations um there was talk that that would be cut to help satisfy the bu that was not so that was kind of a made whole they've been appropriating $200 million every year so that's good news um because AO you know I foresee AO continuing to leverage that Grant fund to fund hbac needs other building needs as as your budget can not satisfy a lot of those needs um the 2% inflation increase in the base level that was um that's mandated in statute if inflation's R running above 2% the legislature is obligated to to minimally increase um the per P formula so the four right now it's $495 per student they're obligated to increase that 2% if inflation's running about 2% so the state ended about 3% so they minimally appropriated 2% that's been standard over the last couple years as inflation's been rampid um throughout not only Mara but all the very um they did adjust Transportation inflation adjustment it's going to minimal effect AO uh is you don't have a lot of Transportation expenses um but it increases the per mile dollar amount that you get back for reur for transporting students um the agre expension limit um that was Exempted for 25 that's a relief um that's a there a limit it's been back in the Constitution since 1980 and so um the practice has been L just to do an annual kind of um exemption for that AG expension limit um they've been holding that as like a kind of token the legisl to pass other bills that they may want increases Ina and Stu like that so good news that was Exempted so there's no you full budget capacity going into next year there was some reform on Esa vouchers um just adding some additional accountability to people polling vouchers um but no change to the financial for that and then they eliminated the Statewide kindergarten entry assessment just another thing in there I don't know how much that affects AO but um that was a previously appropriated legislative act and that was one of the things any questions on that legislative update we saying the da Capal increases that were good for next year but we don't know what they're doing each year now it's being done here time are raises pay increases now increases last sustainable going ahead what that yeah so that the one thing about that um is your salaries and benefits are all paid from your ml operations budget so those are safe um so your Capital would be like your um budget for like physical tangible items Des chairs equipment and stuff like that so that's what will have to be addressed next 26 uh and look at what's sustainable with those annual purchases in regards to Capital items so but I have some good news as we if we go to the next side talk about some of your reserves and where you stand on some of your budget so I'm looking at the fy2 proposed budget again I took into consideration all the legislative changes so the new base level amount is is that per P you get um for student now you have that's the the base base level now AO is they get a small school adjustment on both Elementary and high school so there's additional weight on top of that and then in addition to that if you have eligible students that are considered group E we so learning disability or sp.
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on the northeast corner of Maine and vanen streets in downtown asgo a small event will formally introduce the look up us weo Banner project so we are very appreciative and thank our student and staff who worked with the commission to make this idea a reality uh light Refreshments will be uh will be served at the reception and no RSVP is required um another announcement for next week our district offices and school buildings will be closed on July 3rd and 4th um in honor of Independence Day and then uh we hope that everyone is enjoying their summer finding time with family friends and relaxing okay shout outs and now we will start our shoutouts all right several students parents and staff and a board member uh join together to march in the Aurora Pride prog parade earlier this month uh boasting a theme that were stronger together the volunteers passed out bubbles and greeted attendees we hope to have an even bigger presence next year um I will say we had we had a good attendance um and it was a great parade um I also heard back anecdotally that there were other 308 students that were in other um on in in other groups and on other floats and uh they were excited to see all of us from 308 as well so um kudos to all of the people that spent numerous hours putting all that together it worked out really well parent University registration is now open plan to join in on this interactive day of learning on Saturday July 20th from 9:00 a.m.
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at Lawrence Community Park have a parade a fish fry DJ fireworks all the things and so I will be there and so should you so yes that is a park subate as part of the parks update I might ask um we often use the Belzer parking lot for staging and I sort of think that might not happen this year given the state of the parking lot and and what's the plan the West Side the west side of bower will be open so we'll be able to use part of that uh part of LC that's open uh we may have to revert to the other side of uh the West west side of LC so depending on how much we have done prior to that okay thank you thank you for that and and policy Miss dun as you all can see um duser harsher has presented us with three policies for our review that we will vote on um at our next meeting correct and then also got some handy dandy notes um in the coming weeks we should receive the next regular policy update from niola and that update will address other policy revisions from recent legislation so that is where we're at having said all that we will move on to our action items um approval to of the request for permission to send RFP for Energy savings contract Madam president Dr Smith members of the board will recommend the board approve the request to send out an RFP for guaranteed guaranteed Energy savings contract project as presented so move go ahead so moved second any further questions all those in favor I I oppose the eyes have it we will move on to the approval of permission to send an RFP for um Construction contract for cresty Forest BL and Castle mam president Dr Smith members board recommend the board approve the request to send out an RFB uh for CMC for Force Glenn cresview and Mary Castle as presented so moved second there are no questions all those in favor I I any oppos the eyes have it approval of permission to dispose of vehicles Mr miles thank thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board at the June 10th uh meeting we presented to you a list of five vehicles that at this time we would uh request the board approve permission to dispose of so moved second we moved and seconded all those in favor I any opposed we will be disposing of those vehicles uh approval of the resolution for disposition of property so moved oh not yet give it to us first thank you madam president U as presented earlier tonight show on the road can you hey understand excited at this time I recommend that the board approve the resolution to dispose of property so moved second properly moved and seconded um if there's no further discussion all those in favor I any oppos the eyes have it and we'll move on to the approval Mr miles to transfer funds at this time uh I recommend that the board approve the transfer of funds that was presented earlier this evening so moved second properly moved and seconded if there's no further questions all those in favor I I any opposed have it approval of classified employee handbook update Miss Johnson Madame President Dr Smith and members of the board approval is sought for the approval of all of our classified hand BS so moved second properly moved and seconded all in favor I I I any opposed the eyes have it and then we'll move on to the approval of the student handbook updates Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board at our last board meeting you were presented with updates to our student handbooks and I am requesting that those updates be approved as submitted so moved second properly moved and seconded all those in favor I I any opposed the I have it um approval of our student school calendars Mr Kik and Dr BR Madam president Dr Smith members of the board at the June 10th board meeting work session we presented to you the 2025 26 and 2026 27 school year calendars as we recommend that those are approved as so moved second go ahead you take it Chris I have a bunch properly moved and seconded all those in favor of approving school to calendars I I any opposed eyes have it Madame President I move we treat action items 5.9 to 5.15 as consent agenda we have a second second properly moved and seconded all those in favor of items 5.9 through 5.14 as a consent agenda I I I any oppos they are a consent agenda and I move approval of the consent agenda uh and I will I will say a correction was through item 5.15 not 5 okay yeah okay thank you okay um so do we have uh a motion did we have a motion on the table to approve that consent agenda yes I move approval of the consent agenda Madame President second properly moved and seconded all those in favor of approving the consent agenda I we have approved the consent agenda we have made it to our board comments don't all rush to the mic at the same time who would like to speak first I'll choose Miss Norman okay I'll keep it short and sweet um thank you to the board and Dr Smith and the cabinet everybody for a good um and productive executive session today um thank you to our staff who's um finishing up the last week of jump start um and I hope that everybody has a good and rful break around the upcoming holiday weekend oh I'm happy to go uh yes thank you so much for Jumpstart because um even though her mother uh is on the school board and often uh misses deadlines um so thank you for getting MAV us into jump start it made our first part of the summer much more seamless so thank you for that uh just wish everybody uh a good uh July as we wrap up our our year and also to say happy Pride it's the end of pride month so thank you Miss I um just want to Echo my fellow board members words I also would like to say thank you to the district for always being at community events I had an opportunity to catch the tail end of the juneth celebration um and was honored that our district was one of the sponsors and so just thank you um for just showing up when it matters and all of the things here in Warren toown ship um yes that is it oh and also just want to say that we will be at the parade so as well as a lot of These Fine people so uh Miss Pucket is was not wrong be there or be square because there's going to be a lot of fun there bring us water and we'll throw candy at you yeah Miss bucket I Echo all the sentiments that were made you're appreciated and get you home board um thank you for a terrific executive session and that includes all of the um facilitators and administrators who helped with that um I would also um I am really looking forward to that July 4th parade so I'll say it again really looking forward to that July 4th parade um pretty gets pretty warm um and but what I'm truly looking forward to um is the HVAC working at Lawrence Central on July 15th 16th 17th and 18th for our Lawrence learning Summit very excited about that um it's remarkable that this District offers um a veritable um Teachers Conference right here in Lawrence for our own um with Stellar speakers I'm very much looking forward to those keynote speak speakers and thank you for all the planning that goes into that um and I mention that because that will occur before our next meeting um on July 22nd at 7 pm.
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there additional weights on top of that so um that's all factored into this formula that I kind of rolled up um and how you get your Revenue control limit so you take base level amount you add in all your weighted add-ons times your ADM and you get your Revenue control limit so this is really truly your budgeted annual year byye number the $3.4 million um so the raises that we just talked about yes we and considering your annual appropriation all those increases that the board approved are within that Revenue control limit um now we add back in our our budget Bal carry for this is what we're carrying over from this year we're anticipating I'm kind of estimating because we're still finishing paying some bills we have until August 31st to finish our incom period you utilities often come in a month after and so we're still paying bills but um we we have to estimate um on the forms where we're going to end so we're anticipating ining the year with about $843,000 in reserves from this year in the ml budget and so that will carry forward into next year um like I said we're not budgeting to spend any those right now we're just uh maintaining those as reserves um it's good practice to have reserves in the case if something comes up right any emergency um that's about 20% of your total budget that's a very healthy Reserve um that is down a little bit from from last year um we had some one time Appropriations 24 budget that are coming off now um and then we had a satisfy some Grant close outs that were not closed out in time we to use some that to satisfied uh some of those obligations the add-ons this is a prop proposition one two3 um that will be going away in 26 so this the last year for that add-on 33,000 so that getes you your total General budget limit $4.3 million um you can see we revised to in May in 202 was $4.8 Million that difference is $500,000 as I mentioned in 24 you had a $116,000 in onetime funding added to the budget so that's a reason why you see such a a large reduction in addition we had to satisfy several grants that we closed out in time we had exam dollar to satisfy those um I did work witho Mery Casey we have um those all kind of under control now but during the transition um some of those did not get closed out in time and so um with federal grants they're black and white if you the deadline they not satisfi so add the ml budget if you go to the capital budget again this is these are two different buckets with the capital budget um your adjusted Capital amounts the 269 that's your annual appropriation based on the formula so that's what you get annually um so this is what this is the amount that's going to go down 5% so this is where we'll be conscious of how much um we're obligating in terms of capital items and capital expenses now the good thing if you look at the next line The Bu bance carry for we're anticipating carrying forward 747 th000 um into next year again very good to have a reserve in the capital fund um large when when emergencies happen regarding capital items um if the building renewal grant program can't fund it um you're obligated to fund it and so typically emergencies in capital when you're talking about building physical tangible things are a larger dollar amount um than M than supplies and services so um you you'll typically see a larger carry forward in capital that's a recommendation in best practice the add-ons that's interest you can actually capture interest on Capital um on the capital budget so so those reserves are collecting interest and you can capture back in budget capacity so one little nice addon um you add all those together you get your total capital budget $1 million 2,616 and the difference from FY 24 to this year uh is 72,000 um as we did a lot of one time initiatives this year Gator Dr had a lot of one time things that we we went through purchased to have upgrade right they come they came in that that cycle right every five 10 years you're going to have stuff that comes up where you're going to obligate more money um but next year some of those one time things should come off and we should be um within budget and kind of maintain that bus carry forward unless we have some um looking at again 25 as you mentioned like the salary schedule adjustments those are all included in this budget package and within U the budget capacities so um again those schedules were not updated in several years I kind of we cleaned those up we were able to um provide the bo able to approve some increases much increases and kind of maintain with the level of inflation and the cost of living nowadays um the second item is something we have uh kind of looked into and we're kind of looking at expanding as creating a fiveyear capital plan going into next year so um there's been discussion about um Bond funding or like looking at larger Capital expenses um and so I think one of the initiatives is to kindy to create you what is the community feel for need um is there a need um for a field Innovation I think that's the conversations that I've been involved in or is there not and so those conversations I think can create some plans or help identify those plans and we can bring them forth back to the board and discuss those and whether um you want to seek additional funding or alternative funding sources to fund those projects or look at maybe a fiveyear savings plan right maybe setting aside some Capital every year or phasing in some of these items so um I think it will help create a vision too on where this District wants to go um with some of their Capital items and and try to you know it's nice to have a vision and goal in front of you and a root that to where everybody's going the same direction so um that's kind of the goal for next year uh is try to create that that plan and bring that back FR discuss that so was that that's 25 proposed bus I'll be happy to answer any questions one question I have goes back to no budget when you were saying that there was some of the shortfall was that there were grants that weren't get the term you used for but you said during the transition is that during the transition of superintendence that that happened or what I think it's a combination of myself getting on right there's some business manager transition um and then the the Train the timeline Clos out with the grant timelines by the time we got I got on board like some of this stuff is already in place and down the road and it's really hard to turn back or correct some of those items so elaborate he said he said it pretty well just a complete turn over just uh you know uh the budget revisions the annual Financial reports and then just getting a clear idea um everything else with journal entries completion reports working in collaboration with Pim County Superintendent school's office they also had a complete turnover like from one day to the next literally they lost their CFO from one day to the next so they have a new interm CFO going from the state level to the county level so there was just a lot of a lot of turnover and just getting everyone on the same page to the time and as that time passed County and District state level still have their mandatory deadlines of what was what was needed to be turned in she had two completely new trying to get all the journal entries in order completion reports in order making sure everything is done appropriately and that was part of just the all the change at one time but excited about this coming year we work very closely with the the county superintendent school's office with the State Department of Education grants office and now it's like a just a triangle if everyone is more on the same page and one year being together is going to really make a difference going to the second year everyone's going to know who to call who to send what to just just more collaboration more chemistry it's going to be a lot better physical year 2425 and and M we took a on the carry pretty much is carry forward like we we're going to work to build that back up um by leveraging not only the grants that didn't captured last year but new grants right I think the team has already added new grants on the board that we have been made aware of or I've made Casey and mercy aware of um so I'm optimistic that that will turn around um next we also have I can add to Mr MO our finance team is getting doing a cohort with the Arizona Association School business officials so they're up there getting the best practices training on chared accounts on grants management gme with ad um payroll practices just they're both going to be getting the best practices training that other districts also receive and we get it right from ASO on a monthly basis so we're going to have a better game plan coming in on a month-to-month basis keeping track of all of this with all the new staff at each level district county and state so just to follow Rob's question had we receive funding on that those grants and had to reimburse that funding or so we we so yeah we AO originally was accepted and received those gr fund we obligated your positions Etc towards the grant funding and then that close out either we weren't in a situation where we can close out and we didn't have the proper paperwork in and so we had to revert that funding to ml right it wasn't eligible then to reur from that Grant we move that to M to cover that so again a one time a one time issue but it does have Financial impact when you're not able to satisfy the needs or the obligations of the grant um and unfortunately yeah so explain this to like moner we receive for a grant we didn't do the accounting for it that what yeah so you yeah federal government right gives you a $100 Grant you're required to do meet all these obligations right from a district we have to have registration with s.gov we have to have um we because we're not an entity that can talk directly to government we have to go through Arizon Department of Education so they have rules and timelin so that $100 Grant we're like okay we got a position in it right we're going to pay a sement for Angelina right this year all right we do that we pay Angelina now we go to close out that Grant and ab and fed says wait hold on a second you didn't submit this paperwork in time you didn't submit the proper close out paperwork you didn't tell us what your account are spending this money on the grant timeline's over after we had that conversation and then they they will not reimburse so fortunately we have to take that $100 pay for it from them know and then you know get that grant money back to the F so it happened on a couple different grants unfortunately this a big deal eom a lot of money or little money or $100 uh we're talking you know up to $100,000 because we title one was one of the bigger ones that we that we had referred back um and that provides a significant amount of positions for this District there's several positions and supplies that we this District utilizes that Grant for so yeah it was it was unfortunate and you'll see it reflected in the audit reports um just the the lack of issues with the transition unfortunately that's the reality of what happened and we have a plan going forward though to rectify this and and try to rebuild those funds so you have it all under control for now I'm very optimistic 25 with not only um Gloria and ginger but Angelina and Casey and Mery I think we're all a lot more cohesive um we kind of set up different um kind of layers so not only have we're not just one person doing something right we all have knowledge of how to either do a requisition or complete completion report so um there's cross training involved so I leave you know St you nothing will will fall off and I think that was the case of what happened a lot of knowledge with one individual that individual leaves it's at the Mery unfortunately we have that $100,000 Mark for din the bo next year is there any more questions discussion on thank you for yeah but they Elementary level I don't have a teaching background okay I'll make a motion to second allst [Music]
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to 1: p.m. at plank Junior High this event is free and open to all area parents pre-registration is required parents can Cho choose two of four learning opportunities child care and food will be provided along with information on community resources to assist families and giveaways and raffle prizes learn more and register on the district website and I just want to add um it's not on this but one of the guest speakers is Mr Ernest Crim one of the most uh bright and engaging Educators that I've ever had the opportunity engage with and I hope everybody um comes out and listens to him speak I'm very excited about parent University too so me too um our district had an incredible presence in the prayer Fest Parade on Father's Day over 200 students parents and staff participated sharing giveaways and Par parade goers with parade goers um vehicles from transportation and operations along with the high school bands and cheerleaders also took part in the parade it was a fun time tomorrow Tuesday J uh June 25th from 5:00 to 6:30 the Northern Illinois food bank will host a mobile Pantry drive-thru at Lakewood Elementary School the pantries opened all area families who can use additional food no ID address or proof of income is required this is a first come first served event while supplies last before I read this I'm going to say Dominic nice shirt I guess I need to call you to make sure that we don't show up with the same stuff anymore we didn't get M yeah come on D see either I'm copying you or you're copying me right okay sorry uh hey people it's 7:30 at night but maybe you have not grab dinner yet and if you have not oh I have something exciting for you epic exceptional parents of exceptional children would love for you to stop by Riverside Pizza Riverside Pizza down on Douglas right you can do so until 11: pm tonight tonight only tonight only yes and the funds raised from any dine in and Carry Out order will help support special needs programs at Community Unit School District 308 Riverside Pizza you have a very good radio voice all right so we'd like to thank uh the many Community leaders business owners elected officials District leaders and many more who joined us at our first annual District dialogue business breakfast on June 11 it was amazing uh the morning included great networking opportunities and a chance for attendees to hear from our students our principles District leaders and about the amazing things that are happening in our district collaborative events like this one are important for expanding opportunities for our students throughout the community and we're excited about all of the faces that were in the place it was a great event yes yes that was really great okay our human resources team is hosting open interviews specifically tailor tailored for those looking to make an impact in our operations SL maintenance and transportation departments if you're interested in a career as a custodian a bus driver crossing guard or bus monitor secure your interview spot for Saturday July 6th 30 minute interview slots can be booked online visit the calendar on the district website for more details our school food provider airmark is also hosting a hiring event for food service positions across the district visit asgo High School this Thursday from 10:30 to 3:30 or Friday from 8:00 to 1 check the district website's announcements for more details okay moving on to 5.2 board member comments all right would you like I I just wanted to share I think maybe we have missed an opportunity with our community to to explain better how we are utilizing our committees now um because um I know we don't answer uh um public comment but a lot of the things that were discussed in there have all been done through our finance and Facilities Community I have all of that information available so I would really like us to somehow communicate to the community that we are we have a really good um working process with our communities now our committees excuse me now and I think maybe that is indicative of the fact that we haven't communicated that as well as we could have I have a that's a great point and I have a suggestion on that and that is that it's just something for us to ponder I don't think we have to like do a motion or anything right now but maybe every board meeting we can announce hey between now and the next board meeting here's the next Finance meting here's the next so maybe that's something we could start to look into to do to maybe help with that communication fabulous because I'm very proud of the work we have done especially around rfps rfqs um holding Administration you know accountable for that and um that's really important I don't want that to reflect on them that we have poorly communicated so so maybe we can add that that might be I like that a lot yeah maybe when we do the committee updates we can say and our next meeting ISF yeah perfect time did you have anything else Jen sorry no okay I I had um conversation with um board member in another District large District I don't think they I don't know if they care for me to use their name but um I definitely wanted to share that conversation and that is that many of the many of the large districts that are not fully funded um are certainly getting wind of some things on the horizon as we get into next year right um and for those that aren't aware Chicago moved from tier one to tier two so um uh C uh uh Chicago Public Schools CPS district one is now tier 2 the rumor around the campfire is that there is going to be a concentrated effort to find some way to either get them out of tier 2 or to find a way that their funding isn't held to the same criteria that tier 2 is which means problems for us and one of the reasons why um this board member and I were discussing is because we have some large districts that uh we could certainly start talking about and talking with so um as we get into July 1 new fiscal year I think it would be wise for the legislative committee to start maybe really looking at how to have those conversations and get together um there are definitely some other large districts that are also under tier one status and if you're funneling funds to Chicago Public Schools it will affect us if it's at the um detriment of tier one schools so I I want to share that tonight um because I don't think it's just something I should have I feel like I should share that with the community and my fellow board members so okay anybody else all right 6.2 consent agenda can I have can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 6.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on May 25th 2024 and June 3rd 2024 open and close session and 6.2 to acknowledge the foer requests received by the district second are there any questions on the consent agenda Mr gate I Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon I Mr ploger I miss venoth I motion passes 70 it's your turn 7.1 all right so in 7.1 um I have some information regarding the RFP for painting so the painting is a comprehensive body of work that is detailed in the attachment on the agenda um we are looking to start some of the painting refresh before the start of school so we will have um some of the classrooms and uh common areas ready in the school anything that is not uh completed by the start of school we will then look to um complete the painting over Thanksgiving or winter break um this comprehensive list was done in consultation with our building admin the rec recommendation um will be for the lowest responsible Builder uh excuse me bidder which was rlv Services LLC um and we will be bringing this for action on July 15th so we can start the painting as soon as possible after approval by the board questions yeah I just have a couple if you don't have the answers you can give them to me later I don't need them right now but at least noted um I see we had a company from Migo put in a bid I see we have a company from Lombard which we're going with which has the lower bid I guess I'm it's kind of a question and a comment at the same time um I just hope that we're monitoring um the services that we receive since we're going with a company that's outside of the community um that's kind of my comment and then I guess the question is you know um if if maybe we've had um experiences with any of these three companies in the past and if that had any kind of factoring in the decision as well um again I I don't expect the answer to that um right here and right now but at some point if somebody can get back to me on that I'm just curious about those two things I I love to give local business where we can um you know we're we're at that point we're returning tax dollars back into the community which I love to see I totally get saving money and I totally get going with the lowest bidder as well um that's also saving money so I I get the dilemma I'm just curious about those two things and thank you I will follow Jared I noticed that too the sgo bit or Theo company and um I think a lot of us are aligned in that like we like to see the money stay local I think there was mentioned previously of maybe offering like for local businesses an orientation to the RFP process or something like that maybe am not remembering that correctly um that said I don't have a good understanding of that process myself so I don't know how in- depth or how um manageable something like that is uh but to give our local companies uh you know a leg up per se and in in the bidding process pass too thank you thank you okay 8.1 action item approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize the payments of bills in the amount of 2,761 19487 as presented second Miss vmou hi Dr Mario hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood sorry I miss Johnson hi Mr pler I motion passes 70 action item 8.3 approval of building2 8.2 sorry so fast we don't know what to do right action item 8.2 approval of District administrator contracts can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the district administrator contracts as presented second one quick piece before we vote I just want to stress again as we bring in leadership and and I know you you will do your best and you will do do this but I just want to stress that as we bring in leaders we need to make sure they're supported all of our staff we want to make sure they have the resources and support that they need so I I know you'll do your best to monitor that but it's my like friendly reminder yep Miss vmou hi Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Mr Cerone I miss similon hi Dr Maria hi Mr pler hi motion passes 70 action item 8.3 appro approval of building administrator contracts can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the building administrator contracts as discussed in closed session second Mr ploger I Mr Gatewood I miss venman hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson I motion passes 70 action item 8.4 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed and close session second Dr Maria I Miss Johnson I Mr ploger hi Mr Cerone I Mr Gatewood I miss venoth I miss similon I motion passes 70 action item 8.5 approval of network switch refresh e rate can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the purchase purchase of the data Network Edge switch Replacements as presented second Miss mmth hi Dr Mario hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr ploger I motion passes 70 action item 8.6 approval of Fleet refresh can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the purchase of three trucks for our operations Department from Riverview Ford in the amount of $145,000 second and can I make a comment before we vote just because I I didn't I knew that we had talked about this before this was an informational item in the June 3D board meeting it was correct and the reason that Riverview came up is that during the meeting much of what we just said we would like to keep our dollars in the community so we asked uh Mr Queen to go back and look at a vendor that was within our School District boundaries and that is why Riverview Ford was added here thank you yes so that parallels um what Mr Queen and Mr Opa shared um that it was um this particular item was for information on June 3rd um after based on board information and request they did reach out to local community members um so that is the difference between the three vendors from June 3 third and the fourth um from today um so they are going with the local vendor um and because of the current um uh level of the fleet this is a priority to move forward with this that's why they sought quotes so yeah and again I you know I we have legal requirements that we have to follow as tax taxing body and we should definitely follow all of those I you know I am still kind of a a small town person at heart though and when I go back to my small town and I see all the businesses that are no longer there um it it makes me feel good any time that we go through the through the legal process and we can return business back to the community keep dollars in the community agreed Mr Cerone hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr ploger hi Miss venoth hi Dr marel hi Miss similon hi motion passes 70 action item 8.7 approval of intergovernmental agreement with Community cares can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement with Community cares as presented second Dr Maria hi Miss vmes I need to abstain because I'm on the board of community cares Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Mr pler I and thank you for all you do yeah motion passes six with one exstension action item 8.8 approval of intergovernmental agreements with our municipalities can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement with the following municipalities as presented Aurora Police Department Kendall County Montgomery Police Department and asigo fire department second Miss Monmouth I miss Sim I Mr Cerone I Mr ploger I Mr Gatewood I Dr Mario I Miss Johnson I motion passes 70 action item 8.9 approval of intergovernmental agreement with the village of asigo rra can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement with the village of asigo reciprocal reporting agreement R ra as presented second Mr Koger hi Dr Maria hi Miss similon hi Mr Cerone hi Miss Johnson I Mr Gatewood I miss venman I motion passes 70 action item 8.10 approval of intergovernmental agreement with the village of oigo SRO can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement with the village of asigo school of resource officers SRO as presented second Miss similon hi Miss vmou hi Mr Cerone hi Dr Maria no Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson um I Mr pler I motion passes 61 action item 8811 approval of intergovernmental agreement with the village of planfield r r a n Sr o can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement with planfield r and SRO as presented second Mr Cerone hi Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Mr ploger hi Miss vmou hi Dr Maria no Miss similton I motion passes 61 action item 8.2 12 approval of intergovernmental agreement for special education services can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreements for our special education services with the following neighboring districts Manuka deel sandwich Cole City West Aurora East Aurora and Morris Community High School District 101 second and can I ask just a quick question um sorry I wasn't here for the last meeting a lot family things but um did anything change were any districts added or anything no okay not that I know of okay this well written I yeah so I I have a comment too but I want to see if if anybody else had one um the one thing that I do want to make sure that we're aware of when it comes to our um dhh uh Community um we continue to ask for quite a bit and they continue to need resources and I just want to make sure that we're cognizant of both of those pieces um you know [Music] the the level of support from students that we are receiving today is much higher than the level of support that was needed a decade or a decade and a half ago when it comes to that program and they're so valuable um it has been uh uh a very uh rewarding um time to get to know um the community which really is is a culture within our culture and so um I think uh we need to make sure that we are very cognizant of the resources they need um and and we have such a gift here and such an opportunity and um I I certainly don't want to see it deteriorate in any way um because it is so needed so just wanted to say that thank you and um sorry I just want to confirm it is the same number of districts both for information and now okay Mr Gatewood I Dr Mario I miss johnon hi Mr ploger hi Miss Simon hi Mr ceron hi Miss vmou hi motion passes 70 action item 8113 approval of the title one schoolwide plan plans can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the title one schoolwide plans for Boulder Hill and Long Beach Elementary and for plank Junior High School second Dr Mario hi Miss mouth hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr cler hi can I have a motion to go back to return to um close session it's in there no sorry I'll just read it from here I make a motion to enter close session under statute 5Cs 1202 C10 the placement of individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students second Miss Simon hi Miss vmou hi Mr ploger hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Mr Gatewood hi motion pass necess
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believe seven It's a combination meeting oh so it's 5:30 okay so I'm sorry about that I July 22nd is 5:30 and will get out uh in complete daylight okay Dr Smith thank you board and that's all I have to say today what's in the meeting Madam president sound good Dr Smith all right thank you um do we have a motion to adjourn so moved second we are adjourned jinx jinx oh we got more papers
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for [Music] hello Dr dupin hi Russell can you hear me yeah loud and clear thank you awesome e e e bu this good afternoon to everybody we're gonna go ahead and get started um at this time the governing board of cran Elementary School District number 14 is going to be holding a public hearing to present the fiscal year 20125 expenditures budget in accordance with State Statute and board policy um and for that we're going to go ahead and turn it over to Miss Shapiro Madam president governing board members and superintendent man I am happy um to present the adopted budget for fiscal year 2425 um and at this time I'm happy to answer any questions do we have any questions or comments I know that um in the past we've been talking about this budget the proposed I had an opportunity to speak some details in some of the one ones that we have so do you guys have any additional comments or questions questions about the budget I I apologize I will also say that um there have been no changes from the proposed budget thank you all right we do not have any additional questions or comments I think I'm very appreciative of how this time around for the budget I I've been coming into it with a little bit more of clear understanding of how the dollars are spent and what buckets are so I really appreciate the conversations we had I know I L I ask a lot of budget questions so um I thank you for that open communication and two-way communication with that seeing that we have no comments and do we have any comments in the public for this budget hearing and did you get any via email Miss htis okay all right giving that conversation it looks like we are adjourning the budget hearing conversation thank you guys for that and I will get us to the next item as soon as my computer decides to load all right and we're going to go ahead and get started with our regular board meeting um here at the kraton school district we understand that our community of schools is located on the ancestral land of the oam Jude and aim oam people people who descended from the hokam and have inhabited these lands since time in Memorial the oam whose name translates literally to people are a vibrant culture and Community spanning countless Generations into the past continuing to thrive in the present and carrying a powerful Legacy for Generations into the future with this acknowledgement the crayon School District formally recognizes that the traditional caring keep keeping of these lands by indigenous people is an aspirational model of community stewardship that we are committed to honor with practices policy and human relations and Miss MC cheffrey if you can please lead 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 liberty and justice thank you so much I'm going to go ahead and do roll call which is item 1 C Miss MC cheffer is here myself and Miss SS we are missing two board members today with that I would want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and remind the audience of their request to address board cards that must be completed and submitted to the board secretary if they wish to speak to an agenda item board policy provides for two cards White cards to be submitted in order to speak to an agenda item and blue cards to be submitted in order to speak during public comments due to the open meeting law board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda and this is per policy B DH that brings us to 28 approval of agenda I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented I second all those in favor I I I and that brings us to 2B which is the adoption of the 20242 budget pursu to policy DB we just had an open hearing and no other questions or comments were made so I move the governing board adopt the total aggregate School District budget per ARS 15- 905 for fiscal year 2425 second all those in favor I perfect and that brings us to 3A governing board reports Miss MC cheffrey would you like to get us started please yes um just for transparency sake I just wanted to address um an issue that I've received questions about regarding a possible convict with Copper State um and I asked for an executive session today which we um just completed and I'm satisfied with our attorney's recommendations and if anyone basically if anyone has needs more information more information Mr Man is available to um address any questions people might have but I'm satisfied with um where everything stands thanks thank you Miss MC cheffrey Miss SS um yes good evening um so I was just going to talk a little bit about our new Leo conference in Las Vegas that we went to since it wasn't really on the board agenda we don't have a meeting um in July so I was just going to kind of go over some of these um uh some of these that I went to um while we're at the conference so um a lot of this conference I think the a big theme was um and I think we're going to see this very very common theme um occur in a lot of things um is AI um and so there were a lot of different um uh sections that you could go on AI um so the first one that I went to um talked about Ai and just the huge potential that it has um and then I ended up talking to um my superintendent um of the school district I work in um and just about having that um thought process of getting in the game now instead of like waiting for later um and I'm sure um Katon probably has the same thought to get ahead of it um so our kids don't get behind like maybe um some other things that our kids get behind in um and then um the implications for the board of course is the policies and guidelines for for student safety um another one that I went to that I thought was really interesting um it was it's called addressing the Health and Social needs of our nation's aging Latino population I didn't know this but Latinos um over 65 are going to be the largest minority population um like that we have and so um there's some there's some concerns about that as um most people haven't saved up they haven't had the opportunity to work in jobs where um there's like savings plans or you know 401 KS um or ways for them to save money uh and then also they said that like housing has changed for um a lot of them whereas they aren't like staying with their their families so much because um families are struggling to to just raise like their own children and so um there was somebody there that um she lives in Washington and and they have some facilities there that um are for the Latino population uh and they are like um you know Assist to living places uh and help people live there because a lot of them only have social security like she told some she told about a story of this lady who literally only gets 900 a month in Social Security um and so uh of course that doesn't go very far at all as most of us know um and so I thought that was like um a really interesting thing and of course it's important to us because um you know a huge amount of our students are from the Latino population and just understanding uh that background um another one I went to was future of Transportation I'm going to tell you right now this was like way in over my head and like I started to like zone out like halfway through I'm sure Jay can talk about it because Jay was sitting next to me and Hilda was sitting on the other side and I kind of was like um okay so it was a lot about like uh the zero emission infrastru structure like that they have in California and like CO2 and things like that and I just kind of like zoned out a little bit on that one do you want to say anything about that one the only thing I would say is we have electric buses on the way yep all right and then I think the best one and I think uh Hilda and Jay will agree with me on this one was the actual last um session that we had and it was so sad that it was the last session because um by that time everybody's like peace out and um a lot of people were leaving at like 4:00 uh to the airport um and so um we got in on this one and there weren't a huge amount of people there but it was probably the best session of the whole thing um and it was talking about Empowering Families to achieve Student Success um it was with Stephanie parro who um sits on the Phoenix Union board but she runs in uh she runs a nonprofit called all-in education um and what she does is she works with families um to empower parents to be better advocates for their children and learn how to talk to um like staff and teachers at schools so uh it benefits their their children and it kind of helps to accelerate their students academic growth because now like uh teachers and parents know how to work together um and it's kind of intense they um accept parents in there and they have to be like at all of the the meetings they have and then they have like a graduation um and I know Jay and I were talking about maybe bringing that um over here they do it a lot in Roosevelt um but I just was really Amazed by um all the wonderful things that um they're doing and I think as just an educator like that's something that we that teachers really want to they want to know how to work better with parents and maybe make those connections and um like you know so many people say you know like oh you know I've heard like people say oh our parents don't care it's not that they don't care I just don't feel like we know how to bridge that gap of communication between each other um and so this does that and um I was really excited about it I don't know if you want to add anything since you went to that one too H's restricting and Hilda he cannot during this time oh he can't during this time just me so it's your report all right just my report then he can say it during his superintendent awesome okay so those were um some of the ones I went to I went to a couple other ones but um those were the main ones I went to and wanted to talk about um I thought it was a pretty good conference and um you know always get to Network and and meet new people so that's always fun too thank you um I'll keep my board report nice and short um I just wanted to remind everybody that the Family Resource Center calendar came out on July 8th and July 22nd they will be having a food distribution just so the community knows and I know that we have those going on in all different sites year um year round um nalo was amazing it's always a great time to partner and it's always really refreshing to go out and start hearing in conversations of other people what they're doing in their districts and every ever since we began this sofg framework you know kind of alignment and started digging into more it's just so crazy how in other places in other districts people are working towards that same thing how are we getting our parents involved how are we empowering our parents so then in return they can show up for their kids that way they are producing these outcomes one of the biggest conversations also that's going around Nationwide has to do with security and given the fact that a doj report just came out um here recently um it it's it's a lot of things that we have to start taking into account when it it comes to the reality of the areas that we're living in and what we are doing as local elected officials to our protect the families that we serve um one of the most beautiful things about this sofg framework is that every Community is different and what works for one community may not be the same interest for another one or the same value but how we bring all those resources out and bring them into here and make sure that they're adapting to um our community and outcomes was a huge talk in Nel too how we producing these outcomes for especially latino children Latinos is obviously um a big emphasis because nalo is the National Association of Latino elected officials through the whole USA so it's not just Schoolboard members you had Commissioners from different states talking about what are we doing to make sure that these kids have these outcomes that they need um and I found it so also interesting that um Arizona forward which is like this education um news article they just did this opinion piece and they were talking about the workforce in Arizona and how in the next 10 to 15 years Arizona is looking a little bit scary because of the literacy rates that we have in the state because of the literacy rates in the district so all this information flowing around and US leading into this work and really leaning into our power of how are we holding the institution accountable and making sure that our children get the resources it's just like another confirmation that we're moving in the right direction and I I know it's hard work and it's it's uneasy but we're heading in the right direction um and that's basically all I wanted to say and I'll turn it over to Mr Man for his update thank you madam president I'll I'll try to keep this brief um I was a pleasure to get to attend the noo conference and um I think Miss A's kind of covered a lot of the the highlights of what we saw but um just to kind of reinforce uh the the one on emissions was amazing and like just learning more about infrastructure and what it takes in order to even power the electric vehicles that we're going to need moving forward so it really kind of opens some thought processing around things we're doing as a district and I know we've been fortunate to get selected for some grants to be able to bring some electric vehicles into the district in our busing Fleet which will which will definitely help um and then in relation to the presentation by um Stephanie Park and there was another gentleman there who was a counselor from I think Colorado or something like that that shared some things with us around um you know working with students it was that was an amazing session and um very much aligned with conversations that President CUO and I have had the conversations we were able to have at the conference um around trying to create an opportunity for not only more parental input and involvement but also to for us to be able to provide our families with education around um empowerment for them to understand how our systems work um and what their rights are as a parent and how they can get involved and be more effective in U as an advocate not only for their child but for their school and for their community so very excited to have an opportunity to uh work on that in the coming year and so I will leave it at that awesome thank you Mr man that brings us to our next agenda item which is 4 a it's the student outcomes focused governance update discussion discuss annual targets and inome goals um all right and then if we can have the sheet up or who's yeah we're able to okay um I hope that everybody had an opportunity to look over the annual targets that we have the interim goals that we have created for for the goals um we had a lot of back and forth conversations and I'm really happy to see that our interum goals are um they have pivoted to the predictive matter now um one of the biggest things that we were struggling on too is figuring out the intra measures um on the cohorts right because we want to at the end of the day we want to make sure that when we're we're trying to predict what's going to happen with certain set of groups to make sure that we get to the end goal so so for before I go into depth and um of each one do you guys have any questions about the interim goals proposed I know that we had to make some last minute edits um and they came through a little bit later so I'm not sure if you guys had an actual opportunity to go over those yeah and I just want to extend our apologies um we had a learning we had a teachable learning moment um over the weekend where we discovered that um while we had formatted those interim measures correctly the time frame we were targeting was incorrect because we will be looking at this year throughout the course of this year that's just baked into the framework but what we're supposed to be looking at for interims is predictive measures from other grade levels that will tell us whether we'll be successful in future years and that was kind of a big mess and so you'll see that corrected in in what we have presented this evening um there is one place when we get there I'm sure president K will point it out but we there is a place where we're waiting on a data set in order to plug the exact numbers in um but if the board's okay with the format we'll plug the actual numbers in um we should have that data set within we've received the data finally we just haven't had a chance to process it yet so you'll see it represented in an aggregate District goal because we have the aggregate number but we need to break it down into sub populations in order to be able to provide uh the other numbers that are in there so will we get an update like in a board update yeah you'll get an update in the board update with with the numbers plugged in and if for some reason the board has any heartburn but those numbers are of course when we come back on August 6th we can at least make an adjustment at that point so okay and I know we have Dr dupin and I think Dr pombo on with us remote um today so I'm I'm going to I I will probably push some things their way as questions and whatnot come up but I think the PowerPoint is probably the best way for us to flip through this and I don't know if you want to take the lead president CUO and kind of leading us through it and then we'll be happy to answer questions or or dive deeper into any of the contents there yeah so looking at the sheet just so we can have a little bit of clarity um on reading this it took me a while to get used to the sheet so in the first sheet it it says goal one annual targets right we have in blue our first goal which is the percent of eth grade students that score minimum proficient on ASA math will decrease from 73% in August 23 to 48% 2028 below that are all the annual targets that are predictive in order to get us to this main goal so that's why we see 2024 annual Target 25 now the interim goals so uh the interim goals will be the place placeholders in order to see if we're going to get that annual goal in return to get to the main goal but the way that it's spread out right now is we have our first goal and then all the annual targets until 2028 because 2028 is our five proposed year um of the goal and then if you go down you have goal number two and all their annual targets goal number three their annual targets and um one of the things that I do want to work on is that whenever we're putting these on board dog if we can have these translated as well so they're they're able to be pulled whenever they're they're here but then we have goal number four their annual targets and here's where we get to the beauty so on page three we have goal number one it says the percent of e8th grade students we know what that goal is we have the annual Target right below it and if you look at the bottom yellow it's the intam measure that cabinet has decided that this is the output that we're going to be using is the DNA math post test which there's an output in there um we need to make sure that there is a cohort or a grade that they are identifying in here it says the percent of fifth grade students that score minimally proficient on DNA math post test will decrease from 86% in May 2024 to 79% by May 2025 this is the interim measure that we're going to be focusing on and eventually bringing in on a quarterly basis or every other quarter to see if we're meeting to see how we're doing um one of the questions that I would like to ask of Dr dupin or Dr pombo is if you guys can give us an explanation on why we chose the fifth grade students that way we have a little bit of a better understanding on why the fifth grade students and why the DNA math post test would be the most credible output to give us this predictive data of the goal thank you president CIO can you hear me okay perfectly wonderful uh we selected fifth grade because we fundamentally worked backward and so in the in the slide deck and the materials that you have before you we attempted to reference the fact that the eighth graders of 2028 are actually the fifth graders of the 2425 school year so by following their progress we will be able to ensure that we are achieving the intended growth in order to meet our 2028 uh student outcomes focused governance goal the DNA Benchmark gives us uh predictive information and it gives it to us in pre- test form as well as uh interim Benchmark one which is taken just before the fall break interim Benchmark two which is taken before winter break and then a post test which is given at the end of the year in May so we'll be able to use that information to take um action with in the course of the school year to ensure that that group of students is uh moving forward and this is perfectly aligned on how an interim measure is supposed to be because our interim goals should have interim you know outputs and from what I'm understanding in hearing DNA is one of the output measures that we have that can be reflective certain times in a year to see where our students are so for me this makes sense why we would choose the fifth grade why DNA math post test is an okay measurable for the time being I don't know if anybody anybody has any questions or comments or wonderings regarding this spe the specific entrum measure so it it makes sense to me why we're doing the cohort that makes perfect sense what immediately concern concerns me is how are we also at the same time um following the other cohorts and making sure that um they are achieving you know academically as well yes so one of the things I think that's important for us to to know is that just because we're reporting out on that specific targeted cohort um and what we'll be likely to do is in future years the interims we recommend will follow those students up so those those fifth graders will be followed to sixth will be followed to seventh um we've had many conversations about just watching cohorts in general and the measures that we're putting in place aren't intended to Target particularly for these these goals that are um you know an eighth grade culminating goal we're not just saying oh good we'll really focus on eth grade right we know it's going to take across all of those years so we're not going to abandon those seventh graders and so there will be a lot of time effort and energy and the and the additional inputs that are being put into place some of which have gone into place this year a lot more of which will go into place for next year will not Target just a single grade level they'll Target across grade levels but with the focus being on what is that end goal what is that final output that we're looking for what is that final outcome that we're looking for so we'll be following cohorts throughout the district which is not really something I don't feel like we've been doing in the past so much yeah I I mean I I don't want to say that we've never followed a cohort because I don't think that's entirely accurate but I do think we haven't been as intentional in the way that we follow cohorts in the past because there's never been an end goal Target it's it's kind of like um you know if somebody put you in the center of a football field blindfolded you and spun you around you you don't didn't know which end of the football field was your end zone and now you're you know you're handed a football and you you need the score right um without you know it's sort of that Ready Aim Fire or no ready fire aim mentality right so now we actually have targets so that really helps us put that focus into place and it gives us common language and common understanding yes of where we're heading so now when we look at a cohort we're not looking at them and going who this this group of kids are in great shape or this k group of kids are in rougher shape we're looking at them and saying okay based on the perform performance we're seeing from this group how on track or off track are we in order to reach this goal and what additional inputs are needed in order to either change that trajectory maintain that trajectory or enhance that trajectory and if I may add in the experience that I've had watching you know other board meetings of people who have done sofg framework inherently they just start talking about the other grades when they're bringing up you know fifth grade I'm not sure what that would look like to us but it still gets talked about because even though that's their main focus they need to figure out what's happening before fifth grade or before eighth grade to figure out what that's going so for example Phoenix Elementary I they just recently I think two or three months ago one of their goals was eighth grade but they were talking somehow about their fourth graders and making some changes there so it's up to admin to figure out those picket spots and they say okay even though they're not main goal this is what we're doing doing with this class that way it moves the needle or however it works but um that was one of the concerns I had but watching other people's board meetings it it gets talked about it's just I imagine it's a kind of a mind shift which will take some time but I think that's um that seems like a a better way to be thinking about it and watching yeah and and we'll be looking at subpopulations as well because sometimes you look at something and you say to yourself okay um you know here's this aggregate population right M but you really need to know how is this group of students or that group of students doing and and I think again having that language and that framework will help us keep a closer eye on what that progress is and it will give us the ability to be better at making adjustments Midstream and mid year because we'll have ways to determine like are things working or are things not working I feel like in the past we've done that annually to the best of our ability but this will give us the ability to have those conversations throughout the year right thanks do you have any comments or questions um I just I think so I really like this um I think this is something like as a teacher like I do myself and so I think uh you know with being in alignment with what teachers do with what admin does with what district does and then with what we're doing now it's going to create this like whole system of support so I feel like we're really in alignment like all together and this is going to glean a lot of like really great data that will allow us to talk about this stuff like during our meetings during our data talks um to get a little bit more in depth and to make some better decisions um that will uh our kids can benefit from so I'm I'm really happy with um the interim measures that we're going to be using awesome and the way that we'll work is that we'll discat each interim if we do not feel like any additional edits need to occur then we will I will make a formal motion and once we adopt the inum goals then that's when we can actually start focusing on our guard rails our in guard rails and then eventually getting into our calendar that will tell us when in the calendar we're going to be actually evaluating each goal in guard rail I mean an interim goal sorry all right any other discussion on goal number one or intrum goal number one perfect so we're going to go down to goal two which is an intam measure um goal number two the percent of eth grade black students that score proficient on ASA math will increase from 0% in August 2023 to 28% by August 28 the intra measure that Administration has decided is the percent of fifth grade black students that score proficient on DNA math post test will increase from 0% in May 24 2024 sorry to 6% by May 2025th um I don't have any additional comments on this it it kind of doubles it's kind of the same theory on goal number one just with a different set of groups and I understand why the output is being used and why this specific group of kits is being used to do we have any other comments or wonderings on this specific int measure I just wanted to say for anybody in the audience or online looking I think this I don't I that is too small for me to read from here but um if you go through the whole PowerPoint presentation you can get to the proposed interim measures which are a few pages down like the one we're discussing right now is on page 10 so it's kind of hard to follow probably if you're watching online but um oh what page are you looking I only have four pages on mine I'm sorry page 10 so there's a document and there's a PowerPoint oh okay you're looking at the PowerPoint yes okay okay yeah okay the no I think if if audience members are trying to to look at it it is online under the PowerPoint um yeah it's linked there and even if someone's watching a recording of This it'll be there after the as well so it'll be available for people okay um perfect any other specific questions or wonderings around this goal number two interim okay we're going to go ahead and move to goal number three in our measure the goal States the percent of emerging multilingual students that increase one or more levels on aella will increase from 25% in August 2023 to 40% by August 2028 now the intra measure this is the one that we were specifically speaking of that we do not have the data because I believe we just received it we received the aella information yesterday and so you'll you'll see the aggregate represented um in an aggregate result on the first set of pages but we don't have it broken out um to be able to give these percents but what we'll do is we'll create what what what can promise you is that the spread that will be created will be a percentage of the goal percentage right so we're we're basically going to look at the four years we have left to get there and roughly divide by four will probably wait the end a little bit more than the beginning because you you build towards growth and I'm really interesting to just have a quick explanation on this intra measure because I think this is one that we kind of talked about and there was a lot of back and forth and um just for clarification purposes why the three to five and it's there's a really good explanation I just I just want everybody to to understand why we did this specific cohort in instead of just picking one grade or two grades yeah and I um I think I'm gonna defer to Dr dupin on this one because he did such an when we were having the conversation first go around he did such a beautiful job eloquently kind of explaining why there's certain banss when we talk about a Zella and so if you don't mind Dr dupin I'd love to turn it over to you thank you Mr Man uh we the isella assessment is structured so that it it follows grade level bands for language development skills in K2 then the assessment shifts to focus in a little bit different set of skills in 35 and then 68 so 35 is really a they're all pivotal in terms of student development and language development but 35 gives us a a broad window of development time with which to work with the students and it allows us to track uh their progress at a time when they can really make substantial growth and the other inputs that we're putting into place uh for literacy development in grades in grade three specifically will help us um sort of provide double effort to accomplishing these goals for a third through fifth grade students oftentimes um it is essential not often times it is always essential to help students reclassify to proficiency if possible within grades three through five because if they do they're going to have a much um they're going to have a more effective experience in middle school and be more prepared for high school opportunities uh the earlier they re reclassify so for those reasons we selected grades three through five as our int measure Focus yeah and I really love that idea just because also um we do have a lot of middle school students I we historically hear this that they're not proficient and especially are emerging multilingual students right and our higher grade teachers do not have have been equipped with the right tools to teach you know primary phonics or primary language is just not the reality of it so for me and with that explanation that Dr dupin gave us this gives us a very good opportunity to end that that that that Gap it's literally in the third to 5ifth because if we get them right at 5ifth by the time they go into Middle School we've already had this time with them and obviously you know it's going to be an issue when we have incoming kids and newer ones that are not in this necessarily gap for all these years with us but at least it's a start to get us getting that shift mover when they're in that next band of Middle School um do we have any other questions comments or wonderings regarding this interim I guess this is kind of um repeating things we've talked about before but um do we are we trying to put other supports in place for the older kids that we get in who um do not speak English you know for whatever reason um because I think they really get stuck in the in the class and struggle um we had a great success story at at Katon the Katon Academy yeah we were at their commencement together but but we've also heard from kids that some students are struggling yeah yeah no it was it was nice to see that bright spot and see that success story that we heard at the Katon Academy about a a student who joined us in their eighth grade year not speaking English and at the end of the year not only had they classified out of a Zella but they were also like one of the top performing students in the school right so now of course that's a you know top 10% you know great story and for every one of those there's those kids who are still struggling so we you know we don't want to just celebrate that and not pay attention to where there might be greater needs but um definitely there will be efforts put into focusing on those grade levels and I think one of the challenges is um in particular the students who join us at that point because the testing at that point is so particularly difficult so it requires a significant amount of Mastery for someone who's entering into the English language sort of you know fairly late in their Elementary Middle School career um I do think focusing on 35 will also help us with that because there's really two types of students that you have in that sixth through eth grade with those needs right you've got your kids who didn't reclassify during three through five and you've got your kids who joined us during six through eight so uh I something I put together today because I had a great conversation this morning with Dr Ramos about some of these pieces and you know he said to me like if you get ahead on a goal then don't you know continue focusing there but then that allows you to shift some of your energy away from that goal to the other ones where maybe you're struggling more and so this I think is another example of that because if we can get if we can get those kids that are in three through five reclassified before they get to sixth grade then it really puts more of our resources to focus on those kids joining us during 6 througha rather than having to spread those resources against those kids that we didn't capture in our net during years 3 through five and then 6 through 8 but but we will definitely not only have more resources targeting those grade levels related to um this sort of language development but um you know one of the things that's in our consent agenda tonight are like tier two and tier three interventions there's a lot of different things that we're trying to put into place as inputs that really provide some some targeted tool sets for those through throughout our system but also not forgetting those sixth through eighth grade years where there's kids that are you know potentially being left behind because they still have needs to remediate learning gaps thank you any other questions or comments regarding um inam measure for goal number three okay that brings us to goal four intra measure the percent of third grade students that score proficient on aasa English language arts will increase from 18% in August 23 to 41% by August 28 the proposed inum measure for this goal is the percent of kindergarten students that score at or above Benchmark on the fast Bridge literacy screener will increase from x% in August 24 to x% in 25 um I'm also going to ask asked for a little bit of explanation this was an amazing conversation because you know third grade students is really hard and it it gives for me personally it gave me a little bit of heartburn to know that we're fixating ourselves on kindergarteners who are barely learning how to learn their colors and their numbers and putting this kind of pressure on like hey we need them to be here or be here but when Dr dupin and Dr pombo kind of were EXP explaining what fast frge looks like and how it works and being a mom of a second grader um it kind of made more sense because of I I'll just let Dr dupen or Dr Pomo talk about this and then I'll share my experience as a parent and why this made sense thank you president CIO in one of the important things that we really discussed was the notion that third grade literacy is really not just a product of what happens in third grade it is absolutely a product of what happens between kindergarten and third grade so with that logic in mind the third graders of 2028 which are the focus of gold four are the incoming class of kindergarteners that will be welcoming into our schools in August and so we don't have standards based benchmark assessments for kindergarten first or second graders at this time but we do have a set of literacy screeners in the form of fastbridge and so while they don't measure particular content standards in Reading what they do measure are the fundamental skills necessary to become a proficient reader so this includes things like letter recognition names and sounds working with Blends all the way up to fluency so what I think this invites in our conversations as a leadership team and a governing board are What specifically those assessments include how to read the data um fastbridge is a relatively new set of screen scening tools for us and so we are we feel like we're just beginning to to to scratch the surface of the data that they provide and the resources that come with this system and we're excited about the opportunity to talk about our students literacy progress at the skill level uh through our uh through the year ahead so bringing fastbridge into the conversation bringing kindergarteners and early literacy into the conversation is critical not only for our student outcomes focused governance work but also for things like move on when reading um and we know that student progress after third grade on things like language acquisition reading literacy even mathematics are going to be heavily influenced by what happens of starting in kindergarten so that's the the rationale the logic for introducing fastbridge literacy screeners and kindergart into our goal for work yeah and um fastb I've just seen just because at the AP meetings that they have at the schools we're giving the information of where our kids are due to this screening and it's amazing to see you know like the growth and what I love about this it invites this whole conversation of the inputs that we have what are we doing in early literacy as well you know what systems do we have in place right now that have been focused on early literacy that have given us zero outcomes these last few years so it opens this whole new now that we're lasered in we're able to figure fure out what's actually happening at the ground level of kindergarten and see if any shifts or pivots need to be made so when this conversation happened I was like oh my God this is great so um I don't know if we have any other questions or wonderings I know fastbridge literacy screeners and you think that we're going to we start using it's a tool that we've always had because my daughter has been in the district since she's been in kindergarten and she's going to be in third grade and kindergarten first in six second grade it had been used so it's not new but I think we haven't reached its full potential and with this intrum it really gives us that opportunity to see what we can do with it um to best serve our students can I just do a followup on a conversation that we had um about maybe doing like during our study session like looking at these tests because uh even as a teacher like I understand DNA because we use something like it but I don't know exactly what it looks like um even looking at a Zella I think um I think some of you will probably be amazed looking at a Zella like of the things they have to do because I always have been um and the the tests change constantly they changed again U for our kids this year um and some of the things that they have to do to pass it is like insane like not even some of our regular kids can pass like some of the writing portions that these kids have to pass um and also looking at that fast Bridge just so we're in understanding more talking about this data like what that entails and what it looks like so I just wanted to share um you know you know with our other board members and and the audience that you know in in the study session I think that's going to be really um useful for us to get that background information on those things I just like to share a couple things um several years ago I was um went into one of our schools and volunteered to read to a first grade class and um you know the teacher was like well could you also help me with testing too and I'm like well I wanted to just come and read to the kids and but OB I'm like okay if she needs the help then I will help and um this was a first grade class um and I remember my third grader winning Battle of the books as a third grade team which was like so amazing to me um so I would test I believe it was Dibbles is what they were tested on and there was one little boy who struggled a lot and you know so at weeks and weeks go by and the kid the the classmates I would call his name and the classmates would start he can't read he can't read like teasing him and I'm just I'm like yeah there's something going on here like if I were his parent I would be concerned and I brought it to um the attention of you know Administration and I was told you know we don't really worry about that until third grade it's like so he's supposed to sit in the classroom until third grade with no extra support um so I think this is really really important this kindergarten thing even though it does sound scary to like DET testing kindergarteners um I also just very recently um had lunch with a mom of a little one uh K first Kinder first grader and um concerned that she's not her her her daughter's not reading up to standard and she's got lots of resources in place reading every night at home and it her and her teacher when they had a conversation had kind of an aha moment like oh here's other things you can be doing in a add to what you think you're supposed to be doing parents are not teachers you know we don't know what to do so don't assume that parents know you know we know yeah you're supposed to read your kids every night but there's different ways to do it especially if what you're doing isn't working so the more we can get teachers and parents together as a team and talking um all the better I think um Stephany par thing is great I've I've wanted to bring that to the district for a while so I think that would be that would be great you know well and beyond that I know one of the inputs that um Ivon Carvajal who's who's our Community Education director is working on is leveraging our Community Education Outreach Specialists um I don't for those of you who were able to be at the our last Community Council of the year I think it was last April um one of the things we did is we did some math work with the parents we gave them some math games they can play with their kids well you know the goal is to bring more sessions not just to Community Council but bring some targeted sessions in both English and Spanish to help the parents with supports for helping their kids at home with literacy and if I've if I've butchered any of this um Dr dupin or Dr pombo please bail me out here but that's my understanding of one of the inputs that we're bringing forward for next year and I think the APT meetings are good for that too and so I I don't know if we have consistency with how those work you know across the district but that's a great opportunity for um te parents and teachers will be talking together about strategies at home any other questions or comments doesn't look like we have any and before I make any it doesn't look like we need any edits I'm pretty happy with the intra measures that we have um so far and before I make the motion to move forward I just wanted to read something real quick um because I know that when we talk about assessing and assess and tests and doing all this it can get worrisome so I'm just going to read some few things off of this great on their behalf book it says misconception assessments is inherently harmful to students an assessment is simply a tool that's absolute essential to the eff of construction of knowledge just as a home builder needs a screwdriver levels and pliers Educators and board members need assessments as tools of the trade if you're not assessing you're not teaching what's more assessments play key roles in the learning learning process through encouraging long-term memory creation part of the neurological science of learning involves students migrating information out of short-term out of short-term working memory and into long-term memory one strategy for supporting this migration is assessments when students are taught something on Monday of week one and then quizzed on it on Friday of week one this is usually a formative assessment the process of migration begins then when the same material is assessed again at the end of the semester period this is often an interim assessment the process continues when the students are assessed on the same material again at the end of the year requiring them to recall information learned months earlier this is usually a summative assessment the associations with that learning are strengthened and reinforced in the brain's physical structures in this way appropriately designed and space assessment directly contributes to the learner's ability to Master the content so I just like saying that because I know we all get woring and unfortunately in the state of Arizona I do feel that assessments have been used as a negative tool but not necessarily that they've just been misused they've inherently been misused because districts and governing board members do not have tools on how to use them they don't know how to direct and everybody is out on the football field with a blindfold on now that we have these goals in place and these intrams we're going to make sure that the assessments are not repetitive and we found that out through the first interims we were double on on our previous interims before these came out we had a goal of let's say third grade students and some of our interims had third grade students again then as we had a discussion together we decided hey we can't be targeting the same kids again and again because then that creates over assessments what our community obviously does not want so with this being said I just also want to be so thankful and grateful to the admin team because um it everybody gets the nice pretty little packet right here and and and the little goals in the inms but nobody hears or sees all the conversations that are happening on the back end the going back and forth and going from one coach and reading up here and and making sure that the teachers don't feel a certain way so there's a lot of work being put into this and I'm so appreciative not only the board sees the value in it but the hard work that you know Mr Man and the cabinet team and everybody is doing because it it does take a lot of back and forth I mean one night I was up until two in the morning just reading and and doing stuff not to say anything but that's just what happens in the back end of this to make sure that our students are getting what they deserve and what they need to be successful so with that being said I'm really thankful I I love this work and I can't wait to start seeing the outcomes um and meeting the these goals do we have any other last comments questions or wonderings okay if I could I'd just like to give um I know we don't do shout outs is not what we're supposed to do but I want to I I appreciate your kind comments and I want and I I just really want to recognize Dr dupin and Dr pombo but I also don't want us to miss Tyson Myers who's always in the background pulling these numbers together I'm not really quite sure how he helped get us updated cuz he was on a ranch someplace with no internet access I suspect that perhaps uh Dr dupin and Dr pombo since they were in Denver for the EST conference like rented horses and rode up to him or something but um I just to me it's important because that's that's the kind of dedication the people on our team have is to make sure the stuff's getting back to us and when it comes last minute it's not because of a lack of passion or desire it's because we're just trying to get things right and get them to board as quickly as we can so so thank you for that all right with all that being said I go ahead and move the governing board approve the annual targets and interum goals second all those in favor I I yay I'm so excited because this is really where the real work starts once we've adopted going back and forth and I know this has been a process since November and to see it come to fruti finally is is just amazing so I'm excited um Miss hes that brings us over to 5A public comments do we have any public comments okay thank you that brings us over to six which is approval of consent I move the governing board approved consent agenda items a through W in accordance with policy bb- e a second all those in favor I that brings us to our agenda item for 12a um miss a without putting words in your mouth we do have an August study session set up and those conversations that you had um we've brought them up and I think we are going to have that in the study session so I'll make sure that um at some point soon Mr Man or Miss Hardis gets out kind of the agenda for that day but we do plan on having a little a little bit of all those things and having a a conversation as well on what the governing board role is versus the superintendent role um so that study session will be good all all that stuff will be intertwined so yes thank you for raising that up and it's something that we are planning on doing dates yet the DAT I was thinking August 24th but I need to check Dr R okay he needs to be okay would just let us know as soon as possible yeah so what August 24th kind of yes yes yes I was going to look but you would be able to tell me better than if I check my own calendar and then while we're figuring that out do we have any other future agenda items I think the 24th is fine as a tentative I'm I'm fine that day too than you okay thank you um do we have any other future agenda items that we would like to put all right can I just point one yeah go ahead um we do we we are in the process of going through this this new policy book so I just kind of wanted to go on the record with saying we may need um a board meeting between now and our our next board meeting which is scheduled for August 6 to adopt that policy but we won't really be able to set a date for it until we know kind of where our completion point is um for the time being we have what we have and and um as we move for and we're able to get that update to the board we'll go ahead and get that meeting on the books as well okay I also um wanted to point out a future agenda item coming in August uh we will be bringing a revised budget because we received the budget form so late uh there are always items that need to that we want to get in there and just make it clean so that we have all of the updates from the legislature but because that didn't happen until after we proposed our budget it didn't allow us to update all of the field Fields so we'll be bringing a revised budget um pointing out which those um again it's just formula increases it's not any change to um the dollars of the budget other than increasing in those formula areas thank you I I I don't know if this should live here but I was also wondering about when we are going to have a grand opening of our new school as well that is a great question I'm sorry I get things on calendars so a board update okay necessarily be an agenda item but once we know um you know because it also kind of the their teams and our teams kind of get together and figure out a a date okay but it is getting close so good good suggestion it's exciting all right hearing and seeing no other future agenda items that brings us to 13A I move the governing board adjourn all those in favor thank you very much buen noes
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e e e good evening I would like to welcome welcome you all to our uh regular board business meeting for Tuesday June 25th 2024 we just concluded with our executive session so now we will move um to opening items and it's being handled just a little bit differently tonight because of the public hearing which we'll explain as we go along so we'll head for opening items number one 2.01 call to order which I just did we'll stand for the moment of silence and then we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mrs wood so can we stand for the moment of silence please please join me in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank thank you uh 2.04 roll call Mrs Wilson Miss Lorie wood here Miss Sheila ug jetti here miss Jill humph here miss Ronda pige here Mr Chad Thompson here Madame President all board members are present you have a quorum thank you very much Mrs Wilson and now we'll move to the public hearing which is 3.01 to start with fiscal year 2025 proposed budget for adoption presentation and this is We are following state law and the way we um have this set up so we will go ahead Dr mcord with your part of this and I'm sure Mrs Betts will have another part of it so very much uh again as this is uh by Statute we have to have a public hearing related to the proposed budget for the 2425 school year Miss Betts will give a brief presentation and answer any questions you may have and Dr McCord and Mrs bets just for the um public information this is something that we have been discussing a lot over the last several months so your your your is a summarization of everything that we've been dealing with for quite a while yes yes thank you so good evening Dr McCord um president eug jetti governing board members so just to preface this presentation it is very very much like the proposed budget presentation as you have already gone through a lot of the details and we went through it um two weeks go at the governing board meeting I'll be going through the most um important slides this evening okay so to begin uh the introduction so the budget development timeline just really quick um you see at the end here before legislative session is supposed to end it now says the legislative legislative session has ended which is very good news we have a budget from the state legislature so then the proposed budget for adoption as always every budget that we present to you is strictly aligned to the Strategic operating plan and is also specifically and very clearly identified with um to the m override commitments so the student counts just really quick you can see um at the far right that this budget does assume a uh estimated student enrollment drop of about 1,200 we believe that to be conservative so as you know that's an estimate at this point in time you know that we're funded on current year counts so this could go um could be a little bit worse could be a little bit better we have beat our estimates um since I've been here so the chances are are really good that we will we will definitely not have to revise our budget down in December but we will be watching and sharing with you closely and this is just a comparison and a graphical representation so here's the M budget capacity projection and this is based on the governor's proposed budget as well as the State of Arizona legislative action so the base level amount was increased by 2% the district additional assistance was also increased by 2% however um it is considered one time instead of um ongoing the teacher experience index is the same and this is specific to Gilbert Public Schools so this is the budget capacity with budget balance carrier forward and as you remember we felt it was more important to take a look at our M budget related to um the pure ongoing monies uh so excluding the impact of the um budget balance carry forward so as we shared two weeks ago you can see that our uh budget capacity considering the 12200 ADM loss is expected to go down by about $ 3.62 million and that is exactly the same as what we presented two we two weeks ago so we also have non-discretionary budgetary increases however fortunately when we presented to you back in late March early April you approved a 0% increase to medical benefits we always put it up there because we have not seen a zero premium increase um for some time uh in addition in inflationary increases we felt that we needed to budget something there we don't have any anything that we're calculating to determine that so we uh included a half a million dollars for inflationary increases uh we do know that the city of Mesa school resource officer uh IGA has changed and we are now required to fund the entire cost of this um of the um resource officers from Mesa and then again another precaution is calculating what could be the new minimum wage starting January 1st could impact Us by as much as a half a million dollars going into the second half of fiscal 2025 before I go further are there any questions on any of them I have a question so when we have this increase for the this half a million dollars for the minimum wage increase does that also take into consideration not just those who are working for minimum wage but also adjusting the wages for those who are above them so we don't have compaction it does we've been very disciplined about any increase that's associated with minimum wages also added to the base rates of any existing employee so yes thank you you bet so the total of that is 1.3 million and then budgetary savings I shared that we have 1,200 student loss so we're expecting to have less of a need for teachers going into 2025 and remember that we're not laying off any teachers we have normal attrition that easily meets that 60 FTE expectation and then technology Services as well has has reorganized uh how they do business and resulting in about a $300,000 savings there so those are the savings associated with this budget so recommended pay increases you have already approved all of these so all staff to receive a 2% pay increase there's an athletic coach stien increase as you know the athletic coaches um have not had their stiens increased since I've been here so it's been over six years at least in addition we added a $600 per FTE stien for hourly staff in the event we are successful with passage of the m&o override in November and then um for exempt staff which would be all of our teachers all of our School principles your Administration across the district would receive an $800 stien prated by FTE again upon passage of the budget override continuation and these are all con these last two are considered one time so the total cost or the recommended pay increases total cost is about $8.4 million so overall then we need to figure out what it is what is the budget gra Gap that we need need to balance so with the ongoing available budget the projected ongoing savings the non-discretionary increases as well as the ongoing and one-time pay increases we are at a budgetary deficit about 9.03 million okay so balancing the M budget so how do we achieve that 9.03 million so pay increases funded by other funds we always look at the district globally do the 2% figure out how much Community Ed will be able to fund how much nutrition services how much Medicaid Career and Technical education all of those other funds will be able to absorb and then that's their contribution to this 2% pay increase and then the classroom site fund um as you know the classroom site fund eligible employees has increased over the years to uh include our um occupational therapists our physical therapists speech language uh therapists as well as our psychologists and so taking advantage of that the custom site fund contribution would be about $2.7 million District additional assistance transfer this is included in your in your budget document showing the transfer from the district additional assistance into M that's $2 million and then the M contribution which would be budget balance carry forward um just under $1.9 million so with these two one time and ongoing funding sources we have balanced our budget so before I I go any further are there any specific questions regarding that so I do have one question so on the classroom site fund we we'll be using ongoing money of 2.7 and then onetime money of 2.1 million 2.01 million yes sorry 2.01 million right so the 2.01 million will go towards funding the $800 per FTE one time stipended okay okay okay so classroom site fund because classroom site fund is playing a large role in balancing our budget we are sharing the details for you and you can see that in 2023 we received $750 per student $758 per student in 2024 and due to the sales tax increases in the state of the economy in Arizona the um ex the uh joint legislative budget committee recommendation is 7 $92 per student and you can see how that's impacted our funding level over time and then do note the last um the last row which shows the interest again due to the economy the larger um the increase in the interest rates we are seeing greater interest earnings in these funds as well so now let's talk about the proposed budget for adoption this does have some more changes more significant changes than on the M um m budget capacity so note that this is the budget capacity note I think I've got a yeah so note that you can see the district additional assistance toino transfer of the $2 million under the 2025 proposed recall that we also made that recommendation to you a year ago for the 2024 budget but our budget balance carry forward and our student counts were improved enough where we did not have to move the $2 million out of District additional assistance into M for the the current year um so again that that could change depending upon how how we do with our student counts um you can see the one time state aid of the district additional assistance we received that additional $8.8 million about for 20124 you see it shown here at zero but when we revise the budget the first time you will see that that um zero will change because that 2% to the district additional assistance is now one time not ongoing so that will a change you will see when we revise the budget the first time and then you can see the the budget balance Carri forward and then the interest earned it's been quite remarkable that we have been able to um earn a million dollars or more in interest in the unrestricted Capital fund so before I go any further are there any questions there no I I would just like to make the the a comment about the fact that so much of this is is um you are being Guided by Statute and that's why you have to do all of the moving and so on around that's correct we you even though we know what going to happen we have to follow get to the letter of the law that's correct thank you for that so other fund budgets just wanted to share these again with you just Community Schools nutrition services instructional Improvement state and federal grants other cash funds you can see how most of those have um increased so you can see that and federal grants have seen a a decline of about $10 million but please remember that as we build the budget and we adapt the budget we do not presume any carryover for state and federal grants so generally speaking the carryover will appear when we do our first budget revision so we expect it to be more than that $30 million average teacher salary we share this as well we shared this two weeks ago you can see that the average teacher salary reported in the final budget Revision in May was $67,000 and some change and we just added 2% to that as you know this changes because we have retirements and separations and we have new employees that we hire so the average uh teacher salary for the 2025 school year will be established and shared with you in that first budget revision as well and then finally the estimated tax rates one thing that we did not share with you last uh two weeks ago was the Maricopa County quasim Mar judgment this was an assessed valuation judgment that impacted many many municipalities and tax um levying jurisdictions throughout Maricopa County Gilbert Public Schools was impacted by about 5.4 million dollars that we would have to pay back to all of those properties that had a value that was greater than actual based upon the um the calculations of Maricopa County so we have we owe them all back about $5.4 million fortunately because our tax collections here in Gilbert have been much greater than um than anticipated there's always a delinquency rate um we have we have more cash than we've needed to support our budget and that excess cash is available to us and we anticipate that we will be able to offset that full $5.4 million without having to Levy any additional money against the taxpayers here in Gilbert Public Schools so as an example this is what we shared with you two weeks ago and it was a 24 Cent decrease in the tax rate that 24 cents will definitely go be a greater decrease um because the estimation included that we would need to Levy about half of that $5.4 million um but we now know that we will have uh excess cash available to totally offset that those judgments so we are in a very positive situation here in gber public schools uh Mrs Betts can you go back to the previous slide um just I want to clarify that those excess property valuations that we have to pay back those are from the county that they set those evalu those valuations they they um they assess those values back to 2015 so this is a 8-year correction which accounts for the quantification of the payback which is not anything that we could have done something about there's nothing we could have done about it we have to take the information that we reive from the assess assessors the County Assessors and so in hindsight they probably set it too high and now they're trying to fix that problem it was specific to a presumption of property between a couple of classes so there's a lot of details there but um but anyway regardless it was a long obviously a long-term uh complaint since it went back to 2015 okay all right thank you MH can I just say one thing I was just want to thank Mrs humph for bringing that up I also wanted to bring that up and just say through no fault of our own probably should be capitalized um but thank you Miss humph for um speaking up on that but the best the best news though is that there are school districts that will have to Levy to pay back some of this amount and just because of our circumstances we will not have to Levy additional dollars and so we are expecting our tax rate to actually go down maybe as much as 30 or 35 cents once it's set in Late July great okay perfect and that's all set at the county level yes we make our recommendations so um I'm I have uh both a primary and a secondary tax worksheet that I fill in and then I transmit that information to the county superintendent's office for them to review say yay or nay and so there's a little bit of an iterative process where we go back and forth um but generally we make a recommendation and then it's but it is finally set by the county superintendent's office and then it's approved by the County Board of Supervisors okay okay risks and opportunities please to share this AEL is still looming for 2025 which is what we shared two weeks ago but no the budget was passed without us having to concern ourselves in the spring that we will have to potentially take the money and then give it back so that's taken care of a loss of more students than the 1200 projected is still a risk legis legislatur de legislature decreases funding so they didn't uh not in M nor in District additional assistance however they did make the ongoing 2% in District additional assistance one time but the school district still gets to see um that budget capacity going into the 2025 school year I do have a question about that if it's one time time um previous ones have been added to the district additional assistance so when the next year when we get 2% it's on the whole thing so if this is one time um and we say got a 1% increase next year that one time wouldn't count towards that 1% increase is that correct that's correct because they would go back to the base that was effective in 2024 and so they would give a 1% increase to the 202 for base okay all right that's correct so students return to govern public schools to provide greater funding that's possible we do not see a 1200 student loss legislature approves greater funding than the 2% of course we know now that that didn't happen so that's crossed out and then finally the budget balance carry forward may may be larger uh we we we know for certain it will not be less because of our work that we do during the encumbrance period uh so the the budget balance Carri for forward may be and most likely will be higher um in m and unrestricted capital in fact probably for certain in unrestricted Capital because we have a lot of encumbrance right now that of course those projects will not be done as of June 30 so that budget capacity and those projects roll over so therefore it will be considered um in the 2025 school year and that's all I have and I'm ready for any questions questions we just go back to that last slide Miss bets I just wanted to make a notation because when you see the number 1200 projected student loss that seems like a lot but we have over 30,000 students in our district so it that I just wanted to put that a little bit into perspective and I know that we've talked about this in policy meetings can you just give a couple of reasons why we're expecting that projected number to happen so I wanted to make sure and I'm glad you asked that question thank you very much for that I wanted to make sure that you all knew that we're not expecting 1,200 students to just up and leave here in Gilbert Public Schools um it's really about cohort movement so since the pandemic we have seen smaller class sizes in kindergarten coming to govern Public Schools due to a variety of reasons young families not moving in birth rat's going down aging out of our neighborhoods Etc so over time so now we're seeing the effect of the cohort movement so kindergarteners become first grade so now the first grade is less and then kindergarten is less again and then the first graders go into second second grade is less and then first grade is less than it was the year before so really the 1,200 student loss is an accumulation over the last three years of loss so I wanted to make sure that that was clear as well thank you yeah because it it almost reads as if all of a sudden 1200 kids with withdrew from our school district and that's not the case does but it's it's really and and also consider that kindergarten kindergarteners are funded at half so when you have a smaller kindergarten classroom in any one year it doesn't impact you so great but as soon as that kindergartener becomes a first grader the first grader becomes a second grader Etc then it has a larger impact so that's really the basis so I appreciate the question very much thank you Bonnie yeah okay thank you guys any further questions great thank you thank you don't go too far yeah let just okay uh we will now move as part of the public hearing to 3.02 request to speak regarding the FY 2025 proposed budget and we have one um speaker tonight Mr Young and just um know that that right now the only thing you you can I talk about is the budget then we'll get back to the next one in a in a little bit so were you able to hear me okay pardon me were you able to hear me okay I can't hear you I'm sorry I didn't wear my hearing aids I assumed you called me if not I'll go back sit down okay no I did okay yes I'm Richard young I uh want to speak on Foya in part I left copies with the SEC we we we have to you can only talk right now about the budget I can only talk about what about the budget what we the budget what we just okay my was about a budget item okay then you'll get a chance to come back up and talk about the other what is she saying right now it's only on that presentation that had and she'll call you back up in minutes thank you I'm sorry my voice wasn't loud enough that's right my fault for the confusion no so you're not you're okay well let's let's do it in order yeah so now we will just adjourn the is there yeah that's the only one we had we'll adjourn the public hearing and move on to 4.01 approval of the agenda do I hear a motion to approve the agenda as presented so moved thank you very much Mrs paage second I'll second thank you Mrs wood and it's been moved and seconded that we move to the um or excuse me that we approve the agenda as presented and that means we now move to Mr I'm sorry I trying to make sure I'm loud enough and I didn't think to say that thank you Mrs Mrs humre I appreciate it all those in favor of approving the budget as presented please signify by saying I we're approving the agenda I you said budget okay that I'm sorry I will I will make sure I get everything right from now on okay all those in favor of approving the agenda as presented please signify by saying I I I I so on a -0 vote our agenda has been approved and we will now move to the superintendent's report Dr mcord thank you Madame President governing board members uh thank you to everyone for joining us tonight summer is in full swing and I would like to thank all of our employees who are working this summer we have many programs uh that are going on at all of our schools we have of course people at the district level working and and making sure the wheels are still going so your time and DED dation truly make a phenomenal place to work and learn so we appreciate you uh we do have some free summer meals wanted to let everybody know about those locations and times uh this is for kids and teens 18 years old and younger we provide free healthy nutritious meals to be consumed on site adults may have P May purchase breakfast for 275 and lunch for $475 and this is a cash only deal locations Boulder Creek May 30th through July 16th Monday through Friday breakfast is from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m.
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lunch is noon to 1 haris Elementary June 3rd through June 27th Monday through Thursday breakfast is 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. lunch is 11: to 12 and Mos Junior High May 30th through July 16th that's Monday through Friday breakfast is 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 lunch is from noon to 1 and oak tree is May 30th through July 16th that's Monday through Friday Friday breakfast is 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
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and lunch is noon to 1 and so please check those out and uh they'll be happy to serve you and just a reminder our first day of school this year will be Tuesday July 23rd so soak up every moment of your summer we will see you back before you know it Miss U jetti that concludes my report for this evening we will now move to requests to speak to the governing board and we are ready for the admonition please request to speak to the governing board pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.02 the board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to a reasonable time place and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body at the conclusion of an open call to the public individual board members May respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda however members of the board shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during an open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action during an open call the board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against School personnel or any person connected with the district as it may impact due process rights policies K Keb and K are provided by the board for disposition of legitimate complaints including those involving individuals forms required for use of these policies can be obtained from the Gilbert Public Schools website thank you Mr Thompson uh and we will now move to uh calls from the public Mr Young thank you I heard you um this time uh I'm addressing a problem that I've had with um AOA type request I actually submitted two uh at the same time a number of weeks ago one to the town of Gilbert on a completely distinct issue and another to the Gilbert schools uh within days I had a response from uh the town of Gilbert which was satisfying to see I heard nothing uh from U the public schools so on um June 14th I submitted another one both of these by the way online but I provided a copy uh with the secretary for the board so that you can see that I've done it I have not had a response yet I tried emailing the U organization within the Govern schools that is responsible for this but um I've had no response to that email either it concerns something that I would like to know and I think every board member would like to know and I have reason to believe that none of you knows it uh it has to do with second step social emotional learning I'm asking for the original cost of this program which I understand is very expensive and I'm betting you don't know so you should ask and any continuing costs for this program uh I happen to ask or check online US News and world report for the best schools in Arizona and the top 10 are all bases I called one of them the Poria school to see if they do anything with social emotional learning no they don't not that I could tell they didn't even seem to know what it had to do with we've heard criticism of social emotional learning that among other things it's CRT we're assured no has nothing to do with uh critical race Theory but if you dig into their own website here we have anti-racism and anti-bias resources yes it does and the people of Gilbert don't particularly like having this addressed in the public schools we're committed to addressing racial Injustice and helping you to drive real change in your school communities that's not really something that any of us wants Gilbert Public Schools to be doing certainly don't want you to be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that this horrible grading system uh standard-based grading which you have adopted is a part of this and you may remember that for that the lowest grade you can get is 50% so if you do nothing if you hand in a blank sheet of paper you get 50% so if a kid sits in his chair stares out the window and picks his nose for the entire year he still gets 50% what academic standard is achieved by that what does that 50% represent in learning nothing to do with math nothing to do with reading nothing to do with history or civics at the very best it's a booger count that's what it is it's ridiculous but you don't do that in sports never if a kid sits on the sideline in a uh football game doing absolutely nothing he doesn't get half a touchdown Point thank you very much Mr Young do Dr McCord I know that that you um we will make sure otm expedites his request to so he gets it ASAP thank you thank you we will now move to um item number eight consent agenda items do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented Sheila we we have the financial report monthly I just got finished saying that's okay you didn't really promise so it was okay you want me to get up leave now no you're you're good I apologize I didn't get my afternoon nap report 7.01 monthly financial report for month ended May 31st 2024 Dr McCord thank you madam president Gover board members that time of the meeting uh where we have our monthly budget report Miss Betts um thank you I thought you were just giving me a break I know I thought I thought we had just heard from you you know that's right you didn't need to hear from me again right but there has to be a reason why Mrs maton and and Mrs tar here today and I was remiss because um both of them are instrumental in creating that budget as well so um I just wanted to make sure that that I'm U identifying them as a very very key players in this whole budget process but regardless let's talk about the monthly Financial presentation year to date as of May 31st so this is the current year so we are not talking about the the new budget year so as always we present the district operating funds just wanted to share that that $14.7 million of available balance in m&o is an increase of about $800,000 over last month this is that time in which we are un encumbering open purchase orders because the purchasing times have lapsed so you will see fluctuations in both maintenance and operations and unrestricted Capital through the remainder of the encumbrance period which is 60 days after June 30 just a reminder and then unrestricted Capital alter alternatively the unrestricted Capital available balance has decreased by about $3.5 million due to those capital projects that you guys have approved uh last board meeting any questions on that before I go to the next slides okay great so federal grants um so uh talking about voke Ed the reason that we are bringing this to your attention is due to the negative available balance we do have a budget for voke Ed but often we receive more revenues than we budget for and so the revenues were received before we were before um revenues were received after you approved the final budget Revision in May and so the uh the department is able to spend those monies if they've received them um so there's no issue with that I just wanted to make sure that we're sharing that with you and then finally Ester 3 and S 3 the required 20% set aside wanted to make sure that our plans are really really close to uh spending all of that money through June 30 we're able to spend it through September 30 um but we are working on the final budget revision for the Esser fund right now um and then if we are not able to get everything approved um we will definitely work on identifying appropriate expenditures between July 1st and September 30th any questions on any of that okay great and then finally the Enterprise funds we have received this ASAP Grant over the last two years which is specific to community ed in this particular case it's very specific to community ed employees we cannot use any of these monies for stuff and so uh we anticipate with pay increases that were awarded uh last year as well as for the first oh I think this has to be spent by June 30 um so we're we expect that we we will have maybe $100,000 unspent um but we're of course working to spend it all as well through through June 30 and then finally uh other funds on the employee benefit trust we've been working the last three months to make sure that the employee benefit trust financials that we report to you are very comparable to the financials presented to the employee benefit trust as well as the employee benefit trust committee and so the big change that occurred month over month um is that we were we were notified that our normal quarterly uh Pharmacy rebate of about $930,000 has grown to over 1.2 million so that has put our employee benefit trust in even more of a favorable state so we feel very fortunate about that and in addition the activity uh the claims activity in May has definitely um declined considerably since those High claim months uh in Fe February and April I think okay and then the bond fund uh we're just sharing this with you you know that our bond fund is nearly expended we do anticipate that our transportation department will put in purchase orders for additional buses uh this fall and then uh you can see the $730,000 or so left in facilities but we have several capital projects on the agenda um for uh on the ENT agenda for for um your approval uh and so for sure we expect the facil renewal portion to be fully spent in the next few months and that's all I have questions for anyone thank you very much Mrs Betts for all your hard work on that and your ladies out out there I know they are tremendous what they do so thank you I just report they do all the work I just report well you do a good job of reporting all their work how's that thank you now moved to eight consent agenda items for consideration discussion Direction and possible approval do I hear a motion so moved thank you Mrs humph a second a second thank you Mrs this page it's been moved and seconded that we approve the um consent agenda items as presented all those in favor please signify by saying I I I and that would be a 5- z vote we will now move on to action items which would be first one 9.01 implementation of the Arizona risk retention trust policy Dr mord I'll let you give an introduction then we'll do a motion and discussion thank you madam president gy board members what we have before you is something that we've been working on basically most of the school year uh in the past you had approved us moving to the uh Arizona risk retention trust policy Services moving away from the asba policy bridge and we took this year to make sure we did crosswalks and the team did a phenomenal job of making sure our policies were lined up with what was presented by the Arizona risk retention trust policy Services um it does look different in the sense that uh there are less policies in this a lot of the current policies we have were combined and made into a specific policy depending on the chapter uh asba uses a letter policy um in the Arizona risk retention trust policy Services uses a number policy and they go by chap CHS and so uh this is the final product that we bring before you tonight and this will go into effect July one and anything moving forward um again we will already have changes to this uh today I I received an email for a policy for Title 9 that's coming up and so it's something that like we did with asba will'll meet in our policy meetings we will review bring them for first and second read and bring them for finalization here so uh nothing changing there just making sure that uh we are now everybody understands that we're using the Arizona risk retention trust policy thank you Dr mcord so um do I hear a motion to uh uh improve uh to approve the implementation of the Arizona risk retention trust policy Sur and then we will discuss I move that we approve the implementation of the Arizona risk retention trust policy Services thank you Mrs wood second I'll second it so it's been moved and seconded but before we vote we may have anybody have any questions concerns or comments that you would like to make please I just wanted to give a thank you to the district for all your hard work I know this was a huge undertaking and much appreciated thank I just had one question um will we have some training for employees to help them get familiar with this new policy manual I don't think we will have any specific training um it's we didn't train them on the last policy so it's something that they'll just have to be familiar with what we will tell them is where it's located and how to access it okay all right thank you any anything else and before we vote I would just like to say that that um we obviously spend a lot of time discussing policies and and so on and the um Arizona risk retention as well as as anybody else that helped us in the past always have their attorneys going over all of this so before we even get to it we have a legal opinion and then we as a as a board are are are able to make some changes depending on if there's not a statute that we would be violating because there are certain things that are just just for Gilbert Public Schools so um Miss eug jetti uh just one uh one thing I wanted to add there are places in the policy where it says board and um in the past policy manual uh we were changing that to governing board and I would ask that we would try and do that in this policy manual I certainly think that's something that we can talk about when we have our next policy meeting so make sure it gets put on the agenda for that and that's something easily done yes all right thank you anything else okay I I'll call for the vote for the implementation of the Arizona risk retention trust policy Services all those in favor please signify by saying I I I I okay no oppose so on a - Z vote we will move to that and I'm sure we'll be discussing all of this in future uh policy meetings 9.02 fiscal year 2025 proposed budget for adoption Dr McCord thank you madam president govering board members as uh you've been presented over the last uh several weeks uh the proposed budget for the 2425 school year we ask for your approval thank you do I hear a motion for the proposed budget for of adoption so moved thank you Mrs Humphrey second second thank you Mrs paig discussion just a comment don't forget that we need your signatures at the end of the board meeting please yes well I do want to say thank you I mean I feel like um first uh the legislature came through in better shape than I I had anticipated at least we have the 2% as a one-time um monies for district additional assistance and the 2% for um the maintenance and operation so we can give those raises so I do appreciate that and I appreciate the hard work that has been put in to to get us I feel like we're in a really good financial position and I appreciate all that hard work it's taken some time to get there so thank you thank you I I second that any any other comments or questions hearing I'll call for the vote for the 20 F fiscal year 2025 proposed budget for adoption all those in favor please signify by saying I I I I okay so on a - Z vote that's been adopted we will now move to 9.03 reopening of Canyon Valley high school and adding grades seven and 8 Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members first of all I think the title of this is a little misleading Canyon Valley uh has always been open uh but uh in order to comply with state and federal reporting guidelines school districts and Charters must report student enrollment and student attendance accurately at the physical School site in which the student is being educated for the past 12 years Canyon Valley has been operating as an alternative school program in order to comply it is recommended that we reopen Canyon Valley High School uh and expand the grade level to include s and eth grade and this is based on AR 15-10 42b which says require School District Charter Schools submit electronic data on a school by school basis including student level data to the Department of Education order for the school district Career Technical education uh of a district or Charter School to receive monies for the cost of educating students pursuant to this title um so we're asking your approval for this to be in compliance with the statute uh we were informed I think and when I say we were informed we were given information in late February uh but we we believed as well as many other districts because there's other districts doing what we're doing right now at the same time of year we believed it only had to do primarily with special education and uh nutrition services but as more conversations happened uh it went deeper than that and so we want to make sure that that we're doing everything correctly and we may come back to you with some other thoughts and ideas later on in the school year uh in order to comply in a different route because um we believe that how these are articulated and how they are um calculated for school or District letter grades um I this will impact everybody not just in our district brother District so we will come back to you later so don't think that we're skiz phrenic about this we do know what we're doing we just have to do stepbystep processes related to this to make sure we get it in the right place thanks okay thank you um take a motion for reopening of Canyon Valley high school and adding grade seven and eight I move that we reopen Canyon Valley high school and add grade seven and eight thank you Mrs humre a second I'll second thank you Mrs wood um discussion questions this is so it for all intents and purposes will this look any different when these kids come to school the first day is there anything not one thing different just the only thing that'll be different is their how they're coded at the state level and how uh data is sent to them okay and Dr McCord just a question on on that um we previously had seventh and eighth grade there and then I think that was probably one of the budget cuts I don't remember exactly um but now we're going back to it and I think I'm think that's a really good option because you know those two years could be the make or break for a lot of kids and if we're getting them the younger we get them the better it is and and uh I'm I'm really glad that we're doing this thank you anybody any other comments well I I think Canyon Valley is a great School and provide services for kids that you know need need a smaller campus and more individual attention and I I know they do a great job um I think it education is complex and um so they're telling us now we have to count them the students differently or code them differently at the state level and um letter grades are one way of looking at what kids have accomplished but there's a whole lot more that goes into school and Canyon Valley is one of those that does a great job with kids and it may not show on a letter grade but it really shows in the what the students accomplish I love going to graduation there because I get to see kids that have really put some work in to make sure that they get that high school diploma so I think um sometimes letter grades are not the best indication of what's going on at a school thank you m Mrs Paige did you have a comment I just had a quick question um we're not looking at this school year to be reopening the seventh and eighth grade right is would it be for this fall yes this is we already have seventh and eighth grade there but it's a program yeah right and so we're going to in order to because we call it a high school we just want to make sure it's all combined okay you just said you weren't being schizophrenic so I was wondering that's okay you're leaving that leaving that to me right okay Bonnie would like to say something imagine that if I if I can add the reason that we are specific about seven and eight is when the canyon Valley High School ctds number which is that entity identification number was first created it was just for high school so we're just expanding that to include seventh and eighth grade and yes seventh and 8th graders have been educated at Canyon Valley now the last two years I think two years thank thank you any anything else anybody else okay hearing no more comments or questions I'll call for the vote for the reopening of Canyon Valley high school and adding grade seven and8 just as we were given all the information all those in favor please signify by saying I I I I so on a 5- z vote we will approve that or was approved I should say uh number 10 request for future agenda items I know we already have one from Mrs humph for our um policy meeting are there any others okay hearing none we'll move on to board committee reports and I get to be the first one and I'm going to be the first one to say I don't have anything to report we haven't met and you know I once again would like to just say that the fact that we were able to get some money Mrs bets and and your your ability to figure some of these things out is is amazing it really is so it's pretty easy to accept the $1.2 million just so you know yeah I I know it's pretty easy for us to say thank you too but I I mean it really is it's not something that as we all know here that we approve very often is getting money we're good at spending it okay 11.02 legislative representative Mr Thompson do you have anything tonight nothing tonight thank you okay thank you very much 11.03 city of Mesa liaison Mrs wood anything tonight nothing tonight thanks thank you very much 11.04 uh Gilbert toy Gilbert liaison and audit commit committee Mrs humph uh I don't have anything to report tonight great thank you Gilbert Education Foundation Mrs Pig I'm sorry to break the trend but I do have something to report tonight um exciting stuff actually so Gilbert Education Foundation was awarded in June over $70,000 from meta for a multimedia Center at Desert red junior high so that's really exciting and we're so grateful for Teresa and all the hard work she does with GF um this multimedia Center is going to be headed up by the history and social science and Digital Arts Teacher Nate web and he's going to initiate programming that will help the students innovate enhance students creativity problem solving teamwork skills and empowering them to become digital influencers in their Community um also um the 20 2425 business leader breakfast Estates have been set by GF um 8: a.m. in the governing boardroom on August 14th November 13th February 19th and May 7th and I will obviously when those come I will remind the board and then um just to put this on the calendar the Gilbert Education Foundation cornhole Extravaganza will be held on September 26 at 6:00 p.m.
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at the whole n yards cornhle venue in Gilbert and anybody would like to support GF please contact either myself or Teresa um they are looking for sponsors thank you thank you Mrs Paige we will now move to 13 um adjournment all I well we need a motion first all those I mean who who like to move that we're going to adjourn I think it's time for me to adjourn oh so moved thank you Mrs humph second and time in a second it so it's been moved and seconded that we adjourn and I forgot the meeting date boy I can't believe it but it is July 30th so all those in favor I'm think I'm going to need about 30 days of rest so I can handle it on July 30th thank you all those in favor of adjourning please signify by saying I I I I okay so on a - Z vote uh we'll see you in July thank you don't forget signatures thank you
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com out I guess thank thank you everyone for coming this evening it is greatly appreciated uh there has been adequate notice well that's it's actually for it's for the computer for the computer but we'll just I will speak up sorry about that thank you everyone for coming today it's greatly appreciated I'm deeply gratified for all the people in attendance there has been adequate notice of this meeting provided by the Board of Education in the December 28 2023 notice in the asur Park Press the co-star setting forth the date time and location of this meeting similar notice has been posted in the barow hall the brial school website and the Barrow clerk has been notified Mr Becker present Dr de brosio here Mrs mcdevit here Mr Milano here Mrs re here Mr Mr starky here Mr vital here Mrs wal here Mr waler than you I ask that you stand [Music] and to the of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all may I please have a motion to approve the minutes of the May 15 2024 meeting make a motion [Music] second thank you Mr Becker yes Dr D brosia yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr milanich yes Mrs reain Mr starky yes Mr Vitali same Mrs Walsh yes thank you there is not a formal presentation uh under this heading this evening correct that's going to be part of the administrative report all right awesome all right uh we are at the point where we have visitors business at this stage visitors are permitted to comment on agenda items only at this time uh is there any comments sure [Music] request the report that was put [Music] in so in terms of process the board just receives it tonight and reports on it you'll receive a letter tomorrow that will give view um the directions for how to take next steps for any information you want regarding the report or you can call the office tomorrow and we can work that out I'm sorry I I can't I can't obviously speak to a specific case in public right so and I don't know to which case you're referring um so we'll have to again I and we can't speak about hibs in okay real quick I'm sorry and this is my bad truly for anybody that speaks uh I just asked your name in your street W and you're on uh not Woodland I know it 69 sorry sorry I knew it agenda items anyone all right thank you uh Diane are there any correspondences there were emails regarding the uh fall teacher Staffing Staffing thank you awesome acknowledged right we uh we come upon the committee reports uh the first one is District Operations Mr vital please no report representative to manisan Mr Milan uh last week myself and Miss pestre attended the high school graduation uh in addition to some board members that are uh parents Mr starky that graduated and some uh employees that work for the manone district thank you congratulations Mr start thank you I uh it was a very nice event for in so far as how graduations go so awesome curriculum and programs Mrs Walsh yeah so um I'm the chair chairwoman of the curriculum committee all right I'll speak very loud I'm the chairwoman of the curriculum committee we met on Monday virtually June 24th at 12: PM the meeting was attended by Mrs postra and Mrs Pearson from the administration Dave D Ambrosio um Liam starky and president Kurt Becker from the committee and of course myself first we discuss a lot of items the first thing the administration wanted to report on how we had a great end of the school year with a lot of exciting activities there were field trips for the grade levels the eighth grade got to attend their trip to Gettysburg in hery park the field days were awesome and outstanding I attended one myself they were a success based on all the hard work from our physical education teachers the Middle School participated in the battle of the Blazers the award ceremony happened and of course the eighth grade graduation for another topic we discussed the incoming sixth or eighth grade students had math placement letters mailed out to the parents the criteria and the flowcharts and course progression were all shared with the families also all summer work um and suggested school supplies which I appreciate is out already for the upcoming school year um they will be linked on the website so if you haven't you'll have access to that at any time some staff began some curriculum writing for their summer work they're updating the standards for the state they have changed and updated the New Jersey learning standards for language arts and math the guidance department is also being proactive and working with Mrs Pearson to write scl curriculum stands for social emotional learning and they're going to include character strong programming and their morning meeting to streamline everything um let's see also the teachers have been even in the last few days of school when we have half days and they have an extra day the staff had been attending um bunch of different trainings one was on grubba on Atlas that is our curriculum platform that houses the entire District's um curriculum this year coming up they're going to use that platform for also lesson planning this will allow for so they were trained on that it will allow for them to align all the curriculum curriculum updated standards and assessments that are utilized for a more cohesive and authentic planning process for the teachers another great training was the entire staff and I see some of them here today attended uh the zones of Regulation over the last few uh school days that was a presentation that our B we had one night this um school year we had heard from Amy forsight who runs and uh trains trains on zones of Regulation this provides the entire staff with common language and understanding of how to work within school for a whole entire schoolwide approach to help students navigate and regulate their emotions um another topic we discussed was extended school year it's going to begin on July 8th and run through August 8th um the real Rec program successfully started on Monday and will run through August 2nd and the last topic our curriculum committee programming committee discussed was at very great depth the incoming fourth grade and current enrollment across the whole K through a and the administration's plan moving forward in the fall and Mrs pure will be giving a um an update in her she will be speaking in her admin report and sharing about their plan and address all the Staffing and enrollment for the upcoming school year so thank you to the staff at BS for all your hard work and training and planning for all the programs for the students one thing I did forget it was old business we had um a class of 8th grade that was their 30th year reunion they came and attended and worked with the student council and they dug up a time capsule with the former teacher so that was pretty exciting for the students I mean the stuff inside to them was kind of not as exciting because we could really relate to it but it was fun the um anticipation and having former graduates come back and the students see that they they did really appreciate it so thank you for that thank you Mrs Walsh any questions from board all right uh moving along HR Mr mway uh the superintendent provided information regarding the agenda items to the committee and we never met formerly but we just communicated with each other uh Dr D and berio is there anything to re own policy no we me since last month there was no new items from stra that comes to uh CR Community relationship um I don't have a formal report uh as things slow down a little bit in the summer months but um I know that the uh bef has new leadership and um the PTO I'm sure has a lot going on as well so um in August I'll be able to to share what's what's going on for the new school year it goes too quickly way yeah czy all right thank you everyone appreciate that uh that brings us to the administrative report Miss psra yeah I just want to Echo some of what you heard here about a very positive end to the school year so many great events planned for our students and I really want to thank um our parents uh for coming out and supporting so many of those events and making things possible we had an array of great field trips um great Field Day events we sponsored the First Wellness week for our seventh and eighth graders um the graduation the dance was beautiful um so there were so many positive events at the end of the year that really um left things you know on on such a good note um and speaking of planning for next year um I have already met with the leadership of the PTO to start to sketch out dates for next year along with the foundation so you know even though it is summer we got a head start on some of that planning um as far back as you know a couple of weeks ago even before the end of the school year uh one piece of information that I am uh reporting tonight on is our Hib self assessment from the 2223 school year that is before um my time here and this is the time the state is always kind of like a year behind uh but we report out on our own self assessment um so obviously I did not have a hand in this but I can explain a little bit about the report uh the report requires us to look at our practices in HIV in a range of areas from How We Do trainings um to programs that we provide to our investigation procedure and in order to be compliant uh with all the regulations that are outlined in the anti-bullying um law which was enacted in September 2011 um you have to earn 52 points um Belle Elementary School in 2223 scored themselves as earning 57 seven points which again goes above uh what the state requires however you know we also recognize that there is room to grow and as we look back at that self assessment um obviously we met all the criteria but we are looking Beyond um you know this this year um we've taken some significant steps in our programming um we've partnered with nj4 s which is a Statewide Services Hub that provides Ides an array of Wellness services to support students to work with our Middle School population on focused topics uh we have broadened our positive behavioral supports and we've started to really dig into a restorative approach as a facet of our discipline process um our dedicated counselors Health Educators and mindfulness instructors are starting to uh deliver diverse components of character education and student wellness on a weekly basis uh we held regular meetings with our school safety climate committee to make sure that we are um moving forward with the initiatives we'd like to enact um we are um also looking to work with um the NJ State Bar Foundation to provide professional development and our district CST and counselors um are working with them at various workshops so we remain committed to improving our practices and training around HIV awareness and prevention so that will continue to be a goal even though we are compliant with all pieces of the law uh the second piece I would like to present tonight um is around the Staffing um decisions that we're looking at for the 2425 school year um first I'd like to say that you know um I understand that this information got out to the community in in a way that um was not necessarily planned um but I am very happy to have this opportunity tonight to share in person the foundation around this decision making uh before I get into the formal presentation I just want to address um some of the misinformation that was spreading on social media today um one was about the administrative U position being add in uh this has been in the works since I arrived here in Brielle and um when I arrived and in this past year we had three 12month administrators um under our new organization we will have two 12-month administrators and one 10-month administrator so we've actually reduced Administration just to clarify that um I noticed that on social media today and I want to correct that um and also um Mr Ed Slater is retiring and we appointed his replacement last month so there has been no increase in Administration in the district so I also want to now turn our attention um to and and give you a little bit of a sense of what goes into Staffing decisions and how they are made um you know each year oh we have to go back okay okay so if we're looking at the numbers for the 2324 is the first number you see on the left and in parentheses is the 2425 enrollment and looking at kindergarten for 2425 we are up to 48 typically we get a few new kindergarteners in the summer a few late registrants so um that is where where we are right now in terms of numbers and you can see the breakdown by grade one major factor that impacts our decision making and how classes are arranged is how many students receive special education services in the state that average is for 15.9% of students on average I will post all these slides so this will be on the website if you you know so you don't have to take pictures but you're welcome to of course um in New Jersey the classification rate is 15.9% on average here in Belle our special ed classification rate is 23.8% significantly higher than the state average for classification okay and so that is something obviously that has a huge impact on our staffing and and decision making now as we move forward I canot not speak to specific numbers in many of these cases because if anytime a number of a group of students dips below 10 I am not privy to share that information by law in order to protect student confidentiality so just kind of understand that as we move forward um I'm Bound by certain protections of student privacy okay so when we look at that um if we look at the rising fourth grade all right there are only two grade levels in the entire school that have a lower percentage of IEP students so the rising fourth grade does not have a very large population of special education students compared to the other grades there are only two grades that have a lower percentage but those classes overall grade size is larger so we're looking at that and in compliance with student IEPs individual Iz education plans in special education our Rising grade four students will be placed in two classes one will have a special education teacher along with the gened teacher one will have an instructional Aid along with the gened teacher so there will be two adults in each of the fourth grade classrooms right so let's look at why with this group of 44 um you know we're moving forward with that oh sorry the other piece is that so forward we have the retirement of one special education teacher this year and as you know Esser funds have sunsetted which means all the covid money that the government had provided is gone now and spent okay we had hired a contracted guidance counselor here at an hourly rate with that covid money um when that special education teacher retired looking at our needs across the building we made the decision to retain the guidance counselor and not replace the special education teacher and I'll I'll explain why in a moment right number one is you know Miss Pearson in particular has worked very closely to um kind of bolster our multi-tiered systems of supports and our intervention and referral services process for atrisk students so there is a lot of time being put into that process identifying students early um giving them some intervention over shortened periods of time where necessary um and so we need the extra counselor for that uh we have seen students in need of Behavioral and social interventions and you know both of our C counselors handle many student situations and given our staff certification many of our teachers are dually certified we are still able to meet um all our special education students needs so this is why um we are thinking about things a little bit differently one of our district goals when I started here in July was to look at English language arts and math programming look at our students achievement in those areas and make determinations about how well our students were getting to grade level proficiency um how strong were our programs to ensure our students achievement and success and as we started to look at that we realized here that there was no special education teachers providing support in grades K and one right we rely on Dual certified teachers to execute an IEP so we have kindergarten first grade teachers now one each one section has one aid but there is no second teacher in kindergarten or first grade and so when we start to look at where we start to offer support it's great to to end up and you know when we go back and we look at that 23.8% classification rate it makes you start to think should we be doing something differently right because we are not providing support at K And1 even from our own teachers this came up twice this year in our association meetings with our liaison committee looking for support in K and one to intervene for ELA for math so that we can catch kids early and ensure that they fit get the skills they need and it is because that window of opportunity for literacy especially at that age you know you have to catch them early so I want to just share some research on early intervention oh let's talk about this first sorry okay so if we're looking at this I am the solo teacher in grade K and one I've got four different groups of kids who have identified in need of four different skills over the course of a week within my what I call win period my flex period to do this small group instruction I can see each of those groups one time if I receive the support of a special education teacher in that classroom obviously I the between the two of us we're going to get to each of those groups two times a week and provide double the intervention and support right so we know that early intervention when it's concentrated it's beneficial for students especially in literacy and that is where most of our students are coming up as needing support so even when we look at you know um some of our older Upper Elementary grains they didn't have this support in K And1 and yes covid was a factor but still with our classification rates being so high above the state average it's clear that we need to do something else in order to provide this intervention so our kids literacy skills are at grade level so if we look at this here's just some of the research about the importance of intensive literacy intervention and catching kids early right many reading difficulties and disabilities can be prevented if students are provided with early reading intervention we know how important reading is in the foundation of a student's education moving forward through all of the grades right um very low levels of initial reading achievement predict later lower levels of reading achievement even when these students are provided less intensive tier two type interventions right um and if we look at what is most likely to respond to interventions its deficits in those skills that are being taught at grades K and one right so that's that and lastly you know as we look at this research as a whole the impact of reading interventions provided in the primary grades report higher than average impacts on reading outcomes than interventions implemented in the upper elementary and secondary grades so we are being reactive and not proactive and we should try to be more proactive in order to address the needs of our students so that that's what was considered as we started to look at Staffing as our district goal around English language arts and looking at our programming was examined so you know again there's so many research studies that talk about the importance of students reading by grade three right by grade four we start to transition from learning to read to reading to learn and if those early skills are not there students will really struggle well on into their academic career right so we want to take a little bit of a different approach um and and think about how we're using our resources so that we can get more of our students reading on grade level by grade three so you know there and I understand there is research about small class size and you know there is you know a positive correl but I think this research with where we are right now um and looking at all of our data is more compelling and something that I feel like we need to take action on so we look at multiple data points over the course of the year we meet with our teachers we meet with our child study team you know we ensure that we are meeting students needs and their IEPs right we take all these factors into account as we make these Staffing decisions um you know and that should be done annually you know um every year we should be looking at our students needs and our resources and our staffing and how we can best meet our students needs uh we should make adjustments to our program and so that we can advance grade level proficiency for all of our students we certainly recognize that early literacy intervention is a research-based effective practice towards building our kids reading skills and hopefully decreasing the number of students who are going to need remedial reading in the future and just to kind of emphasize the rising grade four will have a special education teacher in one section and an instructional Aid in the other section and this was made you know by looking at our total population of the grade the percentage of IEP students and the students would be heterogeneously mixed across the two sections so I hope that provides a an explanation um to explain the shift thank you Miss Pearson that's appreciated P Miss Pula I apologize that's Miss Pearson this is Miss p uh okay moving along HIV reports we did have there are a few in your folder today um actual all right that brings us to action items we're about halfway into this uh Joe asked that uh we present out of order D1 individually and then I will go back to curriculums and programs and present uh according reason we're doing D1 first is because D1 affects other items throughout the agenda to summarize D1 it's the contract with the Board of Education and the teachers to give them a contract uh for their working uh for salaries their working conditions so on and so forth it's been a pleasure to work with the teachers over the last eight and a half years I've been a board member on their contracts this is a four-year contract and they are fantastic we can't do it without their assistance and the administration M uh clle Mrs blra uh board me all the board members especially the committee M mcdevit was on the committee uh Mr Walman everybody it was great uh you read in the newspaper and you hear you know into other districts it is not such a great working environment so it's not not that like everything was perfect we didn't have a hiccup here or there but when the day is over we all got along and here we are approving a third contract in a row before the current one expired thank you so with that I'd like to move D1 for approval [Music] second Mr Becker yes Dr de brosio yes Mrs M yes Mr Milan yes Mrs re um I believe I have to abstain Mr starky yes Mr Vitali yes Mrs Walsh yes she's conflicted she's comme uh I just want to really quickly Echo uh Joe's comments uh I've been saying for years that the positive relationship between the Board of Education and the teachers are a par Paramount component to this and uh we are deeply grateful to it uh it it is not like other places and uh we are grateful for it thank you okay moving back to curriculum and programs that is uh W yes I'd like to make a motion to move the following items for approval A1 A9 second Mr Becker yes Dr de brosio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr milanich yes Mrs re yes Mr starky yes Mr Vitali yes Mrs Walsh yes motion thank you uh Mr Vitali District Operations of course um the district District Operations I'd like to move agenda items B1 through b19 I'll second that Mr Becker yes Dr de Osio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr milanich yes Mrs reath yes Mr starky yes Mr Vitali yes Mrs wal yes motion thank you uh there is nothing under C policy which brings us back to d uh Joe can you present the remaining yes Mr so I also just want to once again emphasize how appreciative the board is or as a committee chair I am of Human Resources to all the employees especially the teachers with that I'd like to move D2 through D21 second Mr Becker yes Dr de brosio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr Milano yes Mrs re yes Mr starky yes Mr Vitali yes Mrs Walsh yes motion carried awesome thank you everyone it's a big part of the meeting okay at this point 7:35 we come to visitors business uh visitors are permitted to comment on agenda and non-agenda items at this time we just ask that for the viewers at home you approach the microphone and you please clearly state your name and address um by privilege I'm going to be the first to speak and uh I just if you could indulge me for less than three minutes uh it would be appreciated uh there are some components to public speaking uh we simply ask that everyone be respectful regardless of how you feel internally emotionally we ask that you uh keep in check your emotional I IQ um there is a time limit on comments it's roughly 3 minutes we can be liberal but uh I'm guessing on this evening there'll be a lot of people speaking and uh we might have to hold people to three minutes uh technically speaking this is not a Q&A uh you are welcome to make comments you're welcome to speak on any agenda or non-agenda items within your time frame and uh we will respectfully listen and uh acknowledge them we may not have any or all of the answers that you ask this evening uh but again you can speak on anything you'd like agenda or non-agenda uh with the exception of the draw bridge no one can bring up the draw bridge uh I don't know I'm guessing a lot of people want to speak I don't want to make it a free-for-all but please feel free to approach the microphone please go thank you my name is an is this on uh it's not proed computer my name is an nner 636 Park Avenue um first I just want to thank you for your presentation uh I do not believe there's anyone in this room that would argue against special education support and kindergarten first grade um however it should not negatively impact other students and tonight I'm here to address our Rising fourth grade students my husband and I bought a home in Belle 14 years ago long before we had children it took every penny we had from our down payment we cashed in our savings bonds cashed in our coin collection but we did it because we were excited to have the opportunity to live in Belle a small town with a small school district at that time my husband and I were both teachers and we have experience working in much larger school districts we could have chosen to live in the town we work in or at least even closer to it but we chose Belle because of the school in hopes that our children would attend it one day we were looking for a small town feeling where our children would get personalized attention that all children deserve Unfortunately today I stand before you with a heavy heart and a deep concern for the future of our children's education at real Elementary School the recently revealed plan to eliminate a fourth grade section effectively increasing the average class sizes from 14 to 22 students is a decision that strikes at the very core of our community values and well-being of our children to the members of the B Board of Education Miss polstra I must express my disappointment and frustration it is deeply disheartening that such a decision would even be considered let alone deemed acceptable miss polstra you quoted in a recent email replying saying that a larger class size would Foster relationships among our children shame on you for not knowing our community and how well we know each other here in Belle relationships among our children have been murt nurtured and cherished for years they are not built on the numbers of students in a classroom but on a shared experiences friendships forged on playgrounds of Briel Park and tight-knit bonds that extend far beyond our school walls these relationships are not merely incidental they are the fabric of our community W through years of mutual support share traditions and a genuine concern for one another they do not need to be fostered in the academic setting of our classroom increasing class sizes by nearly 60% in one school year is unacceptable personally my son was in a class of 13 this year and with this plan he will be in a class of 22 next year this is a drastic increase this drastic increase disregards the importance of individualized attention and support that our children need to thrive academically and emotionally research consistently shows that smaller class sizes lead to better academic outcomes and enhance student well-being by sacrificing these benefits we are doing a disservice to our children and their future a 2019 study published in the international Journal of educational research found that in a smaller classroom environment students exhibit better behaviors and engage in more learning than their peers in larger classes the same study states that it is the smaller classes that increases the sense of classroom community and a Foster and caring classroom environment where students feel appreciated a study cited by Temple University Center for research in human development and education as well as the US Department of education sites smaller class sizes helps teachers reduce time spent on disciplinary and classroom management matters and consequently they are able to devote more time effectively on instruction learning activities and individualized instruction also cited is that students in smaller classes had on average significantly higher mathematics and reading and achievement than students in a typical siiz class and let us not forget our teachers I am curious to know what the current third grade teachers thoughts are on reducing our students to only two sections as each school year comes to an end our teachers thoughtfully plan for the following year as they know our children and their academic needs what do they think about our 44 students being divided into two classes and what about the teachers that will be receiving them according to a 2021 article published in education Sciences entitled the demographic transformation of the teaching force in the United States 54% % of The observed teachers who left their jobs CED their number one reason for leaving was due to the larger class size in the long run keeping our class size smaller may help retain our experienced teachers we are entering a time in education where teacher candidates are dwindling and colleges and universities are stating the percentage of Education majors at an all-time low let us do our best to not only keep the teachers we have but draw teachers to our district by having the enticement of small class sizes our community expects more from our Board of Education we expect decisions that prioritize the educational excellence and personal growth of every child in Belle our children should not have to bear the burden of decisions that compromise their educational opportunities and diminish their chances for success I urge the Board of Education to work with Miss polstra and reconsider this ill-advised plan let us find alternative solutions that uphold the educational standards we cherish and Ure that our children continue to receive the quality education they deserve let us not sacrifice the very essence of our community with increasing the class size at such a dramatic rate we are not larger neighboring towns that are accustomed to this class size we are not brick we are not Howell we are not Ridgewood we are Belle and our children deserve to benefit from living in a small town with more personalized opportunities in their classroom thank you [Applause] thank you Mrs thank you for going first I'm sorry lner I apologize Ashley um Kowski 501 Oldbridge Road can you guys hear me back here too um I was going to talk about communication but before that I just want to say um never mind I'm G to start with communication um according to Mrs polster's uh cont cont she is supposed to communicate with the community under performance and responsibilities number 10 she needs to develop guidelines and direction for monitoring the effectiveness of existing and new programs I asked for this information about the plan to increase class size in the fourth grade and Mrs polstra ignored my phone calls emails and requests for meeting under Financial man Management number three communic Ates the educational and monetary impact of the budget to the community Mrs postra said she had to reallocate resources away from the fourth grade I called emailed and requested a meeting to discuss the educational impact of this decision on my child's education Mrs poer ignored my requests school and community relations number one promotes Community Support of the schools solicits Community opinions regarding school and educational issues encourages broad Community participation in the Affairs of the School Mrs psra has failed to communicate this entire school year starting with the drop off and pickup schedule a student tragically lost their life this year communication failed surrounding that event there was an incident with an alleged gun threat to the school she failed to communicate that in a timely fashion to the community finally after a year of ignored phone calls emails and meeting requests we have come to this significant restructuring plan where once again phone calls emails and meeting requests have gone unanswered under board responsibilities number eight she's supposed to provide a communication system to keep the board informed of District issues and critical information needed for decision-making whatever communication system that is in place um it seems to be failing I spoke with the board president Mr Becker who seemed confused by the plan or pretended to be confused and said nothing is set in stone he asked that I give Mrs P until Monday of this week to answer my questions I am still waiting to receive my answer to those questions can I ask the questions now and get an answer no response Mrs poer what will be your response time to phone calls emails and meeting requests going forward so to be clear I sent an email out to the entire parent community of this grade level informing them that I would be sharing information tonight which I did correct my questions were not answered so I'm asking going forward when will my questions be answered for email same day phone calls 24 hours can I get a meeting request I can ask the questions I can ask you the questions here if you would like to answer them they were not addressed in your presentation do you remember my questions I can ask them again I will I will go back and look at your specific questions if they were so one question in specific was um what data supports the academic benefit to increasing class size in fourth grade I can provide several scholarly peer-reviewed studies that support a negative impact on education especially in fourth grade which often suffers from the fourth grade lump so what I presented to you again is a priority of needs right this is a fourth grade class that will have two adults in a class of 22 students each one to 11 ratio what I'm saying is that the literacy issue and the small class size here has not produced a reduction in special education needs so therefore my concern is that small class size in and of itself is not been effective in meeting our students needs to get to grade level proficiency especially looking at how high above the state average we are that should be a concern to parents so the correct the you know the response is that if this is we look at multiple data points and the other data point that was really taken into consideration is looking at how we provide early literacy intervention so that we can better prepare students to develop their reading skills so that we do we can get closer to that state average and do not have so many students requiring remediation I am all for that I think that's wonderful my concern is your presentation did a lovely job of addressing the needs of K through3 and completely ignoring the needs of fourth grade K through fourth grade fourth grade has two sections with two adults in each room with one of the lowest percentage of classified students in the grade across the school what are what were their testing scores what were their testing scores on the state test that they just took we don't have those tests so this was done without looking into their their test scores to see how they're failing and what support they might need next year this is not a back and for so if you have specific questions you can write them email them whatever we can't share any individual information you should try to refrain from personal uh comments because the board will not be able to respond respond to them in terms of any employees issu okay so when when can I expect a response to the questions that I emailed um last week and my request for a meeting I usually respond within 24 hours and given the number of emails that I received I sent a an email to the entire parent group I have I know I have specific questions okay send them to so all year I have emailed of various things about various things dress code policy drop off policy and I have never received any but I'm excited that going forward everybody's um communication will be redressed within uh 24 hours you said for emails 24 hours yes depending upon the circumstance okay 24 hours okay good I'm I'm glad and and thank you for noting that you are on social media because one of our parents has been waiting almost two weeks for um transcripts for her student and again you you address shared it with me and not on social media okay wonderful I'm glad that there was um somebody you know finally checked social media and I'm so sorry you're getting frustrated I'll it's okay thank thank 24 hours thank you so much thank you so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] much I'm willing to uh open it up to anyone else thank you oh Brian you can wait behind you can stand behind bro so my name is Margaret spaziani and I'm here tonight as a mother not an attorney my address is 714 Schoolhouse Road in Briel New Jersey um so I was coming here tonight to to hope I can get facts on what's going on with the fourth grade class it's been a rumor mill um unfortunately you know the slideshow was a disappointment um you're using ie PS and I have a huge concern that there are children with the resource room right now in the upcoming fourth grade class that need that resource room that don't have an IP that have legitimate doctor's notes so what are you suggesting to those parents that we either need to find a different school or to go get an IEP this summer and order to keep that resource room open for them because if you're combining the classroom and it's going to be a bigger class I think you're going to have more and more parents putting pressure on that resource room to have those services so miss matters Miss printer gas you know what about the burden to them um I don't know if you guys have considered that I requested a child study evaluation for our daughter in October I had doctor's notes I fought with the school um we did a complete physical evaluation of her with doctors there was nothing physically wrong with her starting in second grade but she was getting called out of school a lot for tummy aches um we spent a year trying to find an answer uh we had therapists produce doctor's notes um Mr s we requested the child study evaluation with they had all of our doctor's notes um saying she needed to be broken out into a smaller room when we walked into the hearing we were told we're denying your request this is just a formality um we emailed all year long and finally got her in in February to miss matters and Miss printer gas so you know my huge concern is what's going to happen to students like this that don't have an IEP but need this CL small classroom setting that have doctor's notes you know what are you what what's your recommendation for us to prepare for the school year because you're going to have a flurry of fourth grade parents trying to get into the smaller classroom there's such thing as performance anxiety in classrooms it's you know kids might be socially fine they might be at your benchmark but you put them in a math or an English room and you know they freeze and they can't process and they can't learn because there's a huge classroom or there's you know 13 students so they need those breakout rooms and I will tell you as soon as our daughter got into those breakout rooms all of her physical symptoms stopped um you know so I just urge you to think about how you're going to handle the overflow with the resource room and give us some guidance um I also you know I'm disappointed with the notice requirement under New Jersey Law I know Mr Becker you said you gave us adequate notice but what about the contents of the meeting you know I'm hearing it through the rumor wh there's no contents included in that notice um and off topic what about your hi reports you guys have to post them online they're never posted online so that's all I have to say thanks thank you [Applause] Margaret uh Brian Bassman 811 Schoolhouse Road um thank you everybody and good evening I apologize in advance uh to the teachers in this building because I've tried unsuccessful all year to meet with the superintendent struggles with my son treatment of how he's been treated by some of the teachers in this building this is the first time we've ever met I've tried when she just said she responds to emails in 24 hours cannot be called anything other than a lie I am sorry I did not intend on saying that but that is a lie and I have the emails to back it up and I will sh I'll share them with all of you my my wife tried to get in touch in November regarding an eighth grade fundraiser no response reached back out a month later because she never heard back ultimately was told no then another leadership person in the building said to me she thought it was something for the high school well my wife runs Key Club and she runs santhon happily the other night at graduation all the manisan graduates that received awards at graduation here both referenced those two activities at graduation we were here for that but then regarding our son we tried we tried because there were staff problems there are things going on the way these kids are being treated can't can't in touch no response first for a week then the emails finally we get email responses that went South fast but still no communication here are so many examples I'm going to give you back to school night a teacher openly tells us our kids are going to hate her well both my kids did oddly enough isn't that a shame had no interest in that story where's this one there's also it also refers to gender there is a lack of tolerance for the Adolescent boy in this building Miss poer says no but how would she know because she's never heard any of the things I'm about to tell her okay we got a nasty email home from our teacher well not nasty but it wasn't nice okay regarding our son we saw the teacher later because our son couldn't believe it he said he had such a good day then the teacher when we saw her you know she said to us he actually did have a good day we were told by Administration to let the parents know no matter what the boys do now you're going to hear things I'm sure later understood my directive things like that all all administrative garbage okay but that doesn't sound like you're reacting to a student that sounds like you're building a case against a 14y old I've never gotten any calls regarding my son and he's not maybe he's not the greatest kid in the world but I'm not getting calls about vandalism cursing sexism none of it it's eighth grade adolescent stuff I'm an educator for 24 years and if I went to my office with the things that these kids are disciplined for I would get laughed out of the office because they're not administrative they're not disciplinary they're just eighth grade boys being disciplined for being eighth grade boys okay our some was also falsely accused on multiple occasions by staff members and disciplined and disciplined being falsely accused how does that sit with a 12 13 14 year old not very well ultimately he was disciplined because of how he reacted to being falsely accused wow how would you react as a 13 14y old to being falsely accused the video proved it and you know who called me back on that nobody my son's words were they can watch the video I didn't do it when I pushed back I had to call to follow up and when I called the followup I said did he do it they said no no but the email that my wife got and I got from that teacher see seeing all the administrators shows the attitude in the building towards these boys the teacher had no hesitation to share it with Administration even though it was false even though it was false because he believed the administration would be supportive because that's how these boys have been perceived the number of times that these kids him and his friends have sat at our table and said I hate Briel over and over or too many to count and lastly some of us might not know this we have another son who's going into sixth grade next year who doesn't come here we had to pull him because of Co understand right a situation presented it I understand all that stuff when presented with the possibility of bringing him back here my wife and I talked for about five seconds we're not bringing it back to B Arby no way that is a red flag we are both Educators within the sending district and if that doesn't tell you something okay you can think whatever You' like me I know most of you and that is fine but when you have two educators telling you the same thing we had absolutely no intention of even considering bringing our son back to this building and it's only worse now because you're dealing with someone who is I'm just sorry is dishonest unresponsive unprofessional I think any way you slce it the most basic form of professionalism now would be you respond to an email and to sit here in this meeting and tell people you respond in 24 hours is a joke Mr bman again we're we can't discuss students or employee issues as you're well aware so if you have issues regarding your child you can bring them through the chain man whatever comments you want to make make but you can't you're not going to get a answer or question I very much appreciate that segue thank you um in our communication I know we're three minutes I'll be quick beond I understand but she brought this up so I'm responding to exactly what Miss Adam just brought up if you truly understand then you'll see way to the fact that I've been liberal in the time Fair we know each other very well I personally know Davis I'll come back I'll come back next month that's fine but I'm still waiting for the chain of command that she says she has thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] Mr good evening be katania 611 Ranken Road I wasn't planning to speak tonight I was really just here to see the big picture um I have four kids we recently a couple years ago had to take one out because the school is not meeting his needs as far as challenging him um so it's interesting to see the different perspectives um regarding the special education and for a long time um I felt like Belle just wants to push everybody along and we don't really see the both other sides I I don't have anything official prepared tonight but I think that is something that has definitely come to the Forefront today I'm an over 20e teacher in a large district and to hear that kindergarten and first grade teachers are expected to teach the general and special education population is appalling I work with an in-class support teacher she works rigorously with me we co- te to the point our students don't know quote unquote who's the real teacher one of them asked us um to hear that one person is expected to play the role that two of us do is very concerning and to that point um it's concerning that it's taken this fourth grade situation to figure out a way to rectify that and that that didn't come up during budget um meetings so that Staffing wouldn't be an issue at this point in the year um going along with that I do have two younger ones that will event reach that fourth grade year and so I'm wondering is fourth grade always going to be a two classroom will that two classroom follow those fourth graders what happens when the IEP population does go up and another special teachers needed what will happen when they get to the grades where they switch classes and there are multiple teachers and there has to be more than two sections so again I'm not sure if all of this has been thought out but again definitely something that needs to take place at Future budget meetings um a couple of other things that I was thinking sitting here listening to other people um in my large District where I teach we've recently actually decreased our class sizes and as a teacher I have been able to effectively feel like I'm meeting the needs of more students the students have been able to um work together in smaller groups and I do feel that it has made a difference um and it is something that was considered in such a large District uh the parking lot situation is a tremendous Gan to my husband and I because we both teach 30 minutes from here for a long time I've tried to get on the on the bus um when my first did start here there was the pay bus um I don't know what can be done about this situation I know there was a committee but our oldest does attend private school now and they have a parking lot the size of this table and they are effectively able to get people in and out in much less time than I have to sit in this parking lot so I think that is something that has to be addressed again again I don't have an incoming fourth grade student but I do feel feel for those parents because I am happy that my children do go to a small school in a small town for a long time we thought about moving to a district where we teach or another place and it keeps coming back to Briel is such an amazing Community with a small town field and um small class sizes and you feel like you're in a private school but again I think there are many things that have to be taken into consideration throughout the year in these meetings um those are just a few of the points but thank you for taking the time and I appreciate everything that everybody said because I know at the at the end of the day we are are all here for the same purpose but as real taxpayers and as parents and many Educators um I think that the big picture is not clear in the decision for next year [Music] hi I'm Lisa Hawk I live at 526 Long Street Avenue um I was just wondering if anyone could elaborate on the um new roles that the three administrated positions have now I saw that the new hire was um dean of students and not vice principal is there a reshuffling of their duties yes so we took what had been director of special services viice principal and um supervisor of curriculum and instruction and looked at all the responsibilities of those two roles and put um director of student Personnel Services SLG guidance as one administrative position that is a 12-month position that will look at um everything related to special education inrs 504 plans um Counseling Services all those intervention pieces for students um mainly and then the dean of students is a 10-month position that will be looking at um code of conduct attendance more student centered issues things like co-curriculars and the Athletics oversight um and then the curricular piece will fall a little bit more Under My Umbrella um and of course working with the two other roles thank you you're welcome thank you Miss H take this out here can I take this out it doesn't no okay I want it's hard for us to hear back here it only goes to the computer it doesn't amplify this room I'm Cara Murphy I live on William drive I have a rising fourth grader a rising second grader a rising kindergartner and my oldest is actually um privately placed at hawkswood elementary he's severely autistic and blind and um I've been working with Sabia and Lisa Kenny since we moved back here my Lisa had asked your question who is going to spearhead the new special needs service I didn't know if that was Pearson or if that was going to be somebody new missar so miss Pearson will be special education okay um I've gone through I have 20 plus years of accounting Financial experience I have gone through this budget diligently I just want to know if we have exhausted all measures of raising funds applying for Grants [Music] um just it if it I realize that you know to increase School funds you could do a tax levy on the town I don't know if there's been any research in that and how much that would actually bring into the school I see that we are like dollar for dooll on our budget every year I also looked and saw previous administration I realized that the covid relief funds had Sun have Sunset they're they've expired um like what was put in place to replace those funds that we got like how was that forward thinking about forecasting our budget going forward um another thing I love how everyone's showing up here we need to show up to planning board meetings it's we have no commercial real estate or commercial taxes coming in and that will really help give money funding our education um there's a lot of different things going around a lot of rumors high density buildings things like that I just want everyone to like also get involved with the planning board and you know if you're for more commercial property especially on greos was and things like that there are people coming forward with plans that I think would increase a lot like at least tax commercial tax sales tax money that can go towards the school um let me see what else I had here I don't know my phone just died um but I would like to know like who researches our grants federal grants we have to apply for and get approved for but those are usually set amounts based on demographics and other certain factors you know districts across the state have seen the um the end of those covid funds and it's a challenge across state and there are not funds to replace them and I do feel like here in B you know there would it the fund money was managed very well that we don't find ourselves on a cliff right where hired a lot of teachers with that money and now they have to let those teachers go um you know so here I think the money was I and I was not here for it so I can't 100% but um we don't find ourselves on a cliff where we've had to reduce staff or lay people off um and I think that is a reflection of very strong fiscal management you know with Mrs Quigley here and and on the part of the board so you know we I think it's a uh Testament again to to really good planning that we don't find ourselves in a position with all of that money being gone that we still are able to maintain the staff that we have um I just want you to be well aware like there are a lot of grants that I was wondering if we have applied for there was a suicide prevention grant that allotted $550,000 over three years and the deadline to apply for that was this past April I don't know if we applied for that we would qualify for that a lot of Grants we don't qualify for because we don't have 25% of students under the poverty line I realize that but we do have and I this comes from a I've been doing IEPs now for 13 years for my son we have a high rate of special needs students there are grants out there that can get us a playground I just find it like I can't understand how you are now asking parents to fund our playground that we have nothing in reserves for equipment or anything like that there's grants for that I know we have an incoming student in a wheelchair we qualify for grants for adaptive playground I just I'm hoping that people are looking into this I don't know who does it I don't know if it's board members or Administration but I I've been in fundraising too for 15 years there's money on the table that I think we're leaving and I just want to make sure that you're exhausting all options that are available to our school thank you thank you m [Music] um hi my name is Ryan Bassman I live at 811 Schoolhouse Road um again I am speaking both as a parent and also as a graduate of a k to8 School something that the other woman spoke before my husband already kind of handled our family issues um but it was brought up that you are in fact a principal and a superintendent and we have we're shifting around and we're doing administrative reorganization we should say you know of kind of realigning tasks but I think that the one task that we should definitely just friendly reminder um miss pster you are a principal and a superintendent I was a graduate of seagar Elementary School SE Elementary School also has a principals superintendent I think it's important that all the students in the building recognize you they know your face they know your name and that they've had a conversation with you especially prior to the end of the school year or perhaps gradu uating as I recently had a graduate um so that's just a friendly reminder based on somebody else's comment thank you so much for your [Applause] time assist on the back of my knee and it's killing me can I have a chair it's like killing me no just like robbing thank you point it down yeah just you should it should be to pick it up what's that it'll pick you up it'll pick me up okay well good evening everyone nice to see so many familiar faces uh board members and Briel staff thank you for all that you do for our children and our school oh I'm Jill kakamas 22 and a half Lebanon drive I'm sorry thank you I'm sorry I am here tonight to um convince you guys to reconsider eliminating a section or a teacher for the upcoming fourth grade class my husband and I have had children passed through the school for 16 years now I'm going to need a cane by the time I walk out of here by the time I key graduates um that we have five years to go the B Community has always prided ourselves with low class sizes and an amazing welcoming small community school this goes for our surroundings Shore districts as well making our class sizes larger will only hinder our children your students re research proves that smaller class sizes increase student learning and a teachers's ability to reach all the students in his or her class we only we not only have children with I APS 504s in remedial classes but we also have moderate and advanced Learners that we need to challenge it's not easy for teachers to reach all of their students especially as the curriculum gets harder before moving into B to raise our six children I was a teacher in Charlotte North Carol Ina Spanish Harlem New York City and Guttenberg New Jersey all Urban school districts all large class sizes it was crowd control why in the world would we want as parents to do that as Educators a 60% increase watching my daughter graduate last week from madisin high school where I graduated high school reminded me of the fact that people born here and raised here return here they may spread their wings but most come back I knew over half of the names of the graduating students because I went to school with their parents I went to school um or I knew their families it's an amazing thing we aren't Bergen County we aren't a large District so again what are we doing bulking up the administration should and cannot be the school's goals teachers are the ones who are handson day in day in and day out with our kids we want them in an environment that promotes and supports optimal learning for all this class needs three sections just like madisin has they have 16 kids in each class also we need to account for incoming transfer students who are always joining us let's do the right thing for our children and teachers remember these children were in prek and K through the infamous uh covid years we have already been through enough thank you for your timeing for keeping children first thank you Miss anyone else M Kennedy hello Board of Education um my name is Ally Kennedy I do not live in Bri but I do work for B and I am on the board of education in my town which is Brick next door so first and foremost you guys are volunteers thank you so much for your time for all of you do the extra hours the evenings that you're here for your meetings it's a lot and it's exciting to see a full room um I know because we get five at our meetings and then when you have an event that comes up you get a ton of people here um I want to speak as someone that works closely with Mrs postra um in the main office I think that and I'm only here two years I started the first day of school last year so I have one year six months to compare with prior Administration and then a year to to compare with Mrs postra and I think that the amount of work and cleanup that Mrs postra has put into this year to writing the ship that was slowly sinking um she's done a tremendous job and I think that this evening may have been difficult for her to hear because everyone is upset with the possibility of 20 two children in a classroom um I can say and I know I'm from a big town in Brick we are losing funding and we are fighting having 35 kids in a classroom and as a board and a in a first grade classroom and as a board of ed member it's put on us for to raise taxes which is not something that anybody really wants to do um but I digress Mrs postra has had a a ton of things in front of her to do she's been very successful in many many things she's done um I think that the staff is pleased with where the building is is going um like she mentioned in the presentation that there was the liaison committee came to her twice speaking about what was happening in the lower grades and I think that it's important that we remember that Mrs polstra came into these issues she did not create these issues she did not um Foster them she came in schedules were made things were done already for her so she stepped into this school year as it is and now is taking her professional um experience and rolling it into things that is going to make it better for all of the children of Briel elementary school because we we as parents want to think about just our child and my child that's a rising fourth grader or a rising first grader Mrs poer has to keep in mind all of those children and do what's for all of the children and I personally think that she's done a great job and am very appreciative of her hard work and her long hours and her um while it may take longer than 24 hours to respond to an email and I don't understand how one person can be a principal and a superintendent um there is so much to do on both ends and walking into a district that was in the shape we were in I think she's done a phenomenal job so I just wanted to express that to you all thank you thank [Applause] you hey everybody my name is Fred Walther 609 Bradley Avenue um I know most of you guys here as po I do not know you I've had three kids come through the school um and uh I've been extremely dis satisfied with the quality of Education that they have had here um I'm not as educated or I did not uh do my research I have four kids three jobs I wish I could come to these more often but I can't okay so just I'm going on basic personal experience my eldest son for an example he got uh he was accepted to High-Tech high school and he was here I think he was number two three in his class here in math he went to Hightech High School took the exam right the placement exam he I think he got 50% on the exam so which begs my question is how could he Excel get a 99 here do extremely well go to a high- Tech High School and not even get 50% on the exam um number two and my other child left here 8th grade went to madisan high school and quite honestly had a a little bit of a difficult time I don't think she was adequately adequately prepared um even though her grades here were phenomenal um she got very good grades when she went to high school it was kind of she hit a brick wall and she was I believe she was unprepared um my recent son okay uh just graduated so and I face I'm looking at the same fears with him going to high school also looking back on his eighth grade I can honestly tell you he was bored he was unchallenged um he had very little to know homework what homework he did have he did it in school when he came home he had nothing to do um when kids aren't challenged okay they seem to go a little bit astray getting a little Mischief that's kind of what he did okay um and honestly because he was unchallenged okay I'm very nervous for him going to high school next year okay which brings me to my my point here is I hear uh you know we're doing a lot of stuff for special ed everything else what are we doing for the gifted program okay I don't want to answer now but I will come back and I think a lot of other parents will come back for the next uh meeting and I would love to hear what is going to be done for the gifted and talented students and how they are going to get pushed okay because being here for a while talking to other parents I feel that the top uh the top part of the the the classes here kind of get pushed through and you know a lot of emphasis is put on the middle and I think the bottom also get pushed through so I would just like at the next meeting to hear what can be done and what will be done for the gifted gifted students okay um my second question is with the um are all sorry I just got to refer to my notes here um are all faculty trained in HIV every single one okay and how often do they go through training it's mandated by the state that there be at least one annual training one annual training okay and then what is is there a certain School regulated um outcome of how these I IEDs are done is it through the school is it through the state how has that worked are you asking IEPs or ievs oh how are they H hi hi you mean HIV Nots not not IEPs there is a whole policy and procedures that are set by law and Regulation and I believe are on the website in terms of policy now everything's handled okay okay but as as far as I know all teachers have gone through the training yes okay and then I do believe my wife has requested um the report and when shall we expect to receive that report you'll get a letter tomorrow that will provide you with directions for how to do that directions to have to yeah right all right we've been asking for for quite some time well we have to wait until it goes through the process before we can release the report to you the board has to have it on the agenda first really can't go any detail no no I I know and I completely understand so anyway that's it thank you very [Music] [Applause] much anyone else okay thank you Ashley Kowski 501 Old Bridge Road uh Old Bridge wrot sorry I think a lot of parents are going to leave here um confused after the presentation so does what our next steps for us um to voice our concerns there there is a chain of plan yeah it starts with the teacher it goes to the administration and if you're not getting a response you can always communicate with the board so for this going plan you know time is of the essence it's the plan for September I'm sorry for the incoming fourth grade the two sections who do we voice our continue to voice our concerns to to the administration okay thank you don't apologize please I wasn't prepared to speak but I feel like I have to I'm Whitney Forester I live at 1102 Riverview I don't speak loud and I don't do well in front of people so bear with me okay um I did listen to your reasoning and I appreciate you putting that out there but did feel a little bit like you're taking from the fourth grade to give to the K through two um and if they're having problems early on it does also feel like it's going to travel with them so um I did write a letter and I was going to send it but I figured I'd I'd read it um transparency is essential in any educational institution as parents we rely on open communication to make inform decisions about our children's education the sudden announcement of the class size reduction without prior discussion or transparent process is a little disconcerting presenting the social impact as a positive aspect of this change is misleading while other while L larger districts may follow similar practices Belle has always up upheld higher standards our community expects thoughtful decision-making that prioritizes students well-being over Financial considerations research consistently supports the benefits of smaller class sizes fostering stronger teacher student relationships and indiv individualized instruction why were such significant decisions made without Community input or a vote parents deserve a voice in shaping our children's educational experiences transparency ensures trust and collaboration between a school board Administration and families and let's be honest this change I believe is driven by um budget cuts and reallocation of of what's going on now however it is not in the best interest of our children more Administration administrative positions than teachers rais concerns about the allocation of resources and our students deserve better as a parent who moved to real in 2016 my husband and I made that decision primarily because of the favorable favorable student teacher ratio at real Elementary I'm not alone in opposing this recent decision and I don't know that it's set in stone but I really strongly urge the board to reconsider and engage um open dialogue with parents and just PRI prioritize our children's educational experience let's collaborate to find Solutions and uphold Belle's Legacy of Excellence Hello I'm Ryan nner 636 parav um I want to start by saying thank you to all those that spoke and thank you to everyone that showed up um I counted there is 57 of us here my biggest fear is that we will be ignored that is my biggest fear I know that tomorrow morning gonna go to your office and say oh that thank God that's over I'm asking you please reconsider this and if the administration will not I'm asking the board to please reconsider this no one here can say larger class as is a good thing I'm asking you to please reconsider thank you everyone good evening my name is Julie Robinson Smith um I'm at 11:05 Riverview Drive I didn't have anything planned to say this evening um I know there's people with many different viewpoints I am not in a school system I don't have any exper experience other than being a child of a third grade teacher for 30 years and having my own children here um I have a rising second grader and a rising fourth grader so I have seen what's been going on in Decay and first grade classes the past two years I'm an active class mom um I have been in the third grade class all year long and I just want to Echo the concerns shared here tonight uh about the state that our Rising fourth graders are in you mentioned being on grade level reading I don't think we're there I have concerns about my own Rising fourth grader and her reading abilities I think her math has slipped in the past year she went from being an enrichment math in second grade to third grade not doing is great I want reassurance that her grades are going to pick back up in fourth grade and like the other parents who have spoken here tonight I just don't I'm not clear on how what the plan is ahead how how larger class sizes are going to make that reality for our kids and I share what the the gentleman earlier said you know my child's both I have a child who excels and I have a child who's middle of the road how are their needs going to be met along with the children who need extra help and who maybe aren't as uh excelling as much I think we owe all of our children um the service to make sure all of their needs are met and Mr Becker you made an excellent point earlier about the excellent relationship that I think it was you or Mr milwich I AP olizee I may have forgotten but the great relationship with the board and the teachers I encourage you to have that same kind of open dialogue and relationship with parents of this community because we have a right to have a say to in our children's education so thank you for listening to all of us tonight and thank you for your volunteer time that was acknowledged earlier because we recognize this is a a big commitment for you as well thank you m [Applause] okay like some other people I'm very nervous even though I talk in front of third graders all day long talking front of gr makes me very nervous but I'm Megan Theodore I live at 100 Lake Avenue in bril um and thank you to all our board members we really appreciate your time and your commitment and we know it's a huge task and pretty thankless at that too so we appreciate you guys um I just want to say um Miss polster's letter she commented about the stakeholders being involved in the decision-making process and obviously we know the board's been involved we know administrators have been involved but obviously the parents who are stakeholders as well feel like they haven't been involved I also question whether or not what the involvement is of those teachers who are directly with those children on a daily basis those third grade teachers that saw those kids every single day and those related arts teachers I see Mr y sitting here what would he think of those kids being in a class of 15 or 16 13 going up to 22 how were they in the classroom were they challenging were there lots of behaviors and is it going up to 22 going to make a drastic difference because my hunch is it will and then next year when we decide that there's only two sections guess what when we get to that year and it sucks and it's a disaster it's too late right you're not going to add another section so I just implore you to really really think about this think about these stakeholders who are here and really get some feedback meaningful feedback from those teachers that were with those kids every day this year because my hunches that they're not going to be like oh yeah that that sounds good put them in a group of 22 that's my hunch thank [Applause] [Music] you thank you Miss Theodore anyone else all right at this point I'm going to move on to uh a really important part of the meeting uh a lot of people referenced it earlier and it is the payment of the bills Mr Vitali can you please officially pay the bills make a motion that education authoriz payment of the following June 2024 bills list and that the secretary is authorized warrant of the treasur in a total amount of 1,682 4199 I second it Mr Becker yes Dr D brosio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr Milan switch yes Mrs B yes Mr starky yes Mr Vitali Mrs yes yes motion car uh there is a board secretary certification on the agenda that is standard and uh which brings us to uh an exec Ive session which is on schedule tonight to discuss uh Personnel matters and legal matters and uh there'll be no action taken uh I ask for a motion to oh I'm sorry make a motion to go into executive session second motion carried yes thank you everyone again for coming tonight we appreciate your comments and uh
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order I motion that the governing board convene an executive session pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.03 A3 and4 regarding vendor vendor contract issues and to AR ARS 38- 43103 A3 and four regarding the process of a superintendent search and a seconded all those in favor I I I motion carries forward zero Anna e e e okay we're going to reconvene an open session um I move to approve um the direction given in executive session second give that one and I heard Anna she's right next to me give it to Anna second all those in favor I I motion carries 4 to zero all right we're going to go ahead and uh do a moment of silence and well we not going to do right yeah okay just going back we we we ultimately skipped roll call but I I understand now Dr Len heiser's question what you asked earlier all right moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance please e before we approve the J want to do a roll call just so that we have it so Dr lot Dr Mr liser roll call please thank you for that President Anderson uh let the record show that we have four members in in attendance today and Miss Schultz is absent thank you okay I move that we approve the agenda all those in favor I motion carries 4 to zero all right Mr liser do you have any reports any information for us today thank you president Anderson um I'm filling in for Mrs Richards as she's out uh this evening uh first we'd like to jump into our points of Pride uh this tonight we are celebrating points of Pride from our maintenance construction transportation and the district office and so we're going to have the supervisor of the individuals that were selected come up and be recognized for our points of Pride and we will start with Mr Tyler Moore uh recognizing Mr markling thanks David uh so Matt unfortunately could not make it tonight hit a prior doctor appointment um but I just want to say a few words about um Matt markling uh Matt's our payroll manager um Matt often uh payroll is often a thankless job uh we all you know appreciate the pay uh the the paychecks being deposited but um what goes on behind the scenes is constantly processing and paying and so um we appreciate Matt um and all he does to ensure that our employees are paid appropriately uh taxes are are uh accounted for um but Matt not only you know does his job diligently but um Matt is one um individual that is caring um he's hardworking uh in this district is very appreciative of all he does for our district and so again he couldn't make it this evening but uh we appreciate Matt uh and all he does this evening um and for our district so thank you [Applause] Matt so next up I'd like to invite um Karen Johnson human resources to talk about Paula Walter and we'll have her come to the middle I get the privilege of talking about Paula come on up I'd love for you to stand right next to [Applause] me so Paula was nominated by Mrs Richards yes our superintendent she couldn't be here tonight so I get to fill in so um Paula plays a pivotal role as the first point of contact for many individuals interacting with our school district and her positive attitude helpful demeanor and unwavering commitment to respect makes her an invaluable asset to our team Paula's welcoming and friendly nature creates a warm and inviting atmosphere for visitors staff and families alike she consistently goes above and beyond to assist everyone who walks through our doors uring they feel valued and supported from the moment they arrive Paula is an exemplary performance for our district uh receptionists and embodies the core values of our school district we are fortunate to have Paula as an integral member of our team and her contributions make a wonderful and meaningful difference in our daily operations thank you Paula who did you bring tonight oh um I have I have my husband my mom and my in-laws and my friend [Applause] Gabby have a little gift Transportation wonderful thank you John's actually going to present tonight Dan come on up Dan kimin um he was nominated by he was nominated by Tammy Henderson um and here's what she had to say we appreciate Dan's hard work and dedication he has a friendly welcoming attitude making the bus environment positive and comfortable for the students and I would like to add that Dan has been with us for about a year and a half and in that time I have found that the the students and parents all give him praises and appreciate him on the bus he is definitely the kind of employee that we wish we had everywhere he's the kind of person we all wish we had at a friend Dan just is that person he's that guy congratulations Dan congratulations [Applause] so today I want to recognize Dave come up Dave so Dave has always been a team player he has a great attitude he understands his role in the maintenance department he keeps every project on time and on budget and that's why I appreciate him thank [Applause] you all right here we get a picture oh yeah sorry David who'd you bring tonight uh my mom is sitting right there Joan [Applause] okay e president Anderson uh normally we have a Higgly happenings we don't have a slide this time but I do want to recognize and in case you guys weren't paying attention um that we had Katon Jones a swimmer from migle High who graduated last year who just qualified for the Olympics and so he will be competing and representing the United States in Paris Katon is an outstanding young man and we recognized him last year and it's so neat to see him compete on an international stage um upcoming events uh Summer's over sorry here we are but if you take a look Tuesday July 9th a new teachers start we're right back in action we have our welcome back rally coming on Thursday July 18th and then Monday July 22nd first day of school and we're very excited for that and then on the 23rd jumping into our next board meeting so that is our upcoming events and concludes the superintendent report she might have I'm going to wait until um we see if Miss Schultz can join in the meeting okay just so working on it and those of you that were here for the awards if you we're going into business if you want to take off go home get some dinner you are more than welcome to leave this would be a great time to do it in the meantime we're going to begin our public hearing um presentation on the fiscal year 2024 2025 adopted budget um with Mr Moore all right good evening president Anderson members of the board tonight I'm presenting um pretty much our second review of the the adopted budget um previously at the last board meeting I presented the proposed budget um essentially it's the proposed adopted budget tonight it's the same presentation although I do have some couple updated slides um regarding how the legislature kind of wrapped up their session um so um tonight again looking at the adopted budget um so we are on the second iteration of this time chart um again Arizona School District budgets um we have about four different times in which we bring forth budgets to you um the June 5th we brought forth the propos tonight we're bring for are adopted this will be our budget that we take into fiscal year 25 um and as I mentioned multiple times we kind of have to anticipate enrollment or ADM um if we are off by any uh Which Way um we have opportunities to revise our budget um in September and December so looking at the uh adopted budget highlights um the legislative conversation um as I mentioned the legislature did approve a state budget that passed June 15th at 10 p.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
um everybody Welcome to our budget hearing meeting do I adopt the agenda now or at 4.1 okay all right I'm going to do I officially open the budget hearing meeting yes okay we are officially opening the 2425 District expenditure budget hearing go ahead okay thank you Mr President members of the board Dr Wyman colleagues members of the community and a personal welcome to the business services staff that's here today um thank you for gathering at this special board meeting so that we can comply with ar ar5905 to publish our proposed expenditure budget and notice of hearing and this isn't on either there we go okay this is just a slide that gives you the statutory budgetary uh budget deadlines as you can see we do need to do a notice of public hearing at least 10 days prior to our adoption so we will be satisfying that today as we will be meeting on July 10th to adopt this proposed budget we will bring any revisions necessary on our budget to you in December and any final revisions at the end of the year which would be May 15 in 2025 so reviewing how our proposed budget was developed this year our base support level increased 9829 which was a 2% increase so it brought funding up to $513 the legislature allocated an additional $23 million just over to our district additional Assistance or daa it equated to about a 4.6% increase to districts we received additional compensation for our transportation miles it's a little unique in that if you travel less than half a mile or over a mile you get $2.95 per mile if you travel between a half a mile and a mile you only get $242 I'm glad I'm not the one that has to calculate that one classroom site fund that was an increase of $34 for this uh upcoming school year and it will be at $7.93 the free and reduced price lunch the state allocated an additional 37 Millions to this particular student student weight count so for FY 25 alone that count will be increased to 025 it's normally 022 so not a large increase but overall Statewide it is yes sir just a quick thing I just want to be sure I heard you correctly on the classroom site funding increase you said to $792 or it says on the slide $792 yes sir wow let's hope it's not $7 I be in trouble um the one thing that I didn't add to this slide that I do want to make sure that everybody is aware of I know that Dr Ryman has mentioned it before but it is very very important and that is the Constitutional aggregate expenditure limit was approved by the two-thirds vote and therefore we do not have to worry about a retraction coming through in fy2 just so everybody is aware should that have occurred there would have been over a two billion that is a b um2 billion doll cut that the state schools would have seen so what we try to do each year is talk to you about our M budget that's page one of the report that you received and we break it down into the different sections the regular Ed special ed transportation and the K3 reading programs that you see within that page the M budget um we are showing um we are going to be spending for regular education is 67% of our budget or just over $19 million special education a little bit higher this year than last year we are going to allocate just over $7 million transportation is going to be just under 2 million or 6.6% and our K3 reading program is seeing a slight deduction um but it's going to be still at a 69% now our overall budget for this year is going to be make sure I get this number right nope duplicated the page that's all right M budget for this year is going to be 28,9 66,1 N4 this budget was prepared based on the 108 student call uh student loss that we were projecting that we have brought to you in the previous uh previous meetings so that you are aware when you look at the dollar amounts those Dogo do go down for each category however you look at the percentages the percentages still remain true the other way we look at our budget is when we talk about what is the purpose not just regular education special education we look at our salaries and benefits our purchase Services supplies and then other other is typically your dues your fees possibly some travel again just looking at the M budget if you take into consideration salaries and benefits right now we're projecting 78% of the overall budget or over $22 million is going to be going towards salaries and benefits of our staff purchase Services is just under $5 million or representing 17% of our budget supplies did see a decrease again when we reduced the budget and it's just over a million dollar or about 4% and then the other again there's not usually a lot of travel that's coming out of M or our dues and our fees so it's only around $66,000 now one of the things that we have discussed previously and Industry standard that you'll see is that salaries and benefits are typically around 80 to 85% so we're just under that however there are several contracted services such as for our custodial staff some of our uh um psychologists and special education individuals that are not on salary they're actually contracted so if I take even half of the purchase service balance that's projected at 4.9 million and that is a low number taking half if I take that and move it up to salaries and benefits we're right at 85% so we're still in line with industry Norms so to speak that is the budget that we have prepared to propose um if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them um just to go back to the supplies certainly that number in this budget reflects that cut that we had talked about previously when we were going through all the different scenarios correct yes sir I'm very hopeful that we won't see the 108 student loss and that we'll be able to come back in December and I can tell you we're going to allocate some more and and and those numbers also reflect everything so the raises that that were given to staff are in those numbers so it's it's everything we talked about brought to you guys in previous board meetings are now just translated into this budget we're just waiting to make sure that the legislature passed it and we knew for sure that we're were getting our our 2% and the other the other things like that okay any other questions no thank you all right it's way to run a meeting so then I would like to officially adjourn the proposed budget hearing meeting and then um call to order at 308 our regular board weeting You all take a motion do we need a motion to do that okay everybody do need a motion to adopt the agenda correct okay I I move to adopt the agenda as presented I second have a first and a second all in favor I I any opposed do we have uh Jason okay all right motion passes 5 and we will stand and say the Pledge so if you can all join me with the pledge for the pledge of I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right 6.1 that is um I'll any questions or discussion or I'll take a motion to approve the published proposed 2425 expenditure budget I'm here in case you have any questions um I do I just I didn't bring my reading glasses so I need to make this bigger so I can read it you want ours no it's okay it's okay that's um I'm just looking the number that you said was the budget we should be able to see here was it the 28966 one is that it that is for maintenance and operations and we are projecting 1.9 01230 for Capital right okay that's what I wanted to verify make sure those numbers numbers were on the sheet and they are yes sir okay that's all just double checking that's okay I'm here I just have I know we already agreed with it and and I agree but um like in the surveys the teachers were already saying that they don't have enough money for supplies so that's a huge concern for me um so if we get better reten than we're thinking I would just encourage that we you know put that money back first that make SES absolutely we covered salaries and benefits that was our Target and any of the purchase services that we have to do first yeah um supplies is not something that we like cutting it was just the loss of students we had to um evaluate everything across the board so that would definitely be an area that would be increased but it's still hard yes ma'am all right any other questions or comments okay I'll take a motion uh I move to approve and publish the proposed 2024 2025 District expenditure expenditure budget as presented I'll second I have a first and a second all in favor I I I okay all right motion passes passes 5 and that brings us to adjournment is there can I just say one thing can I say something I'm gonna go I'm going to pull the go like the governing board um discussion just real quick okay yeah um the I know that there was some that you guys weren't some of you weren't here for the um our governing board retreat I think it went well I think the that the people that were here worked really hard and I think that we was very productive I'm I'm I'm a little I don't know cranky about the fact that there was a lot of staff not there but that's okay um the one thing that I'm requesting though before just I don't know when to put this in where to put this but and I I don't know when you're coming with our goals is um to make sure that we have not necessarily in the document but a supporting document of Baseline data okay okay all right that's that's all all right thank you anything else I mean we got to like nine so we got plenty of time to what oh no no no no we don't we can talk about all kinds of I make a motion to adjourn I'll second all right I have a first and a second all in favor I I I okay motion passes adjourned at 3:13 p.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
good evening and welcome to the select board meeting for Ashland for June 26 2024 welcome we have a few special guests in the audience we have some Scouts life Scouts who are here learning about Civic engagement and about their community so it's nice to have them in the house uh and with that I'm going to ask them to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance pled alce 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 great to get it just like that we are calling this meeting to order Please be aware that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live via waca TV and live streamed on Facebook remote participation is available using the zoom video conferencing platform any disruption with the video conferencing platform will will result in the platform being shut down in the event of A disruption broadcasting will continue on waca TV and live streamed on Facebook um so welcome we are going to start with citizens participation if there's anyone here who'd like to speak to something not on our agenda or to our agenda please introduce yourself yeah evening 49 Ro let me stand back get the whole picture it is it is on the agenda thank you for saying that at the last second last night comprehensive plan the best group session they ever had work together understood together let's hope that the town is working to be together Mita you missed a great night last night so next time you come we can't put it on tape for you have a Mark if you remember I was there but then I had to leave because there are some logistical issues happening so I'm sorry I missed it but I will be there for the next one okay then we just have up and coming siblings come with you thank you great thank you Mark is there anyone else in person or via Zoom for Citizens participation if not uh we are going to we have a public hearing at 7:15 so we can't start that until 7:15 unfortunately because of how it's announced but we will jump down to old and new business let's start with item a announce the select board scholarship recipients Joe and Claudia if you'd like to take us through that please you ready sure thank you madam chair um we had the distinct pleasure of uh representing the board at class day and uh we had two presentations to give to uh Awards and they went to Andrew luago and uh Emily umholtz both deserving we had 28 total applicants uh for the scholarships and and and every one of them was deserving and I think Claud and I and tell me if I'm wrong I I think we want to tweak it a little bit because I think it was a little bit confusing to some of them because we didn't receive a lot of the uh requirements that were asked asked for so maybe if we go over and try to uh maybe make it a little simpler for them to I don't know how much simpler more we can make it but it's just you know it's pretty straight it straight forward but I think they got confused with the essay that they needed to right and it's not a letter of acceptance but a letter that you know what work did you do for the community and not for the school type and I think they got confused with that aspect of it just a little that's my go ahead well I just think that sometimes there's an overlap there right and so I think that some of the kids um were referencing trying to reference the overlap that might exist uh between those two uh types of service and that and I I mean I think if if that's the most important criteria for us then you know I don't know do we need to to wait it or do we need to you know spell it out that that's the number one just say it outright instead of making them guess um and then certainly the other thing for the you know some students who were missing um you know an item here or there so what we could do is just make it so it you know the submission is not accepted unless all these things are done right so um you know cuz I'm sure some of them didn't even realized that they were just being disqualified because they hadn't right um submitted all the pieces but well I know I mean Joe you can you and I can to attest this over the years right there's always the kids who they do it quickly or they don't submit everything or so I mean I certainly if we can automate it to Claudia to your point of if you don't have everything in it's not even accepted and you're notified of that the more automation the better please look at it and you know resend it re you know resubmit it talked it and I mean maybe ify the statement that we're looking for what they've done for the community and not just for their school so great okay thanks well thank you for doing that it's always a fun time to go and get to announ I just want to add that they were we had so many um and they they were all very deserving candidates um oh yeah you know and um I think you know I had the pleasure of knowing Emily when she went through Mendes and really knowing what uh you know a great kid she was and how even I can remember sitting with her a couple of times and having having conversations and she was uh so mature uh so so such a a together young woman at the time um really Beyond her years and Andrew came to us after Mendes um but I did actually you know we were kind of tied on this on the on the second applicant and did a little research and and heard some great stuff about him so um I think that um we were both pretty excited about the candidates and and only wish that we had more money to give to every Everybody yeah well that mean that's certainly a conversation right we up the amount we're giving to two we could certainly say do we want to spread the wealth a little bit but that so that's a discussion for another time okay great and just to um quick before we move on um so we gave two $2,000 scholarships correct so um so all you Boy Scouts back there take notes so this will be important things to remember as as uh when you become a senior y so but anyway so thank you guys for for your work on that it's always fun next item on our agenda because it's still not 7:15 yet is discuss setting up a joint meeting with the planning board so Claudia you had brought this up at a a board report so I just wanted to find out what people were thinking what are their thoughts about this and just to let you know we are also in the process of trying to set up a joint meeting with the planning board specifically for the comprehensive plan plan so yeah so I think the the the idea behind this um was more and I have had a opportunity to talk to a couple of planning board members was more that it was less of a a working session as um just kind of a a time to come together um and just have you know some conversation and and build a little uh you know cality amongst the two boards um and so so it wasn't necessarily to have um like I said to have be be working on one particular topic or that understand and and that was indeed you know I talked to Trisha and I think I talked to Kate as well um and and that I think is what you know when I originally had mentioned it to them that they they were interested in that okay kind of a meeting right thoughts from other members I I mean I think it's a great idea uh go ahead M yeah I I think that's a great idea actually I think we should definitely move on that you as we can be very helpful for a lot of reasons evenings Saturday Saturday morning Saturday afternoon I know it's tough those of us who work during the day and have lots of other meetings and stuff but um we have 10 people's schedules plus Town manager and possibly the town planner that we may want to have there as well so when see in the next uh conference of meeting uh in July the well the the The Joint meeting that we're looking to have with the planning board is going to be a presentation by the consultant and then they wanted that they're looking for that to be about a half hour and then they're looking for the comprehensive plan committee to go off and do some work based on that meeting so unless we do it before um but I think I I think the feel that I'm getting from Claudia is it's a more casual thing it's not sitting around this table I think easier we could certainly try to piggyback it have you know um some you know some snacks and and a meat and kind of a gathering beforehand right or it's a yeah it's a maybe a downstairs for an hour before and then come up okay yeah something along those lines or you know even a little bit longer I mean I'd certainly be willing to host something if if um that worked out better um you know I'm okay I'm open to open to what works for the members I I think it's a good idea I think that if we're going to try to get everybody's schedules together though we should have at least some I don't want to say meat on the bones but that's kind of you know why are we getting together cor yeah because we're going to not only are we going to have the comprehensive plan meeting where we're trying to get the boards together but we'll also have something coming up about NBTA communities at some point that we're going to jointly need to meet so maybe it's sort of a preamble to one of those two meetings instead of trying to get a third date where we all all trying to get together but I think it's a good idea I think I think the more that we work collaboratively it's it's it's oh definitely a good thing so okay great I'll reach out to Trisha and uh we'll get this going okay next item as it's still not 7:15 is vote on a one-year reappointment of Town Council so we did the review of Town Council we can only appoint them for one year and I don't there was no nothing in the packet for this so I think all of you maybe have hopefully met with Lisa and other members of her team from other things that you've done here in town so basically we just need to vote to extend their contract by another year do we need anything else on that Michael no it's just um it would just be the year ending June 30th 2025 and you know I would just say based on the evaluation that you covered during the last St in July 1 July yep all right so I'll make a motion to reappoint Town Council beginning July 1st 2024 and ending June 31st 2025 Jun 202 okay can I get a second second great thank you any other discussion all those in favor I I great 5 Z thank you all and we have our Town Council for another Year great okay can we approve the consent agenda see it's only one sure somebody wants to sure no that's fine we can do the consent agenda I can get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented move and a second second all those in favor I I great consent agenda I'm just going to break away for a second for the Young who are watching us so you're looking at the agenda you have a copy of it for you in front of you right so if you notice there's a lot of items under the consent agenda and what happens is those are all pretty straightforward things that we don't really need to discuss that it's either reappointing someone or thanking someone um or let's see yeah those those are most of this uh approving minutes things like that so by putting them all in one item called a consent agenda we can quickly pass one to six items in as quickly as you just saw it you also we also use it at town meeting for certain things that are the same year after year you're welcome than for on the Town Forest yep okay great I have one question sure sorry um because I wasn't prepared yet to to vote consent agenda and I apologize for that but I think we only got one set of meeting minutes and our consent agenda said two I think we only got meeting minutes from uh from June 5th I don't so you missing the May 24th yeah I don't see meeting minutes from May 24th okay so we'll scratch that May 24th was part of it thank you okay sorry for the no okay it's okay nope that's okay okay moving back it is now 7:15 or it will be by the time I read this and we do have um bill here for for this next one so legal notice town of Ashland notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct conduct a hearing regarding the transfer of stock for Ashen Public Market Inc DBA Main Street Wine and Spirits Ashland Public Market DBA Main Street Main Street Wine and Spirits 197 Main Street ashin Mass 01721 a public hearing will be held on the matter on Wednesday June 26 2024 at 7:15 p.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
essentially each building which in many cases great thank you okay so just if you're joining us back thank you for your patience uh we we had continued discussing because we didn't want to hold on we are currently doing project priority project updates and Michael is updating us on the downtown project thank you Michael you're welcome so and um so you know those bids will be due I think um in a month to six weeks I don't remember exactly hopefully we'll get some good bids in we're anticip in the work to be around $750,000 um hope knock on wood um and so that's one piece of good news um the second bit uh which is really really good news is that uh one of the things that we've been missing in terms of a key piece of infrastructure um is uh Transformers for the project my remember recall I've I mentioned that um specifically we were missing um two Transformers that you know specific specs you know that allows them to be underground and everything it wasn't an Ashland issue it was a Statewide issue um and I'm happy to say um through uh Senate President spilka's advocacy I think she was an important person as part of this uh we did find out that those Transformers are going to be shipped on July 8th so um again thanks to the Senate President for uh for her for help in kind of loosening up the uh the uh the wheels uh to get that to get that moving so that's good so if I may interrupt you on that they're being shipped on the E we've had similar issues when we were doing the public safety building certain certain items are going to be shipped out a certain dat do we have any idea when we're going to receive them and when will the work begin Joe nobody's guessing on those we just all we're saying is we they're where they shipping from um China so answer that um well got it y thank you so yes so okay moving on to Mendes uh so work on the fields is continuing there has been some ongoing discussion um we've talked about at a previous meeting with um with conom like an enforcement order that's currently in place and stuff so uh I'm happy to say that on oh excuse me on Monday I think uh we've worked out an agreement uh to where everybody can move forward and feel comfortable with things um uh so we'll do a few studies with the understanding that they'll basically serve as a Baseline and not necessarily if anything adverse comes back um it's won't be basically held against the project so um so after many meetings and months that is over um so Pawn Street and I know we did receive an email uh recently just about some uh some potential rumors I think about the the lack of of movement happening on Pond Street uh so it did respond but just for the general public um there has been that project has stalled out a bit because one of the major components is uh doing a culvert pre good siiz Culvert um needs to be redone over on the Market Basket side uh so that was designed and everything when they went to go build and implement it they found that it wasn't going to work so they're in the process of redesigning it now um not exactly exactly uh that that that is my understanding from you know the people that I've spoken with um so that that color doesn't have any effect on taking the no that's another piece and so the utilities are are working I think it's Comcast is up next transferring the the the lines um so that is happening as well um we'll talk about uh P's Trail those be under no those are not underr going to be on the new po the new polls um just some projects that are not necessarily what we've what we've called priority projects but you know major projects and projects of Interest so uh the sidewalk on 135 so we did get the order conditions from the concom and so we do have the contract um is in place um with the Paving Company um that's also going to be do the paving company will be doing the sidewalk work so um and so the Design's been finalized we've actually put together the draft letter uh that we're going to send to Residents notifying them of the work that's going to be done and this is a sidewalk that will go on the east downside from the crosswalk that we put in all the way to the community center or all or in front of them will it go all the way to Olive Street or where is it to the community center okay okay so um that um and we think that that work will be done before school starts that that is it it should be it should be yeah um so I think you know some of people might have seen updates on the Arboretum or Cadillac paint and just the fact that you know we do have the paving of the parking lots done uh just want to clarify and make sure everybody knows that the actual Trails themselves are still stone dust it's just parking lot that's paved um and so a design will be done over the summer and um with the hope that that will be completed and uh we'll start the plantings in the fall so Yer isn't it looks so much better than what it was I mean it's hard to imagine what that site was um just a few years ago is it something that the public can go see or not yet like is it yeah they can they can access it I mean the walk the trails are there and the parking is now is the is it lined yet I don't think it's leding is still blocked off yeah still but I do know so let's wait until it's l then before yeah okay but I do know like residents in the area have have been taking a oh yeah they've been walking there yeah which is nice so um and then we're just another big one um that's more recent has uh just been the ozone filter so we're working on that and um getting that out the bit have we done the design out the bid yet yeah okay so so that major that first major piece is done and then uh Clover Road um so so the plane board process is complete and um shooting for an august/september opening nice yeah John's doing some work and I was told that there will be a ribbon cutting July 18th for Starbucks Starbucks in the afternoon okay I think four o' is what I heard so yeah fingers crossed fingers crossed yes so a lot of good stuff happening in town um yeah I mean you kind of start adding up all these things it's a it's a good is that market that that's going into the old Dairy Queen is that still moving forward in the planning board process that got approved right that got approved oh wow good okay well that was quick that was quick so yes surprisingly yes okay um that'll be great update on the mass trails yeah um wow yeah so a few months ago we put in a a Grant application to the mass Trails um Department division uh if you will for $300,000 which was the the max that we could apply for to uh for land acquisition or easement acquisition for a couple of PE pieces of parcel off of um that is part of the upper Charles Trail and um I will be very very honest I thought we had a snowballs chance in hell um just kind of given kind of where we were with the property owner um but we found out last week uh that we were awarded that Grant $300,000 so we Yolanda and I as well as members of the upper Charles Trail committee um went to to uh basically that celebration in Holliston on Friday have to give a lot of kudos to the upper Charles Trail committee um and Joel specifically Joel our B Joel did a ton of work on that application um he he did a lot of work himself on that so um so major major congrats to everybody um thanks again to Senate President spilka and uh representative Lewis for their advocacy um for this project but um so the next step is just engaging with that land owner and find finalizing what that looks like and um I'm gonna reach out to Joel and we're probably goingon to have him come to our second meeting in August to talk about about an update and next steps and where they see things and also sort of talk about how we want to move this project forward because there's a couple of different ways so that way to get people up to speed um the the exciting thing about this and it was very nice being at the event is for those of you who don't know so our part of the upper Charles Trail the goal is to have a 33 mile Loop that goes Ashlin to hopkington Hopkin to Milford Milford to Holliston into Sherborn little bit in Framingham and then back into Ashland so you have that Loop that then goes to Sherborn in Framingham so that you then have the North and South in Framingham they got funding to do what they call their Chris Walsh Trail which will go around Farm Pond which will then connect to the Bruce Freeman Trail which goes further north which then connects to another trail that goes Boston out to Northampton the other part of that is you go from Sherborn into Holliston and into Milford then the goal there is to continue south from Milford so that our little Trail our upper Charles Trail Loop will be not only part of a big structure here in Massachusetts but in What's called the north south Greenway basically the goal is to have a trail that goes from Maine all the way to Florida and this little portion so people could hop on their bike in Maine come down take a loop through Ashen come see all the great things that we have in Holliston and then continue on their merry Way South so that is there's getting there's a lot of federal federal support and funding there's a lot of State support and funding a lot of people have been working on this for a while of course if you don't know one of one of the drawbacks we have here in Ashland is we don't have that empty rail bed like Holliston did but I think we have our our Trails group and we've been working on this for a while I I foresee it happening it's just one of those things that's it's going to take a little while and if any of you have ever been in a Trails event with me one of the things I say is we've been working on our Trail actively for probably 10 years now we did the group Holliston had to work for 20 years on an existing on an existing rail bed so we have half the time we've made some good progress but these things take time fortunately right now there's a lot of funding and support at both the state and the federal level which was why this getting this grant was key for us to continue the work on that project and Yan if you don't mind just to explain a littleit because we say a lot you know what makes our project a little bit difficult is that we don't have an existing rail bed right so what makes it easier if you have an existing rail bed is two fold so first of all usually you're only dealing with one property owner right maybe two CSX and maybe you know another train related entity which makes you know whereas with us we've got 10 or 20 that were that we were dealing with property owners that we're trying to work with or get easements from certainly purchasing the land in back of the public safety building is going to help with that connection look at how we can do it from the cemetery up and back of the public safety building up until the high school and with this grant getting funding so that we have the Dyke Trail off of 126 that heads East and if you've never walked that trail you should go check it out because it is a really cool Trail and then the goal is to go now further west we already have it built in that we're going to cross Route 126 so now we're going to with if we can make this property purchase work we continue west from the the Dy the um is it it's the dke trail so you know where the paintball company is on Route 126 as you're heading north just after it there was always this break in the guard rail and that's called the Dyke Trail it takes you into Framingham and Sherborne it's an it's an old trail I think there used to be a trolley there it was AOL so but it's been you know probably the late 1800s early 1900s since it's been there there's no more track it's just the raised area for the for the Dyke Trail and if you follow 126 it takes you from 126 into Framingham into a big CSX Yard Rail Yard it's a rail yard from CSX so Framingham is in the process of trying to work with CSX they have some real funder they have some real funding in Framingham to bring theirs from the Chris Walsh Trail which is around Farm Pond they already have a little section of their trail that goes near um where's the MW RTA Road what's that road but it goes into downtown yeah so the d d I think so I want to say it's not Dudley no um um what's really cool and one of the reasons i' I know about this is the m our Metro West Regional collaborative helped kick off working with mapc they have someone in their group uh David luten Heimer who has been helping with these connections and again probably 10 nine years ago we had a kickoff here in town hall where Not only was it the members of the Metro West Regional collaborative which was the eight you know 89 units but we brought in Holliston and Westboro and further west and further east and a little bit north to have the discussion and so that work is moving forward and again because of all this infrastructure money of wanting to improve and get people out of their cars is is one of the reasons this project keeps moving forward so Blandon Avenue Blandon that's it yeah Y and then that's really cool yeah so so yeah um obviously great news so yeah yeah okay and then uh you listening Joel thank you for all your work yes thank you Joel oh uh just the last thing it wasn't on the agenda so Claudia Jen and I met with Framingham State Mass College building authority Mass State College building authority and the design design team if you will uh to talk about the Warren Barn last week too so had a good initial meeting thank you Claudia for being willing to do that okay now a number of reminders now that we're back live let's see vacancies on various boards and committees affordable housing trust has a vacancy for an associate member conservation Comm committee has a vacancy open space and Recreation committee has two vacancies storm water advisory committee has a vacancy sustainability committee has a vacancy town Forest committee has a vacancy for an associate member if you are interested in any of those you can go to the website and fill out a talent Bank form uh and we will be appointing people as soon as we have some also the board is Seeking a resident to serve on the naming at the public safety building committee interested parties should complete a talent Bank form we'd like to have that done at our probably July meeting so that we can get the naming reviewed and move forward we are also seeking residents to serve on the historic district study committee interested parties should complete a talent Bank form and again that's one that's going to be a pretty short lift free covid tests are still available at at Town Hall Town Hall will be closed next week on Thursday July 4th our summer meeting schedule our next select board meeting will be on Wednesday July 17th we are having a retreat meeting on August 7th and then we will be having another regular meeting on August 17th plus based on conversation we are going to be looking to do some joint meeting with the planning board and we will have probably two of them or different ones so be on the lookout for that that is everything on our agenda let's do board reports so Makita why don't you kick us off okay um let's see uh I think a few a few weeks ago uh I was uh delighted to be able to attend the Ashlin Pride Celebration the Corner Spot uh put on by ashlin's United really tremendous Community event um unfortunately I had to miss the juneth celebration uh that area had last weekend but I was able to roll up my sleeves and participate in uh the ashin cemetery uh cleanup uh was really more like digging holes but it was it was to be more specific uh lots of them but um but it would that was a a a great educational opportunity to find out not just about you know a memorial art preservation and the importance of that uh but really learning about the history of the Town a little bit more so I was uh really energized to uh be part of that event and I know they're going to be looking for more volunteers to help with that yes um in the fall I think that's when their next push is going to be it was pretty hot out there yeah it was a hot weekend but it was a lot of fun so good okay Claudia yep so um we had a uh meeting of the mindes building committee recently and um you know that project is really wrapping up quickly they are doing a lot of site work now um and finishing up the fields kind of very exciting to see all that come to fruition we certainly could use some additional fields in the town um I think it was this week that we were scheduling a walkth through to just uh just check on the status of everything before we come up to um basically a year since completion in which case a lot of um the warranties would be potentially expiring so they they kind of um you know do that to make sure everything's what it should be at this point in time um Mike mentioned about the Warren Barn that certainly is exciting up there to um to have like Framingham State partnering with us and and certainly you know they're making so many changes up there in terms of what they've uh made available to the community members they have a little restaurant in Henry's place um they have a very small membership fee I think it's about $120 a year something like that and um 150 maybe and it includes um you know the ability to use the pickleball courts to uh use the the beach area and some of the boats and kayaks Etc so that's exciting what they're they're doing up there um and then on Saturday I was able to participate in our uh select board Town town meeting um and the juneth event um so that was really really an enjoyable um morning um enjoyed hearing the the speakers and they had some musicians that were very talented and uh so that was a great day so I guess that's it for me okay Joe thank you madam chair um to piggy back what Claudia just said um participated at the farmers market uh select board table uh it was a lot of uh it was very interesting uh throughout the throughout the stay there um I actually stayed till the till the end CU it was it was uh it was a lot of fun um love the music I thought I was an animal kingdom it Disney because of the music I mean it was phenomenal and and it's and watching the kids as they were walking by they were dancing and they were celebrating it was just a lot a lot of fun it was fantastic I I I loved it immensely um the interesting thing about being at the table uh we had about 10 to 15 people throughout the day stop and um one of the major concerns of discussion that they brought up was the barage 40b projects that are coming into town and what can ashon do to prevent it explain to them there's not much we can do other than write letters to um Mass Housing and to try to get them to understand where we're at and the concerns that we all have and one gentleman uh didn't want to talk about uh the 40b project he was really concerned about waste management and asked about trash pickup and is there any current written action in the current contract that would penalize waste management for this repeated missing of trash pickup throughout the community and I asked I told him I said you know what I don't know I really don't know but I'll find out and we'll we'll ask so is there is there something I I I don't know yeah there is there's uh there's in there sorry in their contract there's a pretty well outlined and detailed uh list of penalties and um we have we have penalized them before um I want to say six months ago when it got really really bad I think they ended up racking up about $220,000 and what we'll call fines and their performance turned around a bit and uh but lately um we've been very very very uh I think discouraged with kind of where the performance is going and so actually this past Thursday and Friday there were a couple missp pickups and I instructed Doug to uh find them and I think there was a concern there was no mention that trash pickup would be delayed because of the holiday and I think was confusing this past week it was very confusing so a lot of the residents and I know in my neighborhood some didn't put the their trash out and sure enough Waste Management showed up you know so their trash wasn't picked up and they you know I get a phone call what are we going to do I said well give the DPW a call you know when they're open on on on on Friday and so that you know have them call um my husband who is the family he lets everybody know if trash is going to be delayed um we get emails that go out to all the family members they can get put on his remember D why brought this up I did not bring this up he's happy to report that it was it was definitely confusing this it there was no delay for trash and Wednesday was a national holiday so I would have expected trash to be delayed by a day right and it wasn't and it was not they picked up on Wednesday so they're pretty they're pretty clear in the flyer that they put out we posted yeah of of what holiday days are are considered um oh and I think with this being a new one people might have been confused and lastly with respect to the farm is Market uh being there for the table uh we had several new residents come up and introduce themselves yeah and they were they were estatic about the town uh they didn't realize that ashin offered so many different variety of uh opportunities and events for them and and they they said this is a lot better than where we came from and they were very happy and they look forward to staying here in town for quite some time and they were very very pleased and we all welcome them to to Ashland and a big shout out to uh Bill gath who uh last Tuesday received the Melvin Jones award um he uh that is the highest award that the Ashland Lions can bestow and Melvin Jones was the international founder of the of the lions in the United States so congratulations Bill and uh during this heat advisory I just would like to remind everybody to check on their senior citizens uh if they live in the area make sure they're okay make sure they have you know a cooling area or provide a right to a cooling station or Center that's that's made available through the town community center right which is our community center here in the library uh so and and make sure they have plenty of water to stay hydrated and uh AOC I mean ACO also advises us to make sure that our furry friends are also uh in the shade or inside where it's cool and keep them hydrated as well traffic study committee would like uh we met on the 18th and we that's many concerns that the residents have we would love to be able to put sidewalks and crosswalks and every single Street of the road uh in town but that's not going to happen because of budgetary issues and um we are we are working to the best of our ability but everything comes down to human nature you know it's people that drive they drive fast they don't pay attention to the signs you know we have signs up not to through away but people still go through it anyway because they don't want to be delayed and it's very frustrating extremely frustrating so uh bear with us we're working on it and that's all I have Madam chair thank you thank you Joe Brandy hi um I'll be pretty quick um I just wanted to thank the ashin farmers market and area for a really great juneth program um uh it was it was uh great to to to be there on behalf of our board um and you know the table that we had was um thank you guys for for for pitching in on on office hours at the farmers market um I think the way that it it like Joe said it's a really great way for people to come and talk to us which is which is you know it's it's a good opportunity um I did want to talk a little bit about the um our next dates at the farmers market just so we can make sure that we're all on the same page um generally we're trying to do like one a month um and the July date I know that the um I think it was the 13th or the 12th or whatever that date 13th the 13th and the 20th were the two dates that I had floated by the farmers market came back and said they couldn't do the 13th so and I know a lot of folks can't do the 20th um we want to look at the 27th or do we want to just do the August date the August 10th because with the with the 4th of July holiday and everything in there like I I'm just so I wanted to just see what you guys thought about that I'm not sure what we're doing but okay I know summer's hard Saturday hard the thing I'd like to recommend is maybe we reach out to a couple like school committee and planning board and say hey we're getting the community tent for one of these dates does you guys want to join us because that could give us different coverage I don't because I don't know if they're actively doing that we can do that it's not a bad idea yeah I I I think that's that's great and that way there's some there's coverage and there's actually more folks that people can come up and right interact with yeah so do we want to tentatively think to do maybe that that July 20th date and then ask I'll I can reach out to to right you know just send send it out to to their whole board to both planning and school committee and say hey we're looking to do a town tent do you guys want to join us for part of it all of it whoever wants to show up okay yep all right that sounds good all right so okay and then we'll plan on August 10th as well as a the next date okay yep okay um and just to piggy back on what you guys were talking about with the with the Community Club over at Framingham State this upcoming Sunday is an Ashlin day so that's the second one yeah so um I hadn't seen the thing about the first one and then I was like oh it's a so it's a good opportunity to go test it out so if you guys want to go rent Kayaks or um I think on Sunday this next Sunday it's they had it this past weekend as well I saw that you have to sign up for it but you can okay try out like standup paddle boards and stuff like that which I always am SC scared about but um but it uh they have all sorts of stuff over there pickle ball and tennis and things like that I'll try that stand up uh paddle board Randy with you if you if you're looking for someone to be a buddy to be adventurous with all right deal both of you on the same board holding on moral support moral support probably going to be a scenario yeah so resting on my knees there's no standing there yeah and then just the only other thing um when when Joe and I were at the the table at the farmers market our friend uh David Sandro came over and was talking to us and David's such a great guy and he watches our he watches our meetings and so he um even records them so I he says to us all the time that he sees us on TV so I I I told him we'd give him a shout out y there you go so um David we know you're watching and thank you for for hanging in there with us so yes good to see you last weekend great that's it okay couple things we received a letter from the from Comcast and I just wanted to read it to the public so you're aware as part of their ongoing commitment to keep our customers informed about changes to Xfinity TV services we wanted to notify you that the Pack 12 network is seizing operation on June 30th 2024 so as a result the Pack 12 network will no longer be available as part of the Comcast lineup so if you watch that I don't know if you do they've also then implemented a channel slate change and you can check that out to keep our customers informed during this period and you are getting notified of this in your statement but I figured we could read it here as well me you probably see a slight decrease in your bill probably yeah no couple things so legislative event with Metro West Regional collaborative happened on June 14th it seems like forever ago was a great event was so fun to have a lot of different communities together and discuss we didn't have that many legislators because they were dealing with budget still but it was it was a good event uh Claudia touched base on LZ I don't have to do that Brandy talked about Ashland day at the University Club last day of school was J was June 18th so congratulations to everyone who finished the school Year and be safe and sound until through your summer two other updates for in uh issues down town so at the outdoor YMCA Center they now have outdoor new pickle ball courts oh and there is a ribbon cutting happening for that on Thursday and then if you love Halloween and you enjoy acting or even just want to give your hand at acting uh the proog there's a uh a new event it started last year called The Haunt It is a fundraiser between the hopkington Center for the Arts and the ym Metro West YMCA and they are holding auditions on Sunday for people who would like to go it's a two weekend event in the end of October you don't have to commit to both weekends but if you love Halloween and you want to have an opportunity the event this year is a wedding at dead Woodville where they have a I think it's a mortal the groom is mortal and the bride is Immortal so some of the signs have been what is this event like so so is it like an acting opportunity is it like an acting it's an acting and Andor dance opportunity got it you audition to be a witch or you audition to be one of the members of the town so you could be part of the church you could be a bridesmaid you could be they have so when they did it last year they had a doll shop they had a town hall they had an electric chair they had a laundry they had chops um chops Diner uh and because it was out on the YMCA property they had their their camp and someone died at camp and so uh yeah so if you enjoy Halloween and you want to participate they are looking for a lot of volunteers because as I said it's a two- weekend Endeavor this year and they're looking for people you don't have to commit to both weekends so but you can go to HCA their website and there are some signs around town talking about it and that's all that I have so our next meeting will be on Wednesday July 17th so happy 4th of July be safe with your friends and family be aware of our First Responders who are going to be out there keeping us all safe one one quick yes go ahead I'm sorry I'm sorry I just wanted to bring up that uh our next summer con is going to be July 19th it's a town uh Metro West favorite band uh it's uh Back Pages they're very very good I'm sure you've heard them before for uh the folks that know Inky fair and and his band that's who they are come and enjoy them um our last uh concert was that first concert last Tuesday we had about 125 people show up the first one which was very nice it went well great uh so we appreciate that and uh starting next week July 5th Ashland will be selling its favorite corn oh nice be ready to see that that lucky farm so okay I have a quick question just about trash find so where where does that money go when we find them so Claudia it's technically not a it's it's not done as a fine it's actually done as a withholding of payment oh so like so they send us an invoice of you know $100,000 and let's just say they've racked up 20,000 in fines you know we would send them $80,000 with the understand give everybody a free bag or something yeah I have one more Point yeah um yeah yeah uh with the July 4th weekend coming up uh I just wanted to remind folks that in Massachusetts uh fireworks are illegal uh so uh I think that um you know with pets and kids and such you know just be careful and be safe uh take the chair's words to heart but also remember that those fireworks are something that we want to keep out of the hand out of little hands especially but really out of everybody's hands or you might lose a hand so there's certainly enough places that are doing fireworks oh so many Holliston is doing stuff June 28th in Framingham that June 28th yes they're doing something Ms belong in newshire m80s belong in New Hampshire yes they do okay and thank you to the three life Scouts that are in our audience tonight along with their sponsor Mrs K Michael thank you very much I learned something tonight that a life Scout is the next step before Eagle Scout and I just learned that tonight so congratul to you three thank you is great if I can get a motion to adjourn so move and a second second all those in favor I I thank you for joining us sorry for the hiccup with power outages not much we can do about that and we will see you again at our next select board meeting on Wednesday July 17th but I'm sure we'll see you out in about at either the farmers market or other great events stay safe and we'll see you all in a few weeks thank you thanks everybody
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e e e good evening and welcome to the select board meeting for Ashland for June 26 2024 welcome we have a few special guests in the audience we have some Scouts life Scouts who are here learning about Civic engagement and about their community so it's nice to have them in the house uh and with that I'm going to ask them to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice we are calling this meeting to order Please be aware that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live via waca TV and live streamed on Facebook remote participation is available using the zoom video conferencing platform any disruption with the video conferencing platform will will result in the platform being shut down in the event of A disruption broadcasting will continue on waca TV and live streamed on Facebook um so welcome we are going to start with citizens participation if there's anyone here who would like to speak to something not on our agenda or to our agenda please introduce yourself evening 49 M stand back and get the whole picture it is it is on the agenda thank you for saying that at the last second last night comprehensive plan the best group session they ever had work together understood together let's hope that the town is working to be together M you missed a great night last night so next time you come you we can't put it on tape for you to have well Mark if you remember I was there but then I had to leave because there are some logistical issues happening so I'm sorry I missed it but I will be there for the next one okay then we just have up and com and siblings come with you that's it thank you great thank you Mark is there anyone else in person or via Zoom for Citizens participation if not uh we are going to we have a public hearing at 7:15 so we can't start that until 7:15 unfortunately because of how it's announced but we will jump down to old and new business let's start with item a announce the select board scholarship recipients Joe and cl if you'd like to take us through that please you ready sure okay thank you madam chair um we had the distinct pleasure of uh representing the board at class day and uh we had two presentations to give to uh Awards and they went to uh Andrew luago and uh Emily umholtz both deserving we had 28 total applicants uh for the scholarships and and and every one of them was deserving and I think Claudia and I and tell me if I'm wrong I I think we want to tweak it a little bit because I think it was a little bit confusing to some of them because we didn't receive a lot of the uh requirements that were asked asked for so maybe if we go over and try to uh maybe make it a little simpler for them to I don't know how much simple and more we can make it but it's just you know it's pretty straightforward asward but I think they got confused with the essay that they needed to write and it's not a letter of acceptance but a letter that you know what work did you do for the community and not for the school type and I think they got confused with that aspect of it just a little that's my interesting go ahead C well I just think that sometimes there's an overlap there right and so I think that some of the kids um were referencing trying to reference the overlap that might exist uh between those two uh types of service and that and I I mean I think if if that's the most important criteria for us then you know I don't know do we need to to wait it or do we need to you know spell it out that that's the number one just say it outright instead of making them guess um and then certainly the other thing for there you know some students who were missing um you know an item here or there so what we could do is just make it so it you know the submission is not accepted unless all these things are done right so um you know cuz I'm sure some of them didn't even realize that they were just being disqualified because they hadn't right um submitted all the pieces but well I know I mean Joe you can you and I can to attest this over the years right there's always the kids who they do it quickly or they don't submit everything or so I mean I certainly if we can automate it to Claudia to your point of if you don't have everything in it's not even accepted and you're notified of that the more automation the better please look at it and you know resend it you know we submit talked to and I mean maybe clarify the statement that we're looking for what they've done for the community and not just for their school yeah so great okay thanks well thank you for doing that it's always a fun time to go and get to announce I just want to add that they were we had so many um and they they were all very deserving candidates um oh yeah you know and um I think you know I had the pleasure of knowing Emily when she went through Mendes and really knowing what uh you know a great kid she was and even I can remember sitting with her a couple of times and having conversations and she was uh so mature uh so so such a a together young woman at the time um really Beyond her years and Andrew came to us after mes um but I did actually you know we were kind of tied on this on the on the second applicant and did a little research and and heard some great stuff about him so um I think that um we were both pretty excited about the candidates and and only wish that we had more money to give to everybody everybody yeah well that mean that's certainly a conversation right we up the amount we're giving to two we could certainly say do we want to spread the wealth a little bit but that's so that's a discussion for another time okay great so just and just a um quick before we move on um so we gave two $2,000 scholarships correct so um so all your boy scouts back there take notes so this will be important things to remember as as uh when you become seniors yep so anyway so thank you guys for for your work on that it's always fun next item on our agenda because it's still not 7:15 yet is discuss setting up a joint meeting with the planning board so Claudia you had brought this up at a a board report so I just wanted to find out what people were thinking what are their thoughts about this and just to let you know we are also in the process of trying to set up a joint meeting with the planning board specifically for the comprehensive plan so yeah so I think the the the idea behind this um was more and I have had a opportunity to talk to a couple of planning board members was more that it was less of a a working session as um just kind of a a time to come together um and just have you know some conversation and and build a little uh you know collegiality amongst the two boards um and so so it wasn't necessarily to have um like I said to have be be working on one particular topic for that I understand and and that was indeed you know I talked to Trisha and I think I talked to Kate as well um and and that I think is what you know when I originally had mentioned it to them that they they were interested in that okay kind of a meeting right thoughts from other members I I mean I think it's a great idea uh go ahead M yeah I I think that's a great idea actually I think we should definitely move on that as soon as we can very helpful for a lot of reasons evenings Saturday Saturday morning Saturday afternoon I know it's tough those of us who work during the day and have lots of other meetings and stuff but um we have 10 people's schedules plus Town manager and possibly the town planner that we may want to have there as well so when's your next uh confer of plan meeting uh in July we the well the The Joint meeting that we're looking to have with the planning board is going to be a presentation by the consultant and then they wanted that they're looking for that to be about a half hour and then they're looking for the comprehensive plan committee to go off and do some work based on that meeting so unless we do it before um but I think I think the feel that I'm getting from Claudia is it's it's a more casual thing it's not sitting around table I if it's easier we could certainly try to piggyback it have you know um some you know some snacks and and a meat and kind of a gathering beforehand right or it's a yeah it's maybe a downstairs for an hour before and then come up okay yeah something along those lines or you know even a little bit longer I mean I'd certainly be willing to host something if if um that worked out better um you know I'm okay I'm open to open into what works for the members I I think it's a good idea I think that if we're going to try to get everybody's schedules together though we should have at least some I don't want to say meat on the bones but that's kind of you know why are we getting together kind of yeah because we're going to not only are we going to have the comprehensive plan meeting where we're trying to get the boards together but we're also have something coming up about MBTA communities at some point that we're going to jointly need to meet so maybe it's sort of a preamble to one of those two meetings instead of trying to get a third date where we all all trying to get together but I think it's a good idea I think I think the more that we work collaboratively it's it's it's oh definitely a good thing so okay great I'll reach out to Trisha and uh we'll get this going okay next item as it's still not 7:15 is vote on a one-year reappointment of Town Council so we did the review of Town Council we can only appoint them for one year and I don't there was no nothing in the packet for this so I think all of you maybe have hopefully met with Lisa and other members of her team from other things that you've done here in town so basically we just need to vote to extend their contract by another year do we need anything else on that Michael no it's just um it would just be the year ending June 30th 2025 and you know I would just say based on the evaluation that you covered during the last starting July 1 starting July 1 yep all right so I'll make a motion to reappoint Town Council beginning July 1st 2024 and ending 2025 June 30 202 okay can I get a second great thank you any other discussion all those in favor I I great 5 thank you all and we have our Town Council for another year great okay approve the consent agenda sure wants sure no that's fine we can do the consent agenda I can get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented and a second second all those in favor I I great consent agenda I'm just going to break away for a second for the young gentlemen who are watching us so you're looking at the agenda you have a copy of it for you in front of you right so if you notice there's a lot of items under the consent agenda and what happens is those are all pretty straightforward things that we don't really need to discuss that it's either reappointing someone or thanking someone um or let's see yeah those those are most of this uh approving minutes things like that so by putting them all in one item called a consent agenda we can quickly pass one two six items in as quickly as you just saw it you also we also use it at town meeting for certain things that are the same year after year you're welcome Town Forest y okay great I have one question sure sorry um because I wasn't prepared yet to to vote consent agenda and I apologize for that but I think we only got one set of meeting minutes and our consent agenda said two I think we only got meeting minutes from uh from June 5th I don't you missing the May 24th yeah I don't see meeting minutes for May 24th okay so we'll scratch that May 24th was part of it thank you okay sorry for the no okay it's okay nope that's okay okay moving back it is now 7:15 or it will be by the time I read this and we do have um bill here for for this next one so legal notice town of Ashland notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct conduct a hearing regarding the transfer of stock for Ashland Public Market Inc DBA Main Street Wine and Spirits Ashland Public Market DBA Main Street Main Street Wine and Spirits 197 Main Street Ashland Mass 0 1721 a public hearing will be held on the matter on Wednesday June 26 2024 at 7:15 p.m.
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e e e most never works for me like the stess let allegiance to the flag of the States of America and to Nation indiv present agenda is there a motion to approve I make a motion we approve the second well pardon me motion to approve the agenda I can't hear that second second any discussion okay right so we'll move on to the monthly items and financial reports Dian before we go there I think it's important to note that there was no action ticket session report no action roll call vote for the consent agenda approve I I I okay item six monthly items and financial reports we have the quarterly reports on investments January 2024 to March [Music] 2024 motion to approve it's an information [Music] I um this is just our regular update for the Investments this period January through March there on the attachment there was an increase sorry oh it's there sorry I wasn't seeing it I usually have a cover sheet um the County Treasury funds were down slightly from December and then our over liability is up de so it's good both those usually fluctuate any discussion any questions no I didn't so we not proving that and uh we have hearing of persons wishing to address the board so if we don't have any of the public tonight we'll move on to action item number eight a is resolution 24-14 adoption of Education protection account fing for 2024 2025 there motion to approve I to approve second is there any discussion we have a second I said second um no no question this is just a required annual report and our EPA funds are used for teacher salaries fully expend that 156,000 motion to approve or roll call vote excuse me I I hi I next item me resolution 25-1 authorization to pay bills and warrants on behalf of the governing board to approve I motion we approve second any discussion I just had a question which I I know that there was one asked last meeting about something with Michelle and Randy um but it is this just through June to sign the bill and then what happens how do we get Michelle on yeah think the motion should be amended that ter and vanilla and superintendent Michelle Town yeah it authorized to pay the bills this is we're moving forward okay this is always done at this meeting annually because July 1 starts the next fiscal year so in what's attached here should re CDO terel and or the superintendent Michelle so if whoever made the motion wants to amend now we time I I'll my motion and authorizing Chief V offer officer ter Cella and for superintendent Michelle Town any other questions and discussion roll call vote I I I I okay next item item C resolution 25-2 authorizing the establishment of temporary inter fund transfers special or restricted fund monies there motion to approve yeah resolution 25-2 second discuss um so we're we're bouncing around six funds it's a it's a temporary borrowing so it only be in an emergency if you're limited on the percent you can borrow and you have to put it back in the same this year just an annual resolution we have just in Cas we'll do that all we've never done it understand that in school Finance when these funds become available varies throughout the year particularly when we get into tough Financial years like this one is shaking up to be they may withhold certain funds for a period of time during the year but the bills still need to be pay so this allows the district to go ahead and use these funds temporarily to pay those bills as the district awaits the other funding to come in so they're kind of like floing any other questions or comments call vote i i i i next item D adoption of the budget for 2024 2025 is there motion to approve a motion we approve the budget for 20243 I'll second anyone have any questions comments looks like it's pretty it's working it's sweepy but we go with it it's important to know that should the state budget come in substantially different from what may Revis was there will be changes made to this budget and you'll consider that at the August meeting terrible have to revise what's put in I heard there was a change the governor did something there's more money go from one account into another we might have more than we probably had or something yeah they just aren't going to take back as much they were planning on taking money back in the future paid us last year not have taking that is what I heard I haven't put extra that would there's nothing what what school advocates are fighting for right now is that there are no to this upcoming fiscal year from what the current fiscal year has been any other questions and comments okay roll call hi hi hi hi next item e the adoption of the 2024 to 2027 local control accountability plan is there a motion to approve this I move approval I'll second discussion I think I just have a comment about just I know the amount work that goes into put together and it's very comprehensive and I appreciate work you want to share it's a living document that get to yeah the lcap is a living document which is why it comes in threee increments and each year there's anual update so as conditions change or situations change perhaps some of the goals that are originally included in that initial year are no longer goals moving forward they can be revised or eliminated replaced with something new so that's the purpose of the annual update it's more evidence that this is a living document that's subject to change [Music] questions we' gone over this quite a bit I'm okay I I I next item F requesting authorization to go to bid to perform the necessary services to install new at each site is there a motion Tove I that we do this I'll report any discussion questions so these are Portables that we bought which good fund and they've been sitting there for a couple years so Robert for working diligently with architect and moving things along but we wanted to start working on in the summer and if we didn't do Kurt had recommended to us that we do this authorization so that we wouldn't have to have an emergency board meeting in the summer or wait till August because then you have to bid put the bid notice for two weeks and it's a long process so by doing this we could start and you know get people to bid and start the work before school comes back before the August meeting and hopefully get the Portables in place at least they were saying by the end of September and then is this one of the ones that's going to be back for that no um these are classroom a lot of a delay in getting set up so they've been here for two years now a lot of The Da the delays have been caused by previous District projects that had never been closed out of DSA State and initially when when things started coming back our Direction a couple years ago from DSA there were projects dating back to the 1980s that had never been closed out there were others that were they pertained to the original basake Elementary School site up the P Lake District sold a decade ago so each time there is a project that is is still open just to get DSA to reopen the file $500 500 to open and then cost associated with the work need to be done to close them out so it's been a long arduous process and a learning process for all of us involved because we've never encounter this situation well it's good to see that the estimates are full cost instead of you know all of a sudden we all know construction you just like very comes again and here comes again we forgot that and so hopefully they come in lower but it's nice to know that we're covered for the full cost and it would be great to have those spaces for all the items that are listed there but you know there's a lot of shared spaces at the sites right now where they might have the speech person and the site and PBIS and English learner interpreter all together you know it would be good having some space we could set up some different services for our students and growing programs comments it's nice to see I'll just tell that there's four Portables at Creek Intermediate three Portables at o elementary school and three Portables at school know that okay great tion to or excuse V time for the vote I I I I next it g appr of the 224 expenditure for prop 28 that's for the Arts I do have a that's the ongoing funds and we just found out recently this had to be approved by July 31st and we would have had to have meeting for that as well if you look at the attach report there are no expenditures that seems kind of silly but they said you have to have it on the agenda and have it approved and then submit your report to the state and we just started interviewing the teachers about a month ago that we hired for our program that'll start next year so we didn't have any expenditures this year because we were still planning and figuring out what we going to do with that funding so it just will Carri over next year there'll be some numbers in there that's that was my question was what happen with funds but we get to carry it over yes that's the reason why we went with the two teachers because of the carryover so the carryover will accumulate over several years that'll allow us to fund local positions originally we were just looking at one teacher and then when we realized we didn't use it from this year we could do more of course with the principal on sure it's tough trying to figure out how to put something in with the schedule but we're all really excited about these two new teachers and it's going to be great our students can have theater and music and band and all that and it may seem silly that you're approving an expenditure report showing zero expenditures but that language actually made it into the law approved so by law need to approve this has Fant job glad to have her and Joshua J any other discussion call i i i i next item we have information items the California SCH dash board local indicators this is a mandated report Michelle prepared this for you tonight unfortunately she's not here fortunately for her she's not here maybe as she's vacation now State family I am happy to go through this with you to the extent you want maybe first I would just ask you are there any questions after you've had an opportunity to this preparation for the meeting tonight so I just have a question why have to do a self function this just so that we know where we might need to improve is that the idea yeah we are required as part of accountability we are required to do this and then upload the local performance indicators into the dashboard so it's one element of of the accountability piece it's the first piece it allows us to to really kind of dip where we are with teachers teachers who are fully credential or maybe those who aren't make sure that we stay on top of what needs to be done to have cred and our county superintendent schools does an excellent jobed Department there of monitoring that so that that's just one area um the other piece that's critical here would be that curriculum not only adoption but also implementation and then one of the areas that caught my show did this was the district's progress in providing professional learning to those those academic standards and Brands and you know the five choices you have is exploration and research phase number one two is beginning development three initial implementation four is full implementation five is full implementation and sustain and with the number of new folks that we hired in the last coup years it's really difficult to go anything higher than the number three initial implementation because we do have St but even our veteran staff always requires more professional development opportunities eaching the standards with the curriculum that we have adopted that's why you see the threes and fours as you gr gr that's mental involvement and family engagement AG seven that's like to see more of that yeah it's actually required in addition to being embraced by our district so that will also be expanded and you see some of the the dialogue in this report some of the strategies that Michelle and the team will be looking to implement um who does the rating who puts in the numbers or decides what the score um as as a result of a number of inputs surveys Michelle is responsible for putting this together so is is the objective to get everything up to app yeah you want to get to full implementation and sustainability that's very difficult with the kind of turnover that we have with employees currently it's also a self- evaluation so you improve yeah it it definitely reflects the the idea of Perpetual learning lifelong learning Noti stri Perfection scor is on World Language we don't have a real a true World language program we do offer Spanish for eighth grade students so that's the equivalent of for those that completed the freshman year at the high school we do that in part because of the IB program at the high school there's no way to complete that program in five in four years so you really need a fifth year on Spanish and so we offer to our AG grade students are prepared for those students who are interested in do that questions coms actually information it's required that it's brought to your attention in this format it's done next item this is 9B the Education Code 42141 Compliance as it relates to compensation item so this is an annual report that we provide from our jpa our joint Powers agency where there's a bunch of districts in the valley and mountains that are pulled into this insurance and workers um property liability group so um every year we pay our fees into that and this is a um State stating of the financial statements that's what's if there's someone who has a claim like all claim workers so it goes back towards paying that so looks like a big amount but it's several several several years many districts only this one pool that's how lots of districts across the state do their insurance through through jpas so just has their assets and their net equity and report on that ncma is is comprised of par said many many District but it's not just small districts there's a very large mix large districts like Cal unified and smaller districts like us so they smaller ones than we are so it's and of course the Fe schedule adjusts based under Ada and number employees you have number of cases incidents and most everybody now is a member for both workers comp as well as prop and on both of those our fees for this next year went up about 15 to 20% superintendent report this will be our last report from our Mr seal superintendent [Laughter] put my hat on my bouet I think I think the horse out behind W is going to be a happy boy so um I had intentions of preparing big report and there was no way I was going to be able to just pull it out of the air um so it was going to be a written report that I was going to sit here and just read I did not do that because I don't not sure I would be able to get through all of them so um I just want to take the opportunity to thank everybody and the role in my superintendency as well as my career this district is so special you look at our department heads like Robert stepan these principles who make me wear stuff like this we care about kids period and one thing that was abundantly clear and if if you've heard Kurt po speak at anytime about financial situations or even Good Times Kurt would always bring it back for what's best for our kids and that can't change so with that I wish you all the best of luck I'm not going anywhere I have two best interests in this District of moving forward with my wife and our son our youngest so thank you thank you anyy board member comments well I have to say i' really like working with think 2020 2020 four years so Brandy makes it look easy so I hope Tera I mean Tera Michelle will carry on the tradition of Mak it was easy but we know it's hard and U something I found out was uh actually from an hi person down in Madera I don't know what I why I was even came up but uh he said oh yeah I knew Randy all my life and but it's like top of HR or something I can't remember the fellow's name and I said I asked him so how how long is Randy going to be with us is he going to quit anytime soon because I wanted to know you were under a lot of stress at the time and uh and the guy says well I can tell you this right uh Mr seals has outlasted just about every other superintendent in Madera County so right now he's got the record seven years is that right there there are two of us superintendents who are completing their seventh year I'm one and Todd L UniFi who is an outstanding superintendent is still on the game as well so yeah we're the the two longest 10e superintendents currently in Mader County not the longest ever but Cent going out strong I like that and and still young too still got some life left and want you to enjoy it also we can't forget there's snow in the the background I I wish her well I did get to know her very well but what I did get to know I like okay yeah um you know congratulations to both you jie and Randy and I really enjoyed working with you on the board um and you of fun beginning Co wasn't so fun but you you know I think you carried our district very strong and I really appreciate your focus on safety and airing on the side of caution and um standing up when it was hard when people want to push you over and I really appreciate how diligent you were at making sure you you know found out all the facts and and you had our district in mind first and foremost and and all everything we needed to do and it was a hard time for everybody so thank you for carrying us through that time and I wish you just a great time in retirement and we hope to see you around and at the schools and jeie you have been so pleasant and wonderful to work with and it's just been a short period um but I'm excited to work with how many four four well it was great four years we we could have kept you longer um but talking about superintendence and the fact that they don't stay very long you know kind of like something as a board maybe we can talk about later and I know finances are kind of like dreaded right now but it does bother me a little bit that you know like the steps and columns for teachers and staff it it goes out a lot longer than for administration Administration I think we talk about it six years and then you're done like as far as the steps and whatnot so you know that might be something that we can look at later because it's great to have a little bit of longevity with the administra um Support Services because they're big part of the program and so anyway hopefully we can look at that and maybe routin administrative thank you love you thank you I'm a new so I haven't worked with you guys for very long but the sentiment happy retirement retirement Genie just wish you all the best and lots of health and wealth and all the good things in life ahead so thank you to I'm a new board member but I'm so thankful for Mr seals and your immense have made a difference and and your passion is it's the word it's inspiring it's others and appreciate you so much and also when you're a principal and high you really touch my especially tragedy how you took my daughter thank you yes think there might be a celebration are you working till Friday or s or last day Friday last day I'm going that's it one future agenda item oh yes thank you do we have any future agenda items just the normal stuff [Music] Michelle our super excited to have her work with us our next meeting date is August yeah it's a typo on here unless they updated it it says today's date for the next meeting but our next meeting will be in August and we changed it because it's school right let's make sure we have August 21st I believe 21st like that we made that mistake a couple years ago holding our board meeting and saying we actually the night before school was open not a good idea chall we know it'll be on Wednesday it's 21st August 21 got it everybody have say 4th of July Independence Day great rest your summer ends good job oning very good embarrassing it's cute
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