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September 23rd 2024 for the public hearing to be held at the administrative service center 6301 Springside Avenue Downers Grove Illinois so moved second Terry moves Cara seconds thank you Terry pavich hi Cara Caston hi Pen Dawson hi charl Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom I and Don rener I motion carries I'm nine any old business bus think no old business and item number 10 new business policy committee first reading of policies the board met you can see in your packet uh the policies that we uh looked at considered and then changes we're recommending for the board I think almost I think all of these right Julie came from press yes yeah all of these are originating from press updates which generally point back to some kind of a legal update that requires us to make those changes uh all of those materials are in the packet for first review this month if you have any questions comments concerns uh you can reach out to Don or Chris who sit on the policy committee or myself uh otherwise these will come back next month for final approval any questions on any of those at this point item number 11 Julie do we have any uh visitor slips no sir thank you item number 12 um Jenny can I get a report on L don't have anything yet the first meeting for this school year will be on September 20th uh in person at the Glenn Ellen or Mar Court administrative Center um starting at 8:00 so okay uh Terry how about the Education Foundation um no we did not meet this month but we're uh working on the bylaws and the um Grant um um forms so those should be voted on this next week Julia previewed Julia Beckman the president previewed that with all the staff on opening day and okay was there to welcome our staff back as well good okay uh Ken any report on iasp nothing new obviously we have the uh big convention so to speak in uh in November uh different seminar offers will be coming up so we can strategically get an early jump on the ones we want to attend it won't be our first rodeo for any of us so very excited about it I'll make cookies Charelle I'm assuming there's no report on the plan commission at this point right no because there was a meeting oh there was there appears the meetings are the same time uh the first Monday of every month so so well I'll have to talk about is it appropriate to report out on the information that I'm receiving as a result of missing the meeting because I'm here at our meeting MH okay assassin oh I don't see that on there oh did I miss it I did miss it yeah I'm sorry um and then SIDS would be Chris not here uh we're working through the budget process there as well uh there was a is the board remember you remember there was a lot of time spent last year in the spring on budgeting format fee format Staffing plans that's uh emerging this year in our budget cycle um so uh that's the big work right now the new executive director Kim dryer is there off to a pretty good start uh with their school year over there as well uh they've been working very closely with us on some of our concerns related to Medicare costs and reimbursements around that so have been a good partner with us as we've worked on our budget uh this year as well so um Chris and I both have upcoming meetings to really work through the budgeting process and approval and all of that um in the coming weeks okay item number 13 upcoming board me meetings um our next Workshop meeting is September 9th here at the ASC and then that followed on September 23rd we have a regular business meeting again at the ASC at 6:30 p.m.

and a reminder that month doesn't follow our normal cycle because we moved the September meeting by a week when we put our calendar together this year so that we wouldn't have back-to-back weeks in September because of how the holiday of Labor Day Falls uh so just a you know just a reminder that that won't follow our regular rhythm in September okay uh item number 14 can I get a motion from the Board of Education to go into Clos session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal council for the district including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer of the district or against legal counsel for the district to determine its validity so moved second and Cara seconds thank you kend doson hi Cara Caston hi cherl Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi Trey pavich hi and Don Runner carries for the public uh the board will not be taking any action on the Personnel matter noted in the agenda when it comes out a closed session the only action the board will be taking when it comes out a closed session is to adjure and that is a change from the agenda the agenda indicated that there would be action and the bo uh the administration is not recommending action at this time we are in going in close session thank you e

e e e but the but he found he lives like he's in Phoenix and the report this guy like I ended up being somewhere I'm in like a white paper and a book so that's just really wild oh my gosh mues good evening to everybody we're gonna go ahead and get started um we have a public public budget hearing so we're going to go ahead and get started with the budget hearing for revision number one of the 2425 maintenance and operation in District additional assistant budgets Miss Paris do we have any public comments for this budget hearing okay and then Miss Shapiro is there anything else that you would like to add um I appreciate all the time that you have spent with the board on you know several meetings beforehand and even in our 10 ones and discussing and clarifying questions so I do appreciate that time that you've given the board and myself um unil ality so I don't know if there's anything else that you would like to add the floor is yours uh thank you madam president and uh board members there are no significant changes in our revision one everything that we had discussed prior um this was just a a mechanism to update to the actual final forms that come out much later than the due dates that are required for us to file our budgets with the state uh so this is an update to get our forms uh in the final version and then resubmit those to the state awesome thank you so much I appreciate it board members do we have any questions or additional discussions on this okay seeing none thank you so much I appreciate it we're going to go ahead and get moving to the next agenda item that we have this brings us to our land acknowledgement the Katon School District understands that our community of schools is located on the ancestral land of the oam duid and ikim oam people who descended from the hokam and have inhabited these lands since time Memorial the oam whose name translates literally to people are a vibrant culture and communi 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 Kayon School District formerly recognizes that the traditional care and 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 Mr man 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 of which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and jusice thank you that brings us to to see is a roll call we have Miss Gibson McLean here miss SS myself Miss Jeffrey and Miss MB they want to go ahead and move into DD or welcome statement we want to welcome everybody to tonight's meeting and remind the audience of the request to address board cards that me must be completed and submitted to miss hes or board secretary if they wish to speak to an agenda item board policy provides for two cards White cards to submitt to be submitted in order to speak to an agenda item and blue cards to be submitted in order to speak during public comments our white and blue carts can be found on the left by our coffee in case anybody needs them and um during the open me due to the open meeting law board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda and that's our per our policy be that moves us to 3A approval of agenda I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented all those in favor I I I thank thank you motion passes that brings us to 3B I move the governing board adopt the revised number one total aggregate School District budget per ar5905 and specifically 15905 E1 and ARS 15595 Q for fiscal year 2425 second all those in favor I amazing that brings us to 48 which is our governing board reports and Miss MC cheffrey I'll go ahead and get started with you thank you I don't have anything tonight thanks thank you U Miss MB um just now that we're a few weeks in I hope everyone is feeling like they're finally settling into routine I know the first few weeks can be hectic um so just again deep breaths you made it through the first few weeks and uh wishing everyone a wonderful rest of the quarter thank you Miss SS I do not I have one tonight thank you Miss Gibson McLean I don't have a report awesome thank you um I do have one specific one um we know that housing is a a great issue that's going on all around here in Maricopa County everywhere tomorrow the Family Resource Center will have a nonprofit called the Arizona fair housing center present at 8:00 at 8:30 in the morning it will be um basically it there's a federal fair housing act law that does not allow discrimination against seven protected classes and that class tomorrow at the family resarch center is for anybody in the community that feels they've been discriminated against whether it's disability race in their rental in their appraisal mortgage lending discrimination looks and feels very different so there's a lot of nuances in the law so if anybody feels like they need a little bit more in um information if you have an immediate eviction right now and you feel that it is because of discriminatory practices this nonprofit can help file complaints with HUD Attorney General's office so it's a very good resource a resource and I'm really glad that the Family Resource Center is partnering up with them so we can get these services to our families and that is my board report Mr Man yeah thank you madam president I'm gonna keep it short this evening but I just um kind of in the same vein as as Miss MB I just want to put a very um proud thank you out to all of our staff and our students for you know first two weeks of school I know beginning of school is always challenging um one of our schools is brand new this year which adds a little bit of extra challenge at that particular site uh and you know as I've been visiting around the district and I know other members of of our team have been been out and about one of the things that we've noted is um the amazing camaraderie and support that people are providing to each other and of course that's a culture that we want to continue and grow so just wanted to share that and thank you very much thank you and that brings us to our item 5A which is our student outcomes Focus governance update um we have a lot of stuff going on with our sofg framework our goals have been adopted we're currently working on inam goals for our goals which is really exciting to see how we're going to end up getting at the end but we also have guardrails guardrails also are important because they guard rails that are giving to the superintendent to end up helping the overall goal um we have a video are you able to play the video that's attached on the board dos or no it's the goals and guard rails video I don't know if we're able to think I might be able to let [Music] me how did they project it her computer can tie in oh okay Miss SS was just saying if not there's um like it's in the email and we can just AirPlay I guess I can AirPlay too um I just want to show this video on goals and guard rails and how they connect I think it's a very important it's like a short uh short two-minute video it's important for community members to know why the board has decided to go into this framework and how the goals and the guardrails will eventually tie in to get us to our overall goal which is making sure that our students have the tools they need to to learn so we'll go ahead and watch this video real quick the Uber app is you know you tell it exactly where you want to go this T I want go to the airport so the Uber arrives you mind starting it from the beginning I think it started a little bit Ahad of obvious there we go thank recently I was leaving my office and heading to the airport um and so did is I called him Uber and the first thing you do you know when you open up the Uber app is you know you tell it exactly where you want to go in this case I said I want to go to the airport and so the Uber arrives and I hoop him back I happen to know that on this particular day the most obvious path to the airport uh is blocked by construction and so I leaned forward to the Uber driver and said hey don't take I35 I happen to know that it's completely blocked off construction at that point I've actually given two critical forms of Direction of instruction to the Uber driver I've said what is the goal take me to the airport but I've also said what is the guard rail don't go along this particular path now that I provided the goal and I provided the guard rail all the other operational decisions are made by The Uber driver you know if we're going to speed up or slow down I don't make that call driver does if we're going to turn left or turn right I don't make that call the driver does there's probably seven other routes that we could take to get to the airport I don't pick which of those seven routes you think the driver does inside of a student outcomes focused approach to governing the board is actively saying I am more focused on what are the vision and values of the community the goals and the guard roads we trust that our professional educ and the professional staff to figure out this is a radically different approach to government but it's one that we believe honors our professionals and really preserves for them the ability to do things that they know make the most sense on behalf of our students [Music] thank you so much for sharing that so with that the framework is basically the idea that student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change using this framework here at Craton School District the board aims to create conditions that support improving student outcomes which is the whole reason why school boards and schools are um exist right it is to make sure that our kids have everything I love this video because it really shows support on how the governing board has set the goals five different five goals that we have and it is now up to our superintendent the person that we hired collectively as a board to give him the abilities to bring in whatever he feels is going to get us to those goals the thing that I struggle the most with in as we get into interim goals and progress monitoring is not is asking questions without giving advice of the person who is supposed to be you know taking care of all our in puts of what's working what's not in the school district at the end of the day I have personally a view of the school district uh twice a month for maybe two hours at top so that's four hours out of the whole month Mr Man which is our superintendent has all the eight hours a day ins and outs of everything so as I mean more yeah more than eight hours a day right yeah um so with that being said I think it's very important that we also have our superintendent guard rails because we as a board went out to the community heard from them know what's important to them and now we have put them in guardrails to make sure hey Mr Man social emotional learning is important to our community do whatever you need to do to respect this vision of the district but make sure that you do not operate without putting you know the social emotional learning in the in the Forefront so that's why I wanted to share this video because because we are going to be talking about um our guard rails soon too and we're going to by our next board meeting we're going to have intrum goals for our board um for for our goals and for the superintendent goals and we're going to have to adopt them and we need to make sure that clear distinction and not only how they also coexist and how we need the guardrails in order to make sure that the goals are being met um one of the questions that we've been talking about and as I had the opportunity to also sit with cabinet and talk about is the guard rails is we had specific questions going on around guardrail number three if I recall correctly Mr Man yes that is correct guard rail 3 was a little bit challenging because um it's it ties into Recruitment and Retention but it referenes uh differentiated professional development so um probably be easier if I read it the superintendent will not allow the district to operate without a system to recruit and retain strong teachers by empowering staff through culturally relevant and differentiated professional development and where we were getting hung up was on sort of that the tail end so almost like the tail wagging the dog in a sense right on the um the culturally relevant and differentiated professional development and when we thought back on the conversations that the board had had that led to building this goal a lot of the conversations was around um divers diversity in staff a lot of the conversation was around retention of staff and expanding our recruitment methodologies and so the way the the guardrail itself reads didn't lend itself to that and I think that's part of what was creating the struggle for us and I just wanted to bring this up as discussion because I know that we all worked on this superintendent um guard R together and I want to make sure that cabinet and Mr man has an opportunity to hear from us too like what we were trying to Envision when this guard R was set up obviously we want High effective you know um staff also more diversity in our stuff but is that is that exactly what we're looking at what what is it that we're looking at when we say through culturally relevant and different differentiated professional development because that's a little bit harder more to to pinpoint so I just want to make sure that we don't have any other discussions or any more thoughts on how this guard rail should look like that way our cabinet has enough time to bring back to us the interim measures on how that's going to be held do we have any questions or comments I guess I question um like can you describe a little bit more what the struggle is I guess in my mind the way I see This is recruit and retain strong teachers by empowering staff through culturally relevant and different differentiated professional development we know that our staff and teachers have been requesting differentiated professional development so I think that is a recruitment um tool yep and I know that as a board we want it to be culturally relevant for not just our students but also our teachers too so I think yeah that's part of having a strong strong what we think of as a strong teacher have they have some um some training on culturally relevant regardless of what their what their background is yeah so so the challenge that we had with that is sort of the differentiation between the inputs the outputs and the outcomes right so one of the ways that that we looked at measuring that was we could have what in the past we've come to refer to as a process goal where we'd say oh well we put on this many culturally relevant PDS right the problem with that is it's you could put it in a smart goal format we compare how many we did last year to this year right but you're you're really you're creating a goal out of something that's a process and so like it's not you're not really measuring an output you're measuring what are we putting into the engine and so that I I think was where we were hung up and Dr dup and I know you worked really hard on this and and Dr pombo as well um you know if you've got anything to correct me on or any input feel free to to to share um so one of the things that um that we were working on today and um we're hope and we'll be looking at um probably next week with um Dr Ramos and um president CIO is um perhaps there are other measures that we get at whether we're successful with those things or not um and then also you know to perhaps have two interim measures one that's measuring something that we're doing that's Innovative in relation to Recruitment and um and the recommendation uh from the last conversation with Dr Ramos is you we he said well what are you doing that's different right or that's changed and so we talked a little bit about that and he really queued in on something that was similar to an interim that a Texas district set which was related to the change in um the way that we're working with our H1B and uh J1 Visa applicants and trying to increase the number because what we're doing is we're we're increasing uh pathway for bringing more teachers into the district during a time when it's difficult to recruit that has a variety of impacts both on um diversity teachers who look like the population within our schools but also just bringing us high quality teachers given the limited pool of teachers within our own environment um and so you know our push back on that was well some of this data we kind of know a little bit already so should we shy away from it and his response was well no I wouldn't shy away from it for that reason because what you're trying trying to do is you're trying to help the board with what's the story of what we're doing here right and what what you know what are we what are we placing in in our value set for these guard rails and how do we have evidence that shows that the effort's being put forward so um so he felt and he hasn't looked at the final version of that yet we literally senent it the reason we scooched in right before the board meeting is we were kind of putting some finishing touches we had a commitment to get it out today and so we wanted to make sure that we were um honoring that commitment so um so that that's one thing but then on the other one when you talk about you know some of the differentiated instruction the cultural relevance we don't have a lot of data sets that go directly to the heart of those things but we do have some Panorama data that we pull from staff that's related to um climate and really if you think about it those types of things are really entrenched um particularly for our teaching staff they're entrenched within that climate data and then when we looked at that data set what we found was and this will sound really interesting to everybody because we've had these conversations before we were able to disaggregate by number of years of teaching and we discovered that our teachers who are with us in the three to five year range is our group that has the lowest reported rating um for that particular set of Panorama questions right that are driving at like what's the the culture on the campus like and um so and our thought was that's also where we lose a lot of our teachers so if we have one interim measure that's really tied to what are we doing to kind of shake up the recruiting and you know knock the dust off of that and try to do a better job and the other one was around the retention but also kind of got at that sort of tale of the dog there with the the PD and all that through the culture maybe we should focus in on those teachers that are in that three to five year window which is where our loss rate is because it would be stretch to say oh well clearly this culture piece being 50% is what is creating the problem here we don't know that there's a correlation but what we do know is there's a clear statistical difference between that group of teachers and the and the I think it's four other groups of teachers um and so that you know that's one of the things that and we haven't had again haven't had a chance to talk with Dr Ramos he may say you really mess this up we don't mind the feedback we want to get it right um but it feels like that might get it what we're really trying to measure here and the beauty of it is we have you know our spring data that we can start from and we can do a smart goal from Spring to Spring but it also gives us an interim measure because we're supposed to the goals we're supposed to report on I think three or four times during the course of the year but the guard rails is twice a year and that would give us twice a year because if we looked Spring to Fall and then at the end of the year look spring to Spring we'd actually get those two reporting intervals but our big concern was like are we are we driving down the right pathway here or are we coming back to the what we don't want to do is on September 17th come back to the board with something where you're like I don't know what you guys were looking at but it wasn't what the board was looking for right because then that just slows us down and we really this is this and the um the calendar for monitoring are really the last two pieces for us to move into full swing with the student outcomes Focus governance and sort of you know move right into beginning our monitor and I know we have our board retreat on the 28th where we're going to be doing some training so um we're really trying to do our best to make sure that what we H with support from Dr Ramos from president kuo to make sure that we have something that we're bringing to the board that is the board's either comfortable with or we can make Minor Adjustments to in the meeting so hopefully by the end of the meeting we're able to leave with all of that established so yeah that sounds good to me I mean it sounds like it's in the right direction and it's feels like it's more information being given to the board than we've had in the past as far as that kind of um information yeah that's the other goal some of the materials president CIO shared with us had a section on like what the superintendent and his team should be doing to deliver and there was a lot of things that I was like um yeah no we don't want to do that we don't want to because there were things not to do and so this felt like it was actually validated I'm sorry if I cut you off no it's not and I was just going to say that this is why this this work is so awesome because we do actually get explanations on how to connect the dots on why certain things are being done where the brain or where the process is going and they are tying it down it was my mistake for not checking my email before the board meeting but I did see the board upate so I'm glad this kind of conversation happened though organically on its own though because it shows also how much aligned now Administration with what the board the direction of the board is going because I got the edits and they make a lot more sense I was bringing it up based off of our last conversation and there was a lot of you know questions left but it looks like the team worked on it so thank you so much for doing that I know it's not easy work and there's a lot of behind the scenes meetings that go on that a lot of people don't know and I'm not saying that that sneaky stuff is going on it's literally work about hey this is worded wrong what about this data what about this what about that so I do appreciate everybody's time and effort and I love the even the explanations that you gave us um right now Mr Man because again that just re edifies that you are we are all connecting the dots and we are making sure that the systems that we have in place are going to match what we want in our guard rails and our goals so I appreciate that and I should have checked my email but no no actually that was that's awesome to see it it was nice to have the conversation from the Baseline point because like what I wouldn't have wanted to do miss MC cheffrey is like here's what we've got and then you're like okay I guess that's good it was nice to hear what you actually just your thought without being you know prompted with anything and then being able to share well this is what we're doing does this align with that so I I do think that it made for a better conversation and um it actually helped align my thinking too because it's kind of fresh we were um exec team was kind of wrapping that up like at 540 I think email went out probably and then we were dashing over here so well and I think that's the purpose of talking about this at a board meeting so you know if any other board members you know object or have other thoughts you know now's the place to kind of talk about it do we have any other comments or anything okay yeah no no no go ahead fine um I was just gonna in alignment I think the wording like I interpreted as making sure we know that if we're known for being a district that offers professional development that meets all the needs of the teachers that's going to get out so it does become a recruitment tool um and we also know that our students academic data is directly related to the support and professional development our teachers have so I think for me you know it wasn't necessarily how many specific you know cultural PDS are we giving but in every PD that we give are we ensuring that the materials we're using the messaging we're using is culturally relevant so I think that's a which again is difficult to measure but I think that's where the climate data helps and then when it when you're thinking about differentiated professional development we know that it's not always appropriate to put everybody in level groups there's different ways to differentiate um but I think the goal as we had these discussions was really ensuring that we're being intentional in providing the p and support that meets every teacher's needs in the same way we try and do that for students and sometimes that's whole group and sometimes it's not um and I like I guess my only if you're looking for other ways to try and quantify it because it is difficult um I don't know like you know where I've been we always had to do some kind of quick two question survey you know at the end of every PD like was this relevant do you have additional questions you know is there an area you'd like us to explore more um so I don't know if that you know maybe things like that might be helpful and seeing you know we know the list required things we have to do we also know based on what we've seen with classroom observations these are the areas that we would like our teachers either all of them or groups of them to work on more um but I think asking the teachers are you getting your needs met is a valid way to kind of measure are we hitting that guard rail yeah and I think you know one of the conversations that came up and kind of to address the concept you put out there of what we could you know make an adjust because we do surveys so we could make an adjustment to our survey data one of things we learned the hard way um and you know there's some bruise in here still um is that in order for it to truly be a smart goal we can't we can't start by establishing The Benchmark right so since we don't have that survey data in that format yet we don't have a point a to create a move from point A to point B now we can Implement things like that this year and of course next year our interims will likely be different right our interim goals because we things will have moved and shifted some may stay the same because remain universally true the numbers will probably change because if we've moved something from 50 to 55% we don't want to next year go and then just hang out there we're doing great right we're gonna you know if we even if we keep the same measure we're going to set the number higher um but one of the things Dr Lauren shared is that we really want to get back we used to do something called stay interviews and in meet and confer one of the pieces that came out of meet and confer was direction to go back to doing stay interviews again so so one of the things we considered was using stay interview data rather than that Panorama data because that's the way where you're directly asking teachers um The Challenge we ran into is when we you know I thought well maybe the last round of them we did was right before the pandemic and our goal could be around you know increasing off our pre-pandemic levels of stay data but the only data we could find was all the way back to 2016 and that felt kind of stale to use as a baseline And so um one of the things we talked about is if we use the Panorama data this year just to get us by for a year as a measure then for this year we do the state interviews we will have the data around the stay interviews that would function as The Benchmark and then next year we could switch from Panorama to stay which would get us closer to the type of measure that you were suggesting so definitely not misaligned with what we would like to do we were just again the struggle is like what do we have and you know and then we have that you know sort Flinch we're we're getting really good at flinching when it doesn't look like smell like walk like or talk like a smart goal so which is good but I think too with the guard rails you know we really at the end of the day need to be able to measure are we violating them like you know versus the academic interim goals have to be much much much more precise and fine-tuned like I think with something like this you know most of these guard rails do have a very human component you know and and you're going to have perception data yeah around them and so those types of measures might have to shift to make sure that we are gathering the type of input that or uh feedback that we need yeah and they're broad right so we're going to use them as guidance to try to ensure that our practices and the things that we're doing are aligned to them and in different years we're going to get different feedback about where the rub points are right so where's selecting like a lot of the things we selected was based on things we heard last year um and so we're like oh we should probably measure this because it aligns to things that were challenges last year or things that were reported to us as problematic but this year if that's what we're really focused on people may be like no all that stuff's great you know stop measuring it right and but we may unearth a new Challenger problem that we created you know one of the things we talk a lot recently in executive team about is Australia right like Australia is the role model for how not to solve a problem because you know they are like the continent of unintended consequences because they'll have like a problem where they have some sort of past and so they bring in some new type of animal to eat all of that Pest and the animal doesn't want the pest but it sure loves their crops right and then all the crops are getting wiped out and then they're you know trying to bring a new solution and and then it's happening again and again so as we navigate these guardrails over the 5-year life cycle of the of the student outcomes Focus this student outcomes Focus governance cycle we probably will have to adjust those interim measures to make sure we're measuring against the things that are coming up as pain points or challenges or you know it's like well do we still want to measure this if we're just rocking and rolling on it maybe we set one of these measures aside and we pick a new one that helps us really drill down on something that fits within one of those guardrail areas but really gives us intelligible data on whether we're we're actually moving the needle on it or not and so that was part of the thing when we saw that Panorama data we're like this is something we need to move the needle on and it ties back to some of these components as well as a number of others that have a very significant impact on teacher retention um I just I just want to say I think I before we had a leadership change I asked do we still are we still doing stay surveys and I was told uh yeah I think so um obviously we have not been I think we should go back to those because I think they do provide a lot of data and just in case commun community members don't know what that is you're surveying and seeking out your best teachers and staff and asking them asking them why do you stay that's a really important information yeah so I think that's a great start to get data and I think I agree you know as you see things you're going to have to survey I mean I think the culturally um um relative you know I think we're losing these new teachers that are like in the first three years of teaching we get a lot of teachers from the Midwest who you know this is a new culture for them it's kind of culture shock and and you know I think asking them like how can we help you adjust to this you know for some of them it it may never happen because because they just want to go back home and have kids you know because they're young um people um but for some people who are you know really passionate and want to you know jump into a culture that's a very different um I think we need to be asking them ways we can help them and I think you've made some great comments Jay about saying you know the kids are engaged it's just whether or not are they engaged in what you're teaching or they engaged in something else that's going to get them into trouble you know so and that's what's important about having culturally relevant um materials for kids because it's more interesting to them than you know other than perhaps something else you know so that's why it's important and it's not a one fix for all so I think asking those questions in the stay surveys and also you know exit interviews are really important too and sometimes you hear really painful things but I think they're critical um and I've gotten a lot of feedback from people who have left whove said you know I can't even I I want to leave an exit interview and I I'm can't hav't been able to yeah yeah and I think the other thing too is the the nature of the employees we're hiring is Shifting too e even if you take the efforts that we're putting in to to bring more diversity into our district out of the equation we have a generational shift right and so that also creates you know differences in how people perceive and want to engage with their work environment and and if we don't if we're not adjusting and adapting to that we'll be you know moving forward in the future we'll be left without a Workforce so it's I think it's really important that we're having those conversations and that we're engaging around those particular things and that we're as an organization we're adapting to that yeah any other questions or comments all right and with hearing all that um conversation it brings us to our very next Point too which is our site coun so as we are getting our goals interum goals guard rails and inum um guard rails placed we're going to have to create what's called a monitoring calendar that monitoring calendar is going to be spaced out for the next 5 years or whenever our goals end which is 2028 um to the end of our goals so we're going to create a calendar and it's in the process of getting worked out the thing that we need to figure out as a board is that part of of being able to carry the vision and goals of the community which is part of this framework is hearing from the community right so we need to figure out um plan dates that we going out to the community and bringing this information to them letting them know what our board goals are that we have a goal the percent of eighth grade students that score minimally proficient on ASA math will decrease from 73% on August 23 to 48% % by August 2028 once we start getting intrum data we need to go back out to the community letting them know how we're moving the needle for for their students or what input or feedback do they have as the caregivers of the community on helping their students achieve these goals so um the way that it the framework suggests is that two board members go out at a time and there's a difference between engagement and Outreach so whenever a board member is involved in engagement it's basically a space where we have created the board a space for us to go and talk to the community outreach is more like a community council meeting where we're invited as the board and we're invited to hear what's going on back and forth from the community so there's a big difference between engagement and Outreach and where the Board needs to be engaging with their stakeholders is usually once or twice if we can because there's five board members and two at a time go out and do it whatever way we want that to look like and that's the discussion that I want to have do we want to create something like School Board Town Halls where two board members go do we go and have cafal at the schools and we're going to have to work with the principles and make sure that we're giving it an opportunity to be in that space But it's going to be boardled it has nothing to do with the district it's kind of separate and it's our due diligence to making sure that our our parents caregivers and everybody in the community knows what's going on at the district and what we're doing to make sure that we're obtaining those goals so that's the first conversation that I we need to have is what that looks like for us does that look like setting up it in cafesito doing something like Community Council where it happens you know once every two to three months and it's it's just a free fall for for all right now on how it works I know in other school districts they've gone specifically to the schools they have created you know a time frame where at least two board members know that they'll show up the board members sometimes rotate but at least that school has it you know like in November the first thir every November two board members will be here to present on S SOG there's one option I know of other districts that have had Community Council meetings too but they call it board town halls and they just open it up the district they partner up and it's it's completely boardled they do the presentation and then that's where they have that two-way communication with the with the community members too so it's really up to us what we want that to look like um so I want us to kind of start getting those ideas out there because once the next board meeting comes and we adopt all the inum goals we're going to have to place them in the monitoring calendar and it'll be really cool because now when we go into these board meetings our community members can expect when a goal is going to be talked about when they're going to get get certain feedback let's say one of our specific um goals is third grade students if parents are really focused on that one specific goal now they will know when the board will be talking about that goal and their progress so it just gives very it gives a lot of transparency and Clarity um on both ends so everybody knows what's going on and at what time it's going to happen our site councils need to occur in that time we call them site councils we can call it whatever community board meeting whatever we want to call it we just been using the term site councils um in the framework and the classes but we can name it whatever and we just need to kind of come up with a plan on how often we want to do it and um kind of just really stick to it to make sure that we're being held accountable to our community so I don't know if anybody has any thoughts or comments on what that looks like or what you feel that looks like Miss mcrey yeah so I've been trying to do this for a few years too and what's been called like bagels with the board or kinds of things and there the push back has been and I think we can get with Jessica you know um we don't want to open we don't want to violate open meeting law obviously um but she said if it's agendized you know very specifically and I think sofg fits that perfectly even if you wanted to just talk about two goals but you could I'm sure you could do you know all the all the goals um as far as it being a two-way conversation you know other and if it's only two people then that also fixes the problem so I think yeah just figuring out when and how to do it is is probably the the last challenge to do it but I think it's something that we all really want to do because it's it's hard as a one board member to go out and reach the whole Community you know um so it it's good I think it's good to have the board as a whole kind of try to have this as a goal I think that's that's great yeah we all as a board will discuss it but I think the issue with bagels with the board or whatever was because all of us were showing up at the same time and I think it's very hard for us not to have conversations with our constituents so and this it's only two at a time which I think and we'll double check but defeats that whole um open meeting law issue but and it could look any way Town Halls inside the schools I mean our schools and our communities kind of used to cafos already so I feel like that might be just a good way to get it started because it's something that they're already used to and then just have an actual time frame of when at any given time of a specific cafesito for the school would two board members go at the time and just it would be the S SOG board presentation um another thought is too is that I know a lot of the parent liazon I know this year might be a little bit hard but they tend to have all their schedule for the whole year for their pairing connections that they have to do through Title One are set up already so sometimes that's even a good space because for example I'm I'm only using this school as an example because my daughter goes there but at Craton Academy they already have all of the years Parent Connection set up so that's another way that we can go and make sure that we're also advertising in and work together so I don't whatever's going to cost the less the less um I guess work for everybody but it is important and it's vital we don't know how to move the system forward we don't know what our community wants if we're not actively listening to them and making an intentional point to be out there to listen to them so um any thoughts on any of those from anybody yeah I have a couple a couple thoughts so first of all um I think it needs to be a mix of things that happen during the day like for example the caf happen during the day when um some of us were have full-time jobs and we literally can't be a part of that and I think that we should be able to um all of us to be a part of that I don't think um you know one person should be able to go more than another person just because of their availability like let's say during the day um and also I think a lot of parents um you know equal amount of parents probably need nighttime as well so I think a variety of times would would be really well cuz I can do it at night I just I can't commit during the day I just that's just not something I can do um because then I miss out on my own students I would agree with that obviously I don't there are some days where I I can make some things happen but um my schedule isn't it's always up in the air but um the other thing that I thought of is we could do a you know virtual site counsil as well if that's an option that some people want to do I was going to mention that too because that might I know like one of the things there wasn't a lot great about the pandemic but when I was with bals we moved like our parenty to be virtual and the attendance tripled you know with the understanding that like we get it you you know you might be cooking dinner like you know but we want you here we want you listening drop questions in the chat y you know so I think we shouldn't write off virtual as a possible option if we're trying to increase reach of Engagement I like those ideas I think we can do um our site councils and we'll we'll go more into it but these are good ideas make sure that we're incorporating some morning times or midday times evening times and a virtual option and we can all take the task on who decides to do what um so those are good ideas I I I like those I'm also creating the sheet um once it's fully created and changed it literally talks about site cancels it talks and it gives us a list of like also nonprofit and businesses organizations in our district that we can lean on to get our information out too so once that's created I'll send it over to miss htis and I'll have her email it to you guys so you guys can go in there and if you need to add any edits or anything you can and then we'll bring it over to the board for the next board meeting have a discussion on it too but I appreciate that feedback that's highly important making sure that we have virtual night and morning options and then whoever can fill in those gaps just fills it so um I like that I feel like I've had a lot of successful evening virtual meetings like both parent meetings you know other board meetings um because yeah you can kind of cook dinner manage kids um you know and then people seem to be willing to come to early morning things like either you know this wouldn't work for the full-time teachers especially but you know we we did have audiences around 7 7:30 8:30 you know and I think one of the schools does their PTO meetings you know right at seven or something so yeah I think people will if they're interested at all they'll try to make it happen okay if we do have daytime I'm more likely to be able to make it if it's virtual I'm like oh okay yeah I'm out of class but I can go find a quiet place and get on a Zoom versus driving across town right right I think that also frees us up to make more of the times in a more equal fashion perfect um any other comments or ideas because now with this information I can go back we'll have a conversation with cabinet to and then I'll take some information and have a discussion with Dr Ramos which is our coach as well to see if he sees anything out there in other school boards that he's been working with that kind of matches this to see what theirs um calendar looks like but yeah so oh before I move on any other questions or comments I just have one that I was thinking of like um I think like our messaging needs to be like really clear like whoever gives it that it's the same type of messaging so you know so I love that you say that because I was just discussing with Miss h earlier and telling her how we do kind of need to have um like a grounding and I'm going to get better at doing that grounding going over what you know like a quick overview that that Handover cheat sheet that we have that was made for us is an amazing one pager of how to start everything you know student outcomes don't change into do behaviors change this is why we're doing this and it gives a uh a little quick overview of like what is the framework there's six components to this framework and we open open it up with that yeah there's a whole bunch of different ways on how we can present this and I'm going to start model modeling that moving forward for the next um board meeting here in the boardroom so we can all kind of get to the same language see how it goes that way when we go out to the site councils we kind of already been hearing what it's going to look like and presented but yes you're absolutely right sticking to the same language and making sure that people know what a guardrail is what a goal is what the differ is and how they all work together so I love this cheat sheet and I'm going to start using it more and making sure that I'm setting that example too when I'm leading those meetings that way when we're ready to go out and take it to the community we're all equipped to do it as well thank you for that feedback anything else okay so next steps I will have that sheet available for you guys so we can make those edits I Believe by the next board meeting we'll be able to discuss our intram guard ril and see if we can approve them so we'll be discussing our inum guard rails and um we'll be talking about our progress monitoring calendar too okay perfect rocking and rolling yes thank you for that all right I'm going to move over to the next agenda item which is 6a public um comments Miss htis I only have one is this the only comment okay thank you I would like to invite Miss Edwards up to thank you three yeah good evening Madame President and members of the board superintendent man and others from the leadership team I speaking to you for my kraton families and students who were not asked board guard rail number three if their child our students would benefit from nursing students helping with vision and hearing screenings and other medical related screenings from the GR Canon University nursing programs eventually speech and language therapy students would have helped us I appreciate the recommendation to seek out college and university programs that would be willing to help our students and families the board policy GNC college and universities states that it is beneficial for college programs and students to provide help to the district the resolution between kraton and Grand Canyon was vetted by our lawyers and GCU lawyers it was explicit in what each party would provide brand Canan University was portrayed unfavorably and with inaccuracies perrywinkle mobile home property was sold in 2016 to GCU tenants were given notice at that time they would need to move I have never heard of an owner paying to have someone moved before Grand Canyon gave a half a million dollars to help residents move additional help was given given by the City of Phoenix who gave it additional help to 11 families according to City spokesman Christian cortier six families also received help from the state of Arizona in addition to GCO and nonprofit Phoenix and helping families in need work with 15 additional families 53 of the 54 families received assistance in addition to the eight years notice do you know the number of kraton families that receive supplies and uniforms at GCU through City surf GCU this past summer current kraton staff members that went to or are going to gr KY University serve our district well what is the benefit of a child being identified early needing glasses or medical care when a reputable entity is offering help to my Craton families it should be accepted the reason for rejecting the help from Grand keny nursing college seem to be filled with inaccuracies that in fact kept our students from what would have helped them to be successful in class in a more timely manner please reconsider giving my kraton families and students help from whoever is qualified to give it including Grand Canyon University I am a special ed teacher at Grand yeah Grand at Gateway Elementary my students need vision and hearing they need additional Medical Care they need speech and language therapy and I would appreciate it being given to them with every opportunity thank you so much that brings us over to agenda item number seven approval of consent I move the governing board approve consent agenda items a through J and L through o second all those in favor I I thank you so much I went ahead and pulled item K there's a discrepancy in the amounts and the actual there's just a discrepancy so I have to make the correct motion I have discussion about it oh yeah yeah go ahead actually I I explain what the discrepancy is and then we can have discussion that was one of my questions perfect um the discrepancy says that there was a previous approval of a million dollar to the amount not exceed 1.5 as listed below but the listed below fiscal year amount should be not to exceed $2 million and not 1.5 as the motion states or as the recommendation States so that's the only issue that we we need to fix um changing it from 1 million to the amount not to exceed 2 million as listed below versus the 1.5 do we have any other discussion item or discussion or questions regarding k so I understand that this was originally and correct me if I'm wrong approved at the June 27th meeting correct okay and so I wasn't here for that meeting I was at a wedding I rarely Miss meetings um and I was out of town but so I I would have probably said this then um and moving forward I would love to have more conversations around and just around who we contract with and again if we're walking in line with um if we're walking in line with our goals and guardrails our mission our objectives whatever it may be whatever the culture is here I just want us to be walking in Integrity for me and and again I if some I would love to have conversations in the future and I I'm not necessarily saying that this isn't going to go through tonight but if on if I was here on June 27th I would have mentioned it then I I went through an educator School prior to their being open enrollment being a huge thing here I got my feed W as an educator in Portland Oregon which is vastly different than here mainly because it's a Union state and mainly because they don't allow Charter Schools or Teach for America and so for me I do not like Teach for America I like Teach for America I think that teachers that are I I just think that unfortunately it is used to recruit people who have then have to hurry up and get an education that many of us spent years working to get and doing internship ships and and student teaching to be qualified for and to then be highly qualified for as well not a lot of those things matter as much anymore I understand that this is a recruiting contract but I would assume that that also then in turn means we'd be recruiting teachers who are participating in the Teach for America program so I understand we had item o that's a tutoring thing I can give it up to be it's a tutoring thing this for me moving forward in the future I'd love for us to explore or or at least know as as board members what are the other options I know a lot of these are brought up cross country Gary whatever because we've done business with them in the past and then that we kind of just then send out to the same people we contracted with in the past and so I'm curious to see how we disrupt those systems and take a quicker a better look or closer look at how we decide then who we send uh requests to instead of just blindly sending them back to the same people that we contract with every year additionally like I've never seen any of these contracts and I just I understand it's a million dollars and it says that it's because uh the increas is due to expected increase in the need of contracted teachers I get that a million dollar and $2 million is a lot of money proportionately within our budget as a dist as as the size of the district that we are especially given what this is being used for I understand it it gets directly related to our students um at at the end of the day I'd love to see some more accountability and and understand where this $2 million is going and why we need an increase that doubles the original approval amount um it I just I I just like to see more information it's hard for me to vote on these things when I just don't know what are these contracts for what are the services that they're actually providing how successful have they been in the past and then we're just going to go ahead and double a huge amount of money without knowing any of that information um and I've said this before with construction contracts this is the same thing in a different bucket and so for me this just isn't something that I'm willing to do without more information but I understand it'll probably pass tonight well and I I may be able to set a little bit more framework for this so um the number is significantly larger this year we're not we're not we don't necessarily have an expectation to go to 2 million but we are on track to exceed 1.5 million so we you know the goal is to have the operating space to be able to make sure that every teacher has a or every child has a teacher in there classroom so and and while I get and respect all of the comments that you made the landscape not just in Arizona but in 20124 is very different during the time frame when when you were teaching and and in Oregon um and so when we look at things like when you think about a preparation program and some of these partners and the types of preparation that they bring to the table we're not saying well let's not hire this great teacher who just finished their master's degree and we're going to hire this other person instead we're saying are we bringing in a substitute teacher to fill this classroom or are we bringing someone in who's had the level of preparation that Teach for America provides right so so there's you know there's there's there's scope and scale and um and you know certainly Dr Lauren can speak for himself but I I think it's just important to note that it is always going to be our default in hiring to select the best available person the challenge that we face right now is the number of available people and so we we're trying to cast the netwide and we're and we aren't just sending out to you know the folks we've always worked with I'm not and Dr Lauren would have to corroborate this for me but I think at least one of the groups on this list is either new this year or new last year maybe sorry I just got that from the paragraph that was in here it said purchasing Services has sent renewal letters to the vendors who were awarded contracts in previous fiscal years that is true so now looking at this I realize this is from this is from an RFP that's four years old so those are fiveyear rfps but I know we are we are always seeking additional partners and Dr Lauren may be able to speak you know I you guys may get this I'm a very principled person okay and I I get everything you're saying and com definitely understand it and I think there's an element of that that then perpetuates these problems and that's not something that I can think that we can all solve Statewide but I'm just saying it's a it's a reality of the issue and there's plenty of systems in this world where that's an issue but we just have to recognize our rle sometimes make sure we're cognizant of it and figure out like hey is there something we could tweak a little bit to make sure that we're you know doing this in the best way that we can and for me that means that I have all the information that I need especially when it comes to such big amounts of money I think um something that might be worthwhile I'm not familiar with all of these vendors either but but I think if you are paying recruitment Services um I'd be interested in knowing what kind of data we are capturing and tracking as far as if we hire through those recruitment Services one how long are those teachers staying with kraton from each one and two are they effective you know and I think that's especially you mentioned this is a fiveyear RFP so next year I would assume then we have to look at it again instead of just renewing um and so I think over this next year that might be something worthwhile looking into and saying do we keep all these vendors are there other vendors there one of these vendors not provided you know y um because I think it's you know again I don't know all of these super in depth but I've definitely seen recruitment companies where you know we have some amazing long-term substitutes that are from our community that would do better better yeah so yeah and I I wasn't bashing sub have to just measure we've got some amazing substitute teachers in kraton as well and and you know so I'm not bashing on the subs I'm just saying we're looking at you know who who is the best human being that we have available to us to put in a classroom with our kids but I think it would be good just for the sake of this recruitment Services cost a lot of money so making sure that we've had success from them in the past absolutely and one of the um I'm going to say a few things one of the awesome things and I'm always going to harp back and bring it to the sofg framework that we have one of the beautiful things about this is that as we're getting recruitment as we're getting all these people pipelined into pipelined into our system we have systems in place to how those institutions accountable now too if they're not producing what's you know into our inim goals into our goals if our guard rails then we have systems in place to be like you know what this is not working and this is Maybe where it needs to go can I'm sorry I don't mean to interrupt but what are those systems because if the contract's already been adopted and that's not a part of it then it seems to me that there is no way to do that well I mean there was when I had my one-on-one and those questions were were done and that's what I was going to go at is that the monitoring calendar is also going to help us because we do get you know agenda items posted a week before sometimes that's not in good enough information but we do have an opportunity to ask questions to pull those contracts like I did with some V votes that I've recently voted no on so there is avenues for us to get that um information beforehand and make sure that all our questions and the nitty and gritty that way when we're coming up here we're making all these that way we don't feel like we're making decisions like well I didn't know who this contractor was um so what I was going to get at is that progressing monitoring calendar is going to help us too because it's not only going to set an expectation of us of like Hey by this date you're going to have this information this is what's going on next board meeting ask away now I'm not saying that we can't ask questions up here on the board but one of the things that happens is that we should be fully fully understanding what's on this agenda and coming in here and if we have some kind of inkling that's where our 101 time this is where you know this is why information gets sent to us a week or two weeks before so we have the time and opportunity to research everything and you're absolutely right it is in a right to ask every question and to figure out at the end of the day am I going to be okay with this vote and if you're if any of us if I'm feeling like oh I'm not sure I'm G make sure I call back my you know Mr Man or Dr dupin or Dr Lauren whoever I need to hold on and be like hey this isn't making sense to me I don't feel good about this and also communication with me you know um I believe that presidents have a lot of discretion on agenda items too and if any board member is feeling a certain type of way on something we can discuss it too and if we need to hold off until everybody's feeling a little bit better or whatever needs to happen we can do that too um but I always like tying it with the sofg we do have those mechanisms because at the end of the day our superintendent does have guard rails so when we ask him those questions okay how is this going to contract uphold adult convenience because that could be a good one right then those are the questions that we're asking they're giving us the answer and it's up to us to decide you know what you're right maybe this does fit in the guard rail let's give it a try and if it doesn't work but that's our job to ask those questions and make sure that we're not only holding the institution a whole um accountable but those making the decisions and bringing these items to us totally I guess moving forward I would be curious how we decide what is provided as an attachment to an agenda and what is not and I only say that because sure I can put a thing in my calendar to go out of my way and try to get these documents on my own the general public is not going to do that and so if there's more a way to make this even more accessible to the general public as well without causing tons of work for people I understand that then I would really appreciate it because you know I I just don't I and I don't know exactly what dictates you know what what has attachments and what doesn't and so it would be I would be curious was there like a letter written on why they're requesting more money or um any other information that could have been provided or attached to this that then other people could view as well because a lot of times the questions we have are going to be questions that the public have and while I know we're trying to save time for sofg stuff in meetings it's also going to save time if we can get a lot of that stuff on the agenda as well yeah I mean the only other thing that we would have for an item like this would be to attach the entirety of the RFP okay um which would be pretty burdensome and I don't think it's considered best practice you know from a procurement perspective all of that information is available at the district office to the public but it would be highly irregular for us to make that an attachment to a board agender then I guess maybe a little more detailed information on you know if if they're the ones coming and saying we need more money rather than us just noticing I I would be curious what they've communicated these organ so the vendors haven't come to us and asked for more money we've had the need to ask for more teachers okay so this this that's not to me it's just not clear okay and and that's my apology if that's not clear um and and I say teachers and yet I know if I understand correctly there psychologists that are included in this as well Dr Laura y other related service providers psychologists speech therapists Etc and so one of the one of the challenges you know that that I can certainly share um there's 14 superintendents that are in the K8 school districts that support Phoenix Union and amongst that group one of the common conversations we we have are the challenges with getting things like um psychologists slps special education teachers pretty much if it's related to special education it's a struggle bless you it's a struggle to to recruit and find people and so we are continually having conversations about you know what can we do where can we go who can we get these individuals from um and so you know I would Hazard to guess everybody's numbers are different because everyone serves a different number of students has a different number of and type of needs in their District but if you were to look at the districts around us um I would Hazard that they are also in a position now they may have set their number higher in June but they're also in a position where they are spending more dollars and they are very concerned about the fact that they're spending more dollars with these types of services in order to acquire these individuals there are a number of factors that go into why that's a challenge some of them are related to um just the shortage of Staff some of them are related to the way you know in some of these cases there are practices that are in place that limit the number of individuals who become certified which also exacerbate the problem as well so um so really in this case it's not that any of these groups have come to us and said we need more money it's been we've identified that we have had to hire a number of Staff members that is an excess of the million doll threshold that we had originally started with in June and we have a reasonable expectation that there could potentially be need throughout the rest of the year because very often um you know we we do child find all year long right and we um and we evaluate students all year long so there may be needs that come up or we may lose a staff member for some reason or another and we may need to go out for another individual to fill that Gap and so the reason we're asking for the ship from one to what we originally thought was 1.5 until we realized we were going to exceed that 1.5 number and then we're asking for two is to make sure that we have the Headroom in our available um procurement to be able to make certain that we're providing the services that we need to provide to our students any other comments or questions yeah miss m yeah I mean I think this is certainly a good time to provide feedback this you know again just from a perspective like we have we have a fairly new leadership team working on this um and this is a fiveyear RFP now is the time to be providing the feedback like I think absolutely This falls into goal number three which we were just talking about because it is about recruiting teachers and I think having data from these vendors you know if if that's a has to be possible some way like you know just like are they getting us who we want and um you know and do they stay and are they effective yeah those kind of things would be you know I think things that would help your decision- making when hiring um help for this kind of thing and I think yeah that you know more information about the construction contracts I think for some of us board members would be handy and maybe there's a way you know that we can get it electronically rather than having to come into the office like for board members where it's harder to get in you know I think I know you like to do deep dives into research Katie so you know maybe there's a way that it's easier to get information like that to her when she wants to see it um but yeah the you know it the construction thing has always been a mystery for me um uh when you know you you you hire them for the lowest price and then but then whole whole bunch of change orders come in so you know that's always tricky um and we do want to know and do you know be doing our due diligence so I think this even though it's hard it's I think it's good feedback to give you guys right now I mean the sooner the better to get the feedback so um yeah know the feed the feedback is absolutely appreciated and it was one of the things we noticed when reviewing this item is that we're in year four or five so you know I think it's a absolutely brilliant consideration to think about what data sets are we going to look at to frame how we design the RFP for our next five years right so that we make sure we're asking for the right things and we're vetting against the right types of indicators as to who's best qualified to provide these services to us I I just wanted to jump in real quick on the procurement side um so because of it being in year four of five when we would have brought that RFP to the board um four years ago there would have been a lot more information that you're asking for at that point in time it wouldn't be common to bring that RFP information back in the uh updated years or the renewal years and then some of the language in the agenda item um is specific to ensure that we meet procurement guidelines in um oversight so sometimes it is kind of template is and I'm happy to take a look at these and see if we can add a little more information um you know we can utilize our board updates and I appreciative of the information about construction contracts I understand those can be tricky um and trying to find a good way to to kind of get into details on some of these um but we actually have lots of conversations like that when we start looking at especially rfps um for procurement for ongoing services for that long so just wanted to let you know I really appreciate that because I understand it says year 405 right there I think the rest of it though without that I mean there's one little indication about year 405 as a regular person reading this I don't think I would have any idea that this is like not a brand new thing we're voting on or just like an extension of something we just voted on right and so I think that's where I'm getting at is like some of this stuff is like very hard to digest as regular folks I think we even have a charge to ensure that our language is clear and what's the level the level of a a sixth grader that we need to make sure that we add some uh some of that language into I I appreciate the input and we'll be looking to do that in the future and we're constantly working to try to reduce our acronyms so I noticed there's a couple acronyms we have included in here that we didn't first say what an RFP or an ifb is but we refer to RFP and ifb so we unfortunately some of us have more than two decades of you know kind of habit that's bad and we're working to um kind of improve our practice as we move forward but the feedback is greatly appreciated and of course the only way we can do better is by getting the and accountability I had already emailed before we even started this agenda item Hilda to set up a new one-on-one recurring meeting J for me and also to hold myself accountable and two though is like I'm never trying to be difficult for the sake of being difficult in any of these settings and so I ask questions all the time I mean that's like my job so I'm always going to have questions and I may even still have a one-on-one and then come to this meeting and have more questions after I hear somebody else talk or do something and so I'm never trying to like derail anything or be difficult for being the sake of diff for the sake of being difficult I honestly like trying to get as much information as I can sometimes that might be annoying to people and I apologize but that's just how I operate so I appreciate everyone's patience well it's it's not only not annoying to me but the other thing I would encourage you is sometimes and I know president kuo has done this in the past um Miss MC cheffrey actually all all all of our board members have done this in the past um sometimes people will come and they'll ask me a question and then they'll tell me I'm going to still ask this question on the deis because I feel like if it wasn't n clear to me it may not be clear to members of the public and I feel it's important to put it out there so we are not afraid of questions what we typically are afraid of is not being in a position to be able to answer them so just knowing in advance allows us to be prepared to make certain that not only each of you have the information that you need but that when we're in this public setting and we're we're having this conversation we're able to put the information out there with the public because one of the things again from that guidance uh the documents that were shared like what we're not supposed to do and I hope I've never done in my career is to just make up an answer on the spot to be able to answer the question or put out the bright shiny penny oh don't oh don't ask that question look over here right like that's a thing you hear board members complain about in a lot of districts is people try to create a distraction ra rather than address the issue and so if we don't have the answer what we will say is we don't have the answer and we'll get it and we'll bring it back to you well and I'd like to add that I feel that this you know items like this we do need to do our homework so that we can have real discussions it's good to get thing more things put in consent as appropriate but I think this is a great example of something that does align with sofg because it is an input with a lot of money that directly affects the people who are educating the kids so I think it's good to have those discussions especially if we know hey if this didn't make sense to me you know yeah and just with that um in case any other questions discussion um I don't believe that you should be apologizing I think questions are amazing and that's how epiphanies happens that's how patterns happen that's how we start realizing all these different things so I don't think you should be apologizing for asking questions I'm going to use uh myself as an example there was another agenda item on here um that was given to us through the board report and I asked a million one questions but then I didn't have any questions because I used that time to type it all out ask it I got the answers and one of the things too that I'm starting to learn which is also hard in this framework is that we have these guardrails and just the connection that she made I think this is why at some point you know the driver needs to drive we have the guardrails we have the goals it's going to be the driver's job to prove to us that this is something that's going to continue to be sustainable versus is and I'm not saying for us to be up here and you know rubber stamp everything I've seen that happen previous you know in years past that's not what we're doing here but at some point we need to trust that our superintendent is making the right decisions and knowing very well that we've put all our heart and efforts in these goals in the guardrails and that when he does or admin anybody from admin does present something to us they better be ready to see what Lindsay just did like connect those thoughts like okay well this I guess this makes sense blah blah blah this this this whatever I'm not saying we can't come up here and ask questions sometimes I tell Jay I've told him that before hey I know we talked about this I'm still not happy about it so guess what I'm g go to the board and this is what I'm going to do it is what it is it's still my my right as an elected official up here but those are the conversations that are very fruitful and help in one-on ones that way all that is cleared out and if we still have concerns then we take it out of agenda we have the discussion and then it happens um any other comments All right so with all that being said it is recommended that the I move the governing board approve the increase of the contract from previous approval of $1 million to the amount not to exceed 2 million as listed below for the fiscal year 2425 the increase is due to the expected increase in the need of contracted teachers to fill needed vacant itions win the district I second all those in favor I I I I'm just going to abstain okay thank you motion passes all right and that brings us over to our future agenda items I just want to make sure we all know that September 28th is going to be our study session it's going to occur here any board candidates um I would say suggest you guys attend this it's very important and any community members teachers principls anybody out there that wants to know why the heck we're doing this SG framework what it entails it's going to be another little recap in our study session of really going down into our goals God rails having a little bit of a refresher so I think it's an awesome thing that anybody um that's interested in what we're doing what's possible for kids to attend that study session do we have any other future agenda items that anybody wants to request so apologies in advance if I received this on board update or something um but I do think it would be nice for it to be a public board meeting just special ed update on kind of where we are I've I have missed some emails so if I've missed something I apologize no I I think that is something that's on our radar to bring forward um we had a few things happen at the end of last year that delayed it a little bit um with some Personnel changes but we can definitely get that agendized for a future meeting thank you and then just a quick announcement I forgot we weren't having a meeting because of Labor Day so just a plug I didn't put it in my report uh Thursday September 5th here in this boardroom at 5 o'clock we're getting right back to work on our committee uh to review policies you can come attend in person or watch Us online September 5th remember that September 5th perfect so our next meeting is 17th is that right correct okay okay any other future agenda items okay hearing none my computer froze but I already know what to do I move the Govern the governing board adjourn second all those in favor I thank you w noes have a great night good thing that last one was an easy one oh and I have other on

e e e all right it is now 7 p.m. Tuesday August 20th 2024 and I call this meeting of the Board of Education to order Cindy would please call the role here here Thomas present present AR here gilber here meows present the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Sue thanks Sue to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you um are there any items to be removed or added to the nope okay all right any public comment today none has been submitted none so I can spare everybody me reading that all right PPS Partners Drew welcome good to likewise good evening everyone uh I'm pleased to report that so far we've had an awesome start to the school year um there's definitely a Vibe this year and I've been saying this every semester since 2021 um so famous last words um but it also feels like there's a sense of normaly that we haven't had in a really long time and I've talked to a lot of my colleagues and they uh share that sentiment so uh let's ride that wave um um having to go back that far reminds me though that no matter the circumstances our members rise to the occasion to make sure that we are there for our students starting on day one last Monday on opening day I had the opportunity to speak to the district and my message was simple and something that I'd like to reiterate to anyone that wasn't there if we are all serious about giving our students the district that they deserve we must do it together district and building Administration the Bea Besa the Board of Education every single stakeholder we all have a moral resp responsibility to work together for our students in that same vein the baa has made it clear since May that the district's recommitment to working with the Bea is a welcomed and necessary step needed to finally address the trust transparency and communication issues in the district since May we have seen progress towards addressing those issues but there is still work to be done getting on the same page requires mutual respect and trust and that isn't something that just magically happens overnight it takes time it takes commitment sometimes it's uncomfortable and that's okay okay the struggle is worth it because our students are worth it and my offer to the Board of Education remains on the table if you're interested in the Ba's view of where we are and where we're going as a district I'd be more than happy to sit down and talk over some coffee at Limestone to our Bea members welcome back in a warm welcome to all of our new members that are now part of the BPS Community you're all rock stars that go above and beyond for your kids every day of the year whether it's the first day of school or the last day of school at our uh Bea general meeting that we had uh on Monday I shared with our members that the single most important thing that we do as a union is support our members so that they can support our students I also offered my personal philosophy that being Union means standing shoulder-to-shoulder together in solidarity regardless of whether you're at the Early Childhood Center or all the way up to 12th grade at BHS we are all part of the bavia Education Association unified in our commitment to our students and when we are united we can move mountains and on a personal note a special shout out to uh all of our early childhood and kindergarten instructors for welcoming so many of our firsttime students into the bavia school Community uh at the end of last week I asked my son um so kindergarten is pretty awesome right uh and his response yep uh a man of few words indeed but believe me when I say that coming from him that answer speaks volumes solidarity forever with our brothers and sisters in Besa go Bulldogs thank you for listening good night and good luck thank you drew next is Kevin for Besa welcome Kevin thank you water along with me because I having some allergy issues with all this weather so excuse me good evening everyone I'm gonna just adjust this a little bit Kevin bman with u with besta um for those of you who are not aware Marsha Sher you know moved over to a position here in uh arj and I uh by succession moved up to uh become president uh of the organization I have to Echo what what Drew said you know with the short time that we've been back in uh in a session with with school and classes everything appears to be off to a very good start uh with the students and with the organization in fact last week best primarily the Paras and the uh uh campus monitors participated in uh training sessions uh here at the high school and then we had a breakout session for just the uh campus monitors um Steve and uh Tony um helped with those and and uh Tony led the campus monitoring session and the feedback that we received uh from participants for both those sessions was overwhelmingly positive I shared some of that feedback uh with both Steve and Tony and please a report that that was um as I said very very positive um i' like to say that tonight I might go a little bit longer than I typically would but there's two reasons uh for that um the first is this is one of those odd occasions when I I really know what I'm talking about and and two I I have the opportunity to talk about people that I truly love and and it's the campus monitor team over at RMS and by prefacing this a little bit I had originally intended to to deliver this presentation at your June meeting following that long uh meeting that you had back in May family circumstances prevented me from attending the June meeting and then on the Tuesday or the me the date of the uh July meeting that morning I had tested positive for covid and I thought it would be a good idea not to come by that day so after long delay I get the opportunity to present what I consider to be and and hopefully you will too um a very positive report about my co-workers at Roto middle school and a team that I I think when you hear this you would be very proud of and and should be very proud of I have a a couple of slides uh that I hope will help you uh become a little bit more familiar with these people and I have to thank both Cindy for keeping these things on the agenda my time with you on the agenda and Holly for maintaining these records for the past couple of months so Holly if you'll put the first one up which I think yeah here are the uh the faces of the people I'm going to tell you about and I'll start first with Fran up there at the very top Fran is our lunchroom uh campus Monitor and the the key role that Fran plays is she she maintains three big binders containing the um uh student IDs for 8th grade seventh grade sixth grade and it might sound like a simple task but these IDs are what the students use to purchase their meals and and really move things along during that short period of time that students have to uh purchase their lunches and again it might sound like a simple task I always thought it was until the one day that I did it last year and messed it up within a matter of minutes to the point where one uh student approached me and asked uh is Fran coming back tomorrow and I said boy I sure hope so but why do you ask and he said well you messed this up pretty quickly only he used a more earthy term uh and and I didn't write him up or anything because it was a very accurate way of describing what I had done and and he said you know you're going to Old FR an apology and I said yeah I will and I did when she came back the next day I apologized for what I did but she got everything back on track rather quickly but more than keeping that that uh uh operation running smoothly Fran is uh has a great talent and skill for building a report for these kids and here's where that's really important you know the students will of course have contact with their classroom teachers all day Fran is one of the few adults that during the course of the day these kids will have contact and interaction with and she's able to build as I said these relationships with kids and I'm able to see this 5 days a week during the course of the year and so on a Friday a student might tell foran or when when she's talking to them and passing these these IDs back and forth oh I'm I'm I have a birthday this weekend and so they'll talk about that but the really neat part is you know on Monday or Tuesday when France sees that student again she'll say well how was your birthday what happened what went on and they'll have this this exchange and this conversation and it always reminds me that the these are the conversations that you and I used to have at one time with bank tellers or the sales clerks at retail outlets and all of that's been replaced since we now do most of our Banking online or self checkouts and and things like that but France still maintains that type of relationship with these young students who often get a Hard Knock for having their faces planted in devices and as I said I get a kick out of this because because students don't come into the world with phones in their hands and they don't they don't develop those habits they learn that from adults and it's always I always get a kick out of watching Fran interact with these kids for that short period of time five days a week building these important relationships with them and them building relationships with her so I like I said I always think that's a a key part that Fran has uh in our in in her role with our team the next person I'd like to tell you about is Gabby Warz and I think uh Gabby's probably the youngest member of our team not just in in age but in uh service with the district she's in her second year with us now I believe the greatest skill that Gabby has not only uh in her ability to work with uh uh and and uh with the students gab's bilingual and brings uh interpretive skills to her work which we really learned last week last year is crucial we have a growing number of uh students whose uh English is a second language both um for them and their parents and while we have I think three maybe four staff members who are in that role those are mostly teachers who have teaching responsibilities and aren't always available uh to uh interact with the students and more importantly with their parents Gabby has never hesitated to step up and fill that role to work with parents when they come in to have documents filed with the school and as important to work with students who um might find themselves down in student services or in um say lunch detention or just have questions on on uh for some of these students particularly last year uh it was their first encounter in formal education uh in the United States so Gabby was there to help them make that transition and uh as I said never hesitated to step up and and fill that Gap so as again uh proven her her U invaluable assistance with the team the next uh person I'd like to tell you about is Kea Fulmer and where Kea is uh again another another terrific asset is her very just evenhanded approach to all students yeah she she if they are brushing up against uh uh ADH in to guidelines and things like that I've never seen Kea uh get fired up get get get um uh to the point where she might be losing or cool with students it's just in a very matter of fact but direct approach with students what you're doing is uh uh beyond our expectations or not meeting our expect expectations and you need to bring it back in and it's a very effective approach and it's it's uh something that I I think is one of K's great assets real quick story last year uh and you're probably aware of this um plain closed police officers from the Pavia uh police department constantly test building security they'll they'll you know test the doors and things like that we had one instance last year uh through no one's fault they they found a defective latch on one of the doors and were able to enter the building it wasn't as though the the doors were propped open or anything like that it was simply a defective latch they made it into the building about a quarter of the way up a hallway but it was Kea who identified that these uh uh individuals were not properly credentialed they did not have the lanyards they would have if they had entered through the front door and had been raptured into the building appropriately she stopped them both questioned them how they got in the building what they were doing in the building and then escorted them to the main office so they could be properly uh raptured in so she did the job directly by protocol and handle things as they are supposed to do or be so again uh the team did the job as it uh was intended to be done leaving Kea and moving over to Hillary uh Kennedy in the middle of there I need to stop and kind of back up all the women you see on this page here they're all moms okay and that's a quality they all bring to their job they all approach the students they work with with the attitude of you know their mothers and they they approach all these uh students well aware and conscious of the fact that they are dealing with someone's children and I think the one that emphasizes this or acknowledges the most is Hillary Kennedy and whether she's dealing as many of us were last week with some emotionally upset sixth graders new to a big building or as I saw her many times last year toward the end of the year some Ram bunin eighth grader who were feeling the end of the school year Hillary doesn't hesitate one way or another that many times last year I would see her approach a table of eighth grade boys and simply say as as most moms will you're exceeding the or you're not meeting the expectations and it ends right now and in a very calm manner bring things to an end and without hesitation without being intimidated by a group of eighth grade boys and she's a great credit to the team Maryann Le neerman there is as it says is our lead campus Monitor and I would say there isn't another person in this District at least I haven't met them that knows the district's handbook for student conduct as well as Maryanne neerman does and she doesn't lure that over people she does she's not a martinet about it but if she's going to correct a student's uh conduct or expectation meeting expectations she does it in a very evenhanded and informed manner if she needs to correct a student how they're conducting themselves in the hallways or in a common area like the lunchroom Maryann will do it in a very informed and evenhanded manner the student walks away from an encounter with Maryanne not understanding what's going on it's not because maryan didn't do a job of explaining why they were being dis or or talking with her um so I I've always tell people that Maryanne is probably the school board's best friend inside Roto so this brings me to the last person up there and this is Chris Evanson um I tell you that I could probably talk about Chris Evanson all night long but I won't I promise you that um for those of you who don't know Chris Evanson uh she is a long long uh ter employee of the district but she also embodies what I think is bavia if it's probably would be easier to list the people in bavia who do not know Chris Evanson than to list the people who do and before Chris um you know she's been with the district for a long very long time she was the head chair leading coach at the high school for 10 years and when I joined the district and was a campus monitor at the high school Chris trained me over there and so when I learned that Chris was transferring from the high school over to the middle school I was very happy I knew we were going to be getting a very talented and personable campus monitor now one of the kicks I get with working with Chris is if you're not aware of how the system works over there uh we rotate um uh time on the front desk uh processing people in and reading them but one of the great kicks I have is when Chris is on the front desk and young parents come in and Chris will greet them and it'll be a a student or a parent who Chris once had as a student on the chair leading team and all of a sudden there's a a connection because that parent now has a student at the middle school and they're talking about that parents days as a student at the high school when uh uh Chris had her as a as a student on the chair leading team and it always reminds me some of something that people have told me over the years since my wife and I moved here to bavia in 20 uh 03 which is bavia is like a larger version of uh Mayberry that you will constantly run across people you know and Chris is like a living embodiment of that but the real thing that I think makes Chris Evanson stand out I saw this at the high school and I've seen it time and time again at the middle school is Chris has this incredible gift and if you'll pardon me for saying it in these terms I consider it more of a blessing that Chris has an incredible ability to connect with young students particularly females who in days years ago when I first entered the field we would call these students or they were labeled as at risk uh students who for what whatever reason they were finding themselves in a position where they were making decisions or involved in situations that were jeopardizing their academic careers but Chris has this ability that whether it's from her years as a successful businesswoman or her years in this work and in her position that she is able to connect with these these young girls speak to them in a very direct manner make a connection with them and help them find a way to get themselves back on a very positive track whether it's academically or just behaviorally and help them put themselves in a more positive direction and it's something you know whenever I see it and I see it a couple times a year it it leaves me in awe that Chris has that ability to connect with young people who really do just need a little bit of guidance to put themselves back on a more positive track as I said I could go on talking about Chris oh you know all night long I won't but these are this is a very positive team you have a you know assembled a great team campus monitors don't always get the recognition they deserve but this is a a team that I think the entire District ought to be proud of um Dr Kim has met many of these people you know Steve H put the team together um uh Tony knows many of these people uh from working with them I know Josh has has worked with these people when or several of them when he was over at the building you have a wonderful team of Administrators there at the middle school there's no doubt Tara has has a good team around her you know there's a boatload of wonderful and talented Educators there I just wanted to let you know about a an exceptional team of Campus monitors I know all of you have busy schedules but if you ever get the time uh in your day to stop by and meet some of these people face to face I encourage you to do that you you won't be disappointed even if it's for five minutes to meet some of these pokes folks and and just let them know uh who you are and just to say hi to them I told you I was I was going to be a bit long I hope you're not disappointed that I took up so much of your time oh Holly would you mind going back because this is one of our favorite pictures it's a goodlook group um we'll try to put you on our mailing list for this holiday season so you get a a look at us but one of the nice things about the team is you know there's no reason why we can't have a little bit of fun uh doing doing this and Evanson deserves credit for this too whether it was her time at the high school or here at the middle school she makes a big effort of building staff Morel for all the employees and um as I said she deserves credit for that but that that was our Christmas card from last season so thank you for your time have a good night everybody you Kevin we'll see you again next all right uh no student ambassadors today I presume thank uh so board Le Aids on committee reports I know some may have started but everybody's just kind of getting their notifications I think it's meeting set up I've seen some of those so anyone have any committee reports at all yet no okay all right for the next month uh consent agenda according to our board policy we designate a portion of the agenda as a consent um agenda for those items we do not usually require extensive discussion before board action these items are generally routine recurring be group together for efficiency Steve would you like to walk us through the dance card for the night absolutely 4.1 is the approval of the uh July 23rd 2024 meetings or meeting minutes uh 4.2 and 4.3 is the approval of the August 1st uh 2024 special meeting and the Clos session minutes uh 4.4 is our PST Personnel report um quite large uh the HR office was busy I would say in end of July August we're used to that um but I I did want to highlight um uh you know we we've had a lot of discussion in the last couple years about our parpro issue and I don't think we're all the way there but um we're definitely in a much better position uh than we have been uh the last several years I think uh if I counted right I think we hired if you look at that report I think we hired nine uh pair professionals and I think uh five uh pair professionals may be resigned so that still is plus4 to the good um and when you add in our contract uh some of our contract Paras I I think we're instead of looking at a deficit of like maybe 14 to 16 the last few years at this time of the year we're probably more like 3 to five at a handful um if not lower and again it remains very fluid uh I'd like to give a shout out to Diane Cronin over at AGS she called me yesterday with a uh Community member standing at her desk saying this person is interested in being a PA Pro can she go visit the ILP program at uh Grace MCU and we connected her with Jeff Moda and I think she uh that that Community member went there today and hopefully we can get her hired because that's an area that we uh definitely need help um we uh we did uh extend that uh additional pay um internally um that didn't necessarily uh get us additional PA Pros but it is getting more people from the outside um that are coming in and uh joining the organization so that's been a real positive uh we're not all the way there yet but we are definitely in a better position than we have had since uh 20 the start of the 2020 school year so that's a positive that I wanted to share with the board uh 4.5 we have our monthly uh payroll and bills uh 4.6 are our donations and we would like to definitely thank Office Depot and grad images for uh their donations to support um our schools and our students uh 4.7 is our curriculum and special education contracts and then finally 4.8 is the approval of our consent agenda right anyone have any questions or comments yep so on the Personnel report just a quick question um I see Cindy con she's a jbn says kindergarten enrichment .5 and says pair of professional so is she a pair of professional .5 she's actually both is if I can pull that up here where does it say oh I'm sorry I that's I didn't put in 05 yes she is a point she a lot of times we do this if you've paid attention the last few years again to address the uh Personnel uh challenges we've had we've we've sometimes have put partnered uh positions together and so yes that is definitely an omission and it Cindy is not 1.5 uh but she is 0.5 on both of those positions so thank you for noticing that we can make an adjustment and then uh really quick uh down at the bottom it says a Brooks cyber cyber Nagle seasonal curriculum and construction uh I'm sorry curriculum and construction I'm just curious what that is for we during the summer we often hire um seasonal uh staff members a lot of times these are like Pavia high school graduates who are in college and uh you'll see them for sometimes for Tech sometimes for operations and then over the summer we have uh the last few years we've employed them to support the curriculum uh instruction Department they're doing a lot of copying printing uh resources and materials for our early childhood kindergarten students and we've had the same person in place for the last couple years she had to go back to college on like August 5th so we hired um Brooke to kind of fill the void uh before school started and I don't know if she's still with us or she's leaving soon and she's off to college yeah she's off to college it was a very brief window and gone but yeah that's what we do and they trust me if you're here in the summer you'll see lots of uh lots of things happening with materials for our students and then uh so 4.7 the curriculum education contracts I start at the top the danet Myers um pull my so she is employed at with Partners is that what that is for mhm okay and then I guess um she's going to be helping with co- teing training English learner support and pair professional development and newcomer so I'm just like I guess my question is is if we do we have an e person like is there someone on staff that's strictly e and um I'm just curious if that danet Myers doesn't work with them and rather that eel person give the support to our District employees and provide the co- teing training like I don't know how who leads that in our district like the co- teing training the English learner um the newcomer support which that might be something new because of uh the influx of um immigrant children yeah the past couple of years we've seen a lot of newcomers to the district and just providing support to our staff and how to navigate some of those relationships and language barriers um we have a pretty small curriculum department so Jen Hicks oversees the El department so they've been meeting the past couple of days to go through curriculum reboots and D is a support that we can um contract out to work with those uh teacher teams on those areas that they need we've not done co- teing with detet that's something new this year but detet has provided did EL support in during summer curriculum week and with teams especially at storm for the past couple of years so we've used her in the past for the E support have we used it and then she have we used her for the uh par um I'm sorry professional development before the professional development yeah General professional development yes so she's delivered a lot of newcomer professional development to our staff last year and the year before but that's a continuing need for us and then the Angie souland so she a consultant for the region he works for the Roe um and then we get days from her to support our bpsu program okay so so the bpsu that's our signific that's our program um and she's going to do um it says there in support Educators in their efforts to meaningful Implement curriculum build relationships and utilize techn ology in a remote Blended and hybrid learning environment so is that mean it's kind of like she's like a a tech more of a tech person is that what that's doing like is she rolling out tech programs or no it's it's more instructional coaching she uses technology she tries to infuse technology but her expertise is really in instructional coaching so getting teachers to kind of look at their classroom look at their instructional practices identify areas where they could be improving and then to work with them along the way to track that Improvement so we don't have instructional Coes here we do but this is to support the the bpsu program so I guess it's like why don't we use our own instructional coaches to support the bpsu program because if it's our program like we can't go to Geneva you can't go to St Charles for it so I'm just curious is why we we have to have an outside person rather than our own instructional technology individuals in our district to do it we could but we feel like all of our coaches have like full case loads managing their building so this is extra and then the uh Bal psycho educational Consulting are we Contracting them because we're currently down to psychologists or would we have them even if those positions were filled no i' much rather have them filled this is a fill in because of the lack of school psychologist specifically at Rola yeah right okay and then the Sun Belt um provides a special education so if I read it correctly sunb Bel is using vocal vision and the vocal Vision will provide us with the services for um over the over like the person will assess like um individual over the computer is that what that is MHM okay and sunv focuses on like um for each 504 for IEPs you have to have a nurse review all of that paperwork and do a file review or if a student has a medical issue which is causing them to need accommodations or modifications you have to have a nurse be a part of that team so will the nurse be a part so nurse is with sunb Bel or is it our district nurse we prefer our district nurse um but there's so much to do that this person is providing help with those evaluations okay I'm for this company I can say not person so I'm just curious because it's the vocal Vision it says it's done over the computer is that preferred or wouldd rather have it in person we would rather have it in person but it's hard to find people to come in for those short periods of time that's all I have for that person refer that section okay yeah those contracts do highlight our need for certified School nurses so um certified School nurses have both a teaching degree and then they're an RN and then School psychologists they have Advanced Training and they are very difficult to find these days we're hopeful we have a we have a current RN who is uh working on who's employed by us who's working on her uh CSN uh lure and it should be completed by the end of the semester and we're hoping to hire that person uh for the whole second semester and then we will have we will be fully staffed at the CSN level to highlight the fact that yeah we've had parapo issues the last few years we've definitely had psych issues uh at Rolo and we've also had some CSN issues but we're not the only ones we're definitely not the only ones okay any other questions on consent agenda all right hearing none I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as present presented so moved by Aaron second by Sue Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote yeser Yes yes yes AR yes thas no yes thank you all right next agenda item reports uh starts with Foya requests Tom anything to share we had two requests this month and both were provided that's it thank you next is Treasurer reports Tony nothing out of the ordinary for the treasurer's report but I did add a little bit of a narrative to that report which is not typical that helps to explain what's in the attached file if that's helpful to you please let me know if you're looking for more information that might otherwise any questions or comments for Tony on that all right next our policy updates um at our last board meeting we had um a discussion around our bowling and harassment policy so I just wanted to continue that conversation um H's going to just show you like one feature that Dave and the tech team have been working on so if you navigate to and this isn't deployed to all of our policies yet but because this was a an item of discussion I will you unclick the button there so typically you would go to our board policy manual and you would see the board policies as they're adopted uh but the tech team has been working on something that I think increases the transparency of the changes that the board might adopt which I think is really helpful for the community so when a policy is being considered for changes you can they're going to have that red view proposed changes you can click on that and see a Redline version of that policy so in our last conversation we talked about there is there was in the late spring there was a new bowling policy put out by the Illinois Association of school boards uh for our review and you can see that in the redline version currently there just a couple of like highlights if Holly Scrolls down you can see a couple of areas of red you can see that in that first area of red they talk about the protected classes that are there that we want to make sure that um they're listed there and then further down it's just a strikeout further down there's a little piece about some of the timelines we talked about 24hour notification for families um that their child was involved in that bullying potential bullying incident that is in that red line version we don't have this it's available online so if you go to that policy but it's not in here okay it's not in the board book now but if you go that's so that is something I think that really helps kind of show what potential changes are out there so if the community has feed back about that that gives an opportunity I think for them to see what is potentially changing there it I think it's help probably for the board too uh to consider any of those changes so just wanted to kind of highlight that kind of progressing Tech feature that I think brings transparency to the board policy process as we talked about last time we are required to submit our board policy for this particular policy 7180 bulling intimidation harassment to the state of Illinois for review um which is why we use the Press version of it because we know that it's compliant with school code and the updates to the law so one additional piece uh thanks Brad I wanted to add is that uh board as you know we've talked about a board committee right comprising of the board two representatives and then partnered with the administration and so if you're wondering well is there a reason why this is coming out ahead of it it's to address the timeline that Brad has Illustrated to the board so that we could get a second read for you by the September board meeting before we submit it into the data portal for isby um the other piece is we are going to be meeting um Rael Aaron and I we're working on a date to actually bring us together um to to kind of start working on all of our board policies so that CU as you notice you know you probably seen in every board policy there's a reference to different other policies that might touch this and um other legal references so aside from this particular policy there are other policies that we will have to take a look at and so for the board um you know that opportunity will be coming uh from our Representatives on the board and then eventually the whole board for review and conversation or discussion so now we're going to work on this in the committee but is sort of the plan that for the community we would do something like this where we're looking at a policy we'd have a period of time where they could see old propos new review it and then another board meeting it's like sort of a grace period to digest it before we implement or not really I mean it is but you know one of the things that Brad pointed out is we belong to the Illinois Association for school boards they have an actual Commission of attorneys who review the new laws and then take a look at the board policies that exist in their uh press manuals and then make the uh recomend mended changes that boards take and so specifically to 7180 state of Illinois is collecting evidence from school boards that you have adopted their new policy otherwise they are maintaining a spreadsheet that shows which educational agencies are out of compliance and have not approved it so typically when we do um policy changes um so you mentioned a second read what what is the Tim table usually like if you have to do a first read second read and approval like what we do with the budget right we is that kind of similar to the timetable we would normally look at or typically the second reading is the evening of the approval so the first read and then your second reading is the approval that you would talk so when you say first reading is that like we're working on when are we working on the actual policy as a board do we work on that decide on it and then we let a month go by and then do a first reading let a month go by and do a second reading so for like this one how are we getting how would this be a first reading then so that's actually great question um that's actually why I'm raising that this specific policy we're bringing to you collectively as a whole board right now the second reading will take place at the September board meeting only because we're still working on getting our policy committee going here so we're a detailed review and potenti poal like language questions in a policy that's being recommended for a change is at that policy Comm but then the representatives of the board will bring that to the board on the first reading and ex and walk through as a board all the changes that are being enumerated in the Press policy changes that's how it'll typically happen Daniel uh right now I so like I'm saying it that's not happening this way right now because we just agreed as a board to create the policy Committee of the board right so right now this is why with where we're at we're bringing this to the board for a conversation all the redline changes you're seeing are exactly what iasb has recommended as board policy changes got you what happens when we do adopt the policy and if it so it sounds like we're doing this just for the sake of filing with the state in a timely manner correct by 9:30 I mean that's what it sounds like so if we do go adopt this the way it is where is our language as far as the conversation we had at the last meeting the questions that are still kind of on the table as far as our understanding of like do we need to implement other changes because I don't think that we've had time to do that um you know you sent some great information as far as like um s sp90 and some of the other things and I don't see that that information necessarily shows up in our policy the way that I would feel comfortable coming from the board um um so what does that look like for us if we were to okay this version now but need knowingly like I don't think that this is everything that we need so I would imagine some of what if I you and I have talked before about it I would imagine someone that would appear in our uh potential uh board policy procedures like the procedural aspects which are things that come with a board policy um so an example uh there's a board policy on student fees right with that board policy it just enumerates specifically how we govern student fees but procedurally there are ways that we create forms and adjust to whenever that policy changes or the needs of you know if we're moving from uh no more cash in hand to a completely digital electronic way of collecting it there might be new forms that we have to update and we would just update those as a procedural item so to your point you know we do have forums we have reporting mechanisms if those are things that we see that need to be changed and altered and we get the feedback those are things that the board doesn't List have to approve through the policy those are things we work together as Administration and with each building's committees and and edit like uh update those documents so what happens if we don't adopt this by because I don't I don't I I know I personally didn't walk in here understanding I was doing a first raing um I still don't have an understanding again some of the things that we had talked about I don't think we fully circled back on everything closed those circles and understanding so I want our policy especially personally I want the policy this one specifically to I want to make sure we do it right and I want to make sure that we're thinking about all of the questions that we've had again we're not responsible of how you guys function it but without this being where it needs to be there is no accountability there is I don't think it's very like it can be strong but I think we've already acknowledged some of these little gaps that we have so without that being in there I just if I'm not ready to move forward and if anyone else felt that way what happens like what happens I'm not entirely sure other than one thing I do know uh Daniel is that the state is monitoring which districts submit the policy right that's been adopted um there's a spreadsheet that they have that they publish on their website under this particular area yeah um as far as your desire for The Conversation Piece i' probably contend the board can have that conversation right now with each other so that you can um together as a team put thoughts on the table together so that there's some understanding of what you may want us to take a look at you know under the redline version for the next by the next board meeting and give us time to review what those potential language changes and thoughts are that you guys are looking at in the policy I don't know the red line so the red line is what IB IBB right y they're Rec they want to see every District basically implement this in their policy right like this is the minimum that we need to do with to comply right the redlined information like the new that's that so if we were to submit this as is I guess I don't think I was I don't know if I understood perhaps if we were to submit this this way just to comply with the deadline what can we as a board continue to have a discussion to amend this policy without any other issues I I think so that was going to be a question I was going to ask is like Okay so let's just say we recognize we need to do something to meet our requirement is there a way that we could still continue the conversation about this one to see if we need to amend it at a subsequent board meeting after submission if there's consensus on making that those adjustments so that we can continue the conversation I don't think you have to adopt a policy and then not talk about it for another year no I I don't think so either I mean I think one of the purposes of this new committee is going to be so we can have those conversations and take a little deeper dive and have a little the board can have a little closer touch yeah we said I I know that this won't be the case for all but we did have an entire meeting we did I mean I submitted questions two months ago regarding this and we have had a discussion which I know we're not going to have for every policy that's going to be with the Committees for I don't want to to see us drop this it's fair I don't think I need to I don't want to drop it for a month I don't want to drop it at all because because of the the way that you know just things just naturally fall off we're already in this discussion we're into the school year so like I thought I was coming here today to get the questions answered and everything like that but I do understand we need to comply I'm willing to do that for compliance as long as we can revisit this um um but with movement so when we talk about the board committee you're going to have two people who are going to sit down and read this policy right let's just say it's this policy okay and then what are they doing are they going to say hey guys we need to act on this are they going to be recommending that we make amendments like what's what's happening here and then where does that come to a board discussion with all of us so that would Norm that's ex I'm sorry were you talking to me I was talking to everybody yes you yeah so that would actually you spot on you it would come back the two committee members would report back to the entire board and share what was covered you know um the administration would help develop the memo before the the two board Representatives we'll capture minutes um update what the changes are from the discussions on the policies and then they would walk through thinking but then the board would have the opportunity then at that time to weigh in and contribute to any of the policies being reviewed and discussed okay I mean I don't know that do you feel like that you guys need to review this one when we've already been talking about it as a board in order then to have another discussion do you like we're already this has already been on the table I'm okay I mean I I mean if that's the progress of the the procedure I would hope that this is the first thing that you guys are reviewing so that it comes back to us right away but it seems like we're kind of going backwards then um I mean we're having a meeting to talk about it so I can't really Danielle and Tom and I are going to get together and talk about it so ra I'm sorry um so I imagine this probably would be the first thing so I mean we were going to have a meeting to talk about it actually so I mean I know we do have some pretty detailed things that we were talking about the last meeting and I don't want to talk for you ra but um I tell you my my main concern like say that so my first thing is is let's get compliant and then let's amend to fit our needs that's where my and that's not just for this this one is for across the board because that's you know I want to be compliant yeah because I don't want to know what happens if we're non compliant well we already are with this one so right like we're already non-compliant in the way that we are not revie in my opinion we hav we haven't reviewed certain policies and very yeah so that's that's my goal is to get compliant and then we amend okay to fit our needs so I think what it would be is we want to get in compliance and if the board has other aspects of the policy that we want to look at closer that's where we would step in to make further refinements I I guess am I the only one that's looking at this like we know it needs amendments we know that it's not serving our community correctly am I alone in that no we agree with you we're just we agree with you I think there's a commitment to bring it I mean I'm hearing at least from people bring It Forward again I'm a little concerned that things move slowly and understandably right so we're going to get compliant and there may be a a quite a few other policies that we're not compliant with so months can feasibly go by months and months and months before this goes back on the table um and I just this should be our a priority is keeping our kids safe we have two things that we have to do for kids we have to uh you know provide them access and we have to keep them safe okay so I would say like if the board wants us to be the first policy review then I would have no problem being you know that once we're compliant then we give it that second scrub to further refine it to where we need it to be I I think that's really the perview of the two of you with guidance from others to determine what are the most important ones to address first I'm not aware and I just kind of asked Tom and he's probably thinking about it I'm not sure there's many other policies that you have to have a compliance on they're just like when they come from press they're recommendations from the minds of the legal attorneys you can adopt them at whatever rate you feel is important a lot of times we may find ones that this is an urgent issue we're going to go ahead and adopt it and then we're going to double back back again to talk about it to see if there's some things that need to be done because this group's going to kind of not only look at policies for whether we think they're out of date whether they're not appropriate for our needs or also if they're um if if they just um I put this if if they they kind of rise to the level of like need and when they need to be adopted an urgency right this one's clearly has urgency and that's why it's kind of going out of the proper sequence that we would like to do yeah but we're we're like it's like we thought about the committee and part of that was because of this and now it's like we're going we're taking it out of order we were talking about bullying we were talking about reviewing this we were getting questions answered and part of this it kind of came up and I think part of other discussions we should have a committee now that committee is taking it's taking priority of this discussion and that's how I'm looking at it because we've had this like you know put on an agenda since June and here we are in August and we're just going to put it backwards again and that doesn't make me super comfortable we've had a little progress as far as having an open discussion that's it um so I don't know I I just I'm I'm not super comfortable putting back on the back I mean I understand your fear right like if it gets kind of feels like it's getting back bured as it were it is right and and it's and and if it is back burner then it's it's mostly out of being able to try to meet the compliance requirement and the the past performance I guess would be from your perspective of saying hey it may not come back like if we all commit to it and maybe it doesn't come back or it gets pushed behind it that's I don't hear that from other people that are talking right now I think it could come back at the very next meeting to continue the discussion can I can I just maybe try and help uh alleviate some of the concern about the status of some of the work um one I do want to share with the board is that uh all of our Administration has gone through some retraining over the summer um and then based on some of the concerns heard I know principal PCH has also spent time with her uh Administration and the Deans in looking closer at some of their protocols that they have at the middle school and again that's that is born out of the conversations have been occurring since the like the May board meeting um and then over the summer that was part of the intentional work that our leadership team was working on in designing the other aspect is ISB has issued a template on the I know data had come up right we had talked about data as a board together and so data is another aspect that we're actually looking at right now as well um one of the things we are going to do is uh more than likely adopt the template that is is suggesting because we have to enter this data at the end of the year and so for us that takes us into power school and making sure we're formatting the data so it meets what the state's asking us to do now one of the things that I know the board I talked about at one point I might have been the June board meeting possibly July um you had asked about what type of data is it that we keep versus what has to get reported and for us we do maintain data that goes all the way down to the detailed level on the students on the students and identifiers right the state is asking us though to submit types of data codified in a manner that makes sure it's not identifiable but obviously for us our Administration especially at the building level maintain the detailed records because if they're looking into the matter they need to have the record and know who they've spoken to Etc and what the incident was so there's a descriptor to it um and I know the other question was just trying to make some efforts to make sure that our uh visibility and knowledge and understanding and education piece for students and staff was occurring um I know Holly uh immediately within the next uh time frame since that board meeting uh went and visited with the principles and took time to make sure like the I think we had mentioned to you all the bathrooms is one of the common areas that we our buildings will put up signage and information on how to like report something Holly I know confirmed and went around and made sure that our buildings were being any if there was any blind spots there that they were taken care of that if there's any gaps any any of that stuff so I know those are uh definitely the concerns that were shared and that's hopefully at least sharing out and reporting that that's where we're at um I know at the July board meeting the one thing on some of the questions um I'm trying to look at notes um and then from the building level teams and our cni department uh we're I would say approaching this from kind of a multi- uh solution based approach so one of the things that I shared with the board was that infographic that shows at a large scale systems wide how we're trying to promote the educational components for uh the social emotional side to to what policy 718 addresses and that is the work that our teams have been doing it's been coming from our student services team um our school social workers and counselors and the administration at the building level um and then our coordinator here at the district in assisting them with all that she's uh got special certifications that surround this type of work so that's kind of like that large scale side of things um at the building level our teams are definitely working on some of the resources to ensure that there supports for example one of the um contracts that was approved under consent is with the family counseling services so those are aspects and opportunities that we offer to try and help in a restorative manner when there's when there are issues that that we have a what do you call like a a list of different resources like a good toolbox for us to go to that might work for what families are comfortable with or what the students comfortable with um is it perfect and is it done my answer is no that is merely an update I'm just trying to provide for the board at the moment so I'd say for me um and like if we don't have any other pressing policies like not that we can't multitask but I would rather get do one and get it done right the first time and then move to the second one unless something comes out or we have to change and amend another policy like right away like that's my goal with this policy review is like let's look at them let's see where we need to fix it and amend it um and I mean the Bullion One like I just I know that will be on my first and foremost is to get it right and unfortunately I don't know when our meetings are going to be I can't give you a timeline because we got to set it up you know how often we're going to meet um so I don't want you to feel like like I'm not putting it on the back burner but again to get it right you kind of got to take some time to get it right when you say okay so can we not have a board meeting we talked about that um having a board meeting when we need to take a little more time allow all of us to digress things um is that not can we do that for this specifically like so that we can have more talk time about what we are looking at from the for the policy so like what you I'm trying to think maybe what you're looking for would be like maybe we we're going to meet we're going to figure out a meeting time to set this up would you prefer if it's possible for us to have that meeting before the next board meeting so we could make adjustments to it and then at the next board meeting that would be the second pass and that would have the refin of our committee meeting in there already or are you asking for a special board meeting to discuss as a board as a whole this again um to continue the conversation I don't want to sound sound repetitive I got I just I'm I'm a little I know that you guys want as the board committee for policy review to look through our policy see if we have any others that need some attention and then I understand one do want them one at a time why can't you guys do that and us as a board we're addressing this I'm a little lost on that because we already know as a board this needs work so why don't why is this not front and center while you guys are still meeting you guys can still meet and look at the other policy stuff can you not and decide like hey yeah we need to work on this and this but while we're also working on this I don't that's what we was saying like this will be the first one we work on yeah this is going to be the first one we work on right so nothing's going have to go through the committee and because I'm I'm a little confused why does this one have to go through the committee for you guys to look at it and say yeah we need to look at it it doesn't have to but this is the one that this is the one that we're doing because we we want to we're going to amend it to make it fit us so this again this is my thing is like so we're you guys amend you guys actually make the changes to the policy they don't they make recommendations to bring to the board so let's just say like yeah hey we're going to change the that's why we're talking yeah this is like we're going to change like to say hey we're going to make you know uh everyone wear use black pens like we're going to make that so we're just going to bring it like Hey we're going to amend this you have to use black pens we'll bring it to that's what it's saying like so you know something like that so we're going to we're looking at these harass the bullan harassment one we'll get it compliant and then while it's working to be compliant we're going to amend it to fit our needs and what we want other outside the what the uh Illinois School Board wants right to make itavia but yes and then you bring that to the board yeah say this is what we this is what we feel will help so we would probably give updates like this now we're in compliance also based off discussions we've made X Y and Z changes based off discussions and that's in a board meeting under policy and then we're doing like what we're doing now we're talking and then what we're so let's say I was like Hey where's this then that goes into the change I what is like like how does this all count you you you can make your recommendations and then yeah we can discuss it in fi yeah like yeah I think that's a great idea we missed that or whatever yeah it doesn't get kicked back to the committee again it could all kind of get fleshed out if and we feel it the only thing that may need dependent on the level of recommendation is an attorney review because we don't want to kind of get in a bind on something right but it and and make sure we're clear on the understanding of what's a policy and what's a procedure but beyond that I think whatever just like has happened in the past press makes a recommendation in the past individual board members I think Rob did some and others have kind of looked at it and said okay this is the rec this is what press says we recommend this one don't recommend this one we recommend this one we don't recommend that one they may take what my expectation would be is take the kind of the meeting minutes that Tom had from the meeting we had last month and see how what's missing from this policy based on what was discussed at the last month meeting say these are the items that we think should be incorporated into policy these are the items that are procedure based that would be following the policy and then they can make those recommendations it's not their goal is to try to make the policy an alignment with the board's needs not their particular needs right right right so so I don't think the conversation we had last time is lost I think there's some efficiency potentially in allowing them to meet between now and the next board meeting potentially and by the way when they meet it's a board committee it is subject to open meetings act they have to post it they have to post it people can come whatever they want they'll review it they'll talk about it and then they can then bring it with the heads up if we want on particular cases like I think might make sense of here's what we discussed and we get about a two week heads up on what might be coming so that we have time to digest and Talk Amongst ourselves individually you know think about it research talk to Tom talk to whomever and then allow that time for then the discussion to happen in open forum as it's supposed to and then make a amendments and in theory if everybody's agreed upon adopt the policy change that with that one it's not first reading second reading you get to adopt it right no no the first reading and second reading thing is probably because it has to be like officially submitted to ISB or like the the budget has to go through a very specific process because the level of public involvement they want to make sure occurs yeah this hasn't been talked about in detail so I know you guys are like kind of looking at me it's not that I don't trust you it's that this hasn't been explained to all of us um and I just want to understand that like there are certain things that each of us can catch like when I was reading through um the um Senate Bill 90 that you sent like there's a lot of things in there that I think would really help us right and it should be stuff that I think our policy does adopt so I'm hearing that you guys take that information you look at that see what applies to bavia you take all these things in consideration you guys make revisions or amendments whatever you need suggest it then you guys will send it to us a couple weeks before we're actually going to see it is that what I'm understanding that's what I'm hoping happens that's what we're working on it so this is a brand new committee so that would we're probably taking up half the agenda they might have discussed in their first meeting right now yeah yeah which is great because I mean the Commit This committee concept is fairly new right because we're recognizing that with the Strategic plan and with this uh The Bullying requirements and I'm sure there's other ones that we want to make sure there's more diligent review process of policies than we've ever really had to do in the past so this is a new structure that that thas seen at other locations that we'd like to kind of bring here so that it's an efficient conversation so we stay on point and we allow people to say okay the two of the board members have taken with maybe help from a third if they needed on a particular topic has said okay we're at least in an an agreement and understanding and then they kind of pitch it to the rest of the group right and and then that way the rest of the group can say okay I you know trust their perspective I understand what they're saying but here's this this and this and if everybody goes yeah sure let's do that we can if not adopt the policy we can formalize the r the language of the policy then get it formally reviewed however it needs to be reviewed and then adopted the next month so so this being you if I could just add a little context because this is what I was going to talk to you both about so I'm glad we're talking about it now um you know one of the things when it is is a board committee and there are board members assigned as the co-chairs so for the meeting to even be able to uh take place both co-chairs have to be present in order to meet uh the open meetings act and so that's an example of where this is why a board committee designation is very different than an administrative uh committee um that some of us lead right so for this work um another example would be of where as a board if there's something that for example this very topic if you would like to be part of the conversation and contribute you can be there it it's following the op meet meetings act um the only thing you won't be doing is you're not making actual decision by action you would be making a consensus to recommend that it does come to a board meeting for the full Board review if that makes sense so it's because it's like a a committee amongst colleagues basically so if you think it of it in a different way maybe uh Steve Tony and Brad they lead their own committees but they don't have the authority to to provide the finality of an action from their committee work it actually comes to me for approval uh so it be similar and we're all peers right so you're all peers and colleagues but the co-chairs will lead that conversation then at the end if there's a consensus to recommend let's take this to the to the full board then it's the full board that makes the action and decision on that so yeah yeah and is new so I get it it if there's other questions please Danielle I appreciate you continuing to like dive into it to figure it out it's a good it was a good discussion so I got one I guess clarifying question so if we have recommendations um for what updates we would like to see in this policy we can go ahead and submit that to you right so you can even come to our meeting or come to the meeting right join us what I'm saying I mean I guess the way I'm envisioning is like we would host our meeting and we would say this is the policy we're reviewing all the board members would know it so you have a chance to look at it and then if you have any feedback prior please provide it and then if you can't be at the meeting we'll take that input make recommendations send a committee report back to the board before the next board me so you have plenty of time to review it and then we can have a pretty robust conversation we we all convene together okay Mak sense yeah that's how I'm envisioning but it's up to you know yeah I I guess I just wanted to make sure that there there was a Avenue for uh anyone to submit um recommendations or what they think some of the language might be or you know so that's that's there and then I'm also hearing that the the priority is uh specifically the bullying policy right right off the bat here so this is the number one priority the one off there okay very good the only thing I would say is just for recordkeeping more than anything else feel free to anybody to email them directly with your comments you don't need to run it through me right this is that just copy me and Tom so that we can kind of keep it for record keeping purposes and this does not do anything with our emails are too like we're not as long as you just send like and Tom if you can confirm as long as it's like you send it to one of them and then and then kind of copy me so I'm saying aware of it I think that's fine okay as long as there's no dialogue and back and for fourth and it's a oneway street so what couldn't happen is we can't respond they can't respond to you like I would I would even hesitate to go like great idea don't like just you know thank you very much acknowledged and then and then come to the meeting to discuss it if you decide to there's going to be a little figuring it out yeah and then the other thing I'm thinking about is so then when we have a proposal for a policy change it has to be reviewed by The state lawyers uh so uh question um we would probably depending on what I would argue that depending on what the amendments are we may or may not take it to our attorneys and the reason being is um so sometimes some of the board policy updates are nothing more than legal reference updates in the footnotes those are typically when you get presented to the board it say says it'll say something to the effect of non-substantive changes I struggle with that word um right so what it means is the policy language itself is not being altered there was probably some legal case that occurred somewhere where they changed the legal reference and just updated it to a more recent case or something of that fact the ones that such as 7180 there's um Redline changes that exist within the policy now iasb has a team of legal counsil that has has reviewed this and recommended it to all member districts right if we were to amend some of the aspects of that policy to fit what the board is looking for I would under that policy I'd say let's make sure once we're done let's send that off to uh our district counil that's our attorneys just to make sure we're covered right because sometimes what's being recommended for changes is going to be consistent to what school code or Illinois state law or federal law is is stipula right um some of the aspects though that we talked about to me can also be placed under procedures which doesn't require board policy impact which is where quicker action can take place and I think that's where we can be more responsive and act like so for example if we start to get feedback that the QR codes or the bathroom signage is just not being as impactful or as effective right and is not um not something students are voicing back to us saying like I feel comfortable reporting like that right then we we can create new procedural steps as quickly as we need to and work with the relevant stakeholders and Comm and groups of employees to make that actually happen that wouldn't be a board policy that's actually the board policy might State something to the effect of a reporting mechanism is in place that's the policy but the procedure you know we didn't pick and choose that yeah in that instance you can n on it there's more flexibility to it um and again I think what personally I you know we're going to get direct student feedback through through the new Panorama survey that we're going to be implementing this year and I think that's one of those pieces right when we talk about inclusion and feeling belonging and safety we're going to hear and so if for example that I just gave if kids are saying I don't I don't want to report it through that I prefer I'm making this I prefer talking to my counselor then we may have to change on how we advertise and what we look at right even though that's a that's a very acceptable way to do it now um we may have to change the way the posters look or make it more explicitly clear you know and and um I don't I'm just trying to give an example off the top of my head right now to explain the difference between what administrative procedures are versus the actual board policy right and one thing I've kind of learned sitting here is like it's really important to distinguish those two because if you start Implement if you start mandating procedures within your policy you can't change them without coming back to the board and making those recommendations like if they find out that the QR codes are not working and they get data that says that they need to change to the counselor they can change that from a Wednesday to a Thursday if they feel it's the best rout to go right so does our policy have to reflect like I I know I've mentioned the what is it the um Tom you sent it to us I don't remember the name it was like buling act but it's the sb90 in within that document there's like one thing that had popped out I mean it's a long 50s something page document but I I'm I'm used to reading the stuff from what I used to do and it's fine I go through it and like one of the things that had jumped out was you know that every student should be able to report their bowling to whomever they're comfortable with in the building and so is that something that we and that's something for you guys but just out of curiosity like for if I was going to make recommendation does that have to be in our policy if it's here like on the if it's part of the bill language does it have to show up in the language and our policy probably make it in part of our procedure like you like so like if like he said QR code's not working and may maybe it's in our policy but let's say it's not yeah so then we can put you can report your instances of bul and through the QR code website for your trusted uh BPS employee so it actually exists in our current policy as it stands right now it's it's in there it's already explicitly stated um aside from specific named administrative positions um it also goes into stating any staff member with whom the student is comfortable speaking I think in part of it was saying that you could have that person with you is when you were dealing with it so um you know so if a kid is like hey this teacher is my person this teacher can come with that student to talk to the dean or whatever and so is that because it's a bill does that policy or is that procedure does it have to be listed in policies I believe that's a procedure I don't think every piece of it because also if there's already a state bill that floats out there sometimes repeating State bills in your policies gets very very difficult and and by difficult I mean don't mean hard to do I mean you end up that's like the attorney review you end up conflicting so that if the state Bill changes then one day then you end up having to change your policy to match the bill so the bills always supersede our policy period am I correct on that we went through yeah we have to follow state law whether your policy tells us to or not right so if the state bill says it it doesn't matter what our policy says we have to it has to be followed so no we our policy does not have to quote correct that's what I and in some ways you might not want it to but you can make a statement in there like it will follow like there's probably a statement says someone one of our other policies is we will follow all state laws yeah yeah so yeah I just wasn't sure if that's something that's a good question we have to put it very good discussion okay I would hope so with being our policy yeah yeah all right um any I'll just say this we're going to meet we're going to find a time to meet and then we'll probably let the board know pretty within the next probably five business days when we're going to have our first meeting okay Mark so everybody upset and just to reconfirm we are looking to first read this today today as the changes as required second would be next meeting to have it put through but we are all like in agreement that we are doing that with the understanding of amending it well yeah so like we're going to review policy will be the Pol this like this will be the policy but we can do our procedures which amends to like to fit our needs and if we need be we if need be just to clarify if need be you can modify the policy to tune it to what we want it to be yeah that's what I'm in in excess and I mean maybe they get together and they meet and maybe we could do that beforehand in this because the first reading and the second reading correct me if I'm wrong don't have to be the exact same policy they can have amendments to it because that's the whole kind of point of first read second read right right so yeah but we're not going I just want to make again I'm just clarifying and making sure that we're on the same page that we are doing it on this but we are coming back once you guys do your thing and we will with the understanding that we may be amending the same a policy that we are looking to approve next month yes yes correct yes okay any other questions on this all right any other policy updates any other policy update will come through the committee this is the one that we wanted to prioritize okay all right thank you very much um actually one thing I wanted to I'm to question so we may end up with a mix of ISB recommended revisions and then our own personal like ones as a board inquiry not an answer that I'm asking for is can those be like tagged or footnoted in that very nice in my opinion kind of redlined document so that if you're looking at it you know this language was recommended by ISB and this language is recommended by us that's a good idea it's a great idea unfortunately with what we have there it it's not capable of doing that there's ways that we could indicate that of course but not in that red line you play FL notes and stuff in there or no okay by the way just yeah we can we can add more features that's def that's something that's was homegrown for us and and we're we have other features in mind that we plan on adding and so it's something that we can put it on the wish list maybe yeah certainly because I think it would be helpful because when I'm looking at it I I don't know what was responsive to our conversation or versus what was required by the you know right and and my opinion it could be like a at the end of a sentence a little parenthesis I little parenthesis b i stands for ISB b stands for board or something like that you know some sort of indication yeah I floating it out there so okay all right uh next uh we now have items for Action so we items 6.1 approval or review of the data dashboard all right so board as I uh had shared before tonight's item for you does not have to be acted on tonight I just want you to be super super clear about this because I realize you are seeing this um you know with fresh eyes and having a firsttime discussion the only reason why I had listed this as discussion and action is in the event that after reading your board book if you all came to a quick consensus and felt very comfortable with one of the options that are presented to you then you could act on it tonight otherwise if the Board needs more time we're good to go um okay so uh having said that uh with the adoption uh the board's adoption of the district strategic plan um we made sure that we had called out that our data dashboard uh would be an area that the measurement the measur measurables of our areas of priority are what we are using to be transp arent and hold ourselves accountable uh to the goals and priorities of our work right and so moving that forward we're giving you options to take a look at as a board what you would like to do in terms of how we interface with the public or anyone who lands on that um data dashboard and in front of you you have uh three options the the links that were provided to you will give you an idea as to what each option looks like um and we also Prov provided you with the ability to scale that basically um you know if you take a look at row four that's us doing the work and we can do it that comes within the scope of our own abilities and uh that would obviously be free in terms of not needing to add any resources to maintaining that version of a dashboard Row three is uh another St to take a look at this one does have costs associated to it um again we tried to highlight for you kind of just some summary details and what the pros might be to that option and then we did the same thing for row two with clear go right so the annual fees if you notice um are lower there's for each of those paid options there's a startup fee and a setup fee um if we were to go with that so I'll just get started I'm sort of leaning towards option one or two not the third one I know it costs money but I feel like this is what these people do and so we'll get more act the data will be uh more interactive and uh I think the interface might be easier we won't be figuring it out if we do it ourselves I mean I'm sure we would do a good job but this is what these people do and they've been doing it like item two is for the city of Pavia so people are used to using that information so I'm open to a discussion on all of them but I'm leaning more towards the first two options even though there is some cost associated with it so if you click on those links do we see the actual yeah you do can we do that here for so can you go review kind of like of the three options which one is more realtime data like gets updates more regularly I know one of them is we do the work I mean all of them we do a little bit of the work address that it's more about the layers of data that's presented okay so like this every time I clicked was another layer right so you have it could be just where are we at and completing our fiveyear plan we're at 70% of it and that might be all that somebody wants to learn right um somebody want to drill down farther into each of the priorities and each of the key performance indicators under each of those priorities and if we've accomplished those goals and what percentage we have completed and what action items are tied to each one of those goals and how much those have been completed um that all that information is available in all of the systems that we've shown here however because this is developed as a layered and um Dynamic site it is the user chooses what layer they want to how far they want to dive whereas if we create it it is a snapshot in time okay so this is and and you would say here's the 10 snapshots that we would like displayed on our website page and with those snapshots will be updated twice a year so so these numbers might only be in all of them updated twice a year but it's the amount of dat so the accuracy is the same it's the amount that you want how granular you can get exactly okay so what we see here for what we have now that is what we would keep there are no ways to add layers into what we see here like in this one on our right that so basically it is almost like um we could cater what you saw on that page so we would say no we don't want to see that indicator we'd like to see this one instead um however granular you'd want that to be or top level you'd want it to be and then we would pull that report take that shot put it up on the website twice a year and it's accurate to that time like I said I and I can show you the example as you just showed me on your screen the one for us yeah so this is taken from five laab which is where we put all of our information from our student information system and all the different tests and reports and everything that goes up into it so this is the current data as of today and some of it shows year over-year which is somewhat layered but it's a snapshot so these numbers really won't change for most of this because you know they only take map tests a couple of time you know it's not it's not changing right ACT scores are not changing every week right so we're providing accurate data to the day that it was pulled but with these other websites they people could look at from different 10,000 ft to really granular basically M and we can we could say on those websites we could put a limit like we could say we only want it to go down to building level not to grade level or not to you know whatever layer we want it to stop at we can put a pause with this we would just be able to specifically pick which 10 five 30 maybe one tied to each key performance indicator that we display on the page as a static image one of the things that's kind of neat about the the New Orleans one is that it kind of talks about progress and Status right which I didn't necessarily see on I mean it certainly is not on the one that we're kind of currently doing ours as a and we can add dialogue yeah yeah but not layered right so like it could be even that we put our strategic plan up there and then we make a little picture or link that takes it takes you to the one key performance indicator image that shows the graph or chart um and have a lot of information in there that says this is how we got to this this is the part of the Strategic plan this ties to and dialogue within that page but something like this shows you okay so this would be like for us our three key priorities let's say would be shown right here and this shows you by the these colors down here how far we are and accomplishing our priority number one right um priority number two priority number three and again you could go into here and say all right here's our priority number one here's the 12 things that we have identified as our actions action plan to accomplish this and then next layer could be what the ACT you know each of the data sets that tie to it but again it kind of gives descriptors along each of these paths to say what it means and also gives you its own little percentage do we know what we're going to have on the dashboard so I that might be helpful to know if it's just like test scores I don't know that we need it to be super interactive but if we're tracking progress of various things that need explanation behind it I don't think ours will do it you know what are we tracking exactly to we decide that hasn't I mean that I think that's part of one of the next steps yeah I think this is just saying okay this is the framework it's in and maybe right now the question is do we have one that's kind of robust enough to be able to allow for the depth we may get to you know because I think there's going to be some need and I mean as a person who's tried to kind of work through particularly like when we were looking at kind of referendum stuff and things like that there's a lot of data there and it's like this is pretty navigable um that I think I think we would do a great job at it don't get me wrong but I think there's ways that some of these other kind of template is things would allow it to get a little bit more rich and feel more kind of approachable as well I mean I I love a bar chart as much as everybody else but when it kind of spins and does fun things you know there it feels engaging so and again the data is exactly the same it will be the same around the back side of this literally Jean Marie will if we decide in one of these let's say we go with clear go she will throw information into five lab up into Panorama or wherever the next place is and in here click click click all at the same time it's the same exact data it's just how we are presenting it out and what layers we choose so for like ours we can't say this is strategy one and in that layer then this is under strategy one and here's a goal under we can't do that with ours could we it would not be dynamic like in a in a in Aur click on this link click on this link go to this page or here's the next page or it wouldn't be like all right I saw this number here and I want to know the 10 decisions that went underneath that and here's the four goals that they're trying to accomplish it would it would it would just be like a kind of a a decision tree kind of like we' be going here and into this space and down to the next space I mean I think I like this and we're going to be talking about the budget soon and that's an example of like some people just want the 10,000 foot view but I mean you can get super Grand on a 100 different metrics on that so to your point I'm sure there'll be some things we're measuring that's pretty cut and dry pretty basic but then there'll be a lot where different members of the community are going to want looking at it from different levels of granularity and so I like having that available to them are any of these more facilate inputting the data than the other no okay if we made a decision how quick can we Implement um I think they were 60 days because the data is there so you have you have some data to put in telling it yeah it's just telling them where to pull it from or us putting it in and Hol the Gap time is due to them doing a site buildout to our des and the layout and the coding and yeah so the big difference between two and three appears to be that three is more TurnKey they will do the graphics they will help create it they will give you the template that you will start to input data in teach you how to build that so you can build others later two like you highlight there we're solely responsible for creating Graphics Matrix and the dashboards they basically give you they give us that framework like that you saw in the city of bavia site where it's like here's the different ways to drill down we would then it's like dropping like you're when you're designing a website you pull this box in and you drop it here okay well I want a text box here so I can describe all the information that I want it to and I want this to be displayed as a pie chart and it'll show you how what data to pull into the pie chart so it's a little bit more of a build on our side um whereas the other one we would say these are the 12 pages that we would like or layers that we would like it to have here's all the data they walk us through they show us how to do it but they also would create like the first 10 and then if we decide that over time we would like you know here's a new metrics we want or data set that we would like to show show on our dashboard we would know how to make that 11th one or whatever and adjust it over time or hire them if we decide we need to for timing to well we'll P an annual fee for them as to keep up with any kind I'm just saying if we want another page or another depth I'm sure they have an ability to help it because that's it kind of explains why there's a fairly Hefty difference on the setup feed component between those two yeah what's your preference h knew it was going to come Holly the question I um it's tough for me to say I was I of course we went to the city of atavian because they had the dashboard got their recommendations say they love working with them it was a great process staff loves it all positive feedback about the clear go proposal so that was kind of a a a good starting point for us I knew we wanted the Baseline of what we've had in the past and what we could do in house and then I was like I did research on just regular dashboards and then this came up as one that many used as an example of a polished place so then I reached out to that company to get a proposal the customer service aspect from both of them is very highly rated testimonials are fantastic for both of them um I I think that as a user personally and this shouldn't be a reflection of what the community would necessarily want but having something that is more interactive and easy to navigate and pretty to look at the New Orleans Public Library I think fits that bill yeah I mean that's that's kind of my inclination is just because I want it to be engaging and I want it to feel rich when you're looking at it and so that people will be interested in diving into the information to the point they feel comfortable you know so that's my personal opinion I would vote for ease of use it's the top priority and ease of administration say readability yeah okay let's keep it simple I would throw out there that we don't know the target audience exactly we don't know what we're going to have on here and it's hard for me to imagine spending that much money to put data out there that we don't know is even going to be looked at I'm just I'm looking at this thinking while the city's spending that much money yearly to have this datea out there that I've never seen before I'd much rather put this money somewhere else um maybe even take a year to have our dashboard created in house before we decide to make it pretty that's just my thought moment if we don't do a change in the dashboard you know we had talked about going to the Strategic plan that we would have like by like when did we I think we said two times a year that we would get updates kind of on where we're at so we'll do a by annual report one the first coming within either December or January for the board and then the next one coming at the end of the school year so even if we didn't have something like that in place click click click the community could still hear potentially like this where we're at on strategy one you know or whatever your updates are like just going off of what RJ is saying if we try to update ours alone and it may not have all of the interactive faces behind it but just kind of see like what data do we actually need to take from the Strategic plan what are we looking at the public can still access information via like your updates and via the website that we have correct right let I hear you RJ like I I I don't we don't know what we're putting on there we don't know I feel like people have made it clear they do want to see like where we're at on things but I don't even know what we're putting on there necessarily it's different can I can I uh do you mind if I help with that question that you're asking pleas so the Strategic plan I would I would probably say actually does give anyone who puts their eyes on our organization's plan uh an indication of what we are going to be putting on there um example being one of the areas call for student chronic absenteeism and that our goal is to try and reduce that number to to get our students to come to school on a regular basis right um so to me if I if I were just a parent or a Community member I would just naturally assume all the district's going to put something having to do with student attendance on the dashboard does that make sense that makes sense right so then um another one from a teaching and learning perspective would be like act because the states moved from the SAT the ACT this year so because that's only a onetime assessment per year and it comes at the back end of the year and we don't get the results until the summer so for us next year on our dashboard we would have an ACT score reported right and then on our dashboard year-over-year moving forward we would be able to have that metric there right um in terms of uh sense of belonging our Panorama survey that's going to be um administered this uh multiple times throughout the year that gives us an ability to report out what percentage of our students are saying I feel like I have a a safe adult to speak to right or connect to and that we would be able to show that and obviously we want that number to hit 100% but we'll get a baseline going and be able to kind of report that time over time so I mean so when people are looking at that it's like we're looking at a focus on how how do we uh Foster that sense of belonging for students to be in our schools then again that's where um you know we talk about the specific data that we use and that's why I'm I'm excited that you all approve the Panorama recommendation because now the students are actually going to take their own survey instead of the old tool that we used previously so here's here's a and this may be a question just for clarity so it causes me thinking when you're talking about like as an example chronic absenteeism right you're going to go here's the data to one of the two top companies and that's going to be whatever data we're having to collect in on that uh by grade by school by K12 K k6 K5 whatever K5 k68 High School by ethnicity by gender however it might get you just upload that data and then they will work to figure out how deep people want to go for option number three somebody has to preet up what those they're going to be going into and begin to make those images is for each one of those potential exploration points right so the data will already be there it's just we'll have to do the drill down ourself to get to that image then pull the image and put it on the website right so you have to like intentional decide which ones whereas if someone just goes up to the other websites they're almost creating on the Fly the image that the rosette or the pie chart that they're looking at whereas someone i' almost have to say well I don't see this chart on here then Holly would have to go okay you're right that's a great one let's go make the chart and put it on our website so RJ I do agree with you I think what I'm the lens I'm viewing it as is you know we talk about transparency a lot and this is sort of our transparency and transparency means different things to different people so this would give a greater bandwidth of people in our community to be able to access to the level of details that they might want without having to make requests all the time well I I want to see to this level or I mean you're never going to make everybody happy no matter what tool we use but this seems like this might hit a bigger cross-section of people to hit that whatever Sweet Spot they're looking for when it comes to the level of information they want to obtain does anyone feel the need to reach out to community and see what they want I mean is that necessary we've never asked the community what what are you looking for when you're looking at data is that worth it with a price tag of this amount to see if it's even something that's necessary or do you guys feel like you've heard about that I've not explored that with any I have no no leaning on that personally so but do we want to engage with the community and see what what they would like since they're the ones that are accessing it you're saying like a survey we would send out I I don't know how that works but yeah I guess maybe a survey I don't know I don't know I think part back I don't know yeah my initial thought is along the line what Tom was talking about earlier is kind of a part of the development of the the Strategic plan process there's kind of specific things we've already been told and like what may be up for discussion to kind of ask is say hey maybe at the by our next meeting here's the list of the things that the Strategic plan seems to imply that we would already kind of have cr Amis and this this this this this that might be those initial sets of charts and maybe that can give a little bit of framework of okay right now we're talking about 17 of them with three data sets below hand or we're talking about 17 of of them with 95 data sets below them that we can't do we can't potentially do on our own I mean if we have data that we can look at that was taken from those sit Downs maybe that's the approach we need to take first to say like you know how many points do we have how deep does the community actually want to go that was not an area of focus so there's not going to be very specific feedback for that um the feedback with with regard to it was more focused on communication from the district to stakeholders which is where we got our feedback in regards to a specific um to your point about the dashboard itself there's no there's not going to be really any feedback in that not for that part I'm saying I I guess what I understood from what Craig was saying was use those conversations to say here was a feedback you know there was this concern this concern it was attendance and that like is there a need to have are there like legitimately from the stuff you guys took in from the community conversations oh oh absolutely that that is what the plan is so if you you to look at what we have can that be done on this like what you took in can we put it here with what we have or do would we absolutely have to use an outside company to get deeper into different levels um so this goes back to uh I think what Holly was trying to explain is that if we go with the in-house version we don't have the Staffing power to get as uh adaptive and flexible as I think you see in the other companies and their features that's kind of one snapshot it would be I get that but I think you're saying like can we provide the extra layers and everything what we would have to do is curate the data to think about each like think of like um like a photo book you know like the old photo books right uh there one picture right there we would have to create page after page with all those templates and we could do it but we don't have the current we we wouldn't be able to um pull staff off of their projects right now to do that on a regular basis is what I'm saying so the people who are on the steering committee you guys and the people who are involved in taking in that data do you feel that we can appropriately communicate with our community what they were looking for from those surveys and all that from this website that we have already well the way I look at it is uh we can communicate for sure we can put a version out there okay um but I think what we what we found is and demonstrated by the use of the previous dashboard was there was no engagement or um and so the way I look at it is um getting the data is going to be the most important thing but I think if you put a right site um visually make it easy to use easy to understand that's the direction I think that they want to from from the feedback the last site was well one it wasn't really updated that often and two it was to me it was kind of hard to understand really and and one the other thing was maybe not all the the metrics were um were what they wanted so but that's part of the Strategic plan was to get that feedback and say what are what are the stuff we're going to we're going to do so that's my perspective but Tom one other question so the so back to the resources like are we going to are you feel comfortable that we have the people in place to be able to populate this uh like collect the data and be able to um yes you know populate the sites so it's already being done and I did um meet with Jean Marie who's the one that already puts the data up to all the other sites and she said that just the couple times a year whenever those frequencies happen for whenever the test results and data come out when she puts the information literally would just be an upload because they take the same file format that she's already pushing up to like five land and yeah because I think the one you could make this as pretty as all get out but if you're not updating it and with accurate data um you're just going to lose everybody it would be updated either any one of these it would be updated at the same whenever the information is available H if we went with one of the first two vendors I mean is it a year one-year contract so yes they're one- year contracts they of course encourage fiveyear something the length of the plan you know to keep it consistency and they so discount on the way but I we could do one year I mean so kind of where I'm going to with Rob is we're trying to get more engagement I mean we could try it for a year or two and see if and then you could survey people like how do you like the new website is it working for you is you know I mean if we're trying to pull people but I I would say I if if that was the case I would probably go with like the RJ trial of just putting up the 15 data points that we found are most important that were shared through all the feedback to the Strategic plan find whatever those data points are true and see all of those then create the dashboard put it out there hey everybody here's this dashboard here's all the information it ties back to our strategic plan follow along as we track this year-over-year and if nobody's looking at it then maybe we go with a company to help us create more Lively engagement because we're hearing that people like it's stale it's boring it's just pictures on a page I want more than that is an option I will say the engagement thing means something my company does some things like with facility assessments where we like determine when the end of life of equipment is I know Stellar exciting right but we have bar charts that we do that talk about how much you're going to spend year over year and year that's fine it's great but we use a product called powerbi that comes as a part of an that does these super interactive rosettes so you can click on it and click on it on I can bore a board member to tears but as soon as I put that rosette up and I click on it and it spins and it opens and it does things everybody gets immediately engaged you're getting excited just talking about it try to keep away no yeah it's I mean it it just it kind of it's kind of quite amazing about how it's like just change the course of being able to digest the data for people as well now can I ask a quick question for H here uh H can you remind me because I think you covered this with me sorry um do the vendor products have the ability to track clicks onto the website like Landing visit sites we can it's it's a full uh dashboard for staff I shouldn't use the word dashboard but interactive uh report and we do too program that we could P how often they went to each of the different layers within the pages I mean for me like the question you asked earlier right we have a we have a fiveyear or so strategic plan do you take year one to say okay we're going to collect some data so we know what we're going to put up there and everything else we put it up there and the thing that we've already been doing and it cost us effectively no extra money right and if that is digestible and reachable and and we feel it's not and then we go get some input if we need to about are we communicating well enough and a feedback we later then we say okay that's not working maybe we do need to level up our game a bit that's the real question here in my from what I'm hearing before from the discussion and there is something to be said the fact that this is a um hot topic now and we'll probably get more people looking at it when we watch it then we will right so do we want to launch with here's the 15 things we think you want to look at or do we want to launch engagement with our community with something that is dynamic and interactive that they might want to come back to to look at over year over year and that's a great good point so I don't I mean if people want to continue talking about this I think for me personally what I would like to do is maybe we don't have to vote on this tonight we had a good discussion I might do like a little personal poll of people that you know hey what do you think of the district website engagement and do a little personal more research on it and then come back the next meeting and might have a little more anecdotal okay thoughts on it Anybody Everybody generally agree with that yeah I'd like to go in and I'm going to be honest I don't think I've ever clicked on all the stuff so I would like to see what's in there and what we're what we're actually working with right now well and Holly you brought up a really good point right there's a chance that we say hey we got this new communication tool and we're showing you all this new and they pull it up it looks just the same as it did last time I don't think it's new at all we're promising you transparency and nobody knew if it was updated or anything else okay we also do have the opportunity before a year too don't we we're like whoa this really isn't working the way we thought we can always give it to something different if we came back next meeting we're like let's see how it goes okay Dan I agree with you uh I think if the board lands on wanting to use one of these outside groups I don't think my recommendation will be locking us into a 5year agreement or anything like that just for your point that you're making that one okay so I'm if I'm hearing because I saw the head nods we'll just bring this back as an action item and discussion again at September right yep okay all right thank you awesome thank you for the conversation I do want to say I think Tony was excited when he mentioned asset ended life I thought it was the reference to rosett well rosettes unfortunately my budget presentation doesn't have any rosettes but I do promise that it'll be quite a gauging you like data P charts all right Tony let rip all right I'm going to connect to the projector so that I can navigate through the documents momentarily yes so this is our final review of it it is is up for adoption tonight so it's one action But it includes two components one is the official adoption of the budget and it that budget includes fund transfers as well that are outlined in and that can be done under One Singular motion correct okay killing time here while you get connected appreciate that thank you this home bre you do not want that we' all like to sing Happy Birthday go for it I'm grab a wire sure I'm okay thank you yes Garson all right just a quick run through of the components of the budget it's changed slightly since you saw it last overall deficit of 1.2 million however there is a surplus in the operating funds we estimate that the pending fund balance would be some 64 million and the fund balanced Revenue ratio would be about 48% uh you'll notice just comparing to Prior years overall revenues would be $133 million that's down slightly from the prior year where it was 133.5 uh and the reason why there is a decline in revenue is for two reasons one we spent the last our federal funding for the pandemic so that money is spent we're not getting any more of it and we're going to start to see a slight decline in property taxes as we're paying off our bonds and I'll talk more about that in a bit meanwhile our expenditures will increase from $130 million to 134 so that gives us the difference of 1.2 and you can see what the net Surplus was for the prior three years um be very clear that the deficit is not in our operating funds it's in capital expenditures and as you recall each year we transfer money from our operations and maintenance fund to the capital projects fund and we use that fund as a savings account or kind of a piggy bank because of the size and scope and timing of capital projects I'll show you more about that in a bit so the deficit really is driven by spending a fun balance from the capital projects fund and it's intended to be a temporary thing uh we're going to see an increase in salaries and benefits um that's not a correct number I think that it wasn't a 39.2% increase in exempt staff um it's a probably a 9.2% increase uh so that's an error um but there are is a sizable increase in PA Professionals in terms of wages and uh in terms of um positions so we had a lot of vacancies in the prior year so we're comparing actual spending to what we budget so that's going to increase by 11.4% there a moderate increase overall in teacher salaries we'll talk more about that briefly and then um significant increase in benefits because we're bringing the 403b and 457 B match online for for teachers so stay tuned for more discussion on that overall we're increasing Staffing by 11.4 FTE so despite our enrollment declines we're we'll have more staff um and that is for specialized programs and for administrative support and so overall we'll see a staffing increase of 4.2% enrollment will be expected to be or enrollment as of the first a of school was 5,181 for what was called the fall housing report that's on October 1st but that looks like it's going to be very near our enrollment for the year um that is a little bit more than what we had projected in our enrollment projections that I share with you last fall so that's some 21 students more and that's primarily at the elementary level so we have more students moving into town than we expected and more than birth rates alone would lead us to predict we see so that's I think good news is is that seemingly spread pretty evenly across the district or no they never show up wish is not evenly distributed they always show up and seemingly the wrong spots overall however our pupil to staff ratio will go from 7 .9 to 7.6 and just a few years ago was 8.2 so uh we're hiring more staff we have fewer students that ratio is improving and our class sizes I would argue uh looking at average class sizes have never been better in our history at least since we have been in modern times monitoring those as closely as we do that doesn't mean that there aren't issues with class sizes here and there it's just again kids showing up in Pockets that you you know don't necessarily have control over or if you add another SE section it just doesn't make sense to have classes that small because it's not efficient um so overall I'm going to jump around here just just give you some better insight into what is in this document go to the profile overall you'll see that we have a what be a financial rating from the state of Illinois the State Board of Education analyzes School District finances um years ago when I first became the chief School business official for bavia we were on the kind of we were almost almost in morning status because our finances were so poor and over the course of these last 10 or so years they've improved quite dramatically in fact for the last for the last two years and will be this year we expect to have a 4.0 rating which is the highest rating that you can get so that's wonderful our bond rating do you just put five up there so that we can try to achieve for something or four as high as we get four as high as you get okay four it's like a it's like a grade point average four is the highest you can get there's no honors waiting or anything our bond rating has improved from the third Notch to the second with S&P so we have a A doublea plus Bond rating our fund balances have improved quite dramatically and that's one of the reasons why we have a 4.0 we're not issuing what our T called tax anticipation warrants where we were doing payday loans we didn't we used to have to borrow money to get through the year so that we could pay our bills don't that anymore and a lot of re one of the key reasons why our finances have improved is because we've been able to contain our spending and benefits so for a number of years our spending would be on average it would increase for benefits 15% some years it would be as little as 12 and others it was as much as 18% and you can imagine benefits are very expensive and where they're increasing at that clip it puts a lot of stress on the system and in the last five years we've been able to keep that increase to either zero for most of these years and this year we're going to see a 5% increase in our insurance rates so that's a success story overall um wanted to show you in terms of what our expenses are on a cur student basis so this is our what we call our operating expenses per pupil the green line is us so in 2020 you saw our operating expense per pupil was some almost $15,000 that was obviously a very strange year that number was lower than it should have been because there were a lot of unrealized expenditures in that year because I think you remember what happened there was a lot of things that in the later the last half and quarter of the year that there was expenses that we didn't we didn't see come to fruition however in 2021 we saw a lot of expenses come to fruition because we were dealing with Blended learning hybrid learning and we also had a lot of money from the feds to deal with the pandemic so that increased things and you see it kind of check and increasing to some would I expect to be right around $20,000 in the current fiscal year and we're comparing ourselves here to the K County average the average of spending operating expense spending per student in all the other districts in K County and in the state of Illinois so for 2022 and 2023 we were a little less we don't have the numbers yet for 24 and 25 but I would expect we're on par with those so we were less slightly yeah about it in 21 we were we're going to continue to see pressure on this as our student enrollment continues to decline we expect that it will stabilize somewhere in the next five years but as it's simple math right if your expenditures are going up and you're dividing that by the number of students you have and that's going down you're going to see increases in your operating expense per pup that's not unique to bavia that's happening all across the state of New actually all across the country what cost the same to heat the high school whether there's 1800 students or 1600 yes I do worry about hiring more staff and I I do get this out there there are definitely needs and escalating expectations escalating needs and expectations that we need to meet the needs of students and we do need to have more staff to do that but as we have fewer and fewer students that becomes challenging and so what I always talk about is we have to stay on the Glide path and for reasons I'll talk about momentarily is our only lover for new money is from local property taxes that's the only place where we're getting any money uh we do get we I I guess I'm not being fair to the state of Illinois since we're tier four we're at tier four funding so that the state of Illinois does calculations every year to determine what is adequate funding for school districts and it's a wonderful formula because it's Equitable but for us however they have determined that we have adequate funding and so what we get is a whopping literally $55,000 in new money from the state of Illinois as as a tier 4,000,000,000 not 500,000 $5,000 literally $5,000 new money from the state of Illinois and we can't expect any more money from them to support general education because we have adequate resources here locally to take care of it so the only place that we're going to get more Revenue to deal with the needs that we face is from local property taxes but there's good news on that front I want to show you here's the property taxes from since 2019 the green bars are average Market valuable home I'm doing market value in 2023 so the market Aver the the the median market value of a home in bavia was $399,000 in 2023 so if you ratchet that back based off of the average increases in our equalized assess value that same home would have been worth very near $346,000 in 2019 and that home would have paid 6,668 in property taxes in the current year they're going to be paying 7,329 but next year as we start to pay off these bonds we're going to see that Bond and interest payment decline significantly it'll have itself and we're going to see a decline in property taxes in 2020 in the levy year 2024 just keep in mind this is what confuses me all the time there's school years calendar years tax years Levy years and all these things combined suffice to say people are say well I was expecting my taxes to go down they will it just that tax bill hasn't that that Levy year hasn't happened yet so when we do the 2024 tax levy we'll Levy for yet less and when people pay their taxes in 2025 they'll see smaller tax B have a question sorry yeah so the green bar is the average median the median Medi and the red so if your if your home is $3.99 you pay is the 7,000 go to the school or that's just your taxes that's just going to the school those are great questions thank you for asking and I gloss over those details but these are school taxes okay um going back to Staffing momentarily let's look first of all at their Staffing to student ratio I mentioned that earlier you can see our student enrollment in the blue bars and then there's two lines that cross them the yellowish orangish line is the P teacher ratio so those are teachers in our classrooms you can see that our ratio was 12.9 students to every teacher in 2021 and then now that that is down to 12.1 and that is a market difference in that span it seems like fractions but that's a huge difference and uh the same for the people the staff ratio that's all the people that work for the school districts that's going from 8.2 2021 to 7.6 in 2025 so hang on so for 20 so so the budget for 20125 you have the 12.1 for the pupil to teach but in there but in your thing I'm sorry it says 7.9 ratio student to teacher ratio so 7.9 you'll see is I want thank you for paying close attention I appreciate that and I do make mistakes so you know I I found one earlier so I apologize but here's the 7.9 in 2024 our pupil to staff ratio was 7.9 and in 2025 it'll be 7.6 the broader Trend 2021 is coming down from 8.2 right so that's what I'm saying like you said the 12 one is this teacher yes but in your report it said 7.9 there's two different ratios and I only mentioned the Staffing the general Staffing ratio and the summary I think I I don't I think I know what you're talking about here yeah on page six is it a typo your that's a typo I think right there is that what you're talking about that so well right here the and pupil the teacher oh I see what you're saying staff the staff and St yeah got it got it does that make sense yeah got it got I got itk make a mistake I apologize we got it you got it this is why I print but and so just to be clear it's any cert teacher is considered a certified staff yes it's your teachers your instructional coaches and the green bar is everybody who works here uh looking at uh just we talked about was driving this deficit just Capital outlay part of the conversation that we had last month and these these transfers wanted to make sure it was clear what's happening in in this graph here I'm showing these blue bars which are the allocations or the transfers to the capital projects from capital projects fund so our contributions each year into the piggy bank you see we made a big one in 2023 and that number is declining at 24 and 25 in 23 we're gearing up for the work that we did at Alis Guston and JB Nelson school and a number of other things so we've made bigger contributions and the size of that work and the timing of it was such that some of those bills really came due in 2024 and you can see we spent the Lion Share of that here but I wanted to compare what's going into the account what's and what's coming out sometimes we have to save money because some of these projects are so big for a couple years to be able to afford them and sometimes the timing of when we get the bills and when the project or when the work actually happens we can't always predict exactly which fiscal year I think that's an important point because we're trying to live within our means so we're you know we're saving before we start unfortunately contractors don't take IUS so we they they do accept checks and cash but um we don't pay in cash of course but uh we have to have money there to pay those bills you don't show up with a suitcase no cash discount I forgot did I I may have asked you this but by law do we have to have a balanced budget um if you don't have a balanced budget you have to file what's called a deficit reduction plan with the state of Illinois but that's only for the operating funds okay so technically with what the state of Illinois looks at they're looking for a balanced budget with the operating funds and that's exactly what we have okay let's So This 1.2 million deficit is that would that be considered not balanced then or I consider it not balanced yes okay but we're going to make we're going to bring the funds in from another source we have the money in the bank we're spending money that's in the bank we're spending more the money that's in the bank our fund balance yeah we're spending more of it than we're taking in in a given year because we were planning to and uh we're not overspending what's there okay does that I'm not doing a good job explaining it unfortunately well I'm saying you're going to you're going to be compliant yes we're we're compliant we don't have a deficit as far as the state of ill is concerned where we have to make adjustments to how we spend money and uh yeah hopefully and this is the list of the capital projects that we're be tackling here in fiscal 25 now on fiscal 26 that's when we'll start paying for some of the work that we're doing at we're planning to do at HC Storm school and at Louise White actually Louise White wouldn't take place until 27th um but there'll be significant outl for those for that work you'll see the bids come back for that probably in November where we would ask you to approve that even though they are not captured exactly in this budget other questions or thoughts that you have yeah didn't we just resurface the tennis cours that was like uh I think that was nine years ago and they're not they're in rough shape One tennis courts I seems like Chris can speak to that are they bad they're bad but doesn't it seem like we just redid them they're terrible they're terrible we can't we can't host tournaments uh just so the board can keep in mind too uh last year last December we approved the warm safe drive plan right which had a 5-year projection and vision for the capital projects we needed to do um you know as we come towards the back end of what Tony is sharing and presenting to you we're going have to keep in mind that we will be coming back to you at some point with a new fiveyear more plan because as you know I mean everything is on a cycle of Maintenance and so you know we have that coming uh we're continually monitoring I know Tony and Mar are constantly in touch with what's needed and so are our building leaders so just to keep that in mind I did forget to mention kind of the biggest areas where we're seeing increases one is our retirement incentive for the Bea um we had a lot of teachers who retired last year and so one of the reasons why we're seeing only a 2.5% increase on teacher salaries is because a lot of teachers retired we incentivized them to do so and the teachers that are coming in behind them are new teachers they don't cost as much so that is working that does mean people are getting 2.5% raises they're getting usually much more than that uh and then the other thing that you'll see here is regular programs k12 and you'll see there's a 49% increase there uh that's a sizable number it's about a million dollars a lot of that is driven by the new matching program coming online and so that is a very innovative program that's as far as I know is unique to bavia where the board is matching contributions to 403b and 457 BS that teachers make up to $1,000 and that thousand is geared toward younger teachers that are making less so the less you make the more you get and it phases out the more money you make and the reason why that's important is because all of our new teachers are what are called tier two in the pension system so the pension benefits aren't anywhere near what tier one was so if you were hired after January 1st of 2011 you're considered tier two and your pension benefits and the years that you can retire is completely different than what has traditionally been the case and these individuals will have to say for their retirement and what we're trying to encourage them to do is to do that when they start working for us right away and if I can just add something sorry Tony we didn't talk about this but it's really exciting for me personally because and during our intakes every year I always try to talk about save for yourself save for yourself 403bs 403bs and a lot of people I think they hear that but they don't act on it now they're acting on it because we've incentivized them to do so and so feel like we're setting up our new staff on a very good trajectory we actually had uh I had a teacher who we have a teacher here who's transferred who's from a different District probably worked eight or 10 years elsewhere and he's like I have never seen a district show us and basically encourage us to get 0 403b in my life and he's worked at a couple school districts and he's like and I'm a 10-year person and I haven't had one but I'm finally setting one up so this is good for our staff long term and I'm really excited about what we're seeing yeah so I am very excited about too and it's something that I do brag about with my colleagues because I I I think this is exactly what we need to do to help people who are in that that tier level another item that's increasing dramatically I would say is the people trans ation activities in athletics that's increasing sizeably but that is paying for the um activity buses that the after school activity buses that take students home after school activities at both the high school and middle school is that well used um I yes there's certain routes that are used more than others and there's certain times of years that it's that it's used more and less depending on what's going on in the in the seasons but good now need to do a better job I think of tracking that and probably recording to you how well is you I'd like to know because I remember asking about it years ago oh no those buses besides there those schedule routes and times they are used for other stuff at other times then or these are yellow buses oh yellow buses so we're paying not the okay these are the contractors we use the word we have activity buses the yellow buses we call activity buses too so that gets really confusing this okay all right not the I know which ones you're talking about but I would be happy to entertain any other questions that you might have before you so so our rment is up 4% this year and last year it was up quite a bit right we had a big increase we had more than I expected last year to Our Moment technically is down but it's more than what we projected it to be down right so more so what do we project it CU you said well I thought it said that you we were we at 4% of an increase this year was that from last year I think he was pro4 more than they projected oh I see projecting 5161 we ended up at there's a little so enrollment was last year I just go and grab was yeah like big number 5248 that was an official number that came from the fall housing report right now I'm using a temporary number in 25 file housing report we capture on a October 1st of every year okay so the 5 5181 is how many students we had on the first day of school when I went into the system I expect it's going to be very similar to that when I go in on October 1st is that typical language to be used because I I would want to know just overall what enrollment is is it up or down but that's in a way to me could be misleading or misinterpreted um I think it's important as a distinction from a budget driver so like since so many things are kind of hinging on number of students from budgets then you project a certain amount of budgets because that sets the denominator for kind of so many of these things we're looking at that when it's up or down a little bit it does that but I get I agree with you like is is there another statement that just says okay like in this that might be student enrollment is 5181 we projected 5160 like it kind of says you know that's a year-over-year overall increase but it is less of a decrease by0 4% than expected or something I could add another statement in there my Approach is always to as few words as possible because I that's the philosophy the premise here being is I'm referencing section C7 in the document so that you can see the full picture um but it does State enrollment is 4% higher than projected I could say enrollment what last year was just a couple of words I I'm very miserly when it comes to words and then the right above it the 11.4 that's just any full-time staff or is that only for the specialized programs and administrative like was the 11 only for them or was it 11 across there's two ratios there to reference it's saying that people to staff reg ratio is 7.6 down from 7.9 the prior year no I'm talking about the one above fulltime staff you have 11.4 the the very top oh uh where it says 7 the 11.4 full-time employees a total of 679 says addressing needs in special programs and administrative so the 11.4 were those only for the specialized program or administrative or was that just everything this year we just added 11 yep the primary areas that it went to were specialized programs in administrative administrative support but that was everything but you can if you click on Section C6 you'll see exactly where the Staffing changed so we can go there briefly so here's the overall numbers when the in the chart you see we were at 658 we're up to 659 or 679 in 2025 and it's broken out by members of the Bea members of Besa and everybody else other questions so my high level takeaways from this I appreciate this Tony this document is a great document because it does summarize a tremendous amount of information but um basically we're I know we're technically that balanced because we took fund balance for capital projects but we're paying our bills um our student ratios are as strong as student to teacher and staff are as strong as they've been depending on your perspective they're lower than they have been in years and um we do have money to do what we've identified as some immediate capital projects without distorting the ratio of that fund where it would put us in Jeopardy uh if something catastrophic happened so we have a little buffer there and with bonds expiring the burden we're asking of our local tax base will go down are those all accurate statements yeah those are all accurate okay thank you any other questions okay I will entertain a motion to adopt the fiscal year 2025 budget including its respective fund transfers as presented so move so mooved by Rob second second by Aaron Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes yes yes motion passes thank you all right next is staff and board comments Tom is there anything you'd like to share this evening yes all right so um as we are all aware we are we finished day five of being back in school and one of the things I wanted to make sure I drew our attention to uh board is a big thank you and gratitude appreciation to all of our custodians our maintenance teams our technology teams the arjac team here in this building um our building secretaries and um all the other support staff for all the work that they did and preparing to open our buildings for what you even heard from uh our ba president and our besta president was a really successful opening week um I think um you know having visited and having our team uh leadership teams out and about in the buildings I heard uh really good reports coming back on how we started the year so I just want to thank all those people in the hands that go into making that happen right justes doesn't happen over magically overnight um I also want to thank our new bus company um you know they're transitioning in and taking our account they are um fully staffed with drivers which not every school district is able to report and having been on site and meeting the management team and meeting all of the drivers um which was fun uh they're also able to supply backup drivers to our routes so right now um they're still working on some of the logistical you know things uh drivers are learning how to take some of the routes where because the roads are not being populated with student drivers and parent drivers so it's a little different than when they were practicing over the summer where the streets were a little bit lighter but I think they've worked all that out now at this point I also want to thank Our Food Services team um that's a new company as well with Organic life and um as promised and delivered by Josh and and his entire Committee of students and other uh staff members um it's being well received and so really appreciate all their hustle burritos yes some of some of our children have reported back to the board already that they're happy with the new food um but they really took to heart the concerns that were being shared by our students on the service delivery quality delivery so I really appreciate our food vendors um you know hustling like that um okay so one of things just a reminder looking forward to seeing any of you if you're able to make it to the corn boil this Friday um you'll see my team and I will be there too just supporting our um you know local groups that'll be represented there um give a little shout out to beefy support our our foundation uh they'll have a tent and I just want to close with um piggybacking off something drew said um you know with the idea of how we opened the year last week um at our opening Institute day one of the messages that was shared is that as an organization moving forward is a key uh aspect to making sure that as we look at our strategic plan um using the growth mindset not of all the just the individual talents and abilities of our staff of our students of our our leaders but as an organization if we want to actually move the needle as an organization is doing it together with a collective organizational growth mindset and I'm really excited to see how we're going to move that needle together um you know we've already been working on a lot of new collaborative structure ideas that exist within uh how we do business but also just bringing some new ideas to the table and considering it this way that the more opportunities we focus on more Solutions we'll see and the more progress we'll see for our students um and and just the overall success of our district so with that I'd like to just say let's make it a great 114th year of BPS 101 I had to sneak in that little historian thing that's all I have thank you every teacher board comments would anyone like to volunteer to start otherwise I'll pick an end of the table I'll start thank you sir I have nothing to say I yield my time to Mr arando wow ah so um just Echo some of Tom's comments uh for the start of the school year the some of the feedback I received to mostly from my daughter who started her senior year um at BHS was it was very smooth enjoyable experience um joked about the food but she did comment that she really liked the the food in the cafeteria area um so U thank you to the staff um Administration um for getting that set up and organized and I think it went really well so U and I want to wish all the students teachers have have a great great year looking forward to hearing especially at these meetings looking forward to hearing some great successes and accomplishments um through the course of the school year here um and then just real quick I'm I'm transitioning to the resource responsibility advisory Council and I think Josh we got the meetings set you got the meetings all set up for the whole year I think so um got that in the calendar and Steve's invited me to the stien committee as well so we'll start on that and uh made contact with principal modaf at GMS I'm going to meet with him on Friday and we're going to set up um um some time for me to uh interact with the uh Community there right jum over me go ahead uh so yeah just welcome back to all the students and the Tavia uh BPS staff uh I just hope you guys have a safe and healthy and fantastic school year that's it uh I'll use my usual comment where I want to thank everybody who came to the board meeting tonight everybody who reached out again it does inform our discussions I want to welcome the students back I want to Welcome All the new students I want to welcome all the new teachers and staff we have quite a few I attended the welcome event on the 12th and I always kind of Marvel that the first day for teachers sort of resembles the first day for students where they're all started getting back in the groove and you can see the excitement and a little bit of anxiety getting started but once they get in the flow it's great to see so uh I want to welcome them I also time kind of St my thunder but you know that first day of school I'm sure there's a lot of anxiety cuz getting that machine cranked up again with the buses and the lunches making sure all the tech works it's a tremendous amount of work to get to that point so uh everybody really does take a entire team to get that accomplished so thank you to all those folks for their hard work and um I'll just sort of end with yeah we we have a lot of kickoff events the corn boil on Friday is a a big one a lot of PTO are starting up but um you know I think when we think of like new students and and starting a new we really encourage students if you see a new student to reach out to them and make them feel welcome and one thing I would encourage members of the community is I think Kevin said we're a little bit like Mayberry sometimes and that can be good and bad sometimes because we get comfortable with the faces we're used to seeing but if you see a new parent at pickup or at a PTO event or at the corn boil those people want to engage but sometimes it's hard to so I would say you know be that Welcome Wagon and and welcome them to come join you or uh sit by you at a game or a an event because those people want to engage but that first Contact would so be hard so let's try to make sure that our families feel welcome especially those new faces we see and uh just I am excited for the the new year to go and uh go Bulldogs you guys did great I don't really have much to add um one thing I want to say I want to Drew your your son was probably there but at storm you know we took my son and we stayed in chitchat a little bit and the kindergarteners were all like ga outside and you know these aren't even our kids like the people I was with and we started to get te ey because they like turn around and blow a kiss and my God was Drew crying were you crying no TI never it was precious and the organization that they did for that it was so good I mean there's so many people coming up to the building but it's so fun at the beginning of the year it kind of like sizzles down a little bit as the year goes on but you just see so many people and everyone's excited the kids are just like coming out and it's been so great so really thank you to everyone who's put in the time and effort to start the year off and I hope all of our students are feeling welcome um welcomed and and kind of settling in a little bit um I think you guys kind of covered everything else oh I did want to say I am going to meet with with Rob was talking about his assignment I will be meeting with Dr Smith at the high school and I look forward to that because I feel like it's really not a place that I've really spent much time you know like I mean I haven't been to every elementary school but that is just it seems very far away I mean but Ally is in seventh grade it won be there but I'm like oh than you think I don't I mean she sent me like how to get inside I'm like I don't know this is kind of scary but I do look forward to to doing that and then working with you on the student ambassadors I think that'll be really cool to really highlight our student voices and hopefully we kind of get all of the different levels of uh the district all the different grades and stuff but I'm excited so hopefully like I said everyone's settling in and feeling good so far I'm good thank you uh only thing I'll close with is um just you know welcome to all the new teachers that uh are now a member of the uh Bea as well as all the other staff with Besa and administration that are here and the new students that are with us so that's exciting um Everybody starting and I appreciate you guys mentioning all the kind of new committees you're jumping into so I got my invite for a couple of them so I'm staying on the capital projects one so you can't get rid of me that fast um but uh I also then went and met uh with Kristen over at AGS so Rob you have left some very very big shoes to fill over there because they spoke very highly of you um so we went I went over there and it's been there's almost some tears in mine because my kids are long out of elementary school so it was kind of fun seeing the differences a little bit between the schools between grace MC where my kids were there and the kind of going on the black top and all the kids kind of pulling in at once and Kristen and and her team did a really great job of making me feel welcome I ran into Tony there who gave me a little tour of the school and it's kind of amazing just like you're talking about settling in we were remarking that like all the excitement outside and were in and and it was just like the quiet descended on the on the school and the kids were just in it and the teachers on top of it and it was just a really kind of like really nice settling down like you kind of think the craziness continues no everybody was just engaged it was really good and I met a number of the PTO um that was there as well so it was kind of a good nonstop shop day for me so I appreciate though they had no intents on that efficiency I appreciate it so um so I will end it with saying thank you to everybody for the hard work they did to get everything up and running that's on not only the staff but I also want to say you know thank you to Tom and the administrative team for making sure everybody's the cogs are in the right spot and the wheels are spinning so thank you um we do have have a closed session tonight uh there is no intended board action after that closed session uh so we will be moving to that we can check in here if you so desire to sit around and wait uh but I didn't think so so but you're more than welcome to so we're moving into close session as I said we do not have any action items you're welcome guys here thank you all right get water break bathroom whatever you need to do we don't have to do anything oh no yeah I do I totally forgot gosh no all right so the time is 9:38 I will entertain a motion to move to close session allowed under open meetings act for the purpose of exception 5 ICS 120 C1 so move by Raquel second second by RJ Cindy please lead us in a roll call votez Thom yes yes yes yes yes gber yes yes thank you all right thank you everybody

e e e uh good evening everyone progress It's recording now hold on uh good evening everyone I'd like to call the August 20th of the Board of Health meeting for the town of Ashland um the first thing on the agenda is citizen participation any citizen participation Mark go ahead yes good good evening everybody excuse me um Board of Health listen in about three or four months I know it's way early for this question but I'm going to ask it anyways is there any warrant articles that's going to be for the town meeting coming up that's in the works I I don't know of anything Raj do you know of anything coming up for town meeting I mean to my understanding said they are planning you know so it should be out soon you know but there's definitely planning about the town meeting you know at the Town Hall does our um updated tobacco regulations have to go there or no no sir that that okay um that's it thank you you're welcome Mark um so the next thing on the agenda is um Townhouse Pizza CE and desist operations unpermitted construction um do we have anybody from townhouse pizzer here on the meeting yes okay we do um Raj do you wna start then uh thanks so what happened this this this was on August 8 right uh the plumbing inspector was in the plaza uh that he saw some work going on at Town Hall pizza so he called the building Building Commissioner that he he he went by and saw what they have done is they have removed all the equipment they were doing some flooring uh but they it was unpermitted you know they disconnected gas lines and all that um and he called me on spot when when I went there yes I saw some food in the restaurant but the other thing was there was a lot of food uh in the next door space you know that uh it's called salt waters you know it was a nail slone that they was storing earlier we had conversations you know about storing just dry dry boxes or something but there was lot of food so uh and and they have anyways closed the operations you know for for the renovation so it was more building department stuff you know they was doing everything without permit you know so all right um so um do you want to introduce yourselves and um kind of give us a history of what's happening there go ahead okay so I'm Natalie this is Andreas my my father he's the owner uh so as we knew for the flooring like we didn't know that we need a permit for the flooring right but as for next door for the um the storage we already did as we asked for the testing right if the the the whole place is okay and safe to storage any kind of like dry foodish and just keep some refrigerators there right uh we already sent over the report that it is safe to keep dry food and that stuff uh and like that's it we didn't know before that we have to do something more specific like the testing that we we ask for right now right and as for the floor we had to change it because it was there all the years that the building is there and there was like issues with the floor there was water coming you know it wasn't it wasn't good to be as it was so we had to change it okay um so I have a couple questions um so how long have you owned the business years five years five years so so you know as you know the town itself is very approachable especially for their business owners um you know you know I hope in the future you know if you have any concerns you know you'll reach out to Raj if it's a board of health issue if you're going to make any changes to the structure of the building um gas lines water lines you know all of that does require a permit for the flooring as will well no but what I was told what we were told is that when the building inspector went in there there was a lot more work being done than just the flooring they had there were gas lines removed you know things like that that do require a permit all right yeah I'm sorry about that we didn't know about that specific permit but now everything is going by the process that Board of Health ask us we have all the permits all the the papers done and just uh a last question that I have for the next door with the storage that we use uh they need the specifications of the refrigerators by an email or by paper or they don't it doesn't matter how it's going to be either either it's fine you can you can email it to me whatever is convenient to you you know all right okay what what we looking that this equipment that you have there that is certified and Commercial you know so yes yes so you understand now I know you dropped couple of emails today so yes if you look on the side of the equipment even it it'll tell you where to go and you can Google it and pull out the specification sheets you know I find it I find it out that's why I'm asking because by an email it's going to be you know faster to send it over to you I either is fine you know and okay Mr chair on the board you know just to let you know they did get the testing for the voc's done you know for the for the nails loan part the result have come out good so only thing we're going to need uh uh is the specification Sheets if if the equipment is good I guess uh if board allows we'll be able to you know grant them permission to store stuff at least in that space I mean they definitely won't be able to prep it but uh you know given I mean if we have to start doing other stuff we need more information about light and all that you know stuff but as for right now we can we can give them permission once once they submit the pending paperwork that they can start using that space for storage so when when do you plan to reopen when do we plan or are you already reopened no we are not we are uh getting down the floor and then we will arrange an appointment with Board of Health so they can do the rest of the inspections and every every thing is as it has to be they will tell us if we can open and when uh but for the next door it's going to be only storage no preparations there or something else it's just the the fridges that I put on the floor plan that I already gave and that's it okay that sounds good do any other the board members have any questions no we are all set no hang on I just want to just see if anybody else from the board has any questions until they open they're not cooking anything there and nothing is being served I presume is that right yes we are not cooking anything y okay y all right I'm fine with it all right well thank you for joining us tonight and clarifying everything thank you so much and again just any questions please reach out to Raj directly yes that would be great great thank you very much I'm sorry about that we didn't do raaj you don't need a specific permission for doing whatever that needs to be done when they are straightened out no sir no that's that's thank great thank you for joining us thank you thank you have a good night thank you okay the um next thing on the agenda is that uh happiness Garden Technology do we have anybody there for that anybody here yeah Raj do you want to start us off or yes Mr chair so uh we have Mr Annie you know who gave us demo couple of weeks back maybe maybe it's a month now you know Mr K reach out you know they they are doing some uh technology stuff that they have offered it to Board of Health and the town that they can provide some Services uh free to the town you know so they would like to present that you know okay go ahead so thank you very much uh Board of Health members I really appreciate inviting us so as we all know uh a happy Community is a healthy community and happiness has to be practiced daily uh for it to happen my presentation is about the happiness Garden it is a novel natural easy way to practice and spread happiness it has been built on the principles of positive psychology with the guidance of our esteemed Board of scientific advisers amongst our advisers present today is Dr Kathleen Palm Reed and she's associate professor of psychology at Clark University and Dr K Nadi he is an integrative Family Medicine practitioner and associate professor at Upstate University Medical School Dr somia chatur Who is a neuroscientist has not been able to attend today oh she has just recently joined hello s Dr s I'm sorry it's so nice of you to join so basically we really have a strong basis and Foundation which is a scientific basis we are not scientists but we are application engineers and we think that this application could be very useful for the Board of Health dja NTI is a is my co-founder and I'm Ani the public version of the garden is free and Anonymous no ID is required we are happy to provide and maintain a customized version for the health department free of charge as our contribution to the town of ashon uh there are no external advert ments allowed and no external marketing will be allowed in the customized version We believe that the happiness Garden will help build uh better wellness and togetherness in the community it will also allow Health Department to post or publish Health impacting images and videos and even have health quizes Etc to keep the community connected engaged with the town and with each other now with this basic background I'll go straight into the demo of the happiness garden and of course uh every we are open for all kinds of questions so can I share screen please am I allowed to share screen yes you are already a co-host please go ahead thank you so I'm going to open the happiness garden now and generally the QR code takes people directly to the happiness Garden without having to do anything further so when the first time the happiness Garden opens as I'll explain later on in the back end we have currently arranged that some sort of a video clip shows up to Garner interest of the folks who are entering the garden once people enter they can enter their own thoughts positive thoughts affirmations happy messages in any of the white flowers as you see we open the garden uh we have not yet advertised it this is the public version opened it uh on the 1st of April actually 3 first of March we didn't want to call it April pool so we open it on the 31st March so just within a few months without any publicity the garden word of mouth is getting full and you can see all the colorful flowers are the messages people have entered in the past or are currently entering and if we want to enter a message ourselves you can very easily go into any of the white flowers and we can enter a message here so I could say here hello uh everyone and if I enter this message so message not valid because I enter slash and one but now it will say Okay save so the message got Sav and it came about and it can come later it come come right away so basically this is this is the interaction essentially it's a crowd gatherer the technology is device independent and it can be displayed anywhere so basically people will see the garden in the front ends either on their devices phones PCS everywhere or on a large display panel if the board of hell wants to uh install any display panel everywhere because it's device independent and also it is uh interactive people can keep interacting with it by the uh let's say after X number of months if the board wants to download all the messages that people have entered to see what's the general feeling in the community then the board has a facility to do it so uh right now I'm just focusing on the front end if you folks have any questions please feel free if they are of a scientific nature then our Board of scientific advisers will answer those questions I have a question um can this be used um to focus on a particular um target audience like for example like if this is something our schools would be interested in could they have it just geared toward like a middle schooler instead of having it like the whole general public stuff yes so what we do add is when we customize it you see the top here this URL this URL is public when it's customized there'll be a slash a particular custom version for a particular group of folks or Corporation so since this we are giving a totally free to the town and uh as a public service we do it so that let's say the school says okay we want it only for the elementary school middle school whatever then we will customize it just for them so their their appointed uh individual will have access to the back end so to control everything in the front content also uh what happens is when that happens only uh the entry right now the entry being to the public there is no way to manage control anyone in the world can enter in that case the entry is control and only X number of students within the two days who actually enter the garden they are automatically assigned usernames but there all Anonymous so there is no identity of a particular student or faculty connected so you nobody will know who is putting the messages but at the same time the ID uh the username is maintained so yes that system and we can demo that also to you folks at a later date outside this meeting and um for uh for any different audience Also let's say the board wants or the town wants for some different purposes the same kind of um technology could be applicable for either getting some uh kind of a feedback from a particular Community about some topics then you have to keep that customized Garden open for only X number of days and when that feedback comes after the feedback then all these flowers will be back again to the original state which is what you want for um either promoting happiness or Wellness it did answer your question please yes ex yes um does anybody else have any other questions I do kg I thanks very much for the presentation I'm curious uh it this is I'm sure by subscription to folks that you're not giving it away to um how much business are you getting and or how much traffic and what are the fees usually uh we don't charge anything to nonprofits and to charitable organizations and to towns public service and what about to individuals uh the individual subscribers what we are doing right now is by Design This is a venture we started three years back and uh this product is one of our latest uh tools and we have decided by by policy and design that this tool for some time is is going to be free to everyone except corporations and right now the corporation before giving to the corporations because our Target is very obvious that uh to be sustainable we have to approach people like Microsoft and Google who don't have this technology by the way we have applied we are we are registered in Ashland and we have applied for a patent is $50,000 to pop to get a pattern but we have pretty strong conviction that we will get the patterns because we have checked out that Apple Google and all these folks do not have the specific technology that goes behind this front end looks very easy the back end is pretty complex to run on a cloud and international so that's our Target but before we go there currently uh by next week actually um Dr Kell will explain that uh Dr Kell if you don't mind explain about the Nurses Association who are going to be actually using the garden and some other apps that we have developed for almost 5,000 folks people in Upstate New York so I'm at uh I'm kosel Nadi Sunni Upstate Medical University in Syracuse New York uh and so what we're going to actually do is make this accessible to all of our nurses uh along with the app based technology that goes with it uh so that they can access this uh the intent is that through screens within our institution consistent with that middle school question it'll be a healthcare environment uh that's going to be able to utilize this to proactively support positive messaging uh and positive feed and then promoting positive Health oriented behaviors as well so uh at this time uh we're you know gaining the volume of users uh so that not only does this get populated more uh but then it's an opportunity to also connect in specific Target populations with health promoting messages and that's all going to be uh something that is freely accessible to all of our staff uh within the institution there's over 11,000 employees and over 5,000 nurses uh who are going to be able to access this and and Dr Dr Kathleen pal Reed she uh in addition to uh teaching psychology uh at Clark University she's also heavily involved in the wellness program at Clark University so Dr Kath could you please uh mention a little something about what you are trying to work out with at Clark University please sure we're working with the um Provost for student affairs at Clark to bring like a a a clarified version of this I'd like to to talk about um can imagine there'd be an Ashland or an Ashland Middle School version um just bringing community and kind of positive messaging I think this is a great um uh tool to be used especially I've been talking to her about using it in the residence Halls at Clark um a lot of students are feeling isolated still after a period of time with covid and this is a way to be focused on some um positive messaging and and kind of encouraging them to be engaging in active um behaviors that are oriented toward uh positive thinking and kindness to others so um we're in talks with the pr right now about launching something like this at Clark If there no yes please yeah I address to Dr Kathleen hi I'm here um is that true that once you share um happiness messages and kind messages this spreads around and increases the health the Community itself is that true happiness tends to to spread so there's definitely been a lot of research on um gratitude interventions online gratitude interventions and there been shown to increase um people's reports of well-being and and increased mood and even have some effects on their physical health um there's also been research supporting the amount of kind of Civic engagement so um which which kind of like has another like evolving effect on it because the more they're engaging with the community and each other and that also has positive effects so it can really um you know a small it might seem like a small thing but it really can kind of start to kind of build on itself and have this much larger um impact thank you sure Dr Dr chhat Dr sh chhat you are mentioning me about some research about how when happiness and other uh good information is shared with others and if it's recognized you are mentioning that certain sort of hormones get generated in the brain would you please elaborate a little on that hello can you hear me now yeah yeah okay so a lot of research in this field happened that the happiness is mainly uh happen because of two factors like endogenous factors like what which are related to biological and your genetic factors and some uh like exogenic factors like social cultural Behavior factors and so on like cognitive factors so if those factors are very important and those factors are very important to release those neurotransmitters and uh like do dopamine or serotonin those kind of factors which are responsible to control the happiness so overall U I feel like like for the Ashland school or for nurses those uh factors if you have those feeling like it can help you uh overall health focus and uh um it can improve your uh overall focus and uh health so those uh because in general a lot of things are happening around you is uh I feel like lot of negative things going on but if you will consistently uh seeing those positive messages and you are releasing those neurotransmitters like oxytocin which you sometime you can uh those factors are released during the exercise during doing any positive things so those factors are very important for your help thank you thank you Dr somia uh in in uh with the feedback obtain from our advisers by now and another psychiatrist who was not able to attend today what we have done is in the next version of the public version you are quickly going to see that if if we like some message then we can show like a hard or a thumbs up only thumbs up no thumbs down and so what happens is like I'm entering messages and if I see a whole bunch of hearts or thumbs up that likes of other people then according to what the scientists had told us that then I will feel much nice about good about myself so that's an important factor when I share something with others because I'm getting rewarded oh yeah I'm being appreciated for whatever my message so we are quickly adding that facility just FYI if you folks don't mind uh in I respect your time very much so can I go to the back end of this front end now where all the magic happens can I ask a quick question before you get into that just as as we're talking about this so that that makes sense you see some of these messages it's changing the brain changing transmitters that are involved in happiness and mood or emotion um has work been done specifically with this tool these shapes these colors these messages um or is is that part of the plan where does research stand with this in particular I guess is the question I guess uh I guess uh Raj Gupta might have better answers for that because we have not yet approached any school per se although uh we have approached the ton school district superintendent where we had shown a demo of this um before the school ended last year and now they are very interested he invited principals of the elementary school middle school and high school who saw this demo and immediate reaction yeah how can we implement it and now the details have to be worked out uh for each of the different schools and in the school district so we are hoping that uh when the new school year begins and everyone is back back at work we'll have an opportunity to start working in customization because each of the um principals wanted a little bit of different customization for their own needs and so maybe I've not really answered your question but I really don't have a full answer I mean this is a new technology that has come up just now in three or four years so the nothing has been put to test in terms of doing research but in general you you say that happy messages spread happy things keep the community happy because that's there is potentially other sources of evidences which medical journals have published I presume is that right yes yeah no and I I also answer Jay's question directly I think first of all it's a great question uh so fundamentally as we get more user bases in different subpopulations the data Gathering that'll come from feedback is going to be the way that we'll be able to get more information one on utilization two on value three you talk about the colors uh if if you look at the colors on the screen specifically with the yellow and green especially uh in terms of being more brighter colors Etc uh red it relates to several different emotions as well uh so there has been some background work done with the colors uh historically with this app specifically we'll get more data as people uh start to use it more as well especially if we realize that all the green and yellow flowers are gone but none of the red are well that's going to give us data as well so there's there's a multiple multip of directions we can go in but fundamentally it's that user base and access that's important you notice we didn't put you know gray and black flowers on there right so uh you know we've done some fundamental background work on why the colors are what they are and then we'll get more data as users utiliz it as well and I would uh add one thing here uh as we all know that in normal clinical trials we have like one treatment assignment and one is Placebo so sometime in in especially in Psychiatry and uh CNS disease mental disorder uh clinical trials what happens that subject just patient if they feel like they are getting medication they feel like they are getting better so I mean it's just a placebo effect if you are you are seeing happiness you are you are feeling that oh you are getting good messages and that thumbs up we are going to add in this uh app you feel that yeah you are giving something and somebody is feeling better just doing uh some kindness that placebo effect that you are doing something good and you feel good so overall health will improve just because of this placebo effect so right so that is yeah I that that makes sense it's impossible to separate the placebo effect pretty much anything especially something like this but if that is the effect then that is the effect and that's good yeah so okay thank you one question as as you as you move on with your presentation to the and talk about the back end is there will you talk about um content moderation um for for the platform as well okay uh there is and I'm going to show that to you uh one moderation we have done as an absolute rule is no foul language and no violent language and um that was the starting point because the whole thing is being anonymous and it is originally developed for worldwide platform we have to be extremely cautious of course it's limited to English but right now but uh so what we had to do was collect the dictionary of found words I share that with you quickly and that came from uh you will not believe from Facebook uh Google Apple and one more Source I'm forgetting now for developers they provide this power wor dictionary they themselves do not uh stop people from exchanging all these F words and all on their on their systems because they lose money in advertisement but they do have that capacity so we we were able to get that we combined everything and we have our own for Words dictionary along with that attached is the AWS machine learning so what happens is that if new words start coming then human beings say Hey you know out of all this F words exhaustive dictionary still something slipped even though the word itself if you go to any dictionary doesn't seem to be like foul or violent but the combination might feel so the human being tags it and now the machine learns so this is an ongoing process up till now I show you only a few foul words were detected in up till now us say so I'm can I share that with you please now MH so that is the moderation but beyond that uh the if the administrator wants to moderate further they can in the customized versions in the public version the only moderation is this followers so now here's the here's the um so basically all the all the messages that are entered you will see in the garden they have come here in this list here so up till now uh oh now see here says hello everyone it's spending if you notice when I entered that message I as the any we don't see that message here I think oh the the other screen the previous one is still on oh so you need my my screen is updated yeah mine is too it might be your I stop sharing and reshare so maybe okay can you see it better now I only see a um manage Garden yeah yeah manage that's fine okay that's fine thank you so this is this is the admin panel okay and this admin panel is the dashboard it has many other uh uh features and functions for administration because um Garden is only one of the tools we got many other apps which are which are mobile apps and all they can all be controlled in many different ways so the focus right now is in the admin panel so you'll see what we have done purposefully because it is public garden we have said Auto approval is off if Auto approval is enabl then even before anything else happens everyone will see the message I entered you saw that the message I entered was visible to you because it was visible on my screen but if you are open the garden you will not get it until this says pending so the admin what we do generally and by once a day or twice a day we go over here and if the message is is kosher we just say approve and then we uh we enter and update when we do this this message is now seen by everyone who who is visiting the garden not just me the other check here is if you enable it which means automatically the message is approved provided the bad words are not existing what it happens is there is a bad words dictionary you will see this see all these are bad words that we have uh collected up till now and there are almost 2,631 bad words and all kinds we have tried many any different words and combinations so if anything like this comes up the system automatically rejects it and tells the person entering hey this is a foul word change the language it's objectionable word so that's one check we have then up till now what has happened how many bad words have been used up till now uh you will see the bad bad words used up till now are grand total of uh up to 10 no up to 40 bad words have been used and all these things you can see you know you can read them so they were not caught by by the system so now once they were not caught used he automatically added them now these words once added people keep using them the administrator has a way to revoke access to the garden for that individual user so right now this is a username if we want that we can revoke the garden so we actually we don't know who the person is but what has happened is we found out that the person didn't use it maybe the person was just thrwing around trying to test the system or something so that is so that's the explanation and what we do is once the bad words are to be added they get added and then there is a rejection code here so we uh apply there are many rejection codes so the human being says okay this rejection code has to be applied for a particular message so bad language and word whatever that is so if you see here we can give a message code and that code is remembered by the machine learning element here see says bad language word code S7 so this code the machine learning module remembers that for a particular combination here that whatever the combination of words was is now next time that combination comes up the machine which okay it's basically AI I'm not wanting to call it AI because I I'm from my technology standpoint AI is just a buzz word you you have to teach the robot a long long time whatever you teach the robot remember robot is not creative as yet so that's why I call it just machine learning so so that's the now another feature for the happiness Garden is if you want to show if if let's say uh the Board of Health wants to push messages in the front for education or whatever purpose first of all simple messages like greetings you will see that this greeting message will come every time morning afternoon evening when somebody is entered the G everybody gets this thing so this message is pumped by the administrator they can change the message and they can uh say what time morning afternoon evening so there's a setting there you can go here and change it so that's one facility the other message is incentive messages we have not inserted any but people can insert any kind of messages hey you know uh competitions that come here and if you're going to if 20 people people attend this particular event for health or something whatever it is then we'll give them some recognition so incentives are possible the most important is the discount we call them discount banners but for you folks the um name could be uh you know not meaningful but there are different types of discount banners and you can add a discount Banner so let's see if I add a discount b a new one that is something to be pumped in the front see the power of this you give a title there are many triggers for it in this case let's say we are talking about the garden there are about 10 or 11 triggers the trigger means different reasons see HG is the garden happiness Garden somebody clicks on the own messages button if they click they see a message only those people somebody clicks on download PDF because there's a facility in the front end their own PDF then they'll see the message so basically this is the way it will operate yes Raj you Mr any yes sorry to interrupt you Knowle board member have a next meeting so what we'll do we'll continue the conversation I'm sorry sorry about that you know but abely given the time constraints you absolutely but I hope I try to explain the power of the back end which can be used by your for absolutely and we we'll we'll continue this conversation you know with the board yeah yeah thank you yeah yeah thank you yeah thank no thank you uh for joining us tonight this is uh very informative and uh um we the board will speak with Raj about how we can maybe help this with the schools and things like that thank you very much thanks Ed thanks for and and then thank you our advisers thank you very much I appreciate your help thank you everybody you know yeah bye now I definitely see this um maybe being like up on a big screen at the middle school things like that yeah thank you yeah bye now bye bye bye all right um that was interesting um I could definitely see where that could be used possibly um all right um Health director's report Raj you're up Mr bman it's Dr J first you know sorry oh hello uh for some reason I can't find my version of the agenda because of the view I have here um I I'll deal with that later so anyway um congratulations J for a successful excuse me congratulations for a successful event well thank you very much on behalf of everybody uh that was involved yeah it was really good I've got some statistics here to share um and I'll send these to Raj and to Laura so you don't have to copy all this down but um yeah it was it was really good it was busier than it was last year I think it um ran a lot more smoothly than it did last year which isn't surprising um the chg uh and the the everybody involved just did an excellent job um so I'll give you some numbers uh we saw 3 well we registered 376 what they call Unique patients 319 adults and 57 children um there's a a proportion of those that that left probably left the parking lot about 10 of them so 366 of those folks were seen in our clinic for a total of 532 different Services because you can get two services in one day you can have dental or uh or Vision Plus medical so when you combine all the services that um individual patients got you're talking about 532 um we provided 183 patients with dental service 156 patients with vision services that includes 158 pairs of glasses 193 um medical patients received um exams women's health related Labs um 57 patients were ID identified for follow-up care and the Latino health insurance program Framingham is doing that for us which is great the total value of all of that um from a Medicare perspective if you were to monetize that is $2,633 wow we had um 293 volunteers over the course of the three days so one setup day on Friday and then two two Clinic days so 293 volunteers monetizing their volunteer time or what they call service value it comes to [Music] $135,300 th000 worth of care I guess you could say so yeah it was was pretty successful Ed do you have anything to add I feel like I got the easy part because I have the numbers to Kim and I didn't have a fight this year so we're good well that's good yeah it was excellent and and Raj we appreciate all the help from the board and everybody's support um just as as we had it last year um everybody was was really supportive um and very much appreciate that and um I know Barbara's not here but she was there um for at least one of the days if not two I I can't remember so she was there both days she was there both days okay okay yeah so yeah very good I could en jooy new people because of my condition no that's okay and and Dave was sick so we totally get it not a problem at all so yeah I'm sorry I couldn't couldn't be there I'm glad it glad it all worked out though it did it did congratulations Jay thank you Laura thanks very much is there any sense was there any sense Jay about I don't know if they collect numbers on um exactly uh you know from where or what communities the the people that that end up getting served are yeah and I'm still trying to um sift through those numbers the ones I just gave you are really right off the press I got them about 2 o'clock today but yeah we we've have all those numbers in spreadsheet form so I'm going to try to pull together some uh additional information I mean last year it was the large majority of the folks were from Framingham um and I assume that that that is the case uh this for this recent clinic so but I'll share those any other any other questions I know we're a little behind today so I don't want to take up too much time all right Raj you're up yes sir thank you uh so first the Dean Road 27 Dean Road uh I know it was in front of the board last time right and then the engineer didn't show up so we still still working through it uh I connected Mr Paul sonier who's from the colonial engineer with the ever Source right and they asked him documentation this was 11 days back you know and he have still not provided it uh yesterday he emailed me back again that he have not heard back from ever Source but he have not responded to their last email so we're just still juggling with it I did get a couple of emails from him saying that he's going to build the system and stuff like that but you know still still working through that uh coming up on August 28th we have our International overdose awareness day that we are celebrating that uh we we are doing that event uh at at our safety building we're going to have a table from Board of Health s it's in the evening from 5:30 to 7: if any board members want to join me um and our public health nurse is going to be there and I I guess I talked to Dr J who who did it last year um so Dr J or any board member if you want to join please it's at the uh public safety building this year and Mr Kingsman still working on the tobacco regulation application once I have it I'll send it to you for review and still last couple of weeks been busy uh coming to the arbo virus report so right now with the we have two positive vest cases one was in Hampton County and then other one was in Middle sex County that's ours then we we have a triple A case uh that we we saw last week in wer area so the threat being there but at the same time I just want to update board uh a situation I was in today uh I I don't know if this is the right Forum but I feel I should bring it to board's attention so I we we had a abandoned pool and you know very overgrown Garden that we had a complained almost a month and a half back from from here U at 11 11 Pine Hill Road so u i I reach out to the owner by a phone laa found it uh from internet that he did hang up on me when I was speaking with him couple of weeks later we did send him an order to correct letter uh this was this morning around 9:00 a.m.

e osar like to call a meeting to order please we do the Pledge of Allegiance a moment silence pledge allegiance flages God indivisible andice for all please remain standing for a moment of silence like to remember all of our uh graduates who are in the military here and Away thank you before we get started I believe Mr Lavoy would like to uh introduce our new principal uh well welcome this evening everybody this time i' like to welcome CH jaon who is our new principal uh we're thrilled to have him and i' like get Chad just to say a few words about his background experience and uh why we know he's excited to be here because we've been working with him for two weeks so you know that's the truth no thank you Mr little boy introduction uh Chad Jackson principal uh since August 1st here at Great lawence Tech um my educational background started here uh at Great allurance back in 1999 you okay with the microphone if me I was just wonder if you wanted to use a microphone okay thank you good awesome so yes uh Chad Jackson principal uh since August 1st here at Great lawence Tech uh very excited to be back um um my educational career started right here back in 1999 uh till 2007 where I taught math uh tried to get involved in a lot of different school activities uh coached um everything from assistant cross country volunteer indoor track uh basketball from freshman level all the way to Varsity uh for four years um while I worked on my education educ administrative uh degree uh ended up leaving to go to North Andover public schools uh where I've been for 17 years first as assistant principal uh and then the last seven as principal uh but I am truly excited to come back and return to Greater Lawrence Tech where as I tell everyone I learned how to be a professional uh with a lot of great people um and a lot of great staff and uh probably the best students uh around in the marac valley and Beyond so I'm really excited to meet them uh and could be more appreciative of the welcoming staff uh that has greeted me and uh saw some of the Reggie leaders when they were here about a week ago uh and they're enthusiastic about preparing for the transition for our ninth graders so looking forward to uh continue to work with a great team um that um I've got an opportunity to meet and work with over the first three weeks uh and although there's a lot going on in my brain as I'm trying to uh learn to the culture here uh and learn some things I'm excited to be back and uh meet the staff in uh probably less than a week so uh thank you thanks Chad Chad welcome back uh Mrs Ferris and I both had the pleasure of working you with you 8 years while you were here uh yes 8 years it's good to have you home thank you thank you roll call please Mr Jones yeah Mr Mahia present Mr Mercedes not Mr toox Miss Ferris here miss dla Mr ha uh Mr haam yes can I get a motion to accept the minutes of June 4th please make a motion second discussions call the vote show please miss dla Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr tabx yes Miss Ferris Mr yes uh Finance report uh Mr DFO hello everyone uh my computer's giving me a little bit of trouble so I I will do this by uh my iPhone here so June 30th cash balance report um account balance at the end of May was 2, 165870 3 we we had deposits for the month of 6,180 4953 a transfer in from mmdt of 2 million less payroll on June 6th of 1,277 52547 payroll on June 18th of 3,929 3374 these were uh teacher salaries for the summer as well payroll on June 20th of 4795 2706 we had warrant number 32 on June 4th of 17466 Warrant number 33 of a million 34 uh warrant 34 on June 25th at 434 02910 and warrant number 35 on July uh that was the last one on for July 15 of 1,337 14062 leaves us with a book balance on June 30th of 1,489 86058 we had a corresponding bank balance on the same day of 4,514 9603 our mmdt account um the balance uh at the end of May was uh 6,300,000 uh $41.50 9 we had interest for the month of $4,530 you see the 2 million going out to the checking account and which leaves us an mmdt balance at the end of June of 4,324 59 and uh an overall total operating cash balance um of 5,814 43617 I need a motion to accept the uh cash balance report I'll make a motion to accept the cash balance report any discussion you call the vote please miss Ferris yes Miss tler yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mah yes Mr box Mr hayam yes Consolidated cash report is a packet informational the revolving fund you have a packet on that informational budget report is's a packet on that informational does anybody have any questions on that before we get to miss Montel Miss Bartel please update us on the uh audit please y so I just wanted to give the committee an update um where we stand with the audits um just so you know we have three audits annually we have our financial audit which gives us our financial statements we have the end of the year report audit and we have a single audit which is an audit of our grants um so the district was really behind on the audits when I got here and we're still not quite caught up but where we're getting there and we're in much better shape so I've handed out um a copy of our finalized fiscal year 22 audited financial statements so you all have that um as well as the fiscal year 23 end of the year report audit um and the good news is our end of the year report had no findings which was um great so we're we're on schedule with our end of the year report audit but we're still a little bit behind on the other audits where we jumped right into our fiscal year 23 audit so we're we're deep in that right now and we're going to be starting our 22 and 23 single audit soon and it's going to go at the same time so as soon as we get those wrapped up I'll be bringing those reports to you as well Melissa you'll do the budget transfers also so we had um two budget transfers um the first one the first one was from Athletics and they requested a transfer to cover some additional summer coaching with the vendor that they use called House of athletes and then their second budget transfer um was to just split their volleyball budget into two lines one for boys and one for girls sure we need a vote on that please can we call a uh vote on that please can I get a motion please motion to approve the budget transfers so where what what aitor are we where in the agenda are we Melissa do we have a copy of that of budg budget transfers yep it's in the packet the packet I know it's under the finance report under F Consolidated cash revolving fund budget report audit update and budget transfers do we have a copy of that Melissa I can get a copy of it I don't I I can you a copy of it no it's here I still I yeah I have it in mine I know I have it too do you want me to print it and we can come back to it later you're going to have to talk into the mic Mo Sor I can't hear you do you want me to go print copies and we can come back to it later um no I just need to be shown where are we from that's all you know where we are you just excuse me uh no just uh under yeah under it's 4 yeah after the financial statement I found okay thank you very much no problem yeah got it all right we have a we got a second okay we got the second uh I think Brad did the first jio Julio did the first yeah and the second it yes transfer um Mr Martel I couldn't hear you well Mrs um so it sounds like you already talked about the audit um and you said the 20233 is in Pro in process is that what you said we're doing it right now okay because I know that it says here June 2023 the audit that it was given to us I don't know if this is different from what we have two of them it's financial statements and it's the end of the year report audit so for final statement my question is so I see the financial report here in the packet that says June 30 2022 but the letter says June 30 2023 so I'm not sure if it's they're two different ones it's two different ones I think that's what you mentioned already but I couldn't use I couldn't hear you well so I just wanted to clarify that okay thank you almost questions Mr toox yes Miss FIS yes M TLA yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr hadam yes donations see any donations communication report uh technology and creative opportunities draw students to manufacturing programs by Christine Taylor I believe Mr wet is here to speak on that article um we have uh not to steal his Thunder but we have some pots going up to the International Space Station made by the kits Mr just introduce you so Mr Mr wette is one of our instructor rors in the uh Advanced manufacturing uh programs uh has been here almost since its Inception into bringing it back back in I don't know 10 years ago and is a graduate and is an exceptional instructor and uh he's so well known that NASA came after him trying to get the kids to do some uh parts for us so but in all honesty he is a terrific instructor we're fortunate to have him thanks for being here tonight Don thank you very much for having me superintendent thank you Tommy as well Mr hadam um so very luckily um we're going on our second year now uh a colleague that I work with a junior instructor uh just through networking and connections uh connected with a high school out of New York and uh this instructor had just mentioned you should look into the NASA hunch program uh the acronym for hunch is uh something about student and um space Hardware my apologies um so he looked into it and NASA reached out to him and to give you the short version he came to me and we went back and forth about partnering with NASA and the next thing you know we were on a zoom call with u Johnson Space Center down in um down in Texas so um we agreed to go ahead and make a pot and the purpose of this pot is this pot is to actually be used it's what they call a stowage lock and it goes on their um experimental kits on the International Space Station so they go for flight we have had Dr gold here from NASA she's visited us twice at the school um the first round of parts we made the very first year it's a very critical part um and of course as you can imagine anything that goes uh space travel aircraft FAA regulations everything that goes with it uh the documentation was pretty intense and it was unfortunate that our first round of pots that we did we did not pass NASA inspection NASA reached out to us and said we'd like to give this another try because they thought we did an exceptional job there is only 270 schools that NASA has ever partnered with so the long of the short we went at it again last year and on July 17th of this year I received an email from NASA uh our pots past inspection and we are going to space uh when they were here they brought the cover of the storage locker we do have some pictures and they took um they had all the kids that worked on the NASA project sign it part of their tradition is when the parts go to space the astronaut will hold our cover with a view outside the International Space Station window of Earth and take a picture for the kids with their signature on the locker we haven't got no one to go to space with them yet however you know that is a new big thing now it's uh it's really boosted the program and just recently um Master cam software that's the software we use that's our CAD cam design program that we design all our pots that all our into integrates with our Machining centers that communicate to write our programs one of the most world-renowned softwares in the manufacturing industry we here at the school have Master Cam and we spend quite a bit of money for it uh when Dr gold was here she visited um Master cam down in Connecticut and I received a call from Master cam they were so excited about the work that we had done with NASA they did a story and they did a story on how I was a graduate in 1989 and kind of came full circle where now I'm teaching in the shop and U Master cam was so impressed they did a story which goes out to their News letters and all the manufacturing Industries and they're going to um it looks like it hasn't happened yet but Master cam has often to give us all of our seats in master cam for free so um all around it's been just a tremendous um experience for our students um all of our students that worked on the NASA program have been certified as inspectors through NASA uh three of my graduates don't even know yet that their parts are going to space but we did have their certificates um from NASA for their congratulations which is tremendous because that's something that goes on their resumés and and it's just snowballed into just such um just just wonderful things happening in the machine shop and it looks like Master Cam said they're going to continue to do whatever it is that we need as long as we can keep partnering with NASA and two days ago I got another email from nassa and they're asking us can we do more knobs or they'll send us other different work that we could do and this is just a great opportunity for the kids to see some it's pretty intense work and it's uh it's it's critical so it teaches them the aspect of quality control and and and Metrology and the whole Machining process and we're very proud of that and I was very excited to tell the superintendent we're going to space so that is it in a nutshell I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more about uh what's going to be happening and as I said that's just a small sample of the piece that we made for NASA and uh we're hoping it happens uh very shortly but we're we're scheduled for the next space flight Mr wette Don thank you very much thank you Mr you come a long way I know you want to thank Chris Deb and Mark also they were my whole department yeah absolutely I think we're showing Mr Jackson how far he we've come since he's left yes yes it's tremendous and by the way too the the greatest thing about this is NASA has even spoken to us they want to push it further because what they're starting to do is introduce culinary departments so I kind of thought about it culinary departments how does that work well they're really big into food dehydration and as we all know we have two people stuck in space right now and NASA is certainly not concerned about that they could live up there for the next year to year and a half because of the Food Supplies and all the work that goes into that and they now are starting to partner with culinary department so we're trying to push the program to go check it out and see and it's it's it's pretty cool when they come here and they come visit us so we're we're very excited and we'll we we'll keep pushing thank you very much all right thank you everybody thank you Don thank [Applause] you all right next up safe office report um we have uh Mr Lavoy going to give us an update we also have uh an administrative Dean Bill Vogal here to talk to us tonight or answer some of our questions Mr Lavoy okay so uh I know the committee's been concerned about our uh safe office and how uh some of the data uh we I collected some data uh we have I have some slides to go through with you and some information about uh our uh safe office and its operation and uh when you see a I think you'll uh be pleased with the data that you see so when you look at so some of the uh there were some questions about uh students being sent to the safe office what do they send for what are they sent there for what happens what are the consequences are they just sent back without any consequences so uh I did collect some uh data on um what they've gone been sent to the safe office for and what are some of the consequences for the things uh that they were sent to the safe office for uh so the number one reason students are sent to the safe office is uh tardiness to school uh and you'll see uh skipping class was second are you not seeing it yeah okay okay um uh violation of school rules tar of class the fiance uh overt uh disruptive behaviors uh in a inapp uh Behavior no show on a Saturday detention and refusal to give up their phone um the con kinds of consequences uh that you see there are uh asrt after school resource uh deten uh it's after school recovery time the recovery time after school recovery time uh detentions uh conference students conference uh warnings phone calls home Saturday detentions confiscation pass uh the pass program and a loss of privileges uh out of school suspension percentage of uh population so if you look at ours compared to other districts uh TP our uh data shows that 4.5% of our students uh received out of out of school suspensions last year uh we're consistent with Lawrence High School um methu high school was at 7.4% Whittier was at 4.4% and greater low 4.1% and shaen uh 0.4 so that's just just gives you an idea how we compare it to other districts these are uh this is data that was uh posted on the uh that we collected from the uh dsc's website uh if you look at the discipline data over the last 10 years you'll see um from uh starting from [Music] 201314 uh the percent percentages of uh pass uh in school suspensions and out of school suspensions and you look at last year's data uh which shows that um uh substantial Improvement in discipline uh for the uh school year 2023 24 which was an improvement from the school year 20223 uh and um in 2012 you'll see in both those years there's no in-house suspensions because we eliminated in-house suspensions so you do see some in-house suspension uh before it was eliminated in 2021-22 and then of course the co years but as you can see um over the years our discipline uh has improved uh declined in terms of uh issues and problems oops you should have uh the slides on your with you oh here we go and here are uh some other infractions that students uh that we also have listed here that you can take a look at uh I think we did we give them the pass outs yeah we gave you pass outs on these as well um so uh then you can see some student Information Systems Department issues that were uh identified and additional infractions that are listed on this uh spreadsheet and here a list of consequences uh for some of the infractions some of the uh consequences for some of the behaviors when they're sent to the uh safe office everything from detentions to home visits and the last thing you should also have there is the Panorama survey results I uh should see in here um the data regarding the survey itself uh you have a slide on each of the student survey results of over overall School climate and then relationship with staff which shows that it's uh very strong and then uh they uh school safety how students feel uh if they feel uh safe um uh if they were bullied how do they feel about uh getting the help that they need from an adult um you want me to click on what oh they weren't up on the screen oh okay you want me to go through the links again everybody should have the the slides with them go and do it I don't know what I don't know what you want me to do give everybody minut to look at all the data here okay while we're waiting Mr Vogal sure you for say to us thank you any questions any questions for Mr vogle who is uh one of our deans of discipline based on what you've been given I if I can Mr vogle can I can I stand oh please we have a parent response in stud on student discipline M sheet here do we have anything in response from the teachers are you talking about the um Panorama survey no I'm talking about discipline we don't do we don't do a survey to uh we don't do a survey of teachers with regards to what they uh feel in terms of uh the support from the safe office in other words it's not something that we put out there and ask them you know there uh or we've never done it that I'm aware of are you aware of anything like that in the past fil no in the typically uh let me let me rephrase that sure how did the teachers feel about safe overall so I've been here 10 years uh I think my first couple years it was definitely a transitional period um my key was to get to know the staff to work with the staff to support the staff and also I mean the the main thing is to support the students but we support the the students through the support we give to the staff I I have developed some pretty strong relationships as has my colleague Miss Gillis and um we we have an open door so when we have issues with students when we have reports to us um we do take an active approach where we want to go and talk to the teachers to find out what they need and what they want from us and how we could support them um Mr hayem uh firsthand you were right across the hall from me for many years and I I think it probably symbolized most of the relationships I've developed with staff members in the building um I understand I was in the classroom I was in the classroom for seven years prior to becomeing an administrator and uh I know what it was like when you weren't supported and what it felt like um I it's really important for us to work with the students on their behavior um my biggest drive has always been to teach students accountability um it's amazing how far they come in four years here um I always say freshmen come in and when they come into my office it's always the same answer it's a little kid answers like I don't know it wasn't me I can't remember and by the time they're seniors they're walking out they're walking into my office Mr vogle I'm I'm sorry I know what I did how many detentions do I owe you you know so um to blend that in I mean working with the students that's usually the first action after any type of infraction is meeting with the student and often times we have to do that prior to getting the direct interaction with the teacher because they're they sending reports in through our our uh student information database so we'll read what they say and often times we have questions but what it's also important is to listen to the students into check in with them first um when a student walks in my office it's not about the infraction it's first how are you how's your day and it has to it has to start there because if I don't have a relationship with the student I can't help them and I can't help the teacher but um I I haven't received much negative feedback directly um in the past like I said my first couple years here I think coming from a comprehensive School District where I was for 15 years 10 years as an administrator um it was a it was a learning curve for me um I had uh a different role there because I was also a supervisor of the teachers and having this role here where I can directly supervise students and just support teachers it helps to develop those relationships with those teachers that I'm working with I try to get to all of the class classrooms I try to get to uh the shops and uh I have a lot of personal conversations with the teachers outside of the school hours because I think it's important to to develop those relationships that way um I did in this past year was a little bit of a struggle of course towards the end uh we were in a transitional stage where um you know things happened this year that were very different from from most of my years in education um it was definitely a hard year um but the students were still the students and uh their their discipline I mean the data shows the discipline's improving every single year um as a matter of fact uh the major issues are in such decline um except for what one of the the the biggest issue we deal with is The Vaping of marijuana uh in the bathrooms we've done a lot of we made a lot of strides to try to um create deterrents for that let's put it that way uh we have Vape detectors and all the bathrooms and and such and we actively monitor those throughout the day um when we deal with big issues like that it takes a lot of the time of the day um classroom disruptions are I I think the ones that teachers feel so strongly about because throughout the year uh that builds um it all it a lot of it is um determined by different instructors and different types of classroom management and those that struggle in that area um seem to get more frustrated and those are where more complaints come uh but typically I find that teachers will approach me directly with complaints and when they do um it's always more about not having all the information and that's I think important for us to provide and to communicate out um in this past year I sat down with uh Mr Lavoy and M Richardson towards the end of the year and we wanted to try to figure out like what we can do better um I love working at the school and I love one of my one of my favorite thing is the core values that we have established and I really I I always go back to those when I'm dealing with any type of issue um growth mindset is probably in my eyes the most important because students are learning they're not just learning Auto Body they're not just learning math or uh Machine Tool Advanced manufacturing they're they're learning how to be responsible adults and uh those soft skills are often delivered not just in the classroom curriculum and the shops but also in their meetings their ample meetings with myself Miss Gillis Miss keys Miss Medina uh all all of our entire safe Department um we are a very strong uh unit of the school I I feel very proud to be a part of this department and uh I I just think that it's um something that we strive to do is develop those relationships to be as best we can um and and don't get me wrong I I know that mistake are made at times and we're accountable for those as well when we make mistakes we own them and we work with those instructors that feel like we misstepped and uh you know we we work through those problems any further questions from Mr vogle Mr ly bill could you just tell us a little bit about uh when you have a student that comes to the safe office uh how do you make a decision that they should go back to the class versus uh some other consequence oh absolutely um so there's various reasons why students are sent out of class um sometimes it's just because they show up late to class and the teacher doesn't follow what we have previously put in the teachers's handbook is admit them to class and send a referral um but more often I mean the the real important reasons if they are if they do become a disruption in class and they can no longer be M uh maintained in the classroom because of their behavior um we recognize that and we do not send them right back to class as a matter of fact there has to be some type of interaction between me and the student before I will ever have them return to a class not only that um I don't want to just talk to a student and send them back to class I need to hear from the teacher so with academics it's it's a lot easier because they could go to their next academic class where they're they they're getting a fresh start um shops it's a little more difficult to send them back right away because they're there for the day the duration of the day and when there's some negative behavior that really impacts not just the teacher and the student but the entire shop uh it's it's vital that I know what I have to do before they go back and sometimes um it's pretty extensive sometimes it it's beyond just uh calling home or giving a detention uh we often times will have a situation where we set up an appointment between the teacher and the stud student to work through problems and make sure the communication is there um you could imagine in a classroom when you're trying to deliver your lesson plans you you don't have the time to work through behavioral issues with a student so that's where we come into play um and I think a few things are in our favor when we do it that way number one is time uh because time allows the emotions to fade and a lot of times uh the negative interactions between our teachers and our students uh they derive they're derived from that negative emotion that evolves um and for several factors it might not even have anything to do with what's going on in the classroom often times there's a lot of things outside of school that affect not only the student but also the teacher um we've worked really hard to try to get students to understand and to and to figure out what the perception is from not just their side because students often have that self-centered approach when they come to to us and teacher did this teacher did that um but when you sit down and first get them to a place where they could communicate without the emotion and understand that the way their behavior actually affected not just themselves not just the teacher but then other students and maybe other staff members in the room uh it's it's vital that we get to that um in some cases we can't do it in a day and we have to you know hold a student out of class and in in that way we we have to have programs such as a past program um such as out of school suspension um but we also have a great guidance and uh well our whole guidance department and counseling department along with our adjustment counselors we have a c adjustment counselor this past year we added one to the safe department and Jamie Westway who's been a fabulous addition because as you can imagine when a student comes and they're they're I'm they're not my biggest fan they they'll come to me I have to give them time and using resources such as Miss Westway in our department uh I they get different levels of support um again my goal is to help to evolve that accountability for each student and I do that with the help of many people in my office thank you Mr shair you jump um first of all I did not get your name or your title my name yeah I don't yes William vogle okay and who you what your I am administrative Dean I've been a greater Lawrence Tech for 10 years now so you oversees the safe office whatever this is safe Department yeah and what is safe stand for safe stands for student and family engagement oh student family engagement so is that linked to discipline it is I understand it okay I got it I got it right okay um so you said it's family um engagement but then when everything when you first started and I need to make an observation as well so you came to talk about this data right the data or you just came for question and answer answers I yeah because you didn't present this Mr Lavo did you didn't you were standing there yeah okay I was so that's an observation first I suppose that he came for this I'm sorry if somebody can my apologies Mr Lavoy was doing this I invited Mr vogle I invited somebody from the discipline office to come answer our questions as we discussed and I appreciate CP share that exactly what I'm I personally being here for a few years already have been asking for people to represent this report to come and talk about them so I'm glad that you took the initiative to have Mr Willian and I'm sorry I missed your your name your last that's perfect um to come here and answer questions so back to my next um question SL observations when you guys first started speaking about the data there was a question asked about the patents how are the pents um feeling about the discipline and the answer that I heard is that the pents are not getting involved or they're not being asked or survey about the discipline and how they feel but then safe is about engaging family so how that takes now I'm I need somebody to explain to me how that works I could I could I just wanted to clarify that so in um one of those packets that you have that was just a little bit of data that we pulled from the an equity audit that we did in 2023 so that first um slide here you you see was where parents were surveyed about discipline um so that was from the equity audit but I but I didn't but I didn't say parents I said teachers no I just want to clarify not say parents I said we don't survey teachers but we do survey parents oh you said that yeah that's what I said we don't survey teachers that's what I said but we do survey my apologies I misunderstood that yeah okay I feel better now um so I'm still want I mean this is good but these numbers which is you know you know they look a little bit scary it's scary in in the wrong sense because okay ttin is a33 I mean but I mean is that something that we want to even look into yeah okay uh why why kids are being tied but there's other things that are very alarming are violations that we want to take um account for we want to so coming here and saying okay this is the numbers and it's decreasing at least I want to know what are the measurement that we are doing to make sure that this is these numbers are coming down they're coming down that's good but what are we doing and what is the target for us to go to zero or you know to a number that is manageable how is it being done because and again I'm going to use some phrases or some words that you guys already used you know my um hoping and and try trying to be friendly with the people to in order to build a relationship that's nice but data it's what speak having things to measure how things are working and how we're going to keep them from not repeating is what we need to see besides what you mentioned okay so again this is good good start but we need more and we need more of what it's been done to make sure this violations are taken care of um and it's too many paper that we just got right now which is another problem that I have I'm sorry today I'm very Snappy and I apologize in advance but I don't know how to fix that um consequences asrt what that stands it stands for after school recovery time and so what that means what is that after school I saw that too I'm sorry it's too many papers so we uh prior to coming up with that code for an infraction for an action against of infraction it it was we saw our detention numbers skyrocketing and more than half and you could see from the data more than half of what we previously called asrt used to be detention so then if you add that number I it's somewhere around 700 to our detention numbers that was double it was about equal right detentions and asrt asrt is after school recovery time that we assigned to students that Miss time due to tardiness in the morning that I think is something that we've been chasing for quite some time students showing up late to school I don't it's not a new thing um as a matter of fact when I started in discipline I started in a middle school I I actually looped with a class from seventh grade all the way to senior year because I moved up with them their freshman year and it was shocking to me that students that I had senior year dealing with tardiness were the same ones I dealt with when they were in seventh grade um there are some factors that are well out of our control however the key is that we hold them accountable the key is that when they don't hold themselves and they don't they haven't develop that accountability yet we're holding them accountable and those are the discussions I have with those students and with their families um because we have Progressive discipline when it comes to that um it's starts off with just 30 minutes of detention or what we call now after school recovery time so if a kid's 5 minutes late every day and they're now doing after six tardies they'll do 30 minutes of after school recovery time it's not a perfect tradeoff but it's showing them that when they're not holding themselves accountable that we're doing it for them as we get Beyond six tardies then 10 tardies and 12 tardies there's a progressive discipline and uh that after school recovery time evolves into at some point a 4-Hour Saturday detention and then that continues um in some cases students are T 30 times in a year they're not improving we have four years to do it because the goal is to get them to a point where they're employable some of those discussions evolve around or revolve around the employability and uh we do bring their families in to discuss it with them are there any other questions you want to ask doesn't just necessarily be on this paper well I again we are talking about discipline and I have a pent of and again I don't know if this is um the right space at this point but there's a pent concern about the safety of her daughter mhm and um I just don't see how we are I mean I haven't I'm not convinced that we have the right um tools or vehicle to you know I I I hear what you're saying I do um I'm not I go when when I hear that I had a parent come in with her daughter today um a parent and a sister came in with the daughter um she's moving into her junior year and she was concerned because at the end of the year her daughter wasn't coming into school she was sick she had a she had in illness and ailment and she missed a significant time over a week and the daughter felt that um she was ostracized by her shop mates um my first thing was that I had to make sure that she knew she had support and uh luckily we have a lot of Staff members that are already back some of our guidance staff counseling staff um apparently aison are already back um the way I approached it is to bring them all in and um we sat down in an office and the one thing I assured her was that we were going to work through this problem and we're here for her and she has all this support um the girl left she had a smile on her face she came in she was I could see the anxiety and it's not gone our job's not finished uh but that's why we're here every day and that's why we work with them um I I think that communication is so important that uh parents come forward students come forward and one of the reasons we changed it from the discipline Department to the safe department is to send that message that you could come to us we're here to help to support you and we're here to make you feel like you belong here and that you're not alone this little girl the fear in our eyes I I see that we deal with that that's our role here and that's why it's so important for us to develop those relationships with those individual students not as a whole not an assembly or a classroom we have the opportunity when we deal with students to work oneon-one and for the parent to be there and to feel supported I would do that for every student may I interrupt that's in the case that I'm talking about first of all the pent is not being informed that's one thing I'm collecting more information but I'm going to tell you what I have the pent is not being informed of what's going on with her daughter in here she has come here asked for meetings and right now they still in a in a place where the daughter doesn't even get out of the school without she coming in to get her I mean it's it's a serious situation my fear one the situation is still there again I'm collecting information in order and I want to do what you said get a meeting together with all the the the parties that are that needs to be involved and I actually I I address that with me with the chair and um I'm waiting for the the PN is is out of the country but anyways there's no communication as as I understand there's not a communication directly to the parent to to let her know what's going on with the daughter um there's fear that she is Fe fear for her life here in the situation that she had g into and it looks like even um she h i mean again I cannot go into much detail but I'm concerned that's a one situation and how many others that doesn't even come forward to say I you know I'm I feel in dangerous and how many parents don't even know that they their child here which are all pretty much minor if they are under 18 they're minor the parents need to be involved and I feel or I think that we not involving the Ping enough again that's where I am right now and I appreciate that you're coming to addressed this so important topic and I want to see more of this please and and you know we have a big serious problem on on hand and I just want to leave it at that point and again I appreciate um your time and your your answers I um my it's my pleasure I I I work for this community you know and I I think it's important to connect to the parents and the and the caregivers because they don't see what goes on within the walls of the school and when you don't see you develop your own Narrative of what could be happening um again my pride in this school students choose to come here they they could go to any of the four sending districts and they choose they fight to get in here and one of the reasons I hear one of the primary reasons they they they want to be here is because they feel safe coming here and whereas they may not feel safe going to their sending District again that can be an illusion because it's just what they don't know it's the narrative they develop from not knowing and from hearing stories and from Reading articles um you you read the news and articles about schools across the state um but this is greater Lawrence Tech it's probably one of the finest schools in the state of Massachusetts which is well known for having the finest public education in the United States and with that comes a lot of Pride and it comes a lot of what I the pressure I put on myself and I know my colleagues put on themselves to make sure that is carried out and that the students not only feel safe but they are safe um go back to the data compar it to any other school in the state and we're always at the top but I'm not hiding behind that what I what I want what I want to impress upon you is that we're always working to achieve more and to be better you know growth mindset we're we're we're getting better every day um and I I again that's the pride that I try to work towards to to make everybody not not not just some but all um I do need the communication I do need to be able to reach out to those that feel unsafe and a lot of times there's a hesitancy to do it um but we have to find a way to overcome that and to to ensure to help ensure them that they could come to us Mrs um I I do want to thank you for for coming tonight and I can sense you know your sincerity in in in wanting to be here and and obviously helping the kids I do I certainly do sense that um and and I know that a lot of kids value that and it's it's certainly a staple of that department that you have to be that voice be that ear to that student but the teachers as well and um so yes it is a multifaceted job but it really is um that being said um I've I've always found that it was important to be like proactive instead of reactive and in and along those lines I would I know that there is a security group um that you uh heading or it's part of the department um but before I say that so I don't forget I think this is this is great but data is data right you can just read whatever you want into it like I will read the fact that when I left here my stats were um lower than what they are right now so that that um you know you can read whatever you want into them I it's obviously the nitty GD and and what you're saying in terms of caring and reaching out and following it through and developing that student in a in a total way um so again that being said I'm going back to that reactive part and and I you know I mean it's always valuable to be proactive and so the security people that are engaged in your leadership um so what kind of training do they have because I mean they can either help you or hurt you and and in terms of they not only can help you and hurt you in a concrete way and in a perception type of way and I'm afraid that in the perceptive perception is What's um most glaring I think yeah so I I I am looking to hear what you know what training if any um and if not why not yeah um that's a great question uh so and thank you Miss Ferris I know that you were my predecessor here um and you're probably familiar with our security staff um they well some of them but there's only actually one here who was previously here when you were here uh he's our head of security that's all I needed yeah he's amazing he's amazing uh so that's all we needed we needed a couple like him yeah yeah so you know I mean I know it I know it's tough and I know that you know the whole engagement part it's the nice touchy feely kind of thing but uh you know not in a literal way I I I I I want it to be you know a professional kind of relationship and I guess we go back to that perception piece that um you know it's it's there's a fine line there because sometimes when a teacher sends a student out of class they're really looking for some heavy hand to come down on them um but if our security shows up and you know is is a terrifying presence it doesn't it it there's a double-edged sword there um we do encourage the relationship building with our entire staff and that obviously includes them so we uh have tried to include them in a lot of our PDS um if you're not aware we've we've gone from a our halfday schedule has actually evolved from being a a dismissal to being a delayed entry um and one of the reasons we that was important for us is because it freed up our staff when we had the when we had the dismissal that staff that security staff had to basically just supervise a bunch of kids in the gym before they went to their sport because the kids weren't able to go home and come back um when we went to the delayed uh I mean there were a lot of reasons we this wasn't the only reason but uh one of the the advantages to it is that it allowed the entire staff to be freed up during that time so when we do different types of training um and we do often we'll have a safe Department department meeting where we might work on some training um we've also I believe we used uh CPI which is a training it's often referred to as restraint training but it's it's The Crisis Prevention uh Intervention basically what they do is they develop uh they have a curriculum that uh we have a trained staff member who it used to be Shawn and Beth when I first started who you're familiar with um Sean really wanted to step away and give others opportunity we have a graduate here Mr neeves who uh he has gone through the training is a two-day extensive training and it's a train the trainer so when he comes back he each year we we review that with all of our staff and there's an there's an extended session for new staff um because it's not about the stuff you have to do in crisis as much as it is avoiding crisis and deescalate any issues I guess I'm sorry I want but I am familiar with the CPI so um and and that's you know certainly valuable yes you need that um but as far as like you know what how what are the responsibilities in other words are they uh there to monitor the hallways the traffic flow uh you know uh walk a student around I mean those all all of the above okay so is there any at any point I mean do do you guys monitor that is there any point where a kid is like out of class because they walking around but have no destination yeah you know I mean I would think that the destination that you know after the walk is your office or guidance is what I would think and again I'm not here to tell you what to do or not to do I just look I'm looking for how how does the student how is a student feeling because the way that student is feeling and the way the teacher is feeling about the students is how your your school goes as you know M and you know so I mean those are things that I I would like you know you guys to like take a look at I mean I know that you go through professional development and all that and the CPI is certainly a valuable tool uh you probably can't have a security staff without it um and be effective but um I'm you have more security and but that it's a big building and there's more more students I'm just hoping that you know you guys are monitoring where they're going and and and what they're doing I mean there's got to be some kind of value in the relationship in the destination and in the in interaction I mean I guess you know I mean just can't you can walk a dog around for that you know that so that's what I'm I'm interested in that and again I wish in the future that when we get information like this it is part of the package before we arrive here um and so do I make that a motion or something because I would have I mean again data is data I'm not really a big data person as you can all see but um it does yeah it speaks to something and it's it's valuable but well I'd be happy to come back if you look over this and you have any questions and you want to invite me back I probably wouldn't have any you know specific questions I mean that's not my that's not my thing my thing is the overall view perception what is actually happening do we have a pulse on the the climate in the school because it does generate from that that office yeah I me um my feeling is anyway that's my opinion um so I mean I'm I'm probably not going to have any specific questions about this except that one what what how about recidivism like you know um so they don't go to Saturday detention three times what happens then yeah um that's good question because doesn't happen often it doesn't happen often because we involve all the stakeholders I think because when a student doesn't go to Saturday detention their parents are in my office and um you know I haven't had any issues with students not following through on what they have to do I'll tell you miss Medina helps a lot she helps certainly does because she's at she runs our Saturday detentions and when they're not there the first half hour she's calling and getting them there um of course they have to make up anytime we all share that same vision in that office I believe we do because I mean obviously you know being proactive and having the right follow through and follow up is I mean that is your your word that's that's out there and that is more valuable than even I mean as valuable as we we all think we are yeah that is oh my word if they lose faith in me I can't do my job yeah right right so I I I hold that as a point that's that's like if I have a sense that a teacher is not happy with a decision I make and and as you know when we make decisions in this office you have a teacher a student a parent sometimes another administrator sometimes somebody you're not even thinking about sure a lot of times to make everybody happy is virtually impossible so what you have to do is you have to make sure the communication is clear that you're following up that you're being consistent and the biggest action we could have is modeling what we need to do um that's a point of Pride as well and uh you know anytime we slip we all hold each other accountable y if I make a mistake Miss Pina is in my office saying you can't do this um it's we have that we have it's almost like a family right and uh you know we we all love each other you know and uh we celebrate each other but it's it's worked for us because you know again being all on the same page is so important um but I do I appreciate all those questions I think it's it's not an easy job and and uh the stress level goes way up here never here and when you hear comments from me it's never like oh you know I'm I'm I'm I'm putting the department down I just you know what what's good for the the kid what's good for the teacher that's going to make the wheels turn right you know I and I mean it is it's an exasperating job but my concern right now my big concern is security okay okay I mean I I never I it was I knew stuff before it even happened as you probably have experienced that too but I mean things you know kids not feeling right kids having problems that was all beforehand you know I mean didn't have to react it was more it came to you first in the interest of Time Mrs FIS yes I'm done Mr Vogal has no problem with coming back here I think uh Zer and and Mar would both like to have chance to digest the information that you have well I just think you know whatever it is doesn't have to be this I mean this is kind of you know involved and Mr vogle you have no problem coming back uh for the next meeting Mr superintendent I don't think you'd have a problem with that you don't you don't need them for need well we can uh if that's the committee's wish then we'll have want to just con back for the sake of coming back yep I have a last comment please I just um going from what sparis was asking about the safe safety person what is the training that they have come back and tell us what that is um and I'm just going to pick on one um incident I'm going to call it that way when we the last meeting that we have it was it was said or I heard from this meeting that there was um girls sitting on Securities lab yeah that's highly inappropriate exactly so you she asked a question and you said it's a fine line so I don't know if it's related to why it wasn't it wasn't related to sitting any labs the fine line I understand that I am putting that in in the context of what is the behavior of a safety uh person um in relation to a student yeah you understand well I think as a professional in any in any Ro exactly what you asked and I believe that's when you said there's a F line between what the behavior is for them with the students uh the the fine line was again no you don't have to answer it right now but I would like I do would like him to come back with um what is the we we we that would not be acceptable behavior if we saw that we would we would address that situation as a supervisor of that St how the incident of what happens last time was addressed and again it doesn't need to be yeah I can't speak the Personnel issues and of whether or not I was involved not asking for p but I'm asking how do we address the situation see when in a general context generally again and I'm sorry I need to interrupt you because we keep saying we're not going to bring personal and never ever I ask here and everybody knows about personal but we want more detail of what how are we handling situations like that simple that would be through the HR office so you'd have to check that check with them it it would start with uh obviously we're the primary supervisors for our security staff um any behavior that we see that is inappropriate we would address immediately but it's simple as the people were suspended they were retrained they you know it was taken care of this way that is a detail where it's going to satisfy somebody listening to what happened and it's that simple whether it's from the HR from the school from the uh superintendent office from whatever it is that needs to be taken care of the situation how was it addressed that's all yeah you got me I I could again okay so so as a supervisor of uh our staff um we there's almost there's an expectation that comes you you almost think you don't have to teach certain things but then you find out you do if you see something that's inappropriate that would be handled directly um from from my point of view I would one-onone with that individual uh I have Co my colleague Miss Gillis who's also we share that responsibility of supervision in my department so sometimes she will handle it sometimes I will handle it and if we both come to that point where we've we've dealt with this we we collaborate and it often times doesn't stay with us it goes to our our our supervisor which would be the principal of the building right now um you know other principles in the past so they would support us in what we need to do in that at that level um I I personally know all of our security members now to a point we understand the behavior um if anything is egregious I I don't know if we can maintain them but that's not to the level where I would have that decision that would be something that goes to to the principal and would go up to the um to the HR office um but at at the point of understanding and training um discussions are you know it it may be um the type the way they they greet a student um some would say in my Social Circle I hug everybody that's not appropriate in a in a school setting in a classroom setting that's inappropriate behavior for an adult to be hugging a a student in a school and and that's there's no wiggle room there so if it happens we have to address it okay um there there are there are techniques you could use that we've we've given Mr shair I just I know and I thank you for the long explanation all I want to make sure is did we address that issue and how do we address it and that's all you know and I'm sure if you're the dean of discipline you will know that whatever you brought into the HR department was addressed because they need they should get back to you and say this was taken care was taken care of this way so when I ask you a question for example you should be able to give me a completely General answer of it was taken care of this way that's it and again I don't want to take more time and I appreciate um your answers but I would like you know some understanding of how um these type of behaviors are being addressed in a general way but in more detail than it was taken care of because it was taken care of is not enough for us to know that things are really being taken care of thank you you're welc all right thank you very much uh Mrs Ferris you have a motion to uh have him come back in order to get Mr vogle back we'll need the superintendent's permission and Mr vogel's uh invitation yeah so you don't need my permission Tom what you need is committee needs to vote to bring them back and I go for you to come back can I have a motion I put a motion thank you thank you second second I'd be happy to come back Mr Lavoy asked me to come today if if he needs me that's what I'm here for discussion so he'll ask me to come back I will come back I guess I have a question like talking about the parents being involved if they come to your office does the parent get notified or is there a certain level of infraction before they get notified um so the there there are certain levels obviously that we deal with um and we are required to notify not only by phone call but in writing uh for certain infractions um for example if it's if it's going to be a suspension um or an expulsion we have to notify them in writing of uh intent to meet and then uh they would come in and if there is going to be um a hearing they'd have to have another letter to uh notify them um a lot of the efforts during the day are spent trying to catch parents who are often times at their jobs and working um I luckily here in my former District I once called a parent said why are you bother me at work I don't call you when something goes wrong in my job which made me laugh I couldn't laugh but um I was it's tough you don't get the support from a parent um but I I think uh it's vital that we communicate but it's not just vital it shouldn't start in my office it should start in the classroom with the teachers teachers and one of the things we're trying to get to happen more is is communication throughout with and it's one of the it's it's one thing they're evaluated on communication with home um it's very important to keep the parents in the loop and uh I I mean again I used to evaluate teachers I I don't currently um I've told Mr Lavoy if you need me to I'm here um it's it's a tough part of the job but uh it's uh again it's encouraging parents and student and teachers to all communicate it's uh it's vital okay can we call a vote please show Miss dla yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia St Mr tbox M Ferris Mr ha yes Mr vogle I thank you very much I know you've been here since 6 o'cl this morning welcome welcome time for you I I don't ever remember you speaking this much you haven't been enough meetings with me then I tend to go uh yeah no I I I mean that if you guys need me here I think we're we're all on the same team I appreciate all your support I I really do without your support we can't function the way we need to function so um I'm lucky to have the support at the top and uh I'm psyched to have this guy here he's uh he's a breath of fresh air it's great thank you thank you very much Mr Lavoy you want to you go over the Panorama or we all set there we're all set the only thing I mean you got something anyone any questions I can will we bring them back so the question I the only thing I would ask is that if bill's coming back I just need to know exactly what information this committee looking for so that we can prepare the committee is going to digest the information they have in front of them and then cont give us uh just notify with an through an email what what questions are you looking for to answer so we know how to prepare all right maybe you can address the email to me and I'll go over with the superintendent and I'll make sure it's on the agenda anything else I don't have any question I mean it's okay it's okay okay all right admission report superintendent so we just gave you a copy an updated copy of admissions report we don't really need to speak on it good Aviation report Mr Lavoy all right so uh with regards to the aviation program um the um our consultant from FAA came in today um we're and uh right now the department of Ed is holding us back from uh starting our uh exploratory this year until they hear from FAA that they feel like uh they will be ready for full-blown approval by April so he came in to take a look at with all the documentation we're in good shape uh he wanted to take a look at the facilities and the equipment and so after he left today he felt uh confident that we would be able be done a final approval would be done by April so uh he sent forward me a email to that effect uh that I will forward to the Department of Education uh the uh um Liz Bennett to be uh Frank and um once she hears from him through that email then she said she would consider allowing us to go forward with the exploratory program so I will contact her tomorrow uh and he's happy to contact her as well if there's any doubt or question about uh our ability to be ready for that but in terms of that uh which I'll do a part of my report on projects um some of one of our buildings totally complete and ready to go well two of our spaces are really complete ready to go so he felt that the two spaces we have is actually enough to run the program so uh to get it off the ground so I think we're actually in uh moving forward pretty well the hanger we're still waiting I think think we'll soon be able to purchase or take over ownership of the hanger uh the depart uh the city had to do a uh 21e um on the ground which is to ensure that their environmental study that there was no um oil or gas or any kind of contaminants on the soil around the hangar um and so that was supposed to be done last time I talked to the engineer was was about 3 weeks ago and he said it would be done within 3 weeks so I would suspect uh it be done this week once that's done we're ready to go we're ready to sign and move on and then we'll be able to get in there and do a little bit of work that needs to be done in order to get it uh approved by the dsse for uh taking over and actually uh teaching students in that space that leads us into summer projects updates I was expecting Mr Hamill to come and I wanted to congratulate him on how nice the school looks but I guess we couldn't get him tonight but he's he left for vacation tonight so he's he's going to be gone uh the rest of this week so but he had he was leaving tonight so uh I told him I would cover it so we have uh Aviation building one which is the uh building that uh was 5 point about 5.7 million 5.6 million that they broke ground that they uh uh started 3 months ago and have had several problems with underground uh pipes that they weren't aware were under the ground which was a um so they had to do a lot of exploring that finally resolved all of that and have finished all the drainage work underneath uh and uh are ready to start the foundation in there so that pushes our expected completion date to January we were hoping to have it open by the beginning of November uh so we're they're behind on that particular project um the aviation building to was complete uh that's ready to and we've started staging it we've started setting it up today for uh to be able to utilize that space and that's one of the spaces FAA wants to see uh education ready so able to walk in the door and start teaching students in that space so by the end of this week that space will be at that point uh We've started uh uh taking all the equipment out of uh boxes and storage that we had in in as we've been collecting for the last month a lot of that equipment and uh it'll be start to be placed in that uh space um so that building uh we feel good about that and the space we had last year for the n9th grade with all the equipment out of there uh we'll be also uh ready to go by the end of the week to open up for exploratory program so uh that project uh one of them's been going great the other one not so great uh the horiculture landscape program uh building uh is moving along right now we're in standstill waiting for the uh geothermal uh uh part of the building which is the heat system uh to break ground uh we had to go through some uh procurement uh processes that held it up a little bit uh that contract has been awarded and they will soon be starting to put in the wells you need to put in Wells for the geothermal system and then once that's done we can go ahead and finish all the Mechanicals on that so we're hoping completion for that beginning in November cafeteria uh is also so uh we're starting back uh putting that uh starting construction back in that space actually this week we were waiting for engineering drawings uh for the drainage and the uh grease traps uh and mechanical drawings from the civil engineer for some of that uh that will be uh that's ready uh completed now so we'll uh hope to open that in October we are going to open for opening a school we are partitioning part of it off so we can utilize some of the space to open up uh for uh the space that is completed so we will be utilizing half of that c cafeteria space uh we just need the uh health inspector to come in uh sometime next week to approve uh us to be able to use that space so uh we will have we do expect it to be completed sometime in October though then phase four field uh um we're hope should be done in October I do have one uh question to ask the committee about this particular project um and that um we may have an opportunity to partner with a uh a youth program from Lawrence soccer program that's interested in uh uh funding a funding the uh artificial turf of that field in exchange for a time period of use of that uh field um after we're done utilizing six o'clock every evening after 6 for the next 10 to 15 years if they the funding of that would be about $450,000 uh at one point they were interested in doing that that would be up to the committee if they were willing to approve something like that so I will bring it back to the committee in September well in September I'll give you a little more information about that so you can make a decision on that I'll give you a lot more specifics uh other than that if if you're not interested in doing that we're ready to seat it and uh it will be ready for play sometime in uh November that final uh project fi final field project um um then and then we have no specific commitment to anybody other than uh we can rent it like we do all our other fields and we'll utilize it for our soccer teams as well and then the aviation hand er uh which is uh I explained to you that we're waiting to take over ownership so we can go in and do the work that needs to be done in and then we've done many projects within the building this summer in terms of uh preparing classrooms we've uh we have moved a few walls to make it more feasible to uh split the space so we can have uh more space for uh some of the different programs that we need to uh start this year and we've moved some office space around uh in order to make it more efficient for our um Personnel who are actually uh doing a uh Workforce Development programs and after dark programs and Grant programs we've moved them in a part of the building so we could open up space for our new principal and keep the operation of the Day School cons confined to a specific area so we made some work we did some work around that this summer as well so we're in good good shape with that so we're um they're going to finish uh cleaning the hallways this week and we're ready to open uh every pretty much the rest the school has been cleaned uh polished uh a lot of uh repairs and changes made so we're ready to go school does look good um please I didn't see it on the agenda or any of your bullets here how is the out so the the Elks uh the we are still working with them to try to find property for them so they're not willing to sell to us until they find a new home we've offered a couple locations they weren't interested in them um you know we have uh someone doing a lot of research the city is actually helping us as well have found a few locations but the out Toren interested in those locations either uh so um there is a possibility I'm hearing there's a possibility that the old wonderbrad building across ding for them uh the gentleman who bought that a couple years might be willing to sell now because the city won't let him use it for what he wants to use it for so we're going to uh pursue that um uh option as well we're going to call out to him okay uh Mr Lavoy uh just getting back to the summer projects uh the aviation building 1 and two with the the piping problem the plumbing problem are we still within budget or did that get absorbed by the contractors so we're still negotiating that uh our beliefs that uh some of the issues that were uh encountered should have been done the engineer should have had those uh uh those pipes that were under the ground some of its um drainage for the roof some of it is sore lines uh they were shown in our as-built drawings when the uh engineer transferred the as built drawings to the new drawings that forbidding he did not put them in there so uh consequently it cost a lot of money to resolve that we met with the architectural firm today and we made we assured them that we uh were very firm about the fact that we do not believe that we have any responsibility to increase the the cost of that project due to the negligence of the engineer here U they somewhat agreed with us on that there is a few little things that uh that uh was out of their control that uh could increase the project uh minimally but not at the uh expense it would have been so we're um trying to resolve that thank you School opening for staff three days so we have our uh um School opening agenda for staff um the uh committee working on uh the uh School opening uh agenda uh pretty much just completed around 3:00 most of their work it's not 100% there yet I can uh if you want to take a quick look at it I can put it up on the screen uh we open uh with a welcome and uh one of invite the committee to come to the first day and uh if you'd like to come in uh come from 8 uh uh from 8 to 9 or so 8 to 10 to uh hear some of the uh initial uh uh welcoming to the staff uh we also have our uh we'll go through our professional development schedule introduction of new staff members you'll get a chance to see who they are uh our Service Awards to staff members who have been here a long time uh those are our initial uh uh work that we do then we'll we'll be going over our our 20242 goals and priorities the school Improvement plan uh our mtss plan so very critical important things that we'll be doing uh to kick off the school year um and welcome to come to breakfast that we uh uh at at 7:40 in the morning up on the in the cafeteria I know in the past some of the members have come for that so I just want to invite you to if you're interested uh feel free to join us for that opening part of the agenda uh and then um what I'll do is I'll email you the rest of the agenda because I want the committee to firm they just finished the end of the day and they haven't had a chance to really go through it and see if they need to make any adjustments or changes so um uh Thursday at some point Thursday I'll email you this agenda so you can get a closer look a better look at it KN I don't uh give you something that may change still so but I'll will forward that to you on Thursday upcoming NE negotiations I believe the teachers contract is up June so this is our uh last year in the three-year contract with the teachers um I I met with uh Chris Burke today on some uh talking a little bit about our upcoming evaluations and the process we use uh to ensure that we're all on the same page uh and then also he mentioned that uh he was going to be sending me uh a letter requesting to start negotiations in September he was going to be sending me a letter I would ask the committee uh to allow me to start negotiations as we've done in the past where I negotiate the contract uh uh in this case it would be with the assistant superintendent and uh uh HR anybody have a problem with that good please Mr M is there a I suppose we have some sort of involvement in that process we have to what I suppose we have some sort of involvement in that process you'll have involv yes in the process we will I will meet with you we I typically meet with the uh administrative team to look at and read the exist existing contract to see if there's any language or changes that we need to make that have impacted teaching learning that we feel that is necessary in terms of uh the work that uh students uh teachers do to that may have an impact on student learning such as like on a Wednesday uh we would be looking uh they used to stay till 315 and they no longer do that so is it do we think it's important for them to to revisit that just I'm just giving you an example so those are the kinds of things we'll look at if the committee wants to look at the teacher contract and have concerns about any in that contract uh happy to hear and listen to that as well before we start and also we'll talk a little bit about uh where the committee believes we are in terms where we should be in terms of financing our finances uh the uh Director of Finance uh Melissa is going to do some uh work researching and look at what the trends are uh that she has some reports on that that she's received from the state she's going to give you some insight on that before we start to do any negotiating or anything so committee will definitely have some input on on the proc on the the negotiation itself hry is that the typical format yes that's what we've done since the last four since I've been here okay and before I was here Mr M so the in in the negotiation process is typically for teachers and administrators correct me if I'm wrong there's no representative sent from the committee or the chair to participate in those negotiations or is that yeah typically no but we have in the past a couple times had like when we were uh doing during Co we had a Committee Member uh join for a couple meetings um but typically unless the process becomes challenging and difficult over a very long period of time uh we may have a member so the committee did the um the um clerical last year the last time around uh Committee Member oversaw that because I had a family member that was in that unit so committee uh did that particular one but other than that we involved in the admin yeah yeah okay good grading for quality uh Bren just can give you a little update on our uh grading for Equity our our uh our uh we had a committee that met this summer to review uh last year's work and uh and teachers have made some recommendations to that committee thank you so um as Mr lvo said there was a a team of teachers and administrator who worked this summer um to go over the Equitable grading policy and I just want to um recognize them for their um efforts and participation so um Mike saier Tom Middleton Tom Kennedy Sher Lee Lewis Carla Mahoney Dan pendenza and Samantha benvenga um and one administrator so do Dr Joanna faet who's our director of language culture and Equity she led and facilitated that work um so basically the the main overarching goal was to review survey feedback that they had received from last year um on the the first year of the policy so both successes and concerns from the teachers um so that was um done at the the end of the school year and their their work is still going to be ongoing but as a result of the the work and the review of the survey data uh they came up with a number of recommendations the highlights were U rep recommending an implementation calendar for this 2425 school year uh this includes information being shared at the back to school PD days which they've de developed a presentation for that as well as for the new teacher orientation uh they talked about uh doing another book study so last year they read the book um together grading for Equity so there's a possibility of another um book study monthly updates so teachers sharing best practices shout outs to staff and implementing a structured cycle for surveys for additional feedback um so this process will involve a clearly defined schedule for Distributing the surveys collecting and reviewing teacher feedback they made some specific recommendations regarding U makeups and REM remediation for next school year and um as I mentioned they they recommended this presentation which they've already I believe shared with a new teacher orientation and will share with all staff at the back to school uh PD so they'll continue to to work on that throughout the year with um you know frequent check-ins on a regular schedule on this committee how many vocational uh teachers were involved just one there was actually um a separate committee that was working this summer as well though there was a CTE committee um for grading for equity and they were looking to align um some of their language and and Grading standards to the policy as well thank you any questions Miss Ferris so what is it that they you're going to start the year out with what the specific changes yeah like I don't I don't have a copy of it I don't know that we should or shouldn't but I know that it was voted on last year I don't have a copy of it again it's something that is here and I don't have previous knowledge to it so I'm I'm going to make a recommend I'm a motion that any ancillary materials get the packet doesn't go out until the ancillary materials are inserted because I mean there's no sense in me coming here and being hit with all this information and I'm not able to digest it or even think about it I mean if you want an informed and educated maybe don't want an informed uneducated comment and that's why we don't get any information I have no idea but I'm not going to vote on a thing I'm not going I I don't even think it needs to vote but I know they voted on it last time and I don't I don't even have a copy so I I don't even know what your update is I just listen to you and accept whatever is there so we do have this slide these are the specific changes that were made at the end of the year I don't want a slide I want a paper I want email it to me I'll copy my own yeah so tonight was informational because the committee just completed their work and their uh they need to uh bring it to the full uh full faculty before we bring it we will be bringing it back with the original document showing the changes so you have an opportunity to to see what the impact and what the actual changes are but this work um we felt that we because we were presenting it to the staff that I I wanted to show the committee what the work is at this that the uh summer committee did so you have some sense of uh what they were doing this summer um but you'll get the full uh document that the original um grading policy that was voted on by the committee with the changes that you're going to that we uh highlighting tonight be in them so you can make so that then you'll be able to see the impact and the changes we'll also talk a little bit more about um how the grading po how teachers uh felt the impact of the grading was in particular but this is just an opportunity for us to give you an update on what's going on with this okay but I still am making this motion that anything that's any ancillary material that is presented to the committee for uh consideration of any sort should be in the packet and not you know just hand it to us at the or emailed I don't care about you you know you can email it save save a tree second that for this question okay I me but I mean I don't I don't okay so that's my motion my motion is second okay second okay where your motion please for chery you got it okay she's good any discussion this is not new we're supposed to be getting I'm sorry I do have a comment we supposed with anything that is discussed in this in this meeting we should have the packages ahead of time so that's not supposed to be okay so any ancillary material so you're right it keep happening so yes I exctly and if the packet goes out then an email needs to follow it I guess I don't you know I I mean I I get it you guys are busy and stuff but honestly like I said if you want an informed and educated comment or opinion on something then I need to see it prior I am you know I'm retired and I don't I don't think it's that I'll set yes right yeah when when the changes come out I know we're not educated but if we don't really agree with some of the changes do we have any input or is that just it and we just supposed to agree to it Mr Leo if it's a uh school committee policy then you have input okay all set let's vote on a motion Miss Ferris yes Miss dler yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr Mercedes I'm sorry it's AB Mr tybox yes Mr hayam yes out of state travel Mr Lavoy I was hoping the coach would be here but I guess you're doing that too so um we have a request from the director of Athletics to to attend a national athletic director's conference in Austin Texas uh which is uh being held on December 13th to the 17th total estimated cost is 2,100 it would come out of his operational budget this is built into his budget by yeah well as far as I know no no other staff is going it's just for one on the paper yeah just one just one person going motion to approve do I get a second second from Miss Ferris no discussion I thought you second it your question yeah please I'm going to Second it but you're going to Second it doesn't then we'll open for discussion okay second please I just have a comment can so this is a national ath athletic director associ conference how valuable is that to Great allowance Tech well uh typically at a national con uh convention it gives you an opportunity to uh meet and talk to other athletic directors to uh see how they uh handle different situations with regards to uh Athletics um in terms of um I get I get that it's not necessarily high school though it's not necessarily what I didn't hear I'm sorry not necessarily high school high school level uh may not be just may not be just High School right and I and I'm okay with it I I guess I I guess with all this stuff you know what I don't like our last meeting we sent off the young man to go run we didn't hear any update from that you know I mean there's no follow through to what is approved that was the last scoop that was at uh right right yeah but but that's all I'm saying I mean I guess I I mean you know me I'll say yes to most but I I I do want to see some value to the students here we'll we'll ask him to do a report in lie of allowing him to go then we expect to have a report on what he learned and what the impact will be on our students I mean all it has to be is like two sentences I but like I said I mean we were all excited about those skills USA kids that went out and the kid that went to um run in wherever he went but we had no we have no feedback from that so all I'm saying is if if a door is opened I like to see you know the the closure okay Mr M Mr tobox yes Mr FIS yes M dler yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr haam yes I did you find I did find it oh okay find you know yeah it's it's a file number what it basically is okay you're all set all right state conference I got to sign that old business district uh committee priorities policy bgd school committee review procedures the bgd stands just for a file number I did Chase it down I believe it's board um Governor districts these are statements of things that we have to sign for whether they're updated or reviewed this one here is reviewed uh I believe it came into effect cuz there were so many pages that we had to review and approve that the uh former School committees and the chairman uh wanted to do it a little bit at a time I think Mrs OA might am I correct is that so we're doing a little bit at the time this one is reviewed in 2022 um I believe believe we need a vote to accept that as the policy and again it's uh State mandated it's uh Department of Ed mandated do we have uh any questions I have a second do I have a a motion to approve just a question has this been reviewed by the uh the school attorney or is they all by the school attorney okay thank you can I get a motion to approve motion to approve second any discussions call the vote Please Mr Mahia yes Mr toox yes Miss Ferris yes Miss tisler yes Mr Jones yes Mr hayam yes no business we have none yeah can we have discussions about the dress code a little bit we can request some discussions on the address code okay that's the student for students yeah for students as to if there's opportunity to change a little bit can we work that out for the next uh meeting want on the next meeting agenda for students or for keep everybody students and staff or students we can put a m on there but the preference was for students at this point I had a parent last spring okay thank you table matters I see none please on the table matter there was um there was a item about they care and rates but I don't see it here about dayare last time and by the way the uniform well it was also part of table matters in the past somehow Mr Mercedes brought up something about yes more uniform to the academic side I believe is what he was talking about and mine was more to why the female students aren't allowed to wear skirts or dresses like the teachers that is the response from the did we have anything on that on the table matters I thought we took some I thought we took the uh dress code for teachers you took it off yes we took it off the agenda well it was voted on but we didn't have students on it no we didn't have students so we're going to add students oh yeah we can do that okay so I think the committee has to vote on it it just be students yes we're going to vote on it it would be just for students not for vot okay can I have a motion on that second thank you any discussion call a vote Please Mr Tabo yes M Ferris yes Miss TLA yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr hayam yes Personnel consider considerations report resignations Brett Marano CER instructor Annie Ducey special education professional Edward Roberts science instructor Michelle Ferrara electrical instructor Peter McGee carpentry instructor Kate Burnham special education director Colleen Moran it instructor and these two were left over from the last meeting they were announced then I'll announce them again cuz they're here Fatima Elam and Teresa Hurley uh Fatima was program instructor Teresa was medical assistant instructor leaves of absences we have none retirements we have none may there are close things you see retirements no may I please okay can I miss something yeah there's a list of resonations and appointments um and I see some of them are counseling each other but we have nine resignations 13 appointments so my request is can we have the list of opened um Jobs still to fill along with this report along with that report yeah and I put that as a point of of motion can we do that do you want to make a motion I justed second did you get the wording didn't can we get the wording what I'm so we have for Nations and we have appointments and there's a mismatch again and I understand it's never going to be a match but I would like to also see what is still open jobs who's taking what positions open jobs that are waiting to be filled open positions waiting to be filled okay we had a second second any further discussion please disc really quick um it's not aign to what her motion is but normally when we get the Personnel considerations we get the dates the effective dates of the resignations there are about nine resignations and there's no effect date so if we could get the effective date of those resignations whether it was the end of the school year or was this last week I mean whatever the case may be we normally get the effective date along with those resignations I think these were all from the over the summer except the two that I had made mention that they were already reported to us but the dates would be helpful that was just a comment thank you I'm sorry we can we can put the date we can make sure the dates are on there here okay yeah one more comment I'm sorry I'm sorry you're not that so I understand that there was two three people that were let go is that part of this because I don't see the name here or it's no part of this or should it be part of it um people that were released under three years were they resigned one of them's on there uh um two on the next page oh I see I know there's one missing here uh I don't know why it's missing but I'll go back and uh we'll check so uh or we find we we get the information from okay can we have update list sure we can give you an update on anyone that's not on here yeah I I know there's one that's not on here resignation that that's not on here unless unless it was on the last one I have to look and see if it was on the last it might have been on the last um talking about an email that you sent us of people yeah that one of them's on here no be in the last one if you send the email after that yeah I'll I'll I'll go back and check and see if if it was uh put out at the last school committee meeting because it might have the resignation might have happened before that meeting it wasn't okay well I'll check that I'll go back and check with HR and and uh see if which ones we missed uh do you know which one we missed can we announce it now um want to gu um I don't want to missp speake want to gu we'll wait for the update yeah I want to make sure I don't know why it's not on here so I want to make sure okay I give you the right information Please Mr toox yes Miss Ferris yes M dla yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr yes appointments Michael Allington reading Specialists Chester Jackson principal D duam our CTE coordinator Holly Garcia English teacher Juda teral Special Education team chairperson Tina nuta director of special education Peter Angeli math instructor Angela Lawler Brennan director of administ administrations and counseling Adam Thal electrical instructor Eli frag carpentry instructor Holly Jacobs special education adjustment counselor Jose vquez it instructor Joseph Ryan robotic and automation instructor can I get a vote on those please make I'm sorry job next one job postings evening English classes for parents caregiver of glts students two teachers per session and two par professionals first session each teacher will have a group of parents SLC caregivers one power professional will support the teachers and one power professional will support child supervision programs will run for three sessions Session 1 117 to 1219 session 2 17 to 1725 to 21325 session 3425 to 41025 teacher will be paid for 24 hours of instruction each session plus two hours per week for each session for planning a total of 36 hours per session prayer professionals will be paid for 24 hours of support providing during each session prayer teaches contract title three stien new position LPN full-time nonre reposted from 25 from 55,000 to 70,000 for school year 2425 new position C attached can we vote on that please thank you any motion motion to approve second second any uh discussion please I have a question on the noise it says this new new position do we still had three nurses last time many month many minutes ago there was three nurses that we had right oh we still have three nurses this we need one more well this LPN is for a one to one so we have a student that has to have a nurse with her all the time uh so we need a nurse we need to last year we hired a uh this is for one person for one student yes we need one nurse for one student yeah we have to have one nurse for one student he has medical problems she has medical issues and she nurse actually meets the student at home takes the bus with her is with her every minute of the day here and then takes goes back um so yeah which one oh sure yeah so you want to speak to that first so uh this position was already approved actually the committee approved um two um LPN we thought we were going to have a second student who needed a one toone nurse but at this this point um that student won't be able to to come um to Greater Lawrence um because of her her medical situation so um we posted we interviewed we actually offered the position to two different nurses who declined the position because of the salary so it was uh initially posted at 45 to 55,00 um which we thought would be um you know a fair salary for um you know and it wasn't LPN we were looking for not an RN but um right now nurses obviously are very much in demand they're getting jobs in hospitals and they're um just getting much higher salar so we were looking to um increase the salary um last year we had an we contracted with an agency and they were $65 an hour for an RN $60 for an LPN they increase their rates so this coming school year it would be $95 an hour for an RN and $90 an hour for an LPN so um you know even if we were to increase this salary would still be saving a significant amount of money um we're just really having a tough time um filling that please on on that note I are we going to hire a nurse with a new salary what about the nurses that are already here are they going to I mean where the salaries are and again I'm just going by what you just explain saying is the salary less than I mean more than the existing nurses that what you said no it's less than the nurses we have on staff um and uh this would be uh they wouldn't be part of the teacher contract they wouldn't be part of the teacher contract it'd be individual contract non nonre I know nonre so that uh we would be so the nurses we have are on on the school contct yeah they're on a teacher they're part of the teacher contract okay so I guess we I know this this this is a motion done and second right this is discussion yeah I think we should separate these two they they should go separate and we need to understand more about the salary uh overall well that's my position right now excuse me can you repeat you think what Bas well this position was brought to us because of salary increase right it was a previously approved for two nurses and you can correct me if it was and now it's one and the the there there's been a few interviews and the people had not taken the job because the the salary is too low so the reason why this came here is because they increasing the salary so at this point I want to know more about the salary even though uh we have an a quick um explan of it but I want to know more because I need to understand that this is good for nonre nurses out there that that's all isn't time of the essence don't you need this sure but it's already this this the the actual position is approved what we trying to approve is the salary increase which we just find out so I can I ask if this is the same person that attended with this person last year no that person different person works for the agency I don't know if she could do it this year but she worked for the agency not for us and is there a person that's interested in this that the person that did not want it for the lowest salary is she interested in it are he in in the highest salary she was very interested um at this point I don't know if she's taken a job somewhere else though so if if it was approved we could reach back out to her and I believe we have two additional U candidates who just applied who have not been interviewed yet okay I mean I I I don't I don't see much leeway our goal is to educate the student I I feel feel bad for the situation but yeah I did too I just the best I don't see much leeway and it has to be done right Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr toox yes Miss Farris Miss TSLA I will I will go I will go no for for the salary I mean I'm not against um they all together the person the nurse being needed but the salary situation the question that's why I'm want know that a no that's a no that's a no Mr hayam yes report to the committee gend items executive session motion session into Open Session the because they really belong in Open session all right the uh superintendent requested to put a couple of these items into Open Session which items are we putting in Mr ly so there are two there are two items in there that I believe really should have been in Open Session that I'd like to do an open session one of them has to do with Personnel I mean with hiring and uh appointments and one of them has to do with um uh Personnel issues which is um actually reporting out the results of my uh evaluation which I think should be an open session not executive session so I'd like to move it in open session from executive Open Session since it wasn't on the agenda will we need to call a vote on that to discuss um Mr Lavoy evaluation results it's not in here that's why I'm calling the vote that's under Personnel this it's an executive it's posted in an executive session that's fine we can do it an executive session I don't have a problem with that we can then bring it back out to open session after if you want that's fine we can do it that way we'll do it all do it all in executive session if you want to move it into open okay can we move into executive session please do we have a motion no okay may I please okay what I'm saying is that's not listed here the way that you you said it says no rep contract discussion administ position and personal discussion he he is Personnel okay then then yeah I agreed to move it out here in public okay because it doesn't he's right it doesn't need to go into executive discussion all right now yeah let's start over we we have a motion to take it out of executive session and bring it to the floor because it is not on your agenda today well this is the confusion you say it's not in the agenda but it said you said that it's on the personal discussion it's not so it is in the agenda with a different name I'm sorry it's not in the original agenda that we were sent out so it would possibly be wait wait wait wait I'm sorry so would you have a different agenda than what we have no it's not on our agenda not an open session executive session so I have to vote on it to put it on our agenda yes okay am I right no now I understand it's here all right it's in the agenda under executive we want to as if it was in Red so I put a motion to move personal discussion and to this public meeting okay second please second okay any further discussion discussion please so there's only one item under personal discussion no there's multiple so we are taking one item out and we're still meeting executive session upon a vote okay yep all right that's all thank you okay can we call the vote Please Mr Jones yes Mr M yes MRX yes MRIs yes Mr yes yes um that's it let's go to Executive session no we're doing the person we're doing my evaluation you want to do that okay yeah we're going to do evaluation session getting confused here Mr Lavoy you want to speak on that yes so um all the evaluations were sent to uh submitted to the my executive assistant and she tallied uh all the went through all the evaluation results tallied them and uh I have the final results when the of each uh standard and um I will go through each one of them with the final uh results of what was tallied so uh the first one which was the quality of effort and work uh result was exemplary this is after averaging all the all the uh do you want me to read what this uh yeah can you do them individually what do you mean individually meaning you you have results and each one were separate right and now you have one you choose the one that's dominant so is that the only one you're going to report this not this is the average of all of them do you want me to do each individual School committees that's why it's supposed to be you should discuss you know if that's what the committee wants me to do I'm fine with that that's but I'll let the committee decide that then I i' have to take each one of these individually and then I'd have to average it out okay I I get I get where you're going with that but I I feel like what's the point if there's if there's uh you know an average you can't change the average all you can do is I don't know maybe take an ad in the Tribune or something and put each evaluation out there that's why we are doing how we're doing no thank you well I don't see the value in it to be honest but if you go ahead does the committee want to vote on it are you want me to do it no go ahead do the way I'm doing it way this of quality of effort and work so quality effort and work is exemplary plans procedures and routine uh standard two is management and operations uh A1 is PL procedures and routines exemplary um operational systems uh proficient uh Recruitment and hiring strategies exemplary professional development and career growth strategies exemplary laws and policies exemplary ethical Behavior exemplary fiscal systems exemplary family and Community engagement two-way communication aent proficient commitment to high standards exemplary meetings exemplary policies and practices exemplary communication skills proficient continuous learning of Administrators proficient conflict resolution exemplary overall valuation Exemplar ation into executive session now did you say no there just one we can do one session I don't I don't know I don't know put your mic on please I don't know if this isimportant I don't know if I should be doing this in in this session or executive session I have a concern about communication communication to to parents when they're asking about things um I don't know the answers I see on social media they're grappling for answers and you know I mean somebody should be answering them um you know whether you like it or not social media is there and it's a very um it's aot and well y if a parent communicates to us we answer we if a parent calls texts sends a letter whatever communication they send to me or any one of my staff members they get a response okay if they if they throw something out in social media they won't get a response okay fair enough so if this person or people and there are you know I mean I'm not talking right now but I have in the past and they put it out there I've called the school I've talked to so and so I've done this XYZ and I've gotten zero response when I see that Mr Lavoy I am going to screenshot it and send it your way because I as a Committee Member feel as though I need to answer that or direct them someplace and when I get that answer back which is very often on social media I don't like it I didn't like it when I wasn't here I didn't like it well the truth of the matter is 95% of the time bet probably even 100% of the time when people say that it's because they get the answer they don't like and so then they go to a Committee Member and say I call call does my son have to wear if somebody calls me or one of my staff member they're all directed to answer the to respond to the question if they do it on social media we're not going to respond to to social media through social media if they talk if someone says that to if someone's called me and I didn't respond to them that's not true if someone calls me emails me does any communication I will get back to them okay and that's the truth and I'm not doubting it but you know what you have 300 staff members in here plus and yeah that's POS it's I'm not saying it's not possible that someone could contact somebody in the school and not get a response but they are we actually in terms of part of the work that we've done last year which was a big part of our professional development was how to build better relationships and this is going to be part of our work this year as well how to build better relationships with parents and communicate we we had a lot more um events and activities with parents this past year uh we had some uh events where we had 400 parents at the event where we gave dinner and and if you look at our uh our increase in parent particip participation in the school last year it was substantially substantially better than it's ever been because of the Outreach and the work that we did in trying to reach out to parents now parents can call a teacher and not get a response back but generally speaking if they call so you get a lot of those response when you call guidance off a lot of times because they don't get the answer they want in guidance or m m l i mean honestly I don't want to interrupt you that's my experience okay I don't want to interrupt you but you're taking this way out of proportion here I'm talking about a simple answer like is it a or b week or whatever week it is uh when does my son have to put on uh his his boots um simple simple answers none with long tails but here's where the here's where the communication goes I've talked to so and so and so and so they don't know I've called this office they don't answer the phones do you have any idea and all the work you've done in communication and I am never going to doubt that it goes south when the com conversation online continues and no one puts a stop to it I get it but you're dealing with people as you well know I mean it is what it is so so I mean I don't you know if that's your response I'm fine with it I am tot I will we will we're not talking about somebody having a problem with Mrs so and so or Mr so and so I'm never going to get involved in something like that but a simple simple answer that a parent is like stressed and reaching out to social media should she or he maybe not but this is the world we live in so if we get so we'll look at that I will make a commitment to we'll look at that and we'll do and we'll imp try to figure out what are the how often this is happening when it happens and try to address how do we train staff to respond better and more effectively and in and here's the thing I would always say never have a parent or anybody else leave without a good answer and if you don't know the answer you should uh ask them to contact the person you believe does have the answer that's the way we tell people that's the way we ask people to respond don't that does that mean everyone's going to do that Pro probably not but we'll work we'll work harder to try to make that the the norm that when people con contact the school they get an answer that's that's acceptable to them and if a person and we we we actually have a conversation at professional development with the staff if you don't have an answer don't send people away without an answer have them contact give them a name that they can contact the person that does have the answer is the right way that they that that should be handled handled so I'm going to work we're going to make that part of our communication the next the three days we have the staff at the beginning of the school year we'll add that to our work our professional development work I'm not saying it never happens amarie it probably it probably does happen there's a lot of people here I don't know every call and every conversation but that's not I don't believe that to be the norm and if they're you know uh looking for a simple answers that to help their children I think that's critically important and we'll try to make do a better job at that if we're not doing a good enough job okay or they can just go on the website perhaps if they can navigate that I don't know the update of that but I'm I'm looking to to see something that's easily navigated for just you know simple people yeah and and that would be like if someone called and you know they answer if you said to a parent I don't have the answer but if you go on the website and tell them how to navigate to where they need to go that would be a good answer you're absolutely right about that and for for the most part any kind those kinds of questions really should be on the website and um to that to that point um we're looking we're looking to unfold the new website within the next couple of months after school starts um and it's been a long it's been a long dragged out process uh because it's been bounced around from one person to the next um at right now it's in the hands of the director of uh of uh it uh to finish the work that's been started and get it up and running as soon as possible that yes it's always yes yes so I just want to add a comment um I agree with Mr Lavoy where he said we're not going to answer he's not going to answer comments on as social media um because otherwise you're going to go crazy um the other thing is um as he mentioned if the website that I I believe we have somebody that it's um is supposed to be working on the social on the website and social media and all that and those people should intervene those qu those comments and look into like U Miss farret mentioned I'm going to forward them the information to you and you look into it and then make sure that those people are getting the answer that they need to get besides going into the website and trying to figure things out getting the answers so um I think that it's a a better approach that way thank you else motion to go into executive session motion to enter executive session second s let's go want to grab a sandwich the Roll Call all in favors all in favor all [Music] right e e e k e e e all right can we get back and call us back to a session please uh everybody's here I'd like to get a motion to adjourn i' like a motion discussion thank you everybody have a good night you too busy

good evening ausa uh Community students parents and staff welcome to the Board of Education governance meeting from item 1.1 I would like to call this meeting to order on Tuesday August 20th 2024 at 5:34 p.m.

I I was at the property the property was vaken for some time but there was a there was a car this morning uh that I went and U I knocked on the door there was a gentleman who was the owner um I told him like Hey good thing cut the grass but like still the pool is abandoned you know there's there's lot of like green water in the pool like that sitting for the whole season and given mosquitoes right it's it's aat to Public Health uh and I I explained him about the citations uh and all that and he became very aggressive you know he have thrown all the F bombs he can then he threatened me with his dogs you know and like you know he I number of f bombs he have thrown me have not heard it before in my life you know so I came off the property I did have to call the police you know PD to report that you know and I did bring it to our manager attention that this has happened so I just want to bring it to the board you know we definitely probably need the happiness Garden in the town you know that's what I I will say I was pretty rattled you know when I came to the department given like his own kids are at the property and given what's going on with with the you know with the mosquito bondn diseases right and in 2019 we saw a triaa case here in this town you know I I was I was shocked you know with with the behavior of the individual there you know so but I just wanted to bring it to the board you know that how still you know given going through through the pandemic public health is treated so bad you know like other the officials you know it's just I I don't know I don't have too many words you know so but I I just wanted to bring it to the board you know that this this this happened today uh we did Issue a beer permit at the show Road uh that that uh was causing some flooding issues in the area and affecting properties that that was mitigated by the central mosquito control program so we did Issue a b permit to the to our DPW uh spice kitchen at 59 Pawn Street is back open was a grocery store uh from you know time of pandemic now they have converted it back to a restaurant so they they are back open as a restaurant by name spice kitchen uh milpond rest home I did get a pass control report finally from them August 8th and the last conversation I had with the owner in a email exchange they still said that they are going ahead with with a change of ownership at the property and should be happening probably this month uh Chestnut Place apartment I guess I mentioned it to the board last time we have a $100 citation there for the trash uh serus apartment both two both the new cases you know there was two new cases I heard back from the from the management they are resolved now and 137 Pawn Street we have a quot hearing on that uh in wer court on on September 5th Thursday that um myself and the Building Commissioner will be attending just on the disease investigation part from the last month salmon outbreak that we have in the neighboring town uh we had now five cases in Ashland from that that outbreak uh then we have picked up a one new TB case and another case of compilo Bor that we have closed uh that's all I have you know if any any board member have any questions I'm going to open one question Raj sorry you had to go through that today with the abandoned pool I didn't catch the address on that and where where did you leave that yeah it's at 11 Pine Hill Road sir you know and I'll definitely need Bo assistance maybe you know to uh get the correction you know given given how the mosquitoes or B diseases are going you know because one of the one of the West Nile cases right was in Middle sex County so I'm definitely very concerned you know that we might be some activity going around us you know yes so R just let us know what you need us to do once you get more information I will and then the next time when you go there maybe you should take the police staff before you go alone absolutely sir not that I'll be very mindful you know right yeah you know they they they should immediately recognize the public health issue if there's mosquitoes it's a big issue here right and I have one question because I was not in the board last year and the previous year so I just want to make sure that whether this has been brought to the attention of the board um I just got a minutes the agenda item for the school building committee and there seems to be a mold issue that they've been considering has this been brought to the board any time before here or no no should we not be concerned at all it's a question of mold that might inflict harm to the children so maybe we could have Raj could you reach out to the superintendent maybe and then um just update the board by email what's going on I will yes open I believe that we have the required Authority and uh the statute says SEC 11 section 122 is the one that's applicable for us to handle the uh mold cases that is sir it's a public health issue for sure you know yeah so so kg maybe with the let's have Raj um get in touch with the superintendent or the facilities director and then he could email us and then if we have to have a quick you know emergency meeting we can get one scheduled pretty quickly with the board at least they should at least come to us and notify us or tell the department saying there's something happening and I'm glad that they're working on remediation but at least we should know that we don't want to be caught by somebody else asking hey you on the border what is happening to M so I can't say I don't know anything so absolutely um I I hey Jay would you mind just wrapping up the meeting I do have to get on to another meeting at 7 meeting I told him I could get on at 7 because I know we usually only last about 45 minutes um yeah I got it I have get all right everyone thank you um and Raj if once you speak to the school department if you could let me know we can get a meeting schedule with the board great good night everyone all right thank you all right is there anything else for Raj um no okay uh we can move on I think it's the consent agenda yeah does anyone want to make a motion to accept the consent agenda which is the draft minutes for July 2nd um and also the year-to DAT budget reports still moved he second second okay all in favor I hi all right consent agenda passes and then we have discussion of future items and next meeting date so it looks like we've got um September 3rd and 17th proposed as next meeting dates that works for me is there anyone that that does not work for no problem for me it works no problem you're good here yep okay um all right so I guess we'll shoot for that Laura there Yes sounds good okay is there anything else that anyone has for next uh uh for future agenda items um let see the tobacco regulations is that something that is going to go around and we're going to take a look at soon yes sir and only other thing I want to mention at this point right that we are also looking uh for another regulation you know for for that we will be probably involved is the blight regulation uh we don't have too much around you know uh blight in in in town you know from the regulation standpoint so uh the Building Commissioner I am currently looking at some some paperwork on that you know so I'll see if that can come on the next agenda you know or at least a draft that bring it to the board okay that'll be interesting do you think Raj that um that chicken Coupe placement is that going to come to the boat next time you think are they ready for that on that was his that was on the Main Street one right sir right yeah so the last conversation have the owner with I had with the owners was like couple of weeks back right I've have not heard since so uh to get the vi you know sure maybe next time maybe it'll come to us who knows yes sir thank you thank you okay um is there anything else anyone and if not um we can take a motion to adjourn so move sir okay is there a second nice Dave second okay all in favor hi hi all right excellent thank you Jay thank you all right my apologies for the techn

moving on to item 1.2 roll call word member B here word member word member audience will be here shortly what member GRE here what member benas here and I am present we're moving on now to item 1.3 Pledge of Allegiance please said ready begin 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 moving on to item 2.1 approval of the agenda can I have a motion I make a motion to approve the agenda Mo motion by board member vot do we have a second second second by board member Greer any discussion seeing none colleagues please face your vote motion passes 4 Z moving on to item 3.1 public comment on agenda or non-agenda items hope do we have any blue cards Lea do we have any hand raisen in in Zoom we have no hands raised on Zoom thank you moving on to um item 4.1 participation of board governance Workshop mrga are turn it over to you thank you uh board president Yolanda Rodriguez Peña uh tonight is a board governance meeting uh we are excited to welcome back uh Angelina Pride uh to facilitate uh tonight's meeting uh just as a reminder um Miss pride comes to us uh from csba the California school boards Association uh has been been with us for uh an extended period of time um the Board of Education took a self-reflection in the month of June and so Angelina is going to facilitate uh tonight to kind of go over some of the uh data and outcomes of that uh survey Miss Pride thank you superintendent ortea and um hello again to all of you it's very nice to see you again and it's very nice to be with you again especially for board self- evaluation so often I think boards focus on the fact that they have to evaluate the superintendent and that's the only evaluation they think about but you also have to evaluate yourself to make sure that all of you are working together as a cohesive team that you're all on the same page and that you're staying focused on the work that a board should be focused on so I want to commend you for taking the time to do this and for Gathering here this evening to take the time to go through the results now I know all of you have seen the results right um and then I also provided a copy of it in your packet as well so with that I say we just um go ahead and jump into it but real quick before I um do start with going over the results and talking about what some of these results mean and having some discussion with you let me ask for our development what you thought of the board self- evaluation we're always looking to find ways to streamline our processes at csba as well and the board self- evaluation is one that we haven't looked at in a little while and we're we're thinking about taking a look at it to see if the statements that we have on here are still relevant to today's board members and um if there's any feedback that any of you can give me what you thought about some of the statements that were on here colleagues do you have any questions word rememberable hi angelene it's nice to see you again you too um understanding that the the survey instrument may be a work that's in continuous development um I was wondering if there's ever a space for any type of free response uh because sometimes we have wonderings or questions or even concerns that may not fit neatly into a survey item and I'm wondering if that's something that has has ever been considered or if that's something that is currently being considered for for the survey instrument itself thank you for that I have heard that one come up one other time and so I will put this on list um of something to consider and I don't think it would be a bad thing because um there are some topics that are specific to certain school districts especially since we work with rural districts large districts medium districts in you know inner city out in the rural you know country area so I think that having a space for fre statements would be a good idea so thank you for bringing that up any anyone else any further questions I think for me I think for me I just I think it this is the first time I've done this since I've been a board member so it was something new I think it's I like it I think it's a good practice that we're doing so it's to kind of self evaluate well if any of you think of anything else please shoot me an email because we do want to hear from our districts yeah I I I do agree with board member Bo regarding it'd be nice if we can have have something to you know why did we select often or less often um because and then when you when you read it then you're you were wondering right I wonder why they put that or did they understand the question so that would be great so we can um ask you know why we selected they're not sure rarely um which is you know that we want to know and I am happy that you brought that up because as we go through this you will hear me ask that question because sometimes I know as I've read through some of the statements on here and I look at results from some certain districts especially a district like yours where I'm very familiar with the board and I wonder maybe they've thought about this question in a different way than what I've thinking about it so yes so please feel free to share your thoughts on that as we go through but but even the questions that are given to us it's do we understand them even myself some of them like what do they mean by that right how do then there you go how do you answer the question if you don't understand it yeah and in my notes I have like I said I have things jotted down where I said maybe um interpreted it differently so yeah yes and that's understandable yeah well thank you and like I said if you come up with any other thoughts please shoot me an email we' love to hear from you so with that I'm just going to jump right into this um as I said that the board evaluating itself is very important and so I am very pleased that you're taking the time to do so so basically what I do when I receive the board self- evaluation results is like you I look at it and the first thing I look is to see you the colors at the bottom the green you know excellent great everybody's on the same page the blue pretty much on the same page page may have a few little differences the yellows and the are like these are things we we need to discuss the reds are okay we have some work to do I am very pleased to say that you had no Reds and you only had one yellow so that says a lot about your board and how you're working with one another so kudos to all of you on that yes yes you may um Angelina can you remind us or do you have the data for when we did this a couple years ago because I seem to recall we had a more colorful outcome in years past I'd like to celebrate the progress I am sure I do if you want to give me just one second I can pull it up and for it think it's important I'll for and you know what and I apologize I should have brought that with me but I I don't get rid of anything so I'm sure I have it good question so give me one second to go to the email yeah feel free to get up and get you some snacks or a drink here while I pulled this up zusa there you guys [Music] are do you do you remember about when we did it so I could search by date let me see here no it would have it would have been forwarded to you by me but not to the board so yeah we we did do one before I do recall when you said that so I'm looking through my emails right now e oh is this it let's see I have one from I have one from 526 2022 I'm thinking that may be the last one we did because I show we did a workshop in a January I've come across that one I know I have the let's see I have the presentation from January I'm still looking I have 10 gazillion emails everybody I'm sorry sorry I'm searching by BSC now I'm in 2023 right now let's see don't if if you wanted some contrast this is the one I found I'll try to look for the other one that one had 14 yellows and 17 Reds I'm thinking that's the same one I think that's the one that was May 2022 but I think that's the I don't show one for May 2023 yeah just move forward and then I'm looking even at contracts and I don't show one from May 2023 had a great um probably yeah I don't show May 2023 I see every place I was nope I don't see that one but I'll I'll double check from my laptop but let me look in my calendar that'll tell me everything's on there can move forward okay that was a good that I apologize I should have brought that with me okay all right so you pulled up the one the other one and you said it was 14 how many 14 yellows yellows and 17 Reds and zero and zero greens I would say that's a little bit of progress 14 yellows and how many green Mr zero greens 14 yellows 17 Reds oh yeah no Blues your BL that's now that's that's still something that should be celebrated something huge that should be celebrated that's a lot of progress a whole lot of progress so definitely commend yourselves for that and that shows too the importance of again of doing the board self- evaluation because you never know where you're at some people might assume everything's going great some people might think it's horrible some people might in the middle so this helps you look at it and then have some discussions to try to make sure everybody's on the same page so what I like to start off by doing is first looking at the greens um those are those are pretty simple and everything but there's a few that I wanted to highlight because it's um it's important to see when you look at the numbers like the always almost always often less often rarely and not sure and the first one number one this one makes me the happiest because number one is the board is focused on achievement for all students and all five people said yes on that one said almost always so that one is huge because there's not all the time that we get everyone on a board that agrees with that so I'm very pleased to see that one another one that I wanted to commend you on is in this one may seem minor but on number nine board members keep confidential matters confidential so four of you said almost always one said often confidentiality is a a huge part of your job you are privy to information that some items If released could result in in legal action being taken against you could result in things not being able to get accomplished it could result in you have to recuse yourself there's lots of consequences that come with not keeping matters confidential especially closed session negotiations Personnel issues all of those things so it's critical that there's that information is kept confidential so while I'm concerned a little bit about the often one it could have been interpretation but just remember everything in close session doesn't leave and unless it's something that you're discussing in an open meeting an open session I would say those are the things that you can talk about anything else I would just keep it confidential you have a look on your face oh oh okay so that's okay we just chime in whenever whenever absolutely remember I'm sorry I didn't I didn't I didn't see you well okay what I was gonna say is that's that that's also actually concerning for me um so even though it's four and then one often I it should really be it should be fine if if and here here's my my the what I would say to my colleagues is that if there is anyone who feels that we are anything less I mean there there it should be always if if there is anyone on on the the board who who believes as though we are not operating at the highest level of confidence at all times then I would I would ask that that be um for formally communicated somehow and and and firly firly addressed um because anything less than always uh I I would I would see as unacceptable um and so as a so that I see it's one person who has a sense or maybe has a feeling or that's what they they come so even if that's the case if there's a reason that you have that then I I would ask that that person um directly uh and formally bring that forward to the board president to the superintendent and and have that addressed board member Bo thank you board president uh I think this was me in fact I'm I'm pretty sure this was me and while I don't I'm not um saying that there was a breach of confidentiality right what I'm saying is I I do distinctly remember a board meeting in which a board member brought up a a conversation that we had or an interaction that we had in close session and talked about that interpersonal interaction here at the Das and during that you know it's sometimes it's uh you know it is a challenge to operate the meeting and think about the rules I mean so that that's the that's the responsibility of governance right um and so I I kind of put that away of okay at such time we'll have a governance session to talk about right all of that because my um understanding of every and every interaction that happens behind closed doors in closed session is confidential and that should not be brought out into Open Session now if there's an item that we need to talk about oneon-one clearly you've you've trained us hey take it up with your colleague right if you need a facilitator reach out um so that that's why I put it there and I you know in this survey because I wanted to talk about it as a group um but and just to be clear I'm not stating that confidential legal matters were brought on as Open session not at all but just any interaction that happens in close session that has to stay in close session or be discussed in a one-on-one conversation that that's that's what I want to clarify and thank you for that and as you as all of you know we have had discussions about you know interactions amongst board members that have me to have a conversation sometimes a tough conversation and like you said said if it happens behind closed doors it should stay there it should never be brought out to the desk it really shouldn't and we've talked about that a lot you know over the time that I've been working with the board we have had that discussion and you're absolutely right that to assume that if you have a conversation like that with someone behind closed doors that it won't be aired out here and it shouldn't be while there's no violation for that it is common decency and courtesy and respect not to bring it out here that's that's the point is that it should not have been brought out here and I'm sorry that you know that that has occurred and hopefully it doesn't occur again but we have to be mindful of that the whole part of building a relationship is especially when it's um one that needs work is being able to trust that any conver ation that you have to work on that relationship will be between you and that individual so to have something aired at an open meeting is not something that you want to do and I can see how you put that based upon that situation so just for the record um we're all in agreement that anytime there is a a disagreement or a difference of thoughts or opinions and there's a conversation that takes place a personal conversation that takes place between any of you that it should stay personal and should not come to the D but but I think that board member Bo may have or should have um you know it's either superintendent or the board president so it doesn't happen again you know to make who whoever the person was aware you know happened that one time you know I guess it hasn't happened after that but I think just at the at the time I could have been six months ago right and um right if we would have known about it maybe we could have be sure that it's not happen again that's you know that's and I definitely appreciate that it it it happened once yeah right and so it's sort of we we move forward okay um certainly if there's something that is a a pattern I would bring that to your attention yes now one thing that I will say is that during study sessions like this board governance study sessions we do tend to talk a little bit more honestly and openly in this type of situation in this type of format because that's the whole purpose so um when I came to work with the board and we had the 14 yellows and the 17 Reds we had some very very green conversations you know some open and honest conversations that were tough but it was in agreement with the board and this was the place and the time that had been set aside to have those conversations but um is not something that you want to see happen at a regular board meeting so but yeah so if that does happen again whoever is board president you know feel free to intervene and say maybe that's politely say maybe that's a conversation that can happen and that being said is and maybe what remember heard it and I'm not making excuses but I am death and sometimes I I try to catch or I read lips but sometimes if the person may have said something maybe I didn't realize that was coming from procession you would have known but if she would have just told me like you know yand you know at that date da yeah then we we hope you know we could work together on that yeah yeah but thank you for bringing that up because that helps to hopefully prevent that from happening in the future so thank you for that um moving on another one that you should commend yourself is number 12 the board treats the superintendent with respect that is one that should have made you very very happy why not you'd be amazed but but um this shows that you value your relationship with the superintendent and that um you do have respect for the work that the superintendent does so that one is always a a happy one to see now number 15 board members treat each other with respect was a four and a one but keeping in mind of where this board has been and where you are now I can understand why it has a one but I was pleased to see that there was now four greens I don't think that we would have seen that a year or so ago see now I'm curious was that number um you can feel free to display the the P one that you found if you'd like you can display it is that number uh 15 is number yes number 15 yes board president board president yes so number 15 the item is board members treat each other with respect yes and today we're green um the last the most recent copy that we found we were red and we were Z 131 oh thank you and now we're 14 41 okay that's good oh uh 41 yeah 41 yeah oh thank you for that yeah so again the the progress is amazing and it should be celebrated yeah number 16 the board members receive timely information again that's kudos to your superintendent as well as your board president president um because that means that you're being kept in the loop and that you know what's going on and uh yeah number 19 yeah that you're being kept in the loop you know what's going on what was that one before okay so a few of the board members felt like they were receiving timely information at that one yeah so um that one has made progress as well as well as the one you know um further the two below it with the board members receiving adequate information and timely information so those are all positive things to to celebrate and keep in mind um number 25 I'd like to look at because as we approach the end of the year we also look at board rotation and uh the board agrees on the role of the board president in managing board meetings we have 41 there and the board meeting agendas reflect District priorities we have 41 there and so um those two are important and especially with having a a board president with the leadership skills to make sure that the meeting stays on track and that everybody knows what the that the board president is the one with the the gavel and that you respect the board president when they say okay you know call on people to speak I know when we did the the last governance Workshop I think it was the last one and we talked about the roles of the the board members and you talked about the meetings and how would you would do when somebody you asked if people would wait until you read the whole thing before saying I make a motion and second and so you've come up with some good protocols that seem to be working for all of you so it's a discussion that was definitely worth having and that everyone seems to have listen to for the most part only one person said um often but it's good to see and again sometimes with the often I take it on interpretation uh sometimes it's a one-time thing that will come to mind sometimes it's [Music] more number 38 the board uses the district Mission District's Mission core beliefs and vision to drive District performance and I want to go up to 372 the board adopts long range range priorities and um all of you have just spent a lot of time again that was a wonderful process that you did to you know look at those things within your district and so Kudos again to all of you for all the hard work that you put in and that you are using those things to guide your decision making in the direction that the district will head in and then if you look at number 40 the board adopts a fiscally responsible budget aligned to the district's Vision um and let's take a pause on that one because that is going to be even more critical um as over the next three years I was just in a training uh yesterday about K through2 budgets and the funding and what the Outlook is for the next three years and you know we never know because sometimes things change something good happens and it changed but right now they're still saying gloom and doom so we need to be prepared for that and if you're managing your decision making of the priorities keeping in mind your fiscal responsibilities then you will come through it just like we do most of the time but there are some districts who struggle and barely make it through those tough times so just be mindful of what the climate is right now for the budgets and I know your superintendent keeps you all updated and be prepared you know just like with our personal finances we have to be prepared for that rainy day and it seems like your board is thinking about that um so the fiscal Health ones you guys did did well on with the greens and then the one that I want to go to NEX is number 47 the board celebrates District accomplishments I know that you all do that because sometimes um I will listen to meetings I'll look at your board agendas to see what you're doing who you're acknowledging and you definitely are a district that celebrates the positive things that are happening in your district with your students and with your staff and that's important because they need to know that you're behind them and that you're proud of them and a little bit goes a long way sometimes just an acknowledgement can make a big difference in how somebody views their job how many how somebody views their activity or their their class that they're taking any little thing like that so always continue to celebrate the people in your District I feel that it builds their morale absolutely you know wanting to work um in in whatever job you have you know you're appreciate words go a long way like you said but I think it it builds your morale when we were having our recognizing them absolutely we just recently had our um back to school Flex day for managers and they were asked us about tough time that we went through at work and I had shared that the toughest time I went through was during covid because it was during my very busy season at work um didn't have my staff around me I was working working like ridiculous hours just to try to get my work done and I said the thing that got me through was every afternoon I could count on my boss calling me to say are you okay I'm not calling to ask you did you get this done or did you get that done I'm just calling to say are you okay do you need anything can I send you some food you know are you are you getting some sleep why are you emailing me at 3: in the morning you you need to take a break and just that would give me a little extra like motivation to okay I got this I can do this so it does make a difference just knowing that someone appreciates what you're doing and that they're they care about you and then finally for the greens just to address um the number 56 and 57 I know that your district has lots of Partnerships again because I've seen your board agendas um I've listened in on some of your board meetings and I hear about some of your Partnerships that you have with um the Citrus College with local local Community Partners um the some of the back to school things that happened in your community that your District was a part of so Partnerships are valuable especially as we look at the fiscal times to have people who can help you know take the burden off the district's budget to provide certain things for your um students and sometimes also for staff is it's something that you want to have and maintain so kudos to you on that so with that said um you guys had lots of Blues and they were good but I just want to go through now and start to address some of the ones that I have questions about or I have thoughts about and see what you were thinking when you scored as you did and also to talk about how some of these things um that were scored in Blue uh what we can do to get it to agreen so with that I'm going to start with number six individual board members do not undermine board decisions so this one we had 2 one one0 and one so one was not sure two almost always one often one less often so was there any question or confusion on what this statement meant for anybody that's present because basically what it is is it's asking if members of the board act in a way that um contradicts the collective decision making process of the board board any thoughts like do members speak out send out emails post on social media against the board decision um in public or private sessions after the bo vote do you do something that might weaken the board's Authority on the topic [Music] um I think maybe I was the one that maybe I was the one that put not sure but now that you're explaining it makes more sense so what are your thoughts after hearing some explanations is it something that you think that the um that we're doing no I think that that we're not we don't undermine board decisions because keep in mind that good to see you keep in mind that um if that happens that it does impact the unity and effectiveness of the board if if the board is being undermined by other members it can create conflict it can create trust issues um it can undermine the board's ability to govern effectively and remember that your representative of this school district that people also see you as a representative of the community as a whole you know it's not city council it's a school board but they still see you as a leader in the community so we have to be mindful of that and then also in your board bylaws um the 9000s always remember the 9000s because 9005 it says and governance standards it says recognize and respect differences of perspective and style on the board and among staff students parents in the community act with dignity and understand the implications of demeanor and behavior and understand that Authority rest with the board as a whole and not with individuals so there are going to be times when the board as a whole they don't agree and that's okay but we don't do anything to undermine decision making any thoughts or questions on number six anything that anyone would like to add um I I would like to add sorry yes what remember um so similar to what I said before maybe the confidentiality one might be among the the most that I feel like should we we should really be at at the optimum uh level that for each each board member but with this one I guess I'm just curious if if board members are are willing like when when it looks like there are at least two others um who might have indicated that they don't believe that or that they believe that board members maybe undermine board decisions at times I was I was curious if if um if other if any board member who felt that that happens is willing to to to share when and how they they feel that that happens what remember V I would love to have a copy of my responses but I don't I don't have any reservation or any concern about any one of us individually undermining a board decision yeah so I I would have answered like almost always that's what I think I did that's how I feel right now I don't think it was me and you just gave me something to put on my list um copy of individual responses because I don't even get the individual responses I just get the total tally so I can understand how sometimes you don't remember what you checked on a certain thing you know it's been a little while since you've taken it so yeah so I just added that to my list of things to for improvements and see what what they say they can do so going forward on number six um how do you feel do you feel that um is the board as a whole an agreement that um decision making processes should not be undermined once the vote is cast that's the vote um you don't do anything to the detriment of that Vote or that decision you know it's majority rules you and we've talked about it before where you try to find a way to get on board you're not going to agree with every single thing that comes before the board you may be that one vote or you may be one of two votes to oppose an idea but the thing is is like okay well majority ruled is going to happen what can I do to like try to make it better or to try to find a way that I a part of it that I can support or you know anything to to make it a more positive situation so before we leave this one and like I said Remember the board bylaws and this one you can only you can go to and you can write yourself a note board bylaw 9005 IT addresses this so always look back at your 9000s yeah okay then moving on oh go for it I'm sorry so are you saying that it well you we can get the consensus amongst each other when we're voting or um usually during the conversation I I can kind of feel where we're going right so are you saying that if someone is going to vote no that they should just vote Yes No you they should they should vote they should vote whatever they feel like they're going to vote but they shouldn't do anything to undermine the decision so if the final decision is 41 yeah and they shouldn't go out like um I'll give you an example uh we had the the and I use this one a lot because it was one that I was very angry at and the P the board member always knew that because we were great friends but I had a board member we had a board member who always voted no when we were looking at the um free breakfast always voted no so it was always 4 one when we discussed it and everything her comments were always against everything was always no you know and so she knew that when the vote came for us to make a final decision the vote was 41 she was not part of it and as much as she did not want that to happen she didn't do anything to undermine the decision so instead what she did was say well okay then if we're going to do this then how about we do X Y and Z or a B and C or why don't we do it this way or why don't we only have it from this time to that time so she tried to find ways to make it more um palatable to her um for her but she never undermined it she never you know went out and talked to the media and said hey you know I hate free breakfast and I don't want the district to do this and the board was crazy for voting this in and blah blah blah she never did any of that she her vote spoke for her but then she tried to find ways that she could work with it right okay and then sometimes it may be something that you're very very firm on where you can't even do that that's fine too but you still don't undermine the vote you know the one District I worked with every time one of this one of their board members was at the like 41 or 32 and they were on the losing side would immediately go home and start posting stuff on social media I can't believe our board did this and they don't do this and they are not supporting of this that undermines the whole entire District not just the board it's the whole District so that's not something that should happen so when we say undermine the vard that's what we mean so after you go you go and post it the other way around or you speak to other people you know it's kind of it's kind of a hard um do it's well it's it is but it's kind of um yeah just vote how you vot in Leto and you know your constituents are going to come to you and say hey you know I can't you know what what was that all about you were the only one who voted against it and you know why didn't the others vote against that we don't want that it's you you're going to have to you're going to find yourself in those positions where you'll have to say some you feel like you have to say something to them you know and then you just say well I voted against it um but I support the decision of the board we'll find a way to make it work and just leave it at that that's the best thing to do otherwise think about it depending on the topic is something that could really like blow up now granted when we were during I was board president when Co happened so I know how tough it it is to try to you know get some things voted on an agreement on some things in a situation like that I grew a lot during that period but even then it was just a matter of explain personal votes to the constituents because we would get flooded with letters phone calls I know all of you who were on the board at that time same thing flooded with letters phone calls Etc um you know why are you guys doing this this that and I would just be very generic with my response you know and I'm they say why did you support this I would say I supported this because this is um what I felt was best for Student Success and achievement that was always always my go-to and it was the truth anything that I vote for that's the perspective that I look at it from I don't I tried very very hard there were a couple of things that were probably a little personal to me but I tried very very hard to always make decisions based off of Student Success and achievement not my personal um thoughts and opinions not my personal political beliefs but off of student success and achievement because that's what we always have to focus on as a board member how is this going to benefit the student and if I found felt that it was beneficial to the student and beneficial to the district then I was going to support it if I felt that it wasn't and that it was going to be a major problem for us at some point then I would vote against it but always keep the students at the Forefront every student not just the ones in your community by trustee area but every student in your whole District you represent and a lot of people think because a trustee area that they only have to do what they feel you know the people in their trustee area wants and that's not how it works you still represent every student the students don't have taxs on them that say I'm from this trustee area I'm from that truste area so yeah any other their opinions on that thank you and then also with that one um I would say and I gave you a copy of your governance handbook because I will be referring the board bylaws into your governance handbook so next to um next to that one is the board bylaw and then uh number eight is the one we're moving to next so board members follow board agreements regarding speaking for the board now one person stated rarely because this is so important it's worth taking a moment to to review because when everybody's speaking for the board it can become an issue in your governance handbook on page six number two on page six it's States the board president and superintendent design are the official spokespersons for the district this should be adhered to unless there is an agreement that the board members can speak out on a certain topic and even then the message should be consistent among all members so that's in your governance handbook that's an agreement that all of you came to so this one should be a 5 because it is something that the board said that they would do so are there any thoughts on when someone said rarely and like I said I know it's hard to remember what you put there's some that we will definitely know oh yeah that was me but I know it's hard to remember on some of the other one so are you in agreement with what you put in your governance handbook on Page Six that that's still the law of the land yes so no thoughts questions comments we're moving on okay I'm writing myself a note here they agreed okay so number 10 the board gives direction to the superintendent only at board meetings now this one was interesting we had two almost always one often one rarely and one not sure again I'm going to take you to your board bylaws 9200 clearly states the board is the unit of authority over the district and that a board member has no individual Authority so um this one I need to hear from you guys because I I want to know what's happening um that three people feel that this isn't being adhered to I can I can speak to this um maybe we can even take uh 10 and 11 somewhat together there there's some connection there yeah I definitely had um 10 11 yeah I had 10 and 11 link together because 11 is 9200 as as well board bylaw 00 as well in number 11 states individual board members do not attempt to direct the superintendent so yes I have those two linked I am I'm wanting to be careful in how I so I'll be careful with with uh specifics I I I can't imagine that I don't think for either of these that I would have put almost always uh I probably would have put often or something um and I want to be careful because of uh some of those things that I observe in in Clos session but right um there there have been times where where I I just kind of heard comments that would have indicated to me or caused me to question if there is a consistent understanding across the board um in particular um board vas where it seemed like there might have been times where where instances where you kind of seem to describe some things that sounded like uh directions and or expectations that would have been um expected of the board superintendent in a way that falls outside of any one individual board member having the authority to to do so so if I for example if I'm meeting with aruro and a in a one-on-one I may have a strong opinion and if I have a strong opinion on a particular thing I may even say arur I really believe this is what you need to do and this is what I I as one individual do not have the authority in and of myself to to expect that of him it's not until we are we are here um and and there's there's Direction given by a majority of us that something that it's con it constitutes uh formal formal Direction and so I did I did hear there were at least a couple instances where where I just kind of heard phrases or or or comments that would seem to indicate it caused me to go home and question like did that it's I wonder if that was given as though it were a Direction but but uh but as an individual we can't give a we we are not able to give direction it's it's the collective five of us that direct the superintendent any thank you any further board M yeah I have a comment and then I'd like to ask arur a question on this right yes um so speaking only for myself I talk to uro fairly often um and I think you may agree that I come I I bring to you ideas like hey have you seen this what about this but I don't I and this is the time to talk about it I don't consider that a directive like I'm telling you to do this I feel like I'm coming like hey have you seen this do we do this oh I didn't know we did or hey can we think about something like that or the district but I don't interpret that as me giving direction to the super tend I I see that as a educational partnership um so maybe you could clarify for that and and also AR if you could talk about your experience because you're part of the you're the sixth member of the governance team your experience with us and how you feel that you receive Direction at Board of meetings only or if you feel that you receive directives outside of board meetings just really quick if if you're just providing information for something that would be beneficial to the district or to the students in the district that's different you're not saying go do this we have to do this that's when it becomes given Direction um I work at a college so there's always programs that I saw that would benefit the students in our district and I would take it to the flyer to the superintendent or for it an email to the superintendent say hey check this out and this might benefit our students and that was it I didn't say you got to do this you know like you said trer I might be like I think this is a really really good idea and I think we should really really consider it but I didn't say you have to do this or go do this I was just here some information you know when I speak to him and I usually tell him you know I'm not telling you what to do but and I'll give my ideas or a recommendation or can you check on a program if I go to clsv um but yeah I always do tell them that I'm not telling you what to do right but this is how I feel about it or right that's exactly I don't want to think that I I'm trying to tell them what to do or this is just my opinion oh yeah I'll say that my opinion um I have never felt um in a position where I felt a board member is giving me a directive like I've never felt like that strong where I am directing you to or feel walk away from something saying like she just she just or he just directed me to do something uh I have always taken it as ideas things to think about um and then I have to have an internal gut process to understand what's just a good idea and that's a great idea um yesterday we recorded was it yesterday Aza High School yes we recorded Aza high school meeting because they it was an idea in a conversation with a board member that was a great idea let's memorialize it put it and so um I have to constantly try to filter out okay this is now leaning to something that's more wide and so now I need to talk to the board president or we need to agendize it or I need to put in the weekly board packet for some some feed feedback uh but again I've never felt a situation where I have felt somebody say you know I'm directing you to um if I ever felt like that I think I have a really good relationship with all five of you to say hey let's talk about uh parameters I just want to make sure that I'm understanding and that you understand you know where we are here are the Avenues though if you wanted to do XYZ that this is perfectly but this is kind of falling now we're we're Beyond IDE or some some good things um so I've never felt again in that in that situation now if a board member has felt that they thought they were sharing an idea with me that I didn't do or whatever and they felt like I was not adhering to a directive then I don't I don't know about that and they shouldn't um feel that way of course because they can't do that and remember the only time that you should be the board should be providing direction to the superintendent is number one close session there's certain things that come up in closed session that you have to provide direction to the superintendent as a board Open session of course there's things that you have to provide direction to the superintendent and then there are sometimes when emergencies come up and the superintendent may make a phone call to each of you to say hey this has happened this has happened you know this is what I'm thinking are you okay with this are you okay with this you know so those are the times when the direction is given to the superintendent the board president is the probably the only person who kind of gives a little bit of direction to the superintendent um with and that's it and that's when it comes to the development of the agenda um you know as you're putting the agenda together in in conjunction with the superintendent and the superintendent's like oh you know I'm going to put that on there and you like no well wait let's not put that on there yet or oh we need to put this on there because this has been something the board wants to talk about but that is that's it as far as you know hey go out and join a partnership with this person or go change this at this school or do this or why you know put a crosswalk here no that's something that has to be agendized and talked about and voted on by the entire board in Open Session and then Direction given to the board can I just add something here just that um so you can you don't have to wait for me to acknowledge you you can just chime in because it's just like you know with with respect of each other right so just go ahead and chime in don't have to be looking back and forth that's okay I'm like they're calling me I'm like oh sorry so okay go it go for [Laughter] it so you had you had a is that all you you wanted to say oh okay so so are we clear about what it means to provide direction to the superintendent yes we're good so next time this is going to be a green as well right okay all right thank you so let's go to number 17 and 22 I link those two together because they're a little bit similar um board member 17 is board members usually discuss questions about agenda items with the superintendent prior to the board meeting in number 22 is board members follow agreements about how to request clarifying or additional information about agenda items so on number 17 we had two people who said not sure so I'd like for you if you think that that one of those is you to explain um was it the statement or was there or is there a question or you just don't know what other people are doing I think that was one of them okay and then for number 22 we also had one not sure I think I was one of them because sometimes I feel that um questions can be asked prior so it gives me the impression that they're not prepared and also say I mean I a board member I know I know she's new but sometimes there's questions I know she'll ask that I feel that would should be a she should ask that before close session or before a meeting so so um we're not Reinventing the wheels because it seems like well did or something that's written already that maybe she didn't read it I don't know maybe she didn't read it in you know but it the question is in the packet well I know that your superintendent because he and I have talked you know we'll talk before workshops and this is in the past we've had this conversation about um how he provides information to you you um prior to the board meeting and the questions and you remember you and I discussed about that and I know that he reaches out to all of you frequently just not just that board meeting times but to see if everything is good if you have any questions about something but definitely for time for board meetings to see if you have any questions about anything on the agenda um you do want to make sure that when you come to the board meeting that you are fully prepared and have read the material in the packet and try to ask as many questions in advance as you can and I always say this and and I know all of you have heard me say this is that it's a good thing to ask the questions in advance because I I've told you this before I tell everybody this so often people say well I want to ask it at the meeting because I want the community to hear you can still ask it at the meeting but the whole purpose of asking the question in advance is to get a full and thorough answer so that then when the assistant sups or the superintendent is here at the meeting and you ask it in Open session so that the community can hear it they are prepared they have the answer ready for you otherwise they'll say oh okay I'm gonna take a note I'll get that and I'll get back to you did the community get the answer no but had you asked them before and told them hey I'm still going to ask this in Open Session they could have given you the answer in advance and and provided the answer again in Open Session when you answered it it's not uh you know I'm going to surprise attack them with this question that's not what we're here for if we're here to make sure the community hears what what we want them to understand answers to questions then we need to do it properly so that they can hear it otherwise what are you going to do call every single person that was watching the meeting and say hey you didn't get the answer to this but I got the answer now here's the answer usually by the time we get the answer we forget you know who even asked us for the the response to that so that's the whole point of asking a question in advance but also as what president you know we need to keep the time on close session and we were the facilitators and I I didn't want to cut anyone off you know and not let them finish their sentence so you know I think TimeWise it would also be very helpful it is and and like I said it's just good practice you really want transparency that's the way to go so also keep in mind on this one in your governance handbook on page six and seven you've outlined very specific steps of how a board members should ask questions about the at you know at the board meetings and about the board meetings so always go back to your your governance handbook as well and um just remember that if there's also if there's a topic that you don't understand that's even more reason to talk to the superintendent not everybody that sits on a school board is an educator um so there's acronyms and things that come up and you're like what the heck is this if you didn't read your packet thoroughly or you read the packet and you still don't get it you need to ask because otherwise it's going to show that you don't know what you're talking about from the Des and then you're voting on it how can you vote on it if you don't understand it and you shouldn't use the fact that you don't understand it as a reason not to vote because part of your position is to read ask questions and understand are we in agreement on that okay any other thoughts on number 17 and okay again I'm going to write in my notes because I saved these in agreement okay so number 23 board members follow agreements on how to bring up new ideas so um in your governance handbook Pages page eight number three and four and in your board bylaws number 9322 IT addresses how to put an item on the agenda and um also remember to if what we just kind of talked about if you do have an idea or a thought it's not necessarily always something that has to be agendized to talk about unless you it's okay to have a conversation with the superintendent about it first because you may have a great idea and you go and you have a conversation with superintendent Ortega and then he's like oh you know that's a good idea but the only problem is is that we already have a contract with this person for this long so we can't do that because it would be in violation of this contract it's like oh okay thanks for the information you walk away you don't have to agendize that to hear him say that so if you have thoughts and you know about something um that you want to bring up a new idea that you want to bring up feel free to you know talk to him he's very very open with his time um so your thoughts there was one not sure and there was one often and three almost always I think for me for me I think this is a little bit confusing right now because I'm hearing you know if we I I mean I agree collectively I'm you know I can't give him direction right but whether it's closed session or Open Session and I've never thought that just to for clarification and for the record but I think it's important to and I think you know how I feel about my freedom of speech is to voice my you know my personal opinion just like board member um you know president board member paa if I bring things up it's because of my personal opinion so now we're reading this one number 23 and I'm thinking Okay so what point because not just because you present an idea do you want it to be misconstrued as I'm giving him Direction no and that's what we just talked about the difference between like hey did you know about this or hey did you see this or hey do you hear about this program that's just giving him information like saying hey you know I heard about this I want to share about share with you maybe you can look into it or you might want to read about this you're not saying go do this go partner with these people go paint this crosswalk go do this you're not saying you go do this you go do that you go do this you're just saying hey here's a neat program about after school tutoring you know that's done by this organization um just going to give this to you you can look into it that's just providing information so let me give you an example so let's say that I'm out on the street right I'm in a district or one of the schools sites and I see maybe there's something that I see as a safety hazard and I bring it up when I say so at what point I mean I'm looking at it like a liability for the district right so I'm protecting the district yes protecting our students our staff and then it's like so and then I mean I it's it at I'm not giving him Direction but I would think that as a superintendent you know to prevent any type of safety hazard or liability to District that those things would be addressed so how would that you know walk me through that that's not given Direction that's calling and saying hey I'm at this school site and there's this big pothole that has developed and I'm worried about somebody tripping in it um who's here that can come and take care of this at the site right now that's giv him information right yeah I lived across the street from one of our schools and people always graffiti the wall so every time I would see graffiti I would immediately call either the superintendent and say hey they they got the wall again there's graffiti on it and so she would say okay thank you for letting me know and she'd call the people in our district to come and clean it but that's different and you want to speak on how you'd like those type of things provided to you that information yeah I mean that happens with all five of you mhm um hey um I just walked by and the door the doors open or hey there's smoke coming out of Mountain View um you know things like that so yeah I mean we take those things all the time and so and we act on them um especially if they're around safety um so I would say continue that but if there's a specific like if you have a specific example where you thought maybe or not you didn't you shared something and I didn't act on it then again let's talk about that cuz that's not okay or maybe you saw it one way and I see it another way and let's talk that through uh but I would never want to to have you think that you share a safety concern that I did not address or did I I did not follow through on and I can oh I think I think that's important for me to know because you know something did happen and and it's not addressed but I don't know I don't want to ask because I want I don't want it to come across like oh and actually somebody else from the community pointed it out to me the other night and I was like yeah in my mind I'm thinking okay I've already addressed this but it hasn't been hasn't been taken care of so that's but I don't want to come across like hey take care of this you know you haven't done it that's why I haven't brought it up so in that situation you just want the loop closed so what you can say to him is hey you know there's smoke coming out of Mountain VI can you you know after you check on this can you let me know or let the board know what what it was or what happened or so that the loop is closed um on something like that because that is you know an emergency it's it's a safety issue so you just ask to have the loop closed and I would say I mean smoke is probably even not a like a super good example like I'll give you I'll give you another one like hey I'm just I'm making one up so hey I just noticed the gate on Rockville uh the lock is broken and the door swings wide open to me that would be if a day two days one week later three weeks later somebody said hey that door is still open then yes please by all means just say AR I'm following up um the gate on Rockville is still the lock is still because maybe I thought it been taking care care of um and so I I welcome that um that kind of conversation and dialogue uh because again both you and I could be walking around thinking that it's been taken care of and it hasn't been taken care of and I can um maybe even to just just for examples I I can share with you an example that what I was sharing that came to M later because because it was a close session we we could talk about and I can I can provide you with that that Insight from my persp perspective uh but an example that comes to mind for me is is for example uh there's there's a difference between communicating a safety concern which I think that that becomes a no-brainer and it's and it's welcomed but then you said something else which is but also where maybe we have a difference of opinion so I I might come to you here's an example I might come to you and say I I really think that we should have German dual dual immersion and I may say this is something I believe that we should have but but if I was if I was saying that and then later or that didn't happen it may be because you heard me you you heard my idea but but you don't agree that that's a that that's a priority that there are other things to to prioritize um and so no however if we as a board are coming together and having a conversation and I may say hey I know that we talked about um arur talked to you about German duel immersion and and you didn't think that that was you know significant maybe we could have a conversation and now the four of us unanimous five and zero say yeah that is that that is something that we need to uh um direct and allocate dollars towards now the the board has given some direction in that regard so I wouldn't I if but if I give aruro an idea um not a safety not not not a safety concern but if I give aruro an idea and he doesn't go through with the idea that I had and if I had a problem because uh he didn't follow through with an idea it's kind of a my that's a it it would be my problem uh because it's not a because it's not direction from the board it's just a it's just an idea I I still have no problem sharing the ideas but the problem the difference would be if I have an an expectation that he follows through with an idea that I gave him and and if he doesn't then then I'm I'm hold that that's where it would be like an expectation of of a a directive versus just making a suggestion and and and I appreciate that explanation I I mean I because I haven't had any ideas like that or talk to him about that but um but let's say that that we the scenario right that's perfect that you brought that up so in that scenario let's say that it was a German or did yes so let's say that was the scenario right and I say oh you know yeah it's a conversation you had with him we have we're not privy to that right at what point does it get agendized or how does that move forward so that it does get agenda because that's obviously a conversation they've had but we have no clue he would have to get it put on the agenda for the board as a whole to discuss it okay so that's the only way the whole board can discuss it so he could say because you you can't talk to well you could because it's not tell the board President right contact the board President also um like so request that's why I'm saying you would have to get an agendize isn't the board president who you would go to to get it on the agenda uh yes but so so if if let's say I have that if I had a conversation with with aruro and I and I don't see movement I could go to you to Y I could say I here's something I would I'd like to have this agenda maybe uh board president might look at that also and say I don't think that this really passes filter and make so so let's say it still doesn't go forward doesn't mean it's always going to happen that way right but I may then I I still I still do have recourse then in during board comments I could say I could say I I've had a conversation uh with uh with superintendent board president because I I strongly believe that we should H have a conversation and discuss German dual immersion everyone else might be just silent and it and it will likely therefore not move forward just because I as one individual feel like something should be agendized doesn't necessarily mean that it would be agendized there would have to be a I I don't know if we have it listed if it's just a second at least a second or if there needs to be a majority but there need to be some some coalescing around uh an item being agendized so even if even if you would go to her and she'd say no then at a board I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly so at a open meeting you can bring up that recommendation suggestion idea is that what you're saying comments because you don't want your ideas to go unheard either yeah I mean I I would because then what's the point of being a board member or speaking up on behalf of the district and I want to be careful because because I I I what I would hate to see happen is that board comments becomes this like volatile moment so so I would I would I want to be careful what I am saying what I'm what I'm what I'm not saying I yes as board members we have board comments and with board comments we have a good amount of Liberty in regards to things that we can say I I would still say that it requires some discretion on our parts to to determine the the best course of action but but in essence but in essence yes um but but but hopefully we would handle that with a with a great deal of responsibility and so um superintendent Orga does have direction if you want to put something on the agenda on our board packet and it has board members you know underneath you know what do you do we have to go here you know can we go to a um union meeting yes and he it's it's there in your he as well actually that's one that he does have if you want something agenda this is what you do you know a b or c you're talking about the board handbook highlights yes that you include them as like little Refreshers yes okay they're in your and keep in mind that with your superintendent it's okay to say to him hey I want a a German dual immersion program I think this would be great for our district and he says okay thank you for bringing that to me then he goes away he doesn't hear anything about it no movement it's okay to go back to him again say hey you never said anything about my request for that and then the superintendent might say you know I've given it some thought and so here's a reason why I don't think it'll work in our district at this time or here's the cost that would be involved or here's this or we already have this many dual immersion programs or that we're trying to focus on so he may give you reasons that would satisfy you as to why it might not something might not work at that point and then you're like happy you understand okay I'm bring it up again next year you know but but just as you said board comments would be the other place but you don't as you also said want to start flooding board comments with your thoughts and opinions on what should you know be done in the the district have a conversation with your superintendent you're fortunate to have a superintendent who is very open to to talking to the board so yeah just have a conversation and and always make sure that you get closure to anything that you tell him so if you see a safety hazard like he said maybe he directed his person to take care of it and they didn't he needs to know that and if he's not available can always call me also if he's not available for some reason you can always call me because we will ually to communicate together anyways regarding uh the situation miss this is board bylaw 9322 and it describes exactly what uh board member Greer said how the request goes to the super Andor uh the board president if the board president uh denies the request to be on agenda then um the board member at a meeting can request uh the item to be agendized of their fellow uh colleag board members yes thank you so it's it's exactly what uh board member Greer said yeah and as you see I've tried to link the things that on on your board self- evaluation those things that um warranted some dis further discussion I've tried to link those and that's why I keep giving you pages in your governance handbook and board bylaws to look at so you can jot down notes so that if you do have future questions you can go back and look and see you know how it what the policy is but the discussion here is good but you always want to go back to your board bylaws the 9000s and um um look at your governance handbook as well did that provide any Clarity oh absolutely thank you all righty thank you so uh number 30 there's a good relationship between how long the board spends on an agenda item and the importance of the item so we have two that say almost always and two often one that says less often so I just wanted to to um bring that to you because in your governance handbook on page seven you do um kind of address that and tell me I I know I've listened in on two of your meetings um but I haven't seen any like lengthy discussions um I didn't I wasn't there for the whole meeting listening for the whole meeting how do all of you feel about that and are you um when you're looking at your the relationship between how long the board spends on an agenda item and the importance of the item how are all of you feeling about it as someone who is um trying to get leaner as my time has passed right um so I'm putting myself into this um I think it's an important decis discipline for us to be able to use our time on the dis as efficiently as possible to be able to hear each other to have meaningful discussions and I think for the most part we do I think where we can Veer off is when we agree and we can agree without regurgitating everything that the previous board member said and I think that's kind of a a we sometimes slide into that um and I'll stop myself because that's if I see anything more I'll just repeat it yeah practice what you preach and thank you that's a very good point um I know sometimes people want to have their voice still heard but I agree with you 110% that you don't have to repeat everything that somebody else just said you move on and just say yeah I agree with what she said or what he said and that's a nice way to put it too and you move forward you don't have to give a long dissertation um and you do want to be mindful of the time I know that the board meetings the school board meetings are a meeting of the board held in public but again I will say everybody always tells oh transparency transparency transparency well if I'm listening from home and or if I'm here in person and you're talking about something and the clock is TI in and Ticking and everybody wants to say the same thing about it about a situation and then I finally just say okay that's it I got to go I got kids at home you know they I need to eat dinner I got to go to work in a few hours you don't want to be sitting here all night either so you do want to make sure that your meetings are efficient and that you are taking care of the business of the district but all the extra stuff just be mindful of it there are some things where people do want to say hey yeah good job you know or yeah this is great that we're doing this but just keep it short or summarize it or just say what she said what he said any other thoughts or opinions on that one okay so then moving on to number 32 the board agrees on the process for identifying officers so um I'm assuming that maybe this one might be because you're newer but also um there's one that says less often and so I think that that warrants a discussion because it's very clear in your board bylaws 9100 on under organization about how the process should take place and then that when it takes place that's Ed code so that is defin defitely very clear so um is anyone open to providing some clarity on that one if you feel comfortable to do so as to why there's a not sure and a less often board president yes um I am clear on the process for the timing right it happens at the organization meeting I'm clear on that I think think um I I uh I wonder about the what we publish in our bylaws and also ensuring that we have flexibility right that bylaws are not a lock step you must do this you must do this because we like I think as a board we like to have some flexibility to be able to govern less rigidly right or govern ourselves less rigidly so I was wondering about the process so Adrian right in this last at the last organization meeting according to our published policies about you were I think you were supposed to be in line for clerk right and we have that process of figuring out who's clerk right we already have that and so then you move up from there so when we when you declined to serve as clerk then that left an opening of like okay well who's going to be clerk how do how does that go next and I think we we solved that right because Sandra was going to be the next person so that made sense and then so that's I think that was already um codified in our bylaws my wondering right my wondering as we have done this work together and our work as a foundation for iterations of board that follow is do we want to have a policy a CAU a written policy on the order of board members four and five right if clerk is three V VP is two and president is one how do you line up the other the other two people to put them in line for in in a s in succession does that make sense what I'm saying I'm sorry I'm not sure I think it's working fine but I'm not understanding exactly it's still using me then as an example are you saying so I declined clerk are you asking since I have declined clerk am I now next up for clerk again or am I at the back of the you're next up for clerk that that's what I'm so that's but that that's in essence what you're saying is so for for non off holding non-officers what number is our non-officers yeah so uh so if it's one two three so if president's one VP is two clerk is three right U so is it my and this is why I just want to talk through it right is it our practice that if you declin to be if if you were supposed to be clerk this year and you decline are we codifying that then we'll put you in line for clerk next year that you'll be the number four slot right basically you and Sandra trade places or would it follow I mean is there a Rhyme or Reason for who becomes four five right because we have it for one so for so for clarity we we also have it for one and two we don't call it four and five uh so that's here in the in uh 9100 oh I just meant yeah I don't mean c when I said four and five that's what I meant right one SE to as that that that's what I meant yeah and so I think I think what Dr B is saying so let's use the example that just happened the board president at that time became 100 became board member seat two but because board member seat one was supposed to now be board Clerk and it was denied then that member state right there and so I I I think the the question I think the question was if you decline something do you automatically go down to board member C2 or do you stay right there because per this uh the board president Dr Bo becomes board member C2 which is which is which is what happened and so I think that's why the board member seat one stay board member seat one so I so in essence I would then if we're doing this organization meeting I then am up would be up next for Clerk and so then would determine whether or not I would step into that or if I would decline again as I did last year okay this is why we have we're coming together to talk through it that's all I'm not saying there's anything good or bad or unjust even just talking through it again I think we've come a long way with historically there's been some jumping over and skipping of officers so kind of recognizing we're in a better place I just want to talk about it that way and now I see it says down there at the bottom this process shall be followed unless the board approves a deviation from I can't see the other part from it from that that deviation from the process we yeah we we included that to allow for what if there was a scenario or a situation where we recognized that we that we were choosing let's say there was a particular year and there was a particular something or or whatever was that the board has recourse I think that goes to what you were saying U Sabrina around like let's yes we have processes but that I think is the Clause that allows us to to have some flexibility while understanding that this is a there's a default process if anything it's a good refresher for this fall thank you okay thank you any other comments questions questions um on that one I think that that was a good conversation thank you for bringing that up I think it provides Clarity and like you said in case it does happen again okay so number 33 the board plans for the development and training of the board so four of you said yes which and you you your board does a fabulous job about this with this your District one person said less often um I was kind of curious about that one if the person who said that knows who they are I'm I'm so sorry k i I hate to belor but I realize that we may can we go back to the previous number just for one quick second back to number 32 of course because I because I think I just realized a scenario that could could present a challenge so so this upcoming this upcoming year there'll be a rotation and so um uh Yolanda you would you would as president you would move to board member seat too no one because we have we're gonna have a new incoming board okay that's what I was asking so so one after the votations I'm sorry okay that was my question uh because the way that it was written by the Board of Education uh it stip Ates that when a new board member is elected or appointed to the Board of Education they will begin in board member seat to yeah so therefore in this scenario if if if we're talking right now uh board president would become board member seat one not board member seat two and what if there are what if there's a scenario where there are two board members who are that's there also right it's in a random manner it will be determine who will be board member c one and who will be board member C2 which means the sitting the current president if still on would would then move to clerk that is correct okay yes and I'm glad that you put the full language not everybody does that and that is very helpful to have that there okay so but thank you for bringing that up just this it's important it's an election year so get it clear now okay so back to number 33 um the board plans for development and training like I said I think that your board does a really good job of this um in board bylaws 9240 it states board members shall be provided sufficient opportunities for professional development that helps them understand their responsibilities stay a breast of new developments in education and develop boardsmy skills so it's very specific that that professional development is related to your position on the board um again like I said there was one person who said uh less often um I just wanted to open it up for a discussion if the person who put less often if you remember who you were if you wanted to say why you put left soften um because your District does participate in professional development on a regular schedule I know that I see you all at aec um I've seen some of you at the Leadership Institute so I do see your board involved delegate assembly and then Masters in governance Masters in governance um yeah so um any thoughts questions oh have all of you participated in Masters and governance I have you've never done it five courses you would remember yeah yeah not not not just because I'm from csba but I would recommend that you consider doing the um the Masters in governance it really provide some additional insight and it's also really neat because you're in the class with people from all different types of districts that you really get to know more things than just what happens inside of your District he gets um ideas on how to handle situations how to do things so I would just suggest that you consider doing the Masters in governance and they do have an online option they will have in person and online so that's not um that's not um mandatory no it's not or even like new board member workshops or that's not we have some districts who um make Mig mandatory before someone can become an officer but that's a district decision for this for the board in that District um that they do that they make all of their members go through Mig um but it is not mandatory it's not like a state mandated thing or anything like that so yeah but I strongly encourage it just because there's things like for me the most Bene beneficial part was the budget understanding that budget that helps a lot so that when you do get it you can go through it with a little bit more confidence that you are clear on it I will add information about upcoming Masters and governance trains in the weekly board pcket yeah and like I said we have the online and in person okay so not hearing that anyone wants to speak on the the less often um again like I said I think your District does a good job but you will have a new board member coming on this year did you um so as soon as that elections are over I would try to get them signed up for orientation for new trustees we have no elections and Aus UniFi School District um both candidates are running unopposed oh okay and so why did I think somebody was like I thought that I thought that you were running for something but that could be I'll follow our board I'll follow our board protocols I just won't be I won't be a board member after the nove after November yeah a AC is in December okay gotcha I hear you gotcha so okay yeah so whenever if your board does change please try to sign the person up for orientation for new trustees to give them a good beginning yes yeah so yes and my apologies thank you for clarifying so okay so number 33 the board plans for the development oh we did that one sorry number 34 the board effectively orientates new board members so on that one um it was only one person said yes two said often two said less often this one tends to change if the board changes because every person who comes on feels like they're they were Orient um orientated to The District in a different way but this is a good time to review this um now your board bylaw 9230 um it says as early as possible following the election or appointment of the board members one or more orientation sessions shall be held during open meetings of the board the board president and superintendent or design shall develop an agenda for the meeting and she'll identify resources that may be useful for incoming board members but aside from that um superintendent Ora and I were just having a conversation one day and we were talking about you know what happens when new board members come on how are they orientated into the district and he told me what he does by having them meet with him having meet with this you know assistant soups and you know taking them around the district and stuff so it sounds like there's a solid process in place I'm going to come to you because you were the last person that come on to the board um is there anything that you would say about how new board members um are orientated into the district and I know I'm putting you on the spot but information you give could be helpful for the next person right I think the onboarding I mean I I was really helpful I mean it's a lot of information right especially if you're not an educator I mean luckily for me I think that just because I work for local government you know I understand the gising process and how we need to perform as a the board but um I think one of the things that it was a lot of information but the onboarding was great because I get I was able to meet everyone and I just felt it was very welcoming um one of the things that I think would be helpful is because as it was it was overwhelming but I I know that um one of the things that like early I think it was early on um superintendent Orga shared that he was doing like a shadow program with the district I think sometimes maybe even not just meeting the stuff but maybe this is just my opinion I think for me it would have been helpful because sometimes we say we're going to do this or we're going to take time to go to the schools is to set up you know like schedule it where when would let's let's go to this school and you know do a walk through just because it just because you feel already o at least for me I felt overwhelmed and I think that would be helpful for a new board member hey let's schedule especially now that we are you know that we have less schools hey let's schedule a day in time so we can go to Gladstone and I could walk you around the campus I think that would be helpful um because even at board meetings and I know I've said it I said it many times to superintendent Orga hey I want to go visit the school I want to do this but I think think early on if that's something that we could set up with the new board members that would be really helpful um because sometimes we have our own lives and just it just gets busy you get overwhelmed for whatever reason I think that would just be something that would be helpful in the future so instead of you SK trying to schedule it on your own just going through the office to schedule it on your own I thought that you had something in here about [Music] um visits site visits and just to let you know what I did when I came on board I I told my superintendent that I was going to visit the schools at the time it was it was um Miss Cynthia santis and um I took it upon myself like to do like five schools a week but you know calling them later I was coming and introducing myself because you know not all everyone knew me but introducing myself and didn't oh you're my hero or as many as I could like I had a calendar and I was okay today I'm going to go here here here but I would just take the time and you know check into the main office and the principal would know i' be coming and you know the principal would walk me around I didn't need to take the superintendent with me and um you know explain what you know tell me about the school oh you know we have this program this program but I just kind of had my calendar and I just and even in district office I wanted to meet uh the director and I just I don't C just did it on my own without I know or who whoever the sou is they're very busy to go there but um you know if I stood there 5 minutes 10 minutes whatever my time you know was helpful and that that's kind of what I did yeah let me ask a quick question I looked in the governance handbook I don't see anything in here about the protocols for site visits let know yeah is in there I missed it um are you saying that you would feel more comfortable because you were new to have someone escort you um to like going with the superintendent or with an assistant superintendent or a director to the campuses so they can kind of fill you in on what happens on that campus um while you're visiting it yes because I think during the onboarding I was able to meet all of cabinet members and I think maybe one or two other individuals came in I I don't recall but I know all the cabinet members I met and then they kind of went through um what their responsibilities were under their under their Direction and then I think for me even like um board president penas talking about maybe just you know scheduling something not necessarily that the superintendent has to be there but handing it off to the principal because it also gives you a one-on-one time with the princip principal and he can walk you around I just think it would because we just get so busy and well I can work with you we could work on a calender and do that if you like me [Music] to the one thing I oh please oh I was just going to say that when I became a board member and actually I do this quite regularly every year so I I call the superintendent uh and say hey I would like to visit so many schools or whatnot this week and can you arrange that and then I just let him you know with his time because I also want to respect his time and so like you said and I have actually the superintendent come with me and I meet him here and we go to the two or three schools in one day yeah have time because you know I have to take the whole day off from work right so you so I I asked him hey can we go in the morning here and then by lunchtime at the end of lunchtime we've already gone to three schools toward uh you know gone to to the um offices I've I've met because there's a even uh um I've been here for five years or so I still there's a lot of new um a lot of new employees actually that I'm like hey how who are you it's like oh okay you don't know who I am hi I'm you know and so I have to reintroduce myself and I I've been here for I worked for the district for 20 something years you know so I think it I think I would agree that maybe we could set something up but I I personally have taken it upon myself to just um be out there and meet our our you know our employees and to see who they who they are and um for example there's been a lot of the times too where we had certain instances and issues during lunchtime at certain schools and I said hey I would like to just show up Let the principal know but that's it like I don't want anyone else swing I just want to show up and he's made that arrangement so and even here at the district too I've walked around and stuff so yeah and I've taken a little bit of a different approach and I think it all it is dependent on individual style um so following the the guidelines about site visits is I've just contacted each principle on my own to say hey Mr or Miss so and so I'd like to come in the next two weeks what's a good day right and they'll say because they know what's happening at their sites regarding testing or field trips and then once that data is set I copy Arturo in to say arto yeah or I email them say yes I'm just FY I'm going to Valleydale um because I feel that the site leader has the best ex has is going to tell me what's going on there and uh I also want to conserve Arturo's time as superintendent right we I feel like our time is is here and then there are one-on-one calls and then only thing I was going to add is you describe two components of of board member onboarding one you talked about there's a process that our tho goes through which I've seen that I know you you've even it's even evolved I I had my own version of that with Linda and so that has evolved and I I think has gotten stronger from from an Outsiders perspective looking in but you described something else about two two board meetings and something is agendized and we have some sort of I I don't I don't recall that ever that's your board bylaw um board bylaw 9230 so I don't recall that happening I also don't know I mean should we I know that I would I might challenge I don't know if it's one of those that we can but I think that is something that whatever works for your district and what works for your District you know for everything we have guidelines but they're not a one-sized fit all so if you guys have a process that you follow that is um working which your newest trustee um said was very good and she felt that she got um had great onboarding then just superintendent can just keep doing what what he's doing I can add and and maybe this is part of this um I think organically uh we have shifted I believe our our governance mean to be in January with the idea that when we have a new board member that January board governance and I think you helped us when uh when board member Ben AAS was elected that becomes kind of like an orientation and we go over over Robert's Rules and and so forth and so on and so so we would be we would be up for that this January but then on off years then we can do other stuff board governance stuff so organically I think that has happened where we have shifted it all the way to January because I think that used to be like in March or something so we sh we slammed it over to to January with the idea that when we have new board members it would be more like of an orientation and when thing I think too and I'm sure you do this taking into consideration the needs of that that new person that comes on to the board um if you have an A a retired teacher who comes on the board they're going to probably need a little bit less on boarding than someone who worked at um I don't know at a car dealership and you know that comes on to the board and it's like okay now what is this all about so you have to fit it to tailor it to the individual that comes on to the board as well and I just want to add that you know when I came on board I remember that governance meeting and I do appreciate that because it was kind of a refresher too right and it especially for me it was more of a refresher but for somebody new kind of like what you're saying that's maybe not tied to the local government or or is an educator it was it is it's good to have it like in J I think it was January yeah I saw when I was scrolling through yeah but yeah just just you know like I said I think that it's never going to be a one-size fits-all thing it's always going to be based upon the needs of the individual and the board president would also share in that responsibility of you know helping that person out as well talking to that individual okay so number 35 the board reviews its govern governance agreements regularly um one person said less often one person said often um based on my encounters with you guys I think you do a good job so I was curious on this one um if anyone wants to speak out on why there is a less often and why there's an often I know you review your governance handbook um you guys have your governance workshops like I said I see all of you at at aec um any thoughts no okay I'll just take it then as as it was interpreted differently by everybody okay so number 36 39 and 44 I link those together because they are similar in different ways so 36 is the board provides opportunity for Community input When developing the district's Mission core beliefs and vision 39 is the board adops clear and measurable indicators to assess District performance and 44 is the board demonstrates commitment to District priorities and goals and I'll tell you why I locked these um linked all these together number one I know keep saying this but that process that you used was really good um getting the community involved getting the staff involved the board involved it was one truly one of the best processes I have have seen so um I think that the the board um does provide opportunity for the community and that was a great opportunity for the community to to get involved and then with number 39 adopting clear measurable indicators to assess District performance uh you have presentations at your your meetings your you provide the um the superintendent provides goals um develops the goals the board agrees on those goals um the success indicators that was the one thing that I had a question about because I'm not 100% familiar with your evaluation process are the success indicators given to attach to your goals that are attached to the superintendent evaluation process are they clear is everybody comfortable with that process that there's an understanding that when you do the evaluation that there's no issues about yes this worked or no this didn't work we're on 39 right yes so the way I interpreted this is yes because we adopt the lcap and the lcap lists our goals our actions and our me our measurable outcomes so that's why I say yes we do do this I'm not sure what others think about how we assess progress on our goals I I know that I I I shared some of this when we have have had some of our uh study sessions where I have pushed us to to uh refine that that a bit um where if for example if we're going to have success indicators or or or targets over the course of three years can we chop that up and say so therefore if we believe these are a achievable then this is our our goal for this year next year and the year after that or or some instances where it seemed like maybe the success indicators were a bit vague and could have been clarified a bit so so we relatively recently had some conversation around this and and some new things in in place and so I'm I personally believe that I'm hopeful that that now we're we're moving into a Direction Where We can be even stronger in this area um so I I I still would give us I would still say yes mostly but I think there's there's been some room for some improvement gotcha thank you that was a very good comment um any other comments questions on this one and um for number 39 I'd like to link you to a board um to a BP not a board not a BB not the 9,000 but to a board policy um of 0200 and BP 2140 0200 talks about your board goals and 2140 talks about the evaluation process for the superintendent so you can always look at those and refer back to those when thinking about you know measurable indicators to assess the district's performance and then number 44 the board demonstrates commitment to the district priorities and goals and this is done by what's on your agenda a lot too every month what's on your agenda should be linked to those goals that you have because that's what you're doing you're meeting to discuss how to move forward how to achieve those things also like you said with the lcap um and then there's the part with the superintendent and then the board you know has their their goal is to make sure that these other goals are achieved and to make sure that they're measurable and that you're keeping track of your progress on them and that's why I always say look at your agenda and make sure that your agenda is focused on the things related to your go your board your District goals so that's important so any other thoughts or questions or ideas about that one we're good well Ju Just to make it clear each agenda item is tied to one of our district goals and on the published agenda that's makes it CLE yeah you guys are good yeah okay so number 51 we're almost done just a couple more number 51 the board monitors the implementation of board policies and um this one I think that is just um maybe one person didn't understand how that's done but uh your district is a gamut district and you guys know what gamut is right um we'll make sure she knows what gamut is yes this is it so your board policies anything that changes they're updated automatically um if your District wants a specific change then there's a process for that but anything related to Ed code is automatically updated so you don't have to worry about that so that's why I said I think that one was probably a just not knowing or not understanding yeah just to clarify angelene when you say that the when Edco changes our our um board policies change those still come through the board for approval for the first reading and approval so it's not as as if it automatically updates and we're not aware of it we have the opportunity for first reading and approval at all times but you don't have to have I don't know if you guys have if any of you have ever had to do this in a job but to update a bunch of board policies this takes forever every time something came down before things like gamut came into play uh they used to get divided out to the divisions at the college and we had to do it so having them say hey this is the new language this is what it should look like you know and everything but yes it still comes to the board for the first and second reading yes thank you for asking that question yes because you still have to approve it that's just the the policy you just don't have to do all the work or the staff members don't have to do all the work um so like I said I think that that one was just a not understanding and then number 53 the board evaluates the performance of the board well you're doing that now and you've done it in the past and we've seen some progress and uh trustee you were not here when we first pulled that out they pulled out one of the old ones because this one was only had one yellow everything else was green and blue and they pulled out one from a year and a half ago or two years ago and it had 14 yellows 17 Reds zero greens so progress has definitely been made and we we threw a big party you weren't here yet so you missed the party but it's great progress um so number 55 the board provides Community leadership on educational um issues and I think again that this one is less left up to interpretation and I think that um depending on the view of the individual board member on this one would be does anyone have any questions comments or concerns about that one um but keep in mind that when on number 55 when we talk about the board providing Community leadership on educational issues you do you yeah number 55 you do this at the board meetings you know your open board meetings you also do this through your visibility in the community you do this of your knowledge of things impacting your district and your students um you demonstrate leadership through your conduct as a board member people can look at your agenda and see if you're you know if you're doing this but this one is pretty standard um I know that there is a not sure and there is a less often was it uh not understanding the question because it is a a little bit of a vague question okay any discussion on this one no sure should we clar clarify one um for her what the yeah the board provides Community leadership on educational issues basically the board does this at their board meetings so when you have your meetings what's on your agenda that you're talking about that's when you're doing that when you develop your lcap and you get the um you get stakeholders involved you get staff and students involved and it comes before the board for presentations that's when you're doing that um when you're visible out in the community at event for the district you're doing that so it just means that you understand that the role of the board is more than just um sitting on the Das but taking action on the things on the agenda being out there in the community to support and lift up the district um Mee with your superintendent understanding what things going on fiscal responsibility of the budget all of those things fall under that I think the way it's worded is a little bit weird I think I'm going to add that one to the list pH number you another idea I had was regarding if there was it I knew it' be a lot thicker but a little explanation below each of them so you know board members and new board members can understand what me because it's true some of the some of the ones I was I I myself and I've been sitting here 13 years I'm not sure what it meant by that I know what I may have read and thought but it maybe it's not yeah I think what we need to do is look at some of the language how the sentence is structured to try to give some clarity to it yeah because we don't want to make it too thick because already we have a hard time getting people to complete it yeah so that's true well it it would be helpful okay and then so number 58 is the last one that I'd like for us to discuss and that's the board informs the community on District priorities progress needs and opportunities for involvement and I know that um all of you do this at your board meeting at city council meeting at Partnerships with um other organizations that you work with at your schools side events um newsletters that go home to your parents that go out to the community your partnership with your local Community College um are there more things that you do or would like to see done that you feel um would change this one and again we had one not sure one often one almost always any thoughts Angelina maybe for um discussion purposes some of those activities that you just described come from the district and some of them we engages as as board memb so when we're a representative at a ad hoc committee or we go to our school site Council right we're talking individually as not as an official representative but as a liaison to say hey did you know we're doing this right or maybe we're doing a social media post to promote our programs right um so maybe can you talk about the difference between what the board does versus what how the district uh shares out progress at you know progress and opportunities for involvement so on this one it's a I think it trickles down even a little bit more different from what you just said too because it also goes down to the school sites so when we talk about involvement all of your sites School sites have opportunities for parents to get involved even your district has opportunity the district office has opportunities for people to get involved at your Skypes you have School site councils you have your um PTA or pto's you have um all the booster organizations things like that for people to be able to get involved with the district and then for the board board when you go out and let's say you know as a board representative you're a city uh so you want to know what's going on in your city and how anything that they're addressing will impact your your students that you serve here in the district so you go to the meeting you have on your badge that you know you're from the school district because you want you should want people to know hey I'm a school board member I'm here I'm present I want to hear what you guys are have to say what doing you know is there anything going on that's going to impact us anything that we're doing that will impact you we'll let you know as well and so that part of it is community involvement Community representation from the board now there may be times when certain things um happen in your your District let's say you guys uh win a Golden Bell award or something like that that you want to share on a larger scale outside of the district so you talk to your city and say Hey you know we want to come to the board city council board meeting and say tell everybody that we won this award so things like that that you want to cross over with Partnerships to say hey look what we're doing so I don't know if I'm answering your question is is that what you're ask of the distinction is sometimes the function of school sites and and communication that comes from the district or the superintendent he's generally the liaison that goes and u provid right public comment at city council right I mean we might do that but the regular person is a superintendent okay so so that's why maybe I'm just trying to understand when we say the board versus the district or the superintendent I see what you're saying because every district is different so like for us in Rand Heights we're unincorporated so we only had our um uh community I forget what we called it um but we would have a rep one we would alternate on the board as to who would go to give a report about the what was going on in the district so we all took turns going and presenting our little spill at that meeting so if your superintendent does it great um let's say any of you are involved in like kanan's club or you know anything like that where you want to give an update and you also want to make sure that you coordinate those things with your superintendent so that you're saying the right things at the meeting um we always worked with the superintendent in my district before we went to our community coordinating Council that's what it was called before we went to our community coordinating council meeting we would always sit with the superintendent and say okay what are we going to report on this oh we did this this is going on this is happening blah blah blah and so we would work with the superintendent on the report that we were going to give so you know you if you the superintendent does it great if the superintendent wants one of the board members or board president to go one month you know then they'll work together to come up with what would be said and Report out I think mrga does a great job and I do hear from the community that oh that's your superintendent oh you know I mean even seniors that are don't have children but they're still tax they want to know or they came to our schools and they're great to hear what he talks about you know Su hi oh we went there that's great now you we didn't have it we were there but but they do oh that's you know then they get to meet him when he you know and that's always great visibility for the district so yeah he does a good job with that absolutely but yeah so things like that and and usually you know if there's organizations within the community that will might ask for somebody to come and and say what's going on with the district are event in the community that they ask for somebody to come and say something about the district then you guys can decide hey as the board president going is the superintendent going or is another member going to give the you know to talk about the district so it's whatever works for you guys yeah so that's that's it for the review of the um of the for self evaluation um I do want to open it up just to see if there's anything else that we talked about a lot we covered a lot um most of the items on here like I said you guys were all on the same page on majority of the items which was wonderful to see but I always like to remind you that these types of workshops you only get to have them every so often this is a time where um with the agenda that we covered on the board self- evaluation it opens it up for a lot of conversation about different things before we conclude is there anything else that you would like to clarify or or throw out that was related to the board responsibilities or anything you know impacting the board yeah I I would uh I would like to say first of all I know I know Gabby you were in here when we were looking at the the full kind of spectrum you you heard the report after but I looking at the the differences and colors between what it was a couple years ago and what it is now I I feel the difference it's it's something that is that is that is felt and sensed um I recognize the the just just progress and ways that that we as a group have grown and and one of the ways that I I I see that that we've grown I think I think a couple me meetings couple meetings ago there were there or the first time I think angelene when you were here what did you describe those conversations as you say they were green I green conversations there were there were some they they were at times challenging and one of the things that that we that that you encourage us to do is to have openness to be able to communicate directly um you know with each other one at the governance uh meetings as well as just outside of those and then I think um the most recent one that we had earlier this year at some point I feel like there was again some opportunity just for us to to kind of talk about some some things that I think were well received I'm I'm really grateful and I and I'll I'll say that this time around there are even some concerns that I I had and and um but had an opportunity to connect outside of a a board meeting and and in so doing really addressed and resolved um concerns that that that I I had coming into it so much so that I don't even think it's necessary to to address here so I just I guess I just want to say thank you to our thank you to my to my colleague and to to team thank you Angelina to to the ways that that you have kind of LED and encouraged pushed challenged us uh because I think it just has made a meaningful difference in the ways that that we lead and the ways that we interact as a team so thank you thank you for that but the hard work comes from all of you because it is it's it's tough I seen you go through it and it's not always easy and it doesn't mean that there's not going to be bumps in the road again there will be but at least now you know know that talking there are steps you can take to to get over those humps and keep going and keep functioning as a well organized productive board so I thank all of you for for you know allowing me to work with you and for putting in the work to improve and this this shows it so I mean that's amazing so you guys deserve a hand but thank thank you so much for bringing that up any other comments before I I just I just wanted to thank my colleagues for um what a difference when we start looking at the colors and I and we do work very well together we do respect each other we do respect each other's opinions and I think that has gone a long way um and as we talk about morale you how important it is and and I know that you know we've all worked very hard to work together and I really appreciate this team and our superintendent great thank you I also would like to thank my colleagues for the opportunity to you know be human each one of us that we're we're human first and that we're going to make mistakes that we are going to learn you know and that we've shown each other that we can learn from our mistakes you know from our lack of understanding per se um in some instances and being able to move past that I think I you know not only do we see the growth our community sees the growth our families see the growth and that's a prime example of what we you know we're not perfect but our children are looking not just ours in our in our homes but our children who are who we lead our staff you know and so being able to have room for people to express and have the freedom of speech as well I think we have uh actually evolved to a place where someone does feel comfortable where they can share with an individual hey I'm feeling this way or hey you know asking questions and stuff where before I I will say when I first came on to this board um when some of you guys are not here um I I did not feel this way I did not feel it was a safe space and at this point right now I I feel that it's a safe space to disagree to not you know to agree and not take it personal that we are not here serving for our purpose it's for our children's purpose and the you know the the the future of this district and so you know with that being said I want to thank all of you guys for working side by side with me and if there's anything that we need to clear up I I thank you for taking me to the side inviting me for coffee or or what not not to talk about agenda items but to be like hey can we see can we talk eye to eye about this and and you know and have those uncom conversations that need to be had and whether it's this relationship whether it's any relationship that you have with whoever your spouse your sister those un your friends it's uncomfortable conversations where we learn in actually in conflict resolution um with Western Justice Center where we learn that when we truly sit down to get to know some body behind that you know that anger or that attitude or what not when we truly see what's behind that we actually see the real person and so I thank you guys for taking the time again for showing up showing up for your for our kids for our district and for each other when we come here and we can disagree respectfully thank you thank you and you're absolutely right anyone else ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto see how much time you just saved ditto here too see we save more time superintendent see that cut Our Kind like one two minutes right well again like I said I'll just close out final thoughts is just always remember um to to if you have questions about anything related to your governance go to your board bylaws look at it go to your governance Handbook look at it you can always shoot me an email if there's something that you're not clear about I'm happy to answer it go to your superintendent but never be feel bad about asking questions about making sure that you're doing the right thing and and again just um fantastic growth with this board is just amazing um just really amazing and I thank you all for your hard work and superintendent Ortega thank you for your leadership and also helping them to get to this point so you guys know where to find me if you have questions like I said I don't have to be here for a workshop for you to ask me a question feel free so and I look forward to seeing you at aec it's local no TR travel this year okay yeah with that being said um we're moving on to item 5.1 adjournment can I have a motion Mo to motion by board member G do we have a second second second by board member benas any discussion seeing none colleagues please face your vote I think passes 5 someone wants to stay here I'm not getting it's not letting me okay um hand vote word member well yes member a yes board member Greer yes board member Benita yes me yes motion passes 5- Z this meeting is adjourned at 757 p.m. thank you okay so thank you you guys guys

you are live you are got to do the audio test all right so welcome everybody the members of the public to our August Board of Education meeting uh we'll start with a few administrative items and then into our goal setting activities so the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advaned notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which time any business affecting their interests is discussed with the provisions of this act Board of Education policy 0162 the Board of Education of the B Brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the board office in B Brook High School and mail their facts to The Courier News Bound Brook clerk South Bound Brook Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice and pay the required fee please stand pledge United States America Mr G certainly Mr B Mr Dawson here M Gazo Miss Carlton Mr zco miss m here Mr minhas pres Miss H here Mr Fulmer here Mr J here Mr board president you have a quarum present this evening thanks very much at this point I am Miss Patty re I say correctly very nice who is our new njsba Field Services rep who's going to work with us on setting district and to that's your choice wherever you're comfortable I'm sorry wherever you're comfortable well I you [Music] know anyway as as L I am a field service rep with New Jersey school boards um I've been with the association for nine years um I've been at field service rep for two years the first nine years I was the county activities coordinator for the northern counties before I was on before I worked for New Jersey school boards I was on my board of education in suet County for 12 years I did then one term on my Town Council then I got the job at school boards and you can't have an elected position um and I really enjoy what I'm doing uh at school boards I will say also that Gwen your former field Serv is not gone she is now the senior director for field for Content at njsba she now oversees Field Services in a couple other departments so she's still around she's based more in Trenton now um but she'll still be around and with all her relationships answer questions or whatever and if you go down to Workshop you will see Gwen because she will be there we'll all be there so we're asked to come in tonight for goal setting um and I was excited when when told me that you are your board is on the path to become a a Carol Larson Master masterboard Certified which is fabulous that's the second level and the highest level of what a board of board certification and there are very few boards throughout the state that achieve that because it's um a continuation of the the certified board and it's a lot of hard work so I commend you for your goal and your hard work and I think you're only a couple hours away um from getting that so that that's exciting um and I think you should really be proud of the hard work that you've been doing toward that and so with that I I made some that you've been down goal setting before so I not put in the slides that talk about the very basic levels because I'm thinking as a almost Master board that you know what that is um but we'll just start with this um you know goal setting for 20 24 25 it's hard to imagine hard to believe that we're already uh in 2024 and almost 2025 and how long ago 2000 now seems but one of the most important roles uh that a board event can do is uh to set comprehensive goals uh for your students and your District it helps drive your student achievement and as we go through this consider what um what have you accomplished this year uh what what do you think may need additional Focus um and or do your priorities reflect your core values now I also understand that you just um com almost completed a strategic plan for um 2024 to 2027 no three four four years five years um so some of what we we look at and we recommend as District goals we recommend that everything flows from your mission statement which I I have the slides of to your um vision statement and that your strategic planning goals your District goals and your board goals are all aligned uh in which makes it um like setting setting the ship on a specific course we we have two different kinds of goals the the district goals are owned by everyone in the district uh and they are set generally by the superint the recommendation of the superintendent with a with discussion of the board the board goals are really all about the board and tasks and processes that are owned by the board um but they should also um support the district goals and then support the strategic planning goals as you go as you go through that and I know that you do this because you're a board C you know certified board and almost a master CER but um goal setting is a continuous cycle throughout the year where you about this time of year you're setting your goals and you um analyze them throughout the year and then you re and and review them and see um if there's anything that needs to be changed added tweet whatever but it happens throughout the year we know that effective school boards Define Define clear goals for student achievement that are based on your vision uh of vision of high expectations and shared beliefs that all students can achieve so as we're going through this consider what your focus should be um what to most dramatically accelerate your student learning um and uh what data have you reviewed that um Identify some areas of improvement and then align your financial resources toward those goals to support the achievement of those goals so as we continue we're going to consider your um the vision for your District um part of this discussion your District mission statement your strategic plan and then and any data that may support that or support um or support any part of your goals um and we'll look at your previous [Music] goals so your mission statement is um is really well crafted and to the point the Bound Brook Public Schools is a supportive Multicultural community that provides an Innovative and academically challenging educational program while offering a variety of extracurricular and social opportunities that encourage lifelong learning and citizenship and in one sentence that pretty much says a lot um and and I think it really does um is the guiding force by where your goal should be and as I said I did look at your what I had for your strategic plan and then your vision statement which is even more encompassing and so some of these you can look to see as you're getting into board goals um what you might um have as a goal to to support all of this so and this talks about your this is your District goals for last year uh Gwen sent me this copy to continue to create a safe environment where students and Staff feel comfortable taking risks and working collaboratively toward a common goal and then the second one is to fully utilize data through professional development to inform instruction and strengthen student achievement um and we we put these up because you might want to consider um is there anything that you want to continue do you want to tweak it think there's more work that needs to be done or do you think that we've done this we can move forward um in another Direction and I think for the district goals you had some suggestions for this we have to continue no these are this these are the coming year I thought these were the last year they were but we we start off at a very basic level okay so this is something that we that'll take us another year or two to get fully place okay so you're really your your your thought um is to continue these for 2024 2025 okay yeah and not to put you on the spot but I think we talked about that at governance comme yeah at governance committee too we also talked about the Strategic plan and having move for with it with that to make sure that communication is there between the board and and the whole Community um we want it to really be a living document something that we are constantly looking back to to just get so does that mean we need to tweak it a little bit to modify for your two I I think what we need to do is it and I think from there we need to set timelines as to what we going to be looking the next step is to further drill down on these with an action plan that includes who's going to who's going to be responsible for that portion of it um and um the timeline um to achieve it and what does achieving it look like specifically um and that that is really and and that is something that boards do right that that they we have like in your strategic plan although I know you haven't gotten to the your your action plans are still being developed but the action plan is kind of like the road map that you use to get through to to achievement and then as well as I identify what does achievement look like so so um you know is achievement looking like um more more collaborative working U more people working collaboratively together um or um where more opportunities for students and staff and if I can maybe add and I'll tap into oh I know on the education committee side we've seen more than a few presentations about how the new assessments that are being done are aligning with how we're changing the curriculum or aligning with how we're changing the PD so to Dr Freeman's Point using data is something that we said from the moment we were selecting it has been a common theme over the last two years exactly where we are in their journey and how we're using it I think is evolving over time but the idea that we need to get to full utilization something to well and having the data to back it up um is really helpful for board decisions you can you know if you're spending um money or resources um you need to know um that um what you're doing is is effective and it's achieving working toward the goals that you want to achieve um and and so as I said I thought this when Gwen sent it this was for um this current year but you're going to um continue and do what you said give some specifics in terms of timelines who's responsible be presented to yeah and the action plan for distri gos are very similar to the action plan set up for right um strategic plan and I have a I have a template if you need that but I'm thinking one probably may have sent it um but it's it's they're just traditional action plans for um what you're doing all right that that was easy I thought we were going to have discuss but but you've already had it and and these are these are good goals and now you'll you'll work to get um the action plans and you'll have a you know what to look forward to and just for the sake of achieving consensus because I know was discussing governance but not everybody who's here is all the governance committee you guys specifically does this make sense are you supportive would you like to see changes made have any feedback or suggestions so we can have do you want have that discussion now or there if we could yeah that's fine got I yeah I will I will say from my point I wasn't actually at governance even though part of the committee but I support this approach in general well I mean we recommend that they get voted on by the board so if you have any things you want to add it or any comments 10 hours a Time the only thing I would ask like I I agree keep the keep what we have but because this is as we mentioned we've been using the word evolve and we're evolving we're too fully so in that respects I see this get the sentence the wording to be evolved to reflect our evolving and getting closer to our goal as opposed to just reusing what we already using last year even though we agree that we're getting we're getting some place that we're looking to get there with there too but I would like to see some evolution of this of what we have written down to reflect the gains that we have on so okay I I don't disagree do you have any suggestions on how we might do I'm trying to see how to rephrase that that's always the tricky part that is that is I agree word SMI I think includes basically reviewing what has happened where you are and where you want to be and where you want to be just as would I don't want to use the word accountability but recognizing here's the benchmarks we've gotten 50% 60% 80% we're working towards 100% into when freeming does the action plans that kind of information will be in the action plan like and and and these now you realize these are now taking more than one year to achieve so and it may take two or three to achieve but the action plans will really drill down into um what is encompassed in that and what it looks like when it's achieved and so I'm just looking at you want something that is easily read and easily understood for you know people who are looking at the district goals but the meat of this is going to be with the Strategic plan and the timeline Etc and then that I imagine for me it looks like that will come into all committee meetings as to here's where we are here's where we were so that everybody is updated on exactly where we stand but I don't think we want it all in there because it gets like word suit well yeah I mean the goal should be brought and the action plan more specific so like one of the things that I was thinking of and I'm just going to go with the second bullet because that's probably easier to um since talking about data is we've already started and made that approach to utilizing that data through professional but now instead of informing the instruction we want to strengthen the instruction we want to empower the instruction and not only are we want to strengthen and we've seen through um that student achievement has gone up I I'm struggling with another term for strength but something to empower that's doing achievement I mean Empower long but something on that level to to build what we call these because as it's written there how I take it is the data is used to inform instructions so that's the staff part of it the curriculum development part of it and the the end result is you want to strengthen right but we've we've made an effort this past year to really push a lot of professional employment to improve the instruction um to enable different methods to empower the staff and the administration and teachers to be able try to take different risks you know and and we've been doing that I think it's been working really well and it's actually been showing the and the results that we've seen and I want to continue that but I I I don't want to just continue like we pressing that just going in cruise control so I will note your comments but I will maybe share a different perspective which is you know everybody throughout the community is to point going to read these goals and I think part of the reason why the right now resonates is because it doesn't matter which part of our community looks at that goal and reads it they should be able to self identify what they're doing in terms of achieving that goal so whether I'm a teacher I'm a par professional I'm somebody on a child studying team I'm part of the administration I'm you know part-time volunteer coach everybody should be able to identify with that goal and and not only that but identify what they're doing to help the district move but it also should be understandable to your public what what it is I we recommend that once the board approves the district goals any of the goals that it be put on your website um as well as the action plans and that you know that's where where our next steps are and then to maybe periodically throughout the year quarterly or whatever works for the the district report out on progress towards those Works keeping in mind that the superintendent of valuation is also based on progress towards the district calls so it's helpful um to report out to the community but also for the board to have periodic updates so that you know that that things are are are getting done and I think back to the point you guys are making which is we have not done a great job historically in the periodic reporting and I know when we went through the Strategic plan part of the reason we all participated so heavily was because the last strategic plan fell so flat in terms of where it actually fell in our priori how we're making decisions and we didn't want that to happen with this one so I think the schedule that we have been talking about I don't know if we did this only in governance or we've shared with the whole board but to have Dr Freeman come back into a state of the district report at a board meeting either two or three times a year moving forward and have that aligned not only with the goals and where we are achieving that but with the Strategic plan to make sure share a couple ideas of course um I think there there's a a duality between between the goals we have down on on paper and then what that work looks like at the school level at District level the culture that supports or hinders those hols so what I'm thinking is I'm wondering how do we as a board support people who are making positive contributions to the culture of the district to the work that's going on like would we could we kind of marry the two ideas of for lack of a better word evaluation and have a goal that says something like as as a as a board we want to celebrate contributions from staff students families that support you know the attainment of strategic goals or board goals District goals so instead of it looking like we're trying to be aalu or have an accountability lens let's try to marry that and and do some positive communication and celebrate you know when we are Meeting those goals or people are doing something above and beyond to help us get how can we create the culture and celebrate that in a public way that's going to allow the district to achieve what we need them to do instructionally data how would you feel about that that's really something that we basically discussed in in governance is to really get the word out as to what is happening in the district and I love that s too to really recognize those who are really bringing and and putting forth so much effort um because that's what this is that's what this is is so yeah and I think I mean what I'm hearing is everybody's kind of on the same page with this it's the communication how do we and that's I think what we were talking about in governance everybody here is in and everybody here is like this is where we need to go and the thing that we do not want to fall flat is communication with the parents with kids with step with the community those things we want to keep that really going well that's what where strategic plan is helpful and the way that you did it in bringing in the public and so again here iodic updates towards the progress towards the Strategic plan and and everything else but communication um I mean um that could be a subset of this but that could also be um if you're looking for a board goal because the goal four goal that Gwen sent me is about the Strategic completing the Strategic plan which you've kind of done every every month we recognize a student of the month and we publicly recognize K through 12 as the outstanding student for that particular year there's no reason why we should not and your weekly letter that comes out every every weekend you highlight some positive occasions do that in the public meeting not only recognize the student of month but here's a teacher that did X over above and beyond to help us accomplish that particular so that where I was thinking as St um we have not only the student the educators of the month yeah um and the criteria for selecting the educator educators of the month has evolved over time back to Evolution but is there a way that we could work highlighting specific contributions to these goals into that recognition program and kind of make it a virtu c I wouldn't say it has to be every single month but no but I mean wait that heavily and if people are doing it it's to get priority to the what about have and Dr Freeman can chime in on this um but having periodically um a presentation by staff member about a su successful part of their program at a public board meeting doesn't have to be long five minutes um and that's a recognition not only to your staff that that you're you know acknowledging what they've done but also recognition to your community that yes our staff is working hard and they're working towards our goals and they're doing great for our kids and our community I mean there is that something like that I like it so I guess back to the question do we want to amend bullet two do we want to add bullet three or do we want to contemplate working these Concepts into the board for this we to and we'll add you're with the go you said or you think should I think that there should be additional goal which deals with the Strategic plan and the recognition of I agree with that yeah so then if this a third goal what is it yeah it's what be gos on paper what it looks like for culture how do we support those making positive additions to the district have a goal that celebrates contributions from staff students Etc do we want to make it specific and say celebrates contributions positive contributions to the district and make it broader do we want to make it something more specific saying celebrating you know completion of Milestones of the Strategic plan where work I think there's value in keeping it broad I mean success could be you know improving your school attendance could be but you know I think people need that affirmation on different levels right because we've been trying to move the culture of the district in a positive way so that might look different different people depending on what so can we build on that celebrate positive contributions to the district or could it be as simple as celebrate positive contribs to from all stakeholders from all so I would be personally inclined to go with something that directly contributes to either a goals or a strategic plan but the S point I I do think it needs to be sufficiently broad because yeah if you talk about attendance I mean one of the things that we spoke at length about was the um students attitudes around standardized testing and their attendance on test days and while it's not um evaluative data in terms of like an assessment on a specific scale there was data that was brought to the table in order to make inform decisions about how to change the school schedule on those days and what services were available to the kids in the runup so you know I just want to be mindful that we cast The Net wide enough to recognize all of those things that are making contributions but not have it be so esot that's the purpose of a role is to be brought and then the action plans bring the specificity um to that and so that to me this this is almost part of the action plan if I'm saying anything I'm saying I really exactly the way that you leave it out the first go back why didn't somebody record I listen I I almost tried because I knew where I was going I didn't get it word for word but I'm going to read the notes that I took delling between goals on and what it looks like for the culture how do we support those making positive additions to the district have a goal that celebrate contributions from staff students and dot dot dot is what it put but it's all stakeholders right so I would start from that last sentence finish with all stakeholders and say in achieving more district and strategic goals yeah say that again Cate so I would take the last okay which was celebrate contributions from staff students do we want to say from and and and all district and strategic remember last time we did this and it took us forever to get like one word yeah and then I think this really covers what we we have been speaking about in our in our committee meetings and I think this brings it just do you think they Dr Freeman do you think that give us enough or or your team enough sort of flexibility to be able to pinpoint recognize yeah I think it gives us as you're saying it I'm envisioning it in my head but yeah that gives her no sex and if it doesn't I'll come back to you tell you don't forget about the action plan too that I really appreciate the Twist from it being an evaluative type of thing to it being a way that we can quantify and evaluate things right it becomes a tool that we can use as board well I mean it's sort of unstated right if there's a key aspect of the plan that is not getting recognized I don't know if we want to be in the business of publicly questioning why a particular stakeholder goal is not currently being where is right we haven't had one in a I know it's getting late towards oure but goal number three sounds is more of a result of something that we're doing where these are goals we're trying to create the safe Mar we're trying to use data and this is like we're celebrating that's more of a result of we should be doing as opposed to create a goal that says hey we're going to celebrate I think the action is celebrating right what we're celebrate could be achievement we worded is is important so maybe if it's um identify you know where elements of the Strategic plan have been completed or contributed to in a positive way and celebrate the stakeholders who are responsible something along those lines that is almost part of the action plan or maybe part of the board goal as opposed to the district goal but what is what was what what was come what was said is celebrate contributions from staff students and all stakeholders in the achievement of District Boe and strategic goals is that does that sound good to people I agree that's weed but I think Don's feedback is he's not happy with the vot no I'm I'm happy with that I'm not gonna fight and say oh that's a stupid idea I no I how about we add identify and celebrate we're identify what's going on yeah and then we can celebrate it yeah can we as opposed to saying all right this already happened so we're celebrating what happened let's go out and say this is what we found we identified this particular project and now we're going to celebrate so just by adding that one word I two words identify celebrate that keeps the whole message still there right saying we're making an effort to really look at what's so we're good sorry yeah I'm good so what everybody agreed to is ident identify and celebrate contributions from staff students and all stakeholders in the achievement of District Boe and strategic goals okay is that something that you can work with of course all right I know I hate to mess it up but if celebrate is is the contentious point you could go with acknowledge ackowledge it could be different terms but it could be a celebration identification and then action plan could say some was looking at that's more of a result of what we're trying to what we found found something you have to identify First Mr Gori Jo made a good point she said she doesn't know what our cake budget is for the coming school year may have to look into that operations all right Patty I think we're good you're good with the district goals so what what are the next steps well we did that um adopting your your annual District goals coming with an action plan um you know superintendent will work on that and then adopting them and then as I said the periodic review um and progress towards those goals so that not only does the board know where you're going but so does your community and and that that that helps project a positive image of the district moving forward not to anticipate what comes next but I imagine boths is next yeah in your presentation yes we get there since we did the Strategic plan last year can I make a suggestion that we make operationalizing this schedule our primary board for this year it's something we haven't done in my three years here or haven't done well and something we've all said we would want to see done so maybe we should make this the actual Focus for so strategic plan goals District goals for goal should all be aligned all heading in the same direction um that makes a lot of sense to me because you're you're the Strategic I mean the board goals well we'll just go into this three to five you know three to five goals to focus on um we talk about coming from the board self- evaluation which I see you haven't done that's um helps boards I some boards identify um things that they should work on the um the board goals are um just processes owned by the board and and tasks that you do uh and um these are just some things you might consider um and part of your discussion is what can you be more uh do more effectively in Communications both internal and external what can you do to enhance your governance skills and performance I mean your Governor skills you're almost at the the Carol Larson um Master board certification which by the way when I was first on my board she was my first uh field service back in the day um she's she passed a number of years ago um but she was she was a she was a um tough task master I learned a lot from her um and then when at one point was going his handle Su Shany for many years so she was mine at one point um so so B Bard challenges and I just put up some some examples because it's it's sometimes it's easier to come up with districtwide for curriculum and student achievement and all that but sometimes it's um it's a challenge to come up these are examples just engage in professional development um your master certification I looked that up because I think you asked I think she we're 30 minutes away yeah 30 minutes away and um the foure RO the twoyear rolls [Music] over eligibility ends on June 20th 2025 so you have till next June um and since you have I think a half hour away I think it was what it was after today yeah you'll be at nine and a half after today um so you have you know a full almost a full school year to get your other half hour uh in and get your certification so so if you're looking for a goal you can achieve yeah that would be you know add that to it but but it's also advertising to your public and your community that you on the EXT you have taken the extra steps to not only be Bard a board C being certified as a board but to earn Master certification which I said is maybe a handful of districts throughout the state um so you know that is one that you can you can add if you want something you want to obtainable so I really like the idea of including that one for us not necessarily because it's achievable but I would add and determine what we're going to do next because you know the whole idea was to demonstrate our commitment to continuing education same way that we're asking the professional staff to do so it's going to be nice to be able to say that we're Master Certified but the question will be what are we going to do next well when you become Master Certified you need to maintain it um so you will have to do within every two years 10 hours of training to maintain it if you don't do that within two years you will lose it and then you'll have to go all the way back to the beginning for the board certification so what you can do is to continue the training that you've been doing be that having uh somebody come into board meetings Workshop counts uh going to County meetings count um lots of things count going to Statewide programs like um the law form at at times um they all count so it's it's not like you get it and you can say okay good it's done no you have to maintain it and again every two years so there is that this was the goal that Gwen had given me but you really um you've had the strategic planning process so this would probably if you want to continue this to um to tweak it to I don't know it's pretty specific you've done you're you're waiting for your action plans for the Strategic plan so I'm not sure um what do you think how relevant this might be so I would fa so we went with one goal just to be very specific last year what we were going to be working on I like the idea of keeping it and adjusting it as you recommended uh in part because we want the Strategic plan to be an area of focus like we invest all that time and energy into creating it so the idea that we would now you know proceed with year one right to achieve what's set out in year one for theic plan to me would be an Unwritten goal and there's no reason why any a something would be to support um the achievement of year one milestones for strategic plan support well I would just say support the um the the look up some more specific wording the goals of the Strategic plan on an annual basis now support not not only means talking about it and and at bo means it it also is providing the resources necessary whether that especially during budget time um the resources necessary so maybe provide um the support and resources necessary uh towards the I I I'm thinking achievement but but but progress toward something towards your District RS attainment attainment attainment attainment thank you that's do you guys agree with putting something in our board yes yeah I that makes sense to put but given that you're writing is should we take it that as implied that you will read back to us some proposed goals so I don't know that we have to worry about words things but before we approve it we want to make sure that everybody's happy with exactly the way right and we wouldn't be approving tonight we'll be approving at the next and and I'll write this up number but what I've heard is to provide support and resources um necessary for the attainment of the district and strategic planning gos that works um do you want want to add in the master board member yeah absolutely right and actually it would be um to engage in professional development to achieve and maintain massive board certification so that's two also since we know where that Clos make sure you pencil in I think it's April um the njsba Somerset County meeting where they do the accomplishments and celebrations because I imagine be and we could also come I can come to a board meeting and so that you're you know specifically if you once you get there if that H because they do it in the spring but if you get it done before that oh we already have a place on the wall picked out for the you tri your community should know your staff should know um it really does have an impact on every because you're functioning and you're governing well or at least you're trying to and you're getting the necessary professional development like teachers do to to give that to get that I don't know that's gonna have to be a big game Fly yeah we'll see what the Surplus is like mean is there anything else that you think on the board level that you might want to work towards before we get into additional comments Dr pman and Mr Gorski since we were so prescriptive with the district goals what do you guys think about board RS what do things you would like to see us exactly what you're saying all right I agree with that um the master board is also that's I didn't mean to put you on spot I think those are the two big ones for me if I think of something else work oh yeah that's why it's hard to come up with the because everything's G to be derivative off I know and I think we've done a good job over the last few years picking goals that would change the way we operate as a board but also not overwhelm Us in terms of what we can effectively accomplish in a given year so you know reframing how we do our meetings for one year you know adjusting our governance Cycles to make sure that we're efficient with our TX obviously the strategic planning exercises multiple exercises last year both with the community and Comm time consuming as a result of the focus we did to jobs to your point you know maybe we keep it to those two and make sure that we have a laser laser focus right that on what we're doing I mean unless you want to you have the technology plan which that's technically part of the Strategic uh you have communication but we identified that earlier with the district RS like you [Music] said one if you're looking for a third goal to um conduct the board self evaluation every year that's I mean it's done you that's that's an attainable want it doesn't take too long and and it's as I said it's not required by law right it's just the best practice it helps you identify things that you might want to drill down on a board Go I mean I like it but we already there we need to be able to do anyway we shouldn't have a go or something that's required I think that's requ not required yeah but what I meant to say is something which I think we did in the spring of 2023 we didn't repeat for that's you could do it now yeah it's online and the board superintendent and the business administrator non voting members of the board so they can also and it really talks about you you there's um nine areas that you're evaluating the board on and then your contribution to the board so it it can be very helpful um I've seen it work with with boards that are high function like I think you are um and it it kind of acknowledges you show that um but it may show things that okay I feel like need more training in this and it's Anonymous so even the comments you make so that if unless you self identify that you said that you wrote that nobody it's not I can't even see the word because it's just the way it enters into our system is is that um but I and then I've seen boards that were highly divided and um the self- evaluation came back and um one of the worst ones I've seen and um but what what what resonated with the board is that there were two Phil philosophical sides and neither side was happy with how everything how things were functioning so it really led to great discussion once they they saw I'm like oh like nobody likes how we're you know what we're achieving or not achievement and so that really did help Foster that discussion but it's up to you if you're okay with two goals that's that's um I'm okay with two goals it's just the board's Choice the two all right and then work on the action plans um again the next steps are the action plans uh who does what and what the success look like and then uh fre you know we point out your progress towards your District go but the same time you report out um progress towards the strategic planning goals progress towards the district goals and then just you know an update on progress towards Bo goals well we did this in an hour you guys are focused so just ending with a little quote um and with that I think uh unless you have any questions I will write up what we discuss and send it as a memo form may not come till um next week only because I'm doing a search and another and then my next couple of nights is uh interviews but if there's if there's not anything else thank you for having me in tonight I'm happy to come um to Somerset County one because it's it's close but you know my kids went to sumerville high school so I know we compete there in athletics we competed with B Brook so I've been here before we'll try not to hold it against you we try not to hold it against you no it was really great to have you and we're happy to be able to work with thank you for being in this session it's usually one of the most important meetings that we have for the entirety of the Year thank you guys for the the good discussion yeah know it is goal setting is very important it helps the pl come up with the plan and how you're going to get to the to the end result and what it looks like so again thank you [Applause] [Music] that's one my favorite control [Music] all right problem which way am [Music] I e anybody need paper paper we're happy you're here e e e at this point we are up to committee meeting reports first on the agenda is education committee Mr Dawson thank you Mr President uh the education committee met last week we reviewed a number of items including the school calendar school counseling plan uh we have a presentation about uh the access results which is the test that our multilingual Learners take to measure their progress in Reading Writing speaking listening um we'll be going into further detail on that later today so I don't want to spoil the movie but it's a good movie we're going in a good direction um and we are excited to learn about all the different ways the district is supporting our teachers and our students for the upcoming school year thank you Mr Dawson any questions for Education all right heing want to move on to governance Miss for okay we have for governance this month one of the things that weed right off was um the hi hi process ofation and it's really kind of streamlined so that now um there's going to be email and phone call to parents so that it's very clear as to what the process is um also the hip specialists in each of the buildings will be in touch with inrs and special ed department so that we know that the kids really are um we know where they are and what the what may be accounting for some of the things going on um also one of the things that we're all excited about is there's a quicker review process now so what we will be doing as soon as the reports are finished after the 10day investigation and come to the board we're doing it so that we can review that and have it all approved by the export meeting so it's not going to be looking months to advance it it should be what we're hoping for is to have him investigations and have them approve that month um one of the other things we discussed was the board um and District goal setting which we had tonight we just met with padie and once we get them back from her we again in committees will them um we are working towards our Master board certification this is the Carol Lawson Master board certification program we have 30 minutes left to achieve that goal and we have until June to do it so this is something that will definitely happen yeah um we also discussed um the disses communication um specifically with high school parents we wanted to make sure that all parents are aware of activity going on you know whether it be Sports whether it be after school programs things like that it really is to just get that communication out so parents of students know what is happening um and also in the governance we are also Contin looking at policies and that's itly done any questions on government's committe all right we'll stick with you miss resources so for human resources you know I say this every single month the first thing we do is we look at the spreadsheet of open positions and as of our last meeting there were 25 open positions but there are still those interviews going on um a lot of these positions are at the high school so we're really working hard to get them fulfilled um there were 36 hires since uh July but there are more on the on the tonight so that just keeps um increasing which is what we want we like to be fully staffed one of the things that the um we had talked about with Dr Freeman is we were just looking at um the number of resignations Etc and he compiled this really interesting data sheet because he has interviews with all the people who leave the district so in that it was you know you know what some of the various reasons were for a lot were seem to be closer Home kind of activities some were salaries but it was eye opening to see you know why the people know why we have these presentations um we also talked about new positions and job descriptions um one being an alternative school head teacher it used to be that the um that program was after school hours and now it's being brought into the district from 11 to3 which we just find so exciting because now these kids are going to be part of this school Community it gives them the opportunity to um be in all in the electives it also gives them the opportunity to take part in extracurricular activities and that's what we really want we want it to be so that they have the the same opportunities that um every student here uh we have new teacher orientation the 27th 28th and 29th and the board is coming to a meeting greet that's going to be Tuesday the 27th at 11 o'clock and I think that's all I have to report excellent questions on human resources uh from my part I will just acknowledge the hard work that the administration is really putting in in terms of trying to get us back to full staff uh clearly not an easy task um but as everybody can see from your agendas you know section seven has I think 64 different items in it so I'm clearly a lot of work being done I just want to say thank you to everybody that's contributed any other comments or questions on human resources sounds good thanks um Mr zco couldn't be here tonight so I will just give a brief uh update on operations we really talked about two main ideas both of which are represented in the agenda tonight the first one is item number 9.20 which is an architectual review of the work that was done for the Edition for B at school um I'm sure I don't have to go into excruciating detail for board members this is an Ono topic of discussion um operations Committee in conjunction with Mr Gorski and our primary architect reviewed uh the recommendations from the Specialists um with some work additional work that they would have to do in order to uh explore exactly what went wrong in terms of the um water infiltration issue that we're having in the basement and so uh after some discussion of operations uh recommending that we undertake that next set of steps uh it'll be a professional Services contract and that's what we'll be voting on tonight uh the second one is shared services with the buau um so Mr gorsy and Dr Freeman in conjunction with Mr marman have been working on uh a new agreement to effectively insource uh garbage collection uh that we're currently paying an outside provider to perform uh it should create some efficiencies and actually save the district money way so um thankful to Mr Molina on that as well because I know he contributed but we think it was a really great thing both for the bur and for the district and we are recommending that for it was actually pretty quiet otherwise so don if you have anything to add or if anybody has any questions Happ I have a comment of course I just want to say I know one of the agenda items for um operations was the school signage and I'm really happy to report that the new SMY School sign is up it looks amazing the graphics look great and I'm excited to see the rest of the school signs go up as we progress so thank you to Dr Freeman and to verto for all their hard work in getting that done look great all set other comments or questions for operations okay the only other two items we have were SCC which miss high I believe that report won't be until next month um and uh Miss Carlton isn't here so we don't have a Sol Bound Brook report for this evening before we wrap up any other questions comments on C all right uh so if you will indulge me it appears that I missed item 2.1 and M has you know sat patiently and waited for us but we have to double back and give her the floor so that she can uh make a presentation any objections to going out of sequence that's my apies all right okay good evening everybody um so tonight we're going to look over the results for the access testing for this past um spring uh 20124 um so I hope that you enjoy the data um and the charts that were created for that um so the we access for MLS is the access test to um to find out the English language proficiency for the students it is a yearly test um that's given to all um students K 12 that are identified as multi um it serves two major purposes one is to monitor the progress yearly progress because there should be some sort of growth in the language proficiency um of the students and also it serves as just one of the many criteria to determine whether a student is eligible to exit the program and would that student be able to function and be successful academically and emotionally and socially in an all English instruction classroom um the English proficiency levels range from one entering all the way to reaching um with where you see the four expanding um the cut score for New Jersey is 4.5 in order for a student to be considered um for exiting the program so when they get to that expanding stage it doesn't mean that they're totally proficient yet like that student would still need some sort of language supports where whether they exit the program or still stay um they still need um the support because it's not until they reach a six that they are truly in the same um kind of you know level as their monolingual English Learners um English speakers I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything so the English proficiency um is measured in four domains the reading the writing listening and speaking and then we're going to see a little bit more detail about each of those domains and what they contribute to the overall score for the student um so this is the percentage that are taken into consideration when we get that overall um score so listening and speaking are really only 30% of that total score the reading and the writing make up to 70% so that's why sometimes we might um come across students that they can carry on a conversation and they understand everything we're saying in English but then maybe their reading and writing still needs more support before they can get to that proficiency level so um this is just a sample of the individual student reports all the reports have been mailed um to all the parents as of last week thank you to Irene also did a wonderful job um with all those letters almost like 600 um but we are required to send the reports home and also they have to be in English but we also have to send them in the home language um for the parents so it's really two reports for um multilingual learner families so the there you see the breakdown of the domains um and then we look at the overall uh proficiency score to determine that level of proficiency in English um this is the bottom half of that report so this is just an example of where it says like the proficiency level um and then it gives us the information of what that student can do for that domain at that level so as you see a student might be a four in proficiency level in writing but maybe for their listening they're only a two so we can expect different skills to be demonstrated by the student depending on the domain and this is also useful for the teachers who will have access to all of this um not only through like the coaching and PDS but also through linkit everything is um already on the linkit website for the teachers um and then that just kind of translates into the C do descriptors where at those proficiency levels we can find out okay and listening what can a teacher expect from a student when it comes to Output in language or you know reading or writing at that specific level so it gives the can do descriptors are from actually prek all the way through 12th grade and they give an indic indicator for the teachers onto you know what that student is capable of doing um and I always like to talk about this because um sometimes we might think like the access test if a student is at the high school or at the middle school and they get a a 4.3 um and then we have a first grader that gets a 4.3 it's like what is that the same test that they're taking you know but it it really isn't because the access test measures the content for each grade level so the the state content standards they're all embedded into the access test when they have to take it so an eighth grader or a 10th grader has more content that they have to think about and work through and you know think through when they're answering the questions so the proficiency levels although they might be the same number or indicator it means something totally different depending on the grade level of the student um um so this this is very interesting because um I presented this last Monday what it was last Monday right um so at that point on that day we had 559 um current enrollment for our multilingual Learners so since then um we have 47 students that are currently on our list to do the waa screener so those are the new students coming to the district um which will be completed by August 30th we have 67 students that are newly identified because now we are required by the state to identify our preschoolers so they don't take a test or anything like that the only thing we're required to do is that if they have a home language other than English we have to identify them as language Learners so we can provide the support that they need so we have 67 students already ready to start on on SE September 5th that are prek and P only in those 67 so the total possible multilingual learner um total by 95 could be 673 students so that's like almost a 100 you know 100 students more than we even thought we had last week so this is very important to keep in mind because um as you see like it's the number is just going to keep growing so I'm happy and I'm grateful for all the support that everyone has provided because we're putting a lot of supports in place that these students will be able to come in and they will be able to succeed academically and linguistically as well can so when I see this chart and it looks like we're going up 100 students before we get into the next block of potentially another 100 students I just think it underscores the board members should appreciate while we have invested a lot in izing our approach to educating this part of the community it's not anywhere close to where we need to be we're have to continue to focus on it and invest in it if we're to achieve the results we yeah thank you for that um and totally agree with everything you just said okay so um so for this I just did the comparison of the last three years as far as like the total um number of students there us see um in the first columns like how many were tested parent refusals um this year we only really had 19 and seven of those actually exited so it's less I think we have 12 total right now um 54 students exited this year um compared to last year which was 22 and then previous to that was 28 um and then the alternate test which is given to special education students that qualify for that we had five students that took the alternate test ranging from second grade all the way to high school so this is I just did like an overall um percentage of the different levels of proficiency so you could just have a an idea of like what we're working with as far as like K through 12 but for K3 you see we would expect to see like a higher percentage at the entering level because those are the young kids they're just coming in and you know that's that's how they enter and but we do have some that reach that expanding and then the developing um stage also or level um for 4 to six it changes a little bit more because now some of these kids have been here for a couple of years so it's only 8.2% at the entering level but our biggest percentage is at that expanding stage so those kids might reach a proficiency score you know the following spring this coming spring when we take the test again um but you can see how it it shifts you know the higher we go um for the middle school 10% are entering um and then we have the emerging 33% and then the developing but we also have a lot of students that are at that expanding stage where they are more proficient in their language um and then for the high school we do have a lot of newcomers for the high school so the entering training percentage does go up um so it's 26% um 11 of our students are um students with interrupted formal education so that's actually um 11 is not you know not a large number but we still have those students identified because they need extra support um and then we have the emerging the developing um and then we do have 2% that are at that bridging um and those students exited some of the ones that are in the expanding level and then the bridging they definitely um exited the program um so I wanted to show this because um it's important for us to know that 216 of our students really began last year they've only been here one year so we had 216 newcomer students um 115 of the total students um have been here for two years and then 40% of our students have been here three or more years so that is um also a population of students that we want to keep an eye out because some of them have become long-term multilingual Learners so they actually need more support as far as their language acquisition um so the programs in place for this coming school year we will have um the one-way dual language program 5050 um and we're so excited about that we actually had our our fourth day of training with the Dual language teachers today so everybody's excited we got to go into their classrooms you know showing them how to set up and um they were they were thrilled with that so we have that um we had the meeting with the parents uh the 6th August 6 we had two meetings and we had a good turnout the parents were also very excited about the opportunity of um having the 50/50 um dual language program for the students um at CMS and at the high school we will still continue with the high-intensity ESL which will be two periods of ESL for our students one period is aligned to the language arts standards um and that's um specifically important at the high school because that's how our our students our MLS meet their credits to for the language arts so that ESL curriculum has all the language arts standards for every Grade 9 through 12 embedded in the curriculum um and then the second period will be aligned to the World Language standards um We are continuing our sheltered instruction training for the teachers actually cohort 3 is this week so tomorrow is their last day of the three-day training um and then we have another cohort next week of 20 additional teachers that will be trained so so far I think it's like 80 now right about 80 teachers um after next week would have been trained with shelter instruction and you know most of them content Area Teachers so now they have like tools and a lot of resources that they can use when they have the students in their classrooms that might be a level two or a level one but because there's no bilingual teacher there that's you know their instruction will be sheltered um and next steps we we just talked about the implementation of the oneway immersion program um continue the shelter and instruction training so in October we will start cohort 5 and that'll be made up of the new teachers that are coming into the district so every year in October we're going to train all those teachers that are just coming in um and then we have okay I already talked about that um continue the Dual training throughout the um next school year so we have nine PD days for our teachers and we also have uh 20 days of an A specialized instructional coach going into their classrooms to help them with whatever they need but on top of that um we have the ESL and bilingual instructional coaches that will be able to help K all the way through 12th grade which I'm really excited about that because like job embedded coaching instructional coaching that's PD for the teachers and that's the most effect um effective and impactful type of workshop for them like handson um we do also want to take a deeper dive into the waa access results so so the teachers can become familiar with those can do descriptors um and then a lot of information that will be able to help them so that the students can be successful even if it's a sheltered instruction classroom um and then we're going to keep working on the increased parent engagement um and the discussions through the bilingual parent advisory committee and that's it so any any questions comments questions from m i I have a question I know we're we're testing the the students when they come in what happens if a teacher is evaluating a student after they've been tested at a certain range and feels that they maybe need to move up or down is that is there Flex in it as well you know like if they start out at a certain level is there any Flex during the school year are they locked in at that level um so they test out the retest for the most part the students will stay in that level but even last year we had some situations where I think there were three students but mostly at the lower grade that kindergarten in first grade that we retested because the ESL teacher felt like maybe they were nervous when they took it because their output of the language was demonstrating a lot higher than what their actual screener showed and that's actually what I was thinking in my head was do kids that aren't good test takers do they get locked in when the teachers don't have the ability to flex them up or down on oh no definitely we we we have to take that into consideration especially like even kindergarteners if they don't know the teacher they get nervous sometimes they don't speak but then as the school year you know starts they get more comfortable so that was one situation for one kindergartener last year but yeah it was a one and then when we retested it was a four so that made a big difference too so he was more comfortable like two months in Mr Johson so on behalf of on the board we're all really excited about all the work your team and your department is is taking and we know that you know a child doesn't become proficient in a second language and he hears it's a a long-term approach and we're all really excited and energized by all the work you're you're doing so thank you very much thank you [Applause] [Music] all right next item on the agenda is open to the public for agenda items anybody here to address the regarding the agenda items anything online uh no very good we are on to item 6.1 we have resolved that the bound work Board of Education recommendation of the approves the minutes for the following meeting regular executive meeting minutes for July 24th 202 uh just a point of order Mr Cory because I'm going to have to obain do we have enough members to vote and approve this we do we have seven members pres very good all right I will entertain a motion thank you Miss H second thank you Miss mus any comments or discussion hearing none Mr gki can we do a roll call please certainly Mr Dawson yes M Gazo yes m m yes Mr minhas yes Miss H yes Mr bmer yes and Mr board president abstained so noted motion passes thank you item 7.1 be it resolved that the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions as outlined in District personnel resolution this is 7.2 through 7.64 May I have a motion motion thank you mron second miss any discussion right hearing none Mr K Mr Dawson yes yes m yes Mr Min yes m h yes Mr bmer yes and Mr J yes motion pass thank you item 8.1 be it resolved that the B Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in District education resolutions this is 8.2 through 8.28 have a motion Miss B go second second miss any discussion go forward I just want to say you know I'm looking at all the preparation that went into this and I am so so impressed um you know just looking at the the PD plan in particular that's huge the inrs the counseling the handbooks at each school in two languages I was going through this agenda going this just was accomplished magnificently I just am very impressed with it second any other comments or questions all right he now can we do a roll call please Mr Dawson yes Mr Cino yes Mr M yes Mr Minh yes Miss H yes hmer yes and Mr janzi yes motion pass thank you item 9.1 we have resolved that the bber Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in board Act this is 9.2 through 9.26 can we have a motion motion thank you Mr Minos a second second thank you Mr Dawson discussion one question 9.25 the shared agreement yes are the dumpsters remaining the same the same size as far as I know yes thanks okay uh thank you for the donation yes uh item 926 a donation from Mr trees in front of the high school it's really any other comments or questions hearing none Mr Gorski a roll call please Mr Dawson yes M cazino yes Miss M yes Mr minhas yes Miss High yes Mr hmer yes and Mr Januzzi yes motion passes thank you we are off to item 10 which is other matters to come for the board which I have not been informed of any uh item 11 which is new business again nothing introduced in advance is there anything that the members would like to raise from the floor to see right then we are up to item 12.1 which is open to the public for discussion you do have something online okay uh Mr Gorski do you want the person's name and stuff now or will you uh note that later I would prefer I would prefer to have it now okay that's that's fine uh Denise Ren uh two Hayward street uh they put two comments in the same basically I think they accidentally had submit that's just my personal opinion uh they would like to discuss the volume of the music played over the speakers during football and other various Sports practices uh that's part one um following up on my previous form that I completed earlier today my concern is that there is music being played during football practices at the field of on Crusader way my backyard backs up to the field the music being played at times is rap with foul language and is blasting at uncomfortable levels I estimate at 80 DB I can hear the music inside my house outside it is uncomfortably loud this has not always been the case I have lived at uh this house uh lived at to Hayward for over 18 years uh the loud music was not an issue for at least the first 10 or more years since the sound system was upgraded the music has become louder and more frequent not just before games but at all practices and other events I have spoken with Bound Brook High School athletic director over the years at times he's been receptive their times not so much I spoke with him last week when the practices started I believe this was Wednesday and he was receptive to speaking with the coach about turning the music down but since practice has begun for the evening he may not have been able to reach the coach the music continued to blast for approximately two hours the next evening the same thing I called Mr steel last night and left a message asking if he had been able to speak with the coach I have not heard back however the music volume was lower it was approximately 6 Deb I realized last night that I have a DEC app on my watch that I can measure tonight I did not hear music I don't know if last night was lower and today none were just coincidence coincidences I just like the users on the field to be be a good neighbor as I am I do not blast music from my backyard or use chainsaws or blowers during the times that I feel I may be disturbing those on the field I'd appreciate the same as for the noise during the game I would expect that and have no issue though during the announcer during the game are even louder than the music if it is possible Mr not to interrupt you I certainly want to give this resident there do but I think we get the gist comment um my request will be of Dr Freeman to follow up with the individual who wrote it to understand the concern and to address any practices from District Personnel that may be in conflict with either our policies or with the policies of uh the township I will take care of it any other comments on that uh there not thank you sir any comments from the room all right we are then moving into executive session very nice well myself so please allow me to recognize Robin Thompson our new supervisor of special education please stand [Applause] up excited to see what you're going to do for us in District you've we've heard a lot of great things and again we're just really excited to get to work so thank you very much for coming forward with us thank you all right now we're going to move into the executive session um so uh resolve that the bound Board of Education enter executive session as Allowed by njn 10 4-11 for the purposes of mr4 and4 and7 I have a motion I'm gonna give Mr a motion and Mr all in favor e e e you guys are good to go all right guys so we are going to call to order to move items number 14 and 15 so this is item number 14.1 be resolved that the bound Board of Education approves the resolutions as outl in approval of hi cases under high school this is just over 14.2 Comm a motion I'll give the motion to miss high the second to M mus no discussion so R Mr Dawson yes M Gazo yes M yes Mr Min yes M oh yes thank you Mr bmer yes Mr yes thank you I 15.1 resolve that the Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlin in approval of hi cases on elementary schools this is just it 15.2 have a motion motion thank you Mr Dawson a second second thank you Mr M roll call Mr Dawson yes M cazino yes Miss M yes Mr Minas yes Miss High yes Mr vulmer yes Mr januzi yes motion passes item 16.1 having exhausted the agenda can we have a motion to agend thank you Miss a second second thank you Mr dson all in favor we

[Music] hello and welcome to the Views expressed of public affairs program on W TV here in Ash Massachusetts tonight we have a special guest in our ongoing series for candidates for Governor's Council we have David reservitz I hope I got your name correct uh sir oh fantastic hi well welcome to the Views expressed um this is oh you're very welcome uh so I'm just gonna jump right into it uh first of first off who are you tell us a little bit about your personal background sure um I'm a lawyer been a a trial attorney for about 28 years now uh originally from Brockton Massachusetts I went to high school in Easton Massachusetts um which is the town next door still in this District to of the governor's Council it's a huge District of 37 towns I currently live uh in NM which is the kind of top right corner is of the district along with Milton in that area goes all the way out to Framingham and Ashland it's a big District yeah so I'm a lawyer I'm a father I've got uh four kids um and uh I've been active in the legal community and the judicial selection process in the past and it's something that I'm really passionate about Mr reservist now we had know a little bit about you and we'll be digging into your professional background probably a little bit more in depth as we uh go along um before we get too into discussion I was wondering if you could help out our viewers a lot of folks don't even know well I should don't even it's kind of esoteric even for those who are well-informed voters a lot of folks don't know what Governor's council is if you could let us know what it is and let us know why why you're running yeah it's something that needs to change a little bit the governor's council is an interesting body of government um it's a some it at times has been controversial but it's a very important body of government it is a board that consists of eight elected individuals Statewide each district I'm running for district two which includes ashin it's an open seat each district comprises of a combination of five senatorial districts so they're huge districts and if you do the math there are 40 Senators there are eight districts combination of five so the math kind of checks out there um the governor's Council is now in charge largely of vetting and casting the final votes on judicial appointments lawyers that are seeking to become judges it also handles these types of vetting and votes for other important jobs like clerk magistrates board of appeals uh parole board uh officers and candidates and uh clerk magistrates and the other major function although less frequent of the governor's council is if the governor wants to issue a pardon or commutation or shortening of a prison sentence or jail sentence that must be either approved or denied by the governor's Council as well so why are you running for governor Council uh like I mentioned before uh I'm a lawyer and more so than even being a lawyer I'm a former judicial nominating commissioner uh which uh means I have selected judges in the past um another thing that a lot of people don't know about is how do you become a judge in Massachusetts other states actually elect their judges certainly in the southern states you'll see judges and their supporters standing outside reelect judge Smith Massachusetts doesn't do that they take a more uh technical approach as Massachusetts and other Northeastern states and many other uh Western States like C California they they will appoint their judges through other legal professionals they leave it to the lawyers and the elected officials on the governor's Council um so in doing so there is essentially two boards the first board is called the judicial nominating Commission Now that board is appointed and selected by the sitting governor for example I was appointed by governor dval Patrick I'm a Democrat uh was a big fan of uh Governor dval Patrick's Administration I had previously been the president of my bar association and a public defender and um that caught the ear of then Governor Deval Patrick and he appointed me to his judicial nominating commission that's the first stop that lawyers make in their journey to become a judge if they're successful they then move on to the governor's Council I loved the work I did on the jnc as they call it for all Patrick um when we served as Commissioners there there were about 21 uh lawyers from across the state um we appointed some of the best judges that are on the bench today and we appointed more minority LBGTQ judges uh female judges than any jnc before in any Administration since that's what I'm trying to get back to do M okay okay all right um so I it's interesting when we started the show you kind of uh you said well you know govern's Council it's like well that's going to change a little bit I I that's going to tea up my my next question yeah for a number of years now uh and it seems like every time we've got an election especially when we've got a Governor's Council open seat situation um there's a lot of discussion around you know the utility of the governor's Council you know some folks feel like it has outlived its usefulness it's um you know and we we can we can dig into this because it seems like the two approaches most widely seen in the United States are either something like this a governance Council situation or you get a situation where judges are elected I'm just curious as to and I don't it's not a binary choice but I'm just curious where you stand uh about the governor's Council and its current Incarnation and you know the utility of it and yeah it's a it's a great question and and I think it's really interesting to discuss it I mean I I can certainly see why some people feel it is outlived its uh objective and perhaps its purpose uh frankly it's outlived many other G uh governing uh boards entirely it it dates back to the 1600s the governor's Council it is older than our Nations and our states constitutions so obviously it was enacted by the the Brits and I think it was done so to keep tabs on the governor that was installed by the British before we as a nation gained our freedom um and it's gone through a lot of changes over those centuries um most uh reducing its responsibilities but that doesn't mean that it is not necessary in fact I think it's extremely necessary and the main reason why is because I think it is a checkin balance so the jnc that I mentioned before that is an appointed board chosen by the governor so I'm a Democrat I was a supporter of dval Patrick every member of that J jnc that I was on was also a Democrat selected by Patrick So in theory the people of Massachusetts can elect whichever Governor's counselor they want Democrat Republican conservative liberal middle of the road um and they're going to represent them on the governor's Council and they may say you know I understand Governor that you want this candidate and you put this candidate to your J NC and your jnc approved this candidate but my constituents that's not a good fit for our community we're looking for someone that is a true represent representative of this district and so it serves as that final check and balance and why not have it it's just added protection to the citizens just a a follow-up question to that so you know you talk about the the uh the JC and the governor's Council and how they you know that that that the governor's council is a a check on that particular commit commission so do you still feel that the jnc is necessary um because it's also a great question I do I do and I'll tell you why all right because vetting judges should be a very thorough process we are appointing people to very powerful positions and they have a mandatory retirement at age 70 so governor Patrick for example happen to prefer younger judges if you appoint a judge at 40 years old you are stuck with that judge for 30 years you better choose a good one one that really serves the community and has the right knowledge the right experience the right compassion but the also the right understanding of when it's time to be strict um so I mean these judges as we know whether it be a criminal matter where they're affecting someone's Liberty something in the probate and family court affecting something as as as crucial as child custody and visitation a major civil case that could be over real estate that people own their largest asset or tens of thousands of dollars it could be a serious injury case in our Superior Courts or in our Board of industrial accidents could be a housing matter where someone's facing eviction either way they affect people's lives in such an impactful way that these judges will be ruling on issues like that day in and day out so the process should be extremely thorough extremely thoughtful and it's like we say put a second set of eyes on this so first you've got the jnc that is is not a quick process these candidates it's a Grassroots process they're brought up from their law practices and they are examined as potential judges if they so choose to be and then they come in for an interview and then if they pass through the first phase then they are put to what we call due diligence and then Commissioners are assigned to really investigate these attorneys to see if they're qualified and that means usually calling the people that aren't as obvious not the friends and family not the law Partners but the lawyers that were maybe on the other side of a case that they handled or judges on a case that maybe they didn't Prevail on um and you really get a good understanding it doesn't have to be a lawyer that wins all their cases it doesn't even have to be the best lawyer that makes the best judge it has to be someone that has the right temperament someone that has the right balance and then if successful they're to the governor's Council and that's where they get that check and balance interesting so so yeah I it's it's it's fascinating I I will keep my eye out on these different arguments because it seems like like I said every election cycle uh there seems to be like a little push back and it'll be fascinating to find out as the years progress like where where we land as a commonwealth uh with Governor's Council but right now the race is on and we are talking about your cidy so let's so let's loop back to to you um most folks who are running for Governor's Council feel very passionately about a lot of uh areas around Justice uh policy issues I'm just curious what are maybe the top two issues or concerns that you have that uh inspired you to jump into this race yeah thank you um we we all have our different platforms and priorities but we also have a lot in common I'm speaking of my Democratic uh opponents um because we're all Democrats um two of the uh Democratic opponents running against me uh who are great people uh take an approach to uh prison reform and social justice platform and they want to see changes in the U incarceration rates and I agree with that um and fortunately if you look at the data incarceration rates are moving in the right direction less so for minorities but they're still moving in the right direction thankfully and as a result we're experiencing the closure of a prison in norfol where uh they are putting migrants uh in on another controversial issue um I have a more um I think like a lawyer I've been a lawyer for more than half my life so my approach to the council is more broad than that yes I support Rehabilitation and diversion over incarceration on criminal matters I was a public defender and I've tried many criminal cases to verdict um but I've also switched my career to civil and so I'm also able to represent this district from day one on civil matters including financial matters Family Matters housing matters injury cases that can really affect people's lives um and I want to make sure that the judges that we pick are qualified to protect the people of the district so it's not necessarily one area because the judges have more than one area that they have to uh to that they have to handle um as far as political uh agendas go well like my opponents I'm a Democrat I don't want to vote for any judges that don't support a woman's right to choose I'm going to be Pro labor and I want to reach out to the labor unions and make sure that they feel accurately represented uh I want to make sure that we we have judges that are going to be tough on gun laws uh and uh sympathetic to drug addicts and tough on drug dealers um these are the things that I see as a attorney having practiced in the district and Superior Courts for so many years families come in sometimes begging judges for help because a family member has an addiction and they need to have them sectioned as they say for help um because addiction mental health issues can really rip apart a family and the judge needs to make the decision as to and it can be an of often difficult decision as to take away the liberty and freedom of someone who's affected by mental health or addiction uh so those are some of the issues that I'm really passionate about it's hard to believe getting back to the women's rights I mean I uh there are two men and two women in the Democratic race I'm a father of three daughters now all in their 20s um and I'm a lawyer and I'm a man of the law and I never thought that we would be seeing in 2024 states banning abortion and actually having the discussion of a nationwide ban on abortion with the Hobs case overturning roie Wade we want to make sure that Massachusetts doesn't fall into that trap we want to make sure that Massachusetts stays smarter and more modern than the rest of this country with the protection of those crucial rights and freedoms well you have run through a number of issues that you asked for two and you gave me a lot which is which is great but um you know I actually like to find out a little bit more about um but you so you how you've come to some of these these conclusions and and usually when I do that I ask folks specifically around about their backgrounds I'm just curious what prompted you to to get into law why why are you why are you in the law now yeah inspired you around that I'm not sure I remember Makita I've been a lawyer for uh almost 30 years I I just remember always wanting to be a lawyer the truth is my father was a lawyer uh my dad was a lawyer for 40 years my great uncle was a lawyer um we all come from the city of Brockton which has been a very busy exciting place to practice law uh my great uncle hung a shingle as an attorney uh in that City in 193 7 my father hung a shingle in 1967 and I hung a shingle in 1997 um I've just always loved the idea that I can stand up make Arguments for people and really make a difference and it's exciting and when you're a young lawyer and I remember being a young lawyer in the 90s and carrying just a a huge pile of files um as a public defender and spending the entire day in a busy District Court making bar Arguments for the release of usually Indigent uh defendants um the day would go so fast it's just thrilling you know I I was goingon to ask you why so we we know why you started but what kept you in it like it sounds like it was exciting but you have to you practiced different kinds of law you pract you were public defender uh and then you mentioned you you started practicing civil law I don't know if there are any other uh any other uh kinds of law that you practice in between there but what kept me in it well a lot of things a morgage a mortgage kept me in that's an honest answer it's a very honest answer um if you're successful as an attorney you can make a good living and I don't want to um hide that um because I think in politics sometimes that is used as a negative and I've never quite understood that um if you represent a client and you do a good job and then you do it over and over and over again and you learn and you become a great lawyer and you get to know the judges and know how to read the judges and then you you continue to have success um not only does it make someone an excellent candidate for the Governor's Council but it makes them a successful attorney um so I've had success in my law practice um I've also changed the practice of law with the uh e omics it's good like anything it's good to diversify I can handle real estate I handle housing and civil matters and I handle criminal matters you know it's it's fascinating going back to what you were talking about a little bit earlier talking about like you know what makes a good judge uh you know I think you had mentioned and and I apologize if I'm putting words in your mouth but you know the best lawyers don't always make the best judges and you talked about so um you also talked about a temperament uh and so what do you mean by the right temperament but I also want to talk about like core competencies from a technical standpoint too what you would be looking for in in in your judges so if you could expand on that a little bit yeah sure I'd be happy to It's a combination of a few very important things so I think uh the first place to start is with the core competencies a lawyer that is seriously considered to become a judge usually has at least 10 years of solid legal experience ideally a little bit more um but you don't want to appoint a 60-year-old attorney to spend 10 years on the bench and then be filling that seat again so typically 10 between say 15 and 25 years experience is ideal that's a lot of experience but within that experience we uh we jnc Commissioners and Governor's counil ideally like to see lawyers that have diverse experience or as lawyers say um lawyers that have represented parties on both sides of the v as they say so a typical case is Smith versus Jones and Smith is the plaintiff and Jones is the defendant and when we are asking lawyers about their experience if they're going to oversee a courtroom with plaintiffs and defendants we want to know have you represented plaintiffs and defendants there's a lot of candidates that might come uh before the jnc or the governor's councel that have spent 30 years as an insurance defense attorney handling just specific insurance defense issues it doesn't mean they're not going to be qualified judges but it does mean that they're not going to have the benefit of the experience of representing an individual in a civil case or an individual defendant in a criminal case um solo practitioning attorneys small general practice lawyers often make great judges because they might handle a probate family law matter a divorce case a child custody case and then the next day they might find themselves doing a criminal arraignment and then perhaps there's an automobile accident where a client breaks a leg or and and the insurance company doesn't want to settle a case and they got to try a civil case they might end up they might find themselves in the board of industrial accidents fighting for an employer employees rights or an employment discrimination case um any types of those matters can come before a judge restraining orders simple things like that so it's great to dig into the attorney's practice through the attorney and through other individuals who have come to know that attorney professionally to learn about their actual knowledge and experience and then you have to look at their personality and their temp temperment talk about that temperament you know so it's an overused word because it's so important okay so Define define what what do you mean by ideal temperament for this for for that position what what do you mean what do you mean when you say that litigation is an adversarial process it can be very heated sometimes the lawyers don't even behave I hate to say it it's the judge's job to keep Order in the Court to essentially be the referee or the Umpire to decide what's in evidence what's not in evidence and how a dispute is going to be resolved between the attorneys and sometimes between the parties if there's no jury um so it takes a special temperament to do so a good judge as we know is unbiased right they do not attach themselves or their opinions they simply review the evidence and apply the law and in doing so it is best to see a judge apply it with an even keeled temperament so when I say some of the best attorneys don't make the best judges here's what I mean as a trial lawyer I know who the great trial lawyers are and some of the best trial lawyers in our state are real showboaters they are dramatic they are incredible orators they are incredible uh they they have incredible oral argument they have uh a real fight in them and those are great trial attorneys to hire if you've got a major case on the line but they don't necessarily translate those skills to applying the law From the Bench so that's where the temperament comes in um and there just also Community attachment you don't you might get a lawyer that you know moved here from another state and has had a lot of success in their careers but they don't really know the community and when you're sitting on the bench and people from the community coming before you it's good to have some um way to relate to them and to really understand what's going on in people's lives that are coming before you that that's that's a very difficult Comin combination uh impartiality uh the ability to take control of a situation and basically be you know a combination of a referee you um you know keeping keeping Order in the Court as you said but also um and applying the law um you know W without without bias uh there's a lot going on in the courtroom and a lot of things that a judge has to do in order to make it run successfully and fairly and evenly it sounds like so thank you for yeah go ahead go ahead that's why the judicial appointment process is so important we have over 400 judges protecting the people of this Commonwealth and for the most part they do just what you said they they balance those skills and they do an excellent job well I we don't have too much more time there's one quick question that I'll ask I'll I ask you to answer it relatively succinctly and then we'll get into uh your closing arguments as to why uh you are you should be elected to Governor's Council really quickly going back to the utility of Governor's Council um you know we talk about we talked about the uh the the jnc but a lot of folks also say that the governor's Council tends to be a rubber stamp for the governor uh so it does not actually act as a check or balance it's what what are your what what how would you respond to that and how would you ensure if you were elected that that would not occur yeah well I'll make a promise that I'm not going to be a rubber standand uh I'll make a promise that I have more experience uh than most uh certainly than the candidates running against me but uh with all due respect I have more experience than most candidates running for Governor's Council Statewide I know how to vet a judge and I don't want to see any bad appointments going to the courtrooms in this District whether it be the Framingham District Court Ram uh Brockton attelboro uh and all the other court smaller cour houses that we have in our district or anywhere in the state um the other thing I would say is that while there are overwhelmingly more affirmations of of judicial appointments there are some judges and other professional appointees that are not uh successful in getting through the governor's Council uh but one thing I'll say in defense of the high rate of affirmations is that that is the jnc doing their job so if the jnc really does a thorough job they're not going to let non-qualified candidates through and we're gonna we're going to stop it there and just Mr reserv why should people vote for you on September 3rd in the primary thank you um I'm passionate about this uh and I'm experienced um and I want to protect the people of this uh District by making sure that the judges that we have are fair that they're compassionate uh that they will understand what's going on in the uh lives of the human beings that come before them and I know how to do it I've done it before I have almost 30 years experience and I'm the uh within the legal field but I've also been appointed and elevated within the field I was the president of the bar association and was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to the jnc my qualifications uh significantly exceed anyone else running against me and I'm ready to start on day one and we're going to have have to leave it at that Mr reservitz Dave reservitz is running for uh Governor's Council District to Mr reservitz uh how can people get in touch with the campaign I want to be available every way there is so I hand out my cell phone number 508 942 6902 I have a website www.

like a savings the district set aside to put in this trust so they could have money set aside to cover the cost of retire Health and Welfare and we're one of the few districts that actually we don't have a liability we have an asset which I've reviewed over the last few years when we do this study because what we have in the trust is over what um is needed for the retire benefits of course benefits can change and increase and decrease so it's good to have that extra bit that's there but that study is done every year the Auditors require it as part of the reports they review for the annual audit and every other year we're able to roll over the study so it's a lesser cost but this year it was a new study there's whole report there there's copies as well people okay any questions for Tera [Music] um we're going to go to People speaking I would like to donate my microphone s okay yeah that's what's up next item seven hearing persons wishing to address the board the public May address the board on any matter pertaining to the school district that is not on the agenda members of the public May sign up requesting to address the board by filling out a request form and turn turning it into the board president prior to the start of the meeting thank you for all of you that did that I have received them unless otherwise determined by the board each is limited to three minutes and 20 minutes per topic if multiple people speak you may also email Lana Porter bassle sd.org prior to 12m on the date of the meeting if you would like to address the board your email will be read by a staff member at the meeting up to 3 minutes link there will be no board discussion and no action will be taken unless listed on a subsequent agenda the public may also submit a request to address the board on each of the remaining items on the agenda as those items are taken up by specifying the agenda item on the public comment request form unless otherwise determined by the board each person is limited to 3 minutes per item okay um we have um four people that would like to um talk about the music program so um I'm going to let them all speak in a group and we'll start actually with the outlier Nancy Harlin who would like to welcome back the board good evening Bo thank you for the microphone and thank you for speaking into the microphone because I'm part of hearing and that's a line feature that you're having I come tonight to welcome you back to the new school year get a little closer to it like that and uh some of you may know that I'm I've lived up here for 50 years in the same house I have had seven children go through wasuma school and graduate and Y high school and graduate and uh of seven six of them went on to college and the other one went to um the Navy so um second reason why I wanted to address you tonight is to let you know that we are praying for you we're praying for you for wisdom um you're on the board for wisdom in the classroom for patience for health and all that you need to conduct your buiness and M in prayer it's a group that prays for you we meet every Monday at 10:00 at manah and we want know if you have any specific prayer request please contact me I've got a little C for you and you can contact me and we'll support you in any way so God bless you all and have a good year thank you thank you we say thank you I'll take all the C I can get okay uh next we will hear from Melissa Booth hello can you hear me okay okay um as you heard I'm um mother to four children um two of them at o um one at oci and one um is at his school in his second year um my two older children have had the privilege an opportunity to um participate in the music program um as it was um in relationship with uh y UniFi School District um this what it said okay um it it has been it was an amazing program we were so happy for that opportunity um but we were also really really excited to find out this year that cassic school district was um accepting the prop 28 money and they were going to use it to bring in a music program to the school um we didn't find out until in the last few days that there was some mismanagement in the hiring process and because of that there is now no fan director for my um eth grade son um and it might not be one for my fifth grade daughter and my third grade daughter when they get to um oci and you'll hear a little bit more from my children so I won't go into detail about how the band and music program has so positively affected them um but we just are here today to make our voices known for the um music Community here that music is a huge part of our family it's a huge part of our Lives it's a huge part of our community here um and to to lose that after they've had it is pretty devastating and so I hope that the board and um the supervisor and everybody else involved is actively trying to remedy that situation thank you um next we'll hear from Ian I am sorry hello thank you for me my name is I'm an eighth grader at OC my I've been in middle school band since my sixth grade year as well as me in the frera county music educators Association honor band my my seventh grade year I am also a member of high jazz band marching band and stre not having a middle school band not having Middle School band this year at Oak Creek intermedia will seriously fa my music progression as well as it will affect my peers and my younger siblings if it isn't fixed by the time I leave this will also affect my future because I am planning to be a professional musician when I graduate college and this will seriously NE thank you uh next we'll hear from Rory boo hello um my name is Rory Bo this year sophore High School uh I attended oci for my seventh and eighth grade years this will be my fourth year being part of the music I am in Wind Ensemble jazz band marching band instring on um I can't State how much the the program has positively affected me it is such a welcoming and amazing environment that improves everybody's life has been Bor of it it has affected me in so many ways all my I've met some of my greatest friends some of the best teachers I've ever had and I've got so many new experiences that I would not had L and I would be devastated if my younger siblings all three of them never got the opportunity to experience those things as well as all the rest of the younger children who might not um me and my brother are more Lucky in the fact you're already part of Jaz band and activities so my brother will still be still be able to participate in event but kids who are only part of the fand's program during school will lose out on any chance they would have to play their instrument at all if they do not have their own personal instrument because the instruments is are and if it do not remedy they won't even have a chance to hold their play instruments at all yeah it's just very important to me and I know it's very very important to a lot of other people music thank you speak and last we have Ryan welcome hello uh hello my name is Ryan W I am currently senior at high school um and also president of Music I've also volunteered to help Mr teach the B School b class for the past few years earlier this year I learn at b l Wasing music teacher to finally take over the band program as well as as well as to potentially offer tk35 music instruction this was wonderful for the high school program as they allowed m r to add one period of Music at which is the first time in our area has ever had AAL strs offered unfortunately the new teachers that were approved to be hired by the board at the June 184 meeting have their contract sended issues of course crti needs to be figured out but it's very unfortunate that it was not figured out before the school year started as a result for the first time is what in at least 10 years rather other than the online Co year there's no zero performing music instruction offered to midle school students within this dist ultimately that not what I'm here to talk about to I'm here to talk about it's a PR communication between Bas School District the involed parties music the lack of communication started long before this most recent incident however it seems to be most relevant of the most recent months Mr have been ADV foric education to be expanded and just one music class Club she and Mr Harris mus a teacher at y school put together your proposal all a full-time music teacher position with in The District in miday B gave music teacher position thankfully there are multiple appid and instead of one teacher two two music teachers were hire it was a little surprising to m r Mr Harris they hired two people not not one but ultim great news Mr R who has been teaching middle school students since 2018 found out this decision the great plan not from anyone else that directly she reached out to the principles and Superintendent at the time um to find out if a they need their insurance and materials or they tend to keep bringing students to our classroom chest B what will they be teaching as the initial proposal is only for one teacher not two c and if assist above as she experience love help plus the decision to have SCH should directly affect her program high school when I asked if she had heard anything about what music was going to look like in B next year she said that she didn't know and what they might be planning no clear information was received by the end of her contract days nor this time until about a week before school started she thought there were two M starting and only out that they were having issues because she happens toes there's still no communication on what is happening with insurance and now these students do not have a teacher either this is very disappointing for their training band students and incoming sixth graders course things happening credential need to be figured out before teacher can start working however is noten is communication ory Mr Mr Harris as their parents and students haven't been informed on what's been going music no Works have been made like having other teacher as is consult hasn't done before or trying to bust the student to do aband Mr Harris or some in short the actions and decisions made by B High School District been very disappointing and frustrating resulted in the one established being at risk of being cut meanwhile the students and parents haven't been told what's going on and what the plan of solution is high advise members of the board to direct up yeah thank we can we get minutes thank you okay um item eight action items 8A resolution 253 The District crma representative representative yeah so this is the resolution that um states that I will be the design the official represent I will be the representative for um Bast Lake for crma and Tera will be Al thank you crma is our insurance company I move approval a second any discussion this is an annual thing when we do all the time we have to designate someone to be the contact person for our insurance Y for the standard roll call vote I I I hi I motion carries um action item B resolution 2504 local assignment notification so this is the resolution for the not oh sorry I pull a I make a motion we approve resolution number 25 local assignment notification I second okay any discussion or presentation again this is what we do every year um for local assignments for some of our teachers who are are teaching outside of what their primary credential is so of course there are Ed codes that allow us to do that so long as they have a certain amount of units for that subject and so we just have to that to you and to the public to let you know who those teachers are and what there and then of course the teachers also sign sign those as well any questions roll call vote I I I I I okay and then we moved um approval of the l cap to item 8 C oh yeah I I move approval of the lcap from 2425 all second that any discussion roll call vote I I I I I okay on to information items 9A the first reading of proposed board policy and administrative regulations they're all there any questions well I I just this was a little bit of a learning per for but we got there with uploading them you know all of the things yeah yeah on that I I I see it's all on there and I appreciate that the encyclopedic effort put on there um I was toying with can I make a Excel program or something where I could have like the the the bylaw we talking about and it's revision right next to each other instead of like the shuffling of the deck which I I had to everyone I looked at I I had to go look for that other number and and uh it would be awesome if they were like Side by that com be easier to ref yeah we have a few emails into into gamut and simply about um it's interesting because it's it's a pretty robust system here what we have but it was it's still really clunky on how we get them uploaded onto the agenda wantana actually has to print out all of it it's like 500 pages and then she has to pick out each one scan them individually there's no way to select them and downlo them as a PDF and transfer them right I know I feel like St can do that we we eveny like nope that's how you do so okay um but I agree if we could find something that's a little easier to look at we will definitely try and figure that out down the road any other questions about the board call just to be clear on the portion that's in red that's what's what we're putting we're changing it to make it in compliance with the current state law yeah and the one everything that's not in red is already there so that's the changes right and that's what we'll be voting on next morning correct and so of them um have options to choose and so um the option that was chosen is on there and then it's just highlighted so you can see like okay there was either two options or three options and um the one that was chosen is the one that's on there and it's highlighted just so you can right more easily R that's I appreciate that yeah and we always did what we vied in the past for the option kind of gu just wanted to ask about policy 1260 Educational Foundation and then this one has to do with any foundations that want to uh raise money or contribute to the school bettermen of the schools and on page two it talks about uh in red I'm sorry can you tell us again where you're at this is 12 policy 1260 it's called Educational Foundation and are you on the one with the it's on the left hand column third from the bottom okay page two page two thank you okay so here it says uh in red in the about the middle Student Records or other personally identifiable student information shall not be released except with parental consent or as required by law or District policy good second is where I have a question student Direct information may be released when appropriate so what information from a directory may be released and when would it be appropriate do you have any idea trying to think of an example the first thing that comes to my mind is maybe um like we talked about earlier with like um the student information system and clever and you know that information kind of transfers over to the other apps with like student name and student number so something like that a class would be released would be loaded into that right for the student to access yeah but it this was with regard to oh fundrais yeah fundraiser educational foundations with boosters I know I've seen like the C candy fundraiser that comes through the student ASB fund it would have like um the students order forms that they gathered when they did the fundraising but it might just have like their initials or what their class what so they know when the order comes in you know what student that's going to so that would be what would be appropriate you know not their full name address Miss Smith's class student you know these Sees Candy work and then the other question on this same policy um so this has going see onqu it talks about uh see hold on so if you had a booster club or Educational Foundation that wanted to contribute funds for the music program it talks about which is the Arts and Music for schools program um so if you have funds that want to go to a partic to that particular program would that affect the funding you're already receiving not at all okay so I kind of made a wording that sounded like no because any of the funding we received we're not reporting if we got donations or something you know 28 we don't report anything to the state thing in addition we also got the donation we just report what was spent on the funding we received from Source okay to effect funding okay thank you any other questions no [Music] okay um information item 9B portable project update so I'm not going to read through the whole thing but I'll give you the clip notes so when we last met in June we had gotten your approval based on a a quote from the architect what the cost of the project would be to go forward with putting it out to bid because we wanted that project to start over the summer so that the Portables would be ready for use for back to school for different things like the theater or music or art programs other student supports things like that and when we received the bid packet we only got one and it would double what the architect had quoted and it would over what we have in our budget so really uh Robert and I talked for a long time we talked with the architect I mean you know we didn't want to have to delay it we wanted everything to be progressing because we've had these portables for two years and we want to get them ready but in due diligence with the district and budget we don't want to you know bankrupt the district to get the project done so we just had to pump the brakes we talked with the architect and we talked about going back to the drawing board putting it back out to bid advertising it in more places because he had only put it on the bid in contractors exchange website that everyone needes so we also posted it in The Marosa cazette it ran for the last two weeks um and the Fresno be so we're just hoping having it out there we can get some more local contractors and have some choices and we get our bid and be able to keep it within the budget within reason um and another thing that came up when we submitted the plans to the DSA which is the division of the state architect they let us know that there were I talked to you a little bit about this before in June but there were 10 projects from the 90s that were never certified and closed and there was at every School site there were a couple at each School site um you know different things that were done and it never got the final stamp of approval so with the state architect they will not let you proceed with any new projects till you close out the old projects obviously it's not as simple as that with plans from the 90s having to be located those Architects are been long business things like that so that this two years has been a lot of the project of getting that going and we finally found out from climatech who is our company we did our solar project with they recommended a company to us called project support Specialists and then that's what they do for school districts they help them go in they know all the lingo they know all ACR they know how to find the plans come to find out our plans used to be housed in La now after the 90s they house all this area plans in Sacramento long story short uh we've closed nine out of 10 of the projects so we're getting close there's one project holding things up because some um rooms were constructed in a way that maybe didn't go through the approval process so we're trying to figure out how to get those up to code and be able to proceed so two parts here getting the new bids and having some better choices and more budget friendly ones and then also wrapping up that final project and being able to move forward with both um with all the portabl at the S thank you for that in case anyone asked you or you had seen like the Portables are still sitting there what's going on it doesn't look any work was done they came and met with me and Robert did a bid walk and saw everything that entailed but unfortunately we only that one we just need to go and see what else we can get what other proposals we can get no I think that was the right move yeah 146,000 the bit shocked to he that with these with these 10 projects how do we add those up and never finish yeah and it's usually a $500 fee the state architect once you pay the fee then they will now certifi it and close it but it's kind of a long process going back and finding the old paperwork the plans and all you know that job site I'm gonna blame Randy about right NOP it was long before his time okay any other questions okay item 9C enrollment report so this one I just have the enrollment not the Ada because the beginning of school um this was completed on the 16th so it's still changing every day when I'm looking at the numbers um when I looked uh about a week before school was to start we had 783 students so then that last week we got up to 886 so I guess um you know that's good because the 783 really made me nervous in terms of the funding and the attendance rates so uh last year we started with 81 we ended the year with 822 so um it's 806 and I bet if I look today we probably I know we've gotten a few more um it will kind of fluctuate throughout the year but I'm hoping the number will go up a little more I know once they complete the apartment that could help with some families that are doubled up with other family members and waiting on housing you know maybe come into our district pretty close if you look in the blue box there to what we ended the year with versus now every every site is pretty close large very large class side did you see kindergarten at wasuma 27 yeah you got the middle middle school teachers with 30 atuma and yeah 30 doing great at o yeah you got mostly 30 at o and there a couple away so got some big Middle School classes coming up okay any questions I didn't see some new names on there yeah uh 90 in District transfer report so we have 49 students transferring into our student or into our student into our district 30 from 70 10 from Marosa few from four from Raymond and 33 students transferred out and you can see there 15 went toity one to Marosa County and 16 to Chan and one to R okay we see a lot of movement usually some people moved they didn't put in their transfer requests yeah any questions okay item 9e approval no we move that one okay item 10 um accomplishments and other reasons to celebrate throughout the district Oakhurst Elementary School yeah cat all right yeah so picture you know excited oh okay aw that's so I can hear you this good yeah tell your name for new people I'm sorry name me I'm C Tim mcre um and Cat's out sick tonight so she sent us this stuff so I'm just going to read it to you because I haven't even read it yet but um but she gave us what we're doing tonight is we haven't had a an opportunity to put together a nice presentation and that kind of stuff it's been super busy and we haven't really had a lot of events that kind of thing we talk about um so we're sharing what's been going on and that um let's see so she says the Year is off to a great start our TK and kindergarten kickoff on Tuesday August 13th had a fantastic turnout staff and students are excited about some changes on the horizon for OES this year OES is implementing a recess before lunch schedule um was so I know there's conversation about that it seems to be going well from here yeah um well there's some fine tuning that needs to be done staff and students have been very accepting and positive about the new schedule teachers and G grades K through three are implementing a research-based reading uh foundations curriculum this year youly wasuma started it last year with fantastic results and OB teachers are excited to start it this year some exciting positive behavior intervention scort PBIS changes are unfolding um Eagle Pride was changed to Eagles sore as an acronym Eagles are safe optimistic accountable and respectful classes have developed with soaring looks um what soaring looked like in their classrooms staff can't wait to reward and reinforce the sore Behavior expectations with PBIS rewards uh the PB management software program that supports schools and building positive School culture we started using that two years ago years ago at oci and now we going District W been very good uh oci o this program a couple years ago and we're excited to get going get it going at o back to school tonight is tomorrow Thursday the 22nd from 5:30 to 7 oh yes staff would love to have you all uh board members come and see the amazing learning uh experiences teachers have planned for the 2425 school year there you go should I continue with mine yes okay that may you might need a bre so now I'm Ching for real um I was C there for a minute you could tell right um so we have uh three new teachers at our site Mr SE M Ryder and Miss baras uh two sixth grade teachers that are new and one seventh grade teacher things are going very well that's been great to have we have Mr Wy as our py psychologist intern and um you and I actually had the first time to really work together with a student today so I'm sure we'll get that uh kind of work working and going together we're both looking at each other like all right now we're going to deal with this um but that's that'll be good he seems like a very nice person for sure um we changed our schedule for the year which includes electives being on e8th period instead of first period uh that has to do with the a lot of different things but academically it's going to be uh really a positive for us I think um so it it ended up changing a lot of things tweaked a little stuff here and there um part of that schedule change is also that we're doing much more push in when it comes to um students with the IVs and so we're doing less pull out and more push in with that we have AIDS and teachers working more with those students and part of that is a recognition of the need to improve some academic skills of school and so changing the pushing into a pushing situation which is just a thing to do quite frankly um also gives us the opportunity to set aside 30 minutes at the beginning of each Ela class and 30 minutes at the end of each math class to be um differentiated uh not pardon me wrong term differentiation when it comes to instruction um and so what that's going to look like is students with IEDs are going to be pulled during those times and and taught in the special education room uh things that are going on with their needs and the rest of the students are going to be uh grouped in groupings identified by uh Diagnostics like I I ready and um pull together in groups where they can work on skills that they're Miss not necessarily academic skills that they would be studying during like seventh grade standard skills but like skills that they're just missing previous years or that kind of thing so go on some gaps so every day in every English CL us they'll have 30 minutes of that every day in every M of class have 30 minutes of that um which is designed to really strengthen those skills and get them back where they where they need to be because these are skills that were taught previously and maybe not going to be taught again and so uh we need to back F that we need to make sure that people have that a good foundation so that as they go forward they can be learning more effectively what's going on and we think it will help with the behavior of the process because we I think it'll get more people paying more attention and feeling more capable students and then then being more emplo so I look forward to see how that works out I have um where are we here I went on script there students uh just signed up for electives today we have things like Spanish Lego robotics Arts and Crafts Cinema we have a sports elective where kids can go literally and play games um we have many different things to to uh choose from and um so that's good that just went online today we start with collectives on Monday next week uh we had a good back to school night last night we had a lot of parents show up um we get into with sixth grade a lot of parents show up because it's a new school for them and that kind of thing but also talk about green mot sence Camp ath grade we talk about Lina and get into that we actually typically have a little bit of a low on L also that's how that is because a lot of people have heard the stories in sixth grade and don't have the Catalina thing to be to be looking at um but it went well it's good uh we just started girls volleyball and boys FL football um putting together teams we have game games on the 30th versus River Gold at River Gold so that'll be good uh my club is going to be starting using the gym at oci shortly for their basketball league that's that's always a good thing they do a great job job with that and our elected ASP president vice president those folks as well as our leadership class and our leadership Club we'll be putting on a p soon don't have that quite ironed out but within the next couple weeks have that going on to create some little buzz going on and get good thank you okay so um last week btim welcome 270 little Wildcats back in campus very very busy as you noted our Comm teacher has 27 um but that means at this moment we do not have any combo classes like that she want to do she said no on and it's amazing is it not amazing it's a lot it's it's she has the energy our endurance is a little right now yeah yeah she's um we'd like to welcome Brenda Lily to our teaching staff she is our new RSP teacher for this year she's our only new staff member um thank you to Jennifer tun um 10 mentioned uh the youly that our primary team on the district is taking on uh Jennifer spent the first day that everybody's back on campus doing a workshop with District's primary reading and the RTI team uh um as cat Tim said our teachers started using it at the end of last year they started using at the end of last year so great dividence our kids making progress and so they are all in and they're super excited to work along with the oci group um they've seen it in in action and it's pretty incredible I'm excited for them I'm really proud of our team for recognizing that our kids Su are better and making that change and it's amazing to see it in action they're all excited um our PE teacher Mrs Matt picked off the year with welcome back Ry to review PA's expectations introduce our new PB Rewards program play some ice River games the first Friday back very entertaining she loves little Jib Jab videos where she turns us all into rock stars and sword fighting pizza slices and all kinds of things kids love it um thank you to the district for support expanding the PBS report system from o to include B and OES we had our staff training on Monday staff's excited kids know about it they're excited so we're we're looking forward to seeing what this can do for our kids I'm excited because it's like teaching them a little economics and so I love that little financial literacy aspect in a very small scale our back to school night is for next Tu day August 27th PTA will be there serving pizza fruit and water to our families before they move to the students classrooms for Teacher presentations we're all more than welcome to attend starts five details the on our parents work calendar we're trying to use parents work each Tri a little bit more this year so everything you need should be there if it's not let me know we'll make sure it is there we are getting ready to celebrate our grandparents and other VIPs on September 9th we always invite uh families to come have lunch on the lawn if grandparents live out of town allow to grab the neighbor an auntie an older cousin and everybody just kind of hangs out it's like old week you're all welcome uh send me a message if you like visit campus there are some changes we've ramped the library a little bit it's pretty awesome just send me a message I'll make sure I'm around thank you to our M staff for all their hard work and getting campus ready for the school year I've had Parents stop me and say campus is great looks so amazing thanks so much my teachers are very happy with the the new carpet they got two classrooms um and Robert kids are out playing on that checker board every reason so thank you and um finally quick kudos to the maker and the site secretaries they had this pretty bold plan to encourage all of our families to update their data confirmation systems in Aries which is really important because it's how we have emergency contacts how we know about medical issues and things that might have happened over the summer uh at this time last year we had dozens and dozens of accounts that needed to be updated when I left campus the after this afternoon we had three so it paid off for sure thank you superintendent report right thank you everyone who's here tonight in person and watching online and appr that um I just want to say that I'm excited about a new school year it's also a great start we had a great um districtwide kickoff the day before school started with our staff and um it was just great to see everybody rested and excited about about a new year so that was a lot of fun um thank you Lana again for getting all the cool prizes people appreciated those and we rled off some neat prizes um at that I shared my uh three main goals going into this school year which are safety communication and collaboration and academic achievement so um shared that with the staff and talked about how we can collectively um meet meet those goals um I also second what Heather had to say about our maintenance crew I just wanted to say thank you very much they work very hard over the summer to get our campuses ready and they do look great so I wanted to tell them thank you for that um I'm looking forward to being on campuses to experience all the Fantastic learning that's going on and to just um be a presence and talk with people and hear their ideas about um how we can make Cross Lake the best on Mountain so thank you have a great year um next is board member comments Raa um can you hear me okay um I would like to thank the booth family for coming and speaking tonight thank you it takes a lot of Courage you kids are amazingly strong and thank you and very articulate and I'm sorry that Brian has left but please pass it along that we really appreciate hearing from him we hear you and we appreciate you coming um again thank you to the principles I you know personally I love the pictures and everything but just the updates are wonderful to hear it gets us involved you know or it makes us feel like we can you know hear what's going on and we try to be involved that um thank you to the administrative staff I know that you guys have had a lot of scrambling to do um due to situations beyond your control and it's been logistical nightmare for you guys and we really appreciate how youve handled it and got us to the best place that we can be right now and know you're currently constantly working on that and thank you for that and um I think that's all I had to say tonight Stephen well I'm going to say deos to all of that because I was going to say some of that too but also a special thanks to uh this Harlin for offering to pray for all of us I think we can't get too much of that so we just say thank you for that and and I I I'm not sure this is a future agenda item but I'm going to just include it in my board comments I've been reading about the cell phone policies at other different schools and U they've got a school in St Louis abiso County where where they've successfully got all the students to turn off their phones like magic and it works like great great and then another school up in Sonoma County is doing the same thing they got a policy in place where their the kids have to carry their phones and put them in couches and and then they're finding that's a disaster because they're putting non-working phones and glue and all kinds of stuff on the pouches to make it look like they're turning in their phones and using it anyway and then the Bullard High our local high school down in Fresno they were uh I guess it's this I can't remember who the fellow was they interviewed but superintendent maybe but or the principle but he said it's you don't realize how addicted they are to their Fones and how many creative ways kids can say no when you try to take their phone away and they can vandalize everything that goes on with it and so anyway I I just wanted to one reason I'm looking at it is is several people in the community and some have even come here and spoken about what are we going to do about you know cell phones do we have a cell phone policy zero zero so anyway I didn't know but but but I was thinking should we should I put together a policy simple one so we can do it an impation on it all that principles handling it already the district has the district has a policy thees are handling that great I I don't think there's issues it's a nonissue it's a non isue some of the rumors aren't true then they take anyway thought maybe it's something we should get on top of or front of sounds like we already are yeah I mean of course kids try to to have them out and when they do they take them away it's taken care of good kids are not on their phones during instruction what happens if they are it's taken away okay all right okay that's my comment and my retraction of my future agenda Idol how about you Denise uh I also wanted to W back welcome back the teachers and the staff and it was fun to go on the trip with Lesley and Eric this summer loved every minute of your trip living vicariously in a van you guys um and I also wanted to welcome Michelle is our new superintendent um appreciate everything that you are doing everything you're going to do in the future we're excited to work with you and thank you so that's exciting and also really excited to hear about all the new academic programs that you guys are working on and working towards I'm proud to be a part of a district that looks forward finds problems tries to solve them doesn't try to just bury their heads in the sand and say nothing's wrong but tries to fix it so I appreciate all the hard work that you guys do and I'm excited to hear the fruits of that labor um in the future and also wanted to compliment the booth family um for you guys to come out and to hear young people be a part of the process um and to public speak is so important and to hear them be so articulate and speaks volumes to how you raised them as a mom and please understand that we do hear your concerns so thank you I agree with all that welcome back to everyone excited for a good school year and uh we're here to uh we're excited to to experience that the children are going to be having academic success this year and to thrive and just be the best that they can be so thank you for all what the teachers and and staff do and welcome also to Michelle Townson and I know you're very dedicated and extremely hardworking you really put all of your effort in and I just wanted to share a community event coming up on Saturday at our local library oish library it's called called see you at the library and uh it's about building children's character one story at a time and so they're going to have a a public reading at 10: a.m.

e e e no worries uh it is back to school time uh good evening I will now call to order the uh August see 202 uh August 21st 2024 uh Board of Education meeting it's a regular meeting for chica Unified School District uh at this time we will be going to close session there are no public comment signups and we will reconvene to open session at 6 p.m.

vote4 F dave. net and I have uh email as well uh it's uh Dave uh at vote for the number for dave.com I'm sorry at gmail.com gmail.com okay well thank you very much again for joining us Mr reservat and thank you uh Ashland and other folks who are tuning in uh for uh hanging out with us uh here at the views expressed uh once again uh doing it uh an episode around Governor's Council uh and we're just hoping that the folks in ashin and other districts uh find these interviews helpful and help you make an educated choice about who our next Governor's counselor will be thanks again for for visiting us and thank you for watching the views Express on waca TV

and it's sponsored by Brave books and this is going to be a nationwide uh event and it's to counteract uh a lot of people don't know that the American Library Association I've shared it at a board meeting uh and public schools uh and public colleges and I don't believe we're a part of that but um all are immune to the obscenity laws there's a loophole and so many people don't know and it's according to Capital Resource Institute that every uh every state every County across the United States has obscene books that are available to children and most people don't know this um I have talked to Mr seals in the past and he has assured me that we don't carry any of those types of books but unfortunately and I've seen it for myself at our local library there are a number of obscene books parents would be very shocked people in the room would be very shocked if you knew uh what the children have access to and I've spoken to the uh Library assistants there and have told they have told me that uh these books are available to Children there's a particular book I brought it up before called uh gender queer um it is in the adult explicit section and the fact is it's all cartoons and it is quite vile um the content and anyone here anyone would be shocked that this would be available but I was told that if parent okays it a child can have access to this book so to counteract that we're going to have a u this wonderful event that's going to promote fullsome books and so more community community members become aware of what's going on then we can stop what's going on so thank you all okay um I also want to reiterate like literally thing that everyone else has said so welcome back to the staff welcome Michelle thank you MLT for making our schools look amazing um thank you to the booth family for coming out on of you know school night and um expressing expressing your desire and love for the music programs that we have put on and uh hopefully we'll continue to do um in the near future uh music is very important to our superintendent and the board is well well and I think you heard from everyone else on the board that we hear you and um it was not our intent so um but we have hoops that we have to jump through to keep ourselves compliant and I know that you guys understand that and so we appreciate your patience um also um we need to schedule our governance team and governance handbook Workshop so if you guys could get out your um calendars we need to get that scheduled well soon as possible since we're governing how about next Monday evening at 5:30 26 what 5:30 6 I technically get off at five I should be able to be there by 5:30 how about you Steve than okay do we have to do it right away it would be good for all of us to just check in and have a good like this is where we're operating from and revisit any policies that we have or guidelines that we have about governing do like yeah we can do our self evaluation what you fine do you need to ask your wife that's true actually but um if everyone else is okay with it I'll come not my My First Choice do you want to throw out another day would you like to well it won't be Labor Day weekend and so that's why I asked if it was how critical it was I think sooner rather than later but I'd rather go for September before the next meeting or something like which one it's going to be a Monday it doesn't have to be a Monday have to be Monday what what would you like in September the N the nth I can do that I can do the night I can do the I can 5:30 again holy cow should be there power all right government did you that one you invite all that was or 530 in the other off at the district office a lot of offices okay 5:30 on the night go thank you thank you that's your one a year done um that's all I have for Bo C comments um number 13 future agenda items we have any just the normal normal September normal September stuff that we have to do okay uh our next meeting date is SE Wednesday September 11th wo you guys okay with two meetings that week we did it this week I'll be working on closing the book on a act but I don't have to 911 911 yep you won't forget okay and that's it meeting is thank you all for coming

thank you e e e yeah and that's the delay thank you we are live um okay uh we are now in Open Session um we did call the meeting to order shortly after 5:00 P pm and went to close session there was no public on uh comment on closed session and there was no action taken during Clos session so now we are in open session for the regular board meeting for chica Unified School District for August 21st 2024 uh just the third day back in the new school year for the 2425 uh year here in Chico um with that I would um ask that we stand for the flag salute salute pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all for and I will turn it over for student reports please wonderful well as you mentioned we are back we are in day three of school and we thought it would be good to hear from our two high schools our two Comprehensive High Schools Pleasant Valley and Chico high school so Mr Caldera is going to do the introductions and we're going to hear what's happening for those first three days and everything that took place to get you there slide representation of Link crew uh Chico high will step on up first so step on up going ask them to introduce yourselves to our amazing school board and then uh we'll kick it off hi my name is Abby lob and my name is Jasmine Brown so as far as our link crew that we do for the school a really special event that we are lucky enough to do because it gets to introduce the Freshman through our orientation which is what link crew is to the atmosphere of the school and how our campus Works how our students work how our teacher relations work it's really a great way for us to start the year off as far as Community goes and building those relationships with the students early on so that is an orientation is what it is at its at its core but it's a lot more for us um as far as those relationships go we have usually someone what around 100 link crew leaders that go in for 2 days of training around 8 hours total before that occurs we have 4 hours each day from 88 to 12 or 1:00 and what we do is we run through the routine of the day we play the games that we will be introducing to the freshmen we learn the chance that we want to introduce to them we learn how we want to forge connections and help them feel safe and welcome at their new school we learn what tips and tricks it is kind of us to share with them what tips and tricks it is necessary for us to share with them and it's our way of making sure that we ourselves are ready to open our you know our minds and Communications up to them so that when it comes for them to join our school they feel comfortable as well we had 543 freshmen this year and we had 525 show up for our link crew we put one link crew leader with another link crew leader and we kind of you know they don't necessarily know this but the people behind it make sure that those groups are balanced as far as a loud leader and a quieter leader a more focused structured person and somebody who needs help but can still gain the trust of individuals so the groups of leaders that do run it are handpicked and they get about 12 kids per group and we do call them ahead of time the day before to formally invite them and make sure that they feel welcome and let them know that they are part of our group also important to mention we give them the details of the day and we see if there's any language uh like options necessary as well because that is a deal at Chico high that we do have to uh work work with the other thing is as far as the ninth graders day go they get there at 8 in the morning which we do again call them and let them know that they should be there to wear comfortable clothing bring a water bottle we open with a rally our activities director Miss Bishop who is absolutely wonderful gives life lessons she introduces them to the school leads them through chance and lets them know that they are welcome right from the beginning then we open up into this kind of Gauntlet style rally where we get everybody to introduce themselves to learn what they are excited about and what school they came from and what they're going to be doing in the school that they're now a part of and we learn who they are as people and then they go into those formed groups that they've already been told they are a part of and then they have about an hour and a half of activities they get to do so as far as activities go we start off with simple ice breakers just to kind of clear the water get to know them we start off with just a name and sorry um a simple story behind them whether where that's where their name came from or where they were born just some simple facts just so we can try to lock in their names then we start to move on into more engaging games trying to get to know their life story uh this was personally my favorite games uh called like six squares it's basically each Square you have a different prompt and it tells you a different part of their life either early stage life so what was your childhood toy or later stage life like what career would you like to go into so we really do try to get to know these students and try to create some special connections with them and try to carry on those uh relationships into the year like saying hello to them in the halls and just you know see how their life is going just in general and as we move on into like further into the time within the last 30 minutes I think this is the most important game it was 64 squares it is is teaching you team building and how to lean on one another and trust their your fellow peers we explained to them that you're going to be with these people for the next four years and you're going to want to get to know them you're going to see them they're going to become probably the closest people that you know and they're going to be in your memories for a long time and like Abby said we also shared personal tips that we found that helped us in our freshman year and just anything that they had questions about out and after that we went on a little tour around the school showed them all of our facilities what we have to offer as for electives and for classes and as far as how it um helped them I believe that it truly like set a foundation and the tone for what we expect our future classes to be like we tried to uh set an example as well of what our upper classman were like which is respectful to the teachers respectful to the the school and just respectful to the community in general and that's just about all I have to say thank [Applause] you and now we have PV hi I'm Alex Hasty hi my name is Leslie Mendes and uh linkr PV is a program that we have to help freshmen get introduced to high school try and help them with that gap between middle school and high school you know you're a little older a little more mature and it gets life is about to get a little bit more challenging and harder you're we had over 500 freshmen there I think the whole class in total is 550 something around there and we had over 500 show up which is fantastic and we got to show each and every one of them kind of what Viking family was and we introduce them through a tunnel of teachers link cre leaders are up in the stands dancing having a good time trying to just warm them up make them feel welcome and like it's okay that they're coming into a new environment a new stressful environment and we'll take care of them show them that they have multiple people to lean on they have over a hundred link crew leaders there they have all the staff and that they will be ready when it comes time for their freshman year their sophomore year and then hopefully get them involved in link crew Le uh leadership through Junior and Senior year so the activities that we do so we start off with the opening ceremony where they walk in through the gym and the teachers make a tunnel to greet them and then we have music in the background um and like he said we have some Linker leaders out in the stands dancing trying to get them comfortable and then then we get them out onto the floor and we do some comfortable games so like Simon says um just stuff to make them like laugh a little bit get them more comfortable and then we get them into small groups where two link crew leaders get matched up and like Chico High said we they get individually picked and they like to have more of a shy group leader and one of a bold on so you can see the difference and then you take them to a classroom and you we sit them on the ground just so it can be more like inclusive and it doesn't seem like we're talking down on them so we sit in a circle um we start off with names so they say their names um we say how they got their names from um and then we do team building activities like team juggling it's where we have a little ball tape ball and we like throw it at each other while we say each other's names and that gets some laughs going you know kids don't want to drop the ball because it's awkward word but it's part of life and then we do life story where we get a piece of paper and like Chico High said we do what your favorite toy was um a trip that you would like to take things like that just so kids can hear the other kids and know that they have stuff in common and then we do 64 squares where we do an 8 by8 grid where we have the kids put the8 by8 grid themselves and they it the paper supposed to represent you Crossing river and you don't want to step on the turtles or there's rocks so you might have setbacks and it just shows that in high school you're going to have challenges and sometimes you're going to have to step back but that's okay you're going to have to lean on other people your friends your teachers your parents um so that's what it symbolizes and then this benefits the students because they can meet new people they can match their faces they'll see them at orientation and then they'll see them at the first day of school and be like oh I know that kid I know how he got his name um and then throughout the year we still try like the very first day we wear our link crew shirts so I've had multiple kids come up to me and say hi you are my link crew leader and then um we do a freshman tailgate which is before a football game they come out we make them hot dogs we make them burgers and then we do cocoa and Graham which is for finals we get them snack s and then you have all the upper upper classmen from link crew come and help them study for their finals just because they've never had finals before so we teach them about that and then overall it's just to help the Freshman feel more comfortable and so they can get a chance to see the upper class M because I remember as a freshman coming and seeing the upper class be like wow they look cool like I want to be like them but um you feel like that connection you know like that was my Lan crew leader I feel comfortable here um that's all I got to say I don't know I have one more thing to say um we had something really unique happen this year at the end when everybody came back into what we call the big gym we like I said we had over 500 freshmen over 100 Linker leaders we had quite a few teachers in there too and uh I'll admit I kind of started it um I had a group of kids this year lot of language barriers and kind of awkwardness and like kind of unsure that they were there and like Leslie said like in the game when they're tossing the ball and they drop the ball and like no one wants to be that person so I begged our um activities director Miss vul for the microphone as Sweet Caroline was playing and started singing across the intercoms and we got all the Linker leaders down and we started dancing and then we got I'd say say majority of the freshmen down to dance with us and it was something that Miss vul specifically had never seen and something that none of us had seen I did it last year too and that hadn't happened before so I'd say this year we impacted significantly more people in a we learned from last year and impacted them way more this year and I'm personally proud that we all did that staff and Link fre leaders that's it well we're going to need to see it now too so [Applause] any questions for our student leaders I have to say I'm really really proud of them for setting the tone for the students that are coming into the school and sharing the cultures of our school it's very nice to see how welcoming it is I'll just say that I think these sort of a student acclamation programs that we have these being uh signature version of that are really great and um you know nothing like that was ever going on when I was a a kid here at Chico Unified I don't recall anybody like guiding me around and giving me a pep talk you know on my first day um I'm sure somebody did somewhere but but good job guys and um you're really um good speakers all of you and uh yeah it's just such a great thing you're doing volunteering you know to do this for these young people who are coming in really disoriented so thank you for what you're doing how did you get to be so great that's my question I noticed how um great you guys are as far as public speaking goes as well and um as a board um one of the issues we've um kind of grappled with and addressed like at the end of the last school year was um cell phones and so um I just think you guys have a great opportunity to be role models for our kids and um we're hoping that um cell phones become less of a distraction in the classroom and so for what it's worth I know these freshmen are looking up to you guys and um for guidance and Direction and you're their role models and I I would just love it to be just a really organic natural process that they see you um setting those aside and putting them away in the class and I know as a freshman I certainly look to seniors to what they were doing so I'm excited for the opport you guys have to to be a role model in regards to that so I love that you just said that and I want to I want to Echo or build on that and also uh just re acknowledge how exciting it sounds like it was for you to build relationships with with those new students onto your campuses and how important having those face-to-face interactions and the spontaneous fun silly times like everybody's a kid at heart you know all of us here are 14 inside it some point you know there's a 14-year-old in this always um and how we we like to act and be um authentic and so it's harder to do that when we're all staring at a phone and sitting at a table and staring at a phone and so I hope that you carry that through and that excitement of just having that personal connection and being able to like just see somebody across the room and be like hey it's good to see you again thanks for you know that fun memory that we had um you know in our at the beginning of the year um so I'm really excited for you have had the opportunity to to already initiate those relationships you know um beyond the the grade level barrier um I was curious about um how or who gets onto the link crew and is it all Juniors and seniors and and so how do you how do you make your way onto the link crew do I need to go to the mic talk yes please okay so as far as the link crew leaders how they're chosen a lot of the time the higher m MERS of student government so that's the president the vice president and Miss Bishop of course because she runs that class they suggest the students that they see leadership you skills in in areas in which they've seen a lot of growth even as well because that is a skill that is important to teach people that you don't need to begin amazing but you can become amazing so the leaders as far as ASB go do pick people it is not said that that's how it's work how it's done it is a teacher suggestion and some teachers do suggest students students that they see that spark inside but that's how we address the selection it's a teacher suggestion that the student should be the one the first face that these freshman see in order to succeed and that's something that we are lucky enough to be a part of behind the scenes choosing who gets to Aid these freshmen in their in their new year that's that's how we do it I don't know if that's how they do it as well I think yeah thanks awesome you want to yeah please sounds a lot like our relationship with the you know senior staff over here they make like a staff recommendation right you know and yeah um I'm not part of leadership at PV so just through that Avenue is showing perseverance in your grades and being someone that has demonstrated to teachers and staff and not necessarily even your teachers but just someone on campus that you are someone that can handle being a leader and a mentor to these freshmen as they're coming in the high school and I think that it's not only through leadership as in the school leadership but it's also through demonstrating that you have those attributes to other people on campus so I just want to add that I um Sor Miss Burton I don't know if the PV kids know that she she posts a lot of selfies so I got got to see a lot of what was going on in the gym because she was very good at posting selfies of what was going on and it did look just absolutely fantastic and then of course we get the House of Blue that does the the V out on the field and we got that again or I did as a board member and it's just I love it I'm so thankful for no they're not here but anyway the house blue lets us see a lot of what's going on and I've seen some of the the videos from Chico high too when you guys have done some of your dance things down the hall and stuff so it's it's really great to see how much fun you guys are creating for some of the students that may not think that it is such a you know a fun thing to do but it is and you guys are making it that thank you so does anybody want to share their top tip that you share with freshmen yeah um I would say my top tip would be just simply getting involved like I am in student government I'm a part of the soccer team and I just feel like if you're not getting involved you're not getting the high school experience like go to the football game get dressed up for the spirit days I know lots of kids think it's not cool to dress up but it you just have to be a part of it and be a part of the community and you'll get the whole experience out of it um but yeah that was my number one tip that I shared like join Student Government join that team join the club um anything you can do just put yourself out there and I promise you you won't regret it thank you for sharing um on that uh I from my perspective sitting up here and from what we get shared with us you from staff and and students who come and speak to us um at these meetings uh it does feel like there's something for everybody at each of our campuses and I would also say for those who feel like maybe there isn't something for them that you know they could go to a staff member and advocate for something that is for them and um so I I love to see everybody finding their their their part um in the campus culture so thanks for saying that I'm excited for you all have a great year and I do want to thank brand new principal of Chico High Erica Sheridan for being here with her students tonight thanks Erica okay I think we can let you guys go if there's no further questions thanks again for being here and we look forward to hearing from you uh throughout the year thank you we are going to just keep the uh Good Vibes rolling and uh at each regular board meeting we do some uh special presentations from school sites so I am going to invite shaunice Heath and Margie starky up to share some more good news with us we're not as strong of speakers we have our papers all right can I have Noel come on up hello board I'm Shaunie Heath principal here at marold and I have Noel Toth here and um I want to introduce her to you Noel is a marold gem we rely on her for so many things she runs our morning program in this beautiful multi-purpose room she's our most veteran lunch supervisor we go to Noel whenever we need extra help on campus she is eager to put in extra time and effort to help the school in any way she can last year she filled in as our health aid during a small Gap time each morning because we had a kind of tricky situation what makes her truly special is her steady calmness and her approachability children and staff absolutely love her Mo there's so many children that seek her out first thing in the morning and follow her around because she is their special person um and she runs the morning program in here with this room full and she has a little bit of help but not a lot she does it all on her own pretty much and um it runs very smoothly with her um she makes everyone feel safe comfortable and relaxed around her the true test of how much she is loved is on mornings when I have to fill in because she is out at the last minute and kids and adults ask for her and are keenly aware of the big difference when she is gone she is a beloved part of our staff and we are so grateful for her thank you thank you so much okay and I'm going to present you with this keep you hydrated and a certificate um thanking you for your service thank you so much you so much and I think Mr Shephard's gonna get a picture of it okay I know G I am not coordin I get the memo congratulations good evening board members and Community thank you for having us tonight my name is Margie Starkey and I'm the assistant principal here at marold this evening we have the distinct pleasure of honoring Mrs Melissa carrier for the superintendence award come on up Mrs [Applause] carrier to teach with um Mrs carrier let's see here we are so blessed to have Mrs car as part of our marold family because she takes great pride in our school community and always finds ways to make us shine Mrs carer has been teaching for 18 years from fifth grade through High School some students in her class I went in and interviewed them yesterday could not believe she's been teaching longer than they have been alive I didn't say that she was born in the 1900s they might have died she has been teaching fifth grade for the past 12 years and she says it is her favorite grade Mrs carrier brightens maragold in many ways she keeps on top of the school's pivotal the the school's Facebook page by posting school events and pictures of students Mrs carrier is a huge part of our school's PBIS committee as a grade level representative she helps run the yearbook committee as well as our fifth grade leadership group Mrs carrier loves to dress up and does a fantastic job of creating memorable spirit days for our students and staff she also organizes patriotic days where veterans are honored and given special recognition in an assembly lastly Mrs carrier makes all staff and teachers feel special and welcome by always being a friendly face thank you Mrs carrier for enriching our school with your wonderful ways and always going above and beyond for our schoolwide community this award is well deserved congratulations [Applause] congratulations and those high schoolers really are a tough act to follow they gave me all the feels your certificate congratulations nice to meet you and we'll get a picture too it doesn't matter any order any order I match better with yeah that's true more coordinated oh multiple pict oh okay that's going to be from all righty thank you for that we're moving on to item six announcements uh is there anybody on the board who has announcements regarding um upcoming student events Awards School side accomplishments or any other things that they'd like to State okay here hearing none we will move on to items from the floor um I don't have any uh signups for items from the floor um we I see somebody that would like to give public comment so um we can take that now uh so you can go ahead and come on up yep items from the floor you can come on up do I have to wait till the end no we'll take it now there's two there's yeah there's two and we're here so um and you're here and three minutes right three minutes yes you have three minutes and then you'll um there's a timer we got a shot clock guy over here um and he will give you the 30 second I'm super nervous I just need a minute um before I start I'm just wondering um this one isn't quite as happy on the vibe I'm a disgruntled parent and I'm just um I was hoping to read an email that I had some correspondence with the district I'm wondering which names do I need to redact all names or only the employee with whom I'm upset with just the employee is fine just that employees name okay so I'd like to read um an email that I sent Miss da actually um and the purpose of me reading this is just for accountability um and transparency because I think it's important that everybody kind of understands what's going on within a district um so on April 26th after months of ongoing abuse of my children by a bus driver um I'm going to refer to to him as ex I filed a uniform Complaint Form I had been in direct contact with Bob at Transportation who told me that he would look into my claims I never received a follow-up on those claims I told Bob I would be filing a uniform complaint and during the process I was in contact with Tina Kean after a brief phone interview she told me she needed 30 days to wrap it up I have since received um the followup of that um but I was told that my claims did not meet the requirements of UN uniform complaint as an educator myself I know that this is not true my son has a documented disability the abuse he received from your employee was increased because of his disabilities my son has tourettes epilepsy and anxiety and has a 504 that addresses the behaviors and needs that come with these disabilities many of his verbal and motor ticks seem to be a catalyst for Rex's indiscriminate sorry X is indiscriminate rage I wish I had been more detailed on the Complaint Form but it's very difficult to describe phone calls text messages and conversations from and with my children crying and screaming and fearing for their lives while on the bus with this driver however I have documentation I have the call logs voicemails recordings from my kids phones screenshots of text messages and timestamped screenshots of calls with VAR various Chico Unified employees during my efforts to locate and validate the welfare of my children furthermore Chico Unified has documentation aside from verbal abuse which r from this driver screaming I'm going to redact this because it's full of expletives um in addition this is my bus and I make the rules if you don't like them get off you're all stupid for a few examples he also kidnapped the entire Bus full of children including mine on June 3rd at 3:30 I have call logs reflecting my correspondence with my son Joe Morris Chico Unified and Marsh Jr the bus was well into its route and my children were due home in a matter of minutes when Rex turned the bus around and drove it back to Marsh junor High where he held it hostage for an additional 15 minutes before returning to the route his reasons as far as I could gather were that the children were being too loud I know that Joe Morris found something in the footage review from that day for the first and only time during this ongoing ordeal he apologized to me um Joe and I have been in additional contact and he has um told me that this driver will no longer be driving my children he also told me that this driver admitted to most of these um claims I work in orille and ask such my children need the bus service to get them home I rely on the service to transport my children safely and with attention to their care the day that my kids that's the end of the three minutes I'm sorry I was trying to wait till you had a pause in your s fine that's fine um I would be happy to email this to you guys if it's any additional help so you can see the rest of it um I just think it's important that everybody's on the same page yeah email is always very helpful um we can't respond at this time and also we and we also couldn't reply all in an email for brown neck reasons um but we appreciate you're coming here and speaking to us and and transparency is always welcome agree thank you okay I'm not seeing any additional hands for items from the floor at this time we will move on to consent calendar uh is there anyone who would like to pull an item from consent for further discussion um I actually think that we do need to pull some of the meeting minutes um under approval of minutes for various meetings that had different members present I actually need to I meant to do this earlier um a little bit of help on that on which minutes we would need to pull I do know we need to pull um the board meeting minutes for July 29th 2024 and August 12th okay and we'll need to vote on each of those separately I'm seeing no other items um we will move forward with a motion to approve the consent calendar uh minus those two uh sets of board meeting minutes do we have a motion sure I'll move adoption of the consent calendar less the Bold items I'll second that motion okay we have a motion by member Lando and a second by member Robinson um any further discussion on the consent items okay see see none we'll start with a roll call vote um we'll start on the end with Mr tennis tennis I Conan I Doby I Lando I Robinson I okay it passes unanimously um the next uh under consent special board meeting on July 29 2024 um there was a um a set of special circumstances for member Lando um who wasn't able to attend that meeting so we can U move to I'll just move approval of that board meeting minutes uh for the four of us who um participated in that meeting we have a second I'll second that motion okay um seeing no further discussion we still have to do a Voice vote so we'll start again with um member tennis tennis I Conan I Dolby I Robinson I okay and then um special board meeting um on 8 12 sorry a August 12 2024 um similarly one member was unable to attend that day um I believe Mr Lando was unable to not I literally sorry I looked at Mr tennis and I said your I'm so sorry my apologies Mr tennis wasn't aable to attend at that meeting um what date was that uh that was uh August 12th 2024 yeah and so um I'll just move approval of those meeting minutes um for the four remaining uh board members who were in attend attendance to approve I'll second that motion okay thank you um and we'll start with me member conin conen I Dolby I Lando I Robinson I fantastic okay um you didn't vote oh Dolby iin thank you wow okay everybody's keeping me honest today I appreciate it um okay we will move on to our discussion action calendar 9.1 1.1 under Educational Services an informational item for an update on opening day for the 2425 school year all right well the ed services team comes up behind me we do want to say um yes we are three days into the new school year for a f our first full week to conclude this Friday we do every year come with a a school board opening information for you even though it's only been a couple of days since this board meeting occurs every year we do like to show some um action from the summer some trainings some things that kids were involved in and then as we moved into the school year starting uh those things as well by the way I think you all know our ed services team right here behind us they are rocking and rolling along with everybody else and all the the kids and staff so quickly uh to overview here to give you an overview of what we're going to talk about we'll talk about some our programs some professional development opportunities that came our way enrollment Co and extracurricular participation and some te technology and some updates that we've had uh this photo was taken during the I believe it was August 13th back to school uh celebration when which a lot of local resources were pulled together at Bidwell Junior High including haircuts with parent permission a lot of parents were there with their kids uh free of charge for students to uh to have that happen there were also all kinds of school supplies there for students as well during the summer a lot of departments do not stop working our uh TK transitional to grade transitional kindergarten to grade 12 student participation in programs was a little over 2,000 students in secondary we had a High School Credit Recovery you'll see the number of students participating in within the parenthesis we have our Junior High Credit Recovery as well and summer camp and sixth grade early back that is a picture of some uh summer programs with kids kids uh getting food through our nutrition services going down to the elementary level we had summer session which was four weeks in June a little over a thousand kids participated in that within that we're reading an intervention times and math intervention times in August we had the kindergarten Preparatory Academy with 30 students at two sites we had it at one site previously it's it's uh expanded it's doubled to serve 15 students at two sites Neil da and little Chico Creek and uh the extended school year for our um students almost 300 kids there as teachers were coming back in to work there were lots of professional development opportunities for them through June and July we had curriculum trainings such as building thinking classrooms for our secondary teachers Edy protocols again for junior high and then tier one literacy trainer of trainers for our elementary crew in August uh you'll see a lot of things listed there as we got closer to the beginning of the school year special education uh intensive behavior intervention team training I EXL trainer of trainers and new teacher orientation which which included teachers new to Chico Unified not all uh brand new teachers but new to us here in Chico Unified uh special education teachers new to Chico Unified and tier one literacy continuing on with August multitud system of supports community and school culture uh presented by Dr Derek Greenfield to all uh of our secondary and elementary teachers on our August 15th professional development day school safety artificial intelligence updates and cyber security updates and then our California School Employees Association our CSA classified employees had uh trainings as well and did have an opportunity to to participate in uh Dr Derek greenfields uh community and school culture presentation enrollment numbers comparatively from last year at this time to this year and it's approximate Tim May May uh give you more detail than I can as you as you know you've been up here the numbers do fluctuate a little bit coming into the first week of school but that is um that's a comparison from last year at this time we heard from some very articulate students earlier today uh this evening about the co and extracurricular participation we have ASB associate student body activities where everybody belongs web activities at the junior high link crew of course which you heard about and then uh estimated about a thousand total participants in our fall Athletics at the high school levels and this picture has to bring a smile to your face it's fantastic John Vincent can always give you more information uh and and he can give it in depth about new Chromebooks being deployed following our process of uh T sending them out for second grad sixth graders and ninth graders he also gave an update to artificial intelligence Ai and the use of Google Gemini which is a much safer version than chat gbt he is happy to give you more information about that he always lets us know about these things and and we do truly appreciate his view of the safety pieces for staff to use that so information is not shared that shouldn't be and then additional training for administrators and teachers on um just pieces and updates that they need to be aware of for their own technology use with their computers and to conclude there were probably many many pictures taken across Chico uh the other day I happen to have just seen Miss dolby's picture of her incoming TK first day of school I saw some students at Rosedale that I snaap pictures of and um Emma Wilson as well which a fantastic picture I walked around the corner and there were lights flashing on a calfire fire engine right in front of the school which made me stop look around make sure everything was okay but they all seemed happy that's because Dad had just come off a Park fire crew and he hadn't seen his kids in in a while and hadn't seen his wife his little guy was just starting kindergarten and he and his crew happen to have just come off and come down to uh Emma Wilson to see him and bid him a great day and even though his crew did not have kids at Emma Wilson they were high five and little kids that were coming by and it was a pretty cool site so we uh thank him all of them for their service during this time when we are so excited to start school we know that there are other things going on around us and and folks and and families affected by that as well so our deepest appreciation to him and his crew that's all I have on here I do want to turn it over if you have any questions we have um all of us here do we have a a grade by grade um uh accounting enrollment yes Tim I don't have the me uh numbers memorized but yes that is available um I can email that out um regarding the enrollment numbers I want you to uh keep in mind that um as with every year we expect a lot of fluctuation or maybe fluctuation as the wrong word we expect that number um to go down a bit as many families will enroll with with Chico Unified and say a charter school um or move out of town and fail to tell us um that they've moved out of town so there's a lot of reconciliation that goes on in the front offices this time of year so that number will go down um prior to um census day uh based on past uh Tim there patterns there isn't a a slide that shows what those numbers were could you repeat them last year and this year right there right here we ended the year last year just for some context around 12,300 wait so so this is an opening day this is U day two to day two comparison the difference is is the 202 three U number you see right there um uh incorporates the reconciliation that's done in the front offices so it's it's not counting the the kids that were what we term as no shows those kids that uh maybe they've been backed out already right yes the old noshow routine I know it well front office folks are pretty busy this time of year it does look just anec Lally like that is um you know it's an increase in enrollment beyond what we would account for for just the additional TK classes right that's a Prett safe assumption like that's not just because of adding TK classes that's part of it it's really hard to say right now um we'll get more confident um in a few weeks in that number and really what we're what we're looking at um a very important date for us is the first week of October but we see things settle out prior to that and then you give us an update after that um I don't know which meeting yeah I I will give updates uh at every um as part of the consent calendar uh every regular board meeting okay so we'll probably get the first one at the October regular meeting for the census day it would be the September regular meeting it be prior to census day at that point we'll have more of an idea of how things are going to settle out though okay thank you just for clarification our attendance clerks are calling all of the students that aren't there so they're not dropped out of these numbers yet where the first number I believe does have those students that were no shows dropped out so we really don't know yet if there's an increase I mean I I agree it looks like it is and I hope it is um but we won't know until we call all of those people any other questions for us well we look forward to sharing more things throughout this school year and uh we certainly on behalf of all of us at ed services welcome all the students and staff back for another year the um the energy level is palpable at all the campuses it's just it's very exciting um it's even exciting even though I live on one of the main thorough faar shall we say to schools and and I I love it I can't get out of my driveway but I still love it it's just it's very exciting and thank you to everyone that's doing you know the the the grunt work that that makes it all work this time of the year thank you everybody it's a very fun time of year thank you well you very much I do have actually one more question um sorry the um the professional development days do you guys get feedback from staff about how that went and um I mean I don't know I don't expect that you have like gone through that at all yet um but I do wonder I have a question about starting the first day of school on a Monday uh as opposed to when we start on like a Thursday or I think Friday was a little too hard but you know and if there is a a best if there's like a best day or a best couple of days to have actually have that first day of school um I just remember anecdotally again as a teacher that started on the Monday was actually a really hard day to start because your your PD was last week it was nice to have the weekend but then it's like a first full week and getting all of your Norms all it was just a lot so I was curious not an answer for now I don't think but just um how much that is taken into account and how much feedback from staff that is received about you know our starting day or when we do those professional development days and how that feeds into starting day yeah we we the the feedback time just actually closed on that we always look for feedback from staff on it so um yeah we we'll sort through all that in the next couple of days difficulty lies in the uh student calendars that we essentially work back from that graduation date and it just happens to fall you know the different days of the week but starting in June we work our way back with 180 days plus the other days of professional development so that's why it varies so much and it's not as much within our control as we would like it to be understanding that starting on Monday is very you know four a 5-day week for students coming off this summer can be difficult I will say that uh back to school night on a Friday night was not uh was not optimal for my household yeah yes yeah yeah come on up sorry we we kind of uh went through those PD slides but a a lot of really great work was done by our teacher leaders um putting together that day and planning out the sessions um reading Specialists mtss leads DLC members did a phenomenal job and it was a lot of lot of work so we were able to leverage their skills and knowledge and um I just wanted to express my appreciation for that same thank you um a tremendous amount of work goes in the first couple of weeks before school starts and it can feel kind of thankless because the students aren't there to experience it but I do want to just give a thank you to all of our teachers and the administrators and the classified staff as well for all the work they put in to make these first couple of days really fun and exciting and educational so thank you Pedro not to put you totally on the spot but is this your second first week of school well well depends I've been in school since you know what I mean in your current role I'm sorry that I didn't spell it all the way out for you trying to make this meeting go faster even though despite despite me talking so much ton so your question uh is this my first or second week I think your your second is this your second back to school week as in your role as director yes it is yeah how are you feeling about it this year uh super excited because I understand a lot more about the inner workings and and also the expectations and also how it works with our school board which was a a a great growth area for me that I hadn't experienced before and so I believe that uh um it's going way better than last year well that was not what I was looking for but I appreciate your candidness that's great Heather I was seg waving there yeah for sure no I think we're it's great to start I mean Eyes Wide Open hit the ground running it's it's a different feel I I shared at home to lift off one single school on that Friday of our first staff meeting there was a lot more weight on my shoulders to to make sure that professional development that we offered for our teachers on Thursday was a success well attended well good feedback on it and like Tim said I think um we really put our teachers in a place to be instructional leaders and they knocked it out of the park so I'm ready to roll I can't wait to be like Pedro and be in my second year though and have a little bit more understanding so it's it's come Jen you're not off the hook um I would say um year two it's it feels a little crazier only because we have seen a big influx in our student population coming from out of the area so that's been a bit um a bit crazy and retirees and new people coming into my office to support all the work that our teachers are doing out there with students um has also been experiencing some Growing Pains but we've got amazing hires who are learning their positions as quickly as possible um our adult transition program if you have the chance to head out there and check out that Lon building and see what they're doing is absolutely exciting amazing stuff um I had a young person asked me today so here's the deal what do you think of the building and I said well I kind of like it what do you think and he goes I love it can I stay and I was like yes you can stay you can stay it was fantastic so it really really exciting um and I'm really excited about where we're going um in the department for the year I would say that the same as um the local um teacher leads in all of our different areas that we saw on Thursday the prior week we had special education sessions that were set up in on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday for teachers they were led by their peers so we had peers leading each other on curriculum on doing different assessments and so it's it's really powerful and exciting to see that kind of collaborative work and conversation together thank you you're welcome thank you thank you I lost my spot um yeah I think so yeah all right we're moving right along to Business Services 9.2.1 is discussion action for Charter Schools measure K projects request requests plural hi good evening everyone thank you for having me here tonight um bringing forward the um measure K charter school facility committee recommendations from their meeting um that I I think occurred at the end of the school year but I haven't had an opportunity to get back with you until now uh Wildflower open charter school had requested funding for three important projects the totals um a little over $57,000 uh the projects would include upgrading and replacing current technology in their school um and they mean like server equipment that sort of thing um upgrading and replacing their current phone system and installation of bottle filling and drinking stations so we recommend that the board approve these three projects with their measure K funds any questions I'm not seeing any oh maybe Julie I have a question um in the news we heard about Oakland's problem with lead being identified in uh some of their drink do how often do we test so the state of California this is a maintenance question um not a capital Improvement question but I happen to know that uh our maintenance department has worked very closely with cow waterer locally to test the water that comes into each one of our campuses and uh they are required mandated to do so on a regular basis I think it's annual uh but that started recently um it wasn't annual um before yeah sure good question a follow-up question even though it's not related to this item I'm sorry uh you said that they test the water coming into the campuses but did they test it like at the filling Source yes good clarification they do um I actually played a role sorry this is I'm kind of shorter than the other presenters um I was present uh during that testing that cowat did and they actually U did it when students were not on campus so that they had the system charged you know without water running out and they tested certain areas to gather data points throughout um all of the um service um Connections in the schools so sinks water fountains that sort of thing got it thank you sure um okay so seeing that there are no other questions for clarification on item two uh 9.2.1 um I will and no public comment I will ask for a motion I would like to move to approve this I'll second it so there's a motion by member Lando and a second by Doby um any further discussion board all right seeing none we will do another roll call vote uh we'll start at the end again with Mr tennis tennis I Conan I Dolby I Mando I Robinson I all right it's unanimous it passes thank you good job thank you are you up for the next one too I think so you are uh 9.2.2 is discussion action for resolution number 1655 d24 declaring the futility of public bidding change order work on the rooftop HVAC package unit installations at various sites and to execute proposed construction change order number 003 yes so on the consent agenda you have already approved the dollar value for this ch change order um let me just jump back to um how the history of how this happened so um years ago like more than two years ago the board approved Esser funding for uh replacement Heating and ventilation systems at five sites Chico High Chico Jr Bidwell Jr Sierra View and uh Marsh junior high school gymnasium and the equipment was uh purchased by the district directly all of the units themselves the economizers that attached to those and all of the roof curbs that were required to be installed so um my department helped uh with the maintenance department to put the project out for bid for the removal of the old units and Disposal and then putting on the new curbs and putting on the new HVAC units and hooking them all up to all the needed utilities there was a very limited amount of time to get this work done and I'm sure you all heard about our exciting helicopter um deliveries that occurred uh which were very efficient efficient with dollars and and with u you know getting those units uh off and back on quickly uh however once we uh had the contractor on board they started to uh take away the old units you know working very quickly to take them off when they realized that a lot of the curb adapters that the district had purchased did not fit properly so we were in a a a really uh challenging position where we had to get this work done and we already had demolished a bunch of the units and we had to hurry free and get a price to get new curbs not all of them but a a good amount of them fabricated and installed in time for the helicopter schedule which has to be cleared through the FAA it's a permit process um so our contractor bid that extra work provided that price to us um public contract code has this provision about the percentage that a change a value of a change order can be over the original contract amount this provision is actually to protect the contractor from the district not the other way around um but that's why you're seeing this on your agenda tonight um it has several whereases that uh detail uh why it is the right idea to um have the contractor that's already on board do this work and I think by my describing the situation that we were in at the time you could agree that there was not time to bring in someone else to do this portion and bid it separately and get the project done um however we did have a a sturdy review on their pricing and it is in line with industry standard any questions I do um we have no choice right because um the money's already been spent yes sir yeah by the company UBC and now we re need we need to reimburse them I don't believe they have been paid yet but we have authorized them to move forward with the work it's been done we already the helicopter schedule is in the future or is in the past the helicopter schedule was um late June which means they must have been up there right yes yes which means that we already have bought them yes yeah so where' the money come from the biome our federal Co relief dollars the eser dollars okay yeah which is where the original 900,000 for the units for the installation um component was approved by the board as well and so we're going to reimburse that fund essentially we will use those funds to pay UBC um for the fabricated um roof curbs an additional piece of information is um those roof curbs that were originally purchased um had been in the possession of the district for quite some time uh figuring out how we were going to bid out the installation part um so Joe Morris from the maintenance department is working with that vendor to hopefully get a credit back from them on the ones that were um not the correct size be great yeah so that was and that was one of my questions whether we could get any value or utility out of the wrong curb so that's perfect perfect um secondly have we identified what happened that led uh District staff to accidentally order the wrong size and do we have protocols in place so that doesn't happen again what I've learned is that um the vendor um Sigler is their name um sent out their representatives to field measure all of our our curbs existing curbs and size the right unit uh for each location and uh that's how the order was produced was from the vendor doing the measuring so they are um they did make mistakes in measuring so that's why Joe is following up with them okay good to try to get some funding uh back from them thank you um I'm going to ask an uncomfortable question okay who should have been aware of the size of these curbs and you know when when everything was being put through like engineering right or and and and didn't put it together that we don't have that right part you know I don't know who the invid individual is that is responsible for that um I can say that it's an extraordinary project it's not um normal for our District staff to replace 103 units all at one time it's it's beyond their capacity to do something that large um I don't really have a I don't have an individual um that I can identify that but clearly um we've learned a lot from it and we we hope to do better in the future um not a similar I guess similar question is um is this something that would have or should have come up on like an asilt schematic um where you would already have like what was actually installed and what the what the dimensions of that were do we just not have something that that's that's that granular on hand it depends on the project so um often times units are replaced in kind so say a unit on classroom number six goes bad and they have to replace it with a a different size quickly um there is not an build produced in that situation if it's a maintenance project there often is not an as buil produced if it's a capital project there is an as built produced and I'm I I hear you about this being extraordinary um with a sheared number of units done um and this is not to uh point the finger specifically at the contractor who you know sent their person out to individually measure each unit at each School site that was being replaced um but if that had been done properly in the first place um those the units that we ordered would have been ordered prop correctly and we wouldn't have this extra um cost Associated is that my is min yes that is true okay thank you it seems like you know I'm thinking that either the project owner that would be us right or the contractor that was chosen would have lined up all the the components that are going to go into I mean it seems like both of those entities should have evaluated the size of the roofs the size of the units that are coming in the the plans for ordering the the curbs which I gather is some kind of sheet metal thing that it sits under a frame of some kind and um yeah somebody was asleep at the switch and and should not have let that happen you know like hardcore professional peoples who spend their lives building schools and they should have just known you know I I can't figure out who really it would have been who would be responsible but you know that should be avoided absolutely um remember when I I started speaking the scope of the work that was bid was to install the equipment that the district was providing so but a curb you know sounds like something that's sort of integral to the project you know and if you're bidding it then you ought to know what you're working with right if you're being handed something that you know needs XYZ in order to be installed well the x or the y or the Z might be that it's not going to work at all agreed it was a a very fast-paced bidding schedule and start of construction all right and having to do it within a very limited amount of time but I I agree with you 100% that we could have done a better job at making sure we had the proper curb size uh to go with the equipment I do I mean I I I can say this this is not that I'm not speaking on behalf of the District or even the board I feel like it's it's seager's fault that this didn't get measured appropriately and it's frustrating un can you stand you're talking I can't hear that se seager's fault the the folks who sent their person out to measure the units seagler seagler that was the company not the vendor yeah the vendor fault because they sent their their person out to measure all the units and they didn't get the right measurements and so it's unfortunate my point here just is to say that it's unfortunate that they weren't a subcontractor under the UBC contract because they would would have just charged the vendor directly for the vendor's mistake and instead we have to eat this money and hope that we can recoup some of that from the vendor for their mistake um nothing really wrong that we've done here I'm I'm making all kinds of analogies in my head that I'm not going to try to repeat um just based off of what I know about you know custom home construction uh very similar circumstances that can happen where you know you trust somebody's making the right measurements to go make you a window um but you're making 100 windows and or you're asking them to make 100 windows and to measure them and you're paying them to do it and then they don't get the measurements right it should be on them to to um fix it and so hopefully that will work out in some way but we have no choice I don't think in this in this circumstance I want some clarification on something she said seagler is who which which contractor is that Seer is the vendor that came out to each site and measured the curbs and selected the HVAC equipment that was going in those locations and sold them to the district so we had some kind of contract with seagler yes to perform this job yes okay well is it not safe to say that maybe they didn't do a very good job ordering the the units to match the curbs that were already there yes that is very safe to say um and we had some kind of a contract apparently that said we'll take responsibility for whatever mistakes you make I do not believe we did and Joe Morris is working with them to get funds back from them for the mistake Joe Morris remind the director of maintenance for Chico Unified but the issue here is that we we had UBC fix the problem for the vendor and and they had to front that money to to fix the problem so that they could install on that time line yes and so we have to pay our installation contractor for seager's mistakes and and Joe's going to work on Mr Morris is going to work on recoup trying to recoup some of that from from the vendor that's correct thank you um I would like to agendize this for discussion in a future closed board session if possible because I don't think that sounds right at all okay thank you I mean if we had to were put in a compromising position because of some failure on the part of some very large vendor you know um and this is the public school system we're talking about here and The Show Must Go On that's a really bad situation for everyone involved and I don't know why we should be sort of just the default uh you know entity that has to cover the entire cost of that that failure that we didn't we weren't really guilty of it seems to me based on what I'm hearing now so um so that's disappointing to say the least so I think when I asked you miss Kissle whose fault it was that this happened I think you should have said it sounds like it was seager's fault if their job is to measure these curves and Order AC units based on the size of them and if they utterly failed and it winds up cos in you know um20 and some odd thousand do you know that's that's a big problem I mean if they would have done their job properly then that wouldn't have happened it sounds to me yes you're correct all right thanks thank you Julie um superintendent S I would imagine that we can follow up with Mr tennis about a future discussion thank you um okay I don't see any further questions on this item for you uh Miss Kissle let's um move into public comment and seeing none I can ask for a motion I will move adoption of resolution 1655 d24 I'll second the motion all right we have a motion by Mr Lando and a second by Miss Robinson um we had a unanimous vote last time so so we can um just do a Voice vote this time um you know I'm going to make a substitute motion yeah yeah that's thank you in line with our rules um I move that we table this until a future board meeting I'm not going to second that but I want to comment unless there isn't a second um it doesn't sound like there's a second um I'm going to make a comment though um about why I am going to vote to approve this resolution without tabling it for further discussion and it's because we still are bound to our contract with UBC and we need to make sure that we are paying the the contractor who did the installation and then it's going to end up being on us to try to recoup the money from seagler um so it's not ubc's fault necessarily that this happened to us um and so therefore they should be paid uh and that's why I'm going to approve the resolution um so it sounds like we should maybe do a roll call vote yeah and I'll say I think that's very well said okay and I agree okay thank you so if you want to start with me sure um I'll tennis I on Mr Lando's motion conen I Dolby iando I Robinson I okay thank you thank you thank you board thanks Julie thank you Julie all right we'll move on to 9.3 human uh Human Resources uh 9.3.1 is informational 2223 teaching assignment monitoring outcomes t o by full-time equivalency this is presented by Mr Carris all right so I'm going to um give you give you a little background here um the teaching and assignment monitoring outcomes uh report is a new report that the state of California um released this year um in order to um as part of the California dashboard um in the future in future years um this data is released and will be presented to school boards across the state in conjunction with the informational item in June um regarding the local indicators for the California state dashboard this is an anomaly year because it's the first time they released the data and they release they released the data after school boards had had viewed local indicators for the California state dashboard Bo um and this is like I said earlier this is an informational item um the intent is to um provide a measure to go along with the local indicators I'm going to go ahead and ask um Zach to click on one of those supporting links right there the second one can you go down keep going down keep going down all right little bit little bit up Zach okay so the report totals at the bottom um indicate the total um teaching full-time equivalency so a full-time teacher at a school site is 1.0 full-time equivalency or FTE um the this bottom uh report total section gives us the percentages of the teachers in our district that have achieved um a variety of credentialing um categories at the top you can see Chico Unified at 85.2% of teachers in the classroom with a clear credential this is higher than and but County which is an average of 84.2 um% of teachers with a clear credential and slightly higher than the Statewide average of 85.1% of teachers with a clear credential um as you go across the um the table here we can see um other categories out of field intern ineffective incomplete unknown and na um these are um kind of technical Human Resources terms um John Shepard is the expert on on what those terms look like or what those terms exactly mean the um what we see here is that we're essentially right in line with a state across the board as far as credentialing for our teachers May um does incomplete include preliminary thank you I mean clear credentials are yeah those who have finished an induction process right so anybody incomplete is in good standing but hasn't completed a a full induction process for California teachers thank you yeah there's a lot of people who don't know that process yeah so um after a teacher goes to the credentialing program and gets their teaching credential it's considered uh provisional uh and then they have to go is it still two years of an induction program correct okay and then this is California to clear your credential to have a full and clear credential you have to go through a two-year induction program where you have more uh workshopping and uh data Gathering and um mentoring and things like that for those two years but you are a credential teacher you've gone through all the coursework required for your credential this for the people who haven't aren't in the education world fully perhaps more I'm sorry you go please well I think the category that's more important or perhaps more interesting to question um what does one have to do to be listed as an ineffective credential so essentially there are two indicators for ineffective it could be people who don't complete that process or don't complete the internship to become preliminary credential so that's one big indicator and a second one isn't as popular um frankly it's people that that um during the year are released thank you I had the same question those kind of a big percentage under um ineffective and that sounds super negative so all new to me thanks any other questions okay thank you um it would be interesting Mr Shephard uh when we do see some of those uh approvals come through for you know what I'm talking about for teachers who maybe not have the credential that they're for Te that they're teaching for and where we give you know certain acceptances that are permitted by the state um where that would be categorized on on this field sorry I answer uh president Doby's request absolutely we're interested in it as well um to see how how we've compared in the past even though this data is from 2022 23 um ideally this data will come out in June of you know 25 and we'll have 23 24 data so we'll be able to compare those two years and um this is actually a relatively contextual chart that provides a lot like I said a lot of context to the the um waivers that we provide to you in the spring and actually I don't know if we need to call Tim back I'm sorry um I I do have a question about this chart maybe uh Mr trevard you can answer it um in the section labeled uh business we apparently have zero teachers teaching FTE uh we have zero FTE but 100% of those zero are out of field which is a weird looking number to me if I'm unless I'm looking at the wrong unless I have my filter set wrong yeah I see the data set it's interesting that we don't have any teachers but it could be 100% out of field and frankly I don't have an answer to that Tim do you have that if we could perhaps look into that later date an English major agreed look into that at a later date I don't have an answer for that either I I don't know we don't have business departments per se anymore right it is interesting that the two highest percentages are computer education and health education so that health education piece has been something that I keep coming back to sorry biggest percentages of the ineffective category I think that's the one I was looking at as like a red flag kind of category I will say too we we were a little intrigued by their lack of delineation of special education of of all the Departments that are faced with the largest teacher shortage you would think that one would be included is that lumped in with the self-contained class it could be we were just assuming that that would be Elementary right it could be you love data Tim well I wonder if there's something in the uh in the laws that that sent tammo in motion that exempt special ed uh from being counted perhaps again we we can do more research on this as this is the first time this data has ever been released with minimal um you know kind of minimal information that that comes along with it one thing um just to um to bring up in conjunction with the sped question is um the or special education question Special Education data is relatively new in calpads um we just got our first um ever Statewide report on percentages of our student population um that are um in special education Statewide and publicly released last year and so the Special Education data is lagging behind the rest of the data we're used to looking at from at the state level so when we see on a report uh that we're looking at it's percentages that we have analyzed and produced that only reflect our district correct those are the percentages that you see there in the upper table and the totals are in the bottom table thank you MH thank you for being a good sport while we examine this in real time absolutely other questions at this at this right now um okay uh it is informational only so we can move along I believe yes all right thanks Jim uh 9.4.1 is an item that was added after the posting of the agenda this a discussion action item this is the first reading and approval of a revised updated new board policy um it's a revised and updated board policy I should be more clear um but I will uh turn it over to at services to present thank you that is correct uh we are asking for a first reading and approval which is not something we typically do however this came uh to us the Ed code change came to us just very recently um toward the end of July beginning of August once it came out and with school starting up we wanted to make sure that we are compliant with um the shifts here there are three differences in our short-term Independence study that U Ed code has denoted one of them is uh we can have short-term independent studies start from a minimum of one day to 15 days instead of 3 to 15 days uh and the second shift there is what I just mentioned 1 to 15 days instead instead of 1 to 16 16 days and and more constitutes long-term independent study and the third piece is the agreement that is that accompanies the independent study for the student and family that agreement can be signed any time during the year and not specifically when when that has to happen so it does allow for some flexibility for families and um staff to get all of those pieces tightened up those are the three big changes in this um which are are quite minimal I would say in terms of close to things but um really helping students get their independent study needs met families and school so with that any any questions or uh I think for me the biggest change um seemed like the one to three days um and I just was kind of thinking through that as a parent you know I mean if your child misses one day I mean how how often do we think that um that will be um that will be sort of capturing that that group of students who are going to um apply for that that one day independent study well I think it um it will be on us to help change our practice to that one day but with the Advent of Google Classroom on the students end it does make it simpler for families to do that and make sure that the kids' work is completed they stay up with the class but yet also have that one-day piece which will be again on our end the shift to to connect with families and communicate and then that agreement uh piece that the uh third one there I think will be in play as well that it can be signed perhaps after the fact if it's anytime during the year or something out at the beginning of the year you know school districts may look at that too to um have kind of an open open thing for the year I'm not sure how we're going to navigate that as we start yeah no I think it could be super advantageous I was just thinking how we can make this um user friendly for the the fames so that we can um you know like I said kind of regain some of that loss even if it's just one particular day and and capture that group right and uh with that you know it as comes to mind attendance clerks are usually the first people that reach out to our families or have uh conversations with them about absences so for us that's very good to think about that training piece for them offering up and and communicating yeah thank you and that helps it helps us alleviate and mitigate unexcused absences right that helps really kind of um bridge that Gap I think that when we as a teacher you know if there was a student that was absent for two days in a row they didn't qualify for independent study and so it made things kind of challenging to work through you know working with them and getting their work in and um and then clearing those absences uh so I I see this as a positive change and just for clarification and maybe you said it uh Tina but uh this is this is coming from the state level right so this is a change that that the state made Ed code change yeah yes correct thank you you're welcome okay see no other comments or questions um and no public comment on this item uh do we have a motion I move approval and uh make it noted that we're doing both the uh first and second reading um for approval of this policy second all right um are we ready to vote board or is there any other comments the it's uh policy 6158 I'm sorry okay uh we have had our first reading and now we are going to vote um for approval of updated policy uh number 6158 for independent study all those in favor of approval please say I I I opposed uh it passes unanimously thanks everybody um next we have items from the floor again are there any other uh folks in the in the group that would like to make a public comment um seeing none we also have uh no board member uh request to agendize an item number 11 and so I will ask if there is a motion to adjourn I move to adjourn and so we are adjourned we will reconvene at the September 4th uh board Workshop

four years I good time and then I'll call the meeting to order at 7:30 United States of America the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all Mr Davis here Mrs Reed here Mrs Helma here here Mrs R here Mr Golden here M Juliano here Mr June here M or here all right can I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes from the July 25th and August 12th 2024 meeting Mo second one of us all those in favor opposed or abstain 12 yeah yep that was our special meeting yep all right Mr Le you're good all right um no public comments oh did I miss that no it says presentations you oh you're not reviewing the district mission statement or anything no waai okay all right then Motion in a second to open the meeting to the public for the discussion of agenda items only I motion a second motion 731 hearing and seeing no one oh can I have a um all in favor to go into public comments oos orain hearing and seeing no one let's have a motion and second then to please close the meeting to the public second all those in favor I oppos to obain all right perfect there you go now you're good now we're good okay now you're off I'm off uh all right um first things first just a a brief recap on the summer it's been a busy summer lots of uh interviewing and uh lots of hiring um wish we had some more hiring honestly uh we're still sort a few teachers um but it's not it's certainly not for lack of trying um so you know we continue to post and repost and um so if you know anybody who wants to wants to work send them our way and if you see um the job boosting shared out on Facebook and and um on the website if you could all share them as well that would that always goes a long way you never know who's going to see it so all right let's get into it uh two Safety and Security drills at JFK early in the month of August they're listed there no Safety and Security drills at DDE uh item C is monthly reports uploaded to the portal for your review special services buildings and grounds technology curriculum instruction uh and both principal reports uh we had no hibs in the month of August which is a good thing uh for personnel we have we do have some recommendations we have uh bus driver custodian a bus Aid um a part-time instructional assistant uh for JFK and fresh today we have a teacher and that says ma step two that should say ba step two next to her um salary there um and she will have to give her 60 days which is why it says H her before October 25th uh item number two under Personnel uh we have resignations first we have Laura Burke which is effective September 1st um so congratulations to her for on her retirement uh and Michaela bener withdrew from her position we hired her in June uh and then she got another offer and had not signed her contract yet so she withdrew her name so that that position that he saw reposted today uh we have to approve item three is to approve our two um two new teachers uh there are mentors so both Miss Lang and Miss wanko will be mentors for our brand new teachers um we item four we would also like to approve Jeffrey Gaton a speech language pathology student at Stockton University he's going to do his um externship from January through May with Miss kazinski uh F curriculum instruction we we had three items there uh the first two are just annual reviews of things that we have to put together each year first one being the mentoring plan which just kind of lays out what how we are going to Mentor our new teachers uh and then the second item there is our professional development plan both of those items have been uploaded for your review uh and then third something pretty cool uh we are going to approve the visitation of xandy a trained therapy dog and xand is going to come into the um and a classroom twice a month roughly twice a month for the um entirety of the 24 25 school year we did that at at Overbrook a lot kids loved it kids in that room love it kids in the whole school love it I know I'll need that schedule yeah right need to go visit so miss wo came to me at the end of last year and asked if we could do it and I was like yeah absolutely um so the dog became like a a certified service dog over the summer they she sent me the paperwork and I said good we'll Bo approve it awesome time a motion a second to approve the superintendent items motion second any questions uh just a a comment I think it's a a typo personnel number four lists their stop date is May of 24 I'm assuming it's May of 25 the student sto it yes that's correct thank you any other questions all right Mr Davis yes alen Mr Jones yes Mrs R yes Mrs Reed yes Mrs Helo yes M Juliano yes M Dente yes Mr Golden yes perect all right for business and finance can I have a motion a second and then I'll go through my items motion second all right the first item is the board secretary's report for the month of June 2024 um no line item has been overexpanded in uh violation of njac 6A 23A 1610 um sufficient funds were available to meet the um obligations for the remainder of the year the treasures report and secretary's report did match for June and there were no changes in our anticipated Revenue amounts or sources a is to approve H payment of the bills Stacy and Rebecca signed off on all of those um during our finance committee meeting f is to approve the August 24 listing for source for teachers with the rates there listed for the pay rate and the bill rate G is to approve the ceter dispersements for the month of July we didn't have any because they're not an operation H is to approve the care dispersements for the month of July 2024 in the amount of $235.66 I is to approve um out of District tuition contracts for the 2425 school year we have a grade 12 plus um speci student attending Burlington County Special Services that was um budgeted for we have Kingsway quot grade 12 student um uh attending for the year we have pine that was also budgeted Pine Land Learning Center this is a grade 10 student this was not budgeted this came in after um after our budget was already set and the cats and back school for the death also uh grade 12 um can't believe grade 12 um that was also budgeted for um J is to approve some professional development and travel just for one of our staff members Miss Poley K is to approve um a contract for speech language services with let's talk speech and then L is to approve um revised student lunch of breakfast prices we kept them the same but then there's a tool we have to do through um Department of Agriculture which caused us to have to raise our prices it tells us based on how much you have and how much there's a whole bunch of different factors so we did have to raise it so this is the new amount it's still free redu if they're qualified for reduce it's still free for them this year um not just for free free breakfast and free lunches if you reduce to get free as well so any questions there because of the calculation for the school bunches is that why it's more expensive here than it is in Rook probably okay I think it had to do does it have to do with like the income levels that kind of and it could have to do with the percentage of kids you have and sometimes we don't sometimes we don't always have like sometimes we barely Break Even some because the participation is probably a little bit lower um okay it's definitely gone up with some direct certain and things like that um so that's good but any other questions Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mr Jones yes Mrs R yes Mrs Reed yes Mrs Helma yes Mrs Juliano yes Mrs oriente yes Mr Golden yes all right um old business I don't think we have any old business to tend to uh new business nothing on negotiations front as they are both um settled at this point uh we did have finance committee um this was as of June July and August will be for our next uh finance committee talked about these out of District placements I'm kind of watching that closely with the addition of the one from Overbrook um as well as some others that are kind of on our radar so keep everybody posted on that um grants final reports are going to be due in October we'll close out that ARP the American Rescue plan Grant um and some of our other ones Stacy and Rebecca did our bills list um bus passes went out today um we have special Roots just for Kennedy for preschool and kindergarten um two of those roots for next year which is nice um you saw the new bus driver being hired she's actually a resident which will be really great for um Our Town um and then our CARE program has an increased enrollment for um the 24 25 school year so if you know of anybody that wants to work um before like 7 to 9: and or um 2:30 till about 5 or 5:15 um we'd love to have them apply for our prayer program so spread the word even if you know any high school kids or anything like that that would be interested um having a car would be great but if not if someone could get them here in the afternoon that works too we'll take anybody the numbers are really going so um so that's all I have for finance I didn't see anything really for school boards um there will be the workshop in October so I'll be sending out an email see if anybody's interested in going to that Ed Services Commission um they we had a meeting they're calling it a transitional year um they're excited about the future we approved their capital investment plan which includes purchasing real estate they're looking into purchasing real estate uh property in Camden now instead they're previously looking in Collingswood um they're also making building improvements to their facility in clemon too as well as educational programs technology grants and scholarships cool Hi H um we had our meeting the day after our special meeting um we just approved new hires um new coaches um today or the freshman orientation is next Tuesday my son won't be able to make it so I actually went in today for a tour with him and met the new assistant principal Mr Jones um and yeah Mr Jes not Keith um school starts September 4th um the schedules I don't know if I'm supposed to announce this but they are on genis as of today I think I fig found them too I had fill out all those forms fill out all the forms before you get on um and when I was in there for the tour today I noticed some upgrades were being done they weren't completed yet but there were some that were like in process they were redoing some of the floors and some of the classrooms which is nice to still see that there's still up great going on over there even though they've done a lot the last few years that's pretty much it and a really awesome mural oh the one on the when you walk in yeah oh yeah they did when you walk in they actually put new doors there too like I don't know if you've been in the vegetable but you know you walk into the little vegetable to go a vestial to go into the office but if you get past the office and you come into the actual School there's now doors there right before the sro's office that have to be buzzed in so it's security me me method and then um there's a new neural right there on the back wall it looks beautiful it looks really nice thank you for remembering that and I have one more thing I want to address with new business if you don't mind me is um also has to do with Overbrook I know we've had a lot of issues with bus drivers not being able to hire enough and stuff are we looking for activities bus to be a little bit more flexible with the Berlin kids this year because I know it's I get this question all the time from the parents um I don't I noticed you hired a bus driver which I is good yes the problem is that their activities bus comes when we're dropping off our K Kennedy kids I understand I mean we can try to roll out an extra bus um maybe at like 4:30 my biggest problem with it I don't know if the other parents feel this way is I don't know when the buses are coming well there was a lot of times I'd pull up to pick up my kid right and the Berlin bus is sitting there and I'm like well if I would to known that I'd like take the bus sometimes it's five sometimes it's 5:15 sometimes 530 sometimes it changes sometimes it's 4:45 sometimes it changes daily but is there a way to get like a calendar like maybe a link to a calendar we know as parents when the buses are going to be there so don't that trip they're the on that updated yeah I can talk to charl Smith about that something can happen between the two you and I talked about that before and I think it's part of the issue is the um it's it's just's so much it's in so much flux every day because different sports have to you have to practice at different times and the seasons where they like share the gym then it's like all right today who's going to go first who's going to go second and so i' I I I'll ask her again but I I seem to remember talking to her about that and that that was the difficulty even every Monday they could send it out on ascended or whatever they there's definitely 530 right it's well changes 5 no it will change depending on the time of year depending on the sport depending on how many kids it changes all the time right is Practice canceled is not not like there's just there's so many variables for that and I get it but I mean the bus driver's there so somebody knows so and they have to let the kids know anyway so it just I think it would be easier to like if there was a calendar with a link or or like a remind or a remind or spended or however the want because I could do like I mean I could have the over broke parent list but I could send it out but then it can change and I really don't want to be getting a lot of my end it should come from that because it CH it's very fluid I mean we get reminds all the time for over Brook like when the clementin bus is gonna be late I don't but I don't care about it it affects somebody you know so I think we'd all be well we would be okay with that I hope they would too you know I'll reach out yeah like just to remind the BR Township BL bus will be at X time exactly only because it's different right and it would save I know it would save me the trip and I'm sure it'll save some other parents the trip too if we know the kids call on saying come pick me up the bus isn't here yet and the bus is gonna be their attend exactly yeah okay and a lot of times they will go there early um because they'll finish their Eisenhower but I mean they'll just go and they'll just wait so a lot of times they are there oh yeah I I mean yeah and I'm I get aggravated because it's like I'm still working so I'm running out from my job to go get them to come back and work for extra 15 minutes when I get back because it took me that long to get right all right um anything else for new business all right we'll open the meeting to the public for um non-agenda item time Motion in a second Mo second hearing all in favor opposed or obain I'm hearing none can I have a motion second then to close the meeting to the public motion second all those in favor opposed or obain um and then we are going to have an executive session so I'll open that up and then I'll tell Jacob to please this stand have action after while so there will be action okay so I will have him stay tight just give me a second I want to make sure he turns that off and then we'll go ahead and go into executive session have a nice rest your summer as soon as he comes in here and shuts off the um live stream and we do the motion than you're welcome yes the same thank you yes y yes yeah and then every e e e little yeah yeah y all right at this point we're gonna um have motion from our um executive session so I need a motion and a second to approve the recommendation of the superintendent for student number 161 55104 to attend an out of District placement for up to one year motion second right I'm going to do a roll call um Mr Davis P Ste Mrs Reed yes Mrs hmof yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs R yes Mr Golden yes M Juliano yes Mr Jones yes Mrs oriente yes um motion carries um can I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting motion second right meeting adjourned at 8:27 enjoy your last few days of summer thank you yes yes have fun I knowon be hereo well good luck with the opening good luck with the beginning of the year can't believe it's I'm excited for me the other day my girls my girls do I have everybody's paper than great conversation around that too bought en's chocolate fudge cake so my girls got it down it was like on top of something climbed on a chair got it down took it into the living room right we have said

e e a 22 regular meeting of the Clifton Board of Education please rise for the flag salute in a moment of silence I pledge alance 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 you roll call Mr Shada please miss bassford here Mr brunak here Mr Kenova Mr Mia here Mr Santiago here Mr siano here Suarez here vice president Danny here president Paris here we have a quorum the mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal Community Partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong Learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a Democratic Society in an everchanging world the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clifton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office Clifton Public Library administration building senior citizen Nutrition Center on cable TV in the local press on the district's website and mail to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be recorded in accordance with policy eight we have a little change in our agenda order from normal we are going to open with some comments from our Acting Superintendent Mr Jenaro uh thank you president Paris good evening Board of Ed Commissioners those in the audience and of course those who are watching from home uh to begin I'd like to just give an update uh to the one Clifton Learning Community about Dr Rober toi uh we are pleased to share that he is making remarkable strides in his recovery and Rehabilitation uh he's feeling much better and is in great spirits uh we'd like to say that nothing could keep the big guy down uh he is deeply grateful for the outpouring of well wishes thoughtful gifts phone calls messages as well as your continued thoughts and prayers but after speaking to him most recently one of the most challenging aspects of his experience is the fact that he knows that this year he will not be with our students and staff at the opening of the school year uh this only further highlights his unwavering dedication and commitment to the students and staff here at this District as always eagerly anticipate his return and are confident that he will be back as strong as ever I'm going to go into a whole bunch of different types of highlights as we've had an amazing exciting summer as well for things that are yet to come uh to start we're going to uh give a shout out to school 15's home and School Association as they're excited to kick off the new school year by hosting an ice cream meet and greet on Tuesday September 3rd uh this event offers School 15 families the chance to connect of course enjoy a tasty treat and possibly meet their new teachers so a special thank you to the school 15 HSA uh for creating lasting memories within their own Learning Community uh shifting gears over into curriculum instruction specific to the Imagine Learning platform uh one of the many academic enrichment programs that we utilize in Clifton is called imagine math uh this summer The Imagine Learning uh platform asks students across the country to log in and pass their imagined math lessons in what they call the annual summer math splash contest uh as we know students who keep their math skills hot pun was intended over the summer months are better prepared to hit the ground running in the fall a total of five grand prize winners were randomly selected for eligible students uh who passed 10 or more math lessons from June 10th to July 31st one of which came right here from Clifton from woodro Wilson Middle School so a special recognition and congratulations goes out to e8th grade student Sophia fiser for being one of the summer math splash contest winners she has won through imagine math a solar powerered backpack filled with back to school Essentials to help start off the school year right uh we do look forward to celebrating her and her achievements when she returns in September a little bit of Athletics uh for several years the name coach sinku has been synonymous with Clifton football leading the boys program to new heights multiple State playoff appearances and recently a state championship however when it comes to Mustang football there's a new sheriff in town actually with the same name here I'm referring to his better half coach Lindsay sinku who has led the girls flag football team for the past two years she has truly made a mark on Guiding the team to a division win this year with an impressive 8-1 record her hard work and dedication have brought well-deserved recognition to the girls flag football program and the timing for that could not be better uh with the sport expected to be officially recognized by the njsi daa in the spring of 2026 but just this past month the girls flag football team had the incredible opportunity of competing against Elizabeth High School during halftime of the Jets preseason opener at MetLife Stadium although the outcome of the game did not favor the Mustangs it was an unforgettable experience for our student athletes to just play in front of such a large crowd uh one that will undoubtably remain a cherished Mo memory for them for years to come so a special thank you goes out to Tom Malle he our athletic director as well as coach s you for making this a possibility for our girls uh moving into pbsis uh while there are several individuals this evening who are going to be appointed for a whole host of positions there is one that I would like to recognize pending board approval and that is Miss Amanda rhods uh she has been selected as our new pbsis District coach uh Amanda's impressive achievements including being honored as the 2023 2024 Pake County teacher of the year her successful tenure as a pbsis school 11 coach and her wealth of experience of a classroom teacher make her a tremendous asset to our pbsis district team uh we are confident that her leadership will further strengthen our commitment to creating a positive and supportive learning environment across this District so Amanda welcome to the pbsis team I would now like to bring attention to something that's been in the works for many many months even upwards to over a year uh it's been spoken about through a whole host of committee reports at these very Board of Ed meetings and that's specific to Paul V 6th also known as Pope Paul High School it goes by a whole bunch of different names so but for tonight we'll refer to as Paul v 6 or Pope Paul I am pleased to announce that our district has is extremely close to acquiring the Paul 6 High School building and property uh with an anticipated opening date for Clifton usage in September of 2025 this acquisition represents a signif ific opportunity to enhance our educational offerings uh services that benefit both our students and the broader Community uh this Milestone would not have been possible without the steadfast support of this board of education so I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude to the board Commissioners as well as Mr shahada and our dedicated legal team for their tireless efforts in making this acquisition a reality as we move forward it is crucial that we engage with our community to ensure that our plans for Paul the 6 build buing reflect the needs and priorities of all of our stakeholders so we're eager to hear your thoughts and ideas of how this facility can best serve our district specifically we seek your input on potential uses for the building including types of programs grade levels services or facilities that you envision and to gather this feedback we will be conducting a community feedback survey using the qualx platform uh this platform allows community members to complete the survey in multiple languages reflecting the rich diversity that exists within our district to our stakeholders your insights are invaluable as we consider the best path forward for the significant addition to our District's resources uh we anticipate launching the survey just after the start of the school year and thank you in advance for your continued support and engagement as we embark on this exciting new chapter for our district but speaking about the start of the school year as we all know this evening uh is the final Board of Ed meeting before the official start of school so information about schools building specific information including traffic patterns parking drop off Food Service options will be provided to All Families from each of your respected building administrators on Monday August 26th if you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out to your building principal who are ready and willing to assist all of our families and students please be reminded that the first day of school for students is Wednesday September 4th and that the the district will be operating on a early dismissal schedule for the first three days of school specific to these half days this initiative was first introduced last year as a precautionary measure due to anticipated heat with the understanding that it would be re-evaluated on a yearly basis however this change received overwhelmingly positive feedback from both administrators and staff who appreciate the opportunity for team meetings professional development uh an additional preparation time the adjusted schedule also provided valuable time for Bond refer rendum uh Bond referendum projects to progress in their final stages without students being present in the building while we are mindful of the impact that the schedule may have on some families many families especially those with younger children or students with disabilities Express gratitude for the smoother transition back to school that this this uh method offered unfortunately in a district of this size and diversity it is impossible to make a decision that would ever gain unanimous approval but the decision to start next year the 25 26 school year uh on an early dismissal schedule be something that we as a as a team will re-evaluate later this year but as always we welcome and value the feedback from all stakeholders I'd also like to take a moment to highlight the resolution to amend this year's 2425 school calendar specifically regarding the change to the early dismissal schedule the day after back to school nights traditionally the district operated on early dismissal schedule on the same day back to school nights but however during the most recent contract negotiations with the ca both the Board of Education and Association agreed to move the early dismissal to the following day and since the ca contract was ratified after the board of ed approved the district calendar it was necessary for us to put forth and pass a resolution to reflect these changes prior to the start of students coming on the 4th the district does hold two very important events the first is on Monday August 26th uh we welcome back our administrative staff for something that we call admin Retreat uh here we do things like share updates on state and federal mandates District policies and procedures participate in team building activities and have guest speakers come to help drive and reinforce the district mission and vision uh this year we are pleased to announce and welcome Dr Edward Fergus professor of urban education and policy at Ruckers University who will focus on achieving Equity reducing disproportionality and supporting Equity learning and literacy from the security side we have Patrick cassan and Tom Tui who provide our team with a more comprehensive approach and best practices in navigating through the behavior threat assessment process as well as providing updates on the memorandum agreement with our local law enforcement and finally is an extension of our district-wide focus on Mental Health as a series of workshops provided by Livia MCN and Laura O'Keefe on Stress Management and that will be done for our administrative team as well as for our security specialist and just yesterday already having completed that training for our custodial and maintenance staff departments uh as a whole we definitely look forward to learning from their expertise but the final day of admin Retreat Wednesday the 28th actually coincides with the second big event it's the first day of what we call new staff orientation here we welcome and excite the new staff over a 3-day period as embark on their imp professional Journeys as part of Team One Clifton from meeting the administrative team to being provided with a plethora of important information most important for them how and when they'll be getting paid uh to of course attending workshops and professional development trainings on School Safety and Security pbsis harassment intimidation and bullying dcpn and mandatory reporting procedures and of course how to navigate real time our student information system as well a whole as well as a whole host of curricular instruction programs it's simply our way of getting them started but the highlight of new staff orientation is what we proudly call the Clifton struct presentation here we teach new staff how to tap into and channel their inner Rockstar it is definitely a presentation like no others so whether you've seen the show before or will be experiencing it for the first time we would like to extend an invitation to our Board of Education Commissioners to attend this clipon struck presentation and help us welcome our new staff to the the one Clifton band uh we do hope that your schedules allow for you to join and an official calendar invite with information specific to that is forthcoming and finally I'd like to save the best for last as always I would like to announce and extend a heartfelt congratulations to Mr Ahmed shahada and commissioner Tanya Suarez on their engagement uh this is truly a joyous occasion and we are thrilled to celebrate this special moment with you uh may your journey together be filled with love support and endless happiness uh we wish you all the best as you embark on this exciting new chapter of your lives and once again congratulations guys but selfishly about this wedding uh I do have to thank them both for the honor and privilege of allowing me to be the efficient of the wedding and I will be certain to have my Darth Vader outfit ready to go for you so last but not least uh to the entire one Clifton learning community on behalf of the of Education We Wish You a fantastic remainder of the summer uh we hope you have the chance to relax with family and friends soak up what's left of this beautiful weather and enjoy the Labor Day weekend festivities we eagerly eagerly look forward to welcoming our students and staff back for yet another amazing school year and that concludes this month's superintendence report thank you Mr Mr Jenaro for that very thorough back to school report um I don't think we have a student representative here this evening um so we'll move to uh presentation of reports and our assistant superintendent of curriculum Miss kusich do we know where Sam went because we're the zoom is up so I don't know how to get to e e e well that was fun this is exactly what our teachers and students and families went through in the pandemic and somehow we all thought gee this is going to get so much easier but still to this day I'm on so many Zoom meetings where everybody's stuck on something or something's not coming up so the whole thing with technology is how we handle it and our teachers and our students handle it amazingly and one of the things that they do with that technology is take these mandated State assessments so what is tonight's presentation about this is the mandatory statutory requirement that we present to you within a certain period of time the release of our state assessments Once Upon a Time all of these State assessments would come out at the same time now unfortunately it seems to be a rolling scale and within a certain period after the release of each different assessments data we need to do a presentation which is not quite as fun as putting it all together in one when we can really highlight our strengths so tonight's presentation is a combination of the NJ GPA results from Spring as well as our access testing but we are going to round that out with some of the strengths and programs that our high school does to really enhance and support our students both before and after they've taken the NJ GPA so what is NJ GPA NJ GPA is a newly mandated began two years ago assessment to measure students performance in language arts and Mathematics prior to graduation this is how the state determines if our students are quote unquote graduation ready this assessment is on top of the NJ SLA assessment that they've already taken in these content areas in 9th or in 10th grade this just adds another layer to our students prior to graduation now on May 3rd 2023 the doe finally adopted cut off levels the first year that we addressed this assessment there were no cut scores as to what they determined was proficient or not what you can see on this screen and I wish I could remove move sorry Lucy I have to move your screen um what we see on this screen is that Clifton exceeds the graduation ready percentage for the state by 10% and we exceed the State graduation um ready average by 14 uh 15.7% so our students are doing quite well in comparison to the rest of the state except now it won't move why because I'm stuck on Lucy okay here we see our spread across our social um economic demographics we see that our general education students are doing quite well and our English language Learners do the best in math our special needs students struggle in math but are doing very well in language arts now we're moving on to the access test access is the English language proficiency assessment this one is not State mandated rather it is federally mandated access is a federal measure of English language proficiency as you know our ESL student population has doubled in the last 3 years this assessment measures how they're improving in all domains of listening speaking reading and writing in English what we see here is a breakdown of where they fall in the proficiency band this spring we tested ,99 students on this assessment and what it does is it levels them based on whether they are level one which are beginning learning students they've either came in with zero English or very limited English all the way through level six once you hit level five on this assessment even a native born English speaker will sometimes struggle to pass it um we've seen that with our own students we've actually tested it out on some general education students just to see how hard it might be to pass this test so reaching level five you're beyond native speaker you're really a strong um Master of the English language now clearly because the majority of our students are recent arrivals with this doubling of our students the majority of our students fall in those first three levels level one two and three the goal is that each year these students grow by one proficiency level as they move up um learning the English language so what do we do with this data and how do we use it to help our students we use the NJ GPA the access data together with njla data our local assessments our classroom performance to drive instruction our teachers look at this information and then they address how we may change our pacing as well as how we might group students in classrooms or at the high school level how we might program their senior year based on the results of these tests both assessments lead help our students get to multiple different graduation Pathways whether that be supporting students who struggle on NJ GPA with a basic skills class or helping our English language learner who might be at a lower English proficiency level by giving them a additional after school tutoring um and then in terms of graduation for those students who are unable to pass one of these assessments successfully there is a portfolio process that they can complete to successfully graduate high school but we continually reflect on this data and use it to inform pretty much all of our programming our pacing even the purchases for the types of materials that we buy to support our students another thing that we utilize to support students students both learning English and as well as best practices in classrooms are our scop techniques which is sheltered instruction and we utilize what are called the weda can do descriptors weeda can do descriptors help our classroom teachers assess what someone who might not be proficient in English can actually do on the subject or topic that they're learning we're providing online support for our English language learners and expanding adult evening ESL classes this um fall at this fall so that our parents can support their children's learning process better all of this data is utilized to help support learning at the high school level much more important to me than this data even though we do exceed the state averages on the NJ GPA more importantly are the specialized programs and opportunities to push children to higher education that we have at Clifton High School so some of this data helps us enhance ourm and college Partnerships so at Clifton High School we have three main acms and theseis help our students stay focused into different career paths that may interest them our Academy program has been small but growing we have a STEM Academy where students can have concentrations in four disciplines of science technology engineering and Mathematics we have our Career Academy which has six areas in law and Public Safety marketing Human Services early childhood Computer Sciences and visual Performing Arts Academy which covers all of the many amazing Visual and Performing Arts programs that are frequently highlighted in Clifton especially at the high school but we have an academy in each of those seven areas of band choir dance drama Orchestra studio art and the most important one TV and video production which is what you're watching right now our students showing this handson skill that they're learning the other component that really rounds out our high school experience in Clifton are our many college Partnerships and tonight we're touching on our largest ones we have some other small ones that are starting to grow but these are the ones that most of our students participate in our original dual enrollment program many years ago was our Montclair State University program where students could earn up to 12 college credits while earning their high school diploma since then we've also added project forward with Felician University which has a similar outcome of 12 credits like Montclair where students share time at either institution spending part of their their school day here and then taking classes at the University we've started a 24 credit program with um William Patterson University and the William Patterson program also has an aspiring Educators component where we just had the thrill of seeing some of our students um from our high school Rising Juniors and Rising seniors who spent the summer at William Patterson taking three college credits and then in the afternoon working as teacher assistant assistance in a student lab and at one of the schools in Patterson hopefully as that program grows we could open that up to one of our summer programs here in Clifton as well one of the really amazing highlights we have is the Bergen County community college program where now for five years we have students who earn their full 60 Credit Associates Degree before they graduate from high school they actually receive an associates degree diploma a few weeks before they walk out in our Stadium to get their high school diploma then we have our three programs with pay County Community College there's an early college program similar to the one at Bergen Community where they can graduate with an Associates we have a 30 credit program for our seniors but the one that mo more of our children can take um advantage of is the dual enrollment and concurrent program we have several dozen sections of classes at Clifton High School right on site you're sitting in your English class with your friends and if you choose to participate in the concurrent program those teachers are duy accredited by Clifton and Pate Community College and just by sitting in your regular English class you can earn three English credits for college at bate Community which are guaranteed to transfer to any New Jersey univ uh State University and our final program is our fairly Dickinson World languages program where students who go up to level four can earn three college credits in this middle college program um some new ones that we're adding on we're doing some things with K University and there's more exciting stuff to come as we continue to build our programs for our students I'd like to thank you for your time um does anyone have any questions commissioner Brak thank you Mr President thank you Mr covich for your presentation so this is the first year did were there any prior years of any type of performance evaluations for the students for grade 11 or is this the first year we're reporting this particular one that's that's mandated right this one is mandated and we have had the state has gone through various evolutions for a while when njsla started you had to take it in algebra geometry and Algebra 2 as well as English 9 10 and 11 and the science your 11th grade science uh course so there's always been something but they varied that the state went to those three levels then they pulled back then they went down to just grade um Algebra 1 and 10th grade English then they added in the NJ GPA so the state keeps varying what they're requiring of our students but there's always been some form of high school testing but not necessarily to allow you to graduate but there's always been something prior to all those njs laas there are things you might have recalled like the HSPA or the hspt which were the high school proficiency assessment and high school proficiency test which were previous versions of high school type end of course or end of program testing this is just the newest version of that thank you so Algebra 2 used to be a requirement you're saying as part of the testing that used to occur um cuz cuz I I'm trying to recall when when I was a junior I think I took algebra too but when you were when you were a junior you probably took the hspt yeah um which was kind of was a combined math and combined language arts which is actually what this njp a is except that it focuses primarily on Algebra 1 and the equivalent of about 10th grade um English so even so by 11th grade every single student at CHS should have taken algebra at least Algebra 1 and Algebra 1 is an absolute graduation requirement Algebra 2 a a second Math course is as well thank you um theems how long has that program been around for oh that's a good question we established them academies when uh Mr Mr Orlando was still the principal so 10 10ish years we've been growing them um they were growing slowly until the pandemic then we we maintained them kind of flat since the pandemic and now we're trying to rejuvenate them with some additional programs um additional Capstone activities um the anybody in one of these the academy doesn't really change you have to apply for it when you're at the end of 8th grade but it doesn't really start until 10th grade your ninth grade year in your in the Mustang Academy which is our freshman program starts everyone off on a Level Playing Field but then you start to specialize um in certain areas of concentration for your electives but your core program is still the same as all other students and and then you get what you get for the being in the academy is there are sometimes field trips there's you there's an advisor we may um have some specific clubs that you participate in and then on your diploma there is a statement that you have completed one of these concentrations in one of these acmis two more things I apologize everybody do you have ballpark figures of those students enrolled pre- lockdown and post Co lockdown for numbers of students we can get that information I off the top of my head I don't but I can get that information that's I'm just asking for a ball figure and if if you're a freshman right and you didn't enroll or you didn't apply into these acms are you allowed to do it freshman going into into sophomore or no since the program doesn't fully start till sophomore yes some there are there are opportunities where you can reach out to your guidance counselor and have that conversation um at the same time you know there are there are grade level requirements and so forth uh this is shared uh pretty quite extensively at the middle schools at the time of 8th grade um scheduling for to rise up into 9th grade because the students do meet with their counselor at the end of 8th grade to help put give their input they fill out a course request sheet and work with their counselor for what might interest them and it's at that time that the information about the acmis is also shared with the students thank you anyone else commissioner Suarez thank you president Paris uh and thank you so much Miss kovich uh what for a great report and thorough information um I just want to ask uh you know I'm really impressed by the supports um for the that the students receive for English language Learners um is that Clifton driven you know when I hear there are multiple multiple graduation Pathways is that um Clifton driven or is that something that is guided to you from the State graduation pathways are driven by the state the state sets the minimum graduation requirements Clifton does have a few we do require for ourselves a few additional courses um at the um over what the state minimum is how you get there however is driven by the state the state has guidelines for what qualifies as an NJ GPA cut score in order for your NJ GPA to help let you go along with with your successful completion of coursework the state also sets what are the parameters to be accepted into a portfolio Pathway to graduate with a portfolio but our counselors do have some flexibility in letting some courses count in in in different ways in providing that basic skills support um in some of the after school and summer activities and one of the key pieces that's really going to help our students is that this year as part of our budget process thanks to the Board of Education um because of your approval of some of the components of our budget we were able to offer freshman and uh freshman free summer school for credit recovery so that we all know that the freshman year is the most important year and if you fall behind in your freshman year the statistics are sobering about how many students who fall behind in their uh freshman year do not successfully complete high school so by having allowed these freshmen to now recoup without cost to them that is going to have a huge Ripple impact and with Esser funds we actually did that for all of our students for the core content areas language arts science math and social studies um unfortunately essr funding has now expired so next year you may be hearing a request could we do this for all three grade levels uh freshman sophomore and Junior um but this year the the board did support the Freshman so we thank you for that thank you so much for that information I'm I'm just I always appreciate uh what you uh do for our students and really looking out for the supports that are needed especially for those um who are learning English and a very fast pace so thank you for the information and for what you do for our students thank you pres any other yes Commission sanago thank you president Paris thank you very much much Miss kusich for the presentation you always do a great job with the content and with your delivery just a quick question um we talked a lot about theems but the experiential learning part of it um I heard about clubs and things like that are are there anything things like having guest speakers from that or going out site visits um onsite to whatever the career is whatever the different um tracks we've mentioned here so in some of them yes yes that is one of the things when I mentioned that before Co we were really starting to grow some of those additional supports since then we've been focused kind of on getting our kids back on track and now this year we're um Mr koser um who's one of our assistant principles at the high school is in charge of our College partnership as well asies and together with Mr hamda and his push to help support our kids through graduation um as well as working together with guidance we're looking to grow some of those bringing it bring back some of those guest speakers add the field trips um and really start to enhance some of those programs many of them already are very robust just by the nature of what they are for example one of these acms again is the cast Academy which you see here this is tremendous hands-on experience um the CTE accounting program I'm sorry forgive me the CTE marketing program also has quite a bit of not only experiential but it one of the required courses is the work the type of the work study where they go for um half a day to work on a site for credit um but that varies by type of program okay thanks and then the other thing is um it's more of a comment I guess overall so I'm glad to see that our graduation ready numbers for the district in English and math are above States averages but you know I know we we focus on um continuous Improvement and education is you know the job was never done we're working on this every single day so I just look forward to these numbers continuing to um increase as do I thank you as do I anyone else okay I just I have one question thank you for a very comprehensive report Miss kevich um the English language Learners these proficiency level data this is a snapshot from this correct that's what the access does the access gives you a snap shot of what their proficiency level is those proficiency levels are based on um the weda standards which are a national standard for um for English proficiency so level one is usually lower level uh you can communicate in you know short phrases short sentences but you're you're just starting to speak level two is kind of getting more comfortable with that like I said level five you're basically native proficient because we have native speakers who can't pass that level who can't get into that level or test into it um but these are snapshots each year and then what this is compared to the same child previous year to see if they've made growth moving up by the scale score points in each of those levels and so long as they're moving up with those levels the district does not receive what they call a corrective action plan for um English language Learners and right now we do not have one of those you you read my mind that was my follow-up question is if there was a metric that we looked at in individ individual students progress over time uh which is probably more telling than these numbers are exactly that's why I really preferred it when they did this all at once and then we could dive into our local data which happens in the uh late fall I come out with I know it's like the Mind numbingly long presentation on our local data but that is where we're looking at comparing children to them themselves and on our own local assessments from the beginning of the year forward thank thank you very much thank you okay um our next item is excuse me oh lights he getting used to this very nice mood lighting likewise it's very relaxing um board committee reports are next commissioner brunak would you please read our facilities minutes thank you Mr President the minutes of the facilities committee that occurred on August 20th 2024 myself was present commissioner siano was present president Paris was present Mr jenero was present Mr Eddie Maldonado was present Mr Al Marion was present and as and finally Mr Mikel uch was present as well meeting started at 3:30 p.m.

e e e good evening at this time I'll call the meeting to order and we'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you and let the record reflect that all board members are present first up uh we have the public hearing for Di Arts instructional time model DR Coto thank you Madame President before we get to our awesome band performance we have to do a little business so Dr asai will um talk about our daer instructional time model good evening Madame President members of the board the state requ reques that the board approve an instructional time model when instruction will be occurring in a non-traditional way we do this at our high schools when we administer the Aspire and act we have nth and 11th graders attend school sophomores and seniors are normally off campus the teacher is required to provide an online assignment and provide office hours for those days okay and this ass shares our our funding um and we have to present this twice for any comments any public and then before we bring it to the governing board um for a vote so it will come one other time if there's any um comments we can ask for comments and move from there or questions from the governing board too at this time I'll open it up for public comment any questions or discussion from the board okay all right we'll proceed with our regular meeting uh first up we have a band performance thank you Madame President um Mr mcy will introduce our guests for an awesome performance thank you madam president members of the board Dr croto and guests we are very happy tonight to have the Shadow Ridge marching band with us under the direction of Mr Kerwin for we will now turn it [Applause] over and just as a little side note to this the uh we're going to get to see the marching band at their first home game which is coming up on September 6th so we're looking forward to that e [Music] sh [Music] w [Music] [Applause] thank you so much for the band and the color guard it's so exciting to see um music being performed in our boardroom again thank you give for the moment a ready okay all right uh moving on to item C2 Dr Coto thank you madam president uh tonight we have another um award or presentation to um celebrate and Miss Vel is going to introduce this one thank you Dr Coto good evening Madame President members of the board cabinet and Comm Community tonight I am proud to share that the district has once again uh been awarded both the association of school business officials International as well as the government Finance Officers Association um excellence in financial reported reporting related to our annual comprehensive Financial reports for the fiscal year end of 2023 and so we know every year we submit our financial reports for review it's an external um panel that reviews and they they look at it to ensure that it meets the high standards of financial reporting um they look at our commitment to financial trans transparency and so they really are the highest forms of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting and so um I do want to thank the entire finance department I I know firsthand just how much work goes into gathering this information and ensuring we do get provide accurate um financial information for the needs of our community and that we continue to meet those high standards and so we do have the awards here with us tonight we will be um putting them out in the lobby um cases as well for for public viewing thank you m Mel we would like to get a picture too with the plaque and the governing board and I'm a great honor to have uh the financial responsibility and transparency so if we could get up in front we'll take a quick picture with the plaque and then we will move on the [Applause] again congratulations um to the finance department on a job well done and thank you for everything you do we appreciate that just out of curiosity how long have we been receiving this award it it seems like we get it every year um the asbo award and correct me if I'm wrong I want to say it's been 29 years and the gfoa we're on our 20th year now amazing congratulations I will have to say too as a board member it's just such a relief to have such confidence and such a competent team and you guys always work so hard just really appreciate all of you so thank you so much all right moving to item D1 audience with individuals I don't believe we have any oh we do okay oh no no sorry we do not we do not have any this evening we're just so excited about this uh Finance [Laughter] award okay uh moving on to item E1 um do we have a student update we do Madame President and we are excited about that um for our first student update of the year so Mr mcy could you introduce our student guest please yes Madam president members of the board Dr Coto uh we'd like to introduce Amelia Escobar she is a senior at Willow Canyon High School and they held their first meeting last Tuesday the 13th where we bring together all our student leaders and they begin their planning for the year so Amilia is here to give us that update right here is good just to speak into it okay thank you um my name is Amilia Escobar I'm the student body president at Willow Canyon High School and last year I was elected to be the president of the daart Leadership Council or DLC and I'm very honored to be here to speak with all of you and I'm sure many of you know DLC is a leadership group made up of student council kids from around the district and we kind of come together to discuss our successes and our failures and I'm here mainly to see the um board perspective as well like what we can do to help you uh because student council wouldn't be able to do what we do without the support from our ad and um um I'm just very grateful to be here and I hope that we can through building strong Communications we can build a better environment and build inclusivity for our district alt together so we had our last meeting on August 13th and we kind of just discussed beginning of the year things so for Willow Canyon we had our back to school spirit week and our first ever assembly it was very success successful we had a big turnout and um Alto together for as a district all four daart schools had a backto school spirit assembly and Shadow and Valley both held dances which were very successful and we also have Sundown as a part of our DLC and it's very important to include them too because they have a smaller population of students so it's nice to hear their perspective of how they do things because they don't do dances or assemblies so they have like games in their cafeteria and they have a lot of participation as well so those are kind of our updates for this month and thank you so much for having me here thank you [Applause] thank you and congratulations on your election to the DLC um very great presentation I appreciate it thank you good job all right next we have superintendent update Dr croo thank you madam president uh just a couple quick updates uh with the sound of the marching band you know the temperatures are going to drop and also it's almost football season so when you hear the marching band it's time so with that um just a reminder that we have uh couple field dedications coming up for our two fields that are done in Shadow Ridge High School and Valley Vista High School so that will be um Shadow Ridge we will dedicate that field on September 6th and Valley Vista will be on September 20th so we are excited about those projects are done they look beautiful and we will celebrate those two fields and those two schools on those dates also just an update that we will be attending the policy governance Summit on um August 29th so next week uh that's put on by the trust our our insurance uh trust and looking forward to the great topics and I know some of you are joining um and going to that so we are looking forward to do that and that's all I have thank you next we have governing board update I guess I will start um I just want to say congratulations to our finance department and miss fedel I don't ever want to get complacent with this award I don't ever want to just say oh yeah we expect it it's just something we do um I do appreciate that after 29 30 years we are still working hard to make sure that we are fiscally responsible and transparent with our record so thank you for that and I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our police officers our sro's our ssos for choosing again to be on our campus is you have no idea you impact our students lives every day and I'm grateful for you so thank you okay I don't have an update um moving on to item F1 did you have something oh okay sorry um I move to approve consent agenda items as presented good I think Joe first yeah motion carries all right up next is information discussion item one uh Dr Coto thank you madam president uh tonight we start our school uh continuous Improvement presentation so with that Dr asai will introduce our schools good evening Madame President members of the board um our first school to go will be Shadow Ridge and cedrica Hester is the proud principal she will be walking us through Shadow ridge's achievement went from last year their goals from this year and their action plan and how to get there uh just as a reminder to the board we will be talking about growth as the state defines it it's on a 012 scale with one being where the average in the state is anything about above one is our goal good evening Madame President members of the board and Dr Coto it is indeed a pleasure to present to you our continuous Improvement plan at Shadow Ridge High School if you take a look at the slide in terms of our act and our performance we were able to maintain a level of proficiency at 60% in addition to that when we did a deep dive of the data for the ACT we did notice that we made tremendous growth in terms of our students that we were able to move to that proficient category but it was our highly proficient students where we fell a little short in the past year our goal every year of course is to have a total composite score of 20 or above and so we felt a little short because we we're at 19.61 so that is one of our challenges that's something that we're working towards um and we're looking to I'll talk a little bit more as we go through the slide presentation if you take a look at our AI we were able to have an increase of 8% and that is a tri to our science teachers and the work that they did as well as the district resource of utilizing the a SI mimic test and it was a test that we gave throughout the school year as well as our teachers prepping our students so that is uh the reason for our success with the aai as Dr asai mentioned in terms of our growth we were able to experience growth with our ELA teachers and so in the math area area we are working towards that and so we look to that is also a challenge with some of our when you look at our esss classes and our resource classes and making sure that we are drilling down and making connection and having that growth so with that we intend to utilize the ISL as a resource this upcoming school year and our teachers will have training on Monday and we will go through that with the trainers to really drill down and talk about supports and what that looked like in terms of aella we and when you look at the 2223 school year we had 31 students versus 21 this past year but with that we're still able to show growth with our students within the classroom our teachers and the support that we have we have our Ela teacher leader uh that helps us out tremendously as well as our uh TLS on campus that supports us so we're able to make sure that our kids are continuously growing with our El students when we look at the college credit and our kids who take dual enrollment and their success rate in those dual enrollment courses um we are extremely proud of the progress that we made this past year and so that is a tribute to our counselors as well as our teachers doing those presentations educating our families and letting our students know the opportunities that they have in order to earn college credit while in high school our seals and internships if you take a look at that that increased tremendously when you talk about going from 30% to 82% and again we can attribute that to our arts teacher our dance teacher band um our choir and and and also when you take a look at the internship that is something that we were able to increase as well and so when we have our work study uh our kids that have jobs outside of school and they're able to submit documentation and show that growth and reflective growth of what they're doing that helps to with our overall Improvement towards the CCRI so moving to the CCRI again we show tremendous growth in that category as as well and that is something that we take pride in making sure that our teachers our counselors our students know that the courses that they take on our campus the things that they participate in in terms of CTE classes all of that matters and it helps us in terms of our school label so um that area we tout too as a Improvement so in taking a look at our I AP goals our goals are focused on some of those challenges that we incurred or need to improve on when we take a look at goal one because the growth is something the growth model that Dr asaiah explained to you the zero to two is something that is new for this upcoming class um but in looking at that and having those conversations with our teachers it's important for us to drill down throughout the school year in terms of the data and really making sure that we are looking at those SC to move our students so that they're able to show that and so therefore our goal for number one the average growth from aspire to act on a composite score 1.0 or above the state average and so what we shoot for right now like I said if you think back to that past slide of the act and we were 19.61 we're trying to get to that 20 Mark and if you look at Shadows history we've kind of been right there and so we're trying to figure out how do we get over that that hump with the a s of course our goal is to continue to improve and we're looking to increase that um by the end of the school year our goal too was focus on the challenges that we incurred this past year where we noticed that cell phones were issue as well as students getting a class on time so in working with Mary mat we have been working with her um the spark you the principles as well as our first and second year teachers and it's really important that we focus on that healthy classroom that we have those expectations because at Shadow you know the H that when we talk about home and you see that home which you'll see in a few minutes that means high expectations and so we want to consistently enforce that and we need our teachers to consistently enforce that and so that is one of our goals for this upcoming school year in addition to that goal three it's all about customer satisfaction right it's all about making sure that our parents our students as well as our teachers that they can say hey Shadow is the place where we want to be so then our action plan what are we focused on like I said home stands for high expectation opportunities meaningful relationship and empowering our students and so this year our theme is home is where the heart is it's about building and making those connections with the students the teachers as well as the parents and so with that everything that we do from stride to making sure that we carve out that time on those Mondays and making sure that we are looking at the needs of our our students based on their data we can um put those interventions in there and meet their needs and we do this in our collaborative teams that's the whole purpose of the PLC when we go to Vegas and we plan throughout the school year is a building those strong collaborative teams where they're able to depend on one another and come up with strategies and really drilling down to focus on the learning of our students and we believe in that and we know that will support and move student learning and so with that we are utilizing the ISL we're utilizing that for our English and our Math teachers we're also utilizing it in our English language classrooms as well as our ESS students again it's about those high expectations ations if we have high expectations and making sure that kids are where they're supposed to be then that will ensure that safety and all of those things are taking place on our campus at the beginning of the school year we had class presentations all of admin as well as security counselors introducing making sure all students from 9th to 12th grade know who we are and know what those supports are and that we're there to support them in their High School experience in addition to that our counselors are currently in the classroom really Drilling down again showing students what um Services we have to offer and why their classes matter and what they can do moving forward in addition to that we will we have been in the classrooms collecting feedback giving teachers immediate feedback in terms of making sure their uh instructional objectives are posted every day making sure the cell phones are away in the backpacks and then making sure that kids are learning because that's ultimately what it's about and then we celebrate our students as well as our staff when and we celebrate them through stride and if you take a look at the culture that is something that we're big on when we talk about home is where the heart is we want to make sure that we're making connections with one another on campus and that we're taking care of one another and part of that is having those challenges making sure that we're celebrating our teachers making sure that we are having cookouts and different things like that that make the teachers want to be there in turn the teachers are also providing that level of consistency and fun in their classroom to make sure kids want to be there and then we're going to collect feedback from surveys along the way so that we can make improvements because it's always about looking at what you're doing how you're doing those things and how can we be better stand for questions [Music] thank you for the presentation um sounds like there's a lot of positive things happening in your school for sure so I appreciate you sharing some of those things but just curious um you know you mentioned like the the area of aspire and wanting to have a need to increase the math score there and you'd said you know you're needing to kind of determine what extra supports might be in place and I know you mentioned like through the through the slides about tracking student data collaborative teams focused on student data expectations for learning in PDS classroom walkthroughs but those are things that we all kind of do in all of our schools are you able to get more specific and in regard to either a challenge area or even if you want to use just that one example of the Aspire piece that's below that the mark that you've set that you want to reach what do you mean like have you thought of any specific interventions or based on the data what's going to move those students forward that you can share a little bit about absolutely so in working with Mary mat and we're focused on instruction in the classroom we know that when teachers have their objectives posted and drilled down and having those checks for understanding those are the important pieces of the classroom so we're going to uh she will come to our campus in November prior to that we will continue to work with our teachers uh in their collaborative team meetings we're going to break down the Horizon Benchmark data so what I referred to was the Act and the thing to understand with the ACT we're talking about a different class like the class that took the ACT are now seniors so now we have to review the data of where our current juniors are and we have to prepare them so the data that we will break down will be the current Horizon Benchmark one test that we gave we're going to look at that look at the standards look at where our students fall short then we're going to drill down a little bit further to see how can we organize them into small groups to support them and uh provide that support throughout the year so that's typically what we do and then we get a little help along the way um when we do another uh Horizon benchmark test so it's all about giving those short quick checks or those aren't quick the benchmarks take a little bit of time but we'll give another one in January and it's really about making the adjustment and what we're seeing so like tier two instruction yes yes and so and that too is also a part of that learning that we're doing with spark you training is um being able to have teachers to easily identify who are those students that are struggling within that instructional time frame and then placing them into small groups to meet their needs right away and not waiting so those are the things that we're working on and we'll look to continue to work on and that will move the instruction within the classroom and also increase student learning but the thing about the act as well as the Aspire you're talking about different students each year so now we got to look at where are current ninth graders and we got to work with them because the kids that the data you just reviewed those kids are in the 10th grade and they're in the 12th grade now so it just starts over again you mentioned on the the science um test that um some of the success was maybe due to the the mimic test I believe you said yes um is that something new this year or last year I believe so it was something that we made a it was intentional to focus in on something that you have to understand the Juniors and how they're different from the ninth graders the juniors are expected to take the ACT test and prepare for the AI the AC the a is not similar to the ACT science and so I think we have a better plan this upcoming school year because uh Miss Long Dr Longoria asked for feedback from the schools and we provideed to her so we have broken those tests out so it's going to be interesting to see how the students respond this upcoming school year based on that so yes the with the AI mimic test that was something that was so necessary to kind of drill down and prepare our students for that AI test in addition to our teachers you know their Spiral Review in there you're you're constantly trying to review terms and Concepts to prepare our students well it sounds like it was a big success so thank you thank you um I wanted just to touch base a little bit on the the goal to um okay and you you spoke a little bit about you know classroom management and cell phones and their impact I it's I'm really happy to see the numbers in here for the cell phone violations and that way you can you know track that year-over-year to see what you're doing if it's having an impact or not um I'm curious how you define a cell phone violation um and in doing this do your teachers uh your staff members feel more empowered at least it sounds like Statewide this not a a dice art specific issue um a common theme that you hear from classroom teachers is that they're not feeling supported in discipline processes around cell phones so it sounds like this is outlining where they are being supported absolutely so now if you were to come on our campus and I encourage you guys to come take a visit and come to the classrooms you're actually going to see something totally different and so by having something that's consistent and all teachers adhering to that that kids are you're greeting them at the door and you're asking kids to put their cell phones in their backpacks when you walk into the classroom you don't have to worry about cell phones you don't have to worry about earbuds those things are distractors that prevent students from learning and so that looking at the data and and thinking about the number of incidents that we receive in terms of referral that was something that we needed to focus in on okay great thank you so much thank you I will say that I appreciate you doing that because unless you've been in the classroom you don't understand how annoying it is when children have their cell phones and by children I mean you know high schoolers because they're such a distraction I love the fact that what you mentioned was consistency consistency consistency and that's that's the foundation of any classroom management you just you have to be consistent takes time takes energy and I appreciate you doing that so thank you thank you I have a question you mentioned the I EXL for Math and English can you explain that a little bit more so this is a resource the district Al it's a districtwide resource that is being utilized and um we were exposed to a little of it last year one of our teachers thought that they needed an additional resource to prepare our ninth graders for Aspire and so they utilize it for like two weeks and what it does it drills down it tailor to the need of the kid so it gives the students a assessment preassessment to determine where they are and then it builds them up and uh throughout the process when they are exposed to different questions and Concepts and so we believe with the combination of the teacher teacher engagement and also with the training that the teachers will receive and doing those checkpoints that that is a resource that we can depend on to kind of help support and spiral and give the students what they need and they also have some resources in there that supports Aspire as well as act it supports the El student so we're looking to utilize that um in a strategic way to support our students so how often are you using it is it quarterly or so we just um bought this program and like I said we're scheduled to meet with the trainer on Monday our teachers are and so I wanted our teachers to have a say a Buy in to how we're going to go about utilizing it so we're going to come up with a plan on Monday but we just um got access because it's school year so you can't you know funds aren't really Ava ailable yet so and Drake this is a common resource we use at our elementary schools a lot it really targets by standard so teachers can assign one standard to you another standard to to Craig it allows for differentiated homework or when they're pulling students for tier two the rest of the class can work on their individual assignments great okay thank you okay thank you thank you and our next CIP presentation is from The Fabulous Debbie Cruz of Mountain View Elementary all right I think that's the right height okay Madame President members of the board Dr Coto and our dice Art School District board um cabinet as well as our audience thank you so much for allowing me to be here to share all the great things that we're doing in Mountain View um first thing is I wanted to share please move the slide forward there oh nope too far okay let's try again nope too far there should be one more slide Maybe not maybe we'll just go right forward okay all right well we have had a slide with our beautiful uh logo this year we are called The Dream buers um and so we're an awesome team just like Lego is an awesome team you going know the team awesome and we are building dreams for students each and every day and so it's really important to us at Mountain View and as we dig into our data we're going to talk about a lot of the work that we're doing to build those dreams for every student so first of all as you look up to the screen you will see our aasa and our AI proficiency data in the green areas we're very excited we made growth we are also above the state average the science portion which is a side we have some work to do in this is a challenging area for us we are above the straight State average but we want to do better so you can kind of see that there as we dig into our integrated action plan goals you're going to see exactly how we're digging into each one of these areas to address them to ensure that we're providing the best education for all of our students for our overall growth and I know that um Dr asai shared with us the one the 01 and two ultimately we want to be one or above and we could see in math that we definitely met that and we definitely met this um state standard but for ELA we did not so that's a challenging area for us and we want to dig deeper into that and really look at those standards and do what we're look at what we're doing for tier one as well as tier two and everything that we're doing for students to make sure that we achieve that as we move forward aella we are making a lot of growth one of the things with aella for Mountain View is throughout the year um just like our student enrollment fluctuates so does our students that would be considered taking the ailla test so at the beginning of the year we started with about 24 students at the end of the year we had about 32 this year now we're back down to 26 so this number is really changing for us all the time but you can see that we're making growth as we're moving more students growing into those higher areas into the inter intermediate and proficient areas we have some areas that we want to move our pre-emergent and our basic but definitely growth is happening there for us and this is also another Target area for us as well so our first goal and from the integrated action plan based on our data and we do a very large data dig with all of our staff where we dig in not only into our academic data but we look at our attendance data uh we also look at our referral data and we look at everything as an entire school we need that full panel data in order to make decisions to help students in all areas we know that attendance is a big thing that's if a student's not at school that can impact their lack of opportunity for education so we try to make sure we're taking that full picture as a staff what can we do in all areas so our first goal is by May of 2025 students will increase proficiency scores by 3% on all of the areas of aasa they'll increase the per percentage of students that are at above Benchmark by 3% and also we want to increase our zel proficiency scores by 3% for all El students as well and our action steps to get there is students will learn the standards following daer scope and sequence and I know that we talked a lot um my colleague talked a lot about Mary maton and this is a big deal for us because this is digging deeper into instruction and as we've moved into diart and you're going to hear me talk about the teaching and learning cycle it's further down but this is a big part of everything we do each and every day for every student student um students will experience instruction lived in a do2 or higher we don't want to be in that that automaticity just giving me answers we really want the deep thinking to take our students further because we know that's what they need not only to pass a state test but what they need in real life um they'll receive targeted enrichment intervention based on their data we are very intentional in our tier 2 and we also are using iel as well to support that with our students to make sure it's differentiated for every child um our students will be analyzing their own data and setting goals as well that's a big Initiative for us this year and our staff will be participating in ongoing professional development that's aligned to data curriculum resources and assessment that also be participating in planning meetings that are focused on data and strategies standards alignment assessment and that diert teaching and learning cycle with the work that we're working with Mary mat a big Focus for us is knowing that if we're going to increase our data we need to know as we're teaching along the way where is every student at every moment and how are we implementing assessment to help us with that for formal and informal so we know a lot of times we use that exit ticket or we might use a benchmark but we need to think about I just gave some direct instruction did my students get that or not so we're really being intentional with checking for understanding throughout our entire teaching and creating short and long-term smart goals which our teams have already done and created WE Post those on our doors and as we achieve those goals we change those because we go to our next goal and so forth and we also are participating in data digs so we do a huge data dig at the beginning of the year from the previous year schools data but we are doing those throughout the entire school year and looking at all the different ways so not only when benchmarks happen but when our unit assessments happen when our modules happen and when we finish things to say where are we at uh we just finished beginning of year aadience that's a step for us to dig in now with our teams and say where are we at what students need more support with that and how do we provide that as a school our next goal is about referrals um at mvs our goal is to decrease by 20% for the next school year we made a decrease this year here which we're proud of but we want to do better we know that hand inand academics and behavior and attendance all go together and this is very important to us so our action steps to do this is the staff will be trained and Implement check and checkout for students with more than three referrals we know that we can see that if a student has three referrals we need to think about what other supports do they need to be successful because this is not only impacting them behaviorally it's impacting them academically we're going to implement schoolwide discipline expectations and also the district expectations consistently collaborate through the RTI process and identify specific and targeted interventions we have a great RTI process at Mountain View where we meet monthly and we're going to dig deeper we have an awesome Behavior coach and we have ssts to support us with this process and really figure out what does the student need to be successful maybe they need some more instruction specifically on how to get along with others or maybe they need some instruction on how to play fair so working through those things with our students and providing that to them through our RTA process um our staff has an overall proactive way is we have lion leader tickets daily and we've asked each staff member on campus to give out 15 minimum tickets a day um and those would be based on be a learner be safe be responsible and be ready so all of those would be given to students in 15 a day by each staff member um and then we tabulate those every Friday um Mrs hazer is going to wave she helps out with that uh those are counted every Friday and what we do is we actually share that data with the school because that's important to us because that's a proactive way to look at behavior and try to give incentives for students to do well uh we're going to create an Implement Behavior contracts aligned to our mvs expectations and those are going to be based on student by student as needed based on the needs that they need um there we go um our goal three is 100% of Campus collaborative teams will implement the PLC process with Fidelity as measured by identifying as a greenel on the PLC Continuum rubric absolutely this is a goal for us uh PLC and Mountain View is natural every single Monday we're meeting we're working together and we not only work as grade level collaborative teams but we also work cross so we're doing a lot of vertical articulations so we have now we're our fifth through 8th grade science teachers are having specific articulation about essential standards not only just about what's going on in fifth grade so that's really building these teams to go deeper with all the learning across our campus so our action steps for this is all leadership team members are trained in supporting the implementation with the collaborative teams uh we've been meeting with our leadership team we started always in July with them we talk through all the normal things and I know some of you wonderful people got to attend the PLC with us so you know the norm setting all those great Foundation things that we want to put into place some of the first things they do is look at their smart goals short-term and long-term and this year we dove into making Collective commitments which is that second one not only do we have a school mission Collective commitments and a vision but our teams made their own based on their students and made their own Collective commitments aligned to what their students need based on the data dig information they had they participate in planning meetings focused on data standards alignment and assessment that's that dier teacher new learning cycle it's that kind of triangle that we have and really just making sure we continue to know we teach we assess we teach we assess we teach we assess and continue to do that and again those smart goals um and participate in professional development for teaching and learning cycle with a focus on assessment and again I put in there checking for understanding because that is a big piece for us one of the things that we did when we did our data dig is that we deciphered what's holding us back from Meeting those challenges and we really do feel it's getting deeper into those checks for understanding throughout our instruction and ensuring that it's individualized checks for understanding we know we can collaborate well and our kids can collaborate well but making sure that when we're checking it's truly what they know our last goal is that all students will regularly attend school as eviden by reducing the amount of chronic absences defined in 18 days or more by less than 5% of the students and I think we all know attendance matters we know that if students are not at school they don't have that opportunity to learn so we are really working hard to get them to school so we're creating an attendance team and that's a that's a work in progress we're getting there um and we're going to have protocols and steps to support our students and families um one of the biggest things we did as that third bullet down there is we started implementing contracts and these happened at parent teacher conferences and this was a contract with the family just to have a conversation about your child has missed five or more times how can we help what can we do and a lot of times we find out different things maybe there's something more going on the in the family that we weren't aware of maybe it's h something going on with chronic illness or so forth but getting that conversation going with our families about attendance showing them that it matters and also showing them how much it does impact their child daily is very vital um we're going to build on our current practices that we've been doing and communic unting with our families doing check-ins with them and then also implementing positive attendance incentives to support growth being made we not only do those for our students we do for our staff because we know having our staff there each day is also vital to Student Learning we have the awesomus attendance cart that's the most perfect attendance you could get to full of snacks for our kiddos and that goes to the class that gets chosen we also have our attendance unicorn charts and we also have our perfect attendance awards that go out to our students as well so we're really working hard to get our kiddos to know that we also um advertised a lot about attendance on our social media um because we know it's really important to have them at school and I will stand for questions thank you for the presentation um it sounds like through a lot of the things you discussed and outlined this is probably going to be what's going to address these two areas but just curious do you have anything in particular in mind regarding the aasa ELA score like increasing that score as well as increasing the aala proficiency by 3% for El students yes so I'm going to talk a little bit about the ELA first so uh with the ELA specifically we actually dug down into specific grade levels and certain kids identifying where we need to really tighten up on tier two and then also which grade levels we need to tighten up on how are we doing our tier one what's going on in our classrooms what assessments we're using the check for understandings really came out for us to see that we needed to do them throughout instruction and then also providing all of our teachers with what are those great things within learning that we need to do in every classroom so we will be doing a lot of goal setting with some of the grade levels that we want to make sure that we're making that growth with as well modeling that and supporting them as well with the um aella a big important thing for us for aella is that our pool of students that are taking that is is smaller um but we found out through some of the work we're doing is that we need to really dig in and say what is the AEL testing for our students we know the Isel has four parts and we know they have to have an overall composite score to pass all of them so which parts are holding our students back and what does that look like and sound like for instruction if I know the students being held back from the writing portion how am I supporting that in the classroom during integrated instruction and targeted instruction and we are really diving into that to talk about what does it look in our classrooms and also how is it assessed to make sure our alignment is there just like we do with our other academic areas so that's a lot of professional development we're doing a lot of data digs a lot of consistent work we're continuing to do with our teams and do you find that like you use those same strategies and things across the curriculum for those kids so if it's writing doesn't just have to be in English it can also be helping support in writing with like science and social studies things like that absolutely cross-curricular for sure yes definitely um thank you for that can you think of any challenges that you guys have as a school that you want to Target I think for me is um for our school is we want to always make a Year's growth or more and so that Ela that's that's a big one for us AI um AI for us because it's Fifth and eth grade we have had a lot of conversations specifically about we know that the fifth grade students are taking it but those standards that they're being tested on in fifth grade are actually third grade standards so how are we ensuring that we as a staff are really hitting those standards in those grade levels previous to there because they are not retaught they just get tested in fifth grade or vice versa in eth grade so really talking to our staff and digging in deep with that and our staff was very um in-depth with this when we dug into it and we had some great things that came out in summer workshop during the science workshops that we shared we have a steam leadership team that's really doing a lot of work with that this year too to show them like how those standards if we don't teach them here they will not come up but they're going to be tested again so definitely we're doing a lot of work with that I appreciate all the detail you put into this I it it um it's uplifting to hear so I appreciate all the work that you're doing and I absolutely love the um the positive reinforcement yes with the with the tickets and how that's we know that is just incredible a shape Behavior where we want to have it so great job thank you for sharing thank you thank you thank you madam president if I could um first I'd like to thank Miss Hester and Miss Cruz on great presentations the exciting thing and I think you're going to start hearing it um and those you've been on the journey with us the last couple years you're really starting to hear um the growth from the summer workshops and the professional learning communities and digging down in that data an analyzing the data where our where are our students at what are they learning what do we need to do if they're not learning and you're really starting to see that Blossom um it's exciting to hear it uh we are working on solid instruction with that and making sure our teachers are the best they can be in the classroom and with all this as we continue to put all our resources in that um the outcome is increased student learning so um we're excited about this process and I think you'll see that as we go through the year as a theme through all of it thank you um I agree I definitely seeing a theme and um just hearing um different language in the presentations and how you're presenting the data to us it it's it's refreshing to to hear that it's being tied back into the standards always and and that you're you're ad adapting and you're changing and you're making sure that our students are successful for these assessments so I appreciate that okay moving on to item H2 Dr Cotto thank you madam president moving on we have a quick update on our enrollment and Staffing for this year and Mr mattingley will be doing our presentation uh thank you Madame President governing board members uh my presentation is based off uh just a simple update on enrollment and Staffing but before I do and you get to hear this in got some feedback sorry about that I have to recognize uh someone real quick Kevin Shipman he's our planning administrator if he's in the room could you stand up stand up there you are I'm going to share something with the the governing board in my 20 years in HR I've never seen what I'm getting ready to tell you or I've never experienced it and that is a 05% off Mark of projection of student enrollment every District uh has a extremely difficult task at the beginning of the year to project what their student enrollment is going to be and so I just wanted to make sure we recognized Kevin Shipman and how accurate his projections were it it makes a difference in everything we do mainly with our finances if we miss the mark by three or 4% it could it could be really damaging and typically you're around 1 to 2% Kevin this year is at0 5% off pretty impressive and I mean really impressive thank so I just wanted to thank Kevin and his hard work and the team he serves and thank you for all your do so so with that let's get on to this data uh this is 10th uh day data uh this is what basically we say 10th day because it's the drop and we wanted to show a comparison of last year's data and this year and as you can see the four categories on the left is accordingly and then overall the aggregate data is we're 57 students up compared to last year that's what the aggregate all right that's from pre uh prek all the way to our high school students okay uh the next uh slide here is I just want to show you some of the work uh prior to me getting here uh the human relations department is engaged in in managing uh either hires transfers within a position or a DAC that means going to a different School different department uh so about 814 uh moves are attention to detail on a particular employee uh pertaining to either hire or transfer so that's quite a bit work and and definitely uh kudos to the human relations department uh that manages that uh so that's just the work labor effort since January 31st of 2024 the next slide is now we'll get into our vacancies right now we have a vacant position in high school our math position uh our K8 teaching positions are around six positions total toal and vacancies and this is August 16th data this is when I submitted it to be processed to Jenna uh and then our remaining teaching SL certified positions you can see there those there's a total of about 10 different titles with different FTE allotted to them with vacancies uh and then these are our remaining classified vacancy titles which is about a total around 20ish uh 2ish titles that have vacancies I I was kind of just scanning uh this today uh bus drive we we have no vacancies in bus drivers so that's should be removed I can't remove it so I think that's a reflection of of the great transportation department that's going on and the culture that's being built by Danny there the director as well as uh some movement that took place a couple of years at this governing board engaged in improving uh salary schedule that is hard to beat so I just wanted to give uh credit to the governing board along with John Coto who was a part of that uh move so uh last uh the recruiting efforts uh I I have to share with you that this isn't possible without uh relationship and a partnership with our public relations uh department and you can see the different uh things that um events activities uh approaches to our recruiting efforts uh one of the uh things I'm really proud of that this governing board has approved is the employee referral program it is word word of mouth is your best way to recruit and when you have a culture like we do in our Unified School District it's easy to sell the product and get people to come work for us hence the low numbers you saw today so with that uh I will stand down and take any possible questions thank you very much can you remind us what the referral program incentive is uh yes ma'am uh so it's when a uh there's certain like cabinet does not qualify Administration uh principles do not qualify but other employees qualify if they refer somebody and we hire them it's a total $500 total that they would be paid out but it' be broken up in two different stiens and that is the first three months of retainment of that employee would be $250 $250 and after an additional three months after that for a total of six months being retained with the district they'd get the other 250 for a total of $500 okay thank you thank you for for your presentation it's very encouraging to see a small amount of vacancies I was going to say the same thing that's amazing so thank you to all that were involved in all of our recruiting efforts and retention efforts I mean this is incredible um especially when it comes to bus drivers I wonder how many districts can say that they're fully staffed with bus drivers I mean there was a time when we had a lot of vacancies in our transportation department so I appreciate I appreciate all the work everybody's put into this and I will say as we're looking at the recruiting efforts in this list on here I of course brag up dard any chance I get and I was at work the other day and I was trying to find I think one of the best videos we've ever created which is the one that says inspire me I can't find it Ryan we have to we we need to redo that we need to resurrect that's like the best and I it's things like that efforts like that like from all different aspects of our district and different departments everybody has such a huge um part in in getting where we are and just thank you all because if if we're not fully staffed then our students aren't getting the absolute best experience that we want them to have so thank you all very much appreciate it I'd like to add to the whole piece um and you'll see this in your update this week but it fits in perfectly with this that the district um has been awarded by Forbes um list of America's best instate employers so that will will be coming out uh in Forbes Magazine pretty quick um and they have a thing and I have more details for you in you update but the dier district is listed as best in state employers for 2024 by Forbes so another reason to celebrate awesome thank you um with the with the vacancies do we have any um areas that are more critical than others right now as far as maybe a larger number of vacancies Madam president Gover board members first I'll say this as you know everything's extremely critical right now especially with the shortage of staff and it's not just teachers it's classified it's admin it's across the board education right now is not that attractive to the consumers looking to build a career and so that's a very difficult but I would say you'd find more of your uh special ed needs is is where are our challenges are at the most okay thank you okay we're good all right moving on to information item H3 Dr croo thank you madam president tonight we have an information or excuse me a presentation on the information on family education rights and Privacy Act otherwise known as furpa and Mr mcy will be presenting this to you Madame President members of the board Dr C um and bringing you information on uh this this particular uh law and and really the information surrounding it uh furpa as it's uh referred to uh quite frequently uh a prerequisite I would tell you anytime you're talking about furpa this is something that within the education world and what we do um it's it's uh embedded in many of the trainings that we do at the beginning of the year especially with those that interact with records uh in the front office it's Revisited each year during registration trainings and with our administrators so it's a vital part of ensuring that we're following this uh furpa is that federal law that protects privacy of educational records for students um and you can see on there the history of it it started in 1974 uh and it applies to all schools that are receiving funds from the US Department of Education uh and really when you think about that too is that uh uh there's the other one you'll hear sometimes herpa and other types of well all types of those laws that are really protect protecting uh Records when you're dealing with an institution so where can you uh where can I find the info on this particular law it's actually embedded in these particular policies you will see that in the policies that we have 5-33 is the main uh policy you're talking about under uh a with Student Records the annual notification five uh the 303b uh directory information and then um the third one you'll see on there 303c there's the Student Records uh and that's any request to amend records and a hearing procedure so diving into that a little bit more here's some key rights that you have under furpa you have rights to access so a parent um um or eligible students uh can inspect and review the students educational records so that particular parent has rights to those records parents and and when you think about any request to amend those those only the only people that can amend a student's records is the parent or student that can request uh Corrections uh that could be like an emergency contact things like that but it could be a variety of things um within their records that we hold right to consent or disclosure of that information the school must obtain written consent before disclosing personally identifiable information okay and that would be uh anytime we identifiable information is that's the parent parent who is owns that information so if we were ever to be releasing that and you talk about with some except exceptions you're talking about some very uh and those are very specific legal grounds that would be involved whenever you're giving out uh information uh when you would say there was an exception and then the right to file a complaint a parent student can file a complaint with the Department of Education if furpa is violated so if we ever were to violate that and give out information on a student that's why we record information student a and student B that's why we uh deduct information and and other things like that to protect uh students these are the types of uh educational records uh so it's any information that's directly related to the student and these are a variety of examples that you would see uh grades transcripts anything that's uh dealing with those academic pieces the the class rosters student schedules you'll see disciplinary Rec contained in there um any of your contact information student emails um it could be extracurricular activities you'll see advisory enrollment um any of their health records are immunization and uh also Student Financial information here are some of the exceptions as I mentioned earlier but these give you some specifics what cons when consent is not required school officials with legitimate educational interests um you also will see other schools where the student seeks to enroll okay so that could be when they're releasing because it's like a college opportunity or things like that certain government authorities for audit or evaluation purposes um letter D there health and safety emergencies obviously if we're in a situation where we need to provide some type of support for that student in that situation uh to a medical official and then there is directory information that is contained in there and that's unless we do the opt out so sometimes you get into the opt out piece when you talk about that where parents always have the right to opt out of uh for example the asab test they can say I want to opt out for my information to go to go out to the um to colleges and Military and things like that so there is the opportunity for parents to do that and we always contain that that is a requirement that we give them that ability to opt out and we hit that every year with parents it's part of our acknowledgement process what does that information include on the directory information students name address and phone number the date uh and place of birth um participation in uh any of those activities in sports as mentioned uh any dates of attendance and the degrees or Awards received so that's directory information that could be uh that could be provided the opt out option schools must inform parent students of their right to opt out and that's what I was mentioning earlier it's a very important piece to this process uh it also can it also involved any when we do pictures in the yearbook things like that so parents do have all those rights and we make sure we adhere to that each year um and that's always contained in there so you'll see it with uh you know the one question you'll get on that is a lot of times is what if the kid's participating in sports once you've decided to be in a public form like that that Chang es the game a little bit because now you put yourself out into the public eye like if I'm playing on the football team so it can it can be that people could have taken pictures when you're there but during the school environment at school that's where it's obviously we protect that in our school environment most common SC scenarios in uh um when we talk about discipline uh this is what it could look like there's a conflict between student a and student b as you can see there we would mention what's happened to student um student a and students A's mother was uh um inquires as to the punishment of student B so we will list it as that um then you'll see as those are um explained underneath first the school cannot confirm the name of student B we cannot release that second even if the parent knows the identif of student B they're not allowed to know the other students's consequence so we never will dis you know disclose that information and let them know that okay even when they when they bring that up in the conversation uh and that note at the bottom there as you'll see in both instances the information is personally um identifiable information about a student which is specifically protected uh unless any exception exists and again those would be extreme situations so I will stop there and open it up for any questions you might have I have a few questions um moving back to that that last slide um that was a big part of why I requested this this item um but I am curious and I understand everything that's presented here but I'll just give you a hypothetical um if if my child is in a conflict with another with another student as a parent am I able to request a description of the circumstances that my child will be going back into in other words can I ask and be told whether the other student student A or B whatever we want to call them whether they will be within access to my child will can that at least be shared Madame President uh absolutely there is a conversation of contact with the other child so we will have those conversations um depending on obviously the severity of what we're talking about here so if it's something where we say that they're in the same classroom we might have a conversation even where we talk to the teacher about that we don't want those students in contact with each other working in the same groups in the room right going more extreme it could be that we we would actually have the conversation about the movement of a child and also the elements of or even just it could be as simple as what's happening at recess or at lunchtime but we we can always talk about the contact uh piece and it could be more EX than that where it's actually that there is a separation uh in place that we will enact and then we we also make sure that the staff that are only the staff that are involved with that would be the ones that would be notified so that they could enforce it okay thank you and additionally if it was a maybe a more extreme situation where there might be a an order of protection involved between one student and another um that would be honored obviously within our capabilities and then um and and if we weren't capable then maybe uh other OPP opportunities would be provided yes Madam president uh we have to honor those orders of protection especially when when those come in from a court order we are required to honor all court orders so um it it will a lot of the court orders that I have seen in in my past have been ones that will say that the students are to have no contact on the campus so we have to then pay attention to to the scheduling and normally it's at the high school level we hope we yes and and so you'll you'll make sure that no classes lunch is different things like that but we also give the directive to both of those students not just to the student that it was it was telling to stay away from but it's also to that student you're not to make contact either and that's also part of that directive okay all right thank you the other um piece and and I actually wasn't even expecting you to say this um but the directory information uh you mentioned the uh the asbab testing and I know that as a as a board member I get that question every single year from freaked out parents why is my child required to do this and I always say Well they're not required well the school says that they are um so w with that said um if you are to opt out from the directory information because you have that in mind do you then potentially lose out on other opportunities then from this I mean or is it a is it a menu of options that you're opting out from is it a general opt out Madame President and I don't have the the form in front of me with specifics on ASAP I will tell you though that you can opt out specifically for the military piece asfb is scores that the student is released to the student so the student can make the choice to send those scores for other things so if there's a specific um uh you know technical school or something where they want that information to go to that can benefit them for financial you know opportunities to go to that school then that would be that those scores are always available to the student um by the school to make sure that those can be sent to that that organization but the military pieces always an option for opt out I want to make sure that maybe I didn't present the question correctly um taking the test is that opt out we honor the students who do decide to uh to opt out and I will I will I will defer to Dr asai on that one as well okay we would always honor a parents desire to opt out of asbab perfect okay awesome thank you I may want to add it right then yeah but I may want to add to that that it is one of the things that our schools are graded on by the state of Arizona and the Department of Education that the number of students that we have take the ASVAB test is a criteria in our state labels if you remember back to when we did that um it is one of the indicators that the Arizona Department of Education uses okay so that's another reason why we encourage everybody to take it that seems like a silly requirement considering everything but okay I don't want to get to off topic anything else anybody please have a couple of quick questions um when you talk about under right of access it says parents can inspect or eligible students what would be an eligible student going back to I'm AG three maybe there I'm sorry was this the one you were referred to yeah the very first one it says parents can review or oh I'm sorry yes yes uh and and I'm going to also if I'm if I uh miss the Mark I know I'll get help on this one I as I know I've interpreted this particular P piece to right to access uh member Grant is that um eligible students because the student who's actually it's their own record or it can be because there is emancipated students as well and so they have the rights to their own record so they have the they are the eligible students that are involved with when we say parents or the eligible student that's actually able to see those if it's a record about them about an event or an incident we may have to redact information but they do get to see what was uh what the event was about okay and then could you expand on exceptions to the written consent it says school officials with legitimate educational interests could you please talk about that a little bit more the uh school officials with legitimate educational interests um that when we say uh uh educational when there's and and I'm going to again I'm going to give a couple of examples but school officials uh this could be uh this could be an administrator that's involved when we say a school official because they're making a decision about the the child uh specifically um and in some cases even an SRO um we might consider them one of our school officials that has to make a a decision based on the educational interest and for the family in gathering information that can also include counselors um as they're looking and and schedules are planning and things like that so I had a couple of questions kids talk right so even though that the record is going to say student a and student B if student B's mother calls and says well I want to know who student a is we can't give out that information right but if student's mom says oh I know student b or I know student a was suie I know it I know it because my kid told me I know who it is and what are you going to do about it we would respond with I'm sorry but we cannot disclose that information and even if a parent is insistent that with this altercation they don't want their child involved with the person they think is student a whether it might be it might not be um how would we handle that if a parent came in of student B and says well I know it's I know student a is Suzie because my kid told me and my kid's best friend told me and everyone's sitting at at the table told me so I don't want them around each other anymore how would we address that yes Madam president member Chaffin um what I would tell you is is that uh in those situations we are always trying to be solution oriented these are great examples because these are scenarios that we actually bring to our administrators to walk them through of how to have conversations with parents uh anytime that they're approaching that where they're asking us about the you know the specific interactions um we will obviously we will direct that towards we need to find a solution for your child we can talk to you about your child's specifically and we want to find a way to make sure that they're comfortable so in that conversation if there's something you're asking us to do do we need to have a staff member speak to that would you like to come down and have that conversation with your child in the room um and maybe we talk about where they're sitting at who they're interacting with and if we need to make any kind of adjustments to their you know when it could be when they're when they're being you know where they're eating at other things like that that we can assist with in that process thank you and then one more quick question are we just approved sending our students data to the state schools as an opt-in process correct through the the state schools we just had a discussion but parents have to opt into that correct yes we did we're actually hitting pause pause on that for right now though even though it was approved we will be pausing on that okay thank you I was just going to ask how that related to furpa but if it's on pause thank you very much I just want to thank you for outlining furpa um and so and then sharing that how limits of information the limits that the district has on what information can be shared and not shared and I'm hoping it'll give our community a better understanding of why the district is unable to answer um certain questions pertaining to the stories they may see on the news or social media that it's not a matter of the district wanting to avoid difficult discussions it's just a matter of following the law and protecting the privacy of our students um I know as a board member and a member of this community I can assure you that the district um is very uh mindful of just taking issues pertaining to students very seriously whether it pertains to injuries or allegations against students or staff I can honestly say that our superintendent um makes personal calls to each one of us to update us throughout the process gets guidance from the attorney as appropriate follows applicable laws District policies but he's always putting the safety and the well-being of our students first um so following the presentation I'm hoping that our community will feel um that despite what they may read on social media the district is working within the limits of the law to investigate all the concerns it just may not be at the speed that people would like it to be but it's a matter of doing it right and responding lawfully so um and I know too that I'm probably not the only board member that when I hear something or see something on social media I called the superintendent right away way um so you've got not only a very Mindful and concerned superintendent C cabinet staff that obviously takes student injuries incidents allegations very seriously but you have five people up here that were elected by your community to be your voice and um work in the best interest of students and I know I'm not the only one that when we see things we act on them immediately because we care about the students as well so um again just want to make make sure that it's not that we don't want to respond um it's just that we have to do it in a specific manner following all laws and policies and I can tell you that um there's been several things on social media lately and I can tell you with 100% certainty that many of them are false or lacking huge pieces of fact-based information so I just I appreciate you outlining that further so people can understand the laws behind why people may not be getting the answers that they like but people are getting answers it just may not be the speed that they would like so I appreciate all the time you put into this I really appreciate your comments Miss Pritchard um I I did have one other um question just just for transparency sake we mentioned our school resource officers um and I see here you know know for health and safety emergencies I just want to clarify um if we have a student with um with with special needs that might not be acting um with typical um Behavior you know if we if we have an officer that might think that that a child is having a medical emergency would maybe that is like their Norm are we able to communicate um anything with our officers whether it's an SRO or SSO about their U maybe a medical condition or something that might cause them to behave a certain way um Madam president I can answer that we work in conjunction with our law enforcement so yes if it's a medical emergency as you see there um it's on a local campus it's um crucial that they're working with our Administration when they see and they and they provide that information back and forth they're in constant communication and if a child's health is in danger absolutely would share that information okay if their health is maybe not in danger so in other words if if we're going into lockdown for instance um and a child is not behaving the way that the the other children are behaving and maybe is not going under a des because they they're unable to for whatever reason are are those things being communicated uh they are being communicated um they're unable to um behave the the way a normal student would behave in certain circumstances yes we are in communication about that perfect okay thank you and I might add too A lot of times um they know because our our ssos and our SRO are amazing because they do develop um those relationships on campus and they start to really know their campus so um they really know what's going on in their campus and they they're out there they're constantly talking with kids so they know a lot about the campus um even before that so and it's important that that we note that about our officers thank you very much for adding that I appreciate it any other comments okay thank you U moving to item i1 Dr crto thank you madam president um tonight we bring to you the recommendation to improve revisions of our trust model policy and adopt policy 5107 which is the purplle star schools you know we had the first purple star school in Arizona with uh Luke which they are now a purple star school so there's a policy coming out um it's important to note here this is not our normal cycle of review with our policies these are trust policy revisions that come out every summer from the trust so there's either a law or a legislative act or some wording that the trust um has found that these policies need to be um reviewed or changed um we will still conduct our policy reviews as we do every year and go through each section with the governing board so these are the revisions that are being um recommended by the trust at this time so um and you can you've had those again we some of those are additions the 5107 policy is an addition of a total new policy on purple star schools so with that um we will stand for any questions you may have on any of those policies I'm just curious on the purple star do we have any schools that are interested in and applying besides going besides Luke that already went through the program do we have any other schools that are interested Madam president member Drake we do actually um uh Freedom traditional um has expressed interest in applying for purple star as a matter of fact they've met with our Luke Air Force Base leison about um opening the school to some of the military children that are interested in going there and um Miss Wolford is looking at the steps needed uh to be the next purple star school in our district so awesome thank you I have a couple um in regard to 4204 for mandative reporting um I just want to I know I ask this almost every time it comes up I just want to confirm again that we don't have any procedures in any of our schools that that require the the teacher the staff member to go through their nurse or maybe their counselor or principal to make the report that they make it themselves um that that is correct and I Mr Man can answer Madame President gun board members absolutely uh the the other piece is uh the main focus of that was to ensure that school districts are reporting to ad as well for unprofessional conduct from our staff and that was uh the big to-do on this one but yes you know as far as the other piece yeah okay because I know that um it wasn't long ago that I I I became aware of a situation where staff were being told to no it's been a while since I was told that it would go have to go through a nurse or the principal but not too long ago staff were um instructed to kind of keep documentation and kind of monitor for a while and I just want to make sure that we're clear and perhaps it's the beginning of the school year maybe this can be worked into a next Monday PD I would guess I would ask Dr Cody make sure everybody is fully aware that it's not anyone's job to ensure that the abuse or neglect happened it's any suspicion so there should never be a log of possible concern if there's a concern it needs to be reported so I just want to make sure that that's happening and that understanding is Crystal Clear um Madame President uh member Pritchard um that is clear and and they get this mandatory reporting also in dier Essentials so every employee is presented with that information and has to review that every year year and the part of the 4204 it's not a change but if you read about the child abuse reports it says um that they shall immediately report this information to a peace officer or DCS Department of Child Safety so um it is clearly in there and we do review that yearly with all employees and daer Essentials do all employees that are employed with daer take disert Essentials or are some excluded well um I'm glad you asked that so um there are times where right now we are trying to make sure that all employees do that so we are going through that system um sometimes we have some subs in there that are in our system or not in our system so we're working on processing that is Our intention to make sure that all employees do dier Essentials so maybe in the meantime I mean would it hurt at an upcoming Monday PD since we know not everybody's in the system quite yet with d Essentials that this reminder be mentioned so all staff can hear it we could do that thank you and then the only other question I had was 5105 and that was just more of a question so can for open enrollment can disciplinary records be considered when deciding whether to Grant open enrollment Mr mcy would you like to take that or would you like me to answer that uh Dr Coto I can I can assist with it and I'm sure you'll you'll help me if I'm there's anything I'm missing but uh when we talk about Open Enrollment uh really that we cannot consider uh I'll say it this way is that discipline records are not a criteria for an open enrollment student um however when the student is enrolling it's important that our administrators work meet with the the family to talk about those disciplinary records that may be coming in so it allows us to create an appropriate plan for that student coming in but legally we can't deny an enrollment an open enrollment uh practice because of their disciplinary procedure now if you're talking about if we're talking about there's certain types of discipline like long-terms or other things like that that changes the criteria do we have and this was not under this Administration so tell me maybe it was incorrect but um I thought for and it might have been Freedom don't quote me 100% that students who enroll or who um express interest in becoming a student at predom and that when we were doing that process process they disciplinary records were reviewed like you weren't guaranteed enrollment based on if you were coming say from another District school and had a lot of disciplinary issues that used to be an issue that used to be a criteria I don't know whoever M Madam president member Pritchard it may have been in the past um it is not legal to do that we do not do that now that cannot be a factor in ruling out um open enrollments in our district okay thank you sorry are you are you saying from another District or are you saying within District before it was see if I can try to find it okay I I just have a question or request for followup for more information um on 5404 with the administration of none um specifically there's a question on whether or not the there is a standing order for Health Care Professionals I.E our School nurses to administer it under their scope of practice so I would just like a followup for more information on that um with that said I also know that historically this is so far uh we're very fortunate that this is a non-issue um but we we know that the the risk of that of something like that happening with an opioid overdose on one of our campuses is is greatly um heightened um so I would just like more information around the um the healthc Care Professionals restrictions if any on administering the lock Zone Madam president I will research that and get that to you thank you any other discussions okay I move to approve policy revisions and Adoption of trust model policy 5107 as presented who seconded first motion carries thank you moving to item I2 Dr croo thank you madam president our last presentation to the uh this evening is on our Arizona State um Arts proficiency seals so Dr asai will introduce our speaker it is my pleasure to introduce our director of Fine Arts Mr Marinelli who will go over our Arts fine seal or our Fine Art seals sorry it's a mouthful good evening Madame President governing board cabinet and Community tonight sorry is that better tonight we are bringing information to the board on the Arizona state seal of Arts proficiency and approval for the continuation to administer the seal it's been a few years since we brought this seal before the board um so I'm going to briefly touch on the purpose of the seal and its requirements um just as a refresher um and then there's been some minor changes as to how we've administered the um seal over the last couple years as we've had the time to kind of feel out how it works um so I will talk to you guys a little bit about what those changes are that we've done as a district um so just as a refresher here are the goals um set by the state and outlined by them um so ultimately I'm not going to read through all of these but it's to celebrate the Arts to celebrate our students that are participating in the Arts to recognize these kids that are going above and beyond as well as let them experience what the Arts could look like in their career and get them ready moving forward um past their High School careers these are the requirements set forward by the state for the seal um they need to have a GPA of a 3.0 or higher so a b average or higher in their qualifying Arts courses and or creative um Career and Technical education courses so we'll talk about what those are in just a second they ALS o need to have four minimum credit um requirements in one of the following ways it's a crazy formula um they need to have either four credits in one of the following artistic disciplines so dance music theater Visual Arts or media arts um or they can have three credits in one artistic discipline of the ones I just listed and one qualifying creative um CTE course or a separate artistic discipline so maybe three music and one art or three music and one photography um or they can also have two credits in one artistic discipline and two credits in either CTE or a different art form but they have to have one of those combinations there can't be a0 five in there it's got to be two and two three and one four all the way across the board um they also have to complete 80 hours of Arts related extracurricular activities in any Arts discipline not necessarily their own um and they need to complete a student Capstone project so so as far as approved courses um that meet the state requirements go any courses listed in the high school selection guide um coded as Fine Arts will count so they have to have the fa in front of their their course code um along with creative CTE courses following under the following Pathways so animation digital photography film and TV production and stagecraft those were determined by the state um and in order to meet that qualification by the state um they need to have their program standards um include essential Arts elements within the CTE courses so with that um I've attached for you guys the actual full um course list if you really want to look through all of them um great reading I've also attached in your packet a course proposal for three CTE Pathways that currently do not count towards the art steel at the state level I'm proposing to the state that culinary arts Aesthetics and hair styling Pathways qualify as creative CTE courses um this will allow us to capture more students um and like I said in order to qualify the program standards need to include essential Arts elements and standards and I believe at this time the courses in those Pathways do meet that requirement so I'm going to put it back in front of the state and see if we can get that changed the next piece is the Capstone portfolio project um these are all the pieces of what they consider qualifying as that Capstone Pro uh project so a Capstone portfolio is a project-based learning opportunity for students to showcase the culmination of their knowledge while fostering Real World skills and experiences the portfolio and process should encourage Learners to apply their knowledge and Mastery of the Arizona Arts education standards in a way that interests them and furthers their individual goals and lastly through the Student Art um or through the student Capstone portfolio students should demonstrate their artistic literacy through their ability to create perform present produce connect and respond as an artist so this again is what has been set forward by the state so this is the part that we've kind of changed throughout the course of the the five years that we've been administering this seal um we have moved um to a portfolio requirement instead of a singular Capstone project um we have found that doing a culminating digital portfolio over the course of four years is showing us the students growth much better we're getting a better product we're incorporating writing we're getting to do a whole bunch of different pieces that kind of Encompass what the kids have done over the course of their four years we've built it into their semester finals and end ofe finals so regardless of if a student their freshman year planning on applying for the art seal they're still building that portfolio folio so by their senior year kids that automatically qualify because they've met those four credit um requirements they don't have to sit there and go back and do this huge Capstone project they've built it over the four years regardless so we're capturing more students and getting a better quality and those students that maybe don't meet it and can't you know qualify for the art seal they still have a beautiful portfolio that they can utilize for college entrances they can use it for any workplace um Arts positions that they're working towards so um within that portfolio this is the minimum of what we require all of our students and teachers push them obviously to go much further but it needs to include a student biography their student artistic resume um which is where they put all their extracurricular activities as well um and four examples of commun cumulative excuse me student work um in a reflection so one per credit hour or a year of study and then their future goal statement so that cumulative student work looks like them putting in samples of their cont concs throughout their year the samples of their solos any individual projects they've done and then they write one large reflection on their growth that's outlined by a bunch of standards that we've put into that slideshow for them so the fun stuff the numbers um here is our data over the last five years so I've given you guys two different charts um the first chart is the Statewide data this is provided to us by the state um starting in 2019 was when we first began this um so five years ago now um and then below is below that is our district data so you can look vertically and kind of see where we're at so 2019 um we started with 47 seals administered last year we ended with 228 seals administered of those 228 seals we had 22 students double seal and one student triple seal the year before we had two students triple seal fun fact all three of them are sisters runs in the family um but the neat thing is is they spent a lot of time um in I School taking their core and other stuff so they could spend their High School careers truly just focusing in on the Arts so that just tells you how dedicated these kids are um so we're very proud of that additionally that first year in 2019 we were third in the state for the amount of seals um that were administered this last year um we were first in the state the next closest to us was Tempe Union High School school district with six high schools um and they had 179 seals so not only did our numbers come close to doubling we also were nowhere close to the next school um and the schools that are below us are all High School Union districts which have a lot of high schools that we don't necessarily have so we're proud of that and I attribute that again to my teachers the counselors that the schools were really pushing um and getting the kids in the right classes as well as the the administrators on the campuses so we appreciate their hard work and we will continue to work towards this with that I've provided you some links that I'm not going to go into but if you have any questions I would take those I do I'll go first I just wanted to say thank you because if anybody has an idea of the things you do on a daily basis I was there I was there watching D take a personal PTO day so she could set up for the Arts Festival she's like all right I'm going to be sick on Friday so I can set up for the Arts Festival uh the principal's going to let me in and yes so I very few have more dedication and more competence and intelligence and you we better take PTO day to help set up the Arts this was years ago years ago before I in this Ro before I was in this Ro yes this was when she was still a teacher she was still a classroom teacher but she was head of the no no she was a classroom teacher but she was also the music team lead and she like every time there was a festival or something or other she'd be like you I'm going to be sick on Friday just so you know anybody else who wants to come hang out after school I I'll be there but it's and you're incredibly knowledgeable and very skillful at what you you do it's because you care about the students you care about the teachers you're involved and I just wonder how you have all the energy to do everything there a lot of caffeine today yeah but I did want to ask a question can you maybe highlight for everybody who's not a music art teacher what are the benefits for our students for obtaining this seal absolutely um so one of the big things is that any of these students that want to continue to go into the Arts in college it's not like an education major where you just go decide you're going to be an education major and sign up for the school and take the classes as a music major as an Arts major as a theater major you have to audition to get into the School of Arts um and so they are looking at everything you've done in your high school career so your regionals um any of your auditions that you've done your portfolios so by them creating this portfolio they're a ahead of those kids that are auditioning as freshmen um into colleges so that's one piece it's recognized around the state so this is a state seal not a national seal like the Seal of by literacy um so our three major um public universities all recognize the art seal so that is another notch on their resume when they're coming in to apply for these schools um students that are not going into the Arts and you know not everybody's going to go and be a music Ed major um leads to being a music person you know our our theater kids you know will go and do that and then come back and work in the theater so they're not all going to go do that um but those students that aren't just to develop the skills of building that portfolio and understanding what it takes shows the dedication even just to employers um and I would be remiss to mention that the addition of giving students chords um at the end of the year is also a really big thing that they just love so that does help they do get cores at the end of the year um but really ultimately it's it's what we're building in these students and that work ethic that we're building um and then being able to display their thought process and reflection over their four years and their High School career of what they have done and seeing that portfolio from that freshman year in you know those drawings to where they wind up when they're turning in their AP portfolios it's you just see the growth um and that alone is the benefit and the kids really get into it if I I would have loved to include some of the portfolios but we just talked about furpa so um but their portfolios when you look at them and see they've they've put themselves into it it's just it's phenomenal to see it's really neat I appreciate that because you can get into the school you can get into na you can get into uova but getting into the art Department into the music department into the theater Department completely different story so just because you get in school it doesn't mean you're going to pass your audition so I I do appreciate all of the effort I was just going to say having two uh daart graduates one uh super bummed that she missed it by a year they didn't have art seal for my oldest but um definitely in the Arts uh inquire it was her thing um and then my my little one who's not little um was class of 21 so she was able to get her uh art seal but what I can say is just whether you know they actually get the seal or not as far as if they missed that cut off before we had this amazing program the Arts can just so enhance um even their academic we know that the studies with even music and math and you everything so when we talk about like you know the the um the perks of it or you know aside from just the amazing opportunities that your programs offer all of our students um in the moment you know it just build s like who they are and how they develop and how they interact with their world as well as helping with that academics piece and um you just work so incredibly hard I know you do I I I hear stories of of what you do um throughout the district and I just appreciate everything you've done for all of our di art students and we're just very fortunate to have you so thank you so much thank you did what everyone else said and thank you so much for taking all those sick days and just to be clear it was not not Dr croto that was in charge then um my my oldest was actually one of the first recipient so he was one of those uh one of those few uh the very first year and you know just to miss pritchard's point I mean the correlation between um you know knowing music I mean it really is another language so you're bilingual you know you're you're already AC and thought process and math and especially for these marching band kids talk about work ethic that it builds and the character that it builds and it's it's incredible um what our what our schools offer what our teachers offer and these kids come out of these programs I mean really truly better human beings all around it's not about um I mean you know of course to the kids it's about Winning State or going to state but it really is truly the experience of it all and the portfolio I just so appreciate you you you mentioning that I wanted just to ask a little bit it because I know that you know things change for students all the time whether it's you know personal life family life things happen if we have a student that maybe is going into um music or an art program their freshman year and then they realize maybe they're a little overwhelmed elmed and then they they have to pull back on some of those extracurriculars so maybe their sophomore year their junior year they're you know just catching up on core stuff to be able to graduate senior year they've got a little extra wiggle room they can put some of those back in if they are able to make it during the freshman year are we still are we requiring that portfolio to be created so if they're in the class that is final so if you're looking at the way that we've built it their freshman year for semester one they're building out their biography um and they're building the initial website I've given them all a template so it looks the same across the board from school to school because we wanted to really start aligning that so we weren't you know requiring a thesis over here and then requiring two sentences over here okay um so we do have that all aligned now um so it's if they're in the class they're making that portfolio as part of their their freshman year um same thing at the end of the year putting in their reflection if they take a year off it's the next time they take a class remember they have to have four credits right that's always going to be their final so regardless they're doing it somewhere in those four credits and that's the way we built it we built it so if your kid's at Shadow and then they transfer to you know Valley their sophore year the portfolio goes with them it's all loaded up the teachers just transferred over we're not losing any of the work um so it doesn't need to be consecutive in other words so you could have two of the freshmen and then two two senior yep and get okay so they're basically when I say four courses or four years depending on what they're at um it's at the end of that course they've built out their reflection for that course for that Year great okay thank you yeah absolutely thank you so much so on this part about 80 hours of art related extracurricular activities what would be considered some of those activities that's a lot of I mean I get it but what are some of the things they could do possibly y so it sounds like a lot of hours but if you know any of our kids they get that in their freshman year um so it's outside of school rehearsals it's participating in any of the concerts any of the festivals it's the work that the kids are putting in to create their portfolios outside of the school they do tons so volunteering at the festival would be 15 hours hours it's not even a question if any of these kids are hitting that that's the least of my concerns when we're going through and trying to prove stuff I was just curious because we have a kid maybe who's well not maybe but you know it's kind of hard to do some things after school if in the CTE program so they can't go to the clubs which I assume the club would be part of Club EXT rehearsals if you're not in a club because you're in a CTE program you can't get back for it so there are other things they can do there is yep even just attending a concert it could be outside of school they go and see the West Valley Symphony that's here on the weekend they bring in a program that's ours and when will you know if the department of Ed accepts these additional um requirements should you guys approve it this evening I will turn it in tomorrow to the state um and I'm hoping that in the next couple weeks we find out because it will impact the entire State well I think this is I mean this is a great idea because truly there there is some you've ever been I have been to the west nech and all of that and seen some of these things and it you got to be creative to do that stuff you have to have a vision anyway so thank you so much for all your work the have one more question go ahead sorry real quick does the courses that you mentioned um that were we will be approving or looking to approve tonight are we offering all of those courses now so everything in the the large list yes the three that I mentioned Aesthetics hair styling and um culinary arts well culinary I know the culinary we do the hair styling and I don't I'm not Jim um but if we're we don't have those programs on our campuses our kids go to westc and they still get the high school credit on our campuses for it so we'll be able to utilize those okay perfect thank you okay I was just curious how many students have signed up so far this at the beginning of this year do we have a a number so we I this is how I capture all the kits um I hand go through every students every senior's transcript um to find kids that have Arts courses look and see if any of their transcripts meet the qualifications and put them on a list if those kids are in class with those teachers they reach out to them they fill out they know that they're on track for the Arts seal those kids aren't currently in an Arts course but meet the qualifications the teacher that they took the most classes with becomes their Mentor teacher they tasked with reaching out to those kids or the counselors reach out to those kids to let them know that they're eligible and that we need them to go through with finalizing that portfolio again we built it into their final so they should have it ready to go um our seniors are our last class that didn't necessarily have it from the very beginning so they might have to do one or two extra things but that's how we're capturing all of them so I don't have it an actual list right now oh okay thank you Madame President if I could um first of all I want to thank da for all the hard work um she subtly the talked about the list a little bit um but if you didn't catch it um we have 228 art seals this year U there are 43 districts in this state that participate um and we are number one out of those 43 um about 133% of all the Arts deals that come out of the state come from this District um and that's her leadership that's her team she's put together that's the focus that they have on providing opportunities for kids and so um with that we say thank you thank you to you and your team for what you do um it's making a huge difference so I just wanted to point that out because she's subtly went over that as she presented the data but um it's important to her that's obvious and um we appreciate all the efforts so thank you thank you is this where we moved to give her a couple vacation days back second all right I move to approve the district continued participation in the Arizona State of Arts proficiency seal motion carries next we have item J1 request for future agenda items okay I move to adjourn the meeting Joe motion carries we are adjourned thank you

call the meeting to order will start with the pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I welcome everyone to the meeting tonight um all of those present in the room and also remind everyone that we are um streaming the board meeting um for this evening so we'll welcome those that are us um so we'll um start with a motion to accept consent agenda items motion by Earl do I have a second second by Travis any discussion all those in favor six o next we'll ask if anyone is present who would like to speak on any item that is on the agenda or any other topic hearing I believe we have some visitors we do and I am so pleased Coach Carter and soccer team so we have some very special guests to honor this evening so this is our High School boys soccer team and Coach Carter's with them as well and this group did something absolutely amazing um last week they were faced with an emergency that was unplanned and I have checked and Coach Ellison's okay if I Ed his name but one of our assistant coaches coach Ellison had a medical emergency and this team came together to quickly and efficiently perform life-saving measures they got the AED that was present on the field Coach Carter started performing CPR they worked as a team to get help connected through special services through important people at the school corporation it was just an all inspiring thing that they did and how they worked together as a team to accomplish it I am honored to be able to bring them here today and say thank you because they are really an inspiration to all of us we're very proud of them um we would like to recognize all of their hard work that they had their spirit store open right now and anything that's bought from the spirit store also gives money back to the soccer team and I believe it's open de through tomorrow night still um actually they closed it this afternoon okay well we'll look about opening maybe 24 more hours okay um if anybody else wants to go online and then we are going to order from um the spirit store as well and so the whole team and all of the coaching team will get one of their t-shirts and on the back we're putting teamwork saves lives um as as a slogan for them to have because we are so appreciative I know coach Ellison his family is as well but we are inspired by you so thank you for everything that you have already done and thank you for being such great human individuals we appreciate you would you be willing to walk around and Shake every can I get a picture [Applause] good job congratulations good job thank you thank you great thank [Applause] job I Coach Carter if you'd be willing to say anything and you know I I kind of had an inkling that you're going to do this so busy at school today that that it it escaped out of me um you know uh these boys were amazing I I I saw the the emergency right after it happened about 20 seconds after he went down I could hear him and I unfortunately have already been in that situation before so I as soon as I turned I knew what was going on I made it to him and I told those boys from some of them were really close to me but most of them were already headed to the bench and I said things one time and everything that I said got done instantly they did it those boys did it I did the CPR but I can promise you if those boys wouldn't had their heads on and weren't the the character that they are this whole thing would have been a lot different but the the Thanks goes to them more more than than to just me or to to me they're great K we're all very grateful for your actions that day thank you I think really quickly before you leave and before the boys leave um I think most everybody in here knows I'm I'm a nurse by trade um worked in healthcare for over 30 years um throughout my career what I can tell you is um early recognition um CPR early differ relation when an AED is present you know it's one of the reasons why recently um we did a campaign and really worked to make sure that we had more aeds within the school corporation all of those things give an individual the best chance at survival um if if you all wouldn't have been present and weren't thinking um and didn't weren't willing to act and it's scary it's it's scary for me I can't imagine um these young men and you right that's it's a scary situation to put yourself in um but um you all did a fantastic job all of you and I know some of them I can see and others are around the corner um you'll you'll never forget this right it it'll be something that lives with you um really for the rest of your lives but when you are put in that situation and you've done it then you're more willing I think the next time when there's an emergency to write to just know that this is what I have to do so thank you so much for all of you um for being willing to step up and and care for one of your teammates so thank [Applause] you so we um I was excited thanks thank you for asking them to come in and sounds like things are well and we um continue prayers um we'll um move down to Old business um under programs we had um some certified staff education tool approval so every year we have to officially approve the evaluation tool for certified staff so I informed last time I'm just going to briefly walk through there aren't any major changes to the tool this year the four sections still remain the same um planning and preparation is one section of the tool effective instruction is another domain um then there is professional practice in the classroom and in job role and finally the last domain is professionalism so those are the four main character uh four main areas we use for evaluation of certified staff the tool would remain the same for this year that's what we're asking for approval for so asking for approval of the evaluation tool for 2425 entertain a motion to approve motion by Maryland have a second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor 6 so now we're moving down under um property JC hsct project update yes we're getting closer every week we are very close in all areas but culinary they're putting the hood in they've started the hood install and they're still doing plumbing and a little bit of Plumbing in electrical on all the different stations and those type of things the all other areas of the uh renovation are we're going to be creating a punch list on in Monday's meeting and getting those completely finished out we're very close sign note I had the opportunity to get in the Sim lab and it is beautiful and really is what a what an amazing area for um the kids and the community members um because they're going to be impacted by the training goes on um I super excited about that you all have done a great job so thank you and we do plan an open house at when the Project's finished so we'll um when we ready for that we'll get a date set make sure to release that information so when move down under new business um under programs we have a prek programs update so updating you on our prek programs we did have three sites open up this year one of Brush Creek northrn Elementary and S Creek Elementary um all three programs are running well our goal was to have about 15 to 20 students at each site nve is full with 20 uh Sand Creek has 18 and currently Brush Creek has 12 so there are some openings if um there are any four-year-olds out there that need prek we do have some openings um all three sites are now on my way prek certified so we will be uh accepting vouchers for all three sites and then that's our next step is working with Amy Bishop our on my way prek um support person to make sure we help family get the applications completed and um give them the opportunity to have those vouchers now we are doing a beginning of the year assessments right now for our students so we will have updates um in the middle of the year and at the end of the year on how our our prek program is progressing any questions about pre just an update that wasn't in form so next we'll move down under I assessment update yes so tonight I'm going to share our I read results um for last school year those are officially released uh last week so jumping right into our data this is directly off um chalk be's website their news agency they do a nice job creating charts and so I wanted to share what they had displayed this is each of our elementary schools and our 2024 I read pass results compared to 2023 and on the far right you'll see the um percentage of change a couple things I would point out the state average pass rate was 82.5% this year most of our buildings um actually all but one of our buildings exceeded the state average pass rate um we had phenomenal growth scores so the state average growth was 6% so less than a percent you'll see that Brush Creek had 18% growth um Hayden at 2.9% Sand Creek had 32.5% I'm going talk more about San Creek in a moment and cpio had 12.3% um the state goal is for 95% or above passing rate that's what they're trying to move all schools to in a small school I will mention the difference of one child can change a passing rate so depending on the size of school you know you might float back and forth a little bit um so those are our overall District results we did note some support needed at one specific school and I'll I'll talk to what our plans are and efforts on that on that um next thank you so those are great growth results we are very excited about the growth in literacy and the important thing here is we're not talking about a test number we're talking about third graders who are literate and able to read which all statistics will tell you that is a key factor in making sure they have positive life outcomes so this isn't just a statistic to us this is a wonderful positive thing we're seeing for our kids so so what are some actions that we have been taking as a corporation to lead to our growth one is science of reading instruction and curriculum last year we offered a wide variety and even the year before professional development on science of reading um it's very phonics and um structured phic awareness based and we also provided a lot of resources to our K through2 teachers Sand Creek Elementary became a member of the Indiana literacy Cadre that offered a literacy coach in K through two specifically at San Creek and that Coach position is very unique in that it is involves a lot of co- teing being directly in the classroom co-planning and co- teing with teachers um we plan to expand that literacy Cadre involvement this coming year Brush Creek will be a member of the literacy Cadre and North Vernon Elementary has joined the litery Cadre um we also had after school tutoring available um last year we we had summer school for our third graders who didn't pass in the spring they had a summer school opportunity and then retested in the summer we saw success with that program and increased passing rates we will be expanding that this summer and offering the summer school for those who need literacy support in second grade as well so when second third our second and third graders that take the I test show they need additional support on the spring test we'll be having that summer school in the summer then we will be this year also having continued training for k through two staff on science of reading uh we had one intensive weekl long event um available for teachers this summer actually a couple of them uh and we'll continue that throughout the year and then we had a grant from the state a competitive Grant we applied for last year that we received for uh reading and we were able to provide uh robust reading resources based on science of reading for all of our K through2 classrooms um they all received about a truckload of materials um in this this last month so we very very excited about that so next please so I want to talk about Sand Creek a little bit sand Creek's done something pretty amazing um Sand Creek had the most growth of any school that joined the literacy Cadre in the entire State and not only that if you look at what non literacy quadre schools scor you'll see it's it's phenomenal Statewide type of data um among literacy Cadre schools the average growth rate was 2.5% among non literacy codre schools it was 0.