Reader

electon murphy.com and all our contact information is there fantastic well thank you so much for being on the views expressed really appreciate you coming to uh participate in our Governor's Council Forum as it were and um I thank the viewers of Ashlin for taking the time to learn more about this important office and to learn more about our candidates once again Mr Murphy thank you so much for joining us thank you [Music]

e it good evening all right I'd like to call the this i' like to call the governing board meeting of Wednesday August 28th to order it is 6:30 Lisa can do roll call Robert Downey Patty coutre present Tory Anderson present Amry no present camn Lopez present thank you and we have some special guests in the audience so I'd like to ask principal surfanic and the students from Santa Rosa to please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance that was absolutely amazing thank you all right I'd like to move on to the next item adoption of the agenda motion to approve as written I have a motion in a second Lisa roll call Carolyn Lopez I adory no I Tory Anderson I Patty crae I now we're to the superintendent report Dr lman thank you vice president coutre the first episode episode of the first episode this year of our podcast inside musd for the 20242 school year is now available on iTunes Spotify and our website in this episode CFO Jacob Harmon and I take a deep dive into the facts of the musd bond proposition 488 we know our voters have a choice and it's important to know this how this Bond impacts our schools and Community I encourage everyone to give it a listen for years musd has partnered with a local agency to provide essential food packs for our students however just before the school year began we learned that this partner could no longer continue their support musd staff quickly partnered with Maricopa pantry and Jim cha to create hope boxes filled with shelf stable items thanks to this collaboration each school including Maricopa virtual acad Acy received 40 hope boxes ensuring our students had the support they needed in July we shared exciting news about our AP program's exceptional results recently we shared recently we caught up with graduates including Joseph russello Timothy russello Aon hildick Haley Raphael and Ariana Baya who described how their AP Capstone courses at Maricopa High School prepared them for college and their careers as Haley Raphael put it I don't know where I'd be without AP research and AP seminar these courses not only helped her understand her learning style but also developed the study helped her develop the study habits that set her up for future success we have a quick video of another graduate story take a look I am a rising Junior at Duke University I grew up in mirac Copa Arizona I'm looking forward to becoming a um physician who also spends her time in the lab uh researching uh diseases uh as of right now I'm really interested in neurodegenerative diseases I think the ab classes have contributed significantly to Preparing Me for college especially at a school like Duke University uh that's really rigorous and fastpaced um I think they introduced to me the foundational skills I needed to learn how to study and um understand my own learning style and how does that work in conjunction with the teacher um as well as giving me the knowledge to be prepared for those entry level classes my freshman year and specifically my AP seminar class in the Capstone program is what introduced me to research from the beginning uh when I was a junior in high school and that's kind of how I fell in love with research and why going into college I immediately pursued finding a lab and getting started with research and Hands-On work um and from there I I still use the skills I learned in that class to this day um not just the writing skills in the researching itself but um learning how to be analytical and curious and and um as well as critical and you know make sure to look at different perspectives especially if you're working with data and how can you apply that um especially in a scientific lens so that was a like I said Maricopa high school graduate um and I that's my report thank you Dr lman all right governing board member reports member Lopez um have to excuse me I got new glasses and I'm not used to this yet so um I was able to go tour a couple schools last last week Friday it's all blending together um I was able to see two new schools one that was built from the ground up and then one that was a remodel and they were absolutely fascinating to me I love where schools are going what the technology the the architect everything about it just tickled my brain so much so had a lot of fun um won't go into too much detail with that I just I had a blast seeing all the different stuff about it I did go to maracle Wells girls volleyball game as well last week and they Rock I am so proud of the I I actually I told Mr Miller I need a T-shirt and maybe some pom poms something parents like who are you I'm by myself on the bleachers it was awesome I I look forward to going to all of our school sports that was the first one I could get to and we're at the beginning of the year so if you see me there that's what I'm doing um other than that I don't don't remember was there anything else I think that was it right that's it thank you member nor okay member Anderson thank you Miss Kray so it's been as you know school started everyone's crazy super busy I just I want to remind everybody to please please slow down around the school zones um it's our kiddos need to be very very cautious as well um just cars are are bigger than you so please please be very cautious um I just really precious lives are out there so please be careful um and then it's been a crazy week on on top of that so first of the week I participated in dignity healthc Care's um strategic plan which was quite interesting um seeing what their health concerns are and and narrowing down to the top five that we see across the valley so it was quite um it was very eye openening for me I had never been anything in that quite a large scope so that was um quite interesting I thoroughly enjoyed it and then um did tour the schools on Friday which was an eyeopener you know it people wonder how we can put you know preschool eighth grade on one campus um it's done very well and uh talk about really doing and creating a sense of community is was amazing I mean these kiddos were incredible I mean everybody took care of everybody so and these were large schools so um I'm excited to see what we can do um as a community and get our community involved in planning that process because uh you know we're growing and hopefully we're definitely going to put some schools in so and then um over the weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a um suicide prevention fundraiser and it was benefiting salari which we also um as a school district um participate with them but mental health is a huge huge impact on our society and so um you know salari is uh it's a free organization but they certainly help with the mental health they have toll-free numbers and they do have something which I didn't wasn't even aware of it's called a warm line which mean it's it's peer-to-peer so you can talk to somebody who is your same age um situation and I thought that was quite interesting um you can text um hope you can also text 988 which is the national hotline you know you can do that anytime 247 um and then there is our you know our tollfree which is 844 534 hope so talk to somebody uh because you're important to us so and that's what I have thank you Mrs Anderson uh I too was able to tour um all of the schools on Friday and um just co-signed with one my fellow board members shared with you um we have an amazing opportunity to build um some really Dynamic learning spaces for our students um but it needs to have that bond to go with it if we want them to have that wonderful learning experience and not cement floors No Ceilings and bl walls um which I don't think anybody wants to go to uh so again U make sure that you get that information regarding our bond um it's very specific to just building our schools renovating high school learning spaces it's not for programs it's not for Staffing so there's two different pots of money and and I think that's something that we can share with our neighbors and our community so that they understand the difference um and then and just encourage them to invest in our students so that's all I have so let's move on to our information study we have our our first classroom Spotlight of the year with Santa Rosa Elementary principal surfanic and her special guest good evening vice president CRA board members and Dr lman I'm here tonight to Spotlight the Santa Rosa dual language program and how we Bridge content in instruction this presentation align aligns to goal one every student graduates focusing on the strategy of educating the whole child with a gold standard signature program in the Dual language program students become effective communicators and resilient Achievers who determin who are determined have grit and persevere through academic challenges these skills directly align with maricopa's portrait of graduate in 2021 we began the Dual language implementation journey in preschool and kindergarten we started with a team of four two English teachers and two Spanish teachers refining and adding a team every year as a new grade level was added this year we're up to third grade the Spanish language classroom focuses on Spanish language arts math SC and science the English language classroom focuses on English language arts including Spalding and writing along with social studies the Santa Rosa dual language model runs a roller coaster schedule meaning that each cohort alternates the classroom their day begins in one day cohort a starts in the English classroom the next day the same cohort a will begin in the Spanish speaking in the Spanish classroom this allows for a consistent 5050 model 50% of the day is spent in each classroom speaking speaking the designated language when you walk into a Spanish classroom zero English is used the new math curriculum adoption has provided our dual language teachers and students with math instructional materials and student workbooks in Spanish adding supplementary science materials in Spanish allows us to maximize Spanish instruction in every content with the support of consultant and the determination of our teachers to provide our families with the best dual language program in the state we're moving towards the gold standard implementation our goal is to Pro provide different content instruction in each language focusing on bridging important academic Concepts and vocabulary students learn the same concept and academic vocabulary embedded into lessons in both languages this is called content bridging by applying with they have learned in both languages students understanding is more concrete and it is in English and in Spanish tonight's brief model lesson provides a glimpse into content bridging in the model lesson you will see the Spanish teacher Miss Munos focus on nouns in gram in a grammar lesson students will provide examples of nouns in the English lesson students will identify nouns from a reading passage from our English language curriculum wonders and also aligns to a social study standard of comparing various cultures that the class is exploring both teachers will embed Kean structures to maximize student engagement Miss Muno and Miss Talbert are in their second year as the second grade dual language team they intentionally plan for Content bridging of key Concepts I will turn it over to our dual language teachers and our students [Music] for fore spee spee foree last now your AB EX aade J in the spring of um this past this past spring we administered the first round of ofan stamp e assessment to all of our dual language second grade students the series of assessments are specifically designed for Learners in dual language immersion programs and focus on Reading Writing listening and speaking the goal is for students to be at level three High number noice or low intermediate at the end of second grade in the data table the green highlighted data represents the percent of students scoring at each level at or above the target proficiency this year we will use stamp assessment for students in kindergarten through third grade we were very proud of our first year data and look forward to continuing progress reviewing District assessment data fastbridge we see similar proficiency results in both math and El for dual language and non-d dual language students as we continue to refine the Dual language program we are focusing on a cohesive schoolwide approach this year we added Spanish special to our rotation this class provides all of San Rosa students with an introduction to Spanish and to cultural exploration non-dual language students begin to learn the basic Spanish language while our dual language students focus on conversational Spanish all of our students explore the various cultures across the globe we have a long way to go but we are well on our way to conclude this presentation I would like to share a few key takeaways shared by two of our dual language parents the program provides the tools and skills to be successful throughout the educational experience and students are provided with skills they will need to achieve success throughout their lives the program teaches students to think differently about learning and students are excited every day to go to school thank you for giving me the opportunity to share the great work our teachers and students are doing I will open it up for your feedback thank you they they are they're awesome you guys are awesome yes I just want to Echo that uh students you did a phenomenal job and uh parents thank you for allowing your students to be a part of this Premiere program I my youngest was one year too late she's one year too old to be able to join the Dual language program but it just makes my heart so happy to see that these students are excelling and that this program is available uh for our students in this community who choose to participate in it because it's such it's so important on so many levels uh knowing a second language is important but learning a second language at this age and what it's going to do for their brain development and how smart you guys are you guys are so smart because you're in this program and I just want to thank Dr lman and her cabinet for endeavoring and and principal Sanic and the teachers for endeavoring on a new program like this because doing something new is always scary and there's a lot of challenges um but we do it anyways right we do it anyways because the kids are worth it so thank you thank you guys for showing us your awesome Spanish skills I do have one question what challenges did you face um starting it out and what do you anticipate maybe as we continue to grow because you still have a couple more grades to add on to this um starting out really figuring out what the 50550 model is and how to implement it it's one thing to read Around yeah we did get it we it took us a little bit but yes first year we were doing a 5050 model without truly being a 50/50 model but um like I said I enter those Spanish speaking classrooms and um I am afraid to speak in English because you know um so that's one and sometimes Staffing is just finding the right person for the right team so that is and going forward I I think um you know we're well on our way so we're filling holes we're learning every year um through more professional development so um whatever comes our way we'll figure it out well thank you and students you did just an amazing job I'm so impressed and I wish I could learn how to speak Spanish maybe you can come teach me thank you so much thank you uh we are we can take a minute break if students want to leave but our next agenda item is really important to our elementary schools we're going to talk about our visitor aware so you are invited to stay you're invited to stay for the whole meeting if you'd like um but we understand if you'd like to [Applause] leave for e for I'm sorry I took her from you all right that was amazing our next agenda item um is is going to be very informative so for those who stuck around um for those that are sitting in the back please feel free to move up on front all right U it is item 4B uh visitor aware um Miss Pastor I'm struggling to follow that act that's a tough act um but here go I can do that she can she's bilingual which is why I'm so proud of them amazing teachers amazing students so good good evening U vice president coutre board members Dr lman and guests I'm here this evening to present information about visitor aware and our updated visitor and volunteer procedures these changes are designed to enhance the experience for both our volunteers and our schools while aligning with our District's broader goals as we continue to align our initiatives with the Strategic plan visitor aware aligned specifically with goal to access and equity and goal four Community Pride um visitor aware plays a key role in ensuring that our schools remain safe and welcoming environments this system supports our strategic objectives of safety efficiency Community engagement by modernizing how we manage and welcome visitors and volunteers onto our campuses the initiative also supports our portrait of a graduate by creating an environment where students can thrive in safe and support supportive spaces we want to ensure that all visitors and volunteers are vetted and managed efficiently and we want to foster a culture of safety and respect which are critical components of the skills and attributes that we want to instill in our graduates so the purpose of this shift away from previous procedures is to create a more customers friendly uh experience for our visitors and volunteers while also enhancing security visitor aware streamlines the check-in process for volunteers making it easier and more efficient for them to engage with our schools this not only enhances the volunteer experience but also reduces administrative burdens on our staff allowing them to focus more on supporting students so we chose to go with single wire um because we're focusing on using an existing system single wire also known as informacast we've been using for quite some time um this is the vendor that provides us with the systems we use for our bells and intercom so uh with bells and intercoms well in in place we have now added the visitor aware tip line um transitioning away from a different vendor very similar product uh visitor manager for our volunteers drill manager which is simply a platform that where principles record when they do their drills and their lockdowns and then we are piloting the Carline portion of visitor aware um at Butterfield Elementary School with a couple of uh Elementary principles also interested in piloting that portion of visitor aware as well there are some additional components that we can explore and possibly add on in the future one is called visitor manager that's where we can manage students tardies and early pickup or employees such as for example we may have uh OT or related services that work at three or four of our schools and we want to manage uh the employees checking in and out of a variety of different schools there's also a reunification uh component that could be added at a later time and then field trip manager where a teacher could send an email um inviting volunteers to sign up through this program um so let's talk a bit about the what the procedure looks like and um and I'll I'll walk you through and talk about how things are going this is week one of the rollout under the new procedure gaining access to the school through visitor aware involves just a few simple steps first the visitor or volunteer checks in at the front desk where a staff member assists them we really want to have that customer friendly experience and so there are some schools that choose to have have a program similar to this handled through a kiosk with a minimal interaction and we really want to have that customer friendly experience so they're first greeted by a staff member and then um the um the visitor will put in some um basic demographic information their name their phone um and using a barcode scanner they will scan the front and the back of the driver's license this will verify their identity and clearance status and once approved they'll receive a badge granting them access to the school the badge will have their picture that's part of the process here you see I think this is a Butterfield staff helping a volunteer checking in and taking their their picture for the first time checking in the process does involve um a staff member to assist them and the very first time that a parent uh registers it does take um perhaps up to five minutes but then sub sub quent visits may be 60 seconds or less uh visited a couple of schools this week asking how things are going as I stated earlier this is week one of our implementation and they said they haven't had a lot of practice with it yet but they really appreciate how responsive Our IT department is in training and helping to troubleshoot we had a a printer wasn't printing badges correctly and we now have that corrected so those sorts of things are getting worked through and uh we find that uh Our IT department is great and the company has also been very responsive uh they also said that it's very helpful when parents register at home if possible it isn't necessary but it does expedite the process especially for that initial registration um oh and I also wanted to add before I move on to that uh regarding data security visitor aware uses Advanced encryption to securely transmit and store all personal data the systems designed to protect that sensitive information and only um specific staff are um involved in this process additionally um the visitor information is never sold transferred or accessible to any person or service outside a visitor aware and some of those details went out in an FAQ page that was shared in a communication that went out recently with parents so I want to thank you for your attention and I'd like to open the floor for any questions or feedback that you may have about visit work I have a couple um I like the fact that it's encrypted and we're not selling but do we have like a little sign or something that says that even though we put it out in an FAQ and we sent it out maybe we have a little sign that you know says that you know this data is not being you know it's encrypted it's not being shared um just to make people feel a little bit um more comfortable in giving their personal information which they should anyways if they're coming to visit an elementary school or any school um what if they don't have a driver's license um so if there's no state issued ID because um we do um can work with for example a military identification a passport these are other types of identification that we can work with if there's none of those types of identific available for that adult a principal is going to contact me and we'll work through that situation okay um so we experienced this at one of our school tours where we did do they had the kiosk I will say for a short person my picture did not come out very good at all [Laughter] um I can't guarantee our pictures are outstanding of course um so but in addition to getting that sticker when it printed up and having a volunteer badge they texted our phones and that's how we logged out when we left the building because not everybody's going to remember to come back to the front office sign out and give you your badge back the sticker yeah because it's a sticker I mean so is is this going to also do something similar to that where they where we can check out via the phone as well yes I'm glad you asked that question um that is a possibility also just simply check in with the front office and saying I'm on my way out can you check me out um can be handled that way but another advantage of receiving that um message through the the visitor's phone is that if during the visit there is a lockdown or a fire drill there'll be communication to those volunteers as well and so that is um an added level of integration of systems that we didn't have previously and I understand you said that we're just piloting the car line can you tell a little bit more about how that's work how does that work yes so um Miss Fielding has been recording her uh times from week one and two before implementation and um we were averaging about um 25 minutes towards the beginning and we now are finished by I believe 4 o'clock I don't have the time front of me exactly but she's reduced her time and um things are going well they did have an advantage an unfair advantage and Butterfield was an ideal school to Pilot because they were already using technology to manage their car line last year they were just using a different um kind of a homegrown system that they had created but they were used to looking at cell phones looking at um computer screens in order to see who was queued up in the cars it was just a slightly different system okay so can you explain to me what how the tip line works yeah I'd be happy to um very similar to tip lines we've used in the past um one key difference is that there is a QR code and um a number associated with each school so the previous system um would alerts would come in there's a couple of of District administrators myself being one that would receive the tip and then bring it to the attention of the principle that was mentioned in the the message or what have you this system is um more efficient because I continue to get the alerts but it also goes directly to the school that it that it came from and so the tipline QR code is uh in posters in all of our schools also on the web page of every school and then we also have one on um the web page for the district and um that's that's pretty much how it works similar to the tip line we had previously okay all right and then um what is the response so far from parents and volunteers that are using this because I know when I went to the school on Friday um and it's used in across their District so everybody's used to it I'm glad we're not doing the kiosk it was very impersonal it was it was like I'm walking into an elementary school but it was kind of standoffish um so I I prefer having the person there that actually talks to you like you're a human being so I'm glad we're doing that um it was a little clumsy at first because I left my ID in my car I'm not used to that I mean I know parents are used to signing into schools with their ID um and so it was a little awkward um so I just how are those that are using it responding to it so the schools that I've checked in this week have had um just a handful of parents because this has been week one um but I I predict that we're really going to be able to improve that gap between when a person demonstrates interest in volunteering in our school and when we can get them to actually come in in the previous system we had them fill out an application through Talent Ed and the background process that we used took the same amount of time that it takes to UM Vet employees and so this is giving us um a a much quicker response and it's able to um bring that that customer service to more to the school level um so that we can get them in classrooms help and hopefully we'll see more volunteers through this okay no I mean I I like this system when I I'm like this is pretty clever when I was at this Elementary School um it certainly made accountability easy um they knew exactly who was on their campus and and then getting the text message you know are you still on campus or did you leave already I'm like oh for I forgot to say I'm leaving um so so but it was a good reminder um in case somebody goes out one of the side doors you know and doesn't go through the office so I think I mean I like that it's very accountable and it seemed easy so um I'll be curious to see what the cost is going to be to put this in all of our schools so I'm sure that we'll look at that because I I haven't seen that but the volunteer um visitor aware is in all of our schools okay currently and so um and the total cost including Hardware was somewhere around $110,000 okay it's a feature of this this system that we that we already have yeah that was part of the part of the value okay yeah and we're just now implementing this next step right okay no I like I say I'm Miss Lopez did you have a question I do actually have a few so if some of these need to be figured out and come back later I'm fine with that um I understand the why and I got thinking about I'm a volunteer at our school I have my fingerprint clearance card I know that when you get your fingerprint clearance card it's good for like six or nine years and anything can happen and you wouldn't know and I still have a fingerprint card right um so I I I liked I've done it I went to mes we worked together that was where the printer didn't work the first day and then I went back today and we did it again okay um we figured it out and I when I say these things or ask these questions please know that I I know it's new and I know there's an adjustment period and a training period and all of these things by the way thank you Ms for letting me play and try and do um so I'll start the first question is you said it's secure but when I read that flyer that went out about it it says it's stored forever my information is stored forever unless the contract or I'm assuming musd requests for that information to be destroyed so I as a parent I don't like knowing that my information is stored forever somewhere I get letters all the time saying there's been a hack and my dad's been leaked and this is one more thing I have to worry about and I'm I don't like that part the other thing that I questioned is when parents leave right and they're no longer and we're still holding on to all this data how much space is that taking up is there something in place to get rid of that go through it delete all of that do you want me to keep going or do you want to like I don't know should I just keep going okay okay I'll just get them all out so um the other thing I found I love the app thing though like I I I love it it looks I don't know anybody can see that but it's a QR code right I can't say and I know it's new when I say this so I'm I'm curious as we go on if I will I will feel the same way about it I see no difference in time or customer service because they are already very customer customer service oriented in waiting for me to flash this versus just give me the clipboard and I can stand behind all the parents that need help sign in and I'm done versus waiting for that line to go down so now I can show my QR code right so there's some questions I have around speed and how many hands involved is it really quicker um but again new not I'm not saying anything it's not a bad thing um this was my ID badge I asked them to Avid it out so that I could take it off property but you would usually give this back but I just wanted to show for any parents that were still around this is the badge uh it has my picture on it says visitor it's kind of cool I I I felt privileged I was like heck yeah I I am badged now right and we had a problem last year that all of our our like volunteer tags the PTO type they all disappeared and those can get expensive to have to Reby all the time so I like the stickers um back to securing when it's sent the information is sent and then sent back to you the verification happens and sent back how is that secure um I have a list you know sorry oh something else I ran into is there's a permanent volunteer versus a one-day volunteer so because I'm there a lot I picked permanent volunteer I don't have any profile I can go to to change that or to type in a date like I will be here on this date in time so now Mees doesn't never know if I'm coming in or if I'm not coming in because I'm a just a permanent volunteer I can go in and start over again but then I'm listed multiple times in the system okay um I did download an app I was told there was no app after I downloaded the app but there is an app and but there is nothing within the app and so I'm wondering if all of these things might be a little easier if it was in the app and then parents would have a profile to go into to list the days or when they're coming that kind of thing just a suggestion um sorry I turn the page I'm almost done I swear I'm so sorry um and how often are the security checks done okay so I signed up as a permanent volunteer right and I did it Monday and then I did it again today did it do two separate checks or is it only if I'm a permanent volunteer did it only do it that one time and now I'm good for the whole year which kind of is I think opposite of the purpose of making sure that each time someone enters our school they are good to go and safe to be there and have a purpose right um and what happens if the power goes out we go back to signing in but what about those people that are already on our campus how do we know they there we can't get on a computer we can't get on anything if something happens and they can't access that what is the backup to show what visitors are on property and I think my last one was um oh and and just just a side note just information for you uh I just had to do this three different times DPS just launched their brand new website and any employer can sign up as an employer and you get a code as an employer and you can tell any parent or anyone go to DPS and fill out their form they enter the code from The Entity right musd whatever company and it immediately checks and sends you the information and then the information is gone so you get the immediate they're good to go whatever issue no issue they're safe to be on campus and go on and so I'm thinking why why don't we use maybe some other things to help with that so those are my questions that is what I have found out did I miss anything well actually you you triggered a question that I had so when we have school assemblies you're going to have hundreds of parents coming in to to go for this assembly how are we going to manage that because if they all have to stand in line to get a computer sticker that may be problematic yep so um let me start first with some of your more technical questions M Lopez they're great question okay I like don't hate me please no they they truly are and some are questions that our it Department can can help us with and some um that I was sort of hearing some possible suggestions one thing I love about working with this particular vendor is that the developer is local and he's actually come out here to Maricopa to train us oh nice okay and very responsive and so we have suggestions such as you were saying you couldn't change your preference between being a more frequent volunteer to coming on a specific date permanent versus um um specific they've been great in taking that sort of feedback and working with us um some of your other questions sort of border on some security information that I've talked about with principles and I will be happy to follow up with all of the board members in email but um because we want to keep certain security aspects um private I won't share that in this particular meeting and then lastly um your question so since we are new um what I've been telling principles as we've been talking about those large events like when Santa Cruz had the Nutcracker or we're gonna have a Turkey Trot is that um we're going to continue with the same procedures that we've had they might perhaps report directly to um the um the multi-purpose room where that event is taking place and it's evening it's after hours we aren't going to do it as we become more efficient we can learn more about how to batch approve people but in all instances especially instances where we have a lot of people on our campus it's very important that we have situational awareness and just good safety tips going on so we won't be um doing this process for everyone when we have hundreds but it's a good question thank you any any other questions or comments thank you so much I'm excited for this and I'm glad we're able to make this a little bit better and I like the fact that it's not a kiosk really truly do so thank you especially if you're like 52 and you're trying to get to that camera it was bad showed showed all the chins I was like oh bad bad news all right let's move on to the call the public and try to forget about this okay uh we do have one speaker card so I have to read this members of the board may not discuss items that are specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursu to ARS 38 431 action may be action taken as a result of the public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for a future agenda the board requests that all comments be limited to three minutes or less and that the public refrain from the use of speech or language that is offensive or inappropriate pursuant to board procedure 3-23 and our speaker card is Rosemarie fenda good evening to all of you I'm Rosemary fanda and better known as Axel's mama or R um I have addressed the board at Dr lman a year ago out of sheer desperation after our son Axel in his second year of school school was a victim of several assaults there was also a strong lacking in communication within the ESS Department under the current director Lindsay Slover I'm returning today with a better understanding of musd and its workings however there are profound concerns of safety issues and more personally the flagrant realization that our son and others within ESS are not receiving the education that they attend school for example Axel's IEP was not followed last year his met was inadequately written and categorized in accurately and it took all of last year to get that handled due to Axel's medically complex history of a rare primary diagnosis along with seven cranial facial surgeries we as his parents are fully aware that his journey is far from ordinary we do however presume confidence and we are Grace giving individuals at this time that has been mistaken for weakness and culous at the hands of the current ESS director there is no more time to minimally staff the structured learning classrooms creating for safety issues it is unacceptable to provide teachers with curriculums late in the year to be able to teach or expect principles to take on and assume Lindsay's role overseeing these programs our Educators across the board deserve to be supported praised Comm communicated with and sustained for the whole year because our children deserve that much more in closing I wish to applaud Dr Hassan the sped and ESS staff at Saddleback the teachers and pirs for their efforts in working in such an upep conditions thank you for your time thank you all right that moves us on to item six bless you the consent agenda do I have a motion motion to approve H second Lisa I have a motion a second camn Lopez I adamar no I Tor Anderson I Patty coutre I all right we are on to our action items 7A discussion and possible approval of the Personnel schedule Mr Becket thank you vice president crae members of the board and Dr Lan you have the schedule in front of you tonight I'll entertain any questions you have at this point time Mr Becket this is always my fun part um first off I do want to thank um I I had emailed um Dr lman several questions regarding the HR schedule and um I appreciate the quick response um and some of the things that were fixed that were like minor uh gram uh grammatical errors and so I appreciate that thank you very much um and also the explanation because I did question about number 11 on the HR schedule the um non PDL driver position so I did appreciate the fact that we want to get that certified so that even if they're driving not a bus but they have students in it that they're certified for that I think that was pretty awesome I do have a couple of issues though and uh two things that I can't support um so we have a new position that was the administrative assistant for technology not saying that that job is not needed I believe it is needed but when I inquired about what level of admin assistance because we have several levels we have one two three and I think an executive level of administrative assistance um I was told that that would be the same level as our Middle School and High School principles which is a level two that's a 12-month position so it would state that a level two would be needed the position that is being requested for technology is a 9month position at the same compensation level of a 12-month and so just I want to make sure that we're being Equitable and that doesn't appear to be Equitable um and I also don't want to give the impression that because it's a district office position it's going to be treated differently and paid at a higher rate instead of being a 12-month if it was a 12-month position I wouldn't have an issue with it but it's a N9 Monon position um the other item I had is on item 24 of the HR schedule it's a new position a new hire um but it's replacing someone who is an admin assistant to um and now it's an admin assistant three so I did inquire about when when this position was promoted to a higher to a higher position in a higher salary range and um I was told that back in February when we did some class reclassifications of positions so I did go back and I looked at both of the agendas and it wasn't on there and if it had been on there but that but this position was still an admin assistant too when this person left last month so it was not promoted back when we did it in February it was still the same level because it was she departed as admin assistant level two and our procedures say that whenever we do something like that and this is procedural okay that that promotion has to be done has to have board approval before we can promote that person um and I would like to see what the difference of admin 2 for that position and why it's Justified for admin 3 and so I did not see that and that's a procedural thing that we did not follow I don't want to hold up this HR schedule whatsoever um but I would be happy to take those two items off and approve the HR schedule without those two line items um I mean I'm fine with that I mean if it's not going to mess up hiring these people are they already working they are one of them is one of the positions is already working and it was in February of 23 that at the board's request um we analyze all of the classified positions comparative to other districts uh in panal County and in the surrounding districts and there were you know dozens of changes that we made and they were increases so that we would be competitive and comparable and this was one of them some of them jumped like 10 levels so that we would be comparative so I think that this prompts us certainly to and this again this is a year and six months ago it's a long time ago we had to like roll back the Rolodex so it just taking a second look at these at the the approval the the documents that were approved certainly reveals some cleanup that we need to do this being one of them so this person that were're who is leaving this position was hired as a two but she's leaving as a three because she was in the process of that approval she was already on not this person that's in the position that we want to uh include in this position but but when we approved the transfer the reclassification it specifically said admin assistant to when she was reclassified from that position to the business department and that was an error because they were looking at the the original hire she was originally hired as a two prior to the change so that's what they looked at instead of looking at her new title of three prior to us updating everything exactly and that that is the the super fine tooth comb that I appreciate that we will you know that we can go back and look at okay so I'm okay with that one is that number 24 yeah I'm okay with that one then but I really um so 13 needs some CL yeah I I really think that that that needs to be looked at a little well going from a 9 month to 12 month it needs to be cleaned up a little bit what's well I I think yeah it needs to be Equitable for what those people are being so I mean those are good good points and I'm fine with approving the HR schedule taking out number 13 okay and bringing that back at a at the next meeting yeah good I for clarification are you asking me to bring this back as a 12-month position again we either way just I whatever it is I think you need to take a look at the job description does it need to be a 12 month month if not then it needs to remain a 9month and it's an admin one not an admin two and again if I can just briefly explain on the administrative on the certifi excuse me classified Compensation Plan we have three different levels of administrative assist jobs are the same they're all same skill set the same expectation tasks those do not change it's who they're supporting admin level one is an elementary admin two middle school high school department and AD three is for our assistant superintendence that's what the decision was made back in 03 to support our our administrators here so really the position is not changing it's just who they're working with and the level of of of support needed in that particular orbitor School C so I guess what I'm looking for is just clarification is it a 9-month position or a 12- Monon position that's all I'm looking for so if you can clarify that and bring it back on the next HR schedule that would make me happy and once again if I just I don't want to be too bold about this but the nin Monon positions has really it's a work calendar think has nothing to do with the classification of the work being done by that person we identified I month that we didn't need them for the other three months because over the course of the summer we didn't need that level of support in the technology department right again that that if if possibly go to a 12-month position I'm happy to bring that back as a 12 month I think maybe take a look at that because I think that department could probably benefit from a 12mon support because their work does not stop just because school L they're busy getting computers and they're answering questions and they're trying to track down Chargers so I I think take a look at that and then bring it back certainly and so we have we have a motion to approve uh less number 13 wait can I ask one more clarifying question yes you can but because regardless if they're a nine month so let's say they're an admin two and they're a 9mon or a 12 month that's just based on the job but they're still getting the same Al hour um same hourly pay that's correct so a 9month position is not going to earn as much as a 12 month position right so it doesn't it doesn't like an admin 2 who works 12 months is going to get paid more than an admin two who works nine months correct so why why does it matter because it's already listed as a nine Monon position that's what they wanted as right but but I think so we don't have any admin one positions at the high school and there because of the middle school and high school the feeling was that those responsibilities are no no I I I I just have an issue with that anyways I think uh what but I Patty I'm trying to because because no no no it's okay it's it's strictly because when you when you're looking at it from the outside it's a it's a nine-month position um it's not a high school principal it's um it's almost and I don't I don't want people to think that because it's at the district office they're going to get a higher rate of pay but they're not they're not getting a higher rate of pay by President K they're getting the same rate of pay as the admin to at a high school I it's it's yes I'd be happy to send that information it's a range based on experience based on experience um so Mr Becket when I read this you want this number 13 to be a 9month employee that was the ask from the technology and cabinet approv that and that's what it's listed on the HR schedule so for me I would like to amend my motion and to prove the HR schedule as written okay second Lisa I have a motion second Carn Lopez I to Anar no I Tory Anderson I Patty kraay nay motion passes thank you all right item 7B approve the district qualified Educators for the 2425 school year Mr Becket you're up again thank you you have our list in front of you tonight I believe in the information section on the agenda item you'll see the rationale behind that it's not only board policy but also statute that the board has has the authority to Grant the status to our qualified evaluators and you have a list in front of you for all of our school sites as well as the district office stat asking for your approval does anybody have any questions or comments I have a motion motion to approve as presented second Lisa I have a motion a second camn Lopez I adary no I Tory Anderson i p krae i thank you awesome that gets us to our last item adjournment do I have a motion so move second I have a motion in second Lisa caram Lopez I adary no I Tory Anderson I Patty coutre I this meeting is ajour 739 thank you very nice we can still works I think of I agree and I

are these great SK going to make me pale all right Wildcats we're back first Friday fun day of the year first football game tonight it's been a great 2 and A2 weeks it's a 3-day weekend we're going to talk to our wild cats find out where they work and how they're celebrating Labor Day all right wild cats I'm here with Ranna Emily Jackson 2 and a/2 weeks into school you've been working hard we get a 3-day weekend it's Labor Day do you guys have jobs yes where do you work I'm a Ki choreographer ooh a choreographer and I work at Roco venos Roco venos how often do you work at rovos once a week once a week okay hard working Emily here works one day a week how about you Jackson where you work I work at Jimmy Johnson freaky fast so it's Labor Day you guys are all employed are you thankful for Labor Day do you have to work on Labor Day or do you get to relax I'm thankful I get to sleep in I have practice but committed to the volleyball team can't work that day so she's practicing Jackson are you going to be making sandwiches on Labor Day yeah I have to work okay so Jackson doesn't get Labor Day off thank you Jackson if you need lunch on Labor Day Jimmy Johns is open Jackson can make your sandwich hopefully the rest of you are enjoying some time off so it's Labor Day weekend we get a 3-day weekend do you know why we celebrate Labor Day no why do we celebrate Labor Day all right wild cats I'm here with Isaiah Isaiah what you're in school area sophomore sophomore it's Labor Day Weekend first football game tonight good luck in that we'll have a big crowd out there supporting you do you have a job it's Labor Day weekend yes sir I have a job where do you work at I work at Jules West Chicago juw W Chicago just up the street corner of Julet and Roosevelt what do you do there bag trolley like push the carts and stuff and like you know help out with whatever Overstock and stuff like that how annoying is it when people don't return their cards to the cart area to that's very annoying why cuz say if it's like 96° outside and like I got I just seen a whole bunch of cards over I'm like I have to go and get it cuz you know I have to get paid so I'm like okay I just got to go do that but like the kind customers who bring it back to the door I'm like that's a valuable customer that is a valuable customer that's me for that they should be awarded for that I agree do you get Labor day off or you got to work this Monday I'm not working Monday so I'm good he's good he gets to enjoy Labor Day he's not going to work thanks Isaiah would you like to be on Friday fund day this morning Friday our first Friday fund day of the year why do we even celebrate Labor Day do you know uh for the people that work very good labor it's in the name for the people that work hi wild cats I'm here with Aaron do you have a job no I do summer jobs where did you work in the summer Leman Middle School I helped little kids helped little kids just down the street at Leman Middle School any crazy stories from that there's a be that's all right I'm not scared of of bees are you ready for the 3-day weekend yes what are you to do to celebrate Labor Day I'm going to go live on Twitch live on Twitch Friday fun day Friday fun day today no all right wild cats I'm here with Jake voy Jake voy returning guest here on Friday Funday Jake been two and a half weeks in we get a long weekend it's Labor Day do you have a job I do have a job where do you work I work for the K County Cougars baseball team K County Cougars great local entertainment family friendly environment what do you do there I a professional hot dog rapper professional hot dog rapper so you don't make the hot dogs but you wrap them in the yeah so I just work the concession stand do all that stuff back there a lot of hot dogs what's like the most hot dogs you guys have sold on any given night you think oo that's a good question couple thousand couple thousand all right any funny stories working at the can County cougar I had to take a mug shot in the back of the kitchen cuz I got a written warning Jacob got uh written up by HR hopefully they're not watching uh if they nothing nothing nothing bad usually it is when HR writes you up but he's claiming it's nothing bad so you've learned from that good good learning I've moved on I've moved on I'm a better employee now you just have that letter in your file it'll be there forever but hopefully you can recover from it so are you off this weekend or you got to work on Labor Day I unfortunately have to work he's going to be rapping hot dogs over at King County Stadium just a few miles away from school enjoy it please come visit me I enjoy visitors it's the first Friday funay of the Year you guys interest me the first Friday of the year we got some we got a live oh getting pulled in by your friend oh no no she won why do we celebrate Labor Day anybody know oh that's difficult Haley can you help him out no she doesn't know either Maggie do you know why we celebrate Labor Day is it just like a day off for people or just like a day off for people yeah it's to celebrate the American worker like yourself where do you work Maggie I work at C Co water park a water park that sounds exciting did you have to save anybody at the water park this summer yes I did you saved a life you can say my name is Maggie and I've saved a life I guess yeah you're a hero sure sure yeah I mean you saved someone's life Evan why are you not working right now um you know what I'm just trying trying to find the right job did you used to work I did this summer I worked at Turtle Splash with Connor did you save any life I did not okay we met somebody earlier that saved some lives it's Labor Day why do we celebrate Labor Day uh for the labor for the labor exactly it's in the name for celebrating people that work all right thanks wild cats we got some wild cats saving lives we got wild cats getting written up by HR part-time jobs quitting jobs we got unemployed wild cats still looking for jobs keep up the great work in school if you're working this weekend thank you if you're not enjoy your 3-day weekend we'll see you in a couple weeks

welcome USD 264 uh stakeholders staff parents and anyone that's watching this on YouTube uh this is our Clearwater uh Clarity update our superintendent update for September of 2024 and this is volume uh 12 so again just like each month when we start this out we keep looking at the why the what and the how we really want to focus on this three-step process to make sure that we're providing consistent relevant communication which is a uh part of our strategic plan uh and really this month we're going to just kind of dive in and we're going to look at Chronic absenteeism and why it's important for school and then some of the changes to the student handbooks as it relates to absenteeism um this really hits two different of our strategic plan goals uh first uh strategic plan goal number three where we want to focus on developing deep relationships and engagement uh because if students don't have relationships if they don't have an adult at school at trust and if they don't have a class or um an opportunity for them to use their creative side or engage uh with their peers um then they're not going to want to come to school so we want to make sure that it is uh we're developing those uh deep relationships and then again making sure that as we understand our student handbooks and some of those pieces we want to provide consistent clear um communication so that everybody understands kind of the why of what we are doing um again we're going to focus on chronic absenteeism by definition chronic absenteeism is any time that a student misses more than 10% of Any Given school year so we have students that go to school for 167 days so when they miss more than 16 days of school they're considered chronically absent uh and last year we had one in four about one in one in 4.5 or almost one in five so somewhere between 20 and 25% of our students at Clearwater USD were chronically absent last year so we roughly had about 200 to 250 students um that missed more than 16 days of school last year and that is kind of a concern that we have we want to make sure that we can start uh focusing in on that so when we talk about missing more than 10% that's kind of what chronic absenteeism is we had over 20% of our students chronically absent from school last year and then what we found was interesting is that some of the statistics that about chronic absenteeism is students who are chronically absent in kindergarten in first grade are less likely to read on grade level in third grade each day that we have students in kindergarten and first grade they are using what's called foundational time where they're focusing in on learning how to read and the science of reading and when they miss 16 days uh over the course of a year you know that's a little over 3 weeks and you think about anytime that we're learning something and we miss over three weeks of learning it's going to be hard for us to stay on track and to be able to catch up with our peers and especially in those formative years of kindergarten and first grade they're grasping and their brains are learning so much that when they miss that amount of time it's hard for them to catch that up by the time they get to third grade and then when we start looking at students that are chronically absent in secondary school so when we're starting in e8th grade their chances of dropping out or not graduating increase almost two times their peers that are not chronically absent so we do see that there is a key contributing factor to students being in school and being successful again we know that Co had a really large wreck on some of our attendance and that our chronic absenteeism grown exponentially during that time but now that we're about five years removed from um covid we're still seeing chronic absenteeism or the likelihood of not coming to school is becoming an issue and so we want to start thinking about how we can uh work on some of these things so how are we going to help our attendance at USD 264 there are going to be attendance challenges uh that are either issued by the district we already had one that we issued for the start of this year um there are going to be attendance challenges that each building is going to be able to run whether it's a monthly challenge a semester challenge or even a year-long challenge uh we want to create more engaging Hands-On lessons one of the things we did last year as a central office is we went out to each building four times a year and just talked to kids we talked to kindergarteners we talked to seniors we talked to fifth graders we talked to eighth graders and what we did is we just asked them questions of what do you enjoy doing during the day what are things that you don't enjoy doing during the day uh what are some reasons why you come to school and what are some reasons why you wouldn't come to school and almost to a tea from kindergarteners to seniors in high school what they told us is when they get to create when they get to engage in owning their learning versus just sitting and getting from a teacher um that they're more likely to enjoy school and want to come so we're going to treate we are working and have building goals to make sure that we're creating those more engaging lessons uh we're also going to make sure that we surprise and Delight so we're going to have random acts of attendance meaning certain days uh the kids that are there or on certain days when we show that there are 90 kids at school that day that have 90% attendance or better there may be a random prize like a doughnut or Popsicle or um get them a drink from uh Casey's or something like that have a little bit of a surprise or Delight our fourth bullet point is we really want to build a culture where kids are running to school versus running away and that's something we learned from our back to school speaker this year Mr Buddy Barry is that are we creating a place where kids are excited to be or are we creating a place that they're dreading to be and so we really want to be able to focus on creating that culture and then lastly we want to be able to as a staff be one degree more and what we mean by that is we really focus on the difference between 21 degrees Fahrenheit and 212 degrees Fahrenheit at 21 water is hot and it's almost ready to boil but it doesn't have any power at 212 degrees water can power an engine and so when we start looking at that power that just being one degree more has we're thinking about can we reach out to that student can we ask what is it that they need in the classroom to be more effective and make them to want to come to school so those are some things on how we're going to help increase our intendance now some of the win factors when we're talking about some of the changes to our student handbook so when we talk about total days missed it's not full days it's the amount of periods that they've missed that equals one full day so in the elementary school at Elementary West there are four attendance periods during the day so when they have 12 periods that they've missed that equals three days uh if you're in seventh grade there are nine periods so when they have 27 total periods missed that equals three days and at the high school it would be a similar experience so when a student misses three total days or the amount of periods that equals that there will be a letter that's sent home just letting them know um that they've missed three days it's just kind of a heads up kind of opportunity when students Miss five total days there will be a phone call home from the building office uh to the parents to let them know that they've now missed five days in one semester and that we're getting to the point where we're close to being on track for being chronically absent we want to make sure that parents understand and maybe be able to ask them questions as to why maybe the students are missing that much uh or if it was one prolonged illness or something along those lines and then when we hit seven total days missed in a semester there will be a meeting that will be set up between the school administration the student and the parents to start figuring out and creating an intervention to help them be able to come to school and make sure that it's a culture where they want to come to school versus not coming and then lastly as board approved in June for every absence after s in a single semester there will be a doctor's notes required to make it an excused absence if they are just not feeling well and this is the eighth day that they've missed and there's not a doctor's note it'll go in as an unexcused absence so just wanting you to be aware of some of those changes finally I'm going the wrong way then finally when we start looking at this we want to end it with just saying again be one degree more so we're going to work really hard as a staff of going one extra inch one extra step one extra mile to help our students each and every day we're also asking the community and the parents be one degree more talk to them about the importance of school talk to them about the importance of showing up to work in each and every day uh we've had the opportunity over the last year and a half as we've developed our individual plans of study is to talk to a lot of employers and the number one skill that employers say they need in their Workforce right now is to just show up to work um that our chronic absentee problem is not uh just a school problem it's also a Workforce problem so how can we start building the skills for our students to be able to build those lifelong skills of just showing up to work again thank you here's my contact information uh phone number email address and my Twitter handle again I'm always open for anyone that would like to come in and visit um share some thoughts or just have a sit down so please reach out and let me know how we can assist you and thank you and have a great day

un a your don't to first St this El you're the they wa w AG e so tell of e e want have so was last e for my I our num e C so what we have t preliminary everything us TS us always charents text that year sep oper is the m from ta am service f de do our tax could ass value over the weekend the assess value for came can into f our year our aded ad Ma ad can going remember yes 5 for is question impr BAS bu it now are f everything have are C SE oober de ass so that's d um it's just looking at the r many yes dep eff AC disc Serv ad get POS Jo us the r super report start Abby I will say that set of I want comprehensive bu isot a all together espe ex back we talked p upates IED IET our student super Adis group at school last have graders parp excited for that and then I want to say congratulations to Coach B and his entire coing team sep AAL so yeah just really excited about the opportunities than

okay welcome to the AP parent info meeting my name is Jennifer canos I am the AP testing coordinator so I am in charge of all things with getting your tests to you and then making sure the tests run smoothly later in May when we do test bramy I'm Sarah bramy and I'm an English teacher and student support person here at the high school I'm sorry I'm nervous and uh thank you all for coming tonight we're live streaming this and recording it so you can tell your friends they can watch later on again this is an info night we'll also have Mr reiek here to answer questions and you'll get your form to elect to take the AP test which we hope you do okay um Mr reek hello my name is Adam reiek and I have been teaching here for 20ish years and I'm currently in charge of the AP Capstone program so if you want some information about that I'm the guy to talk to I've also taught AP human geography and I've taught and I'm also teaching AP Statistics and we are going to try to make this meeting as short and sweet as possible and then like I said we'll have it live live streamed so you can go watch it on YouTube later if you need to go back and revisit anything or you can just come and talk to one of us and we'll hook you up with the slideshow we have yellow forms up here yellow forms cookies yellow forms are important that's a big thing also cookies are important so come up and get cookies feel free to have your phones ready to snap some pictures particularly of the testing dates and some of those more logistical questions that get lost easily are we ready we're ready here we go so again we're looking at dates how to log into college board and enroll in a class which everyone in here who's in an AP class should already be how to register for your AP exams online and filling out the form how and when to pay for AP exams and then we will recognize last year's AP students who passed one or more test September 6th this is the date by which all students should be able to log in should have logged into their college board account and you should also be enrolled October 4th all students should have their AP form turned in to the front desk this is Miss Gina at the high school so again you're turning in that yellow form to the front desk by my 39th birthday yeah I know I keep telling people this and I never do that November 1st this is when um we need to make sure you're verified that you are signed up or not last minute changes go through Mrs Canal changes made after the 15th of November will result in a $40 Fee real quick with that um on that October 4th date so this year students are going in and marking themselves if they are taking or not taking those AP exams so you're filling out the form and that's for me to double check it but then you guys will also go in and when you log in you can change your answer from undecided to registered or not registered so you're doing that so you know what you're picking okay and then I'm double-checking it on that form Mrs canow when they're on when they're in their classroom is it just that little question right below the class where you click yes or no yeah okay so I believe it's right there I put it in here I can't see it from the students side I can kind of see I can see what their class looks like but if you have questions come and Hunt me down and we can get you through it okay great thank you um this is a little spreadsheet of the AP exam dates for this upcoming season keep in mind we've got a lot of offerings and so this is a good one to take a shot of and zoom in because it's overwhelming so in class when we're talking about the date so in my class that's May 14th May 14th May 14th this is what I'm talking about our test and on the student view or the students version underneath the class so if it says like English AP Lit it's says the test date underneath it on their college board account too so they can see which exams they're registered for and exactly when the date is and if it's morning or afternoon and that is on Google so if you Google AP test exam dates uh 2025 then that comes up so you can Google it too great this is what the collegeboard login screen looks like we're accessing it via collegeboard.org students should sign in with their school email but some of us did not do that for whatever reason if you have login issues Mrs canalysis the person to see um if you forgot your password you should be able to recover it on your own though questions here here's how to enroll in a class give me a show of hands who has already enrolled in every single AP class they're taking this year yay if you haven't that's okay we're going to do it tomorrow so touch base with your AP teacher and make sure you're in you should have a code I know for me that's in canvas if your teacher did not give you a code you can email me and I can override their code and get it to you I can like hack in and find out what it is for you okay oh I like that oh I know it's kind of my head too much someone say Okay um then here we go check course info so make sure everything looks good once you're in here's how to register for an exam this is different than registering or signing up in a class so you must fill out the yellow form from today's meeting please please tell your friends they need to get their hands on a yellow form where can they get them after today Mrs canow they will be able to get them from their AP teacher or at the front desk okay and you only need to fill out one form so since all of your classes are due at the same time this year because we're in a year-long class for all them if you're taking two classes and you want to take both of them you're going to do that on the same form okay um I feel like you kind of covered the gist here but again or not again if you qualify for a free AP exam so this would be if you receive free and reduced lunch then you may qualify I just okay I just said that like three times free and reduced lunch free AP exams uh both a parent and guardian and the student have to sign the form it's not just the student it's not just the parent both find the amount your AP exam will cost keep it in mind for your payment because if you're taking more than one it adds up here's how to register for the exam continued the forms these forms are due October 4th to Miss Gina again at the front desk you can write that down on your yellow form if you need to students are responsible for logging into myap and registering for their own exam so a teacher is not doing this for you your parents probably aren't either it's on you you need to get on and register for your exams but of course use your parents get them to help but they've got the card right if your if you or your child needs special services or accommodations during the test we have um can you speak to this actually miss Canal I don't remember what we did with um there's a little half sheet that we will also have at the front office and you I'm pretty sure you need to already have special services or accommodations set up through like a 504 for that but um AP College Board needs that paperwork to be able to give you time and a half or whatever um accommodations that you need for your exam but you only have to do this one time so once you're approved you're good for all the years that you're in high school for anything for a college board for that excellent so if you have an IEP or a 504 plan then it's important that you um fill out this special half sheet we'll have up at the front office okay I think we got we're good here this is what it looks like oh this is this Ella help me when we were in class and I said oh I don't that doesn't look like what I thought it would look like is this the front page yes okay that's not registered for the exam and so you need to click on somewhere to registered yeah that that will be a button when you go in and you can click that and then it'll say register or don't register yeah that's it thank you Ellie yes she's right and this is where I said no it's supposed to say yes or no but it didn't say that and so me an English teacher who should be able to read figuratively could not yes this is exactly what it what looks like all right here we go when this year thank you so they have to go one way or the other to have choose one or the other and if you're here let's be real you're opting in right okay please pay for your AP exams by October I'm sorry between October 15th and December 18th before we go on U winter break no refunds available so if you do pay okay let me let me start over know that before you pay if you qualify to have your fees waved because you don't want to pay when maybe you didn't have to students will receive an email if they qualify to have fees waved after October 4th please remind your child to check their school email students check your email here's how much they cost 99 a pop for the AP seminar and research 147 and again please make sure you fill out that free and reduced lunch to see if you qualified to have the fees waved and part of why we're trying to get our orders in by October 4th fourth is so that I can go through and check each student's yellow form and so if you think you might be free introduced lunch you're going to check the little spot there that says at the bottom I am requesting a fee reduction says Mrs canos will verify if you are eligible so after October 4th I'm going to be emailing all the students that requested that and tell them yes you are eligible for free and reduced lunch your for your AP exams will be zero or sorry you don't qualify but you can fill out the form for you'll have to you know pay so that's why we're trying to push back the payment to October 18th through December 18th or whatever it was so that you can know for sure if you are free and reduced or not okay and if you pay ahead of time that's the school for the no free funds thing okay so that's why we're kind of pushing it back great how can I pay for AP exams well it's not doesn't just just have to be your parents credit card your parents can make a tax credit donation and notate that it's for an AP exam or AP exam fees again you'll need to email Mrs canal with a picture of your receipt cash is welcome exact change only credit card debit check made out to Blue Ridge High School please notate AP fees and if you're paying with cash check or card please see Mrs armo in the front office here at the high school thank thank you okay actually here's some other stuff yay exciting but first Mr re will you just do a very quick rundown of where and I'm going to jump ahead here where we've been at Blue Ridge and where we're going because it's impressive and people need to know about this take pictures of this put this on Facebook please okay um I teach math and I I like spreadsheets so prepare to be beaten uh with a spreadsheet here if you look at I I think the Highlight here that I really want to point out is 2017 2018 you can see um you know the graph kind of plummets down what we did as a faculty during those years is we decided hey we're going to convert our honors classes into AP classes one of the advantages is we're giving our students the chance to earn college credit if they pass the tests uh that was a big reason for it the other thing is that what when we talk to college admissions counselors a lot of times when you come from a rural school you know we have the tagline of honors on say their English class or their math class and that honors doesn't really carry a lot of water especially when you come from a rural school and so it's been really important for us to get that AP tagline on our students transcripts because then when some of our students are applying for some of the more competitive scholarships and for some of the more competitive schools that are out there those admissions counselers know exactly what they're getting and then as we've been told coming from a rural School actually then turns into a little bit more of an advantage so that's what our our our push was during that time and we had kind of A Five-Year Plan where we rolled out with the freshman class that year we started them and then we added successive AP courses and so you can kind of see the the culmination of that 2023 is you know we've we've achieved the the blue line right there just so that you can see is the number of tests that we H offered and so last year we took 196 tests the number of students participating is 114 and you know so so each student averaged you know a little more than one test and then down there uh The Gray Line is the number of past tests so you can see that last year we were we kind of hit our all-time highs and we've been trending up pretty much ever since we had a little down year on past tests in uh 2022 so if we could go to the next slide that'll show our this is our pass rate um and it's a pretty simple graph and you can see that kind of our average tends to be mid 50s low 60% and this is for all tests and nationally and especially within the State of Arizona this is very competitive for a school and when you compare this to other rural schools we're we're doing really well in terms of the rate at which our students pass test we have small sample sizes so sometimes one of the things one of the trends that we've noticed is we'll have really strong cohorts go through and we'll have less strong cohorts go through and so you know it does kind of depend on you know which students are taking those tests um and in some some cases we've we've tried to identify teachers that are a little more um skilled at teaching those those AP courses so again one of the things that that we want to get out there is that our our AP program is is pretty competitive and especially when you compare it to rural Arizona the State of Arizona and I could talk forever I'll say one more thing and then I'll be done but the State of Arizona rewards the school and and the teachers when students score a four typically it's a four or a five on a test and when you're coming from a school of our size it's a title one school we typically get $300 for a past test um with a four and $450 for a past test with a five and what happens with that money is the school gets half of it the teacher gets half of it and again this is coming from the state right this is is not coming from our our well not our local taxpayers I guess it does in a roundabout sort of way but it's not coming like there's no bond that needs to be passed but our AP program is entirely self-sufficient um we don't require any extra money from the school from the administration from any of the bond stuff and again right we we rely on you guys to put a positive uh word out there for the AP program because the alternative is that because a lot of times there's there's definitely I've heard it said that you know in hard financial times we'll have to cut our AP program well what that would look like is it would just simply look like our AP just turns into honors classes but again our AP program actually earns US money so that would be kind of silly and we just want to make sure that the the word is out there to parents and to students the you know kind of the positives of it you know obviously you guys that are parents you know the negatives of it the added stress the added you know kind of freaking out especially during exam dates but again one of the things this does for us is it kind of standardizes our education so that now if you do have those students that are that think they want to be competitive on a on a more on a grand scale it really allows us to do that and then not to mention when you get a three four or five and it does depend on the institution that you're going to but a three is often times a qualifying score to get college credit I'm GNA say one more thing so we have had students who've gone through the Full Slate of our AP courses um past 10 AP classes and so they're going to take 30 to 35 credits with them into college so they're essentially starting as a sophomore we have one student right now who basically got a scholarship to go to ASU she finished like she basically started as a sophomore and so the scholarship the undergrad scholarship that she was on they just allowed her to go as a graduate student which was a extra savings for her so there's a lot of really good benefits to you know trying to earn those college credits um and again if you want any of those details clearly I can talk a lot about it so I'll be quiet now thanks that was fabulous Mr reek thank you and he's right if your student plans to go to college and wants to be ready you come to blidge and you take AP classes okay I'm going to back up now we have a couple folks in the room to honor I lost my connection it's user error for sure I see I see the names that I was writing today so come on up Ella and Giana and Rain James I thought I saw James do we get rain okay and these are these the junior the seniors in here I know but you're still here cuz you took a test what what did you even do last year what was it what class did you take okay congratulations so these four students who are we missing Jesse get up here yes let me go through my list that way I'm not missing anyone okay oh here we go all right AP sem AP cap Capstone seminar I'm actually going to come back to just give me a second here it's yeah we're not there we go okay English congratulations to these students for passing the AP Language and Composition test Gabriel Coos Morgan Eddie Gianna gerardi congratulations Gian kayin Indian zenab bah Michaela reab River rig Grace Grace Smithson didn't I see her mom yay oh I lost my and Jackson Woods Jackson oh I hope he feels better an AP Lit and composition Sophie babbit Caitlyn Hastings Brook horn Kylie Jolly Zoe Jud Orlando kessie and Trevor Klein and then Jackson Nippers I'm sorry for the spelling mistake Jessica litsen Tristan Rogers Marshall van Aton and Taylor W thank you human I'm sorry history scholar so in human geography we had Den El monia Candace Cabrera Avery Cox Michael Gaffney Maverick Harris TJ hes Hannah Krauss Riley Ron Riley is she here thank you I didn't I totally did oh my goodness and I lost my place Morgan reup olly Rustin Kim Smithson sorry Nicholas Tera Terell and then continuing Berlin W Gabriel Coos Morgan Eddie Gianna gerardi Kaylin Indian Zena baj Michaela Rea River Ray Grace smithon and Jackson Woods notably several of our students in the human geography class scored a five that's incredible in AP World History Katie Atkins Douglas Baja Hadley beer Spencer Brandon random mly watt cage impy James faucet Amy Halls Miley Hamlin Kevin Hernandez Brooklyn Jones Caitlyn Nippers Isaiah long Aspen mesolella DJ naah Julian Overton brenley Shumway Isabella shamway Roy Smith Jesse stop of five and Tren and tricky shall I continue reading can we just maybe look what yeah I don't also I don't think Genevie gof was on there J up here I love jenev thank you geneveve congratulations no surprise at all so here we have our AP or APUSH passing students all across all three and our AP math scholars in Calculus BC River rig and Zane Jud again in calculatus ab and in statistics and probability Brook horn AP science we have in AP Bio James faucet in vir science James Spencer Brandon and then science continued on down to Jackson Woods once again for Capstone Gabriel coose Gianna dardi congrats kayin Indian Trevor Klein Zena baj Elizabeth Aria lesie Rosas Grace Smithson and then in research Marshall vanat which brings me to our Blue Ridge AP Capstone diploma recipient Marshall van atton and actually if I could ask you Mr R to explain this so everyone knows why it's a huge deal well the AP Capstone diploma essentially you have to complete AP seminar AP research those are not for the faint of heart and then you also have to pass four or more other AP courses with a three or better and so it's it's uh that's some Tall Timber right there by the time you're you're a senior so that's tough work there's a little bit of a Twist to it this year so if you and or your student is interested in the AP Capstone diploma um there's there's some changes that are a foot with it but we're trying to figure out a way to to hopefully continue to offer it in the future excellent and the more students we have in AP the more support we have the easier it is to do that and that covers our fabulous intelligent hardworking AP Scholars please come over here in front of the table we're getting a picture come on down on the pric is right e e and if anybody has questions filling out the form I can answer those questions tonight I can take them tonight if you know what's up already and I think that concludes our meeting so we're good thank you for coming

to see you all uh thanks Kristen for organizing this event um a rather solemn event because um we're here I wouldn't say celebrating but at least acknowledging uh the impact of overdoses and substance use disorder here in our lives and in the lives of our friends and family um I believe later we're going to be planting 2,000 over 2100 Flags which represent a victim an overdose victim over the past year here in Massachusetts and for each flag that is planted that represents not just that overdose victim but a family Somebody's Mother Somebody's Daughter somebody's sister somebody's father brother son again it has an impact well beyond the person who breathes their last breath once they do that overdose again all of you at least here I know have been touched by this it's both personally and professionally and so I appreciate the work that you do uh not just today when we're acknowledging these events on special days but but every day and uh I want to thank you for being here I believe uh next we have a chief rosson he's going to say a few words um so the ashon police department has to look at substance use disorder and overdoses a little bit different than most um um we have committed to being a resource for those that are suffering from substance disorder and the people that love them so we do have ksten here she is ksten k um our clinician who's available she's tenacious she's steadfast in her commitment um as an Ashland resident as a parent to the most vulnerable members of our Society uh but we also have to look at law enforcement and trying to stem the tide of these substances the deadly fentanyl from getting into our community uh Michael actually brought to my attention this week how we really didn't publicize enough I don't think the work that we do as part of the Metro Dr task force and operation Autobon was the biggest in recent Massachusetts history fentanyl bust and it happened last year and Ashland is part of the Metro drug task force this is a multi-million dollar ring multi-layered all the way across the East Coast New York City down through Ashland and the amount of fentanyl that was coming into our communities on a daily basis was mindboggling the the whole operation stemmed from one anonymous tip from an Ashland resident that was seeing what she thought was a drug deal happening continuously in her neighborhood through the it's called operation autobond because they had cars that I've never even heard of the ones where the doors go up and down you know fancy 250,000 million doll cars but Lamborghini Lamborghini thanks ly yep yes we're we're not only here to support people who are suffering from substance use disorder we are equally although we don't talk about it we are equally trying to enforce the laws and keep these substances out of our community so we will continue working Kon does a great job um we work with our partners in public safety Lynn the fire department is always there um trying to make Nan available what our human services department does on a day-to-day basis to support the residents that need assistance is humbling so we'll just continue the fight year after year thank you thanks chief chief ly yeah so I just would like to reiterate what Chief Rossy said but on behalf of Chief Roby and the members of the ashon fire department were very proud to join in with our partners like Kristen and her team uh Board of Health Chief Rossy and her team and the town manager and his team to be able to uh sponsor this this great event here at the public safety building but I think that individually each one of us can accomplish quite a lot but together we can we can accomplish so much more so together so we're going to fight this fight and uh we're really proud to be part of this thank you so hi um I'm Christen French I am the director of prevention and Human Services for the town of Ashland so um this is the second year in a row that Ashland has recognized International overdose awareness day uh last year we did it at the Ashen farmers market and we had a lovely turnout and we planted um one flag for every 10 overdoses so we planted about 200 flags and this year we thought that we would um try to expand that effort and or really represent um the loss that Massachusetts faced over the last year so we are planting 2,125 Flags um to represent each of the lives lost in 2023 and I think what is most amazing about um these sorts of recognitions is when the community comes out and really takes part of it so this is something that we'll be doing um every August it's really important to us to our department and to our community yeah like I said A A friend of mine lost a child lost a son uh to fentol U accidental overd um he was a real good kid you know and I he worked on my house and and I knew him briefly but out of respect for him and his father I decided to come down and plant some Flags you know in remembrance of him and uh you know it's a good it's good cause it's important for people to wake up to the fact that it it wasn't like it was when I was a kid you know uh back in the 60s and the 70s drugs were more recreational today they're quite deadly and uh you can make them mistake you can make one mistake and that'll be it and a lot of people just don't realize that it's so it's important to bring this to people's awareness um and they'll can't miss these flags as they drive by ask a question and it keeps in everybody's Consciousness and it helps to at least fight the problem hopefully solve the problem someday so anyways that's why I'm here

e e e I'm I'll see it two one two three mic check mic check testing testing testing when the testing one two three mic check mic check yep I hear it now you uh we're still not live on cable but that's not us I don't I don't see it there we go Yana you strangely look like the town seal you've been doing this job so long good evening everybody and welcome to the select board meeting for Ashland for September 4th 2024 happy September hope you've all had a great long weekend great start to the school um hard to believe we uh this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live by waca TV and live stream on Facebook remote participation is available using the zoom video conferencing platform any disruptions with the video conferencing platform will result in the platform being shut down in the event of A disruption broadcast in will continue on waca TV and live streamed on Facebook so with that let's start with citizens participation if anyone is here and they'd like to share something with us please step up and introduce yourself and your name and address please hi my name is AI Johnson I work I'm I live at for Roberts Road and um I'm part of the adop the street group in um I do from the Town Line of Framingham to the pretty much the fire station that uh stretched there 1.8 miles so my um concern is the the nips you know the uh it's um constantly picking them up you know and I know there's no no luck in Banning them but what I'd like to propose is a fee for the sale and distribution of the nips um I know that there there's like a pouring fee and alcohol licenses and all that so um I do not support the Banning of the nips but I I would think a separate licensing fee a permit of these non-recyclable single use mini containers no deposit um the the board regulates the sale of food cigarettes and alcohol so uh maybe they could regulate how these uh products are distributed or sold so I'd like to um suggest that in the alcohol the liquor store alcohol licensing process they could be a fee um to sell the nips um because they are single use no deposit non- returnable Min containers uh I would suggest a fee of $1,500 that fee could be used towards education cleanup put up some signs um something like that just to uh you know they when they get ground up you know they're going to go right into the soil and the water and all that the plastic you know this they throw out the cans and the bottles and everything but these nips they're a different thing you know so uh just as a prop this is about six weeks these are just the ones that I can you know get um I don't know how to go about putting it on the uh the the ticket or you know put it uh up for voting but it seems like it might be a good thing to have a nip fee not a van but a fee well well thank you for that input first of all I want to thank you for adopting that section of street thank you and doing the cleanup there I I know that that in itself is is a lot of effort it's something we'll have to talk about because depending on it's probably not just residents of Ashland oh yeah that are throwing their nips there people coming from Framingham we we don't know um we can certainly discuss it I I don't know if that anything will happen right away certainly not um but I want to thank you for bringing it forward and I think we as a board can discuss it um and maybe other towns that have tried to ban them they could have a fee yeah I was actually gonna ask it I'm sorry well I just want to say one thing I can do is I also sit on a regional board okay so I can ask around our neighboring cities in towns what they're doing if anything and see if we can come up with an idea together great you know if I'm may add I first of all I just want to Second thank you for adopting a street 1.8 miles is not a lot of Street that's a lot Sunday mornings is quiet so well you know very much appreciate your work on that thank you um you know I think what we're talking about here actually is is a state policy change um so I know there's been a lot of talk at the state level about banning n and I don't understand what the resistance is to it but apparently there is some probably from the alcohol industry I'm sure from the from the people who distribute them and make money from them yeah but if you're talking about like a separate fee or like a tax associated with that um I think it probably that that's probably more of a state law so in in addition to you know the local licensing Authority I would encourage you to reach out to like our State Rep or you know Senate President spoka or representative Lewis and just say that this is something that you'd like to try to accomplish and see what say just one more thing the uh the liquor store that's down here across from the Columbus Club I was talking to him one time and he says oh you can dump them in our dumpster oh that's so nice you know okay okay thank you I I just actually had a a a question and a comment too first off I want to thank you for coming here and bringing this this issue I know that there are a lot of folks here in Ashlin who who actually care about this because uh my neighbors and actually you and I have had a conversation about this as well at the market yep and um so I want to thank you for coming out tonight and and bringing those props to illustrate how bad the problem was in your opinion uh has this problem gotten worse over the past few years gotten better um but what have you just seen I'm just curious um it it seems to be constant okay you know and it's like I think I mentioned it to maybe Joe or something if you could fingerprint some of them it'd be the same people in the same place the same amount it's just there's the three Fireballs there's the uh whiskey whatevers you know and Y so uh it's a constant thing um the syringes are down uh but the um nips are constant okay yeah I'm curious as to really if we ask the retailers in Ashland who you know sell nips what they must have pretty easily I would think what how many numbers how many nips do they sell um yeah that's a good question you know because maybe that's something I don't know maybe that's a discussion we could have with them as well but it would be interesting to see I mean obviously yeah I think 100% that there's people just passing through oh absolutely it's not just ashon folks that go over there oh yeah toss them out but it would be interesting you know there's liquor stores in framan that's right yeah on either side of us but but it would be interesting to see how many are being sold in Ashland because uh you know if it's not a big part of their um retail then maybe it's something that they would agree to not sell I don't know I want to say we've had this discussion at least once or twice yeah over the years over the years there not something the unfortunate thing is you know it's what people want they went from a pint now to a ni type of deal you know so those people have those issues and they need you know that little that extra boost while they're working and they can't you know shoot a uh shoot a pint in them they take the nips while they're working type of deal that's always been an issue when we spoke Mada at the um Farmers Market you know I don't know if signs would do anything you know because it's unenforceable you know people throw some out the window you're not going to catch them but if they just saw you know it's don't do it well I mean yeah I mean just like a general sort of litter you know litter sign like don't litter don't you know something like that like may not nip specific I've done research it's better to say keep Ash beautiful then don't because they go don't and Y do yeah and and I know Michael had said you know that this is part on you know part of a state yeah um State oversight and so you know we can discuss it in further too and and make recommendations to to our to our legislators like we we can we can advocate for it thank you for all you guys do you work hard thank you're welcome and thanks andk you do appreciate you coming forward good it's a lot of we can continue with citizens participation maybe we could let you leave those here and we could get rid of them okay all set yeah Mar the Sony 119 Main Street nice and a very relaxed unstressed neighbor social person and happy to be in a house that is all common to the people there nice I would like to thank you I used to live in that neighborhood for 60 plus years and rubbish road is right after just be right after hi used to be called Park Street and yes used a had a property called Bishop's Farm and there used to be a hang out there so that's nothing new BR glad you brought it up but to bring back my new address I'm getting the mail there I'm getting everything there now all hooked up I I'm here to thank two people Town manager and Joe thank than you for the letters of recommendations my brother is proud that Joe came through my my brother also said don't bother the town manager he's too busy so I kind of said St part I already did and the other we got another person um was a woman that works out of the s s is that that was the third recommendation person I talked to her this afternoon and thanked her her name is Diane s nice and she is a family friend from the church and gave everything the house in progress at hathon is being gutted out going to be try to be solded by the end of September October hopefully I'm saying out of the way because two mindsets are good three could cause a problem so it's easier for me to stay out of the way it's also good to be a nextd door neighbor here nice takes less than two minutes from the parking lot to walk here and from the front less than a minute and a half but I won't make it a habit to become a pesty neighbor thank you thank you thank you Mark and I'm glad to hear that you're settled in your new residence and that it's worked out for congratulations I saw you walking downtown today I think it was and said up I bet you he's moved in good and Town's happy to see me not one add good yeah okay moving on next item on our agenda is review and vote on establishing a pouring fee in the amount of $500 annually so this is related to Clover road coming in it's not a regular beer and you know it's not a regular beer and wine license it's not a it's a specific pouring fee that we have to put into place and Susan was nice enough to sort of reach out and give us a fee a survey of what other communities have done so she's recommending the $500 and uh I think based on the work that she does with all of this I think that's a great recommendation any questions comments or discussion on this pouring fee Randy the only thing I think we need to add is the reason that we're doing this is because they brew their own beer but it's offsite right because of the type of facility it's a it's a tap room versus a a other restaurant that does beer and wine and or Al all alcohol yes so this pouring fruit is only for them it's not for all the other it's for anyone who if you know this they're our first if we get someone else who wants to do this it would then apply to them as well well but it's not like er is no this is just it's a pouring fee because they brew someplace else and they're selling their own stuff I'm just curious what what's the rationale behind a pouring fee because it's so instead of a instead of a regular Li uh alcohol license you do a pouring fee I it's also looked at differently from the state so this will not take away from our either all alcohol or beer and wine license count that we have and there's also if if you look at the language for the motion um it's a farming Farmers Brewing license so there's something associated with that that's why we need to do something different this is the first we've ever done and Susan do you have anything else to add I I just wanted to say um the gist of the whole thing is for consumption on site if they don't have a pouring license nobody can consume the product there they would have to take it to go okay so it's not a bob well no because you're not bringing your own there you want to C on ni I know um so I I guess my question would be if that's if if that's the case then are they still obligated to follow the same uh rules and regulations but tip certification and things of that nature as well okay yes there's no different that no it's just the type of license got any other questions then if I could get a motion to establish a pouring fee in the amount of $500 annually thank you in a second thank you all those in favor I I great I actually one question sure so for pouring Fe sorry let me put the mic on for pouring fees um because later on in our agenda in 3 minutes um we're going to talk uh talk to Clover wrote about um separate licenses for um for malt and then one for wine so correct so pouring fee is very specific as to the type of of um yes alcohol alcohol yes okay so they'll have actually two they'll have a a a beer or what what's this the actual the real name is malt beverage pouring license and a wine pouring license so they'll actually have to pay two fees one for for each license okay yeah it'll be a total of $1,000 for them yeah okay just wanted to because again part of it is we're setting it up because we haven't had this before so if someone else comes in and just wants to do malt beverage they would do malt beverage or if someone else wants to come and have just a wine sh whatever so so several years ago there was u a family that was thinking of doing the same thing behind the town hall right so this would be suitable for for them if they come forward to us because they're going to do bre if they're no I think if it's is it onite it's onsite brewing and serving would it be this license it doesn't pertain to whether it's off-site or onsite okay what it is is if they get a state Brewers license the only way you can consume it in a premise is you have to have a pouring license to do so okay perfect thank you sue you're welcome any other questions or coming ments okay it is O it's late here we go legal notice and I think are they're coming in nope that's running uh are they on oh are they online Jamie's okay so if you are and we're allowing people to cameras on now right no we're still not okay so if you are online and if you are here repres presenting Clover Road Brewing you can go ahead and just put use the raised hand feature so we know who you are and then we can call on you I'm going to read the legal notice notice is hereby given that the select the select board will conduct a hearing in accord keep your mic's mic's uh mik for now uh notice is hereby given the select board will conduct a hearing in accordance with M Mass General law 13B SE section 19 CN for a malt Brewing pouring license Ashlin Brewing LLC DBA Clover Road Ashland 151 Main Street Ashland Mass a public hearing will be held on the matter on Wednesday September 4th 2024 at 7:15 p.m.

uh welcome back I hope everybody had a good summer um I am looking for somebody who can take minutes for this evening's uh meeting please I got three committee members here I'll take the minutes thank you glattus I appreciate that all right um so we have uh what will hopefully be the wrap-up of the 4,000 series happening this evening um we were working on this all last year um and these are the last uh several uh policies that we have um so with that I'm going to turn this over to uh Kelly and to Kim thank you can everyone see my screen okay um so the uh the first uh part of the 4,000 series wrap up is that there are several policies um that are not required so they're not cave required policies um but they are existing policies that we have um in our in our manual um and so we want to take a look at each one of these four policies to see if we wish to continue them and make any revisions um or eliminate them um so I will start with the first one which is 41351 6 work stoppages um and really I know everyone's had the information and um hopefully had an opportunity to look at it so I'll start with any questions that may exist um and then we can talk about uh you know recommendations for again do we want to make any revisions um accept the policy as is or do we feel that we need we could discontinue it because it's no longer needed I'm sorry I I was away and I didn't get a chance to look at though what do you recommend Kelly I canell you want to jump in this one is about this one is about um strikes slowdowns just ruption of service I would leave it as it is um it you know in Connecticut you have a law a statute that says teachers are not allowed by law to strike in Connecticut um you don't have the same kind of Statute for other bargaining units to be honest I don't know what would really happen if we were to use this as you know this is a violation of your contract I don't know what would be the result of it it's pretty old policy but I'm sort of in the Do no harm Camp I I would leave it you never know whether it might be kind of a Lifeline um if we did have a situation where we had a work stoppage I I've never heard of one um but I I think I would be inclined to leave it as is it's not it's not damaging anything by being in there so I just have one quick question um I obviously just want to make sure that we're doing this in a way that um aligns with cave as much as possible and I noticed that they call this policy work stoppages and we have it listed as uh disruption of service does it make sense to just adjust the name I know that's a minor thing but no I don't think it actually I think it is actually a really important point and I think it's part of the issue with shoehorning into the cave structure you know when we decided to use cab as our platform um it came along with all of their numbers and titles and everything so I don't actually know the answer to that Kate but I would think that I agree it makes infinite sense to actually call it disruption of service and not work stoppage I think that's important um I think we'd have to probably go back with cab and see if how they change it I just don't know if it's a you know square peg in round hole or what okay thank you um go ahead Michelle so I'm inclined to yes that'd be great if you get that information but if it isn't necessary I'm not necessarily you know in support of putting something in that isn't necessary yeah yeah I I think Michelle the only thing I'm thinking is let's let's say that one day that there is a strike or a work slowdown and we are looking for every means possible to challenge the legality of that right we want to be able to say we can't say it's against the law because there's no statute if the for example if the noncertified people were to strike but if there were it seems to me that one error in our quiver could be well we have a policy calling labeling this a breach of contract I think there would be a legal issue in litigation about whether or not that is right I I don't I don't think anybody could tell you the answer to that right off the top of their head because I think there would be it would be around facts you'd have that's the nature of litigation so if this is an arrow in the quiver that existed some time ago whether it works or not I I guess my feeling is is it's not it's not contrary to law it's not doing any harm and it may provide you an advantage in litigation one day where you to encounter it over a work slowdown that's all I'm thinking again very speculative very very speculative and that's the part I guess for me because it is so speculative you know what I mean sure um so maybe if you answer we can get back to Kate's question but that is it it's very speculative so so I just having been on the board this will be the fourth year we've had issues where a policy was in place right that we had to remove so if it isn't something that is required and it's very speculative then I would probably not want to support that but unless you can come back with that answer and something changes well the the answer is only going to affect the label the answer is not going you like to do I'm going to say then I would not be in support so Kim can I just ask a clarifying question here um two clarifying questions one I just want to confirm this is a policy that already exists on our books correct yep okay and and my second question is this this policy aligns with Connecticut state law as far as what is required of our staff it doesn't contradict state law okay right to the extent that it applies to non-certified people I mean the state law already says exactly what this says for our certified staff so the law says teacher shall not strike in Connecticut doesn't say anything about other people and this policy extends to both groups so you'll see the Dual um numbering of this policy so meaning that yes it's in alignment with with the law regarding teachers and we're also applying and it's not contradictory to non-certified staff and I think that's what Kim is speaking to as a potential Advantage at a future date if we should so need it and the date of this policy sorry Kim the date of the policy was October 27th 1999 was the date in which that this was adopted um and has been on the books for that long it also in this piece that you can see during each day or portion thereof of A disruption you'll be liable to pay the cost of conturing insurance I mean if you have your Workforce that goes out on strike this policy says they shall by policy reimburse you for their continuing insurance if we remove this policy you won't have if you remove it what would happen you wouldn't have that anymore because you wouldn't have this language anymore your policy says this was what would will happen if there's a disruption in service so in other words if we don't have this policy in place and say that there is a strike um and uh teachers are bound under State statutes uh but there's nothing binding anybody who is noncertified um and they could potentially strike and then we would be responsible for continuing to pay out their insurance during this the course of the strike we'd at least be arguing over it for sure right and this you're saying would prohibit that I'm saying you have a policy that says during each day or portion thereof participants shall be liable to the board for payment of the full amount of the cost of their continuing employee Insurance that's what the policy says so be arguing about the enforceability of it but you would have it so you're looking to go for the first read to the board or like what is the there be no yeah there'd be no change this this is already an existing policy so there'd be no change if you want we would just renew the policy adoption we had this conversation I think at one point and can you just refresh our memories please because it's uh it's been a while and I think um we all just want to make sure we're on the same page um if we were to renew this policy and so the policy adopted date would then reflect our current year um that does that go through the board for a first and second read um I think what again it's been a long summer but I think what we've done is we've taken the batch and the board has looked at them as a batch and said fine yes you know keep them in place I think we decided when we started this a while ago um back when we first started the project that it was going to be an exercise in not just looking at changes but looking to affirm the things that we already had um other members of the committee can we hear from you on this uh particular policy please uh go ahead Terry I was looking for the raised hand thanks um will you say uh will you that was a good question Kate but would you also say policy adopted October 27 1999 uh updated or [Music] reviewed uh September 2024 is that how it were or or would you go policy adopted so if we were being if I could just add if we are being consistent with the way we've done other ones we've reopt existing policies I to reflect the updated date when policies were very old such as this one um it's not wrong to do it one way or another Kim and I were actually talking about that today but if we were going to be consistent with the way we've done the zero series forward it would be to reopt this policy and update the date oh so do you say reopt it or just adopted um we just had policy adopted in the most recent date that it was voted on by the board okay okay thank you again we could look at that as a group if we if we want to put reopt it in a new date I mean we could do that um I'm just what we've done to date as we've went through the policies has been a little bit different so I think there's consistency um you know that we want to keep across the politics sure yes Wanita hi good evening um can I go back to the uh very first paragraph can you scroll that down thank you yeah um so in the last portion it says that shall be considered a violation of the employees binding and legal contract with the Board of Ed so is this wording that is already in the signed contract sign contracts that we have with the board of is there no strike are you asking is there no strike language in our employee agreements is that what you're asking yeah yeah uh well it doesn't apply to teachers right because teachers have a statute so in our non-certified staff no it's not language that exists but I I I think the policy's intent the reason why it's written this way I it's very old but the reason why it's written this way I think is because were you to challenge let's say you want to go and you want to have an enforcement action to require people to return to work because you know you have to have 180 days of school you have to have non- certif whatever the reason is and you're in litigation I think that what this Endeavors to do is to say one one argument you would have is that these folks are breaching their employment agreement with you their contract with you and that this by definition a strike slowdown or refusal by definition will constitute breach of contract so the court can skip over that argument about whether or not there's a breach of contract because you've defined it in this policy I think that's what this is intended to do so no it's not in any of our current contracts it wouldn't be in the teachers contract because of the statute um but it it is not in the contract the language is not no is that Mak sense and it's in it's in no other contract either right employe I don't think so Anita I I'm going through my head I don't remember seeing it anywhere no again it's it's it's a policy that defines the term breach if you're in litigation what is a breach okay any other feedback on this particular policy so we're just changing the title uh I believe Kim was going to look into that uh before we make any formal decision so we might table this particular uh policy rather than making a recommendation to the board for it until we have that answer Okay I uh I don't see anybody else with their hand up here so I think we can uh move on to uh the next uh current policy for review okay um so I just placed on the screen um this uh policy is solicitation by employees uh policy 4137 um so I will open it up for questions for anyone on the committee in reference to this policy again it is a policy that has been in place since November of 1999 um and the question here is do we feel it's not a c required policy do we feel that we need a policy specifying these terms and conditions um for our employees um would we like to make any changes to this policy or do we feel it is not necessary and we' like to remove the policy do folks need a moment here to read um it looks like the title on this one is to be changed have a listen here soliciting selling and then the new one is solicitation by employees that is correct um in in the titles of these the the numbers uh have been updated for C we already made that vote um as a board um to renumber all of the policies along with that in the past policies we have made any updates to the labels of the policies to be in alignment with Cade um so certainly we can get feedback on that additional feedback if this group would like um but if were to do what we've done from the zero series forward we have um made the titles and the numbering consistent with the cave Series so Kelly just to back up for a moment then with the work stoppages and the disruption of service um if what you're saying is accurate then the work stoppages will become the new title for that particular policy if we were being consistent with what we've done so far then yes we would change the title to be the cave title Kim given your feedback on that previous discussion does that seem okay to you yeah I mean I don't think this one's that far off the other one seemed wildly off to me this one seems to me to be close yeah okay so what's listed are the new titles and what's on the policy you're showing us is the old okay new titles okay or updated titles that is corre go ahead Monita thank you um so just as um food for discussion some clarification um with the definition of solicitation um and okay so let let me let me give an example I'm going to I need to look at it because I need to see the whole thing so you'll see me turning to my other screen um and in um danburry High School uh each year they do the March Madness pool and somebody wins the money somebody um yeah has a financial gain um It also says um activities which are not approved by the principal or design um so so uh our activities like that need to be approved by the principal number one and then um further down it said something about I I guess you have to get approval from the principal then to to do uh tutoring in which teachers or Paras or um those in the school do tutoring for personal gain where they actually advertise their tutoring Services Cara is your hand up yeah I'm just I'm just thinking about the March Madness tournaments and you know that that occurs pretty widely across across the district and I'm just I'm trying to clarify my mind you know yes someone gains from that but I don't know if it's someone like is running a business to make a profit necessarily so you know different from someone coming in to solicit the students um for for tutoring services or advertising their Tut shows which I think would be problematic um we've also had people from time to time I mean you know people drop off Avon books right on the table and and you know is that solicitation and so I guess you know I appreciate the discussion on the on the definition because there are things that are just sort of regular standard practice that have that that just occur in buildings um but I think I think I'm wondering you know if the spirit is around someone who's you know the financial gain um component of it that's not directly tied to the benefit of the the school and the students so you know I I don't know to what extent we have to list all of those things um but I think I think my guess the intent would be that that the way I'm seeing is that you know that it's really about a conflict of interest and I would think it would probably have to start with approval at the principal level so that they're aware of what's going on in the building and that might be a way to help determine conflict thanks someone someone who's someone who's profiting off of this off off of you know some tort type of activity within the school so if that's the case I think the language in this particular policy the way that it's written if you know it's it's pretty restrictive and the circum the examples you're giving um Dr casiro might fall within the bounds of uh enforcing this policy so if that's the case then we got to look at making some adjustments here want you to thank you for bringing those examples forward true the other thing that I will just add is that you also have and we've previously reviewed them some code of ethics for uh teachers and administ rators um and so um you know not utilizing their position of power for lack of better words and I'm those are my words I'm not pulling it directly from the policy um but those are also covered in in your ethics policy um and so you could this is not a necessarily legally required policy and if you felt that it was too restrictive um you could vote to repeal this policy as a group Michelle um just wondering about the Career Academy and that whole model of you know engaging different internships and different you know what those Partnerships that we're looking to build and you know how that might even play into what we're looking at so um I think you know once we start digging a little bit deeper and we start to really even realize what that model looks like or you guys I'm sure will unfold to us further very soon uh that might all be a you know a part to consider in this thanks good that's a good point yeah I I'll just go back to if I can just one thing on the tutoring stuff I mean for time of Memorial we've had you know teachers that would teach you know student struggling in math and another math teacher would you know would tutor or they would know of a math teacher who would be willing to tutor and that has always been okay what has not been okay is if the teacher that's directly teaching the student is the one to do the tutoring because that's the the conflict piece right so that it's um you know someone is directly benefiting by a situation that's occurring in the classroom and you know there's a slippery slope of well I'll just catch you up after school you know for a fee um and so that's that that has that has been something that that has always been a very clear conflict of interest but we've had you know teachers tutor other students all the time so long as they're not on their roster anyway my screen just went black does anybody else's mine as well that yeah I think it mentions that in this policy I think I read that earlier exactly that that it wouldn't be like the teacher directly but another staff yes the wording on the policy and I just unshared to try to get the screen to come back but the wording on the policy would be on the current roster or in the current class um do we want to try to construct a revised policy do we want to repeal this policy given that there are other policies that sort of cover some of this content already Kim from a legal standpoint do you have any any feedback for us here I I don't I don't I think it's up to you okay what's the appetite of the committee I said keep it if if it it pae already has has some you know I I'd say keep it if there's an issue then you come I mean it doesn't seem to have any um conflicts here it just spells it out I think um I'm my hesitation comes from um Wanita is bringing up at least a couple examples of things that depending on how one decided to enforce the policy uh could bring those those um activities forward as a conflict of interest under this policy so um I just want to make sure that and I I understand what you're saying as well because the policy has been in place and yet you know these other things uh these other things are taking place without you know um repercussion um I just want to make sure because the policy is the thing that guides everything um that we're doing our due diligence to have a policy that matches how we're actually going to enforce what's happening in the schools um well maybe like the principal he participates he or she participates in those March Madness or whatever uh you know funds whatever I would keep it I would keep it and I'll tell you you know uh Unita brought a good a good point but I see those those pools as um more more for the staff than for the students and even if you did one for the student just for the record as long as the principle authorizes it I think it brings motivation to this to an enthusiasm into the classroom uh like a competitive type of thing I understand that um you know somebody is profitting but I think what we're trying to do here is that if a particular teacher has a business that is bringing into the into the school that is pro that someone is profiting school I think that's that's what the Brule is looking at that's my interpretation of it um I I don't think think that you know the March Madness or Super Bowl pool or whatever you know yeah it's it's a motivating factor it makes things happen it makes people excited in school I've seen that in at West Hill High School and throughout the year it brings the kids uh you know or or the staff really pumped up and motivated to continue on until that particular day just my opinion can I just um add um I I think my conflict is is that the words for financial gain so you're saying the competition with the students somebody is benefiting um so let me give you this example so we um Al we have a we don't have but let's just say we have an automotive um Department at our school and um highly favored by a lot of the students and our Automotive teacher goes into business um as training as driver's ed a driving business our kids know them our staff know them may even direct students parents do them what do you think is there a conflict it could be a conflict it could also could also be a conflict if the teacher is asking students to bring their cars in to be fixed and charge the price to the kids then it's a conflict that's a financial game there for the teacher or a teacher allowing a student to fix cars to other students in school property that's a that's a financial game um well I I think it says for um that leads to financial gain of the employee and um so if you have that that business and you know I'm not I'm not against most teachers have to work two or three jobs to get by um I'm just throwing out um who decides what a conflict is who decides you know the financial gain who and so anyway I guess in the end I'm voting to keep it in well I'll even throw something at you the financial gain would be if the teachers supposed to be teaching a class and doing mechanical work gain even outside of the classroom on their own time but it you're directing um I mean maybe it's me you know I'm a counselor and the parent says you my child needs driving classes and I'm might say oh my gosh so and so has a driving school go there I would think that the district would either approve that prior to be a needing teacher to have any kind of in this case Driving School in in you know advertised I think that you you bringing a good point on on the driving teacher if I saying I'm a teacher and you're a counselor he says oh yeah Mr Almeida has that has a school driving school you know by you providing that information to me for me to reach out to them it's like it's not as long as you the way I understand is as long as I'm not gaining Financial from work where I'm representing first which is my first job which is the public schools what I do after after work it's my business but if you if you yourself as a counselor give the parent a card again or not even a card you just know for a fact that I teach driver ed maybe all maybe the conversation turns to that unofficially I guess some of this comes down to what we think solicitation is solicit think think if somebody's yeah if somebody's asking for information to me that's not you know you're not soliciting them by providing the information they're asking of you um or providing a resource um but that's that's just my perspective uh Michelle you're on mute Michelle sorry I think every you know all the points being brought up are are really good um and I agree with Al and I agree with Wanita uh and I think again it's going to be that it's what we're trying to build is that engagement with Partnerships and the community so I think we're going to see a lot more of that potentially you know coming up than we are right now just saying are you just you know tutoring a class but we're literally I thought building a model and engaging and in in the community and kind of building those internships so it's going to be I think this I don't you know I was looking to support it as well um I just think you know it's going to be U almost like a learn curve as we create this model and these issues become more relevant in the in that model you know what I'm saying I just I don't know um it's it's definitely I agree with uh Al it it builds energy in that communication in the classroom if it's approved by the principal let's say the principal has the ability to approve that March Madness and it's known and let's say it gets um communicated to the boorder or publicly like hey whatever school had March Madness and whatever you know if it's public and it's approved I think it's fine um but obviously as long as we're looking at everything carefully and making sure that as we are developing this new model creative model that uh this is going to be questions that we're going to continue to ask I think a good example stici that way I would see me being a teacher and me telling all my students in my classes to say hey you have to go to this location to buy this and I give everybody a business card that's the solicitation not knowing if I'm going to get a cut or not probably will be getting a cut but that's but not I look at it as part of ass Association uh on that part is is encouraging people and telling people to buy from a particular uh source that to me that's a it's a conflict of interest and it's a violation of the the teachers ethics and again we have those things but as going back to the policy I would just leave it as it is I I don't think there's nothing wrong with policy okay can we take a quick temperature then folks who are in favor of keeping the policy versus not keeping the policy uh Terry hi you're in favor of keeping the policy yes okay um Wanita uh yes okay Michelle yes Al yes all right uh with that can I have a um motion to recommend this to the board for uh reapprovals to the board for approval we have a second please I'll second thank you Michelle all those in favor please signify by saying I I I okay uh so let's move on to the next uh policy number that's 414 0.242 40.2 non-bargaining unit employees Tim could I just ask that you presented on the screen as mine is experiencing a glitch right now can you see that it's not um you right now we see the agenda so I don't know if there's a different window you have to highlight or if you can click on the it is you can see that if you click on the number cam right before bargaining unit in place you'll see it where click where on the number uh 414 4 0.2 right before bargaining unit employees is the third one can't see that I don't see where you mean yeah that was the one that was it there one more back 4 two oh That's So Sol no you were on the you were on the right one it's it's the next one Kim this one here yeah is this the one we were told that I didn't hear that Terry you want to try that again sorry is this the policy we were told at the last uh uh board meeting that we don't have the authority to do this uh this did come up for conversation um and this is the policy that sort of governs um how this how the process works um so if everybody could just take a moment to read it real quick make sure that uh you you take a look at the details there and then we can have a conversation about it um you know in in deference to the um the position this puts both Kelly and Kim in um I'm going to try to lead this conversation could you make the wording a little bit bigger please I think they can can they why is it everything comes off print is so tiny so Kim if you go to the three dots in the corner next to uh new Chrome uh available in the upper right hand corner yep the three dots and then you should be able to go down to zoom there we go e okay has everyone had a chance to read it I'm G to take that as a yes I have your her no NOS here um so this did come up for conversation um and one of the things that uh we had talked about in with the board was uh the possibility of adjusting the date um for this policy so that we as a board would have a sense of what that Al was going to look like um before the budget had been approved um so that you know we can have a little bit more robust conversation around it I think the challenge we were experiencing before was that uh we were learning about this allocation uh before um or by July 1 and typically that just fell at the end of uh the school year which was past our uh our budget cycle which made it difficult for us at that point to feel like we had any um uh input as to how how things were being handled um so I just want to open this up now to conversation and see what feedback folks have for us um K is there a second part to that where it starts with uh the superintendent will establish or we're not looking at that um where are you looking on um well I'm I'm on the um danburry Public School website with policies and so um it's um 4140 point that point2 well I'm sorry it has an r r in front of it oh that's the regulation so uh that policy has a regulation that carries with it uh the regulation is sort of like the um instruction for how to apply the policy so um we won't be looking at that we're looking at the policy right now the the regulation I believe would adjust to meet what we decide in the policy Kim is that accurate well do we set policy so I'm asking about the regulation um do we get a say in the r 4140 point2 right I just want to confirm that if we make an adjustment to the policy as the board does that do the changes that we make there carry over automatically to the r to the regulation I wouldn't vote for that to happen I would want to look at the regulations without them automatically adjust I'm not I just want to point a clarification I guess so that the regulation the policy is what the board votes on the regulations are like the implementor so the regulation doesn't that can't override the policy you set the Poli and the regulations are the implementer and the regulations are written by your administrative team to give guidelines for how to implement the policy so they can change at any time they don't come through a process of reading and vetting like your policies do they're just implementers much like the Federal Register you know the government puts out implementing regulations that are meant to support the legislation that the Congress passes it's the same idea so the staff put together the road map for how to implement the policy and that's what your regulations are okay okay and so I guess my um question is um do those regulations then come before the board no they they're just implementers so it's like you're so and I you know I understand that I I just it's it's not that I agree with it I understand so I I understand that we then uh I understand that we are here to set the policy um I do think think that um there must be some stipulation somewhere where um it the regulations in how to um handle that policy should at some point um be at least I'm looking at that and it says something about regulations are typically provided the board is a point of information corre but it's not something that we vote on as a board so I'll give you another example so today Kelly and I sat through three hours of Title Nine training Title Nine the legislation is written by the Congress but the reason why we had the training today was because the the staff at the Department of Labor and the State Department of Education have put out reams of regulations that talk about how to interpret what the statute was it was passed it's the same setup and if and if I could just add we would not change regulations without informing the board but it is not the voting process um that the policies go through thank you for the clarification one need does it does that answer your question is there some confusion about it or just a difference of opinion well that's the answer but um I'm hoping that there is um later on some discussion I just think it's very vague language in the regulations I think that we have to look more carefully at the policy itself this was one of the areas of contention um when we moved forward with the budget it was not only I there were other members who um apologize for not knowing this policy in advance but we were in that big uh money crunt and um making sure that as we move forward that this policy is exactly um something number one that the why answering the question why uh does the board want this policy um what do we want from the policy um the need for the policy um and just moving forward with um much transparency so when you look if for the other board members if you have a chance to look at the regulations the regulations I believe in implementing the policy are very vague um they're not very specific in um they talk about Job Performance Based on performance evaluation job performance which meets the district standards for the position um and um and it also uh at the end of the policy itself I'm very um concerned that add the statement that says additional compensation and benefits very vague which what are those may be provided in recognition of service um what is that what I I understand your concerns and I don't I I um those are things that I've thought about as well I think in looking at this though you know our our role in this is looking at the existing policy that we have okay and if we're going to do that um one of the reasons that I suggest we take a look at that date on there it says by July 1 we have the power to move that date so if if you know to your point the discomfort that some of us felt as board members in evaluating the budget budget process was in part due to not having concrete understanding of how the allocation was being made and how that was going to operate if we shift the date that's in this policy it forces that conversation to happen in advance of the budget cycle so that we can have a robust conversation about uh the the compensation for central office exemp staff does that make sense like I'm not it does but I think we're skimming over the wording well I I just want to I also want to just sort of touch on the idea that like as the as board members we're not in a position necessarily to evaluate you we can leave the regulation part alone but the policy itself I think that we need to take time and look at how as a board we want that worded okay which is what we're doing right now so I I want to come back to this one but Terry's had her hand up for a little bit so let me just pop over to well I I'm I agree with W uh there's no um for example one year we had one person who didn't get a raise and subsequently that person left and there were reasons that person didn't get a raise um but the first sentence says believes that an appropriate Equitable Compensation Plan should be established for exempt administrative and support positions I don't see it I don't see it I don't see there's one it's just across the board uh whether you're here one year or a Dozen Years um I don't think it's being followed through that's what I agree with wiita um I agree the DAT should be changed definitely um um but I don't to give raises just across the board for everybody whether they it just doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense so one of the conversations Terry that happened um around this when we were um you know having this conversation at the end of last school year is that when you know sort of assessing um this particular group it's important to understand that they're not part of a bargaining unit right and I do think that this became sort of a point of conversation um that that folks had different opinions about but there was this idea that if you know this particular group of folks is not covered by a bargaining unit is it fair and appropriate and Equitable to treat them differently simply because they're not part of the of a bargaining unit um and to you know look at their um their salaries and their compensation in sort of like a vacuum um and I think the danger in doing that from my perspective is that if you decide to say to one particular group whether they're organized or not you know we do not value the work you're doing uh on a on a level that we value the work that all these other bargaining units that's not what I'm saying that's not what I'm saying that's not what I'm saying excuse me point of order I everybody can say what they need to say and that's fine but I need for it to be orderly and I need for one person to talk at a time so if you want to say something you're more than welcome to raise your hand please just wait for me to recognize you so we can keep this orderly okay okay I'm assuming somebody would like to talk because I did hear two voices at least oneita thank you okay um I am not here to discuss um you know like all of the bargaining units and who we have contracts with this is this is truly specific um otherwise we wouldn't be discussing the administrative and support positions in the central office in particular and specifically um what we have done in the past from what I can understand correct me if I'm wrong it's just been a blanket across the board uh nobody wanted to separate the Clusters nobody wanted to look at individually um I personally and I don't maybe we're not supposed to see correct me whether um um who looks at evaluations um you know who looks at uh we're still waiting for some of the job descriptions um and so who who who does who does that does the board ever know um is it something that we want to know and in addition we have language here in this policy to me that is very vague I like the aim of the compensation that's good but to go on to say additional compensation and benefits what would the additional give me an examp what are you talking about over and above what you've already said was appropriate and Equitable compensation and then there's additional comp give me an example of how that's been um added on in the past um and they may be may may not um B based on what what's the criteria um where does the money come from um how is one recognized um so I right now I'm voting against this policy standing as it is okay thank you Anita Terry I know you were trying to speak before oh thank you um I'm I'm certainly advocating for a change of the date that is listed here uh I think that will help bring some transparency about some of the questions that we've had um as well as sort of help us inform the budget process um I guess what I'm also looking for Wanita if you feel that there's some vagueness to this or there's some things that we'd like to see um spelled out differently um I welcome your suggestions I do not like the last line in the first paragraph we know what the aim of the policy is and it says a compensation plan to attract and retain competent employees um who you know and then the benefits should be equal to those of other comparable employees of the school system um who compared to what other positions in the central office um that's that's very Broad and um by a I agree with changing the date um at our meetings toward the end of the year we had a discussion on oh this is not we don't vote on this we it's already in the budget um but this says that we shall approve and so I guess since we approved the budget then we approve the allocation um and I just think that that needs to be made very clear that then we don't you don't go back and vote on it again um so whatever is brought forth by the superintendent at that point as far as the allocation um is in the superintendent's hands and so it's probably not even necessary to bring it before the board except just as an in informative information um may ask a clarifying question oneita the when you talk about uh when when we discuss the change that I'm suggesting which is to adjust the date by which we receive information about this allocation if it is you know it does become part of uh the budget so that might be then a point at which during the budget process board members can back and say we don't like this allocation or you know this is what we'd like to see change with the allocation um and then have the option of voting um you know for or against the budget based on you know in part this criteria um does that does that sound right or am I missing something in in what you're asking Okay so let's step back address that last sentence additional compensation no clarification there and benefits what does that mean and you said we talked about changing the date um you I I believe that once we get to the point of having the budget that is the sticky point of I I think I hear what you're saying Kate is well well we can just uh not approve the budget who is going at that point Who's going to really say I'm not going to approve this budget until that adjustment is made to when we've spent hours and hours and hours on the but and that's why we were in that position I think um last year um and so um I don't know that with what you said okay thank you uh appreciate I appreciate that clarification um in terms of the additional compensation and benefits may be provided in recognition of Meritor service um I I don't know how much teeth that that statement has um so if it's something that folks feel strongly about I'm I'm certainly open to that conversation uh you know with it being removed um you know as far as the budget piece you know I think part of what I'm looking at here the language the Board of Ed shall approve an allocation for salary and benefit adjustments um you know I look at those that allocation as being at the discretion of the superintendent and the reason for that is that the superintendent is the direct supervisor for these positions um we as board members are not supervising these staff members and can't really give a performance review in that sense the only exposure we have with them is at board meetings or in any of the work that we might engage with for for committee meetings um so we're not in a position in my opinion to really you know assess them individually um you know so when we talk about this allocation that's approved you know we might at that point say to the superintendent you know we'd like to see how you're going to uh distribute These funds um and it does in fact say at the bottom the superintendent shall report annually to the board concerning the Imp liation of the policy um but what we're talking about you know for approval we're talking about an allocation which is a a sum of money that the superintendent is then going to uh decide you know to handle as she sees fit or as they see fit uh to the the staff that is part of the central office exemp staff and I do want to just also ask a clarifying question um of either Kelly or Kim um I know that central office exempt staff in compes more than just the uh the cabinet members can you also remind us who else is included in this group please it's uh generally all your um Administrative Assistant staff so all the people you see at 63 Beaverbrook and 43 um it's also your occupational therapists and your uh pts it's anybody that is not in a union so it's all your employees at is what this your BCA so your board certified Behavior analysts also fall in this category okay thank you for the clarification I appreciate that um so oneita back to your point um are there recommendations that you would have for you know addressing the concern that you you discussed which was the idea that you feel like maybe you know people are not going to vote down the budget based on the specific allocation um do you recall when the information was presented to us for the allocation for the salar adjustment how it the way in which it was presented was in a block form what I mean by that people were grouped and you there was no individualization there was it was across the board um and I'm not talking about necessarily the percentage or the amount but certainly there was no separation every Everybody um received you know the the U uptick in the salary the benefits the additional compensation and listen again we're not talking as we said before as a board we are not talking about um individuals we're talking about a policy and so therefore um we were given uh groups of people and so I'm not sure um maybe perhaps a a little bit more uh clarification on the from the superintendent and maybe not um is H how what is the determination and so yeah I've evaluated and every everybody everybody um last year was not was a a time when we would have voted for everybody to have but um I believe that in the past we were told well that's how it was done in the past you know we're just presented with it and you know this is you know the decision and we're supposed to go along with it um and so if we're not what I am told by cab is that it is policy that drives your district and so I just feel that this is a policy that we um uh again need to be careful with uh once we adopt it do do we have the opportunity to bring it back to policy and say um we want to look at this again um and I'm not sure of that process um or are you saying you know like every four years we'll look at it or we'll look at it when it's outdated as this one probably is um but to be brief I would like that um sentence removed additional compensation and benefits may be provided in recognition of notorious service um I I don't see where that even fits in if you're already compensating across the board with the plan that you have um so I guess I'm looking at it like it just gives the uh superintendent some latitude in terms of you know when she's you know evaluating her staff her immediate staff uh gives her some latitude in decision making about how the the allotment is made to each you know to her employees um but I'm going to take a minute right now and let Cara speak because she's got find my hand I'm so sorry I'll come back I I don't know why I can't find my hand tonight um so I apologize but I do I do want to to speak to this and I and I want to just you know be very cautious around you know why the language exists why it's been a policy for for the length of time that it has been is that these are Atwell employees they are not in a in a bargaining unit and um I can give probably multiple examples of this summer alone between the end of the school year where um you know we we've lost employees right you're talking about also very unique this is not one large group so you're not talking about a thousand teachers or a thousand you know or 200 pair of professionals um you know you have very role specific you've got Tech technologically specific jobs have uh people with very specific um you know computer capabilities they're very unique dispositions we have people in finance with very specific degrees in in particular types of Finance work that we do um so it you know among the group um you know and then at will we have to be able to attract and retain and be competitive with the with the market the policy allows us to do that um in terms of Meritor service or benefits so so while last year um across the board it looked pretty uh pretty um you know uh much the same we did break out two two separate groups um you know in based on some of the discussions with the board but you know one of the things I and I'll go look at the policy it it talks about the be to be able to attract and retain competent employees and I can tell you sitting in my position and especially in the last couple of years having a sense of what other markets um are are are are have for the salaries for different employees the number of turnover that we have and trying to stay competitive the benefit of the at will employee uh contract is that a you can get rid of an employee that's not really performing and it's a pretty seamless process but also be that you can retain someone who you really need to retain somebody who's acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge over several years who when they walk away from a district you're trying you're scrambling to try to replace you know 10 years of knowledge and training that you've invested in someone and with when have not having luck find trying to find those folks and so there are certain positions that you may want to uh you know when you're trying to attract someone offer an additional week's vacation to be competitive with a place that they've come from um you know when we post positions and ranges for things um that they're you know unlike um you know in a Union contract where it's very fixed um are able to to flex a little bit on the higher and On The Low End within within reason to reward someone who has specific training or specific certification that runs outside of what a normal you know what we would what we're all typically used to in a you know in the teachers union or the administrative Union which tend to be very fixed and in some cases you know what's great about a fixed contract is it's nice and easy and it's pretty clean what's terrible about a fixed contract is that for example right now um I cannot attract a bilingual certified staff I cannot attract certain special education groups because we cannot offer a bonus we cannot offer additional compensation to to get someone who's qualified to come to our district because the contract is is flat in that regard and fixed um whereas where these highly specialized positions um that we're talking about mostly on this exempt exempt uh staff list is that you do have some ability to bend and flex and and quite frankly I I feel that as a superintendent I would be in the best position to understand that landscape with consultation of course dialogue with board members um as we talk about the needs of the school system which I think that we've we've done a lot of that over over the year and we certainly had our our challenges but um certainly within the means of the budget and within the means of an allocation um that you know I'm able to make those adjustments as needed to make sure that we're retaining um the staff and that we're attracting in certain positions and from time to time you know I could think of again a couple positions in particular right now where every school district is fighting for the same four or five people in the state that that are available and we have to be able to be responsive um to that and if that means we have to adjust um a salary range um in some cases it means that we have to go out when we don't or we're not able to we have to go out to a service and pay double um to meet legal requirements or to be able to make our state reporting requirements or to be able to make um you know what what are an IEP requirement so we do have to have some level of flexibility and we do have to be in a position to be able to judge how to apply that from time to time and the budget process I think has just highlighted the fact that you know it's put a big Spotlight on this but it has been um you know the ability to to bend and adjust you know to to meet the needs of the school system over time and again you know having you know one group um again where we've had people with uh you know our our I'm sorry my dogs are under my feet here um groups that have you know fixed tables they you know they're guaranteed you know whatever percent was 3% across the board plus a step plus whatever all of that stuff is laid out and guaranteed and those things Unison and lock step every single year guaranteed and this is a group where we we actually have to move them for them we have to move them up and over and and adjust to keep up with with a retention strategy thanks Dr Kevin Mir you're welcome um Terry you had your hand up yes thank you um I think what uh what Nita is getting at and what I'm trying I looking at that one list uh across the board um that equates everybody uh to the same level I personally would like to see it levels a b and c Where is the special teachers or um what staff that you need that you're finding hard to get maybe level B um gets that extra um incentive uh no AC if you want to do across the board a minimum but extra incentive to that category to keep and retain but to go across the board um is just it's just wild it's just wild uh without even showing us what the unions got percentage wise increases uh all the unions and give us an idea I I feel like we're uh LED in the dark uh this is the end goal and um sure we want to compensate I like getting a raise uh it's it's not against giving a raise but it seems to lack any uh uh not categorization but uh you know each each area has its own specialty and recognizing that area uh that is really needed uh is important but then you give it across the board doesn't make sense uh so these points are all uh taken I'm I'm still um I'm looking directly at this policy and thinking about you know what we might do with this policy because everything every decision that we make as a board um and as a committee here has to be in in sunk into the into the policies um and I don't know how exactly to articulate the things that you guys are asking about in the policy but I again I'm open to suggestion about that um what I think we might do because it's quarter after seven at this point is consider tabling this particular uh policy and revisiting it and I wonder if that is acceptable to the members of the committee here okay with me I'm okay okay with me yes definitely okay okay so um we will table this but I would ask that between now and the next policy meeting folks uh come up with some concrete um wording suggestions ideas about the language they would like to see reflected in here because uh without that um you know it's going to be very difficult for us to move forward okay um and that brings us to 414722 4247 point1 bloodborne pathogens communicable diseases are you going to uh make a motion to table it or are you just going to table it just let um do we need a table do we need a motion there's no there was no motion on the table as far as um recommending it or anything like that so I think we'll just make a note that okay okay thank you GLS so as Kim's pulling up the next policy the bloodborne pathogens um again this is not a required policy but it is something in practice um that our staff both certified and non-certified are required to do an annual training on bloodborne pathogens um and this is essentially to um protect any staff member that may come in contact for example with bodily fluids of a child or another another person in the school environment to make sure that they are equipped with knowing um what to do how to protect themselves and how to protect um others within the environment um so it is a state required annual training um so we will do the training regardless of policies um it really is up to the um uh the board whether or not to keep this uh in practice as far as a specific policy we will do this in practice I want to clarify we will do this in practice regardless of the policy but we can also have this policy outlining [Music] it uh committee members uh is there any strong feeling about this I would keep it I would keep it and change it with the title as highlighted can can you explain why the uh yellow highlight and the changes to the yes um it's just a title change um so the coordinator of Health Services is Carrie Burke um uh and she is the person that is directly responsible for um making sure that our training is updated um and collecting information on staff members uh formerly that was delegated to a medical adviser um who is a part-time consultant with the school on medical issues um but the true responsibility in practice has lied with the coordinator of Health Services you can you scroll down a little bit more because there's more that's highlighted so the change to um that's go into the next change pleas so I apologize Michelle I did not mean to cut you off um it the same thing uh that position when this policy was originally adopted was director of health services and now it's the city director of health services and Human Services so it's it's just to reflect the accuracy of the title currently um Kelly in that same paragraph um the second part that's highlighted are we still calling it in collaboration with the school medical advisor or are we putting in coordinator so yes so you will see Wanita there both you have the coordinator of Health Services um who is Carrie Burke we then have a school medical advisor which is a um a um medical uh doctor uh that we consult with if there is any higher level issue that we need um advice on so we have listed the district coordinator the medical advisor and the City Health Department as all three of them collaborate on this initiative did did that clarify I just want to make sure yes yes I know they're they're complicated titles but they are three different individuals so sh thank you is a coordinator or health services or is it supposed to be consistent with below of Health Service the coordinator of Health Services it should say of and thank you for picking up on that thank you so uh committee members do we feel that we should hold on to this yeah I was gonna say Al you just muted I'm sorry I would make a motion that to uh present this to the board for approval for reopt with the title changes yes okay is there a second on that second oneita than you Wanita all those in favor please signify by saying I I I motion so carries right we are going to keep moving thank you very much for your patience as we do this um there are two policies uh that were part of um Cab's recommended or recommended but not required policies um that uh Kelly and Kim brought forward to us uh that could be helpful and so we're going to take a look at those next um starting with the email electronic monitoring uh 41184 thank you Kate so I just want to specify that these are not current policies that are in existence in our manual these are C policies that are recommended for consideration um so it is up to us whether or not to Institute um the following this policy as well as the next one um but they are areas that have come up in practice as areas that we want to make sure staff are aware of um so I will answer cam will answer any questions related to the policy just for the committee information this is a similar policy that is in stand for public schools currently thank you [Music] well e are there any questions from committee members about this policy is the is the whole policy on the screen it does go down quite a bit Kim could you scroll down a little bit I Kim is driving now okay sorry that's okay what is your recommendation Kelly um Kim and I have discussed this and our recommendation would be to put this in place I just think it highlights an important area to remind uh employees that are um you know electronic devices particularly emails are property of the district um and uh this really specifies it and puts it into writing and this is not a required cab policy that is correct it is not required it is one of their recommended good practice policies but you do not have to have this and you said whe oh sorry you I'm sorry you had said we run into this problem as a district a couple of times how how often would you say that this is a problem but this policy that's not required we should you know Implement I you know I can't speak to the exact number of times Kim if you want to chime in a little bit but I I think at times we have had to have conversations just on uh District email use with uh some employees that a reminder that it's to be used for the job function and not for other things um and so um or comments on chats for example or electronic Mail system has a g chat function which is essentially like a text message um and just reminders that um so teachers can send them and they can be very helpful I could send uh a message to a school counselor to say I'm sending the student you know from my class to you they need to speak with you they can respond and verify um but because it's like a text messaging type feature um it you know it it lends itself to kind of more um casual conversation um so those have been things we've had to discuss with not on a very frequent basis but from time to time I would say actually something pertaining to what you send how you sent it personal use um with some frequency across all the bargaining units I would say with some frequency I think that it has become also um we have paid more attention to it since last Summer's breach because Gina and the tech team have been paying much closer attention to you know do you have apps downloaded on our computers do you are you communicating with your personal personal emails in your work email um we just now have been looking at um making sure that people who opened Apple IDs with their work um email or working with apple to switch those over to people's personal email addresses so I think two things I think one it's um an important policy to have because it starts to Define um for employees that if you have access to Gmail D.K 12.ct.us that is for business use only for work use only the other is very frequently we will get the well you can't look at my email or it's not fair that you look at my email or you can't and there are many times um some of which involve law enforcement where we do look at people's emails and so I think this is meant to put people on notice in a policy that you know your email is not personal um it is the property of the district and and this by putting it in a very clear policy and posting it that that's yet another way that people can be given notice that personal B business happens Elsewhere on another form and do we provide the onetoone as well laptops and all that to all our employees so they are actually on the on District laptop certified staff yeah certified staff get devices non-certified staff get the Gmail account but they don't get a device okay thank you for the most part I that's generalizing but for the most part any other questions about this this uh suggested policy um I don't have any questions but I do have a comment um I just think that the um I I like the policy I think that it's clear um and I would and I don't know if policies use bll print but I think that the very first sentence um I think it's the first sentence should be no I'm sorry it's the uh second paragraph all district electronic mail systems are owned by the district are intended for the um purpose of conducting official District business only um just very C I just think it's just very clear very simple this does not belong to you it is for business use only um but highlighting that thank you that was I I like the policy and I think it clearly states um its intent and if I could just add I think it's also something you know we just recently wrapped up new teacher orientation and this is something that as we issue them a new device that we're having conversations with them um to remind them that you know this is a district issued device um as well as District issued uh email um so it sounds like uh we want to highlight that that first sentence of the second paragraph there well it was just a s but I think it's a good one I think it's a good one um May is there a motion uh from the committee to recommend this for first read to the full board I make the motion to present to the board for approval be for first read may I have a second please second Wanita thank you Wanita all those in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed extensions okay motion so carries right um so we're going to look at the next policy then which is social networking um I think just an opportunity to read this as well this is another one um that frequently comes up as far as the uh intersect between social media and your uh you know impact and ability to teach in a classroom and just reminding uh staff that it cannot have a negative um impact on the teaching and learning environment um so I'll give a moment just to take a look at it uh and then if there's any questions is this for certified staff Kim if you could just scroll just to the top um just where the policy number is it's for both it's for both yep it's got list both listed numbers so it's certified and non-certified and sorry just if anytime there's a dual a policy number listed it means it applies to certified and non-certified um so that way you don't have to have a duplicate of the same exact policy for two different groups of individuals it's intended to to indicate which groups it applies to for for Jerry you have a question yeah who decides or how does this work is this something that people are snitching on I mean I I I don't use social media so I don't know so the the specific at the bottom of the policy delegates this to the board and superintendent so the specific who decides um if you look in that uh last paragraph under item under number nine that paragraph right following it um if the board or superintendent believes that a staff member's activity on any social networking sites violates the district policies the board or superintendent May request that the employee SE cease such activity um so it it gives some um you know ability to make sure that there's not an out side influence on you know the operations of our district thank you I think Terry too that um one of the ways to think about this is you know there are lots of um laws out there about um sexual harassment about bullying about lots of conduct that may occur outside of our four walls but that impact the educational process and therefore our grounds for whatever it is we might do whether it's we you know Council discipline um you know defend litigation whatever it is this that's always been the case and that will always continue to be the case what this um policy does is it gives a name to that kind of Conduct in the world of social media and and and so you know it it would otherwise be scooped under all of those laws anyway but again much like what I had said about the email it kind of puts people on notice because people don't necessarily think of this as affecting their jobs um and so it puts people on notice that you have to use particular care if you're out on what you think is your personal social media page if it is impacting the workplace um and that's why I think as I said it gives a name to it in the social media context as opposed to you know comment to make it a party or something like that so that that's I think why cab proposes a policy like this it's a it's a different generation of folks now the way that they use social media it's it's an education at best on this Terry you have another question I was well for ex throwing out examples um I was just reading um meta decided the words from the river to the sea is not hate speech that phrase some people it is some people it isn't what do you do you I think it's like any you know any employment related case that you would have over time I I think it's the same analysis you know we've we've got this structure of laws about what is discrimination what is harassment what is a hostile environment what is bullying we have this network of all of these standards and this is saying hey folks just so you know your social media is not your private stuff it also is fair game under some of these employment or education related statutes um and and it's a when you say how do you know it's really it's it's a FactFinder who's ultimately going to know you get in litigation you have a judge you have a jury but it's also the the your administrators who have to make that fundamental decision is this conduct that's happening outside affecting the process inside and if it is and if it's a material AFF effect on the workplace of some of your employees or on the educational process for some of your kids then you would expect that your administrators will come in and say hey this is unlawful this needs to stop and by the way you were on notice that your social network your your Facebook page or your Instagram is really not your private it affects the workplace I mean do we have somebody that checks staff social media I would just no it really comes up in the context of someone brings it to a supervisor or something you know we've had we've had people make disparaging comments about colleagues about administrators um you know in um Facebook groups or on Instagram we've had people who are in those groups and see those comments bring it to their supervisors and say did you this is what's going on out there that's typically how it comes because there's just you know you wouldn't have enough hours in your day to kind of watch everybody's postings so so we need something like this then I think I I think I think this is a generation particularly of of of employees that live in this world and don't appreciate that whe they're doing something outside of work that it could actually impact their workplace so this kind of lets them know sorry Kim and if I could just we hold the same expectations for students right if a student is harassing um intimidating bullying threatening um the school another staff member another student we take that serious and that's subject to discipline code for our students um and so this is no different for our staff and I I think that that's important to keep that parallel uh there yeah for show you have your hand up I just I see all the examples in one form but I also you know see it in the opposite again who is to judge and somebody might find some material offensive or it's freedom of speech so for me if this is not required then um I think it's an individual situation and I get it social you know this is a big part of what's happening but it's also um you know you you commit to working and and being as professional as you can and you get evaluated and we're talking about even certified Merit whatever um I I think um you know part of your life is part of your life and um so I would not support this if it was you know unless it's required um I could see it both way I can totally see how you know the points you're making are valid and substantial but then at the same time there is some sort of privacy that um I think people are entitled to as well so I would not support this one so Kim may ask a question if if a case came forward where something like this was reported out and we don't have this policy in place um does it still inform you know proceedings against someone if there's evidence that it's caused a problem in school 100% yes yes okay so if you did not have this policy and someone made a threatening comment on social on their social media page that affected the workplace of a colleague we absolutely would respond to it exactly the same way whether you had this policy or not what I think is good about this policy is I think that everybody who works in our organization should have notice that you know this is something that is conduct that we consider inappropriate and that you're on notice that we may look at some of these things and and respond accordingly it's really it it would not change how I would tell anyone to respond um or to defend litigation about it it wouldn't change that at all whether you had this policy or not but it really is a a transparency issue for it it's good Labor Relations it's a transparency issue for people who work for you thanks for the clarification question for Kelly um so Kelly was this um also emphasize at the new um higher orientation this area CED you know just yeah so um I we don't have was a polic was this policy presented no because it's not in place um but we you know we try to um each department meets in very small groups and then as well with building administrators as well as a whole group presentation um and everything from dress code to usea email to um you know kind of your your intersect between personal and work life um is discussed with new employees I I don't think um I think it's something that needs to be reinforced over time and to Kim's point I really feel that having something in writing that we could hand to particularly new new employees would just further reinforce this Terry um I one reason why I don't do social media anymore if I could help it um I happen to like a comment I thought it was a very benign comment about a political person it was very uh I thought it was very very gentle comment and I just said oh I liked it and I got crucified by a recipient of that particular person's you know Facebook page I got crucified and uh to the point where it was almost hesp and it's it's like it's crazy out there in this world it's nuts um it's like who I I I just don't I'm for the policy because it it it's it's specific uh hope hopefully people will consider it before they post anything thank you for the feedback um anything else about this policy that folks would like to discuss or bring up so um I'd like to ask for a motion to recommend this to the full board for a first reading I make the motion to present it to the board for approval thank you Al is there a second please second Terry thank you for the second um all those in favor please signify by saying I I I H any n any extensions exstension thank you noted Michelle thank you motion carries all right we are at uh quarter to8 and I know we have one more item that is listed on our agenda here um my inclination is to table this to the next meeting I think it's going to require a little bit more robust conversation than the the folks have uh energy for this evening after we've been here for an hour and 45 minutes so uh I just want to make sure that that is okay with committee members before I uh suggest that we do that can what does it mean affiliations what do you mean um so a question came forward to the superintendent about whether or not board members should have to disclose any affiliations they have outside of being a a board of ed education member um and the policy committee would be the committee in which that conversation appropriately takes place um it falls under the umbrella of the work we do here so um that's how it wound up on our agenda here um but again I think that this is a conversation best served uh at our next meeting thank you is that okay with everybody sure yes okay all right thank you uh with that in mind I'd like to make a motion sorry entertain a motion to uh adjourn the meeting please can I ask a question Kate oh yes of course are are there those um who are on this Zoom that were not committee members do we do that did we establish whether or not they get to comment um it's at the purview of the chair running the meeting um the way I usually handle it is um you know if uh non-committee members have a comment uh I I asked them to raise their hand and I will uh recognize them at the appropriate time okay um but I guess you know to that point one uh I see that both Gladis and Louisa are on this call and I'm just wondering if either of them has any uh comments that they'd like to share at this time no I don't thank you Kate no I'm fine thank you all right thank you everybody um so may I ask for a motion to adjourn please I make a motion to adjourn thank you want you get the second I'll do the second half all those in favor please signify saying I hi hi Weir

e e e okay we're live um great sounds good I will now call to order the September 4th 2024 special Board of Education meeting for CH Unified School District uh we are in Open session it is just after 5:00 pm um during our special board workshops we do close session after our Open session so we will be going to close session after this period of time uh with that uh I would like to ask everybody to please stand for the flag salute all righty I think we're all uh just getting into our accounts so we can see presentations on our small screens sometimes it's a little too small on the big screen for us so we like to follow on on our follow follow along on our Chromebooks uh our next order of business is consent calendar is there anybody who would like to make a public comment on consent or anybody that would like to pull any items from consent okay seeing none I'll ask for a motion please I move adoption of the consent calendar second we have a motion by U member Lando and a second by member conin we're going to do a Voice vote since this is our first of the evening we'll start with Mr tennis I conen I Doby I Lando I Robinson I great it's unanimous it passes thank you next up on our agenda is the board Workshop the topic is informational this evening on after school programs pre kindergarten transitional kindergarten and kindergarten for the 2425 school year okay good evening everybody I'm Heather suent I'm the director of Elementary education and we are super excited to share with you two massive programs that are taking place in our district um we have two important people with me this evening Ken quack Hennessy who will be rejoining us in just a moment and Kathleen Corbett they really are the experts in this realm of work that has been happening in our district and so our goal tonight is to highlight some of the areas that we've seen major growth in both of the programs where we're headed what we're excited for and some of the things we're still considering and how to keep grow growing so I'm going to start oh I don't have the clicker you come up pretty fast okay big button Arrow Arrow got it okay so uh I wanted to start with this slide to talk a little bit about Early Education because it's a gigantic umbrella that has really evolved over the last couple years and encompasses some very very large programs underneath it so when we refer to Early Education we're talking about preschool transitional kindergarten and kinderg garden most of tonight's presentation is really on the preschool and the TK programs that are in place um this quote is something that was brought to our attention from our TK work with teachers as we were evolving um and it kind of encompasses the goal of this Early Education so it says there is undeniable evidence on the profound benefits of Early Educational environments and the critical role they have in nurturing young children's social and emotional skills strengthening emotional regulation social problem solving and leading to reductions in Behavior so this early childhood movement is really helping to forge the path for our students to be even more successful when they hit Kinder this is the official kind of definition of early education programs it refers to the environment that provides an education component of curriculum that nurtures the Learning and Development of the whole child including all domains covered in preschool transitional kindergarten learning and underneath is a great resource if you'd like to dabble in it some more that's from the California Department of Education and it goes over the foundations um the program structure of Early Education has has evolved California's early learning standards for preschool in TK are called the foundations and with that it's meant to convey that they're learning in every domain that they'll see as they transition Kinder through 12th grade but the foundations are really designed to recognize the Early Education years and understand that it's a major time for their physical development their cognitive development their language development and their social emotional growth this is just a quick snapshot for you that again it shows the concrete goals for the foundations they're written to illustrate the inclusive learning opportunities for all children and they acknowledge that each child is unique and may require different approaches to demonstrate their development the colors on the side that shows that the approach to learning encompasses social emotional development and within it they're still hitting all of those content foundational pieces as well so now i' i' like to welcome Kathleen Corbett who oversees all of the state preschools and who is also part of the LMA Vista Early Child Learning Center hello good evening um I'm here to talk about the Early Learning Center in the state preschool program for Chico Unified um we currently have multiple preschool programs uh working in collaboration with speech therapists occupational therapists social workers as well as special education teachers to provide an inclusive and highquality um early learning experience for the children and families all from the one location at LMA um we currently have six full day full year uh State preschool class rooms along with three special education classrooms for Chico Unified um oh it that so the mission statement or kind of goal of our program is to provide a nurturing environment through collaboration of programs uh for an inclusive community where families and teachers partner to provide children with high quality social and academic foundation for a successful education through intentional play and Hands-On learning um so that includes all the building blocks of getting a child ready to enter the elementary school campuses um can I pause you just for a second yes um Miss bonder can can you hear our speaker in the back pretty well you can um it's just a little hard for me to hear up here like I can hear it but I don't really hear much over a speaker um I don't know if it's just me but I can hear is it me not talking close enough maybe be a little bit closer okay but also just for our Tech Guys yeah I don't know how that translates over um our video either so so a little better yes thank you um the state preschool program is fun funded by CDE through um the contract is with CDE and it's a California state preschool program um the funding is based off of intendance and enrollment um and the funding can only be used for cspp expenses the state is really firm about that um our staffing structure ratios we have a 1 to eight adult to child ratio which is the title to 20 or title five requirement um we have one site supervisor and two preschool assistants for every 20 children per classroom so the registration process um we provide free and lowcost Early Education Services to three to 5-year-old children um families can register at the LMA site um and they do have to meet the state preschool income guidelines as well as the need qualifications um we are full day full year program and open 246 days year um and our hours are 7:45 to 5:00 Monday through Friday I'm sorry can you clarify when um I'm just trying to remember it is it when they're eligible for kindergarten that they are supposed to go into the kindergarten program or is it first grade um we we can have three to 5-year-old children so once they start kindergarten they our license doesn't allow us to have those children in our class five five-year-olds is kind of a gray area so and that'll come up in TK but if they turn five by SE September 1st okay then then they're not qualifi so if they're five by September 1st they no longer qualify for the preschool program no there's a overlap like technically some parents choose to stay with preschool rather than TK but not kindergarten that's where it's confusing that's where the line is yeah thank you um and just to show the growing enrollment of our program in 2223 we had about 60 children enrolled um 23 24 we got up to 80 and now for this fiscal year we have 120 children um within those six classrooms sorry I'm jumping ahead a little bit to the wait list yes um the current weight list is 79 but it's my understanding that usually is somewhere between 65 and over 100 any time of the yeares for multiple year I mean two years ago I looked into applying and I was like I don't even know if I'll ever get into the program so I'm not going to go through all the paperwork to even try to apply so um so it's not just a current weight list but on average over the last three or so years um it it's consistently averaging about probably 80 um I would say anecdotally from my observations not based on your data right right just from what you've seen because it's I think it's important to to note that because in 22 23 there were 60 that were enrolled and still you know 100 plus that were on the weight list and even though we have doubled the number since 2425 there are still 80 kids on that or little ones on that weight list um so the need is growing as the capacity is in growing is is growing which is kind of what I wanted to make sure that we were highlighting yeah for sure I I had a question too on the preschool registration slide okay is that better on the uh preschool registration slide uh it says families register at the Lum Vista site and have to meet the state preschool income guidelines and need qualifications could you explain what the need qualification is um because it's a full day full year program the need is either um working going to school or looking for work for the parents so this because it's a full day program the state wants to make sure that the need is there for the family and then we contract hours based on that need so even though we're open 7:45 to 5 everybody has different contra contct hours based on the need that they um that we verify is there any other questions about that um are we still on your presentation yes what are what are our current constraints on expanding the the program to meet the needs of those other 80 average kiddos that are on the waight list once a year typically but not every year they do offer expansion funding we can't just open a classroom because um there are children on the wait list as that I think that does happen in TK um for our program though they cap us at 120 full day slots um and then when that funding comes up again or comes around usually around January or February that's when we would apply for that so it's it's something that is Count you can count on kind of it depends on the absolutely the state budget yes I can add something too we applied last year Michelle bunch and Kathleen wrote for expansion but because of the state budget um it was denied there was no expansion offered to anybody out of uh the California state budget for this upcoming for this year it's not to say that won't change we hope it does and it has consistent we can't guarantee that will happen um they didn't take anything away so that was good this year like we can stay stable oh good they can take it away too that's scary rid a little bit of a wild wave there huh yeah for sure um so January February is expansion is typically offered but not guaranteed from the state and they could potentially even take funding away um so right now we have nine total classrooms serving this six are State preschool the three are um specifically for special ed or ESN classes right that's special special ed preschool classes yes right so that's students that are specialized students that are 5 years and younger yes three to 5 olds okay um and then a claric a clarification question because I don't know that this has been conveyed um not even for my own understanding fully because I haven't asked the right questions and I I you know we all have things going on um and it's an important question so I don't mean to make it sound like it's not but there was a discussion several years ago in my time so not too long ago um about Innovative and how they had been housed at this campus and then there was a transitional period and and so I just want to make sure that we are clarified about what what happened to Innovative or is that now fully trans transferred over to Chic unified and just so great question uh Innovative is in their last year of anou with us and so at the end of this year they won't be under the LMA roof anymore okay and so is innovative still at the under the LMA roof above and beyond what's being offered under the state preschool classrooms yes so it's operating as a private okay entity for one and they've scaled back they just have one classroom now okay so there's six State preschool classrooms three special education classrooms for preschool and then LMA L not LMA Innovative is still here for this last this is the last school year with Innovative yeah okay and then we're hopeful we get grant money and can expand but that's at the state level is there space to expand yeah okay so one of the the parts that I didn't highlight that's very beneficial is that the six preschools were all operating off of different Elementary sites and so now as LMA is evolving we have the opportunity for our uh students to have inclusive time with Gen ed students as well as this umbrella to really hone in you're not the solo ship that's teaching preschool now you can walk down the hallway and have somebody to collaborate with and to talk through program and next steps with students so it's really in it's in its next phase I've been referring to it as kind of an onion as it's been developing and and we're in the next layer now of really having it be a Chico Unified Early Learning Center which provides a lot of resources as well and that's a LMA Vista yeah and it's LMA Vista on this campus but own it's its own campus yeah it's beautiful yeah um and so just to recap on that um under the LMA umbrella we have this is the first year that we've pulled in all of the state preschool sites from the individual School sites that existed prior to this year to the same campus and there's one Innovative classroom and so six State preschool three special education Early Learning and one Innovative under the LMA umbrella and yet there's still capacity if there's funding to expand that to to more students yep um do do you know kind of a ballpark number off the top of your head like what do we have the capacity for the guy's the limit depending on funding I mean where we at here of the Avail because it goes with the licensing of it so eventually we'd love to have the the whole building licensed but that's a process to until we fill the spots okay so that's like future goals yes all right is there um other funding sources besides the the one with the expansion yes there are other creative ways to do that we've been kind of brainstorming some of those if that didn't come through because we could do our own private pay type of thing we could run some part day oh you're yeah not too close not close enough to the microphone say can you repeat what you just like something but that's an important thing that might come up also L this evening there are a lot of different ways to fund that it could be private pay there's a lot of different creative ways that you could go about that is it possible sorry I cut you off is it possible to do almost like a tiered structure where um the highest need lowest uh um household uh resources family yeah like a sliding scale kind of um whereas um somebody who's maybe a little bit more able could could put some more money you know pay into it absolutely and so is that something that is on your guys's to-do list to sort of explore further and look into those like you said um other options for and that kind of creative cre ideas exactly fiscally make so there's room in the facility we're just need to figure out how to fund expansion to meet those up to up to 80 more or plus three to five year olds that we would love to see at the LMA site yes okay I'm I'm sorry I am capitalized on that but um I had lots of questions thank you right thank you thank you thank you Kathleen all right so um this is kind of moving in we did it in sequential order so now we're moving from preschool into TK and this gives you an understanding of where TK has evolved so back in 2012 is when the kindergarten Readiness act changed and the entrance state of Kinder created a TK program in 2014 2015 chica unified started our TK classes we had five classrooms at that time and they were started with a grant through first five in 2019 the governor started to move to create the master plan for early learning and addressing access to care highquality Universal transitional kindergarten and additional monies were allotted in 2021 we the state increased their budget and the B the governor pushed the utk forward and in 2425 we are now currently required to offer TK for any student that is eligible Within in our district this is just to give some oversight the the other part that's been kind of complex with TK is that there's been a sliding scale of age and when you become eligible for it so you could look back in 2022 as it was starting your cuto off date was that you were five by Fe February 2nd it moved to April 2nd in the 2324 school year currently it's by June 2nd and as we approach next year your fourth birthday birthday is by September 1st so technically we may have a handful of three-year-olds starting the school year with us in our TK program because they will turn four and be for their whole Academic Year um and that's what we're currently working with is the age getting younger and younger and becoming early Educators so enrollment history to give you a little background on how it's been growing within our district in 223 we had nine schools in 10 classes with 211 students participating in transitional Kinder in 23 24 we expanded to 11 schools we had 13 classes and 305 students and currently we're sitting at 11 schools offering TK programs with 15 classes and 343 students so at some of our larger sites uh Emma Wilson marold both have two programs as well as hooko and Neil da are offering two classes uh just two points maybe more for clarification um just a reminder to those who maybe don't come to every Schoolboard meeting and keep track of every decision that we make um the 11 out of 12 elementary schools in our district that offer TK currently is all of them except for Shasta and that's a decision that the board made last year because of the size of Shasta and the difficulty in expanding it sizewise to fit the number of students and so this board made a decision last year to um to limit chassa as a K5 school and have TK at all the other 11 schools I had a question for clarification kind of in the last slide this slide is it's still relevant um when you say that um we're now required I think I'm in the wrong spot on my own slides we're now required to um offer TK to all students who are eligible um that means does that mean that within chica Unified School District boundaries any child that hits that right now that June 2nd cut off date um and next year that September 1st C off date fourth birthday at September 1st um have to have we have to have space for them offered in the district we can't turn anybody away because we don't have space left we have to and I it um am I understanding correctly did we have some like last minute uh flurry of like needing to add another classroom here or there this year even we did and then our numbers and then some parents choose to stay at pr- school positions or they get into some other school so our numbers balanced out but we were we were on the cusp of opening another one if we needed it um I will say by experience that it is terrifying being a new parent to the school system and walking on that elementary school campus with your very young four-year-old and in the future three yearold that is crazy to me not in a bad way but just like mindboggling and be like okay here you go and my child told me yesterday that she was able to walk by herself from the cafeteria to her classroom and I've walked with her lots of times and it's that's it's our children rise to the occasion for sure but I understand parents who are like H actually maybe I'll just wait um and and we have that we as parents have that option at this time correct it's not compulsory not so people with a TK AG child can wait until kindergarten is it compulsory in kindergarten six when you're 6 years old six years old thank you for the clarification no problem and it is ter I might change my lifestyle and go on some road trips for the next two years no I'm just kidding but I think you made a good point what's really impressive to watch as you as these transitional kindergartens have been part of the school campuses is exactly what you referenced how independent the students become very quickly and they like it so often last year I would have by this point third week of school parents trailing in behind them because their kids were telling them no no no you don't need to come with me I I have this and they knew exactly where to go so that's a testament I think to the routines and procedures that our our schools set up so it is wonderful but scary at the same time anybody here who's met my kiddo knows that that's exactly what she's been doing so you're not alone yeah it's um interesting so the program goals of transitional kindergarten have kind of morphed for a long time it was when it was first starting there was a lot of discussion of is this Kinder watered down and the answer is no it has really with those foundations in place and the the thinking through of how to roll it out it is the goals for the program are for students to to have access to learn the rules and the routines of classrooms and really their tiny little humans how to be students at school they learn procedures protocols Norms such as recess lunch fire drills um so that they're prepared when they jump into the more academic setting of kindergarten they also provide an academic Foundation while focusing on developing the social emotional growth of students so there's a lot of learning happening through play based but academics at the same time um in addition they're implementing in TK and all of our kindergarten classrooms are tier one instructional practices so they are common Focus points for all of the teachers that correlate with our mtss as well as what's best for kids in this grade to be learning uh the TK registration process begins in December and there are postcards that are sent to every residential address in Chico Unified as well as posted on our websites there's Aries communication and social media registration is complete when parents bring in birth certificate proof of residency in their immunizations to their home school and then the first round of placement for students begins in January uh the strengths of our TK program is really that it is mirroring our multi-tiered systems of support starting now at the TK level with the social emotional behavioral and academic focuses TK is offered at every one of our sites except for Shasta and four of our schools are currently offering more are offering two classes and then TK is also having the opportunity to participate in our enrichments on campus such as music and Fine Arts all right any TK questions thank you so now I'm going to int oh go ahead I just I have a question about growth um and maybe I don't know if we have an answer about this yet but um I guess I'm curious for future facilities modeling Etc if if the growth is is kind of mirroring what we have been expecting to happen or if we're falling if we know if we're falling under or over that at this at this point I I think we're right on target we just read it with um mcmanis has expanded their with their building facilities and then the next round Emma Wilson is also going to be up for some Kinder expansion as well and I will say also Julie Kissle is always brought into conversations when we talk about expansion of TK um she's obviously got to be involved in the in that uh in the conversations that we have and there is some funding you know Heather had mentioned some of the funding that comes through it is not a ton of funding it's not nearly close to what we would like but um we make do with it for training and uh Julie really does know a lot about she's to know a lot about the program so she can look at facilities that mirror the supports the program needs so uh she kind of goes above and beyond in that regard and I'll just further add to that um we've been planning one to two classes a year um which is kind of what's materialized um from a budgetary perspective this year with that potential third one it kind of threw me for a loop but it didn't materialize um so from numbers of incoming four year olds it's kind of been on par with what we have projected um Julie and her team do an Actuarial kind of of a demographic study and we look at that as far as estimation of number of four-year-olds coming in and there are three schools that are getting TK expansion facilities we're actually selecting Architects next week um so that's a great opportunity for those three schools and to have additional facilities related for these little four-year-olds great um yeah I think that when we were doing our facilities Master Plan update that was a little bit more of a question mark when it comes to surveying and predicting and watching the demographic you know Trends is we don't know how many people are going to follow through with putting their kiddos in in TK um and you know we already talked about some of the hesitations why excuse me so I was just curious about being on track or On Target and not obviously being BL blindsided not having enough facilities or having empty classrooms you know and just making sure that not like I'm trying to make sure but just expressing that we we have stayed within that margin that we kind of expected so it's nice to know that you're maybe a bettering really better weather predictor than the uh the meteorologist um so next we're going to move into expanded learning AKA after school programs so I'd like to welcome Ken to the to to the stand to talk the stage H yeah great thanks hi there um so expanded learning programs is is a pretty wide umbrella that does encompass after school programs but it's ALS also before school programs that we have at nine schools early back camp that happens for one or two weeks in August depending on the school year spring break Camp um four weeks in June of summer camp uh tutoring uh reading Pals and then other enrichment groups that we have within blast such as math olympiads drama biking and also chess teams at six of our schools um so our vision for expanded learning is to create a safe and supportive environment for students uh to achieve academic success and reach their greatest potential as a student and a citizen our mission is to provide and reinforce High academic and social expectations for all children by providing students and families with targeted opportunities for enrichment personal growth engagement in a nurturing and safe environment um so a history of our Elementary programs I'm going to do elementary and Junior High separate um we do have programs at all 12 elementaries and all three Junior highs um so in 2004 our elementary schools were awarded the aces um after school education and safety Grant um it's a state Grant which we still hold and the 21st century Grant which is a Federal grant which we do no long uh no longer hold um at six Elementary sites so the ones that are listed there um at the time those were the title one schools um so that funding has been um in place since then but in 2122 there was a state initiative um for the expanded learning opportunities program which is elop um with that funding we've expanded our programs to all 12 uh elementary schools in 2223 we added Emma and LCC 2324 we added shaston sier viw and expanded um positions for our tkk students and in 2425 so this year um we added marold and Hooker Oak so finishing off all of our schools this year at the junior high level um we got the 21st century Grant which is federal in 2006 uh just for Bidwell and Chico Jr in 2122 Esser funding um started a prr PR at Marsh um the 21st century Grant ended and so the other Junior highs um were through Esser last year and this year all three Junior Highs are funded um out of elop um our enrollment at the junior high level there's about 120 students at Bidwell and Chico junr and 85 at Marsh can you explain why those are differentiated like why is Chico and junor and Bidwell in one lump and Marsh's separated out um the need at the at the schools how many families that have um enrolled or applied to role um those schools are bigger in population as well I I I still don't understand why they wouldn't just be listed out as chica junor Bidwell and Marsh they have they have 120 students versus 85 students sorry thank you yeah okay that explains it better than um so the program structure at the elementary level is um the students get a Supper meal which is provided by nutrition services there's a 30- minute reading period um then there's a recreation time which is about 40 minutes um which which is PE time uh then the 30 minute academic uh homework time so depending on if the school or the teacher provides homework it would be um homework support or it would be other academic enriching activities um then an enrichment activity and then at 5:15 um there's free choice stations for the students that are remaining because pickup time is between 4:30 and 6:00 at the junior high level it's a check-in a supper same Supper meal um as the elementary then they do a homework time activity time and pickup is between 4:15 and 5:15 so our staffing structure at the elementary level um each program is Ran by A credential teacher um and an assistant coordinator which is at least a teacher sub um at all of our sites and then we contract with card um which is a partnership that we've had for a long time a really strong partnership um we H we pay this contract with our elop and Aces funding um and that provides us with a recreation supervisor that oversees the leaders which is the Frontline staff three Recreation coordinators that support those 125 card leaders that um that are working directly with our students there's also 49 card leaders that are substitutes for those 125 uh leaders that we currently have um so uh just for clarification the one credential teacher coordinator and one assistant coordinator is per elementary site yes and then the one Recreation supervisor is that districtwide correct and so they're and then the three Rec coordinators divide them for each sorry uh the three Recreation coordinators are supports and each of them have four sites that they support that's good that makes the math the math checks out yeah um and so is the recreation supervisor kind of like the just pushing out what the recreation coordinators should be presenting to the Frontline staff to be implementing at the school sites uh yes and she does a lot of the hiring as well for those positions and the credential teacher coordinator for each School site that's their that is their job at that school site they're not it's not like an extra Duty type job it's a fulltime position same thing with the assistant coordinator uh it is not a full-time position but that is their job sometimes they're student teachers okay yeah gotcha a lot of times they they do need to have a bachelor's degree so a lot of times it's um for most of our staff right now they're either in the credential program or taking a gap year between their bachelors and starting the credential program and so when we're talking about the weight lists that exist which I I think you have the numbers in yeah those are in a couple slides and when we talk about like the need to potentially try to expand where is there room for that expansion in this list of Staffing um we would need to add more Chico Unified support staff so that those credential teachers and then more card leaders and then possibly more Recreation coordinators as well to be able to support more leaders gotcha so would it be like more you said more Recreation coordinators right yes so a few more of those that lead least you know splitting it maybe two sites instead of four sites and um and more assistant coordinator credential teach recording I guess I'm confused about their role if there's a one person on the site for TK through fifth grade right so correct um there would be need to be more than one of those yeah potentially would a one and a half work or would it need to be like another yeah I got my answer already in uh in in Miss s's face um that's a no by the way for those who can't see her face that's like no it would need to be another FTE if we were going to bump it up okay likely yes good okay thank you that's good to know um our ratios at uh the elementary level for tkk it's 10 to1 that is a CDE requirement right now we're closer to 8:1 um just because it is a lot of TK students that are in our programs and in 10 to one doesn't seem to be enough supervision um and then first through fifth grade is 15 to1 which is a card requirement so our our staff members are um that's that is requirement for all of their programs do you happen to know if and I'm not going to ask for numers specifically but is is there a constraint for card to be able to increase Staffing or get more Staffing or have they been doing okay this last year or two ever since we kind of came out of that crunch they are always hiring so it's it's not necess there's they're always hiring always hiring please apply yes okay um Stephanie told me yesterday that she had 110 applications that she was weeding through okay yeah um and and so I guess that would that would indicate my second question but I feel like it's answered now is um if it is competitive enough pay um on on card's end which we don't specifically have direct control over I don't think but no what's difficult with our contract with card is they do need to have similar pay with all Recreation programs that they have because the position is under the same umbrella of camps and um Youth Sports and things like that so it's it's all so that's where we don't have control over that interesting okay I add one thing too with the card folks every semester it might shift quite a bit because a lot of the card leaders are students at the University and but college so their class schedules shift and change depending on what classes they need so that's kind of part of the EB and flow we have about a 50% turnover of these card leaders every year and it's more often than that but I would say throughout the year there's about 50% brand new leaders okay um at the junior high level there is one uh credential teacher that is the coordinator and then it's actually School site teachers and student teachers with a sub credential that are um doing the activities with our students and they are at a 20 to1 ratio which is the CDE requirement are the School site teachers getting extra pay yes it's an EA sheet yeah um so our training and support for our staff we do four um Saturday program-wide trainings we we do them on a Saturday so we don't have to close program to to train our staff um we also have buil in Staffing support um so my position which is the districtwide administrator um we also have a teacher on special assignment that is supporting the 12 elementary schools our Recreation coordinators which we already talked about um and then we do weekly on-site um I do a weekly meeting with each of the coordinators and then the teacher coordinator does a weekly meeting with their card leaders um our registration process it's an online application for the program that opens each March um for the following year so in in the spring sometime um currently enrolled blast students maintain their spot in the program um and all other positions are selected uh via Lottery uh remaining applications are put in um on the weight list based on their Lottery order um for the CDE um students that are un uh identified under the mckin vinto act or in foster care are given weightless priority and we do our best to enroll them as quickly as we can um so some strengths of our program is we provide a safe place for students um during the after school hours uh we provide enriching opportunities that may not be accessible to students that that are not in Blast um or if they did not have blast um extens it's an extension of the school day that's really focused on learning and growth uh socially and academically um it's positive community building and um you know anecdotally we have a lot of kids that become really close friends because they're in blast together and and maybe they wouldn't be friends just by meeting each other in the school day but but in the smaller environment that is the after school program they get really close um we have increased enrollment each year and I'm Tyler do you want to click on that so our enrollment history so the purple line there is um the there's two ways to enroll in blast so there's Chico Unified enrolled which is no cost to families and we do have a select number of card enrolled spots which are paid and there's not an intendance policy so we have currently 195 families that are choosing that option because they do not want to they cannot adhere to our attendance policy and and just to clarify the the cusd enrolled is is anywhere from TK to 5 whereas the card enrolled is only first through fifth correct so so there's no paid option for TK and K correct my understanding is that card doesn't have the licensing to to um serve students that age um so total and blast is there in the green so in uh prior to 2022 um total students that were in Blast was 991 and we are now at 1,368 here 63 I don't know I need a vision test here can you make a little B um our current weight list is high but but you can see um in the 2223 school year we ended with 232 students in our on our weight list and we added 200 spots even adding the 200 spots our weight list doubled we added another couple 100 spots this year and our weight list doubled again wow the weight list is doubled every year correct even even with um efforts of growth I do have some other numbers on there if you were interested we call that we call that exponential growth in our weight list yes and we are doing our best to keep up with demand but it's slow and steady um I do have some other data there if you're interested on the weight lless numbers by school and then um by grade as well so it's not a astronomical amount in tkk versus fifth grade it's it's pretty even across the board Bo of um the need for families uh Tyler do you want to go back to the slide thanks oops um so constraints and opportunities for us to grow is our weight list continues to increase in all grades despite ongoing growth in the programs um expanded learning Staffing structure has a capacity of about 155 right now with the Staffing that we have in place so like Caitlyn was saying of we would need to add more teacher coordinators and more leaders in to be able to um go beyond that number um and then our staff turnover is really tricky just because um the majority of our staff are college students that are moving out of town or class change schedules are only available so many days a week that sort of thing yeah could you go back to the chart that shows the the school sites the um the next that one so that's the weight list number so like currently at Chapman there's five students that are in TK that are on the weit list wait what oh I'm sorry I'm on the wrong Tab and if you scroll down you can see the total number for each grade it would be interesting to as a percentage Yeah since the number of enrolled TK is not the same number as the number of enrolled fourth graders I can get that for you yeah I mean yeah that would be faster probably than me going back into one of our demographic slides and figuring out myself yeah at least I'd appreciate that yeah I can add a formula I can add a line at the bottom with the formula for that did you have any other questions about this no I just I had had a chance your I don't think your microphone's on I hadn't had a chance to you know really look at all of them and um I'd like when Caitlyn gets her information share it yeah and our weight lists are bigger at our schools with larger population yeah it would be interesting to see the percentages um just because no no grade level is exactly apple stles and no school is Apple stles either yeah percentages make it a little bit easier to compare and see gaps in need really is what it is um so we're continuing to add more leaders to sites to get all of these sites at um at a higher capacity any that was the end of my slides any questions I have Madam president or I forget what you are I have some uh some comments um it's going to be kind of a reiteration of some things that I said at our planning meeting which was very helpful okay um I have three four children three of the first three of whom are boys and they've all had some participation in in after school program which generally is a a wonderful program um it's great that we have that funding that makes it possible um a big reason why this pop program is as popular as it is uh I'm just going to stay the obvious thing is is the if you go to the last Slide the top very top bullet that you had on there was that this is a safe place for students after school hours you know um to um there are legit learning and stuff that goes on at um at after school program I can tell you from years of experience of participating in it um but also it's child care and um one reason why families and parents in particular like to utilize those programs because it's it can be hard to fulfill some of your career obligations you know which are are are everyone works it seems nowadays has some kind of a career and job and dog on you school people you you know you all quit at 3:00 in the afternoon leaving us with this you know or or young you know earlier for for younger kids and so ASP man it fills a big Niche yep it's a big need in the community and so in a way you're kind of acting in a role of you know you're you're that time you know you're in charge of them and uh so just one aspect of your job is that you got to deal with all their you know little imperfections and and and the things that that manifest themselves at home during that time they're going to manifest themselves with you what are those things well uh there's all their interests all their energy not all of which can easily be channeled into you know the play time of dodgeball or or or or the academic time and the reading uh you know and Meanwhile we're handing them this electronic device this laptop computer that's going to be this everpresent you know force in their life attracting their attention and um so I'm just going to say the the may maybe make the unpopular point that my uh my I know uh some some some kids who've pulled the wool over ASP staff's eyes just more times than you could ever possibly shake a stick at you know I know one guy who uh was is fond of opening like 20 or 30 tabs on his internet browser ER so that you know when a staff person walks by you know he knows which one to click on to and then he can just click on to another one and it if you were to look at it it wouldn't even look like anything recognizable on the screen it would just look like a bunch of dots going across the top of the page and um so um when ASP has staff members who are on board with the fact that they're in this role that they are you know have like eyes like a hawk and they're acting as a teacher or you know kind of a miniature teacher if you will you know they're overseeing the kids while they're doing their school work you know that's a huge asset to the family you know and the community I think you know um if an a staff person didn't have that sense you know that that was that was their job was to to keep on students and make sure they were doing their schoolwork and they were participating uh in a healthy way with these offerings that's not a benefit you know um so I would just encourage you to encourage your staff to make sure that you know you stay on those kids and make sure that they do their homework and do a good job at it and if there's a a game or an activity going on you know they need to be uh doing that if it's prescribed by the leadership of the program which I guess is all of us they need to be doing that active thing and not off in a corner or in a dark Corridor sitting on a bench somewhere just surfing the internet and and watching Mr Beast videos one after another on on YouTube or worse you know and I can tell you that those things have happened I've seen them happen with my own two eyes i' I've seen the evidence of it on securely and and we're I'm I'm the parent who's who's got a handle on what my students are doing on their computers and I can tell you that in after school program there's been a lot of time that they've spent you know um at times surfing the internet you know they're not bad kids not bad people they're great but but we need to do our job to create a disciplined environment and so that's my admonition to you thank you do you guys have any more questions for us I have a few just a couple actually not a few well two for now um so I was trying to go back into last uh meeting's total enrollments but it just says enrollment which means I and I don't have my notes from last meeting meeting so I didn't have the numbers of like what our initial enrollment was which isn't accurate trying to find their percentage of students who are weight listed for the after school program um it's 10% of total students when I was like I kind of remember it was like 1350 to 1400 or sorry 12,350 to 12,400 students is is is I remember the that ballpark number um I'm okay with numbers usually um but that's including high school so it's like okay well let's like shave off a few thousand for just tk8 how many tk8 what's our percentage of tk8 enrolled students that are on the wait list for after school programs and it's roughly 14 to 16% and um that's a large number um if we go back to the first slide of the great list of programs that we are offering students for extended day learning um which I'm not even getting back to yet so it's a race ready who's going to get the first I went too far got it there we go you win okay thank you um that's that number of students 1,239 that were on the weight list last last you checked uh are missing out on these enrichment those are only students that are in um on the weight list for blast that is not the weight list for before school program early bat camps June camps any of tutoring any of those things anything other than blast anything other than blast okay so then the when you went over the blast like this is what they do after school etc etc yeah okay fair fair enough um do those weight lists include families that have already left the district because they couldn't get Services um it possible we we do a query at the beginning of the year to weed out any of those but as a family leaves we don't we don't do that monthly or anything it's only if they were to come up next on the wait list that we would see that they didn't it might be really interesting to know what that looks like because I was this close to leaving the district because I could not get affordable after school care for my child um especially as a tker or a TK Kinder that I think is probably if we run the percentages is probably a little bit harder to get services for for after school care um that's lost enrollment which is lost Revenue which is empty seats and you know all the things that we are always talking about in running a large school district and so I would be concerned about that as somebody who is in charge of a budget or programming one thing too to remember and I remember this from the site is when families come into Chico Unified throughout the year and they learn about the programs their names also go onto the weight list so it's that's a consideration fluctuates yeah but it would be interesting to see that that outflow of families who left maybe they didn't decide to leave because they couldn't get into services but that was a reason that I was considering not you know not I mean that's a real thing I I can't be the only person in all of Chico of over 100,000 people who had that that uh idea um and you know when you have a school an amazing Charter School up the hill in Forest Ranch that is offering busing from Chico to get to their you know seven to8 student TK program yeah I'm giving a plug for Forest Ranch because it's my community I'm not going to be shy about it like that is intriguing like you're guaranteed their after school care all the years that they're there um and and that's something that we have to keep in mind not that we want to beat out Forest Ranch but that we want to be able to to um offer Equitable Services for students and so that 1,239 from TK to to to 8th grade is is a pretty big number um that we're not meeting I mean 15% of our stud of our TK to8 students that that aren't getting that and one one thing that we talked about as we looked at those numbers as it's doubling in size each year is really what are we getting close to hitting kind of this is this is the level of the list that it will continue to be is it going to kind of level out so then we could better plan for okay what would expansion look like and what would we realistically need yeah and we think we must be getting close cuz it's doubling you're probably ahead of me on this but like this is what our demographers do right they look at at a cohort so at this year how many students in the TK program or three years ago how many students were in the K program that were on the weight list or and that were enrolled and then the and then last school year when they were in first grade what did that number look like and then this year when they were in second grade what does that number look like that I I don't know if you've done that you probably are working on it but that really would create a picture of the trends that we're seeing in the need in this community for that after after school care and as families are feeling I mean everybody's feeling that that need to make ends me and work the hours that we have to work and make sure that our students are our kiddos are safe and and enriched uh in the time that we don't get to spend with them because you know you you miss out on valuable hours with a young kid as that's your child like you want to make sure that those hours are are valuable for their growth um and this is not to say that there are not options in this community but they're not all accessible for families who are on a single income in their household or who have other constraints like medical bills or other things um and are still not getting into those after school programs and that's not even to mention our staff members who have young kids who can't access our after school programs and they are single family income household families and they also are special education teachers they have extra hours that they have to be putting in and yet they can't get their kid into after school care like these are these are problems these are problems as an employer these are problems as a support to our community and I'm not bashing on you two at all just so you know I'm just saying it for the universe for us to try to collectively over this next couple of months or year to really dig deep and find some Creative Solutions that I know have already been brainstormed to address that 12,4 number and see if that's our kind of level off point hopefully for next year but like how do we triple our program yeah and and I think that it true to everything you said it it really is a reflection of where our community is and the need has been doubling in size over the last three years because more people are at work so no good deed goes unpunished as we keep growing we're just we're we're trying to keep up with what we can fill and then look at expanding yeah I think it's Al on a positive note um I think it's also a testament to the services that we provide and the value of those and that people find them as valuable um you know the fact that they want to leave their kiddos with us for an extended period of time demonstrates trust in our staff and Trust in our programming and the district as a whole so kudos to you and all of those things and for building up this program that really is meeting needs for families who have a high need and um hopefully we can also meet those Middle Ground families who have the need but maybe aren't winning the lottery yeah so that I think concludes our presentation unless there's more questions and then we just want to thank you for having us tonight thank you thank you [Applause] um before we move on to our next thing just something that that we we had discussed and um member tennis and I were the board Liaisons for this workshop and a workshop really is meant to highlight things that the district is doing well um but also to try to uh sort of pull out some ways that we can grow even even better in those areas so it's it's meant to be uh pat on the back in some regards but also you know a little bit of a of a hard discussion about where can we still grow how can we still get better because nobody in here is perfect and nobody's ever going to be perfect but we can always find room to grow and the same goes for any kind of organization and I think it's important for us to to dive deep and find ways to make improvements where we can with with the resources we have um early on in the presentation they had mentioned um you know a tiered system of of off offering services and families who maybe could afford a sliding scale type of situation for preschool and and maybe that's something that the district can look into um for our after school care uh I know that it's been brought up in the past I also know that Co got into the uh into the way of those discussions but there is clearly a high need for the families in this community to have support from our school district for those after school services and I think that it is it is our d Duty as a board and as you know District leadership to explore all of the options within our legal limits to expand that um where the budget might allow um and so I look forward to continuing the conversation you know in our lunchtime meetings or um in a future board meeting if if it were to come up as another item so thanks for the opportunity for the workshop I know I pushed hard for this one when we did our organizing because I went through an emotional roller coaster on this topic um with obviously with my own personal situation um we're we're getting we're getting by the new routine is is good uh she has my child has adjusted better than me which is to be expected because adults don't uh adjust to change as well as kids do like let's face it um anyway I just had to say that last bit of piece uh that there's there's definitely options I think that we we will be exploring to see how we can support that program and the amazing folks that are are running that program okay with that let's move on Kaylin's done talking so much I promise um Eileen laughed at me that's cute thanks uh next on our agenda is the discussion action calendar under Business Services we have a discussion action item for Charter Schools measure K project requests with Miss is Julie Kissle our director of facilities and construction hi good evening thank you for having me here this evening um bringing forward to you tonight two projects from our measure K uh facil charter school facilities committee they met last Monday afternoon and um they approved two projects to bring forward as recommendations to the board uh the first one is up at Forest Ranch School where they're going to renovate their existing restroom building um just small uh Renovations like some new sinks some new toilets uh cleaning up and painting their toilet compartments um I was recently up there and these uh items are are really needed and it will make a good Improvement to the school uh the second project is up um at Sherwood montor School at Chapman Elementry and they want to add in some fencing and Gates and sec entry systems at both their gate that they utilize on the Chapman um elementary site on the on the U card end parking lot and then across the street uh 10 Cleveland which is their property um that they have right across the street um it will be the same system as you've seen at all of our Chico Unified Schools uh which has been working out really well um we've gotten a lot of positive feedback about them so this will uh in addition to helping shwood be a more secure campus it will also um ensure that Chapman is a more secure campus by tidying up that end of the of the schoolyard so if you have any questions I'll take them uh Julie did both of these go through the um Charter facil oversight committee yes uh last Monday afternoon last Monday afternoon yes not on the holiday but last week cor correct yeah okay they meet on the last Monday of every month the last Monday of every month okay I have no further questions do we have any public comment on this item no uh do we have a motion sure I will uh move approval of both of these requests I'll second that motion all right we have a motion by member Orlando and a second by member Robinson our last vote was unanimous so we can all signify our approval by saying I I any opposed seeing none it's unanimous it passes thank you thank you next on discussion action calendar um under board discussion action for leadership search contract with but County Office of Education well I will talk about this one just a little bit uh last spring I let the board know that uh this likely would be my last year that I would my plans are to retire at the end of this school year June 30th got a ways to go still um at that point the board had asked that I look into local options for a leadership search firm so I contacted bu County Office of Ed and they have come up with a contract that you have in front of you as well as a timeline that was distributed as well uh for the possibility of conducting a search for the superintendent for the 2025 2026 school year so Mary sukuma the superintendent of BU County Office of Education is here this evening and she can speak to this as well as uh answer some questions from the board if there are any Mary thank you superintendent Staley honored members of the board it's really a pleasure to be here I uh I think I last visited with you when I had the distinct honor of swearing some of you in as a new and returning board memb so it's good to be back so it's our pleasure to offer for your consideration and agreement for superintendent search services and um I we'll go into some detail together with my colleagues but I'd like to start by introducing my colleagues uh one of uh whom I think you've already met but we have with us this evening Dr Kathleen wheeler she is retired superintendent from reuff Union High School District and she has been doing a number of different Consulting jobs with the bu County Office of Education she first came to us to help at the time of the campfire and I have not let her leave so she has done all kinds of amazing work in support of the students of BU County and so she's agreed to be here this evening to respond to questions and also to a guide a few questions that we're curious about um from the board in terms of the process also with us this evening it's my honor to introduce Mr Bill Cornelius bill is a retired County Superintendent of Schools from Suter County but he also served for a number of years as a superintendent at bigs unified here in bu County he also shared with me that he has uh grandchildren who attend here in the district and he has a vested interest in supporting you in finding just the right person so um I I don't want to presume about what you've been able to review with the contract I did understand that a few questions came in ahead of time and I did want to clarify a few things um first up in regard to the length of the contract um if the board makes the decision to engage with bocoe for these Services uh that would commence as of your signing this evening and we would uh begin that process right away the reason that I chose to offer up to you a contract that goes through the end of this school year this fiscal year is that in case there are any other cleanup items or training or governance support that you may desire that avoid it's having to create a whole new contract and the whole idea would be that that would be in support of the new superintendent which of course means a new governing team so with thought that would be important to offer that to you if it's your preference that the uh contract end as of November the 20th we can make that change uh without any problem because I know that's your goal for appointment so I just wanted to let you know why that looked like it did um the timeline itself which I understand that you uh received a subsequent to the contract uh and by the way I do do have extra copies hard copies if anybody should need a hard copy of the tenative timeline uh one of the things that uh Kathy will present to you is this idea that some of the dates inside that timeline as we consider um people's personal circumstances in regard to the team that I'll be pulling together for this we might have to make some adjustments inside that timeline but still with the goal of the board being able to offer a contract to the top candidate um for November 20th excuse me I have ter terrible allergies tonight so um at this time I if there are no further if there are no questions for me right now I would like to ask Kathy to come up to talk a little bit about some of the questions that have been going over in her mind and to see if we can get a little bit of feedback from you um really quick Mary thank you for being here it's an honor to be here thank you um on the T of timeline um I just want to clarify what you just said uh that's that's kind of a guideline at this point but if we were to approve this tonight we wouldn't be specifically beholden to those exact no chunks of time okay no other than your goal right of November 20th end end goal is is clear for sure but for example um we had a brief meeting prior to coming in here this evening and just talked about the fact that probably we're going to have to move the timing of the initial screening um back by a few days or I should say forward by a few days to allow us just a little bit more time because obviously we want to take advantage of this short window make sure that we get all the top quality candidates getting their information to us um I don't know if this is a appropriate question for you at this time Mary but um if if we do approve this contract tonight uh how soon does recruitment start well recruitment has already begun in my own mind just in terms of thinking about you know who might be the quality candidates who we know are out there who might be considering obviously I'm not making re Outreach calls or anything on your behalf um however I um I do know that it requires as a old friend of mine used to say it's not just post and Hope right we got to be proactive about this and again this team that I'm working with we're talking about okay what would be the strategy to hit the ground running first thing tomorrow morning okay thank you because it is a I mean it is a quick timeline so just was curious okay thank you at this time I'll turn things over to Dr waer oh uh Caitlyn's question uh prompted what where my questions were um and let me just clarify you said recruitment begins and we've got tomorrow um would you be posting the Ed join and and uh edal and other sources is needed at that same time uh because my concern was if we wait until after we've taken a look at uh candidates that may be known to us we've lost out it needs to all be done at once is that your thinking that's a great question so Ed join is a very quick post that one's the Easy Button if you will edal and others do take a little bit more time than that we're prepared to begin that uh one of the things that we'll be talking about uh this evening is about the some of the specific qualifications that you may be uh Desiring as a board um and so what we the initial posting will be sort of the basics right to get it posted and get the word out right away um however as we get input um we'll be proposing to do some uh input sessions with the staff with community and of course with you as We Gather that information we'll be wanting to clarify that with our candidates to say you know these are some of the top priorities in terms of the type of candidate that we're looking for would we be able to um have sessions with individual board members to talk about the um uh candidate qualifications uh because we may not be all of One mind regarding that and I'm I'm hoping that that was in your thinking as well too that you know bringing in uh a process that allows us as individual board members to begin to add to that list list so one of the things that we're going to have to be very careful about is that we don't create a Serial meeting um however I think we can um figure out ways to get individual inputs from you and also to perhaps consider forming a subcommittee of the board which I realize would could only be two of you um but if it we want to make sure that the communication is clear and that we don't violate the brown act in any way so so um my legal degree is a little Dusty just kidding I don't have one um but I would want to make sure that your legal counsel is comfortable with whatever process we choose thank you I'll turn things over to Dr wher I only use doctor when I need dinner reservations so it's Kathy um thanks for having us back it was nice meeting with all of you before and and um seeing what we have to offer and where you're coming from and we're excited about this process um it's probably the biggest decision school board members have to make and uh there's a tough act to follow with Kelly so we need to really do a good job of uh searching for the right person for this wonderful District I too have an investment here I have a great nephew in the system and um he's had great experiences in all the Chico schools he's attended and now he's at the high school at Chico high and so uh I'm I want this place to be as good as it's been uh for him along the way um like Mary said the uh timeline is draft and we have already had to make some changes because some people aren't available to do the searches or the uh conduct the uh input meetings so we'll be moving some of those things which means paper screening will move a little bit interviews move a little bit but we will meet that timeline uh so you can make that decision on November 20th so um as far as that goes uh that is a fluid document but we will keep you posted if you um approve the contract with us so uh just so you know that we will be communicating with you on a regular basis um one of the other things we need to talk a little bit about um our characteristics and requirements for the new superintendent and so I kind of like to um discuss some of those things tonight because we do want to get that ad out uh it will be an ed join by Friday I believe so we want to make sure that we are getting as much information in that first document as possible but we can also like Mary said add to it as we get more information from you on what you're looking for um aside from aside from the five of us up here uh is there um input being gaed GED from staff or Union leadership and and other areas besides the I think the um tradition in your district is to involve as many people as possible and we have people have uh Michelle Zev assistant superintendent for the county has done a whole lot of work with the district in other areas and she would be part of that uh conducting uh meetings with staff meetings with community members and those kind of tie in with some of my questions tonight done who you want involved and how much involvement uh but I think there is a tradition in The District in high-powered positions to make sure you're getting as much input from community and from staff as possible so that's I do I do appreciate uh tradition but also none of us have gone through this before right in this in this no it's a great question we need to make sure that we are uh including I think including as many people as possible and what you're looking for so you're getting that in put from them so you know what the school community and the community want this brings a thought um not too much of a not too much of a tangent but um I think that from my perspective I I was a classroom teacher in this district for a years before I was elected to the board and um and I've admitted I've admitted this to Kelly so it's no surprise to her that I used to wonder what she even does um and I think that there is an aspect of of kind of Mystique around um what it is that our top um you know position holder in a district uh needs what those characteristics need to be in order to um have an effective leadership role in in the district and it's been a learning curve for me but it it didn't take too long for me to figure it out uh after I joined the board but um when you know when we are soliciting information from families or staff and um and folks who maybe don't get to meet with Kelly weekly um I think it's good to also be able to express and it's a good opportunity maybe um to just demonstrate you know what it is the superintendent of a school district does for the district um we have I know we have folks out in the community right now again a little bit of a tangent so I apologize um that you know are claiming that oh the lead leadership of Chico Unified makes x amount of dollars and how dare them ask for a school bond and it's not entirely true but also um hearkens back to the fact that some folks just don't really understand what it is that that person in that role um is in is is in charge of and and does for the district which is a a big job so that's a that's a great point and one of the um things that we're working on is a survey that would go out um and we would use Kelly and her office to figure out how to do all that and who it would go to but we would like it to go to all uh community members or parents um so and then community members as we can figure out how to get it to them and that would be a written survey and then we also want to include people to come in and work with us and then that written survey uh there's a lot of characteristics that you need in a superintendent and they're listed there and then they can prioritize what they think is the most important and that's being drafted at this time I love using surveys as a way to help also educate um you know XYZ this that this is how this works what do you think would be best to fit that that role um I appreciate that um it's going to go out to everybody I think this board um at least this board as as postco or during Co era we we made a pretty big priority of of including um families and community members for uh to elevate that voice um because we want to all be able to hear what everybody has to say um AB so that's important we as we get feedback both written and then through uh input meetings that would come back to you obviously so you can make sure that that's meeting your needs and you're meeting the needs of the community um in m in making your decisions thank you um Mary do you want me just to go through my list here and these may be questions you can't answer tonight but there were just my uh thoughts on what we're looking for because the more we can put in an ad right away the more people we're going to attract so um is a masters important to you does does the new person have to have a master's um I would say at least a master's so but that's up to you so that's one question I do you want a response sure um I'm really talkative tonight uh ien that's two digs she's getting me man um is there is there a typical Norm to uh State a this happens on almost all job applications I've ever seen uh an education component and or equivalency of this that and the other thing to qualify for those you know those uh uh credentials as far as education goes yes but with the superintendent uh Masters is usually at least a masters is required okay some districts say we're not going to consider anybody without a doctorate others do not that's not important to them so can I think that person should have a masters okay thank you does it matter what a masters in any any topic usually it's in educational leadership uh but it doesn't have to be um that's up to you that take me out of the running that would be up to Greek philosophy right quite handy that'll come in handy doctrate is it important for you to have that person have a doctorate in educational leadership or other my answer is Master's not doctorate okay agreed I agree okay and that's not to devalue anybody with a doctorate no yeah just keep the field open experience is important absolutely okay that okay with the okay um do you want somebody who's had previous experience as a superintendent is that important to you I'd say those candidates are welcome you know but yeah no I think that the the verbage sorry I've had enough microphone time to I think we're all proba my guess is we're all in the same wavelength which is that we definitely want experience as an upper level administrator but not necessarily as a superintendent okay and then I agree yeah and just going back to um Miss Conan's verbiage preferred or something along the lines of you know yeah it'd be nice to have superintendent experience but at upper level I think is okay acceptable prior District level experience you want somebody that's been a district administ an administrator at the district level or would you consider people who have been uh site administrators and are making the move up again I think that um please correct me colleagues if I'm wrong given the size of chica unified and the fact that a lot of uh superintendent responsibilities are about managing a district level team I think that experience is is important yes okay I would agree yes agreed all right um if you have a superintendent who hasn't been through the superintendent Academy would you be willing uh to have them participate in that um uh I want to know what Kelly Staley would recommend on this I did do the superintendent Academy and I will tell you what I took away from that was outstanding connections of people that I can call when problems come up and I like wow I haven't faced this before so it it had it was really rewarding in terms of the connections that I made through that I had that same experience going through it too we you had people you could pick the phone up whether it was one of the instructors or just people you met there it was a great experience are we using are you are you recommending to use that as a qualifier no screen to support them afterwards if would you be willing to support them in that yes and also they have Kelly I'll put pressure on her every I have whether it's public or not something we do need to put in the announcement and I don't know if you've talked about this before or not but salary range is going to be important for us to let people know uh where you are on that so uh I think we need to come up with a range based on experience obviously um they're not going to start with somebody who has 18 years in the district so looking at that and making a decision on that sooner rather than later would be really important is there um a is there a source that we can look at you know in the last six to 12 months things that have been posted that are kind of equivalent to our district it's really hard to compare apples to apples we know we have some of our go-to districts that we we use comparisons for because we're not the same as some other districts that are regionally close to us um for to to get a more honed idea of what's competitive we could probably get more information on that from AXA and through research from uh the county yes we definitely would do that in your in support of your decision making and this is not something that we need to know tonight but we wanted we just wanted to plant the seed for your own discussion um but uh comparisons would probably be helpful um and we'll do some of our own work with that in the background but also seek out some support from accent groups and that's not something that's required by law to be posted on the job posting no it is not if um if you were to look at the edal you would more than likely see most postings would be listed as commensurate with experience okay okay yeah because California has a a law that you know most most jobs I don't know what the rules are that differentiates yeah contracts versus um salaried or something like that okay thank you next question ties in with paper screening and um in my experience when I've done a search then the search committee does the initial paper screening and brings candidates to you but there are several ways to do it you could have uh bcoe and some board members bcoe and staff but our experience has been that um we do the initial screening but that's like I said I I told you when I met with you before this is your search and we're just here to assist you so that would be something we need to decide and it doesn't have to be decided tonight and that panel that item will be moving just a little bit there so something to think about interviewing you usually do two rounds yeah first round would include community and staff and then the second round uh would be with the board so um I think that's a good process you see them afterwards you get feedback from that committee on what they saw and then ultimately the decision is yours so would we determine how many uh candidates we would want to come forward to the board in that second round um yes you could decide that we would look at the total um group coming up and see where we stand and how many I mean if we have 20 people that we think you should bring forward that's a bit much so we would be pairing that down and then you could a ask that committee to bring their top three top five whatever it happens to be if they interview 10 you only want to see five or you may want to see all of them and again we'll be working closely with you because that's your decision and what you want and that would have to be during either a special close session or a regular close session is not my understanding you could do either you could do a a special or a or a regular close session but we know like what date we would need to do that by we need to do everything we need to have a decision made and in the background we'll be continuing with doing um background checks on people and we don't just check with their um people they list as references we go deeper we look and we we find people that will be honest with us about what's really happening everybody who's anybody in the education world knows knows things about people we do not want to see some and take them in the dance of the lemons we want we want the top person we can find for this wonderful District so uh just this this hypothetical or Pro probable date uh when the board has the the round of interview the final round of interviews with candidates um how soon after that would we envision that the decision would be made and then we would bring that forward in our in our open session for the final approval of contracts like what's the what's the time frame in between I think you have to have uh November 11th to get it on the 20th so we would have to have a decision and everything uh worked on before November 11th to get it on the agenda for the 20th like I said we are going to move a few of these things they're a little tight and so we'll be moving the interviews probably wouldn't take place till later in that week okay uh or beginning of the next week but in order to put it on the agenda we're going to have to have that decision prior to that my my thought on the uh the number of people and what the C would be a decision that we'd make at the time as we see the candidates as we see candidates and we look at the thing it's it's not something that I I I don't think we're ready to make a decision on now and it's we don't need to make that decision I confidentiality is of the utmost importance so so we will not we don't like to involve a whole lot of people up front so that that gets out as to what's going on um for both you your sake and the candidate's sake we need to make sure that we're protecting both you and the candidate uh as they move up uh to through the interview process so two rounds is good with you do the first round with community and staff and then the second round would be the final round would be with the board does that work for you does that seem typical reasonable yes that is typical okay yeah yeah sure I mean even teachers typically go through sometimes a second round of interviews so just making sure that just two layers is fine not necessarily a third okay in the past when I've supported districts in doing searches sometimes they'll say we want two panels on the first day in one room we might want to have staff and two board members another room we might want to have community members and two board members or whatever the configuration is um you are able to uh participate in that first round as well so just wanted you to know that as well okay Mary they could also participate in paper screening as well if they wanted to have a couple people participate there as well so that can say that they have seen the candidates from what I've heard from the board it's really important that you're involved in all yes facets of this process and that you wanted to have board represent representation at all different levels of the process yes thank you that's I both board and uh staff representation whenever we can have it our our usual uh operation for upper level admins is to have teachers on the paper screening as well yeah and I think that having especially classroom teachers at every level is going to be really important for easing whoever it is we select into and on that note I I I think that the idea of consistency with how we run our our interview panels or our interview sessions with our upper level cabinet members with the added layer of the board being the final interviewee um maybe it is more appropriate the first round being a split you know or a a dual you know interview process where we have our community members and our our staff and then we have have maybe our and that enables you to hear the comments from those committees too so that helps you in moving forward it would we run into an issue if we had two board members in one group and two board members in the other group in the okay it it's it's definitely just a different set of listening so I just want to make sure it wouldn't be a an issue yeah thank you um how do you want to choose the community members and the staff for interviews and there are several different ways you can do it you could have Kelly make suggestions you can have site administrators choose staff members you can have you as a board can make those decisions or there's always that other category how you want to you know maybe it's uh you want a representative from Kanas some one from rotary or what you know whatever so those are decisions that we can make down the road too those don't have to be made tonight we just want to plan these seeds so we're thinking about where we're going and what we're doing I have a I have a feeling on that that since Kelly has been um really involved with all of those Community types I'd like to get some input from her not that she's the final but but she's the one that has her finger on absolutely who's who's been involved who is involved who has a background that's in-depth one I'd add to that too that um through the process of um is there just thoughts maybe I'm asking for your feedback um through the process of uh determining the best way forward with a new Bond measure potentially there's been a lot of uh feedback provided by business members and members of the academic community and families and you know trying to get the most broad spectrum of our community captured as possible so we probably already have a a decent list put together and I'm sure from there we can we can determine how how best to move forward and I think I agree um that Kelly would be a great source because she is very active in the community so I think that would be um a good choice to have her give give you your thoughts also worth consideration perhaps um is that whoever comes in will be inheriting the L Capital the plants we have reaching out to specifically members of our targeted subgroups who you've worked with so that whoever our candidate is can start building relationship sh or at least know faces and names of people who are in those who they'll be working with in the community good points good points all of them Bill do you have anything you want to add at this point um again this gives us a good start we're excited about working with you and and making good things HP continue to happen for thank you appreciate your help and your expertise and I hope I unage like you have Bill in retirement you look awesome I'm old um thank you for inviting me and uh thank you Mary for asking me to be a part of this important decision that you all have to make um my name is Bill Cornelius I went to a school at Chico State many years ago uh played some football here Coast here for a year um and then we you know live in Yuba City but I have grandkids to go to rosale your after school program by the way it's great we love it um and it's always important to add more slots whenever you can um very important love what's happening here so I have a vested interest here um in my my talk to you is uh much shorter U because we've already talked about questions that sort of thing but um this may be new to you because you know Miss Kelly has been here for 18 years so what I want you to think about a little bit is when Kelly came in here and if I may call you Kelly um she's awesome um she had to have a certain set of skills for the things that were going on at that time and what I would hope that you would look at is when you are looking at a new superintendent what are the what are the skill set types of things characteristics are do you think that they need to come in with and where do you see them three to five years from now okay you're not going to probably find many superintendents that have 18 years of experience that have the knowledge that it takes takes a long time to learn plus just the god-given talents that she has so take you know be really be thoughtful on that and and uh you're going to get a different sense of my personal opinion you're going to get a different sense of feedback from the community they may not see the same things that you do they don't always see the meetings that you had tonight they they won't always see the important decisions that you all have to make and so um take a good hard look at where you're currently you mentioned a bond and I know my daughter's working on the bond for you out of rosil um but you you know what what are some of the things that you want somebody to be able to come in with and be able to kind of Hit the Road running a little bit you know Kelly is going to be able to give a lot of support um but where do where do you want to see the district you know at least for this year or excuse me for next year 2025 um moving forward and where do you see the District you know 3 to 5 years from now is this a person it's kind of a crazy thing but I always ask when I'm done interviewing whether it's a teacher or a superintendent or whomever are they normal do they fit if that makes sense do they fit with the with the community that you have with the things that you're working on um so again those those are just some things that I want you to think about um any questions for me um a little bit of a question um is it is it reasonable to ask for either um I don't know if it be a requirement but a desirable trait or um qualification being uh somebody who has had uh schools side experience and or a classroom experience um because I think that at the core of of our educational system what most folks think about whether they are community member without a without a student or with a student is that classroom uh relationship and how that person engaged with their individual child in the classroom um and so somebody who has had that perspective I think comes with a much deeper understanding and empathy for what it is that the staff is going through in the classroom and what the the students and parents are going through with that classroom experience and and then then on up and I'm not saying that you know not having been a teacher as a disqualifying Factor but how do you kind of weave that desirable characteristic if the board thought that that was something that was desirable um into those that list of qualifications that we kind of just went through well I know it's important for a superintendent to have classroom experience they don't always have to have that you may have a somebody that was a counselor that you know for all the years that they've been working and they worked into some sort of a district position and then um maybe became a vice principal principal rarely does that happen but it could um I think for you all to to really consider is when you have somebody with classroom experience um how are they going to work with their staff to work with kids in the classroom um often times when I've interviewed superintendant they talk a lot about their positions that they used to be in they they kind of sound like they are still a principal if that makes sense and so you know they need to kind of step away from just being the principal to be how will I oversee the principal how will I oversee all those folks that are working with the staff that are working with you know the custodians or the maintenance or the transportation or folks in the district office or in my opinion every part of of all our staffs are so important and in working with teachers if you have not been a teacher you know it makes it tougher it's not impossible but that's again something that you may want to look at if uh if you're going to have somebody with that skill set that's going to be able to work with the staff that a district this size is much different I I know I've as a county superintendent I worked with 12 districts and so much different than when I worked with bigs or when I worked with live o or you know the different places that I've been so it is a lot different um so here it's it's the management style that you're looking for is it the type of leadership that you want to have um and if not quite there yet is the superintendent's training going to be able to help is Miss Kelly going to be able to help and we can't be experts in in every field so as you look at your new superintendent again look at the skill set that you need to have now and where do you want them to grow to be in three to five years and on that um sorry I actually direct a quick comment Kelly something I think would be very useful for us um would be some Reflection from you both on your own growth your first couple of your superintendent and based on the team you've got now in the district office what do you see as the most important qualities um I think that'll really help guide our search to make sure we find someone who fits in and you know has the strengths where they're needed or can grow those okay anything else you think of those things good thank you sorry we're on YouTube and as you think of those things just like that question about um sight level experience um those are important things write them down and make sure we get to hear those Kelly gets to hear him and that's a great idea to have Kelly um kind of do a little chronological um update of what she thinks the needs are too and what her needs were if you can remember back that far Kelly thank you with that conclude our oh go ahead I just want to clarify for Caitlyn the reason why I enjoy hearing you talk is because you provide some amazing input oh thank you so it's not meant to be any kind of a downer thanks I'm also not great for taking compliments but I appreciate it um so this is we yeah please I was excuse me I was also going to mention that um normally when you're looking for superintendents January February March are months that you are looking for otherwise you get to June July August the pool is much different you're way ahead of the game um you know we starting early in that sort of thing but it is a very short uh time frame so as you are moving along and you have questions or concerns um share those with Mary we're going to do uh we're really going to work hard on bringing some good candidates to you we will do our due diligence on checking background checks my biggest issue I've had with folks in the past is is if we don't do a good job of checking not just with their references but other folks that you kind of know um that's that usually kind of gets you to where you have some really good strong strong candidates that you can trust uh and you're not going to find out something later after you've already hired them that sort of thing so we work real hard on that part so thank you thank you um so I think that that concludes our presentation time um and I'm not seeing any further questions from the board um except just for clarification uh this contract comes with a $112,000 price tag uh that goes through the of the school year um can we clarify where that money would be coming from in our budget just um it make this closer it'd be coming from the general fund with the component under the board because the board is approving this contract and the board is in um search for a new superintendent okay and other options would be to just do this internally and not have an external budget amount um or to have there's other kind of Head Hunter private agency types that that will do a national search for a much larger price tag what what usually is ballpark it'd be significantly larger than what is proposed under bco contract like tens of thousands of dollars pushing probably 100 okay yes please and my understanding please all correct me if I'm wrong is that the contract we're considering today has the 12,000 as the maximum acred as we you know as as servic is completed that's correct we're not a private business we're trying to be of service to you it would be um really for the cost of hourly rate for the Consultants who are working with us um and then just actual cost of advertising and that sort of thing but and not to exceed 12,000 and my guess is we will exceed it but 12,000 is your max well and if we do we can we can talk about that as we go yeah and we provide accounting and everything of course I me I got to say I'm really excited about the opportunity to to work with bcoe in this Regard in that we were trying to find a balance between getting a big reach and having a neutral party um I think I'm yeah looking forward to Serv a good price this is a totally reasonable price tag for the kind of work you're doing and having people who are local and who have a a stake in US finding the best possible client or forgive me best possible candidate um yeah I looking forward to proceeding with the contract Madam president I don't see an identifying um number um on the agreement it just says the um it's under exhibit B I think it's the last page oh page six based on actual cost incurred based on the services in exhibit a but but not to exceed $122,000 and this really is to help to facilitate the process we're still in charge of the process but we need the the third party help of of folks who are invested in our district to to hold our hands along the way because we haven't done this before and and you folks have and that's and and you have a great understanding of our district um chica unified is one of the largest districts in the region and a lead a leader in in many aspects and I think that it's important important to have those um those uh outside perspectives to help keep things fresh it's nice any other further questions from the board um any public comment on this topic okay seeing none I will ask for a motion we hire a bu County Office of Education to um to do this job second all right we have a motion by member tennis and a second by member conin uh we were unanimous in our previous vote so uh all those in favor of approval please signify by saying I I I any opposed it's unanimous thank you we really look forward to working with you do we want to um Madam president um oh just want to say thank you very much for your confidence in us we'll work very very hard um alongside you to make this successful thank you you we'll talk with you soon do we want to bat around some names of people maybe to serve on this subcommittee that she made reference to because I'd like to um nominate Becky if if we would like to do something like that um somebody mentioned having a a subcommittee of the board you know yeah I don't know is I don't know I just don't know if it's something that has to be done during open session at this time or that we have a certain process that we need to go through for it and I'm not opposed to your nomination either just not sure about processes I think we do need to do it in Open Session if we're going to uh assign people to different parts of the process and certainly if we're going to have a subcommittee okay and for clarification um was I was I clearly understanding sorry you're not quite excused but maybe somebody here that heard better than me um we all can be involved in the paper screening okay and when we get to the the the subcommittees and such we would split those out well I should clarify um the way we do paper screening is electronically so it allows for everybody and you don't have a conflict I I don't I shouldn't speak for your process so I will well we want to go with whatever your process is that You' like to use so we're not dictating what you do uh but normally we would do the initial paper screening and then bring candidates to you but you are more than welcome to go through all the candidates also we just have to do that in a controlled setting and we right you would weed out the person from I don't know Washington who doesn't have a master's degree for example okay or somebody we know that shouldn't be here and and what you could also do is um have a board member or two be part of your screening process so they see all of the different applications and go through that with you absolutely a better way to do that absolutely this is your process and we're going to Aid you in any way we can to make it a good process for you okay and then the same would be true for the different interview panels you could have one or two board members on each of those yeah when's um sorry I don't have my the calendar in front of me I'm just wondering if this is something that we could iron out specifics of what board member would be kind of assigned is to you know how do we how we proceed um if we need to initiate that this evening or if we really should probably bring it to our regular session on September 18th um in Open Session give us some time to wrap our heads around those either way works for us knowing that that timeline is not accurate so if you know that it really won't be on the 26th and 27th it'll be probably moved down a little bit moved down move later thank you yeah some people see calendars from left to right and not top to bottom I think if we're going to put people on subcommittees that we should make sure that is agenda as and notified so I don't think we should take that on tonight okay worth having the public be aware of and Weighing on if they decide to do so I appreciate that and and that wasn't to that's not to like yeah I think that it gives me a little more time to process the next steps I think yeah I appreciate I appreciate um Mr tennis bringing that forward for us to probably frame for the September 18th meeting I would think so I'll uh do some Outreach with bcoe to see what they see as the needs for different committees different levels of the process bring those back and then you can identify one or two people to participate in each of those areas or if you just want two people to go through the whole process um you could do that as well do we kind of Envision it being like when we do our workshops in Liaisons where we kind of plug see see the see where the openings are and plug people in in Open Session kind of approach that works for me Kaitlyn I mean if that works for us does that does that work in general okay thanks just that's all I needed I need a confirmation that that is a we're used to that process so um that would be helpful and if you know if there's multiple spots and multiple layers then the same person could be at each step of the the way um but some of us who are maybe a little less available just pick picks up one thing here and there so that we are all part of the process at some point some probably to a greater degree than others great that sounds fantastic thank you anything else all right I think we'll move on to our next item we we'll see you we'll see you for real this time yeah for real thank you wait just one more thing no I'm just kidding I'm not that funny but I try sometimes uh all right uh that was item 4.1 sorry 4.2 um and we will move to item five which is board member request to agenda's item uh there was no request received for this evening and so with that we can move to closed session it is 7:05 and we'll probably take about a 10-minute break in between um and then be in closed session for some time um I don't think we need a motion to move to closed

persons wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public Hearing in person or by logging into the zoom meeting interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written sub comments to the select Board office Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashland or by emailing Susan Roy sroy asland mass.com if I can get a motion to open the public hearing so moved and a second second all those in favor of opening the hearing I the hearing is now open okay uh if we could have who's representing Ashlin Brewing unmute yourself and identify yourself please hi you have Jamie moldun and John moldun on the line wonderful welcome thank you so we are here to hold a public hearing first for your malt beverage pouring license and then we'll go into the wine pouring license if you want to go ahead and let us know how thing where are things at and we have all the paperwork in front of us but why don't you go ahead and start sure so from a licensing standpoint we've been approved by the ttb for both The Malt and the wine and we are in process with the state right now and they are coming out at a date that we're working on to for a onsite inspection for both malt and wine uh and obviously couple doors down we're under construction and working through that with some hiccups along the way contractors and and uh hoping to be open as soon as possible do you have a potential date or not yet not that we're willing to discuss okay very diplomatically done h i I'm I'm an internal optimist so I uh I'm gonna withdraw my optimism for now because it's being recorded okay that's fair soon very soon okay so we have have the floor P plan we see the difference right now between the the The Malt and the wine um any questions from the board looking at the design that you uh provided us I appreciate that thank you and uh Yolanda was able to give me uh an explanation as to why you have two different areas for uh beer and wine they have to be separate I guess when you when you do the the pouring aspect right now for for right now for this for yeah okay and when when will that change once these uh once we have the next hearing next hearing okay do you folks have a a back door because I notice you have two side doors uh where the old uh driveway is and then you have the front door area where the ramp is but is there a side door in the back for exit should there be an emergency that you have to exit from the back if there's an issue in the front of the building that you can't get through those two doors uh there's an existing exit in the back okay I just didn't see it on I I knew there was one there but I didn't see it on the uh on the drawing that's why I asked oh no fair question I don't have the for PL up but uh there definitely an existing exit on the back yeah no I know it's there I just didn't see it I didn't know if you blocked it off nope why do have two separate areas because right now actually Susan can you explain why they have to have two separate areas right now I think you can do it better than me sure so so the reason they have to do two separate areas is right now they have applied for a farmer's license when you're doing the pouring license because they have two different products that they're Brewing they have to be two separate designated areas for each product so they had to submit in floor plans that show the designation of where the beer and where the wine will be brewed and served so at the next hearing we're getting a little ahead of ourselves we'll have to do an alteration of premise which will allow them to use the entire space to serve both products okay it's just a process it's an Antiquated law was what the abcc told me they said that yes that's not a good sign why is it something different than what you heard folks no that's just emotionally how I feel so it's glad to hear it now any other questions I'm good the only other question I have um so for are like the plans and and forgive me because maps are kind of difficult to kind of Orient myself here but um outo outdoor seating you're going to be having outdoor seating on the The Patio I assume um depends what you're yeah yes yes okay so so consumption will happen out on the out on the patio as well yes so yeah and and that area also has to be approved by the ttb and the state and so the ttb has approved it on a federal level the state will come out an investigator will come out and investigate the outdoor pouring area as well so that's out here okay Yolanda just showed me how to read a map had a one so um so thank you okay that that makes that makes a lot of sense okay does anyone else want to see the paper version thank you you're welcome real Qui yeah second okay and then other than that we're just excited to have you here and look forward to uh to celebrating the official open whenever whenever that comes uh as soon as same as soon as possible I assume yeah for everybody no we can't we can't wait we have uh Jamie talk to the folks at the YMCA this week U and best uh been on me to finish because she has all kinds of Fun Town stuff planned so we're we're anxious we're excited and anxious okay good any other questions or comments okay um hold on I'm just looking for the the times yeah my for some reason my iPad is not bring it up quickly enough 11 to 10:30 11 11 to 1030 every day that's what I'm uh so the hours um you know I went over this with Susan so the hours that we ask for we we always ask for more y um in the event that you know we're going to have either special events or we want to open on a Monday holiday and so we do ask the select Board of the town for extended hours to begin with um but our Norm operating hours will be Tuesday through Sunday Tuesday through Friday will'll be open from 4: to 9: Friday we will be open from 3: to 9 and Saturday 12 to 10 and Sunday from Chang their hours 12 to 8 those hours so yeah so so but the the hours that we ask for on the application and the same though with the state we extend them to make sure that you know we cover all bases so that you know for Labor Day if we want to be open we have the possibility to uh be open for Labor Day and a holiday okay that makes sense y y okay if I can get a motion to approve the 19 CN malt beverage poring let's close the hearing y right are we closing the hearing yes okay if I can uh oh well I should do this thank you uh any other comments from anyone else on the board any other deliberation any other input from anyone in the room or online seeing none if I can get a motion to close the public hearing some second all those in favor hi hi if I can get a motion to approve the 19 CN malt beverage pouring license for Ashland Brewing Company LLC DBA Clover Road Brewing Ashland conditional on the approval of the 19c farmer Brewery Brewery license so moved second all those in favor I I perfect okay okay that closes that hearing uh I have to read the second one can you pull up the second my technology is slow tonight is that the second one hold on we're getting there oh maybe now's mine responding now is that the 725 yeah I need to do the 725 hearing you want me to read it on your behalf sure go ahead a public hearing will be held on the matter on Wednesday September 4th 2024 at 7:25 p.m.

persons wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public Hearing in person or by longing into the zoom meeting interested parties who are unable to attend um the hearing May submit written comments to the select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street asham mass or by emailing suoi at sroy Asam m.com Yolanda Graves chair and this is hereby notice is given to the select board will conduct a hearing in accordance with mgl 138 section 19B uh paragraph n for wine pouring license great motion to open the hearing so moved second all those in favor I okay um I don't know that we know need to go any other details it's now just for the wine license same same information um one question where will you be getting the wine from is that also something that you produce or so we'll be um producing a limited amount out of Ashlin and will also be contract with um a local Massachusetts Winery and so we're working out the details right now with a few wineries in Massachusetts um so full you know look for details coming out soon on that um but we'll do both we'll we'll do limited amount from the Ashlin location and also contract nice great okay I'm excited for wine because I my husband's more of a Beer Drinker and I'm a more wine person so to sit in separate rooms no no no no no by the time by the time they go to open we'll get that fixed that would be funny that would be F that would be funny no funny not fine so so I'm excited for one any other comments for or against this license seeing none any other deliberation I think we're good if I can get a motion to close the public hearing so moved second all those in favor I I I and then if I can get a motion to approve the 19 BN wine pouring license for Ashen Brewing Brewing LLC DBA Clover Road Brewing Ashlin conditional on the approval of the 19c farmer Brewery license so moved second all those in favor I great so we have those two licenses in place Susan is in the process of doing the next step and we've already uh published for the next meeting to be able to do the hearing to combine the two locate the two pouring areas I just want to say thank you to Susan who's been a huge help uh and is more qualified than the lawyer we pay a lot of money to great we we are thankful that we have Susan as well great okay uh any other business related to Clover Road no just good luck John and Jamie and we look forward to seeing you guys thank you guys so much we will we will see you all in h two weeks we love the signs great job sign signs on the building look really good people really are are enjoying seeing that oh good good oh good that's awesome yeah great all right thank you all very welcome thank you okay we're a little a little bit before 7:40 but I believe we have everyone here from fish and game so we can discuss this uh you're looking to host a fundraiser on Saturday October 5th from 5: to 11: you're requesting a one-day extension of the serving area for the outdoor Pavilion so who's going to be speaking on this matter if there's multiple of you if you could come up to the uh Podium and we can have a discussion I yeah so point of clarification go for it hi I'm Ashley ostes I'm the spokesperson for the fishing game Treasurer and also helping coordinate the event um however these two are holding the I'm good intro yeah that was very nice well done did you rehearse this one I'm uh Jamie trip 61 Pine Hill Road and ashin and my uh partner in this event that we're trying to plan is Tim Tim 14 time in road yeah so we are uh the ones running the event but we're looking at the venue to be at the fishing game club so that's kind of a why we're both here so and what is the event it's a fundraiser for uh flag football uh girls Ashland High School lacrosse and girls uh Ashland Varsity soccer so uh trying to bring some funds together for the girls and the flight football program okay good so you're requesting so basically our our typical your typical license is noon to 10: at the fishing game correct and this event you want to hold it until 11: correct so we need to extend it by one hour for that day okay um you're not changing where on the site you're doing anything it's the same footprint that you've showed us and um generally we would like to request that we could um possibly serve beer in the field area um however we will be serving out of the Pavilion the regular footprint um and if if possible we would like to be able to serve just beer on in the field area that's possible okay hold on will that be separated get that information at all did you did you supply it is on the map um that I believe Susan had received and I thought she'd given to you she did my my docum so where the where the tent is um the bands in the middle and then there's alcohol there's a little alcohol spot on one side and the barbecue spot on the other so that's the idea should be in the backup would you like to see the print out piece to share with the yeah if you could pass that over and then i' like I add this might call Tonio the president of the club and then I'll be all a fenced in area which we would uh you know require if we need fencing or anything to keep people uh in that area that would be that would be the only thing that I would suggest on my on on my issue that would be fine we have a team that's ready to to put up anything that we would anything to make it trouble-free yes exactly when we're done yeah we'll pass that down thank you oh yeah that's where they want to put it so you're looking for us to extend by an hour on the 5th and also allow pouring on the field and also consumption right and consump right right right right and will it be the fishing games usual servers yes all tip certified all tip certified our regular servers will be serving the alcohol okay any other questions or comments you asked the question I was going to ask you the only thing I just wanted to make you guys aware of just it has nothing to do specifically with your event but the dragonfly festival's be going on that afternoon so just just to be aware it's going to be taking up quite a bit of space in downtown so just being aware from a timing standpoint we've requested and was approved for overflow parking at the DPW which is further up down the road Hond Roa if there's any overflow parking we can do that I'm also having parking attendance just so everybody Parks safely and gets in and out of there okay okay's the anticipated uh I believe they are saying 200 to 250 yes yeah okay we had the event last year and we we had 200 at the event last year so we're hoping to increase that this year and within our registration we when you when you register the event we we have a statement that we ask everyone to try to car pool or use uh other ways to get there so that we don't have as many cars congesting the areas what time is [Music] dragonfly is that afternoon to early evening yeah okay okay yes so the overlap won't be quite quite as much I just wanted to make you guys aware that there was some other stuff going on that you know would be there's no road closures though with dragonfly this year or are there isn't there this year aren't they closing the road because believe so they closly take place Corner Spot his um Historical Society the Ocean House the ocean house and there's a third third location by the library I'm not sure I forget but they've expanded Dragon downtown which again not but your event is from 5: to 11: so we'll just have to what I recommend is reach out to Beth Reynolds to find out information about dragonfly Festival yeah um so she'll be able to give you better information and if there's road closures and things like that yep have I have a quick question because I saw it on the news ton what uh what precautions are you taking for uh mosquito control and I have to ask because this is this is a big thing going on right now with tripol and everything else uh we do H regularly have the the state uh sends a team mosquito guys and they have been on our property um I can't tell you exactly how many times but I do see the guys there all the time with the trucks and okay I've been you know I've been in contact with them and just to say hey if anything comes up please come to me and tell me if you find anything they do a lot of research I'm not sure the extent to what they do but uh yeah it's it's it was on our minds as well so I have reached well they're right in North bro yeah they're not that far away so and they do it for free so you know a quick call you know just remind people attending you know bug spray and or provide bugs yeah just an idea you don't want you don't want you don't want to get ruined over the zapper y yeah Za so oh yeah okay any other questions or comments or concerns no oh I'm glad it's going to be uh at the fishing game like to see that being uh have have a good future in town nice okay if I can get a motion to extend the F the Ashen fishing games liquor license for Saturday October 5th till 11:00 p.m.

and allow the consumption of alcohol on the field and that there is a fenced in area designating where that is so moved second any other questions or comments all those in favor I I and opposed good luck Lu sounds fun she's she's a good one she helps a lot of people glad I did a review last week how how much money did you make last year oh you're very welcome thanks buddy oh nice oh that's nice wow per team oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah welcome to what we do for ashine day same thinging we canid large yeah I hear you all right good luck yeah good luck guys and good luck thank you pray for good [Laughter] weather don't jinx it I know I mean it it it could be like it was today or even like it was on Monday it was gorgeous [Laughter] H you're du one yeah you definitely are due one okay okay well that's all done moving on in our agenda we're going into our old and new business we're going to do a recap of our second session of the board retreat uh Michael I'm GNA let you start with this and then I'm going to ask for input from the board thank you um so yeah last week we uh ended our uh August Retreat sessions I guess you say we had meetings uh related to to that this year um overall just speak to the process I I thought you know we continue to try to improve um how this works and um you know I think we can say that that we definitely did this year U I appreciate everybody's you know willingness to be open and you know especially during the first session and talk about how you know we we can find our common purpose and and get that written down um our second session focused mainly on the projects and you know everybody here knows that I'm saying this mostly for the people at home and I think you know a few things few overall observations uh coming out of that uh evening was number one it was great for me to Simply for me from my personal perspective to sit here and and basically ask you questions and watch the board kind of Talk Amongst yourselves um we don't really do that that much you know usually you're asking me questions I'm answering you know there's a dialogue but um it was really great to see the board kind of have their own discussions and and come to some of your own conclusions and and um hope hope you noticed that um and appreciated that um and before we get to I'm not going to go through the whole list of projects everybody's okay with that right yes I don't know I don't know Makita might want to go through each one but um but in any case um I one of the things I think we did realize and we've known this for a while but I think it's going to be great to to get it down in writing is that we need to come up with a prioritization plan for new projects um if you know we have a history of wanting to um be helpful and to accommodate everybody and we just simply at this point in time don't have the resources to do that and so what we need to do is we need to come up with a system atic way and a transparent way to prioritize things in order to um basically determine what we take on moving forward because I think we can all agree the the the quote unquote project load we have now is not healthy for us as a team it's not healthy for our staff in general it's not really healthy for the community um because if you take on too many projects and you don't have the resources to do it things take longer things drag on you just can't put the focus on each individual project the way it needs to have focus and uh I think we've seen the results of that so uh I think that's something you know we're going to have to develop and uh work on moving forward um and then you know going to specific projects uh I will only mention the fact that we pretty much kept everything on the list except for a smooth few smaller projects and I think a key uh decision that was made was that we were going going to um as aside from hopefully later this year doing some repairs on the exterior trim and painting of the Valentine house we're going to put that project on hold for right now it is a big project number one just coming to an agreement as to what we want to do with that and there's so many different parties involved so we have the state we have that conservation restriction that was submitted last July that's still at the state um they haven't gotten to it and and you know they're going to give us well they they do give us the fact we have resource issues and um you know I think in some ways it's frustrating but in other ways we could take a page out of the airbook too and um so I you know I know that's going to be unfortunate news to some people it doesn't mean we're just going to completely drop it it just means that for right now we're going to do some things that we're going to make sure that that house is still stable and um you know Preserve our ability to make a decision for it Community decision for it in the future and um so that's uh just related to projects and then the Third Kind of overall theme that really kind of spanned over I think both nights was this issue of communication and you know I think again part of the prioritization process is going to be you know to have something that we can communicate out to people this is why we're doing this and that but I I think I did sense just like from the board um an interest in making sure that the correct information is getting out there um whether it's coming from us or coming from other people and that we're actually talking about real issues not fabricated issues or mistaken issues because the thing is is if you don't have if if things if misinformation is put out there and let's just disregard whether it's intentional or not for right now because misinformation is misinformation but if that gets out there the debate starts amongst residents and people starts centering around things that aren't real and it keeps us distracted and keeps us from focusing on real issues that we need to determine a solution for as a community and um it's a real problem in Ashland and I know a lot of people it's not just an Ashlin thing and and I did tell you that you know Beth and I are kind of doing our own little research and we'll have to present that to you but yeah it's it is um it it's I wouldn't say that other communities aren't facing it it's just I'm not necessarily sure we're the rule I do think we're the exception um in some of those cases so I think that's about as succinctly as I can put it great feedback from the board comments on the process on the discussion anything you want to add or I I found the whole um thing to be you know very informative I feel like I learned a lot um you know and and so it was it was very positive in that regard um it was was amazing to see the progress and the things that have been done in this community in the last 10 plus years um it in terms of the communication piece I think we all really want to figure out how to you know get get our arms around that um you know misinformation is is a problem um and and I do think it it's a problem in other towns I don't know if we're if it's a greater problem for us it'll be interesting to hear that data because that's something if that's the case I want our community to know that too um you know but I think that one thing that that I'm going to try to work on is asking people to um ask questions and be careful about what they say when they say it you know before you say something as a fact you should know that it is or isn't you know or it's true you should know it's true and so I think people need to check themselves before I say something you know say know it's true if it's a question I'd like to know if this is the case then then that's Fair let's ask that and see if we can get answers to people but I think we all need to be careful sometimes I know sometimes when I'm passionate about something I might you know say something that isn't exactly fact or that so I I have to always watch myself um but you know I think that's critical but but I think it would be nice if we could steer some of that online a little bit to um encourage people to be to ask good questions that's very Fair um because I think we can get people answers but be careful about saying something that isn't true and then people end up with misinformation okay Makita yeah um I have I'll Echo everything Claudia said and I'll also add that you know it's it's fascinating um being out in community and talking with people about you know how they receive information on the town uh the issue of information disinformation and misinformation does come up quite frequently I just had a conversation with some folks last night about that very topic and I feel like well no I shouldn't say feel I've heard that there is a real hunger in the town to be able to uh take this head on I think a lot of residents want they want to be able to have the correct information they want to be able to help their friends and Neighbors when they're then they don't have the right information to let them know what's really happening and they want to make sure that they're a positive part of that process because I think one of the things that we talked about as a board when we got back together when we got to to talk about this was that it's a it's going to be a community effort it's not just you know Michael with the newsletter which is great it's not just selectboard us getting in the community it's going to take all of us it's going to take a village to really make sure that you know we're communicating we're hearing each other and that we are sharing correct information Makita I'm curious the people that you chatted with where do they currently get their information if they get it good question um Madam chair so uh the town manager's newsletter came up frequently um and I actually had a chance to talk with some folks from a neighboring town as well uh over the past few days and they've actually pointed to the town manager's newsletter as a great way to find out what's happening in Ashlin um so I think that was probably the the most uh dominant piece uh there was some Talk of the TV as well the waa as well but um but yeah those were the two things that I heard mentioned good uh okay most frequently good good nice Yeah Joe or brandy any thoughts just just a piggy back what everybody said I just want to say that it can be very demoralizing you know when you when you when you put a lot of heart and soul and effort into doing something and then some a group or an individual provides you know bad information or false information and that gets out there and people tend to believe that and not call or ask those who are are are involved to head on with it um so it it can be very demoralizing and that's when I mean that's when differentials happen with with with different things with different groups and it becomes it becomes an issue and now you don't know who to believe MH you really don't know who to believe so again Michael you know sending out that information and providing that information is great doing the uh you know the office hours is is another thing um you know again but it's the it's the people's interest what they're interested in and we saw that a couple of weeks ago they were more interested in the dogp than they were asking questions about what was going on in the town and and rightfully so that that's a positive good thing that you know that people are looking forward to so you don't want you don't want to believe in the negative you always want to accuate on on the positive and enjoy and enjoy the town and the things that the town provides as long as it's you know with the correct information that's all and it's just and it's a shame that some individuals uh do that whether they do it purposefully or they do it unintentionally but it just s yeah okay Randy so I think our conversations were really great I think that you know it's funny because we set aside what two hours for it and it kind of bled into three and a half um was I should never have brought the food I should never brought the food you brought the snacks and we're all good to I I know snacks note to sell so so yeah so a public thank you to to to Katherine bird who who furnished our snacks for us yeah she she she did call me the next morning like what happened so but wasn't just me but but but the discussion was good because I do think we don't get enough time to really do a date deep dive into some of our some of the issues and that's what's good about a retreat I mean we only do it once a year but it's really a working session for us to to Really dive into something that's not just a overview of of of an issue and I think that I'm looking forward to to really kind of going into the communications um discussion more in depth I think that we've come a long way as a town in our Communications I think back to when the newsletter used to be something you did once every few months whenever like literally because because it was something that you knew was important to get information out there but it's it's a lot of work so it's it's a lot of work for it's a lot of work for our Communications team um and a lot of work for for for you and the staff um so you know we appreciate that but it will be a good discussion to kind of go into that go into that more and figure out other ways that we can communicate I do think that you know when we talked about our priorities and our projects um I would like to have that list that we talked about and have it have it at an open I mean our meeting was open but like a public discussion about that project list and and talk about that a little bit more um you know we talked about the Valentine property we talked about the dog park we talked about um you know sidewalks and what that plan is for for that and I think I think a a broader discussion about some of those projects would be of real interest to a lot of a lot of folks watching especially when we start talking about things like a sidewalk plan and things like that so um but I think it was a I think it was a I think it was a great a a great it was a good tool great great couple of meetings so it it it's funny I was talking to someone and they said so how do you as a board go into real indepth discussions and debates and because it is hard to do on camera right we have a certain amount of time we have specific things on our agenda that we need to discuss and debate and and let the public see but I think the discussion that we had that night would have been hard to do on camera because of the tangents that we went off on and that it would be hard if someone just jumped in to understand so I I agree I think doing the retreat is helpful and I guess to people watching the reminder is no specific votes or decisions were really taken we talked about the project list we will bring that to an open meeting I mean and again the meet the Retreats are open let me restate that we will bring it to a televised meeting so that we will talk specifically about the list and and what's being worked on and what is maybe going to be put on a back burner and all of these projects will get done they're just some of them have to be back burner so we can finish some of the other ones that based on what we've heard from the community is a priority one of those big ones is the comprehensive plan because that comprehensive plan will then help determine the timing of some of these other projects but what I actually enjoyed was because for Makita is brand new since May and even for Claudia even you've been involved in a lot the discussing and sort of reviewing the history of some of these projects and I think Route 126 is a great example of a review of some of the discussion and debate that we're seeing I I was talking with someone and they said what's something that you've done since you've been sitting here that you feel you might not have originally done and I think about the meal sales tax I mean I'm I mean conservative I'm I'm a fiscal conservative right I want to make sure that if we're spending money we are spending it wisely I don't want to add another tax if we don't have to I remember when Michael came to me and said so I'm going to recommend that we initiate the meal sales tax here in Ashland and I was like another tax what are you kidding me and the rationale behind starting that was we as a community we're going to do this meal sales tax and the the major re the first reason we did it for was so that we could pay for the $325,000 that we needed to spend to do our 25% of design for Route 126 and then there'd be portions for economic development and other public things going on that was an investment by the people in our community but it was also the investment of people who came to our community to eat it's still an investment of people who are coming into our community who have you know and that $325,000 that we said okay State we're going to spend this to do our 25% design and then lots of me meetings and trips into town into into Boston to keep the project going is getting US Route 126 um so it's just interesting the history of things and how we get to things and it was a pleasure reminder it was yeah sometimes realiz andiz you know as long as you have it's just like wow yeah when you put it all in one place right right that's exactly yeah if I could expand just a little bit 126 that is such you know I that is such a Case Case book or you know stud case study that's what it is um of how like like this whole system of government works and how when taking on too many projects happens you know it can kind of slow a little bit of progress but it is a state project I do want to remind everybody that but so it was my first month here and Ed Bates and Steve Greenberg came to see me and you know Ed has been working on had been working on 126 yep for 2025 years and they were like well she she comes into play later in this in the story and Ed Ed and Steve were like okay we've negotiated with the state that if we do the 25% design um they'll pick up the rest of the design and put it on the tip now before us that kind of concept had not been done before now it's rather routine yes but there were but Ed especially was like you know we've been trying to figure out a way to make this work for 20 25 years can you help us figure out a way to make this happen and so so I put on the professional staff hat and I'm like okay well what can we do obviously revenues at this point in time you know the finances were the finances so here was an opportunity to here's something that we could take advantage of Y and so you know you had citizens and volunteers you know working with staff to come up with a plan to do something and then that needed a town meeting vote and so that's where you have people like Paula Parker come into play and all the advocacy work and others of course the amount of advocacy work that was done for that um we had a very large turnout for that vote which voted favorably for the meals tax and then you know we moved forward we did the design on time we did um got all of that done we had those big Community meetings over at the at the war schol just talk about it and because we did not just a engineering study we did a we did a design design yeah yeah and um you know it that it worked so the state lived up to their end of the bargain they paid for the rest of the design they put it on the tip um and so we started construction again covid happened but you know I think you know we probably could put a little bit more focus on it if we weren't doing all these other things that required attention as well so I think it's just a great example of kind of like the way this form of government can work and you know just a you know book in the communication piece and you know I recommended everybody read that savior City and Makita you read it in like a fraking weekend I'm still three three quarters of the way through but one of the things that's really interesting and I've been looking into this subject more is this idea of this almost like a social contract where you know we're doing our jobs but the citizens and the community they have a role to play too and I think this is what you're going to to call out when misinformation is happening and people are intimidating others from speaking and ensuring that you're on a a Level Playing Field you know and you're right it's that's not just our responsibility that's the community's responsibility you know obviously if people make mistakes and everything you can you can handle that with compassion with empathy but you know when there's Bad actors that play and I'll just say it Bad actors um you know it's the community job to say hey no that that's foul here that that doesn't work here and um we appreciate what you're trying to do but we don't appreciate it so yeah anyway I'm glad you you you found the process enjoyable I think next time we'll do it during over a single day on a Saturday Claudia you had something you wanted to say yeah I was just thinking um in terms of the projects and that that you know it might be interesting and I think it might be able to do it in just a couple of hours would be short video clips about each where you say Okay Route 120 is the 126 project and then take a minute or two minutes max to talk about it and then boom and then you know we could post it as a you know either I was thinking actually as an entire clip and then you know if you're learning something on YouTube all the time I'm jumping ahead here and there or you could we could potentially post it as little individual ones that you clip if you wanted to know this particular particular thing yeah um and you could even include links to those in in your newsletter each week and if it's a one minute two minute video or something you know I'm more apt to take a look right especially if it's something that is of interest to me yeah CLA we're fine in one to two minutes is actually too long I mean people like those 20 second 20 20 second 30 second but but but I mean I don't want to say what what's happening with my attention span nowadays thanks to uh our friends at Instagram and and such uh but um I think Claudia you're you're making an interesting point one of the things that we did talk about was having a another meeting around communication Brandy mentioned that as well you know uh being in it one of the things that I like to do is make sure that you know we we we're very close to identifying the aspects of the of the issue and then we'll solution after we have identified the issue and have specific Solutions around that so I'm looking forward to using uh using uh creativity not just from this board but from the community on the whole uh to figure out ways to to deliver information in a way that people can consume right and understand and share in a positive way so um but I think we do have a lot lot more work on that front to do and I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and helping out in any way I can yeah think it'll be good after your big project yeah and then I just had also had just one question now now where where does the meal T meals tax money continue to go what's it funding these days so um so it is all devoted to economic development now and we did two home rule petitions related to it so um we did one home rule petition that basically partitioned that money and allowed it to be that went into a separate fund The Economic Development Fund and then we did a subsequent uh home rule petition to allow us to use that money to help private businesses and use grants and stuff and that's the first that was the first of its kind in the state um and uh it's been wildly successful so yeah when we talk about some of the grants that have been awarded that's what what's funding some of them those grants so the bringing those businesses in and you look at all the businesses that's that that have come in dol Del tomorrow you know Zeta fencing Zeta fencing Crossroads ice cream Play Starbucks you know so some of these businesses took advantage of that business at Mazy you know and again that whole Strate the whole strategy for our economic development program you know somebody had made a comment that it's about building new buildings no what we wanted to do is take some of these vacant and dilapidated buildings like the Blockbuster building that sat vacant for how many years overgrown and stuff and yeah and turn those into papos yeah the old papaginos telecon building before Steve and for you know help yeah and so what you do is you make a small investment of town funds um you know 20 $330,000 and that sometimes closes the Gap and allows a business to actually come here and then invest sometimes in like the case of do to L hundreds of thousands into these spaces and bringing them back to life and so you're not only bringing new businesses into town you're also taking spaces that have fallen into disrepair and might not be good examples of a community's value and you're turning them into great spaces again the Blockbusters are great just probably the most prominent example because it's right on 126 and it was Standalone and God it was bad um and to see what Mazy turned that into and it's unfortunate that they got an offer they couldn't refuse at three million bucks and you know they you know decided to sell and so we do have Chase which uh coming in which I think they're going to be a great partner but um but again that's what that's used for and you know yes when we started the meals tax we were putting money towards like $7,500 towards the library $7,500 towards the community center um and there was something else those was were monies that were they needed it for programs and stuff too so it wasn't like it was it wasn't helping the community at exactly they were they were time when we needed it right we haven't needed the economic development we haven't needed the meal sales tax for those no programs we've been able that's why we made the decisions it's not that because we just took it away from them it was because it was decision that by bringing more businesses into town we'd you know these other organizations in these other departments would still be funded without those dollars yeah and as our finances have gotten better we were been able to put more money into that if you look at our Council on Aging budget now compared to where it was in 2015 when it got that 7500 bucks it's significant like we've added uh activities coordinator part-time van driver programs you know I guess the other thing that sort of this discussion has made me think about is as a government we have to be fluid yes right we can make an initial decision about why we're doing something but part of our job as the select board working with you as Town management and working with other boards and committees that are making political and finan cial decisions is we have to be fluid about what we do we can't strictly say okay we said it was going to only be used for this and then only do that because at some point they don't need that anymore because the general go the general budget can help pay for some of these things so I think that I think for me as I've been sitting here is that that understanding of government and how we do things is fluid it's not okay this is what we've signed on to and this is what we're doing forever it's like this is what we signed on to initially but as we go along we we can adjust that and and with the idea that we're doing it for the best interest of the community well it sounds like it's still the overarching goal oh it's still the overarching go right right so I I I I really love what you said and and I think it's important it needs to be doubled down and maybe sh from the rooftops it you it's not just fluid but agile you need to be agile and the the Crux of that though is how can we most effectively communicate right that right and that's something that we need to to do because I don't to your point I think most folks think of government as an immovable or slow moving entity when in fact it's a very fast moving sort of creature right well it's fast moving internally well well it's fast moving on some parts and some slow but on externally it looks like there's no movement but if you go underneath the surface there is an enormous amount of activity going on at all times and that's something that I don't think most folks who don't you know do government on a regular Bas basis um you know that's where I think a lot of confusion and a lot of a lot of misinformation and disinformation arises from so I think if we can figure out a way to illustrate that point I think we're we're going to be like halfway there just my humble opinion yeah um but great point but and I think it's important to note some of those decisions about like okay re doing the meals tax and having it all go towards economics development so that wasn't a town manager assistant Town manager decision that wasn't a select board decision that was a town meeting boat so the community showed up and voted on that it was a community decision um and I think that's all Al an important thing to to hit home too because I think sometimes the way people portray things especially like the meals tax is it's almost like it was a staff the evil staff you know decision or or something to that effect you know that's one of those situations where it just wasn't an outright falsehood but it's implied yeah and I think it's important to know the community voted for that but the discussion specifically for that meal sales tax was in one they brought up the first time it was discussed H right there was no then followup of to your point when changes were made to how we're going to use that sales tax that was not brought up oh yeah because the emission of that did not fit the arc I do think that you know there have been a lot of new people that have come into Ashland over the last five 10 years so you know when we talk about the meals tax what year was that 2013 okay so we're talking 11 years ago and so you know to the point of being flexible and changing and things and to makita's point about communicating it I think I think we have to we have to keep reminding people the sort of what we're what we're doing the the the interesting thing I would bet is that if you ask if at the farmers market this Saturday if we ask people what do you think the meal sales taxs get used for I would how many of them will even understand that the meal sales tax is a tax that comes to us and are even aware of it on their bills people aren't aware of it that's see that's the that's the other part is that the majority the majority of residents I would say 10% of residents have a really good understanding of what we do I think you're generous say I think you're generous with 10% okay so I'm gonna say 10% because I'm gonna just you're not Optimist I'm an optimist I would say 25% of the the residents probably have like an idea of some of the things going on in town but you know then you're talking like 65% of the population that may know about one thing or another thing just because downtown is under construction and they have to go through a detour and that's how they understand what's going on in town so you know it's the we do and we do a I think I think we do do an excellent job of communicating what is going on right now but I think to the point that you know Makita was making we have to kind of we have to we have to approach things from a different perspective that like not everybody's going to have the history that we that we have think about probably three years ago when they started doing the work on Route 126 and the roundabout was starting to be worked on and people are like a roundabout why are they putting a roundabout there right what who who made that decision well if you go back eight years from there when we started doing the design and having the discussions and but if you just came in town three years ago or four years ago and you're seeing this roundabout you don't have the history you weren't at those charettes where we talked about it so to your point right people don't have all the history as to why we're where we are now and they don't and more history yes and more important or as important context yeah history is part of that context but not full fully of that context so I think to bry's point to your point everybody's Point here we I think we're talking you know the same same uh we're saying the same thing you know um the puzzle is how do we most effectively communicate and it's it's and it's it's also a two-way street you know um the one thing before before I shut up about this is I will say that you know one of the things that when I was running um for select board uh that I I had frequent conversations with people about was this attitude that government like there's the government and here's the people we are the government we citizens are the government you know but there's in my mind there's no separation so I think this is again this is a this is a joint effort you know uh between uh residents staff you know all of us who make the composite parts of this thing that we're trying this thing ashin this beautiful Town Ashen that we're we're trying to improve together so I think that's the spirit that this board is entering these these discussions in and I'm really looking forward to continuing that and working with folks to make that happen we might be excited about another meeting we might you make that I'm sorry I was going to make that suggestion that maybe we should entertain to one another Retreat instead of having one yearly maybe we should have biannual uh Retreats well I I don't I think we were talking about we're talking about communication meeting a special communic again I don't we weren't planning on on camera right it'll be an open meeting but it would be more bringing some other people to have a discussion about communication and Beth and I just need to finish our stuff because we think that will help inform part of the context of that discussion as well but that leads us right into the next item on our new business agenda there is discussion of the select board upcoming meeting dates so we're meeting and one more time in September and I don't have the date off hand the 18th so we have a meeting on the 18th we are not meeting on October 2nd because it's the first night of one of the Jewish holidays I apologize for not knowing sh thank you we will have our regular meeting on the 16th of October and then we'd like to add a meeting to October 30th so that still gives us two in October what that means though is then we'd meet October 30th we'd meet again on November 6 for our first meeting in November we'd meet on November um Town meetings on the 19 we' meet on we'd meet before the town meeting on the 19th and probably not then have a meeting on the 20th because we'll have been at town meeting the night before and then our next meeting would be in December on the 19th are we looking at a six o'clock or six probably six o'clock to to if there so that way if there's anything we have to discuss and vote either for town meeting or other things that Michael needs us to vote couple other meetings that we are looking at of course on September 23rd we have our joint wrong month we have our joint sort of get to know you with the planning board that'll be downstairs again it's an open meeting but it's a non-televised open meeting um on September 23rd I did hear back from both school committee and finance committee to do a tri board meeting and right now November 16th is a potential date um I did hear that the chair of the school committee is now not available on that date but the rest of her committee is so we have to determine if we want to do it that date because November 16th November 16th it looks like that's a Saturday it is a Saturday okay it was going to be a Saturday morning 9:00 to 9 to 11 9 to 11 probably that that way we can decide what we want to present there Michael and I are with Britney can work on it no um I don't know even and even if it is it's not they do they do a holiday but I bet to the holiday one will be on the 23rd that's last year it was outside it'll probably be you're right you'll probably be the 23rd because the weekend before Thanksgiving so does November 16th work for people the 16th for a tri board yeah yeah yeah yeah is October November November November 16th I can make that work yeah I can do that okay so then I can let them know that the one thing I did want to ask so so we have the September 23rd meeting with the planning board uh get to know you yep thing um we're going to plan to try to have them join our next meeting for the comprehensive plan yes for the 18th so can we combine I know we are also going to have to have another meeting with them to do MBTA communities to have that discussion and a vote of what we're going to you know yeah because they're going to have to the planning board will have to hold a public hearing on the on the zoning change prior to town meeting so is there a way that like could we com could we combine could we combine MBTA and comprehensive plan at our next meeting so we have one less joint meeting that we're trying to coordinate like I don't know I'm asking the question where planning board is on MBTA zoning so well it's the four PE four person group yeah so Joe subcommittee well I the last time we spoke Trish said that a good portion of her committee U was in alignment with what we what we presenting so uh hopefully it's changed since then um I hope it hasn't right but U I just don't want it to get overbearing on on people you know to break down the discussion I'll talk to Trish and see what she's thinking I'm just worried that we're not going to get all these meetings because the other thing would be that because their meetings are the second and fourth Thursday of the month yes so I'm just trying to be sensitive to everybody's schedu because there's a lot it's highly unlikely that I'd be able to attend on the 18th just on September on the 19th I'm saying on the SE on the cyboard meeting scheduled for the 18th because I'm traveling oh okay oh okay I just wanted to I think we disced that told me that before the summer but yeah y okay okay yeah okay um what's the latest we can do joint with planning board on MBTA zoning and it should be should it be before their public hearing most likely has to be it has to be okay I figured but ad okay once it's once it's in the paper you can't make any changes because they can do the hearing even after the warrant's closed right they can do oh okay oh so we have a little time in October to to do something I was thinking yeah I was thinking like we had to have like our our plan and then have it basically the what would go in front of the the planning board for their hearing before the warrant closed you should have your med yes so no changes to the zoning article can happen um after the warrant closes and so really after usually just sort of where we are in timing usually whatever is put into the paper for the hearing unless we have enough time to have a second hearing with the posting requirements it has to we can't just change it and so once it's in the warrant and we'll be closing the town meeting warrant mid October so like at the October 16th meeting okay yeah the special town meeting requires two week two weeks two weeks is Advance okay and the 16th is four weeks that gives us some extra okay we always build that extra time yeah no no it's good to it's good to have extra time okay I will reach out to Trisha and see what she thinks if we do comp plan and MBTA zoning on the same night in September the 18th okay well well it depends what else we have to put on it yeah and I I don't have a full listing I mean there there is there's a way to accomplish all this we kind of has we would all kind of have to adjust kind of like our um um kind of the way we approach these discussions I think for okay of a better term and then when did you think you wanted to do the communications discussion let me check in with Beth and see how she's doing on some on her piece and then um yeah we we'll get back to you with the time okay good okay okay I can get the timeline too for Pete and Alo have laid out the timeline for the hearing I thought I had it I can't find it you could for that to everybody that'd be great okay and the farmers market in November is the 23rd okay perfect okay so we'll plan on the 16th for the tri board wonderful we talk about all the money we're going to spend at the market there we go uh so just a couple of reminders Stone Park Musical music festival piano competition is scheduled for September 7th with a rain date of September 14th can I add something to that real quick sure she's looking for volunteers to help out that day okay so uh to set up and clean up at the end of the uh the recital so if anybody's interested uh get a hold of Grace her names and on and all the uh all the advertising and stuff okay thank you yep thank you uh the ash hop porch Fest is also September 7th from 2 to 6 p.m.

uh different locations in ashon and hopkington and then it it finishes at The Corner Spot so all kinds of information you can find about that the eth annual Kitty Fen wall car show on 400 Main Street fundraiser for the American Cancer Society is Saturday September 14th uh start uh 9:00 a.m. to 2 fun times also always lots of good cars and their rain date is September 21st and they realize that's Ashland day and that's the next reminder Ashland day will take place on Saturday September 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. and this year they will be opening a time capsule 1963 uh the fall baa Grant round and the select board Community Grant round is now open submissions are due by September 30th and information can be found on the town's website we are also looking for I ask could I ask real quick favor before you move off of that sure could we um put on the website under news um a link to to the to the grant round and also for the the marathons stuff too cuz I couldn't I didn't see anything under news and sometimes if people have to dig a lot they find they stop looking so if we can put it like a little blurb and a link on the news that would be awesome and then uh we are looking for individuals interested in running the 2025 Boston Marathon if you are interested complete the form on the town's website and submissions for that are due by October 15th and names will then be drawn at random last reminder special town meeting on Tuesday November 19th at ashon High High School the meeting will begin promptly at 7 p.m.

put it on your calendars uh MBTA zoning will be on that town warrant because we have to make a decision then um because we have deadlines by the end of December uh make sure you are aware of what's going on there of course supplemental budget discussions and things like that uh on to consent agenda um I'd like to I'm going to make a motion to re to remove B and D so motion to accept and approve the consent agenda minus items B and D so moved second okay all those in favor say I I I we are moving B because the minutes did not get included in our packet so we'll push that out to our next meeting uh d uh we need to approve ashwani as a regular member not as an associate member we got an email from Roberta relating to that so we could we make that Amendment or it has to be advertised that way could we make an amendment tonight yes so we're gonna I'm G to I'm going to move that we appoint asheni chitnavis to the open space and Recreation committee as an as a member with a term to expire on 83126 so move I'll second that great all those in favor I okay uh and I believe that's everything on our list we now jump down to town manager report Michael you're up just before Michael I did find the timeline so um I think what the planning board had discussed at their previous meeting was that they were hoping to sort of back backtrack um from their public Hearing in October 10th is what they were hoping so their Thursday meeting before we close the warrant okay um and so that would require them to get it into the newspaper by I believe the 19th or the 20th of September so the 18th I think is sort of um where we would have to have a conversation where any changes might need to happen so once it goes into the paper it's it goes in verbatim yeah I know Peter was down there today talking so I'm sure he some of that y so September 18th September 18th if we can do comp plan I would say recommend we start with comp plan and then going to NBTA zoning I think that's going to make the best because we're going to need to have that discussion before before it gets advertised advertised it makes sense okay good Michael yeah um so just uh under priority project updates before we get into like some infrastructure things I do this is mainly for the people watching at home I I know there's been a lot of questions like what's going on with the 40b projects and the fact is is that it's still with Mass housing Mass housing still doing their review process and again before anything moves forward at the local level um Mass housing has to issue what they call a site eligibility letter and uh so they go through a review process before doing that um and so it's still in that process and it has been for the last last few months so um that's what's going on with those uh priority projects like the infrastructure things I don't have too many updates except when you know we did uh have a call yesterday Yolanda and I um with the uh 126 folks um well mot specifically and uh this was a meeting uh put together by uh Dennis GM Betty on behalf of Senate President spilka and who is in attendance as well as representative Lewis um and uh we got some very very good updates um I think I'll just start with some of the problems so moving forward what we're finding a challenge is that we this is I don't think any secret but um Verizon has to move their lines from the polls and then Comcast can get in and move their lines and so once those lines are moved to the new poles we can take those old poles that are in the middle of the roadway out and that kind of unlocks a lot more work that needs to be done but the problem is is that Verizon only has one crew um dedicated to this type of work in like specific regions and right now that crew is working on the project in NAIC which has a similar issue similar issue um so uh one complicating factor is that Verizon likes to come in and just do the whole thing at once like the whole stretch the whole Two Mile Stretch um we did find out that if Verizon was able to come in for a couple of days and move you know specific sets of lines called their service lines that would actually unlock a little bit you know we could do a little Northern construction and the state could do a little bit more work on 126 so we're going to put some pressure on Verizon to do that that's not the way they do things that's not protocol um but Dennis was very clear that um you know that would be very well received by the Senate President pressure on Verizon and is that something I was thinking as you were talking that we could encourage people in the community to well I don't know people in the community I mean go ahead the one thing that they that they said to us was Verizon isn't hasn't held up the project yet right so things aren't not things aren't not being done because of Verizon yet and there's there's a two-step process there's a there's one type of wire that they have to move and then Comcast can do something right and then there's another wire that they have to put in for the whole length that's going to be a bigger project if they delay doing that part of it then it could actually be delaying the project um I mean I don't think I don't know that we need the community to start putting pressure on Verizon yet I don't from what I could tell and well wait a second though I'm thinking I don't know who might say that they're not delaying the project but I think to the community it feels like the Project's being delayed yeah well I think so one of the frustrating things that I experienced coming out of that call is that we've been told for a while now that Verizon is delaying the project and so you know mot wanted to be very clear well they're not delay the project try to you know they're I'm sure it's one of those things where have to work with Verizon in a lot of different places so they have to yeah I know I understand but it's just to me for for some reason or another there was an expectation that it would have happened by now right and now it hasn't is it because our expectation was incorrect or because they've delayed the prodct they're not acting yeah something like I I I think it comes down to resources for Verizon and we could all well that I was going to say you know we can relate to that in some in certain certain things right resources but you know they are a private entity uh I think if you have Verizon as a service provider something tells me prices have continued to go up um the fact that they only have one crew doing this work you know I I think we can debate whether that's a prudent use of money on their part but you know the fact is these utilties and telecommunications companies they got a lock on stuff do do we have a sense from Mass do what the timing is going to look like because because I think part of it also is is maybe I'm just you know part to claudus point is like the communication hasn't been consistent from Mass doot on some of these timelines and stuff so is there you know can they can they not only you know I'm glad you guys had this meeting I'm glad it went well but like more on a consistent schedule they meet they meet with Doug Small and Beth I think weekly every week they have an update meeting and from what we got out of this meeting was if Verizon finishes the what they're working on in in NAIC if they can come here and then do their part before the end of the construction ruction season then they can start working on the Culver and the moving of the alanin trail if they can't get it done before the end of construction season and of course end of construction season depends on weather weather if they can't get it done before the end of when they can be pouring cement and things like that then it will they're they can't do anything until the spring cuz we're looking at like probably november-ish is sort of the the date what so what they said I should say I should have started at the outset so what they said is that we can expect you know now with everything that we know with the situation we can expect to be done or that project can be done in Spring late spring summer of 2025 right okay so finished finished finished yeah so what's delay in the the the cover work I can't they can't until they can move the poles they can't move the road they can't do the Culvert until they do the I mean it's all connected I mean it's the big thing is that Algonquin Trail intersection and and having to move stuff and and there's a couple different culbert related issues so we did talk about things that they could do like how about the intersection of Elliot and pond with the retaining wall and that W work there poles if you if if you look at it the poles are in the right turn lane so until those are they can't finish that turn lane oh you're right okay there is some culbert work it's a different culbert work that they can do as well as finish some sidewalks and um we encouraged them uh to do that did they do they do the covet work as well they subcontract someone they have committed to finishing and striping north of like um D doing the markings and stuff no north of Algonquin to the ashin the Framingham Town Line the parking finishing up those sidewalks that they should be able to do by the end before the before the winter including the the cross the crosswalk that's related to the Dyke trail and stuff like that yeah because the signs are already up yeah yeah and is there any work is there any part of this that our DPW is responsible for at some point well no okay that's but um you know that does bring to me to my next and final point that we or discussion item we had with them is that our DP actually went up there to do just like some maintenance like some Mowing and stuff like that and so one of the things we we let them know that we were very unhappy with is just the lack of Maintenance with what they've got and you know mentioned the roundabout and the the weeds and stuff and understand that you know final plantings aren't going to be done until it gets closer to finished that's normal but we did let them know that we expected more maintenance ongoing maintenance and they were quick to point out that that was the contractor's respons responsibility and I said well yes but it's your responsibility to make sure the contractor their contractor I didn't say this on the call but what is interesting I know some people I've been chatting with some people who live up on spy glass and apparently last summer before they put the additional soil on it it was all Clover and it looked very nice yeah it did look nice and then they put the additional soil on it that was going to be better for planting and it was so much better we got it got so yeah so um they are they have committed to giving us a um a maintenance schedule yeah in sticking to that so that was good news um plus or minus three or four months no I think I think they know we're pretty serious now you know it it and nothing against Doug and Beth you know they're great uh and they're great advocates for the project but you know when you get the town manager the select board chair representative from the Senate President office and you know your State Rep on a call it it becomes a little bit yeah you know stuff to be yeah so yes no I think this is one of those things we we we hold them to it I mean Susan Susan will tell you we've had we've been having these discussions you know in our office you know there's it's look if we we want to make something happen yes we might have to depend upon another party you know they play maybe even the predominant role in making things happen right you know it's our responsibility to make sure that they know how important it is to us and helping them get it done so and holding them accountable to it y okay that's why John moldun doesn't know doesn't want to tell you when it's going to open and I don't either but I know what we have said internally so a little smaller operation right very small yes true just a little okay we'll start we'll start small Sye to yeah yeah we start small we'll get bigger so um so yeah I think you know I I took the historical Commission on a tour the Valentine Barn today um they had not seen it so it was really good to show them they were really pleased um with it um yeah downtown we're you know bids are still open and hopefully we'll get some good bids uh for some of that site work and Jen you wanted to give an update some of the stuff you're working on uh sure so just quickly here so we are working um for Town Hall the exterior um we need to do some work to preserve um Town Hall so some exterior um repair work and then ultimately painting and so um there will be some Communications forthcoming on on start date but it will be in the next couple weeks um and it will probably be about a six to eight week um project and so there will be some disruption to sort of the flow of traffic um Town Hall will remain open we'll make sure that everybody still has access um to The Ballot Box that's outside and that can come in because it will sort of align with um the presidential election so um Doug Scott here is sort of running point and we'll work with sending Livingstone um to make sure that we um are able to make sure that everybody can vote um and park safely um and then also I just wanted to let everybody know that we were able to go out to bid for landscaping or really mowing um and some weeding uh support for our DPW so for Cemetery parks and trees we um have contracted with a company called um Yellowstone so you may see them starting this week um they'll actually be doing mowing on 10 of our properties um and most of it is really downtown so Front Street um the library Town Hall Corner Spot um down Cherry so the big grass leading over to um Stone Park and then the big grassy area by the Pavilion but not the fields um they'll yes yes it's really just mowing some some weeding um just to sort of help take the burden off of um Cemetery pars and Tre so you'll see them properties so I I have to ask the question we didn't go local we it was open yeah it was open oh okay so nobody bid well we had we had three or four I'd have to look at the tabulation sheet um but we were required to go with a low bidder that's so we went in with a low bid and who had the lowest responsible bidder and so I just you know where I'm going I know I get it but you know unfortunately I understand I understand but you know like all us to just never mind yep okay anything else Jen okay thank you thank you Michael yeah so um just a couple other things uh we had the you know the election uh on Tuesday yesterday it is yesterday yester um so many thanks to Cindy and her staff for you know putting on a very smooth operation um I'm going to wait until the official results get certified before you know we start talking about that but um you know it's a lot of hard work putting on an election and they do a great job well between early voting and absentee ballots and um yeah can you look it up real quick he told meate I talked to Chris and he said because I actually was interested in the split how many people did early voting and 15% of the people yeah voted and and um yeah I think I understood it correctly and then 7% uh to the polls in person wow he said the polls were dead yeah they were there wasn't much on the ballots I mean no there wasn't so congratulations to the winners and thanks to everybody who you know was willing to put their you know put their name in there you know it takes a lot of guts to run for office so um so there's that uh the West Union Street sidewalk project so that's begun you know got the details out there start doing things um one of the things I really uh want to thank the board for their support for and and um also our staff is the overdose awareness event we had last week so uh Kristen French uh and her team you know put it together we did it at the public safety building the planting of the flags and uh you know it's a really powerful statement when you see and it is just like the perfect location it really is for it so it was nice to have you know some of our elected officials and our staff and some community members um show up you know and I just you know I think about it you know Kristen just does an amazing job and I'm I'm just so proud of the fact that we have you know a person you know dedicated to that effort you know in a team of course around her but um you know we're you know we we didn't have that a few years ago and uh you know it was one of the first things we wanted to do when I became Town manager manager and um you know Jen really kind of helped design or really designed and shaped it so kudos to her as well and continues to oversee that department so yeah it it was just a real solemn event you know you think about missed it yeah how many people slides are still up yeah no just the event I was I had really wanted to be there but okay 27 2700 people voted about a little long yeah so not a great turnout and and um so and then one final thing I'm sure I'll think of something as you guys are going around but um you know we talked you did the reminder about the Stone Park music festival and um if you get a chance I I hope you can just swing by at least and and support Grace has been trying to put this on for two years yeah uh she's a local resident she's a teacher at Center music she has a lot of Ashlin students um she's passionate about classical music and passionate about what it can do for a community and I mean you know she's really brought together like some top notcho artist down so is she like bringing grand pianos to Stone Park oh my gosh C can you just reiterate like just time and date again for folks um this weekend this Saturday I think it's 7 is from oh I don't the dat the time isn't on here hold on hold on hold on but Stone Park music festival you couldn't find that but sorry folks it's been a long weekend 4 p.m.

yep so isn't the porch Fest happening it currently as well so it's a beautiful day for music all kinds of thank you thank you for tying it all together need to get out and appreciate thank you for tying it all together absolutely and that was really cuz when we were talking about a date and I said this could work out perfectly is Sport so gazebo Fest gazebo Fest there you go but it could be a great day of music you know I was walking downtown today and I'm just like you know what dang it this is like especially when I was walking by C Road like you know this is what we were thinking 10 years ago it was like Yep this is what the this is what all that downtown discussions and yeah and and I saw you know I see more people walking downtown and it's like that's what we wanted and so you look at the downtown project itself got to get the dang poles moved and you know Clover Road and you know you know some of the the new buildings I know there's always some you know debate about design and architecture but some of the businesses that have moved in you know and all the events all the activity that's happening you know that's just happened within the last 10 years it's like awesome so speaking of the project um any movement on the ARA piece with respect to connections like I said it's still still open still open yeah and we are really so this is just for like the site work digging the trenches and all that stuff we are really encouraging local uh local contractors to bid we think this would be a good project for for them for them yeah yeah so hopefully they um hopefully but we still have to go for a little bid though right yes right because of the proc okay yeah we just need to get bids well yeah yeah that's that's the first start let's just get some bids so yeah okay and uh that's it for at least now okay board reports Makita board reports well um just to piggyback on uh what Michael mentioned about the election I do want to thank the staff for all the work that they do to put on an election you know uh I think sometimes we take for granted what it really takes to make democracy work so thank you for the citizens for participating yesterday thank you for the candidates for participating yesterday and there were some there were some contested contests there were some contested contests late um there were some some some some offices that were contended uh so there was there there was a quite a bit going on yesterday um you know election wise but it's always good to know that democracy is Alive and Well in support reported here in the town of Ashlin congratulations to the folks who won their elections including our state representative current state representative Jack Lewis and um I think and thank you for Colton Phelps for running and all those who ran uh to preserve our Democratic process uh so I just wanted to acknowledge that I was going to say something about porchfest but we kind of covered the whole music thing I'll say it again this is going to be a great weekend get out have fun you know listen to some of the talent great weather it's gonna be awesome is it know suppos to no it's gonna be [Music] awesome beautiful weather for Saturday exactly and of course because it's going to be beautiful or even if it weren't so beautiful uh your humble select board Representatives will be at the farmers market once again uh and I will be joining our happy uh band of public servants there to listen to you and your concerns and um talk about some of the probably some of the stuff we talked about tonight so that's that's my board report good Claudia uh yeah not too much since uh last week but um you know I I was a feel like four weeks in a row wow I was able to attend the uh overdose awareness and it it was very well done and um and very powerful really um you know I know I've I've seen um you know some difficult situations uh through the years and uh it it's it's um such a it's it's so important to recognize those lives and recognize that struggle and uh and show our support and love for uh families families and and people who are are struggling with that nice thank you Joel I just everyone's uh Claudia you said it very very well I'm sorry I missed it um but uh throughout my career as a police officer I've seen my sheare and it's uh it's very uh it's very powerful and it's very uh very hurtful to everybody and even to the responding officers that have to go to those calls you know sometimes we forget about those folks you know so we we think about them as well uh one quick thing um I hope you folks got the invitation uh for Habitat for Humanity um I think it's the 16th no you didn't get one nope okay well let me I will then I will send it to you it's um September 16th uh at 10:00 10 to 10:30 and Habitat Humanity will be at 487 Main Street that's Monday the 16th Monday the 16th okay 10 to 10:30 and that's when they'll be probably putting a shovel into the ground for a affordable housing unit going in who me yeah yeah yeah but not the one that I want but yeah I'll throw that dig in anyway uh but that that's great Ash day again is coming up uh I know the classical concert and portrait is all just it's just it's a great time I'm just waiting for an ACDC concert to come up around and you know do something like that I may be old but I still love that music anyway yeah right who knew who knew right um so again aent Day is coming up we're looking forward to we have over 150 vendors wow yeah yeah and we and that's not including all the free committee vendor wow very fun good it's going to be a lot of fun and uh so it's uh it's pulling the rest of my hair out for the next two or three weeks but we're but we're working on it and it looks it looks like a lot of fun so I just hope we have the same weather that uh is looking for Saturday you know uh if we have a tropical storm every Saturday be this nice for the for September we'll be good oh yeah that would that would work for me so I saying my novas and everybody else do the same but uh again thanks thanks to uh Christine and her group for for all they do and um I want to shout out to uh Steve Mitchell and um for what they do up there the community center and I would be beside myself if I didn't wish my wife a happy anniversary before I left Happy 43rd hun you put up with my aunt it's for 43 years it's today today it's today yeah yeah she you can say that again I I don't deny it I don't I don't deny it but anyway yep love you H I'll be home soon thank you okayy to say no rush did you hear the oh man all right to follow that one okay um oh man um I know we talked about the op opioid overdose awareness uh event um so you know one of the things that that Kristen French and her team does is the decisions that every turn Coalition and the work that they do at the high school level and the partnership with our Board of Health as well and so one of the things that was interesting to me at that event was that they were Distributing Naran so um so I think I think the more that we normalize things like that um the more we talk about it the more we have resources available to our um to our community the the the less Flags we will have to plant in the near future so um so I I also just wanted to say thank you for for for um for such a for such a great event and and bringing awareness and I do agree that the public safety building is the is is the best place I know we had it at the farmers market I think in past years and I think this is this yeah the public safety building was great so um and um talking about events this Friday night is back to school night uh movie night at The Corner Spot they're showing if the movie um and again the weather's been really good so I think that they'll have a a good night this is sponsored by the ABA and um I think cti's kitchen and I want to say dorgan are having their I think they're doing food and and wine Empires doing Beverages and refreshing concessions is doing ice cream and um so I think it things kick off at like 5:30 and the movie starts at 700 so bring your kids bring a blanket bring some chairs bring bug spray um and come out and enjoy a really a really good night um and then talking about Ashlin day the um the God willing the comprehensive plan will be at ashin day I've signed up for a lots thank you I'll be there all day thank you um not in the booth come find us Lisa Churchill at Blush bouquet is giving us her pink tent for the to day so um come find us in the under the pink tent and um we're hoping um to have a a survey for residents to be able to to take to give us feedback on our our vision and goals um so we're meeting tomorrow night again knocking on wood um we're definitely meeting tomorrow well we're meeting tomorrow night okay but they get the information to get it done that's the knock on wood so yes so we are the copy heads of plan steering committee is meeting tomorrow night to finish the unfinished work of our last meeting and um hopefully have this buttoned up so we do have a survey because um the comprehensive plan will also be at the farmers market next weekend not this weekend but next weekend the 14th so the 14th at the farmers market and the 21st at Ashland day and um hopefully that all comes well it we we'll have it'll all come together so um but uh so we're meeting tomorrow night and um and again you know Saturday looks like a great day so kick it off at the farmers market with us who wouldn't want to come and talk to us at the Farmers Market on Saturday morning so food bring food buy food bu food so anyway that's all for me I'm good thank you oh okay yeah yeah okay so if you want Ashlin day corn no later than Sunday okay extra okay there you go sounds good couple things so there's been conversation going back and forth and for those of youve been sitting here for a while regarding our open space and wreck plan so um the plan was completed in like 2012 they started doing work for they have to do it every five years or thereabouts they started doing one again in 2017 they had submitted to the maybe even earlier than 2017 it got submitted to the state we had gotten comments back went back to the state we had gotten that particular round of the open space plan was never fully approved and now it's 2024 and we have to do one again sounds like the 126 so well that's moving forward so so open space and W is going to have to be doing some stuff where this is important is um we're looking at some grants for some different things that require us to have an open space in recck plan but I know it's something we've been discussing as a board what's the status so the last one never got fully finished and they're in the process of moving forward to do the next one I got that from Roberta um as well so they need to start the getting the project again and then have it reviewed and approved uh we appointed people to the historical district committee to talk about creating a downtown historic district they've been having meetings um I got updated by one of their members they were originally thinking they want to put it on the fall special town meeting I don't know that they're going to be ready for that so just so you're aware if anyone talks to you about it um I'm going to look to try to get for more information probably not for our next meeting because we're going to put it full but maybe in our meeting one of our meetings in October we'll try to get an update from them on where things are tomorrow I um I sit on the MMA policy for municipal and Regional ad Administration policy committee we I'm actually the chair this year and we have our first meeting of this year tomorrow we're going to get an update on the different things that the legislature did finish during their session but we're also hearing that they're still working which they don't usually do they're there's just something recently that they reviewed and passed at the yeah so they're still working which we don't usually see in a this type of election cycle but they're still working which is nice to see it's the one I'm the one I have it's a zoom meeting yeah yeah for for members on the committee and what's it's a nice mix of members of Select board uh Mayors City councilors and then um a few other appointees so so that's tomorrow yeah go see go listen to some music this weekend and I think that's all I got until the 18th so second all those in favor I that adjourns this meeting for the select board Ashlin select board September 4th it's just after N9 o'clock I expect our next one will go a little bit longer um but thank you if you've hung in there thanks for watching and remember one will be at the farmers market but we are always accessible via email phone call you know find us talk to us give us your input give us your feedback did you just say knock on a door knock on our door okay Joe says knock on our door [Laughter] so thanks for watching have a great rest of your week and we'll see you on the 18th enjoy the upcoming weekend e

[Music] hello acit students welcome back and we hope you had a fun and relaxing summer break for those of you who don't know me I'm Mr Pake the principal of acit and sitting beside me are my assistant principles Mr vanan assistant principal 12th grade Miss hardmeyer assistant principal for grade 11 Mrs Brinkley Ward assistant principal for grade 10 Mrs Meer assistant principal for nth grade acit has had a great reputation of not only having an excellent and committed teaching staff but a student body that follows the rules and requirements of the district and as acit continues to grow as a school it is important that every student fully understands what those expectations are to ensure a smooth and safe learning environment exists for everyone with that being said we created this short presentation that reviews key information please make sure you pay attention and if you have any questions or concerns feel free to reach out to one of us thanks again and enjoy the video Welcome acit classes of 2025 26 27 and 28 we hope you had a relaxing and restful summer this video presentation contains an overview of important information about schedules IDs smart pass dress code security cell phones bullying and more please review the student handbook available on our website for more information on each topic or reach out to your vice principal with any questions concerns or clarifications please look at the maps for the entrance points for the main building and South wi once you enter the building please make sure you scan in if you arrive to school after 7:40 go directly to breakfast or class if you go to breakfast you will receive a breakfast pass in the cafeteria the picture is on the screen remember teachers are not permitted to let you leave class to get breakfast so don't ask them get breakfast before you go to class on the screen is our bell schedule for a full and half day students please remember that you must be in your home room by 7:45 or you will be marked late every six lates will equal one detention this also goes in between classes you have 6 minutes to get in between class which is plenty of time if you are late to class more than six times you'll be written up and receive an after school detention students must wear their IDs at all times these IDs will be used to scan in and out of class and also use for our new smart pass system students please do not remove stickers from the back or cover your picture if you lose your ID a new one will be printed and your account will be charged a dollar also a friendly reminder students should not have anyone else's ID on you must wear your ID and only your ID at all times acit has the best security team around Officer Terry toy is our head of security you will see her all over acit so make sure you say hello officer Richardson is our school resource officer we also have two class three officers Officer Francisco in the main building and officer Garing in South wi we all have a responsibility with keeping our school safe so our motto is if you see something say something students please do not prop any doors open or let anyone in a side door follow all procedures and protocols during emergency drills acit has over 220 cameras around the building and are constantly trying to improve our school safety this year we're using a new digital pass system called smart pass you will find it on kiosks in every classroom and it is what you'll use to generate passes when you need to leave class after getting permission from your teacher you can create passes for the restroom water fountain nurse guidance counselor printers main office or assistant principal's offices in the main building only the media center printer will be used this year please do not use any other printer if the media center is closed then an alternate printer will be posted on Smart pass you will get three passes per day for the restroom or water fountain unless told otherwise you're provided 8 minutes to use the restroom and return to class during lunch you can use the restroom by signing in with the hall Duty teacher or security at the cafeteria restroom this will not count against your three daily restroom or water fountain passes remember if you need to visit the guidance counselor assistant principal or main office you must schedule a pass and get approval before heading there these staff members may be busy so if you show up without an approved pass they might not be available always make sure your pass is approved first before going to see them to create a pass just tap the green smart pass button on the kiosk when the create pass screen pops up scan your ID after that you'll see a list of the closest available restrooms or water fountains below that there's a menu for other rooms like the nurse's office or printer select where you're going then start your pass if the restroom or another room is full you'll be placed on a virtual wait list until it is available when you get back to class make sure to scan back into end your pass this is very important because others might be waiting to use the restroom and you don't want your pass to show as over its time to prevent hallway meetups en counter preventions will be in place these could lead to potential issues or problems in the hallways or restrooms so be sure to head back to class as soon as possible to prevent yourself from being added to this list please be reminded teachers can call security if you are out for too long restrooms will be open during the change of classes at the start of the school year since you only have six minutes between classes please use your time wisely if you think you will be late to class report to class first then ask your teacher if you may use the restroom gender neutral single stall restrooms are located outside the cafeteria next to the nurse's office upstairs in the 1400 hallway as well as an EOD in South wi all single stall restrooms are one person only if there are any accommodations needed for the resturant or even lockers please reach out to your guidance counselor emailing them would be best while we understand there are various articles of clothing which may be in fashion all are not school appropriate please adhere to the given dress code no ripped jeans with inappropriate or revealing rips a good indic Ator would be if the rip is on or above your thigh it's too high see through apparel or extremely short skirts or shorts are not permitted to be worn in school revealing tank tops tube tops bralets sports bras or any attire that reveals a student's mid drift are not permitted to be worn in school there are two examples on on the left of shirts that are not permitted the two shirts labeled no and nope are not acceptable school apparel the two shirts on the right labeled fine and good choice are good but the good choice shirt is best please be advised that students that do not follow the dress code policies will be subject to disciplinary action and will be asked to call their parents to bring in clothes from home each career program area has its specific guidelines for dress that the instructor will enforce these guidelines adhere to the customs and practices of that specific occupation as well as the safety rules of this school you may check the student handbook but please be aware of the following no sunglasses no hats skull caps or headbands sweatshirt hoods should not be worn up no image or language that promotes any form of substance abuse or illegal substance is permitted articles of clothing with profane statements or inappropriate language are also not permitted slides are okay but slippers definitely are not no blankets they should remain at home again this is all outlined in the student handbook acits phone policy students cellular phones may be used for texting and calls after leaving classrooms and instructional spaces cell phone use is not permitted in any instructional area unless permission has been granted by a teacher for instructional purposes only cell phone usage is prohibited in guidance main or AP offices and in the media center students may use electronic devices to listen to music as long as the music is not audible to others during lunch periods in the cafeteria and in the hallways as long as there's no disturbance caused by this personal listening infractions of any of the previously mentioned uses shall result in discipline which can be given by the teacher assistant principal or principal and while AIT allows The Limited use of electronic devices during the school day it is not the responsibility of the district school staff or Administration to replace or recover lost stolen or damaged electronic devices if a device is lost or stolen the student is to notify school security to complete an incident report the districts its Administration and staff are also not responsible for investigating cases of lost stolen or damaged electronic devices in an attempt to recover or replace them choosing to bring an electronic device to school is your responsibility we strongly recommend using aot lock ER whenever storing your electronic device on campus cell phones cannot be used as cameras audio or video recorders at any time if you post inappropriate videos images captions that Create A disruption whether it's on campus or off- campus there will be disciplinary consequences and potentially legal issues this is your warning New Jersey's anti bullying Bill of Rights Act definition for bullying is included on this slide but in short bullying is unwanted aggressive behavior that may involve a real or perceived power imbalance there are many types of bullying including physical verbal social electronic or cyber bullying the impact on victims is devastating and can impact their High School experience and even life after AIT as students you have a unique power to prevent bullying more than half of bullying situations stop when a peer intervenes on behalf of the student being bullied if you see it happening report it to teachers counselors APS or use our school website so it can be dressed immediately one of the most prevalent types of bullying in high schools is cyber bullying cyber bullying is bullying that happens using electronic devices like computers smartphones and tablets it can be text mess messages social media posts apps online forums and involves posting or sending harmful content including messages and photos and sharing personal information that causes humiliation as many of you know the most inappropriate content is shared anonymously so one of the most important things you can do is to report the harassing content directly to the platform this slide contains helpful resources and ways to report bullying on Instagram Snapchat and Tik Tock reporting is the fastest and most effective way to stop the spread of harmful content this slide contains information on ait's guidance procedures the best way to reach your counselors is through email when needed or By Request counselors will set up meetings and provide notification through email Andor smart pass in the South wi ninth grade counselors are Mrs Mason Mr Mooney and M ight and they will be working with all ninth graders as they acclimate to life at AIT on the main campus upper classman counselors are organized by CTE program these counselors are Mr Ying Miss Dennis Mrs Garrick Miss Diaz and Miss Keane Miss Epley will be working with Miss kean's students while she's out on leave Miss Bell is our school social worker and Student Assistance coordinator if your family is in need of a Spanish-speaking translator for guidance or any other area or issue please have them contact Miss Taylor ait's bilingual Administrative Assistant her extension is 1221 and don't forget Miss beton Court in the College and Career Readiness Center in the main campus cafeteria as you begin to plan for your future after AIT tutoring the tutoring calendar can be found on the student portal or on the website tutoring is available Monday through Thursday from 300 p.m.

7 o' we'll call the meeting to order and we'll start with the pledge iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all welcome Molly to the bo [Laughter] and um absolutely and um welcome those who are live streaming the board meeting again um just a reminder that we are live streaming um so we welcome all of those individuals who are joining um so we'll start with a motion to accept consent agenda items motion motion by Earl do I have a second second by Travis any discussion all those in favor 70 next we'll ask if anyone is present who would like to speak to any item that's on the agenda or any other topic I'm good hearing nothing um we'll move on to some old business um it looks like we're going down to property CTE project we are on the home stretch it is uh we're probably 95% there you can see in your pack at the update the kitchen is looking really great with everything in position the advanced man area is done health science is done and we've got just a few things left in the culinary area so that's um just an update um just would ask that the board members and anyone who's streaming or Molly um just kind of keep an eye open um for on social media we will be having um some open houses some some opportunities for community members to come in and look at the area I've been there seen some of the um medical simulation lab area and it is it is beautiful so super excited about that and want to share that with community members so be be looking for that so next under new business we have some new neol AP polies yes so first reading for two new Neola policies they're actually combining several new Neola policies and streamlining them into one so there's two of those if that is the case so reach out please if you have any questions um substantial changes with any of those okay um so again that's a first reading so we'll vote on those um for the next reading and again the chat to nikk if you have questions um next we'll go down to um looks like we're down under support staff no actually on professional staff number four stem cont oh so sorry professional staff so stem contact thank you if I could ask for approval please for the stem contact for the 24 25 school year for cpia elementary to be by Davis so motion by Travis do have a second second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor seven of so no other recommendations under professional staff so now we'll move down to support St and Y first thing I've got is the bus a pay scale um we want to put an Adder we we're asking to put an Adder on there for the bus Aid that is driving the students to the de and blind school because the add of responsibility within that so um this is a um again bus Aid pay scale revision so this needs an approval so we'll entertain a motion so good motion by marn do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor seven now we have some recommendations yeah asking for approval for the following recommendations please rob cokl as a juning County Middle School seventh grade head girls basketball coach Kevin gray as the Middle School eighth grade girls assistant basketball coach Kendra Irwin as a St Creek Elementary sped Paro and Levi Ross as the middle school 8ighth grade girls head basketball coach entertain a motion to approve those recommendations as read Mo I have a motion by Travis Pat second okay motion by P second by tra any discussion all those in favor 7 um so next we'll move down under finances we have some donations yes I'm asking the board for approval of the following donations nvic ter to Hayden for the fourth grade class Lemonade Stand project Gator mold $1,125 The Hope food program Joy of giving Inc $4,500 to the Hope food program Chuck Cathy y $20 to the social high school social studies Department in memory of Jim her Jim har sorry uh Rosemary Edens $50 to the same social studies Department in memory of Jim Hart powerlift Tri-State hydraulic doors $500 to the high school PBIS program powerlift Tri-State doors $1,000 to the high school Hurley Hooligans Shay dance $250 to the Hurley Hooligans the high school and the following are gift card winners from the north ver kuas $50 each for Jennifer George Courtney CHR Johns Brooke muser Julie green Sarah Waton Wendy sh Karen Jackson and Trish SP we'll entertain a motion to approve those donations as R so motion by Cheryl we have a second second by Mary ly any discussion all those in seven now we have a budget presentation yes I've got the first one is the third presentation of the regular budget and we're going to start on slide four just going to basically go over the changes we had a small reduction in the debt uh service area so it is now it was 49 uh 01 now it's going to be 4.81 six million so you'll see see that on slide four you're also going to see that number affected on slide 11 which basically is the what you consider the detail version of it and then you're going to see it again on slide 18 nope sorry wrong on that slide 17 you'll see this was adjusted your previous one showed a 5198 so that came down to0 5108 on the advertised area and then lastly on slide 19 where you see the actual advertisement that will be posted tomorrow online you see that number reduced to the 4816 621 and that is the only updates for the budget so that is an inform is the third um reading of that so next we'll move down to the capital project Capital project the only thing to look at on that is slide number three and there's no changes in it but I just wanted to throw it up here a second time in case there's any questions or concerns about it no changes in that slide though so again this is an inform the second um presentation for the capital project plan so next we'll move down to the um jcsc bus replacement plan and slide three on that one again no change but just so you know this is what will be posted uh in the same area in Gateway that you post the other two all three of these will be in the same place you no longer have to do this for the paper the states decided to put it all in one spot on Gateway and then people will have to go there and find it again that is in next we have permission to advertise yes I'm asking permission to advertise the public hearing for the 2024 General obligation bond that we've been talking about I talked about the previous three budget two budget presentations for the long-term maintenance and um there's going to be a security side to that also and this is just to be able to advertise that that hearing will be on October 3D that I wanted to get try to get ahead of that just to get the permission to advertise okay so um this needs approval um for permission to advertise for the 2024 General obligation Bond have a motion by Travis do have a second second by pad any discussion all those in favor s so next we'll go down under operations commission to lease buses yes this is the the buses that were approved on the February 25th meeting that when we when we chose to uh and this again to keep this is right in line with the bus replacement policy but we put a PO in for these the buses are finally being delivered uh very soon so this is the financing for that very consistent with what we did with the last two bus purchases we've made and it's going to be through dler Chrysler or Mercedes-Benz financing sorry um so again this is um he's requesting permission to lease four buses um yeah to inter leas inter leas to finance the four Buss motion by Earl do I have a second second Chelsea any discussion all those in favor 70 I think we're down we're down under other we are I have one other this evening okay um asking for approval for a pay raise for classified staff of 50 cents an hour to all base pay for the 2425 school year to be uh effective that would begin being payable on the September 30th paychecks so asking for approval for those races motion have a motion by Earl do I have a second second second by Travis any discussion all those in favor seven hearing nothing else we'll entertain a motion to adjourn have a motion by Pat I second second by Chelsea all those in favor 70 meeting adjourned

thank you welcome socer everyone Jeff here starting off4 2024 season to a good match up tonight between two perennial pow here in Western Massachusetts the East Lal Spartans and the minog Falcons we got a beautiful night Sun's on its way down lights on the way up and I know that we're excited to get things going here for the home open Jeff can't wait new coach this year nicely got rid of the other guys that's a good and uh we do had win days sure did there was a a good win against cross rival four goals on the board which is one of the problems SC this team had last year was boring so hopes are high and we look forward to uh a good night of soccer to share with all of you uh at home this week girls taking the field right now mins getting ready to break the Huddle ready to take the field as well sisters certainly thank them for all that they they brought to the program and hope the carry forward with like you said some familiar faces and some new additions and new faces as well look like we're just about ready to get things started Min will have the ball for first kick now referee checks with both goalkeepers and we're underway all goes back to Super Seven selections zah Ray dealing on the back [Applause] works the sideline well defended by white spe and pass Pretty [Applause] the in possession in the offensive third ball go the outside up cleared by and a big controls the Midfield looks to bring the ball forward I believe that was anony Holden with distribution Spartans in business with three Whitner over Midfield and Jill Stevens ball forward Spartan's backline or sorry Spartan's pressure the minog backline well maintained possession there with some room to operate all played in one out of the air by minog another ball up in the air this point minog controls and the balles into attacking third good step by the always surefooted Jill Stevens there nicely shielded by S with a great ball to abua but she's all by herself R re with deflection [Music] and keeper comes all the way out to keep that ball going out of bounds maintain minute possession don't sounds like a good formula right there points for [Music] victory I put up a I think I'm gonna get like two or three part time nice one the hardest players terrific motor conations awesome soua with a distribution in the Box collected by Ray clears it out looking H not College college some yeah I got somebody from s [Music] yeah controls look for midfield for the long ball played Mi Roman distributed back out kind of wh looks to push Corner get numbers with her there you go well done spe looks for a nice ball to the middle to Addie Jordan slided through to McKenna there wide well played by both and Ray on was a good B the well play past plays a short ball to the back and they look to build out intercepted by white and Ray will shield that ball back to always nice nice P out [Music] trouble by two outside [Applause] re on not goes in one by Stevens a lot of room for Whitmer to operate if she gets the ball in turns signals to to go she'll send her through oh right idea not quite through well defended Roman fights in Midfield wins the ball out to mne some room to operate slots the ball through just misses the connection with white wh with fight forward again controlled by the Falcons well contained by mne and it goes back to Ray goes all the way back to pastri actually as MOG looks to regroup with a long ball out of the back from the keeper Stevens with a good play played it off the minog opponent and that'll be you slow meds we do it again further down the field white runs through the ball hard I like the aggressiv we're going to win lot of those that's how we ended up winning the game the other day daddy Jordan running through the ball and making things happen like like to see it yeah anytime they're aggress AG Shadow wins a very good ball going back with a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge lucky the ball through C chance to regroup reset goes to an [Music] r a long ball all the way through probably a little too heavy on that touch suie gives Chase and mcki goes to close out we know [Music] [Applause] substitutions We Gots like [Applause] jordano good good team effort there Ari Golding had her firster game the other day went out the first time scor first first goal F that's a great way to start hopefully freshman Kylie Marino Harbinger hopefully of good things to come for those two Goldman gives Chase Butler as well K Maro contains well done turns it around go Zoe penck there and all the way back to zah Ray whitward gets Chase as it goes out to asley Holden one by Grace Moore like a low hit indeed it was set for set for East Long Meadow kick from just about how just shy of Midfield Steven surveys the territory and Sur a nice ball Butler gets Chase and goes through to win the ball numbers up there good cross one by that's the kind of pressure and aggressiv that you're talking about Je that pressure there with he going through it one that ball turned it over forance keep get one through eventually hopefully their Defenders are pretty solid back there lot of them I think returners from last year obviously ball to the middle controlled by minut coming out of the [Music] back play by Bella white white had a nice Go game about 30 yard out and a nice pass from put the little ball on the ground

of Education M jensi roll call please pres here here here thank you please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance Al flaged States thank you um before we move on I'd like to request if members could make a motion to amend the agenda Dr herrian yes I'd be happy to um I move to amend the agenda to add executive session after new business so it would be a new item number six on the agenda to discuss teacher contract negotiations and it would include correct me if I'm wrong Mr Mariana Miss Solano and Dr Solen can I get a second on that Mr Aki all in favor of amending the agenda unanimous thank you oh Mr R um if there are any audience members that would like to go to the podium and speak please do so just gonna it's the new school year so I'm practicing wait time so yeah seeing nobody up at the podium we're going to move on and I will forward this item to Dr Solen for opening of school report thank you madam chair uh ladies and gentlemen we have our traditional opening of schools presentation for you if you'd like to um move down to the front row we'll get things set settled e first of all you know before I I kick things off and hand it off to to these guys to add um some flavor about what we did around operations and curriculum I just want to take a moment to thank our administrators who are in attendance this evening uh there's a lot of work that goes into and you'll see some of the fruits of that work uh through the presentation but there's a lot of work that goes into preparing for New Year uh with new initiatives and welcoming new students and hiring staff so I just want to take a moment to acknowledge you guys here thank you very much for everything you do so without further Ado I'll introduce our chief operating officer Mr Vincent massiano thank you Dr Solen good evening ladies and gentlemen I am going to give you a brief review of school district District Operations for this summer and I'm going to start with the new schools which I know everyone in this room is aware that we're building two new schools there was a$ 166 million referendum that was passed in 2022 and we've been working in Earnest on that project I'm just going to skip down to the bottom section of the slide the um the most important thing is the schools are still on track to open in August of 2026 we've completed schematic design we are in the process of finalizing the detailed design and we'll be actually meeting with the board in a couple of weeks to get approval for the final design before we can go to bid um you could see there construction is scheduled to begin in December of 2024 that's the official groundbreaking real hardcore construction but you know what I wanted to update everyone on tonight is that we actually did start some preconstruction this summer I'll talk about that in the next couple of slides slides so this is just a uh view of the new North End uh School's final design and there's more information available on the website um at the chur Public Schools just look for school modernization so in July we did do some initial work at the new North End you'll see that that grassy area um was really the start of the work and by the time August came all the grass was gone and then moving around tons of the um tons of the top portion of the site which is very graded you know from high to low they've done quite a bit of Earth workor already if you drive by the site at Maran and Jarvis you can see roughly where the school building will be it's the flatter area um I know that Mr grippo drove by the site and he thought it looked like kind of a small setting for a building but it's going to be a pretty large building and you you could see it much more clearly clearly uh today than you did even a couple of weeks ago at the Norton School site this is a just a rendering of the final design and at Norton we also did preconstruction you know this was in July when they started the work um and this is that same scene this is the backside of Norton school and they had to cut the roadway that went uh around the back of the building where there's some parking that had to cut that roadway closer to the building because when construction begins in December where the existing roadway was will be part of the school construction site and it will be fenced off we also removed some playground equipment uh but we were able to leave the swing set uh in the back of the school and then at the front of Norton uh this is a a view and if you're familiar with Norton the playground used to end where those two large trees are on the left side of the screen and you'll see there's a lighter colored area that's all mulched now so we expanded the size of the playground in the front of the school which will be needed when construction begins in December because we lose all that playground area in the back space um and we do intend to add some additional um play areas for the students to replace what is coming off the back so that that is in process and that's concludes the new school so now I'm back to the things that we did on the old schools I gave you an easy question this year and the question is what's wrong with what you see here so that pipe in addition to the grass needing cutting and by the way that's mostly crab grass because we can't use chemicals on our Lawns but the the pipe on the left side that was part of an underground drainage system at the front of chesher high school um we noticed actually was reported by John parisina our athletic director he noticed a small hole in the driveway right outside the front door and when he looked down the hole it looked like it went down pretty deep and so what was happening is the result of the whole investigation was the drainage system that was installed you know 20 plus years ago had some issues this this damaged pipe might have been that way for the last 20 years so water wasn't draining properly and it washed out the fill beneath the driveway fortunately it was caught and there was no caveen of the driveway but that was part of the work that had to get done this summer so I have just a few pictures here for you this um opening this is the front of chesher high school this opening is where that drainage pipe that was bad had to be replaced um this is the equipment that was used you know to do some of the site work this crane actually has nothing to do with this project this crane was used because we were placing the roof on the backside where the main office is of chesher high school um just a couple of you know points here U Not Unusual we had 10 weeks to get ready for the new school year graduation was June 12 and we were ready by convocation date on August 26th all our buildings opened um we finished the replacement of the fire alarm at DOD that happened over the course of last year so that's installed and it's working and it's been approved by the fire department and um you know that's that was a long-term project we're going to be probably starting on du Little's project next to replace their fire alarm system this is the new Refrigeration uh you know both refrigeration and um uh let's see that is cooler and that is the um freezer at Chester high school that was replaced by the loaning dock this is the new condensing boiler that went into Dot and I'm very excited about this particular project this is a shot of the newly renovated West gy lockers this was one of the projects that we were deficient from an ADA compliance point of view um this project has been in the works for a long time and this is the last project that needed to be done to complete the um ADA compliance at cheser high school so the significance of that is is that we'll get will get out of the compliance monitoring stage at cheser high school once this is finished and and those will be open in the next week or two um they look the picture doesn't do it justice really because it's much much nicer uh and a lot better than it's ever been right Mary yes and John okay uh last thing that I wanted to update you on is uh this is a slide from last year at Highland Elementary School um where we had a make room everywhere including you know a closet area that was converted so that some of us staff could continue to work and this is actually in the hallway where we have some of our learning support and other staff so this was last summer um Highlands enrollment is at 913 students right Scott got um we were at about 850 you know as we entered last year so that enrollment has definitely gone up you know the board has been working on a project um to add modu class rooms we did break ground at Highland about a week ago so that uh project is in the works we will be adding two modu classrooms if you're familiar with the backa Highland this is the two portables that are there are to the left of this this is that gazebo area and the two new Portables will added will be added right along that back side and attached to this particular structure so it'll be very nice when it's done we're expecting that the uh work will be completed somewhere around Thanksgiving so we'll be occupying that for the second half of the school year uh there is you know uh all the classrooms are up and running and Scott had a very good contingency plan knowing that these weren't going to be online you know we will need these certainly for the second half of this year and next year as a moment is expected to continue to grow which is part of tonight's presentation and this is a fire that um had to be moved as part of this process so that's why it's in the picture that was on the far corner and with that I am going to um wrap up with just a couple of key points from each of the departments in School District Operations on the um Human Resources side we did Welcome 46 new employees this summer um about 30 of those were were teachers we had 25 transfers between buildings uh we are continuing with our health and wellness program Pinewood Derby uh which will be our fifth annual we're going to try and unseat Marlene's three consecutive wins sorry four and we're going to start bowling again on September 16th so we've got enough teams to to roll on without chesher Public Schools bowling league uh Transportation our buses have been running uh we did have to add one addition type one route because of the number of students and this was particularly at uh Norton and ditt the uh buses are Fuller than they've been you know since the pandemic so we are um definitely starting to see some of the impact of increased enrollment at the elementaries rolling through and into our transportation routes uh technology we did add a new we replaced an older workorder system with the new up and running working fine uh we did give out the new seventh grade Chromebooks just this past week those will stay with the students till they graduate 12th grade uh food and nutrition I just wanted to mention that last year uh all students receive free breakfast that program is no longer available what the state did do this year is anybody that is eligible for reduced lunch gets their lunch free so that um you know is is an important change you know we also were looking at the numbers our total free and reduced population is um up to about 17% right now and that's up from where we were at around 15% over the last couple of years so that seems to be climbing just a bit uh and I believe I might have mentioned this to the board but we were composting at Chapman last year as a pilot uh and we will be adding now will be composting there starting probably in October so that'll be two schools where we'll be composting the student um what's what's left of their meals um you know budget's approved up and running we're already starting I work for the 25 26 budget as I said all our buildings open on time all our major and minor minor projects are done with the exception of opening up that West gym uh Locker are high school and I just want to you know thank the School District Operations team they always you know do a good job you know for us not only over the summer but over the school year and with that I will turn it over to miss salano thank you I'm toming you I know you the harmony that exists inside so this is just an opportunity for us to share what this amazing team does over the summer so so many times you run into people who say oh do do the principles work over the summer as administrators do you have the summer off and the answer is no it's a really nice Pace during the summer but there's a lot that happens so I'm going to just highlight four of the things that have happened this summer and we'll start with the curriculum writing Institute this is um a picture obviously of the entire crew who was there this summer at Highland all of our teachers and Kevin and I um we usually work with a a consultant um that person was unavailable this summer so I was really grateful to the administrators and to Kevin for all the work that was done to rewrite so much of so much of our curriculum this summer and these are just this is just a highlight of some of the units that were written this summer and and the way that this worked was we had checkpoints during and throughout the week so they would check in with an administrator as a thought partner to continue their their process so you can see we had some units written on governance and human rights on the origins of US democracy and national identity our math department came together and really reworked their six through 12 scope and sequence they began looking at a new textbook for our algebra class World Language work worked on a unit for language and grammar I'm sorry world literature the earth science depart um earth science class looked at tectonics so it really was a very large or very uh certainly a diverse group of units that was written so the process now is that teams of us are led by Kevin and I are reviewing and providing feedback to those teachers that started over the summer but it's a lengthy process and they will make adjustments to those units um as they go the other part that is whoops um this is a picture of some of our our high school Folks at a table working and other other piece of the curriculum writing institutes that's really helpful is the training that we Infuse into that week so we had a woman named Elba yanton Cruz come and work with our staff on um sorry um culturally responsive curriculum and she spent one day or one morning with us working on this she's a consultant who we've worked with from Aces and the surveys that we did at the end people took a lot away from from that experience and having that in the beginning of the week helped them keep that at the Forefront as they wrote curriculum during the week we did have folks on hand for the Next Generation science standards as they did storyl lining to enrich our science lessons and of course all of our curriculum is written in in sort of a backwards design model and we continue to infuse all of those curriculum units with the model 2 instruction and strategies from building thinking classrooms book that we're in a two almost threee series of reading a pictures some of some of our other that's our preschool team with Kim desert up at the top they were working on our transition kindergarten program and that's the entire team the next thing that most of you already know about was educator evaluation and I put this slide up here just to highlight the folks who did some work on that as well that was our committee we submitted that to the state over the summer and then spent time both with our district instructional leaders and with our administrative team really delving into what does that evaluation system look like and what does that mean and how will we carry out the details of that as we go into this year so summertime was also spent focused on teacher avow the other piece that I think is is really a large part of what happens in the summer is that all the administrators in this building along with volunteer teachers because this is typically done by committee hired all of the for all of these positions so for every one of those positions there's a screening committee there's a first round of interviews and almost in every case there's a demonstration lesson which means you're pulling kids together over the the summer to make sure that teachers are giving a demonstration lesson at usually at summer school um and then of course their top candidate goes and meets with Jeff Solen as our superintendent for the final interview and when he's not available I am able to meet with them so I'm trying to impress upon you that this is a lengthy process we don't take this lightly and that this everyone who sits on those committees also needs to have gone through some training in equity according to New State mandates to make sure that we are inclusive of of all people in our process so once these teachers are hired then we get to new teacher orientation which also takes a village so um Jeff and Vinnie and I do a welcome tour of the community we show folks where all of the schools are and talk to them and really try to make sure they understand the community of chesher when they come here we go over the Strategic initiative so that everyone who's coming in understands what our Focus areas are but also how we do business so they need to understand our responsive responsive classroom philosophy um Erica bordino and Kristen lopo have worked for the last two years with every one of our new elementary teachers really orienting them to that philosophy before they start in school and um in addition to that there's technology support sessions for every one of our new teachers and Scott Conway has run those this year making sure people know how to access everything that we have available that they know how to um put in a ticket for a technology issue or for a broken window let's say so we we try to make sure we're covering a large area Robin KY comes and speaks to all of our new teachers about special education services and all of the programs that are available to us Kevin talks to our teams about curriculum and our curriculum library and where they can find that and who are the people to go to if they need help and accessing anything um even our cea comes and welcomes our new staff then they go to a building orientation where they meet with the administrator they get a tour and they hear really specifically about building things um they end that their three days with some time in the classroom and then as this month kicks off they will all be assigned a mentor so whether they are a brand new teacher to the district or if they are a a veteran teacher coming from somewhere else everyone gets assigned a mentor for the year so we've we survey Folks at the end of every year to find out how we can improve on our process and we have a team Coordinating Committee that looks at this new teacher orientation and makes changes to it as necessary so that kind of gives um quite the overview of our new staff but I also want wanted to highlight transition kindergarten and I kind of feel a little silly putting this up here but this was something that happened over the summer because I didn't get a picture of our transition K classes but we know that they are um bursting and we know that families who are there are very grateful for the approval of that program and we've heard from our kindergarten teachers what a difference just in the few first few days the kindergarten seems the kindergarten classes seem to be the year because of course they're all older than any other class we've had so I would say we've had um a busy but successful summer so thank you thank you marleene um just to put a a punctuation mark on Marlene's point about the cultur culturally responsive pedagogy and how valuable that is uh just today we had our data around the students in our school system who speak a language other than English at home and we have the largest number that we've ever had 551 students roughly 13% of our chure public school students speak a language other than English at home so um that's a a population that's growing pretty significantly you want to throw something in there I do I want to throw one not ourn when we HED I think while number and there really two reasons why people Public Schools either number one they're retiring or number two which many of these folks can attest you get a call in the middle of the summer that dad is going to take a job in their children's school or the school that's right down the street so that's really where we except I justed toow in there that colorful slide look like a lot the the retirees and the folks who have young families and travel quite a distance to be here uh one person said to us uh that just resigned uh last month that um I walk my child to school now that's where I work so you know we don't have a lot of folks that leave retention isn't an issue in the chesher public schools but um we had a lot of retirements and added also new positions this year which made the hiring season a little busier than typical uh so now on for our school opening um if there's a question that I get asked if there's a question I'm ask P more than anything else over the 10 weeks that is the summer it's you know what's what are you guys doing this year what what are you doing at one point uh as you could see there I was growing in a beard for my role at convocation Kelly gillow was convinced I was Walter White from Breaking Bad like there are all sorts of hypotheses out there about what's going to happen and so we love to have fun with it you know school should be fun uh it should be fun for our kids it should be fun for our staff and we we want to create that environment where our people look forward to coming back I know a lot of teachers across the state uh maybe Across America that that first day back to school is kind of drudgery and um we work really hard and that's a a collaborative effort from Vin marleene Mike salamini Carol a lot of people pitching in to make it this return to school positive and a fun place to be and I think we hit the mark again this year uh I would still pay good money to see Marlene break dance on the stage at Treasure high but maybe we'll get that at Christmas or something special uh I keep holding out hope but what we did do this year was Guys Grocery Games um aside from the astonished looks uh from the Shoppers at shopright in Wallingford thank you to Don drust for uh hosting us there uh we had a lot of fun as I was Guy FTI and uh we we had our celebrity chefs everybody from the maybe the best known Martha Stewart to uh Chef Boyard D and Swedish Chef from the Muppets um what you'll see here in the picture if you look closely that is one of our special guest judges um and we had Erica bietti who's incredibly well credentialed to judge uh how our people made school lunches uh we had some guy that worked the Zepp Festival uh or the the sanaro festival like helping prep Zepp in 1973 uh in Brooklyn who should shall not be named and then we had uh vron Rondo kind of stole the show he was really uh gracious with his time and uh and working with our our chefs um convocation like I said we kick things off we welcome people back uh what really isn't identified in in these slides is that you know we've spent a lot of time over the last year talking about how do we ju up what we do in the classroom how you uh spent time last year working on making thinking visible and we have recipes uh that we work collaboratively on as teaching teams and how do we how did they work you know do we need a little bit more SP here a little bit more meat hit there you know what what do we really need to make sure kids engage in complex thinking and and deep learning so a lot of my remarks that day were about you know the theme of Jing it up but also spent a lot of time talking to our faculty about uh social emotional skills and how important social emotional uh learning is woven into what we do every day and and something like building thinking classrooms is really a great intersection for that but if you haven't seen uh the Youtube video yet you can go to our treasure Public Schools YouTube and see not only the complete Guys Grocery Games but the comments around social emotional learning and uh you know how we Infuse that into our complex thinking I also am excited to share that each of our board members has their own Jed up apron uh chesher Public School Jed up apron so sure I know Tony was keen on a new apron so yeah but uh so that VIN will model after the meeting yes absolutely he loves to do that um we were also thrilled to introduce do little schools Christine diorio is our treasure Public Schools teacher of the year uh she there's been a lot of attention around the emotional challenges uh in the with the work uh for teachers and kind of where Connecticut's teachers are and she gave a a great message about um how to find balance as a teacher uh that's also on our YouTube page we were thrilled to introduce Elizabeth Crawford from chesher high school as our par educator of the year she she's got an incredible backstory uh having traveled and lived around many places in America she's from Arkansas and uh it does a tremendous job supporting our students at chesher high school as well as our staff and families so our school by school reports I just want to run through enrollment I know there's been a lot of conjecture and and interest and where are we with our school enrollment you'll see the numbers in italics are projected enrollment uh as of last year and then the Bold is our actual enrollment um it's it says first day of school but it's actually as of today we we updated it today so Darcy school we have some great shots of our kids you'll see that each school that I go through will have pictures of our kids at the start of the school year it's always really exciting so our transition program as uh Marlene said has been really successful and well received uh we have great enrollment there there's a par educator and a teacher in there uh in each class uh and that the folks that are in that class are thrilled about the opportunity it Chapman School kick things off lot of smiling faces so our enrollment there um just slightly above the projections five students above the projections so uh you'll see throughout the presentation that pretty much every place is is close to the projections uh there's not tremendous variability and as you know the projections have you know increased pretty significantly and will continue to increase over the next few years it do little school again you know close to the projection uh 12 students below the projection but still you know pretty close uh I think this is our only School actually that is below projection but not by much that was Mr Jeffrey just like it was only because there are so many kids in the building he had to squeeze in he's always reminding us about how many kids there are all right so um just slightly above projection here by one student uh but is been mentioned we were at 850 last year uh in 13 this year so really illustrative of the growth that we've seen at that building or really the whole North End of town with the construction and everything and housing turnover at Norton school so our enrollment here spot on with the projection it for 27 you know sometimes in August we're running into positions where you know we have to hire a teacher we have to um you know maybe not hire a teacher uh but this year with the projections we went very smoothly DOD Middle School ignite your spark obviously the theme to kick off the year there at DOD so getting slightly above projections here 17 students finally treasure High School such a great tradition to see our kids in their senior t-shirts our enrollment at chesher high slightly above projection well 31 students is the highest we are above projection but as a percentage not dramatically higher so overall overall excuse me our enrollment summary uh we are 56 net students above projection uh for this year uh again that's a number that's continuing to grow uh just a couple of years ago we were at 4,000 uh so we are growing you know as predicted um and as our relatively smaller classes at the high school age out and graduate our enrollment will continue continue to increase uh at the bottom line our open Choice student enrollment uh is still pretty re robust uh it would be our preference to have greater enrollment with kids beginning in the early grades unfortunately given the in you know exceedingly High enrollment we have in our Elementary grades we don't have space to add more students for example you'll see no openchoice students at Highland at all and uh you know we are constantly evaluating the development on the north end of town so Stonebridge Crossing has one and two one two and three bedroom apartments make becoming available for lease on October 1st uh just like we did last year with soderman uh I think it's sodman way we um unilaterally re kind of redistricted that area to Chapman School and we'll do the same thing with Stone Bridge Crossing so for new people who move in there we will transport you to to Chapman rather than Highland and when we redistrict in in 2026 you'll be ending up going to the new school anyway yeah Tim sure housing units opening between now and June or over the next two years and also an estimate the projected estimate from town hall Economic Development whatever it is about uh new kids in town sure so uh the estimates you know can kind of be hard to track you know because they're their estimates what we have is actuals and I'll be happy to share that with the board uh tomorrow the actuals that we have from the new developments in addition uh Vin and I meet with the town Planner on a fairly regular basis to check in on new construction new openings things that are are coming up uh on the market there's uh I think you've heard a proposal for 30 new homes uh really right down the street from our North End School and at this point really any sort of fluctuation we're we're really well positioned to manage uh if indeed that site gets approved uh the construction plans for both new buildings include little carve outs if you will that if the enrollment were to increase even during the course of construction we could expand the building and accommodate several more classrooms so you know we're we're pretty well positioned to be flexible um if indeed enrollment does continue to SP Spike at least in terms of our ele Elementary management at the high school or excuse me at the middle school with only about 650 kids at our Max uh back when I was principal we had about 900 kids there so it it's tight and it's uncomfortable but doable um and so I think we're we're okay in terms of navigating that but I'll share the actual enrollments we get yeah people I mean I've heard from people you know you build those houses you're G to have all these or not even houses Apartments you're going to have all these kids move in sure like a say one bedroom apartment I don't remember two-bedroom apartment I don't think we're going to have lots of kids move in but I'm just curious to see what the projections are that Planning and Zoning probably gets before they approve something maybe not always I don't know all the rules but I know there's projections that are put out before um developments are approved and then do a postmortem on it a couple years later some projects on and just see how the up with the projections that's a fair request I mean there are projections the demographers when they meet with Planning and Zoning uh try and I think in many cases maybe not every but many cases uh predict the enrollment um I know we are working with the town in tracking that sort of data so I'll see if we can get the projections uh which I I know we don't have at the moment um but we can probably compile them VN is there anything you want to add there you're coming out of your chair are all the new developments how many students are out develop actual number students the it's not a lot i' rather share the numbers you know because I don't want to I don't remember the exact num no no that's but we are tracking that um and you're right there is a projection one and two bedroom apartments are not expected produce many students you know from the new North End and there's about 300 apartment units when it's fully built out yeah um but we can share that we are tracking it monthly and we are sharing it with Andrew Martelli over an economic de and then the town planner so the only thing that we have to add to that is what the original projections are um the other thing that I'm going to mention is you what we're seeing is a lot of growth just from housing turnover so it's not only the new developments that are driving some of the higher enrollment it is housing turnover yeah yeah if you if you've lived here for more than 10 minutes you realize that a house goes on the market it's off the market and uh often more often than not there are kids moving into that house so uh their the housing turnover has been at least as big a uh variable for us in terms of the enrollment growth is the new developments have been so uh that leads me to the final part of my presentation which is around our strategic planning and uh just a a quick review of our mission statement as uh I highlight that several years ago um 2017 we adopted two goals uh really focused on our social emot learning and complex thinking um shortly thereafter we uh reviewed our treasure performance standards and revamped our performance standards uh to is part of our vision of The Graduate at chesher high school and our neas uh the New England Association of secondary or schools and colleges and they um accredited chesher High School uh with our updated performance standards and our Community again in 2021 reviewed our Direction and they uh again in the board affirmed our Focus uh on complex thinking and social emotional learning uh I would say it's been pretty good to us and it's been good to our kids um but what does that really mean and so we have two theories of action one for social emotional learning and the other for complex thinking and uh as you can read I I I don't want to read every slide to you but this is our um theory of action around social emotional learning uh what are some of the strategies uh you can see that's one of my favorite videos of all time working in the chesher public schools that a parent sent to us of a kindergarten student D or yeah kindergarten student at Darcy um practicing mindfulness showing mom like mindfulness I'm hopeful that you know it wasn't because Mom was needed mindfulness at that moment but um he was showing her counting and breathing and taking dandelion breaths and uh it's pretty awesome when you know you can teach a child a skill like that that helps them navigate uh their entire life uh so we do a lot of uh embedding seal into our work into our complex thinking perfect example I was in a a class the other day where student students uh I think it was day three of school and they had to do uh math problems as part of their fluency practice and you know the question was how many people are feeling a little nervous about this first math fluency and few hands went up and all right let's take a breath you know and and just coaching those skills uh are really valuable and you know at that young age it's the same skills we're teaching kids at chesher high school before they take AP exams um and it it it's helpful um so uh these are some of the strategies that we employ uh most recently we adopted the pupil attitude about self and school survey we've already been using that data to support students in unique ways uh most notably last year we started to look at students that were chronically absent and their results and how can we uh support them to be better connected and feel emotionally grounded uh and positively connected to the school to improve their attendance and therefore uh performance our uh theory of action around complex I'm sorry please can you a little about team Mental Health First sure so at the high school we have a Teen Mental Health first aid program I think we're the only school in Connecticut uh that has that basically students are taught about uh it really D stigmatizes mental health issues how to identify mental health issues in yourself and others and appropriate ways to guide uh to support how to talk to an adult about a mental health issue finding supports and and services to address those issues Mary is there anything you want to add to that no just the key piece is they learn to go to a trusted adult always if you recognize something you have to see a trusted adult and all 10th grade students have taken it um and this is the third year that our 10th graders are taking team first aid and it's I the only thing I don't like about that first aid term is you know the idea that in traditional medical first aid you're the person providing the assistance this is not the case in Teen Mental Health First Aid it is very much about getting that person to an appropriate adult um and how if even if that you're not talking to that person to get to the adult you're not providing mental health support as a a student but uh it really D stigmatizes accessing mental health support which is really important complex thinking our um theory of action around complex thinking uh ties in with a lot of our um oh excuse me this I this is my fault this is not our uh of action for complex thinking that's social emotional learning so let me see if I yeah I apologize for duplicating that but we're uh our um complex thinking theory of action focuses on providing students opportunities to engage in deep thinking problem solving creativity and seeing that reflected in their work um that's really at the heart of what we're doing with building thinking classrooms how do we make that comp complex thinking visible how do we make collaboration problem solving uh synthesizing information uh put that at the Forefront of what we do so um yeah this is what some of this looks like and uh we've spent I guess we we really uh dove into learning walks uh in the late 201s and we were doing a lot of that at that time covid came around substitutes became really hard to come by uh and we started to engage more with our administrators in learning walks more recently but this year we're excited to have uh teachers re-engaged in that process uh we've said before that you know some of the best PD comes from the people down the hall uh teaching can be a really isolated profession you don't get to see a lot of other people do what you do on a regular basis so uh we're excited to get back into you know more learning walks during the course of this year um acceleration is a term that uh came to favor after covid where we knew that we couldn't go back and teach you a year of stuff that you missed uh we really had to focus on what are the core uh components of what you need to know in this grade level and uh so we focused quite a bit on identifying priority standards and making sure our students can achieve those standards hqi is a acronym that stands for high quality instruction and what are the practices that you need to engage in as a teacher to get students uh to evolve as complex thinkers so what are some of the dividends of our work you know um we've seen a substantial Improvement in performance and almost every measure since we've been focused on complex thinking and social emotional learning uh this is reflects our uh data that just came out uh so in the state of Connecticut we're ninth best overall in our smarter Balan performance when you look at our uh reading and math scores together and um I think you know because we've been successful for the last several years it's it's kind of easy to take that for granted uh but we were in the mid to high 30s uh back in 2016 17 in that era and so this is again the the dividends of a lot of work that our people have put in uh to support our students and uh that when I say our people certainly you know our teachers and administrators but also our boards of Education over the years our our community members who have partaken in these uh you know re revamping of what we do uh including business people so uh there's really a lot for the community to celebrate here uh this year we're number one overall in our Smarter Balance performance uh for the dur uh so we're incredibly proud of that uh for our students identified for special education services we were 14th best in the State uh for that we were fourth best for uh the dur for our identified students we were 19th overall in Connecticut on the uh SAT exam nth in the dur uh niche.com has us at 263 I mean that's not you know from a psychometric perspective the like the most uh valid and reliable rating but it is something that people pay attention to so I include it here uh by point of comparison we were 516th a few years ago um and then on the district performance index the district performance index uh is about 20 different data points uh gauging everything from chronic absenteeism to uh academic achievement to Arts access to kids taking college level courses to the uh physical fitness test it's meant to be wholly inclusive of a school systems performance uh we have our highest ranking that we've ever had at 9th in Connecticut on that measure so you know again I I want to uh congratulate and thank all of our people who uh you know make this this this sort of you know cadr of results possible um so it's uh something we're obviously really proud of so just uh is another visual here this is our SAT performance 19th in the state you could see the the um districts that had fared a little bit better are smart balanced achievement in the state you can see the handful of districts that fared a little bit better I know we talk about this a little bit more during budget season but uh to say the per pupil expenditure is dramatically different and most of the districts that outperform us would be an understatement uh so I think we represent a great value uh for our taxpayers so I guess all that's left at this point is part of our annual you know affirmation of our district goals uh that concludes my presentation I want to thank Vin and Marlene uh not just for their presentation tonight but for all their work their their guidance and Leadership that they um have for our community uh is incredibly valuable so thank you guys and certainly we entertain any questions that you guys might have please talk of all but uh it is quite the production to get school going especially after all the work in the summer so kudos to everyone um I I've heard nothing about positive comments families schools families mov the way things are running so far so tremendous job um regarding Highland two questions on Portables the existing Portables Thea ones are those actually being used for any instruction or for storage two and and two the new modu classrooms I don't remember um getting older I remember last year I know we were talking about possibly purchasing them a more cost effed because we're going to use those Poss other projects but are those being installed as a permanent solution or or reflex will to move to other schools or future projects I yeah so I'll let um Scott Jeffrey answer about the use of those two classrooms which are being used first so um the the current Portables are being used as a music Suite so it's music instruction um to music teachers it's the only special right now besides PE that isn't in a hybrid uh kind of in a car and in a room so typically art for example is in two rooms but because of the shortage of space one is out in the rooms and they they switch so kids get equal opportunity both both spaces librar is the same way and as far as the decision the decision was made to purchase those it was more cost effective the strategy long term is either we're going to continue to need to use up for classroom space certainly through 2026 when the new school's open if we don't need the Portables going forward what we would do is take the two 30 roll Portables and dispose of that and we erected or we will erect new Portables using the configuration including that Gazo so we'll be able to keep the newer ones and get rid of the older ones that seemed to be the best yeah solution for us long term so even after the new schools are built and redition we still envisioning yes it than anybody else Tim yeah um the student Mental Health First Aid you're doing that in 10th Grade right that's a another grade it's a program designed specifically for 10th graders um that's it's kind of perscribed by the organization that that develops that program for 10 th grade we have offered it to older grades when we first initiated the program but given the fact now that those kids have already taken it is they matriculate up uh 10th grade is where they prescrib the the program I guess was going my mind is offering say seventh grade right and then you still have a refresher years later it was just a thought it cost money too I'm sure so well it definitely cost money but um you know we thought was valuable and appropriate I know that our community would make that investment but the program itself uh and the people who design it say the lowest you do it is 10th grade actually they say you do it in 10th Grade basically however have Suicide Prevention programs in younger grades as a matter of fact we had a presentation from the school counselors at DOD just a couple of years ago on a program that they were starting which was called signs of suicide we also the name of the program it's not necessarily we also do provide information on Mental Health other points in our curriculum but this is uh you know really a specific program designed to coach kids on signs uh as young adolescen and Coach them on how to access support anybody else sure um then can you just clarify what the new work order system is just for people at home yes when a teacher or other staff member needs to have either maintenance work or technology work done they enter it into work order system we for the yes thank you so the work order system that we uh utilized previous L was called School dude we moved to a more advanced system that actually cost us a little less money called Master library and it's work orders for maintenance or work orders for technology so staff just goes online you know enters a work order and it's routed electronically to either our maintenance or technology staff members then just the next one um Miss can I know fabulous and Mike wasn't able to be your facilitator this summer but can you just kind of explain where where in the process of curriculum writing would would a resource request fall in just kind of given us a bigger picture of you know process perod sure and we're going to actually review this it's on the agenda for curriculum Council Monday night but the process is that every year year a different subject engages in a curriculum review process whereby they look at the curriculum the instructional practices the textbooks and the resources Etc and so from that teach the team the department is identifying textbooks that need to be um uh re-evaluated materials curriculum units that need to be re-evaluated and that becomes a part of their fiveyear goals for that department and each year they revise those goals and so we meet with them every February to review and look at that so that drives what the curriculum writing is that gets written at The Institute in the summer I think Dr s taking a deeper dive on the index next well um the index that index was from the [Music] 2023 school year the 234 school year data a lot of the actual data points out of those 20 that I was referencing have been released but the whole thing hasn't been released yet so as soon as that is available we will definitely you know like we did last year take a deeper dive into that sure all right well thank you guys so much [Applause] order of business would be old business um I do not have anything I'm just going to open the floor to any board members who have anything for old business items no great um and then new business items as Dr Solen said we're going to affirm our strategic plan um I'll just quickly I do request a an edit Carol there's it was if we can scratch I'll read it and I just let you um the Strategic goals of the chesher public chesh Board of Education are integral part of the chesher public schools strategic planning initiative the goals were strike through Ben developed by a large community based group of stakeholders ERS including board members staff parents students and local business persons the plan was developed with a significant data collected from the entire community in 2016 after the initial plan was developed in 2000 the most recent goals were developed in 2011 in 2019 the personalized learning task force adopted new performance standards that the Board of Education later approved so state law requires local boards to set annual goals and objectives each year because this chure strategic planning initiative reflects the vision and beliefs of the chesher community it is traditionally served as the Board of Education goals each year so the following motion reaffirms the board's commitment to the Strategic initiatives and supports their continued use as the overarching framework used to set district and individual school goals and objectives this year Dr Heron can you read the motion please that move that the chesher Board of Education reff confirms the chesher public school strategic objectives and goals for the 20242 um do I have a second on the motion Mr gripple thank you all in favor of the motion that is currently on the floor unanimous thank you and then we um we do have the amendment to the agenda which brings us into executive session so so at the moment we'd like to um adjourn into executive session Madam chair before we adjourn um apologize my uh brain has come up with a question I wanted to ask superintendent please do um in in light of the events of uh bo what was that two days ago in Georgia um how was our security situation I appreciate the question uh Mr grippo the uh we actually had a district security meeting today uh that happened to be scheduled and uh with Chief drife and Mike Khan one of our sro's and um we have a representative group including uh M gillo Mr Jeffrey Dr Gad um Vinnie um Mike Papa our technology person so we have a lot of different perspectives at the table to review that uh Jack casner generally attends but uh what we one of the Marquee points we were focused on today is last spring we did our first real training overview for Alice at chesher High School uh Alice is an acronym alert lockdown and form counter and evacuate uh so we are preparing now to train our freshmen who didn't get the benefit of that training last um fall and we've arranged with chure Police Department to do some dry runs this fall Alice we obviously communicate to our uh parents about that we've also developed the script that we will use to create the video for our middle school students and uh talking to miss gillo Will um we are prepared to roll that out to our students as well this fall and do that same mock drill stuff that we're doing at chesher High School with chesher police about the same time uh additionally uh there's a program called Mutual link that is really uh enhances communication between the district the video system that we have in the district and treasure Police Department uh so we talked about how to train uh the folks who work at Treasure PD uh who take take the calls and link up to that system uh so that's something that we're also working on this fall uh the mutual link process uh there were some hiccups in that process but we've been working closely with uh Chief drife and our Tech Team and mutual link to uh put that all together and hopefully have that on sooner rather than later um there are other things like labeling I'm sure you've seen at cheser high school all the windows uh and doors have numbers on on them to make responses easier uh things like that we're continuing to do that throughout the district um but those are some of the highlights that we're focused on at the moment and are are our sro's in place yeah we have two SRO that that work uh with the town and you know for the town um you know has historically been the the case they uh our treasure police officers first and foremost and there's not you know it's not a secret that our treasure Police Department is underemployed at the moment uh they are feverishly attempting to add new officers uh and you know there are times when our SRO have to do Road Duty first um but they're definitely approved for overtime as whenever needed to be in our schools in addition at this point because we've had SRO for so long uh you know our officers our last batch of officers Gretchen and Dave are still on the police department they still come into the schools um you know Lauren Weber is still a officer that is available to us back when we only had one SRO um and so you know those folks are are still on the force and available to the district as well thank you I've said it before but I'll I just need to say it right now which is even before hardening the schools one of our focuses is I'll say seal social emotional learning and I say that because my recollection is when we had one of our policy committee meetings a couple years ago FBI consultant came to us and said a study was done over the last 60 years of school shootings 100% of them were insiders people who were associated with the schools and 100% of them said something in advance to someone who just let it go that was just that's how Joey talks so I just encourage everybody to keep that in mind and if you do hear something take it seriously there uh there is an app and information on our website speak up uh if there is a concern uh that if you do hear something of concern that you can report that also through Gaggle um so you know we encourage any form of reporting whether it be anonymous or otherwise uh as it relates to any sort of security uh behavioral concern mental health issue what the case may be you know uh it's important to raise those concerns and I think that's really a big part of what uh Teen Mental Health First Aid addresses addresses is destigmatizing accessing that support but also recognizing that this is not okay Behavior this is not typical Behavior this could be the an issue um and how to report that um so I appreciate that point Tim sorry I don't mean to press the issue but our but you will anyway Yes actually I do mean the press the issue I think so yeah what you're saying is is that our sro's are no longer at our schools full-time um the they yeah they have a diminished capacity uh from what they typically do that's a change from last year right it is and that was a decision by who the town by the town okay well it's not okay but that's our situation right now that's our current situation I know that it's being Revisited um and you know if they could magically produce several more officers Vin do you recall the full Staffing I want to say it was something to the equivalent of like 50 officers and there are currently 3 48 officers but there are 10 officers down with two officers I believe that are in the academy right now um and two other officers that are occupied training current uh officers um and they are interviewing um to fill the other I believe it's four positions so you know while I have the mic I I do want to add that you know the sro's role is to serve you know inside the school Community to get to know the students our response from 911 is not affected if the SRO is not in the building and you know I know sometimes people get confused as to the sro's role they really are there to you know work with the students be part of the community certainly be present and that that is is certainly something that you know we um look forward to having them back in January is is when the expectation for the SRO to be back full-time in the schools I think Tim's point about connecting with kids uh and supporting and being you know part of that information Network that's where our sro's have proven to be most critical um you know I think several years ago we had like a a Serial groper for lack of a better term on the Cheshire trail that was a serious issue for our community and concern with safety that issue was resolved by an SRO kids talk to them and and so um I think the the value of bringing in armed security into a school is really pretty limited uh relative to you know the value of having connectedness uh with kids and learning and hearing information that's the most valuable thing that our sro's do uh not you know they are obviously Law Enforcement Officers which is different but um we we really value that relationship that they have and give us that information that allows us to intervene before things happen I'm not going to belber sure Adam's Point uh I I feel like we should have known I should have remembered that there was going to be less time from sro's I don't remember that actually coming up but I'm sure we probably talked about at some point but I do want to just assure the public that what you just said Dr song when we started at s program years ago it wasn't for enforcement or to have armed guards in the schools it was actually to build the relationships with students um have students someone to trust to talk to and and just get a pulse what's going on and you know the only concern I have with diminish time is there's diminished time there to build those relationships if not there to us so I think we'll be looking forward to get them back when probably staff I do fully understand that um you know there's been some uh attrition not just in this town many other towns so I know the police force rent Bank up but we're conent of that too but thank you for that detail sure thanks for asking that good question Mr um just so everybody understands when when I was still on a job it's about a year from start to finish to hire an officer and they're on they're on their own on a road so it's you know it's a process unless you're hiring certified officers from another department it it takes time yeah that's one of the challenges that Neil expressed at our meeting today was that you know you can hire somebody tomorrow but the academy doesn't start until let's say end of October so they've had them training his dispatchers where you don't need to be a certified police officer then you know you get them to the academy and there's weeks on end and then there's training with an officer on the job and like you said it's about a year before they're ready to go you know it's um I know it's been a frustration point for Neil and it's a concern for our community uh that we're working on um and something that you know we have the concern but little influence over on what we do on this side of the street our side of the street I should say I guess correct great I just um want to say welcome back to the new school year to all of you thank you for being here there um hugs to Dr Gad and the high school crew um and we're excited about our student reps next yes next meeting next meeting great thank you so we're going into executive session yeah we join into executive session session ready motion to adjourn into executive but we adjourn into executive session uh to discuss the contract negotiations and with no action to follow and to include and and to include Mr masana Miss Solano and Dr Sol is there a second Mr White all in favor unanimous thanks