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Um and this is just a great great step in keeping that going and giving our coaches the things that that will benefit our athletes. So, thank you that. And of course, you know, Hannah is a Crown Point grad, so it's always nice to see them come back. It's all about the kids. Thank you, Mr. Geofermi. 7.07, Chief Human Resource Officer, Mr. Kewa. Thank you, Mr. President, board members. Um two thank yous go out to some office members in the Human Resource Department. We are preparing uh to transition to some new support software for the school corporation regarding applicants, those that want to apply online to jobs here in our school corporation. As we moved away from our uh partnership with RDS, we are going to be launching on December 1st Frontline recruiting and hiring platform. Uh this week, the administrators will be introduced to it.

Uh we talked about it briefly in cabinet today. Uh but will allow us to uh have a a more robust system to post jobs, um review applicants, invite them to interviews, and interact with them uh in a more organized fashion, and even uh you know, conduct our interview questions through the same software, and house all that information in one place. So, uh launch will be uh targeted as December 1st, and I just want to thank Jean Lang uh and Renee Rich. They spent um right now, I think, 6 hours of time in classes learning how to build the back end of this software to get it up and running for us here uh on December 1st. So, thanks to them for their hard work and efforts. Thank you, Mr. Kewa. 7.08, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd be remiss tonight if I didn't get a chance to say a bunch of thank yous.

While I was lucky enough to do most of the presenting tonight, everybody here up at the table, as well as the directors in the back, and those directors not attending this evening, uh the contributions that went into the budget, the geo bonds, everything that's required to make this work is is pretty phenomenal. I want to thank them for all the assistance that they all and time and effort they put in to helping us get to where we want to be. So, I want to thank them. Thank you, Mr. Reese. 7.09, Director of Communications, Mrs. Alp. Someone tells me she'll have the longest time at the podium tonight. Thank you. Um I want to thank the families who attended our safety presentation last week at Taft Middle School. Before families attended, we put out a very short survey that said if if you plan to come, please let us know, and let us know how familiar you are with certain topics that we're going to cover.

And the survey before showed that many of those folks were not familiar with the terms that we used in some of our procedures. But we gave them the same survey before they left after the presentation, and it was a drastic increase. Um very, very good improvement, and I'm really um happy with that. So, thank you to Dave Colson, Mr. Geofermi, Dr. Terrell, who presented, um connected with families. We have another presentation Wednesday this week, 6:00 p.m. at Colonel Wheeler Middle School. Is that the last one planned this fall? It is. 6:00 Colonel Wheeler? 6:00, yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. 7.10, Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Terrell. As a continuation from that safety meeting, we also had representatives from each of our buildings from their administrative team that were there as well to talk with parents. And just a great opportunity to continue to make that personal connection with them.

Um Grandparents Day was mentioned, and uh some of our schools had the brilliant idea of connecting that to book fair. And their uh sales went through the roof and I want to thank we had a school who had need of some additional help. And so Brooke put out a call here to the ad building for people to go over and help with that. I want to thank Ardy and Diana and Lawanda who are in the back went over to Timothy Ball and helped and had a very active time over there. They said they were busy busy busy the game. I we caught both of the ladies in the back taking naps that afternoon because it was such a busy morning but we appreciate them. You'll notice Lawanda is here tonight. We're doing some cross training in case something comes up and Diana cannot be here so we want to thank her and welcome her to our board meeting as well.

Construction updates so tonight was an exciting time as you voted to approve the furniture purchase at Solon Robinson. With that approval that will complete every elementary building having all brand new furniture across the entire district. Solon Robinson also their playground was just finished recently and so now every playground across the district has been brought up to date and now is more similar to each other than they have been ever in the past. So we continue to see those increases at Lake Street. The last group of workers have pulled off. Now they're just working on some of the punch list things and getting there and Solon is falling in very quickly. Students are eating in the lunchroom now. Gymnasium will be completed in the next couple of weeks here and they'll be actually in there and new bleachers and new flooring and just an exciting time for them as they round that corner down the home stretch to February where the entire project will be completed at Solon as well.

So exciting times and uh we are looking forward as blessed as we are to have all this construction going on and to getting to the point where we no longer have construction going on. But again thank you to our teachers, administrators, families, students for their patience as we've gone through this process. Thank you Dr. Terrell. Item eight tonight is 8.01 other business the board. Do any of you have anything to add? Anything under other business the board before we get statements of recognition? The only thing I was wondering is can we get a quick update on the ambassador program, how far into we are and how things are going? Actually we're getting ready for our Is it our third one Brooke? You want to come on up and kind of give us um We have we have our third one coming this next week actually.

Uh we'll be out at Taft. Yes, we'll be at Taft this week on Wednesday. Again school safety not this week next week. Um school safety it's essentially the same presentation we're giving in the evenings. We had such great feedback in the previous years about that that's what we decided to repurpose for the parent presentation. So we have 22 individuals who are in the ambassador program this year. It's going really well How many This is the third ambassador group? How many people have gone through the ambassador program since it started roughly? Almost 60. That's great. Thank you for doing Nothing else we'll move on to item nine board statements of appreciation recognition. Mr. Basher Do you have any this evening? I'm keeping with my kudos to people that go unnoticed. I'd like to I would like to notice our crossing guards. See them crossing guards those crossing guards many times during the day sometimes it goes overlooked what they provide.

Very very thankful. I realize they go through the police department but nonetheless it's it's a There's two of them right by my house and I see them every single day. So it's the service they provide is can't measure it. Very thankful. Thank you Mr. Basher. Ms. Basin anything tonight? I just wanted to touch a little bit on Dr. Chiquina spoke on parent teacher conferences so just tons of gratitude towards all of our teachers at the elementary level that have put together meaningful conversations for all of those families and the families that have made it a point to attend those 4,000 is certainly a lot of folks participating on both sides of that. Having been in the classroom I can tell you it's a lot to work around all of those schedules and so just lots of appreciation for the teachers putting in the work before that and then accommodating parent schedules to get all of those accomplished.

Also thank you so much for bringing back grandparents day. My my third oldest kid she had it in kindergarten and has not had one since and she's in fifth grade now so this was a very big deal for her to get that back. So they were very excited. It went off wonderfully and so for the building levels who hosted both that and parent teacher conferences in the same week so Timothy Ball and especially to put that together on on the teacher side and the administrator side and then everyone who keeps our buildings in good shape to do that and even everyone at central office shipping in to do book fair that is very much appreciated. So thank you everyone involved. Thank you Ms. Basin. Mr. Smith anything this evening? Actually what Daniel said was exactly what I was going to say but I just think it's important to just thank the parents that are involved.

We know how how important it is how things start in the home. And so we are extremely blessed as a school corporation to have parents that are so engaged and so involved. We heard it tonight that the community is involved in our schools and you've said it time and time again. It's incredible to see the support from the community in so many different ways and so more involvement from parents is fantastic right? We're opening buildings we're opening buildings to grandparents family. It's just getting them as partners getting family parents as partners you can't put a value on that. It really is important. So thank you for sharing that Ms. Chiquina. I want to ask you how what the percentage of parents but I won't do that. I think you left that off intentionally. But how how great is that that we hear 4,000 parents came through our buildings.

That is incredible when you talk about the size of our school corporation. So well done to the parents well done to our community and to the teachers that Thank you Mr. Smith. And what an idea whoever that was to come up with the book book fair because you know how grandparents love to spoil their grandkids. So I mean that's just like that's like write the check for how much right? Let me take care of this. I just want to share something real quick and I'm not going to mention the teacher's name but I received something actually driving here tonight and this is what this is all about and it's It was regarding a teacher on how he has engaged their son to a level that they've never seen before. And it's a sixth grader one of the middle schools and it's you know we probably don't get enough of these but when they do occur and from friends or family that make that connection it's just amazing on how those connections no matter what age whether it be kindergarten all the way through high school and those kids remember for the rest of their lives like all of us did had our favorite teacher had our favorite coach whatever it can be and it helped us become a better person.

So I just kudos to all of our teacher staff and everybody that has a day-to-day interaction with our kids that make that connection that might be the reason rather than sit home with the sniffles of a cold they come back to school the next day because they don't want to miss anything. That's how it was when I went to school because of you know your friends and those kind of teachers. So I just we don't say that enough I don't think. So kudos to all of you that make that connection with our kids. So uh just a couple congratulations. Our football team to the third straight undefeated DAC season which is just remarkable and then to our volleyball team that just won our regionals and are in the semi-state. I didn't see the location. I don't know if it came out for sure yet for this weekend.

Where is it? you can look obviously find those times on our website so best of luck to those ladies and sectional football starts for our bulldogs to see if we can have the success that we had last year. So with that I will look for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Motion by Mr. Smith second by Ms. Basin. All those in favor please signify by saying I. I.

Those opposed motion carries 4-0.

e e e all right we're going to go ahead and get started thank you like to welcome everybody to tonight's regular board meeting October 29th 2024 normally I would uh make note of the tens of thousands of people that are watching online but you're all here in person so this is fantastic we we're uh glad everybody's here tonight and excited for the recognitions that are going to take place uh we'll start with a call to order um and we'll have a moment of silence and after that the Pledge of Allegiance if you would all please rise for our moment of silence please join me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you very much uh we'll now have our roll call uh Miss Wilson Mr Chad Thompson here Miss Lori wood here miss Jill humph here miss Ronda page is not present Mr Thompson you have a quorum thank you very much Miss Wilson moving on to agenda item number two uh approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda tonight I move that we approve the agenda as presented thank you Miss humph is there a second second thank you and I'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving the agenda say I I I any opposed did I hear some eyes out there all right I like [Laughter] it this normally isn't an interactive uh meeting but it is tonight uh moving on to agenda item number three superintendent recognition Awards dror McCord thank you Mr Thompson governing board members if you would join me in front of the dice we will recognize some of our junior high or all of our Junior High Athletic teams this evening all here good evening everyone uh parents you don't have to act like your Junior High kids good evening everybody thank you thanks for being here um tonight is something I think is pretty special and we we decided I got an email from a coach last year wrestling coach over at one of our Junior highs Mr Dan Earl and he said you know hey I think it'd be great if you recognize the junior highs and you know I've been I've been doing this for 30 years not this job but and I thought you know what this is this is extremely important why haven't we been doing this and so we're doing it from now on so we might see a lot of you throughout the next couple years but we want to make sure we recognize you both my boys went through Gilbert Public Schools they played Athletics and I know what kind of work you put in at the junior high I know what kind of time you put in as student athletes and parents I know what you do getting to those games making sure that they have everything they need so you deserve as much as recognition as anybody else so tonight we're going to start it off um let's start off with so we're going to do it by school okay uh Greenfield Junior High if I could have the seventh grade boys soccer team come up and Coach Chris Martin there you go Mr Martin who's this this is Hayes are you related to this guy no okay just checking so Hayes you won the seventh grade boy soccer all by yourself that's that's an accomplishment no I really appreciate you guys being here coach uh do you want to just say a couple coule things real quick about your season yeah okay Coes take not I I was not prepared but uh I had a super talented group of kids um uh Hayes being one of them and the one thing I think that was great about this group of kids is they would play maybe not where they were wanted to play they would act as a team and support each other and they were really interested in the celebrations when they scored goals which sometimes I had to say not right now but um super talented they listened and hopefully some of the lessons that I was able to teach them they uh will take on to 8th grade and then into high school so ladies and gentlemen seventh grade boys soccer GRE we're going to take a picture with the board and then you guys can sit down okay all [Applause] right next girls cross country is Britney Garcia here and their [Applause] team come on up so you guys are the cross country winners right well congratulations would you like to introduce the rest of the folks with you sure um I'm Britney Garcia this is Andre Henderson this is is Caitlyn Swenson Jaye eart and Aaliyah Martinez talk about your season it's cross country so it's in the middle of July August September um they came out they worked hard every single day we were out in the mornings we were out in the afternoons we met on holidays I think at Freestone Park to get Hills in this is like the epitome of hard work so we had a great team we had great athletes and they were fantastic and they won and they deserved to if you guys would shake hands with the board and then we'll take a picture come are you still running she didn't know the season was over area [Applause] there and do I have the eighth grade any representatives from Greenfield Junior High's 8ighth grade softball team no no okay we didn't think they would be able to make it but we just wanted to make sure we didn't want to leave anybody out one more time for Greenfield Junior High next up South Valley Junior High eighth grade boys soccer Mr coach Pete Mueller [Music] eighth grade boys soccer coach you want to introduce or have them introduce themselves and you can say a few words I uh am going to have you introduce yourself so I don't butcher any of your names uh Bryson Freeman Nixon Peter Jordan black Daniel spot maoli Rowan crosson a little bit well uh first quarter soccer for the boys is rough it's hot you come right out into it you're playing in 110 the games are long uh but I'll tell you I was very impressed with their endurance I was more impressed with their teamwork we had a lot of solid players that could move around on the field we had excellent Keepers yep uh and I was I was very impressed with their professionalism their their skills and their kindness and and they do they rate each other as as Junior highs about who has some of the best sportsmanship so coming from a coach to his players and making sure that they understand that that is what's most important first uh really brings a smile to my heart so congratulations to South Valley if you guys would shake hands and uh take a picture [Applause] only you get a trophy congratulations right there in the middle and then kids yeah you guys can stack it up and we'll [Applause] [Music] congratulations next we have from South Valley Junior High eighth grade boys volleyball coaches Nikki Wagner and Shane Wagner [Applause] hi guys how are you great good thanks for being here uh I'll let you or they can introduce themselves and then you guys can talk about the season is that okay sure uh I am Nikki Wagner Shane Wagner Blair Johnson Matthew tronti Anderson Beasley Sam Ray Hayden Weiser so I came into this getting these this group of guys that had already won the seventh grade Championship um and we started out really really really strong they were honestly an easy group of guys to coach they already had great team chemistry um I would say part of my favorite one of my favorite things from the season is coming in and having a few of the guys that had never played before and kind of seeing their excitement and their love for the Game grow um and just watching these guys build the friendships and build the relationships that they have it's been a lot of fun uh they like to joke around it was hard to get them back on track sometimes but that's nothing some diving suicides wouldn't fix so but yeah they had a great season thank you guys and uh congratulations on repeating I guess is the best way to put it if you'd shake hands with the board we'll take a picture stay here till all your parents and family congratulations guys thank you thank you guys thank you next up seventh grade softball coach Jamie esperson ah there they are are hi coach look at they they're already they're ready for another round I can tell ready to come back next well congratulations to you guys would you like to have them introduce themselves and then talk about them so I'm coach Jamie esperson I'm lla Weber Ryland nink Addison Cortez Zoe burus vaa Clarkson EVS Jenna malum Jazzy Diaz Mia Escalante Bella Diaz Caris kimra Zoe Payne so to be honest with you I did uh I had to bribe him I told him I treat him to ice cream to anybody that showed up I did not want to stand here by myself I actually never even made it Off the Bench all season I was stuck in the Dugout they were the ones that played um I love coaching baseball soft it's the only sport where you can yell at the kids to go home and their parents cheer for you so um during tryouts um as these girls were trying out I'm like wow we have a phenomenal team here oh we got a couple more coming in let me have them introduce themselves we got to get your names now yep oh come on give it your name oh I'm Charlie kower my name is cafre right so yeah oh yeah so as we were going through tryouts um I was watching these girls try out and I'm like wow we just have a phenomenal group of girls here and they kept the the attitude positive the whole time uh played like Champions and it was just an extremely fun season so it really was a blessing for me to actually even get a chance to coach him I typically am just a baseball coach so I've never really coach softball before so this was my kind of introduction into softball so it was fun so congratulations to you guys if you guys would shake hands with the board and then we'll take a picture on put that trophy right out front [Applause] congratulations next up we have Desert Ridge Junior High if I could have the boys cross country coaches come up Coach Ken Clayman and Morgan basy and they're Runners ready I knew it Ken why you we'll have the the boys introduce themselves and then you can talk about your season okay boys Aiden Banda Mason Anderson D Wilkinson Jay Martin Eric rander riby Rogers so I'm Morgan basy this is Ken Clayman um this is a sport I've been coaching for this is my 25th year coaching cross country and I've been the only only female coach we've had at Desert Ridge we do obviously do co-ed so we practice together um we compete obviously girls and boys separately with races but we're a very co-ed team I think the other coaches can attest to that so when you say boys it's just a whole team so I just want to make sure we all know that um this team this year I am excited to coach cross country and I've been doing it so long because these are the best kids sorry and I'm biased of course but they're good kids they're good students they're student athletes and we always tell them that that they need to be great in the classroom and out on the field so I love coaching cross country because I just think think they're the best kids they're kind they're hardworking and they're also academic in their Athletics as well um we had a great season uh we went three and two as far as wins and losses throughout the season and then we pulled out the Victory and we were just elated um and in my 25 years I think this is our eighth boys cross country Championship so that I've seen and I'm going to keep going I I coached um track for 15 years as well but now I'm focusing on Cross Country so anything you want to say coach I figured thank you congratulations if you guys would shake hands with the board and then we'll take a [Applause] picture right guys come on over to the middle and we'll gather around you well done thank you guys and last but not least we have seventh grade boys volleyball from Desert Ridge Junior High coach Craig McDaniel and do you have any team there they are see again we'll have the boys introduce themselves then you can talk Jackson Johnson JJ Stenberg Chad Hoops all right I'm Craig McDaniel this is actually my 30th year coaching in the district um and I try counting all the Championships I've had over the years and this is my 15th and never before have I had a team struggle so much during the season I think our record was two and six going into the playoffs and then they went on a row and they brought home the championship so fantastic um very proud of everybody they worked hard and I couldn't ask for anything more from them so nice job boys congratulations gentlemen if you shake hands with the board and then we'll take a picture [Applause] I would like to give a shout out to all of our administrators principles assistant principes Deans from uh the junior highs that showed up tonight thank you guys for making this possible and we will definitely see you again governing board members that concludes our recognitions for this evening thank you you there's that one yeah ioty after should we give them a few minutes to go home and log on so they can watch the rest online no all right probably seemed like a motivated group that was fantastic thank you very much uh moving on to agenda item number four superintendent report again Dr Shane McCord thank you Mr Thompson and governing board members uh want to talk to you real quick about uh school and District letter grades I'm just going to say a few things there's going to be a presentation on that here shortly but the Arizona Department of Education released the 2324 School letter grades last Friday the state's accountability system is designed to empower schools to achieve and increase Student Success by providing districts and schools with feedback on areas of strength and those that may need additional focus and enrichment schools learn letter grades based on various metrics including proficiency and growth in critical subject areas graduation rates subgroup proficiency Improvement acceleration and Readiness measures and College and Career Readiness indicators the letter grades indicate the following a is excellent B highly performing C performing D minimally performing and F is Failing Gilbert Public Schools is incredibly proud of its students and staff and their achievement ments for the 2324 school year Gilbert Public Schools as a district received an a letter grade for our school district further all GPS schools have achieved either an A or B letter grade and the Arizona Department of Education has rated them as excellent or highly performing as listed as I said before this achievement reflects the hard work of our students staff and families and I can't reiterate that enough over the last few years we've have been very focused on making sure our students have everything they they need and that means as a school district we have to ensure that our our staff has everything they need our principles have everything they need and we did we set the bar high and I believe our folks have achieved it there's always room for improvement we're not going to be settled uh with just this we're going to keep our foot on the gas and keep going but publicly I want to say to all of our our students our teachers our support staff our administrators our district LEL staff and our families how proud I am of them and I want to thank them for entrusting us with their students and their academic achievements so congratulations to everybody and election day is one week from today Tuesday November 5th every election is important whether it's during a presidential election or not I encourage everyone who is of voting age to exercise their right as a US citizen to go and vote you have the power and the right to have your voice heard and make it a difference again one week from today Mr Thompson that concludes my report for this evening thank you very much uh the letter grade uh accomplishment this year that's a big deal um and so I just want to underscore Dr McCord's comments um on how uh how how pleased and how proud the board is um with the hard work from all of our staff and students and and the families would any other any of the other board members like to comment I would love to comment I am so proud that um we've made this level of accomplishment because we've come a long ways in the time that we've had letter grades we've come a long ways and I don't think a letter grade is everything but I think it does give us something to look at and work with our students and help them move forward so I am very proud of all the hard work that's been put in by every everyone it's a it really is a team effort and I would say all that curriculum and all that training is paying off I'm looking forward to the the presentation tonight as well so thank you to everyone who's with all the hard work thank you all right uh moving on to agenda item number five request to speak to the governing board uh we uh are going to have Miss would read our admonition before we uh hear from our speakers request to speak to the governing board pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.02 the governing board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to reasonable time place and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body after an open call to the public individual board members May respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the governing board may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda however members of the governing board shall only discuss or take legal action on the issues raised during an open call to the public if the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action during an open call the governing board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against School Personnel or anyone connected to the district as it may impact due process rights please contact the office of talent management if you have specific concerns about any individual employee thank you Miss Wood uh we have two requests to speak to the board tonight uh the first one is Bridget Vega it's okay I was I didn't I didn't see her here so thank you for and uh so then that and chissa it'll chissa Arnold you're welcome to come up to the podium you'll have three minutes and it'll be uh noted with uh uh a green a yellow and a red when you're getting close to the end perfect thank you thank thank you for your time tonight just last month the Arizona state supreme court gathered officials to have the discussion about teens committing violent crimes 2024 set a record in teens charged with aggravated assaults kids are angry mental health institutions are constantly in maximum capacity and suicide remains a leading cause of death among kids in Arizona Maricopa County attorney Rachel Mitchell's office cited a 350% increase in first degre murder among teens and a 106% increase among aggravated assault in teenagers we have kids hurting and hurt people hurt people this is an epidemic that must be taken seriously or we will much more kids get injured or die and our schools here in Gilbert are not exempt because it is happening this town has multiple gangs um operating in its presence and it is recognized and those gang members are attending your schools there is a heightened awareness of the number of guns as circulating among Our Youth and this was seen just last week as the loaded gun was carried on mosques campus I have said to you guys it's not going to be long before a shooting occurs especially after the bullying happened with my own child the as the fact um in fact you probably don't know that kids from the West Valley are actually driving out to the East Valley to party and I say this because I know the parties are not happening here during the school day but the number of drugs and guns and alcohol that is accessible it is significantly more accessible in the East Valley than it is in the West Valley so local authorities are citing West Valley kids coming out here to party with our East Valley students girls are having guns held to their heads and they feel like it's a normal thing they don't take a bad at they don't bad an eye at it um and the guns being at these parties is not a big deal there are numerous driveby shootings going on as well it is a this is a nationwide problem that we're dealing with here and this school district is not exempt from these issues happening we are heavily working with local and broader police departments and leaders to help put policies and procedures in place to combat this problem once again we're asking for you as a district to take this seriously and create clear disciplinary policies for your schools as well as Implement further safety procedures to prevent loaded guns from coming on your campuses again thank you Miss Arnold um I would i' also like to uh make mention that we had three online comments uh this afternoon and so I just wanted to thank those that commented and Miss Arnold again for coming tonight and speaking to the board thank you moving on to agenda item number six uh 6.01 monthly financial report and first quarter financial report ended September 30th 20124 for fiscal year 2025 Dr McCord thank you Mr Tom governing board members I'll turn this over to our associate superintendent of Business Services Miss Bonnie Betts thank you um good evening governing board members um so hold on so Sarah I need some help I can't uh control the screen excuse me we even practiced okay great good evening governing board members Mr Thompson um Dr McCord this is our monthly Financial but as you um were told this is September 30th year to date ending September 30th so we also have included some quarter to quarter comparisons at the end of this report uh today to give you an idea of how we're doing on a quarter uh comparison quarter to quarter a year ago versus today so to begin we're going to start with the monthly Financial reports um always present the district operating funds wanted to share some details about the Federal grant funds and the state Grant funds and then the final reconciliation regarding the bond fund fund 630 and then you can see that we'll be talking about revenues year-over-year and expenditures year-over-year um at the end of the report so these are our district operating funds as you would expect our available balance continues to be drawn down um in small amounts so about a $200,000 difference from last month to this month and about a half a million dollar difference in unrestricted Capital um so this is normal we are at the beginning of the school year and so as the allocations are being spent on unrestricted capital purchase orders are being um being opened and allocations are being approved so um spending is is continuing so the Federal grant funds wanted to share um idea Part B so note that last month we shared that there was um about a $2.5 million uh available balance and this month it's about $250,000 so note that as we begin the year we have private school uh private day schools that many of our special education students are um we we tuition them in and so we have went we have gone ahead and um encumbered all of those funds for the year for those students that are attending private schools and most of that has been placed into our special education fund um Ida note that idea and maintenance operations operate um in conjunction with one another so as idea funds are depleted then maintenance and operations funds uh take over about $65 million of Maintenance operations goes to uh addressing the the needs of our special education students also note the other Federal projects so we're just letting you know that we know that there's a negative $555,000 available balance we do um we did our best estimate on the adopted budget which was back in June and so we have additional carry over that was awarded so that negative will be corrected when we present the revised budget to you in early February so under our state Grant funds wanted to point out instructional Improvement there has been a significant incumbrance of um purchase orders uh due to the implementation of the math adoption so there's a lot of professional development going on throughout our schools um reflecting that increase in that spend and income an um column and then finally the bond fund so this represents our final reconciliation it is a little bit different than what was presented to you a couple of weeks ago when we did the bond and override report what I'd really like to point out here um on the top the transfer to bond debt and the cost of issuance so as we are out selling bonds you can see that we had a cost of issuance in 21 22 and 24 those were the three Bond sales associated with the November of 2019 authorization so note that the amount that was anticipated to be spent was a little bit more than what was actually needed so whatever is uh left over that was unspent must be transferred into Bond debt to um into the bond Debt Service fund to offset the uh Levy against the taxpayer so that will help um the amount of money that we will Levy going into the 20 um 25 26 school year just wanted to point that out and then you can also see that the remaining balance here is zero so everything has been encumbered or spent to date out of that final um $100 million authorization so and before I move on are there any questions about any details on the monthly Financial I've got a question if you could go back to slide I seven or eight um s six five um was this it it was where you maybe maybe it is further up where you $65 million um it was on the idea Part B line for special education out of maintenance and operation so you can see that our adopted budget was about $5.8 million um idea is the federal dollars that go go to supporting our special education students and then maintenance and operations carries the rest so overall we're about $72 million annually how does that compare to other school districts our size I've heard I mean I know that that and Dr McCord mentioned it earlier tonight that we do everything we can to offer every opportunity and every um advantage to our students how does that $72 million compare if you know to other districts our size um I don't know that offhand um I do know that as time goes on as we um are decreasing in enrollment our special education population is a higher percentage that has been when I first arrived at Gober Public Schools it was about 11 and a half to 12% and we're now over 14% so it is a big uh expenditure for all school districts in Arizona um but I'm very happy to do that research for you to see how we do compare to our our neighbors and our peers we have families that seek us out uh as a school district people move here because of our special education programs and um I'm very proud of that because we I believe we do it better than anybody else and uh but that does come with the cost but um we truly um are proud of what we offer to our students with special needs so yeah and I I just I just think that's incredible and I I would I I'd be willing to to bet that there's not um one Gilbert public school's family that doesn't know someone directly whether it's a family member uh somebody that lives on their block uh somebody from different clubs or churches that that utilize Gilbert Public Schools um special education programs and I just think that's fantastic that we put such emphasis on uh uh on that most important community so thank you okay so now we're moving on to the first quarter financial report so again uh keep in mind that we're comparing um 202 3 quarter 1 to 20 I'm sorry 2024 quarter 1 to 2025 quarter 1 okay so I'm looking to see how how what we expect has actually happened regarding revenues and expenditures so um let's see um also keep in mind that this analysis is specific to our operating funds only so we're not looking at all the federal funds and all the Enterprise funds and all those other funds it's just that operating grid that we're comparing uh quarter to quarter so operating operating Revenue by Source year over-year comparison note that the state portion has increased in 2024 in comparison to the state portion in 2023 um note again that the county uh contribution was 20 was zero in in uh September of 2023 which is fiscal 2024 September of 24 is fiscal 2025 just so we're clear on the on the dates we're talking about here and then note that the county uh amount in 2024 is actually negative by $400,000 so keep in mind that as um and we are all aware of this because of the Quasar uh settlement where we have to pay back um dollars to the taxpayer that their sess value is overstated so that payback has to come out of the contributing fund so in that particular case um that County that's that's partial contributor to why that's negative so it may resolve itself it may go up and down it depends there's also prior year uh tax collections that are added to that as well so we'll just keep an eye on it and report that out um every quarter um and then you can see that uh to date we have received about uh 16% of the revenue um the Year year-to date revenue and you'd expect that we should receive about 25% because we're at the first quarter well as you know the State of Arizona imposes a delay in the state aid of about 36 37 million for govern public schools and so that's why the it's not the expected 25% on the revenues received again this is not a concern for us we do have adequate reserves where we're not incurring interest charges um so this is not negatively impacting us and does not negatively impact our budget okay so again this is expected annual revenues uh versus the um the actual so again it just depicts the same thing and this is local County state and federal you can see that I told you that this was specific to um to our operating funds but note that there is a federal contribution in our operating funds the two funds that are in our operating funds that contribute that are that contribute to our operating funds that are federal are the Medicaid reimbursement as well as e rate so just so you're clear what that is it gets confusing because we have a federal fund grid but there are some federal funds that contribute to our um operating funds M vets just any of these charts um help me remember why is there such a difference in the state versus local contribution between the two years so the 43 million versus the 40 million yeah so um there really shouldn't be because the the amount uh cu the county so you'd expect a large difference between um September of 22 versus September of 23 because we had County Equalization in 22 but we didn't in 23 and the state revenue picked that up this occurrence of $3 million is due to timing we just received some monies earlier than others anything specific yeah there's nothing specific it's totally due to the timing of the revenues received thank you yep so operating Revenue this is operating Revenue by fund so you would expect that maintenance and operations of course represents the largest amount of that um and again the changes are due to timing uh but if you note classroom site fund you see $5 million last year and about 7.8 this year that is reflective of the dollar amount per student increase that was um calculated by The Joint legislative budget committee going into this uh fiscal year fiscal 25 and again this is just depicting it actual um in in the different Manner and then finally we're going to take a look at the operating fund expenditures year-over-year comparison so note that we share expended and encumbered so we have haven't spent $344 million as of this point but we have spent and encumbered that amount because as we start the school year we encumber the full amount for salaries and benefits and you can also see that that 344 um million dollars of spend is significantly higher than the revenues that we've received to date um again we're authorized to spend to our budget capacity and regard regardless of whether we have available cash at the time so just because of the amount that we've been able to reserve um we are in a fine shape in terms of cash management um but we are not out of line we are doing what we're supposed to be doing and we are budget controlled here in the state of Arizona and then you can see um on this particular graph you can see that um uh the expended encumbered in capital was about 29.7 million um a year ago and $ 35.8 million this year so the big change is that we are pushing more of our capital projects that are happening out in our our schools into unrestricted Capital because our bond dollars are totally um spent to date so that's the biggest reason for that change there any questions there I'll just ask what's and remind me what's the operating what was the increase in operating is that it's just 1% but yeah and I I think it's also just timing of of increases and depending upon when things were encumbered it's really difficult to say because this is encumberance so right right okay and also costs have gone up though our utility costs have gone up I mean even our water in the town of Gilbert has significantly gone up so those purchase orders that are being encumbered are higher okay thank you okay and that's all that I have for tonight thank you very much thank you very much Miss BS uh moving on to 6.02 our teaching and learning academic Spotlight Dr McCord thank you Mr tops and governing board members I will let our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning Mr Jared Ryan introduce this next subject thank you so much Mr Thompson governing board Dr McCord uh we're proud this evening to bring two presentations your way uh both of which are a joint effort between administrative Services technology Services office ATT talent management business services and teaching and learning uh most important both our direct reflection of the leadership from the governing board and our superintendent Dr McCord uh we're here tonight to share with you some exciting results of both efforts that are being put in by staff specific attention on transition periods meaning to nth grade in some cases we'll talk about freshmen also some additions made to our grad tracker so I'm going to introduce uh Laura conteras who's our counseling coordinator uh we also have a couple people with us that I want to recognize Sarah Van Cleave is our Desert Ridge High School counseling department chair and Ryan Nelson here in the back who is our director of data and research he's kind of the brains behind the operation and brings our thoughts to reality and and honestly none of what you're going to see here would would be in place without the support of tech services and our data and research Department Miss Laura well thank you so much for the opportunity for us to share again I'm Laura contas I'm the coordinator of counseling for both Junior High and high school um and Sarah is going to join me in explaining um some things that some wonderful things that they're doing at Desert Ridge um but we did want to go over um and kind of um reintroduce the graduation tracker I believe it was discussed last year year um and kind of introduced to the board um it's something that we've worked over the last year through data and research through teaching and learning through each of the individual campuses to really make improvements and update um and just be more sophisticated in the way that we use it um and there's been a lot of time and effort placed into it with the help of Hope of supporting students um so I wanted to give just some screenshots um and so you can visualize what students and parents and counselors see when they're going into the grad tracker and kind of point out some updates this is just a sample plan um not specific to a student if it was a student you would see um they're identifying information on the top their ID number who their counselor was everything in this one page um and then I want to highlight um if you take a look at the top there is um the colorcoded key which is really important that we're very visual with our students and families um because it's going to help us identify things easier so if you take a look green is are things that have already um that have been taken and completed um blue is going to be things that are planned for the future yellow is in progress and then red is kind of our warning system right if anything's in red on the grad tracker um we need to pay close attention to that so um this plan also indicates what um the post high school plans are so where kids going postsecondary whether it be trade school universities all of that and then whether they're planning of going in state or out of state so the goal is to work with the grad tracker initially with incoming freshmen and we'll share with you some of the initiatives that we've taken with that in the past but to plan out and set some goals for students individually when um they're in high school so you can see here that um each content area is represented all of the core areas towards graduation and so it outlines Again by content area um there's a little button in the corner that I want to show you um where that Arrow is that says show plan and if students click on there why is this not working she said to slide the thing that it would work it's not working oh oh it did move okay sorry it's behind it's lagging there we go okay sorry about that um so if you click on the show plan then what it does is it visually takes you to this again with the colorcoded right like where we are in um what courses have been taken um we can see the student is a junior because in yellow is where their in progress is and then they have their senior year planned out in blue so it's just another format to visualize what students typically think of when they're planning out their four years so then if we go back to the the grad tracker the main page this is the kind of the bottom half of that other sheet and so it continues to outline where the requirements are again you'll see everything denoted with that color coded if it's something that was already taken the grade is indicated there um and then or when it's in progress what year it was taken and all of those things in the bottom right hand corner is all of that information kind of put together right it tells you how many credits have are planned and earned so far um it tells you if they passed the Civic exam which is a key component to graduation as well and then it highlights the um unweighted GPA their class Rank and then most importantly that green button is what we want to see for our students right that they're on on track that we have a plan for them um but we also don't necessarily panic when it's read Because what that highlights to us is to counselor specifically is that there needs to be some type of intervention right that that student needs a support and it doesn't mean that they weren't on track at one time but maybe they were signed up for a summer school class and they didn't complete it maybe they didn't pass a course and so it it is basically that alert system that tells us right away um that they're off track and so for future use what we're really EXC about is that parents and um students will use this and they can be kind of the keepers of their information and kind of know that and it's going to prompt those discussions um with the counselor to make sure that they don't fall too far behind and that we can intervene appropriately okay and then this is there we go okay and so what's really really exciting and again this is a huge kudos to our data and res research team um we've been traveling around to the different campuses with our data and research team to um discuss the information that's come out of grad tracker and they've developed basically this incredible um system of of pages and um places that we can identify at a glance whether it be the district level at the campus level individual counsel level you can take a look at and see where um kids are on track and off track right so and in this example um of information it's it's what can be provided so we can see at a glance for the cohorts how many seniors do we have that are currently off track and then um we can dive deeper into who are those students what are the reasons behind that and so um you know just kind of looking at that measure of accountability there and then additionally um across the bottom it shows you some different um key points that are those early warning factors and at risk fact fa s that we want to identify in students so we want to identify what are the missing courses that students have um what in progress failures are are common among students how many are there what behavioral incidents are interfering with their success um absenteeism High rates of absenteeism is something that we're battling on our campuses and so to have that data right there allows us to jump in and intervene um a as individual campuses and then districtwide so um and then we can also just identify who is not on track simply because they have to pass the Civics test right so um those are all important things that we look at Miss contras yes what's a super senior a super senior is for instance if they were in the cohort of 2023 and they have not graduated yet if they haven't completed so they go beyond the four years okay thank you yeah absolutely so and what's important about those students too is capturing them right following up with those students identifying them and so this system allows us really to jump in and identify those kids like why didn't they get finished can they get finished in the summer um you know to count within that cohort absolutely all right so as a result of utilizing the graduation tracker one of our big focuses has been on freshman visits and like putting freshman first in developing that four-year plan we want to utilize this tool to help students set goals for themselves and so um all of the Comprehensive High Schools all of the high schools actually um are utilizing this system everyone's been tasked with meeting with their freshmen during the first semester of nth grade that we we feel like that's really important and but each campus has a unique approach I know last year Camp overy High School shared they do freshman family meetings with all of their families and so their process literally does take the entire semester to make sure that they're meeting with their students and planning those four-year plans out um our Focus has been on parent involvement um really focusing on that first semester goal so we'll take a look at all of that data with individual campuses to see where um to make to ensure that we're capturing and and giving the individual attention to each of those students um Gilbert High for instance did something a little bit different this year they went in within the first three weeks of school they met with all of their freshmen in their biology classes because that's a common class that the majority of freshmen take and they were able to all their entire counseling team went into each section they did presentations they introduced themselves they um but then more importantly they follow they followed up with individual meetings with the students during that time um to to put a face with a name and then to sit down and and work on their grad tracker and then subsequently communicated with their parents the outcome of those meetings and so I'd like to invite Sarah up to speak about Desert Ridge and what they've done this this semester and more importantly the first quarter of this year because they've done such a fantastic job they've met with 98% I think is where we're at right now of their freshmen and actually developed a plan for them thank you Laura and thank you for having me tonight um I am Sarah van CLE I'm the department chair uh for counseling at Desert rid high and I've been in the district long enough that I remember doing these on paper so thank you to Ryan and the data team for making this so much easier and more user friendly for most importantly our students and parents um at Desert Ridge we try to meet with our students all of our freshmen in the first quarter um the earlier the better because they're new to our campus we want them to be able to put a face with the name talk to them about some expectations start to get their goals down on paper um so that they have a Direction so our plan this year we met with all of our freshmen through their English class the second week of September um they come down in individual classes every counselor goes into um a presentation pulls their specific group of students we divide up by Alpha split so we group our students by last name and follow them for four years um so we pulled them aside into small groups of our own students so they could put a face with the name we could get to know them a little bit better we gave them a short presentation about some of the important parts of high school where they can receive help um who their resources are on campus graduation requirements college entrance requirements and so forth and then we helped them each develop a four-year plan that aligned with both their post-secondary goals their High School graduation and their interests um once we developed that with them we met with them individually just to double check the accuracy answer any questions um once we were done with the entire um group of English classes which took us about a week week and a half we sent out uh communication to all of our parents parents from The Freshman Class gave them examples of how they could log into the four-year plan let them know what we met with their students about and encourage them to go ahead and check out their students graduation fore plan and contact us with any questions that they had um so it seemed to be pretty successful we have 98% of our freshmen on track with a completed graduation plan um we have a couple outliers because they're homeschoolers or they've got very unique situations so as hard as we tried to make it 100% we couldn't quite get there but um we're pretty proud of the work we've done we feel like it really made a great connection with our freshman class all right um yeah and truly we're really so very proud of all of the campuses for the efforts that they're doing and putting students first and really making sure that um things are done on an individual basis with our students and and being sure to communicate with parents as well and so I'd like to just share with you um there's two different ways that parents and students can access Infinite Campus and so one of the things that we found out through I mean kind of historically with with kids especially is they don't look at anything on the computer right so um they're typically looking on their phone and at their app and so there are instructions there that we shared with you on how students can log in from from the app and and their phone um to get to their grad tracker um which is really important and then I also wanted to share with you you can actually get there by logging into the school district website um clicking um so and yeah and then just clicking on Infinite Campus and then there's a button that says show more um and we've worked really hard on trying to get it in a visual place but you do need to click on show more and then it takes you actually to this drag grad tracker icon um that students then can go there and access that and really what we want to do is normalize kids looking at it frequently making sure that they're following up so that will be part of all of our education and C action planning is referring to that and promoting the use of that whether it be on the computer but pretty typically through their phone so they can take a look at any time and know if they're on or off track so with that are there any questions for myself or Sarah any questions from the board oh yeah you want to go I'll go first I the only question I had is this is awesome I'm so excited about it and I think it allows counselors to have the information right at their fingertips really help students in all these different areas which is we need all that support so I'm so excited about it so appreciative of this my one question is um how do we because they they have to register before their freshman I mean they you're meeting with them as freshmen during their freshman year but they have to register for classes for 9th grade remind me how do they figure out which classes to take as nth graders because that has to happen like February sure so you're working in eth grade so typically and I'll let I'll let Sarah share again depending on um the campus the high school counselors will go to whatever feeder Junior highs there are and they have those processes in place to do presentations send communication home they're typically working very closely with the junior high counselors to make sure the junior high counselors kind of understand what goes on um for high school and so typically they're choosing that typical basic freshman um schedule um we also host the Freshman preview nights at each campus so before students register they're invited onto campus to see all of the electives all of the academics to meet teachers you know all of the different things that they might do whether it be performing arts or anything like that so there's definitely very focused Outreach um there's not with doing that registration for incoming freshmen and then as well as the rest of the high school what we found is I think there's been efforts to try to do the four-year planning at that part and kids don't necessarily understand it they just need we need them to get to high school but we feel like it's very important that we take care of that in the first semester because they're there they understand a little bit more about it but um but getting them that Foundation of courses during um n9th grade is the goal of that eth grade meeting and then planning from there sir do you want to add yeah so I can speak to what we do at Desert Ridge um we go to Desert Ridge Jr and meet individually with um English classes once again just because they're usually the easiest to work with um but we meet with individually with English classes give a similar presentation including graduation requirements and then present all of our Freshman Class options we are kind of in the process and started it last year where we're really working hard to identify students who have the potential to try honors classes and AP classes and kind of pre-s slugging those um a little bit for them based on teacher recommendation and certain criteria just to try to push sometimes nervous freshmen a little bit harder into something that they can do um so we do meet with them and give a presentation and then we go back a week later to collect all of the registration forms and meet with them individually answer any questions go over their forms make sure they're accurate um and if they have any specific plans or goals that kind of influence what they're going to take further down the road we answer those questions and set them up for that for their freshman year as well that sounds great I think the more that we can and I know I know the students need to own it but I think also the more that we can communicate with the parents and inform which I know you guys do I think that's a huge piece I love that parents and students are going to be able to see this so easily and be involved and have a really better idea of what four years looks like so thank you yeah absolutely no I I appreciate I appreciate having the scad tracker because I feel I remember doing it in paper sitting down me too because okay we want to do these electives um you know I had some some children that were very involved in music and trying to fit in choir and advanced choir it took a lot of planning to get your schedule worked out and I think this is really great um it seems a lot more planned and we can be more focused and not as halfhazard but what happens if we make that plan and then um our high school scheduling there might be a conflict between a couple of different classes or um they they have one need but then the high school schedule doesn't quite meet that need help me understand that yeah and so so really from year to year so we are always going to meet each individual year with students and revisit their grad tracker in order to facilitate their registration for the upcoming school year right we know that not everyone is going to I mean and probably pretty rarely are you going to be this is my grad tracker and we're not going to deviate from it for some reason right interest change you know you make a certain team or you don't so that will all be updated with with the schedule then if they're but it what it does allow us to do as well from the scheduling standpoint from a campus it allows us to predict what kids will need in the future early much earlier than waiting till this the spring so it actually I think we've used it already to really inform our decision making as far as scheduling to try to to avoid that um and then once the schedule is changed it the in progress then changes and so the plan changes so it is a it is something that is fluid does that make sense yeah it it does make sense but I also know there were problems of um this was just in the past of being able to get the class you needed and it was in conflict with two classes that were needed yeah so there was a trying to figure out how to make that from a scheduling standpoint and so yeah and so we try to be as flexible and I know the master schedulers on campuses um and and the AP registration coordinators they actually they start with those Singleton classes to try to avoid that as much as possible yeah all right thank you I appreciate that absolutely it's a you know we have a lot of students and meeting everyone's needs and getting that high school schedule down and getting everyone where they need to be as really a a master art so thank you for all that hard work absolutely anything else no thank you thank you for that [Applause] presentation keep it down back there all right perfect oh it is great to see the excitement that you have for the the grab tracker and I think it's a tremendous tool that we're using for our students and families to stay on track so thank you very much moving on to 6.03 uh district and school letter grades Dr McCord thank you Mr Topson governing board members I will turn it over once again to uh Mr Ryan and as I alluded to in my superintendent report we are excited and we thought it would be a great time since while the iron is hot to make sure that we give you some information from what we just found out last Friday Mr Ryan yeah thank you Mr Thompson governing board Dr McCord Mr Thompson I believe you said um that's a big deal earlier when when commenting and you're absolutely right it's on Friday we were in pins and needles um hoping that we were going to have final results and um we had an idea of where we're going to land but until the final authorization to to share out is is given you're always kind of uh just a waiting game I would like to just say I was sitting next to Mr burer as he was going through our spreadsheet of what we believed our points were and what the ad reported and I think all of them were exactly right 100% corre yeah I didn't get to do that with uh Dr Cox but I'm sure she was doing the same thing she was texting me into the night can we release these yet because other just and and that's how it was I mean when you when you do do something well you want everyone to know and I really appreciate the work these two have done uh throughout this whole process so thank you so we will down the road get into much greater detail during a upcoming board retreat or a study session or or whatever the governing board and Dr McCord would would want us to do but we did want to share tonight uh the results uh that we're we're aware of um pre- 12 we have an incredible amount uh an incredible number of positive trends and in in recent years the amount of data that we've had access to the information that that is at our fingertips to make decisions the support of the governing board with curricular adoptions and a variety of other pieces that have been critical to this um are all celebrated um what you'll hear is a step this is a celebration um we're not satisfied uh this doesn't stop here this isn't a Finish Line but we do take time to celebrate and so with that Dr Christa Cox our secondary director of curriculum instruction and assessment along with Robert burer our elementary director of curriculum instruction and assessment are here and um I just want to finish by saying before I turn over to them this isn't by happen stance this wasn't a Gilbert thing that good kids and teachers show up um the work by our students the work by our families the work by our teachers is just Second To None um I'm blessed to work with coordinators directors colleagues assistant superintendents governing board superintendent that it just everyday Focus um earlier today Miss Taylor was emotional as she's listening to Junior High leadership team share their story during impact checks and you kind of look around in that room and you realize something special is going on and um I'm just blessed to be part of it and and uh I'm going to turn it over to these two who who do incredible work okay thank you so much Mr Ryan so he's kind of going over what we're going to go over tonight um we're going to go over a again we plan on going more in depth into some of the data once we've had a little more time to disaggregate it uh but tonight we want to go ahead and celebrate what we're seeing in the data um we have some quick numbers that we got from a public file that will show kind of where we rank in accordance to other districts in the East Valley and then I also we're going to reveal our our district letter grade so what we've got here is the accountability formula for our K8 schools it has not changed in a number of years which has really allowed us to hone in and make improvements um in monitoring the data as we know this is the third year that we have taken the ASA assessment so it's really allowed us to adapt to the assessment um and make sure that our curriculum and instruction is aligned to the assessment I also want to say as part of what you're going to see um a huge amount of credit goes to Tia Hansen and Tim Cannon having instructional leadership coaches to help monitor um the data that they're seeing come in the uh and go out to campuses and discuss hey I saw this in the data and I'll I'll let you know as a principal there's a lot of data coming at you very quickly thank you data and research department but it's super important to have another set of eyes going over it and then the data just is part of the picture I think it's important to see a data point and then connect with the campus to get the rest of the story um it could be that this or that happened and you're like oh okay so that's just you know the again the data that we're looking at is just one point so huge shout out to them we've also got the quarterly impact checks which are absolutely I think it has been super eye opening for us at the district level and at the school level so each site comes in quarterly and presents to um people from so it's Jason with the elementary schools and then we've got uh Marcy with the secondary schools then we've also got curriculum instruction assessment we have data and research this last go around we've had professional growth and development it really is an opportunity for schools um to show the impact that their action steps have made um we have conversations on the data we ask questions about hey so you're here did you ever think about doing this um and having those quarterly I think really allows it's almost like the A+ School visit is you have an opportunity to reflect prior on hey this is going really well or hey maybe I need to Pivot here just a little bit um I think those are invaluable uh for what you're going to see here in a second so I just have one question about that isn't that based on the um training we had a three years of training for data analysis and I'm sorry I forget the company that came in and helped us with that but it's that is that I and data teams yes definitely and I know um Lisa still comes out she'll actually be here next week um to continue and monitor we're building common unit assessments this year we are implementing the common unit assessments for ELA right in secondary at CLA as well and this year we're building in math and social studies to roll those out next year so again just adding different data points for us to be able to monitor student achievement better but yeah I'd say it's all a part of that work yeah because I mean I know we put a lot of effort into that and it's taken some time to get everyone through that training definitely so I just wanted to highlight that yep love it okay okay so here we have the 2-year comparison of AD letter grades for our 26th elementary school so I'll kind of pause for a second um sorry I'm too excited there was one second okay so what you see on here is the legend is green reflects growth year-over-year we had 13 elementary schools so 13 out of 26 improved either a letter grade or points year-over-year and again that is tough to do especially when you're at an a to continue to keep an A and find ways to get those points um is just a huge a huge shout out to our campuses we have 22 a schools 4 B so 100% of our elementary schools um are AB rated I've got to give a huge shout out our instructional coaches are critical in making all of this work whether it's planning PDS onboarding new teachers and getting them used to the culture of the campus they are the behind the scenes calling Ryan for data hey I need this so I can help move instruction for this grade level team over here they're often doing coaching cycles and helping be um just somebody alongside our teachers to move them from good to great in the elementary campuses it's absolutely in valuable to have a thought partner in academics as you know um many of our elementary schools don't have that Dean assistant principle and it's just nice to have somebody to collaborate like hey you seeing the same thing so the full-time instructional coaches definitely go towards what you're seeing here can I can I just ask one question about quartz seal because I remember that they were doing really well the previous year and then they got a C and now they've jumped from a c to an a a huge jump in points yep I've got to give a huge shout out and I was actually going to do that on the next side slide so huge thank you um for that nice segue for me I've got a I turned on the news Monday morning and they were featured on this big infographic that they were like one of the top five gainers in letter grades from um 2023 to 2024 so ABC 15 caught up on that when they were looking at the public file um so huge shout out um I know Mike the instructional coach Dr Henry um and all the amazing staff at courtz Hill go Trailblazers that definitely um I would say they were more refined in the data teams process and the quarterly impact checks and sticking to the plan um really paid dividends with courtel sorry did that kind of yes that answered my question but I I do remember that you know they had done really well and then all of a sudden they had a c right which was you know a shocker and then but you know to to gain 22 points and go from a c to an May is significant in one year is a huge huge uh accomplishment yeah it definitely so again huge shout out to our Trailblazers um couple other things I wanted to point out so again courtz Hill was um the local media kind of picked up on the huge jump that they made four schools were with amongst the top 100 Point gainers for elementary schools in Arizona so huge shout out Canyon Rim was the 25th they got the 25th most points in theate State of Arizona for elementary schools Greenfield Elementary was 30th Highland Park Elementary 49th and Patterson 62nd so again to have four of our elementary schools get the top make the list of top 100 um for points gained is is a huge um celebration additionally I got to give a huge shout out to our cougars out at Canyon Rim um so they were our top Point getter in elementary school last year and they did it again they found a way to improve and they actually have more than 100 points this year so usually the point scale tops out of a at 100 and they're at 10.68 um so huge shout out to our Mesa um our Mesa wing of Gilbert Public Schools also Greenfield ended up getting more than a 100 points um and I've got to say that's huge Miss um Julie AER was huge on plc's and doing reflective teaching um yeah and that's what I've got for element all right so we're going to shift gears good evening to our uh secondary schools our seventh and eighth grade are held to the same standard and accountability model as what you saw on the first slide that Mr berer shared but for our 9th through 12th grade the accountability model does look slightly different So within that you still see student proficiency and student growth uh and the English language Learners the two indicators that are different for 9 through 12th are the graduation rate and the College and Career Readiness index a couple of months ago before letter grades we were we already knew how we did on the College and Career Readiness index that was a presentation uh we were very excited to bring to the board because our brick and mortar schools for the first time in Gilbert Public Schools all hit the 20% uh and most of them actually earned toward their bonus points as well in that area so when you see that that's 20% of the letter grade that's absolutely Ely um huge and so uh because I went into that so much in depth in a prior presentation I just wanted to kind of give a quick summary on that and then when you look at our secondary schools um I don't know I feel like I can't get rid of the uh perran that I've had over this past week uh when you look up there the The Legend is the same as what Mr bercher said we have one title school but when you look at the growth in letter grade and or points uh all of our schools areas and or showed increase all of them so our secondary schools are absolutely just crushing it and so um it was kind of already stated but when you do get to that a standpoint you can kind of see a little bit of uh a status quo in those points and I know um even for those two schools that earned the a their points they're they're still uh chomping at the bit to find ways to continuously try to hit that 100% uh which is it seems near impossible but we do have some schools that do hit that and so with this want to talk about how um our instructional framework and our district continuous Improvement plan Mr burchard talked about the impact checks that are happening at our campuses but one of the things that we did start last year is we kind of realized that maybe we did things backwards and that we really needed to have a district Improvement plan that was similar to what we were putting our schools through uh when we were noticing trends when the schools when we would finish those impact checks uh they're they're very um they're they're my favorite days of work and we have those three times a year and you just walk away totally uplifted and uh it reminds you why you're doing what you're doing and we had realize that some of the trends that were surfacing that if we came together and did that same process as a district leadership team we would maybe be a step ahead of some of those Trends to be uh more Forward Thinking and more proactive with some of the supports we could offer uh we started those last year and we already have most of our schools have reached out and have thanked us for that process and I think that it's really made it more authentic and shows that we're all a part of that process so even the site uh goals now align to even the district goals and it just I've not I've been in Gilbert public schools for just under a decade and this is the most aligned I've seen uh our our district leadership our teacher it doesn't matter who you are what role you are I just feel like there's such a contagious energy that is happening right now and it's something extremely special and I feel like as governing board members uh if you don't hear that enough I know you guys get a lot of emails Pros cons everything uh comes your way but you need to know there's something special um that's going on right now and it's extremely contagious people are excited to be a part of it when we brought up impact checks a few years ago I think people were really nervous uh they're Thanking us now when when Mr Ryan mentioned that Mrs Taylor was uh emotional today like genuinely um I think most of us had goosebumps and tears in our eyes throughout the day like it's just it's pretty phenomenal what's going on so some of the things that when I talk about the trends that have surfaced in that it has helped us get to where we are so when you look at our I mean our Junior highs it's extremely significant the amount of growth that you have seen and I I know Mr Ryan has already told me to save the details and the specifics for a future meeting uh but some of that's okay go as deep as you want I know they're already like Christa keep it on we'll never go home why you don't but what I will say is that when you look at the growth that has happened in if it be in proficiency and growth and grad rate it is the intentionality that is happening behind the scenes every single day that people are showing up they are showing up they are working extremely hard it doesn't matter what role they're in everybody wants to be a part of the success and even with what you see here you still have people that are like we want all A's like that's we're not stopping until we get there so um with that some of the trends that we have noticed is the more we've even employed our uh instructional coaches and administrators to do learning walks when we talk about that instructional leadership if we're not inspecting what we want to see then unfortunately things do slide and that can happen in the best of places but right now there are learning walks happening on a regular basis at all of our schools and I really really do believe that the focus on instructional leadership and even our department chairs our teachers they're going on during their prep times their lunch periods to observe other teachers to learn better instructional strategies they're having conversations that really haven't necessarily been there and we're really supporting that how do you improve your instruction in the classroom on a daily The Next Step that uh did go into play this year has been the cuas and Mr bercher hit on it but it is one more point that now we have one more common piece of data that they can immediately dive into similar with all of the letter grade and the um if it be common assessments benchmarks act it doesn't matter what our leadership teams used to have to do is spend months disaggregating that what is different today is that all of this is accessible with a click of a button if that be the data team our team teaching and learning listening in the impact checks we are trying to save our sites the time so that they can just take action on what it says just trust what we're giving you trust the data and take the action because we know that they're they're the ones in the classroom making the difference so I just think that those few action steps are really important to highlight so when you go on to I know I kind of talked about the last slide and this slide together but when you look up there you can see um again every single one of our secondary schools uh are either an A or showed growth in their letter grades so really proud of all of our schools and the only other highlight that I do want to bring up is our uh Global Academy in the state for traditional online schools they were ranked the highest online school in the state of Arizona so that needs a round of applause absolutely and I know that um the principal will be happy for that shout out she deserves it that that their team has worked their tales off to to not only um improve things but to be competitive across the state all right so our big reveal we're in a-rated disc District um two consecutive years which is super exciting um we're going to share some more data uh Dr Cox is going to share some more data related to how rare that is to keep the a rating in a large District 100% of our schools have an A orb rating and I just want that to like set in for a second that is a massive huge deal um we have fought super hard um through a lot of different things um 100% of our schools are in a or b and again I want want to point out we've hit on it twice now that we're not done we really feel like this is a starting point for Gilbert Public Schools I know our next fam meeting will be huge in celebration and then I have no doubt that our leadership will go okay and now we're going to turn the page um because it's important to validate the hard work that was put in but it is just a starting point additionally 31 of our schools have an a rating a couple little Elementary tidbits that I was able to pick out so third fourth fifth and sixth grade in Ela all improved year-over-year so again every kid that took the test third fourth fifth 6th our proficiency went up I've got to give another shout out to last time I was here I um was talking about Christina Larsson and our ready gen trainings it worked right so while that wasn't the only thing to invest in our teachers all of them to get at least one full day training on the district approved curriculum was huge additionally sixth grade's proficiency percentage was tied for highest in the East Valley um so super exciting to give that group to the secondary and we're excited to see where do Cox and her team can take them um all right this is the big one all right so we are extremely competitive yeah across the East Valley the data is going to speak for itself but I will share that what you're going to see up here is uh we went ahead and listed kind of our larger East Valley School Districts that we feel are more comparable to Gilbert Public Schools uh the number of schools within their district and then in the First Column you're going to see 2024 that's the percent of A's that their district has obviously depending on the number of schools you can kind of see that there might be some differences there but then when you look in the last column that's the percent of A's and B's for their District so Gilbert Public Schools is the only East Valley School District that has 100% A's and B's we're the only one right okay I'm going to give that a standing right and then within that you can kind of look at this um a couple of ways but even if you just look at the number of A's we are leading the way with the highest percentage of A's in the entire East Valley uh I uh Dr McCord mentioned I think I was texting him at one point my husband was like leave him alone stop texting him but when you look at the data file there really is so much to celebrate in there one of the things that I wanted to share is that out of 42 large districts so across the entire State of Arizona there are 42 school districts that have more than 20 schools I felt like okay that's comparable um out of all 42 of those schools we are one of four that have received an a rating two years in a row only four in the entire state so that's 42 districts that have more than 20 schools like it's just when I say that there's something contagious and the momentum and where we're going it is it's incredible so just thank you to all of our te all of our employees and staff our teachers our leadership teams our administrators we really would not be here without everybody um doing their role and prioritizing the work that they do for our students um our families our parents it really has taken a whole village and I'm just proud I'm proud to get to share these updates with everyone I think we hit on most of these do you want to recap anything all right any questions any questions from the board I I have some comments I okay I'm really proud of what we achieved I think it's outstanding but I do think that we have had a huge investment into curriculum and professional development we've had a huge investment into salaries so that we can retain and hire really good teachers and I would have to say we've stayed focused as a board um you know there are other districts who are struggling with school boards and I think that really helps us to be focused on our students and I would I would love to see everybody competing with us and I know there are districts who are struggling to have those same resources in Arizona because they can't pass bonds or overrides or there just isn't sufficient funding to cover for that updated curriculum for them you know we're lucky to be the size of District we are where we can be small enough to be really personal but big enough to have good resources and so I just want to give that shout out I think everyone's worked really hard and I I know I mean I've watched these letter grades over the years and you know some of them have struggled with c's and I think did we even at some point have a d school or two so we've we've really come a long way in the time that I've been on the board um so I I really want to give a shout out but I also know that we've had focus and resources do that and other districts in Arizona that may struggle with some of those things need help with resources and curriculum and being able to have the resources that we do and the focus of the school board because it doesn't work well when there's a dysfunctional board so thank you very much for all of your hard work thank you yeah just celebrate outstanding dedication work daily focus of our students staff teachers instructional coaches campus leaders all the district leaders who come and meet really to support that classroom work that goes on and make sure our students every single student is being met at where they need to be and help to improve and grow how they can and just think have a growth mindset across our whole District I could not be more proud I'm so excited congratulations this is awesome yeah thank you very much um I just I want to say that it's really easy for us to Pat ourselves on the back and say you know we did a great job and we should because this is a this is a big deal um but I think we would would uh not be doing the um the the public a Justice by not recognizing their involvement in this um the public and our families and the support and the trust that they give us by sending their kids to GPS schools every day is is tremendous and um I think I i' I've told a few people I I think we should this is something that needs to go on a billboard in Gilbert this right here this graphic right here should be on a yard sign that we give to that we give out to families in GPS that they can put in their yard y along with yard signs that say things like my kid goes to a GPS a-rated school um uh and then just 100% of GPS schools are I mean these are things that we should be shouted these should be on freeway banners these should be everywhere to let the public know that it's because of them and their trust in us and their faith in us and uh we have an election coming up where we're asking for something from the public and making sure that this news is spread Beyond The District but to our entire Community I think is so important and could be so impactful um and so I don't know who we need to talk to about that about getting Billboards and signs made I know that we're running up on you know the final days here but man this is this is tremendous I'm excited about it we're excited about it we're excited that you're excited about it and I really do hope that we uh that we we keep the momentum going and that we can um for lack of a better term capitalize on this with uh with uh uh with the public so thank you very much thank you all right moving on to agenda item number seven the consent agenda items for consideration discussion Direction and possible approval uh do I have a motion for tonight's consent agenda items I move that we approve the consent consent agenda items thank you Miss Humphries and I'll go ahead and second that I we'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda items do so by saying I I I any opposed all right and that passes uh thank you very much uh agenda item number eight request for future agenda items is there anything that any of the board members would like to put on uh a future agenda okay thank you very much we'll move on to agenda item number nine board committee reports uh as a representative of the legislative the as the the as the legislative representative I don't have anything to report tonight uh the city of Mesa liazon Miss Wood I spoke with councilman Summers and he just reminded um those who live in the city of Mesa to please vote and study the issues there's a few initiative of Mesa for them to look over and again just encourage them to vote perfect thank you the town of Gilbert Leon and audit committee Miss humph um so the town of Gilbert does have two items on the ballot um I believe they're 497 and 498 and I did not realize this I've done this for a long time but not only did school districts have an expenditure limit put into the state constitution in 1980 so did cities and towns and community colleges and so for the town of Gilbert they have to go to the voters for a change on this expenditure limit so you should look at that and also the Community College Basic Community College is has to go the voters to get that expenditure limit lifted we have to go to the legislature but um those are issues that they should look out their ballots today was the last day to mail your ballot but you can go to B ballot ready.

e good evening I would like to call this meeting to order Mrs Richards may I have roll call please pres president Anderson let the record show that all five board members are present this evening okay I motion that the governing board adjourn adjourned to Executive session pursuant to ARS 38- 43103 a three and four regarding legal issues and regarding pending or contemplated litigation and or settlement discussions in order to avoid or resolve same and regarding legal issues related to vendor selection issues second that's Amanda with a second all those in favor I I motion carries 5 to zero e e e good evening at this time we will reconvene an open session uh please join me in a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance e okay I motion to approve the agenda second uh Anna got the second all those in favor I I motion carries five to zero okay Mrs Richards it's time for the superintendent report good evening president Anderson members of the board tonight we have our next segment of Higley Adventures which focuses on our kids all right now I want to focus on our students and I want Mr Allan fields to come up and help me is he here there he is I'm in the back so congratulations to these Higgly high students for achieving exceptional School SC on the preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship qualifying test the National Merit Scholarship Corporation recognized these students for their academic promise based on their PSAT the nmsqt scores these students scored in the top 3 to 4% so I'm going to let m Mr Fields um introduce these kids and have them come up I know is it working it's light on it hello hello there we go all right I know that Carson Winger is not here Carson is on his way back from China participating in a uh International Mandarin speaking comper Ed and he's also our point of Pride I'm going to talk about him again in a minute but he's still not here so is uh jiren jiren here jiren come on up Ace Tiff nice job Jaren Kaden Pope kayen Adam Alibi Ryan [Applause] Edom nice job Ryan Lucas Bradley and Sierra Grandy all right well we're extremely proud of these students and how they performed on the assessment uh qualifying as commended students and then we can do the other one right now we are so don't let them run back to their seat check okay uh oh went too far Let's see we also want to congratulate higgle High student Cassidy Berg for achieving semifinalist status with the score in the top 1% of the preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship qualifying test so as C here cassid is here come on C great job great job you guys want to get a photo I do I'm to you do yeah sorry we're stay [Music] [Applause] yes y'all are gonna have to don't go back next we want to recognize the Lea [Applause] Reeves and I'm going to need I need the athletic director from Higley High School no he said you he said Aaron Dilly has to come up here so bisa capped a terrific track and feel season this Spring by winning gold in the AIA division one or two sorry state track and field championships Reeves set school records on her path to the championship the current Junior also plays volleyball we look forward to two more awesome years from Miss Reeves so let's give her a round of applause [Applause] Mr Dilly do you want to say something um yes police is a special young lady her impact on the school and Community is seen by all the people who came to support her here she didn't even did you know any of these people are coming no that's pretty cool um and she's only a junior so we're going to have a couple more of those to celebrate as well [Applause] this [Applause] try oh my God yeah demonstration yeah all right we're ready for points of Pride and we're going to start with San middle school I know we have our Dean Lesley cook our assistant principal Brandon keing here this evening now we'll give you this all right uh governing board members members of the cabinet thank you so much for having us here this evening um and to give us an opportunity to celebrate some of the amazing people um that help make sasman an a-rated school and so um we want to um take pride in everything that they do and so we are all here um for the students and so we want to start with our student Michael why don't you come on up and join us so we can tell you or tell everybody some great things about you so Michael is a quiet leader on our campus that has a kind heart and has received the most Thursday thank yous from staff and our other peers teachers describe Michael as honest energetic and driven as a student giving 110% every day to his learning he is hardwork working determined and an excellent self- advocator he consistently stays focused and actively participates in whole group discussions his Positive Growth mindset set serves as an excellent example for his peers making him a valued Spartan of our school Community something that stands out is every single day Michael holds the door open for his peers at every transition at lunchtime and he gives a lot of fist bumps along the way we appreciate your respect and accountability as one of our Spartan students good job Michael Michael Michael Michael you get to come back for a picture [Music] buddy Michael do you want to tell us who you brought with us tonight celebrate family family lots of brothers and sisters Mom Dad right all right next up we would like to celebrate our parent volunteer it took a lot of coaxing to get this individual here because they don't love the Limelight but she's fantastic so Michelle Morris will you please come up and join [Applause] us she's goingon to be mad at me the rest of the school year all right Michelle has been a tremendous member of the Spartan Community for a number of years she's served as the ptso treasurer for the past two her unwavering desire to support the students teachers and administration of sasman does not go unnoticed she played an important role in helping to put on our annual fall Carnival this past Friday night and even bake cookies for our teachers during the parent teacher conferences whenever Mr Potts comes up with an idea to make San feel more like a family Michelle's answer is always the same how can I help Michelle you have helped tremendously to build the culture and success of sasman and we are blessed to have you as part of our family [Applause] and Michelle who did you bring with you tonight uh three of my four daughters so McKenzie Taylor and tan are here we would like to bring our next points of Pride who is our classified staff Jill Mendes come on [Applause] up Jill started as a at saaman deciding to join our team as our media center specialist Jill is a ray of sunshine displaying a positive attitude and ongoing energy every day she's always looking for ways to support students staff and clubs on campus Jill does an amazing job at organizing all the athletic uniforms and handling parent questions to support their child at home she has created a student centered Media Center helping with our Tas and providing a safe and calming environment she is a problem solver that will always find the answer even if she doesn't have it and goes above and beyond in supporting all teachers and staff on site Spartan Nation would be a little less bright if you were not on our campus thank you for all you [Applause] do who did you bring tonight I brought my family with me thank you guys all right and last but certainly not least um Miss Kelly Taylor is our our certified awarde come on up [Applause] Kelly so I have had the pleasure of knowing Kelly for just about 10 years um and she is a math teacher on the Spartan campus and she began making her impact on the Spartan campus when she joined the family when the school opened so she is what we call an OG Spartan and she's been impacting our campus in a positive way ever since although she's already a phenomenal teacher with amazing experience Kelly continues to pursue professional development opportunities to broaden her skill set to better serve her students it is her desire to support her students and her ability to care for them and to come along the the I'm sorry to come along the side of Staff members that makes her such a tremendous leader on our campus she is currently working on our national board certification continues to train in building thinking classrooms and serves as one of our department chairs as if that wasn't enough she's hardworking passionate and a truly great person to be around we are so blessed to have you on our campus and look forward to several more years of you positively impacting the students staff and families of the Spartan Nation thank you Kelly and and you have a couple guests here too right I do I have two out of five kids showed up thank you co and AJ and and I have my co-workers there too thank you Lexi and Rebecca Lexi Rebecca did you want to talk no okay [Applause] spe we're going to need Higley High School back up here so Administration from higgle High Mr Allen Fields you could have just stayed up here they W it's a great day to be a night right so um one of the the great things about uh higgle eyes it's filled with phenomenal people uh achieving great things day in and day out um many of the people that we are honoring tonight are busy out achieving those great things right so I mentioned before that Carson Winger is not here he was just in a competition in China uh an international compe competition for speaking Mandarin and he's on his way back but he placed third place in that competition uh with people from all over uh the world an amazing feat uh super proud of him but Carson is one of those kids he's awesome at everything he does um Carson's he's the perfect choice for Higley High School student points of Pride one would be hard pressed to find another student at any school in the state who's excelled at the level Carson has in the classroom he's aced every class he's ever taken at Higley even classes not on his schedule last year he scored a highest score possible a perfect score on the AP exam and a class he didn't take um yeah wow in addition to classroom Excellence Carson has represented the Mandarin program at local National and now International competition and he's been selected to travel abroad multiple times as part of his Mastery in the program additionally Carson's also represented hickley high in state and National robotics competitions Carson always brings his programs his family and the Higley Community pride in everything he does um hopefully Carson can come and talk about his experience in China we uh will be inviting him because we're super proud of him and so excited all right then our uh volunteer Miss Francine Lopez is busy volunteering as you would expect U but I've been principal for sever several years almost 28 now um and I have never encountered someone who dedicates her time to so many different booster club franc works with almost every single booster club on our campus there's scarcely a day or night that she's not volunteering at an event for one of those booster clubs when she's not running an event she's helping with their fundraising their books and their paperwork that they have to file I know several of our booster clubs have expressed how grateful they are for her service and we agree we're equally grateful for her efforts on behalf of our staff and students at Higley High then our classified staff also not here uh Mr Ethan Haney Ethan is the defensive coordinator for our girls flag football team who has a game going on uh right now at this time so he he's busy uh e it's it's amazing when you get to see a future star in the beginning of their path to success Ethan is that future star Ethan is a Higley High School alumni and now he's a parah he he became a Pera the year after he graduated he's also a coach on our campus and he's very effective and professional in both of those positions the thing that makes him unique is his personality he finds a way to get to know each student and what motivates them it's clear that the students know he cares about them and their success that effective leadership is rare in someone so young we're grateful he's on our team and hope we get to continue working with him throughout his bright future Ethan is now working on his special education degree uh and hopefully someday we'll become a teacher at Higley High all right now our our point of Pride who is here Jen AKA can you come up [Applause] please every year I try to get a a higher of the year uh when we hire JY JY probably was that hire of the year you uh since arriving to higgle high as a last minute replacement in our CT Department jyn's done an incredible job of leading and growing the graphic design program at Higley High in addition to producing highquality yearbook with her students Jenna's dedicated countless hours to supporting our swim and dive team she's the head coach uh as well as taking on the role of lead adviser for our student council we just had homecoming last week and JY was at the school hours and hours and hours making sure that that was a great event in a very short amount of time Jim has JY has established herself as a tireless staff member who makes innumerable sacrifices to ensure that our students are provided with the superior academic and extracurricular experiences they deserve we're grateful for all that she does for our students in our campus thank you and you brought some people with you my husband and my youngest of three thank you [Applause] next is hi Le Virtual Academy and we have Miss Tommy bird here to acknowledge her award recipients okay so I also have a thin crowd tonight um Jacob hildbrandt is our nominee um for student he's actually one of our Higley Learning Center students um Higley Learning Center is our a credit recovery program so he's unfortunately not here tonight Assuming he's working he usually works night so um okay so Jacob hilderbrandt is one of hlc's most promising success stories after overcoming some very difficult obstacles he made the decision to continue his education and graduate high school through the Higley Learning Center since he started an hlc this past summer he has demonstrated renewed dedication to his academic success and a commitment to his future goals as a result of his work in hlc Jacob has recovered enough credits to be back on track to grad high school on time with the class of 2025 this may After High School Jacob is considering serving in the military and is interested in pursuing a career as a police officer and he has and his family have much to be proud of so that's exciting to see somebody come that far sorry okay next is Montana Flores um she is our um classifi staff and she is my assistant and she is amazing because I could not have done the last three months without her um her contributions have been pivotal to the success of Higley Virtual Academy as we transition to new leadership this year she has stepped up with unwavering commitment and exceptional customer service and communication skills her intelligence and problemsolving abilities have been invaluable guiding us through challenges with a Forward Thinking mindset Montana's dedication to Excellence is direct impacted my own success in my new role as principal not to mention the fact that she keeps me laughing throughout the week even when the chips are down it is with immense gratitude that I honor Montana today thank you Montana Wherever You Are for your hard work and your sense of humor I look forward to the rest of our year together and I actually know where she's in she's in class because she's also getting her another degree so she's amazing okay sorry back okay now we have someone who is here jasine rice come on [Applause] up gota frame it jasine rice is an exceptional teacher who has transformed The Learning Experience for her students at Higley Virtual Academy she's not just a math teacher she's a source of compassion for her students she guides her students with patience enthus enthusiasm and clear communication she's created a welcoming atmosphere in her classrooms where students feel safe to share ideas and take risks Jazzy is very purposeful about helping her students connect in the virtual evi environment with each other through Collaborative Learning and with her through inperson and virtual tutoring her ability to relate to students and understand their academic needs ensures they feel fully supported which is so important in the online en learning environment the hickley Virtual Academy is successful because of the unwavering commitment of teachers like Jazzy thank you Jazzy for your dedication creativity and heart oh and you have to say who you brought with you today oh I brought my mom yay mom [Applause] [Music] [Applause] rest do what pres president Anderson members of the board we have some upcoming events as everybody knows or I think everybody knows election day is next Tuesday November 5th that's a big day for our country and our school district for sure um next Thursday uh November 7th at 6:00 p.m.

good afternoon or good morning if you're listening in the morning um this is Michael Herbert your town manager the host of Clock Town Chronicles this is episode five of The Clock Town Chronicles and today we have two special guests here we have Yolanda Greaves our current chair of the select board and economic development and community outreach director Beth Reynolds uh welcome you two it's nice to have you on the show thanks for having me thank you nice to be here yes um so today we are going to really do a 10-year retrospective of things that uh that we've done here in the town and and the way the town's changed over the last 10 years and then we'll focus a little bit at the end on some of the challenges that uh that we have coming up and we've got some biggies but um really this kind of this program emanated out of a discussion that we had with the select board retreat where you know recapping what we have done uh was part of that in terms of you know at what we're going to do moving forward um and then I think you know another part of of that again was okay what are the challenges that we're facing but you know when you put everything together that we've done over the last decade collectively as a community it really is an impressive list if just if you look at it from you know just an accomplishment or an achievement standpoint and I think that's going to be pretty self-evident as we go through this but what I think is really most important and one of the things that we're really trying to focus on and get in touch with is the why you know why are these things important why did we do them you know it's just so easy for us to get and we've almost developed a culture of just okay achievement get it done move on to the next thing but I think it's really really important to think about where we were like really put ourselves back to where we were 10 years ago what the town looked like what the town felt like and then compare that to where we are now and then that's going to help us gauge I think how we move forward and what are those things that we want to repeat not necessarily projects but do we want to continue this pace what are the things we want to look at maybe doing a little bit differently and so that's what today's program is all about but you know before we get into all of that Yolanda do you just want to give a little brief intro about about you and who you are sure I'm Yolanda Greaves I was just reelected in May to my fifth term on the ashin select board people may know my V voice and face through waa Around the Clock we're into our 11th season of that show I'm the current chair of the Ashland select board and through my role as a select board member I also represent Ashland at the Metro West Regional collaborative which is a regional organization I'm the chair of that I also represent at the state level at mapc and then I'm also currently on the board for weimo which is women elected Municipal officials so through through my 12 years sitting on the select board I've reached out and helped talk about regionalization and how we can work with other communities so that if we think we have a new idea we can check with other communities to say okay do we have to start from the beginning or are there other people who have done it and vice versa we've been able to take some of the things we've done here in Ashland certainly The Corner Spot uh that Beth helped get going other communities have looked to us and asked about that so good segue into Beth Beth how about you uh so I am Beth Reynolds I am the director of Economic Development um and community outreach I been here for eight years now I've been an Ashlin resident though for almost 20 which is nice to say um and I have enjoyed creating this position for the town of Ashland um when we had originally used the um consultant to design what you know to look at what was needed in town um I was happy to fill that position and sort of made it what Ashlin really needed filled the Gap with Communications really connected the residents to the business Community um and then it's just sort of evolved from there um so it's been fun bringing new events into town bridging that um Gap with the residents to bring them out to meet us to um connect with one another engage so it's been an adventure for sure um and um I'm looking forward to what's next hey everybody please turn if you're listening please turn off your cell pH phones um I will do that too Beth and Yolanda thank you yeah when I was thinking about this show I thought I was trying to think of who are the best people um to have as guests to be a part of this and you two came to mind uh for a number of different reasons but I think you both bring you know unique perspectives and uh historical perspectives both as you know Town officials but then also as residents and you know just getting into I think some of those things those projects right um obviously they're the big ones that that you think about so uh you know let's just start with the building projects the two main building projects I think when we get into this we'll realize there's more building projects than than just you know the two that I'm talking about which is the Mendes school and the public safety building so now I think again we know why they were necessary I think that case was uh was made uh for for many years and in the public safety building case for for decades but why do you think we were able to do those now again something that you know we've identified um for for many years as a need and something that needed to be done but what do you think was the critical mass that that got us to the point where we actually did it well it's interesting because you're saying we've done two building projects and I think back when I was on school committee and we actually in town had four projects going on so I think this time when we did those four projects and those that was in the late '90s 2000s we did Town Hall we did the library we did the community center and then we built the new high school which is now probably 15 or 17 years old and I think we were able to do these two projects together because we brought together various groups in the community we brought those people who had kids in the schools and we brought the seniors and we brought general public together to say look these are two projects that are necessary and even though at first we didn't want to do them both at the same time but funding hit and things happened that it said we need to keep moving these forward and even though we had to do the vote during Co it was either do the vote or with the mindes school potentially lose funding from the msba they weren't saying oh you can hold off with Co so I think the right groups of people and the right leadership was there to say okay both of these projects are necessary one is not more important than the other so we had to move them both forward at the same time yeah the funding was the trigger for sure I mean obviously how we didn't want to pass up an opportunity to have funding toz right exactly to have that project move forward um but I think that it's been I mean what I've just experienced over the last eight years is the community really coming together it every year it just seems to get a Little Bit Stronger um we're having a lot of new residents come into town um I mean just look at our home prices right those have skyrocketed so I feel like we have a really strong um engagement and I think that that's really what put those two projects forward because they knew the importance of both of them and I think it doesn't matter if they had Young School AED kids in the schools at that time the older generation right they they were right there supporting it exactly so I think it was important for everyone um for so many reasons and I think because people are more engaged and more just have a sense of togetherness I think they were more you know more inclined to say yes and vote for those projects through yeah I mean I thought what was most telling and I think something that we could all be proud of is the fact that it wasn't a close vote I mean even at the ballot I mean it was almost 90% favor for each of them and um it's a testament exactly commun and I think that's you know you had people who had kids in the schools and you know whose Focus was obviously the school also knew the importance of the public safety building and vice versa so um again and those projects are are built and you know we're still doing some stuff with Mendes but let's not also forget the opportunity that they left behind in their absence so I mean just what're doing with the fire station downtown and what it meant for DPW too I mean there's that's great right there's so many positives right we had some Fields up and back of mes but they weren't very good right so now we're going to wind up with two very solid fields for our youth sports and our school sports so right yeah they opened up opportunities I mean the excitement for people as to yeah the new business coming in to the fire station downtown is amazing yeah so you know that's probably a good segue to talk about some more specific Economic Development work or we we could go in a couple different directions we can talk about downtown we could talk about economic development but you know I think Economic Development I think one of the the Hallmarks and really kind of our philosophy has been you know how can we help uh create an environment both from a financial perspective with incentives and then also with increased communication and and be Your Role kind of you know being that liaison to you know get businesses to want to to come here and at the same time use those opportunities to fill some of these vacant and dilapidated spaces that detract from the community and you know Beth I think probably the the one that comes to mind the most is Mazy you know now which is going to be chase at the old Blockbuster building which just it just stood as a lone Testament to uh decline and Decay on 126 for many many years and now it's a completely revitalized space but to do that we used you know an economic development incentive program which was very very unique and why don't you talk a little bit about some of the businesses that we've helped in some of those spaces we've been able to revitalize that sure the um I I think that incentive program um that we put together has been one of the best gifts um that we could have done for the business Community um and these new businesses coming in so Mazi is a great example um the Blockbuster building was vacant for 10 years plus I think and longer but and they did they invested um a Millions a million dollars and um you know we were able to supply them with $40,000 in grant money and 45,000 I think in grant funding so um they were a great example of a of a wonderful business that came to town Chase um although they're not utilizing the incentive program will hopefully be wonderful Community partner as well um tomorrow's is another really good example the old papaginos that was in town it wasn't vacant as long yeah it was vac for while it was a couple years and tomorrow's is just I mean they are just booming with business they're doing such a great job um they've really have a quality product they did such a good job in there um and again they utilized the incentive program um and that was a good it was a attraction for them people are looking around when these businesses are looking around at other communities this sort of just giv gives ashy The Edge because it's not only just the the money that they feel it's also the welcoming um feel that they get from us they they are walking into a community that wants them here that will embrace them and that will support them D say dee is another one he um has created such a wonderful space at 200 hom RAV um and their business is really picking up now too which is wonderful to see so and I know we have we have a lot more coming up um I just had an Economic Development Advisory Group meeting today with three business business incentive applications um one for a child psychiatrist like how wonderful that the need is is out there and her application proves that um so we really are know if an aded so um it does give us that that little extra incentive to really make people feel welcome and what I really like is that one we're bringing these businesses in because for many years that's what we heard from the residents right we don't just want to be a bedroom community we want to have more businesses in town we want to have places that we can walk to or go to or support and we're seeing that happen right I mean 21 Main Street is the building and then Bagel table right right I think they came in before the incentive program potentially yes but they have then done different Partnerships with the with the town to Foster their business and help support downtown I mean it's a great space it also has some meeting and other things that are going on in that building as well as other buildings in downtown and throughout the community right yeah and for those people you know we're talking about the incentive program so so what is that that is so in 2013 Ashlin passed uh the local option meals tax which brought in some money into the town and you know one of the reasons we did that was specifically for economic development and at the time specifically for 126 which we'll get into but um subsequently uh we had a town meeting vote and we had to get a special legislative vote to um earmark those funds specifically for economic development and then after that we had to go to the legislature and town meeting to create this incentive program which like you said um gives grants to private businesses um and incentivizes them to come here so municipalities aren't allowed to give grants or money to private Enterprises we had to jump through hoops and people really really like it but you know you mentioned do de and the economic development incentive program has been used for for that and then also for Zeta fencing if I remember correctly Sub-Zero nitrogen ice cream well yeah that's but I'm thinking specifically about the so describe to me I mean those of you that you know both of you have been in town for a while so prior to you know 10 years ago what was the telecon building what when you thought of the telecon building what did you think of empty space what's really funny is back in the mid to late 80s my husband would do lighting installations for theater and apparently there was a theater in that building I mean by the time we came into town in 1990 I think it was gone or we don't know for sure what happened with it but it was it it had a gym it had some manufacturing it didn't look very good and there was not a lot of businesses in it or if they were they weren't publicized you didn't know what was in there right they weren't businesses that you went into visit on process was in there and they took up the largest amount of space that was a call center um so when they left that's when the opportunity came so whenever there's turnover there's there's opportunity and unfortunately you know we did have to lose on process but um but it did open up some wonderful space for clock toown pickle ball and um now that it's becoming a little Hub over there for greens yeah so I mean you think about where that space was yeah you think about that space 10 years ago and what what's happened over the last decade and let's uh let's give credit also to the ownership there Steve and and um I think a couple other partners were part of that I mean they really they really helped Revitalize that so it's like you said it's become kind of a new a new economic Center for Town absolutely um so yeah and I think you know there's so much more the economic development incentive program has helped you talked about Subzero um but then think about the other you know Bagel table was before that time but that's a great new business was Crossroads um did they take advantage of that cross that was a huge that was a huge win huge win for us have you visited them just a few times um but and they would be the first to say that's what really they were deciding between two places and that's what put them over Edge to choose Ashland um so it definitely definitely helps right and they've been a great business blush has been taken care of uh as taken advantage of the sign and facade Improvement um that I'd like to encourage Erica has use the sign and facade Improvement program there's been there's been quite a few so again you know thinking back over the years like you know before you know 2010 or or whatever what new businesses were coming into downtown I know I hear about the ones that we've lost like you know m Bulls I believe was one and the basket case I think was another Basket Case was there long but what businesses yeah what businesses came I think up until 10 years ago there wasn't there weren't new businesses coming into downtown there was maybe in the mill building there was some businesses coming in and out I don't I don't remember when uppercuts oh that was later yeah that was later that's been within that was longer than 10 years ago uppercuts no uppercuts came in probably 2018 I think no yeah really I thought they were there before then Ashy raiki and wellness they took over in the space in the Masons um building mhm um okay so before then was the red dress so red dress a new business Lis price and she came in I mean it was empty and she came in and it was a great store and it just didn't work out unfortunately different I don't exactly know what happened but that was a loss when she left I think the raiki store is a very nice store and that's great that they're there but um yeah people would like to go in and and shop and they like the experience of retail shops and yeah I mean right now we just have no availability um right in our downtown so I mean I think what's been great is watching some of these new businesses come in and seeing kind of the camaraderie that's been formed amongst them and um you know we looked at a bid you know business improvement district a few years ago and and it just it wasn't the right time for a number of different reasons and you know I'm not suggesting we start up that conversation now but I I think I think the engagement in the discussion about that project would be very very different but um you know we're talking about downtown businesses and let's just talk about what we've done you know in downtown period oh yeah um and uh you know obviously we've got you know these businesses coming in into some new spaces um 21 Main Street um 128 Main Street um now like you said Beth you know with the vacancy of the police and fire station you know looks like we're going to have the brewery coming in there signs there so they got to be coming yeah and so I think you know obviously the large downtown project that we were doing um is is something very special to me and there's you know definitely reasons for that um but you you know we hear about the town wanting or Town's people I should say wanting to create this vibrant walkable downtown right and you know that's one of the things that we were trying to accomplish with that and the other thing is that you know I always say you know for the private sector to invest money the public sector has to has to make those Investments too in the infrastructure and I know it's not complete yet but do you do have you seen kind of a shift in people respond bonding both residents and businesses to that project I think you see it a little bit I think where I think where I see it the most is when we have some of our events certainly Farmers Market brings people to downtown and then a lot of times they'll stay in the downtown and go to blush or go to the raiki store or walk over to Bagel table or something like that certainly when there's events at the corner spot right which has been huge for our downtown and for the just for the to what you've talked about earlier the camaraderie and bringing the community and the and the town's people together I don't know that we'll see the full recognition of downtown until the wires are gone until it's the completed downtown and people can come and just say wow what a difference because I think there's small noticeable differences with sidewalks and some of the trees but until the wires are gone and the poles are gone and can stand at one end of downtown and look toward the other and not have those polls I think that's going to be a real transformative time and people will really start appreciating it and then depending on what happens with some of the parcels that are being discussed yeah we'll determine who comes downtown and how much yeah what do you think Beth I mean when you're talking to business owners are they so we have I mean the business owners I I mean they love downtown I mean there's no doubt people love the changes that are coming I don't hear anybody really saying oh I done it right right but I do feel like we need we need to keep moving forward and we have to encourage these developments like on Homer a the mixed use property that um is hopefully coming soon because that will you know give us more commercial space but it will also bring people to downtown so they have to have a reason to come right now wouldn't it be nice if we actually had people that were already here and already supporting our businesses I think they would would definitely feel that um the business community at least would feel that yeah and I I think um the other thing that we need to think of when we think of downtown is I mean we're thinking of like Main Street and Front Street right and and the big project there and and I'll agree with you Yolanda I think when the polls come down I think that's going to be very very transformative I also think what's going to happen is it's going to highlight some of these private Parcels that are maybe not necessarily in the best shape mhm and they can utilize the sign and facade Improvement Grant well you know what what I've started to see is already especially along Front Street right so a lot of those owners of the duplexes and everything starting to see them making some Renovations and I think you'll start seeing that they're starting to see their Valu is rising exactly absolutely but beyond you know Maine and Front Street I think you know there are other parts of this whole Downtown Vision and one of the things that I think has been very very critical or you know to success has been the creation of the Riverwalk and especially that bridge and then the reinking and revitalization of milpond park right and that is certainly part of that downtown experience now that's what we wanted right and we got into a long discussion at the select board meeting when we got on this about kids fishing nowadays you know now you go into town and you see kids on their bikes with the fishing poles and stuff and it's for me it's very very heartwarming because it's what I used to do when I was a kid and for somebody like Joe who grew up here and Claudia who's lived here forever you know basically Claudia that's not a reference to your age if you're listening but yeah but she's a transplant exactly we we got we got to make that clear we got to make that clear but you know that's something that they saw many many years ago and that stopped happening for a variety of reasons and now you see that coming back so it's not just looking WS the future and and changing things making things completely different in some cases it's honoring and returning to some of our Roots if you will the other thing I think we have to think about and this is something Beth brought up in a discussion I forget where we've had a lot of them recently is that downtown is not just Main Street and Front Street right can we extend that downtown toward where the new Starbucks is and and that Route 135 area near Stone Park right can we can we make downtown feel be all the way over there because it's all really walkable you can park at Stone Park and go do something at CVS or at tomorrows and then walk into downtown for something and I think continuing the connections in regards to some of the sidewalks to get people to and from those areas are going to be critical to to Beth's vision of expanding what we think of as downtown yeah I think um I call that greater downtown there we goer downtown I knew there was a word I fig remember was that's just something I made up um but I do I think Stone Park is a gem and I feel like there's a lot of opportunity there um but there are other connections that we can make the real challenge would be to connect that to 126 but oh but we have a vision6 right the vision to connect to 126 and I'm sure we're going to be talking about this a little bit is the upper Charles Trail right I mean I Envision someone who lives on spy glass being able to go down 120 6 hop on the trail and take the wind their way into downtown and then go back be amazing right I mean it's can't wait we have some time before that'll happen but I think and for all the community all the neighborhoods in between the people who live off of Cedar Street who could hop on the trail and get to downtown or get to 126 at either end of 126 where they live the ability to walk or access and have a safe way to get into and out of downtown without having to get into their vehicle I me that's that's a true vision and I think one of the things so you think about all of those things that you just talked about and you think about the upper Charles Trail um the one section that we've been able to complete is trolley Brook Trail which is a way to get from munko Hill and and all the stuff that's happening there which we will get to to downtown and connect that to downtown but you're right Charley Brook is part of a larger upper Charles Trail network but what do you what are the lessons you think we learned from Charley Brook Trail that we could apply moving forward if you build it they will come I mean I know people who go and walk that section of charliie Brook Trail or who use that to get to the train station so even though we don't have it all done I think doing what doing that shows that we have have a commitment and we are interested in creating the rest of the trail because if you just leave it at that yes it's being used but it's not going to fulfill the full vision of what it could mean to finish that trail for Ashland right I walk that trail every day um I love it it's my lunch break and I it is a nice it's just a very nice peaceful walk I see kids fishing in the summer um during that time but I also see other um workers in town um which is great that's what we want we want businesses in town that stay here have lunch go grab a sandwich at the bagel table walk down the road um but I see people walking the trail during that and they're co-workers it's very apparent um every day and they're coming from 60 Pleasant streets so it's it's not like it's right around the corner but it it does lend to a really nice kind of getaway in the middle of the day and anytime really but um it it is a reason to come downtown again you have to give them a reason to come downtown right and so that leads to munko Hill which has drastically changed over the last 10 years um and so you think back really it the start of that work so for people who don't know um munko Hill is if if you're going towards Hopkinson on 135 and you take a ride at the Dunkin Donuts used to be the NBTA aess road now it's known as Memorial Drive and there's a story behind that but and it goes to the train station right it's about a mile long road but there was nothing there for for decades and Zoning was passed to basically allow a thousand units of housing to be built there in different configurations and the first part of that was the Cirrus development which was almost 400 units on 26 or 29 Acres uh and there was a lot of that was a very controversial project even though been zoned and passed it received a permit received another permit um but as part of that development and gosh we could spend a whole hour on that alone and the Lessons Learned but uh part of that is we also got a grant and it was a big project was to redo the MBTA access road right because it didn't it wasn't up to any kind of Standards it wasn't really a street it didn't have any utilities in it it was an and that was it yeah there was no gas no uh water sewer and so that was put in place as part of that development but then it was also key to um some of the other things that are happening there um and really the trigger to that you know after you do the the road was the town purchasing the property which was a very complicated transaction basically the rest of the rail Transit District we worked on that for two years uh and it was extremely complex um and so we bought what was known as lot three which if you go down the access road you look at to the right that's generally lot three um and by purchasing that that triggered the donation of land to the YMCA and then as part of that deal we also worked out something on lot two which was the left which was scheduled for 254 condo units instead created or allowed for 180 uh units of senior affordable housing done as a friendly 4 y um but and so we got all of that open space which allowed us to build Charley Brook Trail right so it was a and we spent I think $4.4 million on it Ned I think it was like four after you look at what's coming back to us but yeah we don't have to get into all that but it goes to show some of the open space that we purchased to maintain it as open space as well in the last 10 years which is what another part of our discussion that we might not get to today podcast I feel defitely get that because I think it's important to talk about but how much open space have we purchased in the last 10 years oh I can tell you exactly but um you know the YMCA that redoing that road and having those utilities there and and having the land donated um that was the key and Yanda remember we went to the board meeting I do was actually outside so I had a uh so I'm on the board of the Hoppington Center for the Arts full disclosure and we were standing outside this past Sunday we had a meeting there we had our board retreat because of the partnership between the Metro West Y and the hopkington Center for the Arts and I was standing out there and I was speaking with some residents from hopkington and we were talking about the new YMCA coming in to Ashland I said to them yeah I can remember coming to this building for a w Metro West YMCA board meeting fortunately there were some friendly faces and help helping sell the location of the new YMCA in Ashland versus hopkington and the work that Michael and Steve Mitchell and I did with our conversations with the Y staff Peter Rick and some of the board members helped them decide and then of course the kicker was the gift the donation of the land by the owner Bob Gainer to then bring the Metro West y the new po family Metro West y it was to Ashland it was Beth were you on the board at it was like it was like a secret kind of kind of thing that why was having I remember like we went first and then hopkington was making a pitch too for a piece of property I think hopkington went first no I think they came in after us I do but it was one of those things you know when you nail the presentation oh yeah you know like you just like we walked away from that thinking yeah we we we did a good job they made a good choice so and so yeah Co put a you know a crimp in everybody's plans including the YMCA but um they're moving forward now they're moving forward and we're going to have them at a select board meeting we're looking at having them a select board meeting in October either the first or second one they presented to their uh YMCA board because again full disclosure I'm on the Metro YMCA board as well and we had some presentations on some new designs and I think they they they have now settled on on what the design is going to look like and what's really cool is they're looking to utilize the space in a way working with the grades that are on the property and just really using and integrating into the Charing brick Trail and some other things so that's wonderful yeah yeah the the site plan looks awesome just the way it's I love it when Architects and and engineers and designers are able to incorporate the the building right the built environment into the natural environment and and that was critical to the Menda School so yeah I just I just love that stuffff and to the public safety building too absolutely yeah so you know we talked a little bit about this this property purchase and I think you know let's again we could spend a whole hour on that but we're not going to because what we did spend is over $10 million to preserve over 300 acres and so I was you know I go back in what little spare time I have and this is what I do for fun y I go to the Vault and I look at Oldtown meeting warrants and what was going on back back then and so I could so prior to waren Woods which was 2010 I could find one property purchase which I believe was Oak Street uh which we're still paying for but do you recalls yeah yeah do you recall any other like big property purchases that were done I mean I've been in town since 1990 I can't think of anything big that was purchased I mean I I know with like the sibson property andson property I forget when that was though I want to say like 07 okay or 08 or something maybe I wasn't paying atten but was the town back then in a good Financial space to we'll get we'll get to that later I was going to say I don't know that that was really happening because I don't remember being we didn't have a reserve fund I mean until we use CPA funds well I I have to say that as a community we jumped right on CPC the minute it was available we said yes we said yes to the full 3% so we it took a couple tries right uh I'm I'm almost positive cuz I think I remember sitting at one town meeting and voting it in and it passed and the idea was if we did the full 3% at that point not many other communities in the state were doing it so for a while we were getting a full match whatever we pulled in for CPC funds we were then getting that fully matched I mean and that's what allowed us to buy by Warren Woods probably the Simpson property yeah those are all CPA F those kind of things those are all CPA funds so I think that the community made a good decision on that but in regards to large purchases I don't know that anything was added to the town Forest except for the Oak Street parel yeah yeah I was looking um I I couldn't find anything in Old warrant but um it's something that we've really prioritized over the last 10 years you know people will focus on the development and they'll very much Overlook a lot of the open space uh preservation techniques and and and Acquisitions that we've made and it's not just Acquisitions we've used things like deed restrictions you know we've tried to be creative but the first one was um in 2016 was the Girl Scout property which was 20 acres um which was under under threat of being developed by by Howard faford under a 40b process and so um so we have that um you know we talked about the rail transit district and how much we were able to preserve that's over 150 acres if you look at all of that um and then uh you know obviously we've added to the town Forest which um full disclosure I'm going to take your line I but it and it it it's um I think those purchases are great so and just because there might be people who I've said I've me I've met people who go where's the Town Forest Winter Street it is a beautiful place to hike and walk we have so much to thank Our Town Forest committee the stewards of that space do such a great job and they take such pride in that but yeah go to Winter Street and there's two parking lots and go check out some of the trails yeah there's a parking lot also on Oak Street um which they the town Force committee has has redone and then also on saleman road and Oregon Ro but um we've added the Nicolo property which was uh over 35 acres and then some property off of Lincoln Road um which was almost 10 acres um and uh I we still have a local business owner slev developer who's still I think a little bit upset with me about the Nicko property because he really wanted to develop he wanted that and developed it yeah um Mike Mike I won't say your full name but anyway uh so so that's obviously ly was was very very very instrumental um and then I think about you know some of the smaller things you know the the Warren Conference Center um and part of that and so we got 20 acres as part of the lanterns development Warren Conference Center itself you know the town played a role in preserving that and you know making sure Framingham State got it but you know Tri Street um which is an often Overlook small section it's only a few few Acres but um and for that side of town they really didn't have much open space um but then you you I threw Cadillac paint in there which is three acres and that's a whole story in and of itself and uh you know just talk about how long we've wanted to do that and then kind of putting in place the mechanisms and and the actions that we needed to take to start converting that to a park you know cleaning tearing the buildings down cleaning up the soil you know it was a lot of money spent on that I don't think I included that well and a lot of a fair amount of that was also grants to do Cadillac paint to you know take the buildings down we had some brownfields grants and some other grants and some money from the state brownfields um representative Lewis I think that was one of his first Mark first ear marks I think it he been such a good supporter of that Park yeah and continues to be uh and the big one that kind of flies under The Radars is we were able to negotiate with the to drop a 3 something, lean that they had on a property for previous cleanup efforts um and so I I do think again just preserving some of these properties um not just with Acquisitions but with deed restrictions and I'll go back to Tri street because not only did we purchase Tri Street we had a deed restriction on an abing property owner right uh who agreed to do that and then the Valentine property right same kind of thing exactly with an abutting property owner which protected uh 16 Acres there um and so as we're talking about Tri Street and Cadillac paint and the 126 side of town why don't we talk a little bit about 126 sure man I'm really able to segue this is pretty all off the cuff I told you it was going to work out fantastic um well done it's all connected um it is it is and uh just uh you know both of you are involved in this project have been involved in this project just what do you think it means uh to not and not just like oh it's good for economic development and everything what do you think it means for the town to be able to do something that you know was identified in early comprehensive plans like in the early 80s is something that we wanted to do what do you think it means for the town to finally be able to kind of move those forward I think it shows the town that we are considering the whole town cuz one of the things we still hear sometimes is oh well you forget about the r 126 side you don't care about those communities or those developments or those neighborhoods that live over there and the as you said this project has been working in the works for a long time I mean I think I was on the board for six months when we started talking about potentially doing the meal sales tax to help pay for the design remember going to meetings many many meetings about it but I think it shows the town that we think everyone is important and that it's it's part of Ashland right even though for a lot of people either coming from Framingham or Holliston they just go through that section but I think this project is going to show that it can all be connected and it can all be I mean it is all important but I think it can show that we can make these connections between all these different parts of town yeah I also think that it again it's going to be I know it's taking a long time downtown it's taking a long time but and we can only do so much as with what we've got right with the capacity that we have however I do feel like 126 is going to give people again a reason to go there with all of these improvements Cadillac paint is going to be the Arboretum the ashin AR burum a great thing for people to have a reason to go to 126 and then hopefully with all of these improvements once the traffic and the construction is over that it's just going to attract more and more businesses that people are asking for so they want to go shopping they want to have their services in town and I feel like if we've build the infrastructure for that then it will naturally come to ashy if you build it they will come I guess I guess you can say that yeah I I agree I agree I and our part isn't necessarily of saying oh I want this business here and this business there but our business is really trying to build that infrastructure to make them want to choose Ashlin to make them have a home here so that's I think potential on Route 126 for new businesses and for expanded business I mean the idea I mean I think about Dairy Queen and everyone was so upset when Dairy Queen left Route 12 you know 135 and oh you go there but for the business moving to 126 has allowed them to stay open year round they have their drive-thru the the traffic that you see going through there they're open until 10:00 so if you really want ice cream at 9:30 you know where you can go kind of thing so to your point Beth I think the idea that that business has shown that by moving there they have been able to change their business model and be more successful and I think there's a couple of other opportunities of space that will allow other businesses to do the same kind of thing yeah and I think it's been great working with the state I you know I'm glad that they prioritized it yeah yeah we have to give them a little a few nudges a few nudges to keep it as a priority yeah and I and I will say it's a good uh place to interject here uh just how important Senate President spoka um and representative Lewis but certainly Karen who's been here for as a resident for decades and a local elected official I mean she uh she's had her hand in a lot of these a lot of what we've been talking about well she was there right with us when we were working to get the project on the tip to begin with right and then when we had to push to keep it in its place rather than being pushed out another year or two I mean it could have been another 2 years before this project had been started and so she helped us keep it there and keep it as a priority to the state and to the federal government that the funds came through absolutely so um we're going to shift a little bit I mean we've been talking about like the physical natural environment you know Community Development stuff and there's so many other things that we could talk about um just non-sexy stuff like you know West Union sewer transmission lines and the infrastructure that we know has to get maintained and done but we don't and then other stuff like sustainability projects we've done a lot of that stuff um and some of the the smaller Renovations and you know I'm not even sure we're going to get to some of the historical preservation actions we've taken like with the Valentine property and the in the Warren barn but I want to shift a little bit and talk about kind of the people behind some of this stuff and so we've got great um obviously uh elected and appointed committees and volunteers um and then we've also got you know really I I was about to say a new team at Town Hall but we've been around the best team you mean it is the best team but we're um but but we've been together for a while and we've got uh we've got you know we've been through a lot um and so Beth just from your perspective just talk a little bit about the team in general and we can talk a little bit about some specifics we have such a wonderful team um I mean I think everybody works really well together um most of the time it's well I think you know it's a true Testament to leadership I think it it's shown everywhere and I think it the leadership in town engages our employees um and it helps us all want to work together and I think that's exactly what we do I think we work very well together I think we've started talking more to one another the communication is is there um and it's a strong unit and we really have the same goal we want to make Ashlin better we're always looking at ways to improve we're always making um working for ways to make residents want to come to Ashland um and be happy living here um so I think we have the best team I really do I think we're very lucky yeah we are we are very very fortunate um and I think you know one of the things that it's been very very important to me it was important to Tony you know the previous Town manager who had hired me um and it's important to the select board I know is um just kind of professionalizing the the staff and the environment and some of like just the operations and so now we have things like the um a capital Improvement plan and the capital improvement process and a way of scoring that and you know basically a professional approach to Capital we've got actually money that we can allocate towards uh Capital um and then we've got you know the financial policies which you know if you asked me kind of what is what is the backbone of all of the stuff that we're talking about it's really been the financial policies definitely and Yolanda you know this is a good opportunity I think to talk about um just how the relationship with you know the select board and town manager and finance committee and school committee and superintendent has has evolved over your tenure oh my gosh so it it it I think about that and so I got elected to the school committee in 2002 at the same time as when we tried for the first vote for the high school and some of the anonymity between just tension between school committee and select board at the time and even Town management at the time and that started slowly changing one of the one of the things that I had pushed for was conversation between the select board and school committee and that started a little bit uh when we had John petran as our Town manager um you know and as things changed and different people sat in different positions you saw that transition happen you saw the understanding it wasn't just one or two people it was more people going okay we're we're not these separate entities we're not a school and town it's all of us are the town and these are just different departments and I think with Tony coming on board I mean different members sitting on the select board different members sitting on school committee different superintendent all those things that have changed it's been evolving and the conversation and the communication between the different departments has improved and I think as you said with the financial policy being put in place we we were able to have that conversation as these three two elected one appointed committee that help run and think about the financial health of our community and our schools and that has helped us move forward I think that's that conversation and those working together was also what allowed us to do the school building project and the public safety building at the same time because we work working to support each other rather than say our one project is more important than the other right so it it has been a process and but that's always what you have it's always a process when when you have new when there's someone else sitting even one new person in a committee as we're seeing you know Makita has joined and and it's just a different energy than when Rob was sitting there or when we had Claudia step on the select board after Steve had been sitting there and I think those changes little changes and again even for you with your staff a number of your people have been sitting there but you've had someone like Catherine come in after you created the HR position how many years ago so it's always I think as a community we have to understand that we're always going to grow we're always going to make some changes and as we were sitting we had a select board and planning board meeting just a get together agenda kind of thing one of the things we all said was we're all trying to make Ashlin better we all live here we all many of us have raised families here some of them are some of us our families have come back and we're all doing this and even many of our employees are Ashlin residents so all of our goal is to make sure we have a community that we love and make sure we have a community that we want our family to come back to that's great yeah and but I'm G to I'm not going to push back on that but every everybody says that I you go back to 2000 everybody was saying that but it wasn't the same in 2000 it was not I mean and I can say that because I was do what do you think so everybody's saying that so what do you think is the actual change I told you I was going to make you think I I I think some of it is the people supporting these this the residents not the residents the people who are the voters I think have made the change right I mean when I was sitting on school committee my focus was the schools which is what as a school Committee Member that's what you do as a select board member it's the whole town and I think it used to think that as a select board member it was the town and not the schools and I think now both organizations realize that you have we have to support each other right so I think there's been a shift in thinking right that we we have to work together I also think that Co really brought this community together even closer mean the way people supported each other with different programs yeah through I mean Co was very hard for a lot of people but the way this community pulled together to support its businesses and its residents was unbel I consistency and Longevity do have something to play to with this as well like I mean just the schools I mean Mike Kyra's been there Jim Adams they've been there for a while so we've been all working together for a it takes a while you're you're not gonna yeah you know it's really it's really interesting and I think like the financial policies and everybody kind of focuses on the the content but I always tell people you know when other towns are looking to copy them or something the key is not necessarily the the detail the key was those signatures at the bottom and having everybody agree to them when there's not an emergency going on and cooler heads are prevailing and that really kind of dictates when when you know stuff does hit the fan and when we did those we were in a good place financially well we were right we were we were we were on the upswing we were so that those policies I think those policies those policies are the were the key to us being in the financial stuff and I think some of the other things that we did administratively like go over to the Group Health Group Insurance Commission that was huge some of the sustainability projects and everything becoming a green Community we brought grants in that helped us do things that were important to our community yeah so the sustain sustainability is the fact that we have a sustainability manager right um and I think just about some of the services that we've added you know obviously the Human Services aspect um you know so we have like a human services and and prevention department um but we've also you know looked at to enhance our services at the community like at the senior center and even with Recreation and things and and I think that's been really important because we talk a lot about the the infrastructure the the Community Development type of stuff but then there's also the people aspects of it and I think key to that and Beth you've been really instrumental in in these areas is like the events and then also the communications piece and I think those have really been critical in in helping you know generate that sense of community so um what what was happening in the town before you got on board in terms of I can tell you like Communications we had we had the directions right and we would do an article each each mon we had the directions and that was where people received their information I mean I guess the other thing to think about is and I know we're running short on time is the idea that technology has also transformed what we do and how we do things not only in Ashland but across the state and across the country and across the world right some of the the apps that you can use to track things or to do things online bill pay right the fact that I don't have to take my check and bring it to town hall or put a stamp on it and mail it in that I can just do that all online that I can go online to the website and find out what's going on that I can get these emails I mean I remember when my girls were little sometimes they'd come home with a stack of flyers in their backpacks because that was how things were communicated out so I think the communication I mean the newsletter that gets sent out every time I talk to someone they're like yep I read that the the town manager's email it's great to hear what's going on and when people haven't been reading it you you point them to that you point them to your newsletter the economic de development newsletter all these ways of communicating out has transformed how we connect with our Comm with the community I mean we're doing a podcast let's face it years ago we have said that good point I think when I first got here we had a Facebook um we had a Facebook page but it was a personal page you had to be a friend you had to add me as a friend um so that was the first thing we changed um to have a business page and then we've added Instagram we have LinkedIn um and it's really we tried things they haven't worked um but some things have stuck that email newsletter is still the direct email is still the best way to reach people it's aming we have a great partnership with local Town pages so that's kind of stepped up um so they get a lot of our information as well I think the communications for the town is um is really in a good place I think the engagement is there people are receiving it we're getting a lot of feedback um we're always open to more feedback um now we're doing the Clock Town Chronicles um so I I do feel like we have to always keep up on that um and we're evolving as the town evolves um we are as well with communication but we've come a long way and as technology evolves right I mean part of it we didn't have some of this technology you didn't have social media 10 15 years ago right so the fact that we are embracing this and using it and utilizing it to reach our public I think is is key it's a good good opportunity to to put in a plug for wacka you know who's they always do do great to have them here um but yeah I mean Beth you've looked at some other Town's social media Pages like their Facebook pages and like ours is active very active compared to a lot of others sometimes sometimes that's not a great thing it depends take the good with the bad depends on the post you know it depends on how I think it connects residents to one another I think it connects residents to us I mean that was always the intent right we always wanted them to feel like we're not the government isn't the big bad ugly thing like we're here to support them we're here to help and I feel like if we can communicate that to people then we're doing our job well um but I also think that it connects our staff I mean going back to the staff I think they feel oh I saw that going on in town that's great and they're actually coming to our events as well um so that's great too right ni and I think um so this is going to be a good opportunity to segue I think into um some of the challenges in the future and I'm going I'm going to start it from kind of a off-the-wall angle but um talk about the events right and I think you know prior to 10 years ago we had Ashlin day um and then and do we have any other I so there was ashin day there and a lot of these were run by the Ashland Day committee there was the Ashland day there was the Halloween event right you'd meet it you start I mean I remember when you meet at pway and then you'd walk around and then you'd wind up at the MZ they had the Ashlin lighting it wasn't as big it wasn't as evolved as certainly what it has evolved into but there were those little things that were there uh Stone Park concerts have been going on for quite a while they used to do movie Nights I remember grabbing my girls andaz having our dinner and and sitting there at Stone Park and watching a movie yeah that's right under in the Pavilion The Pavilion it's Park and I remember that yeah so I think it was before your time and then at some point just they weren't getting us enough enough people and and certainly Co killed all all those kinds of things CU people weren't comfortable coming together and I mean people are still a little hesitant about certain things so and and so now we have like Fall Fest we have cultur culture Fest we have all kinds of fests we a lot of festing Holiday Stroll dragonly street fair but so Beth I want to ask you do you think you know moving forward as as we look forward um because these events are very again I don't think other communities do as many but they're very very staff intensive and um do you think we need to look at expanding the number of events moving forward do you think we need to look at rethinking some of the events maybe combining them I don't know what's your thoughts about that um well I think that we have the capacity we have um so we can only do what we can do uh obviously it would be great to have more volunteers maybe helping out with events um but I think we've got a really good solid base for events I feel like we should always be kind of looking at other opportunities what you know maybe what seasons we're missing or what ones that are really that have a really great turnout and do we want to build on that or do we want to do it again another time during the year um I kind of feel like the Holiday Stroll was so successful that's where dragonfly Street Fair is kind of emerged and now we have a lot more vendors selling products supporting those local homebased businesses is is part of you know what I really love to do um so I feel like we should always be looking at opportunity but I feel like we have a great base um of events for this town and this community this size um and it's certainly more than what I've seen in other so I'm proud that things have certainly evolved right I think about when the corner when The Corner Spot first started the pop-up businesses right there there would be a business in there for a week or two yeah and they tried that you tried that for a couple years and again Co sort of you know put a Nix on that and that hasn't really come back but I think those businesses have found other ways to still promote their businesses and be in Ashland and connect with Ashland residents I still have hope that that that popup will still come back there we need people downtown we just need people living downtown that's true we need people who that's what's going to support that um but there's yeah you know my favorite the one you talk about evolving was is Halloween the trick or treade in town hall in town hall yeah so I mean that started literally like Halloween fell on a Wednesday night one night and I was like you know what let's let's go I'm going to go get some candy and you know if the staff want to dress up or something and now it's like oh yeah it's pretty cool and now the businesses around are like starting to do are participating yeah yeah last year it was so awesome because you know you had a lot of the streetscape work done and I mean the downtown was just packed you saw that flashing pedestrian light going all the time I'm sure the people driving hated it love that I think that that's a testament to again our our staff and our leadership where we just listen to the residents like we we listen to them we hear them we see what they want and we make it happen is that's kind of what I feel like we do that's my opinion so when we were talking about events you referred to capacity and I'm kind of looking at you know some of these challenges that I had written down and really they all well not all but a lot of them come down to financial resources and capacity and so this year we had a $1.2 million deficit um and uh you know S&P which is the bond rating company and which is a real like objective um evaluator of our finances they reaffirmed our AAA rating recently but they did make mention of it and actually one of the reasons they still gave us the AAA was that longevity and that experienced you know leadership that we have but um but that's an issue uh because I think you know a couple of other things I had on this list was you know increased Community expectations of local government and large increase you know we've had large increase and water and sewer and trash um and hiring and Staffing challenges you know a lot of it comes down to financial piece um and I don't know Yolanda where what what do you think so I was I was meeting with our comprensive planning consultant today and we were talking about some specific things and some larger themes and so we boiled it down to this aspect to wants versus needs versus taxes and it's that's kind of I think the decision that needs to be made it's interesting you you bring up the comprehensive plan because I think the comprehensive plan is going to help us get input from the community or at least that's our hope right that we get enough input from the community that they're going to they're going to give us some guidance that says we like what you're doing and we want you to continue and we're willing to pay for it or through the comprehensive plan they're going to say you know what we don't need some of these things and we want you to do you know maybe it's we want you to do less because we're not willing to pay for it and you and I have had this discussion many times right that we can put things out there but at some point the community is going to have to decide do they want to continue with some of these great things that we're doing because they are they do cost money right I mean we have a lot of fun at the corner spot but I bet if we looked at what your budget is and what you're spending there yeah yes some of the businesses come in are making money but for a town we are making this expenditure to bring our community together and that is something that as we look at our finances the decision will have to be okay we want to continue this but this is what we need in regards to the finances to be able to do that and I think those are some going to be some hard tough discussions with the residents of Ashland do you like what we're doing and if you do we may need to ask you for more money to do it it's it's pretty basic to me yeah I mean Beth you get kind of a ringside seat uh just kind of what the staff's currently doing and the pressures that they're under but you're also a resident too so you know you know what that tax impact is sure absolutely yeah what's your perspective on it I think we really have to decide what we want and if we want to keep moving forward and we want nicer things then that's I mean that's just the way it is I want to redo my kitchen I'm going to have to pay for that so it's I guess it does come down to that wants needs and taxes um but I think they all kind of go hand in hand they do I mean it's an equation I guess you know and they're all interrelated and um you know I think it's going to be an important discussion and I think you know I I will say nothing's been determined yet but I I don't think we're going to go in a direction for an override for FY 26 I mean just I don't I don't think we're at a place where I think we need to have some of those tougher discussions I I I really do I think uh we need to we need to get the public engaged and of course that goes back to other comments of how do we get the public engaged right it's it's something that was brought up in our discussion with the planning board right how do we get more Community to say yes or no to what they want and what they're willing to support I feel like if we do this look back and then we look at what we're currently doing and once we wrap up those current projects then we're really looking at like okay then what's next and that's our OPP to say are we going to step it up and pull through to what we really want and put the money where you know where we want it to go um or I think that will be the deciding factor I think yeah because I think you know we can all agree that you know the pace that we're currently on and we've been on with the resources that we have is unsustainable um and you know again I think we're just going to have to it's going to be a community conversation I think um it's a tough one because it it's about dollars and cents but it's also about values and it's also about what's important to us and um you know people have always asked me like you know and I don't say this a lot maybe I shouldn't say it right now I will anyway I kind put it out there but you know people you know what what's your goal right what what do what am I looking to accomplish here is it you know was it to build a public safety build or anything no I mean all that stuff is great and I think it's part of it but um I think I explained this on Friday um when we had kind of our staff meeting which is you know the goal is to help everybody understand that if you want to achieve or you want to get to a certain level and you want to do certain things like you have to pay a price that's just a universal law like cause and effect I think it's one of those things where um it's like you have you need a purse right here this is a very simp basic you need a purse Michael pH understand let's put it this way you need a car okay you need a car and like I have a dream car yeah what's your dream car Yanda it's some kind of convertible oh okay okay if I've always wanted a convertible but is it I have to then go okay I want a convertible but is that practical for me and then can I afford that or do I stick with you know I have my 8-year-old Toyota Highlander that still drives as well that I probably won't replace for a couple of years because financially that's where I'm at that I need to do that and I think as a community that's part of our discussion right is we can have that dream community that we want but we then have to decide one are we going to pay for that and two can we pay for that and three do we want to pay for that you know I and that might be a very basic way of putting it but I mean I I think that's really what our community conversation has to be what what to your point what do we want our community to be do we want to pay for that but then the other part is can we afford to pay that and can our residents afford to pay that and I think so and there's another level of question that we need to ask to that which is what's important to you MH you know so when you talk about your we'll use your convertible analogy what's important to you it's not that important to me right so right now I mean it might be in the future I mean it's something I've thought about it's you know I thought about driving a convertible at some point but it hasn't been important enough to me to either save the money or borrow the money to do that so so having a convertible is not what you want it's a feeling that you want the wind blowing exactly exactly yeah for sure um if that's the feeling that I want how do I really get to that right there could be other ways you could ride my Jeep with the top down so which is friends convertible exactly you know there's there's several different ways to skin a cat having getting to the consensus of what everyone wants that's the hard well I think it's not what everybody wants but it's what's important you know and there's going to be different but is there going to be able to to triangulate that into something that is that is consensus so the other part of what my answer is is you know understanding that you know there's a price that has to be paid doesn't always have to be with money but there is a price there's a sacrif price and then the second thing which is just as important is Ashland is worth that investment and I think I think we have the team in place that can find ways to take care of those that are most vulnerable from a financial perspective I I I don't know it's a it's a it's a long conversation uh and a community conversation but um and so we will take this out to the community but uh unfortunately we have to end our part of the conversation right here so um I think this has been great we gosh we we only covered a half of what we had intended but that's usually the way things go I think we were able to hit the high high marks um and prioritize some important things um Yolanda and Beth I'm going to ask you just uh just to close up what what do you think is the important most important thing we have to think of moving forward that we're going to have challenges that our finances are going to go up and down and we need to move forward as a community and get as much input and involvement from as many people as possible to make sure that it's the Ashland that it's not going to be everybody but that the majority of people want to continue living in yeah and what about you be yeah I think Ashland is a great place to live it's a great place to work it's a great place to to play I mean really to to hike and to swim and I mean there's so many great things and I feel like as long as we are keeping the conversation open and we're engaging people I do feel like we are going to get there eventually we just sort of have to keep plugging along and um I think as long as everyone is patient and um respectful then I think that we will certainly get there for sure I I mean I think it's already a great place to live and willing to put their ideas and comments forward and have the discussion yeah yeah for sure yeah well I mean I told you this was going to be painless maybe even a little bit of fun I hope you enjoyed it it was been great having you on well you know what anytime we get to talk about Ashland in our community yeah you picked a good to to help you with that one for sure that could have could have been part of the calculation but uh again thank you both for being here and and uh spending uh so much time I'm not going to tell you how much time we spent until afterwards but okay um this has been awesome uh just thank you Paul and waa uh and Barbara thank you all for U for putting this together and and helping us um produce these uh for our listeners out there if you've made it with us this far um thank you for listening uh this is episode five of clocktown Chronicles uh you can find this on YouTube on the under wacka um and it's also available on Spotify and apple music I believe and uh if you have any comments or you have any suggestions about what you'd like to hearse uh just write to me uh M Herbert Aslin mass.com and uh we'll see if we can accommodate that but uh this has been a great show thank you both for being here and thank you all for listening thanks awesome all right have a good day everyone [Music]

[Music] hello clockers welcome to another segment of waa news blog my name is hi silver and today I will be giving you a brief summary of the Ashlin Town manager newsletter starting off we had the Halloween parade last week Ashlin hosted its annual Halloween parade bringing together children and parents dressed in costumes participants gathered across library before marching to the Mendes school where they paraded around the gym local judges evaluated costumes and selected winners in various categories the event also featured fun and games for families at the middle school making it a festive day for the community some updates on the sidewalk work along Route 135 the sidewalk project along Route 135 is nearing completion funded by a $250,000 Grant in arpa fund the project enhances safety and accessibility for residents and students connecting key locations JH Lynch managed the construction which included the removal of old guard rails and installation of a new sidewalk ever Source has been asked to relocate utility polls ensuring the sidewalks is ADA Compliant the OPB Financial update the town has seen a positive increase in its OPB funded ratio rising from over 9% to nearly 12% this trust fund established to manage retiree health benefits reflects the town's commitment to financial planning Route 126 update traffic delays in the pwn Street area have eased as Verizon Crews progress on relocating lines crosswalk installations are ongoing and completion of the project is expected by Spring 2025 the downtown Street Escape project phase two the second phase of the downtown project starts this week involving underground utility preparations minimal traffic impact is anticipated as this phase progresses e 40b project update Mass housing has approved two 40p projects for 250 units at the Mill site and 226 units at 61 Waverly Street these projects can now move forward to the local zoning board of appeals some special town meeting info the special town meeting on November 19th will address Financial articles including the appropriation of free cash and funding for a new water man project registered voter ver voters can participate in discussions about Community issues and proposed bylaws MBTA communities the planning board discusses compliance with the new NBTA communities law during a recent public hearing with details available on the town website the town hall trick or treat is approaching families are invited to trick-or treat at the Town Hall on October 30th with donations collected for the ashin food pantry a simple gesture a local organization is collecting donations for the ashin food pantry community members are encouraged to participate especially as the holiday season approaches now this week's Community shout out Becca Solomon the conservation agent since December 2021 has made a significant contribution to Ashland she acts as a liazon to the Conservation Commission enforces the wetlands protection act and serves as a town tree Warden focusing on tree health and safety notably she established the annual Earth Day event collaborating with the sustainability manager to provide educational workshops and nature-based programs for all ages voting information the town clerk's office is preparing for the upcoming November election and the special town meeting key details for residents include in-person early voting which has already begun and will end November 1st voting hours vary by Day election day is November 5th with polls open from 7:00 a.m.

vote and there are drop boxes and places open for early voting so they can go there to um either drop off their Ballot or get a ballot all right thank you yes and we encourage uh as Dr McCord said and Miss Humphries we encourage everybody to that is eligible to vote please uh educate yourself on uh the issues and uh and please vote it is extremely important and uh that's all I'm going to say about that um agenda item number 10 meeting dates Dr McCord thank you Mr Thompson we have our next meeting is a on November 6th which is a Wednesday I want to make sure everybody knows election night is November 5th so we elected to move our meeting to the next day and that is a work study brief for business meeting and November 19th is a regular board business meeting all right thank you very much agenda item number 11 adjournment we have a motion to adjourn I we'll just stay we'll just stay I move that we adjourn thank you Miss Wood is there a second second thank you miss humre all those uh in favor of adjourning tonight please uh signify by saying I I I any opposed thank you very much we are adjourned thank you everybody for coming and fantastic presentations