Reader

this morning um we got through that pretty good um by 7:30 we already had close to 300 voters in a half hour it was crazy but we did it and these guys I can't give them enough Kudos yeah they're great um but it has been steady all day we've had a lunch rush an afterwork Rush we're waiting for the last minute rush that's you know between 700 and 8 uh but we've already had close to 10,000 vote out of our 12,960 voters so you already had 75% so you're you're predicting more than 80% so let's talk about that so now you have mailin voting we have early voting yes so are those votes counted already the mailin votings and the early vo I have um 5,556 ballots already through machines that I'll run the numbers for at 8:00 tonight and then everything else will go through today and that that was the mail in votes mail in and iners so as somebody is watching this right now it's just after 6:00 they have until 8:00 tonight to put something in the drop box tonight that's correct the drop box will be closed at exactly 8:00 um it it's not going to be 8:01 we have to close it at 8 um polls Clos at 8:00 you have to be here and in line by 8:00 if you're in line if you're in line you're going to vote you're going to vote no matter what yes correct and that's important so mail and voting kind of exploded this year early voting's been kind of growing over the years what are your thoughts I mean how's it work for the town of bachel this year um I have mixed views on it so it it definitely it helps my traffic on Election Day because we've already had like I said over 5,000 um already deposited into the machines but it's a lot of work getting to that point I have not had a day off since October 11 whatever that's not right so um but I mean we do it this is what we do and to see all the people here coming it's it's I love it it's it's why I do it um I wish every election could be this busy but I mean I think the media hasn't pivoted fast enough now with early voting and mail and voting because now you see profiles on candidates or you know you see debates that are happing after people have already voted and it's like okay like there there needs to be an adjustment to the next election cycle I mean our first ballots mailed out October 2nd that's the day that we got them from the state and we mailed them out that day and like you said how many debates and things happened after that but yeah yeah so I mean that needs to we don't have election day anymore no it's basically an election month yeah uh and overall with all that I mean so you think we're going to hit over 80% today what is the record of all time in Ashland do you know I'm not prepared for that question prepar for that question I believe it's about 84 85% 2020 I think we did 84% and that was one of the highest I mean you're never going to get to 100 but wouldn't it be great if you know like one time we could get the 90 and stuff so tell us about the PO workers let's let's give them their do so we are so staff today um I I've put extras on everywhere um they are everybody's been very nice very Prof I get so many compliments from people that have come in and voted letting me know how great these people are and um most of mine at least half are volunteers they just come here and they do it because they love it they love democracy and it's a long day for it's a very long day they most of them get here at 6:00 a.m.

[Music] hi it's just after 6:00 on Election Day we're at the ashin high school gymnasium we're with the ashin town clerk Cindy Livingstone Cindy busy day it has been very busy today yes it has your day started at what time this morning well I got up at 3:30 I was in my office at 5: um at the school about 5:30 and here we are and you'll be here at least until 10:00 tonight you know yes if you're lucky yeah I'm I'm hoping 10 but 11 the lines have been steady all day all day pole workers have been amazing have been amazing kudos to the pole workers we can't do an election without the pole workers nope uh so talk to me about the day so you opened up the doors at 7:00 this morning uh we had a line down here and then down the hallway and then out the back door at 7:00 a.m.

and they could be here until 10 or 11:00 tonight um but I I couldn't do it without them they've been in my office helping me sort ballots and count and they're awesome so just so the town knows uh there's you you're the town clerk you have Chris who is your assistant town clerk y Deputy Town Clerk and then you have one other person working in I have Jean who's part-time over there and then um for just the election season I hired CJ Brown who I couldn't have done it without him I mean he just he was my vote by mail guy he was getting those ballots out as fast as applications are coming in um you've had po Watchers today now no no issues throughout the day or anything no none no so we're very lucky to have you in the town of asland to be our town clerk I mean you run you run a great election any closing thoughts before we get you back to work no just if you're going to vote hurry up we want to go home and please get out and vote if you don't vote you can't complain you can't complain true yes don't forget meeting November 19th November 19th meeting today keep up the great work thank you very much I appreciate you guys thank you have a great night you too happy

this morning um we got through that pretty good um by 7:30 we already had close to 300 voters in a half hour it was crazy but we did it and these guys I can't give them enough Kudos yeah they're great um but it has been steady all day we've had a lunch rush an afterwork Rush we're waiting for the last minute rush that's you know between 700 and 8 uh but we've already had close to 10,000 vote out of our 12,960 voters so you already had 75% so you're you're predicting more than 80% so let's talk about that so now you have mailin voting we have early voting yes so are those votes counted already the mailin votings and the early vo I have um 5,556 ballots already through machines that I'll run the numbers for at 8:00 tonight and then everything else will go through today and that that was the mail in votes mail in and iners so as somebody is watching this right now it's just after 6:00 they have until 8:00 tonight to put something in the drop box tonight that's correct the drop box will be closed at exactly 8:00 um it it's not going to be 8:01 we have to close it at 8 um polls Clos at 8:00 you have to be here and in line by 8:00 if you're in line if you're in line you're going to vote you're going to vote no matter what yes correct and that's important so mail and voting kind of exploded this year early voting's been kind of growing over the years what are your thoughts I mean how's it work for the town of bachel this year um I have mixed views on it so it it definitely it helps my traffic on Election Day because we've already had like I said over 5,000 um already deposited into the machines but it's a lot of work getting to that point I have not had a day off since October 11 whatever that's not right so um but I mean we do it this is what we do and to see all the people here coming it's it's I love it it's it's why I do it um I wish every election could be this busy but I mean I think the media hasn't pivoted fast enough now with early voting and mail and voting because now you see profiles on candidates or you know you see debates that are happing after people have already voted and it's like okay like there there needs to be an adjustment to the next election cycle I mean our first ballots mailed out October 2nd that's the day that we got them from the state and we mailed them out that day and like you said how many debates and things happened after that but yeah yeah so I mean that needs to we don't have election day anymore no it's basically an election month yeah uh and overall with all that I mean so you think we're going to hit over 80% today what is the record of all time in Ashland do you know I'm not prepared for that question prepar for that question I believe it's about 84 85% 2020 I think we did 84% and that was one of the highest I mean you're never going to get to 100 but wouldn't it be great if you know like one time we could get the 90 and stuff so tell us about the PO workers let's let's give them their do so we are so staff today um I I've put extras on everywhere um they are everybody's been very nice very Prof I get so many compliments from people that have come in and voted letting me know how great these people are and um most of mine at least half are volunteers they just come here and they do it because they love it they love democracy and it's a long day for it's a very long day they most of them get here at 6:00 a.m.

or whatever yeah weren't there um like little round lights that were in the sidewalk underneath the overpass previously that Lit yes those were on um every single underpass except for hon and they were installed by the DDA in 2002 or three it was under Susan P she saw the work that we were doing under the underpasses and I think they also needed to do some lighting but they were up lights Alison and that is in uh like what Sophie was talking about um with the new ordinance we can't actually light artwork from the ground ground up it has to be down um because of this dark sky and um so on and so forth so the on Washington Street those lights that you mentioned were uh blown out and there were big holes in the concrete and um I was down at the Washington underpass uh last weekend we had a group of 20 volunteers we cleaned the underpass we restored the Matt Nisbet mural on the north side of the street and uh we cleaned and prepared the opposite side for a mural that will be done by Asha Jordan um she's going to start work on that right away she has permission from the railroad and um right now the city has piles of asphalt where the where those lights were and to I've taken pictures I've I've I've heard comments from people walking by not only is it unsafe but it's a complete isore so I'm not sure what's happening right there with the lighting um but they now have asphalt piles you can walk under that um covering the lights but we did a major volunteer cleanup up down there at Washington Street and we had so many people Thanking us so many um so just so we know you know these spaces may not be managed by the city they're owned by the railroad but in collaboration with the DDA and the City they have to be lit safely um but nobody's really policing or paying attention to these spaces and just so you all know go give Washington a look at it looks amazing you know it's like right by the Blind Pig and um um I think destination an arbor has their offices right there Duo the YMCA I mean it's traversed by so many people that live on the old west side children I've seen wheelchairs uh bikes so there needs to be an effort from the city the DDA and wco the railroad to make these baces safer and light the art sure light the sidewalks great can this be listed into our next year annual plan Mary your suggestions about this ligh about lighting or just the the railroad spaces or yeah all of these M you think we should put into 2024 to 25 five annual plan I think so I mean there especially since the Main Street underpass um we now have $75,000 raised towards a $150,000 budget to do what we did at hereon to Main Street um I think that those those spaces are being talked about more um a lot of people ask me um you know is Washington going to get restored like hon is Katherine going to get restored like hon so there's a lot of interest and excitement um since that project on here on and so sure I think it's um it's not just my interest but I do think the community is interested in seeing those spaces beautified and and well lit and maintained so I will in the meantime share with you me and uh Venita both worked on the annual plan and new report so you guys can you know edit or you know improve on the you know the project which you have in mind or you have realized well so I know it gets confusing but there's the annual Plan and there's an annual report which what we looked at for this meeting was your report which did for the annual plan which I haven't seen yeah it was all in the big voters remember Al you shared with me the annual report and annual and those two folders it's all in the folders okay but right now we've only reviewed the you yeah I only yeah because yeah we thought maybe we just concentrate on the report yeah okay there is yeah Sophie question um yeah I did actually because uh I know the the mural that Asha is Asha Jordan is going to be doing I'm not sure what the funding situation is she was hoping for some donations um at Jordan Nick art.com but uh I don't know whether Mary might know more about how the funding for that works she crowdfunding it's a a total Grassroots initiative on her part um and she has a link in her Instagram bio I think she just raised enough money to buy all the materials good yeah so anyway Jordan Nick art nk.com is where she's doing her fundraiser for that mural so Mary Mike can I ask you a question is the recommendation that as projects come forward if lighting is an issue or could potentially be an issue is that something that they should be including in their proposal and are you then asking for someone on staff perhaps someone within engineering to work with them on the lighting um as a present things like that to the commission I'm not sure who would pay for that I'm not sure if the artist would be contributing a portion of that we um and it may also depend on where the the um art work is um but we shouldn't have a problem getting somebody on engineering team to be maybe be our art Advocate um for things like this um maybe we have a couple handful of people who can assist with stuff like that ahead of time so that we don't get to the end of a project and have something like this happen again um again we're talking really about a safety issue so between City requirements and what the railroad may also require I'm kind of confused why there's safety is not primary especially in that area it's pretty dark there and if there's nothing there I I haven't gone that way in a long time especially in the evening so I am concerned about that and and I certainly have a couple of folks on engineering who might be able to help provide some updates for us yeah that's um I think that um like Allison said future projects you know that lighting is a consideration from inception um whether it involves uh the city engineering team or not or extra finances I'm I'm sure that's a projectto project thing that we can determine the all of the sidewalks underneath the underpasses are presently lit they are lit with box lighting there is an electrical conduit that comes straight up from underneath the conrete and it runs the um straight up to a light box that then shines down on the sidewalk and that's you can drive underneath the here and underpass and see how they put it up there it looks like they tried to it's a little cute um looks like they tried to not go directly through like a major compositional element but um it's it's it's pretty Raw it's um uh so right now the safety the um asphalt might be a concern but that could also be temporary because I remember when they were patching a hole on Heron while we were working they filled it with asphalt first and then about two weeks later they came with concrete so maybe they plan to fill that and that was just a temporary um way to to kind of um Band-Aid it Band-Aid yeah so I have pictures I can send you Vita and I also have the contacts of the lighting people with the city because I did have to work with them a little bit this summer I think so we had that one project that was the tunnel that we never actually got art into and like a project like that obviously is going to have lights at some point underneath it and so I think when we were originally proposing art going down there the art could have been lighting or it could have been art on the walls and then it would have been lit and at some point in the had that project come to fruition during the design process it would be it would behoove everyone to have a conversation about how to best light the space based on the design of the art as well as safety and see if there's any middle ground and if there isn't then potentially the artist could work with whatever they're slated to work with at that point and adjust as opposed to the artworks done and now the lights up afterwards and it's slapped on top of it maybe we add that to our um public art proposal form maybe we revamp the form to include that yeah um Cyrus nahidi is that the transportation engineer and Mark Morano were the two contacts with the city of Anita that I had to go through in order when I was trying to negotiate better lighting that those are the two people I spoke with thank you Mary and if it helps you in the future um when you working with folks and you run into things like that if so that you don't have to run through the entire city to find out who you need to talk to or how quickly you need to get to somebody um if you give me a call I can help you navigate a little quicker through the city if that's helpful I know you know a lot of people but if there's any kind of way that I can help get you in contact with folks a little bit quicker um let me know I'd be glad to help Bita you are my my point person when it comes to that and I do appreciate that so much the DDA had roped these two people and that's how they they got involved so but yeah you you are my my you're my point person for navigating the city the city people yeah I appreciate that I'm always I'm happy to help um so maybe that's just a reach out to the DDA um from a city DDA perspective as a relationship so I I'll touch base with um Amber to just as a gentle reminder and raise my hand that we're also here to help because as we start to collaborate with them on some other things and as they start to do their own projects we're going to run into this again and we need to know yes how to handle it yeah exactly yeah Amber was the she was the M my main contact with the DDA when we were doing that yeah I mean I can see this coming up they were talking about doing murals on the walls of um Liberty Plaza that's an exact place where I would think need more lighting they probably want the walls lit good that's a project that I could see that coming up again anybody else have anything to contribute marionetta no thank you no I'm good okay thank you Sarah you okay I am and I actually I do have something I do have a potential donation uh to the city some small tile murals that I was going to um talk to you about so uh some some nice designs I'll send some pictures over and let you know more about that appreciate that thank you s of course I got an idea from since you I already have something up here going that we can chat about I love it so just so I'm oh Mary can I grab Sophie real quick I'm I'm sorry Sophie oh yeah I just wanted to invite everyone to a a small a very small I think a seven Artist At Art Fair on the 16th of November at the lower toown bar and grill which is next to the um uh Norths Side Grill uh bar and cafe sorry North lowertown bar and cafe next to Northside grill and we're having a little art fair there in the afternoon on the 16th thank you sopie and the Lower Town Art Collective has organized that did you Sophie could you send send out the information about time and everything to the group thank you I've been wanting to check out that bar so it's a perfect opportunity it's it's a really pretty nice design Place yeah and I bought my pumpkin there and that was very good by pumpkin but there you go um Pete Baker one of the owners of lower toown is actually the first guest on Creative mornings that's where I was going to be tonight um the he over at Cahoots they're starting a conversation with artists um once a month called creative morning popup I think it's a I think there's factions all over the globe actually that do this um and Pete Baker from lowertown bar was the presenter tonight can you um send us all information about that meeting I will yeah I was gonna I was gonna go too that's that's why I'm in my car right oh you are late buddy I think it started at six right I know yeah oh Jamal we were both going to go I think meeting so I don't feel so aranged you said December 6th are we meeting monthly now I thought we were B monthly I was confused yeah we're B monly did you guys meet in October while I was traveling yeah I think we do it more now now because of the report we're supposed to be approving yeah I see okay that makes sense okay we're just about 7 54 nobody has anything additional I'd like to adjourn the October we're in November now dar the November 6 and our public art Commission meeting can I have a quick chat with you right after this meeting Vanita sure bye everybody bye everybody good to see you all take care bye take care have a good night see you later bye

yes hey we've got snacks there and stuff it's always great that's a week from today a week from today yes and then um let's talk about then with um PRI school and so one of the things I've learned pretty quickly coming in boy we have a lot of different titles of our preschool um staff and so one of the things that um the preschool leadership team and I are recommending that sight level um staff titles are adjusted to actually reflect the similarities between positions and to actually align with the Arizona Department of Health Services um and the licensing terminology and to specify um the evaluation rubrics um for our staff and currently the district um is using eight different um position titles across the four preschool programs and so um we've been working with otm and with um payroll to really look at that differently um and getting your blessing on that and so for instance you have um uh positions such as um uh K prep um our um K prep preschool programming and the um you have a teacher and then you also have an instructional assistant however in a building blocks program you have a teacher however they're not called a teacher they're called a site leader and then you have somebody else of an activity leader but wait a second we had an activity leader really which is that instructional assistant like it's really confusing and so we really want to clean that up and then with that we would like to change that name to child educator and the reason for that is it aligns with the Arizona Department of Health Services that um label um that they have and then I'm also really making sure that we're intentional about their evaluation instrument because right now the rubric is pretty um generic on things and really being specific about their job responsibilities and so that happens to be that first proposal um that we want to do and then um secondly the employee um position adjustments with those title changes um so the preschool leadership team is recommending these changes to align with some of that payroll law um to compensate the certified Subs appropriately um so we've had some substitutes going in there and we've had a little um things that kind of get messed up because of those titles because they're called a pair of specialist in Toy Box well that that tends to be a special education term and so then it's not quite getting to the right department so again I think those things that if we clean those things up it's going to make sure that our staff are getting paid um timely with different things as well as accurately um and because this isn't hard to fill um we really want to work um I've been working with Rachel Thorton to talk about how we can use that asop system that we already use for our certified teachers um in order to help support our preschool programming um and so that way with the call outs versus we're trying to call on a phone list ourselves it's not very efficient um and then we're having some challenges with that and so um we there's a need to have accurate sublist and there's a need to have license Subs um and so being in a preschool program because of Licensing and with ratios I can't not have somebody in there I need to and this really needs to be a priority um and so we really want to have that per DM rate like what we do with the certified subs and we have on a Monday and Friday our high needs well if you're going through that licensed and you're a substitute and you do the licensing requirements we want to be able to pay you at that higher um prum rate of pay of 150 to cover in a license program um and again I had shared a little bit about our um program structure um with things we're a small Department um but we're Mighty um but I shared with you we have 77 different classrooms um having one preschool coach um you know we are utilizing the campus coaches to help but many of them are not versed in um Early Childhood or the Arizona early learning standards and it is difficult for Robin to get around to all 77 programs Our Hope would be is that she's focused on the special education programming working with Julie and really supporting Eric um because we don't have that Kellin coaching that we did last year and we saw the value in that the need to be able to have um a preschool coach to help support um our K prep our um building blocks and Toy Box programming and so you had asked about tuition rights well our desire as um roted shared is um looking at our preschool programming we look at a lot of things whether it's the current hourly rate um curriculum costs food and supplies um the a DHS um requirements that we have to have those ratios and maintaining um competitiveness um with different things um but before I jump to that I also want to talk about um that support um even with our outside because remember I shared about that eer scale and making sure that um we have those areas within the classroom and having the right materials we're also noticing that out on our playgrounds um we're wanting to make sure we have the materials for that gross motor play for our preschoolers and so um we're trying to work with um Lakeshore um and using some of that in order to have some um playground um refreshes of things as you can see there's that caterpillar the kids love that to be able to climb um through and On Again by working with Lakes where that we're not going out for $275,000 for a brand new playground but how can we add some things to enhance our playground for the student students on bringing bicycles and tricycles I should say and helmets onto the campus again so students can have that gross motor play that and so we want to have that access for them um so let's talk about um because of these different things that we're wanting to do and to continue on that programming to allow for Choice as well as quality programming in Gilbert Public Schools um we want to look at those hourly rates and so working with the um finance department intensively over the last 14 16 months really trying to look at what do we need to do in order to um support for that quality programming um and as well as meet the needs because prices of things have been going up and so we're looking at um in our advantage preschool of around a 5 to 8% increase um toy box with an increase of 15% um building blocks of a 10% increase and then our K prep at a 20% increase and why that because they um K prep tends to have that certified teacher and so to be able to do that that is a higher cost to be able to do that um and so what does that actually mean um let's look at the tuition rate adjustments when we're looking at Advantage preschool um that is a 2 and 1 half hours a day whether it's 4 days or 3 days a week um there are the costs there um one of the things we're trying to move when we're looking at building blocks is really looking at building blocks to be a school day of being that 7:45 until 3:15 and really trying to work in time where the teacher has some time prior to the students coming into their classroom from vik um to be able to do some of that planning um and working through some of those curricular materials um where they haven't had that before and it's been challenging um so really trying to value that like what we do with our K through 12 of having some of that built-in um time for planning um we want to emphasize have a question about that with building blocks do they then go because they're they all day during the school day do they also go to the specials or what do we do to give teacher breaks um well they do have specials um when they are in the building blocks program but remember because we're a licensed preschool program we need to keep those ratios and I can't just send the students to let's say a PE class and the teacher to go back um to have a prep um unfortunately that teacher needs to stay within the classroom environment in that special area because they are licensed and the um PE teacher the music teacher isn't licensed to have them they're there basically as like a guest teacher to provide um support to our students okay it's a great question and so that's why in the building blocks they'll have some time prior to their day at 7:45 or after 3:15 to have that preparation period or during lunch or is that still a problem during well I mean that would be that's their Bunch time and we try to give them that break and they would actually be clocked out at that time okay so we really want to give them some time um contracted time to actually be intentionally planning and making sure that you know they're ready to go for the next day's instruction versus you know trying to wing it so is so do building blocks participate with our specials teachers they do oh they don't always get every special but as we look at the k6 master Special schedule then we also then look at at the beginning of the year once we figure out all the k6 sections then if we have some specials teachers that have open time then we will give them so a lot of our building blocks may not have all four specials classes but they may have like PE and library at one building blocks and another class uh another building blocks down the street at another school might have art and from an art teacher and music from the general music teacher so we've filled that in to give them that experience for 20 to 30 minutes do we kind of then have a way that we um track the payment of that then because it should kind of go toward a payment then right we've looked at that too and so we we've we've covered it internally because they just naturally might have a gap that like Spectrum Elementary have one or two classes so instead of letting just giving them idle time or asking them to go somewhere else we've actually filled up their time as well too so okay we've been more strategic on that the last five or six years I think that's good I would like to see I would like to see like some grids I guess I like what Bonnie does just to show exactly just the cost that you're showing us I would love to see those like even just on some more you know what I'm saying just some grids that show us exactly what that looks like not even even just your tuition asks going forward in the future well uh when we bring this for approval at our next board meeting we'll have it in grid form for you so you guys can read it out thanks I think it's grid form there um it is so there actually is a hyperlink in the um on the tuition rate adjustments no I saw that I want to see like where the where the cost will go like exactly oh the break oh the breakdown of when I'm asking for the tuition increase where that would go okay I can work on that for you thanks and then um I know sometimes when you're looking at it's like oh my goodness you know you're looking asking for a big percentage and as we said as we all know the price of things have certainly um has gone up but there are ways to really support those families um with need um as we shared before there's um either some companies have the employer um Child Care reimbursements um there is the dees the Department of Economic Security and that reimbursement rate I noted that and what's really important why we working on the accreditation and the five star or getting the quality stars is um when you have three star or above you can actually get a higher rate of return in order to provide that support for families so that's really important to families to have that five-star um rating or that accreditation um the other part is is um Quality first and first things first have provided scholarships although there have been cutbacks um our hope is as that comes back again a little healthier as we've been able to award um scholarships to families um and then we also utilize some of our Title One funding to help Provide support at our Title One campuses for families to reduce that tuition as well for those families that are in need and then of course we do do for our employees an employee um 20% discount um the next part would be the building blocks um tuition scenario and so really wanted to share with you an example of currently um you know what it looks like so on a school day would be from 7:45 until 3:15 um that would be currently a $750 cost um per per month per week that would be per month per month correct okay and then um if you were doing extended day which would mean dropping your kiddo off perhaps maybe at 6:30 in the morning and then staying for that extended day um then that would be 920 um when we look at the proposed um part would be in a school day would be $825 again that's from $745 to 315 if families are wanting that extended day you've got that um building blocks plus the vi you'll notice that that's $1,330 but we feel that it's important giving families a discount that if you are doing that full day with the building blocks that vik that's helping us with Staffing and we can plan accordingly for that um then we're giving that discount of $133 so then it would be $1,197 a month so there's that then and now kind of comparison for an example and I know you had asked earlier what about some surrounding on preschool programs and so I just want to um highlight just a few um different programs um around so if you're looking at um like Bridges preschool Bridges preschool has won a lot of awards um you know kind of the top we're kind of competing you know preschool program um in Gilbert and so um what they're charging um but some things to know is although right now it may look like oh goodness um Chandler Queen Creek and higgle are less than us I know all three of those districts are currently doing the same thing that we are um higgle is going to be presenting next week and doing um an increase as well um and so that's what their current rate is not what they're proposing to change so again we're going to be pretty comparable with things that we're doing um you also need to think about with some of the programs why did we do why do we have differences you also have to look at programs are they certified versus non-certified that really makes a difference as well um I know Higley um or right and the other thing is you have to look at the hours so as Rod had shared with the extended day um some of them um such as Chandler their hours are from 7:00 a.m.

that is auction.io see who Franklin pick for their next character to try to try to take out uh Eli all it takes is one uh all it takes is Eli to lose one stock and then they move on then C tigers let move on to the next player oh that is that was round four okay no excuse me looks like they're switching characters oh they're switching oh they're switching looks like the Cyber tigers are switching people and they will have Sayan pyrra it looks like we are moving to small Battlefield okay once again we are going to small Battlefield see how they see how they handle this oh and it's American Mario looks like I don't believe yep no one has to jump jump off for beginning of this it's like we got a medium weight against another medium weight so this should be an interesting [Music] fight one's a movement based and one's a hit a hit based character Tyro mythra are the uh movement based character and Mario is the hit based character so it's really interesting to see these two end up fighting each other consider how how Mario is usually played in competitive so we'll see how this goes looks like Mario's already in the danger zone of 124% all it takes is one down Smash and Mario will go flying looks like Mario will be losing his first life to a down smash by [Music] Izzy see if she can three stock him possibly or Mario just turn it around who knows possibilities are endless looks like Mario is already back in the danger zone of 106% once you hit 100% you got to really be careful cuz you can easily get knocked off but yep right there Mario does end up losing his second life to a uh what was that s a I believe yeah I believe it is I could be wrong [Music] oh see if Izzy can take this last stock off of [Music] him o looks like Mario might be getting back into the danger zone looks like Izzy will be three stocking [Music] Mario which means round oh was that round five yeah round five will'll be going to cyber tigers see who Franklin pick for their next character and Izzy will not have to jump off since she had all three stocks so she will not lose anything [Applause] see who they picked as their character oh they pick a me brawler see how this goes mediumweight and a lightweight one go Izzy's just starting off aggressive look like the me Brawler's already taking Izzy up to 30 and Izzy's already take the Mi brawler up to se 81 it's like she will be going to down Smash and taking the Mi brawler Into the Danger Zone look like she does not get the down smash off I think me just loves his down smash up and gets another down smash off almost getting Izzy Into the Danger Zone [Music] too like I he will taking Meb up to 124% and that will be a stock lost for the me brawler see if Izzy can take out another one before she loses one looks like Izzy's already bringing the me up to the percent to her percentage above her percentage now looks like me brothers are back in the danger zone and loses another stock to Izzy so another one lost to down smash by pyro mythra see if she can get the me back in the danger zone she's only 5% off from the danger zone and looks like she almost does lose a stock and looks like she will end up losing a stock take her back down to 0% and Meb her up to 40 50 58 like meall is at 96 and that was and that is game for round five it's like Izzy will be winning with two stocks left and I believe that leaves the Cyber tigers at two points and Franklin at zero two more and then that is game for the for the week I believe yeah see who Franklin pick as their next player it looks like they got another me sword figh they just really like the me fight the Mi Fighters so again you got a medium weight and oh it's Sans again got medium weight and a lightweight iszy will only have to jump off once cuz she only lost one and the fight should be yep and they are into it now it's like me sword figh will be getting the first [Music] hit see how this goes for for [Music] them for on see who's first Into the Danger Zone looks like me fight looks like me sword fighter is going to be cutting it close and will be the first one to go into the danger zone and loses the first stock [Music] see if Izzy can pull off another another one Tri Tri see if she can trying to knock out the me baller almost gets it it gets down smashed 3% off me B is 3% off of the danger zone see she can get the down smash off does not look like she can oh she gets the hit but not the critical [Music] hit see oh they both have the no they have the same down smash that's something to see we're both in the danger zone pretty much the same percentage [Music] it's like Izzy's got to be careful of what she does now cuz she yep and she loses her second stock see if she can tie it up with the me sword fighter which one down smash should do it see just running along the platforms trying to stall [Music] time and the meall is at 155% which one smash should knock him out into the into the void making him lose his second stock and Y there goes his second stock now he is back at [Music] zero pretty much now it's first to knock off the other one wins the [Music] round look like Izzy's playing it safe me sword fighter is already at 72% while Izzy is still at 25 the me sword fighter just can't get a hit and I guess it spoke too soon cuz he already got a hit off now Izzy is now at 50% and the mebr is at [Music] 92 cutting it close on the ledge there and now all she has to do is just ledge camp meall already at 127 looks like that will be game and Iz he wins with one stock which will be taken us into round six I believe oh no round eight see who Franklin pick for their character next again and then one more and if cyber tag is win this and that is game it's first to two first to knock out four players gets a point and it's first two so total of eight players get knocked out for one team they win that looks like they pick Cloud another medium weight go and Izzy will have to end up jumping off twice since she only had one stock but now the fight will commence and Izzy gets the first hit off so like she gets a couple of hits off before he Cloud even attacks blocks Cloud's attack punishes oh my gosh punishes him for it [Music] like Cloud almost has his limit which I don't really know what that does oh it's a oh it's the uh side smash it pretty much just makes it stronger which Cloud's already in the danger zone and loses a stock so now he is down to two looks like Izzy's also in the danger zone too Cloud almost knocks her out see if she can at least take one more stock before she gets knocked [Music] [Applause] out see Iz he's already at 141 he clouds at 43 so Izzy's got to really watch it and that is game Franklin you Franklin take round [Music] [Applause] nine we off another sponsor uh blue feather Visions is a local photography studio based based in Fort Wayne specializing in travel concert live music product marketing and portrait photography check out blue feather visions.com for more once again that is blue feather visions.com see who cyber tagers pick for theirs looks like they pick uh Corin who is also a lightweight not lightweight my bad he is a mediumweight actually a really good matchup for um Cloud cuz they're both I believe Korn is a sword character he is okay and Cloud I believe will have to jump off either once or twice guess okay I guess it's just once once again again we Franklin has one point and cyber tigers have three so if Franklin wins this they go up to two points if cyber Tigers win it they go up to four points and end up winning the game well winning game two so it is just a matter of who can knock off who first see Cloud playing really aggressive that already takes a stock off of uh [Music] Corin Cloud at almost in the danger zone at 94% see [Music] [Applause] looks like Cloud's at 117% and K is at [Applause] 111 so it looks like corn loses a second life and cloud is still at 125 all it takes is one smash and cloud is out of there and loses his second stock and guess he does lose his second stock to up smash see how this goes cuz now they looks like Korn's doing better out of the two of them cuz he has 0% and cloud has 31 pretty much it just depends on who can do the more more damage first looks like it look looks like Cloud's doing the more damage right now Cloud's only at 61 and K is at 73 see how this goes corn almost gets his down his down smash does not look like either his down smashes will connect bringing K up to 105% and Cloud up to 61 it looks like Cloud will be taken game 10 that game my bad round 10 and he will be starting off with one life next next game meaning he will have to jump off twice and let's see who the Cyber Tigers pick for their next car character choose your f looks like Jaden will be playing looks like Jaden will be playing for this round see who he plays it's like he'll be playing olmer sorry if I mispronounced that choose your fighter all of and oh don't know what just happened there but [Applause] oh look like it's Cloud versus olmer and Cloud will have to jump off twice I believe I could be wrong I believe it's I believe it's twice nope guess just once never mind guess it's twice all jayen has to do is knock him out and that is game two going to cyber Tigers see if they can see if Jaden can keep up with Cloud Almer is a uh it's a medium light wait character which are not hard to knock off they are just annoy oh and there goes Almer there goes Jaden's first stock look like Cloud's at [Music] 26% and looks like cloud is now up to 34 and Almer is only at 10 and Cloud's now up to 49 see how this match will how see how this match plays out Cloud playing really aggressively right now well Jaden's Jaden's just trying to keep his distance from cloud Cloud's being really aggressive right now Cloud misses his down Smash and tries to connect with an up smash but Jaden is already gone it's like Cloud's already at 84 and brings jayen up to 72 see cloud in the danger zone now of 101% see if he can bring Jaden up to the danger zone does not look like he'll be able to and looks like Jaden will be losing his second stock for the game see if he can knock Cloud out and win the game does not seem oh plus he can connect a down Smash and not get punished for it does not look like he'll be able [Music] to Cloud at 144% while Jaden's still at 18 see now Cloud at 153 165 one smash should knock him out see excuse me see if jayen can pull it off Cloud save himself probably for the last time and then Jaden knocks him out winning game [Music] two wow what a what an amazing fight that is it for tonight's games thank you for joining us this this evening we'll be back next week uh Monday at 5:00 P p.m for Tetris so we will see you then [Music] for [Music] a [Music] a [Music] he

at the Town Hall where you can share your thoughts and discuss Community issues both in person and Via Zoom a little downtown trick-or treat recap Halloween brought out a festive Spirit on October 31st as ashlin's downtown trick-or treat event welcomed a large crowd featuring treats from town hall the library and local businesses plus fun activities from the police and fire departments thank you all to who came out Citizens Academy starting January 8th 2025 joined the Citizens Academy a new program designed to educate residents on Town operations this 10-week course will include Department tours and presentations limited to 15 participants downtown construction Phase 2 phase two of the downtown construction began on November 1st on Front Street and will soon move to Main Street most work will be on private properties with minimal traffic disruptions expected Town Hall repairs will begin on the right side of town hall on November 6th the Main Street entrance will be closed but Alternet access will be available via Cherry Street the shop local campaign throughout November Ashlin bizbuzz on Facebook will spotl a local business each day let's support our community by shopping local Ashland has received an energy efficiency grant to develop a guide for residents on home decarbonization thanks to the sustainability committee the Pumpkin Smash bring your unpainted pumpkins for composting at the Pumpkin Smash on November 9th from 10:00 a.m.

interested parties are encouraged to complete an application on the town's website um definitely encourage folks to uh to apply if you're interested uh there's a reminder that municipal buildings will be closed on Monday November 11th which is Veterans Day uh a reminder that special town meeting will take place on Tuesday November 19th at ashin High School auditorium at 700 p.m. um and we will be offering child care for anyone that uh that wishes to uh to take advantage of that so uh reminder that yard waste collection is every Monday with the last pickup on Monday November 25th 2024 um make sure you put all your leaves in bags and um leave them out first thing in the morning on Monday morning uh reminder that the pre Thanksgiving Farmers Market will take place on Saturday November 23rd at 1:25 Front Street from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m.

e e e so I'll do the roll call um it is November the 6 time is 7:03 p.m. and I will read the roll call for the public art commission meeting for this evening Allison Neil present in N Arbor Jamal Bufford present in my car in an aror welcome maretta Porter hear you pres an arbor thank you Soph G pres in thank you Mary Thief hey everybody I'm present in uh Grass Lake thank you um and I know that Sarah's coming on at some point I did get um notices that both Peggy and John would be out today as well as council member Harrison I can start with the agenda if everybody's okay with that um can I have an approval of the agenda as it is please thank you Allison anybody want a second second thank you son I wanted to know if anybody had any additional public comment comments I'm sorry my light just thank you my lights may go off and on so I apologize for that my lighting is automatically here a certain time of the evening so I also have minutes attached for our January or our um our meeting on the I think I R did that on the October the 2nd anybody had had time to look at the um minutes I think it was a pretty short meeting skimmed them they look good to me okay thank you don't have any old business um we may have a few items that we want to talk about um we can certainly add anything if you need to do that um so for new business I have the the 2024 annual report thing and I've been working on that um I if you've had some time to take a look at it um if you see anything if and you'd like to let us know um there's some changes or adjustments that need to be made um we he we still have time to submit that and have that go out to um our uh main site for folks to take a look at as well yeah I'll um do some track changes and send them your way there's okay definitely a few things I noticed um the other thing is that the title headings from previous reports were intentional because they hit on each of the points that were in the bylaws that were required to include in the annal report okay so um if you'll just revisit I think it's section three of the bylaws there's like a b c d those are the things that are have to be included in the annual report which I think are literally the the headings from previous reports just to make sure we touch on each of the things even even if like I think some years one of them was like one of the things you have to comment on is um donating art and so lots of the years we just said nothing was donated this year we do have a piece that was donated or two but so right okay thank you Alison I one of the other ones in there that is maintenance and traditionally I think Bonita you've been able to pull information from the database on that send me those updates Allison and I'll add the additional information there and um Fang and I can go back and forth a little bit but um I appreciate um Fang taking up most of this um and doing most of the work here um for your first time um I thought you did a nice job and I know that the schedule was busy for you and the time was a little bit difficult but I certainly appreciate um working with you to get that done thank you you helped me a lot with a lot of significant information to fill out yeah well I wanted to make sure that um I know we had a lot of art going on um this this last year or so um so I appreciate you giving the reminders Allison about the additions because I felt like we added a lot of art information and and things that we worked on this year um and I wanted to make sure that we had captured everything so we'll work back on that uh later on next week hi Sophie do you have a question um yeah I think uh it would be nice if there was a place to mention the uh golden prain brush award that we gave last um to embracing our differences and I think that came fell in that year so it' be nice if it had a a little spot in there somewhere okay I'll have to check that because I thought we did that I I'll look I'll check because I was of that because I can't remember how it how the timing worked out and I think June June 23 through July 24 so I don't know when we did it but it's worth mentioning in the section about promoting public art and that we're going to do it on a biannual basis the the ward itself even if it's not that award okay so we'll be meeting next week to talk about kicking off the next one I think and you could potentially talk about how we started our Instagram although that might have fallen slightly after the year but yeah I can provide a a photo of the hereon underpass if that would be nicer than the yeah yeah design you me to send that right to you uh we could send out to all of us yeah okay yeah I search on the web only you might yeah we we were thinking you might have better photo there are updated photos on the treetown murals Instagram but I can also send those to you thank you Mary do we have any updates from many of our committees working groups um only that Allison and Sarah and I from leaders is it leadership or fundraising Allison fundraising we are going to put a meeting in the books to discuss um the granting you know this 5,000 that we have plus a potential match for the 2025 calendar year I was going to say um any content for the Instagram I don't mind updating it like even you know golden paintbrush stuff or what Mary um is offering to add to the annual report so anything like that um just let me know and I can I can add it to our Instagram thank you Jamal it was it was fun to see one of the the posters yesterday of banners posters which uh from that at um the school where I voted bber white school welcome Sarah Sarah we're just um we just got done talking about the annual report so if you have anything to add about that feel free and then we're talking about um working groups updates thank you good to see everyone I guess back to the Instagram if there is any like protocol on it like also let me know that like I could I I will run by whatever I post by the group so I'm just not like posting willy-nilly but um if there's some sort of like checks and balances before things get posted let me know that too Jamal I can check with our legal team just to make sure maybe they have a stand standard for using those account Instagram accounts so I can certainly reach out and see if they've maybe got a small too or to not do list okay do you think if it's something fairly straightforward and not contentious that Jamal could just go ahead and post and then or do you think you should check each thing no I I don't I don't have an intention of checking each thing if legal has a maybe they have a standard that they'd like all the commissions to follow um so I can certainly um reach out and see if they have something right now that we should be using as we start the Instagram account yeah so I mean the rules would be good to know but I feel like Jamal could probably use his judgment generally without having to run it by everyone although it' be nice to know when there was a post if we haven't seen it you know yeah I I trust your judgment Jamal um I'm following it now so I should CST if you do any um I think in general obviously if it's public art in Ann Arbor it's postable if it's public art that's created by an artist who has public art in an arbor I think that's tangentially related I think use your best judgment if it has any sort of relationship to what we're doing it can be posted I would um just caution the um the projects that are with the anabor art center their art and public program that we just give any shoutouts especially to artists if were necessary you know in the post as well that we're not just showing art without shouting out the artists for sure yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm I'm always gonna credit for sure yeah but yeah that's that's noted um I appreciate the the trusting of my judgment I noticed you sent out an email on a login does that mean you're looking for collaborators on the social media Jamal or how does that work can you have multiple people also posting and logged in there's the ability to yeah I I shared it with everybody I didn't want to monopolize it other people wanted to post uh I don't mind taking that responsibility uh but anybody on the team they have access if they want to post as well I'd be happy to help if you know doing some posts and if you want like a proofreader editor type person before posting be happy to help with that too cool okay thank you i' say that lwh hanging fruit for Content at this point would be um all the work that's in the tour and link to I mean like n linking and Instagram's difficult but having it go back to our tour and promoting that with that tour exists online um okay cool yeah I can start there Foundation point to start from yeah and I got just put the link in the bio and just give everybody the tech the link in a bio that's a great idea and the Tree of Life sculpture because it still is the bicentennial year so that would be some fun content I have some pictures too from the unveiling so yeah can you send those because the picture that's in the report right now is uh at it over at the city building which is oh not nearly as nice as where it ended up I have photo and video so I will send those over great do we have any photos of the basketball court finished the parks project I think we has anybody seen that I think posted already don't we isn't that part of the annual report I'm it's the design design yes the design I don't remember which Park it's in anybody remember is it finished is the project finished par and by Centennial yeah okay I know that the art was selected I don't know that it's been done has it been done I would be surprised if it's done now was the deadline it was like 2024 calendar year project I'll have to ask I'll have to ask around that that Manny came and did a presentation to the commission was that the one that Manny was working on and and the parks folks I thought they were going to select it right by now but then paint it in the spring 2025 I think we added that to our to the annual report so I believe that that one is finished I think you're correct Vita there was a a redo on the design they extended the design they realized they didn't want faces and so they made all the artists go back to the drawing board so it did delay the project but I I I have a feeling it was still executed well I know Mary you guys have a nice uh flying camera that maybe could get good pictures of it flying camera I love that a drone yes that's what I'm looking for Southeast Park what you I can show you a picture of my house with all the Falla colors from 350 feet up I thought it's beautiful yeah it's been renamed by Centennial Park what used to be Southeast Park which is where it should be so if anyone's down that way maybe where's that Park Sophie soueast Park it's um it's in the southeast yeah it's plat it's plat with Elsworth that corner oh Southeast it used to be we called it the Nike Court uhuh back in the day when we played on it cute there sometimes as well but um I'm trying to remember what the cross street is from Ellsworth it might be like um it's not hon River uh I can't remember anyway plat perhaps maybe plat it is plat yeah it's Ellsworth and plat yes um I think the roundabout that you guys that you talk about in the annual report is that the one that Mary did also was that finished or it's un under discussion uh Mary did a roundabout already with the elementary school painting that's finished that's finished it's on my street yeah I know we didn't include that one I didn't include that no oh you guys talked about I was wondering is that what school is that one e e Eber whites yeah I was wondering about that whether that was finished one or it's ongoing discussion it was it was done all done on the same weekend as Art Hop okay yeah but the mar has a photo right you should have a photo is that the kind of project we include in the report though we probably didn't include it but do we need to I'm just curious if it's a generally in our annual report we don't talk about every public art project that happens however in this one there are several projects that are not related to the CIP that are mentioned um just because we supported them at one point in our meeting um you go either way with the report you could include a bunch of them you could not include them up to you um go on the Instagram page though yeah it could go on the Instagram page for sure I asked about it because the roundabout there is a roundabout talked about in there at some point I'm not crazy I read it today and they some of the supporters are Larry and Katherine Nissen and I know those were different people than the Larry and Lucy Nissen or if it's just a typo um so I don't know U Mary you might run to review that area if it is the one that you did I don't know okay I'll look I haven't had a chance to review the report but I I promise I will I was very confused but I I could be totally wrong it could be totally other people and a totally different roundabout that and why well we did have a presentation from Parks about two or three roundabouts in the north part of town if you all remember that's a future project though that's a future okay well then it must be it's probably just a typo yeah Rin was the one who was working on the EA white one so she kind of organized that with um with Mary I think well and it was funded through the art and public program because it was Larry and Lucy's donation through the art center yes it say Larry and Kathy neelson which isn't I don't know who Kathy neelson is or whether she funded anything but yeah that's why I was confused so I just if it's just needs to be corrected cool I just wanted to make sure the right person was getting their eyes on it who I'm pretty sure it was Larry and Lucy niss who did the actual funding of that one if everybody could take a look at the report and just go over it again um feel free to send both Fang and I um your you can edit add edit right yeah and we can put you into the editors was that report orual yeah for now we should just for yourself and iang it's probably better if we open it up a little bit more it might be more confusing because we won't know what folks are actually updating so if if you guys have anything that you see in there there's a typo the picture is incorrect um or we got the wrong artist let let us know please um can I ask one other question about the report um there was information about the historical markers um which those are the glass ones correct yes there was not information that I saw about a new historical marker just basic background information so was the intent to to include information on the one that went over by Community High School or it's we're still having in discussions with that one so it's still possible that there may be some changes and a different design for that one I don't have a lot of information on it but I do know that the group is still very interested in placing one at I guess I just don't understand why it's included in this year's report unless there's something that happened within this year that you're going to note within the report like we took on the ownership of it or there's another one that's been worked on this year or something that relates it to this fiscal calendar I think the information that we have there now is just us taking ownership of it and working with the legal team to finalize the transition from the historic commission to the city does it say that because I don't I don't remember reading that I I okay to be fair I read it fast but I don't remember that being included which would be pertinent to why it's in there okay all right thank you yeah but how can is it just like I send you the the annual report and annual plan and then I put it under everyone can be a editor and then you can start work on that so what I'm planning on doing is I'm going to save the word document in Google Drive I will track my changes and then I will share that document with you so then you can see all the changes I'm suggesting and you can take them or leave them and that's probably well that'll be more work because you'll have to incorporate the changes that I suggest it's probably better than let us all just edit away at your thing yeah yeah I think I we can share the file within a group and so anyone with the link right and you can ask for the access and then you are able to add it we may just just end up having a very short meeting here any additional updates from Commissioners things happening throughout the city that you want to share I will say I'm um participating in the Elevate DDA art selection of their um the shade structures in the Farmers Market we have a meeting next Wednesday it's the first meeting so I'll keep you guys updated on what I find out that's really great I missed the last meeting um and I was curious about that like if the DDA had actually reached out to include the public art Commission on their panels um did anybody attend their public art Think Tank conversation Alison I think you said you went to that at the library so I don't know if the one so the one that I went to that day was it was not public art focused it it was their plan and the four different parts of it and there's one part that talks about vibrancy which is where the public art Falls um but it was like a afterthought kind of it was not a a primary focus of that conversation um and Jamal you were on a panel to uh select these murals that the library is doing as part of the bicentennial is that right I saw you as a judge is there correct an update on that project there's like a party coming up right and yeah December I think they're trying to get a whole like everything all the art Focus things done by December by the party um I got commissioned to do a song for the by Centennial as well um so they want all this stuff done by this event in December yeah is there a date we can put on the calendar for that or is that still not that I know but I can I can check and let y'all know okay if it's a public event that could be great we'd love to hear your song [Laughter] yeah speaking of we have a fundraiser this weekend for the guild if you guys are interested I can send you the link for tickets we still have some space available it's going to be at Cahoots downtown we'll have drinks and lots of food and entertainment and art activities and it'll be good time a silent auction so let me know if you're interested I'll send you the link no pressure please send send us all the link Allison okay what is it a fundraiser for Alison The Guild where I work that puts on the an art fair and the gotman gallery our annual fundraiser our second one I just want to plant a seed with the public art commission um I worked um alongside the DDA in the city a little bit um around lighting for the underpass project that we did it didn't really work out in our favor um and so it has inspired me to take up a initiative with public art that also is paired with proper lighting so I'm not sure if this is anything that we've addressed as a commission before um but it's just something that I may talk to you a little bit more about Venita like how to get that conversation started um really the long and short of it is that the DDA and the city um felt that they by obligation had to reinstall the utility lights that were um underneath the underpass prior to to um the start of our project and when they were installed they're they're just they're lighting the sidewalk but they're also right smack dab in the middle of the art and it has a very big metal piping conduit that goes through the art on both sides of the mural and um we really tried to work with the city and the DDA to um to collaborate on something that would not only be a safety feature but something that would light the art and there was no budging um and so I would like to pursue this as a greater conversation that as we do these public art projects that lighting is a consideration and um that we just sort of ease the city into the importance of that and um also start you know maybe if there's um an engineer on staff that we could be working alongside that this is something that we think about very early on in our in our projects um that lighting is a consideration so this is something I'm just kind of wanting to get more feedback on from the commission and um I think it's something we can accomplish sopie has a question I was thinking that uh lighting and any other safety features should be discussed with the artist and um done so that the art complement and doesn't suffer from and that the safety features and lighting complement and do not suffer from the art you know so that all of it is done as with the engineering in the art at one go so that everybody's happy and safe thank you Sophie I agree I went to Europe after the those lights were installed and I I was was just I couldn't believe I mean everything in Europe is lit all the all the artwork on all the buildings all the sidewalks all the architecture everything is just this beautiful light uh and celebration of of all the art and architecture and I just what I had to deal with with um it just felt so utilitarian and quick and dismissive that um if we are going to be doing these high-profile projects you know in Partnership with the city that we do consider lighting as a major factor and feature in them I do like the idea of talking about it as it relates not only to you know properly lighting the work but safety also because um there has been a couple different instances where artists work has been changed or asked to be changed after the fact for safety reasons I know the over the the metal pieces on the Bridge originally were supposed to be shinier and they had to be not shiny so that lights didn't reflect off of them and people didn't get distracted and have accidents um and so and that had an impact on the overall piece and what light reflected off of it and the coloring and I think ultimately how people perceived the project so maybe would I know we have our guidelines about how to do calls for art maybe we need to add that to our guidelines of what we recommend is included in your call for art um so that whoever is putting out that call is considering the safety features that need to be incorporated within the art design but then also have um the artist incorporate their recommendations for how it would be properly lit excellent yeah suggestion yeah I think that's an excellent suggestion too um having said all that we should also bear in mind the city's dark sky ordinance so remember um the whole thing may not need to be lit all night but um you know so it doesn't need to light up the whole sky or anything but so that it can be lit in order to enjoy the art but not necessarily at 3:00 a.m.

e e e Miss Paige can you hear us yes perfect thank you thank you e e e Don paging Dr Don all right good evening everyone like to welcome everybody to tonight's uh work study and brief board business meeting want to uh welcome our guests from Community Education uh that are here tonight uh we're excited to uh for the presentation that's been uh that's been prepared uh I'll call this meeting to order and uh we'll just jump right into it uh agenda item number two Community Education Program overview and proposed tuition rates Dr mcord thank you Mr Thompson governing board members I'll turn this over and let uh our assistant superintendent of elementary schools and who's also over Community Ed Dr Jason Martin introduce his friends thank you Dr McCord governing board members we're pleased to be here tonight to go through a couple of things with Community Education First of all give you a program overview of what Community Education entails which a large part of that is also our preschool program and so tonight we have these two find administrators next to me and I want to just give a shout out to them you know 14 months ago um both all of us I had I have worked with Community Education but never uh supervising or the role I at and I've learned a lot myself over the last 14 to 16 months and these two having been um season veteran uh School administrators moving into their roles Rod Houston as our director of community ed and Don koberstein as our director of early learning I just want to give a shout out that they've done a fabulous job of building upon what Jared Ryan did for previous years before that uh leading Community Education and just a reminder that Community Education is uh is self-funded so all of the programs that we do and so all the expenses whether that's the payroll or the cost to run the programs we all have to make sure that we are covering those costs and then of course Community Education funds usually we end up with a net gain as you see when Bonnie bet shares each month where community education is so it helps also with some of our other um programs in areas in Gilbert Public Schools um by bringing in revenue for us as well so Community Education plays an important role um for our families in our community but also too an important Financial role for us as well too so these two are going to lead you through the presentation tonight please make sure you stop and ask questions along the way and and they're also going to introduce this fine group of Community Education staff in individuals um that came tonight that really are the ones that help run the various programs that we have here all right rod thank you Dr Martin and Dr mord and board and superintendency for having us um if you see here there's a there's a quick highlight video on here we're not going to play it in the interest of time you can certainly go back and look at it and it'll be there if the public wants to see it on the when it's posted um gber Public Schools Community Education Department um um the programs and the offerings that we have we have our before and after school care intercession holiday camps all of those that has run through our very important kids club and then we have our early childhood programming that Don runs um all of our preschools uh we have an enrichment our enrichment programs which are um after school programs that kind of go on top of that but it's also a place where kids can kind of go pique their interest and we'll talk a little bit more about that our Gilbert Youth Athletics program and then facility rentals also falls under Community Ed um and then we're going to talk to submit at the end about a little bit of the school connect stuff we're doing now too um our passion their future the The Motto or the vision is building connections through service oh building connections through service I can't see those on public building connections through service between Gilbert Public Schools our families and our community fostering care and Trust creating safe Innovative enriching opportunities and our classrooms our schools and our neighborhoods um and so our vik program I'll I'll through some stats and some of those things but before we do that I do want to introduce um Kristen stman is our program supervisor she was the original program supervisor um she was she was doing a great job of running camps on her own over the summer so we went out and hired her to come in and do a great job for us so she's been doing that she also this year was a finalist for the um Arizona Center for after school Excellence program leader of the Year award so congratulations and thanks to Kristan and then with her is Ray Martin is one of our Specialists and our Specialists oversee five to seven campuses for us of our after school programming and doing those things next to Kristen is Norma Herrera Ruben Sans Matthew Phillips and Ryan rordon they are the ones that really are at schools every day doing all the work and we're just grateful that that they show up every day so um just so you have an idea of the program and what it what it's like um so on 2122 we had 259,000 and22 and I said attendees we were trying to figure how it's contact relates how many times did we did kids come through to right so if a kid went to after school care every day of the year there would be 180 contacts in there for those kids if they're doing run Club an enrichment program and vik three days a week those would count for each week that would count as five um so that's the contacts that we would have um as you hear me say attendees and and do that 2023 we grew to 356,550 have to meet ratios but our staff also have to be accredited through different programs like to be a site leader you got to have I think it's two years experience and before you can even be considered that and you got to have one of those per so many kids along with a 1 to2 Staffing ratio and do those things so we struggled coming out of the kind of just the things and people not necessarily looking for jobs and wanting to work um we've picked that up this year we feel like we're doing really well I think we right now we have three schools that have some waiting list and we just got to find a few more kids to show up to help us and we'll be good to go there we're projecting about 360 2,000 um kids that will see us on on basis this year um of those kids that we see um there's 2009 contracts that families have signed with us for their kids to come and be a part of it um 980 of those are open enrollment kids um 528 of them are from out of boundary 320 of them have IEPs um and then we're still trying to get some of our stuff we just able to make a connection with ELO and Infinite Campus so we're going to be able to start getting some of the data that would really help us show how the program is affecting kids in school and those things we're excited to get rolling through that so one of the reasons we're here is to we want to talk a little bit just about raising our tuition um and I'll go through after I show you what we're looking at I'll explain the reasons that we want to do that so currently um if you come one day a week two days a week four days a week you pay $12.10 a day to come to am if you come if you're on a weekly contract or if you're if you sign a contract to go all year and you're going to show up every day five days a week you pay $10 75 cents a day for that um we're proposing the 10% would be 1331 and 1161 um around us as we talked to the school districts around us and we look at some of the private contractors that do this and do it for that time frame they're about $13.25 a day um after school we're running at 1754 if you're just coming certain days $495 if you're on a full-time contract with us looking to go to 1929 and 1645 and then 2713 is around us um you guys can do those I do want to talk just a minute about um the bottom two right now if we do a Wednesday early release day um we just charge them what where we charge a typical kid on a day but there's an extra hour in there um and our our numbers go up so we've got to then change our staffing to meet the ratios to continue to stay licensed it's very hard to find somebody that wants to work for 1 hour on a Wednesday so um so what we did was we went figure out how much we're paying for hour where the people are paying us per hour for the time that they would be there and then put that down as the proposed rate for a Wednesday we have some people that come up only on the early release Wednesdays their kids will come they'll only stay for a really brief time for that and then they're able to pick them up and go and and do their thing um half days is the other one that's the same way where we get an influx of kids because Mom and Dad don't get off on a half day like like the school does and so we did that same thing we just took the rate that they have and averaged that into the number of hours and chose that as as what we were doing to to to pay that rate um so ask question if they're coming to the s sure if they're coming to the Wednesday after school they're just paying ,750 for the whole time whether or not they leave early correct we do not do hourly right okay thank you um one of the big things with the schools around us that we found we we are way I don't want to say this we work harder to make sure that we're we're helping our families and can get it as best as we can there are multiple districts around us that say your only option is to pay for it all year long 5 days a week and you just pay that price and that's what is whether you come one day for two hours or you come 5 days for 3 hours every day after school it's $250 a week or whatever that is that they're charging um just for numers so that you kind of see what it is if if we made the raises for a student that would be attending Monday would be morning and afternoon doing the the year-long contract doing the whole thing it would be about a 5 uh excuse me a $57.40 per month increase which averages out to about $516 60 annually for a family's child to be there every day before and after school um if a was to hit us three afternoons a week that would help um the increase would be approximately $21 a month or $189 a year varying on if one of those days or some of those days were Wednesdays and half days um we also run our enrichment programs from 2 to three on Wednesdays which is um again it's programs where they might take Spanish or they're doing music or they're doing some of those um and they come in and they do an hour and we bring instructors in we work with companies that come in and actually run programs in our schools um through through us they they the money comes through us we it we pay them to come in and and run the classes they um they can get into one of those typically for about $125 for an 8 week session which runs those days at about $15.62 so if you really only need the hour there is an option there that would keep you off of that that higher rate um one of the things that we're super proud of and you have a your in the folders that I left for you you have a packet that looks like this I won't open it on the screen and do it but if you want to take time to look through it at some point um we spent a ton of time really trying to build our programs there's a million things things that we're required to do by the department of health services and Dees to run licensed programs um but our staff has done a phenomenal job of building weeks long sessions where there are things that we're doing at every site and our leaders are trained on how they're going to run them and what they're going to do um and then on top of that they're developed by our staff so it's not like we're buying it or we're doing that they're spending time they're coming into the office they're developing what we're doing um and doing all of those things with our Specialists and our site leads um it is aligned to the Arizona State curriculum if you look on the back of the first page um you will see one page that we shortened typically when we do a week's worth of stuff we get about three pages worth of um state standards that would meet K8 question yep so these uh the curriculum that's on the back of the first page of this packet that you gave us has things like mathematics science language arts um social studies I know that we were doing and and forgive me I don't recall the the names of the programs but to when kids when the kids came back from uh Co the co uh period um a number of kids were behind and so we would offer opportunities for them to come in um one of the two weeks over uh a fall or a spring break right um did they join these groups or were those separate from this they're separate yeah that that's run out of go ahead and those are yeah those are two separate type programs and what when you talk about DHS it's you have to be on a list I mean There Are Rules like if if they come in and spot check a site and we have 20 kids there um and there are you know one of those kids on the list is not registered with us we get deemed for that M and so you just it just can't be I guess for a better term willy-nilly no I'm just talking about difference between intercession and any kind of vik program that's licensed by DHS lots of rules so so if if parents wanted additional help beyond the intercession uh intercessions that we offer this is an option for them or are these I mean how how in-depth do these mathematics programs get and how in-depth are these science courses taken in this in this curriculum is it something that our students that might be struggling that parents of students that might be struggling could participate in or are these more um just fun stuff for these kids to do while they're in the in the program we hope that it's supplemental to what they're getting in their school day it's it's not it's not something that I would say would like hey it's going to come do this we do offer at the sites um homework time so we have time where they do that um and if we get schools that have a large number of kids whose parents are asking us to help them with their homework we will hire a teacher to stay after and we'll pay them to stay and those kids can go and spend an hour to an hour and a half with them I and we have three or four schools where we're doing that right now it just kind of depends on how many kids parents are asking for that um we do homework time everywhere every day but if we are having Neely is one of the ones where we get a lot of questions so we've got a teacher there that takes kids and she gets 25 to 30 kids every day after school that that are are coming in there so we do offer that but we don't have like a tutoring program that you could just come and just do that and just be a part of that no okay thank you okay but one thing I will say is that they have really standardized what you're going to see so when you go to a vik program after school they're all working off of this thematic lesson plan which several years ago there was more um site autonomy and it was based on um what the site leader was doing and as I walk through I see a lot more and they're trying doing include the Arizona State Standards in their activity it's more an enrichment type of way because it's an after school program but they're trying to be more um uh comprehensive of including the standards when they can we hope that as you go through here and you hear what we're talking about you're going to see that what we're really trying to do is partner with our with our schools we want what our kids are doing before and after school to help them with the process that they're going through some of that are the things where you know you just get a kid and you get them busy and you get them going and get their brain active when they get into class they're ready to sit for a minute and maybe take some of that information and do some of those things um so that's been a big part of as of the last couple years that we've really tried to do is is to do that but we want to make sure that the things that we are doing are hitting the standards that they would be expected to be getting in those times and you might have a kindergarten that's doing a project that has a sixth grade standard in it but um but then hopefully when they get there they've already seen a little bit of it and it clicks and it does some of that so um thank you for the question um PBIS um positive behavior intervention and support there's a program that the district uses um a lot of the schools in the district most of them I think are using it right now um and it's it's a way to positively help kids understand what they're supposed to be doing and positively reward them for doing the right thing um so when you go into a school you'll hear like the kids will have slogans I know it um settler Point Elementary Roar um and I just know that one because I was there last night because they had a parent that I went to talk to but um and so then that's they're so they use that they use the PBIS system to do that so what we did was we talked to all the schools and found out what they're what they're using what things they were seeing and we tried to pick the ones that were the most common and seen the most in the 25 schools that we're in right now and created a PBIS system that allows us and our staff to work with those kids and keep them in that same thing that they hear from 7:45 until school gets out now they're getting it from 6:30 in the morning until 6:00 at night the expectations are the same when we have conversations we talk about we're talking about if there's a safety issue we'll talk about spark and are are you are you following the spark are you being safe are you doing those things um and so those for us the ones that we really felt hit hard from the schools were safety positivity accountability responsibility and kindness um and then so those are just things that we really pay attention to and that our staff really work with our kids on there trying to make sure that we're following that same line as you might get with a respect or responsibility at um at one of the schools that you got an r and their and their thing so um there's a copy of the poster in here for you it's also posted up there just we post those fulls sizee posters at all the sites so that staff can refer to them and and point that out to the kids when they're in there VI accreditation this is one of the things that has been awesome for us um and you have a small packet that I a small fold out that I put in there that comes from um again I talked a little bit with Kristen about the Arizona Center for after school Excellence um which works with out of school time programs which is kind of the national it's called out of school time OST programming is kind of the national go-to words right now for after school before school um our youth Athletics programs all there after school how are we how are we supporting our families and our schools after school that out of school time so they work really hard to do that one of the things that they put in place are these standards um to help us make sure that everybody that everything's getting done everything's getting taken care of and we've found for us that it's really helped us again kind of get all of our staff on the same pages and and when we go from one site to another you see a lot more of it staying the same and they're talking the same and they're doing that um so there's the these are the standards that they talk about safe and healthy environments and if you look in here you can see what those how they refer to those and what those are positive relationships intentional programming and activities equity and inclusion family school and Community program management and program evaluation and data um so you go through that you go through a process of you you evaluate your site you get your parents to evaluate your site you do those they come in and help us look at it we put some things in place we create some stuff and then they get an outside entity once we feel like we've met that standard what they're doing they bring an outside entity in to come in and observe and see if meeting the standards of this if we get that um the members of our on our thing that are there one it just makes everybody look good right there's there's only about seven or eight different programs in the state right now that are accredited in terms of after school out of school time um if we were to get this and and we're pretty well on our way we've had our first visit um we got five schools we're in the middle of we think we can get through all 25 within the next year um and be accredited um we would be the largest school district in and or company they do it with private companies as well to have the most sites in Arizona to do that um so we're excited to be moving in that direction um one of the cool things about it one of the nice things about it is if a family receives Dees funding if we're an accredited site um we get one and a half times what thees would typically pay so that allows us to improve our programming and provide some extra things along with those kids and just all across the board help improve what we're doing with those so Mr Houston remind me how do we get funding from um Dees oh my goodness um it's it's a lot of paperwork in it's l process okay um families apply so really it's really a families apply if they meet the standard they apply um and then if they get approved then we have to go through some paperwork and a whole bunch of things that they sign and do um we spend we have we have a person in our office whose sole job is to do that and we have about 135 families okay um but their sole job is to make sure that we're meeting that paperwork and doing it last year um we brought in a little over $11 million from Dees so another half a million dollars will be coming in if we can make this happen um Dees has cut back as everybody knows they a little bit less money and um so we've got some families that have been on it before that are on a waiting list right now to get on um thanks did I yep did I hear you right that each each site has to be independently accredited or yes sir okay yes sir so um and Don will talk a little bit about her accreditation processes too but each site does it the nice thing is if if Don's preschools get accredited so does my after school program or our after school program sorry guys and if if we get it so to see so the money flows that way we still have to go through the process we want to get it our goal is to have everybody be a five star in our case accredited um we just feel like we're the best and we want to show it um professional development is one of the things that um as we came in and we came out of Co we knew we were struggling with staff and we felt like this was a way that we could really help our staff um so this these are just some of the things that we put in in the last year um and again it's a credit to to the team that that does it um I I kind of help figure out how we make it run but they do all the work um we do a back to we do two day back to school training session before school starts and one before we go into the summer Holiday Camp session um and we bring them over to the it building and they do active games in the multi-purpose room and they have classroom settings where they learn the licensing things and just all the different things you can do to how to talk to kids we go over spark dress code all of the things that we need them to know and make sure that our sites are being run we talk about the accreditation process and do that um they do one night trainings before every intersection they'll keep our staff after school and we'll go through and we move them into three sites or two sites and they come and get together and get to know each other and do that um we spent some time with playworks we spent we they do a really great active game stuff and they have some great programming things that we found really successful for us that our kids really enjoy um the other one that they do that we really that we found a lot of success with is when you're playing tag or you're playing whatever those things are and one kid says I was tagged or I wasn't or you do those things um we get those in there and our staff didn't really know how to stop that like you can't stop kids from arguing and they've learned now that we step in and we just play Rock Paper Scissors and they're like they're like nope we're not going to do this rock paper scissors oh you're out then nobody doesn't really matter whether you were you weren't we made the call you're out you lost you'll be back in as soon as we get you going and that has not completely changed but it's it's helped our staff just feel more comfortable and um and it keeps kids going all the time and they get out for a minute and they're back in there's no arguing it doesn't stop the game so it's just one of the things that we picked up from them that we really like um we just recently began to work with the alliance for a healthier generation and build more active skills and kids in our family programs um we took staff to the a case conference this year and last year um we had 28 total people go and just go in and take classes and learn about what we're doing and where we're going and how to get each site better um I was at I would told you I was at P last night she was working on a a junior counselor programming and making a list of things and so they pick kids and then they can come in and go here's the things I want to do I want to help lead game I want to do the art project I want to sweep the floors I want to help put the desk away I want to help with snack they come in they sign up for those if they're leaders they go out and do that it's part of their daily job it's just how we're starting to get their feedback and what they're doing um we took half of the leadership team last year to the National After School Association conference and we're going to take the other half this year in the spring um we took a lot of good stuff away from that again um and then we're working with a case as well they just started a pilot program for OST professionals um and they're going to do they're going to um accredit the not accredit that's the wrong word that certify people that are in that field um that they know what they're doing and how they're doing they have to build do a project through their through their certification process and do that um so here's kind of some of the tuition things those are the things that we've put in this is the money side of it more than anything current rates were last rates two years ago um we kind of been through some of these but the difference between us is we're licensed and more and more school districts are dropping their licensing Mesa is no longer licensed they were up until a few years ago higley's dropping their licensing this year um we're working on being accredited our hours that were available are longer than most um we include breakfast and snack um for everybody that comes to our programs that's in the cost um field trips if we're doing field trips on our intercessions or our summer camps we don't have an additional cost most places a lot of them do they'll they'll they'll go like they this is what your cost is and if you want to go on the field trip it's $25 more we don't do that we build it in we take everybody um the Staffing ratio is a big one for us um again it's 1 to 20 for k6 it's 1 to 13 for prek um and we try to keep our our our after school ratios about 1 to 15 because that helps us on those Wednesdays and half dayss when kids show that we don't have um and then we also include all supplies so like you don't sign up you pay to register and then you pay a supply and you pay field trip fees it's everything's included in the cost that you saw and a lot of a lot of organizations have start to go the other way like hey this is what we're going to do next week it's going to cost you an extra $25 if your kids's going to participate in the art project or they're going to do this program I I do have a question uh breakfast and snack included are we using using our our school breakfast program for that it's coming up y yep so one of the big reasons that we're we've got to pull some of this in and kind of get there is we don't we for the last several years we've had a lot of grant funding through Dees and through those and that's gone um as I said they're they're not even giving some families the money anymore let alone offering us we'd have millions of dollars that we were able to use to pay for some of the things that are that have come up some of the some of the raises and things like that we were able to take out of that and we're not able to do that it's also what we use to do um the the door codes and those things that we've done to really help safen our safen our programs up and do that um part is that part of the state budget cuts to make the state budget work better this next year because we were short I don't know I couldn't answer that I just most of those two were like Esser and other federal funds from Co time too that's what I was thinking okay thank you um but our staffing inre our staffing cost from 23 to 24 increased by about 14% um and we're projecting about an 8% % increase this year again that has to do with the cost like we were paying when we last couple years when we've given some of those nice raises that money we just didn't have to take it out of our typical budget we paid it we were able to pay that out of those grants well those grants aren't available anymore I got to figure out how I'm going to find that $2.80 or whatever it is per person per hour to get back in there um over this period um we've had increases in the state minimum wage and District increases for employees um currently half currently our staff most of our staff makes what they would or less than they would at a fast food restaurant to get started um and we're asking them to do split shifts um the good part is that they they don't have weekend hours um they get Saturdays and Sundays off and we do get a lot of college kids that enjoy the split shift because they can do something in the morning come back and get in the afternoon they can go to class do their homework or whatever college kids do when they're not not at work um supplies and cost increase 2223 to 2324 this is where you are B Jill little show a little bit about that 23 24 we had a 30% increase um it would have been about 42 had we not made some changes and moved over to our district nutrition services to supply some of this we were paying about $80,000 in delivery fees to get stuff delivered um we pulled that out and and we're able to do that that's been a huge help um and then we get stuff delivered from them and then if we have something that we need our our Specialists will take part of their time in their day and go grab those if a school needs something for a new project that they are going to do or do that um 23 24 to 24 25 we're thinking we're going to have right at about a 10% increase in in cost that's some of that's we've got more people more kidss coming um and then some of it is just the cost of inflation it's just kind of where we're at um our program evaluation which is part of this it was kind of one of those things that we were looking at um and we set the first one out right before um right right as we were going into fall break so we could get one and have it so that the schools that were coming in could share it with their evaluators um and these were the questions that we ask we we're going to do this through all of our programs we're the same questions plus ones that may be more specific but um I feel I have a clear understanding of the program's goals and objectives 89% of the respondents agreed um or higher so they either agreed to strongly agreed 40 40% of those were strongly agree the program is a safe place for my child to work learn and have fun 93% agreed or hire 63% strongly agreed uh program rules and procedures have been clearly communicated with me 94% agree or higher 55% strongly agree and then these are the ones that like when I looked at them I was super proud of right 97% report their child that Joys the time in the program 92% feel feel the staff are engaged with the kids 96% feel comfortable speaking with staff about their child um 97% of children feel comfortable with the staff in the program and 94% of the report the staff welcomes their suggestions when they come forward with something that they want to do um we did get 275 responses out of about 2,300 emails that we sent out asking people to respond and this is some new data coming from the national After School Association um and I talked just a little bit about earlier but big things that they're seeing from kids that are in after school programs is they're starting to see higher test scores improved engagement in school enhanced social emotional skills greater long-term academic achievement and greater success in the workforce so we feel like what we do after school with these kids really helps benefit them not just today but all the way through into their lives and that's our goal and now I'm going to turn it over to the lovely cobein thank you Mr Houston um and thank you um Dr Martin um I want to say thank you good evening to everyone um thank you Dr McCord members of the governing board and cabinet um my name is Don koberstein I'm the director of early learning with Gilbert Public Schools overseeing all of the um preschool programming um here in Gilbert um I want to introduce a couple people that are in the audience um we have Julie Stockton who's the coordinator of the advantage on preschool program in the de and hard hearing as well as the preschool evaluation team and then also Eric dctl um back there in the corner um he's our Building Blocks Preschool um program supervisor um for our preschool programming and they're really uh the big my main suppor of the leadership team although there's a few other people we're a small department but we are a mighty department and so we're delighted and honored to share with you um tonight our preschool Vision um as well as provide an overview of our preschool programming that we've been working hard at um over the last you know since we've been around in GPS as well as share with you our requests for a tuition um increase and with that I want to share um three key numbers with you uh 74317 um 74 believe it or not is the number of classrooms um of preschool classrooms here in GPS that's a pretty large number um 30 it's the number of campuses that actually utilize ume that we utilize prek through 12 so we actually have utiliz high school because of the toy box preschool program and the CTE which is the career in technical education and 117 is the number of preschool sections that are offered whether it's an AM section a PM section or possibly full day um so those are pretty large numbers um when we're talking about preschool um sharing with you Vision as um Mr Houston had shared it's really about our passion their future um we are a team of cognitive Engineers we like to believe at preschool um because we build brains or at least we lay that foundation for um in order to help support our k through2 um uh students and for their lifetime um we really want to be recognized here in preschool in GPS as the highest quality of preschool programming um and we want to be that programming of Choice by families here here in Gilbert and so in order to do that um we really want to have quality programming and so last year when I came on board we um actually partnered with quality first first things first and prior to my coming on board um there was a vision by um Mr Ryan um to really look at that furniture refresh that you know we had a lot of other programs that were coming in that shiny and new but we like to say we're tried and true um but we also need to be shiny we need to have the materials for Quality programming and and um so during the winter of 2022 they refreshed actually 20 preschool classrooms using some of that um Dees and um s funding or the Department of Economic Security um and they redid um you know that was about $400,000 that was invested in our preschool programming um then last year um during the fall because we were partnering with quality first first things first um we then um received some additional funding in which we've been able to expand that uh refresh to nine more classrooms and really that basic need of a preschool classroom is that you need to have the right materials and I'm going to talk about that in a little bit in order to provide that quality programming Don may I ask a question I was wondering um how long we'd had the previous the furniture in the previous classrooms I bet a good 20 years at least a long time um a very long time in fact um I don't know if Eric wants to sh a little bit but I know when we were expanding in particular some of our building blocks programming and doing that many times we would be going to the Boneyard and digging through what different things that we would have and you know as we can imagine that's not always the best of things and quality of things so um it was really on that nickel budget and so we really want to make sure that we have the quality materials the bone yard is also known as property control thank you but those of us that work here so thank you Dr mcord um place no um so we really want to work on having that quality programming and so we partnered with quality first first things first and so um we've been working on what's called our star ratings and so we strive for five we strive for that five star rating which is very similar to the Arizona Department of Education letter grades which we're very proud of as a district we're an a-rated District well that starts off in preschool we want to have those fstar quality ratings that's important to parents it's also similar to the Arizona Education Foundation when they do A+ recognition and keeping in mind in that process um that's something every you know 3 to four years campuses are going out to get that recognition and it means that outside evaluators are coming in to say are you really delivering that that's the same thing that we go through with our quality first first things first star rating the first thing that they do is they come in um the first rating is eers which is the um Early Childhood environment um rating scale and they're really looking at the material so again that furniture refresh was really important because you want to make sure that you don't have things that are broken quality materials but they're also looking at that when you have an area such as building blocks or blocks you should have a block section well that block section shouldn't just have wooden blocks you want to have at least five um different types of materials in that block area so not only it's about that quality of things of programming and that's a part of that eers um then the next part that they'll look at the second time that they come in is you have the class or the classroom assessment scoring system now they're really looking at the interactions that the staff are having with the students um and so with that we were um getting some different funding so we got additional funding for supplies in our classrooms for preschool programming and then it also um helped us with coaching from condel and we know how important that is here in Gilbert that's why we've invested with coaches at our campuses well we see that in preschool those teachers need support and especially on those early learning standards on what quality preschool programming should look like and so this has been a really rigorous process proc that we've started um also with some of that funding we've been able to um uh get foundations programming because remember foundations we use K through three we now use it prek through three so we're really laying that strong foundation for our preschool students that are going to set them up for Success when they get into kindergarten and Beyond is this a prek version of foundations that is you know developmentally appropriate I mean I'm familiar with foundations but I just Yep this is the part of it's part of the preschool so they actually have a pre module that really lays and they're not going to be doing things with a lot with the writing but it's having um the teachers to have that knowledge when we're talking about the sounds and we're going a as an apple a um those things that's really important well they're doing that same language than in prek so then when they get into kindergarten they're not learning something different um the other part too we've invested is Learning Without Tears so Julie had um used that a lot with her um special ed programming her Advantage well that's a supplemental that really extends the foundations that we're really doing a lot with Clay we're building those fine motor skills to get them ready for other things um so that's been really positive that it's helped us to bring in that funding so we can be consistent across all of our preschool programming to have those materials again that gets them ready for what they're going to be exposed to later on um we were talking about um the other part of preschool is really that oral language development that's a key thing when we're talking about preschool is um we really strive for five and it's about those conversational turns and research will show as I'm sharing the data there that if they're not getting exposed to that we're really talking about our staff being engaged and helping the students to engage in those conversations by asking questions wow I really like your shirt is that new um yes it is new we went shopping this weekend you know and it's back and forth Just on those different things um children really should be exposed to a million words before they ever even enter kindergarten and so that's really something that we're striving for in our preschool programming really to increase that quality of the programming and those interactions that the staff are having with students and really being intentional about the things that we do now talking about those festar ratings um I'd love to take credit but I certainly can't um Heidi rush and cesie Reynolds um Heidi Rush is the director at um Campo verie high school and CES Reynolds um over at Desert Ridge um before I came in they saw that need of having quality programming and so they started that star rating process which is usually a two to threee process you get that initial assessment you work with um the quality first with improvements um on different things and so um they brought in some funding to really help their um campuses well the exciting part is um Desert Ridge went um and received a fourstar rating in I believe it was April of last year and then um just recently or in March and then in um April when they came around with that assessment um again Camp verie moved to a five star so we're excited yay it's our first five star rating so again really improving and being intentional about what we're doing again having the right materials in the classroom and really supporting the staff that are in there working with the students um we then last year brought on the quality first um programming and we added on nine more campuses I'm sorry so I've just got a a real quick question this uh quality first grant funding is this a one-time grant that we used to update some of the some of the locations or is this an annual funding that we can continue to apply for to well that's refresh all of our sites well I'm with you because I would love to be refreshing all of our sites and I think very passionate about continuing with that that's part of why we're asking for a tuition increase because unfortunately they've lost um funding um and so now we're currently on a weit list so it was really nice bringing in $175,000 to really do things but we o need to we know we need to continue that momentum unfortunately we can't um uh I guess rely rely on um their help with that and so um you know things like if we want to continue with that star rating those are some things that we'll have to continue to pay for them to come in with those evaluation processes we're optimistic and we're hopeful that things will turn around and we'll be able to get back onto that and receive additional funding to continue thank you um another thing then with our festar um rating um we had nine um other schools that we brought on board um well as well as mosquite high school came on board last year I'm starting that quality first um and then we had nine other um campuses um looking at that again bringing in some additional funding um realizing um you know with some of that funding um gosh or with the state cuts it's really kind of put a little damper on um different things because of the quality first funding I kind of lost where I was at um professional development and Curriculum maps um we've been working really hard because of um being a license program as Mr Houston had shared um the child care Education Institute um and the child care training where we call that ccei um and being part of the Arizona registry so our staff has to be a part of that just even getting on boarded before they ever even can step foot into the classroom there's 18 hours of training that they have to do um and so um we also want to make sure it aligns with the Arizon department of health services and their licensing guidelines um we've partnered this past year um with um Robert berer to really understand that whole foundations as I shared earlier having Kristen McCord um coming in um to really provide um training for our building blocks teachers on phonological awareness and our building blocks 3es um as well as the foundations I'm training I'm doing things with Learning Without Tears in the Matman um we've also partnered with the Arizona Department of Education to bring in letters um and so that's really that literacy um Early Childhood Focus not just the letters that our kth through um six teachers are needing to do but even in preschool bringing that letters Early Childhood for all of our programming in fact we're starting um cohort 5 um actually next week um with a launch off of that so our K prep teachers our advantage teachers actually led the way uh with Julie Stockton and then we brought on our K prep teachers we're halfway through that or actually three quarters our building blocks our Toy Box staff um along the way with that um we've also um change from teaching strategies gold to move to the child outcome summary uh data or cost or Cod we' like to say that we're fishing for um data for our kiddos um we're also working a lot with literacy routines thinking about with our ready gen um that we've adopted as a district it really talks about through our letters training the need for multiple reads um really being intentional about vocabulary um those things are really important and so we really want to align with what we're doing K through six and so we're really trying to develop that um curriculum which is coming from inhouse using our advantage teachers our um K prep teachers or certified teachers to help us develop some of that um we also recently went through a math textbook adoption as you're aware of um this past year and piloting that uh I've been working with Crystal Udall Robert berer um the math department to really understand what does that look like in the elementary in order to develop those math routines in preschool and really doing things like I notice I wonder and sharing you know some of the literature that we're doing and having the kids beginning to talk about mathematics um another thing that we're working on is that classroom management because remember after covid I think we could all agree that um kids are a little wigger and squigger and we kind of notice different things happening at the school we certainly noticed that in the pr preschool setting but part of that is really making sure that the staff have the tools and the knowledge um in order to support that so as Mr Houston shared that PBIS that positive behavior intervention support I'm really working um so that way our preschool staff knows what that PBIS system is at that campus and really supporting that the other thing is is with Kelly Jarrett and with the special ed Department that prevent teach reinforce um uh uh training that's happening at the campus site we're making sure all of our preschool staff are getting that same um training so that way they're a part of what's happening at the campus uh We've also brought in the PS good behavior game um that really focuses on that tier one um type of intervention so things that we think of as a classroom teacher like having random sticks or um making sure that we're getting around different having a class Vision Sometimes some of our staff didn't know that because not all of our staff are certified necessarily let's say in the building blocks or in the toy box but they need to have those same tools that we do through our professional growth and development so part of what we're doing in preschool is really being intentional to provide that support to our staff um so we can have that quality programming and then of course we utilize um the conscious discipline um as well again those are tools to help our staff I've got a a real well maybe a quick question sure first of all I just want to just point out that the acronym acronym game in this uh document is very strong we tried to spell it out for you too appreciate that I I need that um going back to the previous page can you give us just a a really like a 30,000 foot view of what is Learning Without Tears or LWT um absolutely making your own now huh just laugh out loud right there wow yeah um just a real quick yeah just a real quick um overview of just what is that is that more of a like a philosophy that the instructors are are using or is that an actual curriculum that the kids are using what is that right it's an actual um curriculum of materials and so um well the kids will actually be doing things where they'll be rolling the dough forming the letter where they have trays to be able to do that um that actually have the letters with it um it'll be things like we have the books the Matman and me books so if we're I'm talking about um the letter M um that the book has a bunch of words you know Mike and you know Milani they went to you know um the supermarket just different things and having the kids to be able to look for the letter M within that book um but again there's different things um like there's the rol the D activity um there's um blocks and so um they've got different like curved edges and straight edges and soow they're using these blocks to be able to form the letters so again it's a methodology to really make things handson especially for those kinesthetic Learners and again to build a lot of that that um fine motor um so developmentally that they're going to be holding the pencils correctly um there's the size little broken crayons um which you know here we always think about we want the big crayons and the big pencils no you really want the GOL tea pencils because it really helps the kids with holding um the pencil better and forming that grip so again it's just additional materials in order to help provide that instruction for the kiddos and those opportunities to learn thank you um let's see and then um something else I really want to highlight is we've partnered with Paradise Valley Community College um in order to really support our staff especially in building blocks and toy box to have that pathway to become teachers um and so um with it they have the opportunity to get their CDA uh their child development associates degree um which is that two years degree in early childhood and then it um to transition to get their Bachelor of Arts degree um so we're really excited about that partnership and helping to develop and kind of grow our own um and then lastly we have a link to the teaching and learning Maps we've worked hard to really develop um really kind of a scope and sequence of things um and intentionally selecting books with multiple reads to really support the kiddos um and then um really laying out the foundations and what we do each day and during some of those Circle time routines I I have a question just about the partnership with Paradise Valley so are they doing this in an afterwork time or they come in with this um Associates toer how does that work great um so we partnered with Paradise Valley Community College because they do it online and so it really works well around the building blocks and the toy box um teacher schedules um so that way you know they're not having to drive anywhere to do that they get to work at things at their pace and because of the online program to support that great thank you I wish it was with Chandler Gilbert Community College because it's in our backyard but I know it makes it much more challenging and they do have that option to do that as well I just when talking to the staff it's really hard to get to those classes um on time and just with driving and being there that FaceTime so also do um because now the community colleges can offer bachelor's degrees can they then just continue to work through once they get the associates to get the bachelors's yep okay that's amazing that's awesome it's very exciting yeah and so um program offerings um just wanted to give a highlight that we have four key different types of preschool programs in our district um Advantage tends to be more of the um what we know more of that special education and getting Federal support that way with students who are on IEPs but we also have students that are qualifier or students that pay tuition um in order to help support because you want to have those role models and having that inclusive model um and so we have halfday options where it's four days a week um two and a half hours a day um and it's located on the elementary school campuses um then we have our building blocks program um which then allows for an extended date option those tends to be more for the working um parents um and who may want that extended day option and being able to partner with our vik programming um again those are located on the elementary school campuses and it's designed for our threes and our four yearolds um then we have our kindergarten prep uh which tends to be more for our um four students or maybe those early fives where parents might just want a little extra time um and those are located at our elementary um campuses we've actually started where we actually have traditional programming some steam programming and we started um a pilot this year with gifted and bringing that in and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment um and then of course we have our toy box which is the CTE the Career and Technical education where we have um students who um are high school students with the hope that they might want to become you know have a career in education and we're trying to encourage that and so they have that opportunity to go in a lab setting and being able to develop lessons and then be able to go and deliver those lessons with the preschoolers and so as you can see we're really talking about that choice and providing a of choice for our families with these different options and as we know um we also have the Dual language um in our building blocks program over at Gilbert Elementary next door and so um and a little shout out is 100% of our GPS CTE that Career and Technical um programs um where toy box is a part of it um earned a quality rating of proficient or distinguished from ad so certainly something to shout out about awesome um I just want to highlight a couple um preschool programs that we had started um this this past year and that's with the steam program I'm partnering with um Dr Joan Henry uh she came to me when I first came in as a director of early learning and she said Don I want to have preschool at my campus and we have a focus on Steam um at our campus what can we do to start that off with preschool so I'm really excited that we launched um that off and so our enrollment initially uh we had 15 students last year and we've grown um to 18 I'm currently to start the year so we ended the year at 15 and now starting strong with that program is really exciting um the other program that I'd like to highlight is um Suzanne Carlson last spring said hey we have a lot of students we're really trying to do a lot of things with accelerated learning on our campus and we also have a high number of gifted students not to mention I know that's one of the district goals is to really um work on identifying our gifted Learners and really providing that support and so we're piloting um or we piloted this past year um having a gifted um preschool programming um for parents there is a $175 fee um for gifted testing in GPS but also understand um I know Higley has um their gifted um programming as well however families have to go to an outside um psychologist uh certified psychologist in order to get gifted testing which costs anywhere from 300 to $850 for parents to do that um so it's really just trying to cover the cost um to be able to do that the other thing is is I'd like to give a shout out um and recognize um s can I go back to that one absolutely just um on the gifted testing is is this just for preschool because we offer it in correct older grades yes it's just for preschool so those parents who feel um I've had a number of parents as Suzanne has where parents will feel like you know my child's gifted you know they're they've already know their letters they know different things and you know gifted Learners learn and think a little bit differently and we want to make sure we're meeting the needs of their child okay and so those parents that are noticing that and want that um that certainly it's an option that we're trying to provide so again we're trying to provide choices for our families okay um I want to give a shout out um and recognize again our preschool evaluation team um you know they do an amazing job um back in 2023 the determination was made that we were not really helping our um students um in our community fast enough um so it was often a 90-day delay in getting the children the help that they needed from the beginning to the end of screening and the evaluation process um and so last year um we added another um 3-day team to the District in the 23 24 school year and um we're now at an average of just 45 days getting through that process so we've cut that in half um this was something that was supported by cabinet and it certainly has been an incredible um change to our early intervention um services and again it's really about identifying those needs and providing students as early as they can um because early intervention truly is key um here's a little bit of enrollment um data um our advantage 23 24 enrollment um we had 217 tuition-based students and that 567 um happens to be qualifiers um and so I'm really providing that support and again um Dees funding is something that definitely um helps support our families um so we do a lot with tracking of data um you know our numbers increase throughout the year um as students turn three years old um and so our numbers will continually go up as you can see from the first day of school um we started with 823 students and now we're up to 883 um that are just tuition-based students um and when we're looking at tuition as well as those qualifiers the students on an IEP or an individualized education plan we have 1,445 um students and again uh pretty soon we're getting to the 10th day of November and um as it is I think we're getting close to about 1,500 kiddos so that's very exciting news so we continue to um increase throughout the year um we've also been working with um Ryan Nelson and the research and evaluation team um we've begun utilizing um Tableau to help us to look at our data and help us to focus on families um on state to state in um Gilbert public schools and we also survey our parents as um Mr Houston had shared at the end of the year on their experience in our preschool programs to help us to drive um refinements in our programming and overwhelmingly we're excited that you know parents comment on how much they love um their school their teacher and then many choose to actually stay in GPS and so and many times they want to stay at that campus when they get to be there um something else I want to highlight is our capture rate um so when I first came in we were capturing meaning families that would stay within Gilbert Public Schools um 80.4 2% um we've actually increased that tracking that um we're up to an 86% um capture rate and again these are um kiddos who choose um you know that haven't chosen to elsewhere um they want to stay in Gilbert Public Schools there's amazing things that happen um on our campuses and you know if they start somewhere let's say at Gilbert Elementary um and maybe that wasn't their home school because that's a campus that brings in a lot of open enrollment of parents that are wanning that dual language and starting then they see themselves as a Gilbert T tiger and they want to stay um there um we're also working to establish outcomes Don what what would what are some reasons parents would have for not staying in GPS after after going through a a GPS preschool program great well they move away um maybe they um you know can't afford to be here they move somewhere else and all of a sudden that commute um is too long um maybe there's a variety of different things but we also attract a lot of people coming in for preschool um because preschool maybe isn't offered in some of the other surrounding areas and of quality and sometimes it might is be you know that neighborhood school that they may be going to um but like I said I think that capture rate is increasing because once they get in there um they they fall in love with Gilbert School love with Gilbert public schools and they want to stay and that's really what our hope happens to be is that they choose that they may not want to go or they say you know what honey we need to move over into Gilbert to be closer that way that's the that's the dream right um what is the what's the if you know what's the cost difference between our tuition programs and and say like a like a monu school or something like that so glad that you asked that and we're going to be getting to that in just a few slides thanks so speaking of that um one other thing I wanted to share as we're talking about um that capture rate is we're really wanting to support our families not just with that preschool part um but really understanding things that they can do at home to support their child um as um Mr Houston had shared there's a lot that vik is doing with some of those family connections we're doing that as well um with preschool because that's important to be that five-star quality programming um we started initially partnering with the parent University um where we did um that paved a path and then we did that transition that Kinder Readiness um during the fourth quarter for parents and it was so overwhelmingly receive parents were like oh gosh we wish we we'd like more of this and so this year we started our four parts um parent par series um in September we did a facilitating Independence so really trying to encourage parents what they can do at home to help their child to be more independent with different things um and really helping with some of those transitions that sometimes can be hard for students we're getting ready next week on Wednesday if you're doing nothing please come over to community ed because we have our play talk read uh Cara Hawkins is going to be presenting um and it's really aligned with some of that letters that we're doing and that oral language development um for parents to really know what they can do at home to really support their child's oral language development what time that will that be uh at Eric that is at 6:30 6:30 no 5:30 till 7 um p.m.

to 5:30 p.m. our hours are longer um so we have an extra hour for families that provide that extra support um and something else you need to take into consideration are cap sizes or class sizes we know that's important um in Queen Creek they use a class size where they cap it at 24 students we cap ours at 20 and that's something else to take into consideration um a lot of kids in a preschool program that's a lot of preschoolers yeah so that's one reason too why we really look at the hourly Fe and try to break it down because like Don said there are so many variables you know one of our um Advantage preschools might be 2 and a half and another preschool halfday program might be three or three and a half hours and so you're you're really comparing a lot of apples to oranges when you're looking at the various program offerings because each school district and each child care even private school facilities have a lot of different things they also too some school districts have a lot of other fees associated with that as well where we've tried to keep the amount of fees reduced both in vik and preschool where they're included as much as possible so like our registration fee is the cheapest of the East Valley um we don't charge a materials fee whereas kirene in addition to their um registration fee they charge $150 extra for materials for the year and so again once we pay that that's what you pay monthly it's for the entire year so we try not to add those little extra nickel and dime types of things to families I I do have a question here about the um the spice and Advantage for the four 4 days 2 and a half hours and it says 10300 can you explain that because that seems much less than the others and no and I'm glad that you asked that um a big part of those programs in order for them to be um that inclusive part is we need those students that are tuition-based to come in there they're fortunate because they get Federal funding to be able to pay because of the um special education um portion of of it um so that helps to kind of provide some of those costs of like with the teacher um in those classrooms and so if families are in a hardship we really are trying to drive them perhaps look at those programming um options for your child it helps us um but it also helps your child as well so again I'm glad that you pointed that out that's another option for families where they may be looking at oh goodness I can't quite afford some of these others but this is an option to help provide so this would be for the tuition students for that those classes because I mean we do have to have you know maybe eight special ed students and then four typical students that have that language that can help thems demonstrate you know and we need them and I know right now um Julie's um team that's they've been struggling finding and getting those families to choose that and so our hope is is by keeping those rates lower um it may draw some of those families you know what I think I'm going to choose that option which helps um our special ed portion and our students needing that okay that's that's good to know thank you mhm R it's all yours all right I'm back um but I do hear the producer telling me to hurry and get off so but I want to I just want to h a couple of things cuz they're here I feel like we just went around the Indiana Speedway D um so I talked just a little bit about arit programs those really are the programs that we bring in to to kind of build passions for kids and hopefully find those things that they do um and that's Nathan pit is our enrichment supervisor he runs those programs for us um he's doing those and I want to hit on just one of those for him and then I'll let you read the spreadsheets you guys know how to do that you don't mean to to you but one of the things that Nathan and I have really focused on this year is we want to build family programming we feel like that's an area where we can help our community in general so Nathan has started a a parent child golf program that he partnered with Augusta Ranch um that we're seeing getting filled up every Saturday um and then he's also done in the last year he's done two camping trips last spring we took some families take about 60 people and 15 families out to The riparian Preserve if you didn't know they have camping spaces out there they did I did know did and it's really cool we had a really great time um and it was cool we were we partner with some organizations and kids learned to fish um it was really cool and then he just finished one out at user pass um we partnered with them and they taught him how to shoot archery and do that went on some hikes and did that and it was great and we get tons of feedback about how they want us to do more of that I think for Nathan and I both when we've talked about it the cool thing is you go to those and we don't see parents with their phones and we don't see kids with their phones they're engaged and we're giving them the language to talk to one another we feel like that's a place where we can really help build and take care of some of those issues we get them young they're still doing it when they're Junior High they continue to do it in high school um and we're focused on that in all of our programs um and then so here's just the numbers for the enrichment programs if if you want to take a look at those but you don't me to read them to you um Gilbert Youth Athletics um is new Dan hash is our Gilbert our athletic director Gilbert Youth Athletics um and Dan's running a ton of programs the things that we're doing here that have really we feel like have really sparked last year we did a partnership we are the NFL FLAG Football how house for Arizona for the Gilbert area they work in groups but we've kind of the strip of Gilbert um down the center we've taken it over and if you want to play NFL flight football you're playing in Gilbert public schools and Gilbert Youth Athletics um and then the other one that we just want to share is the camps one you'll see that that one I just want to share the number at the end with um that's $16,244.73 to the Civic fund some of it goes to the principal's fund some of it goes to District Athletics it's um but that's that's a nice figure when you're looking that it only started this June and we've already put that kind of money into the coffers of the schools and it's in their civic fund so that helps um our facility rental program is run by the manager of Adam crang um Adam does a great job of doing that he's been doing that for a long time and he kind of helps all over with everybody um but just these numbers to me I thought were pretty impressive um remember that we're in our buildings from 6:30 to 6 so we don't really rent during that time we're still getting last year we did 33,099 hours of rental time in N40 building well we even do the gym over here but um the 30 3395 hours of rental time with 408 different Community groups renting our facilities um and brought in 1 1,6,2,5 is a program that um Jared Ryan brought when he was kind of in it up and handed it over to us to take and it's really a way that we're building Partnerships with our parents our Civic groups our community colleges and and other groups in the district um our faith-based organizations and other community businesses and some of our groups that like help us build and do that and um we bring them in they get at a table with a principal and we get to have really genuine conversations about what we need and what we what they can do to help us improve our programs um I don't want to go deep into them if if you want you can always any of this stuff if you have questions you know you can email me or call me but um ply Del re has built a relationships with one of those organiz that's great she gets phone calls from them they're like hey we just met these guys a couple months ago we got one like 100 contract he's looking for something what to do what can we do for you um that's that's new that doesn't happen right they they're calling us and going hey we want to give you stuff what can we do what do you need um Mike Davis said desert R Junior High had a cool one in his he he needed some benches and he wanted to get some benches for his kids to sit outside and do that um there was no nobody in his group that could do it but one of the girls picked up her phone and called her dad in Colorado who called one of the guys that sells lumber to him who also sells lumber down here and like a week and a half later Mike had an 18- wheeel truck dumping Lumber so they could build benches on his campus um and another one that I thought was super cool was Canyon Valley um Chad partnered with Core Construction um for his kids to kind of see what that looks like and all the different things and it was really cool to me because I didn't think about the fact that they got Realtors and they got draftsman and they got um Architects and electricians and plumbers and all of those things and they brought people from all of those walks in for those kids to see like hey here's here's what you can do and this is this is what being in construction looks like and here's how you grow and the new places you can go they had a really cool electrician there that started out doing that and then had some health issues and wasn't able to keep going they helped him go to college and now he does all of their electrical drafting for them um you know but for that for him and that family for those kids to hear like hey there's options here for us to go out and do it was super cool um so those have been really successful um and just feeling good about where we are with those kind of to wrap us up Community Education we're up in 52 weeks a year we serve 251 days a year of programming um this last school year we we had contacts we had 696,000 kids a day um which is a pretty good number means we're taking pretty good care of our families I feel like and we do that with 247 employees that show up and we're just proud to have them thank you for your time so thank you uh governing board and thank you Don and Rod uh what we plan to do is we will bring then before you on the November 19th meeting the tuition rates for approval and we are needing to do that because of course uh we did start on November 1st K12 registration for the upcoming school year and our goal is by the end of November and early December to start the opening of preschool but we need to let the preschool families know how much they will be paying so we'll be bringing that before you and we will uh in the board report the um next week I will have the grid for you and some of the information Miss wood that you asked for as well thank you thank you that's a lot of work a lot of programs and appreciate what everyone's doing to make that work well for our families so thank you yeah that's what I want to say too thanks for all that you guys do and all the ways that we support our families I know that's the purpose is to support bring it build community and help our families who are part of our schools and invite them to be part of our schools too it's super important and I know that anytime we talk about the tuition raises and different things it's done carefully knowing that it's going to impact our families but at the same time we want we have to pay our staff and those cost scope every year and all the different quality things that our families are asking for I think we just keep probably showing them and um letting them know and see the quality that's happening and like some of those surveys that you did it looks like you're getting some really good responses back so I think that's great thank you thank you very much for the presentation tonight does anybody have anything else any other questions or anything I I did have some trouble with the links in board do so I was wondering if you could just like send us a email with those links and cuz I know I didn't get to watch the video I tried to do that but needed access yeah yeah that would be great you want the one minute video you want the three minute video you want the 30 minute video um I give them all three that way they can just how their days going they can select if I need something calming I'll take the 30 minute video all right thank you very much we'll go ahead and uh adjourn our work study session of this uh meeting tonight and call to order uh our brief board business meeting and we will ask Miss Wilson to start us out with a roll call Mr Chad Thompson here miss Lorie wood here miss Jill humph here miss Ronda page here Mr Thompson you have a quorum thank you very much uh moving on to agenda item number five our consent agenda is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda items I move that we approve the consent agenda items thank you Miss humph is there a second I'll second thank you very much Miss Wood uh I'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda items please say I I I I any opposed n that's four to zero and that passes thank you um and that's it for tonight oh we got um since we have a board me we have to adjourn so we right right that's it that's it for tonight before adjournment thank you um thank you all for coming tonight very informative very uh uh uh necessary and uh appreciate all the hard work that that you've done and thank both of you for being here tonight and Miss Paige for joining us and uh we'll go ahead and adjourn I will call for a motion to adjourn I move to adjourn thank you Miss humph and I'll go ahead and second that and all those in favor of adjourning our meeting tonight say I I hi I thank you very much we are adjourned

a [Music] welcome to week five of IH ihsen 2024 2025 regular season today bluon cyber Tigers will be facing off against St Joseph High School and looks like they've already uh yeah looks like they've already gotten into it let's go and watch them like got oh King K Ru versus a me brawler oh King K rule already takes one stock oh oh that is I believe I want to say uh oh and King K ruler's knocked [Music] out but he recovers and knocks me brawler off stage he catches him with his gun and Chucks him back off stage tries to down smash him into the Zone see if he can catch himself he can't and down smashes him onto it tries to knock him off misses it hits him with the crown almost knocks him out but night quat yet oh and he takes another stock off of the me brawler King K Ru is just ruining the me brawler see if me brawler can catch catch back up on on lives see if he can tie it up so far it looks like King K King King K rule is just dominating the battle right now keeps on just down smashing pretty much all he can do against the heavyweight a heavyweight versus a lightweight not really something you want to see but it will if you play it right it can work he is already at not 100 and King K [Applause] Ru look like kingk rued takes the first battle looks like our stream is lagging really bad we're trying to get that fixed right now um we will be right back down [Applause] it is like an entire like six frames behind and like just it would freeze every now and then [Music] step into the ring choose your [Music] fighter COG [Music] sh [Music] looks like we are back sorry about that we had major lag issues we had to reset uh pretty much everything from the switches to the stream it looks like King K rule is looks like they're in the next fight looks like it's King K Ru again and then incinerar oh it's a blue incinerar that's wow see if he can get the grab and he doesn't look like he can see if he can get a down smash but he gets punished for jumping see oh almost almost doesn't get it but he does see all he has all inor has to do is just knock out two stocks on King K rule then he goes on to the next one see oh nice side Smash and King K will just hits him with another down smash see oh it was really risky he could have missed the ledge right there it's like cinor is at 97.5% which is a dangerous oh 115 now 130 31 dangerous spot to be cuz yep he just smacks him down into the dark abys of the Void see King K rule is just ruining him see if incin War cuz it's all tied up now oh and he just hits the Cannonball right back at him already back up to 100% he got a yep and there goes in or second life one more and that's it for Robbie see if he can at least take one stock off of the king K rule then it'll make the next fight easier see cuz already at 52% and King K Ru is still at 111 79 he's getting dangerously close to oh if he was a bit further he could have knocked King K rule over into the side to take out a stock but does not look like oh oh he saves himself just in nick of time see if he's just ledge camping oh and there goes King K ru's Second Life see if he can end that appears yep that's game he at least took one off of King K rule k k Ru is just he's a he he's a really heavyweight character and it is hard to deal with heavy weights oh see who they play next let's see who the Cyber Tigers play next for their next character of choice pyro it's like it's pyro pyro mythra looks like they're starting out with mythra instead of pyra see choose your fighter oh got to change your name p make sure you know who they are oh looks like they're going into the next fight in which king K rule has to jump has to walk off the ledge twice one one go just walk off the ledge twice since he already lost two stocks and then the fight will begin pyro myth myth oh my cyber tigers have an advantage right now cuz all I have to do is take one stock off of him in that game so let's see if they're going to be able to myth my is a really movement based character which is a really hard it's really hard character foring King King K rule to deal with see oh and already they're both in the danger zone well we're getting very close it's like cyber tigers are first in the danger zone and there goes One stock off of off of cyber Tigers see if he can take out the king K rule without take losing another one so all he has to do is just play it smart one down smash could end it never mind guess two down smashes my bad and that would be game it's like cyber Tigers win round three it means Scott wins round three so yeah good for him read some sponsors here quick shout out to some of our sponsors this past Saturday we had our third annual Super Smash tournament here bluon High School hosted by Adams Wells internet Telecom and TV congratulations to Cohen Miller on an awesome third place finish second place went to Jordan Troyer a recent bluon graduate an ex cyber tiger and this year's Champion was Deacon Yates so congratulations to them and looks like we are going into round four now got pyro mythra and a Ridley which be honest I'm not really a big fan of Ridley but that's who they choose play I'm not one to [Music] argue looks like they already gotten into it with Ridley already at 30% now Ridley is a medium based character not medium um yeah a medium weight character I believe I could be wrong and then pyro and mythra are also a light all yeah they're also light a lightweight see oh and already cyber Tigers already almost lose another stock see cuz now they got to play careful knowing that cuz one smack from Ridley now and they go into the zone and two down smashes from them oh never mind guess one smash one down smash does it and ties it up oh and shortlived it was a very shortlived tie but hey at least they get a restart now now all they got to do is oh I believe that was a ground a grab yeah that was the grab really grab and there's a side smash just keeping him in the air playing ping pong with him see they're oh Scott is really playing it strategically right now cuz he has to he more so he has to deal with Ridley in a uh not timely manner but like he has to know how he's how the Ridley is going to play cuz Ridley is a really movement uh oh and looks like round four is going to South oh my St Joseph's High School means Ridley won round four I'll do one more sponsor the Moose garage special thanks to The Moose for sponsoring our event as well check out the garage here in bluon on Main Street it is a cafe game room and M music venue for the Youth of bluon to hang out once again that is the Moose garage located on Main Street go check them out see who they play it looks like they're playing Lucario who is also another um Med D M white [Applause] character see how this goes oh and if I didn't say it if I if I missed it our map for today is Final Destination 2 1 looks like we got a a lightweight and I was wrong about Ridley he's actually a heavyweight and Ridley is going to have to jump off once to cuz he lost one stock last time to make it even see if Lucario has to play it smart cuz he can easily get knocked off by Ridley but he has a really I want to say a he has a good recovery it's not the best but it's manageable if you know how to use it right yep and there's the recovery and immediately gets grabbed oh and already almost loses a stock and there goes cyber Tiger's first stock for round five see now it's now it's all tied up see if Adriana can get lose another stock looks like the stream is lagging again sorry about that never mind it's not the stream is the [Music] game can't keep up with this this amazing fight see oh and Lucario gets a nice grab tries to coun it with another ball once again I am sorry for the lag it is mostly the it is it is just the [Music] game see Ridley gets his recovery up looks like Lucario might lose one but he does not see oh and she almost gets hit by that see yeah oh once again almost loses a second stock see if she can oh not quite the grab that he was looking for probably but oh and there goes there goes Adriana's second life she if see if she could possibly tied up with the Ridley if not at least try to get one life off to make it easier for the next teammate looks like she will miss it and that will be game five going to Ridley Ridley wins Yep looks like the Cyber tigers are not doing well today at [Applause] all oh and then next sponsor blue feather Visions blue feather Visions is a local photography studio based in Fort Wayne specializing in in travel concert live music product marketing and portrait photography check them out at blue feather visions.com for more once again that is blue feather visions.com look like we'll be looks like cyber Tigers will now be playing Bowser see how this goes you got two heavy weights Ridley and Bowser Bowsers are really he oh never mind it's like they switched to King K rule two Heavy Hitters go heavy weights and hit for heavy damage yep already 20% oh and King K Ru blocks it with his stomach block see Bowser oh and Bowser now King K Ru is at 34% and oh now 56 and Bowser is still at 50 keep on down down smashing if he can play it right oh he might be able to knock him knock the king K Ru off man Bowser just really much love his down smashes oh and King K rule already almost loses one life see if oh he Bowser gets punished for for ledge camping hate to see it oh and not quite yet looks like one more down smash might oh and he blocks it wow really this is a really intense battle right now oh he get gets put into the ground all it takes is one down smash from Bowser and King K rules out as not out but down one life and there goes King K ru's second not second first life see now King K Ru is at 0% meaning Bowser has to play it smart cuz he's already at 100 mean he has a higher chance of going off go is not going off but getting sent off see oh and gets hit by The Cannonball down smashes him tries to get it again but does not connect and looks like he'll be losing looks like Bowser will be losing his second life Ash has to play it smart now since he only has one life and he uh no he can't no he couldn't with Bowser certain time there's certain conditions where you could uh go off the ledge with your opponent and that's only if you are stock above them so like you do the uh grab Smash and just go off the ledge with them and it'll take you out and it'll take them out cuz it goes all the way down to um goes all the way down to the map limit until you get knocked out looks like King K rule is already at 20% blocks a down smash looks like Bowser misses a side Smash and gets punished for it Bowser almost loses the game there see if he can take another stock off of King K Ru before he gets knocked out or just win the game too that would be nice for them this one down smash should do it oh looks like King oh he gets out of it in the nick of time oh let's see and that looks yep that's game for round six going to St Joseph's High School looks like King K Ru wins oh gosh two heavy weights one's are even more heavy hit which Bowser is a heavy hitter than King K rule so you'd think you'd think Bowser would win but King K rule pointed out otherwise it's like they'll be playing pyro Mithra again against King K rule see how this goes it's like they're getting into the battle now King kru versus Mython pyra which I'm be honest I didn't know you could switch out which one you start out with I thought you just started out with pyro so like King K rule has to go off once cuz he lost one [Music] life doesn't let him know that he's ready just immediately attacks it's like looks like [Music] oh looks like cyber is just trying to find an opening doesn't seem like they can and they already lose one life sad to see it but that is a medium weight which is not a good pair up against the heavy weight especially against King K rule py cuz pyro and myth are close range while King K rule can be either medium range or close up or just play From Afar too so he is a multi-range character so it's really hard to deal with him but if you can play it right it's not it's not as bad to play against him but it can be it can be annoying looks like King K Ru almost loses his second life see if they can get a down Smash and it looks like they cannot but they got to recover somehow so oh looks like the crown came back and hitting this hitting P mythra see oh and King K will just blocks the down smash oh and there goes cyber Tiger's second life all I got to do is just do one down Smash and they are and they get yep and there's there's King K ru's Second Life so now it's all tied up they both have 0% then now King K will has 16% my bad oh and he just returned the favor by hitting with the crown oh looks like the crown goes off so he'll have to wait to get that back yep and he already got he already has it [Music] back see it's pretty much just to who can get the highest damage the fastest and knock off the first one see cyber Tigers play it right they could possibly end up winning the winning round seven see oh looks like they try to go for another down Smash and get punished for it but then get a really good recovery on it too just trying to they're trying to make ground right now so all they can do to get away from King K Ru looks like he'll be dodging out of the way of that down smash saving him but can't get out of the way of that oh one more up oh he almost he played a risky game there of trying to get the down smash off on on ledge If he if he missed it he would have gone into the into the uh bottomless pit of the map see King K wolves just oh and he gets punished for ledge camping and that looks like that would be round seven going to cyber tigers with one stock left theeg wow it's really intense game and then our third our fourth sponsor auction it do you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea auction it is an online and inperson auction platform that can help your nonprofit host a great Charity Auction find out more at auction.io that's oxinate doio see believe that would [Music] be oh looks like they looks like St Joseph's brings in Lucario so you got two medium weights now both movement based characters too as well so this will be an interesting matchup and then cyber Tigers will have to jump off twice oh looks like they're just making it quick [Music] now Lucario has the advantage right now since he has two stocks ahead of him if Lucario had a that uh grab a grab down smash he could have used it by now and just went off the ledge with them already and then that would have end of the game but thankfully he does not have that [Music] like he's just charging up a power ball see if he can connect and they block it as soon as it gets to them see it's just a stand down now oh and P and cyber tigers and not s my bad looks like Lucario will be losing one life not being able to use his recovery which costed him a life see if he can come back oh he almost loses another life there it's weird it's really weird watching two movement based characters go at it cuz not only are they fast it's easy to pass your opponent looks like Lucario almost loses a second life but gets gets his recovery off now it's just a stalemate again see all it takes is one down one down Smash and he is out of another life and there goes Lucario's second life looks like Scott's doing really well now it's all tied up so all he has to do is just get this one more then he will round [Music] eight see if he can bring home a a win against the Lucario like cyber Tigers really love their down smash try to hit a side smash but miss it Lucario just keeps on getting punished cyber tigers have to play it really oh looks looks like Lucario almost loses his final life and that is game eight going to cyber Tigers wow it's like Scotts winning round eight and then we off one we got off another sponsor moose garage special thanks to The Moose for sponsoring our event as well check out the garage here in town on Main Street is a it's a cafe game room and music venue for the Youth of Blu and hangout go check out the Moose Garage on Main Street see who they see who St Joseph Pick it's like we're going in oh and they and St Joseph Pick duck hunt first time I've seen duck hunt in competitive smash and cyber ERS have to jump off twice since he had only one one stock left and Duck Hunt is actually a lightweight character so cyber Tigers actually have the weight Advantage here see if they can possibly get two stocks if not three and Win It [Music] looks like the looks like Duck Hunt just keeps on punishing them oh looks like they get a looks like cyber Tigers get a dow smash off C tigers are at 77% and Duck Hunt is at 82 not duck hunt uh St Joseph are at 82 see oh oh that's a oh that's a bomb I didn't know that oh they're cutting it close see if they can get the recovery off see all it takes is one down smash or oh frisbee hit too looks like they both hit each other like Scott gets off a down smash but doesn't quite knock him out see if he can knock out duck hunt and looks like he will be losing round nine round nine will'll be going to St Joseph's duck hunt oh wow a light a lightweight beting a medium weight to be fair though medium weight did have one one stock left but still and then read blue feather again blue feather Visions is a local photography studio based in Fort Wayne specializing in travel concert live music product marketing and portrait photography check out blue feather visions.com for more once again that is blue feather visions.com looks like cyber Tigers will be picking incore again believe that was the blue yep it's blue incinerar just lonely being by yourself you have no one to talk to while doing [Music] this looks like going into to round N9 or 10 I've lost track already it's like Robbie is up see if he can bring home a win and Duck Hunt will not have to jump off jump off once cuz he did not lose a stock it's like Robbie will not be able to recover losing One stock already he duck hunt almost loses a stock but he had his recovery so he he was fine see oh and he gets to grab off see oh and he just pretty much all he can do is just grab him see if he can get a at least one stock off of Duck Hunt looks like he will be able to get one stock tying it up to two stocks each now duck Hunt's at 6% and incore is at 73% now now Duck Hunt is at 18 looks like he almost loses a second stock but gets his recovery off see if he'll be able to take a second stock off of duck hunt or possibly just beat him too see this a really oh and S and Robbie loses a second life could not get his recovery off [Music] see du now it's back to being tied up Duck Hunt couldn't get his uh recovery off now it's all tied up see Duck Hunt is just sitting there just waiting for him to land oh it takes from Duck Hunt to knock incore back is just one down smash looks like Robbie will be winning winning game three I believe that is a win for the Cyber tigers and then auction do you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea auction is an online and in-person auction platform that can help your nonprofit host a great charity fun host a great Charity Auction find out more at auction.io that is auction.io believe see what St Joseph are going to pick and Robbie will have to walk off the ledge twice since he only had one stock so we'll see how this goes for him [Music] see who St Joseph picked looks like they picked the Min Gunner who's A Rang based lightweight so for a heavy SL medium weight like in cidor this should be an easy fight but considering he has to he only has one stock it's it will be a challenging fight for him see you got to jump off twice and then let him know when he ready look like they're getting into it now C has already knocked me Gunner at 30% me Gunner is already knocked in C at 33 see how this goes C gets a down smash off almost gets punished for it but doesn't quite me doesn't quite get the punish off s's trying to grab him looks like is not able to do that see if me baller not mean baller my bad me Gunner can punish him for ledge Camp looks like he will not be able to oh looks like me brother already loses already almost loses one stop see oh and he does lose one stock see now oh my gosh English holy crap I am so sorry about that looks like St Joseph will be winning round [Music] 11 which I believe he had two stocks left I could be wrong what who knows I never know choose your fighter let's see who cyber Tigers pick Lucario look like they're picking a pink Lucario oh excuse me look like we got a lightweight versus a mediumweight m versus Lucario I believe me Gunner has to jump off once I believe although I could be wrong looks like I was looks like I was not wrong oh me has the Lucario charge attack will be interesting to watch Lucario fighting against his own attack see how this goes for him see Lucario is already at 52% me baller is only at 18 see lucardio is already at 69 trying to connect hits looks like they are not going to be able to me is going to try to oh and tries to get the ledge Camp off but he didn't see what was that land mine oh it is guess the me me Gunner also has land mine see if Lucario can catch himself he does so all he has to do is just knock oh it looks like Lucario will be losing looks like Adriana will be losing her first stock It's like got to block the charge attack from me Gunner and just ledge camping pretty much you get ledge that's pretty much game unless you can just block it or just avoid it just not oh my gosh excuse me Shez I'm like tired it's like Lucario connects a side Smash and a charge attack too doesn't quite connect the oh and connects a second one almost connects a third but me Gunner gets up close before he can before she can finish it see oh looks like Lucario loses looks like Adriano loses her second life she she can at least tie it up against the me brawler does not oh see all it takes is one down smash see almost loses the game oh and she does tie it up now Adriana's got to play it play it careful cuz she's at 80% looks like almost gets knocked into the to the void see if she can she cannot get her she cannot get her save off looks like St Joseph will be winning round 11 [Applause] excuse me let's read this past Saturday we had a our third annual Super Smash tournament here at blon high school hosted by Adams W's internet Telecom and TV congratulations to Cen Miller on an awesome third place finish second place went to Jordan trer a recent Bluff and graduate ex cyber tiger and this year's Champion was Deacon Yates congratulations to them and that appears to be it for the Cyber Tigers today and we will we will see you next time thank you for joining us [Music] I [Music] what is that [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] h [Music] a [Applause] yeah K GD wins [Applause] [Music] you're up okay welcome to week five of ihsen 2024 2025 regular season today bluon cyber Tigers will be facing Franklin High School looks like they already got their characters picked you got King DDD which is a heavyweight and a me Gunner which is a lightweight not the best matchup to see but that's what they pick so I can't argue see how this goes oh and it's Sans looks like they made a a Sans build I take it which if you don't know what Sans is he's from a game called undertale which it's pretty much you a kid who got trapped in a mountain and it was a civil a moner well civilization with uh creatures in it that could talk English that either you could uh completely destroy or befriend depending on your decision looks like King DDD is just sitting there just holding his um suck [Music] ability oh looks like he already almost knocked Sans off not Sans my my Jes the um me Gunner see looks like King DG will be knocking me Gunner off back to holding this oh okay so pretty much what king DD is trying to do is knock him off the ledge by sucking up and then smacking him with his hammer which he can do it's just it's a hard uh thing to do oh and it hits him with the spike ball and gets punished for it too does not look like oh he does recover they're both in danger zone King DD at 140 and mean are at 123 and then pretty much the score in the top score the top is each stock one of the team takes it gets added to theirs so like say King DDD takes one this it would go to the Cyber Tigers that's first to four first to to take four stocks wins a game and we are up by one right now it's weird seeing a me Gunner looking like some look that looks like a different complete a completely different character oh and King D gets hit by his own spike ball almost knocking him back and looks like me me Gunner almost gets knocked back and he loses his second life meaning the second Point goes to the Cyber tigers and again it is first to four it's first to take four stocks so see how this goes L looks like King D is just ledge camping never hurts the ledge camp but you can really get punished to it oh and blocks the punish see me Gunner is already back at 91% now he's back in the danger oh he is back in the danger zone so he has to really watch it already almost loses another another stock and that is game that well not game that's round one for the cyber Tigers once again it is first to take four stocks which stocks are the stocks are pretty much the amount of lives that a person a person has which they will have the most of amount oh my gosh holy crap English jeez um excuse me a player will have three stocks once all three are depleted then they they move on to the next player pretty much see who Franklin High School choose to face King DDD and I'm going to read a sponsor special thanks to The Moose for sponsoring our event as well check out their garage here in town on Main Street it is a cafe game room and music venue for the Youth of bluon there the garage at on Main Street never hurt to take your sweet time looks like I can read another one blue feather Visions is a local photography studio based in Fort never mind never mind looks like they have a me sword fighter this is the first time I've ever seen me sword fighter come and it's another Sands bu and then King DD should have to only jump yeah only jump off once and never mind I was wrong about the score it is not stocks it is uh rounds they win so first of four wins first of four rounds and a win is a is a game pretty much [Music] looks like me so and I guess I was wrong again about the horns his his two stock uh first person whoever takes two stocks gets a point added and then four Four Points I believe is the game so far it's tied up right now oh and King DD is already at 126 he has to play it careful block the down smash see if he can get another Spike he can get another Spike off see if he can knock him into the void it looks like me fighter will be losing their second life meaning the Cyber Tigers will be getting another point I believe unless I am wrong about that see King DD's really got to play it safe right now even though he really could just uh suck up the me fighter and just walk off with him which would kill him and the me fighter winning him the game but that's not fun so I'm guessing he probably won't do that not it's not oh not not it's not that not fair it's that not fun when you do that dishonorable pretty much looks like King DD will be losing his second life see if Eli can get the win against the me fighter looks like if he can get a smash off he might be able to win the game if the Mii brawler if the Mi sword fighter doesn't get him first trying to sack him up pretty much and looks like the me fighter will be losing Eli the win WIS see who Franklin H see what uh Franklin pick for the next um character looks like em blue feather versions is a local photography studio uh local photography studio based in Fort Wayne specializing in concert not concert my bad travel concert live music product marketing and portrait photography check out blue feather visions.com for more once again is blue feather visions.com it looks like we're getting to the next one which means king which means Eli will have to end up jumping off twice cuz he only he lost two stocks so I'll have one left meaning cloud has an advantage cuz he has a oh I want to say it's not like a oh looks like Cloud will be missing the ledge losing him a stock see if he can get get back looks like he is just not able to connect with King King DDD see get a side smash Cloud tries to get a down smash but misses and he will be losing a second life to King DDD see like Eli will be able to recover and get a down smash too he's doing really well right now I believe that is four four or three people he taking out not four two or three people he's Tak it out so far looks like he'll be winning winning the next round which I believe gives cyber Tigers four points and that would be one game worth of points then next sponsor is auction do you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea auction it is an online and inperson auction platform that can help your nonprofit host a great Charity Auction find out more at auction.

[Music] hello clockers it is good to be back with another segment of waca news blog my name is hi silver and today I will give you a quick update on the latest happenings in Ashland we have the Ashland Arboretum plans are underway to transform the Cadillac paint property into the Ashland Arboretum a Serene community space for relaxation Recreation and education led by Erica grass Berger a landscape architecture student from UC Berkeley this project will feature native plantings and accessible paths with preparations set to begin this spring coming up we have a special town meeting join us on November 19th at 700 p.m. at Ashlin high school for a special town meeting registered voter voters can engage in community discussions and make important decisions regarding our town with free child care provided for families the town manager forum is coming up residents are invited to connect with the town manager on November 12th at 5:00 p.m.

to 2:00 p.m. at The Corner Spot enjoy carnival games info boost and delicious treats from a dut truck Town job openings various part-time positions are available across departments in Ashland including the police department Community Center and DPW please check the town website for a full list of openings a simp simple gesture food drive is coming up the next pickup for a simple gesture food drive is on December 7th join Ashen high school students in supporting the ashin food pantry by donating needed items coming up on Tuesday November 12th we have the Veterans Day lunch in this will be held at noon at the Ashley Senior Center all veterans and one guest are invited to a free lunch and ceremony please RSVP by November 5th at 508-8811 40 extension one comedy night is going to happen on Friday November 15th from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

e e that was fun it was cool really they e e e I I looked I e e e good evening everyone and welcome to the select board meeting for November 6th 2024 I'm going to call this meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. um in Yolanda our chair is um going to be a little late this evening and she but she'll be joining us in a little while so um I'm going to go ahead and um I already called the meeting to order but this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live by waca TV and live streamed on Facebook remote participation is available using the zoom video conferencing platform any disruption with the video conferencing platform will result in the platform being shut down in the event of A disruption broadcasting will continue on waca TV and live streamed on Facebook um and just for the benefit of folks um the board will be going into executive session following our open uh our Open Session tonight so um so with that I'm going to um open it up to Citizens participation if there are folks uh online that wish to speak if you could use the raise hand function and um and we'll go ahead and recognize you or if there's anyone else that would like to speak for Citizens participation uh come on up okay thank you good evening Mark son 19 Main Street would like to thank say thanks to um Mr Mr Dave for bringing out the his email about the town election results I found out from there that this town was 78% but the rest of the country is not as smart as we are what I'm going to say is that people can remember I said this all day long do people remember the President Nixon against George McGovern presidential this is a repeat of that don't blame us we're only from Massachusetts to the rest of the country and I'll leave it at that okay thank you Mark um is there anyone else that would like to speak tonight for Citizens participation anyone online this is Joan Good Friday hi Joan hold on one second could we can we increase the volume from the folks online a little bit we can't hear them that's I think that was my fault I'm sorry oh okay that sounds good John go ahead and you can go ahead and uh go ahead I won't I won't take your time but I just I know I sent you folks um an email today I hope you get to see it and I hope when you get to the 40b section that you'll consider some of the things that I that I um put in there so I appreciate everything you do and um good luck with it thank you thank you Joan uh we appreciate your sending us an email and and coming here tonight too thank you you're welcome take care um is there anyone else here for Citizens participation okay the next thing on our agenda is a a tax classification hearing but we are a little early um so do we want to um do we want to to do consent do consent agenda okay all right um so could I get a motion to uh approve the consent agenda as presented all those in favor I I and that passes 4 z um is there anything else on our agenda that we can talk too quickly or I can I can read the reminders yeah okay why don't I read the reminders um so I'll make a reminder that the Citizens Academy program will begin in January 2025 this is a 10-week program that will be meeting on the 2nd and fourth Wednesday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

and a reminder that textile and clothing recycling um that pickups must be scheduled with simple Recycling and the number to call is 1866 83550 68 or online at simpler recycling.com so that takes care of our reminders for this evening would you want me to just give an update on technology upgrades yeah sure that works make sure your mic's on push the technology upgrade could be we get upgraded mics how's that that works um so I think at our last meeting I had uh mentioned to the board that uh we're working with wacka to uh look at making some upgrades into this room specifically so we have had some issues with the projector um and uh just some believe it or not some of this equipment is is quite a few years old uh even though uh we were around when it was installed that just means we're old too so you know speak for yourself I know Joe I did kind of look right at you when I said that that was that was just not on purpose um but anyway we've worked with um worked with Paul and uh Barbara at uh wacka and so what we would be doing is replacing this screen with an 85 in uh television screen um that's going to be framed um we'll actually have the seal um as part of that um we're going to have two 65 in TV screens uh located on the wall U that way for the audience uh so they can see things a little bit better and then this TV back here um we haven't necessarily decided what size that's going to be but it's going to be substantially larger than what it is and so the hope will be that you know the board will be able to kind of look at that screen instead of having to you know turn around and and keep on looking back behind you uh for um to see what's happening on the screen so um I know that Paul and the the contractors have been up here taking a look at uh look at some things we should be able to do these upgrades I think before the end of the year and it shouldn't be any disruption to any of our any of our meetings um and that's the intent so um yeah we're looking forward to to having some new equipment what's the width of this screen you know want to say it's aund something so I had a big concern you know because it seems like we're going to go smaller right um the Fidelity um though is so much better that uh you know people should be able to see it much more clearer even if they're even if they're towards the rear of the room but that's also one of the reasons why we are putting you know larger TVs up on the side I have a question for f May of course um the TVs that we currently have here there are meetings uh and then they're not a lot but we do have some that have overflow that's out in the hallway and I was wondering if we could probably take one of those TVs that are not going to be utilized and maybe attachment out in the hallway so people could see it and type of deal we could potentially do that we're we're actually going to be replacing also the one on the first floor oh you know when you walk in and you see that one and we'll we'll have like advertisements and things going you know when there's not a meeting in progress as well like the town sign that we were going to do the electronic sign electronic sign yeah it'll be electronic Joe we'll put the seal on there see more than one way to skin a cat my friend so anyway I think uh is that is now does that affect any of the equipment in the back too are they going to be yeah that's going to get um changed out as well but that's the stuff that I don't understand so you know talking about that no yeah know no And as far as the budget for this that comes under like our is it our capital or like what is that so um if you recall at town meeting each uh each year we appropriate uh funds so the cable is now a cable Enterprise fund um and that change was made probably 7 years ago um and if you also recall over the last year we've worked on an agreement with waa um that uh basically provides a little bit more um you know in one way provides a little bit more flexibility on how wacka can spend that money but also provides I think a little bit more accountability as well uh for all all parties involved than thank you does anybody else have any questions or no no did we have to go out and do an RFP on these no not since we have that agreement no that's that's cool yeah that was that was the Genesis of that year-long right discussion for an agreement well yeah it would have been quicker probably to go that was for another piece of equipment yeah no it all works out and again thanks to uh waa Paul Barbara John featherston I know has uh been working on this so many thanks and the board when is it happening probably December nice Merry Christmas folks I was going to say probably won't be ready for a for a December meeting but maybe for January yeah we'll start the new year right yeah and high def Joe High defa what Joe's Loi no more so right okay almost got us at 7:15 okay all right thank you actually I did according to my watch we're at 7:14 I think that's close enough yeah I think we're good by the time you read it by the time I read it so um the next um item on our agenda is uh to open the tax classification hearing so I'll read the legal notice from the town of Ashland select board uh in accordance with the requirements of Massachusetts General Law chapter 40 section 56 the select board will hold a public hearing on fiscal 2025 property tax classification on Wednesday November 6th 2024 at 7:15 p.m.

yes hey we've got snacks there and stuff it's always great that's a week from today a week from today yes and then um let's talk about then with um PRI school and so one of the things I've learned pretty quickly coming in boy we have a lot of different titles of our preschool um staff and so one of the things that um the preschool leadership team and I are recommending that sight level um staff titles are adjusted to actually reflect the similarities between positions and to actually align with the Arizona Department of Health Services um and the licensing terminology and to specify um the evaluation rubrics um for our staff and currently the district um is using eight different um position titles across the four preschool programs and so um we've been working with otm and with um payroll to really look at that differently um and getting your blessing on that and so for instance you have um uh positions such as um uh K prep um our um K prep preschool programming and the um you have a teacher and then you also have an instructional assistant however in a building blocks program you have a teacher however they're not called a teacher they're called a site leader and then you have somebody else of an activity leader but wait a second we had an activity leader really which is that instructional assistant like it's really confusing and so we really want to clean that up and then with that we would like to change that name to child educator and the reason for that is it aligns with the Arizona Department of Health Services that um label um that they have and then I'm also really making sure that we're intentional about their evaluation instrument because right now the rubric is pretty um generic on things and really being specific about their job responsibilities and so that happens to be that first proposal um that we want to do and then um secondly the employee um position adjustments with those title changes um so the preschool leadership team is recommending these changes to align with some of that payroll law um to compensate the certified Subs appropriately um so we've had some substitutes going in there and we've had a little um things that kind of get messed up because of those titles because they're called a pair of specialist in Toy Box well that that tends to be a special education term and so then it's not quite getting to the right department so again I think those things that if we clean those things up it's going to make sure that our staff are getting paid um timely with different things as well as accurately um and because this isn't hard to fill um we really want to work um I've been working with Rachel Thorton to talk about how we can use that asop system that we already use for our certified teachers um in order to help support our preschool programming um and so that way with the call outs versus we're trying to call on a phone list ourselves it's not very efficient um and then we're having some challenges with that and so um we there's a need to have accurate sublist and there's a need to have license Subs um and so being in a preschool program because of Licensing and with ratios I can't not have somebody in there I need to and this really needs to be a priority um and so we really want to have that per DM rate like what we do with the certified subs and we have on a Monday and Friday our high needs well if you're going through that licensed and you're a substitute and you do the licensing requirements we want to be able to pay you at that higher um prum rate of pay of 150 to cover in a license program um and again I had shared a little bit about our um program structure um with things we're a small Department um but we're Mighty um but I shared with you we have 77 different classrooms um having one preschool coach um you know we are utilizing the campus coaches to help but many of them are not versed in um Early Childhood or the Arizona early learning standards and it is difficult for Robin to get around to all 77 programs Our Hope would be is that she's focused on the special education programming working with Julie and really supporting Eric um because we don't have that Kellin coaching that we did last year and we saw the value in that the need to be able to have um a preschool coach to help support um our K prep our um building blocks and Toy Box programming and so you had asked about tuition rights well our desire as um roted shared is um looking at our preschool programming we look at a lot of things whether it's the current hourly rate um curriculum costs food and supplies um the a DHS um requirements that we have to have those ratios and maintaining um competitiveness um with different things um but before I jump to that I also want to talk about um that support um even with our outside because remember I shared about that eer scale and making sure that um we have those areas within the classroom and having the right materials we're also noticing that out on our playgrounds um we're wanting to make sure we have the materials for that gross motor play for our preschoolers and so um we're trying to work with um Lakeshore um and using some of that in order to have some um playground um refreshes of things as you can see there's that caterpillar the kids love that to be able to climb um through and On Again by working with Lakes where that we're not going out for $275,000 for a brand new playground but how can we add some things to enhance our playground for the student students on bringing bicycles and tricycles I should say and helmets onto the campus again so students can have that gross motor play that and so we want to have that access for them um so let's talk about um because of these different things that we're wanting to do and to continue on that programming to allow for Choice as well as quality programming in Gilbert Public Schools um we want to look at those hourly rates and so working with the um finance department intensively over the last 14 16 months really trying to look at what do we need to do in order to um support for that quality programming um and as well as meet the needs because prices of things have been going up and so we're looking at um in our advantage preschool of around a 5 to 8% increase um toy box with an increase of 15% um building blocks of a 10% increase and then our K prep at a 20% increase and why that because they um K prep tends to have that certified teacher and so to be able to do that that is a higher cost to be able to do that um and so what does that actually mean um let's look at the tuition rate adjustments when we're looking at Advantage preschool um that is a 2 and 1 half hours a day whether it's 4 days or 3 days a week um there are the costs there um one of the things we're trying to move when we're looking at building blocks is really looking at building blocks to be a school day of being that 7:45 until 3:15 and really trying to work in time where the teacher has some time prior to the students coming into their classroom from vik um to be able to do some of that planning um and working through some of those curricular materials um where they haven't had that before and it's been challenging um so really trying to value that like what we do with our K through 12 of having some of that built-in um time for planning um we want to emphasize have a question about that with building blocks do they then go because they're they all day during the school day do they also go to the specials or what do we do to give teacher breaks um well they do have specials um when they are in the building blocks program but remember because we're a licensed preschool program we need to keep those ratios and I can't just send the students to let's say a PE class and the teacher to go back um to have a prep um unfortunately that teacher needs to stay within the classroom environment in that special area because they are licensed and the um PE teacher the music teacher isn't licensed to have them they're there basically as like a guest teacher to provide um support to our students okay it's a great question and so that's why in the building blocks they'll have some time prior to their day at 7:45 or after 3:15 to have that preparation period or during lunch or is that still a problem during well I mean that would be that's their Bunch time and we try to give them that break and they would actually be clocked out at that time okay so we really want to give them some time um contracted time to actually be intentionally planning and making sure that you know they're ready to go for the next day's instruction versus you know trying to wing it so is so do building blocks participate with our specials teachers they do oh they don't always get every special but as we look at the k6 master Special schedule then we also then look at at the beginning of the year once we figure out all the k6 sections then if we have some specials teachers that have open time then we will give them so a lot of our building blocks may not have all four specials classes but they may have like PE and library at one building blocks and another class uh another building blocks down the street at another school might have art and from an art teacher and music from the general music teacher so we've filled that in to give them that experience for 20 to 30 minutes do we kind of then have a way that we um track the payment of that then because it should kind of go toward a payment then right we've looked at that too and so we we've we've covered it internally because they just naturally might have a gap that like Spectrum Elementary have one or two classes so instead of letting just giving them idle time or asking them to go somewhere else we've actually filled up their time as well too so okay we've been more strategic on that the last five or six years I think that's good I would like to see I would like to see like some grids I guess I like what Bonnie does just to show exactly just the cost that you're showing us I would love to see those like even just on some more you know what I'm saying just some grids that show us exactly what that looks like not even even just your tuition asks going forward in the future well uh when we bring this for approval at our next board meeting we'll have it in grid form for you so you guys can read it out thanks I think it's grid form there um it is so there actually is a hyperlink in the um on the tuition rate adjustments no I saw that I want to see like where the where the cost will go like exactly oh the break oh the breakdown of when I'm asking for the tuition increase where that would go okay I can work on that for you thanks and then um I know sometimes when you're looking at it's like oh my goodness you know you're looking asking for a big percentage and as we said as we all know the price of things have certainly um has gone up but there are ways to really support those families um with need um as we shared before there's um either some companies have the employer um Child Care reimbursements um there is the dees the Department of Economic Security and that reimbursement rate I noted that and what's really important why we working on the accreditation and the five star or getting the quality stars is um when you have three star or above you can actually get a higher rate of return in order to provide that support for families so that's really important to families to have that five-star um rating or that accreditation um the other part is is um Quality first and first things first have provided scholarships although there have been cutbacks um our hope is as that comes back again a little healthier as we've been able to award um scholarships to families um and then we also utilize some of our Title One funding to help Provide support at our Title One campuses for families to reduce that tuition as well for those families that are in need and then of course we do do for our employees an employee um 20% discount um the next part would be the building blocks um tuition scenario and so really wanted to share with you an example of currently um you know what it looks like so on a school day would be from 7:45 until 3:15 um that would be currently a $750 cost um per per month per week that would be per month per month correct okay and then um if you were doing extended day which would mean dropping your kiddo off perhaps maybe at 6:30 in the morning and then staying for that extended day um then that would be 920 um when we look at the proposed um part would be in a school day would be $825 again that's from $745 to 315 if families are wanting that extended day you've got that um building blocks plus the vi you'll notice that that's $1,330 but we feel that it's important giving families a discount that if you are doing that full day with the building blocks that vik that's helping us with Staffing and we can plan accordingly for that um then we're giving that discount of $133 so then it would be $1,197 a month so there's that then and now kind of comparison for an example and I know you had asked earlier what about some surrounding on preschool programs and so I just want to um highlight just a few um different programs um around so if you're looking at um like Bridges preschool Bridges preschool has won a lot of awards um you know kind of the top we're kind of competing you know preschool program um in Gilbert and so um what they're charging um but some things to know is although right now it may look like oh goodness um Chandler Queen Creek and higgle are less than us I know all three of those districts are currently doing the same thing that we are um higgle is going to be presenting next week and doing um an increase as well um and so that's what their current rate is not what they're proposing to change so again we're going to be pretty comparable with things that we're doing um you also need to think about with some of the programs why did we do why do we have differences you also have to look at programs are they certified versus non-certified that really makes a difference as well um I know Higley um or right and the other thing is you have to look at the hours so as Rod had shared with the extended day um some of them um such as Chandler their hours are from 7:00 a.m.

at the Town Hall where you can share your thoughts and discuss Community issues both in person and Via Zoom a little downtown trick-or treat recap Halloween brought out a festive Spirit on October 31st as ashlin's downtown trick-or treat event welcomed a large crowd featuring treats from town hall the library and local businesses plus fun activities from the police and fire departments thank you all to who came out Citizens Academy starting January 8th 2025 joined the Citizens Academy a new program designed to educate residents on Town operations this 10-week course will include Department tours and presentations limited to 15 participants downtown construction Phase 2 phase two of the downtown construction began on November 1st on Front Street and will soon move to Main Street most work will be on private properties with minimal traffic disruptions expected Town Hall repairs will begin on the right side of town hall on November 6th the Main Street entrance will be closed but Alternet access will be available via Cherry Street the shop local campaign throughout November Ashlin bizbuzz on Facebook will spotl a local business each day let's support our community by shopping local Ashland has received an energy efficiency grant to develop a guide for residents on home decarbonization thanks to the sustainability committee the Pumpkin Smash bring your unpainted pumpkins for composting at the Pumpkin Smash on November 9th from 10:00 a.m.

join the Ashlin Business Association for an evening filled with barbecue drinks live music and laughter with proceeds benefiting local scholarships and emergency funds adulting 101 class will begin every other Tuesday starting October 29th from 600 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the ashin public library teens are invited to learn practical skills for adulthood and registration is required that's all for today's update stay tuned for more news and remember to participate in your community events a heartfelt thank you to town manager Michael herbet and the entire town staff for their efforts in bringing us this informative newsletter and thank you to all for joining us today on waca my name is hi silver good night and go clockers [Music]

interested parties are encouraged to complete an application on the town's website um definitely encourage folks to uh to apply if you're interested uh there's a reminder that municipal buildings will be closed on Monday November 11th which is Veterans Day uh a reminder that special town meeting will take place on Tuesday November 19th at ashin High School auditorium at 700 p.m. um and we will be offering child care for anyone that uh that wishes to uh to take advantage of that so uh reminder that yard waste collection is every Monday with the last pickup on Monday November 25th 2024 um make sure you put all your leaves in bags and um leave them out first thing in the morning on Monday morning uh reminder that the pre Thanksgiving Farmers Market will take place on Saturday November 23rd at 1:25 Front Street from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m.

at the Town Hall 101 Main Street Ashland the purpose of the public hearing is to consider the percentages percentage percentages of the FY 2025 tax levy to be borne by each class of taxable real and property and personal property meeting information will be posted on the agenda which could be found on the town website www.mass.com person persons wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public Hearing in person or by logging into the zoom meeting interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written comments to the select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street ashin mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Roby sroy Asin mass.com so um could I get a motion to open the um the hearing second all those in favor of opening the hearing i i i does it have to be U an individual nope because we're all here so yeah I think we have to do a roll call if um anyone is remote from our board okay so um so with that I'm going to pass that on over to Michael to introduce um yeah Nate uh yeah this is a new era folks um because I think everybody at this table um we we have all um the only person we've ever seen give this presentation is Rich ball um and of course Rich retired earlier this year but uh we're very very fortunate to have um working with us Nate Kramer um an experienced assessor who's been uh working with us since uh Rich retired until we uh found a permanent replacement for Rich um and uh Nate I've just been really really impressed with his uh his knowledge base he's probably he's going to have a different presentation than what you're used to and with a couple new couple of new uh things for the uh for the board's information and um yeah I think again we're really really fortunate to have somebody of his caliber as well as really want to take the moment to uh thank the board of assessors I think everybody's here David's here Steve's online Chuck's hiding yeah there he is um as well as as June and Terry down in the office for for stepping up during this time so um Nate without further Ado I I hope I didn't talk you up too much so probably did okay well you've got got a lot to live up to now my friend um so one thing I noticed uh the presentation that you guys had up I'm not sure are there still yellow highlights on that presentation um the one I have in our packet does still have yellow highlights okay so those have since been removed I just sent I I realized that when I logged in and saw it that oh no they they don't have the the one without the highlights but nothing really changed um Nate are you able to are you able to share your screen so it can I can yep I can okay um basically it's it's it's almost exactly the same just um uh no highlights oh it says oh send request for sharing yeah we're working on that right now Nate why don't you introduce yourself a little bit Nate okay um for while we're waiting for that uh Nate my name is Nate Kramer I'm the owner of Municipal Finance Services LLC um I've been in the business for quite a while now um I was a still am an appraiser for 15 years before going to work for the Department of Revenue auditing tax assessors um I was there for six years and then um went to work for a private company um that City and towns outsourced their assessing offices to and then um went to work um for a couple different cities and towns and now I own um this company um we saw we just saw a need um the assessing profession is just it's every time somebody retires there's nobody to replace that person yeah um and I think when I started this in January of 21 there were I think 17 openings um and no applicants um and that TR kind of continues so um I'm happy to provide these Services as needed to different cities and towns when when these situations happen and also you know help them help them find a qualified person and also just hold the hand of a person if they think they have someone that might be good that might NE not necessarily be up to speed on everything so um um so with Ashland um rich Ball retiring I Didn't Know Rich I I know many many assessors I Didn't Know Rich but I heard about him heard he was a great guy um but Ashlin just like every other community that loses an assessor it's not a fast process it's very rare to get somebody right away yeah Nate if you don't mind I'm just because I think we're working on some technical issues but just to kind of interject here what Nate is saying it's actually starting to get to crisis levels um there just are not assessors um enough assessors to to do the jobs and Nate we were just talking I think western Mass which depends on like a company to do um like Franklin County or I'm certain like through furog I mean that firm said that they were no longer going to be doing that for those communities I mean it is Crisis level so nobody wants to do the municipal work anymore so I think I think a big part of it is that a lot of these a lot of people that are retiring came in started their careers right around the time prop two and a half happened um or um yeah prop two and like in the early 80s um and obviously nobody grows up saying I want to be an assessor um so you know all all everyone just you know did their typical Municipal 35 40y year career and nobody very few people were coming up behind them um and and it's not just it's not just Municipal assessors but it's a lot of the contractors too um companies are selling people are retiring and I think it's just going to get worse and worse I know of okay one company um that's closing up at the end of this year and they have 55 communities and yeah nowhere to go because the people that are still there are just stretched too thin so um another reason I put my hat in the ring well well welcome we're happy you're here I think we are all set with the technology so I think you can probably share your screen with the presentation hopefully this can you see that yes okay yep and this is the one okay yeah I know if you can make it a little bit bigger I don't know if that's you or if that's us green right now um oh wait there we go except it showed up on a different screen if it's if it's causing issues we have we all have it in front of us too so um okay well why don't we just use the one you have and the changes that are there it's l almost literally just some things are highlighted in the one you have and they're not highlighted in mind they were just numbers I wanted to confirm before I presented but very little Chang and if um if anything did change you know what I'll just say the number so if anything did change or if you have a page that's highlighted um just let me know and I'll confirm whether or not it changed okay perfect all right so I'm G I'm gonna not I'm gonna stop sharing then no we want you to share we definitely want we definitely want you to share because so um also folks that are watching um because we have people that are logged on in the zoom they'll be able to see the presentation as well so we definitely want you to have the presentation oh that's even that's perfect that's awesome all right we are we are in business go go right ahead let me just make sure that changes when did that did that um it's still good it's good is it changing when I change it I don't see a change we still see the top page yeah try the arrows maybe yeah I'm changing it on my screen though that's the thing sorry about that so now now now it's now we're good so now we're at what is the purpose of this presentation that's what we see all right now I just have to figure out how there we go okay now I got it all right so I'm just controlling it from a different screen technology okay so welcome this is town of ashin fiscal 25 tax classification presentation um the this presentation is going to be a little bit different than what you're used to um from what I understand in the past all you um were asked to decide on was whether or not to select a single tax rate or a split tax rate um but these are the four things that are supposed to be voted on on classification hearings now I don't I don't expect um there there shouldn't be anything different so I would think that um none of the answers will be different nothing that wasn't done in the past will affect anything um this is just how it's supposed to be done and as I go through it I'll um uh I'll explain anything that you want explained um so um the purpose of the presentation is to select their single or split tax rate um whether or not to adopt an open space discount whether to adopt a residential exemption and whether to adopt a small commercial exemption um and if you have any questions on what these are um like I said in the past you've only done single or split tax rate um I think you've only ever done a single or split or a single rate um and you've never um adopted any of the other three so it's easy to just say no to those if there's anything you guys want to explore um it's too late in the game to do that this year um so we but if it's something you want to explore for next year um I can certainly do studies and and show you what those numbers look like [Music] um so before um I get into numbers and everybody's eyes glaze over um I just like to explain what's happening in the market um despite High interest rates there's still high demand um High interest rates are contributing to low inventory because nobody wants to move and give up their low interest rates um although rates now are starting to um to come down these fiscal 25 values are based on sales that occurred in 2023 so at that point they were uh in the mid to uper sevens in many cases um as shown on Slide Five sale prices seem to be stabilizing as we progress through calendar year 24 and commercial industrial segments have been stabilizing and even seeing decreases over the past couple of years um this is a comparison of full and fair cash value for fiscal 24 versus fiscal 25 uh so the residential and open space segments um are seeing a 6.1% increase um commercial industrial and personal property are only going up 2.7% um as noted because those those segments have just been struggling uh over the past couple years um and this these these other two lines here just show the makeup for the town so uh for fiscal 25 91.6 of the town 91.6% of the town is residential and 88.4% is commercial um uh so it's a you know compared it's pretty stable from last year and then this uh total value the last line is just showing an overall increase for the whole town of 5.9% which is probably much lower than you've seen the past couple years I'm assuming um this is Slide Five and it's just this is just single family data that I got off of MLS um and it just shows what the Market's done over the past five years now the this is these are market sales whether or not they're arms transactions or not this is just every single family sale that's happened um that's that's been uh listed on MLS by Brokers over the past five years um so you can see from 20 to 21 to 22 to 23 that's just significant increases um in moving through 24 so this calendar year 24 will be for fiscal 26 value so we're seeing the residential value stabilize also are those is that the average price these are average um uh this is average list price in the Top Line okay and this is sale price on the bottom line so last year for so for calendar year 23 that year is done obviously so the so the average sale price of a single family house in Ashland in 2023 was 769 where now we're mostly all the way through um 2024 I believe I grabbed this snapshot sometime in October um and you can see there's a slight drop I don't anticipate there being record sales in the past in the last two months it's it tends to be kind of slow after once school starts and the holidays are coming um I would expect those numbers to pretty much remain the same if if Nate if you don't mind if I could just interject here as well Brandy um not at all so one thing I just really wanted the board to note um just what he has there at the top so you know how I've said like you know usually there's a couple year lag time between you know what the what you see in terms ter of the the sales prices and what when that gets reflected in the assessed values so Nate's just kind of confirming that you know those FY 25 values um are going to be based on the 23 sales and um the ones that you see for 24 we'll start seeing those in the uh tax year for 26 thanks Nate sorry no problem and and I like just to just to piggyback on that I'd like to include this MLS data because because this is showing actual sales not assess values um and I think that's important when you're setting the values is in terms of assess values um just to make sure you're not uh disjointed um which can happen um if you look at anything long enough it starts to make sense so um we wouldn't expect our average assess values for fiscal 25 to be you know 900,000 if the market is showing the average single family sale was 769 so I I like to add that in just show that the assess values are consistent with um with with actual sales um and in Massachusetts uh we're required to be at 100% of market value uh typically we run at a median of 95 because if we if we we work with median so if we had a median of 100% that would mean half the town is valued over 100% so we run it at 95 um which kind of with the hopes that it kind of Maxes the town out at 100 rather than having half the town overvalued is this um is this broken out anywhere by um the the house the uh price range of the houses like were there significantly more houses valued at 650 and above versus 400 to 600 things like that that that are included I don't have that in in this screenshot um and the tool that I use to generate this report doesn't do that but um I am able to get an Excel extract from the MLS to do that for sales and also compare it to assess values I think that if if someone yeah yeah the other thing is these are average sales and we work with median so so there is a slight differential there but um but they're typically pretty close um so this um these are the average values for fiscal 23 versus fiscal 24 um the average single family value um uh for fiscal 24 was 674 799 and the average value for in 2025 is 720 281 um and if we go back to that slide you can see the average Market sale was 769 so the average assessed single family value is at 720 it's about what we would expect to see slightly below that 100% Mark um the the uh projected tax rate right now is $111.99 which is over a dollar decrease um which also equates to a decrease in um the average single family house uh uh tax bill but this number could change slightly based on on uh numbers that are entered after this presentation I'm not sure if Britney um the finance director has all of our numbers in yet or how that will uh play into where the tax rate goes um but if it does change it's typically uh in a in a matter of sense not not dollars so you know you might see $125 or something like that um and this is where the commercial industrial and personal property values fall uh fiscal 24 versus fiscal 25 so you can just see it's just a slight increase um and I should add this is just commercial industrial real estate it does not include the personal property and the reason I don't include personal property is because the 504 which are utility values um which are very large values versus the mom and pop type businesses which T often have very small values can really tweaked this number so I just I just leave them out um and here is um this shows what a shift would look like if the town should at any point decide they want to shift it doesn't look like as far back as I can see they never have um which keeps things very simple and I think [Music] um is is not a bad idea in a town like Ashlin that's you you know almost 92% residential um to shift it would put more of the burden on the commercial industrial properties and probably uh have an effect on new development in terms of commercial industrial and whether or not people um so I I highlighted this in bul um assuming that that's what the town would vote on because that's what they've always voted on um as seen here back to 2021 it's just always been a one which is which is no shift um this is a comparison of surrounding communities and where they are um you have a few around you so Ash that are that also do not shift so Ashland Hopkinson Holliston and Southboro also do not shift um it looks like Ashland is close to the bottom um in terms of the neighboring communities I think only Framingham has a lower average single family tax bill um and then significant increases once you get to hopkington Holliston and uh Southboro and the last line here is just the state average um so this includes you know Boston all the way out to hancok every single in every single City and town in the state um you know there are towns out there that have I think gnal has a $2 tax rate um but but um places like West Springfield they their residential rate might be in the 20s they they tend to be a lot higher out there but this is just an overall average for the state um and this is just a breakdown of of um what the maximum allowable Levy is for fiscal 25 in Ashland the levy limit for 24 um uh you add the two and a half percent which is what um uh prop two and a half allows you to do and then you add in any new growth so New Growth would be um any new value that hasn't been taxed before so a new house a new building um you know maybe something was exempt before that became taxable um and this is what it is for fiscal 25 so this is new money um this 326 585 and that's pretty consistent with what I've seen in the past I I went back a few years um to see where it's been and it's it's pretty consistent um I think next year with the uh as as the development at 90 to 100 Chestnut Street um progresses I would imagine next year's number is going to be significantly higher here um so the fiscal 24 Levy limit uh the debt exclusion which I'm not sure what that is I just saw it on Gateway um and then here at the bottom is the maximum allowable Levy for fiscal 25 um and then that's it um and like I said these are just the four things that that the town needs to um decide on um so typically they would ose a shift one and in history um they have selected no on all of these other options and I I'm happy to explain what these are um if you'd like okay great thank you so much Nate um I appreciate the presentation and um so just a couple of things that that I was um just wanting to confirm so for the um you know the communities that you had presented and you know the the the um you know out of all the communities only Framingham is the one that that that shifts um and that's that's because of the um amount of commercial that Framingham has in comparison to towns like Ashland and Southboro and Holliston correct I would imagine so so most most larger communities do shift um and yes the purpose of that is to take some of the burden off of the residential taxpayers when they have a large commercial base yeah if I remember correctly from years past um I think Rich used to say that you know communities that have less than 15% commercial tend not to to shift because basically the um the the increased burden that that gets shifted to to um to commercial is not kind of commerate with what what the um the offset would be to residential correct so um so just that and that's that's generally what you what you what your opinion is as well yes crazy things happen um you know there are towns that have more residential than Ashlin that have tried it it just doesn't go over well especially when a large portion of the uh com the commercial makeup is probably smaller businesses that you know you're when you it's it's not like most of these are not large corporations that have Deep Pockets so you're um you know you risk pushing out a lot of small businesses if you with this much residential if you decide to shift it and um you're allowed to go up to 1.75 I think I saw the limit for if they were if if Ashland all of a sudden decided we want to shift as much as we can I think they're only allowed to go 1.5% um because it's so predominantly residential um but yeah I I I I had never heard the rule of that 15% rule of thumb but it's it's not a bad idea it's it just wouldn't it wouldn't be a popular decision right especially with small businesses okay thank you um B does the board have any questions um thank you very much for your presentation um you know one thing I think would be you know at some point maybe when presenting to town meeting or that would be to have a conversation about the types of services that vary between one community and another um just when I look up here I you know I know self BR doesn't have um trash pickup I don't believe right so there's varying Services um and you know in our case we're you know on the lower end and yet we have on the higher end of services I believe so um just interesting and then um the only other thing I was thinking is to to make it Apples to Apples I you know I don't know if it would be useful but it's I just wonder what would framingham's if it wasn't the 1.69 shift then what would it be what would their tax bill be yeah if they didn't yeah is that that's fairly easy to calculate right Nate yep that can be done in Gateway um I would just need their uh their Levy limit yeah I just kind of sitting here thinking about that stuff right yeah so but uh no thank you very much you're right though and that's a good way to look at it the services you provide versus what people pay versus what surrounding towns I didn't realize uh South bro didn't have things like trash pickup um yeah and Holliston doesn't have sewer there's you know there's so that's a good it's a good it's a great way to look at it it really shows that it's a good value and we're actually doing a little bit more of a deeper comparison with that with um the Colin Center study that we're doing so um you know so once that's once that's completed I think you'll see a little bit more meat on the on the bones of that analysis and and the thing is the way because it is so indepth um we won't necessarily have all of those communities but you know we've picked three um you know at varying let's just say tax levels one that's you know significantly more than Ashland one that's similar to Ashland and one that's significantly less so you can see what kind of you can start looking at Value in terms of what services are provided versus versus taxes I I agree with Claudia it without that context Michael it's really it's difficult to even analyze what's What's Happening Here I think for most people so I think that's very important yeah so Nate um so the first thing that they would need to vote on is whether or not they wanted to adopt a single rate correct correct okay and are we voting on that tonight or are we waiting to because we we don't close the the hearing until after town meeting correct that is correct so um Nate if I remember correctly it was only a year ago um but we the board goes ahead and votes on that now is that correct or do we need to wait until after all the Appropriations are done at town meeting to be honest I it's I think this might be the first town I've done that is a a town meeting town okay um so I'm not sure how that works okay um so I'd say let's go ahead and have the board vote um tonight okay um you do need to keep it open until until U after town meeting and then you can close it and if you need to take the vote again we'll goad do that no harm no fou um and as far as the other action items that's on the list we haven't we haven't explored all this no before no I mean I know that it's something that we probably should take a look at if but if we can't if we can't take any action on it this for this town meeting anyway like but I would love to be able to like have a conversation about what that all is yeah Nate and I actually talked about that earlier today um and just I think he's going to do U an exercise especially with the residential exemption because I think that's probably the one that you know when you start reading what in a residential exemption is is probably going to catch your eye um and so he's he going to look at doing that exercise as well okay all right so we can wait to do we can wait to do that does the board feel okay with that okay okay all right so um so what we'll do is we'll take a vote and then um so I would say that um unless the board has any other questions for for Nate I appreciate the presentation thank you okay welcome all right so while Yolanda still gets settled um could I get a motion to approve a single tax rate for FY 2025 all those in favor I I I um so it looks like we've approved the single tax rate for this upcoming year we'll keep the hearing open and then we'll close it after town meeting have Britney's information too correct and I think um so our meeting in December is scheduled for December 7th is that correct Susan yeah meeting is the 4th December 4th the 4th okay thank you you're welcome okay okay so we'll go ahead and finish finish close that out then okay all right um unless the board has any other questions I I also want to just thank the the board of assessors um David and Chuck and um and Steve that are online did did anyone have any additional comments I want to give you guys a chance to to say something if you guys wanted to add anything to this I think is okay all right thank you umine Chuck go ahead Chuck I I just said I think it's I think his presentation is great I'm completely with it all right great thank you Chuck okay I guess we'll be um moving on our agenda thank you so much Nate for joining us tonight it was great to meet you and ome and and we appreciate all the work that you're doing for for our community right now so thank you no problem at all it's a great team to work with good Brandy can I just ask Michael the question and Jen about the the study that's being done the Collins what what exactly is that so it's the Staffing study yeah what we've referred to as the Staffing study we as them to we just asked them to do a little bit of a deeper dive so they use some metrics that that we had and we're asking them to do a little bit of a deeper dive so that we could do a little bit more of that kind of comparison to give some context to some of the stats that we often use the other thing I think that might be useful in in these conversations when we're looking at the tax rate and the other communities that too would be then also to include like some home values you know related to just uh it I think it just helps you give you a better sense right of the whole picture of uh yeah home values in in what context do you think well in just in terms of you know what what the home value is to begin with and therefore how it might impact the tax rate right um and then just where what the correlation is between the tax rate and the so the three the three players really I guess the the tax rate um the home values um and the services the the amount of Serv expenditures essentially yeah because that's that's what goes into the algorithm if you will the calculation because really your tax rate is your function of your expenditures and the assessed value right right so um but it would be it's good to look at it in like real numbers or I don't know I just feel like those three categories to look at it in terms of real the housing market whatever and then the services the specific more specifically right what's being off and what's not being yeah yeah like we said we there's so many more services perhaps in the town of Ash than there are in some of those other communities with a higher tax rate correct so there's a great tool on the Department of Revenue website called the community comparison report and you you you select criteria you select your own criteria demographics or or whatever it may be um so you select the towns based on what by based on maybe it's population or land area or um average single family value and stuff like that and and it really hones down on who really is more similar than you unfortunately it doesn't include what services they get because that would just be that would be information probably too hard to maintain because those things change year by year you know yeah it's not an Apples to Apples type your best bet on that stuff is not necessarily looking at the revenue side but it's actually on the expenditures so okay so more to come on that all right thank you so much Nate I know you've been sharing your screen you can you can stop sharing your screen and and uh we will see you soon thank you thank you very much have a good night nice meeting you handing it over to miss Yolanda who is who has uh joined us in time thank you uh Brandy for taking over the meeting I apologize for being late um I'm learning quickly you can't be in two places at one time and I had a meeting that I had that I had to do because of something else I'm doing so thank you very much moving forward we have a presentation uh update on the village burial ground and I believe we have Helen who's gonna do that for us and Joan so uh this is just an update you guys have done some great work so Helen I'm going to pass it over to you hi yeah um so I have a presentation here I'm not sure how we get it I sent it to Susan Jen are you able to put it up no I think you should um we probably can just make you co-host but I can I don't have it but um Susan can you make Helen co-host so that she can share her screen you should be all set Helen you should be able to share now okay it's up can you see it no you just so just go to share at the bottom of the screen it's a in in the meeting you have to hit share okay wait a second I might I have this presentation up I can't see share okay share I see it all right so [Music] screen and then let me find the presentation and that's okay there you go wonderful all right so yeah I want I want to thank you all for having me tonight uh to give this uh update we uh we decided you know that it would be a good time now since we've really had a lot of events and we've had um a lot of work that's been done that down at the site of the village uh burial ground that would be a good time to do an update and let everyone know uh what's been happening down there uh so that's what this is and so go to the next screen so I I did a little bit of uh back I think we had covered this before but just to kind of reiterate everything that's been done since the spring so on our original uh cleanup day we the with the original condition of the headstones were covered in mold and lyen very few headstones were visible readable uh they were buried missing many headstones were broken off the base cracked and improperly repaired from uh previous uh work someone had done and many headstones were completely broken and required uh professional uh and requ do require uh Professional Restoration still the back sections of the cemetery were completely overgrown with brush and invasive plants and there was a large a dead tree in the cemetery which has been removed by the DPW uh we have hundreds of hours of volunteer work which is so wonderful um you know that we have so much community support and involvement um our community cleanup and volunteer Training Day the historical commission Historic Society Cemetery working group we had 36 volunteers that participated along with our conservators from TNT gravestone Solutions and there was a total of 250 combined total volunteer hours and uh during that event we had cleaning of the headstones using uh D2 uh to clean the headstones which is a biologic solution and uh they used brushes to clean off the stones able uh bodied volunteers were trained to pallet reset level and do light repairs of headstones we had volunteers trained by Kathy Rooney to move remove invasive plants uh cutting small trees and down limbs uh for removal and volunteers moved cut brush to a designated location where the DPW came and removed it on on a number of our events and the DPW also delivered water gravel and gravel for the repairs and disposed of the brush and limbs so that was over several uh cleanup days and we really do want to thank Doug Small Chris Messier and Kevin Lang Meer from the DPW because a lot of the um needed assistance that we got from them U made all of this really possible uh the DPW also had a large dead tree and the pretty much in the center of the site uh removed uh which was not only an isore but it was really sort of dangerous so it was nice that that got removed um we have a cemetery uh subw workking group that does repairs we call them our labor working group and uh there's a total of six participating volunteers right now and we plan to add additional volunteers over time um and the volunte total volunteers for that uh that group is 86 hours our Cemetery um let's see NOP sorry that's the same uh oh and I wanted to uh make note that all of the palleted headstones if you take a walk down there you will see pallets with headstones on them uh those had to be dug up in a waiting repair and that's why they're on those pallets it's basically to kind of keep them from being further damaged especially by uh lawnmowers and weed whackers so when work is going on in the in in the area they're not being you know further damaged many of the standing headstones were also buried and had to be dug up those headstones have already been repaired and reattached at the bases and leveled we had a an event uh with a high school community service day we had 2 uh 21 volunteers participating with a combined total number of 54 hours we had a Boy Scout community service day which I'll explain a little bit more about in a bit um and that was also a civil war recognition and Flag Ceremony that had a total of 29 volunteers with a combined number of 105 uh volunteer hours and so right now I have um the total number of volunteers so far is 114 with a total combined volunteer hours including all events and organization at 867 that is actually that's 867 hours that actually is a little bit low um I've been trying to get more information um there's a lot of it I have to go through and and we haven't got that completed yet but I also have an additional 64 hours from our research and document mentation group um because they're also doing ongoing work and I have to add that um I I had we had to put this together pretty quick uh so that got left out so I just wanted to kind of add that in so that number is a bit low and it may even still be a bit more than what I've got here and now we've go some we've got some pictures of this was the Training Day in June and this is our conservative TNT was teaching our our labor group uh skills uh that they now are using and are really doing a lot of good work down at the site doing leveling small repairs of the gravestones and um that's kind of going on on an ongoing basis when they have time so they'll just arrange with each other to go and meet down there and and you know they may go down and do seven or nine headstones or two or whatever they have time for so we've uh we've got a really nice group of people that are doing that in their free time and we really appreciate that and then the high school community service day uh this is just some pictures from that day we had three different groups of high school students that came in for two-hour shifts and uh did a lot of brush cleanup work which we also really appreciated then um recently we had a Boy Scout Troop uh community service day uh and Civil War vetan recognition uh day as well with the Boy Scouts which was really a nice event and uh 29 Boy Scouts and their leaders and working group members participated uh major brush and uh Leaf cleanup of the back areas was done they documented headstone information including names dates condition of the uh Stones the size of the stones the locations materials used for the headstones and needed repairs so another thing that we're doing and we have our documentation team doing is filling out a form that one of our team members uh made uh just specifically for this so when work needs to be done or or when they're documenting anything about each headstone there's going to be um before and after information for each for each headstone and eventually when all of this repair work is completed um we will have that record for the future which is something we hope to um really uh have housed in the um in the vault at Town Hall uh because that would be nice so that in the future anyone who wants information so they can go there and look at and and there it is and they'll be able to find out what was done and and how it was done and all of the information they might be looking for so the Boy Scouts while they were there learned historic and interesting factual details about the people buried in the cemetery which was really interesting because they really enjoyed that you have to have seen them the way they kind of intermingled with each other discussing the details of these things to know that it was really something that they enjoyed and that they really picked up on that they were learning something because they were talking about you know a lot of people had Jaws back then as as a shoe makers or they died of consumption and these aren't things we talk about a lot today so they were discussing it so you know they really learned uh something and became engaged in in that whole uh process and and it was really nice and then each Boy Scout read a paragraph of the history of each Civil War veteran as the flags and military service medallions were beinged placed at each of the grave sites so uh that was another way that they were able to pick up on a lot of that information as well um and it was a just a very nice and uh you know it was a very good recognition for the Civil War veterans who hadn't been recognized in I don't know how long but a very long time um and there are two additional Civil War veterans Graves that need to be found we know that they should be there and we're hoping to locate those in the near future so by all measures that day was an incredible success and there's some pictures of the Boy Scouts and their leaders all down at the cemetery site um we have a group picture and some pictures of them uh doing the work uh down there and then we also have pictures of the flag ceremony and the boy you can see the boys reading and uh placing Flags so that that was just a heartwarming thing I have to tell you it was really it was truly nice to be able to participate and see all that um so that was that was nice for our members and for them as well so common progress um at the site uh the cemetery has had an amazing transport transformation if you've been down there you can you can see all the visible headstones were clean and many can now be read which is really which is really an amazing transformation because I know when I first went down there couldn't read a lot of those headstones you couldn't read many of them in fact and now most of them can be read um all unrepaired and unsecured headstones have been palleted I explained that earlier uh 13 headstones were repaired on the volunteer Training Day nine additional uh since by the work the labor working group uh many previously buried headstones have been found and we're still looking for more we know there's more in the back section which just recently got cleared of all the poison ivy so it was a little bit tough for us to have people going over the summer was a little tough anyway because it was really hot but we also had that area that still needed to have the poison ivy removed so we didn't want to send people into areas until poison ivy was removed so that area uh recently was it was removed in people have gone in there and started cleaning that area and we hope to find more headstones down there and then um we are currently and I explained this earlier documenting all the before and after information for each headstone and to keep a you know to keep an ongoing record and to to finally have a a completed record at the end of the whole process William Bell's relatives uh wanted to know if his grave had been accounted now this was someone who was down there that we found and uncovered their their headstone had been completely buried and we had found it and their their relative wanted to know if if that headstone was there and it was during one of our brush cleanup events and we were very excited to let them know that the stone had been uncovered and so uh Community engagement and volunteerism has been extraordinary and we've been very very happy about that that was the model we really hoped to predominantly use um eventually we will uh move to uh professional uh restoration when we have to but right now we're sticking with this because it's working really well for us um so this is some of the labor um ongoing volunteer work that's going down on down at uh the village burial ground and you can see some of the members of our of our labor working group down here uh working on the headstones and they're basically uncover ing a lot of the bases too so even if the headstone is say out of the ground or partially out of the ground a lot of times the bases are buried under the ground they these things sink I guess about I think it was six inches every hundred years um but anyway they've been digging up uh the the uh bases and trying to put them back together with the headstones and and they've been doing a great job and you can even see here uh just if you notice from that first picture I showed the difference in these R stones and the coloring they're they're you know they're very clean and they're very nice looking and you can read them which is which is really wonderful and so our next steps um we expect that we still expect I should say this to take between two and three years to complete we're continuing with the volunteerism and Community involvement model until we get the headstones that require Professional Restoration and then we will go to get a survey and assess the costs at that point um the community uh volunteer events will uh continue that's valuable work and we and we really appreciate that work and and involving the community the cemetery uh working labor group will continue with the small repairs and leveling on an ongoing basis until all their work is completed the cemetery uh working group documentation team will continue documenting and researching gravestone information location and condition both before and after until all of the gravestones have been completed and that information as I said will be housed housed at the vault at Town Hall when it's completed for future reference and interest we also hope to um find and document those last two Civil War veter veterans head gravestones and we want to eventually install two historic kiosks with a map of the site and historical information we're currently discussing if the sign that says ashin Cemetery should be replaced with a sign that reads uh Village burial ground the correct name of the site we also plan to install uh some signs that say dogs are not allowed on the site since that seems to have become an issue and we also uh would like to eventually um more towards the end of the project plant a 4 inch border of low growing grasses around each headstone to minimize damage uh from lawnmowers and weed whackers because when they get close to those headstones they do create damage and we have noticed some additional damage since uh this restoration project started so we really want to we want that as part of the project to minimize that damage and we think that's an important thing and then we plan to install uh Native plantings near the river and our future plans for funding are to use the current funds that we have in the historical commissions account uh then the funds raised through grants if we can get them and fundrais future fundraising and we will eventually apply for CP CPA funding as as funds allow I'm sorry okay so um and I just got a couple more things and then um we hope to get eventually if we can if if funding allows get ground penetrating radar to get an accurate account of the number of remains intered at the Village burial ground the Professional Restoration of the gravestones will be completed after the survey and B and bidding requirements are implemented and we are currently planning a civil war service at the Village burial ground for spring 2025 that will likely be in April we hope that you are as excited at our as at our progress that and everything we've achieved and this has been a very real labor of love so do you have any questions any questions from the committee Joe I have one thank you Helen thank you uh and and your committee and all the volunteers that that have done the job uh to restore that location um are there actual numbers as to the number of burial uh in that in that location there's not an accurate number we know there's over 200 gravestones and I do have the number written down somewhere but I'm not sure um I know exactly where that is right now but I know it's over 200 um but we know there's more people buried down there uh than we have gravestones because some of the gravestones are buried some of them are missing and also because some of them were moved we're not sure of the headstones that were moved to Wildwood when Wildwood first opened we're not sure how many of the bodies went then there's also the fact that a lot of times people if they didn't have money um would be buried without a headstone so that's why we'd like to get the GPS um the ground penetrating radar to get an accurate account of how many people are actually in in the site itself um and that's something we would like to do it's a little expensive um but we do hope to eventually be able to do that and one last question if you don't mind Madam chair um with respect to all the work that you've done uh are there future plans to add protective uh barriers so individuals don't command like fencing area make sure that we don't have people running through and you know knocking things down that you've so taking care of nicely you know the thing is one aside from it being very expensive there are stone walls around it um so you know I I know the stone walls don't completely um keep people from coming in especially because there are a couple of openings I mean we could maybe even talk about gating the openings but we don't want to keep everybody out um because we want people to be able to go in and visit it as a somewhat of a nice you know historic destination um the thing that I would be the most concerned about more so would be maybe kids going in and playing and damaging headstones and we have a sort of conversation going about that right now we haven't made any decisions on that but fencing is very expensive and as I said we have to kind of go through all of these other things first before we could even begin to think about that so we haven't really discussed that but I know as I said there is there is barriers I mean there's there's stone walls and on on the backside there's the river so they're not going to come through the river um they could come over the fence uh the stone wall but you could come over a fence too so and then you have just the two openings so maybe we would talk about that in the future you know maybe dealing with those openings I don't know that that's something that the working group will have to address thank you good yita hi Helen uh just wanted a comment and and a question first off I just wanted to to thank you the committee all the volunteers this has been such an incredible Community project um I I I had the opportunity to get out there and volunteer a couple of times with the labor committee or the labor folks and I just I'm so impressed by the dedication the focus uh the meticulousness of all the volunteers and the caring it's just it's it's truly amazing to see the community come together uh to preserve our history this way so I wanted to thank you for all of your efforts and all the volunteers and all the folks who are M making this possible um first off in in so far as keeping folks out of the property you know I think we we we have talked about the CH the concern about kids playing it's not even I I think there's a double concern there not so much actually in addition to kids you know possibly damaging those headstones there's also the possibility of kids getting hurt in a really in a significant way I mean you know so with all the the repair work going on and and such so I think there there is a need for to take a look at you know who who can who and how can pass through uh in a constructive way the the other I have a question for you U about the headstones it's specifically Bally uh the footstone so we've been talking about the headstones quite a bit but there's also been a lot of footstones around is there a considered effort to try to preserve that as well um or what's the significance of those footstones in relation to the headstones um yeah so when there is a footstone sure they that would have already been cleaned because they cleaned everything down there if it needed a you know um a leveling or some kind of repair that would also be looked at um not and it made just be that not every um grave site got a footstone but I know there are some I don't have an accounting for how many there are and there may there may again uh be things down there that we don't know about because they could be buried or they could have disappeared over time and that's something we wouldn't um be able to get the information on but as they find them in short they would address the footstones uh any any part of um the site that you know would exist from The Headstone to the footstone would be would be be repaired or or cleaned as needed thanks okay CL anything yeah you know I I too just wanted to thank you Helen and and your group um it really has been an amazing project and to see these pictures and how far it's come um really very impressive and um and I was also I was wondering so if a person wanted to go in instead of come out um like you don't want to come out I'm not sure you're saying where where is that where is the best uh access okay so there is there's two entrances so there's one directly behind the Federated church so if you walk along the parking lot next to the Federated church and take your right you're going to see the the the stone wall and there's a break in the stone wall right there that's the main entrance um that we've been using there's a another side entrance on the right hand side of the the cemetery on the wall on the far right side and that also has a break I know the DPW uses that entrance to come in but I believe that's also private property over there and there's some agreement to let DPW use it so I don't know that like parking there is really as accessible as that first entrance I would go in through the back of the Federated uh Church yeah yeah and it it it does have um an interesting history and it's really coming up on uh 200 years old in in um 2028 right yes it is so um you know really interesting I don't know uh people who may have not gone into cemeteries much um it's pretty interesting sometimes to go in and um have an opportunity to look at you know the dates and often there might be a few words that are engraved about the person or what they died from or um you know a variety of uh information it's interesting to look at how old they were in those days particularly at death and uh just just they're they're much more interesting I think than than you realize until you go in and uh and then of course there's always nothing like a good Stone rubbing too so but actually I kind of heard that stone rubbing is um a little bit detrimental to I was just gonna say it's probably not um really good for the the yeah I don't think it is but you are right it it's just really um a lot of interesting interesting information just walking around and reading those stones and you get kind of a picture of like just a lot of people died very young back then you know they were buried next and you know who was who and you see a lot of because you're you're an Ashland resident and you've been here long enough and you know names so you do see a lot of old Ashland names in there so it it is it's a really interesting historical place to go and it's kind of nice and quiet and peaceful too it's it's a nice place yeah yeah funny thing how that works all right well thank thank you really very much it it really does look great great all right thank you madam chair so thank you so much Helen and and and the team for for all the work I I was so impressed with just the number of sheer hours and people that you've that you've literally um motivated to to to be a part of this project took took time to keep track of I mean your data is really good and and and you know we know how hard it is to like it's kind of like hurting cats sometimes to get volunteers to to um to commit and show up and continuously show up so just um kudos to you for for the efforts around all of that because it's it's it's a huge effort so um so thank you for for that and for the committee that's been um and Kate JK is also here and I know she's been very involved in that as well um but I had a couple questions one you know as we were talking about sort of this like under construction current state of it um I was was wondering if it made sense to like put up some sort of temporary sign or anything about like just like a caution you know just I'm I'm just throwing that out there because just just so people don't get hurt like or we I don't know I'm just well no I mean I I I I I hear what you're saying I think I think it that makes sense just of you know people either don't get people use a little bit more caution when they're walking around the site just to not to damage all the work that the volunteers have done but also just to make sure that they're being careful as well um I if possible yeah just sort of like an un you know just you know caution under construction or something just something like that just something um but that was my that was my first first question and then the other thing I know you had mentioned um CPC funding um as a as an option to you know I know it's more kind of like longer term because you still have funds left um which I assume the funds are probably going to go towards you know this this upcoming spring and summer from a time frame standpoint like what are your thoughts about like timing for for for CPA funds well I think that we're gonna so we we had a meeting uh last week and we're planning on having another meeting I believe in a month or so uh before everybody gets you know into the winter to do all of our next steps um and I think our timeline um right now is a little bit fluid in that we want to be able to really utilize the volunteers and utilize the community service and keep people excited about it um because one it's it's a really nice project for the community to to be involved in but also because I think when we go for that funding it's nice to have Community Support so that would be very helpful um but I I believe as soon as we um find what we believe will be all the stones we're going to find down there because we kind of want to have all the stones visible and we know there's more back there um because once we have an accounting of everything we could get a more accurate assessment of what needs to be done and what our volunteers can do and what they can't and that's when we'll start talking about the survey and then going for CPC funding so it is a little fluid um so and I know there's all kinds of you know dates and you have to have things in by certain times to be able to get for you know the next so we're not as concerned with that right now this year because we really have to look at next year first we had kind of thought that might be the thing we were doing right now but once we kind of got into this and we really realized that one I think our volunteers are actually going to be able to do more work down there than we had originally conceived and so that's a nice thing because that saves us a lot of money and it's and it's a way for people to be involved in the community and it's a way to restore part of the community with the within the community which is I think nicer than actually having to pay someone but there are Stones down there that are Beyond uh our labor group's uh capability and will require it but we'll we'll get that after we get the total number of stones located and assessed for from our perspective as to what we can and can accomplish and then we'll be able to to get the survey which I'm kind of thinking is going to be next year and then we'll go for the CPC funding either next year if we have it in time or or or the following like I said it's a two to three year and it's a little bit fluid right now just because we are kind of going at this slower Pace now than we had originally planned because we are really having a lot of success you know using using our our volunteers and getting work done that way okay oh and also um as far as the sign uh put down there you know that's something that I will also bring up with this Cemetary committee I don't have any um I don't think anyone would have a problem with that I just have to discuss that with them and and we can plan getting something down there I don't think that should be a problem either okay sounds good thank you yeah thank you and I'm I'm really uh glad to be able to come and present this tonight thank you well thank you very much Helen I think the rest of the board has covered any potential questions uh if I have anything else I will reach out but I too want to thank you and your committee and certainly as we as we see here in Ashland when volunteers come together amazing things can happen and you have shown that that is truly the case with this project so thank you for leading it thank you for keeping those volunteers engaged and we look forward to seeing what else gets accomplished in this space thank you thank you madam chair if I could just say one thing this is Joan confra sure go ahead Joan very quickly because we have some people waiting that we'd like to get in as well right I just want to thank Helen she has done y's work and I hope that that that that gets gets recognized in the town that without her this project would not be going on thank you so much you're very welcome thank you thank you Joan Joan also does a lot we are actually Co we're co-managing this project so Joan does a lot too so thank you great okay wonderful uh Rick Peter we are ready we are going to have a presentation I don't know if they heard me uh our next item on our agenda is a presentation on update and we're a little bit late we apologize uh thank you for your patience um sometimes things take longer than you plan uh as I said the next item on our agenda is an update on the regional YMCA that is coming here to Ashland people are very excited about it and uh I'm going to invite the three of you up and um take us through this presentation like I think Jen is pulling it up for you on that computer and uh you have to start Rick come on for those who don't know you just introduce yourselves and then go through it we're excited I think the community is excited to get the update as well SL yeah let's goward to the slideshow good evening um evening folks it's uh really great to be here um we all know it's um this project has been like in the pipeline for some time now you know and uh it's just so exciting to be to the point now where we're making really good progress so real quick just introduce who you are oh I'm sorry my name we all know but some people watching may not I'm sorry my name is Rick mcferson I'm president CEO of the Metro West YMCA right so um if you take a quick look back before I introduce Peter um it was back in 2019 that with the town of Ashland we were uh able to secure the land that this new regional YMCA is going to be on in Ashland so that 2019 and as the ball was starting to get rolling Co hit right and everything you know turned into crisis management for all of us right and and so um 2020 2021 was all about just responding to community needs while keeping the the flame burning for the new Regional Y and doing work behind the scenes um and so once we you know hit 2022 things started rolling along pretty nicely and so we're here tonight to give you an update on just where we stand and so I would like to introduce Peter Weiss Gerber who's our chief development officer to kind of get us started and then I'll I'll be back thanks Rick um so as Rick said I'm Peter we Gerber I'm the chief development officer and a proud Ashen resident so we're excited about uh about this project um about a year and a half ago uh we had come back to the project we went out we redid the feasibility study we redid Market studies really trying to get a sense of what the community was looking for in a new Regional why so we did a phase called listen learn and dream we received CE about 2,000 surveys from folks in Ashland hopkington hollist Sherburn even parts of of South Framingham because this will truly be a a regional why and what it came back as is yes there's still excitement there's still a need for a facility and then there were a couple things that were a little different on this side of the the pandemic one was that the community was really asking for a place that would bring people together from all walks of life that would unify the community that would unify the region the other thing was the Mental Health crisis for children that we are facing and we continue to see it today with kids in our child care programs our early learning programs after school care programs summer camps and there really is a a need now to address that our staff go through what we call trauma-informed care training because of kids coming off of that um tough couple years are still facing those challenges today Challen challenges of socialization challenges of getting back in the classroom so as we work to try to Pro protect the opportunity for all kids to to learn this really became an opportunity to look at the facility in some different ways so about a year and a half ago we said okay it's time to come back um together again do you not see Jen can you just look at this real quick I this is what so I think you just have to do it with this instead of that so which one so you have to do it with the arrows okay I don't really yeah you should be able to do it that way all right go get these two arrows back and forth yeah so then it's working okay yeah my apologies uh so about a year and a half ago um we decided it was time to bring our leadership cabinet together together um we recruited a group of about 20 volunteers from each of the towns we tried to get um a diverse group of folks uh we recruited two amazing leaders Tom Karen who many of you may know from nesson Sports the Red Sox U vizy Tac who I think a lot of you know from Ashland uh two fantastic passionate compassionate volunteers who then worked to bring a group of 20 folks together including our very own Yolanda um Steve Greenberg from Ashland Amy turncliff from Ashland as well and those folks really started to look at building a group of folks who cared about this project we knew if we were going to kick off a fundraising campaign that folks don't give because they have capacity folks give because they care so our job over the last year and a half was to find out who out there cares about this project about that time we had been working with MathWorks out of NAC and they stepped up with lead gift of $2.5 million to really kick things off uh which was exciting so at that time we had our marathon community breakfast an event we hold each year and we announced that lead gift from mathw Works fast forward to this past Year's Marathon Community breakfast and we were able to announce uh Federal HUD funding in the amount of $5 million that was directed towards the Early Learning Center component of this project which is very exciting to actually know we're going to have an early learning center a child care center uh as part of of this we were also able to announce at that event that we will be naming this facility in honor of and in memory of the hoit family Rick and decoit were very involved with our YMCA they had helped us each year they were our first inspiration award honores and helped us decide who we were honoring each year Rick had some very specific ideas about the uh the facility I think he wanted pools or um but uh but he cared about this dick cared about this and now Rick's brother Russ is still very involved with our Y and it means the world to them that we'll be able to name a facility on the Boston Marathon route in honor and memory of the the hoit family just a few months ago we were also able to announce that uh we received State funding of $500,000 uh thanks to our incredible Metro West legislative delegation that we have in the state Senate President um and a little bit of a sneak preview um but on Tuesday November 19th at our dream big auction will be announcing a very special announcement of a gift that that we received of of a million dollars so that's really exciting what that all means is that the first $10 million of this project is now behind us so as we start to shift towards the next 10 million really looking at okay what are those resources in the community that we can go to uh Gifts of that level as we're looking at the top of the pyramid they take a lot of time and we talked here about a number of projects that that take time to get done so the passion of our volunteers the involvement the time Talent dedication really means the world to us and folks staying with us and trusting the process to get to that first $10 million as we go and we look forward we've submitted requests and you can see here on the screen to to a number of Foundations corporations also working with our leadership cabinet and our board of directors as we um shift towards this next $10 million so you can kind of see the the time frame here it's been a journey for all of us but we're excited we're making progress we now see a path forward and with the momentum we have continuing that progress we have an opportunity if things continue as they're going to break ground in 2025 which now doesn't seem that far away does it two months yeah that's a good point two months that's really close so at the same time one of the things I was trying to say to to our staff is sometimes you see see a duck on the water and it feels like things nothing's really happening but if you look under the water the legs are going crazy and there's a lot of activity happening that's the way the project has been there have been a ton of things happening on the site you'll hear about that a ton of things happening getting us ready to approach 2025 and from a fundraising standpoint we continue to gain momentum we continue to connect with key folks in the community who want to see this become a reality and uh we'll be reaching out to a lot of people over the next few months uh engaging them in the process so with that I'm going to turn it back over to Rick all right so we're going to get into a bit of a design update really high levels to kind of give you a feel for what this project is shaping up to look like on the site um The Guiding principles of this let me take one step back um we're in we just completed what we call the light schematic design phase and Kerrie will talk more about that but during that phase of the project was all about getting every on the same page and part of that was uh you know Hiring Our architect which was a big deal and so we hired a architectural firm called CBT Architects they're out of Boston and they just hit all the all the important um aspects of what we were looking for they really have a great feel for working in a space with uh you know that's in nature like this site you know they have a good sense of that um and they just clicked with our entire team so um CBT Architects has been leading this kind of design effort and you know we talked about what are our principles and our guiding principles are around health and well-being right and achievement relationship and belonging are all the things we're going to really make sure happen in this facility uh state-of-the-art programs is a real driver we need to make sure this facility is prepared to you know just deliver incredible programs for you know young children older children seniors everybody um making sure that this is an inclusive facility at every turn like we've got this awesome opportunity to from the beginning be intentional about making sure like where does that elevator go you know where are the stairs you know how do we get in and out of this building what's the parking lot look like so we don't like often I think in past projects just in the world you know what gets done first and then you say oh by the way now let's figure this out but we can do it ahead of time and we are um and finally you know integrating there's more and more stud about just how important it is for mental health purposes for us to be outside and to enjoy nature and all of that and this site lends itself to that like more so than like a Framingham facility where you've got a beautiful facility and some space out back but not like this so for us to be able to take full advantage of that is a real driver for us um I won't really get into a lot of this but you do see the bottom left box sustainability we talk about it lot you know we're really trying to make sure that we do everything within our power to make sure that you know we're doing everything we can to have a sustainable facility that is um that we're all going to be really proud of I kind of like this slide we talk a lot about um spaces that connect and Inspire so when you go to some facilities older facilities you walk in and you're on the first floor the second floor the third floor but our Architects are working hard to try to create and this is this helps I think with kind of I forget what you called it car but like inclusion through visibility right so you can kind of see what's happening you know in a facility like from one floor you can see up in some areas you can see down you'll feel like you're part of the whole thing and so that's kind of exciting and again to kind of re-emphasize program is the driver so having a space that is great for all sorts of different types of programs is uh the number one um kind of guiding principle for us like Peter said creating a sense of community for everybody you know by designing the space properly is right there as well and inclusion at every turn I love the picture of the hoists up there and our hoit statue you see tachana mcfaden um they're in our Early Learning Center and just having a facility that brings all of our communities together um there's never been a more important time I think than now for a place like that and finally you know taking full advantage of that beautiful facility and our connection to the Charley Brook Trail you can see there's our entrance you know where the little easement from the Y going in there is and um you'll see when I flip to the next page we're working hard to make sure our internal kind of trail system on the 12 and a half acres connects to trolley Brook and so that's exciting and on that you know on in that on that kind of Campus space there will be Fields so when you see these kids kicking around balls and playing outside there's going to be space for that um which is pretty exciting so that's kind of a money shot for tonight for you to kind of get a a feel for the whole campus you know I mean just I'll pause there for a minute so you can take a look I mean that is something you know car we'll talk a little bit more about why you know it landed in the spaces it does but um you can see you know the front of the building the Early Learning Center over there to the left field space to the back and all of the connects on its way to Charlie book on the very back side of the property and this is just it blown up a little bit bigger for you to see so that's Memorial Drive the parking lot is on Memorial Drive and you can see the two red arrows going in a lot of time it's been done right talking about you know traffic and how we're going to get into this facility and out of this facility and disrupt you know the traffic on that street just as little as possible so it's a nice smooth way in smooth way out you know with that I'm going to turn it over to Carrie to talk a little bit more about you know how the design you know how we got to some of these and um go from there so thanks hi um Carrie de Leo um with scalora Consulting we are an Ashlin based project management firm so like everyone else who's been involved with this project we're super excited because we can almost see the site from our from our office um which is right across from the commuter rail so like Rick said um actually I'll go back to what Peter said the paddling under the surface lots and lots of activity happening right so there's a lot of planning that goes into making a a facility like this but also checking ahead of time to make sure when we get to you when it comes to site plan approval and advertising this to the world that we've done our due diligence we know we can do what we want to do right so um I'll kind of go through that process uh so you can see but I just wanted to give you a high Lev overview of the building it itself and and this is what we're calling the master plan um if we go back here I'd say the full master plan means everything is done including you know what's going on down the hill and what's going on in the future and and all that um but zoomed in what those building blocks so the the main core of this building is going to be that membership Center so that focus on health and wellness serving the community child care um you know after school care child care for drop-ins uh all of that gymnasium um and then also off to the side you'll see that ELC so again the ELC has been a core piece of this program we've also are planning for you know building in an Aquatic Center so that that uh aquatics first uh chunk would be like a family Aquatic Center you know entertainment pools and then the second chunk is more of a a laat pool Edition and then there's also room for gym expansion um the what you can't see here which I think is important to this site is there's an existing berm that runs along uh Memorial Drive and so one of the first conversations we had was you know what does this want to look like from the street right do you want to be running the marathon and be able to go by Dunkin Donuts and see the building up the hill or do you want to approach the site and then discover it as you enter and what when we started talking about those connections with nature we kind of thought you know what it makes more sense there's going to be a sign people are going to know they're coming to the why but you're going to go past that burm which will be kind of a shielding and then as you kind of work your way into the site you discover more and more right you pull in okay this is where I put my car oh look at the building oh behind the building there's more programming oh look it's connected to the trails Etc so that was kind of the design big picture approach and I'm not an architect um I just play one at public meeting so um so I'll just you know I'm just repeating all the all the things that I've heard but that was kind of the approach if you're familiar with the site which many of you are you know it drops off quite a bit to the back right so that idea of you know trying to bring the building forward and then you know put the parking in the back it just didn't seem like it worked right what we really wanted to Pres OB erve is what is going on out back right those views that connection to Nature the trees all of that so there's a couple of different areas that are um identified here that the survey showed us there's some Higher Ground what if we take a couple of those Higher Ground areas and connect them and create kind of what we're calling the development space so that bar of building is going to land on that Ridge where we already have some high ground and then the grade drops off behind the beauty of that is it allows us to kind of build a really um straightforward building right it does a couple of things um from a building perspective uh that I think this shows is one because of that grade drop off we can bring the scale of the building down so that from the main entry it doesn't look that big but then we have a lower level that actually opens out to the to the ground so that you have good daylight and you can really take advantage of some of those um features of the site um the other thing that really is nice about this is the orientation of the building so the north side of the building is the side that faces the woods right so we can really take advantage of Northern Light filtered light and then the southern facing side is where we would have to control the sunlight um it's much more controllable when you're dealing with a smaller volume on the front right so this is you know still very much conceptual but that idea of letting that light filter in from the back like Rick mentioned trying to have some multi- level spaces so that you can kind of see in see out see up see down all of that um really should make for a very transparent building for the users um and also for the sunlight and then this is just a stacking diagram that was done to try to understand you know where do the floors want to be right so the gym is on the main floor but instead of coming in on the first floor you're actually going to come in on the second floor so that from an accessibility perspective nobody is more than one floor away from where they want to go right so some really really thoughtful work that went into that to make sure that we are keeping that at the Forefront and that we're also planning not only for now but planning for what could this site be over the course of its lifetime right making sure that as programs change and needs change that we're designing a building that the Y can renovate in multi-purpose over years and years and years so the status of where we are um like Rick said we've just finished what we're calling a light schematic phase uh a lot of work but still some schematic level stuff left to do um and what that meant was it got us a set of documents that we could price dial in on some budgets make sure we were not too far off from our targets um we were also able to um start the process because of the HUD funding there's a kind of um long list of items that we have to uh fill out complete Etc as it relates to environmental assessment so um pretty comprehensive environmental planning um we were able to get going on that and actually we are just about at the point where we are ready to submit that to HUD for our uh our um HUD they they call it the esa one or something but uh ESI so um that will go in we'll get a ruling from HUD that makes sure that we can actually build a daycare facility with their funds on our site all of that seems so far no red flags which is fantastic news um but as part of that again some of the stuff you haven't seen test pits borings um survey work uh we've done preliminary traffic studies we did a noise study we've done a endangered species study we've done um yeah all all the things right and um the attitude was you know some of these things may come up when we go in for HUD let's just do them now so that when the question gets asked we say yeah we've already we've already taken care of that right yes we Have No ledge party we're hoping for no ledge uh we know we have a lot of lot of big rocks um so we are um we're really hopeful that we don't hit anything too catastrophic out there um and then what's coming next so uh as we've now completed that light schematic we're moving into the next phase which is to finish up the schematic um exercises which from an outsider's view probably not a lot is going to change right is more just kind of checking some boxes so that we can dive into what we call Design development which is when the design really starts to get developed as it says um but that's when we dial in on things like what are the mechanical systems locking in the rooms what does the building look like um all of those types of things what are we going to put in for finishes flooring signage Etc um so we will work on that through the winter and um we've also started now clearly uh starting our meetings with the town we want to engage you all um we want to engage the community to understand what folks are looking for make sure all of those surveys you know are being answered and that that the Y is doing what they can to answer as much as they can and for the community with this building and then when we are finished with that that's when we'll be coming back to the town to start talking about site plan approval and next steps you know meeting with all the Departments and making sure there's no questions um so we can progress that so that when we get ready for construction documents everybody is ready to roll this again is just a high level I can't really read it but just showing kind of where we've been um the last few months leading up to this and then moving forward you know going to the board um you know next spring for an update and and continuing to go back to the board of the why to keep us moving that's all I have thank you yeah so the next several months are big months you know we have a lot of work to be doing um our our board is 100% supportive and our at our last meeting you know gave us the green light to keep this keep everything moving and so that's what we're doing what Peter uh and Carrie didn't really talk about uh is part of this over the next several months we'll be starting to talk to Banks you know about potential financing we're working with third party to really look at our proforma budgets so between financing performa budgets you know in continued um fundraising you know all of that that's going to come together in June and there are no red flags we feel good about how everything is moving so you know our our goal our hope is in June all of these pieces come together we don't have any come sideways on us between now and then and if that's the case you know the ball keeps rolling and so with that I guess I would ask are there any questions for us questions comments Joe go ahead thank you madam chair Rick thank you uh great presentation thank you all for being here um the first time I had an opportunity to really read what you folks have were ready to present and um you had one uh slide up there with respect to sustainability and I know that ashl we're trying to be as green as we can and with some of the newer buildings that we've recently built in the last couple of years um we started going geothermal is that something that you folks would probably entertain uh if it's if it's feasible for you folks to do something like like that if you could come on to the microphone Carrie sorry I could try but car's bit more the expert here um we did already have that conversation um I think uh the adjacency of this site to the Niza site makes folks a little bit nervous about doing anything that goes down into the water table um so we at this point are have tabled that discussion um because of both cost and uh risk aversion if that makes sense solar is on the solar is definitely like we're already in talks um with uh solar sponsor yeah with to talk about solar we uh this will be a high performance building right so very very well insulated um and then fully electric building which is now provide you know necessary for the the energy code yeah yeah I think 2025 that kicks in if I'm not mistaken right yeah yeah yeah yeah so okay thank you appreciate that any other questions comments no I just want to say uh thank you it's a very exciting um I know that um it's been really a topic of conversation in town for several years now and people have been so excited and certainly the pandemic uh kind of put squashed a few things along the way um it's been great to know that you all are back working full steam ahead um and I certainly for for one I can't begin to tell you how many people have talked to me about how excited they are with this project so so thank you very much you're all very welcome great anybody else Makita Brandy so thank you very much for the presentation I know that um you know we've talked you know over the years and I know you had said that you need to get to a certain point with fundraising before you're able to break ground was that se is it 70% fundraising is that sort of like what your target tget is before or is it am I not remembering it correctly I might not be remembering yeah that's it's kind of a complicated question okay you know it's it's a combination of um of of fundraising and financing okay and the performa budget what this what this facility is going to generate as Revenue to offset debt and that kind of thing so it's it's a it's a full-blown analysis that's happening right now okay and so it's kind of hard to say you know 50% pledges you know you know identified would be nice you know that's a goal of ours is to get to you know that as soon as we can hopefully you know in the months ahead um but it it's a little bit more complicated than just saying that okay but right now there are no red flags and all of those buckets are lined up where they're supposed to be today so good awesome yeah I would I would I would reiterate that we're all very excited about this project um I'm curious I know the f pH two phase three for the aquatics program is that going to be like part of because at some point probably I would assume after June you guys will have everything kind of pulled together and be ready to submit an application to our planning board and that process are are you planning to include those those additional phases in that whole planning process or you are okay yeah we're going all in on site plan approval for the entire project you know and our goal is to just keep moving and have this whole master plan done keep just keep it moving you know the beauty of the way it's designed is if there needs to be any pauses along the way you can you know you don't have to finish the entire thing all at once and as you all know the cost of of of putting up facilities like this is growing pretty dramatically so you know we know that um the the membership side of this facility is it's going to be 36 million anyway could be as much as 40 million and by the time you finish an entire master plan by the time we get there Carrie we could be talking $55 million right and so the good news about the way this has been designed is we can move before we we don't have to do the whole master plan all at once but we can get the ball rolling and then that will create more momentum and and so that's how we're what's a square footage of the initial part of the project 30 uh so the about n and 40 right 9000 for the DLC and 40,000 it's it's approaching 40 you're right yeah it's maybe just're trying to keep it y yeah somewhere okay thank you so and I just love looking at the design and kind of the vision that you guys are putting together it just it really kind of I can I can kind of see it in my brain how it's going to flow on the site and it's it's it's pretty it's pretty cool like I can just imagine like light coming into the window I'm just yeah no so so thank you and I would say if you haven't gone up to walk and you want to go walk let me know or reach out to Peter and Rick and they'd love to you know be happy to take you up there because there's a nice path now that takes you into the site and it's really cool and then steps and yeah steps yep so ran it right out of the rock great great well uh thank you all for coming and presenting it's great for our community to hear the update and um I'm sorry we won't be able to join you on November 19th that's unfortunate but I'm sure it'll be a big success and I'll be bidding from town meeting the silent auction you can still can check in we had any flexibility we wouldn't have G meeting I know I it's tough that would be fun but thank you all for coming sorry greatly appreciate it okay sounds good sounds good thank you good night good night Happy Thanksgiving thanks I was thinking we should put uh you know we should give everybody a piece of paper as they come in I know we talked about some information about the 40b versus the um MBTA and I know Trisha Kendall I meant to talk to you about that mic is putting together presentation but just a sheet of some updates because I know we're not really allowed to give updates during Tom meeting Mr Shuster is very stripped about certain things so but wouldn't that be nice if just put a QR code say some updated information about the that' be great about the why and and just have take it to this presentation you know that great and the burial ground too for that matter yeah yeah yes yes exactly I mean people yeah there's so many things I just put a little QR code on there and like take people right to them help do that the other thing would be could interesting is to give them a link to the town manager's newsletter right maybe if they're coming to town meeting and they don't get that newsletter they could sign up sign up yeah yeah that's great yeah what it's a okay wonderful okay moving on hopefully we can get through the rest of the things fairly quickly before we go into exec session first is the review of special town meeting warrant articles we've been through this a few times we're going to go through one more time if there's any other questions and also sort of discuss who might be doing a couple of them our select board where we would then pres present it so uh is this going to be Jen taking us through this okay okay um so the first article is the free cash appropriation um and that will be putting funds into to our general stabilization fund OPB um sped stabilization fund and the capital fund um and we we have fully met withi the finance committee and um recommendations we'll post this online so the full warrant book will be online tomorrow oh good um the second article is the budget amendment and that's really just um adjusting our Capital um out outlay appropriation um from 2.69 00 to 925 um and I think we discussed this at our last meeting but when we met with the finance committee and we sort of talked that through they sort of had um they were of the opinion sort of making our motion that goes to town meeting as simple as possible and in their recommendation they sort of qualified it as that this is the way to obligate all of our remaining Opera funds by the deadline of um December 31st 2024 um we have our annual uh property tax exception for eligible seniors um and that will be at 12% um Article 4 is really just a cleanup article from May um we had basically uh a a typographical error um and we had when we accepted the gift from the hington area land trust we referenced um map 18 lot 100 as opposed to map 27 and so that's just to make this correction before we right complete that transaction um Article 5 will authorize uh a a borrowing for water main replacement project um up to a million dollars um and that was built into our rate conversation previously and so when Dan ma um and Britney gave that presentation this is the project that they were talking about y um CP CPC is recommending a uh feasibility study uh with the city of Framingham to uh look at was sh Pond and to sort of restore it they've had a lot of issues around CYO bacteria and this will be the first step to hopefully um rectifying that issue um and the City of Framingham is paying 75% of the study and we have agreed to pay 25 and that's with that 18,000 750 is I'm sorry is that coming out of the recreation bucket it is coming out of the undes undesignated fund okay thank you you're welcome um article s is uh accepting a new bylaw and that is the blight bylaw which you received a presentation from um our Building Commissioner duck Scott and that's really just giving um the building department health department and actually police and fire can also be enforces um a tool that if there is a blighted property and soort of the Bogue does go into definition of what that would be um some tools to help the homeowner get into compliance um there is also um it would also create um a database of vacant property so if there is a vacant property that they would Reg and that we we would be aware of it I can I just like to say something with respect to that the um town of native does not have anything like this and when they saw this language they may just take it and run with it that's great yes so great job for getting that done still got to go through town meeting so kind of a fee associated with that that would be nice like a findest fee or something yeah that would be nice we can yeah I like that um article eight is the MBTA communities um zoning bylaw and I think that has been plenty of discussion sort of around that the planning board has had its hearing and they have um voted to recommend it at town meeting good um and then the last article is article number nine and that's the purchasing of open spaceand in the Town Forest so 52 Acres which we've also previously discussed here I think the only change since the last time you've looked at the warrant is that we did add a funding note so we sort of discussed that um and sort of highlighted the the sources um it doesn't need to be in the article or the motion but we sort of just kept it there um on the bottom just again for a little bit more uh information for the voters as you go out of town down U Myrtle Street whereabouts does that begin that property so actually so if if you go as you go by Winter Street right yep so it borders Southern border borders Winter Street right and so as you're going along you'll see some houses and it runs along behind there and um I would say you'll get to the Town Line where that's there's that other road that goes into like a little residential the other end of Winter Street yeah um and so that's pretty much the nor the manag of the property okay I'd be happy to take you there would we would we have a map at town meeting yeah that' be good that we can show exactly like what me we'll have a couple slides just one a plot plan and then also just the break down yeah part it actually that um the high tension wires kind of trans it's that's on the other side of the street though isn't it the high high tension wires go through I only look over it where it's wide open over that way cuz that's private property over there that pretty wide open space with high if you're thinking on like if you're going north towards Fram you're looking at to the right as Jimmy's property who whose property Jim oh um and then if go left that's kind of the property right yeah okay so of these there's really only one that the select board would address or would we okay so tax exemption property tax exemption and then the blight bylaw or the okay okay okay Joe would you like to do the property tax exemption you typically do I do okay okay anyone want to do the in and really it's just an intro like to the blight bylaw it's discussion you know very short and sweet as to what it is will the Board of Health Endor Doug be doing a presentation um we're still figuring out exactly how that's going to go okay so let us know and then if you need one of us then we can figure that out yeah I'm happy to okay but I but I would want backup well it would be so typically it would be somewhat not a you know because they'll go into detail in slides it's a brief introduction of int yeah yeah yeah we'll let you take it Brandy if you don't mind that's you know I will say out of all of these I've articles I've probably received the most calls emails Etc people stopping me about the the blight bylaw so I'm not surprised yeah good or bad or just yeah what are the questions Michael um so I think it's it's generally uh not very much in the way of questions it's uh just a philosophical um you know really discussion of government over government over overreach versus kind of maintaining you know public health and safety and um is this possibly going to T to a conversation like the last time when Chief Davis was Joe you know you never know what town meeting um you never know but I no I I do think there's obviously a philosophical there could be a philosophical difference here and that's I mean that's what town meeting is for you know is it is it philosophical but also sort of like um more uh implementation minded I.E like I think we had a conversation about this when when Doug came and and talked to us about this like you know I think one of the concerns that we talked about when he came up was you know how people can use neighbors can use this as a punitive measure against each other right so those the sort of concerns that you're hearing from from people as well or is it really just more like the government it's more of thing it's really like who the heck is the government to tell me like how high my grass can be you know and and I think you know it's interesting you know I think there's probably some room for discussion at town meeting and maybe some compromise to be reached you know maybe some things in the bylaw you know need to get modified or yeah you know that's what town meeting is for exactly exactly they haven't been I mean they haven't been bad conversations they've actually been really good and I mean one person yesterday I'm like we're just going to disagree on this one because yeah you you think it's a homeowners assoc like it reads like a homeowners association thing I feel like it's got a like a health and safety component to it and I do think that there is a line yeah um and uh that's that's yeah everybody makes their best argument and I'm glad people are paying attention and we enough to to reach out and ask questions so that's good okay anything else are you doing a town manager Forum have you decided yeah next T Tuesday five Tuesday at five okay great and that's and that's both zoom in in person or is it yeah yep okay okay good moving on to we need to vote on the Warren Barn plan so we have the most updated mou in our package so uh J I believe Jen you're working on this if you could take us through what changes we have seen or they've agreed to and then we can have any other discussion and then take a vote on this sure sure I can do that um so there's not a ton of changes since the last time we met and presented so I think when we presented it last time I sort of cautioned and said that we hadn't had a full conversation um with um Framingham State University but that we were proposing you know really around the how we're going to split Revenue um for the long-term lease of the barn um and so um there was just really One Small Change on that so that is on page four um if you look at the facility use Revenue um they did um accept the idea that 40% of Revenue would go to their project management um company uh currently flick for project man I for property management excuse me um that includes sort of their cost but then also um ongoing utilities and uh general maintenance and that's within that 40% and we would take 10% and put in a facilities maintenance and that's sort of for some of the bigger maintenance things that might pop up and that way we're at least planning ahead um and then the remaining 50% would be split equally between the town and FSU um we were sort of hoping um for two of two waved fees so two events that we could have two activities or events at the facility with completely wave fees um they weren't really able to do that because that is how their property management um company sort of becomes whole and so what we agreed to is that they would wave all the fees except for the project the the property maintenance and so they'll do that for themselves as well as ours so it'll be at a reduced at a reduced fee um we were sort of thinking like maybe that's where we'd have a retreat or we'd have some other Town sponsored event there but just so real quick that's just for the use of that facility correct right so if we want to go to their to the to the White House or to the lodge that isn't covered this is specifically for this new facility okay that makes sense and then there's no rental cost associated with public skate events at all so that doesn't sort of working for the public for the public for us because they're not going to have ice skates you're basically bring your own ice skates and skate if you you want okay um some of the other concerns I think you guys had were around liability um so we've been working with them to receive their insurance binder and so they um hold a 1 million um Dollar General Liability their project their sorry their um management company also has a million and then we also have a million um and so they have some language um and there we're sort of working with them to see if there is a possibility of increasing that would happen in the lease and so um there's some language here that references that um liability will be referenced and worked out in the like forthcoming lease um I don't think that there were any the and then the other is um initially so we are agreeing to pay $1.5 million for our portion of the construction of this project um and initially the mlu had suggested that anything so if the bids come in um and the building is constructed and there was remaining funds available that that would be used for um FFN so the Furnishings um and other programming costs um so what we agreed to was that if it falls under a 100,000 at the end of the day it makes some sense to buy furniture so that it's furnished um if it's above 50% we will we'll split the remaining 5050 in terms of like we we'll get some funding back if it comes in you know significantly under budget um which you know may be sort of wishful thinking in construction but you know we're at least protected that way originally [Music] just a few years ago it was what 1.2 with the mezanine I think yeah with the mezzanine yeah yeah we weren't able to do it when we went out to bid and this was years ago now it's probably yeah I mean it's been I mean we weren't able to even start the project because we didn't have the funding source um and they have done you know they've done some work on they're making a real solid estimate to make sure that we are going to have enough money allocated for this project and so it's pretty close that it's we're we're just the 1.5 really just covers the bar shell yeah I mean there's there's a couple small things that you know maybe we could go back and forth but it's pretty close Okay looks like it's going to be and that the I believe the chillers are already sitting there for the ice skating rink yes cuz they're going to do like a temporary I'm like you drive by and yeah they're waiting for us to work out some final details on a right of access that would allow them to start that so it would be temporary we did talk to them about it so they would be temporary in it as portion on our on our property and then while we're they're under we're under construction they would find a second possible temporary loccation and so um sort of build up that as a Community Asset and then it will be um then it will be there permanently Brandy I think you had a question when I sent it initially about sort of you know would it be there permanently um so they will have a concrete pad that's the plan right now um there are no there not going to be walls it's not going to look like a hockey um it's really going no boards you can like going be no boards so they're actually going to sort of surround it at this point sort of with hay bals or something like that like Pretty Natural so it will look like a a pond um and so there'll be you know some places yeah and I think it will sort of go with the the look and the feel of the barn so there won't be any of those walls that they have to find a place to gotcha take down and find a place and then they're hoping to use that patio for the programming you know if they have a bridal shower or something like that you may use so like use it as like an extension something in the off in the off on the season shoulder so than I just real like so in a couple years like we could have a new YMCA like a nice new community YMCA we can have this community facility over at the waren conference center pretty cool man yeah like I mean lot lots of good stuff going on yeah that's pretty yeah yeah a good swe I just we don't have to Stone Park is a little short too okay uh any sorry I'm trying to move us along okay okay I'm try we're I I don't want you guys complaining when we're trying when we're having to run late um if there's no other questions or comments or concerns if I can get a motion to support the Warren barnu as presented move I'll s okay great we have a motion in a second all those in favor I opposed okay that passes 5 Z thank you very much thank you for all the work thank you for the work and we look forward to progress on that okay next though that's associated with that looking at oh0 40 BS an update on the 40b projects approved by Mass housing the 250 units at the millsite and then 225 units at 61 I'm sure you all saw the email that we received regarding the concerns which I know many of us Echo um we'll see how we move forward but uh Michael update yeah just uh just a quick update so we did get an application in for the mill site after review We deemed that incomplete and so kicked it back um the developer obviously wasn't uh too thrilled with that but uh agreed to resubmit um and we're still waiting for that application so that's important because again once we get that application it's reviewed it's deemed complete and it gets stamped in that's when the clock starts so we would have 30 days question even though subed it and it wasn't complete the clock doesn't stop the clock doesn't start yeah that's correct so um so yes I I do anticipate you know having that um having that come in well it's already Wednesday so uh so it could be in by Yeah by end of this week or next week um and then actually the uh the other one on Waverly Street uh we did reach out and U you know obviously they've received their site eligibility letter from Mass Housing and um they of course were aware of it and they basically said we'll submit it when we submit it they didn't really have a time I would say we don't need to reach out to them again and let's see if they wait a little while to get it submitted that'd be actually easier in regards to timing and and the work that needs to be done okay yeah and just yeah just so you know I mean we are kind of you know as Carrie in the YMCA talked about you know you just see kind of the Ducks floating along the the pond surface but there's a lot of stuff churning underneath and so you know we have been working to get peer reviewers and and starting to to line all of that up so wonderful okay any other questions or comments on that we haven't heard any any from any of the ABS at the 61 Street site I know when this first came out yeah I mean once once something gets filed there isn't a butter notification and things like that yeah they haven't filed yet they the W when they file with theba filed with with the zba they gave us their through Mass housing we were notified that they were and then that whole process that we went through but because nothing has been filed the butters have not been needed to be okay okay moving on oh okay um so our calendar for the rest of the year so obviously we have a meeting today we then have town meeting on the 19th so we will not be meeting on the 20th we're not meeting two nights in a row uh then obviously Thanksgiving week we have our meeting on Wednesday the 4th we typically do not do our second meeting but please leave that night open because we typically get together to uh discuss um our holiday our holiday season so it's a social it's a social event so just don't don't uh don't fill your calendar with something else on the 18th okay uh one thing I do want to bring up we did not put the nove the December the I'm sorry the January calendar on here we can't meet on January 1st which would be our first meeting of the year because it's a holiday uh so that means we wouldn't meet until the 15th with everything going on we may need to add another meeting um in January so be thinking about that as you're looking at your January calendar um I don't know when it will be yet it'll depend on what the meeting needs to be about and um what else is going on so just be aware that we will most likely add a second meeting in January um and then just while we're talking about it the MMA is the 23rd 24th and 25th um if you're planning if you'd like to go ask Susan and she'll register you um if anyone else goes on Friday they have a great it's the weimo lunch in and that's always a great event so I know Michael's not as eager about it recently no I I don't go to the weo event no not the weimo event but okay uh let's see I heard you took care of a lot of the reminders and the consent agenda as well as the update on the select board room and technology so I believe all that's left is priority project updates yeah I can do this fairly quickly okay um Thanks Jen uh so downtown so they did start working on um on the Front Street side uh it's 102 Property Maintenance um of course they've uh hit rock ledge um I'm like there's like nothing there so um so they're they're working through that um they did uh they are going to come back back next week um I did let them know that they could work on Monday um as it is a town project um so they're typically exempt from from any of those uh any of those restrictions but um yeah so already we're a couple of days behind schedule but uh hopefully they'll be able to make that up pretty quick um and then we've got the bids uh you know working on getting the bids out for the actual electrical connections too because the goal is to really kind of have this seamless as soon as uh 102 Property Maintenance gets done with the excavation work um and laying the conduit you can just bring the electricians in and and stuff and the good news is 102 Property Maintenance actually has an electrician on their team and they look like they're going to try to bid but you know it's to the lowest bidder so we'll see um so there's that um 26 I think I did update you on this actually oh yeah real um H when have all I mean I'm hoping that all the business owners have been notified as to when they're going to be affected um and if we could maybe also somehow make this available to the public so they aware or I'm not quite sure how we might do that but we could put it on the project page okay but yeah all the businesses so it's required that um before they start work on a property they have to give them a week's notice ahead of time okay um and it gives them the opportunity to kind of work around hours and and all that good stuff I'd hate for them to be impacted too much by this um and same with the cutover right when the cutover happens they'll be given notification of the window of because they the electricity will have to be cut and then reconnected okay yeah so and just a quick question so I know that the weeks of work that we're looking at um has you know this kind of spaced out over nine weeks are they going to be able to to be able to if the ground freezes are they going to be able to continue to work like is that if the ground freezes it would be a little bit more difficult but um you know just based on history things do freeze anymore I mean it's 80 degrees today yeah I mean last year it didn't freeze really um it didn't the year before I mean we were pouring concrete in November like this crazy so we don't think at least for the relatively short term that there would be any issues any issues no still working through maybe well there's no such thing so you know right so it's all it's all it's all a dream any other questions or comments on the downtown anything else on downtown okay Michael keep going thank you so 126 I think I did uh let you know but just in case I didn't Verizon is actually out there um and moving the um moving the wires yeah so so that's a huge huge um yeah it's it's magic Claudia um and you know I don't know if you've noticed they have um we have really tried to get them to clean up some of the area a little bit I see a little bit of a of a difference nothing that you know I'm really excited about but making some efforts yeah okay nothing else okay um we're going to do board reports and then we'll go into exec session if anybody has anything uh no just uh are we doing the board reports now yeah board reports and then we'll go into exec session so okay uh yeah just really quickly I wanted to acknowledge the T the effage of the Town Clerk and uh and and volunteers for yesterday's uh federal election and and uh Massachusetts election I guess too um you know I think it's it it's it speaks volumes about how smoothly and how professionally things were run yesterday in the town of Ashland we have a lot to be proud of um so I just wanted to shout out the the staff and the volunteers that made that happen uh successfully and I also want to give a shout out to waca TV and their exceptional election coverage uh throughout so that's that's it that's it for me could I just yeah go ahead Michael Sor yeah Makita that's okay before you sorry M no no no no no you're fine no no you remind I was like oh I've got these numbers yeah so yeah it's all good yeah and and thank you for acknowledging Cindy and her team they did an amazing job um we actually had about a 76% turnout um which was um about 10% less than than the last presidential election but still a lot compared to you know a um a local um so we had uh 9,86 total voters um and that excludes some of the the absentee voters um and those can't be counted until 5:00 p.m.

to 2:00 p.m. at The Corner Spot enjoy carnival games info boost and delicious treats from a dut truck Town job openings various part-time positions are available across departments in Ashland including the police department Community Center and DPW please check the town website for a full list of openings a simp simple gesture food drive is coming up the next pickup for a simple gesture food drive is on December 7th join Ashen high school students in supporting the ashin food pantry by donating needed items coming up on Tuesday November 12th we have the Veterans Day lunch in this will be held at noon at the Ashley Senior Center all veterans and one guest are invited to a free lunch and ceremony please RSVP by November 5th at 508-8811 40 extension one comedy night is going to happen on Friday November 15th from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

and a reminder that textile and clothing recycling um that pickups must be scheduled with simple Recycling and the number to call is 1866 83550 68 or online at simpler recycling.com so that takes care of our reminders for this evening would you want me to just give an update on technology upgrades yeah sure that works make sure your mic's on push the technology upgrade could be we get upgraded mics how's that that works um so I think at our last meeting I had uh mentioned to the board that uh we're working with wacka to uh look at making some upgrades into this room specifically so we have had some issues with the projector um and uh just some believe it or not some of this equipment is is quite a few years old uh even though uh we were around when it was installed that just means we're old too so you know speak for yourself I know Joe I did kind of look right at you when I said that that was that was just not on purpose um but anyway we've worked with um worked with Paul and uh Barbara at uh wacka and so what we would be doing is replacing this screen with an 85 in uh television screen um that's going to be framed um we'll actually have the seal um as part of that um we're going to have two 65 in TV screens uh located on the wall U that way for the audience uh so they can see things a little bit better and then this TV back here um we haven't necessarily decided what size that's going to be but it's going to be substantially larger than what it is and so the hope will be that you know the board will be able to kind of look at that screen instead of having to you know turn around and and keep on looking back behind you uh for um to see what's happening on the screen so um I know that Paul and the the contractors have been up here taking a look at uh look at some things we should be able to do these upgrades I think before the end of the year and it shouldn't be any disruption to any of our any of our meetings um and that's the intent so um yeah we're looking forward to to having some new equipment what's the width of this screen you know want to say it's aund something so I had a big concern you know because it seems like we're going to go smaller right um the Fidelity um though is so much better that uh you know people should be able to see it much more clearer even if they're even if they're towards the rear of the room but that's also one of the reasons why we are putting you know larger TVs up on the side I have a question for f May of course um the TVs that we currently have here there are meetings uh and then they're not a lot but we do have some that have overflow that's out in the hallway and I was wondering if we could probably take one of those TVs that are not going to be utilized and maybe attachment out in the hallway so people could see it and type of deal we could potentially do that we're we're actually going to be replacing also the one on the first floor oh you know when you walk in and you see that one and we'll we'll have like advertisements and things going you know when there's not a meeting in progress as well like the town sign that we were going to do the electronic sign electronic sign yeah it'll be electronic Joe we'll put the seal on there see more than one way to skin a cat my friend so anyway I think uh is that is now does that affect any of the equipment in the back too are they going to be yeah that's going to get um changed out as well but that's the stuff that I don't understand so you know talking about that no yeah know no And as far as the budget for this that comes under like our is it our capital or like what is that so um if you recall at town meeting each uh each year we appropriate uh funds so the cable is now a cable Enterprise fund um and that change was made probably 7 years ago um and if you also recall over the last year we've worked on an agreement with waa um that uh basically provides a little bit more um you know in one way provides a little bit more flexibility on how wacka can spend that money but also provides I think a little bit more accountability as well uh for all all parties involved than thank you does anybody else have any questions or no no did we have to go out and do an RFP on these no not since we have that agreement no that's that's cool yeah that was that was the Genesis of that year-long right discussion for an agreement well yeah it would have been quicker probably to go that was for another piece of equipment yeah no it all works out and again thanks to uh waa Paul Barbara John featherston I know has uh been working on this so many thanks and the board when is it happening probably December nice Merry Christmas folks I was going to say probably won't be ready for a for a December meeting but maybe for January yeah we'll start the new year right yeah and high def Joe High defa what Joe's Loi no more so right okay almost got us at 7:15 okay all right thank you actually I did according to my watch we're at 7:14 I think that's close enough yeah I think we're good by the time you read it by the time I read it so um the next um item on our agenda is uh to open the tax classification hearing so I'll read the legal notice from the town of Ashland select board uh in accordance with the requirements of Massachusetts General Law chapter 40 section 56 the select board will hold a public hearing on fiscal 2025 property tax classification on Wednesday November 6th 2024 at 7:15 p.m.

on Friday November 8th but um on Election Day we had actually almost 3600 people vote on Election Day um and uh almost uh 2,000 voted early in person and um 4,200 people voted by mail so yeah so anyway sorry I didn't include that in my initial report that's okay thanks for reminding me Mita Claudia yeah I was thinking I've been busy but then I was thinking well wait a second we just had a meeting last week so so I I don't have much to report on but I just did want to e Echo makita's uh comments about you know the work that happens behind the scenes when we vote and uh you know I'm certainly in the last couple of years seen seen just how extensive it is um and and really because we do vote on so many days now the their work starts much earlier and goes on for you know even even after election day so um so definitely it's U they did a great job I don't think we made the news for running out of ballots or anything so so uh congratulations to us thank you very good okay Joe thank you madam chair uh Echoes uh the sentiments from both Makita and uh to Claudia with respect to the uh efforts of the U clerk's office uh last Saturday um I was very happy to at least provide an hour's worth of uh coverage to the uh select board's uh office hours at the library it was very nice uh we had um while I was there we did have a very uh meaningful conversation about a bunch of things that uh were going on in the town by a couple of residents and greatly appreciated and uh I just like to remind people that on November 12th it's uh veter the veterans luncheons at the uh Community Center thank you yes Community Center and it's being sponsored by the Ashland fire and Ashland police departments uh starting at noon time I will be there hope to see others there as well and um that's it that's all I have Madam chair thank you Brandy so I will also be really quick because we just met last week um just wanted to um let folks know that the community center um is still looking for volunteers for the holiday program um so if if you would like to be a donor um and either adopt a family a family or a child um you could also decide to do filler gifts or you can donate gift cards um they are still looking for volunteers to help with the program so um please reach out to our Human Services team um Courtney Laughlin is like they still have a form to where you can sign up that's on the website yes and I think it's on our website too so um so people can can use that to to um to sign up and and and and you know we are probably about a month away from when gifts need to be delivered so um we'll all probably be getting our our you know familes information pretty soon so um so if you're able to help sign up thank you yeah and just to um what was I going to say I was going to add to that now I can't remember oh Michael could you maybe bump that up in your newsletter this this week um you know just put the link maybe to the donor form oh right up at the in the early because you know you have to dig down to get to it yeah I mean and I was yeah we were talking like I'll probably put like some personal appeals out there too like because we are behind a little bit yeah we are a little bit behind from previous years um really yeah we have the same number of kids just a little fewer donors um we'll do some sort of more directed Outreach but um yeah you have a list of people who did it last year who we always reach out to them yeah yeah so we always reach out and um they're sort of cross referencing now um and certainly things are coming in I think they told me like four or five came in last night you know since Friday we've had like seven or eight I think it's hard when it's 80 to think about holidays you know it's like this sort weird Vortex but the time like you know it's sticking away here so um it would be great if people wanted to donate and just haven't got around to it would be great y okay that's it for me okay couple things dog park update the dog park thanks to Jen's work and our designer we went before concom on Monday night they had to extend it because we don't have our D number and the goal is to we are going to planning board on the 14th uh and the goal is shovel in the ground sometime in the spring it's looking really nice and we want we need to get it in by February so that we are still eligible for the Stanton Grant which is half of our funding uh tomorrow night I am meeting with open space and wreck as well as with Becca to review the new timeline to work with them to get the open space and wreck plan completed uh if you're interested Garden Club is meeting on Saturday at 10: a.m.