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and then we again talking with Bob and other experts in the industry's eavs we're putting at about 10% for residential homes which again might be a bit high for some might be a bit low for some so we did the calcul based on our 6.64 6% tax rate that we're calculating currently so for $100,000 home the tax increase would be about $70 and then we also included the same calculations if we removed the eav from the Tiff just to show that savings and and that's kind of what I was asking see there that's right there yeah yeah so the homeowner can see that thanks for that Tiff rolling off that's kind of the help and again last year's presentation our estimate for the 2023 tax increase was a little bit higher than it came out because again right now we're working on a lot of estimates so we're always as conservative as makes sense to limit people's excitement I guess for lack of a better way to put it just we don't want to say hey everyone's saving tons of money and then it comes out that people are mad at us for misrepresenting things which again this is only our portion of the tax bill so I don't want to speak to everyone's total tax bills there's different communities with different taxing bodies that are involved so again this is just we went through $100,000 $150,000 $2 $250,000 as you see as the value of a home goes up that cost savings I'll call it with the Tiff does increase by larger percentages which is nice to see so we just wanted to share this so that people had an idea of what things would have been like if we didn't do as the balloon and we didn't get any of that Tiff Revenue okay so then these are just the important dates we'll have on the agend genda for next week to add the public hearing date for approval to be held December 10th for truth and Taxation hearing December 17th the board would vote to approve the tax levy and then December 31st as the deadline to submit the levy to the county clerk which we would do probably December 18th After we receive board approval and all the signatures are finalized excellent all right any other questions we're good thank you thank you sir appreciate it good teamwork we got Jason coming back up you guys are earning your money tonight we got the resolution okay good evening again um I'm here to discuss uh the resolution authorizing the submission of an application for the property tax relief Grant um when evidence-based funding uh replaced General state aid and which was the primary way of funding schools in um the state of Illinois they also made it an annual will process to allocate roughly $50 million a year through the property tax relief Grant um there a long complicated formula uh that the state uses but it's primarily used to relieve High tax and low property wealth districts uh those Figures were released in October and I'm here to uh discuss approval possible approval for applying for the property tax relief Grant um based on the preliminary figures I do not think we'll be awarded for that because the district currently uh sits at um we're 80th out of 850 districts in the state of Illinois um and the total of the districts ahead of us is 165 m942 so out of that $165 million um the state only had has 50 so I'm sure that majority of the districts um above us will apply for this grant but I do think it's in our best interest to show good faith to our taxpayers that we are exploring all avenues and in the event of any of those uh 79 districts ahead of us if they do not apply for the grant then that'll help bump us up um in the process so uh believe the district did received the property tax relief Grant I believe in fy22 or 23 prior to my arrival um but I'm here in good faith to uh fill out the application again and uh see if the district will be awarded it very good thank you thank you thank you Jason and I believe that is it for business section under administrative updates and it take us to Old business okay um I just wanted to just revisit an open session uh where we're at with the selling of MEC um we're going to be going into Clos session this evening to talk about uh the um the number that the the board is looking for but I just wanted to uh just revisit uh the process of selling the building if anyone has any questions uh I do believe that we've got to go out and put it out for bid I think that's what we've discussed about last time so if there's any other questions or is everybody pretty good with that that process okay and that's a legal process to by law we have to do that correct yes the uh the school code lays out the process that requires you to if you're not going to sell it to a governmental agency to either um sell it by sealed bidding or through a public auction um and there's you know certain deadlines and notice requirements that are related to that that the district has to follow okay all right thank you any other old business new business close session we do have we do have a reason to go and close session for the reasons being for the reasons being the appointment employment compensations discipline performance or dismissal of specific employee personel Personnel that's it yeah and then the last one is for I've got it in addition to the setting of a price for the sell or lease of property owned by the public body based on five Illinois Capal statute 1202 in parentheses C is in Charlie and parentheses number six can I have a motion for the reason stated so moved second second can I have a roll call please Madam Secretary oh it wasn't me okay Mr alch I Mr Brown I Mr gagos I Dr Hall I Mr swales hi and I I'm a y i all we are in close session we would be in close session about a half hour we would not Tak any action theref thank you public for joining us we appreciate you taking time on of your day

a special town meeting will be held at Ashen high school and all registered voters are invited key topics include budget adjustments a property tax exemption open space land purchases and a study on wasum Pond free child care will be available on site for family amilies for those interested in local government Ashlin Citizen Academy will begin on January 8th 2025 and run through May this 10we program offers residents a chance to learn the ins and outs of ashlin's departments and services from Public Safety to budgeting enrollment is limited so sign up early November marks ashin shop local campaign to support small businesses each day the ashin bizbuzz Facebook page will highlight a local business so shop local this season and keep your spending in Ashland if you're looking for work Ashlin has several Town positions open available roles include part-time crossing guards van drivers and water technicans visit the town website for the full list and application details and for those looking to give back the organization a simple gesture is helping stock the Ashlin food pantry Their donation program managed by Ashlin high students provides essential items for community members in need the next collection is December 7th and more details are available online now a reminder about some Key Community meetings Thursday November 14th the planning board meeting will be at 7:15 Tuesday November 19th the special town meeting at 7 p.m.

starting at Ashland High School give you a little bit of information uh about what's going on in and then if you have any questions uh we'll do our best to answer them right now um right here and if we don't our hope is to have that information for you in advance of town meeting so we might ask for your email address or ask you to get in contact with us afterwards but if not we would definitely have them at town meeting itself so um and that's the agenda for tonight pretty uh pretty lowkey pretty informal uh if you're here and planning on asking some questions on the MBTA artic I do believe our planning board chair is hoping to join us tonight out in the audience and um so I'm sure if there's something that we couldn't answer that she she could very well answer as well so um Jen anything you wanted to add leading up to this no okay all right so so we'll just uh go ahead and jump right in uh starting with article one and uh so article one well let me back up a little bit if you want to know the articles uh if you go to if those of you in the audience we have a copy of the warrant here with the Articles uh so feel free to grab one of those but uh you can also go to our website and go to the special town meeting section and uh you'll see a copy of the warrant and so that has the warrant the warrant articles it also has uh the potential motions um for each of the Articles as well as a recommendation by our finance committee um so our finance committee has met reviewed all the Articles and made recommendations as is their uh responsibility under the town Charter uh so yes so now we'll go ahead and jump in and get started and we'll start off um this town meeting with article number one which is an appropriation of free cash and free cash um is uh really kind of a misnomer uh because essentially all it is is at the end of the year um the balance that's left in accounts after you take in all the revenue and after you um basically allocate or excuse me account for all your expenses and uh typically just like like in your household budget you're going to have a balance at the end of the at the end of the month after you take your money in and the money goes out or hopefully you do uh just like towns hopefully you have a balance at the at the end of the year and so what we do is we actually appropriate the free cash that we have each year according to certain Financial policies that we've established and uh so you'll see what that uh what those accounts are and what that uh prescribed function is in the warrant article itself so you know the first thing that we do with our free cash appropriation is we put enough money into our general stabilization fund which is our rainy day fund we put in just enough money to maintain that at 10% of our revenues and so that's important the reason we want to maintain that 10% Target is because that's something that the bond rating agencies look look at they really like to see 10% in reserves um in a um in a municipality's budget and so because of that that helps them look more favorably upon us and gives us a higher Bond rating So currently we're at Tri AAA and we've been triaa for U for eight years now which is the highest that you can get and actually um there's only 250 commun ities in the United States that are actually at rated AAA by standard and fours um and so what does that mean for you taxpayers so it means so the higher a bond rating we have the less it costs us to borrow meaning we get more favorable interest rates which means it's the less we have to pay in interest on our debt service and so that's savings that uh we can utilize to pay for services or um or you know provide savings to the taxpayers as well so we're according to our free cash policy under article number one we're going to transfer $50,000 into that General stabilization fund so the next account is what we call our OPB trust fund and opep stands for other post-employment benefits so that's really kind of a fancy way of saying retiree health insurance uh which is something that we have have to account for and we have to account for it on our books now and so before before like prior to I believe it was 20 years ago communities didn't have to necessarily account for this on their books it was just a liability that wasn't um identified um it wasn't planned for um wasn't allocated for and so the new accounting standards um changed that and said that communities had to start accounting for it and so one of the ways that we accounted for it is we established this opep trust fund uh and we fund that through a couple of different ways so the first is obviously through free cash and then the second is each year as we bring on new employees we fund their annual opep contribution uh throughout the throughout the year and it's worked out well for us um when we started this I guess exercise in 2015 2016 we had um a funded ratio of zero meaning that our liability compared to the assets that we had uh we had no assets towards our liability and we had a rather large liability it was around 45 million and so nowadays our liability is larger um it's around 60 million but the assets that we have has grown as well and so we're at about 8 million maybe 9 million after we put this amount in there and so actually our funded ratio is now 12% so we've gone from 0o to 12% so that's a long way of saying our plan is working um next we have a special education state stabilization fund and so this is to help us with out a district special education costs um and so again according to our free cash policies we C we put a certain amount into that and that equates to $210,000 this year and then finally um we have money that goes towards capital or uh one-time expenses and so the remainder or the balance of this is U going towards towards capital so this year in total we have a free cash balance of two almost 2.8 million which is pretty healthy um we had some unexpected Revenue come in over the course of the year that we had not anticipated and so that's why it's so high but uh anyway that's uh the free cash transfer uh any questions uh from our audience here live or any questions from people in um in Zoom yeah if you just want to use your raise raise hand feature um that would probably be easiest give people a few minutes if not you can certainly just come on the screen and just wave your hand that's the oldfashioned way all right going going gone and we will move to article number two which is a budget amendment um so this is to see if at the town will vote to raise or appropriate or transfer available funds um to make adjustments to article two of the annual town meeting which was May 2024 which was the fiscal year 2025 budget and um what we are looking at doing is making an adjustment in the capital outlay appropriation so increasing that by a million 33,000 and so it goes from that total appropriation goes from 2 point almost $2.7 million to $3.7 million and so why are we doing that well try to make it to make it as simple as possible um we were planning on spending our full allocation of arpa funds um a certain way um and that didn't necessarily wasn't going to work out and so by doing this we're actually able to capture the uh all of our arpa funds by this deadline that's been imposed upon on us by the federal government of December 31st 2024 and so people are probably wondering okay what's arpa please forgive me I'm used to like acronyms and everything and a lot of people aren't so sometimes I'll remember in the middle like not everybody knows what ARA means and that's American Rescue plan act funds um and so that was a specific appropriation that was given to the town uh from the federal government a few years ago and we had certain deadlines that we had to expend that money by or at least plan to have that money expended by and so the first deadline we had to have a plan in place by December 31st 20124 and so like I said earlier this allows us to fully capture uh those remaining arpa funds uh in order to do it by the deadline so um any questions uh regarding article two all right moving right along um article three property tax exemptions so um Ashland is unique in that it uses um a law called chapter 41 C and a half which allows uh residents who meet certain age and income requirements it gives them the ability to um get a uh a reduction on their TA or an exemption from a portion of their taxes uh so about I don't know 2015 so almost 10 years ago it was at $500 and it stayed at $500 since the program started which was about eight years uh prior to that and so what we've gradually tried to do over the years is we've gradually tried to increase that especially as inflation has increased and as taxes have have gone up and so what uh what that equates to now is a 12% which was what 1,28 so a , uh 1,28 um so that's the exemption amount so again you have to meet certain income and age requirements there's a couple of other requirements as well um and so if you feel like this is something that you would qualify for uh I would encourage you to reach out to the assessor's office and they can give you more information and show you how to apply um but this is a this is a good program um obviously for seniors who are on fixed incomes and those who um might need a little extra financial assistance from the town in order to um to pay their property taxes so um I'll pause right there and ask if there's any questions so far yes David do you happen to know what the eligibility requirements are for that in case anybody listening in might benefit yeah so David has asked what are the eligibility requirements for that and um I'm going to give you my best recollection David so I believe you have to be 65 unless we do have it in the folder um so I believe we do have to I didn't think we did okay so yeah you have to be um aged 65 as of July 1st um you have to show proof of ownership and occupancy within the home for a certain period of years um I believe it's five within the last 5 years um so the income sources and this is all income sources um can't uh total more than um uh 69,000 and so you'll have to provide documentation showing that obviously your tax returns and any other information the assessor requires but um Ashland is a little bit different in that it only looks at income and you have to be below that $69,000 income level a lot of communities that have a program like this they actually use the 41c not the 41c and a half model which also takes into account assets so Ashland is different in that it only looks at income it doesn't look at assets so good question Dave any other questions regarding um the property tax exemption okay moving right along don't you love it when these things go quick quickly it's like I mean it's I expect town meeting to go this smoothly as well too right it did once during yeah for sure um article four is a simply a correction of a prior um warrant article that allowed the town to accept a gift of property from um an organization known as the Hopkin area land trust and it was ENT essentially a transcription error on our part and so all of this does it doesn't add any more property that we're that we're taking on or or change it or reduce the amount it just simply corrects an error that we had with the um map number uh to be specific uh so I would not expect any questions on that but um I'd certainly open it up and and pause right here okay seeing none we'll move to article five which is um an authorization to to borrow funds to replace uh a section of water M and uh so what this amount is is again to pay for the cost of you know not only the construction but the engineering and design of I mean we have it listed for various water main projects but specifically we're looking at the inter with this one we're looking at the um intersection of Fountain Street and E in Union Street so 135 um and so obviously we need to um if if you're familiar with all the water main brakes that happen in town we've got an aging uh water main infrastructure meaning a lot of these pipes that were put in are original to when they were originally put in and um so you know there's obviously a useful useful life associated with those um in many cases they far exceeded their useful life and so we start to see a lot of these watermate braks and you know if you're talking about a specific uh type of pipe uh like as best as concrete you know once you get a break there it just kind of like starts traveling down the line and you're always chasing brakes so the best thing to do is to um when you can look at replacing them and so also when you're replacing water mains that's when you should look at doing some of your roadway repairs or maybe adding different roadway infrastructure or sidewalks or um Ada accessibility options and so that's actually what we're looking at doing here on Fountain Street in 135 um is to replace the water M actually install u a new Loop type system which uh will allow us if we do have a water main brake in certain parts of the town be able to shut off um water in a way that doesn't affect as many homeowners while we repair those water main brakes and then also um helps us to do some of the paving work um and then also putting some cross walks um including some signage uh as well as basically some handicap ramps on um on the corners of that intersection as well so that's what uh this project will do and uh again I'll pause to see if anybody has any questions related to this project I think Tim Tim how are you my friend pretty good uh just a quick question how what what's the length of water M that would be replaced under this project I was care about how much water man you can buy for a million dollars let see give me one second here I should have that um uh 1,700 feet Tim oh wow okay Y is that mostly on 13 is that go up how far up Mountain speed does that go or is it go up over the bridge or wasn't sure where exactly yeah partially the bridge um and I whatever 1700 feet equals to how's yeah it's a decent distance okay okay yeah um I do think it's going to go all the way see on the East Union side it goes all the way to the public safety building if I'm oh okay all right so that makes sense that makes sense before and then com back thank you oh you're welcome okay any other questions yes ma'am so the question is will that money be coming from the capital account so that um that money will be coming from the capital account in the water Enterprise fund so that's a good question the other capital account that we were talking about is what's known as the J general fund and so we the general fund pays for most of the expenses that you know of related to town government like police schools things like that so we do have separate Enterprise funds which pays for certain activities um water water is an Enterprise fund sew an Enterprise fund they each have their Associated capital accounts as well we also have a trash Enterprise fund a cable Enterprise fund and a Fields Enterprise fund and a storm waterer Enterprise fund so uh but that's a good question this money would be coming out of the water Enterprise fund thank you all right I'll move to um article six um which is actually a uh warrant article put forward by the community preservation committee to fund a uh feasibility study in conjunction with the city of Framingham um to restore was comp Pond and if you're familiar with was comp Pond you will know that over the last few years it's really been actually it's it's been more than a few years it's been a while gets overrun with algae um you know other types of U of invasive species that really make that Waterway kind of unusable um certainly from a recreational aspect um and so wasum Pond also has some specific um I guess you could say uh what's the best way to put this like specific ific um Flora Flora species that um are could be considered endangered or the state has a very strong interest in protecting um and ensuring that um it doesn't go away and so it's not it's a long way of saying that you we can't just go in there um to wash aen Pond and just hit it with you know normal chemicals or you know treatment methods that you would typically utilize um in some other waterways like you see with the reservoir or something to that effect so you have to use you have to go through this feasibility study and um look at different methods different treatment methods and so that is what this funding is designed to do to help fund that study again it's uh with a partnership with Framingham Framingham let see most of like wasum is in framingham's borders uh certain portion of it is in ashlands and I believe it's we're paying for 25% Jen um so 25% of that study and so the hope is you know we'll get a study uh that tells us you know what would be the proper treatment method that'll will allow us to again hopefully make that uh Pond a little bit more usable than it is currently so again I'll pause for any questions all right um article seven um is uh accepting a new uh bylaw related to blight um or the definition of blight um so I can just say historically this is something that uh we in the town at least the town Administration have have thought about and looked at from you know a couple of different ways uh we thought about bringing it forward a few years ago uh made the decision ultimately not to do that and um but what's been happening recently is we've just been getting a lot of complaints and a lot of observations been made by our health director and our Building Commissioner uh SL building inspector um that you know bring to question some of the health and and safety concerns of some of these properties so we're not just necessarily looking at this from an a static standpoint although if you read this you know it it looks very aesthetically focused um there is a public health and a public safety component as part of this um you know if you have Tall Grass if you have a lot of trash in your yard and everything it leads to rodents um which can be incredibly damaging um especially rats um and so again you know like so if you look at this it's pretty easy to look at it through the lens of oh this is like an aesthetic type of um type of uh bylaw I guess you could say or an aesthetic lens that we're looking at this through um but uh it it's really not it's really more geared towards public health and Public Safety and so what this bylaw does first of all it defines what blight is what that means it articulates who is the enforcement um officer or who are the enforcement officers uh in charge of administering this bylaw it also provides for basically an appeal mechanism and and a mechanism for um you know how things need to be repaired or how they can be put back into compliance and if a a homeowner or business owner can't do that right away there's the ability for them to submit a plan um that would uh obviously would need to be reviewed and approved um but would uh basically set us on the course of U achieving compliance um in these situations um and then also for those properties that are vacant or foreclosed um or foreclosed and vacant I should say um is also provides the ability to establish essentially a database for the town um and so there is a fee charged with that but it's so we can maintain a database of okay who owns the property who's the contact person in case we do have some issues with it I don't expect this list to be very very long we're fortunate in that we don't have a lot of properties that would um basically uh qualify for this uh but it is another tool that we see in our toolkit that we can utilize to um basically promote health and safety here within the town so um any questions regarding that regarding article 7 yes ma'am yeah the question is how many properties uh do I think um that we that would qualify for this um I don't know I don't know we we haven't so this is It's a good question and it gives me an opportunity to kind of explain like the so given our staffing levels and given kind of what needs to be done I don't expect a lot of this work to be done pro actively so I don't anticipate our health director or Building Commissioner to be going out and searching for properties that would uh that would qualify under this um that does mean that it will primarily be complaint driven um which has you know some of its own pitfalls associated with it you know you don't you don't want to have something like this become weaponized and uh you know if you have neighbor disputes you don't want you know our Building Commissioner and health director spending their time time you know trying to arbitrate those uh through the uh again through the through the the blight bylaw so um yeah thank you for asking that gives me a chance to explain a little bit of that any other questions toate field complains the to yeah so the question is is um so the purpose of the by law is to is identify the properties and you know provide an Avenue for for resources if you will to to be um you know to be utilized to to basically bring them into compliance and I would say that's that's partially right um obviously it's a way to um basically identify these properties like you said um but then it's also provides a kind of a framework for accountability and an Avenue if you will to get those again those properties brought back into compliance but mainly it's going to be on uh the responsibility of the homeowner and uh not and the business owner not necessarily the responsibility of the town now if the town has a hard time gaining compliance you know um you know there is the possibility that the town could step in and basically use more of a heavy-handed approach but again that's something that we we don't want to utilize we um we look at these things they're not Revenue generators they're not meant to um you know to make the town money or anything anything like that I mean the fees that would be charged I I doubt they would actually cover what it would cost to um administer something like this it's really to bring the properties back into compliance and help help people bring it back into compliance so again we don't have those health and safety issues that that we're concerned about okay I'll move on to article wow we've only got two more left um and I'm talking quite a bit so I mean this could this could Bode for a real quick town meeting folks you know um so and then we get to article8 which is a um new zoning by law to establish um MBTA Community zoning so um gosh uh just by a show of hands here in the audience and anybody who wants to use their raised hand feature at home uh who who has heard of MBTA communities all right well I'm surprised I'm surprised more people aren't raising their hands um or maybe everybody's just shot guy or they don't know where the raised hand feature is um yeah Joan I was about to say if you're if you're not raising your hand I know I know we got some technical difficulties here um okay here everybody now now we're starting to see more people so NBTA communities um zoning is basically a law that passed passed by the state legislature which requires communities that have an MBTA stop or are adjacent to an MB MBTA stop it requires those communities to Zone as of right multif family developments um within you have to capture a certain number and it has to be within a certain acreage um has to meet some other parameters as well and again this is changing the zoning to allowing these properties to be built as of right and um which is very very different than the way many communities have it set up now if there is the possibility of building like multif family uh buildings which are you know when we say multif family that's like apartment complexes or condo complexes um typically what happens in a community is it's done through what we call a special permit so just to kind of give you a little bit of background uh there's various levels of review Associated to a project if you will like a development project or a building project based on what is said in the zoning and what is being proposed so if you're looking at building a single family home on a property that is um zoned for single family relatively easy right you go in you just pull a building permit The Building Commissioner looks make sure you're meeting all the setback requirements that are outlined in the zoning that's it you have the ability to to build that house okay under the zoning um if it's a larger project you have to do something called site plan review even if things meet the zoning so you have a larger project and let's just say it is a multif family project I'm trying to remember the exact zones where that is allowed just through site plan review um let's just say it's like 10 or 15 units right and it meets the zoning meaning it it doesn't necessarily need a special permit um you still have to go through what's known as site plan plan review which gives the planning board and other you know relative relevant um uh departments if you will the opportunity to look at the project and mitigate any kind of concerns that might come up with regards to things like storm water or infrastructure or things of that nature so there's still a review process you can't deny the project um but it does give you the ability to condition the project uh reasonably and then you have like what's the next step is you have something called special permit and so that's um a lot more uh gives the planning board a lot more discretionary ability to um approve a project or approve it with conditions or even deny a project um so what you would see is a project would be allowed by the zoning but only through a special permit and so again that's a much more rigorous set of review with a lot more objective or excuse me subjective criteria based on who the planning board is at the time again so they would have the ability to review it and utilize their judgment as to what they think is um is best or appropriate and so like I said most districts in Ashland um that have multi-fam developments are done so through a special permit and so NBTA communities what that does is it actually removes that requirement and in these certain zones um it basically says that can be done as a right they would need to be done through a site plan review process so that's kind of the framework within which we're working under okay and so what our planning board and our select board has done as well as our planning director and our assistant planner is um basically they have worked to find a way to um minimize I I will have to say minimize the real impact this could have in term terms of building additional units and the reason why is because Ashland has already built or permitted a significant number of multif family units over the last 10 15 20 years and uh unfortunately that wasn't taken into account when this law was passed this law was passed as kind of a one-sized fits-all approach it doesn't matter you know if a community has been proactive in building housing or if they've been very adamant against or adamant in building no housing it didn't take any of that into account and so you know I think it's fair to say I don't want to necessarily speak for other people um you know on our boards and committees but I do think it it's pretty fair to say that we felt like we had done our fair share and that this was kind of in a way punishing us if you will um and so the thought was and and the basically the uh the approach was okay some of these things that have been built how can can we go back and reone those um under the NBTA communities law in order to be in compliance with the with the new law but doesn't necessarily mean that something new is going to be built I mean Sirrus Apartments was just built in 2016 2017 even if we rezone that under the density that's required here uh under the new law it's very unlikely somebody's going to go there and knock it down and build something new I don't even know if they could build something it's maybe a couple units an acre built Big it's just the math doesn't work uh for a developer to do that so I think um a small working group that we had which consisted of uh Trisha Kendall from our planning board and Joe manani from the select board as well as Peter matchak our planning director and Alvaro Esparza our assistant planner I think they did a really good job of evaluating all the options and finding a way to basically Zone certain areas around town in a way that's going to be the least impactful to the town and I think that's what a lot of communities um that have to comply with this are struggling with so I have to give kudos to them um so I'll pause right here I think think that's about as good an explanation as I'm going to be able to give U but let's just see if there's any questions out there you want to let Tim go first yeah thank you um my my hopefully it'll be a quick question um does the proposed the changes you made to include the areas where the proposed 40b developments are are they uh part of the reason zoned area so that they will they will count against this um you know we are so fortunate to be joined by by our planning board chair Trisha Kendall um and uh Trisha why don't you she literally just walked in you want to have a seat and just kind of get settled and um so Tim has asked the question we're at MBTA communities take a deep breath it's been good so far it's been relatively quick we're we're just saying you know town meeting is going to be a breeze if this is any indication you know how things are going um but the question from Tim was were any of the um the two or the two uh 40b projects do does any of the MBTA zoning Encompass locations where those projects are proposed um just one of them is the mic on um the at 10 to 60 Main Street we are using the Acres there as part of the um the MBTA overlay District the other one we are not using okay is there a reason why it wasn't included or is it just was a where it is wasn't sure why yeah we looked at both sites and it was one of the reasons that we decided um at Springtown meeting to postpone doing the MBT ta um bylaw sorry I'm still catching my bre that's okay that's okay um while we postponed it until the fall is because right when we had created the last bylaw um within a few weeks before that the 240 BS kind of popped on the scene and um so 10 to 60 main um what the project that they're proposing there has a much higher density than what we are going to be proposing for the MBTA right so they have it proposed at like um 36 or something like that and we're proposing it at 15 on the other site however um the density is um is very close so we we were looking for areas that um let's see how can I explain this for the other 40b project the one across from the high school the density that it's being proposed at is very close to the density the lowest density we can do for MBTA so what we didn't want to do is to have a developer say um oh I'm going to pull out of this 40b and I'm going to do um I'm going to do uh MBTA zoning instead because then I don't have to go through the 40b process and I don't have to offer 25% affordable I can only offer 10 so if we figured if we're going to have a project there of about the same size we would rather have that project be 25% affordable than have it be 10% affordable so we decided not to include the site across from the high school but we are including the site from 10 to 60 Main Street because we're setting the um we're setting the density so low on Main Street half the density that's being proposed by the 40b that it it likely just isn't economically feasible to even build something there at 50 you per acre does that make sense sense okay thank you it answers my question Jo oh Joan yes jonan Friday onshore Road um I've I've spoken you know several times about MBTA so I'm not going to repeat myself but something new has come up this week um where Milbury just um voted it down and there's been some concern with some of the towns about water because we are in such a drought and Ashlin certainly is has its own issues with water um I'm just wondering if there's an opportunity to push this off a little bit later I know that that the the date is December um but and see how this plays out with some of the other towns and with the with the drought and see if there are any options there um I guess my understanding is that we're not allowed to deny something because of water which makes makes no sense since we can't live without it but um I just wonder if there's a chance to do a special town meeting maybe late in December to finalize things after we see how all of this plays out thank you yeah thanks Joan you know I'm not um I'm not familiar with milbury's you know specific situation um you know you know I I will say a couple of things uh so first of all uh just because they deny it at town meeting doesn't necessarily mean that um you know there's not going to be consequences uh for them in the future and so you know obviously we you know the the state has kind of outlined you know what those consequences would be um and uh that would uh that well you know that would have to play out after the beginning of the year after the deadline has passed of um you know having MBTA compliant zoning in place by the end of the year the second is you know I believe you're going to have to have data right to support anything like that and um I know that we um that we typically use the fact that you know we go into water bands or water restrictions um as as a way of saying that we don't necessarily have enough water and I think you could you know you could look at that you could make the case based on that again that that that framework um but I think if you actually look at our water usage on a it's actually gone down over the last 10 or 15 years and you know logically people are like well wait you know we've know we we know we've built more um how can it be that water usage is actually going down and if you start looking at just what has been implemented in terms of water uh saving features in things just low flow flow toilets or or showers you know things like that I think you know those have obviously made a huge difference um you know given as dry and I think this is the driest year on record uh it's either the warmest or the driest and we really didn't hit water restrictions until gosh the late fall and even then it was kind of like at the point where um water restrictions almost didn't really make sense in terms of outdoor watering because it was it was almost past the temperatures had gotten to the point where it wasn't necessary or wasn't really necessary so you know I think if we were going to adopt something like that we'd have to be able to show it with data and I'm just I'm not sure I'm not convinced that that's there yet thank you and believe it's mikolai yeah I have a question so under 40b that would allow the 1050 main to have a higher density yeah so yeah so the 40b what's being proposed under 40b is actually a higher density than what the MBTA zoning law would require but that's that's that's good to kind of build more and what about just res Zone in the whole Pleasant Street between the station because many of those uh single family homes could just be replaced with a multi family I think people who live there would gladly kind of sell out and um have their property being replaced by multif family yeah um I think in in terms of um the working group and I was one of a me a four person working group that kind of looked at all these issues one of the things we were trying to be very careful of is um is not usurping the comprehensive plan process that we have in place so um the comprehensive plan process is obviously still on ongoing the um town has invested a great deal into it and we didn't want to make decisions for the town that really should come out of of the comprehensive plan which really involves a much larger group I think there's 29 people on that committee a a lot of community um feedback for every step of the way and we don't have that written or voted on or it's just kind of right in the middle of things so the working group didn't want to make decisions for the town of Ashland we wanted those decisions to come out of the residents and through the comprehensive plan process so what we were trying to do was to find a solution what we were charged with really by the select board and the planning board is to find a way that Ashen can comply um with minimal impact um and um so that so that we wouldn't lose out on the grants that are available and and we decided we really just wanted to let the major decisions be in the hands of the comprehensive plan and if we need to we can rezone when that process is complete so another so we weren't looking at Pleasant Street we weren't we weren't we were trying to find areas that were already built and we really minimized the amount of acreage that we that we um used on Pleasant Street um Trisha is I believe like on our website there's probably kind of a map with um the locations where the proposed zoning is yeah I haven't actually looked at the website recently but there is um I think through the planning department um web page there is a whole page there about MBTA and I I believe that it's kept very up to dat so I I think those the things both um the zoning map and the bylaw you know should be there as well as our whole process and various forums and things like that okay um yeah we had a couple oh that that you mean the grants that if if we yeah I don't have a list in front of me they're they're um you might have more information on it but um yeah but there if if we if we don't comply then there's a group of grants that Ashland has utilized in the past that we wouldn't be able to but memorizing that is not part of my warehouse that list and and plus that you know whenever uh you know the state changes their Grant programs um you know on on a somewhat consistent basis but uh basically any anything related to infrastructure work or um you know Community Development work would be off the table um so I I'll give you a couple specific examples so the town has utilized a grant program called the massworks program um to do a number of upgrades uh throughout town so um like the first one that we had received um so that helped pay for the Reconstruction of the MBTA AIS road which is now Memorial Drive that allowed us to put Utilities in there and and build that multimodal path now that was tied to Cirrus Apartments but that also um was a big factor in the YMCA choosing to locate their new Regional facility here the fact that we had utilities there that Grant also paid for um the supplemental water connection to the MW so if we do hit an emergency situation we now have the ability to basically just turn on a spigot and um you know we have access to to water through the town of Southboro that was a $2 million project um it helped fund part of the Riverwalk um a couple of other projects and then the other massworks Grant we got which was 3 million to help redo our downtown so $3 million was paid for through a massworks grant um so that's one one big program that we wouldn't be eligible for anymore I I do think a list of those grants is I I think available through the MBTA website through the state and also we're putting together frequently asked questions um hand out for town meeting and we're going to we have a list of them that are going to be on there as well so any other questions yeah okay so let me just make sure I I understand the question so you're not able to draw a comparison between what 10 to 60 that the mill building site would look like okay um under the proposed zoning versus what's being proposed as part of the 40b project and then how would either of those relate to what is being built on Chestnut Street so you're looking kind of like for a frame of reference yes right okay so what is being proposed uh under the 40b law is um for the site is 250 units um and it's a four and five-story building from the street so if you're looking at it from the street um it would be four stories and in the back there's like an extra story that goes on top of that um and again 25% of the units would be affordable and uh you know they would keep basically the original um uh 10 Main Street the original building and then keep the facade of the second one um which is 30 Main Street um you know basically the the second building from if you're looking at it from the left um and MBTA the MBTA zoning um is 15 units an acre yeah um at at the excuse me for the slide presentation that we're putting together for town meeting there will be some things that'll make it a little bit easier to compare so the um um the 100 Chestnut Street building that is going up is about uh 30 units an acre and um now granted that that has some uh commercial as a point of it so it has 30 units an acre of residential but the whole first floor is not residential the whole that so if you were only counting residential it would come down a floor right um but that's 30 units an acre what they're proposing in at 10 to 60 Main Street as a 40b project again which is has nothing to do with MBTA zoning that I believe is what they're proposing is 35 or 36 units an acre so what we have down there is 15 units an acre which is the lowest we can go um and that is more analogous to Cirrus Apartments if you've driven up there that's about at 14 units an acre um but it also has some area around those buildings there's obviously not a line on the ground that where where nothing is right so it's more different buildings kind of floating in a site so that's about 14 units an acre and that's all res all residential so trying to visualize this it yeah it it doesn't um it doesn't always equate to stories right what the units per acre doesn't always equate to stories it right it doesn't now in this case now in this case um MBTA zoning has to follow the way the way we have written it um we are giving them a we are giving a density per site right so for MBTA oh sorry for 10 to 60 Main Street the density we're assigning it under MBTA is 15 units an acre but every everything else has to come from the underlying zoning because MBTA is an overlay District it's just trying to govern a certain things so we're saying 15 units an acre but under that sits the zoning called add ashin downtown district and that regulation specifies that buildings have to be three stories or or below right but that's MBTA the 40b project is completely different and outside of the control of NBTA the 40b project doesn't have to follow those underlying regulations the way MBTA does so that's why the 40b can say no we're not going to follow those regulations we're going to make the building higher so that's why we believe that the the zoning we're putting on MBTA is is very light zoning relative to what's being proposed by 40b but we don't have control of 40b does that help a l well the 40b has applied to the state but that has nothing to do with town meeting yeah the MBTA zoning is something with the working group what we decided to do is as you know Ashland has been producing housing we have some of it being built right now right so the working group was trying to say you know we have been doing housing we're going to use the things that we have been doing to count toward MBTA so that was kind of our strategy um in in going in going in the direction we did and that's why we wanted to use 10 to 60 main we did not look to use it at Springtown meeting but on Fall town meeting we have a 40b looking at that property so we said we might as well use it in ours because it's it seems to be going down that road anyway does that help yeah so the chart that's there the numbers um basically refer to the underlying zoning that they have to maintain um or to in the case of 100 Chestnut Street the building that's that's there and proposed that we're trying to always propose something lesser or smaller in MBTA um as far as the uh as far as the restrictions go if we can B and C are if I remembering correctly are the downtown zoning districts yes so that would be I think the the first one is Pleasant Street which would be where connect church and burnhams is that little strip and the other one is 10 to 60 Main Street those are both in the same zoning yeah I think you know probably just for anybody I zoning can be so confusing and when you start talking about things like 40b and MBTA so they just gosh even when you don't have that stuff it can be confusing but I have heard since these convers these 40b conversations are happening at the same time of NBTA communities I think the tendency is to basically um you know maybe confuse the two things it's so easy to do and I think probably the simplest way to look at it is um so a town has zoning right that that has to help regulate development and NBTA communities is a mandate imposed Upon Us by the state to change our zoning a certain way to to basically meet what the state feels um are important important goals right 40b has been allowed for decades now and what 40b does is it allows a developer to actually supersede zoning that is that awn town has whether it's been imposed by the state or whether it happens organically when a town 40b process allows a developer to supersede that and not abide by it as long as what they do is they build 20 to 25% of their units are deemed affordable so that's probably the the simplest way I can kind of make the distinction between the two so you could very well see in the future a community that has an MBTA zoning District right and you could see a developer say you know what this is not good enough for me this density I want to go in and I want to do a 40b on top of that um instead of doing the NBTA zoning I think you will probably see that a lot for communities that aren't protected from 40b and there's certain things that you can do but um that's probably the best way I can I can kind of explain kind of the bigger picture about it you're welcome so um yeah good discussion on that one I I expect it to um I expect to have similar discussions at town meeting you know it's just it's it is it's a it's an important topic but zoning by its nature can be very confusing um and we all know how much we love State mandates so did I say okay um anyway uh moving on and I don't see any other questions related to um article 8 so I'll move on to some good news how about that we'll go with article 9 and um article actually I shouldn't say that because I mentioned it before before you were here Trisha but I really do think that this working group has done really a great job of finding like I said before a way to basically meet this mandate by the state with as little impact to Ashland as possible because it does I mean again as I mentioned before we have built a lot of housing Trisha mentioned that how do we get credit for that essentially and I think this what that proposal really does do that takes takes advantage of that and helps us get credit um so again moving on to uh I think what's really good news we go from development on one end to article 9 which is um purchasing a piece of land to keep it as open space and uh so this is a piece of property um that the town has you know been aware of and had had its eyes on for a while so if those of you are familiar with the um United Church of Christ property that is you know you see it predominantly on the intersection of Salem end and Badger Road in Framingham as you're coming into town Edward's house and where Pilgrim Day Camp is so if you go down Mader Myrtle Street you know a lot of that property as you're coming south into Ashland onto your right is UCC proper property and a good chunk of that is in Ashland actually 50 something acres and so it extends um from there all the way basically where you see um Winter Street uh intersect with Myrtle Street you know where it's blocked off um it's got the gate it goes up Myrtle Street and it it goes up towards the Framingham line in total it's 53 Acres 52 53 Acres um and the church is at a place where it is looking at um a lot of its property and seeing what the best use of that property is and whether they should hold on to it or not and they made the decision that they uh wanted to divest of of that particular property and fortunately they were really um willing to um engage with the town in a meaningful discussion about us purchasing it um and so we we're also really really fortunate in that we had um Rob St Jermaine from our town Forest committee uh really kind of take the lead on um basically uh working with the church and then also working with subury Valley trustees which is the local conservation organization um and you know working you know with myself to really come uh to an agreement with the church to buy this piece of property um so again 52 53 Acres pristine Woodland I mean it is an unbelievable piece of property um and the purchase price is a very reasonable $1.4 million so 50 something acres for $1.4 million I think that in itself is uh a very good deal if you look at a per acre cost and you look at what some what we bought open space for before um the church had an appraisal that you know if they had developed it which was certainly a possibility on part of it um they could have gotten close to $2.8 or $3 million but um they felt like it was more in line with their mission to come to an agreement with the town so again uh that gives you an outline of where the property is what the purchase price is I think the exciting thing is that we have the ability to um even though it's 1.4 million we have the ability to uh work with Sudbury Valley trustees and they have committed to holding the conservation restriction on the property so M make sure that it maintains its open space um qualifications if you will but then they're also going to pay pay us $250,000 to um to buy this property as well usually it's the other way around if you're having somebody hold the conservation restriction you usually pay them um but they've agreed to pay $250,000 towards the purchase price so that knocks um our cost down from 1.4 million to 1, 150,000 Plus in addition to that we've already applied for one Grant we could potentially apply for other grants that could reduce our cost exposure further by um $600,000 so we could potentially be getting this piece of property for around 500 $600,000 um in terms of Ashland money which is just um you know it's it's a really really good value and again this piece of property would be added to the town Forest that ABS the Town Forest now a lot of people don't realize like a lot of things that we think of as the Town Forest are still private property like you know it's just wooded right now and we've fortunately we've made a few saves over the years in terms of the Nicko property and being able to purchase that that was 35 Acres that was going to be developed um you know a couple pieces off of organ Road um and then this one here I mean I think if you add it all up if this uh purchase goes through we will have added almost 100 acres to the town forest in in like the last eight years so um you know what we do talk a lot about housing even before MBTA communities we've talked a lot about housing and housing being built and um obviously there's uh there's there's a need for it but then there's also some fatigue associated with it um understood but you know we're trying to balance things as well so we're trying to to buy open space and you know we've bought not including this we will have maintained or preserved either through purchases or things like deed restrictions over 300 acres over the last 10 years so we've really tried to balance it out and I'm really really I'm really happy about about this one um so this permanently open space yeah permanent it cannot be built on so it doesn't matter if there's a 40b so that's that's that's the great thing about owning properties and deed restrictions is that 40b allows a developer to supersede zoning but land ownership and land and deeds that run with the land and restrictions that run with the land those aren't that's not zoning so you can't supersede those so oh Tim yes sir Tim you're full of questions today I love it thank you uh I think this is a great idea um I do and just to as I say we have but U one of the parcels um uh that's under under consideration here the question I had had to do more with the connection to the existing Town Forest because the way I see it it looks like the this property there's still a a gap I believe between these properties and the rest of the the Town Forest property except kind of at the corner of my property and and uh the existing Town Forest so yeah Tim I think you know probably your main connection would be the power line Trail right um you know the power line that runs through it um yeah there there are some other trails that run kind of back um you know through that area over to pick up the the trail near the witches caves runs through that right runs through that property that uh somebody else owns and I guess the question is is there ever is there any worry that that person's going to not allow people to they already are but you know to not cross that property or is there any possibility that sometime in the future we can acquire that also um I think uh that that is actively being worked upon and um I do think you know there's a way first all I think the piece of property that you're talking about it would be landlocked under this that one that that long skinny one that's yeah but that also AB buts my Pro that one you know there's the the church property that property and the Town Forest all come together at a corner of my property yeah so yeah I I Tim all I all I can say is I know um I know that land owner is aware of our interest and um you know I I can say that uh the person hasn't necess neily shut the door on things well and and the other thing is that there over the years I mean there have been there are trails that go through that property and and nobody's there's there aren't any signs or you know there's no posting there there are some other areas where we cross into private property where there's more they seem to be more restrictions you know that's it I I hope it continues because and and this is even independent of you know the power line there's some other trails that go what I'll call my side of the power line that that run through there that you to connect with that existing Trail off Winter Street and get over onto the main Town Forest Trails yeah I mean there's one that runs from that um from the Ed that Eastern Edge kind of runs behind Winter Street that that property that we're owning that runs up behind you know Wood Ridge I know exactly what you're talking about yeah so yeah no it's gorgeous back you know I think this is a great idea you know we for years were you know fearful of somebody developing all this property behind us so this is this is a great it's tough land but you know some if you know somebody really wanted to develop there they probably could figure out a way to do it right right so I'm going to put you down as a as a yes vote oh I'm definitely yes and I'll be there to say that but no it's a great I think it's a great idea awesome awesome great any other questions great well um let's see that does it uh for this edition of um our special town meeting or town meeting Forum God how many of these have we done now this is like 15 yeah we've done a few of them um gosh they I don't know we've been here for a while so so we have done quite a few of them but uh you know we find these helpful uh for us hopefully you find it helpful yourself um to get a little bit more information and places to find information uh again hopefully you know this has been helpful for you um Jen thank you Trisha thank you for for coming in at just the right time you got perfect timing um and uh for all of you out there I hope to see you at town meeting again it's next Tuesday um on the 19th starts at 700 pm.

may have a motion to adjourn second all in favor thank you thank you thank you for coming thank you sh thank you Kimberly did you get your budget

uh in the uh third floor uh conference room at Town Hall so that is the excuse me that is the uh chair's report I'll move now to the superintendent schools super thank you Mr Daniels good evening everyone it's great to see everyone here welcome to Mr Moore and our outstanding Kent Middle School students we're very excited to honor you for your accomplishments last spring this summer and and this fall as Mr Dango said I had the opportunity with members of my team to attend all the Veterans Day ceremonies at the schools yesterday and as Mr Daniel said we had at least 25 vets at the the middle school over 40 at the Cher Brook Primary School in CIS the high school does a little bit different of a program where they do interviews with veterans so it's more personal to them but just to see some veterans that have been coming to our schools when we used to have the Veterans Day breakfast for over 20 years and feel a part of our community is something really special um also want to congratulate the Big Rock Candy Mountain very enjoyable uh production and I had the pleasure of going on Thursday evening and one of our students that was here that was honored in the fall had one of the leads in the play and it was as good as he was here was even better the the other night um so congratulations to director Miss uh Mrs Michelle Taylor also had the opportunity last week to go to The Bushel with Mr Amry and our Teacher of the Year Kelly Thal who was honored as the Kon Public Schools teacher of the year but as we shared with the community and with the board she was also named a semifinalist for Canton up for State teacher the year which is a tremendous Honor on Wednesday November 6th the National Honor Society inducted 22 members and I wasn't able to attend because I was at the bush but I believe our own Maggie Bishop was selected and Lucas was selected into uh the National Honors Society so congratulations to our student two student board members for being selected just a reminder to the community that we are starting conferences this week for the Middle School High School is this week because the first quarter ended our elementary K through6 will be in December in align with the end of the trimester for elementary schools many exciting events coming up next week on uh Tuesday night we have our Kon High School instrumental concert on November 25th we have our kanton High School Coral concert so those are two exciting events that begin our our concert season we have a curriculum committee meeting on November 27th I believe at 9:00 a.m.

uh we have four or five trustees um in attendance today um first item is the adoption of agenda any questions on the agenda if not I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda I move to approve the agenda I move to approve the agenda second moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I I agenda is adopted thank you so much um first I on the agenda today is reports and presentations Dr FES good evening Board of Trustees today uh we will have the presentation of our school consolidation advisory committee report as well as uh explanation of our historical timeline having arrived here and uh the process of facilitation for the consolidation recommendations we have several individuals that will be presenting information to the board this evening and we will begin with our assistant superintendent of Business Services Kevin Franklin all right good evening everyone so as Dr fenta said I'm here to kind of give a brief uh overview of um the process and how we got here and um before we end up getting to um the committee's actual recommendations and the process that the committee went through so that so how did we get here so um basically over the last 20 years or so actually the district has been declining in enrollment and specifically over the past 10 years we've had a significant decline um over and above what uh had been projected and so as District enrollment decreases the revenue associated with those students decreases as well so as we can see on this slide we Peak um during the pandemic at about $103.7 million in Revenue in 2223 a lot of that being a lot of one-time funds um from covid and the pandemic relief um and we are now down to 88.7 million for 2425 and then over the past um 10 to 12 year time frame we've also decreased by approximately 2,000 students so that's a significant number of students um over the past 10- year period especially when you take into consideration that our our elementary schools are about 4 to 500 students at most um per elementary school and the middle schools are about 650 students or so so that's a significant decline over that time frame so what does that mean that means that in some of our smaller elementary schools just due to Staffing and enrollment there's an increase in combination classes so if you're at some of our smaller elementary schools you might have noticed that we have uh multiple um combination classes because of how many students there are per grade level a lot of them have you know 30 to 35 students per grade level so not quite enough students to have two teachers for for a grade level which leads to a lot of combination classes and then with middle schools that translates into just having less staff which means that we don't have a lot of elective offerings that we're able to offer to our students so we pretty much have our core class offerings and then have art and music and we don't we aren't able to offer much beyond that so our enrollment Trends so Statewide enrollment in K12 has been decreasing over the past 10 12 years specifically in the past four to five years um enrollment has decreased significantly across California so you can see California uh enrollment has dropped by about 6% and you can really see that decline uh due to the co pandemic uh between 201920 and then 20221 what does that look like within our County so Santa Clara county is the third fastest declining County in enrollment so a 10% drop in enrollment over that same time frame and so while Statewide rate of decline over the past uh four years was 5% the rate of decline for Santa Clara County was 10% with bera's decline of over 133% over that same time frame so that's you know countywide uh districts are experiencing these issues with declining enrollment and families moving outside of the Bay Area uh for a number of reasons a lot of it due to the cost of living uh here in the Bay Area and then just with the tech industry and the fluidness of um that industry and remote work we did see a lot of families move out of this area which contributed to that to that steep decline uh in enrollment specifically in this County Mr Franklin may I interrupt you for a second I forgot to ask um would you um have us hold the hold any of our questions till the end would or would you like to interrupt would you like us to interrupt you no you can ask right okay feel free to interrupt Mr Franklin okay yeah thank you so so again I mentioned that uh bias's decline since 201920 was over 133% this is how uh that decline has trended over the past number of years and what we can see is that specifically uh the impact of covid while this looks similar to the same trend line of about 300 students per year that we had experienced in years past what we had projected at at least at that time of 2019 20 2021 somewhere around there was that we were going to be leveling off some um for the next few years but instead we saw a steeper decrease and while a lot of school districts experienced that decrease at the onset of covid we experienced that large decrease one year after um and so that was we were kind of the anomaly um in the area but we did experience that significant decrease a year later from most of the other districts uh that that are around us here um in Silicon Valley quick question yeah I think it it's uh worth repeating that because uh so from what I understood is uh we had a projection of you know deine anyway um so uh what I'm hearing is what ended up happening is we the decline was much more significant than what was projected at that time correct so yeah we at a steer rate that we have projected hey do you have any percentages or numbers or anything like that um comparative to what we estimated um yeah I could go back and and look at that what I what we had been projecting was we had been projecting um almost a leveling out at the elementary school level with the future uh still decrease but there was a projected um it wasn't 300 students decrease we were projecting about 50 or so um if my memory certainly right and then uh it decreased by a significant amount more than that and so even in that particular year I think we had de we had projected about 100 student Decline and we experienced about 300 student decline thank you for the so this is the same enrollment figures but broken down by School site so you can see how the enrollment trend has impacted each of our school sites so those bars are for three different years so yellow is 20123 blue is 201718 and then green is 2223 so you can see all of our schools for the most part are experiencing a decline uh in enrollment over that time frame and you can kind of see how that's been kind of expedited over the past um few years in particular um and so while we're experiencing that that loss in enrollment and Ada it makes it hard to sustain the same level of resources at each of those School sites um due to the still having to pay the same facilities cost having to still pay um to keep each School site operational and so when you're talking about operating school sites at a significantly lower amount and not being able to rightsize Staffing in accordance with that leads to us being um overstaffed and and and paying more for our smaller School sites per student than we would be um if the schools were larger I mean this is the same Trend at our middle schools so you can see the middle schools um you know have kind of varied depending on which Middle School you're looking at pedmont stayed relatively flat over that first fiveyear period and then experienced that decline over the next 5year period after that um sierant it has experienced more of a steady decline and then maril has experienced a decline over the first five years and then leveled off and then you can actually take a look um within the report that shows and we'll have a demography Presentation tomorrow that goes over kind of the new uh figures and new projections for the middle schools but the middle schools tend to level off a little bit M grows slightly but overall the Middle School numbers are remaining the same and where we see the decreases across the elementary schools moving forward so what are the budget stressors that we're experiencing currently and so a lot of this is partly um due the expiration and ending of the one-time covid relief funds um we had a significant amount of one-time dollars that um we're receiving through the state and federal government over the past few years those all have inates that are coming up uh either this year or next year and we've utilized a lot of those funds um in full already there are one-time dollars that were then stressed that we use on sustaining Staffing levels at the same level we were prior to the pandemic so typically the guidance would not be to pay for ongoing Staffing cost with one time dollars but that was the emphasis at the time due to the pandemic so on top of that yeah add interrup yeah I think that's worth repeating to um just just to understand specifically during uh the pandemic time the uh the additional relief funds that were provided was um one of the targets was to uh sustain the Staffing basically not not uh you know do any layoffs or anything like that correct so at the onset of the pandemic the first rounds of covid relief funds were specific and it was specific to stating that we were not able to lay off any staff or to reduce staff um at all okay thank you so on top of that you know I've already kind of Des the declining enrollment um we're actually funded off of our Ada and not actual enrollment so the percentage or the number of students that show up every day is how we receive our funding so that's referred to as average daily attendance or Ada and so prior to the pandemic our 88 percentage as a district was extremely high it was over 97% however coming out of the pandemic we were struggling to get even 94% of our students to come to school every day so you can see that um over the over that four-year period we're now at 94.4% Ada and that's actually up from the previous year so um in 2022 I think we were at 94 or even slightly under 94% so what does that mean that translates into almost a $2 million loss in Revenue so if we had sustained that 97% ada8 percentage um over the same time frame and if we currently have that 88 percentage be about a $2 million um impact to our budget in a positive way okay so on top of that um Cola for 2425 back in January was projected at being just under 4% for 2425 however by the time the governor passed his budget the cola calculation was down to 1.07% so the impact on our multi-year projection for 2425 over that time frame of six months was an impact of almost $2 million that we had to remove from the projection so although that's not money that was realized that was money that was in the governor's budget as a projection for the cost of living increase that then had to be adjusted due to a number of factors including um the reduction in inflation over that time frame um and so that was an impact of almost $2 million so you can see both of those um bullets right there are almost $4 million in Impact to our budget and then to top that off then there's Rising operational costs um some of the examples that I listed there are Healthcare liability insurance utilities and retirement so over the past seven or eight years our um employer contribution our required employer contribution for both calsters and calp which is the Retirement systems for uh the majority of our employees has doubled over that time frame so our contrib that we're required to pay on behalf of our employees doubled um our liability insurance has gone up by over a million dollars over the last four years so um partly due to the pandemic and partly due to some other factors with variety of lawsuits that have gone on Statewide um Health Care we've seen almost 20% or more increase in health care across the board over the past couple of years as well um and so just really kind of see the impact of covid and how that's impacted things beyond our control you know we can't negotiate our liability insurance costs we you know there's things that we've done to try to mitigate the health care cost which I'll um talk about on our multi-year uh projection but we have tried to mitigate those costs by going to a different uh healthare provider and so that's been a long process but but we've been doing and trying to implement some of those um ideas to help with some of these budget stressers that we have so the additional Financial impact of operating small schools we only have a finite amount of resources and so as I mentioned before when you have a small school and you're having to still fund it at the same level some of the other schools it really stretches those resources um and so we have high cost to operate our under enrolled campuses and then as I mentioned because of the smaller elementary schools we're not able to offer as much um electives and have as robust of a elective program um and then we're also not able to have you know um the right amount of teachers per grade level we're having to create combination classes um that I mentioned before so um you know to be able to offer a more well-rounded learning experience for our students that needs more resources more teachers and the way we get that is by having larger schools so we still have budget challenges so even though we had our budget stabilization committee come up with recommendations on how to um try to um you know mitigate these issues um with our budget and um reduce the deficit spending that we are experiencing um we've implemented a lot of those and this process that we're currently going through with school consolidation is one of those the district is legally required to show a balanced budget over the three-year period That's the multi-year projection I was talking about earlier so we not only have to be able to meet our financial obligations in the current year but we have to also show that we can meet them over the next two years so our budget are reviewed annually and then um two other times throughout the year at the first inter and second interum by the Santa Clara County Office of Education and they do all of our budget reviews and then certify whether or not we're able to meet those obligations so we're beholding to them um with our budgets and so the County Office of Education is the one that a few years ago at our budget approval required us to commit to making $6 million in budget reductions to have a balanced budget no longer have a structural deficit which the board then committed to through a board resolution in 2021 and then we went through a process of having a lot of covid relief that helped kind of push the um the process out a couple of years and helped us sustain a lot of those programs that I mentioned before but now we are required to start to implement a lot of those um stabilization committee recommendations so um what we've currently implemented at this time is we've implemented Staffing reductions in the current year we have currently had a hiring freeze in place so while you may see that we do have some jobs posted that we're currently hiring for those are all positions that have been vacated in the current year that we're needing to replace those staff members so whether that's for par Educators in special education instructional assistance um things like that those are the positions that you see being posted they're not additional positions they're all positions that are required that we have to have that we're trying to to fill those spots so we have implemented hiring frees we did go through the process of looking at every single contracted service that we utilize as a school district made reductions uh where we could and made a lot of reductions there and then we've also explored I believe it was two years ago we explored at the onset of the budget stabilization committee we explored uh an additional parcel tax and the committee or the community did not show uh support for that which is why the district went out for just a renewal of the partial tax which is measure a and so um we were fortunate enough to have that passed two years ago but I do want to point out that we did try to increase revenues by seeing if the community was receptive to an increase in the parcel tax and the and the survey results showed that the community was not at that time so our multi-year projection assumptions so these are the assumptions that we're using in our current multi-year projection this multi-year projection will be updated uh next month and we presented at the December board meeting uh that's the first interim so we will update all of these figures and so that's one thing that I will point out that especially on the second and third lines for the enrollment and funded Ada as well as the unduplicated uh pupil percentage those are all fluid numbers we look at those figures at every budget period what's our enrollment are we still projecting the same amount of enrollment what's our Ada we're really stressing Ada to our principles and our school sites right now and and stressing attendance trying to get that percentage up but continuously evaluating that because changes in our attendance impact our budget both current year and future so we're always taking a look at that and revising our figures um accordingly so I did want to point that out multi-year projection assumptions on the expenditure side so what you see here are um expenditure reductions not only for school consolidation process but also because of declining enrollment um so because of declining enrollment and projections based on that we've estimated a certain number of FTE reductions both for certificated staff and classified staff as well as certificated management and classified management we've those figures into the budget currently for uh 2526 and you can see those um accordingly on the [Music] chart so this is what the multi-year projection looks like in total in total um what you'll see at the um first interim is that First Column of estimated actuals will be updated with our un audited actuals we ended the year uh slightly better than we had estimated at that time so so that column will be updated and then we will be updating the the budget year accordingly based on how we're trending um at this time one thing that I did want to point out that um in our current year budget you can see that we have 88.7 million in revenue and then we have um 99.5 million in expenditures some of that is deficit spending that's deficit is spending down some of the restricted dollars that we have to spend um but one thing that I wanted to point out is that our salaries and benefits for our staff are 90 over 90% of our budget so over 90% of our expenditures is for salaries and benefits however when you take a look at the actual Revenue that we're receiving for the year our salaries and benefits are over 98% of the current revenues that we're receiving so when you take a look at that in totality there's not a way to be able to cut you know not not make reductions in Staffing to come up with a balance budget there has to be an impact to staff based on the amount of Revenue that we're receiving and the amount of salaries and benefits that we're we're spending on a yearly basis so addressing these challenges has been an ongoing priority so as I said back in June of 2021 when we had our um budget approved Ral the Santa Clara County Office of Education uh required us at that time to adopt a resolution committing to $6 million in budget reductions um we then formed our budget stabilization Committee in the following year and um that committee worked for about a year and a half on coming up with their proposed uh solutions to help uh address the deficit spending in the structural deficit within the budget and they presented those recommendations back uh last December and then that's when um the board then committed to forming a school consolidation advisory committee we formed that Committee in April of 2024 and then since then through uh just this past month uh the school consolidation committee has been meeting um about every four to six weeks and had a total of nine meetings to come up with these recommendations that you'll see later on this evening so what were the budget stabilization committee recommendations the first recommendation was to rent or lease empty sites or classrooms that was something that was actually already ongoing back then and it is still ongoing now and so we are currently in the process of doing that um one thing I will mention is that one of our current sites that's being leased at the moment um is uh the Birchwood property and the Birchwood property has Milpas Christian School on there they have not formally told us yet but they according to their website are no longer going to be in operation and they're going to be merging with another school and they have not been paying their current lease so that's an additional loss of over a half a million dollars in revenue and their lease um was still valid for another year and a half and so that's a year and a half worth of Revenue that we are not going to be potentially not receiving and they are currently not paying at the moment so I did want to point that out so we are in the ongoing process of trying lease out our vacant properties um and then we also have another um program that recently uh closed at one of the sites as well and stop leasing two classrooms so um you know everybody is feeling some of the pressures coming out of the pandemic and um and a lot are not able to uh to continue so um but we are still in that process of trying to rent and lease property the second item was to sell District property um so that one is not something that we implemented if we do sell District property um the selling of District property can those proceeds can then only be used for future Capital facilities projects so it's not something that would help our general fund but something that would help um for our facilities and bond program moving forward the third recommendation that the committee had was to consolidate or merge schools which is in progress and is what we're doing now and the process that we're that we're explaining this evening the fourth is Staffing reductions so we did start to implement Staffing reductions we made a number of um reductions to our certificated um teaching staff this current year along with both classified and management each I think took a reduction of about 5% um out of each um category and then the last item that they recommended was a supplemental early retirement incentive and so that is something that we offered at the onset of the pandemic in 2020 um we're still paying for that incentive program um we're paying that off I believe um at the end of this year but it's not something that um is currently um would be something that would be a savings for the district but we'll continue to monitor um that particular item as well moving forward to see if that can help us out in the future quick question Mr fr here um on item number two selling of District property if you can clarify a little bit more uh about so I understand that the funds generated from the sale cannot directly go into general fund correct which funds most of our um salaries and programs and so on yes um but can we is that are we able to uh invest that money somewhere and draw interest from that is that is the interest separate or is it part of that same uh monies yeah so all of our all of our um funds are are invested with the County Treasury they do earn interest however if for instance if we did sell property yeah and we received however many million dollars it is and we did earn interest on that it can only still be used for the same purposes of that fund and of the those funds that are sitting in that in that account so if we sold property it would still be only able to be used for Capital facilities we can not transfer to the general fund for general purpose use okay okay so um so selling distri property any monies uh that we receive from the sale as well as any interest on those monies cannot be used and the general fund has to be corre only for facilities and maintenance too or just facilities just Capital facilities yeah routine maintenance is not allowed um the the only revenues that you can generate from a site that could be used for general fund purposes are for the leasing of property leasing of property correct all right thank you okay so the budget reductions and I mentioned this a little bit earlier when I talked about the multi-year projection but the budget reductions that are currently in our multi-year projection to uh balance the budget over the next two years are listed here um in these four items and actually item number four the changing medical benefit provider we kind of just lumped it all into 25 26 we're going to start to realize some of those savings Post January 1 we are making a switch in our medical benefit provider and so we will start to realize some of those savings but for Simplicity sake we just put it into the 2526 column um but um those those figures are are a combination of um the savings that we would get of about $2 and5 million from school consolidation plus additional Staffing reductions due to declining enrollment so then in total over the next two years you have over $6 million in um in savings and those are ongoing savings so even though they're reflected in the 25 26 year those are ongoing savings um that that will continue to realize because those are in salaries and benefits so one last question I think I've interpreted you a lot today I do apologize but thank you for your patience no problem last question about um the the Staffing reductions that I mentioned um so so the this the staff that are separated from our district do we continue paying into STS and Pur for them or how does that part work so staff that retired or staff that have resigned or um so I'm going I'm going to say the stuff that the uh oh as part of as part of these reductions so yeah once they've moved on and then we no longer have um Financial Obligations through through stirs or anything like that so but for a staff that has retired or and retired I think we still retired staff there's things in their cont there's potentially things in their contract postretirement benefits that we are obligated to pay there are some um minimal cost for that um but that's but that's it okay and those that have resigned uh voluntarily final obligations thank you for the clarification appreciate it okay okay we'll be transitioning a little bit here just to talk a little more about our process and planning as we've been navigating um the work with our budget stabilization committee and then entering into the process of review for the recommendations that came forth from that committee and so just to share as was mentioned uh we partner closely with the Santa Clara County Office of Education their oversight in terms of reviewing both our budget as well as our instructional programming and so through uh their guidance um they provided us the direction for the uh requirement of the funds that we needed to capture right for reduction which prompted the board's resolution and also the advisement of having a budget stabilization committee to be able to uh collaboratively come through together with various solutions that could help mitigate that $6 million um in addition to that uh We've also engaged with um outside districts who've faced similar issues as ours to see what best practices are out there um declining enrollment and fiscal challenges with the reduction of one-time funds from covid is not unique to beresa but is an experience of most districts across the state of California so unfortunately there are others out there that have already um addressed these issues through budget reductions in school con consolidation or going through those processes now just like we are and so being able to get their insight has been very beneficial um and engaging with the different resources that they've had to see what would be a good fit for us here in beresa I also want to um include the board in that research effort it's was over a year ago when we attended the California school boards Association and together as a governance team we went to every single Workshop that was offered during that conference that was focused on budget reductions and school um consolidation processes and and during that learning we also engaged with various experts from across the state of California to get advice on how to navigate this significant Challenge and also uh of course working very closely with our advisory committees that have been representative of our sites our community members and District staff to help inform us of next steps and provide the board with their proposed recom recommendations as challenging as we know facing um fiscal um reductions can be we also have always reminded our committee that we want to keep our students at the Forefront of these difficult decisions and in these challenges we challenged our committee to think of ways um that we might be able to uh expand learning opportunities for our children um through you know this difficult time knowing that uh the the uh impact of having reduced Revenue at our sites is already impacting our students with uh combination classrooms and with uh reduced uh elective offerings is there a way through this CH uh through this challenge to make that situation better for our students um and again you know reaching out and working with the input from the committee to be able to provide them with the information they needed we're not done with that work this process still continues post the board's decision uh you know there's lots to do uh in terms of uh preparation and creating transition steps based on the board's um the board's uh decision that'll happen at later on in the next few months after you do your deliberation and review oops let's go the other way so one thing that the board also made clear as we've talked about these issues at various board meetings over the past two years was the importance of making sure our community was aware of the challenges that we were facing and uh the different um budget decisions that the board was making so when we go back to the budget um stabilization period we uh did a lot of information then to our community providing Outreach on the challenge that we were facing um a lot of Education around how we are funded that is often times uh a confusing Point here in Santa Clara County because we have districts that are state funded versus districts that are Community funded and it's a very different set of resources that we receive to be able to support the learning programs for our students and so that has been something that we've worked hard to um explain what those differences are and why as well as then engaging of course with uh the next step of the school consolidation process when the board um made that decision of accepting all of the recommendations from the the committee with this being one of them uh we then move forward with making sure we can communicate that opportunity out to our community to be a part of that process and so we did that back in um March February March and the board took action on the committee many of those members are here this evening and we thank them for the challenging task that they had ahead of them to be able to work through all the data and to provide the board with their best recommendations based on what they learned as they've gone through that process we've shared with our community who those volunteers were and uh announce when those meetings occurred because the other thing that was important for the board in terms of public transparency was making those committee meetings open and making sure that there was opportunity for folks to observe that process and and see the information uh as well as the committee who was delving deeper into that to provide recommendation and so that that occurred um we had different ways of being able to share that information on our website through our newsletter through separate eblast reminders we want to thank Our Community Partners um like our District 4 newsletter who was able to share information there as well as our barasa citizens advisory committee meetings who received monthly updates as well for community at large who are members in that neighborhood association that uh committee also includes the penitencia neighborhood association so we're able to address community members that are involved at that level and again our communication isn't at a close it continues and uh wanting to be able to continue to address you know questions from our community and concerns uh I know our board has also been very receptive to hearing that feedback as well and tonight will be another opportunity for that um and then in addition uh you have our study session which provides you the opportunity to be able to engage in the learning and to ask your own questions as you begin to formulate uh your own decisions regarding this issue that we're facing um and of course public notice is required of every meeting when the board is convening so that's just a very general um review of the various types of communication that we've been able to provide and at this time I do want us to transition to tonight's um important uh report from our committee so that we can talk about that process and the board can get a better understanding of the different data and conversations that the committee engaged in during these last um several months and so with that I will uh invite our facilitators here Brianna Garcia and Lynette Hodson from school Services of California and so for this one it's down good evening I'm Lynette Hodson and my colleague Brian Garcia is here with me we're from school services and we were contracted with by the board to facilitate the school consolidation committee um so you see actually a list of the consultants and staff members that provided support to that committee these people were not active members of the committee but yet provided data and information um along the process so you see uh Briana and I from school Services you see representatives from Lano Smith to help make sure that everything was following the brown act Mr Williams uh provided the demography information and many of the staff members from barasa Union School District were available from all departments including operations to answer questions and provide data the committee me elette before you go on I do want to be sure that the board is aware that many of these individuals are here and so I just like to reintroduce over here we have our demographer Tom Williams who you're very familiar with and of course our our legal councel who supported us through this process Harold Freeman who's right here up front thank you and we also these are the committee members that were approved you con see there were representatives from each of the schools there are staff Representatives um from the district as from coordinators you have the business community members that were there uh the Teachers Association had Representatives as did the California Schools employee Association there was a a representative from the citizens uh Bond oversight committee and so you actually can see there was extensive representation and again many of these people are in the audience um today so so the committee went through a very detailed process um the first five meetings or six meetings that the committee held uh the first one was organizational we go into more detail and then with the rest of them it really was a lot of data that was provided to the committee for their review with regards to the districts its operations its enrollment Etc moving forward the committee's recommendation as we were providing all of that information there was a scoring Matrix that was proposed and that the committee um reached agreement and consensus on utilizing it was we were made clear to the committee from the beginning that while that scoring was there to provide them some um a way of organizing the data that the idea wasn't that uh you were they were going to go based on the scores and their scores alone it really was a way of looking at the data organizing the data um so that they would have that uh all in one place in order to have those conversations and make a decision as to their recommendations moving forward and the committee chair and vice chair will'll talk a little bit more about that when we're done um in an effort to provide the board an opportunity to review the data that was shared by the committee and to provide a little bit of leeway while the board was is only considering the closure of a small number of schools the committee was asked if they would rank at least four elementary schools and all three of the middle schools because while you will be looking at all the data that the committee was is looking at you're also going to be considering a lot of other information that the that they potentially uh weren't aware of you're going to be asking your staff for additional information you're going to be talking to the demographer looking at boundaries and different things and so the committee uh wanted to ensure that the board had um an appropriate or and a list of what they thought were their uh priorities and rankings for the board to consider and choose from when it's making its determination and again the Committees what they provided really was just a recommendation ultimately it's the board's decision as to which schools how many um the timing and all of those things with regards to any closure or consolidations of schools the school rankings um were discussed in a two level process first the committee was broken up into small groups in order to deliberate and have conversations with regards to these schools and how they would rank them um and then at the end we actually had a uh individual ranking by each Committee Member in order to arrive at those top schools and the ranking level of the schools for the board's consideration in addition to recommendations with regards to potential closures the committee also considered whether alternative grade configurations is something that the board uh should potentially consider and so they looked at two different options one was the potential of converting your uh Elementary schools from TK through 5 to TK through 6 which would then result in Middle Schools being 7 through 8 and um the committee did not determine that that was a recommendation that they were making to the board but they did uh make a recommendation um which will be discussed with regards to considering switching the reconfiguration of your middle schools from just s eight Middle School to potentially uh switching one to a TK through 8 configuration um and so this would impact one of the middle schools uh but would still require closure of those elementary schools and so the committee did in its report um include a recommendation for the board to consider that possible reconfiguration of the middle school and so I just wanted to walk you quickly through those meetings that were held by the committee um and the criteria that was considered for those the first meeting that was held on April 25th was really just an organizational meeting in order to provide the committee with an understanding of their roles the roles of the facilitators and staff that were going to be providing support um to look at the criteria that was being proposed and that was based on guidance provided by the California Department of Education with regards to uh the types of considerations that committees and districts should make when they were considering closing or consolidating schools and an explanation of the scoring criteria and how that might work the second meeting was focused on providing demographic information the district's demographer provided information with regards to the trends longterm as well as the staff providing information regarding the current and projected enrollment and capacity at all of the school sites there were four criteria that were developed and uh reach consensus by the committee to consider with regards to demographics and enrollments criteria one was looking at enrollment at the school district at the various district schools and looking at ones that were the enrollment was and projected to remain low over the period of time that we were looking at those that consideration included uh special education and special dat classes because they're loaded at different ratios and we wanted to make sure that that was part of that conversation criteria two looked at demographic diversity um I'm sure if we asked everyone in this room everyone would have a different definition for what diversity is and also what what level means diverse and so what we utilized was um the unduplicated pupil percentage which is a metric that was developed by the um State as part of the local control funding formula that Kevin talked about before that looks at the population of students that are English Learners Foster youth or eligible for free or reduced price meals Criterion three was looking at what schools had excess classroom capacity and how much excess capacity the schools had and then lastly criteria for looked at the proximity to school schools with capacity to accommodate incoming students so if a given school was closed would the three nearest schools have capacity to absorb those students to try to limit how far students might have to go um if their school were to be closed meeting number three was focused on facilities we looked at the size condition cost for uh repairs maintenance um construction projects that might be forthcoming looking at the support spaces if there were environmental factors that were impacting those School sites so the committee considered three criteria for facilities criteria number five was looking at the condition of the facilities this was partly based on uh facilities inspection tool that's developed by the office of public school construction which is a state organization and looking at the costs that have been um estimated for upgrades at the various School sites moving into the future uh utilizing um for the majority of your bond funds Criterion six looked at modernization modernization construction and other projects that were recently completed with the thought that if you just spent x amount of dollars on a School site then you wanted to take those costs into consideration if it was a school that was actually going to possibly be closed and then criteria said when was looking at historical investments in facilities the first two criteria are really looking prospectively and you're saying it's going to cost this much money to upgrade the School site you don't want to have that consideration without also knowing how much money was spent at a school site because it's possible that a school needs $50 million in upgrades but if the district has never put any money into that school that's a very different situation than one that needs $50 million in upgrades but 40 million was spent on it in the last year so we wanted to look at the Historical costs as well criteria number eight can I um so can you maybe clarify a little bit more the difference between Criterion five and six uh this there's there seem to be some sort of overlap between the two is there is there any overlap or or the separate uh considerations can you just elaborate a little bit more no problem uh yes they are separate criteria five is really be looking at mostly at your facility's master plan and what will those propos expenses into the future so if your facilities master plan said that X campus needed $20 million in improvements over the next 5 to 10 years that was where it was looking at in criteria five versus six was looking at ones that were just recently completed so in the last several years your last several bonds how much money was recently spent or was underway was being spent right now on those school facilities and so there three criteria we looking at how much was spent uh historically how much you spent in the last couple years and then how much is proposed to be spent in the future you're welcome Criterion 8 looked at whether there were unique facilities at any of the school sites that if that facility or that School site were to close that was something that wasn't available at any other School site um an example that you don't have here you have high schools um that have stadiums um and not all high schools do so if you closed one high school at the stadium that would be something that would then not be available to the district so we wanted to look at those types of facilities Criterion nine was looking at support spaces and wanting to ensure that they had sufficient capacity to meet not only the current enrollment but any projected enrollment especially if you were bringing more students onto that campus Because you were closed in another school so is the cafeteria large enough for the number of students that would be enrolled at that school site is the multi-purpose room the playgrounds Etc are they sufficient to meet um that projected enrollment at a school site criteria 10 was looking at our environmental factors was there anything that would impact the use of that School site um earthquake faults is one that everybody's aware of you do have schools in California that have earthquake faults running right through them and you can't make improvements on those campuses in the future and so we wanted to note any of those that would potentially impact the use of that campus and then Lastly lastly Criterion 11 if there were any leases or other outside uses that were on any of your campuses that were generating income and if the closure of the school would impact the ability of the district to continue to generate that income meeting number four focused on educational and student support services so really looking at the programs that are being offered to your students looking at the uh California school dashboard which has performance levels based on metrics that were developed by the state looking at the test scores um through the California syst of students performance and progress those smarter balanced assessments looking at the academic support services that are being provided on our bel's campuses um just so that the committee could see what the district was currently offering to all of its students or to particular subsets if they were specific to a given School site so there were three criteria that the committee considered in this um meeting Criterion 12 was looking at whether or not schools met the performance in two or more the State criteria so the state on the school dashboard has five performance levels uh from Green is the highest down to Red at the lowest and so if there were any criter if there were any performance or state indicators where they scored either orange or red which are the bottom two that's what Criterion 12 was looking at Criterion 13 was looking at um if there are districtwide programs at a given School site that would need to be relocated so if you closed a school and that was the only school that had um AVID for example for its students then if you close that School site would that need to that program need to be relocated and then on the flip side of that for Criterion 14 if it had to be relocated could it be relocated or was it a program that was specific to that school site because you had an astronomy lab and that was the only school on the campus or within the district that had one and and so we wanted to make sure that if there was a program could that program relocated meeting number five was looking at the fiscal and other impacts um the presentation included much much of what um Kevin provided to you um this evening with regards to the fiscal status as well as the implications of school closures and if there were other community impacts and so the Criterion for this meeting that the committee looked at were existing safety concerns regarding traffic or safe rout school is there anything right now at the campuses um that rise or that have safety concerns and then on the other side of that criteria in 16 would the consolidation of students at any given School sites then raise any um concerns with regards to traffic or safe boxs to school so that's the differentiation between 15 and 16 17 uh would the transportation be required for the relocated students The District offers Transportation only for special education students and that would continue um after any type of consolidation so that was looked at Criterion 19 looked at any alternative uses that have already been identified for the school sites if they were to be closed and then Criterion 19 and 20 looked at the really the fiscal aspects of that Criterion 19 looked at what the benefit and net savings would be from a specific School site being closed while criterian uh 20 looked at the operating cost of a given School site excluding staff staff is a programmatic uh determination that the district office makes and where programs are how many staff are located there are really dependent on that so we wanted to take that off the table and really look at what do it cost to operate that facility um and have that for the uh committee's consideration meeting number six um so we transitioned from providing And discussing data with the committee to the committee then really starting to have conversations about their possible recommendations to the school board uh staff did add the presentation to the committee with regards to the two possible reconfiguration of grades that I talked about before going to TK through eight for potentially middle schools and uh moving grade six to the elementary schools and so there was a presentation regarding that the committee was provided with information with regards to free and reduced price meal percentages at school sites as well as uh racial and ethnicity information just so that they would have a broader understanding of the students that were at the various School sites throughout the district um and then we talked about narrowing the criteria as you saw when I just walked through that there were 20 of them in total and it's a lot of information and some of those criteria when you looked at them there was no difference between schools sites so for example we talked about whether there were any unique facilities none of the campuses had unique facilities and so when you looked at the criteria the scoring was the same across all of the campuses so the idea with narrowing them was to focus on those criteria that showed a differentiation between schools just to better focus their conversation not that they didn't have that additional information or couldn't consider that information but just trying to help um really um focus on what the differences were within the schools to help them Reach uh consensus on their recommendation once those things happen we did the committee did rank the middle schools at that school site I mean at that meeting and we ended there meeting number seven um there was a request by a Committee Member to get information on intradistrict transfers so the transfer of students within the district if a parent requested moving from school a to school B um and so we provided that information and then we looked at the elementary schools um and the narrowing down the schools that were going to be recommended uh for the school board and so that conversation was had at that meeting at still at that time there was no ranking yet on the elementary schools that really happened at the next meeting which was uh October 17th the committee actually then ranked the five schools that they were recommending to the board for possible closure we Revisited the ranking for the middle schools because there was an error in the total of the scoring when we first looked at it on September 5th and so we wanted to make sure that they had an opportunity um with the corrected numbers to see if they had any questions or any change in how they wanted to rank those schools and then there was consideration of those um that grade reconfigurations um at that time and so they had a ation and they made a decision to recommend the TK through eight and instead of just recommending one school they decided to rank two of the middle schools first and second for possible consideration but we came back to the last meeting on October 24th we just Revisited that TK 38 reconfiguration um the last meeting we ended kind of late and so we wanted to make sure um that everybody was still on the same page um and so we reaffirmed the recommendation that was made at the prior meeting um as well as confirmed the ranking for the elementary schools and the middle schools then we walked through the report that you have um same as we did this evening meeting by meeting and we're making sure that we captured all of the information or all of the notes or different things that the committee really felt that they wanted to make sure that the board knew that they had considered and talked about so all of those notes were made and corporated and then the committee voted on um the total recommendations the elementary schools the middle schools and the reconfiguration at that time and again and we have the chair and the vice chair here as well as some of the other committee members that'll talk a little bit more about um that process and their recommendations at the end and so with that if you have any questions for us we'll happy to answer them before we turn it over to thank you I did have questions but I want to give the opportunity uh the board opportunity to ask any questions if you have any questions for the facilitator trusting us um for clarification purposes um yeah SP unique unique uh what is it uni facilities uh on specific School sites um can you elaborate on what what would constitute an a unique facility uh from your experience um for the most part it's usually some type of use that's just not found anywhere what we see at other we didn't have any here um what we see at other um districts sometimes is a School site will have a blackbox theater and that's the only one that has it or you have one that has a swim stadium or a swimming pool at the school side and that's the only School within a district that has those facilities um sometimes you'll see um uh very extensive science labs or astronomy um facilities they're just certain things that sometimes a School site has that isn't available to other School site yeah I thought one of our school sites did have a have a facility like that which is why I wanted to um just wanted to get that clarified because U you know yeah I was a little confused when when you said the unique facilities and none of the school sites had but I think at least one of all School sites does have a unique facility um you know Dr F please correct me if I'm wrong there but um um but yeah I was surpris that that didn't that didn't come up uh in the in the conversation uh but we will we will take the report and then uh we will continue uh talking about it um and I thought I did had another I already asked that question about modernization um which is good um as far as um special programs districtwide special programs uh what what programs do any any programs come up any discussions and what what were they and what were how I might not remember all of them off the top of my head but we had Aid that were at different School sites we had the Mander Ming program at one of the school sites you have SRA so s program also parent participation program and we do still have our chairpersons who are going to speak that can also share with you what their conversations were I just wanted to point out so um speakers and our special education programs which which is what is a a key uh component of this uh whole equation and you know I would ow the next speakers to elaborate on some of those points and uh give us more clarity U but I do appreciate uh your time and all the help with putting this together and uh not not an easy task but uh we rely on your experience and expertise in this process we appreciate you being here no problem our pleasure thank you all right good evening trustees Dr Fontes and cabinet uh we are here representing the school consolidation advisory committee as the committee chair and vice chair over the last several months we've been dedicated with the challenging and important task of reviewing the data analyzing student opportunities and objectively considering which schools in our district to recommend for potential closure I would like to thank all the committee members for their dedication hard work and diligence throughout this process and if there are any committee members here this evening would you just please stand [Music] again thank you for your participation and courage throughout the last few months this has been a very challenging process and none of us truly want to close schools however we also understand that due to the current financial situation the closure of schools is necessary to stabilize the budget the stabilization is crucial for maintaining the student programs and staff that support our Student Success the committee was able to collaborate authentically and ultimately came to consensus over the recommendations that will be presented um this evening before presenting the recommendations I do just want to highlight some of the insights from the committee the committee did understand the impact of the decision being made and did not take the decision lightly we worked hard to consider the needs of every school community and every school was discussed in a positive way we listen to the parents and the community and every school was discussed in a positive way sorry we listen to parents and the committee members in addition to considering the data that was shared on the screen the committee asked lots of questions and gained a better understanding of the data and the members of the committee had many debates during this process the committee kept uh faculty cost front of Mind as we didn't want money spent on buildings that could be spent on programs for kids however we also consider criteria other than just numbers and dollars we considered the academic assessment results that are included in criteria 12 as well as considering the socioeconomic data and the communities and the impact that schools were closed the committee considerate the success of all students not the success of specific student groups we discussed what would be in the best interest of all students and also considered safety as a priority we considered the locations of the school sites and safe paths to school as well as the number of students who walk to school we considered the capacity of each School site we looked at all the criteria presented not just the narrowed criteria consideration was given to special programs that is important to consider the impact to all students involvement and parent choice and we determined that all the special programs can be moved to another school site the T8 tk8 option was also discussed including the concerns regarding safety and the committee discussed how the tk8 model would be something new for our community when discussing the tk8 option there was emphasis on traffic and the safety of students getting to school the process described starting on page 43 is important to highlight as it describes the process we went through to uh to get to the decision that we made again I want to reiterate that this was a difficult process and the committee did its best to maintain objectivity objectivity throughout the process the final decision came after much debate but we ultimately came to consensus on the recommendations so at this time the committee is recommending to the board that you consider closing the following schools in the ranked order when is um when you're making your decision this evening and that is that for the elementary schools number one is uh Cherrywood number two is Toyon number three is l view number four is Summerdale and number five is Ruskin for our middle schools number one is sier mon pedmont is number two and Mill is number three in addition as an alternative to closing the the a middle school we do recommend that if you want that you could could go with a tk8 model and if you were to do that we recommend that Sierra be the first choice for a tk8 and then Pont be the second choice do you have any [Music] questions I have so if we do a t uh TK to8 Rec configuration one of the schools what does that mean for so that does that mean we preserve all our middle schools and then would to close an additional Elementary School yeah so what it would mean is that we basically maintain two middle schools as as is one of the middle schools um turns into a tk8 and we shut down three elementary schools okay is that a more expensive option that does require an investment because you have to do reconfiguration of the Middle School site and staff um did provide the committee and can share with the board schematic options that ALS show what that investment cost would be so we do have that available to share with the board if you'd like to um take a look at that now or we can share with you after additional questions so we were to go to um the tk8 option with uh students living with cron or Pont boundaries would they potentially be impacted so that would be to the discretion of the poor depending on the Middle School location that's selected you would be merging one Elementary School into that Middle School location and then closing two additional middle schools is what was recommended um but again it depends on the site and the size of that tk8 that you want to create uh it is depending on the location you could potentially even um merge two sites on that Middle School site but again it depends on the location of interest and the size of that campus so then if we are going to reconfigure a middle school that would mean that no middle schools would be closed no you would have that means your middle schools would all three be remain open but one Middle School would be converted into a TK so it would it would expand to include the elementary students and in addition I think in when you might have been asking a potential impact for entry of other middle school students correct that are and so so that would cause a some reconfiguration of boundaries depending on the School site location that's selected and the type of program that you may want to offer at that location my um I just want clarification if there is a reconfig duration of a middle school that would mean that we need to close three elementary schools correct correct because you would be merging one of those Elementary sites at minimum to that Middle School location understood so if we were to do that uh you know Rec configure a middle school to TK to 8 would then the entire populations of say one or two schools uh that you know if you decide to close them would they all go to the same middle school so the elementary site that you would be merging in would stay there it' be their K8 pathway right and then it would just again it would depend so and the reason I say it depends it depends on the type of school you want to create because you do still want that K8 to be a reasonable size to be able to offer elective course offerings for those Middle School grades so there is potential to still allow other element students to feed into that site if again depending on the site location that's selected uh you know we do have one Middle School site that's more conducive to growth than the other so then some of the students that go some of the classmates might still be separated so one of my main you know kind of goals is to make sure that students are disrupted as little as possible and to me that includes them having you know the same classmates they've been with they've been at a school site so they might still have to go to like say a different elementary school or to another school site and not necessarily all go to the same middle school if we were to potentially but again I think it'd be easier for the board to look at the schematics and then look at the boundaries that are correlated with that potential Middle School to be able to see how closely we can keep that Vision in alignment yeah I agree I think let's let's bring that out and then let's look at the yeah so another question I have is um and we haven't had you know uh I know we've got a lot of community input but we don't know whether the community would prefer or something like say closing three middle schools as oppos or three elementary schools as opposed to closing two elementary schools and and a middle school we've not asked that question we did do a survey early on based on committee requests the committee had requested uh data from our community to see if they would be interested in the K8 and if they were uh what kind of K8 uh program would they like to see so we do have that information okay what what will it take to get that it's actually it's in the packet it's in your binder it's in there yes me a possibility to present it we can share that as well so we can take a look at it and present the one excuse me the one question I have is 1 2 3 four five so on the list of recommendations uh it's a question for all of you is there are three Title One schools in elementary and two t one schools in in middle in the Middle School um any potential reconfiguration of um child one school be at um consolidation closure um or a k model how do how does it affect our uh title one1 does it fall does it do we reevaluate the student population percentages um or does it uh transfer uh transfer or you know evenly to the new site so Title One status is based on student eligibility right and so it depends on the cluster of students at that new week configuration to be able to determine whether or not they would still be able to capture that title one funding for support services so in effect if you were to consolidate um two sites that are already existing title one that funding would continue to move over with those students because you already have two populations that already capture that required threshold and you'd actually have additional Revenue putting them together you know to consolidate those resources now we have eligible students across our District but they may not meet that threshold that's required by the state um at their School site currently but if you brought over additional students we'd have to do the data estimation to see if we would have h a threshold met to retain that title one funding I don't know if there's any additional information Mr Franklin so is that information that we could uh get like a projection if we were to let's say close one particular Elementary School would it impact another Elementary School in regards to title $1 whether they they become they maintain a title one school or no longer become a title one school because of the students they're now absorbing yeah we'd have to do that analysis to find out you know which two schools that we'd be talking about and then we'd have to then look deep into the data to see where those students would go so I know we have another study session December that something that be provided just High L reje let's say if um Cherrywood were to be closed and then where would those students be going and would it impact those students in terms of tot one money yeah that if if we know what schools you're wanting us High projection where they live at geographically where they would go like their boundaries yeah and one thing one thing just to share with the board is as our demographics have changed over the years so has our Title One eligibility that has lessened uh we currently operate six sites that are title one but they're Title One on the waiver they no longer meet the threshold the threshold is 40% or higher of the students need to meet um you know the free and reduced uh meal requirement most of our sites that continue to be Title One hover in the 32% range so that has gone down over the years so I think that that makes it more significant if they're especially right at the the hovering border that they potentially lose we could potentially lose title $1 for certain you lose Title One funding when you go below 25% eligibility okay thank you so I had a different question that I uh asked over um uh facilitators about um uh you know those unique facilities uh did you uh you have inter knowledge about our uh our school facilities did you was that brought up uh about unique facilities and did you mention anything to the committee uh members so most of the most of the things that the people consider was the programs if they're reportable outside of facility now facility cost was also considered for modernization or for upkeep so those were also considered as well but you didn't specifically talk about a site having a unique facility that doesn't exist in any other any of our other sites uh correct I still don't understand just structure wise uh are there are there anything uh are there any any of our sites have any any any specific speci or building that's unique to that particular site um I don't think that was discussed because it wasn't part of the criteria yeah it was yeah it was okay what is the criter so it was discussed to be quite honest I do forget exactly how that conversation went we've had so many of these meetings um but I think when we looked at it you know we looked at the three middle schools and what kind of facilities they have they've all got facilities that are about the same our elementary schools same thing we looked at you know we didn't find any specific facilities um That Couldn't like for example I think it's rusin that has a science lab and that could very easily be packed up and moved to another school so that that's under Criterion eight you have unique facilities so um if the facility could could be replicated easily uh that means it doesn't make the unique facility criteria correct okay yeah and then similar to when you had asked about the programs um you know because we do have all these special special programs but we did discuss how any of those programs could be replicated at a different School site right thank you all right you're welcome so I'm glad that you had mentioned uh programs and Services I think one of the most important thing about us the school cons consolidation process is not about just cost savings it's about giving uh more programs and services to our existing students and one of the ways to do that is through consolidation I think one of the drawbacks with um uh the TK 38 model is that um um it doesn't really give more programs and service to services to our our our middle schools unless there's a scenario that that out there that I can't think of um because we're still spreading services and programs across three middle schools whereas we consolidate to two schools we often more programs and services so I'm not sure if we were to go to to TK through eight model um is there a potential for us to continue to offer more programs or services or is there is that not accomplished so there's an opportunity for the board to um again it goes back to the programming piece and what would you want to have offered at that tk8 would it be a traditional tk8 would we want it to be a specialized school um in which case you would have very specialized um program offerings that would be created there like a a stem or steam school for example so I have kind of it's kind of a related question so is there any data or any research done on um you know the quality of Education uh students receive in a say a TK TK to8 environment kindergarten 8 environment Elementary combined Middle School versus you know traditional elementary and middle school is there you know are there any additional benefits to say having school sites that that are specifically elementary schools versus combination it really depends I think Services did you touch on this a little bit in your report with the committee it's in conclusive actually I mean there's studies that are out there um but there's nothing significantly different between a traditional TK five School compared to a tk8 school you also have public input and then still further discussion pieces mhm um one one more question about the T tk8 model is um lost my the uh it's fine the um the impact on um the traffic impact and you know uh you know number of students having at the same side um uh I know some of our elementary schools already do staggered uh start times and and uh release um how does that um affect our traffic because I'm trying to visualize the three middle schools um the this Cent Middle School is is on a major thare here um C is inside the neighborhood and so moral is also in a in a major thare so we don't win in any of the scenarios with the with the tk8 um what are some of the considerations I mean uh if we do TKA uh what are some of the environmental considerations number one and uh the second one specifically but you alluded to having a TKA with a specialized program uh like a team School uh what is the investment on there how does it look um operation wise you know what are the advantages uh of having one and would be would that a school like that with a with a stem steam uh program uh P students from other school other Middle School other two remaining middle schools uh would they want to get transferred to something like a a school a middle school with specialized program like Ste 10 how how does that configuration work I'm just curious to understand so I'm going to have Mr Franklin first um share the your answer your first question about traffic okay so and and maybe Harold you can maybe come up and help with some of the the answers to the specific um traffic studies that we would do once the board has made the decision about um the TKA option um but as you mentioned the staggered start times is a is something that could help alleviate traffic the other thing that we have to remember too is if the school is larger there's more staff so there's staff to help with the drop off and pickup um you know procedures at each School site I'm familiar with a number of TKA that have about 800 to 900 students which would be more than what we would have at a tk8 that are both located off of a major road and located within a neighborhood that um you know as long as the flow of traffic is is understood and you have staff out there supporting the drop offs that there's not um you wouldn't really notice much of a difference than the current drop off and pickup currently um it's just a little bit different because the age group of students varies a little bit more so you know for instance just within the past um four or five years um Sierra Martin Middle had about 900 students um being dropped off and picked up every day and if we're looking at a tk8 of 650 to 700 that's still uh significantly less than was there just a few years ago so the traffic wouldn't um be very much different but you would have a lot of Staff out there to be helping you know with the drop off and getting cars through the the circle and we'd have to really look at those drop off procedures and and and make sure that that's understood by our families um to make that happen but there's a number of options and then there's also traffic studies that we would be required to do prior to uh implementing the the tk8 model and then just again to go back to the tk8 programming a lot of that is really driven by parent preference you know and parent interest in having their children attend a tk8 school um and looking at the survey data that was provided to um the committee uh our families that responded to that survey um overwhelmingly the program area of interest for a ka8 was in stem or or computer science uh that was definitely of Interest so that would be programming um planning that we could bring back of course we have a lot of existing Partners in Silicon Valley area to be able to lean on uh to be able to provide you know some Innovative classes uh throughout the day and and after school uh in terms of looking at you mentioned potential poaching within the district uh or outside the district right um so we would be looking at uh designing a neighborhood tk8 so it would have neighborhood um requirements first unless the board wanted to look at uh a a lottery system or an open enrollment for that site that's another option but given our our boundary line reconfigurations um we would probably recommend to do a neighborhood school first and then uh do a layered approach to admission to the site but there's different ways that you can go with that thank you for that um any other questions from the bo Miss BL what is the meaning of a neighborhood school please neighborhood school is students who live within that boundary have first rights of attendance what schools were the two middle schools were the ones ranked first and second for tk8 uh was SI and Pont uh the reason for Mel being removed from the list was because it was uh way out of the um Financial realm right okay any other sorry any other questions from the 30 seconds to gather your thoughts any other questions um can we also get an up front cost I know we were to go towards the TK model there would be some cost to um uh make the schools um especially middle schools capable of handling elementary schools for example playgrounds uh you know bathrooms and and such uh how much would that cost that cost and um would it fit the timeline because um of the consolidation process okay and I I believe that those numbers are in the report um I believe to convert C 2.4 was 2.4 million approximately and was 2.6 yeah Pont make it uh fit for elementary school students yeah because you'd have to reconfigure classrooms and like for example here this Cas would be changed up at a playground okay um I believe from was around 8 million okay thank you and we do have uh schematic designs again so um Tony kisto our bond director worked on that and can get more in detail of showing you the type of work that would need to be done to make those changes is so say we you know uh go with a TK to8 model and select either seront or Pont would the schools forclosure since it's going to be you know a neighborhood school would the schools targeted forclosure that be the ones kind of feeding into that currently feeding into that middle school right now that would be the natural course you know you would look at the Middle School site that you've selected and then you would go and look at your neighboring feeder Elementary sites and and go through that process of deliberation and so right now we have three three schools right feeding into into each uh element or middle school at least we do have some Elementary sites that split across two Middle School locations so then it would change the elementary school rankings that were currently recommended by the committee well that yeah that's why we listed five of them is so that based on the conversations that you have um you'd be able to you know again it's just a recommendation and depending on what you decide to do you'd be you'd have the flexibility to do whatever you think is in the best interest of the community so let's say we do go towards the the TK the option um can we kind of just also get a high low projection on what the neighborhood schools would be I'm assuming see will probably be rusing or or a wood element neighborhood schools and Pon would be what a Toyon Noble Summerdale yeah Toyon Summerdale that are on the list from the committee okay that's neighborhood schools right and then everyone else would be I guess be opened up to whatever a lottery or whoever well and again that's depending on how you want to do admittance but when we show you the schematics we also took detail on how what the capacity of each school could be so you look at existing enrollment to see how many students could fit in that new configuration okay thank you okay so it's kind of similar to the question earlier so say you know we were at Pont as a k tk8 there's no guarantee that all the students that currently feed into pedmont would then end up at pedmont if it was a k to8 school so they could potentially go to another Middle School potentially I'm sorry another elementary school as opposed to the combination school so potentially again it just depends on which site you want to include uh and depends on the current capacity of those Elementary sites uh we do have some sites that are really low in number where you may be able to um capture quite a few within that same existing boundary and how about the staffs with then would they then be uh be split among you know other schools or would they all go kind of to the same to the same school so we have a transfer process and I'll let Mr Cabrera answer that question yeah the criteria for transfering teachers for school closers includes several criteria and one of them is giving them the first opportunity to transfer to any open position also given them priority to move to where their students are moving into and I believe that answers your question question about some the criteria items uh I'm talking about programming um there we have uh some unique programming uh at uh one of our schools sh would have a Mand immersion um how much of a um was there any discussion um surrounding that that program and you know the impact of um you know basically approving the program then uh and moving it to a different School were there any concerns from our committee members and uh how they addressed and uh you know based on uh experiences from other school districts how how they uh how they handled that uh that move how was a discussion uh sing that so yes we did discuss uh specifically The Manor and immersion program uh we ultimately came to the decision that we would be able to move it to another school but some of the concerns and debate that uh came of that conversation was uh the way that the program's currently structured where I don't know exactly how it works but where they're um mixed between the Mandarin class and the English class and then they switch teachers that you know there was concern about how that would look at another school but and we did have um one of the members of the committee is a teacher in that program um and so ultimately we did come to the decision that we could move it to another school yes so as a board we were provided with kind of I guess a scatter gram of where the students kind of live is there a way where we could get work for the VOR and emerging program students to see where they live to see how do mostly live the chairwood area or or are they outside of area or sit we we do have that information because that was also asked by the committee to know how many students were cherry residents uh versus barasa residents versus outside the district so we we do have that data um don't know they have that readily available but we can bring that back yeah I'm also interested in that so we'll give you some time to gather that data by we few more questions black yeah um so we have that data right now so I can share that so currently um there's 277 students in the maner and immersion program 44 of those students are current Cherrywood resident students um there's only 38 students that come from outside of the district the rest all come from other attendance areas within the district so the most being actually from the Vincy Park um area of 54 students so we do have that breakdown B School site but the majority of them come from Vincy Park attendance area um and then next is from the Cherrywood attendance area and so on but they they're mostly from outside of the Cherrywood area so these students that you're speaking of are students um that are going to Cherrywood right now correct they're current Cherrywood students okay now if we were to close certain schools three of them we just say Elementary three elementary schools then these students will be accommodated by other schools nearby um and they can be accommodated because they are seat capacity am I correct yeah so the goal would be to move the man immersion students the man the whole Manor immersion program to another school site and then the students who are not in the manering immersion program but then be relocated based on you know how we redraw the boundary lines for the Cherrywood area right thank you could you could you repeat the number of students that are going to Cherrywood and at the same time they are the residents within that school neighborhood so the amount of Resident maner and emersion Cherrywood students is 44 and then so the Mandarin program has 277 um the entire school is about 525 or so so it's it's roughly you know it's it's a little more than half of the school is man Orion students and 44 of them live in the Cherrywood ATT within the within the Cherrywood neighborhood correct only 44 correct so without the M emion program um would it be true that the Cherry Weare uh enrollment would probably be lower than 21 not it currently it would be roughly the size of Toyon with it projected to go down I believe in a couple of years to 230 to 220 to 230 resident students or so so would toy be projected to be going lower which would be projected to be our lowest to projected to go down to about 190 190 every Cherrywood without the M students as resident students won't be projected to go I know probably get it later by Mr W yeah you'll see that tomorrow during uh Mr William's presentation but it's approximately 230 students or so projected at Cherrywood in a couple of years okay thank you um let's see the Mandarin program at Cherrywood we know that there is a program at carmont am I correct correct we have sixth and seventh grade there yes I just wanted to make sure that it's still going on wonderfully thank you that's a good point uh so if um since s is is um up there for a potential tk8 model um how would the manin program be impacted um if we were to merge a mean yeah if you were to merge a different Elementary School into seron um would that have any impact on The Mod emersion program specific so again that depends so at siert you have multiple sites to choose to merge so it would depend on whether you know which elementary site you wanted to merge into siert middle school and then so for example if you were to say Cherrywood which is why I think you're you're asking that question because it's number one so that's an option um if you did that then you would be merge consolidating your dual immersion program there now the Mandarin dual emerin Elementary program currently operates 10 classrooms it's a large program and it would occupy quite a bit of space over at sierant Middle School uh not lending itself to much extra space for English only classrooms I have a question um and again we have the schematics for that that can get into that detail to show you the number of classroom spaces that would be available what yes does rusin elementary school have the capacity to accommodate more students within the Mandarin program rusin does they're one of our larger campuses and so they they would have room to accommodate the 10 Mandarin classrooms but not necessarily entire School of Cherrywood that would mean that the Cherrywood students will have to go somewhere El hopefully nearby correct yeah I got I am a little concerned about the Manning program and that's the reason I I C it up because I mean we know we know challenges uh we faced in U putting such a program together it's uh to our district it's very new uh and you know the uh School side as a whole uh the school Community as a whole uh has worked really really hard um a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears I know um I think more te than anything else but uh we are at a point where they have established the very established um there and they I know they received uh numerous commendations um the the reason I I brought it up is because uh some of our other programs uh comparatively in in in the district has been running for for quite a while um you know maybe 10 15 years uh or more uh and they know what to what to expect with a potential uh move to a different side but from my perspective and the reason I I I brought that up is uh from my perspective n program is still still in in regardless that it's been ongoing for six or seven years six years and it's still in its infancy according to me it's still a little raw um and my All My worry is um we're approving a uh potentially approving a a award winning program that is starting to settle down starting to um you know uh gather some steam gather some recognition uh I know that we have we had National recognitions we had uh you know people from uh all over the world come and uh review our uh our program My worry is you know you don't want to disturb that thing and and I I it's not to say that I don't trust um our staff or or for or our um or our school community that would receive that program uh but My worry is we will lose that momentum uh and had this been running for maybe 10 12 15 years or something like that um situation would have been different you know I I don't AR we need to think twice some of our successful programs are running for a while and we know uh you know none the movements will not um matter because uh we have uh the same level of uh expectation and uh and education across all School sites and all these staff members know what to expect this this seems to be a little bit it seems to be a little unique um uh experiment if you go uh in our school uh district and it has been a very very successful experiment so I'm uh kind of surprised first of all that uh you know there not more emphasis more discussion or more um uh feedback or whatever you want to call it on that specific program on this in this particular School site um and my All My worry is uh you know if if we at this point in time specifically I will attribute that a lot attributions is at this particular point in time uh if we uh uh you know do anything with a program like moving it elsewhere I am worried uh you know about how well it will continue to do and you know how how well uh it will do that that's all my wor which is why I wanted to find out uh what was the conversation surrounding that um that specific uh program programming and U and it looks like we we t upon it but did not Del deeper into um into that you know what what the programming how the programming came to be and what the structur and and so on like I said it's very unique to our district uh which is one of my concerns about moving it elsewhere losing the moment uh again I will once again uh I had their attribution uh 10 15 years uh you know if you had this program we might be we might be say we might be able to say yes we know what to do uh and also I think Cherrywood is a sealed certified all all staff members are sealed certified is that correct sealed trained not every some are in the process of getting train but they're going K5 TK K5 right SE so we have um so our you know if we decide to consolidate that school to a different site uh for the sake of argument only um because they are in the same family we have ch R and there a question asked about capacity at Raskin if we decide to cons to consolidate with Raskin or close and move to Raskin are all staff members of Rasin also SE certified point so we lose that value of uh uh value proposition there don't we but we can expand train sorry no uh r is not a seal location we have other sites that are seal sites um but we've been expanding SEAL training so if that was the direction of the board to do we could do that all right so um so I correct me if I'm wrong again Dr so man imersion program is included in that in that seal certification so it's part of that so so if we do decide to move it elsewhere um okay so let me ask you this in a different way so if we do decide to relocate that whole program so will we will all the all the seal certified teachers um move along with it so no as do Mr Cabrera shared already he shared the transfer provisions and we can share that with you again um and I think you know as we think more deeply about this you know there's time to prepare for depending on where the board all decides to land in consensus on you know what are those program supports that you'd want to have at every School site that is the board's prerogative to identify what those um areas of focus can be at each school um the reason what I asked about the accommodation the capacity seating at resting to the possibility of moving the mandering program there here is because it's close to sierant and sierant already has a mandering program that they can just fit into it as they grow older that's that's just my um that was my main thinking right I appreciate that my All My worry is about um you know right now moving that program anywhere because to me uh from my perspective from whatever I've learned about the program um based on uh uh the um presentations that they provided during the uh during the uh visit what was the ncls can you help me with the abbrevation there was it ncls that was the the national Chinese uh Institute that came out to visit yes so I I was there uh when they presented to them to the group and I understood a little bit more about uh what all went uh into putting this program the way it is structured right now so my All My worry is at this point it's My worry is it still feels a little raw um still feels that it's it's in its infancy uh for us to um potentially relocate and which is why I was surprised to see Cherrywood land at the top over there um so that those are those are my concerns on that capacity wise I don't understand uh you know I don't see any problem with that um but uh yeah that's where I I'm coming from and again uh your discussion doesn't end here there's still time for more discussion on today's agenda we do have it structured for Q&A for the committee just based on our basic report that was initially provided but also you still have time for public comment and then come back for any additional um discussion or additional information that the board would like to receive in an upcoming meeting thank [Music] you thank you for that presentation appreciate it um before the next agenda item we'll take a 5 minute recess e e e all right let's uh go ahead and find our seats we will be reconvening uh shortly that's only when I Rec please go ahead and find your seats at this moment so we can reconvene the meeting that's the hard part with having races all right let's settle down we will now reconvene the special meeting of the Board of Trustees thank you for your patience um as a as a kind request um I understand that uh our voices are not projecting well in the back so if you can um keep the conversations to the uh to a minimum if you do need need to speak please uh step out and have a conversation and please come back in uh so people in the back can hear what we're saying uh so the next agenda item uh is public comment um on on our agenda items um do you have anything to say Dr or just item right okay all right so um prior to uh you know uh calling for public comment I want to begin by acknowledging the uh challenges involved in um in this process uh consolidating schools is U among the worst things uh a board can undertake uh it's a very uh it can be an emotional Journey it can be uh difficult to fully grasp the scale of it um I want to keep you I want you to keep in mind this the this effort uh began in 2022 as we saw in the presentations um with the establishment of our budget stabilization committee and this is a continuing work of that um but it reflects our commitment to addressing the district's uh Financial realities um it's unfortunate that we are in the situation that we are in the situation right now uh we need to preserve services to support our students uh give them more opportunities um as we review the committee process um and the Creed of information um I ask everyone to remember our shared purpose uh to to ensure that all current and future students of basa Community receive a quality education uh let's keep this meeting respectful constructive and focused on the facts basa has always had a strong reputation of meeting de for being thoughtful and respectful and for for setting a positive example for our children many of them are in the audience today and um I'm sure many of them are watching uh online too uh with that I'll open up uh for public comments on our agenda items all right so um I go and read the speaker contact at this time okay um speakers are requested to State a name and affiliation for the record speaker uh will be usually given 3 minutes to address the board um and I'll take a pause here we have about 32 33 cards um 3 minutes each would be about hour and a half what does the board feel about that may of everybody's time as well as the parents in the audience um so usually we uh you know during our regular board meetings we limit total comment on one topic to 20 minutes is that the case this time or that is in your policy but it's your discretion as a board to extend that time well I would propose extending the time uh you know to allow everybody to speak but maybe reducing the time because obviously you know that would be at least an hour and a half of of just public comments uh so I propose letting everybody speak however long it takes but just reducing maybe the 3 minutes to something a little bit less well the it's okay um that will be about just about an hour how many speakers do you have again 30 33 cards just okay so that will be about an hour just about a little bit more also I think that there might be someone who might yield their time to the person ahead of them so all those consideration so what um just said is um uh if any would like to yield their time to someone else because they uh what they wanted to speak about uh was already covered by someone else you may also want to do that but we want to be uh mindful of everybody's time including uh our little ones that are here it is a school night uh so with that we'll uh we'll relas it to to I just say the speaker yes you have two minutes but if you can make your comments briefly I think everybody would appreciate it so all right so for for today's meeting each speaker will be given 2 minutes to address the board 5 minutes per organization and a maximum today um we we will strike that out we generally have a 20 minute timeline but we we will keep that flexible [Music] um so um uh you the amount of time a lot of me speak T today uh so we uh we we do that so we are um accredible we all diversity of viewpoints um let's see speaker are reminded to communicate with respect fairness and courteousness to each other and to all present we ask that you not use the name of any District employee in your comments the board welcomes allly communication from the public especially with our children watching let's be mindful of our Decor thank you appreciate that thank you for your patience with that I'll call up uh Eli and Ariana as our first speakers hello my name is Arana and I'm in third grade and I was just elected to be student council president at suit out Elementary my friend and classmate Eli would also like to introduce himself and say a few things hello my name is Eli I'm the student at sumerville and over there the principle is great and and we learn new stuff every day I would not be as smart as I am without Miss TR M King and Mr G and all the staff at some of them thank you beautiful good job thank you for those comments thank you next is uh Valencia [Music] all right uh my name is G Valencia I am representing today I stand before you to advocate for the importance of keeping to on Elementary School um and also to argue against the notion of any school closures I'm a parent at toon Elementary is not just a building where our children come together to learn it's a community Hub a place of growth and development and a safe home away away from home for many students who may not have that support I'm sure most of you are aware but not only is Toyon Elementary a title one school but at least over 42% of our students who attend are from low-income families being of Latino descent I have done the research in our district toan has the highest population of latinos with about 50% about 50% of students in our campus being of Hispanic GR your descent my daughter being part of that 50% my daughter has high anxiety and since she has started at tum the staff has helped her in many ways alleviate any Stress and Anxiety that she may have she has built trust like many other of our students we are lucky that these children are receiving the help and support that they need in order to succeed not only in their education but also with their well-being our school is important and it is also a school Pro um part of the SE program I could have chose any school in the district for her to attend to but I chose Toyon toon has so much to offer for their students in the regard of education and support and I'm going to always choose Toyon the idea of school consolidation may seem like a practical solution to budget constraints or declining enrollment but we must consider the broader impact that it could have on all of our students our families and communi but mostly our students St closing toy on Elementary would mean disrupting the lives of these children who have worked so hard to gain the trust and strong bonds with their teachers their friends and importantly the help that they need thank you thank you for those comments our next speaker is Amy G Amy G okay you back up okay starts okay okay um my name is Amy G I have been a kindergarten teacher at Summerdale elementary school for the last 20 years I'm here to represent Summerdale um I've also grown up in this community I went to school in this District um and I've attended all the consolidation advisory meetings except for one and then all this so i' I'm familiar with the process um all the schools in our district are special and valuable to what they community so me this to say this uh closure is not easy but um so whatever the board decides to do I will respect that because the process I I know it's not easy but here I am I want to speak up about the positive aspects of Summerdale that Mak spe that make Summerdale unique and special so some of the positive things are one of the district's goals is to reduce the achievement Gap summer there are showing progress toward that goal this year summer do was recognized as an educational results partnership Erp onor L school for high academic achievement and Student Success and this is a direct quote from the B USD Community connections newsletter the Erp honor utilizes public school student achievement data from 2023 to identify successful schools and districts some El stands above others in the state because of his demonstrated ability to get students to Greater level success and Beyond and a reduction in the achievement gaps among student populations how do you get this honor one of the contributing factors is that suale success is our PBIS program and that's the positive behavior interventions and supports um that's a system established uh uh with a structure which provides positive and supportive environment for all students sumerell has a strong PBS program on can I speak for my school enough longer or no second finish up okay so in okay so well suale scored a high score of 97% of the tier Fidelity inventory walkthrough as a remote sual earned a grant to deepen our PBS implementation receiving this grant shows Su El's commitment to the PBIS process and suel continues to show their commitment to improve their PBS program through a range of supports currently okay and I'm just going to end it off s u m m e r t a l e superar with my brain and my heart I will go very I'm aale Superstar good job our our next speaker is kly Caitlyn La Caitlyn La is it l u or l u [Applause] [Music] she might fall oh I can hold her I just need to hold the card yeah thank you okay okay you can do this my name is Kaitlyn my home school is book tree I go to the chairwood I am learning I love Miss Joe and Miss Joy I have friends I have fun at school events learning at TR with evolvers teachers my mommy and me please don't close my school thank you for your comment appreciate thank you so much for being here next next uh next speaker is uh ktie Tran oh sorry did you still have a did you want to use rest of your time to make well I had it for my daughter and I just want to make sure she had enough time that was Caitlyn got but this one is for me I understand okay perfect thank you uh can you reset the counter to one one and a half minutes thanks gotcha we keep track thank you so much sorry about that oh it's okay my name is Katie my children's home school is book tree and I am here to encourage not selecting Chariot for closure I have attended three different Elementary School Cherrywood Toyon and Majestic what makes Cherrywood different besides the 84 844 th000 savings cherwood Community it's a team of Staff parents and students Cher will promote students to learn about different cultures every month there will be an event where generally led by parent volunteers Charwood involves and encourag students to be responsible safety patrol comprised of students and adults they show up the school early to encourage safety of their peers their teachers and their neighborhood the chood community takes years in commitment of supportive passionate parents Educators and students built and nourished to where it is today the community is not replaceable and cannot be created once broken up I understand we have a $3 million deficit to resolve but can we do it in a way that will minimally impact our student Co has taken and affected everyone now we we considering relocating 500 plus students which is 133% of our elementary elementary students in the school district so please do not consider Cherrywood forclosure but instead consider integrating other schools into Cherrywood and further grow the strong thank you for listening and your patience and your time thank you so much next speaker is Katie TR Katie Tran okay I see okay it say one plus one sorry that's her child my mistake I know you sorry about that so next speaker we have an organization um my Pac representing is uh link Kao your discre can I get one extra minute because I'm organization let me uh let me get that clarified so generally we reserve that for Association but again you're you did a reduction to minut so do you want to reduce from to we'll go with yeah we'll go with three minutes uh because you're you're part of my pack you're representing a group of parents yes sorry three minutes sorry for the confusion go ahead please good evening board members my name is linkai and I'm the chair of the myac Mander emerging parent advisory Council here in ch elementary school tonight I'm here to ask you do not close Chu elementary school as some uh like Community member don't know the M my program in uh this uh School District starts with a grassroot effort a group of passionate parents including myself brought attention to this board members about Community need of this Mi program seven years ago so we go through we went through a lot of like uh commun Outreach and public debate and seven years ago this B member B members made the right choice right decision to start this Mi program here in Chu because the potential success of the school site so I would like to thank you thank you so much for stud this initiative and right now you are going to make a decision again and the uniqueness and also a successful factor of this Mi program is a seal strategy which some like uh gentlemen don't understand previously the reason like uh this strategy works it's because it requirs one to one pairing between like a Chinese teacher and English teacher so student have the chance to switch between two language uh uh scenario so we call it do emersion and this model works very well and our student achieve excellent result both academically and ex character and last year we had this like a nationwide du uh du emerging conference they see how success this system being set up in TR they are pretty impressed so without consider this sale learning strategy you make decision to close TR is 4y because they think moving Mi out of TR just move the Mi teachers no that's not right you need to move the whole school is a whole ecosystem you need to move those English student along with this uh uh Chinese students so uh the goal of this school board is make sure the long-term success of this like uh within this district and closing chairwood you have the risk to basically destroy all those committed effort we have been made in the last seven years is a big risk and also you are going to convey a very negative like message both within district and outside District so I'm here to urge all those po members use your critical thinking make the right decision like you made 7 years ago do not cose Trav I and also invite all the board members to join our monthly myad meeting to hear the voice from this community like teachers students and parents thank you so much thank you for the comment the next speaker is um is it Reverend Linds wordss one good evening board members I come tonight as a parent of a student at Toyon and a student at pedmont middle I've served on School site councils for both schools and on the district deac committee and I've had kids go through the special ed programs of our district and I get it our church had to recently close its preschool I understand the gring decisions that are before you my concern tonight is especially about Equity my faith demands that we can we are most concerned for those that are least advantaged in our society the title one schools receive special funding for those disadvantaged students Toyon is one of those title one schools as is pedmont and serving on School site Council I've helped oversee those funds at Toyon it's helped fund a reading intervention teacher and if you look at the progress not just the current espc results but the progress of cohorts at Toyon the investment that we have made especially over the last 5 years for those students that are most disadvantaged has been really impressive likewise over $100,000 in Title One funds go to pedmont Middle Toyon if consolid would probably go to Noble those funds may be lost based on how those students and the populations intermingle tyan and pedmont are also the most highly High populations of our Hispanic and Latino uh students in our district in California those students have only an 80% graduation rate and I think we need to be concerned about how this consolidation creates trauma and impacts those who are least advantaged in our society you have the tough decision before you and I pray that you really consider those students that especially at Toyon that are often overlooked and we have worked really hard to invest in them and how this consolidation can affect their mental health and their long-term success thank you for those comment next up is Amanda Amanda she's not here all right we will put that apart um next speaker we have is Bobby Evans I just saw [Music] hi U my name is Bobby Evans thank you for the opportunity to speak here my children are no longer in baresa school district or any school other than college at this time the consulting firm keeps telling you that there are no uniqueness about any school they are wrong Ruskin has its own science lab in a brick building that is funded by parents and Community donations and fundraising the entire School benefits from the science lab this brick building cannot be moved to another location it is not a program do you know as a homeowner of 34 years in the rusin community that I have yet to receive any type of communication or flyer informing me that there will be a school closure no surveys no communication ever that this school district has had low enrollment for years wouldn't as a homeowner that pays property taxes that provides some funding for these schools be notified you would think so but you are sure to send out flyers asking us for our votes and for our money specifically for measure K which I was a part of the measure K committee and worked with one of the current board members on that committee measure K got turned into prop two so we are still paying some funding for you you send without Flyers asking for our votes to be on the board but no communication no surveys no Flyers as you actually what's going on financially it's very interesting most of the community was not even aware of this until meeting number six finding out on next door you owe the homeowners in this community an apology for your lack of transparency and handling of funds please consider these closings and find another solution because clearly after hearing your discussions tonight you do not have all the information to make an educated decision thank you thank you for next up is Christian Mar Christian naare Christian naare back hello my name is Christian naris I am a student and the ASV president at p m i here today because I believe closing our schools would have a serious negative impact on our students and their families pedmont is more than just a building it is a community where we learn grow and support each other if this closure goes through it would disrupt not only our education but also our lives and careers of the families who rely on this school we risk losing a strong sense of belonging and the close relationships we have built here over the years I urge you to consider the long-term impacts that this will have on our community and our school thank you thank you for those comments next up is R Bon my name is re bansel I'm a Cherrywood parent my son is in kindergarten in the Mandarin emersion program both my sisters went to Cherrywood and my parents live a mile away unfortunately I need to speak in favor of school consolidation in closing cherwood I looked through the data from the school consolation committee and I can't say I disagree with anything you know the the choice of made will reduce the impact on parents and will save the district the most money as possible closing schools is an opportunity to have more money for music teachers more money for school Labs more more money for Science and more money for interventionists and that can help our students more underutilized schools means poor education not better education perhaps we can spread more resources and more time in thinking about the Mandarin immersion program so that the the quality of dedication stays true it's a tough topic and we are going to lose our community if you close Cherrywood but wherever we go we'll make a bigger and stronger one at whatever school we end up at thank you thank you for those comments next up is Jin d first name is x i n got [Applause] you hello my name is Sindu I'm a homeowner in the rasing and seront area I have three kids that are attending these two schools so during the during the pandemic when everyone had to stay home we found our how was too small so we started look looking for bigger houses but unlike many of my friends who took the chance to move to catino or cille we choose to stay here by another house because houses here are quite affordable and parents here take education seriously but are not pushing their kids too much I really enjoyed a well balanced life here and I'm sure many of rasan cant families would share the same feeling that's why Raskin and camont houses are favored by a group of home buyers I have several friends who are real estate agents they told me that a certain group of their customers are particularly interested in rusing and camon area and call it a hidden gam so if rusing or camon is closed this group of home buyers who value education with turn to other areas like meas so the housing prices in muus would get a boost and our rking and their own Families Our prices would drop signific significantly but this is not yet the worst when there's no demand we need to compet with surrounding houses who don't have a very famous School nearby So eventually when demand Remains the Same and increase in Supply would cause everyone's house to decrease in value have you considered that I believe that the consulting firm you hired they they should know this because they are dealing with school related issues and they should know top schools are closely related to housing prices but they chose not to reveal the information thank you for those comments we appreciate it I I want to add one one more second it is not right to let the whole Community to lose billions of do dollars just to save a few Millions for the school district it's it's not right and I have filed a complaint against them I suggest you do that too thank you government thank you for those comments appreciate it thank thank you for being here next speaker next speaker is Karen kinska I hope it's said that [Applause] way good evening um my name is Karen hska I'm a parent of a Cherrywood student and hopefully a future Cherrywood student um like everyone here I know that this has been a very difficult conversation to have I know that many of my community members have put in a lot of work and effort and I know the board has a very serious decision in front of them um what I want to emphasize today or what I think is most important to take away from the data um with respect to what was considered um is that the data itself needs to be considered um in an appropriate way and it needs to be fully understood so for the case of Cherrywood where the data was kind of missing is um an understanding of the Mandarin immersion program um now I know all of you received this electronically and and hopefully in hard copy as well um we understand that there have been some confusion points about the Mandarin immersion program we put together a guide to help you understand how the Mandarin program works what has made it successful and some of those points of success are that it follows this very distinct Seal program that pairs up the classes so that there are a onetoone coordination that means that the teachers and the children in these classes have been working together to build the success of the program so you can't just take part of the teachers in the classes and move them without disrupting that um relationship that is working and that the model was designed for you're you're effectively breaking the model if you're trying to move it without moving the whole of Cherrywood school um and then the other point that I'd like to remind the um the board that again is captured in detail um the reason that Cherrywood is considered and was determined in the first place is because it has the capacity and really the success of the Mandarin program has shown that we are drawing people from all across um the district and that has led to our positive enrollment trait because we have um so much demand for our program so again I'd really encourage you please understand this program before you make a decision about the Mandarin program uh so that you can make an informed decision based on the data thank you thank you for your comments thank you so much for being here next speaker is Kimberly bloomquest Kimberly [Applause] Bloomquist what it means good evening my name is Kimberly bombest I a sixth grader in the Mandarin ersion program at sier middle school and in the Lum of Cherrywood Elementary School one reason I cannot bear to see either of these schools go is they are both well-oiled machines inspired by our teams of the people in these schools theander and ersion or these schools are special to me because we are one big family if we were to relocate this program we would have to start this family from scratch last year the fifth grade Mi had the majority of the fifth grade Mi received the biliteracy award our teachers have all been amazing in teaching us our language skills and life skills we need to preserve this established community of sier and cherwood thank you for listening thank you for those comments appreciate it being here next speaker is om and SW good evening board members my name is and I'm a fifth grader at cherrywoods mod and emotion program ever since we heard that Cherrywood and other schools are going to be closed my classmates friends parents and I have been very sad and unhappy despite being a non-native student my teacher and some of my close friends parents have helped me succeed very well in the Mander emotion program I've not only learned Chinese songs poems culture but also competing in Regional and National level competitions considering cherrywoods cherrywoods Mi program has consistently received awards every year by by considering to close the school all efforts my teachers principal and all the parents put into making our school so well known will all be for nothing most importantly my friends and I have been together since kindergarten and I've been looking forward to continue being together and learning Mandarin in SAR and by considering to close CA as well all of us are deeply heartbroken and shaken some of my classmates are considering to go to private school and also considering to move away I request you from the bottom of my heart to not separate us from each other and our teachers I speak on behalf of my little sister who is in second grade and can not think of going to any other school other than Cherrywood please do not separate us from people we love and care deeply for thank you have a nice evening well done thank you for this comment next speaker Steven Chang Steven Chang good evening board um thank you so much for your time I'm actually truly inspired my name is Stephen Chang I'm the proud parent of two young children at Cherrywood but behind before me actually stand a whole committee and a whole community of Cherrywood um I think um just to correction right there are actually 12 classes today um at the Mi program but there's actually something about Cherrywood that makes it unique it's not the Mi it's everyone in Cherrywood right you can't really separate MI from cherwood and the other way around right it's taken seven years as I already call seven years ago right when we started this a lot of people got together I'm looking at a few right now on the panel right we all worked very very hard to build this and the results speak for themselves look at the enrollment rates look at the community look at all the stuff that are not just my pack HSC all of us work together to build right you know we don't we understand that it's a tough situation schools have to be Consolidated I get it I feel the pain of every parent here but you also have to look at the data the right way the way that chity has been represented is actually incorrect right from a cost perspective right if you look at it this is the one that's actually growing enrollment it's attracting it's a magnet it's attracting folks into our community and it's making it better right so we need to understand that if we stop it now the legacy is going to be the lost decade right there's a lost decade of Economics the Lost decade of stock market we don't want to have a lost decade of Education especially for an award winning program like chairwood again I'm truly inspired by all of us who are doing it and I implore the board please let's look at all the other options right let's look at all the other places that we can save on cost but I think to close this is actually the wrong decision thank you very much thank you for those comments next speaker is pong pong nen my name is Fong man and I'm a mom of two kids at Cherrywood I and along with many many parents have questions why has consolidation been the first Resort instead of the last where is the evidence that budget cuts other measures for budget cuts have been tried why haven't we looked into requesting State authorization to transfer District property proceeds into the general fund account where is the evidence that the district has attempted to increase enrollment and improved our attendance rates at each and every school did we track Why students left our district to figure out ways to retain them and do we look at proposing an increase in partial tax to raise money for our district just like mil petas did they just raised their partial tax to uh get $2 million for their school district why haven't we looked into that moving over a thousand students and staff cost money the real pain will be felt when the students that we ask to move leave our district our savings that are projected will be drastically slashed and our deficit grows even larger where is the financial details laying out the cost of closing schools and where is the analysis on how sending students to schools with larger enrollment and would impact their learning or their well-being the district simply assumes enrollment will continue to Trend downward despite a significant number of housing being added in North San Jose if projections change will we then have to reopen the schools and then cost our budget to be even great um our budget deficit to be even greater not once will we ask if schools should be closed or if we ask how can we work together to solve the budget deficit without closing schools we only asked to select schools to close and so I ask the board to reconsider that especially when you're considering a top performing school like Cherrywood thank you thank you for those comments next up is K Yan [Applause] yeah I'm a proud asking and Mom uh I'm here to uh say we need three middle schools uh because if you look at the permanent classroom capacities S mountain pit mountain is about 800 so the current students the current enrollment is very healthy if we close one we will push more students to use the pple classroom right and I think the condition of those portable classroom is not as good at as the old district office if the older district office is not going good enough for our adults uh how come those portable classroom will be a option for the [Music] students okay so that's for uh Middle School uh if we have to um close some schools and I I support the uh Pont Middle School K option the newly added options uh because this location and uh has the capacity to grow and the uh this dream and this newly builded gy uh should make it available to more students because the KA campus will be the largest campus among this District there's no way to pick a smaller middle school and converted to a K8 impact all the students there so that's the reason but again I think we need to keep the three middle schools I shouldn't speak on behalf of cherry but I have a friend from chood and uh he wants me to say something um about his opinion so you guys already heard all the wonderful things about the chood I just want to mention the challenge chood is facing they don't have enough English students so some students jobed from the school because they have ch teacher teach them English they're not happy about it thank you thank you for those comments our next speaker is Jennifer Stevenson Jennifer Stevenson hi there jennif Sten I have two kids at Cherrywood I'm one of those incoming transfer parent families I came from Stratford private school this year and one of the reasons I joined was because I can walk to school it's right nearby and the community feeling and relationships that my kids would build if we move to a local public school so the idea of moving again is really upsetting I also want to note that I recognize the demographics as a challenge everywhere but statford schools are growing they actually open a couple Junior schools in mil pedus they're opening a high school that tells me that parents are interested in academic performance when they choose a school which is one of the factors I considered as well and so I would think that academic performance of the schools as one of the top things that you'd be looking at and Cherrywood is one of the top three in terms of the rankings your own scoring of greens and so on that have the best scores in suspension rate English learner progress Ela and math also of course as a few people have mentioned that Cherrywood is attracting students from outside the district for the Mandarin program the report today mentioned you consider closing smaller and underutilized schools chairwood is not smaller or underutilized it's again in the top three in terms of utilization the only three that made over 70% and 500 kids so that means that you'd be moving 500 kids and yes some of them are in a mandering program but it's still 500 kids that are being disrupted from that local school so I would have weighed that higher myself so one of the reasons I wanted to talk is that the waiting that the the committee used called something called a weighted score where it wasn't really weighted normally weight means you put more weight to more emphasis on that criteria the weighted score in that report means that criteria happened to have a ranking from 1 to 10 and so the wor school got 10 bad points instead of having two bad points like they did for something like academic performance so when you add it up and you have a weighted score at the top it's really misleading and our volunteers did a great job they're not data scientists so by giving them data in this way I think it is misleading I think it overweighted the three cost questions giving a score of Maximum score of 10 in the total and I urge you to reconsider that when you look at the rankings of the the school thank you thank you for those comments next speaker is AD This is highly intimidating good evening and thank you so much here your time this evening my name is Anin and I'm a parent of a first grader at Cherrywood school I myself went to Lan View and then I went to mural middle school and then I went to High School in San Jose State so San Jose San Jose all the way um but the reason why I'm here is to ask you to take Cherrywood off that list when I looked at the information the metrics I was very confused as Jennifer mentioned how is it that a school that's performing so well that has growing enrollment and is one of the best performing schools on this list at all I understand that cost is one of your greatest um priorities right now but to close a school that is performing so well and then also decoupling the CH the Mandarin emersion program from the school itself that makes absolutely no sense you've heard from numerous speakers now the quality of the program is based on the structure of it which is very hard to move to another campus and we also have to think about what makes a program successful it's the administration it's a faculty to have worked together for years to create what it is today and it's a community and to say that we're going to extract just the Mandarin students manderin merging students and place it into another school and act as if there's not going to be any disruption I feel is quite naive that disruption who knows what that's going to cause will there be dissatisfied parents who decide I'm going to pluck my student out take him to another school Mr funin just talked about the importance of enrollment if we lose enrollment because we decided the manard IM motion program can move arbitrarily I think that's going to hurt our district it's going to hurt our budget even further and so I'm here to really emphasize that please don't penalize a school that's performing well and penalize a program that it's excelling in its current state thank you thank you thank you for those follow the next speaker is Karen Luke Karen Luke what's name yep it's [Applause] you good evening my name is Karen Luke um I have two children currently in Bessa my daughter Rachel in the M person and saramont seventh grade and Rebecca in the maning program in seven um in fifth grade at Charwood um we're a non-heritage family that joined this program um my husb my son um was a 10th grader and he actually came to Pont Middle School too um when looking at all the reports and hearing all the data for my middle school child I heard a lot of things about you guys looked at presented data about where kids are coming from to go to school but nothing was mentioned about the after school programs what these schools in the area have that are unique um like Rachel's part of the wrestling team at camont and the fact that you know you have the camont wrestlers High School people coming over and working with the kids and interacting with them I've heard about them like math students coming over to the high schools my son comes over here to p m middle to help with the chief leader Academy we also got to look at what the after school programs are where these kids are going these are part of all their social networks like kids here go over to hang out the library you know real kids go over to Target those are all part of growing up these are why all the middle schools are very important for my younger daughter I just like to say when you're looking at the Mandarin program please don't think it's just Mandarin teachers and English only teachers these teachers all work together and through Co and virtual learning they helped you know discover that my daughter needed more assistance for her specific learning disability and these are all things that they've worked through and established in the program and they have a system that they're working together so when you're considering these um closing schools please look at everything just not like only the data that's presented from you from the consolidation committee thank you thank you for your call next speaker is Emily Emily hope Emily hope I don't have time for self inroduction but I just want to re the importance that um you read the 14 page white paper that Karen painstakingly prepared on how moving and dismantling Cherrywood would have a profoundly devastating impact on our Mi program and I would also reiterate link Kai's appeal for each of you to join our upcoming myc meeting on Thursday to discuss how it's impracticable to move the Mii program the fact that Cherrywood has an increasing enrollment despite the low number of Resident student is custom to the success of the program that it can attract people from other uh home schools and outside the district and like one of the board members pointed out the program is still in an infancy stage do you really want to disrupt the momentum that we have after we've only had our first cohort of sixth and seventh graders graduate from the program they started in 2018 and they just graduated um it will be a huge setback to the program and then suen gear um I am actually quite encouraged by the questions that the board is asking today one of the board members talked about how titlean funding um is impacted with the consolidations as a finance professional I'm deeply concerned about the financial analysis that has been done for the estimated savings it is very one-sided it talks about how much cost you can save but it doesn't consider the potential Revenue you will lose when students move to private schools if you were to close High performing schools are you sure that closing High performing schools like camon Raskin or Cherrywood will not impact our enrollment numbers like I really urge the board to get the Consultants to model out the potential Revenue loss to better gauge the estimated savings from each consolidation scenario that's what you've paid them to do and you need the right data to make the decision if not we'll be back here again very soon to discuss a persistent budget deficit situation thank you very much thank you for those comments next speaker is Priyanka Priyanka Priyanka hi uh good evening this is my first time uh at one of these meetings uh I have spoken at Sunnyville school district meetings before during covid I am uh today uh Sierra Middle School mom uh my son has just started sixth grade I'm also a transfer parent meaning my son has spent five years at the wonderful Cherry Chase Elementary School in Sunnyville um and at age 40 after being divorced a few years ago I still wanted to buy my first home and the only place I could afford a home is right here in basa San Jose and I put 20 years of my life savings into buying a home here with the hope of my son having to being able to go to school here in agreement with my uh co-parent my ex-husband that we would support him going to school to sieron so now it is both heartbreaking for us as parents and for my son and many other kids like him who have transferred to these schools because copertina homes and Sun homes are simply not affordable to many many of us and so I think this is very important uh I have three main questions from what other parents brought up the Consulting firm's data I feel is not holistic they have only considered past data and not future Trends they have made assumptions that are not valid and not logical I have worked for a Cap Gemini a global consulting firm working with clients with big Brands and I know the transparency and hardw workk it takes to be a good consultant I do not see these Consultants as good Consultants from everything the other parents have shared with me from the way that the data was shared represented gathered collected and analyzed so I request all of you to take this with a grain of salt and I beg for more time for this work to deserve the time and attention that it gets uh I think I have only 20 seconds left so the other thing I'll say is enrollment data I know this is a problem however inter and intradistrict transfers have been consistantly denied and discouraged since the past four or five years and I demand why this is the case if there is low enrollment and I was part of the school uh committee or member of anything of the kind I would have done everything in my power to increase enrollment and not denied enrollment so this is my personal experience and the experience with many parents that these denied inter and intradistrict transfers and I more answers here thank you thank you thank you for those comments I I understand the emotions are all i' I remind everyone to be respectful in your commentary uh we want to have a productive conversation tonight um we're looking forward for your inputs with that we'll go with the next the next speaker uh called Scarlet Scarlet Rose [Applause] good evening board member teachers students and parents I'm a parent of someone that grad of three children that graduated from Noble from peont middle and peont high school I currently am a co- den leader for Scouts and I see a lot of student EVS flourish from a lot of the Bay Area Schools I have a couple questions the B School District would not renew M's CHR 's lease that was leasing the burias of Birchwood property they were paying 65,000 a month that's $780,000 a year why did the district choose to stop that Revenue where was the Birchwood yearly property Revenue allocated to will or can they sell the lands can they use the profits toward keeping the schools open what will happen to the Birchwood campus and other school properties that are considered to be closed in the future also the district wants the schools to consolidate without raising the teachers or the staff salary why not consolidate some of the superintendents that make 300 to 200,000 plus a year where is the transparency of where the district money is going why aren't the voices of a parent worth an hour and a half of your time aren't the future of the children worth an infinite amount of time also the advisory committee is looking for a school that has unique qualities when the fact is crystal clear that each child that goes to every school is unique look for alternative Solutions such as parcel tax and other options don't close any of our schools thank you thank you for this comment next speaker is Nina Nina set Nina set please good evening board members I'm a Community member I have spoken previously at the board meeting I am an alumni of both Ruskin and sieron and my parents still own a home in the area it is absolutely devastating to hear that Ruskin and sierant are on this list I can tell you right now three things I want to bring up you talk about a survey I surveyed my neighbors I got signatures from my neighbors none of my neighbors knew about this they're mostly Mo I'd say 75% of my neighbors are seniors they're homeowners people that been that have been here 30 40 and 50 years so when we talk about surveying the community I want to know who was surveyed how they were surveyed in what languages they were surveyed in none of my neighbors knew I only found out Labor Day weekend on next door that is appalling that is absolutely appalling that people that have lived in this community for decades had no idea and this is going to have a devastating impact what are we going to do the question I also have is why aren't we looking at Alternatives why are we not looking at Alternatives thirdly we talk about and I'm going to Echo what Bobby said and other people are saying if we close top ranking schools mark my word people will choose private I have neighbors one of my neighbors is sending their younger child to Ruskin his older sister goes to private school I can guarantee you if you close Ruskin both those kids are going to be in private and that is probably the case for a lot of young couples who have moved to go to top ranking schools in this District they're not going to wait around I've did I have also read research that says that the year the school closure takes place as well as the next year academic performance goes down those children need their Community they need their teachers they need everything that they have in their current schools there's absolutely no reason to close any of these schools thank you thank you for those comments um next speaker is Mrs W hello uh I grew up in the varasa school district I went to Toyon peont middle and peont hills and as a mother of the Majestic Way and the Sam saramont student I'm also a mother of an i of a student with the IEP and 504 plan someone on the committee mentioned earlier if anybody reached out to the community about possibly keeping all three middle schools open and the answer to that was no there was one survey and there was no communication from the district for who live in this area about the school closures for the families that live in the pedmont Middle School area we did receive a letter about the 10 million grant that was approved for the gym that we are in right now so I'm asking for you to please review the the idea of the T TK througha option versus closing a middle school siat middle school is the largest school in the district with 677 children the enrollment numbers would be higher if the district allowed for the inter District transfers which they stopped two years ago we you are asking for 677 kids to move which are these are the children that went through covid the third and fourth graders who had their Elementary years disrupted now you're asking to move these same kids the year of their eighth grade year which they are all looking forward to my recommendation if it means anything would to do the tk3 TK through a option with middle school pedmont and Toyon and sumerell being the options since the communities are right next door to each other and there wouldn't be much disr disruption to the neighborhood thank you thank you for those comments the next speaker Amit SE Amit oh there you go to the school district and the board thank you I appreciate this minute in this time uh thank you everybody and the parents for being here uh I'm a proud parent of two children at lanv elementary let me tell you something about being a parent in any Community it's not the immersion programs it's not the programs that just are there my kids are in the Indian immersion program they're in the Vietnamese camb Cambodian immersion program and the Latino immersion program and that all comes from the cohesiveness of the education system and that's provided by the Educators in those schools nothing is solely singled out as being more successful than the other the second aspect to that is when we look at the meritocracy of what we are using to make our assessments folks we're using a decision process for Consulting organization that hasn't done a good job of what we are really evaluating ourselves against it's very clear based just on one community in one school giving their outbursts and their comments and you know there there their feels for it that's very fair I think the second thing about this process that we need to understand is that at the end of the day we have to have awareness within our community to be participative in this process a lot of us feel left out out of this we are disjointed we are looking to you to make decisions but we're not part of that process anymore how does that make anybody feel if you go to your physician and are not part of that process this is cultivating future Benjamin Franklin said the best investment you can ever make is education it pays the highest interest look at our school districts that's what we want from you so consider the totality of your actions and it's repercussions in the long term that's all I ask thank you thank you for the and once again before I call our next speaker I do understand your emotions but please be respectful uh in your commentary uh we want to get positive feedback and critical input uh from the public today which is the purpose of this uh special board meeting uh with that we will um I'll call upon Susan um Wong is it the writing is not very clear it's w yeah [Applause] you hello yes uh good evening board members and um and all the neighbors my name is Susan and I'm uh living in the neighborhood of rcing sier mon and also my kids are attending TR and my program so today here I'm have just G out two comments about the school uh crocher here so first is about the the foundation there why we're closing because we project that the enrollment will keep going down but actually this this assumption is not solid so including today's presentation I noticed that all the data stop at 2022 because that is the lowest point of the enrollment but this number the enrollment number actually increasing for the continue two years later which means 2023 and 2024 so for this two years the L coming back and keep stable so the assumption that the L will drop further is not solid this is the first point the second point is about the Middle School So currently uh based on the data provided by the um consulting firm there are 3,000 capacity for the students uh we are think on but for the current uh middle school students they over 2,000 around 250 so imagine if we out one of the school which means that this 2, and uh there will be 50 students have to overow to I don't know nowhere so it's not fair for our students they have to fully pack in two schools that's not fair so uh I think that's it so that's is my point Thank you thank you thank you for those comments uh next speaker is uh J J j i e I always mess up your name not here okay all right we will move forward to our next speaker is Luna Le good evening for members my name is Luna I'm a ruscin mom in during last board meeting comments I talk about uh my questions with the consulting firms I'm going to not I'm not going to repeat it today tonight I want to urge you to reconsider the decision of closing one of our middle schools we only have three schools here if any one of them is closed we can't have it open back and I proposed at least to post Pond the closure and instead of contact a thoral survey of all current F fifth grade parents the survey helps up helps us understand the refence and a potential impact of closing a particular school because I heard many um Middle School parents telling us that they couldn't enroll in ceron that they send their kids to private schools and by opening that survey and see if they wanted see if we could maintain those parents in the middle school and enrolling the um and increasing the enrollment of the Middle School um by doing that and then also I understand that school closure may be inevitable but as many other parents already mentioned closing those top schools here made causing a decrease of the enrollment further than others um probably we will have to face this crisis or the deficit again in a few years if we made that decision so please do make a decision that PR preserves our education excellence and also keep this families and invest in our public systems thank you thank you for those comments next next speaker is Jessica buos uh my name is Jessica buos I'm a parent of a third grader at Ruskin and a seventh grader at sierant uh thank you board president Jay for raising the question concerning what justifies a special program I want to share again a testimonial from Jeanie aant she was the educator who led the fight for Ruskin science lab in 1995 it serves countless students for as many as sorry it has served countless students for many years since 1997 when it opened its stores this is 27 years of dedication to our children so the comment of it easily being able to relocate is offensive to me I believe this special program is a foundation of their love for stem the parent survey showed that stem was on the top choice for their preferred special programs I Believe by inspiring the love for stem and even steam very early on in their education carries into middle school and Beyond Ruskin and Sion also have multiple students who are successfully complete competing in math competitions their competitors include private schools like Harker bases and Challenger last year the ruscin team won at state level and went to Nationals in Math League ceron students won third and eighth place overall this is just one example of the success that have come from our established stem and science lab our science lab was and continues to be funded by our parents the community donations and fundraising and is supported by our school it has two dedicated teachers and it's a real physical building thank you thank you for those comments our next speaker is Eileen um not able to see the last name clearly L is it oh okay I [Applause] know my name is Eileen I don't have all my children are grow up so I don't have any kids go to any of the school here but I I'm the property taxpayer nobody get notify me of this school closure nobody did any survey you know with me and my next neighbors put out the sign say don't close San Pon they say oh what they're going to close s Pon so I that's the time I started you know getting very upset okay I am I know you you know there's a budget crisis but I'm against close any of the Middle School because we only have three middle school if we close one of the middle school that 300 the other two Middle School each school is going to absorb 300 kids do you know the traffic Pon Copley moral it's going to be very bad in the morning and when and also kids cannot walk to school those 600 kids they cannot walk to school anymore right so the traffic is going to very bad and then when the parents are driving the kids to school parents are very stressful so the kids will not have good experience of going to school they are not going to have good spirit going to school so you and also kids are going to be late to school so you will have tness that's very bad and also I I'm for that merge school to the middle school because the parents are going to take the kids to the school they don't have to go two different places one go to one go to uh Elementary School the other one go to the other way they cannot handle it a parent cannot handle it so I hope you guys consider this okay thank you thank you for your comments um next speaker it says share with teachers um on this so [Music] [Applause] we can do three I good evening reset the cont 3 minutes please thank you you get three minutes to speak thank you so much good evening everyone uh we are Cherrywood teachers I'm Trisha Fam I'm Cindy Joe I'm Leu and Betty Chen we feel that we feel compelled to speak in clarify the deal immersion manding in English program Cherrywood is not comprised of two programs our students are integrated as one school we are not two separate programs yes I think cheru teachers work as a team we're not a Chinese school but a due immersion program teachers spent seven years to integrate the program to trust each other other as a real Partners trust me the integration was not always Joyful We had hard discussions tears and sweets and the English only teachers also benefited from this program we have lots of stories to share and you're welcome to come to us if you would like to hear any of that and if Charwood were to be closed we will have we would have start over again to build up the truck and integrated Dynamic which took years to build thank you I want to bring to your attention one of the Criterion from the advisory committee was if programs could be readily or easily replicated and um The Mandarin emerging program is not something that was built in one year two years three years it took us a full seven years for teachers to work together endlessly English teacher Mandarin teachers we switch we share our students our students share the teachers the this is an this is an integrated program that cannot be separated and um to hear the board to discuss questions about oh the Mi program is how many kids and the other group is how many kids is really heartbreaking for our community so please consider thinking about us as one whole school because we are a community and we welcome and invite you to come and see that we are one community and one school the lastly I'd like to bring to your attention is um two other considerations and that is what about families who have a student or a child in the Mandarin verion and another in the English program are they going to have to choose or be split up and lastly um another parent had spoken about Co having an impact where their seventh grader may not graduate with their eighth grade Friends next year um same situation our fourth graders this year they started kindergarten during covid it took them years to build that community of relationships with their friends and now they're going to potentially graduate in fifth grade without their friends please think about their mental health and well-being thank you thank you for thank you for those comments next speaker is uh Jin Wong Jin Shin [Music] exam hi uh good evening everyone and p m um so I'm a father of a CH student my is H to uh currently in second grade um so um my my job basically is dealing with the data every day um I heard we have a me criteria to consider how to dealing with this uh cost uh problem like uh we want to close the school but I don't um see anyone uh really uh talk about the cost of each individual Solutions and uh for me I see High en rment rate at the childwood I see um successful in the program at the chood um in my opinion I think we should find out a long-term solution instead of just a short-term solution like oh we just choose a a school to close uh and moreover I think emotionally every parent of a student they don't want to close their own school they like their school they love their school that's a a community and uh myself I also volunteer at the school so I have a strong emotion to the childwood um so emotionally I don't think anyone want to close their own school but uh we also need to talk about the data right we want we want to have a best solution to basically solve this current scenario uh short of uh funding um so we should have a more uh successful uh program in our whole district and so that we will uh attract more student let say when we talk to our neighbors we will recommend the emersion program and they will consider um enrollment to a public school instead of going to a private school or going to a Christian School um that's my point Thank you thank you for those comments our last speaker today is Vivian Vivian Zang [Applause] [Music] um today I want to speak up for Charwood so um my son has attended childhood for three years and uh he loves his his school and he love his friends he love his teachers you cannot imagine how happy he is every day he goes to school and even um on the holidays he tells me he wants to go to school and and um I don't think it is a good idea to create a k28 school you know for the middle schoolers they are almost as big as adults and the younger kids in um in the lower grades of elementary school they are maybe like half as big as the adults right can you imagine if you go to work every day your co-workers are twice as big as you are or if you drive on the highway the other cars are all two uh twice as big as your car it's very it's not safe right and and it's scary and uh the younger kids they are not only physically um less mature than the older kids and also they are mentally much less immature right so I think you do not you do not keept the uh one year old in the same school with a 10 year old right it's it is the same logic um and third I think uh you need to When You Close Cherrywood you need to uh you cannot evenly distribute all the kids to nearby schools right because you need to keep all the Mand immersion kids uh together right so it's it's going to be a lot of work so this is really very very important to consider okay thank you thank you comments thanks to everybody that spoke today thank you for being here V thank you for your patience I know I'm a little liberal with my timee keeping here uh I just wanted to uh hear everybody's opinion and I appreciate it thank you all for your patience also all right uh we will move on to the next item in the agenda uh review and discussion Dr Fontes this is my item if we can go to the last slide Kim oh that one right there thank you so again uh this does not conclude the board's opportunity to continue to deliberate regarding the best options for the district what we have here again is various options um that can be brought forward to the board in terms of thinking through various scenarios that may be best ins serving our students you see there you have option A which was the initial uh proposal that was brought forward to the committee which was consideration of closing two elementary schools and one middle school with the amount of savings that that would bring forward to the district uh again during convers ation with the committee there was the thought of a creation of a tk8 which was option b closing two elementary schools and merging an elementary school with a middle school there's a savings attached to that and as was discussed earlier this evening um there's additional investment that goes into that option to reconfigure the Middle School site and then of course uh another option here is uh to not consider any of the middle schools and to just stay focused on Elementary School sit selection and there's uh the um to meet that Savings of the 2 and a half million that we're trying to capture the closure of the three Elementary sites so similar to option b without reconfiguring a a middle school so we know that uh the night has gone long you've heard a lot of information um and we again though also want to hear from the board any additional information you may need that staff and I can bring to you in an upcoming meeting to help your uh continued thinking about what might be the best solution questions comments on the board um how do you feel about the time uh you still okay with the time I'm okay with I can also review information from the prior discussion that I've already captured here that the board has requested for additional information if there's anything else you want to add to that you know we can also bring that back to to you um what I have here is there was a question uh early on regarding Title One analysis of funding and what that impact would be and what that would look like based on different schools that might be considered I also have here um question regarding uh the cost for reconfiguration and exactly what would that look like I have here the configuration uh schematics wanting to be reviewed so you could actually see well at pedmont for example how would that physically look on site same with Sierra um I also have uh that there were questions regarding the Mandarin program and the instruction model to bring back more information on that issue are there any other uh questions yeah so um I have a couple so uh for the you know merging one Elementary with the Middle School U so you have you know some information you going to gather regarding what that's going to look like will that include will that just be about you know what the site itself is going to look like or what other schools would be affected uh if we were to select you know one the other so the School site selected is to the discretion of the board so what we have those we do have schematics for each Middle School we can share with you the uh amount of students it has capacity to grow to extend to the tk8 and then uh depending on the elementary sites that we want to look at we can let you know whether or not they can merge and fit appropriately or not okay also so we have you know three options there do we want to as a board eliminate any of those options uh and you know narrow down to two or even [Music] one or do we want to keep all three open as of right now I think U they're all on the table according to me um um very interesting point about the K8 do we we of course we have K8 or I don't know there tk8 K8 in the area that are successful I think Orchard School is one of our uh they're not our school but one of the schools in the area M that is a successful K8 program um and you know it'll be interesting to see how how that structure works out and I think that feeds into your uh uh point about presenting the schematics of how the campus might look visually uh in one of the two uh campuses that are shortlisted here um but definitely there's there are more more questions more um ponderings if you will more uh things maybe we didn't think about um so far I think we have got some amount of feedback from the community today um maybe we want to take some more time uh to think about those options and uh and meet again uh at a future meeting uh and come up with more questions if there are any other questions yeah go for it um yeah I had some you know just some uh maybe some responses some of the questions posed during the community or during the comment section one was about the Birchwood campus and you know kind of what happened there I know you went over it staff went over it briefly can you kind of explain kind of what the situation is sure yes uh birwood campus which is where the milus Christian School is currently operating from uh to be clear to our community we did not stop their lease their lease actually is still active they have another year and a half on their lease um we are still pending communication from them uh to let us know formally what their plans are ahead uh but of course it's come to our attention through our neighborhood community that they have decided to stop their school and and merge with another private school in another area and they do uh provide uh their their rent for their lease on a monthly basis and uh these last two um two months where rent was due they did not pay their full rent and let us know that they don't have the ability to pay uh their full rent at this time and so we are uh working to engage with them further to understand more what what their plans are in terms of um staying committed to their lease with us which was active but they are now um in breach of that contract okay thank you and then the other question you know that that I heard U our folks here ask is um just Outreach efforts you know to community at large regarding our you know process uh for consolidation so as we shared earlier um in terms of our communication Outreach uh We've we've done that through our own list serve but of course that's typically through our parent community and anyone else who has joined our list serve you know from CommunityWide that would receive that direct information when we looked at um opening up the committee uh knowing that we wanted to try to get as many folks involved in this uh School consolidation process uh we did reach out to council member Cohen to see if we could advertise that opportunity in his newsletter knowing his newsletter also did Outreach reach um across our community and so he uh graciously agreed and provided us space uh through that realm uh in addition to that uh we also have uh monthly District updates that we provide at the barasa citizens advisory Council which is the connection of the barasa neighborhood association and the penitencia uh Creek Association and we've been sharing updates there regarding our budget and School consolidation process so um sorry um so one question uh that came to mind is uh do we need to do we need to have this kind of a big bang approach of uh either closing three Elementary or uh you know two plus you know doing all those things can we model it in such a way that you know we we uh start with something you know whatever the option is maybe uh create a TK tk8 model or something like that and see how how it proceeds and then bring the next option in um is that I I know that we have a we have a timeline on it we have um the county breathing down our nexts uh as far as the budget is concerned uh but you know to somewhat soften the blow so to speak um is there any kind of option any kind of movement uh within that um within what we decided uh as as a as a board to uh to to do this um uh you know two Elementary and one middle um at the time uh can we can is there any movement any flexibility in the way we can structure that so you're asking like a phased approach yes okay so again our remember that our current budget has already accounted for 2 A5 million in savings that goes into our multi-year projection this year and the county um you know they've uh are monitoring our decision- making around the cost savings that we need to do for the $6 million um they're monitoring this process they have requested that the once the board received the report from the committee that they receive a copy of that committee report um just to know that we're moving along um based on the recommendations that our budget stabilization committee has made and we're working through all of those recommendations as we've said in the past um because I believe this question was asked um a few board meetings ago in terms of the timeline we have 2 and a half million that we need to account for and we would need to find it in other avenues um so in terms of a phased approach I would have to ask Mr Franklin to uh calculate what that would look like because there will be a remaining balance that we will need to find reductions for that balance in other areas and then just keeping in mind that 90% of our our budget is in um Staffing cost which is also services to students too so we we want to be mindful of that um the reason I asked that question is there multiple school districts um in our County facing similar challenges we Alam rock that went through that process Franklin McKinley uh is one more um and I I don't know what's going to come off uh East Side there also in the in a you know budget ho from from what I understand um the high school district uh I'm sure that the count is looking at all those things looking at all these school districts uh facing these challenges uh um and from their perspective you know it's um we need to have a balanced budget we need to have these uh cost savings and ensure our reserves are healthy and so on uh but if we have so many so many school districts MH uh doing the same thing um we have so much of you know open property uh out there we have um there's there's so many things um to consider just check just um just not from from um from a financial perspective we need to look at the community uh as well because it's affecting uh our parents and our students and and so on so uh you know is there any any kind of a leway the community the the um County can give us um and they work with us and they work with multiple school districts and and U you know help us you know like I said soften the blow a little bit see if approach can work is there something um that we can do all I'm just trying to trying to see if and I'll transition to Mr Franklin so you can share with you the County's review process uh because I know in terms of our um submission of our budget you have three qualification levels a positive certification a qualified certification and a negative certification each level of certification comes with uh different um expectations uh from the state the county is the overseer of the state so these are state regulations that they are implementing as they review every school district's budget right I think I I saw that in one of the slides that that we um without this um savings we run the risk of a state takeover is that is that uh something and Mr Frank can explain that process more yeah so it's a good question so if we don't realize that $25 million in savings plus the additional savings from declining enrollment we would have to realize those Savings in some other way so if we decided to go with the phase in approach and we only generate a million dollars in savings from school consolidation we would have to find that million and a half elsewhere in the budget um that would be outside of our teaching staff so um we went through this process currently and if we do not with the two with all of the savings that I showed in the multi-year projection that maintains a positive budget certification barely at the 3% so if we do not have the full amount of savings as shown in the multi-year we would most likely skip qualified certification and be directly a negative certification not able to meet our obligations for next year um that just varies depending on how much savings we would find but um and then it would be risk of fiscal solvency issues as soon as our cash is depleted okay thank you so I think multi-year projection is is a key uh factor is what what they're looking at right and definitely when you're not able to meet that minimum 3% Reserve uh you know the level that certification status adjust whether that's in your immediate year year two or year three so so could you explain further um Mr Franklin if that amount um is not feasible in year three what would our potential status be so if we were not meeting Financial Obligations in year three would would be in qualified status so if we were able to meet the 3% in year two we would still theoretically have some time however um you know the the county would put a lot of restrictions on us they would give us um you know certain parameters that we would be required to meet within the the certification process and um and a lot of these things are projected savings and so they could potentially say that they don't believe those that those savings will uh materialize and could change our certification anyhow to negative certification um so that that's definitely a possibility and the other piece too is when we've seen uh school districts find themselves in that negative certification status which comes after the June adopted budget oftentimes um what we've seen is the county comes back and lets you know now you need to make that difference of reductions by October they don't give you a longer length of time um that's typically how those reductions uh when they see that those reductions weren't previously made that they have a greater sense of urgency that they need to be made before you move further in to your next fiscal year yeah so a reminder back a year ago we had a conditionally approved budget or two years ago we had conditionally approved budget the county required us to come up with a budget stabilization plan it had to be submitted to them by October 8th for them to approve our budget um as is with those projected um reductions in the budget and committing to then detailing what those reductions would be and when they would be implemented and then they're ensuring that we're staying on that timeline so that's the monitoring that they've been doing um throughout this time um get a we did get a conditional um that was the reason the board took that uh resolution for the $6 million reduction thank you for reminding me that I do recall uh discussing uh as there was some some talk about um parcel tax um potentially adding up uh paral tax measure you know if if we do you know look into that what what amount of partial tax would satisfy our um our budget hold you would need a a pretty high figure and I'll let Kevin talk about that um he did briefly mention during his presentation that we did attempt to raise a current parcel tax um that was uh two years ago when we when it was up for renewal at that time we did Community polling um we had a service provider come and do the polling for us to see uh at that time we were even just looking for an additional $20 we thought we could raise the parcel tax from current $79 to $99 which would have been incredibly helpful for our district um unfortunately to pass a parcel tax you need 2/3 vote in favor for that unlike a bond right so there's a higher threshold of positive votes that you need to gain that revenue and the polling came well under what would be required to pass and that data was presented to the board and was shared with you because you needed to take action on the amount that you were willing to go out for for that parcel tax so um since that didn't PLL favorably but the renewal did people felt comfortable with continuing with the the $79 allotment we moved forward with with that amount versus risking the total amount and it not passing in light of uh where we are right now in light of all this uh all the talk about closure and consolidation um do you envision um support from the community um there would have to be polling done again that isn't anything that we could uh really um take a guess on we would have to PLL the community to see what that level of Interest was and now we're off an election cycle corre so remember that um to do a special election we would occur that entire cost for that um um I think did didn't East Side I have a have a me ballot measure for their H Tax I I didn't track it I don't know whether it passed or no they had a $49 parcel tax in this election cycle I'm not sure how how it it faed I need to check the um check how it supported but um that would have been somewhat helpful and you did have a question um which I didn't answer about uh what would that dollar value be for a parcel tax to um cover yeah so currently the the current parcel tax is $79 per parcel and it brings in approximately $1.7 million so it would need to be somewhere similar to that to raise um$ two and half to $3 million so it' have to be somewhere around you know $60 at least per parcel potentially higher um and then what we've been seeing too is that the number of uh opt out because um seniors um have the ability to opt out of the parcel tax as the community ages we see a lot more uh opt outs and waivers um and then just a reminder that the last um time we put the parcel tax on the ballot which was special election cost over a million dollars it was about $1.2 million so essentially that utilized almost the whole first year um renewal um amount just to be able to put that on the ballot for Renewal Tris oh no I was just going to say that yeah that's uh even just to put on the ballot it's several right like I was going to say several million so that's and that's potential that you we might not get that back so if if we you know roll the dice uh and you know it doesn't pass then we're out that money so now we're in in a deeper deficit all right so um what's the consensus if you uh do miss Bo sorry I interupting go ahead um I think you to share my mic your mic is not working is it on yeah it's on it's on no yeah anyway regarding the board considerations there are three options there shall we as a board look at it as three options or shall we look at it as two options yes so that was that was uh you know what I wanted to kind of uh discuss I think that you know we from our discussions we're looking at more like option A and B and C we haven't really discussed unless um there's a you know there are board members who are in favor of keeping option C on board but I think at least we could narrow it down right I mean it's a difficult decision regardless but I think narrowing down from three to two would be a kind of a step you know in the right direction I agree with that that option A is um that's my opinion is should if we want to consider all three but for me personally um option A is out let see minut so I was actually thinking A and B and then C is out I'm still open to hearing all of them but I think going back well first of all I want to acknowledge U there's a few speakers here I think that spoke I want to acknowledge the uh that the passion that that they gave uh there's a lot of advocacy for for one school I know no one wants to close their own neighborhood schools or the schools where the kids attend to um so we all of us up here we recognize that uh but on that same note I also want to acknowledge the hard work and all the time that was spent and given towards uh the recommendations for uh the schools that will be considered for potential closure closure or consolidation by the the committee uh out of all the 10 elementary schools um I think the the committee got it right with the five schools for discussion um I think the the ranking um is still up for discussion and um but when it comes to that I I think I'm not sure where the board stands with it but I think those should be the five schools that we should focus on uh for discussion um the ranking I know is still up in the air but at a minimum I think that's what we should focus on going forward unless uh there's other schools that the board wants to consider or schools on the list that the board is really admit against at a minimum I think those are the five schools out of the 10 elementary schools that we should consider right so um thank you thank you for your just have yeah so U I agree except you know so I I don't think though you know I asked this question previously that that really considers option b so if we do like a combined middle school with an uh you know basically TK to8 school that would affect possibly schools that are not on the list is that what I heard correctly from earlier not necessarily no so we could we could still keep that option and then keep the schools on the list yes MH those would be the schools you would consider for merger so while I thinking about that from my my perspective um uh I'm not inclined to close any of our middle schools um at this time uh you know primarily due to the the size of the campus so for for me closing a middle school um would not be uh I would not not be in favor for that favor of doing that that's my uh perspective I do like the um and definitely I want to get more data on uh how the tk8 model will work uh specifically uh talking about stem or um any any any um uh what is it called targeted uh program in in that particular TKA School um so option b looks to me looks okay I mean there's not nothing is okay don't don't don't get me wrong um there's nothing nothing okay with uh this whole process but um if we had to um capitalize on some of the uh you know uh money that um additional funding and things like that um maybe combining to uh elementary schools and then creating a tk8 model might be a good way to go uh that's that's my um opinion my opinion is um to keep option b as something that we can really think about I'm not in favor of closing three elementary schools certainly not even one middle school so it seems seems to me that the only one that would be even though it's hard I'm a former educator myself so I know this is difficult very difficult all of us in here will experience this as a very difficult decision action B seems to be for me personally seems to be something that I can really think about I don't like it either way but we are facing a situation that's a a very difficult situation for all of us so with option b it says close two Elementary and merge one Elementary with a mill that would mean three Elementary we impacting three Elementary correct um is that your understanding too so we we will end up impacting three Elementary anyway I will end up backing up sorry what so with option b um the uh it's a is to close two Elementary and merging one Elementary with the middle yes in back three three elementary schools yes so you uh Miss boak if I heard you right so you do not want to close three elementary schools but you're okay to merge close okay I'm okay with the merging of the TK to a middle school so um with the TKA um is there is there a scope oh gosh where is my where's the list is there a scope of bringing in two elementary schools into TK is is a space um today and for future growth that could be an option depending on the Middle School site so that's information we can bring back to you so since the board all seems to have an interest in learning more about tk8 we can bring all of that data and answer those questions back and definitely in that you know we need to see the traffic impact study e and all that whatever that goes along with it uh traffic is definitely a big concern I I agree with the uh uh uh with the community as communities concern surrounding that and and there's no winning with with that model anyway in any of us any of our middle schools because um two of them are in thare one is in the middle of the uh middle of the community uh with multiple you know single family homes in the area trust me oh yeah no so yeah I got confused so I was thinking option b was merging basically three elementes with the middle school that wouldn't have to be the case right so no we we definitely don't have space to do that okay yeah no no so I was confused yeah I think yeah that's and I I I don't know if U the rest of the board agrees maybe that's the option we should focus so that's the one we kind of do seem to agree on that that that's the one option but do we want to keep another option open is basically I guess my my question but we don't agree on which which of the other two we should keep open uh if we do that from my perspective and this is my this is uh just from me is uh I I'm not inclined to to touch any of the three middle schools we only have three middle schools here um and it'll be a good idea for future growth to keep them open active um and you know definitely actively look at improving enrollment um whatever we need to do that so so my question is so so you know if we don't touch we don't have a huge you know Middle School enrollment now so in the future is that going to you know if we don't have kind of students feeding into is is is the middle school that's combined in TK to 8 is that just going to become an elementary school uh because you know we don't have enough students kind of feeding into it or is the you know TK to five you know going to then dominate more than you know as the because right they're all middle school at the middle school level we don't have a whole lot of students same at the elementary level right so to me it feels like we should make some kind of reduction at at the middle school level as well and tomorrow evening we'll have our enrollment projections that'll go through the next few years it'll let you see what those numbers start to look like for our three middle schools so whatever we besides so you know another one of my priorities besides uh you know impacting students uh you know obviously having schools closed having students separate from uh not only from the campus but from you know potentially from their classmates that they've been with you know for maybe several years that's disruptive to the students um but also I I another priority I have is to not have to go through this anytime in the near future um so and you know people have asked the question about you know the facilities and we'll get to that those discussions later once we figure out you know what sites are going to be Consolidated and what facilities will be vacant um but um so one part of the facility to is you know we don't know the future first of all we can't use so say we were to sell you know a site a School site that closes we can't use that funding for uh general fund so we can't use it for uh keeping our programs paying our staff that kind of thing but also we don't know in 20 years what the needs of the district are going to be that's why uh we're not as a board I know we're not in favor of selling facilities because we don't know right and you know in 20 years say we have growth something happens in this area that you know there's a student population boom and can you can you imagine right real estate how it's gone you know during the last 20 years what it's going to go like uh in another 20 years so we want to preserve those sites keep them uh as part of the school district's inventory so just to kind of answer that kind of question that's one of my priorities is to uh what I forgot what I was saying but anyway causes a little disruption and make sure we don't have this happen anytime in the future thank you so it looks like we we probably need to get get to see some more data from your side so definitely and I have that here and I do just want to share with the board that in the meantime in your folders uh under appendix a yes uh if you go to the October 17th meeting that the committee had you will find there uh the schematics that were shared with them for K K8 configuration so that'll give you an opportunity to start taking a look at what the committee saw and then uh our team will also bring back additional information based on your questions this evening page number it's the ooco it's up at the top corner you see the dates at the top so you look for the October 17th meeting yes it's towards the the end yeah it's towards the end uh page 2117 so as far as options B is it possible for us to get scenarios of what could potentially happen for example if uh let's say seront were to merge with an elementary school logistically it would probably make more sense for it to merge with Ruskin since it's right there so Ruskin would be the school set for closure correct potentially it's to the board's discretion uh you've got uh the sites that feed into um sierant that are on the list include Ruskin and Cherrywood okay so it'll probably be one of those two schools if it was submerged to a TK througha and same with um probably two Elementary sites are Toyon and Summerdale correct okay so then if we're to go with option b I just want to be clear potentially those will be the schools that will be slated for closure then option b also sorry trusting so we if we uh do um we choose for example pedmont like you said in the example uh we have the two schools that feed into pedmont um two Elementary School that feed into p and then we need to identify a third school too correct so not necessarily they don't have to be in that same area they can not the same area I'm saying so we actually so for pedmont Middle School we have Toyon and Summerdale that feed completely in but we also have students from Vincy Park and Noble that also come to pedmont oh interesting right yeah those are two locations where students split between two different middle schools where they attend so it would be one School uh combining with with pedmont so the whole school would then move like say if it was like say Toyon they would all the students would come so that's where we'll bring back capacity number numbers to you to let you know how many students we would be able to um hold within that facility space and then with the um the boundary discussions that's why we have here Tom Williams to he knows all of our boundaries that's why we can show you where um you know our Vincy Park students attend and the area that the noble students attend as well because that'll come into play uh once we determine uh if we are going to do a K8 what's that maximum capacity that we want to hold in that school which may require shifting students to their next middle school so Vincy Park splits between pedmont middle school and murill and then um uh Noble splits between pedmont and sier uh I have a question is Summerdale a tan school it is okay of the schools on your the list of the five Toyon Summerdale and Lan view are title one and then with the middle schools pedmont middle school and Marill are Title One middle schools so one one piece of information I wanted to say and I don't know if I missed it you know among the materials is you have data showing kind of where students live what neighborhoods what streets they live in so we we have it by a a scattergram and so that's at the front of your binder you know it's kind of hard to see but we can spend some time going over this the next time so that kind of lets you know where the students are clustered is it possible to put it up there yeah we I so we can she doesn't have that on her slide so these are all your resources but we can review that more closely um Tom Williams put these together for you there's one more thing so sorry trust I I just want to hang on this option de point a little bit I I want to I think a l of thread on that somewhere because uh you're talking about merging one Elementary School with a middle school so let's let's take the um what is it called the data that we have right so we have um so since we pedon let's talk about pedon we have uh toon and suale that Fe fedmont um so if if you're saying merging one Elementary with a middle school at least one at least one MH so let's say if we take two elementary schools to merge with a middle school to form a tk8 right we will worry about the capacity later M then we have we are now Consolidated or closed two middle schools Two element you're consolidating two elementaries into the middle okay and you would still have one more Elementary that you would uh outline for closure okay so so it will be a total of three schools correct uh regardless right correct I I also have another question regarding title um Title One students what is the percentage of Northwood and Majestic Way so they are not designated Title One no they're not but do they they do have our for our unduplicated count of students and you do have that in your um resources here I'll have to look it up but we do have it for every school so we have a list here for you on how many students for each site are on free and reduced lunch capacity because that was something that the committee looked at they also looked at how many Foster youth each site has Etc the reason I'm asking is because um I really do not want to lose the title one students who are at present receiving these funds if if um at any event that those school one of those SCH should be closed yeah that's a good point Point yeah and I have that as an item of requests from the board to bring back MH thank you thank you so still trusty new please go ahead I just had a question about option one more question does that potentially will cause a boundary change or can we do it without a boundary change because we've experienced this in the past and this this is not an issue that we've addressed with the the community if we were to go with option b we may have to do a boundary change right uh you may um again it depends on the middle school that's selected um you know and what that what that overall capacity will be so it depends because we have some sites that are are small in terms of student enrollment where that whole school could merge in without a boundary boundary change they're just changing from their current site location to another um it's it's looking at what that that middle school capacity is going to be that might adjust those boundary changes well I'll just give an example if we were to go with sierant with option b sier Mon's boundaries will shrink correct and that will cause a whole different kind of worms for parents correct I just want to put that up there yeah and the reason for that is because you're merging larger School sites okay so that that's the reason for for that adjustment and that's where I go back to saying it depends on the Middle School location that's selected and the amount of capacity that you have for students that would then trigger the boundary changes that are needed okay thank you I would like to point out also that this evening someone had mentioned who spoke earlier regarding the title One funds at toon and um if these students should be dispersed that they will lose those funds but if these students are um reconfigured into a school that's also receiving these funds then that should not be a problem correct and potentially they will probably have more pattle One funds um coming to them depending on the situation potentially right and then yeah it it depends on the configuration of the schools but yeah if two Title One elementaries merge with the title one middle then yeah theoretically the the percentage would be higher and there'd be more resources the reason I ask is that there are some uh uh programs in uh Toyon reading Intervention Program that is funded using title one uh and you know my hope is with with two tile one schools merging that program gets enhanced you know we can get more more resour sources focused on that uh so that that's that's a good option to have um the one thing I wanted to mention I looking at the schematics I don't know whether it's possible to put it up there but um looking at the layout of the campuses between pount and um and sount for a tk8 kind of a model the layout of um pon pon seems to be a little bit more conducive because they're um they from what I can see there school what is the classrooms are the perimeter uh most of the classrooms are in the perimeter which means uh you could potentially DeMark um Elementary and midle can we can keep them separated um from each other not having to cross paths uh during the school day uh compared to S on it's one one building um with with uh different classrooms on the sides so I I like the if we decide to go with the TKA configuration um from my perspective pmon looks more attractive pmon or pmon looks more attractive because the classrooms are on the perimeter so if we I apologize sorry if we we can we can have Elementary on one side and middle on the other that's what I'm looking at I have a another concern if we are this is just a scenario if L land view is to be closed um those students are those students can transfer into other Majestic Way or Northwood am I correct so we have yes those are the two would be the two near nearest schools would that be enough for those students who are receiving Title One funds to receive it while they're over there so that's analysis we have to bring back to you I'm worried about that because I care about these students that are receiving these funds they need the help so one of my concerns is you know in discussing this school I know that of all the middle schools this is the one that kind of Performing uh not as high as the other ones uh and same with kind of the elementary schools that we're looking at this so we're going to create one huge underperforming school that's kind of my concern right so we don't want to I don't know if we want to find ourselves in that situation where we sent all the you know underperforming students to one school well I think what needs to be thought about there is maximizing the resources that they'll gain in that consolidation process as you talked about intervention support and other programming that they need okay and then um so besides that I think you know there should be something extra right so if it's this school so siron has uh you know they have the Mandarin immersion program uh kind of going there uh perhaps something else some other incentive for parents to want to send their their kids here uh and not just you know because we get extra resources because the students are you know underperforming so stem was one of the options like stem Academy type of a thing was one the options I I would be interested in looking at how how that could work and what would be the cost associated with it and you know practically speaking it may not be the easiest thing to do to bring up a k school at a in a such a short time [Music] um and also make it a STEM Academy type of uh scope so I'd be really interested in seeing how uh that can we plan how how how you envision that um happening all right so we seem to be all focusing on the tk8 um option option b is that is that um safe to say that or I like the whole idea actually of the reconfiguring a middle school um so that would mean that would mean um an elementary school going into that particular School and you had mentioned um trusty shasan about your preference and that preference is the pedmont Middle School to reconfigure I'd like to still uh keep seron as an option so both schools obviously I think you know the more options we have the better to reconfigure right yes yeah okay to both those two schools then oh just to just to uh qualify my comments I was looking at the schematics specifically and my comments were based on um you know visualization of how we can separate out K5 and uh 68 uh that is one only thing and I'm not suggesting that we should do that but um I just I just like the layout of of pedmont as a possible tk8 canas yeah there are multiple um model options that were put together so we can walk through each one so you can see them all and get a better understanding of what that breakdown is all right so where we go from here I think we have uh spoken in length about at length about a lot of the options do we U take this back sleep on it and meet again um there a future meeting a future special meeting M to discuss some of the uh questions that you post and then if you give us a chance to reflect upon what we have learned today does it sound yes I have all the information we need yes okay any other questions Miss um I see you thinking about something I am always thinking I don't have any more questions I'll think some more for sure yes me too good all right trone do you have anything Perfect all righty so my agenda is buried here somewhere there you go I got you oh all right so all right now we move to adjournment so does this mean does this mean we have we might come up with a potential date for another special meeting to discuss another study session discuss the options and also get some of these questions answered yes uh so for tonight's meeting this is it entertain a motion for adjournment if there are no other questions I move that we adjourn second we moved in second all those in favor say I I I I meeting adjourned at 10:23 p.m. thank you so much for your attendance thank you for your patience today really appreciate it a

Nick we'll go ahead and call today's meeting to order today's date is Tuesday November 12 2024 barbecue Unified School school district governing board public hearing turn it over to Mr sabala for roll call we do have a quorum we continue with this evening's agenda our routine business approval of the April 15 20 sorry November 12 2024 public hearing uh agenda if there are no um amendments on motion to approve is there a second second by Miss El gwood moo motion carries number four our information items this evening our public hearing on the performance plate plan for eligible student teachers for intermediate campus Mr Diaz superintendent good evening my name is Ruben Diaz I am the proud superintendent for B UNIF fire school district and today we have a special treat uh we have uh the intermediate to present the 301 under the direction of the 301 leads um we have Mr Cody and Dr serlo but also um Mr Cody is doing his admin so he will also be supporting us today um and and we're going to make sure he also part of his training while participating in one of the adment meetings so welcome aboard Mr cordin welcome aboard um Dr s so at this point we're going to open up um the presentation if you would like now you may come to the podium to present if you go no it's going to be all the way down sorry um Aaron go all the way down down in the presentation and you're going to click on their um next next page next page right there and the presentation in immediate canvas slides right there and you're up welcome gentlemen all right uh good evening um good evening can you hear me can you hear me now yeah it it's on and for the members of the uh public uh that they don't know what do you want if you don't mind giving a little two cents um good evening um board members Mr Diaz and parents and staff so this um my name is Mr Cody I'm representing the 301 plan for the intermediate campus so the 301 basically is incentive program for um our teachers to Excel and challenge the students and um to achieve higher Proficiency in our assessment so I'm just going to go over this um presentation so it's a academic performance um for this school year um the [Music] rationale so our goals that are embedded in this document they are aligned with the district and the State academic goals um our objective is to close the achievement Gap with our school aligned with the district and the state which are aligned with um evidence-based strategies in the classrooms that our teachers are um teaching every day and here is the the stretch goal one two and the proficiency levels that the district has implemented and our 301 plan does align with it the measurable goals um so we have our schoolwide classroom data instructional so um based off of this uh the instructional a big chunk of it is going to be instructional um it's broken down School schoolwide classroom and instructional so the first one is the schoolwide data so we out of the total there's 25% of the total evaluation in ela and Mathematics our goal is that 70% of the students will show growth from one or more proficient proficiency levels as measured by the assessment in synergy the other um data that we're going to use is attendance so our goal again is to make 90 to 100 um attendance schoolwide now we'll go to the classroom data our goal uh in the classroom data is that we would like to see all students will grow in the Target proficiency levels in the following power standards so Ela math and sixth grade math we do have three power standards essential standards that um we Implement throughout the school year so our goal is that the students will grow in the Target proficiency levels with the power standards um now we'll go to the classroom data so the breakdown is that um the one the slide we previously looked at is that 70% of the students demonstrate growth on the previous uh Target essential and the breakdown is that we want 45% to move from non-proficient 25% from minimal proficient and then 10% from partial proficient and the es ESS students um we align their goal also is that 70 to 100% of ESS students will demonstrate a 30% or more more growth aligned with their IEP goals so in conclusion um our overall objective is that we show growth in our data and our Target is at a range of 70% B broken down from the schoolwide data to and the classroom data and which will be implemented into the instructional thank you um board um parents staff if you guys have any question question so for the sake of the public during public hearings you're more than welcome to ask any questions if you have any questions um during this time any questions from the public any questions from the board members Mr Cody thank you so much for your presentation we appreciate it thank you thank you thank you both for all your work do I hear a motion to adjourn the public hearing motion motion by Miss anamarie Stevens is there a second I'll second the motion to adjourn okay it's 5:12 p.m we are adjourned for our public hearing our regular meeting will start at 5:30 p.m.

the average percentage of expenditures for October is 33.33% and BD has spent 16.89% of that that does not include the encumbrances are there any questions questions for the budget no thank you thank you Miss Carlo she got some money give her a hand guys I would be very nice to the money lady number five is our barbecue Unified School District principal reports Mr Diaz president India members of the board at this point please help me welcome back Miss Enriquez Miss Enriquez you're up all right good evening president buendia governing board members superintendent Diaz I have submitted U my board report in writing I hope you've had the opportunity to read it we are still holding strong with our attendance at 90% um we do have a new November attendance challenge I did leak it on there so when you have an opportunity or if you already have um you will be aware that we are putting our students into a drawing this means they cannot H be um late they have to be there all of November and they'll be put into aw for a Turkey um for Thanksgiving um so thank you to miss Cornell miss sudam Mr Diaz and myself we are all donating turkeys so that we can give these to our students and families um I'm sorry you didn't know Ben but she is and you're cooking them too Ben um and also to the sunrise house who is also providing the fixings to go along with the church Tri so thank you Miss heart um I go ahead presid um also I want to congratulate uh the parents the staff and the admin at the primary um when we compare last year attendance report to this year's report every single grade level it's a lot higher than last year and um again they not only keeping 90% but it is keeping percent by grade level and by school um across all the months um it is my understanding for staff no compare no comparing the the report from this year to last year can you bring up the attendance eron please there you go um the grade uh the attendance is greater this year than last year in all grade levels and I want to extend um not only my appreciation to you your teacher and you stop but also the families because they have a much higher attendance this year than last year and also I want to extend my uh a shout out to kinder staff and second grade because they have maintained it for the entire year so congratulations thank you um I think that was all the highlights um Erin if you want to play the video my favorite food is pizza because it is cheesy and it smells good [Music] good morning road runners happy Halloween staff I hope everyone checked their boxes this morning there were all aliens placed in each of your boxes some of them have numbers on the back throughout the day we'll call a number if that number is yours you have two minutes to get to the front office for your prize you cannot send a student and we have our first number 12 you have 2 minutes to get to the front office draw at the top what is called a banner um a banner is a quick way for us to see where you're at so on the top of your banner you're going to write the problem number that you're [Music] on so just couple things okay when you guys go trip or treating tomorrow do you guys want to go to a house that's really dark or do you guys want to go to a house that has lights on good job okay another question do you guys want to eat candy that's clothed that nobody's mess with or do you guys want to eat candy that's already been open yes close good job you you don't want to eat open Candy if you see open Candy what should you do with it good job or tell your mom and dad right [Music] okay one more thing do you guys want to wear black clothes at night time or you want to wear like yellow red blue so people can see [Music] you you guys want to wear bright colors for you guys don't want to wear all black okay all right so who's excited to go trip and treating who wants a piece of candy for me today why are mommies good employees anybody nobody they get wrapped up in their word that was a good one I like that one okay last one how does a scarecrow drink his juice anybody no anybody no with a stra [Applause] any questions or comments for Miss Enriquez from the board Miss Anna I was just say good job I always enjoy watching the videos but um good job on attendance I think it's really important you can definitely see um the progress you guys been making over the years thank you thank you anything M uh thank you for your important it uh congratulations again on the student attendance and U everything's going really well and I think all the teachers and the staff helping out thank you yes congratulations and um um um I lost my thought Kudos on the uh challenge I think it's awesome it's great so otherwise thank you so much for the presentation and Report [Applause] president wendia members of the board I help me welcome Mr Cody and ask as many questions as you want as part of this presentation you better be ready all right uh good evening again um president buendia board members superintendent Mr Diaz um do I get one of those [Laughter] wrong one that's the that's accelerated we need uh campus in immediate there you go there you go all right so um again um I'll be going over this for Miss uh bay Lewis um so we are implementing our house system some celebrations and upcoming events um the big big um motivator that um Miss beay has shared with the staff the students and Community is that we have moved from a d school to a c school so I mean that I believe that deserves some recognition a a lot of hard work from our our staff and especially our students so that was a big huge motivator um of displaying progress um we have 10 n students that had perfect attendance for the month of October and um I'm sorry I got you guys help me uh ch ch cook cook districk I'm so sorry invite us to celebrate their student accomplishments um good job to the students who receive um two major upcoming events is on the 22nd of November we are having a um Dam TSH event um from 8 to 12 so if you guys are available um please join us and um newsletters will be coming out with um upcoming events for November um school highlights uh we did have a a big event during Halloween we did have a Halloween costume parade and it was awesome amazing I'm pretty sure you guys get to see the some of the pictures and highlights in the video and um they were it was an awesome awesome event thank you to The District staff who came to support the students and cheering them on and handing out candy um Miss Morales a big thank you for inviting the group of teachers from Germany that came to our campus spent the day um talked presented and interacted with our students and staff um we had a few student ambassadors who did a wonderful job answering question and um assisting our visitors um and then um teachers are learning new models of instruction teaching strategies while summarizing maps in agreeing and disagreeing statement cards um big thank you to our teachers who recognize our students for all their accomplishments um which will be seing below uh this month our counselor and behavior specialist focus on PBIS with gratitude they had many activities throughout the week for students to practice gratitude and give examples during our morning announcements uh School priorities uh priority number one uh Indian Oasis Intermediate School will increase math proficiency by 25% or higher by utilizing assessments and benchmarks to effectively increase instructional practices quarterly priority to um the intermediate campus will increase Ela also with 25% or higher um and priority three uh intermediate campus will increase their coaching with teachers to support effective instruction by 50% or higher using walkthrough data and um also um I just want to add that Miss Bay did turn in the uh intermediate board report and um she would just like to add that before the video is shown that we include this example of the tier instruction and C curriculum that we use at the immediate campus and right now we have our quarterly benchmarks which we do which we display growth and we are tracking our data consistently with our um District format of Assessments teachers at the imedia campus are taking DFAS uh weekly um which are aligned to the state standards and which you know we do implement strategies for reinforcement or um interventions to reinforce the standards uh the behavior report uh violation drugs number of events there's two I stretch goals uh districtwide and attendance in fourth grade um the highlights with 90% or higher attendance fourth grade uh an average about a little above 90 fifth grade also in the high 90s thank you to Mr hila sixth grade uh Miss Wooley has 95% so we are up there with our attendance some October highlight so there's a list of our events that we are looking forward to the next um upcoming one is the um indigenous day which is set for the 22nd from 8 to 12 uh student of the month breakfast spring pictures uh our spring parent teacher conference our amazing Shake again um the student of the month breakfast which is amazing and oh our sixth grade versus staff I believe that's the basketball game and then sixth grade promotion in May and video time around the video yes sir yeah thank you [Music] dreams and motioning high through theing [Music] look at 23 and and look at and7 so which is bigger number isger and 37 [Music] 247 and then it goes on yeah okay so then after that we need to do we got to put the on Circle so so yeah [Music] the now we need to findor is 24 [Music] turn to memories and this is when the future [Music] getor memories for [Music] [Applause] questions or comments from the board for the report Miss um I picked up one at the newsletter um today at Intermediate School I really like that newsletter and I appreciate that telling us all about what's happening and upcoming events and also picked that on Ruben's um yeah so that was good thank you for that thank you I'll let Miss P know Miss I want to congratulate you guys and your hard work um from moving from a d school to a c school that says a whole lot um it's exciting to see you can definitely see the passion that you guys have working with students and also the excitement that students have learning uh just by looking at your attendance rate it's amazing because every single one of your is over 90% which is great um one of the things that I like was the um the gratitude training that you had I think that's amazing I think it's um helpful for students to learn how to express their emotions and especially when they are dealing with trying times or just making sure that they're being grateful to other people so thank you I appreciate your efforts thank you thank you thank you Mr Cody I want to say I appreciate you for coming in tonight and being here I'm sure I'm sure you weren't I'm sure it wasn't your first choice to be like oh yeah but I want to say thank you thank you so much and again um I appreciate how much you do for the school for the students um if anything I I will say on behalf of the community your name kind of seems synonymous with like the the the campus for whatever Reon not for whatever reason because know you're a great teacher but thank you for being uh a great representative and a great teacher and and for doing what you do I appreciate oh thank you thank you thank you thank you m thank you thank you thank you let's get it out for me on please and representing the high school and middle [Applause] school hello board members president Bia superintendent Diaz and everyone who's still here um so our school highlights um we had our first quarter Awards assembly on October 11th um my favorite number two 10th grade reach 90% attendance so [Applause] and then our community day was a excuse me a success thanks to all the campuses for all your efforts and our donations we did receive from the communities we had two districts provide hot dogs and buns and we got water from two different locations so it was a great success thank you did you guys to take a look at the um board report am I the wrong place no you're in the right place that's fine she's ready for the video what's up she's ready for the video oh okay I thought [Music] what's that uh the the comfor [Music] don't know your PG also contains and X because you don't know yet how many is in Bank don't know so what are you guys working on getting ready for oh so that you so they they're ready to what to weave ladies in the middle [Music] good I [Music] one thing I do want to let you know about the video you saw the like slides with the covers if you will that is made by our CTE digital photo um digital communications class they are getting their um work experience by creating that and getting feedback from me so sweet questions or comments for the report from secretary just just one comment I was there for the community day and um everybody was um doing U nice thing for the students and then the one I like was um P you everybody was involved in that one and my my grandson was one of them there too and and that's good so the the kids will know what uh electricity is all about you know so but that was good even the little little ones were doing it m thank you yeah thank you we were grateful for them because we know that they had their event that day but they still came out for us so we did we're grateful anything Miss I just want to say thank you um looking at the attendance even though you didn't not every class made The Benchmark of 90% I think it's still an overall good rate of attendance um I do appreciate all your efforts so thank you thank you thank you [Applause] just wanted to say I wanted to shout you out for doing the the little bomb recognition you do for your teachers I think it's pretty cool so thank you thank you so much thank you thank you don't go any farther stay right there all right let's give it off for Mr Fox um good evening once again president buia board members superintendent Diaz Miss an are you leasing out that video production department at all extra credit all right um so we had a good month we're right there it should have been the first bullet but we saved the best of the last or at least I feel we save the best of last we were when we first saw our grade we were like points away from an F we were that we were very close we're now a solid C so we are absolutely over the moon at the AL at The altern Accelerated campus our teachers work very hard I would say tirelessly because they do answer text 8 9 10 11 12:00 at night our students we look at their uity logs they're knocking workout at 2:00 in the morning um we're just pleased as can be their production as compared to last year month to month is up um we have we're we're going to be up to eight cuz we're going to get another four done Mark Blaine my student of the month hasn't made the list yet he's still finishing we're going to have eight graduates just in December um we already have [Applause] four so we're very proud about that kid Peak was awesome you'll see a couple just a couple pictures in the video they're going to come back out and we're going to use the do it on the field this time because we found that our lighting although it's it's the yellow low uh light lighting that that that that Tucson and we use to keep kit Peak viable still messed it up so we only saw they said about maybe 75 80% of what we could have and we saw really really cool stuff so we're going to do it again we're going to do it every semester kit Peak loves to come down so we're just very very happy um about how this month went and the experiences some of our students had Aaron we are ready for that video please [Music] that's [Music] Takens this a little tricky because there's a botom it's now what happens is the H do the same what's the H to this line yeah it's going to move left and the cake up or down [Music] so I just want to add that we would have had more pictures on picture day of some of our other graduates because it was so neat to see them being prepped and pred by everyone that had the opportunity but they said no we don't want to be seen on video that brave man was willing to do so no any questions concerns yes ma'am anything Mella no no Mna just congratulations thank you on moving from DC also um I think it's amazing to have K peek at your campus also um I love the graduation photos I wish more of them took photos of that you can tell that your staff truly cares thank they do thank you I'm glad it shows through and this is just a brief synopsis of the numbers as opposed to last year so you can see that there I'm not going to say the a word enrollments a little lower than last year which is very good for us because the numbers are up so that means on average the students are being more productive on a daily basis president Mia yes sir um Mr Fox um are you able to share a little bit about what you've been working on related to attendance absolutely to related towards attendance okay um if you eron if you find our attendance it'll be a little easier for me to unfortunately explain okay so with only two three and two in the middle school you can see what one tough seventh grader who has a lot of issues has a lot of excused absences does um to our numbers the same goes with eighth grade sixth grade is to but we're very fortunate our two sixth graders are both mentally physically healthy they come to school very often what we're working on is we have some pretty heavy contracts out there to try to persuade our students to up their attendance um but that contract comes after a lot of the TLC a lot of the affirmation a lot of the positive the warm welcoming environment um the stumble fall down get back up let's do it again um but we are working on we have some contracts coming through as soon as the Desert Diamond um comes through with that that uh donations that we earned we're going to put together a PBIS store for um all kinds of all kinds of incentives not just attendance but you have to be in school in order to win those things um student of the month you're not a student of the month you could do 10 10,000 activities and if you do them all at home you're still not student the month you have to have 90% or more attendance so when you saw Mark here or all those students last month they are all it's attendance driven um we are giving very Frank and honest assessments to our oldest of students breaking down time frames explaining 61 A2 hours and how they're not going to finish by 22 so we don't want them to just waste their time so we have we have there's many many good online schools out there so we're trying to refer some of our hardest cases or the ones that is just not feasible so that they still have an out they still have a positive place to go and they always know they can come back to us I had one of my tocc Jessica poer students come back just today this time was to brag and it was awesome to see her um we're looking at a a modified schedule of six periods instead of seven so that each class is an hour a piece because that will be easier us to account for our attendance numbers because they have to be for a full day it's four hours so some of my guys work late at night they don't get to school until 10:30 because you know life doesn't permit and they're not getting four quality hours of instruction in so we're working on that as well which put a little bit of a burden on the teachers because they're going to start their day at 8 instead of 8:30 um but most of it it's just through positive reinforcement a can do attitude and just knowing that um when they come to us and they're already struggling with attendance um they get the contract right off the bat because we want to just impress upon the parents how important it is for them to come to school um anything else that I'm forgetting of that we've discussed um though you'll be coming back with a multi-tier system of support with attendance uh yeah yeah yeah absolutely that's it any other questions comments or concerns no not not a concern I think more so just a comment um I feel like again we've we've I've said as far as from the board as a board member standpoint understanding that the accelerated campus is very unique and so it's I'm not saying let Mr Fox off the hook on some of the things that the expectations are but expressly I hope that if there is any opportunity for the board and any way to support whatever it is that we can do and I'm sure I know that we genuinely try to do that reach campus but I feel like I know we've had some conversation about you know what because I do understand that the accelerated campus um doesn't fit the mold but it is it is something that I do know we as a board have supported um forever BS before us have supported um so I I just want to say I I understand what you're up against it's not falling upon us to be like well you're not doing what you're supposed to it is the so expressly important that I'm that I'm appreciative that you're including some some more in-depth events that include families or you know just to get them on the same page with you on what we need to do together not the school is responsible for getting your kid to school that's kind of not I think we need to get the community more involved and I know that we're pushing on that effort for them to be able to do that so I really appreciate that you're you're kind of branching out and doing more um but again I I just want to continue to express that I'm really thankful for you and your staff and everything that you guys do um that already is above and beyond um so I just wanted to express that and comment that I appreciate that and I and look forward to seeing how you what you think may or may not work and and whatnot and of course working with the superintendent to see those things absolutely much appreciate it thank you sir I appreciate you guys thank you very much oh and I look forward to being at the graduation so I'll be here I'm not going to the conference so I'll be and when we and when we that's great we we appreciate that when we planned this uh we didn't know we were going to have up to eight so one side of me is super excited because it's going to be standing room only because it's going to happen right here so I'm I'm pretty I'm pretty excited we weren't going to have a December because it's a it's a lot to put together and there is that expense that sometimes we don't have uh but once Mark we knew was finishing we knew we were doing it because we're not going to make that that man wait he's worked his butt off for 2 and 1/2 years to get to where he is so it just so happened that he set fire to a whole bunch of other kids M and we're up to eight and we're just again so excited and it's the 19th right December 19th M okay and we're we're getting we're waiting for the uh invites to come in and then we'll we'll push them out so you'll get them within a week sounds great thank you very much thank you sir thank you're good number five this evening is our bar barbecue re School District governing board member reports anything Miss I do not have anything I do want to apologize I have not been around lately I was thinking about the last time I've been here was probably September maybe July um just starting this job has been kind of busy but then and also having a lot of um family issues as far as like deaths in my family um but I am looking forward to attending and come more things I just see keeping this calendar open I'm trying to write down stuff that I can go to when I have free time thank you miss anything Mella report uh just that I already said um I attended the community days and U and I mean um the games and uh just uh at this time I just wanted to congratulate all our principals all our teachers what that making that great and it's that's really exciting you know I was excited to hear that about it you know so keep it up for the next grade thank you all right thank you and and again I just I want to express um on my behalf as far as board reports go I have been a lot more busy with work as well so I think it's it's important for us to keep informed and I'm grateful that the superintendent does keep us really informed on on a lot of um what's going on and of course we do try to keep our ear to the ground when it comes to anything going on in the community and and share that with the superintendent but I just want to continue as well to express um how thankful I am uh as a member of the community as a parent and as a board member to see what yall do and how y'all make it happen and make it work it's really truly um it's a blessing in I think it needs to be expressed that because without what you all do um our students and our communities would be far way worse off and just thankful for each and every one of you um and so I want to express as well that I try to make sure that I'm available and committing and and re um reviewing my schedule to see what I can and cannot be available for but I also work an hour away from sales so it's a little hard to to to do that uh and I work an hour that way as opposed to that way so anyway um nonetheless I'm grateful and thank you um and I'll try to put together a much more um detailed report as we move forward with that we'll move on to number seven which is our barue re of high school district superintendent report Mr Diaz President W members of the board uh members of my staff in the community for the month of October I want to give the following shout outs before I get into my report for the Department of operations um I am looking forward to the completion of the uh secondary roof project uh which is 90% And is expected to be completed by December 15th um and also a shout out on all of the work orders that have completed uh so far out of the 123 work orders uh submitted in the new platform it is two have been completed so thank you to our director of operations also um 38 uh members of the community uh 38 um air conditioners have been U installed at the primary 60 at intermediate 76 at secondary 43 um in teacher housing for a total of 270 17 units so it's a great investment that we are excited that in the next 20 years our students will benefit in staff from the new Air Conditioning um also we're looking forward to the beginning of the weather I ation project getting immediate and getting the other schools approved um through the sfb um from the Department of curriculum and instruction I want to express my appreciation to um our district coaches for putting all of that data together um including the classroom visits uh the lesson planning and the proficiency and um also supporting and and being available for co- planning professional development for some of our schools um also from the Des the superintendent I want to thank um our school district psychology psychologist um Dr hono alom special ed services and also the principles who have recommended the students and families that we have met um during the month of October related to Chronic absentismo [Music] support um in facilitating the meeting with students and herself uh with SF to provide what are some of the strengths um some of the areas of food that kids don't like and some of recommendations I want to thank um all of the 301 committee leads that have supported uh the last two months um to be able to provide um the plans and begin working um I want to than all of the principles for the collaboration for the first quarter data analysis um and I want to thank um uh chukut um district and um hean uh for hosting us uh during the month of October um in providing them with the updates for B unifier School District I also want to express my appreciation to hrdc that they also me with me during the month of uh October related to all of the Boz updates um and with an emphasis on the audit I want to thank uh also the department of transportation for the wheelchair busz that we now have um as part of our Fleet and also their commitment and support for the Halloween Community event um the social emotional learning Department um thank you for your support and also uh bring it up to the community um that they are coaches for parents available uh right now one of the theme is bullying and how to support the children um they have support that can be done by weekly um over the phone and it's ongoing support and they have free tools um so let's take advantage of that from the desk of our exceptional exceptional education um director um I also want to express and a shout out to Dr Marquez for meeting with a Sonoran Desert um with at the uov to discuss the transition service for students and having said let's look at and see some of our involvement through the superintendent video um that was also created by m t Sudan thank you for her support [Music] right now we're just learning about um the calculations of the acceleration with gravity mhm how do you do that well we have formulas for it but they're all on the computer but um these are all like calculations I don't have the answer yet on how fast it accelerated SOA egg that we're going to drop from whees uhhuh and now we're trying to do the formulas for velocity forgot what the last was we're just solving these equations formula [Applause] [Music] questions comments concerns complaints all welcome comments from the board for the superintendent report Miss Ella one question um all these projects that uh currently being working on what other projects is future any other projects um thank you missel um I'll be more than happy to share we do have one of the reports um that we provided a list of all the projects we have about 17 projects total um some of the projects include not only finishing the air conditioning but also finishing the the roofs the weatherization um we're going to move with the weatherization of the immediate we're waiting for the approval for the all the other schools um we also going to be uh one of the projects is a canopy and intermediate and I can share the list of all the additional projects for your information Mr Diaz oh sorry Miss Miss Anna did you have something um I was just going to ask about your experience Ina I know I asked one we kind of briefly went over it it is uh it is an experience um based on all of the workshops what I appreciated is the amount of workshops that they have available targeting our student population targeting the strategies for student population um there was one in particular that um I'm looking forward the one that is aligned with the goals the one that is aligned with the models of instruction which is the engagement uh continum that is one of the ones that we start in the conversation with the principles um it provides a spe from um of um what are the targeted behaviors by leaving the ownership on the students to self-reflect on the behavior and how to improve on the next levels of behavior um another one um I know we had the opportunity to visit anaka in Los Angeles well the the person that created a seven learning the author was there presenting so we had the opportunity to attend the conference as well and and and to to be more in depth um in in some of the areas that they're targeting um there were um many districts represented uh many districts serving student Native American students represented all the way from Alaska Hawaii uh the Northeast and Northern um uh uh the the Northwest but also the southwest and it was beautiful to see uh the representation um from all of the different um communities um we also had the opportunity to visit uh the welcome center from the aak Cente tribe um and the work that they have done to be able uh to advocate for them as well as to teach the community so I highly recommend it there's an opportunity uh for to continue participating in that conference um to put it on the agenda but also to visit um and learn from what the aak Caliente and Palm Springs tribe has accomplished it's it's inspiring thank you did I answer your question yes okay Mr Diaz have we gotten any kind of U and if we haven't may I request um information on vacancies and then also the effort that we're making to try recruit retain and get some support for our campuses as far as teachers or whatever it is whatever it Mayes Ben needed because I I haven't really asked but I wanted to also expressly talk about some of the well more or less vacancies and absences when it comes to staff and then how campuses are either shifting around or having to do what they need to do to make sure that classes are covered but expressly I wanted to ask what our vacancies are and then what efforts we're making since we're halfway through the school year for next school year and if there's any need to make sure we're addressing now as opposed to later that was all that was all you don't have to answer you can you can let us know I would but you can answer but I I think it'd be good and especially for our Retreat that we're going to plan to have some discussion and maybe look at some how are we going to address it um I highly encourage um I try to keep all of the vacancies as part of the weekly highight reports there's a section of vacancies so continue to keep that one um I I will continue to update it as we go through so you can see all of the different vacancies that we have but I'll be more than happy to bring it up um during the next board meeting as part of my uh superintendent report um but it it's that one I try to keep it as updated as possible on the weekly uh superintendent board report for the governing board um but I'll be more than happy to bring it back uh as well for the community um um transparency and information um in terms of the also how um the what the second request it was how um are we managing the absences at every school based on the teacher absences oh absolutely thank you sir what page do you put that on if you don't mind me asking on your report cuz there's a lot go was at the beginning let me go back and check my report say because I'm the one who looks at this a lot you do I see it um I do have that information available because I get it that's part of my um thank you and and again if it was there I wouldn't have asked I'm sorry but otherwise I will add it if I was in the that I did um all right if that's it for the superintendent report number eight is our barbury High School athletics travel getting Bard members this is just for information uh travel for BHS Athletics for the cross country it looks like and the basketball so just information items number nine is first reading of the barber UniFi School District policy Amendment um does anyone have any comments on this first reading that we want to make sure to address yes this I did bring up some concerns when I was speaking to the superintendent about um the requirements for staff to pay incidental charges um I know sometimes that is not feasible and also it puts um staff um in situations where they don't have the funding to do something like that so I would try to see if we something that we could do to assist with that because I don't think it's fair um when that situation happens um I did share with some with him um one of my friends who had on went on travel and got to his place and they charged his his in incidentals and he had no money for the entire time he was there so he was struggling we will look and I will uh seek some guidance also from our CFO um from what I understand is when some of a sta some of the staff members when there have a credit card or ATM um sometimes uh Resorts or hotels they put a hold of an x amount of money um as part of the incidental incidentals uh locking their only funding that they have available uh putting them in the predicament correct um okay I like I like I mean I understand that 100,000% I think it it sets a little bit of a discriminatory is if that's what the word we want to say on who gets to go and who doesn't because some people don't have that type of means and if this it's important for us to be able to be equal and fair on across the board then it kind of feels a little bit discriminatory to say don't ask to go anywhere if you can't pay or put down for your incidental charges and I agree again if they are going to charge or do have and we do provide some form of a case by case scenario where okay give some author it to the superintendent to approve such and such I think that that might be something to look at um I understand that we want to make sure that we're maintaining a level of financial responsibility but also just as Miss Steven said it doesn't it isn't always feasible for anyone to have either a credit card especially if you're from the nation and you're going to be participating many tribal members don't have credit cards they might have a debit card and there goes probably a hold on majority of what they had to use for travel or whatever they were going to do some of us are well better off and can do that and okay but I think that we need to be very expressly understanding of some of the situations that we're dealing with when it comes to tribal school tribal schools on tribal lands um and I don't want to say that we're also picking and choosing who can and can't go which what it sounds like from reading it and I get it like if we do if we do need to make sure that if there are incidental charges when we when we if we do approve such use that they're responsible for that but I don't think we should be saying don't ask to go if you can't do this which is what that says to me let me do some homework and bring and bring it back thank you anything Miss Ella okay um letter if is our vote to convenience session per ars3 I'm sorry AR s 38-4 31.03 813 without objection a motion to approve is there a second second second by Miss anamarie Stevens Mo okay we will convene our executive session and return once we have completed thank you and Mr Savala you let us know who would you need in the executive meeting yes okay e e e good to go okay okay we'll call our meeting uh back to order moving to letter G which is our vote to reconvene into regular board meeting motion to approve is there second second second by Miss anarie Stevens M okay we are now back in regular board meeting moving on to letter H is our action items number one is discussion imposs approval of student expulsion um Mr di anything you want to lead with or do you want us to just no go ahead president wendia um we do have uh for the public we do have a request for student to be considered for enrollment and after reviewing the documentation presented um I'll be more than happy to follow up on your recommendation okay with that said I I would like to move um yes the expulsion and provided direction to the superintendent to formulate a letter to the student I'll I'll kind of paraphrase but fill in if anything U my motion will be to um honor the expulsion honor the expulsion refer the directive to the superintendent to afford some direction guidance for readmission to be addressed at a later date in a timeline second second second by Miss anory Stevens all those in favor motion m m motion carries number two is our discussion and possible approval of the um re classification oh my gosh what did I say earlier approval of reclassification or hire of Middle High School principal um I want to start with this particularly Mr Diaz and then I I'll hand it over to you uh just for The public's information uh governing board did have and it was um an executive session to discuss the position uh particularly to to make sure that we were um on the same page at least on par with what information the board requested or questions that may have been asked regarding the position of the principal at uh bber K Middle High School U furthermore the board had previously agreed to an interim position for Miss Constance on which again has served as the interim principal for bber KB middle and high school uh which would be complete after December uh it was at the request of this board that we addressed this memo prior to anything else moving forward but I understand that there has been uh some movement on the side of the administration to prepare uh for the following recommendations which I'll go ahead and allow Mr Diaz to um State and if you don't mind um eron posting the memo you want me to pull it up yes please and to the recommendation it's this one right all the way to the bottom second page uh president Mia members of the board um I have provided with um with two recommendations for the governing board to consider option one is for the uh the office of the superintendent asking the B School District to approve Mis Conant on for the per permanent bab Kiri Middle High School principal effective January 1st 2024 um or option two to proceed with the interview process and bring the interview panel recommendations during the December 2024 regular board meeting for the permanent BM bab Middle High School principal did you say the recommendations he did oh he did he speaking so fast um I like to motion for option one um which is to approve Miss constant's onsay for the permanent barbecue Middle High School principal effective January 1st 2024 is there a second second second by Miss anamarie Stevens motion carries congratulations Miss on you have been such a great addition to the the administrative team and we look forward to seeing you be successful in a course you know thank you for everything moving on number three this evening is our second reading of the Arizona school boards Association policy advisory uh governing board again this is just um um advisories that are that we have submitted from espa right that need to be updated yes so this is just uh as laws change asba recommends these policy uh updates and make sure that we receed them so if there are no questions I like the motion to approve is there a second second second by Miss enry Stevens thank you number four this evening second reading of the barbecue REI School District policy revision AC uh um board members if you'll indulge I'd like to expressly read this uh revision um I know that as a school district I'm hopeful you all have been able to um as SC sorry as a Schoolboard I hope you all were able to review and take a look at and and generally if there were any questions of course they would have been brought forward but I want to firstly read the revised bosd policy AC for nonis discrimination equal opportunity and then um it would be my honor I think to to pass either motion and or Vote for This U revision so resolution of the barbecue sorry resolution of the governing board of barbecue reunified School District number 40 of Pima County Arizona revising BD policy AC non-discrimination equal opportunity whereas Bob Unified School District and its teacher staff and administrators govern their actions by embracing core values that emphasize student focused expectations a responsive learning climate communication transformative Innovation meaningful engagement and genuine celebration and whereas bacu reunified school district and his teachers staff and administrators strive to pursue a vision where students and others are loved encouraged and prepared to Take On The World by embracing the T Alum him or way of life and as consistent with the himu Bob K UniFi School District celebrates all individuals and all ways and walks of life now therefore the governing board of bar Unified School District number 40 of Pima County Arizona hereby adopts the following resolution it is it is resolved that governing board policy AC is advised to read the board consistent with appc applicable law and the donum himu is committed to a policy of non-discrimination discrimination in relation to disability race color religion religious beliefs sex sexual sexual or orientation gender identity or expression age or national origin this policy will prevail in all matters concerning staff members students the public educational programs and services and individuals with whom the board does business whereas barue reunified School District along with its teachers staff and administrators guides every action with a deep commitment to core values that nurture student focused care a warm and welcoming learning environment open communication transformative Innovation heartfelt engagement and joyful celebration and whereas bobu of High School District through the dedication of his teacher staff and administrators is inspired by a vision where every student and member of the community is cherished supported and encouraged to grow and Thrive rooted in the AUM himu or our way of life and whereas in keeping with our hdu Barb School District honors and celebrates the beauty and diversity of every individual and every path in life and whereas the bar Board of bar Unified School District sorry whereas the governing board of bar Unified School District number 40 opima County Arizona V vehemently supports and reaffirms this resolution now therefore be it resolve that BD governing board policy AC is hereby revised to read the board with respect and love in accordance with applic applicable law and the donam himu is wholeheartedly committed to a policy of inclusion and non-discrimination this policy Embraces all individuals regardless of disability race color religion religious beliefs sex sexual orientation gender identity or expression age or national origin this commitment will guide all decisions and actions regarding staff members students the public educational programs and services and all who interact with the board or its agents Don Alum Nation for time and Memorial has welcomed established and conducted itself in Grace acceptance and care for one another our schools as guest onam land and our board elected from communities of the nation have deep-seated route in the overall acknowledgement that our schools must adhere to in order to provide exceptional service to the student staff and all who conduct business with the school district this resolution further enhances the acknowledgement that that has stood since its Inception and we felt required emphasis that our schools welcome and support all LGB btq I a2s Plus members of the nation or general public and any who feel who have felt ostracized or unsafe for any reason within the boundaries of the school's jurisdiction campuses and classrooms this resolution again further reminds the community students teachers and organizations that attend or do business with with our schools that any actions to discriminate against any member of the community student or teacher in our schools is vly condemned and will fall within the appropriate chain of command and proper processes or procedures to be dealt with adopted at a governing at a meeting of the governing board on 2024 no November November 12 if approved today November 12th 2024 are there any questions if not I will love to motion to approve second second by Miss anarie Stevens mapo M motion carries thank you number five is discussion and possible approval of the barbecue Unified School District teacher pay for performance 301 plan um are there any questions from the board or is there a motion to approve I I'll move to approve the 301 pay for pment plan for intermediate campus second second by Miss anary Stevens mppo M new number six this evening is discussion of possible approval of the modular Solutions contract contract renew Mr Diaz president members of the board and members of the community the per the reason we are bringing back um this contract uh Baba K fire School District um follow the um the procedures in how um to secure a vendor um to update five of our modular um uh based on the work that they have completed um some of the work that still needed to get done to complete the project um has extended the the work uh over to this school year so bring we are bringing back um the this um memo uh for the Govern board to um consider extending um the contract for the school year so that they can now get paid uh since they have completed anything that was outstanding on the project are there any questions from the board or is there motion motion to approve motion by Miss anamarie Stevens second by Miss El gwood motion carries move on um next item is Du discussion and possible approval of ratification of the June 25th 2022 special board meeting in accordance with ARs 38- 43105 B per the attorney Arizona attorney general's office Mr Sabal thank you corrected by the going back amend the June 25th 2022 um items that the board approved apparently former super we were so they said the only way to go ahead and clear that violation is the board to come back andove and on the agenda performance fori super okay extra KY and Believe last reh okay um with that if there are no questions a motion to approve second by Miss El gwood was up okay motion carries next item is the discussion and possible approval of the recommendation to the barbecue rifi School District legal council to make an effort to recuperate funds um uh on overpayment claims uh a motion to approve that item as stated is there a second second Miss second by Miss anary Stevens next item on our agenda is the discussion and possible approval of selection for delegate and Alternate to attend the asba annual membership meeting uh and registration I'm not going are you going no oh oh okay what's the date that is the same date as the uh accelerated graduation of the eight students is it the same time as the annual conference um the way we have it it is at uh my understanding 5:00 on the calendar no no no I think you're talking about this or that graduation or the this meeting this meeting oh it doesn't say I can't remember when they do it I can't be there if you said not till 5 for the graduation H what time's the graduation I had on my calendar um at December they have the main I let me see at 4 o00 they us have an agenda no B the link honestly I've never seen yeah it's weird let it now [Music] the me membership meeting is from 3:30 to 5 o'clock that's when yeah it's on when you click on the events and you go to the annual meeting there's they have like an agenda for the day December on Thursday the 19th that meeting is from 3: to 5 30 3 to 5 3:30 to 5 and graduation starts at yes okay can you do it me no I have a board retreat from the 17th to the 20th a retreat uh Team retreat could it be table and discuss um you can register someone to attend meeting which it [Music] says Kathy oh is she okay so it's only syia or Ella syia or Ella I don't mind doing it virtually I can you just don't want to miss graduation don't want to I think if I can do it and if siia can be available for after four o'clock well it's only like 30 minutes then she might as well do the whole thing okay if Sylvia is there maybe we can just go ahead and have her do it she knows be oh it is virtual how weird for them to just make it virtual why is graduation at 4 don't people work because we have some time we can work on that so so um if you works at a different time um okay what time is it meeting again 3:30 to 5:00 3: to 5 yeah um let me work with Mr Fox to see if we can make some adjustments uh to make sure that we can uh participate in both events okay if we can do that then I don't mind being the but we have to make a decision right Ben well the closing day so we do have to do that now can we do a special [Laughter] meeting um it won't be long you can get a consensus yeah because if they're not available and they're not able to do it then it would just be like oh I'll I'll do it [Music] anyway just need an alternate but I know in the past we have started at 10:00 um me uh graduations for Accelerated so we can start from 10: to 1 1 I think usually from to 1 mhm and it's eight students so I'm I'm I'm possibly thinking that maybe from even from 11 to 1 okay okay but I work it out with him can a board member be assigned without them being here you want to be my alternate I'll do it if you'll just be the alternate to say you're the alternate I can't even be here I have what you have to be here be virtual virtual I mean like I'm have Retreat I can't be there at all no you don't have to be anywhere you just got to be I'll be on the meeting but we need alternate you're just alternate I could but the reality is I if something happens to you I cannot be there my boss schedule a retreat I can be there I'll be the delegate I'll motion to assign myself as the delegate and anamarie Stevens as the alternate for the December 19th um membership meeting say second second by Miss anamar stev next item is discussion and possible approval of changing regular board meeting dates from December to February um Ben you sent everybody the info huh did you okay well just for the sake of um those of us here because we're here and we told everybody we're going to I think I'm pretty sure you did Reuben didn't you tell everybody somebody did um there was a request from board member Hendrick um because she is attending uh a culture and language class through TCC which falls on each of our meeting dates from December from this date till February had request whether or not we might consider changing those dates um I want to ask you guys if we saw any dates to consider if not what does the board want to do because I'm always set on those dates as those are the days that we're meeting and I don't M do with anything with them so if we change them I'm going to have to see where where and what anything that but I wanted to at least have the discussion for her sake CU she did say she was willing to go with whatever the board was going to move forward to side um I think it's great but I also know board meetings are the second Tuesday of every month and we all know this so that's my I have some dates for you to consider December the 17th January the 14th and February the 25th January the 14th still the DAT uh February the 14th is the regular meeting day yeah it is the what January the 14th January the 14 is the regular meeting January the sorry and the 17th is the regular day no oh wait no the 10 so it will be January the 21st and February the 25th our students usually play [Music] um at Flagstaff that weekend before and then when December moved what did you say h what did you say for December is December the 17th January the 21st or and February the 25th oh bit time so the propos dates are December 17th January 21st and February 18th February 25th that's a long time to go between your meeting meetings or we can do the 11th no the 11th she cannot right so she can't it's either the fourth and the 18th again um it's um the admin myself and some of you may be at uh Prescott for for the tournament um because we will make it State the 25th is a quick turn around going oh that's true is it possible to host will have the Monday before our board meeting because we normally have it the second Tuesday of the month can we hold on a Monday not in February huh because it's it's that weekend that we are going to be M Miss um oh that's we're saying on the 10th instead of the 11th yeah that may work for me that works better because most of the time when for work I usually don't travel on Mondays but the rest of the time frame I'm usually traveling like you're talking about only February well all all of them all so February we looking then at February the 10th and then January 13th January 13th is not a holiday oh I think it is on the 10th when is Luther King the 20th or the 13th MLK oh I think that's the 20th so it will be the 13th board meeting and then December 9th the 9th Okay you Okay ell on those days the Monday before our next regular meeting oh like you guys can work anything I forgot so next month though you okay oh hell um if that's okay with you I'm okay okay okay then uh h the 9th the 9th December 9th okay with that I'll motion um to set our next regular board meetings as follows for December 2024 the 9th January 2025 the 13th and February 2025 the 10th is there a second second to approve second second by Miss anary Stevens you um letter I is our consent agenda without objection a motion to approve is there a second second by Miss illary gwood motion carries letter J's request for future agenda items Retreat okay what are you thinking when is the what is the date or what are you looking at we can do it here yes um fine Friday Saturday or Saturday Sunday you want two days I prefer two days because it's going to be also an on boarding um for the new board member we may need the two days okay um what days are you not available in January January after the meeting the organizational meeting cuz we we going to meet in January the 13 right yes so after that are you guys open um the 10th and 11th of January can we do a half day Friday and a full day Saturday look hold on or do you want the I maybe could do a full day Friday half day Friday in full day full day Friday and the Saturday but if we can do half that would be awesome but if not then that's fine or just Saturday no no no do the two days because I don't want to rush or slam anything together 10th and 11th oh she's checking you better be here for your swearing in ceremony too right I don't think so just as of today it's not in my calendar but there are we have scheduled something for the 9th the 9th yeah can we can Weir you for the no for the 9th through the oh 12th 17th 18th that's a holiday and my principles will be it's a three-day holiday oh okay it's a m Lu King on the 20th have day on Friday the 24th and Monday the 27th I can't do the 24th you can't do that 24th I have a what about the 25th Saturday the 25th and Monday the 27th how come you're skipping Sunday huh why you skipping Sunday to give you guys a day to recoup might as well meet who can me I was saying that Monday cuz she miss um Stephen mentioned that she came Monday that I want to capitalize on that day you can do Sunday I can do Sunday you can do Sunday yeah all right still have day Sunday do full day the 25th 25th and half day on the 27th I me on the 26th [Laughter] yeah stuck on Monday over there yeah can we set that then tentatively and and then go from there January 25th and 26th any future item you could take us somewhere you're going take us for a we can't what were you saying about swearing in when is that happening it's on January you have we have to do it the first meeting in January so it'll be on the 13th on the 13th and you and uh Jessica de are swearing in you're going to be here right yes I will be here I just got you just changed the meetings any future item agenda that you recommending no but I know we we had a little bit of discussion on the agenda for the retreat which I think would be good to kind of go over and then make sure the board is aware case there's anything else they want for that and I also noted um [Music] follow up on the absences and how they've been covered okay um also um vacancies um do some homework on credit card options for incidentals MH those are some of the future item agenda that you also requested and if not um I know president Mia and I meet once a month um the last month of the last month of every month so if you think of any future items agenda just communicate with President Mia okay okay y if that is it then um I'll motion to adjourn second second by Miss anarie Stevens Apple

e testing testing 1 2 3 testing e for e okay all right I would like to call this motion this this meeting to order and I would like a roll call by secretary Pro Kim Pro Tim Jamie Z stum Mr alch here uh Mr Brown here Mr gyos Dr Hall present Mr swales zeit stumbris here okay thank you so much and I would like to have the Pledge of Allegiance led by board member barck followed by a miss statement followed by Dr Hall pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for oh thank you and our mission statement is to engage and Empower our students to positively impact their community and future thank you Dr Hall and board member uh Nelson as well so we do have a reason to go into close session at this time and that reason being the selection of a person to fill a public office as defined in the open meetings act including the vacancy in the public office when the public body is given power to appoint under law or ordinance or the discipline performance or removal of the occupant of a public office when the public body is given power to remove the occupant under law or ordinance 5 Illinois compile statute 1202 in parentheses CS in Charly in parentheses number three can I have a motion to do as such so moved second okay motion is we have a motion and has been moved a roll call please Madam Secretary Miss stumbris I Mr swales I Dr Hall I Mr gagos Mr Brown hi Mr alre hi that's it is that it okay we are in closed session we will be in closed session approximately two hours and we will come back out and carry on with the rest of our agenda so about two hours we thank you much public for your patience e for e for e e e was e e e okay e e e would e e e you e for e e e all right we have returned to the table to reconvene this meeting we have already called this meeting to order and we will continue with our agenda being on number five public comments do we have any comments public comments okay no electronic or comments all righty do we have any board updates I have a couple things one um the District craft fair was wonderful everybody that puts that together and all the hard work that goes into that is great and then I had the pleasure of attending the ilmea concerts the Illinois music Education Association concerts for district one and I just wanted to give a huge shout out to all of our students that were selected to participate in either the bands or the district Coral program a selection where they have to audition and all of the performances were really great that day and they did a wonderful job and where was that Hill uh Elmhurst University oh wow way up North yeah so you had to bring your kids out there and they did a whole day working or Rafe was in it as for the bands but I know there was a choir and we also had a jazz band student that participated and they work with coral directors and band directors from different universities so I know the band worked with um the marching B director from Northwestern for the day wow great job make sure you submit your reimbursements for your travel mile stop it no that's all right thank you so much for member Jamie anybody else uh yeah there was the play um what was it called oh she kills monsters yeah that uh was really uh exciting because my kid was an understudy uh but on Friday night it was under study night so I got to see her perform and it was awesome wow so cool so she's the next person to be nominated for Academy Award yeah okay make sure you make that nomination yeah why not all right excellent and that was held here that was here at the auditorium okay that was a Thursday Thursday Friday Saturday thing so I only got to see it one night okay great all right any other updates um I went out to Glennwood chadam chadam Glennwood whatever it's called and uh to support our football team in the playoffs they run they came short but they fought they fought well fought hard it was a it was a pretty good game it was well thank you thank you for making that trip and again make sure you put your travel mileage I did it got turn got turn down come on gas is going down we can afford it okay thank you for representing the board all all three of you anybody else all right I just have a couple things that I like to share with the board for board updates and they are that Dr coges and and myself was able to attend the that's kind of what the Smart Lab that was held at tala and borrow that was awesome as well that was the that was the ribbon cutting and it took us two turns each with the biggest scissors you can use to cut this little thin ribbon okay two people but we made it happen didn't we we did and I think johnel had a lot to do with that thank you johnel super assistant superintendent Perkins there that was really really a fun event and we kind of Knocked two birds out with one stone Dr koganes and I at borrow we was able to cross over the hallway and witness some vets right the J was there with the with the veterans veterans and that was yes so that was nice I did kind of get over to Bor not toala a little late and transition from one building to the other Dr cogy and myself has some emerging things come up but nonetheless I made it and I was the last one in that room and when I opened up the door the kids surprised me I almost had a heart attack they surprised me and that that was really a good feeling not the heart attack feeling but just the feeling of being recognized there as the board all right and also uh assistant superintendent per assistant superintendent of curriculum Mrs Perkins and I and the whole team is going down some Bloomingdale this Thursday to present on Friday about the kids Summit I so we're going to have a 75 minute presentation with a little segment of myself think I you know I've been selected as the only board member of three districts that's going to be presenting that I will have a small tidbit of a of the presentation as well so wish me well with that and last last but not least I will be sending out to the board members Dr cogy was able to and with the help of Cheryl uh put kind of a time frame for me to meet with the principles all of the principles over the next several months and I'm going to send it out and I'm soliciting one board member each obviously we cannot have more to attend just a coffee to have a coffee with each principal at each building over the next couple months so thank you Dr car and Cheryl for getting that together for me and that's all I have uh without further Ado moving further down the agenda I'm going to turn it over to our superintendent number seven administrative updates well I've got some good news to share right away if you turn to the right you will see some of our students here and they are with our uh Future Farmers of America look at them coming looking all sharp and Miss beraki uh our teacher over there um they're here to share about a conference they just attended in November I believe and they had some pretty exciting news that happened at that concert conference so M Baki why don't you go ahead and uh fill in the rest so is it on maybe okay okay there we go um so first of all I just want to thank you guys for taking the time to have us here our students were really excited about um the convention that they were able to go to so we appreciate the approval of that trip being a 4-day overnight trip um gave me a few extra great hairs but that's fine um keeping track of these kids um so each one of them is going to share just about a minute about their experience and about the time that they had um but I wanted to give you guys some quick numbers which you should have on that flyer there as well if you did not get your handy dandy calcul out yet um under our costs um we received a grant from ADM to enhance diversity and participation of our diverse Learners in agriculture and in FFA so overall aside of the kids and their souvenirs um the trip total cost was 8,862 of which our students had to pay zero so they were able to attend this conference for nothing all supported by that grant that we received um we had 16 students go one adviser one chaperon and one bus driver and for my band and show choir um Drama parents in here we had Miss Dolly we love her she's our favorite um so that's just a quick wrap um our kids have done some really great things um before they share about their experiences some of the big highlights two of our students were asked to join the Illinois State Association FFA Equity diversity and inclusion task force after their participation in this conference um our students as a result of their participation in those activities and the FFA for all um student Workshop they have planned to host their own diverse student networking Workshop here at the high school um and invite all of our local diverse Learners um we had two students receive job offers at the convention um for postgraduation two of our seniors um and one of the biggest things that I am excited about are students participated in a stamp challenge doing different activities with case New Holland each completed stamp card was an entry into their raffle and Creon was selected so we will be receiving a Precision agriculture technology farm equipment Simulator for our classroom so those are my highs um and I'll really quickly our kids would each like to share a brief about their experience wow hello my name is Malachi Cliff I'm a junior and that trip was just amazing I met so many people and gotten so many opportunities to you know just make new connections and I was I was I don't know it was exciting um one of the things that I was like most proud of was me getting interviewed by farmweek one of the most popular farming radio stations and so they P published me on their uh radio station and if you look up my name Malachai Cliff you can find it and um that was wasn't the first time I got I've gotten interviewed uh there I got interviewed again with when they asked a you know a riddle question um like a would you rather question and I was on the big screen there and you know the trip was just really fun we went to a rodeo and we did all types of Fun Farm things and I appreciate you all for allowing us to go and I want to go again is great hello everybody my name is Melissa pow I am the vice president for our FFA chapter and I'm also a junior during our trip we had um diversity forall Workshop that I really enjoyed we later got to do a meeting planning things for the future we also did community service which I thought was really cool because everybody know starting this year we had to have our hours for community service so I really thought that was a good idea for some students there to get to gain their community service hours not only gaining our community service hours we also got a chance to work with people work with new people and just talk to people we were working with and working for it and I really thought that was a good opportunity to meet new people so it was really enjoyable like Malik I said I hope I can go next year too wonderful excellent hey guys my name is uh Gerard Fleming uh and I'm just a member of the FFA chapter I didn't go to National Convention but I just wanted to share uh my experience in the class FFA food science food and agriculture so I own a business with uh my girlfriend and we make we're floors we make flowers and um the work-based learning program and FFA it's really like to helped me you know just maintain my business it's giv me a platform to to make flowers in class and you know just work on my business and get points for it and you know just yeah yeah I feel like that's really important and uh yeah that's that's one of the big reasons I like FFA just oh and also I want to be a farmer when I grow up so without FFA you know it's kind of it's kind of hard to do that I had to figure something else out so yeah thanks thank you um hi hello my name is karavan um I went on the trip and I would just I would say that this trip wasn't just a chance for me to get away it was a chance for me to not only meet new people but also connect with the people that are already in our chapter um I had a great time um I made friends in Hawaii friends in New York it was it was just really enjoyable and a very good way to get to know people outside of our state and network and understand you know how the FFA programs work in other states um I would definitely like to go again and I would recommend this experience to any of the students that go to the high school um yeah thank you excellent hello everyone my name is Sarah mberg and I'm a junior um one of like the biggest highlights from my experience from convention was the workshops um they had I would say about 15 different workshops that you were able to attend on a schedule and some of them were just um about kindness uh creating good habits working with the FFA and they were just good to socialize so I walked in with a few members from our FFA and had I not been forced to sit at a table with students from other chapters I wouldn't now have friends from Texas California Oregon and Alabama wow so I'm just grateful for the opportunity to talk to people from around the nation so it was just good to socialize great hello my name is Amaya buers I'm a junior at Creet Mon and to piggy back off of what um kiamara and Sarah said um the entire event was about gathering in community and engaging with other people and one of those activities presented at the convention was you would go around and you would interact with um people working the convention and they would give you a pen if you were resembling proper behavior and as you can see I have two of them um there was there was five I think and I'm so sad I didn't get any but next year next year if they have anything else I will be there um but that's that's pretty much it the Gathering the community seeing everyone be there and engage it was something really beautiful great of reive only reive it's not engaged confence parpa excellent oh okay it's kind of tall um hi my name is Elise Porter um I'm a junior and um to start off I wasn't exactly um when I heard about National Convention I was really excited but then I was very scared about the social spectrum because I am a person who is scared of being a social light um but being there made me feel like I was being at National Convention made me feel like I was way more welcome than I expected and I felt like I could just go up to somebody like for one of the things there was a um pamphlet that we got that also had a map and you could also get um signatures from people of different states and different places and um I just started going up to people and asking and I felt more and more comfortable like I could really just do whatever I could and um for the um FFA for all um I even decided to speak and like Malachi was I was on the big screen too which I would have never expected me to be on um but it really helped me um meet new people and make connections with people who are already here and um be open to be a you know a better person and be a more open person and make more opportunities in my life because this was a big opportunity for me so thank you wow thank you hi my name is Austin Delby I'm the uh Secretary of recit uh F uh I'm a really big introvert and going to National Convention helped me expand and get a lot more social than I normally would be like sorry uh like I met someone from Alaska right and then a guy from Hawaii came over started talking about everything they had over there and everything that they did over there that was really fun uh my favorite thing was the farm we got to go to a r University we got to we got to pick some fresh tomatoes that was pretty fun um but I love I love learning about how all the how all the different plants uh reacted to one another and how they all came together to form like this awesome thing they were making a um it was like a greenhouse made out of a shipping container to grow uh a certain type of mushroom which is pretty pretty fun um but but seeing everyone connect and everyone mingle and it was it was a really really fun time to go wow [Applause] excellent thank you everyone for your time apprciate you having us here share all the awesome experiences distri appr thank you so much thank you thank you so much yes hold on don't leave yet we we're going to com hold on I'm sure we're going to have some comments here from our board members here anybody would like to add I would just say um to all of you I mean it sounds like a great experience but the more than anything every time we have a chance to have students come to our board meeting I'm just blown away by the quality of our students that are in Creek Moni so thank you for being a part of it and representing us well and I think being on the board is exactly this one of the reasons is this right to give them the opportunity to showcase who they are and then showcase Creon of who we are yes great job yes anybody else I'm actually part of a farming family my in-laws and my husband work an active Farm um so it's really great to see these opportunities being given and just the diversity and it's so important to keep these jobs and skills and educational opportunities available so thank you for your interest in it too I just love that you all are out here learning something that I I know as as a student I didn't get an opportunity to do I love the jackets by the way too I really do um but no I'm I'm it's what did you say you said you were going to get us one oh I'm what's the teacher's name I'mma chop it up no no seriously I'm this makes me proud it really makes me smile um I love to see that we have other activities because I'm really into sports but I'm I'm really into activities for students opportunities for students whether it's sports related or being a part of clubs or because there are so many more things that that we learn and like what it did for you all it opened a lot of a couple of you all up to being um to me meeting new people talking to new people and that's huge to me so yeah the amount of uh opportunities that you guys have like I didn't have this when I when I was in high school I didn't have uh farming as a top priority of mine but uh you guys uh took it and ran with it and it's just uh I'm very proud uh to see that you guys are taking advantage and living living your best life so congratulations guys yes excellent and just to add a little bit and re just kind of diddle what all of our board members have said so far good job good job the collaboration I heard entrepreneurship there just the partnership the benchmarking and finally I think it was the last speaker that talked about a tomato I have not been able to grow a tomato in my life and I'm reaching out to you if you need a little parcel of land I got a little farm land in the district that you want to practice on reach out to me and the first thing you ought to plant is that tomato I do I you could talk to me offline and it'll be uh for nominal fee you know maybe $5,000 a week or what no I'm just kidding I'm just kidding tomato Tomatoes absolutely free okay if there's no conflict over there please it just all I ask that you give me a Tom M what you grow good job excellent good job and I chopped I will probably chop your name up that's I'm going to call you a teacher beri but I gu I asked the super how you that so good job I appreciate it all right good job all righty thanks for being here thank you all right moving on seven Alpha number two and I'll let you take it from there okay a couple other quick items to highlight um we have a press uh 116 it was a first read again these are these this week there's just a few of them they were all just uh footnote updates so you can take a look at them a little bit later um item three is this uh cre intergovernmental agreement um as you know in the newsletters I've been talking about my um involvement with the creit community and I work with several other uh creit facilities the library the park district um The Village trustees and what we've been working on we meet once a month and we figure out how we're going to share information get information out to the communities um and so what we've come up with is we will be putting together a combined newsletter uh highlighting a few things that each of our uh taxing bodies I guess if you will does and so um what the agreement is is we're just going to going to basically share the expenses of this newsletter in um the postage and things like that and pushing it out and I think we're going to be doing that I think three times a year so we've already got most of the draft done we'll be pushing out the the newsletter in uh January but again it's just another way of showing our community that we are integrated we support one another's work um and uh it's just another good way of uh of sharing that message out to the residents especially those that don't have students in our district we want to share what's going on in our district is there a plan to do similar agreements with some of our other communities like Mooney University Park just because I mean C's great but we got we got lots of other communities it's a matter of uh they started that in the village and they invited me to attend oh perfect so I think it is a great idea if we could get other villages to start doing those kinds of things that would be fabulous okay but I agree with you if anybody watching heard that let her know yeah um and then I have this should have been under me well it is under my good news my the creek boundary update as you recall I think earlier in this year uh we had some uh very concerned families that came to us because of our boundary uh issues that we had had um working with our attorney we put in our waiver and we did get a waiver from the state so those families will be grandfathered in here until their children graduate the district so we're really excited about that it's it's not just the it's not just the five years it's all the way through until they graduate the district wow that's awesome so um so what we're going to do our office is going to be uh putting together newsletters uh or information going out to those families that was correct right Jason I just want before I you have me thinking about that I think it's renewed the waiver uh is approved through the 2028 2029 school year so we will have to reapply so it's good for 5 years but it's on our radar we'll make sure that we apply um leading up to those years okay but we're fairly confident if they've applied if they said for once that they're going to continue with that so I have a question on that yes so it's for five years but now in the areas are you going to uh address the map to to where it's fixed and then what if someone that store moves in and they want to go to the district how do we prevent more families that aren't here yet applying to our district well it's it's uh family specific and so we are going to be linking it with our Registration Department for those families specific um so you know as as people move in or if those families move out the people that are moving in then belong to the next district with the Stagger so that's a registration thing then right so they have to make sure that they're watching in that area that okay because you know what may happen is someone will move in or someone will have a child you know they have a baby and a couple years and like hey we want to go to the LC well my neighbors go to the LC but why can't we I just want to make sure this is for families to continue on that have been here but nothing future they're going to go to What's The District number Stager and then the boom High School all right so and and just feeding off that bill is I think we need to put measures in on our side when it comes to registration specifically for this area we're talking about that we do not accidentally enroll allow people to enroll in our district I don't know how we're going to do that but just you know we see that say Hey this this area this this is this area we're talking about and we can let the because we have some ownership in this too right Dr Eric do you want to comment on that yeah we already do have those safeguards in place okay uh with registration they're already checking the tax bills on will will County's website so anybody that's in that area even if a tax bill is not provided they will go on Will County site and check to see where the taxing body is and if it's not us they'll direct them to either 194 or 205 uh if they're Bloom okay okay 206 sorry okay so we do have some checks and balances in place already right yeah okay so that's it for good news for me and then on to business got a couple presentations this evening good evening president Brown distinguished members of the Board of Education Dr Kagan uh I'm here to present to you a updated short-term facility Improvement plan uh this is called Plan B uh it was originally uh displayed in February of 2024 and I'm here to run through some updated numbers as we progress through uh our capital projects in the district uh what you see here is our first slide probably should have got my like walking around a little bit more I'm sorry about that okay so what we have here you guys are familiar with the slide uh originally U put out by Mr CA uh one line that I did include in here that I would like to bring your attention to is uh contract balances for the summer of 2024 okay we are in the process of closing up some of those projects so what you see the amount above them were the original contract amounts and then we have currently what is left to pay on those projects so um that'll flow into uh subsequent slides as I go through here um in terms of Summer 2025 we obviously will um begin the Sports plex at Creon High School school I actually have two Representatives uh Joe Shu and D pafford the regional sales manager and a project manager from Burns and Jones here um to thank you guys for awarding the job to them last month um so in addition to that we tentatively have uh earmark replacing exterior doors at the elementary schools and then possibly looking to add some classroom Furniture in the Middle School um the following subsequent year the 2526 school year we are going to put on the uh addition and the renovation to creep Moni middle school that has been previously presented along with also addressing rooftop units that are in need of replacement over there um tentatively also have window replacement um scheduled at our elementary schools and I'm sorry I did uh skip over the roof replacement at CTO Elementary which we started this past summer that was the first year of a three-year project that went very well um aside from replacing the windows um we're also looking to address the Fieldhouse floor and creep Moni High School um it's experiencing some cracking and uh yeah some structural issues there in in the flooring at the high school so in total um in terms of projects that we have estimated and contract balances that are out there we're looking at 39,2 69,500 Middle School you have up there the the stuff you did in the locker room and renovation that's 100% complete now right you yes we paid that all off so we've paid those contractors off that was through um tiles and styles with the flooring and the corridors it was the locker room Renovations and upstairs where the pickle ball court was installed so yeah that those jobs have been completely um closed out and the rooftops over at the uh middle school when you do the addition those are on the existing part of the building not the new Wing that we did roughly 10 12 years ago right it's on the exist it's on the older stuff correct we're looking at replacing those and then also seeing how maybe I'm sure this might be a little bit more your world but how those units with the new classrooms and things along those lines so if we have to do any other work in terms of engineering and make you're updating the technology in there for all that stuff too is that that's included yeah that's what's included in there because we know those rooftop units are getting to the end of their expected life Jason um replacing exterior doors is that from wear and tear or is it a safety issue um kind of combination of both to be honest with you Nelson um it's it's you know the district invested heavily in the HVAC for those uh buildings and I think that's uh one part of a three-part process you know you obviously want to make sure that you have proper windows in there also doors so doors would be insulation issue and then also security but for the most part there's no glaring security nor uh needs with any doors that we see but you know you are seeing after so many years the salt come up onto them you see the the cracking at the bottom and things along those lines and in 2026 is phase three where you're doing the windows because there's probably no value in them anymore right meaning they're they're leaking and yeah I mean we're we're and you know uh obviously these are rough to estimates with doors and windows um given you know projecting cost couple years down the road but this is the best we could do with the estimates that we have hey Jason I just have a question regarding the doors themselves we had many doors that was on our life last life safety survey that needed to be replaced MH slash repair I think it was more so replaced are these the same doors we talking about here I thought we completed the life safety issues um back the 20134 life safety issues again which included several doors through of several buildings and now I'm seeing these new doors right now I'm just curious to see are we talking about new doors well the doors that were cited in those reports were addressed uh but I can't say that those report those doors every door in every building was cited as a life safety issue okay uh can you bring back to the board what specific doors were talking about as they were conveyed in our life safety you see we're not talking about the same thing yeah I can definitely cross reference you know because again it was communicated to the board that those life safety issues as they relate to exterior doors at various buildings were completed you can put that in the FY yeah I can I can get I can get that information to you and um you know as as Nelson inquired is this about you know is it a security or is it is it a uh like an instulation issue I think the reason that we were kind of retrofitting all the doors is to make sure that they were all updated some doors may have been addressed where the fact of matter is we can resolve the life safety issue without having to replace the door so I can definitely do we had priced we have the cost of affiliated with those doors were door Replacements specifically for critical life safety issues so I just want to make sure that those doors again were replaced and we're not talking about the same doors yes sir okay so go back and look at the 2013 Life Safety survey and see if any of those doors are repeat you know did we actually address them or this is a new set of doors here that's I can do that for you I appreciate that's all I have no problem any other questions regarding this slide okay so here you have um and these are the uh itemized repairs or itemized projects that each Elementary School breaking down by the time frame so summer of 2024 obviously those were the numbers that flow through from the previous slide um summer of 2025 uh that's just a breakdown of what you saw on a previous slide um per school and then also given the time frame so um like I say we we've worked our way through summer 2024 and then we're going to have our eyes on summer of 202 5 as we proceed um mon we just had the furniture done there nothing really uh capital projects wise and then we have tala that's seen a significant amount of work um this summer also and um as you guys can see only thing that's left for those uh Elementary School schools aside from creep mon I mean creep Elementary would be doors and windows summer 2024 at the high uh middle school as Bill inquired that $478,000 was uh included the three projects which is the carpet replacement in the corridors the gymnasium balcony renovation and a locker room storage project um this year we tentatively have slated 200,000 for classroom furniture and then the big project will be in the summer of 2026 when we uh renovate the interior portion of the middle mid school and add on the exterior classrooms in addition to working and addressing the rooftop units so we actually using phrase renovation now the phrase oh yes okay set of what well technically we were addressing those things we deemed to be not address the life safety issues we hit up on some other things when you hear the word renovation it's like we doing everything right that's that's all I'm saying that's the perception people have we renovated this school you know it was it was more give a facelift because we didn't have the funds per se we did the life safety issues tackled the some other big guns like air conditioning fire systems and all of that replacing pipes that was part of life safety issues and we had some ancillary funds kind of flown around that we want to at least do some facial aesthetic things like painting flooring things like that and we was lacking the funds to do some of the other big guns like roof replacement windows replacement that is deemed renovation right too and parking lots parking lots doing on the parking lot so that's where we're looking to go right now to make these buildings completely renovated I guess yeah I I understand what you're saying so I think I understand what you're saying address the life safety violations now we're looking to enhance the en our fac again I don't want to prolong this conversation but we we pretty much at the point where we need to get the next life safety survey right yeah we've had those schedu you said we do have we scheduled those um with helium Bender yeah this is the year start and come along that that comes in parallel with that shortly thereafter or maybe even before we have a physical assessment that we pay paid a lot of money in the past for right I'm talking about in a little $250,000 for the life safety $250,000 for the physical assessment and under that physical assessment we capture the things that we would like to do to renovate okay so that's kind of where we are now from the old physical assessment we're addressing some things that we consider to be non-life safety but we are capturing it sounds like some life safety issues being the doors I'm assuming well I'm assuming Mo if you look renovation is only used once and it's only in reference to $68,000 that's what I'm saying but the rest of them are not listed as a renovation so Windows replacement of doors are you categorizing that as renovation you don't have to answer think about it I want put you on you know I just want to know just again go back and look at our last physical assessment life safety and just see what are we extrapolating things out of there out of the physical assessment and be nice to say hey we addressed this that's off our chart this was kepted already under a physical assessment or are we going to have our architect was our architect involved with this at all um in regards to this presentation no just well just with finding capturing the things and items to do here was um yeah to be honest the more and more I think about this you know when I when I was meeting with uh when I was working with Ken I believe that's where he got some of the dollar amounts from was so been nice to say okay this physical assessment issues that we have already identified we chopping these off here's our here this was already identified you know couple with the cost back then inflationary numbers obviously is higher but these are the things that we're chopping off this was these were already identified and we're chopping these things off I can put something together okay like I said don't invent the whe the whe is already out there just right enhance it yeah just cross reference them and kind of put them in a more organized man I'm like oh you know I'm myself I'm where we going with this it's good to chop these things off and at the end of the day I think Bill agreed he's firm on this are we going to have some money to do our PMS okay all right go ahead so um here's a breakdown of everything at the high school uh this is just spelled out in an itemized list that primarily does with uh deals with the Sports plex and a consession stand um those items will be addressed in the summer of 2025 some will overlap um into the fall of 2025 such as the softball field and the baseball field getting finished um obviously priority will be the multiports Plex uh Fields so we're able to start our fall Sports in uh August of 2025 and then you also see the remaining work that's going to be done in the Fieldhouse to the floor so bringing this all together financially and I think this was kind of the reason that um I was asked to put this together so we know exactly where we stand currently so I work with Mr Johnson to get these uh balances and we currently have 6,526 1866 of our 2020a working cash bonds remaining um the debt certificates 2020b have been fully expended um we currently have 618,000 well $68,900 of oh and then we also have the September 2022 issu is uh in the amount of 9, 42,45 remaining bringing us a total remaining balance of 6,557 442 we're going to keep some of that money uh to the side for our fund balance um in the amount of 6,526 1866 giving us a remaining balance of 10,3 3,57 6 now in terms of new fun new money and Mr Bob Lewis from PMA network will be up next to speak to the alternative revenue bonds but we're looking at a total gross proceeds from issuing alternative revenue bonds in the amount of 29 milon1 165,000 um we have applied for the school maintenance project Grant um in the amount of $50,000 we're hoping to use that towards the cre Elementary roof project uh the same manner that we did where we applied that 50 ,000 to the corridors at creep Monon Middle School this past um summer so that is a a grant that comes up annually I plan on applying for it again and FY 26 so that makes up for the second $50,000 Grant and we also have interest income uh estimate of $700,000 giving us a total additional proceeds of $29 m965 th000 where's that interest income coming from what investments Brian if you could speak to that sorry that's just the routine Investments of our bonds that are sitting liquid so we usually do four to six month CDs at the recommendation of PMA MH and we tend to schedule that to roll off as needed when we know we have expenses coming up and those have been pretty successful and we conservatively I think we estimated around 1 and a half% of a return right now which we've been seeing higher returns than that and Bob will speak further about how our strategy is for these alternate revenue bonds but we don't have to worry about Arbitrage which then if we gain extra interest we might have to pay some back but we should be good with that please yes yeah so o plank is taking care that that's p i mean as far as the Investments PMA is actually investing that for us or is the money that we have the CDs are they handled from o plank PMA PMA okay okay all right so you call Bob up next um yeah I just have one or two more slides I'm sorry okay um so in summary uh and as I said these all sell reference through the entire presentation um just is showing the Investments with the remaining C uh contract balances um brings us to a total of $ 39,99 7,120 and then how we're going to fund that uh with the remaining proceeds from the previous bonds issued uh net of the money that's in our fund balance that total is 10, 3,576 and then with the new money that we look from issuing the alternative revenue bonds and applying for the school maintenance project grants um brings us of a a deficit of uh just over $1,500 so um everything is on track and we're doing the best to uh be good stewards of the money and funds that we've been entrusted to to enhance the district and the facilities question yes sir you said on track what's on track like do we have a time frame for when stuff gets started u I know some of we've already started doing um and then another question cuz it's all time in your write up or whoever wrote it up it said remodel existing softball fields near Heritage what softball fields in their Heritage it's the the field behind the varsity baseball field um it's currently be used by our Middle School uh baseball team so it's the baseball field that you're going to turn you're going to turn into the JV softball field okay so we're going to renovate that field um to bring it up to standards for our middle school and I only say I mean I'm assume you you all to get it right I just said that because it was worded wrong I knew what you were talking about but I just wanted to I appreciate so anyhow back to the time frame what's the time frame to get started on the project uh time frame and uh Dalton pafford can speak to that a little bit more but we are looking at December the week of December 6 I mean December 2nd I'm sorry is when we schedule a mobilization in their terms um and that's when we'll fence off the property and begin the demolition um at the high school and they're going to speak to that tonight or they're just sitting here if you have any questions for them I I glad bring them up no I mean because sometimes you all have people out and they just sit there and they don't say anything so I don't know if they are speaking on it are they going to present something questions yeah just for questions if you have any but if you have any you can go ahead and um so can you answer that question Village as far as per goes expecting plans Nots um be able to start December as far as substantial completion goes for the stadium to have everything done by August 1 football stadium itself doing finish touches on baseball softball the end of next year but by December your ha well this is this is a this obviously is a critical and a big project so on your side do you have a project layout showing critic iCal path showing Milestones that need to be met contingencies and all of that this is typically of a project right can you can you give us the big picture because you know we don't want to guess what's the next step we can go back and see it this is where we are so we can know if we want we don't want to be surprised yeah absolutely the football season is not going to start or something like that y so I've got a preliminary project schedule that I can share with you guys and then as the project progresses I'll be sending weekly updates to Jason and it'll be a living document saying hey we just finished our sight storm sewer we beat the task by two days we picked up two days on the end date hey we're behind by a day and that'll be a living document that'll provide weekly to Jason throughout the project but I've got that schedule right now I can provide that to you excellent will someone be archiving any of okay just like you know keep a section of bench or whatever just for archiving piece of grass okay perfect thank you we could save you a y gr well I mean I don't know that's important so we should save stuff go ahead go Jason on this slide do you have enough cushion built into to the numbers up above because it seems like what we're borrowing we were cutting it real close and to be honest with you that's a great question Nelson I was kind of following the format that um Ken laid out initially and I think he was he's gone you don't have to yeah you know but I'm just still trying to respect my predecessor in that um and actually I was going to let Bob speak to that a little bit regarding the sale of the alternative revenue bonds um depending upon where the payment is and we're comfortable I would like to take it uh take the amount up just a little bit to give me some um wiggle room for contingencies as I said we haven't really uh put together a design team for the Sports plex I asked Joe and Dalton to put together rough estimates um in their past experiences after a Project's been awarded and then what Chang are made once it goes into the design process so I kind of got an idea of where we may fall in in that but if we could take that up to you know roughly just under $30 million that's where I I'll leave there I think that would provide us with a little bit of buffer considering that um I don't know where we're going to be going with uh tariffs and and and things along those lines in terms of uh procuring services and goods you good yeah okay so that's that was about half the question that I had okay your predecessor when we did the five schools with the air conditioning and everything he did he had a detailed line on him and he had contingency numbers on every single project so and I always ask them about that when we don't use that contingency that should roll back in is why we have some extra funds left over and whatnot so I think we're moving forward but I still think we should see that that each one of those big projects should have like when the middle school edition and the haac there should have a contingency number on it for sure because when we get into certain things like when we were demoing the sixth grade and whatnot you're going to find things in the soil that you don't know that's there right yes there are going to be some some uh curveballs that are going to come at us but each product we should have at least a contingency number because he Ken would always do that and then at the end we would compile that money and I think some of that money went into some of the extra things we did the next year but just so we're like what Nelson is saying is that's exactly right we're cutting it close if you have contingencies built in then I totally feel 100% comfortable if you don't then we got to figure that that buffer out okay I can work on that and stay within the parameters of of our um you know what we're allowed to borrow based on the suggested strategy from Bob Lewis okay any other questions and you say Bob is going to talk about yeah that's uh item number two underneath business so okay all right okay thank you everyone thanks uh Jason good job Jason you you handle the pressure well M he's been he's been around he's been been around for a while thanks yeah no problem thank you for having me here tonight and excited to be part of this F Pardon Me part of this financing you've been waiting so long to get this tip money that it's it's finally here we've been talking about for a long time so before we start talking about the alternate revenue bonds just want to recap where your current debt picture sits so these blue bars represent your non- referendum payments that provided all those dollars for construction the green bars are the remaining referendum payments that you have outstanding you have this First Column here is levier 23 that's for taxes collected in uh calendar year 24 so we have two more years at the $12 million and then it starts to decline which is part of the plan over here we have a summary of your bond and interest tax rate for the last several years your bond interest tax rate got to as high as $2.13 coming out of the Great Recession as eav was falling and has been on a steady decline ever since and with the Tiff expiry we now estimate that bond interest tax rate will be below a120 you know so it's come down substantially over the last 10 years is that a120 per thousand per $100 of eav of of eav okay any questions on this slide what did you just say about that okay and as these Bonds mature here these last two columns here because I know uh president Brown will ask those are your last two years that have capital appreciation Bonds in them and then they're all gone so and this plan of Finance we doing again does not include capital appreciation bonds so those will be part of your history in just a couple more years so alternate revenue bonds some of this is an overview of some steps have you already done but it's a good reminder uh that we're at this point in the plan of Finance so an alternate Revenue bond is a bond that's intended to be paid from uh operating funds and you pledge to the repayment of those dollars uh to the repayment of the bonds a revenue specific Revenue source which is typically your state aid and your events spased ebf money and your onm taxes and but with an alternate Bond you also have a backup property tax levy that's put on file at the county in practice you never utilize that Levy but annually as part of your Levy process you'll be abating that Bond Levy you'll pass a resolution telling the county not to Levy that tax so the alternate revenue bonds will then be repaid from this new Tiff Revenue that's coming into the operating funds I think you're anticipating a little bit later in the presentation I think it's close to $5 million of additional revenue and we're using roughly half of that to repay these bonds over the next 20 years what are the proceedings to do an alternate Bond you have to do a bond hearing you've already done that you did that back in the summer you have to go through a 30-day petition process you have completed that as well you did that in the summer and then you the board approves a sale resolution which is uh something you still to do the anticipation is that the board would consider doing that next week and one other thing about alternate bonds they do not account against your the district's debt limit which is important unless you were to extend that property tax which again the part of the plan of finances annually you'll be abating that property tax that's uh for the backup Levy for these bonds and will not be utilizing it so what are the goals well currently the goal is 29 mil1 $65,000 in that proceeds which we can revisit that in the next a couple days with an annual payment of approximately $2 and A4 million doll that amount will fluctuate with market conditions you know because it's not locked in until you sell the bonds and the interest rate is determined so a little bit about the bond proceeds investment you know we've talked a little bit about investment earnings you may be already familiar with this with some of the bond proceeds from the bonds that were sold over the last few years but the US tax code generally prohibits positive Arbitrage on the investment of the bond proceeds unless you meet certain exceptions so what's positive Arbitrage again it's the investment earnings that exceed the bond rate so for example if you borrow at 4% invest at five the IRS doesn't want you to keep that extra 1% unless you meet an exception now why don't they want you to keep that 1% so when you sell your bonds you're selling them as being tax exempt what that means is the interest you pay to your investors they don't have to pay taxes on that interest so you're getting an implicit subsidy from the federal government you're borrowing about one to one and qu% less than if you didn't have that tax exempt status well coming with that are some strings attached to it and one of those strings is the IRS doesn't want you to earn positive Arbitrage and when I say IRS generally what I'm talking about is the tax code that Congress passed now what are the exceptions well one of those exceptions is that school districts are permitted to keep your positive Arbitrage if you sell $15 million or less than a single calendar year of tax exempt obligations so it's not by series you can't sell 15 million in June another 15 million in September it's collectively throughout the year so one of the things that we have to look at when putting together this plan of finances what other tax exempt borrowings have you done during the last 12 months you know since January 1st and you haven't done very many but those Capital leases you do from time to time for copers or iPads those are considered tax exempt financing you did do a I forgot what that was Brian was around $100,000 that we figured this year of a capital lease something like that so we got net that off the 30 or the $15 million um towards what you can borrow the other exceptions that are available requireed to meet spin down Milestones every six months in practice it's very difficult to hit those Milestones because you have to hit each one so if you meet the first six-month Milestone but you miss the 12mth Milestone but you make the 18th month and you make the 24 month because you missed the 12 month you don't qualify to keep the positive Arbitrage so whenever possible we try to use this first exception of $15 million well with your borrowing amount of being around 29 million we're kind of right there at the Sweet Spot of saying hey we could sell two $15 million financings one that closes in December 24 another one that closes next year because it's a calendar year division it's not a fiscal year in division for school it's by calendar year so by approving the resolution that you have for consideration next week we would hopefully be able to split these into two $15 million financings um over uh and qualify both of them for the smallest year exemption then you don't have to worry about earning positive Arbitrage now we do anticipate you know you're you're worried about some contingencies and stuff and keep in mind you borrow this much because of the interest rate environment you will be investing those dollars just like you did your other Bond proceeds and we ballpark estimate you know about 1 to 1.4 million investment earnings that you'll make depending on how quickly you spend the money and what uh short-term interest rates happen to be as you invest them so that will be additional dollars you have for the project so really if you stayed at to 21.65 you probably could roughly consider you probably have around $30 A5 million dollar available including the investment earnings so so Bob you know the government or the feds are in the process of doing a quantitated easing by trinal order interest rate to offset the inflationary period right right so if we go ahead and borrow can you the alternate alternate bonds can you sell those bonds to be callable and can we take advantage where we may sell some now at a certain interest rate but we haven't maximized the selling of those bonds by getting at a lower interest rate that futuristic time we can go back and get those bonds called and take advantage of a lower possible interest rate yeah they will be callable approximately 9 to 10 years after issuance okay and you know you raise a good thing about the fed you know the FED has anticipated to cut the FED funds rate additional times even this year and in the next but the markets factor that in and so as conditions change that can change that expectation and you can look at no better example of um what happened back in September when the FED first cut rates in the cycle and they cut 50 basis points you know they anti I know my son was trying to buy his first house and he's trying to get the mortgage rate down thinking hey interest rates are going to fall for my mortgage rate well what happened after they cut rates on September 18th as of November 1st morgage uh the treasury rates 10year treasury gone up like 56 basis points mortgage rates went up like 48 basis points immunity rates went up like 44 basis points went the exact opposite direction what the FED did so and you and with the um the unknown so what's going to happen with the change in Washington you know even though the feds expect to cut rates more the worry is additional tariffs and things like that could cause rates to come back up so I think it's good to try to get them locked in during this time frame but in the future you'll be able to refinance them um down the road you won't be like those cabs that you had were we're stuck for 20 years yes yeah which is a no no please yeah CS is four-letter word right yes it is I agree capital appreciation Bonds on on my Shi right okay great okay so what is the exact benefit of making both financings exempt from um Arbitrage rebate you know it's really hard to quantify because it B it's based off a lot of different assumptions you know when you sell the bonds that part of the equation is known because the rates are fixed you sell the bonds locked in the investment earnings that you'll earn and whether you'll earn positive Arbitrage or not it depends on the pace at which you spend the money how much of that money you leave liquid because while you sell the bonds and you go out and buy treasury Securities and CDs to about the time that you need to spend the money you're not going to invest all that money because you're going need at least some liquid for uncertainty so so that liquid rate will be variable and then when the CD matures that you thought you're going to need in 12 months well what if you're a little bit behind and you don't need it for a couple more months well now you're going to have to go invest it for two months and what will the rate be then so there's too many unknowns to exactly predict and tell you you're going to save this much by splitting is financing in two all we do know is right here U ultimately a split issu and strategy creates flexibility to manage potential positive Arbitrage as single financing would not provide so that's why we recommending splitting this financing and um because you're you're at that sweet spot of the year you're right there where the calendar year is going to flip over so it makes a lot of sense to do that if we were having this conversation back in April we like doesn't make sense to do it in April because you're waiting 7 months to sell the second series of bonds we interest rates go up a lot well you're right here where it kind of it's almost a no-brainer to split between the two years to get that benefit so here are the remaining steps you already did the petition period the hearing way back at the early part of this year um so we have for consideration for you next week the approve of that parameters resolution that would authorize the sale of both bonds and the on December 9th is when we contemplate that the delegates would approve the sales well who are the delegates the delegates are typically two administrative officials two elected officials and you just need one of each uh so um typically it's board president vice president superintendent and Jason's position I forget what your position is csbo we'll just say csbo there you go um and then you close around December 19th we could make that a little bit later you know it's a little short of turnaround but it's trying to get wrapped up for the holidays so we're not bothering you guys to sign closing documents um when you're you know you're looking to spend time with family and then you could sell the the 25 bonds as early as January 14th and then close on those in February 4th and you have all that 29 million plus in the bank earning interest for your projects interest that you'll be able to keep even if it's positive Arbitrage so in the appendix um not really this is just for your reference here's your principle by Series so you see all all these green boxes is callable Principle as someday you'll be able to refinance as we get to the call dates so your next earliest call day is January 26 so I've already talked to you your Finance team to let them know hey we're monitoring these and if there's a refunding opportunity on these bonds we'll let you know as we get to the middle to late next year because you got to wait to within 90 days of those call dates you can't just do it at any time now I got a question too sure well you know I'm a little ahead of you keep going uh and then here's those last cab payments so you have one that you're making any day now I believe this right here and then you just have one payment left on each of the 05 and 06 bonds and then those will be gone and here's your legal debt margin so you you this number is now positive we've had times your history where this was negative so it's now positive and your alternate bonds don't count against us by Statute okay so this will still be the same number um even after you issue the bonds and this last slide is a summary go back I'm sorry to the last uh sure as the question I want to ask so it looks like our district EAB is finally approaching close to a billion dollars right this year yes but I know houses eavs were really inflated I guess you know for reasons being and do we how do how is it impacted that these eavs go down if the E eavs were go go down and that will affect the percentage of money that we can borrow right yeah this number if it went down it would impact your ability to borrow there's so many there's so many exceptions now yeah from this limit like um like on a non- referendum basis you know you have this red line remember your D yeah so we really can't borrow a whole lot on a non- referend basis anyhow because we filled this box up right uhuh but if you want for example if you went to the voters for referendum yeah and for anybody on the camera we're not's what but if let's say you did and you approved $50 million m now this number is 13 million there's a new law that went to effect earlier this year that says if the voters approve a bond at referendum as long as you conduct a hearing and publish certain information in the paper that Bond would be exempt from your legal debt margin ah okay and in fact I have one client who passed on um the 5th and we're using that exemption for their bond issue and and it's because the school code if you ever go look at it has pages and pages of school districts that were getting exemptions from this MH because the formula is broken for districts that have uh you know low to Middle Ground middle area of eav per capita frequently they're running into this limit because this this formula was created back in the 1800s and they've never updated you know so in wow so as your property values increase your ability to borrow increases but the cost of construction has grown many times more over the last several decades it's just off it is so instead of you know adjusting the formula they just made this exemption got it okay they put a bar okay did you have a question no no good thanks Bob yeah you're welcome so this last slide is just a summary of hey if you sold it all at once this is what it would look like if you sold it into two parts this is what it would look like right here so it's roughly the same so the here you can see by selling two parts you're getting more investment earnings that you're keeping for the project now when we did this update here the total payback was a little bit higher for doing two than one now that's always going to be in state of flux depending on what interest rates are but the plan of Finance is all about creating flexibility so you don't have to cut a check to the IRS you know so any questions on this worksheet okay so that's my presentation you guys have anything to add no any other questions the only question I have is when in in a year and a half when we make those last two payments off those old bonds will that help our will that help our financial profile rating no I mean that I don't think so because that's longterm and the long it does matter what right but long longterm is long term but it doesn't matter how weight is so low okay yeah you you still yeah if you if you had no debt at all yeah let's say you had everything right in the formula you had no debt at all it' be 4.0 uhhuh if you have a lot of debt you're 3.7 right I mean so that's kind of where so paying those down it's going to help you move you in that direction but because you've just did these large finances do all these nice improvements you're going to do these additional bonds you're going to be at 3.7 for and they do that because they know districts are going to be borrowing yeah and they don't want to H hold them with handcuffs on you know trying to borrow money so right yeah good job Bob yeah thank you you have always been able to answer my questions thank you now I'm trying to is that clapping or hay Mana it's quiet Clapp I I tell you doing that like what the J doing tell the truth tell the truth Brian tell the truth yeah I'm good hey Doc good evening everyone my name is Brian Johnson Director of Finance for the school district this is the preliminary conversation for our truth and Taxation hearing which will be held on December 10th first we always start with definitions equalized assessed value is the rate that property taxes are assessed at and will County they value your property your eav is 1/3 of your property's value the example is a $150,000 home you would pay the onethird value $50,000 is what they use to calculate your taxes the tax levy is the amount of money we request from the county for our needs for the next year the tax extension is the amount of money the county clerk actually gives the school district and the tax rate is the percentage that is applied towards your eav to then calculate how much each property has to pay in taxes annually the requirements for a truth in taxation hearing if the tax extension increases by a maximum of 5% or CPI which was 3.4% new construction is in addition to this requir requirement if the levy is more than 5% then we have to have a truth and Taxation hearing which requires published notification in the local newspaper 7 to 14 days before the truth and Taxation hearing and that we publish everything on the district website 30 days prior to the hearing so we can't publish in the newspaper for truth and Taxation hearing until the week of Thanksgiving we're on top of that the publication has already been on our website so we did meet that requirement prior to those 30 days and then once the tax levy is approved it needs to be filed with the county clerk by the last Tuesday of December which is New Year's Eve this year this is just historical data of how our tax levy and tax rates have moved over the years as you can see are extend Pion has increased steadily year over-year and the rate that each taxing property is paying has gone down year over-year and we do expect that Trend to continue this is the data comparing our 2023 actual Levy numbers to our estimated 2024 Levy numbers the eav for the district did go up by about $25 million new construction again this is an estimate based off of what we received from the Will County Assessor estimating new construction at about $100 million which then puts our new Tiff revenue from the University Park Tiff 5 at just under $5 million annually and then our annual Bond payment stays stagnant which again as Bob explained our alternate revenue bonds won't affect this number as we move forward and Jason's is you know we talking about 100 plus, difference yeah the the eav for calculating legal debt margin you get to include all the eav in your tip districts too ah yeah that's the difference yeah got it okay okay so then moving forward this is our historic tax levy that we've had as you can see 2024 those numbers jump up significantly we always balloon our Levy but this year it's significantly higher to ensure that we are capturing all available new revenue from the Tiff that's rolling off which again we only get one shot at that and we're working on a lot of estimates so we're being very aggressive in what we're asking for to ensure that we don't leave any money on the table because if we do we can never get that money back and then we would lose out on compounding interest moving forward which would not be fun for anyone and then the next slide is our estimate of what we think our actual extension is going to be which again these numbers are not as large as what we're asking for again we're over asking to make sure that we don't leave any f on the table and then this is a breakdown of tax rate by fund as you can see our tax rate is going down year over-year which is consistent but it is going down more than it has in the past because of that Tiff so without considering Bond and interest the tax rates going down around 6% and then in total it would be going down a little over 8% for our portion of taxpayers tax obligation so so just so you're looking at this when you go back so many slides you don't have to we're you know in 2016 we're at 8.68 8.7 a.4 it's been dropping steadily since 2017 but you're saying that you think that the tax rates going to go below 7% to 6.6 correct that's good I don't know because they kind of offset one another when the rate goes down well I know the eav goes up but the T look at the rate is going down yeah lot of the eav increases the Tiff it does going off right so what's happening is the Tiff is throwing off the eav and the tax rate's coming down so the home owners the taxpayers will pay less because I think that the Tiff is balloning that artificially right I mean essentially because you're getting one shot at that and it's going to go down to 6.64 because at the end of the day that's is going to be predicated again on the rate and the eav which is going to determine the how much a tax payer is going to pay right right because it's about an extra 88 plus million that we're getting on their new construction if that is at all the numbers are calculated definitely let us know that what we expect the average if that's the plus that taxpayers are going to see a potential decrease in their taxes we need to share that yes a proportionate decrease in our portion of what they pay on their tax bill and that's the information we need them to know because we have nothing to do with setting the eav the eav we do not the access so we are asking for a lower share of what they will be paying right because what I'm getting is is if your eav in a house is 200,000 mhm it's going to be maybe let's say it's 208 right whatever 28 210,000 but it the tax rates dropping 610 of a percent because of that $88 million that's a big drop it is so that's good right yeah definitely should impact the property Brian can you go back maybe one page or two go back one more so I understand that you B the so we can capture all of this increase yes is there any magic in why you you you know you increase the education fund what 67% from 30 to 50 so we can move money easily out of the education fund into other funds if we need to in the future and again we once we get the draft of our extension we can reconfigure the amount of our extension to the different funds funds so we to be conservative put the Lion Share into the education fund because that's the easiest the easiest to to move to other funds as needed okay where if we committ it to funds outside of Education there's more rules on what can be moved out and when and how so it's just to keep things simple for what we need to but there's no restriction since you're having the truth and Taxation hearing you could make that whatever number you wanted it to be right correct I thought I thought we had to go off for referendum if we increase the tax rate in the ad fund that's not so huh I thought so go out to referendum I really yeah for for to increase the rate in the ad fund I thought that you heard that it used to be that way but now collectively all your operating rates right go for refer you can move around okay okay all right thank you so then this slide again we're working on estimates we're always very conservative in these numbers we showed a $100,000 home the actuals that took place in 2023 the tax rate ended up at 7.2431 per.

[Music] hello clockers my name is hi silver it is good to be back with another segment of waca news blog today I'll be giving a quick update on the latest Ashlin happenings as written in the town manager's newsletter let's start with a quick Public Service Announcement Ashland's Holiday Program led by our Human Services team is in need of donors to help match with their familyes experiencing financial hardship you can sponsor a family purchase filler gifts or donate gift cards this program brings the spirit of the season to families who need it most and we're hoping for your support this year in election news we've learned that Donald Trump has been declared the winner of Tuesday's election with roughly 78% turnout ashen's voters showed up with full force town clerk Cindy Livingston and her team ensured a smooth election process making us proud of their commitment some Town updates phase two of the downtown streetcape project is now underway crews are currently working on the Front Street burying utilities to eliminate above ground utility poles work will soon continue on Main Street with minimal impact on traffic for the latest schedule visit the town website looking ahead to Tuesday November 19th at 700 p.m.

tune in Via waca TV or join in person at the select boardroom comedy night need a night out join the Ashton Business Association on Friday November 15th for a comedy night featuring food drinks live music and laughter all proceeds go to the ABA scholarship fund and the Ashland emergency fund APS fall band and coral concerts on Thursday November 14th at 700 p.m. enjoy a night of music from the Ashlin high school and middle school bands performances will celebrate the legacy of JS Bach and you won't want to miss it author talk dry Tinder is coming up history Buffs mark your calendars for Sunday November 17th at 2 p.m. at the ashin Historical Society author Janice Thompson will discuss her historical novel dry Tinder which brings New Perspective to the Salem Witch Trials this event is free and open to the public Ashley and Thanksgiving Market will be held on Saturday November 23rd from 10:00 a.m.

e e e yeah you guys can allow me to un myself so I'm you should be all set okay are and are live good evening everybody um it is Tuesday November 12th uh 5:00 pm here at Town Hall my name is Michael Herbert I am the town manager here in the town of Ashland and uh I'd like to welcome you here in the audience uh which is standing room only I say somewhat sarcastically and those of you on zoom and watching on cable like to welcome you to our special town meeting forum for our special town meeting that's going to happen next Tuesday uh on November 19th so with us today is um our assistant Town manager Jen ball um and again uh what this is is an opportunity for us to just run through the different warrant articles that are going to be on on the agenda for next Tuesday uh at 7:00 p.m.

at the high school uh in the High School auditorium uh for those of you with little kiddos we do have a babysitting available that's going to be U part of our Recreation department and um who are going to be running that so you know if you are worried about taking care of the kids and feeling like that might be uh an impediment to you going we've got you covered there um again oh wait oh Chuck and Lynn did you I tell you I should have just I should have just cut it short right there right Chuck and Len lids Do you know that you are oh not we're unmuted you're unmuted now okay you know just as a matter of of and this goes to an earlier discussion but uh I bet I don't know why you have we have Enterprise funds and I bet 90% of the people who are in the who are listening don't either can you explain why we what the what the purpose of that is Chuck how many warrant articles have we done since since we talked about enterpr you've been waiting this whole time for that one okay so the question is why do you have Enterprise funds um so entprise funds allow you to basically identify what the Massachusetts Department of Revenue calls specific business activities and so it allows you to tie certain revenues related specific or specifically related to those expenditures so you pay your property taxes um that goes to support anything and everything basically um well like I mentioned before things like the school department things like health insurance uh for employees police and fire it's really hard to tie one specific activity done by a department or one specific you know uh expense to that Revenue line so what an Enterprise fund allows you to do is it allows you to basically set a budget and says okay this is what it's going to take to run our our water department and these are the fees that we need to charge to run it and so you know that the fees that you're going to be paying when you pay your water bill are going to nothing else except to pay and support those water operation expenditures same thing with the sewer fund so it's a way it's an account it's a way of accounting that allows you to isolate certain business activities and ensure that the revenue that you have said is going to go for those activities actually goes and pays for those activities so it it provides for more transparency essentially doesn't it also restrict the the uh Town manager's ability to efficiently run the um town no not necessarily Chuck I mean I I My Philosophy is I love flexibility um so you know Enterprise funds to that um you know if you look at it only through that type of philosophical um lens if you will is uh yeah it would be countered to that but no Enterprise funds serve a very very good purpose I think um so before we had the water and sewer Enterprise fund we would have water and sewer charges but they would go into the general fund under local receipts so yeah the town manager at the time had a lot more flexibility as to you know hey I'm going to take you know 50% of your water bill and use it to support my Police Department um and that flexibility uh for a manager is certainly welcome but again I do I think just from a good government perspective you know it probably it's probably good to have those isolated activities where you can provide a little bit more transparency okay thank you m thanks I appreciate it so all right on that note um I think we're going to call it tonight again hope to see you next Tuesday and uh until then I hope you all have a great week and um gosh I don't know I was about to say stay warm but I don't know if it's going to stay cold um the way things are going but anyway thank you for coming thank you for being here online and in the audience thanks have a good night e

e e e she's right she's off she's in a bad spot okay um I call to order this meeting of the Sherburn school committee today is Tuesday November 12th 2024 and we are meeting in the over Sherburn Middle School library the time is now 6:31 uh first on the agenda our community comments we've provided a virtual link for those who wish to make a comment but for whom it is not possible or preferred to attend in person are there any Community comments okay anyone on Zoom okay please remember remember that Community comments are an opportunity for members of the school committee to listen to members of the community as chair of this meeting it is my responsibility to facilitate this communication between the public and the committee present this evening I personally believe this communication is a critical element to assist members of this committee with discharging the responsibilities of the positions they've been elected to hold to effectively facilitate this discussion I encourage anyone providing comments to consider that the volunteers that comprise this committee are your neighbors friends and fellow community members we welcome all points of view but I would respectfully ask that you treat these committee members in a matter consist consistent with that in mind collectively we are here to support the administration who in turn assist our Educators and support staff to educate care for invest in and inspire our children community comments are not a forum for answering questions or engaging in a debate we respectfully request that you please make your comments brief no more than 3 minutes and that you move the discussion forward by adding new information please try to avoid repeating points that have already been made once the public comment section of the meeting has concluded we will move on to other business whoops and unsolicited comments from the community will no longer be permitted this is standard operating procedure in school committee meetings across our three school districts if you desire more information or have specific questions contact information for committee members is on the district website okay dou did hi uh my three minutes is starting I'm Doug Kingsley I live at 138 Farm Road in Sherburn 19-year Town resident this is my first school committee meeting I'm delighted to meet all of you my neighbors friends and community members as you said um it's my first school committee but it's not going to be my last I joined the Advisory Board and I think you're going to be seeing a lot more of me um I learned before the meeting and with your comments moment ago that Community comments are I guess you know allowed before the meeting but there's no interaction with the school committee um I would would humbly suggest that the the board consider having Community comments before and after the meeting such that when there's topics that are live the community can comment on them as opposed to waiting a month to the next meeting to com comment on something that just happened tonight so if you discuss something tonight and I have a comment I gotta wait till the next meeting to make that comment so that's my thought I'd like you to consider adding that to your format is that it that's all I had to say thank you well I I have questions but it sounds like you're not going to answer my question so I'll just leave at that okay thank you okay the next item on the agenda is the superintendent's comments superintendent McCoy thank you um good evening everyone um my comments will be brief this evening because a majority of our uh conversation tonight will be around um mcast analysis that assistant superintendent Conlin will provide and then um an overview of version 1.0 of the budget which Miss ftor will provide um just a few updates of the exciting things happening um at Pine Hill school and within the [Music] district um as you know one of our uh District goals around this year is elevating student voice and understanding their perspective um since they are the client to attend school um every day and making sure that they feel like they are heard and they have ownership in some of the decision- making that's happening so one of the um initiatives that we have is shadowing students so we have had um roughly 20 um adults whether that's um Educators um instructional leaders such as our PLC leaders or our district leadership um follow a student for the day we've had lots of positive feedback so far um and there are several other Educators who are excited about that opportunity and so we'll be rolling that out slowly over time um to have other Educators follow the students for the day get a sense of what their day is like um what they're engaging with in the classroom what their homework loads are like um what their after school schedules are like all in line with a challenge success uh program and what challenge stands for so we'll certainly provide more feedback and information as that continues um Denny and I have launched the superintendent advisory Council which at this point has 25 um middle and high school students we're going to be meeting with the elementary school students during lunch bunches as well to get their feedback on a number of topics um but it's certainly an honor to be working um one on one kids and hearing their input and feedback um relative to um School practices and policies but also um providing feedback to teachers the kinds of questions and surveys that we're asking them on a regular basis and how we can make that more impactful by the information we're collecting and then how we use that to inform our decisions um so again more to come on that we just had our first meeting um we have been busy working with all of our principles assistant principles and coaches um looking at the mcast data analysis at the secondary level we're obviously looking at advanced placement scores SAT scores ACT scores as well um and Mr Conlin will be providing an overview of what we have taken away from the spring administration of mcast at pin hill um and again this evening we'll be going deep into uh the budget planning process um which you are all Prime members of um and it's a long process so when we get to that the item will give you a little bit more background um and context as we start the planning for FY 26 happy to take any questions or concerns otherwise I would like to hand it over to assistant superintendent Conlan to talk about our mcast results okay uh so before we get going just a quick update for me in terms of assistant superintendent updates um so one of the things that I've been working on to minimize can you just drink it like can be dry it thank you um so as you all are we have a new elementary math curriculum which we've been talking about for a while now um so I've spent the past month diving into the new math curriculum in a firsthand way um so I feel like it's really important to get a sense of what the teachers and students are experiencing with the new math curriculum uh so I've been going to classrooms and I've been guest teaching math lessons um and it's been a really valuable experience just to understand the curriculum to be in the perspective of a teacher when they sit down with like teacher manual and online resources like what are they really dealing with what are the kids saying um and how's the math curriculum going uh so just a few of my learnings from having taught some math lessons now at Pine Hill um there are tons of resources with the new curriculum almost too many resources so we're just trying to figure out how to direct the teachers to what they need and how to find the things that they need to find on the website um the online platform is a little clunky so we've come up with some screen cies and some kind of quick start guides to help teachers find what they need to find on the online platform uh you've heard me talk a lot about math talk and math discourse and encouraging our students to just Express what they're thinking and how they're using different math strategies and that has been awesome um I'd say that's been the biggest growth point I've seen in my personal experiences and just in observing classes is that our kids are talking about math sometimes it's really really hard because we're asking them to explain why somebody chose this solution or why but chose this Pathway to get to An Answer um but it's really I think forced our students to think about why math works the way it does rather than just focus on getting to the answer quick um releasing responsibility is hard is another thing I've learned as part of this curriculum um so there are times where like you know the students aren't going to know how to do something and you just have to let them try it and come back with their ideas on how they want to solve it and then you can lead them through like the mini lesson but kind of releasing it to the kids can be really really daunting um I found that out firsthand where I just wanted to talk to the kids more because I was worried they didn't understand it um but just had to let it go and let them try to kind of grapple with some of the concepts um I've learned that we have a wide range of Learners so differentiation is really really important um and it's hard for teachers when they get done with the meting lesson and they split the students into three different groups and the teacher is working in one small group and there are two groups working on something else um and if there's not another adult in the classroom you know it's a lot to manage for a teacher I think um there's a lot of language so you might have heard from any of your children that you know we have to talk a lot the problems have a lot of words in them um and we know that that's a challenge right now um but it's also very reflective of what we're seeing on assessments like the mcast what we're seeing in terms of the types of Real World skills and situations we want our students to be looking that so that's been a learning curve as well um and finally we know that this is really hard again I've just done a couple lessons and it's been very hard and we're really hoping that our teachers you know Embrace mistakes and model it for our students that it's okay for them to make mistakes um that they're welcome and they're expected um so you know there was a point during one of the lessons that I did where things just were not going well and I said you know what we're going to regroup and start with something new um and I think that's really good for for our students to be seeing from our teachers as well um so things are going well you know there's a lot of growing pains in terms of getting used to a new curriculum um but it's been really really neat to see everything unfold firsthand um so now the heart of presentation is thinking about our 2024 mcast results so before I get going quote from John hatti um who researches a lot about what makes an impact in terms of teaching and learning um and he says in this quote the major purpose of assessment in schools should be to provide interpretive information to teachers and school leaders about their impact on students so that these Educators have the best information about what steps to take with instruction and how they need to change and adapt um and you know if you talk to people they'll tell you all sorts of things about what does data do some people will say you know data functions as signals some people have made an analogy to the a flashlight like data shines a light on little areas but doesn't give you that full view of everything going on um but it does give us Clues and it does give us information about ways that we need to change or adapt the way that we work with students um I also think it's important to look at this big data pyramid and just to see that we are using data in a multitude of different ways and at various times throughout the school year um so at the top of this pyramid you can see we have the things that happen on an annual basis mcast is something that happens on an annual basis um at the region our AP scores our SAT scores um our L students uh they take the access test so these are things that happen once a year um two to three times a year that's when we have various diagnostic tests um that's like ourl diagnostic our Dibbles our phonic screener our Universal math screener um our Panorama surveys and then at the secondary level we have midterms and final exams um then there's data points that we collect more on a quarterly end of unit so that's kind of that end of unit assessment or end of unit test or quiz or project that students are completing uh one to four times a month you have formative common assessments so that might be a math problem of the week that every third grader does might be a science journal that every fourth grader completes um and various other student products and then we know that our teachers are collecting data on a daily basis uh so they finish a math lesson they do an exit ticket they get a sense of what students have learned um they're walking around talking to students seeing what they're absorbing what they're struggling with that's all data that they are kind of taking into mind um to plan for the next day and to use so this just gives you a picture of the fact that you know it's important to note that there's tons of data that our teachers are paying attention to um and that the mcast while it's an important indicator is only one of those pieces at the very very top that only happens once a year uh so with that being said I wanted to start off just by talking a little bit about the overall State landscape with the mcast um and some trends that we saw across the entire state of Massachusetts last year um so the first one is that almost across the board Ela results have shown a continued Gap since kind of Co happened um so we're seeing Ela results kind of go downward across the state um in terms of math results uh there was some improved achievement Statewide and third grade math um but besides that it was relatively flat in terms of overall scores throughout Massachusetts and math uh science showed Improvement and uh we only do the science mcast in grades 5 10 and grade eight um lower achievement in grade eight across the state although I did say at the regions meeting that our eighth graders actually showed a huge amount of growth U so that's a place where we were different than the state um another important Point Statewide is just knowing that chronic absenteeism is having an impact on student achievement uh so we think about students who are chronically absent that students who are absent for 20 days or more uh which makes sense that it's hard to achieve it's hard to learn if you're not in school to learn um be able to learn in the first place so that gives you an idea of the overall State landscape that we're seeing um another thing that's going to come up throughout the rest of this presentation are two different measures on the mcast uh so a student score represents their achievement uh so often we look at scores and that's a comparison from one year to the next so this year's first third graders what they got in terms of a number score versus last year's third graders so you're comparing year by year so you're comparing one grade of students to last year's grade of students um the measure of growth is called an SGP a student growth percentile and that measures how much students have improved since their performance in the previous year so that's actually showing the growth that students are making since they last took the test um so that's what we want to see as well is we want to see high achievement but at the same time we want to see that students are showing growth in their sgps uh so that's a number that we'll see as well uh so in terms of Pine Hill and their mcast results so I'll give you an overview of ela Math and Science in grades 3 through five and then talk a little bit about some of these really big highlights some areas that we want to focus on on and then how it all connects to our district Improvement efforts uh so when we think about Ela in grades 3 through 5 um I think the biggest thing that I take away from these results is that Pine Hill and Sherborn continued to exceed the state averages uh so you can see the percentage of our students who met or exceeded expectations was 21% higher than the state average our scaled score um again that measure of achievement was 133% of uh 13 points above the State average and our sgps our student growth uh 8.6 points higher than the state average um so those comparisons continue to show that our students are performing better than the state um and it also um when we look at the growth from 23 to 24 um you can see that the level of proficiency went down 7% since last year in the me and exceeding um but that does fall in line with the overall State Trend that I had just mentioned about Ela scores is decreasing um across the state in terms of math uh you can see again that we continue to outperform the state averages um and that we saw um 1% increase in our students that were exceeding um but we also saw that we um last year had 57% of our students meeing expectations versus 49% of students in 2024 um so there is areas for growth and we'll talk about the ways that we're planning to dissect this data and to lead to you know further growth for 2025 and then science happens only in grade five uh so you can see again we exceed the state averages uh there's no SGP for science because there's nothing to compare it to because students have never taken it before um and you can see that um we had 65% of our students who met or exceeded expectations in fifth grade science um that was up 1% from the previous year um in terms of scaled score uh we stayed about even in terms of the scaled score um so these are just some of the data points um but in our analysis that we did um with our building leaders at pin hill here are some of the successes that we wanted to highlight um so again our Pine Hill students continue to perform above the state averages um we saw that our high need students when we use that term High needs that's three populations that are encompassed in high needs those are students with disabil ities our lowincome students and our English Learners um they did show growth in ela their SGP increased by 16 points from 2023 um so that again is different from the state Trend where we saw scores go down um in math are low income students proficiency rates so the proficiency is exceeding their Med expectations um it's good news there their those proficiency rates were either at or above preco levels um so that's been an indicator that we've heard a lot about from the state um is you know how are we doing in comparison to pre-co um additionally our lwi income students are showing higher sgps higher growth compared to last year uh so when we look at our subgroups of students that's good news for that subgroup our low-income students um another spot to highlight our fourth grade ELA um students with disabilities their proficiency increased from 9% in 2023 to 40 1% in 2024 um so we saw a lot of growth with our students with disabilities in fourth grade ELA and then we made some modest gains in the essay writing and language skills in fifth grade ELA so these statistics again relating to ELA are important to consider that state context of scores going down to see this growth specifically from a lot of our subgroups is very uh encouraging um areas that we want to focus on um overall despite some of the growth that we've seen seen we do continue to see a gap in how our students with disabilities perform versus their peers in all content areas and across grade levels so there is still an achievement gap between our students with disabilities and our students without disabilities uh so that's something that we want to pay particular attention to um when we went through the item analysis looking at questions and question Types on Ela we found that our students need more support specifically in the area of writing um and then very very specifically in topic development literary analysis um and on the essay writing portion of the exam um when we went through the math item analysis we saw some pretty um consistent Trends in students need some more support in numbers and operations specifically with fractions um feel very good about our new math curriculum and that's going to address um some of these areas uh we want to place an overall focus on just having students right more frequently across content areas so they see writing not just as part as Ela um but with the new math curriculum I just mentioned there's a lot of language involved so students are writing more in math now um and certainly in social studies and science we want students to see that the writing they do in one content area they can take the skills from that and kind of generalize them to other content areas um and finally we want to give students some more experience reading and analyzing informational texts across content areas throughout the school year um and a lot of that again can happen through science and social studies as well as continuing to diversify the texts that we're having students read in ela uh so these are some of the specific Focus areas that we're looking at at Pine Hill um and all of the things that we saw are closely connected to our district Improvement efforts um so we do want to see our scores from Pine Hill continue to go up and we've put a lot of things into place this year to help make that happen um and again not just about our mcast scores but overall student achievement um so one of the things that I mentioned in our last Shor School committing committee meeting was our data team meetings in the way that our teachers administrators um our counselors all meet go over student information and then they make decisions based on that information um so our data team meetings have been very very successful in figuring out which specific areas students need more support in and we put interventions in place um in order to help students get what they need uh We've also organized all of our data this year onto a new platform called open Architects which makes it a lot easier for our teachers and our staff to access and to look at the data in a dashboard um beforehand you'd have to go on to the des's website log into this portal go to this thing called Edwin and it takes forever it's very confusing um so now we have the data in a very friendly way and we're walking staff through protocols on how toess access and interpret that data uh so Pine Hill at a faculty meeting is going to be going over these mcast results analyzing it individual teams of teachers are going to be analyzing the data uh so they're going to be looking at item analysis seeing where students might have struggled last year and thinking about ways to improve instruction in those areas this year um and as I noted we kind of have this gap between our students with disabilities and our students with that disabilities so our special ed Department led by our special ed coordinator at Pine Hill is going to be doing their own um they're going to be part of the whole school mcast analysis but they're going to be in their special ed Department team going over this data as well um in terms of math obviously we're implementing a new curriculum that's focusing a lot on number routines and fluency um so we're hoping that those specific areas are going to we're going to see Improvement on uh we have much better diagnostic tests to identify student needs so this was the first year that we used a universal math screener at the of the year to think about areas that students might need extra support in um and we're continuing to use ISL to Monitor and to dipstick where our students at in math and then for our students that need that tier 2 intervention that extra support uh We've adopted a new curriculum to use um that's an evidence-based curriculum called the bridges math program just for our students that need interventions um in terms of ela um again we have are using much better diagnostic tests this year in order to identify our student needs uh so we're giving the dibles Diagnostic in grades K through five uh previously it was only given in K through 2 so that's expanded um and we're finding that in terms of measuring students reading level that has about you know an 80 to 90% accuracy um we're using a new screener for phonic called a 95% screener 95% screener in grades K through 2 um and we've adopted a new evidence-based intervention system for students in ela 95% phonics lessons the great thing about that is that based on how students doing the screener it points our interventionists and our teachers to specific lessons to implement with those students to very specifically Target the areas that that diagnostic screener is showing um so overall again I feel like there have been a lot of growth at Pine Hill in terms of the systems that we're using um when we think about having our tier one or tier 2 and our tier three interventions our mtss model over the past three or four years has continued to expand we have additional instructional coaching happening um so the school has shown a ton of improvement and a ton of attention to ways that we can better support all of our students um and you know the mcast is one slice of the information that we get um so super superintendent did you want to add anything no thank you happy to take questions and comments no this great thank you for sharing that very comprehensive thanks see if anyone anyone raing their hand on we've got I don't know if Becca still on there or not Kimberly does anybody on Zoom have any questions or comments or Kimberly or Becca all good from my end thank you for sharing thank you all right okay um next on the agenda are the financial reports Miss vtori yes thank you um in your packet are your your two monthly Financial reports the first one are the warrants that were sent over to the town for processing since the last time you met um they are categorized by the fund that they're coming from and within general fund um which one of the operating line items is coming from again um those are always available for members to review at Town Hall as well as we keep copies at central office if you ever want to explore a little bit more of what those look for uh we bring them to you just because you have one signer and then we're allowing um everyone to see what the one signer is um authorizing on your behalf uh next up is your monthly Financial update so I wasn't with you in October but in September sort of gave you a little snapshot as to where we were standing and it was all really positive information from a perspective of cost savings um from the operating budget uh so as you know um Dr Brown retired and that seemed to put into place a um a domino effect uh one of the strong things you always want to see is internal succession planning and with her replacement and then being internal and then son's replacement being internal you can start seeing how things are going to start falling as well as two midyear retirements were announced in June that were going to take place this year so when you add all that up there's actually a lot of payroll savings that we are experiencing um for fiscal year 25 and you're going to see that rolling into the budget for fiscal year 26 um so as best as I could I added try to keep the numbers going for you so you can see how much is based on um the post fiscal year 25 budget changes um also as you know in March last year we made the decision to move the connections program over to chering at that point in time the classroom educator and the associated EAS were pulled out of sherburn's March budget but at that point in time we had not fully dissected into the other operating pieces of that knowing that it would take us just a little more time so you're also seeing some positive impacts from the last couple of pieces coming out of the Sherburn budget uh big piece of that was OT so occupational therapy that uh Personnel was actually moved from uh Pine Hill over to chering um as well as a few other costs associated with running that program so that also is adding to um the positive outcomes that we're seeing right now um so on a salaries lots of good things to um uh to say as far as savings we have had some um small additions So based on the Pine Hill composition right now of English Learners we have um haded to add a02 FTE for that um with um a change over of Staff with our out of district coordinator um that out of district coordinator position is shared by all three districts and it had previously been shared with a educator at the high school when that person retired it gave us the opportunity to sort of revisit how we wanted to sort of set that position up um and so we ended up doing um the person's halim out of district coordinator for both towns as well as filling the needs of um setting up a preschool director with our three preschool classes and the need to constantly be doing external evaluations of incoming preschool age students um that was a need that we identified so we have a 0.5 preschool director that's being shared 0 2 with pine hill and3 with Ching so that um 02 was an add um to your operating budget for fiscal year 25 along with two special edas um they one to one EAS for students that have presented the needs since our budget was approved last March and you will see those positions rolling into the fiscal year 26 budget as those are still needed to continue um into fiscal year 26 on the expenditure side it's been it's pretty operating to where um we expected the only one I want to um highlight is classroom instructional software and Denny's presentation sort of highlighted some of the reasons why we're seeing an overage in that account um if you heard him say Dibbles used to be K2 and now it's K5 there's a couple of those programs that we've expanded K5 as we continue to want to do more data accumulation as well as um we added districtwide an AI tool for educators um and there was one other little small thing so that are things that we felt um necessary to add to fiscal year 25 you're going to see an increase in the budget for 26 as well to cover those things uh so a lot of what we're talking about actually helps prep us for talking about 26 um but that's um a little bit of insight into that any questions on sort of the IND District before I I talk about out of District just from the monthly report okay so um as you know we always look at our budget in two pieces so the out of District we budgeted for 13 out of District placements um and just for the new members just to uh reaffirm that represents Sherburn residents Age 3 to 22 who are not educated within the district um all the cost of that sits in the Sherburn school budget nothing sits in the region so you're it's a that's why we look at it as two separate budgets because it's really not Pine Hill budget it's more of a regional agreement um scenario where you're we're covering all residents of Sherburn in this particular budget so we U budgeted for 13 we have 13 which that doesn't happen all the all the time um we had um quite a few placement changes so our tuition costs are under budget by 160 but those placement changes resulted in higher transport ation costs unfortunately so they almost netted out um so your your tuition is under budget by 160 but the transportation cost are over by 150 so right now we're looking at a net positive of 10,000 which is actually um good because it's if you recall the last couple of years we've been severely over budget uh so I think we've stabilized I'm going to say that tomorrow we're going to find out all new placements but at least we've got the same 13 that we've predicted they just changed where they are and unfortunately the cost um changed with that but I think that puts us in a good place as we start building the budget for fiscal year 26 um since we um last met in September uh circuit breaker reimbursement has been finalized so the circuit break and reimbursement remember is what we're eligible to being reimbursed by the state based on fiscal year 24 expenditures so it's um we report all of our expenditures from fiscal year 24 they calculate what the reimbursement is going to be and you get it in fiscal year 25 um so uh Sherburn uh is receiving a little over half a million dollars in circuit breaker reimbursement um it's comprised of 75% of um tuition cost so anything that were over the threshold which in fiscal year 25 the threshold was about 51,000 so you have to spend we have to cover at least the 51,000 anything over 51,000 of eligible tuition cost we get reimbursed at 75% so that is your circuit breaker tuition reimbursement and over the last couple years they have added Transportation cost so now that's become the um figure that we don't know what the reimbursement is going to be it used to be that the 75% on tuition we never knew exactly what was going to be but the way the um regulations are are working now tuition has to be covered at 75% before anything will be paid on Transportation so it would be highly unlikely that we never would see we'd see anything less than 75% on tuition so that is actually a really good thing to know that we can Bank on the 75% and now the um unknown is how much you're going to get for Transportation uh in fiscal year 24 we actually got 57% reimbursement on transportation we only got 44% this year but I never um include estimates for transport ation when we're looking at um circuit breaker and how much we can apply to your budget mainly because that now has become the um the unknown and that becomes an extra money um that we have to cover un uh unbudgeted placements unbudgeted placement cost Etc so that gives us a little bit more of a cushion um and so far year to date we had budgeted uh to use $375,000 of circuit breakers the way the um tuition by students plotted out by who I put the circuit breaker fund we're actually using about 400,000 of circuit breaker and we probably will keep that at 400,000 um because we did receive 500,000 so we do have a nice cushion in case there are any unbudgeted placements that come up during the school year um which would avoid us having to ask for an additional supplemental appropriation from the town um I think that's the situ situation we'd like to be in that we always have in the reserve enough to cover one uh typical um out of District placement just so that we have that um so that is good news on that front and new information for you as far as what the um computed circuit breaker reimbursement is for 25 any questions on that no okay so I just wanted to give you a brief update um as you know the town approved last year that hbac cooling project um the um Engineers had their first site visit on October 30th they're in the um stages right now of selecting the equipment I think by the end of this week they think they will have that piece selected for us for us to sort of sign off on and then they go into the um structural design and the specs design so they'll be ready to um put the RFP out by January um good news is that there has actually been a huge reduction in the um delivery time for HVAC equipment so we are they're feeling um I'm not going to say but they're feeling really comfortable that this is all going to play out the equipment will be in and this will be installed this coming summer um and just to refresh your memory we are putting um new rooftop units that can do dual cooling and heating in the library the auditorium and the cafeteria so we selected those big three areas um because it'll allow us to uh use spaces where that are used throughout the day in the library um it will hopefully provide some cooling relief to the classrooms in that Wing that tend to get the higher temperatures during the day and it will do wonders for our humidity that we experience um during the summer and you will see the humidity playing out when we talk about Capital um so everything's related um and so that we're looking forward to that because that humidity is something that is really daunting in that building in the summertime it's amazing how humid it gets um so that will bring some relief from that from that standpoint so we're we'll keep you updated on that our fingers are cross that when they put it out to bid stays within that um bid total Capital cost of 400,000 that we approved but we'll keep you updated uh on that for sure um the last thing I just wanted to highlight um uh you probably don't see this person's name very frequently but she's um a key piece in my business office but Leanne wilky who was my assistant business manage administrator um has been with the district for 12 years in various roles had actually been in this role a year before I got into my role um has fully retired as of October 31st she was in partial retirement I was thinking we were going to be able to keep the paral retirement going um but she's ready for the next chapter in her life so her last day was October 31st we have posted the position we're in the process of interviewing and I'm hopeful that we'll have someone um hired by the end of the month um but if there's some slow responses to certain things just know that I'm down a person um and we're trying to keep up but probably doesn't impact you guys very much but sometimes some of the people out in the school will will be a little slower um in responding but I just wanted to make sure I um gave her the proper thanks um because she definitely um 12 years in the business office is a lot of time and she will be greatly missed any questions or comments for Don from the committee no thank you discussion items no discussion there are no discussion items okay um next on the agenda are action items these items may involve further discussion before calling for a vote um um so tonight we will be looking at the first version of the operating and capital budgets and superintendent MC I'll turn it over to you great thank you um so uh first I would like to thank all the members of the Sherburn community and our taxpayers who continue to prioritize education we know it is certainly um the bright spot of our community and why many of our um uh parents and caregivers um move here to raise their children and so we appreciate all that our taxpayers do to make sure that we can continue to provide for our students um on an annual basis I'd like to thank the Sherburn advisory um committee uh of which we have three members tonight um thank you for keeping in perspective the larger view of the town and its needs and providing us guidance so that we can do what we need um at the school level in um collaboration with what's happening in other departments across the town and I'd like to thank the school committee for coming on this journey with us starting tonight and all the way through March as we continue to work on versions two and version three of the budget um as you know we have a 5-year strategic plan we are in year two of that strategic plan so we use the um the initiatives and the goals of that strategic plan to guide our decision-making around not only what we do every day for kids but how we spend our our finances and how we budget for our resources um specifically Pinehill school has a school Improvement plan that speaks to that larger strategic um uh uh plan but also speaks to the the details needed specifically at the elementary level um so we use those two documents to again decide guide our decision-making but also um are always looking for opportunities for cost savings and as Don will use the phrase often um sending smarter so that we together with the additional needs that the schools might need in addition to cost savings can come up with a fiscally responsible budget to present to the towns um this process begins in October with Don's guidance um as our business administrator um the principles meet with their um instruction leaders and their curricul leaders to determine the needs of their the schools moving forward they then come to central office and they meet with myself Denny Don Kate McCarthy our student director of student services and Brendon Hall Brandon Hall our director of um educational technology so that we can look holistically at the budget to make sure that we're all on the same page in terms of our priorities and needs um and then we send all that information to Dawn and budget budget office upstairs and she does her magic to develop version 1.0 which is here tonight um for your review so without further Ado Don please um share with us thank you for that that background and then just to give you a brief overview of the timeline so we are approving version 1.0 this evening in order to meet the town's requests that all um Department budgets be submitted um by I think December 8th I think was in their their memo but we usually um that's why we're meeting in November to get that uh set um from there we'll come back to together in February um because at that point we should have a little bit more information remember we're just in November in fiscal year 2 so this is our best DEC our best guess right now of where we stand um by the time February comes we could have a version 2.0 to present to you because more factors um more data points could be accessible we also will bring some additional information about some of the ads that are in the budget to give you more support behind those um and then we meet in February 1 of February because then our meeting with Sherburn advisory follows on February 12th so there's a timing where we try to make sure that school committee has approved the most up-to-date version that we can um before we go before advisory um and Dan maybe just before I start any further if you want to just introduce your members um that are here tonight yeah be delighted to hey everybody um so I think many of you know me I'm Dan uh chair of Sherburn advisory um and uh glad to be here and glad to get a chance to uh uh hear uh presentation and I'll just say Don has been a very good partner and and you know a really terrific person for us to work with on that um other um so we always have a set of schoolly asson a subset of advisory that really focuses in on school issues and that would be Paul pilot and Doug Kingsley and Mike wyers would be the other who's not here if you guys want to say hi that's great and then we're I think good Paul's always here with us so this is my second year advisor enjoy working with Don last year year I my P yeah all right good thank you so if you're ever wondering they're they're usually here in the audience and they're here because they're the leas on to the other members of Sherburn warrant to gain more information to support the budget as we as we move through the process um and so we put put together um I we feel like hopefully a complete sort of package of data for you to be able to use as you review the budget and again this is just version 1.0 I don't think there's any plans tonight to go deep into some of the discussion items but to lay out the pieces that are there for you to take some time as you review and you have any questions if you will um you can always feel free to send them to Christine your chair who'll filter them to us to answer um so don't ever think that you have to hold a question you're always free to send a question to us just um so that we can start working on any questions you may have uh so in your budget um we have a cover memo that sort of lays out just sort of it's like an executive summary and um it sort of tells you that um how we go about developing the budget so obviously at an elementary school where the budget is predominantly at one Elementary School enrollment is one of the key things that we um look at before we even start building the budget and in your tab three you're going to see our 10-year projections or actuals and then projection and it is um a formula that was derived by one of our uh previous superintendent where it looks at immigration and out migration as of October 1st so if you always have the same data points of October 1st and you compare data from grade three between those years if you can look down at the percentages then on the three-year rate and the one-year rate it shows you the growth so the three-year rate is looking at the growth over three years and the one-ear rate is looking at obviously what just happened this past year um we use both those data points because sometimes there's something that's happening particularly for a year so we like to highlight it but we have a a tendency to um move for with the three-year rate in most cases because that's giving you sort of um what happens not in just one year but over a period of time it's also interesting um I think to take this data um graph and follow like a kindergarten grade all the way down you will see that it's rare that you don't see growth in a grade every year and I think partly is that is like families that move in to town probably have uh K through five age um students that are continuing to build the grades um and you usually do see an incre between K and one um I don't know if it happens historically anymore but we used to have um definitely families that would send their um students to private kindergartens and then join us in first grade um it's like you still see a little bit of that uh you know the um uh last year's um kindergarten you know grew a little bit from 50 well I didn't grow that very much but uh some years we'll see um you know much much uh larger growth numbers um in that so we right now for kindergarten are using the threeyear average um we will get the census from the town uh by the next time we meet just to see how that is looking compared to what the three-year average is so you may see us tweak the kindergarten number once we get a more valid data point um but I think this is good to look at you can see that we one thing that we have is we don't have consistent in grades um you've got a grade right now that has a high of 76 and our low is 51 um so there is some right some different uh which is a is a um makes our life a little more difficult because we really try to craft the budget for exactly the students that we have but you also don't want to be a yo-yo and takeway AD takeway ad so we're very methodical um before we adjust staff either way um but I think it's good for you guys to spend some time look at some of the great cohorts um and just see what's happening with um your population um the other thing we take into consideration is the um guidance from the town and so that is what I had uh brought for you tonight to add to your to your notebook we received that just be after I did the delivery um but to that point I think that it's pretty consistent and we do try to always strive to have a a level funded budget where we can we make Cost Cuts where we can we're very good about if we add something for one year that's a one time we pull it out the next year so it doesn't become embedded in our base budget um and so you will see in your budget books and the detail line items um you know a lot of changes so we don't just go with the norm we do deep uh dive into each of the accounts and see what we can do what we can't do um and so uh I think with that that we're definitely following um the town's guidance we are bound by our contractual agreements which the majority of our employees are under contractual agreements um and so those are negotiated with school committee Town um select board members join us and so that's a joint project when we come to agreement with um the contractual increases um Don I have a quick question what is the class cuto off number to go from three classes to four classes so your guidelines are 18 to 23 um but those are um sort of guidelines so you can't go exact sometimes because if you go down a section you could be over the 23 y um but that's your guidelines 18 to 23 and we did change that I want to say about four years ago uh Pine Hill used to have a a class size range from K to three and four to five your high range went all the way up to 25 um and so we Consolidated those two um ranges to one range for K5 which was 18 to 23 that more aligned you with what Dover has for their uh policy which they operate was 17 to 22 so basically the same thing but that 25 was a little bit of an outlier in those older grades and so that alleviated some of the stress that we were getting and when we were looking at sections um so that was um a school committee decision um several years to go down to the 18 to 23 but that data point is on your en moment for you to look at yeah um and then as Beth mentioned and we've included in the uh notebook for you the um 2328 strategy and school Improvement plans because those definitely then do help Drive our budgetary decisions on the larger items such as curriculum um Staffing Etc and I also added in there the best practices um tool because I think that comes into play too when we're looking at some PD that we might be doing um and and just to give you a better um Insight too I think it's good to have it all in one place so I felt like that was a helpful tool tool like this should be your little reference book um with all that included um and then the last thing that is sort of one of our assumptions is that we're going to continue to receive our entitlement grants so in tab two you're going to see the grants that we do receive on an annual basis and how those are incorporated into the budget in any given year if we did not get one of those um grants it would probably be an increase to the operating budget because we use the grants for things that we really do need um and so if we lost the Grant I just want everyone to be aware of what could need to come into the budget in any um uh situation just so that you see the whole picture um and so there's I mean I think the largest one that um that we depend on is the reap Grant and then the sped 240 which funds several of our educational assistance for special ed so with that um we've put together version 1.0 and right now we're looking at an overall operating budget increase of just a little over 200,000 which represents a 2.43% increase um last year's overall increase was 3.99 um just to put some perspective your version 1.0 though last year was looking at an8 over an 8% in increase um so if you compare 8 to 2.43 I think we're looking much better than how we rolled out last year uh keep in mind though that the fiscal year 25 increase of 3.99 included the move moving of the connections in our 2.43 this year includes all those Staffing changes so our normal operating increase if we didn't have those two situations would be closer to the 5% so I just want to make sure that we're um transparent about that that we won't expect to see increases like this low level in a normal year we just happen to have things that happen that are allowing that um to um uh compute to that such a a low value um or a low percentage increase and then our um if you break it apart because as I said we talk about our budgets in two pieces your IND District increase because of all the salary savings was only 1.39% basically the cost savings offset all the contractual um increases in the in the contracts um in the out of District operating budget still showed an increase um High a little higher a little less than last year but still it's driving your higher number of 9.91 um and as I mentioned if we did not have those changes from the post budget that year number would have been closer to 5% and I also want to highlight that the budget um version 1.0 for circuit breaker um uh funding is at 300,000 um we used $375,000 in the fiscal year 25 budget and another data point that I added this year is on your summary um at in the gray area at the bottom is actually the amount of circuit breaker that we use in each of those years because you have to look at that as part of your total operating um budget so um part of your audit District gets funded with circuit breaker we put that on there so that you can really see the true picture of circuit breaker um I've done a rough estimate of circuit breaker expected in 26 based on our 25 expenses and it's just under 300,000 excluding Transportation so um we may have a little bit more to add in later versions if we don't have any unbudgeted placements but otherwise we're looking at this is about what we're expecting to um receive so I went with the the more the higher number so that we had a more um uh best guest uh budget for this point in time so if we look at our key budget drivers as I've already mentioned um enrollment is one of the key things for in District and you have that um to look at payroll is 87% of your budget so that is a huge payroll driver and our contractual increases in all of our contracts right now are 3% for Cola but keep in mind your Educators have their steps and Lanes which um can be anywhere from 4 to 9% added to the 3% and um typically if we look at that over all of our Educators we're looking at about a 1.6% increase on top of the cola so your your normal educator increase and that's your veterans and your people who are continuing to get the steps in the lanes is usually just right under 5% which is what drives our 5% number that I tell you if we did not have um changes so that is um a good a good piece of information to to realize is the Educators and not just the cola it's the steps and the lanes and um also realize that we are in the final year of a three-year contract um so this is year three numbers that you're seeing so in fiscal year 27 Dare I say when we start planning that we'll have a reserve like we did um in fiscal year 22 um and as I mentioned we have approximately $260,000 of payroll savings that is being reflected in the fiscal year 26 budget based on the Staffing changes um and we also have additional reductions based on the move of connections um and then we're again this is all repeating what you've heard in the fiscal year 25 annual uh mean monthly report and then our staff increases the ones that are already in our fiscal year 25 budget that we're moving forward is the point 2 El educator the point 2 prek director and the two additional um special education assistants that will still be needed because the students are still uh will be with us at Pine Hill if we have any retirements which we're not aware of any right now they will be reflected in future versions um but we were fortunate enough to have the two retirements that happened post budget to be able to go ahead and have those savings um in our first version just looking at expenditures a couple of things um again another reduction in connections we had some outside Services um that was that supported the connection students that um we were able to decrease the budget for if you remember and Denny talked about we adopted the new math curriculum which was a large one-time expense we are reducing the general um textbooks by 30,000 to pull that number out um we do are seeing increases in technology related accounts one talks about the curriculum related programs that we um have discussed already and the other is Hardware Replacements we have maintained about a $220,000 technology Hardware budget line item over the last several years this coming fiscal year 26 that is all going to predominantly be used by replacing the um all of our staff devices we do do a four-year lease now but that one-year lease payment will probably be just under $220,000 um but also working with our director of um educational technology it is time to replace the access points um at Pine Hill which is what sort of powers the Wi-Fi in the building so we have $115,000 in the budget right now to cover the replacement of all of those that is a hardware item that is um eligible for E rate so reimbursement um from the state for that and that potentially could be anywhere between 40% and 50% um those e- rate applications are haven't gone in yet um so we put the total number in but if we um realize we if we find out we're going to get awarded and know for sure we can reduce um the um version two or version 3.0 for the expect that we will get eate um reimbursement um we just don't know that for sure yet so that is an increase of 24,500 for those two um it's also time for our um General a transportation contract to go out to bid we're in the fifth year um in fiscal year 25 so in your fiscal year 26 budget is a reserve for the transportation increase along with um we're continuing to see increases in our um utilities and it's mainly we're locked in on our supply cost but what we're not locked in is on our delivery cost and we're continuing to see increases in that so we're increasing the budget to try to keep up with our actuals and so those two numbers together is an addition of about 60,000 um just for um your information we typically in a Transportation uh contract period see a large increase in year one and then very smooth and low numbers from year 2 through five um and so that's why we see the sort of a larger uptick that we absorb all in year one and then you're going to see you know year two and three are probably less than 3 or 4% and if you agree to take on the extra two years four and five those are usually like one or 2% uh so it is front loaded in year one um so we're anticipating that to be the same we haven't gone out to bid but we're anticipating that so we are carrying a generous Reserve um in the transportation light items for all three districts um for the new contract which we will have before your March meeting the last time we went to bed did we go with the same company that we did previously um yes and have been I think from the beginning of time so connley um typically and you will find this across the state uh when school districts go out for their transportation contracts they typically get one bid um and so that don't know if that landscape it's going to change um it could we're definitely seeing our our Meco um Transport company did change so I think there are some other companies that are trying to Branch out and move around so we'll see obviously competition and a bidding process is healthy um but Conley has been um our transportation company for um at least 20 30 years if not longer so and I think they provide very um sound and valuable uh service and do a lot of the Metro West y uh districts so um that is that do we know how much we um how much we pay in comparison to other towns yeah so typically what we'll do is we will look at a per bus rate I will tell you it was really hard sometimes though to compare apples to apples absolutely because a lot of times what's built into your bus rate is your mileage that you're driving and how you don't how you do your runs so we use one bus to do two runs so you're going to get a better price if you've got a driver who's going to be within a 4-Hour period do two runs we share that cost we do have three separate contracts with the bus company but incorporated into those three contracts are the fact that we're sharing buses with the region so Dober shares 10 buses with their region Sherbon shares nine buses with their region um so that is a very cost effective way um for us to do it and they look at it you know we have three separate contracts but when they're bidding it they're assuming that's going to happen um and so that will you know but we do look at um as close as we can what a per bus is and we definitely had great data data about that during covid because as you know no one was running their buses and so you're trying to figure out like um you know what kind of rebate what to do what's their base cost that they wouldn't go out of business MH um so we we at that point we were sharing all kinds of information that I still have um for comparative purposes but um if you keep in mind this is a 5-year contract how much has happened in the world um so that's why and I think that's typical even without being where we are now um because they've got to play catch up a little bit so that's why I think they try to to bring us up to where we should be in Year One and then we can go um you know more with the norm in year two um this past five years I will say we've seen um we do have a fuel adjustment clause and we definitely have seen that um kick in um and so you've noticed over the last couple years we've had to add um transportation increases for the fuel adjustment um because that doesn't diesel fuel seems to be something that hasn't really gone down the same way you know as regular fuel has um and so with five years ago if you think about what our fuel adjustment Clause was set on it wasn't anywhere near what we're seeing now so that will be reset in this new contract fuel cost adjustment will probably go away initially and then you have to see how it how it Trends but we have a 20% they set a rate and you go 20% either way before the fuel credit or fuel sarch charge kicks in so we will share the RFP with all three committees um so that you can sort of see um what goes into that that contract um so that's our one thing right now that we really have a reserve on that we um is an unknown at this point um also for your IND District um in tab two you have um a summary that looks similar to your monthly Financial reports but it gives you um year-to-date information for 22 23 24 so you budget for 25 and then you're 26 and then the only time that we sort of roll out every single account that's in our general ledger is for this process and those are your large Pages you might have to get your magnifying glass out because we try to conserve how many pieces of paper we we do but this gives you um a really good perspective of sort of three years of actuals um you sort of know that our what our budget looks like or 25 actual look like we don't drop them in yet um and then you can sort of see the increases we try to give you as much explanation as possible so there are notes by each line item um for your review and included in that then too is a summary of Staffing so that you can sort of see the people that make up the 87% of your payroll um you have your summary of anticipated grants and then you have the technology Supplement Plan which talks about the staff um replacement laptops is I pointed out and the access points for the Wi-Fi coverage um we've already talked about tab three which is your enrollment um so that is sort of gives you a a brief overview of your in District budget so before I jump to the added District budget just anything jumps out you or any questions that you may have if I may may Circle back to one thing that you talked about you're talking about uh updating of the access points um I have to I'm unfamiliar but is there any parts of Pine Hill that do suffer with Wi-Fi access or we would be looking to expand it or are we just looking at essentially a like a onetoone upgrade of the infrastructure that's already there from what I understand I don't think we have any weaknesses in the elementary schools um it's me it's mainly just that these have surpassed their useful life um obviously you bring in new ones you're going to even probably get better wi-fi access um but um we are from their initial discussion with us there's no need to expand it's a one toone replacement gotcha what about speed so we just upgraded our um sort of our our our sonic wall here firewall sorry firewall and we have updated our speeds greatly for Wi-Fi um and it's all being managed um by an outside consultant um and so we are no longer paying directly for any of our own Wi-Fi or Internet coverage it's all being um covered by the outside group and we I think if I understand we at least doubled if not tripled the speed I think it's all relative um but we definitely had an increase in that with the um with the upgrade thank you okay so with that the other piece of your operating budget is the out of District um and so um we're looking at 13 the same 13 placements that we have in 25 continuing in 26 um what I haven't done a deep VI dive on yet is the transportation cost so that's one piece that will be refined in version uh 2.0 uh right now I'm carrying I believe um the um oh I am carrying the actual so hopefully that won't be what it is we'll go back and look but we did um increase that but what I did incorporate is um except who um transports a major majority of our students were're waiting for their budget to be approved so that we know what the increase is going to be um so that is really a placeholder at least to get us up to actual um for that piece um in Tab four we try to give you a little more insight into um sort of the types of schools are out of District students are attending and in what grade levels because you're also looking at um you know who's going to age out um or graduate as you can see we don't have anyone scheduled to be in 12th grade next year so we're not looking at any age outs um but you will see that um you can sort of track as they're as they're flowing down because there's a good chance that some of the elementary students could go out of District but then be able to come back to District at the middle school but this gives you an idea and I will have to say um it's really beneficial for us to have one of our highest cost um categories in the collaborative so we'll talk about it accept collaborative we'll talk about tech collaborative um those are uh where we're members they pull their resources together districts to send students with like disabilities they're a lower cost provider than if you went to a non-public school or an out ofate school um so it's good to see that we have a lot of students in the collaboratives um that's a very cost efficient way um to send students um out of District um and you you don't always see that when you look at District so I wanted to highlight that and thinkk our special education um placement staff for sort of always you always want to look at if you have a close nearby public school than a collaborative so you want to look at the most cost efficient um and least restricted uh place to send students so um we also try to Ru forward for you um last year's budget compared to this year's budget and this sort of sells the story of what we talked about about in the fiscal year 25 monthly report changes in placements was a savings for us um and then really our only increase then was the tuition increase so even though you see net activity of 89,000 that's not what you see on your budget because keep in mind we're using 300,000 of circuit breaker versus 375 that 75,000 difference you have to um incorporate into to this number it's a little complicated um and then we just have an estimated sort of uh box down there of all the components of the um transportation cost any questions on Adda District okay so with that before we go on to the capital budget we'll pause here if there's any questions on the operating budget and then we'll ask for you guys to take a vote to approve version 1.0 of the operating budget any questions okay we have a motion to approve the operating budget version 1.0 may have a second naelson any further discussion I think Becca is not there um okay all in favor anyone oppos the motion carries thank you and so as you spend more time with your budget book like I said feel free to send any questions if you need additional information um and then we will have be sharing additional information with you in February on some of these increases to give you more of details um and uh also reflect anything else that happens between now and February so the last piece of your budget book is actually our Capital request um and it is broken out to be uh Capital requests for fiscal year 26 and then an Outlook of the next 5 years um and that's for planning purposes for the town you will see we're a little light um on future projects um mainly because one it's it's actually a very quiet period on our on-site Insight report for these particular five years but also as you know we did a building assessment um uh um report or audit last year and I think we're still um digesting that information and working with the town with our little building task force to decide next steps for Pine Hill so given that you're we're going to sort of pause really large Capital item so the one large item that is on on-site and sight report for right now is H is actually the roof covering um we have absolutely no issues with the roof covering and we did do an extensive um um assessment of that in fiscal year 21 we actually did all of our schools at the same time and there were no issues uh cited with the Pine Hill there were no leaks no no moisture issues so at this point in time we will continue to kick that out from year to year um so that's really one of the main things that you see out in the out years there are a few other little things um we have a Kabota tractor at Pine Hill that um will you know is on our radar um the town Capital threshold is 25,000 so that's why you're seeing these items for 25,000 and we have just um onside insights carrying just a grouping of boiler related projects but not out until like 2030 so we're not disregarding any projects um we if they were on on-site Insight we would have them here but it's a really um low Capital 5year stretch um that we have right now so that that's a good thing we're not really deferring anything that's going to cause any um irreparable damage or issues with the current building so the one thing that we are bringing forward tonight that's new to the fiveyear six-year plan um are three lower classrooms in the library that with the continued humidity that we have been encountering there actually tiles are popping a little and the adhesive is compromise because of humidity um and so we do want to replace those three classrooms and we have a state quote from um a contractor that we've been using for our floors that would do that at a price of $30,000 um and so that is the one item that we're bringing forward for your approval tonight that we will submit uh to the town's Capital um committee um for a fiscal year 26 Capital project those are the the fourth grade classrooms yeah the lower yep sorry U tiles in the ceiling or tiles in the floor floor file yeah floor sorry it's okay yep and I think that you have I don't I um yeah like I said we have a a quote base on a state contract to do those three with the um LBT um and again the beauty of that is we are getting rid of the VCT tiles that require the stripping and waxing um so they're better for the environment but also less labor for our custodians during the summer so we are close to getting Pine Hill um 100% non BCT tiles but at this point we're only replacing them as we need to um and all the other areas are intact it's just the humidity and that one lower level because they are starting to Pop um we tried to glue more of them down this summer but it's just you can't you can't go back um so we would like to replace those is that happening this summer or earlier than that it's been um well I think it's one of the thing it's builds and builds and builds oh I mean sorry when is the replacement happening it will happen this summer okay yeah if it's approved it'll happen the summer yeah questions on Capital no okay um may have a motion to approve the capital budget I'm sorry M just go back um the boorder uh replaced not replacing but boiler projects related projects how old is the boiler current and when do we see it coming to end of it service boilers actually um we've learned have a longer useful life than then in onsite inside so with with proper uh preventative maintenance you can replace pieces of it without having to replace the whole thing I don't have in my in my memory right now the exact age of um sherburn's boiler but we actually have um annual prevented maintenance contractors that come out check it annually do whatever minor repairs to keep it operational so we um we are the little bit of the money that we invest in um our annual maintenance contracts buys us extended life on a lot of our uh mechanical um pieces so you know one line item you have in here is the building maintenance contracted Services those are all of our annual contracts and the other line item you'll see is the building maintenance Reserve those are for repairs needed repairs but we do invest heavily in our preventative maintenance um to get every useful second out of all of our pieces of equipment and we do that across off four schools do we have any um Vision on any ways to make it more efficient though also so we did um in all three locations install a new energy management system that is supposed to provide that for us um it's actually taking you know it's it's you set set points and it's coming on and going off when it needs to versus just running all the time so that was one big Improvement that we did in all three Pine Hills was just last year their EMS system so it it tracks data for us but it also allows us to have um when things are shut off we do holidays it's but it's all it's all elect you know um um electronically handled so it's not someone having to do it um there's schedules and programs um built into that so cont um and then Pine Hill is um through the sustainability group in um in town I think a lot of our lights are LED those were all SWAP swapped out through some of those initiatives um so those are the things that we try to do that can make a difference but the EMS system was something that we invested in to sort of um more effectively run our our HVAC equipment um last question I promise but no i' like how is our boiler currently powered is it powered by Fuel Oil is it powered by electricity um we are gas we gas gotcha natural gas on what school yes okay natural gas okay um with that uh is that a purchase from another town or do we actually have maintain a tank no so we we purchased from like so we have a a gas um contract with um the region and Pine Hill together so we have um it's from an outside Supply but eversource y but through eversource but we contract for our supply got and then eversource delivers even though they probably deliver and it's just what you're paying right um but we do do uh long-term contracts um and Pine Hill comes and gets bundled with the gas that we use here at the region thank you just as we do electricity we do all four schools the electrical um electricity contract so by pooling you can get a better a better price because we have more um kilow or thms that we're using in fact the library in Sherburn is part of our gas um contract as well happy to all have good questions okay um we have a motion to approve the capital budget May moved have a second melson any further discussion all in favor motion carries or yeah yep thank you I will submit both these um budgets to the Tomas Sherburn this week okay um next we have informational items so in your pockets you will find minutes from the September Dober school committee meeting and the October Regional school committee meeting and our next meeting is on February 4th 2025 if there's anything anyone wishes to add to the agenda oh is there anything anyone wishes to add to the agenda now and you're also welcome to contact Christine before then if anything comes up um the one question I had and I don't it doesn't have to be February but it'd be great to get an update from Brandon just about how par and square and all that is going and if there's new feedback it's it's been a few months so that would be great February or yeah and that was one of so in your the strategies about communication and in all of your fiscal year 25 and 26 numbers is the cost of parent Square so those are one of the few things those are one of the items too that we were going to highlight in February in February yeah that things that um we have built into the budget that are related to the new technology the strategy and the um uh um School Improvement plan with Communications right so that's how we're supporting yeah we just back up to number seven there's any changes to the oh oh sorry agenda um yes um sorry next on the agenda were the consent items tonight will be approving the minutes from our October 15th meeting are there any edits or changes no okay may have a motion to approve the consent agenda may we have a second any further discussion all in favor motion carries okay I did informational items um so our meeting has come to an end it is now 7:57 p.m.

uh meeting tonight because we have our students with us and that is the highlight of uh what we do as board members tonight so uh we're glad there's going to be some awards out um the other thing you're going to hear here tonight you're going to hear some reports from both me the superintendent and then you're going to hear uh another report from uh Mr Bishop our assistant superintendent who's going to share some data about our schools uh and our progress there so it's going to be a really good meeting tonight I hope you'll be able to stay through the reports and then uh Mr Moore is also going to give us a little bit of report on uh cms's uh Improvement plan how we're doing there so with that said we're going to start off the meeting with the uh Pledge of Allegiance it'll be led by Juliana who's going to lead us on the pledge stand and join us I pledge allegiance to flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and Justice okay we start our meeting with public comment anybody that can wants to stand up and talk about anything you can come to the podium we ask you to keep your comments we ask you to keep them usually around 3 minutes you can speak on any topic we only ask that you give your name and your address so would anybody uh in the audience like to speak in public comment on the agenda or off the agenda for tonight okay thank you very much anybody online I do have one raised hand from Aubrey so I'm you allow Aubrey to call hi Aubrey you want to just state your name and your adders for the record please hi can you all hear me okay we can okay perfect this is Aubrey Blatchley 39 Bart Drive I apologize I wanted to be there in person but um I have kids with conflicting Sports schedules tonight um off the agenda I just wanted to thank the administration at Canton Intermediate School for a job well done on the Veterans Day celebration it was a really thoughtful celebration it was Tastefully done and it was just a really overall special event um I did write the board so I won't take up too much of your time with what I wrote I got my comments in very late in the day today um I apologize but there were some important and significant updates in the last week that do impact policy numbers 4021 and 5030 which are on tonight's agenda for the board um so the first issue um obviously since the board last discussed these policy changes president Trump's been elected and president Trump has indicated that he will um reverse the Title Nine changes that were written by um President Biden earlier this year um so for that reason alone I think um it's worth pressing pause on making any policy changes while we see how that plays out additionally since you guys last met um the district court in Kansas uh which you might recall had issued an injunction barring certain School barring schools from implementing the title n changes if um children within the district had parents who are members of some of the parties involved in that litigation and I did check the docket today and saw that Canton High School and the Canton School District are identified on the list of schools that have been enjoined by that federal court from adopting the policy changes um so I did want the board to be aware of that before they consider it night um and it does raise some other questions that I had previously raised about um what the board can do to check the to make sure there aren't any other schools that are enjoined I know this list is periodically updated so it's not an exhaustive list um and how this plays out overall in terms of if the board adopts a policy is going to have different policies at different schools and what liability if any does that expose our district to if we have different policies at different schools so for example students or staff at one school could be subject to discipline for something that they would not be subject to discipline for at a different School in our district and then also in the last week um I'm sure you saw that the United States district court in Connecticut issued an opinion in the Su lawsuit which we are involved in denying the motion to dismiss the title 9 discrimination claim brought against our school district and others um and I just it's a lengthy opinion I wanted to make sure the board had it and took time to read it um I do understand that the board's position may be that it is a different iteration of Title 9 than involved with these policy changes but I think both this lawsuit and the policy changes that are being considered all touch upon title n they all involve Title 9 at the heart and um I I wanted the board to be aware of it and consider it and the implications before it acted on these policies um and lastly I just I appreciate that these are all complex issues so again um I didn't mean to send a late email but I know there were a lot of developments in the last week that touch on the policies you're considering tonight thank you thanks thank you Aubrey thank you for your comments we appreciate you anything else online for public comment I do not have any other hands okay hearing no others I'll close public comment and we'll move right to um administrative reports so Chairman's report so tonight I just want to acknowledge some things mostly in my report I want to acknowledge the PTO for the uh the work that they do in helping enrich and enhance the things that uh go on in our school system uh in particular I want to mention uh their Fright Night on 10:25 I think that was a success I think Mr Sol and had problem one of the best displays that she usually does but it was uh it was a wonderful uh event and thank you P second thing is uh on 116 the Board of Education met at Canton middle school for a continuous Improvement Plan update and you'll be hearing more about that today for the rest of the board that could make it but I I want to uh make the point to the board of how important CIP meetings are because it's there and I've often said that while the board does not run the school system we do make sure the school system is run well and that's our opportunity to make sure that everything is being run well I thought Mr Mo did a wonderful job we're going to hear more about that later some very uh good things uh I know but U I just want to acknowledge how well that went uh F uh another uh piece I wanted to um mention how well the building principles communicate with the public every week uh Cherry primary school with the at CIS with the star guide CMS with the scene and CHS with the newsletter right there everybody in the community is getting all the information they need that the principls and some of their administrative staff take the time to put together that report and I think it has a lot of great information so if you're not reading it and the board should be but everybody in the community I think uh the principles do such a great job being transparent and giving us that information I also want to mention uh what a great job the uh the high school did with uh big rock on Candy Mountain that was a hysterical play it was well done please pass on the board's compliments on that if you had a chance to make it uh I was there Friday night and it was packed um and really the the students did a wonderful job so I want to uh make sure that we uh we get that message out to them uh finally uh or second finally um I want to acknowledge a wonderful event that we had on Veterans Day those ceremonies at Cherrybrook at C uh CIS at CMS and at CHS all four schools took the time to really honor our vets as we should a while back when I first came on the board of Selectmen I mean on the first uh on the board of education Veterans Day was a day off and what we missed during Veterans Day is the opportunity to teach our children about what our vets had done for them and now we have this very moving ceremony at all four schools that uh are impressive and they are inspiring and they are moving for our children to see and be with our vets to have breakfast with them and to talk to them and to interview them so I just want to say what a wonderful job our schools did in doing that and um I want to thank them for the attention and the detail that went in into it um I was able to attend two of the ceremonies uh at at CMS and at uh CIS and it was just wonderful and um really moving and I think all the parents and vets and grandparents that attended uh walked away with the same feeling it's really a special day uh as far as the board chair goes I wanted to mention I will be a cave this weekend I'm a delegate on Thursday uh I'll be at the meeting on Friday and Saturday along with our superintendent and we've been selected to uh do a uh presentation on school safety uh we'll be there with our chief of police and our head of security uh uh school security Sean Cole and uh I'm I'm looking forward to that finally two dates I want to mention to the board uh there is a board of Finance meeting on Monday 11:18 uh and that is at 6:30 are they at 7:00 and there will be a meeting of CIP for our first capital Improvement uh meeting which uh Mr Bush is part of that with myself and that will be on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

districtwide early release 27th of November and then the holiday recess on 28 and 29 of November and our next regular scheduled uh special meeting for the Board of Education will be Tuesday December 10th I'll take any questions out of the superintendent's office at this time any questions for the superintendent no Russell good okay thank you very much for that report Mr Bishop assistant superintendent report and I'll step up to the podium I I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak with the board tonight to be able to share this information on behalf of the on behalf of the district but I would also say to to the community and to the students uh this is going to be a celebration of a lot of your hard work too uh the excellent work that you've done but also to our our caregiv our partners on on all you've done to be able to partner with us as well so I'm thrilled to be able to share with you all what we refer to as the uh District performance index and school performance index it's essentially the uh the report card that the state provides schools we received that just this past week and I wanted to be sure to be able to provide you with an update on the uh operations of our school so this is referred to as the Connecticut Next Generation accountability system for districts and schools it takes 12 different components to be able to put together a perspective on each individual School and then together all of a school district uh the state has worked really hard to be able to develop this system A system that understands that a student is more than a test score and a school or district is more than just the average of those scores it focuses on a broader set of indicators that will guard against narrowing the curriculum to just what's tested and it makes more local practitioners see their contributions reflected in the accountability system uh so we're really excited to be able to share the growth that we've seen over time with this it's important for you to be able to know the 12 indicators and here you can go through all 12 quickly here uh academic achievement is absolutely one of them uh but I'll tell you that academic growth uh that is one that is uh doubly value so one of the things that the state is doing a great job with is is valuing the fact that every kid whether they're at proficiency or not yet that they are continuing to be able to grow and gives uh gives credit for that uh additionally it looks at a assessment participation rate chronic absenteeism it's important to be able to have students in school postsecondary preparation and Readiness and then graduation on track in nth grade graduation for a four-year adjusted cohort and graduation for a six-year adjusted cohort and then the postsecondary entrance rate physical fitness and arts access so it's a very comprehensive if you look at this it's a very comprehensive report that provides a profile of an individual District you take a look at this there's a lot of data here and I'll try to be able to simplify it for you and I want you to pay attention to the colors the colors are green a lot of green across the board if you look at a number of the different elements there you'll see you'll see double digit growth that we see and we're incredibly proud of that that's incredibly hard work that our administrative team has has engaged in that's incredibly hard work that our our staff have engaged in that's hard work that our students have been a part of and our parents and Guardians as well we see tremendous growth in the area of chronic absenteeism particularly our high need students High need students are those who have an IEP low maybe low socioeconomic status or limited English proficiency or multilanguage learner uh so absenteeism was a great growth for us additionally we're very proud to be one of the districts with the highest growth in uh math uh math growth overall with an 8.2 and a 19.3 so these come together to be able to develop our uh school performance index on the very bottom there you'll see where we've trapped over time with the 75.3 the 74.7 and representing last year the 2324 school year can't comes out with an 81.6 so tremendous growth U over 10% growth um for us to be able to move from last year into this year I'll move on to the next with another colorful chart for you the chart showcases a comparison of Canton to what we refer to as demographic reference groups now the demographic reference group uh takes the size and the uh the relative means of an area district and groups them with similar others now the state has starts to move away from that but the state uh the Connecticut state finance project still does work with that to be able to find where districts are are matching with each other uh we had been uh up through last year in dur GRC uh and uh this last year we moved into drg durg B so what I want you to be able to see there is as you look uh dur B from 22 to 23 was 79.2 to 81.48% but if you look at us now at 81.6 we are outpacing the average of our demographic reference group in dur B we're outpacing the average in dur C we are outpacing our area average and far out pacing the state Mr Bishop could you just for the group because they can't see the small type who are the schools in dir B who are we competing against oh great question dirby includes Canton or I'm sorry a yes Canton Avon Brookfield chesher Fairfield Farmington Glastonberry Greenwich Guilford Monroe Oxford reading Regional District 5 regional district 15 Rocky Hill Simsbury South Windsor Trumble West Hartford and Woodbridge so a strong group that we are a part of there and thrilled to be able to see that we are outperforming the average there uh it's important to be able to know for us as well um we're in the middle we're ranking in the middle of the dir average for us but outrank uh outrank the overall dir B uh average compared to dur SE canton's p d Canton far out sees the dur and just for everyone to be able to know had we continued to be in that group Canton actually would have been the top scoring District by DPI in Dury had we remained in there so it it's great to be able to see that that growth for us looking at individual schools then Mr Bishop can I I'm sorry to interrupt you but why did we move from uh seated be what what's the criteria great great question with that um the Connecticut State School Finance project looks at area means so wealth within the area uh wealth per capita means within a district and they take similarly abled districts to be able to lump them together with those demographics to to make a determination so C had been in dur uh dur C and now had moved actually up to dur V thank you y thank you for the clarifying opportunity there so a couple things from from the school perspective with this Canton High School outpaces area school performance indexes the average area school performance index and it outpaces the average dur performance index so when we look at our area for high schools and our demographic reference group our high school is outpacing those average scores and middle school I'm so glad that you're here Ken Middle School improves 10.9 points they outpace the area average for middle schools for the school performance index they outpaced the dur average for school performance index and I'm incredibly proud to say that Canton Middle School is now the top scoring Middle School in the Farmington [Applause] B the story does not stop there Intermediate School improved 11.4 points showing greatr and at our foundation Cherry Brook primary school has been named a school of Distinction by the state of Connecticut as a school of great [Applause] growth and Canton we continue to work in each school to cultivate the growth of each and every student one student at a time we are proud of our growth from the past year we're grateful for Dr Grossman's leadership and the support of our Board of Education we're happy to celebrate this one mark in our journey and are excited about all the work that we know is still yet to come we know we will continue to work diligently in support of all of Canton students but we thank you for your support and look forward to celebrating the great things that are ahead for us here in C I'll take any questions out of my office questions for Mr Bishop any comments so I'll say on behalf of the board I think uh this illustrates that we are on the right track uh as a district in each one of our schools great leadership by the administration and our principles uh and at the end of the day um the town makes an investment in us with their budgets year after year and it's our job to provide a return on investment and I think this clearly shows that the budgets that we've had approved and the money that the town has provided to our school district has had an impact and I My Hope Is that as we go through the next few budget cycles that we continue with this kind of trajectory going forward because it's really uh those Investments are indicative of the progress that we're making and um as as a board of education I have to tell you how pleased we are with those grades and I know one year does not make a district but we're going to Revel in this year and we're going to be we're going to celebrate because we are firing off on all Cinders so thank you for that report and we're still hungry thank Youk [Applause] good so no no celebration no balloons no uh no no cookies we still have work to do okay all right let's uh let's move along all right uh student representative so glad you're here um I know Maggie I'm looking at you and I'm thinking about field hockey and how close we came but uh anyways who'd like to start with the student reports tonight I can start it off um I'll be reporting on CIS so I had the opportunity to interview two grade students about what's been happening at CIS and one told me that the school gathered for veterany assembly where her grandmother and other veterans from the community came in to speak and meet with students at the end of October on the 25th NHS members and volunteers came in help the Fright Night including trunk Retreat and a Haunted Hallway which the student said she loved they also held their character carve off where each student carved a desireable Lin in the image of a character she told me about a field trip that the fifth grade took to go see the wild robot and a trip that some graders took to go fishing on a boat there is also an upcoming field trip to the historical interactive Museum of serridge village for the fourth grade she said it's been a busy month but she's been having a lot of fun I spoke to another student as well who told me about how he's been learning about multiplication and participating in book clubs like reading Wonder s students have had the opportunity in their in their annual Mo collection giving students a chance to share their voice and castler vat sixth graders created R Goldberg machines and fifth graders engaged in their annual presentation from and C the student council ran a successful World Series food drive with the Yankees winning by five food items and all items were donated to the Kon food bank it's been a very exciting and busy month that's great good report Juliana you want to go yes um so I will be reporting on Cherry Brook so earlier this year uh the chair physical education teachers uh Miss Arma and and Mr Barnes worked together to prepare the fall field day which went super successful and helped build the school Community it also helped promote Fitness and healthy habits early in the year additionally on October 31st the kindergarteners took a little field trip their Halloween parade and they come they came and visit the middle school and the high school and they also visited uh Mills Pond this is great I know that high schoolers love seeing them um in addition um Miss Kelly Fel uh the canton's 2024 2025 teacher of the year um in addition to being canton's teacher of the year uh was also a semi finalist for the Connecticut teacher of the year and on Wednesday November 6th uh at the bual theater uh Miss bariel was ined by her family Dr Gman and Mr Emory and they were able to celebrate her achievements uh last week uh third grade visited the americ American Mar project project in Winstead uh students enjoyed a tour of a museum and had Hands-On activities that related to the museum in school and then finally as we kind of said uh yesterday chubra Primary School celebrate Veterans Day um it was a very special day at chra as students were able to honor the veterans and come together as a community to overall honor what they have sered thanks Juliana very good Lucas all right I'm going to be reporting on both the middle and high school so both of them to start some similarities uh both schools just had the end of quarter one and Heritage would be this week for both schools then for the high school most fall Sports have ended with girls volleyball actually making a historic run where they hosted a home game and they made the quarterfinals all fall sports teams that we have at Ken high school but did actually make the state tournament showing that we um pretty quality then football still has three remaining non-tournament games to play before they enter the tournament uh the play uh big rocket Candy Mountain was a huge success with very large attendance on all three showings and a huge thank you to miss Taylor who put it all together model un had a very successful weekend at Yukon and many of the students are looking forward to the uart and Yale events coming up in future hubs the Veterans Day celebration at the high school was um highlighted by four local veterans who share their experiences with the entire School their words were received by the student body and adults watching thank you to Maggie the president of Road Katha for helping organize that moving on to the middle school there was recently a Winding Trail fi trip which was a huge success with all students learing team building activities and enjoying their time and they also had their veterans veterans day assembly which is another huge success they recognized around 30 local veterans for their service fantastic very good any questions for our student reps I I have a question what's our um do we know what our spring play is yet or our musical do we know uh it's SpongeBob SpongeBob SpongeBob something look forward to okay thank you for that report besides Mr Bishop's highlight report and I didn't think we can get any better than that we now move over to Mr Moore and we're going to do a camp celebrates because we have a lot of ah sorry I'm sorry I was getting all excited for Jeff I'm looking at him there but I know you have you have news for too so let's go with the business the business management report I'm sorry okay well I will be brief okay um our overall forecast for the month ending October 31st is um U we're at an unfavorable uh forecast of 464,000 but that is um almost $100,000 better than the previous month general education forecasted to be um favorable 55,000 which is better than last month by 22,000 and special education forecasted although to be unfavorable 519,000 we are $775,000 better than the previous month some of the categories that contribute to that salaries and benefits which is slightly better this month than last month by 25,000 um purchase Services um also slightly better although still over budget um that is a special education related account um transportation and tuition um for special education out of District students um still over budget but better than last month one area of concern is facilities repairs and maintenance uh we are projected to be over budget at this point about 42,000 um we have had several large repairs hot water heater at um C High School um CIS and chry Brook both had sections of boilers that needed to be replaced as we um prepared to turn the heat on um those um are typically CIP items but had to come out of the operations budget this year um so those are um some areas of concern um but other than that um it's I'm happy to report um a a forecast that was better than last month that's great I I know you might have some questions on finance and I know Mr going to make a comment from from the finance Comm committee meeting so we're going I'll hold your questions for finance if you don't mind until we get to the uh finance committee reports and then we can dive in is that all right so that meet everybody's okay all right having said that then we'll turn to Mr Moore in Camp celebrates all right good evening everybody thank you for the opportunity to be here um I want to thank the uh audience that joined and came here most of you for can celebrates but I am glad that we went through many of those business items first because the accomplishments that they're they're detailing and the growth that they're talking about are both for you and because of you none of that happens without you so I'm so glad that you were able to be here for the first part of that meeting um and I give credit to the teachers the staff of Canton middle school and every student there uh that's contributed to all those wonderful things we've been able to highlight so far for K celebrates though I'm honored to have the opportunity to recognize some of the many accomplishments of Canton middle school students the last time I had the opportunity to come before you for cant celebrates was last April so in preparation for tonight I thought about some of the things that happened at the end of last year over the summer and at the start of this year so I'm lucky to celebrate some current CMS students but also I've got some freshmen here some current freshmen because they we got some accomplishments from the end of their 8ighth grade year so first some outstanding athletic accomplishments um as you know Canton middle school offers several Sports here at the school level but we also partner with the town of Canton to offer a full spectrum a wide array of sports and so uh baseball for example is organized by the town but many CMS students are are are members so let's see I think we've got enough space here I'll have the group come down and then we can talk about it members of the K junior baseball team join me up in this area let's get the baseball team down [Applause] here standing I'll have you up here for just a minute you got a minute in you all right all right so this is the Canton Jr baseball team from 2024 and this incredible group showed tenacity and sportsmanship throughout last season their coach John Cottingham here tonight noted that they always play for each other and that camaraderie paid off this summer when they won you know the state championship they beat summers in the Little League Junior Division and I'll note that they're the first Canton team to win a little league state championship in any division so congratulations to them on being St champion [Applause] not every member of the team is here with us tonight but I'll read the names of all who are on the team and if you're here when I call your name step forward and accept your certificate so Luc Stager Jaden [Applause] Diaz m morbo [Applause] Jack [Music] [Applause] Kemp Jack Kelly Cole coningham Kyle rossie Shay flarity and Michael River just [Applause] boys let's turn around come on up here so your parents can take a picture of you so turn around we'll do you first and then we'll have the board stand up again so parents you could whoever you want [Music] okay everybody got that coaches you want to get in there okay and why don't we have the boys maybe you could step back and then maybe the board can come ccle this is just [Music] not guys why don't we go to that Cor how long expect [Music] thank you guys congratulations conratulations [Applause] as they sit I need to shout outle also on the team I [Applause] and Jack Kennedy my CTS all out of and Jack Ken I owe a couple of Cs congratulations to the team all right continuing Athletics could I have the members of the girls outdoor track team from last season come on up same thing same format right here in this [Applause] space so I I talk about you for moment so uh again we have a team from the end of last year um so there's current e8th and ninth graders with us uh this was our outdoor track team from last year and I'm pleased to honor them tonight because of their incredible season in which their coaches highlighted their positivity their support for one another and the work that they put in to improve the season ended with the Woodbury Invitational which is a large Championship meet and there were some incredible individual performances and a strong team showing across the board this resulted in a pretty stunning upset for a team of our size they placed third they hit the podium they were the third place finish at the Woodbury Invitational and I can tell that with these great athletes these great people track program is po to be strong at both the middle and high school level for years to come so congratulations them on the third place all right same as before if you were here I'm going to recognize you with your certificate so an gay Valentina Palomo Ana Johnson Caleb burning Charlotte Davis is [Applause] here Charlotte Brown Ella heartley [Applause] Jil mallum Ella Sullivan Ava Celia Kira Nei Jessica kinsky Christina kinsky Sophia [Applause] devasi Ava [Music] [Applause] Carmen Haley [Applause] wetz and Riley mson [Applause] I get you all right order ladies why don't we go right over into that corner you'll take your picture and then the board will come on over [Music] okay Board of Education [Music] [Applause] everybody good all right so turning to a a smaller group and with some exceptional academic achievements uh I am wondering if we have here tonight do we have um so Jaden can I you back up here Jaden Diaz Michael up Ry Robinson here and Michaela Goodwin com I'll talk I'll talk slow I'll talk slow so these students I've invited here tonight because of an incredible academic achievement so each spring we take the smarter balance assessment and um the smarter balance assessment is one measure of students overall success in school of how they're doing and I always tell students that you are not this test this test does not define you however J however when You Face challenges in life how you meet those challenges that does Define that is a huge part of who you are and so um when the test comes out families get a report and it highlights their performance level and I think um it does a pretty poor job of highlighting their growth like Mr Bishop highlighted K Middle School showed some exceptional growth and the report that families get doesn't really highlight that growth metric so I dive into that data and I look at what students were expected to do from year to year so for example if you take a test in sixth grade it says an expected growth would be 100 points the students standing behind me made about 4 100% growth in excess of their expected growth so what was predicted from how they did one year they blew those targets out of the water so these are strong students and their dedication their commitment and the way they Rose to that challenge resulting them in exceeding their targets by 3 to 400% that is incredible it stands out amongst their peers and it deserves to be honored so with that being said congratulations on your academic achievement and your exceptional growth Jaden Diaz [Applause] Michael [Applause] deante and Riley Robinson we can do right up here you're come with quick picture opportunity we get let's do you three first so parents Guardians grandparents okay back [Music] we good job hey finally I'd like to end with the Arts um as you know Kon is an incredible music Community for as long as I can remember we've been recognized as one of the best communities for music education and I have a group of students here who recently wowed the audience at Yukon uh to the coral members who performed at the acba conference Jo me up here we're are coral students come on up [Applause] all right so the students here um sang recently at the acda conference that's the American coral Directors Association and they hosted their fall conference at Yukon a few weeks ago Mr Brian Jones our course director is a composer in residence for that organization uh an award-winning one at that he deserves to be recognized on his own accord and these students were members of the Premier choir that uh that went to that Middle School performance so they collaborated and learned an original composition they LED their fellow singers from across the state and in perform and they performed an original composition by Mr Jones an absolutely incredible experience they blw the uh the audience there and the uh fellow artists and residents out of the water they can tell that this is a strong music community and these are some exceptionally talented singers and I'm excited by their artistic accomplishment and the future for music and the Arts in Canton so I've got some recognition for their participation and excellence in the Arts let's see Archer Heath tan [Applause] Smith let's see Stella Corwin Laura [Applause] Petty Ella Goodwin [Applause] right also on there s Cal Riley mson Chloe Harrington I'll Olivia angle Adella Castillo and also here able to join tonight Hugo e congratulations [Applause] wonderful you're right here we'll get you a picture okay why come back a little [Music] bit thank you guys thank you Mr Moore thank you that is the highlight of our meetings when we have this opportunity to celebrate our our students and all their Great accomplishments so we're GNA move right into uh we're g to continue with Mr Moore yeah we're going to continue with Mr Moore who's going to give the board for those of you that weren't there but he's going to give a brief update of the continuous Improvement plan [Music] all right so um included in your packet I've uh previously distributed our full continuous Improvement plan and um essentially uh Mr Bishop was highlighting earlier the one growth that we have made at a school as a school and we are incredibly proud of that uh but also are very planful and very excited to keep taking steps to continue on that path um if I were to summarize the focus areas for Canton Middle School this year it is that we have reorganized some of the ways that our teams operate addressing culture climate attendance and operations we also uh are doing some heavy investing and heavy lifting in curriculum writing and standards alignment and we're using some uh introducing some common highle strategies across classrooms and across the school such as uh the writing of and use of learning targets so that's how I would summarize it to go into the action steps some priority ones that align to our district and board goals in the area of student growth and achievement um we are going to first of all of course Implement our turnaround plan we've bring a three-year plan that we will see through with Fidelity and the data share earlier shows that we are I like the way you said it we're on the right path so we will continue to commit to our turnaround work um and those key points that I mentioned are the priority areas for that first year we will uh conduct regular data team meetings uh we have some great data available to us through Investments that you have made in in uh in in technology and in assessments we will utilize that to make sure we're teaching students in a targeted and effective way we'll write those learning targets I told you about earlier and provide lessons to students helping them with their executive functioning the world is busy they have a lot on their plates and we're more dedicated than ever before and more purposeful than ever before in helping them stay on top of their work uh and uh and their lives so we'll support them in that way in the area of Partnerships and Community engagement you're going to hear from the PTO shortly we're going to continue our great partnership with them um many of the best things that we do are because the PTO allows us to say yes to those wonderful ideas we'll continue to strengthen the Canton Harford connection so all of our students and families are welcomed here and um partner literally with community members to pull off wonderful events like the wellness day which will be upcoming for financial sustainability we'll make sure to budget uh informed by projections uh being mindful of the updating of books and materials and utilize uh our grant funding to further our turnaround work so there's a lot of budget management there that goes into uh making wise purchases now and preparing us to be uh healthy and solvent moving forward um in the coming years our learning environment and belonging the action steps will be to incorporate resiliency of lessons into advisory we have a newly reformed School climate team that is getting in front of students with myself as one of the teachers um to provide resiliency lessons to students thinking about what's relevant to them and having those tough conversations around uh friendship and organization and balancing the their their workload so we're doing that on a regular basis we're embedding the CMS way and vision of a graduate into our lessons and all that we do and as I mentioned earlier some of those reorganized structures to proactively promote student engagement and raise their performance to continue to embrace Equity we will always Empower student voice Equity is having a space for all voices at the table and that includes our students so we continue to expand opportunities there in incorporate Equitable teaching practices into all that we do it's not a particular thing it's more of a lens that if we're being Equitable we're thinking about all of our practices including instruction and and access and opportunities so we're thinking about that at all times um and I mentioned our revised School climate team that has a member of the district Equity team serving on it so that that lens is on as we think about our school climate and finally all of this requires a a continued investment in our Workforce in our teachers in our staff in in all of us actually I count myself as someone who's learning and growing a lot this year but um as we take care of our teachers and our staff we will facilitate data team work making sense of all the data and numbers in front of us so that we can turn that into meaningful things for students we'll engage in the revised teacher evaluation process uh which we're really excited about which is making having teachers set meaningful goals for their own personal growth so it will have a greater impact on students will provide a lot of professional development your middle school teacher are working very hard um sitting in um um meetings that are more like learning sessions uh staff meetings that are becoming professional development so that we can improve in our Focus areas especially utilizing high quality learning targets and finally we will um help our Workforce the development will come in the area of ongoing curriculum writing and standards alignment there's a few areas where the state's recommended alignment of Standards has shifted in recent years and we need to stay current with that uh so that most heavily impacts our human ities Department uh but we're looking at our curriculum schoolwide so that we can make sure that what we're teaching is the right thing at the right time in the right order so that students can be getting what they need and be prepared for high school so those are a few of the key priority areas that we are implementing and will see through the work course this year to make sure that that trajectory that you heard about earlier continues at C Middle School I'm happy to take any questions so I will say you questions um the the ability for us to walk through the school after having this presentation and with the treatments and strategies being employed in in some of the classrooms was really valuable I know Kim mentioned it to me there's nothing like being able to sit through the uh sit in the classroom and see what's happening in the way that they're aligning our goals and strategies um and the things that they're doing consistently across the board is really uh pretty impressive so I I thought really walking through was really great so with that any questions for Mr Moore on what just went through and of course he'll be back here in the spring we'll have another opportunity again for a walk through and and to see how the progress that we've made from from Fall to uh to spring so questions I have one we we know how we were feeling with the walk through and the results and obviously the information that John shared tonight and the students we got to like really talk to the students and you see how engaged they were but how is the staff feeling like do they know about the the you know the growth that the school has made and how are they feeling about this continuous improv you know plan yeah I I don't I would I would want to speak for them so you you actually were able to meet and speak to some of the teachers during your walk through um from a instructional lens I think something that we've done this year is we're pointing in a common Direction so we know what we've literally defined what high quality instruction looks like a k Middle School which we've been doing but it's nice to have those efforts coales so I think we feel focused uh I think teachers are working extremely hard but it pays off when you go into classrooms and you can see all right we've been working on learning targets and this is the positive impact that it has on student engagement and student learning so to see those numbers and to be able to discuss those which yeah absolutely we know those we that's cause for celebration and I think it it motivates us to keep going with taking all the great things that we've been doing and further refining and further committing to them so that can be all students right all all students being well known and well taught so I think it we we're feeling very motivated by the steps that we've taken so far thank you yeah I have a question just a couple of quick comments uh first of all was a terrific morning uh spoke so highly about you your staff is doing and what the results are with the students that it seems to me that you've reorganized and organized your committees and your teams very purposefully uh and likely very effectively as well I'm will tell with that it certainly seemed like it's up to a great start I'm going to repeat what L said you talk about highly effective strategies you talk about a couple in particular um I visited a dozen classrooms and it was evidence uh exactly as described in 11 of those 12 classes in 12 uh that's pretty impressive to see that even in some of the rooms that that the uh learning outcomes and the couple things you mentioned there they're permanently attached to the to the board it's on people's minds right away um it was uh it seems like you're making the most out of the assistance from the state in your own initiative so great job appreciate that thank you good job have a quick question sure um congrats I seen the numbers I mean numbers don't lie but I was just curious as the principal of the school you reflect back what has been your most person like your personal thing that you're most proud of aside from just looking at numbers alone sure yeah the the numbers tell us tell a story so what's the story behind it right um well I think that my proud what I'm proud of is the alignment that we have I think that we we have an amazing team of teachers and we've always been we're blessed with amazing students and I think people have been working really hard and what happened when we started to align with the turnaround efforts and we what happened a year ago that wasn't happening two years ago was that self-reflective study so we met with purpose we self-reflected with purpose I heard more teacher voice and input on things like the priority areas that was written actually right here In This Very Room by the staff of C midle school so to lead people through that collecting of the voices and then tearing it down and saying but what's really going to move us forward to see that that conversation led to these outcomes right so we did this and to like lead through that as person satisfying full for me and and hopefully for the staff as well so I think that that work with purpose to gather the collective voices and make those decisions together like we commit to doing these things so because we think they will move us forward and didn't see that they did yeah very satisfying thank you very much Jeff thank you for the opportunity to brag about my awesome school well I'm going to give you another chance to brag about your your PTO yeah because you want to make the introduction to our so uh can midle school right so in a school that's only two years long uh right your your your your parent group is also only two grade levels of families and so I've always been humbled with a small But Mighty team of PTO members that again like so without an active PTO we could do what we need to for students but we can do more than what we need and we can do what we want we can do what we dream because we have a supportive PTO and so to tell you about some of those things I'm glad to introduce our PTO president Beth Kennedy Mrs Kennedy thank you for sitting so patiently through our meeting I don't I'm not sure I was sitting so patiently that's fair well I was watching like my entire target audience skate out the back door so hey this is what we see every meeting I'll chase them down some other time so my name is be Kennedy I am a member of the CMS PTO it's my second year um and my other uh member of the board is Courtney Vincent who is here tonight um we are um yeah like a parent Le volunteer organization that supports the school supports the kids educational experience we try to fill in the gaps and provide things that might not be available to them otherwise to really you know um broaden their educational experience in a positive way so we have we manage a $60,000 budget currently our primary source of funds is the lobster Loop which I don't know if any of you have participated in I will not be running in that ever but I do help volunteer um we sell flowers we do a mom sale in the fall which is amazing if you've never participated in that you shed the flowers are great so good we sell spirit wear we have restaurant fundraisers and we also get parent donations and then our uses of the funds um are in two major categories one I would say is like educational programs so we support things like U scholarships for the 8th grade DC trip for Kids U families who need it we also support programs that teachers request like there's a Connecticut Humane Society program that comes in and teaches the seventh grade science classes about Gene selection so that's a really that's a cool thing that we can offer and then teachers are also able to make individual requests to us maybe they need a printer maybe they want a speaker maybe they're looking for ping pong um equipment to have you know a positive Community Building event within the school so we're able to support those things um we budget substantially more than this but we spent about $2,500 on teacher requests last year and we budget about $5,000 to support DC scholarship trips um and then we also do what I would consider to be school community building projects so um things that support the the community within the school among the students between students and staff um so we support um the PBX program for example by um providing prizes for students and staff as part of you know the positive reinforcement we support the seventh grade and eighth grade moving up and promotion ceremonies we um things like ping pong tournament that I mentioned before we also help student council requests if there's a dance we help P the DJ you know little things like that that just kind of make it easier um so that's the general that's the general scoop of what we do I did want to um speak about um Mr Moore he does such a fantastic job he is always prepared and super enthusiastic at our meetings and as I'm going to mention in a moment we do have a problem with membership um last year and this year were really struggling to get parents to get involved and um Jeff's preparedness for the meetings and his thoughtfulness about what the school is looking for is so helpful to us and it keeps us informed especially because we have such low parent participation right now it helps us respond to the needs of all of the students because we don't have adequate representation from parents um representing the entire student body right now which is unfortunate but Jeff really fills in those gaps and I'm so appreciative of his hard work so thank you thank you yeah um so if I could just have a minute to like lecture um to any of the parents who are listening the PTO like I mentioned is an independent parent/guardian type volunteer organization um but more than just that it's like a critical in my opinion a critical opportunity to make a connection with the school staff with the teachers with other parents and really add a special Dynamic to your child's educational experience um I think from everything we know kids with parents who are involved in school statistically do better academically they have better behavioral issues they have better social relationships and parents who make the effort to be involved in school have a better understanding of what's happening in school what the teachers are facing and a better context for what their kids are talking about when they come home so I would just really encourage any parents who are listening please consider being involved in the PTO if you can't be a board member consider participating or volunteering for a particular event we have so many events throughout the year I was King up I think we have 20 or 30 different events that we do throughout the year there's a million different ways to participate it's a small amount of time I can tell you I am a single mom I have full-time job and I'm the president of PTO and I you know I'm at every board meeting it's not a huge it's not a huge investment of time um so just really understand that we need help to continue to provide these opportunities we are now a board of two and I think we have 20 or 25 members of the PTO I mean there are at least 200 families at the school that's a very very small participation rate so I would just really encourage people to consider just taking a little bit of time to try to reach out there are benefits to the school but there's also enormous benefits to your child and and to you um so that's it happy to take any questions how can the Board of Education better support or help you I don't know it's a good it's a good I really think I think it's helpful to have a dialogue like if we were able to have a DI dialog and perhaps the perhaps the way to do that would be for us to build better relationships with the pto's you know at Cherrybrook and the PTO at CIS I know they do a great job is there PTO actually same problems that you're experiencing there is no PTO at the high school which is indicative of you know a systemic issue with parent um involvement so maybe there's a way for your um pulit or your you know voice to be able to encourage parents like is there a way to educate parents about the value of participating um and to help people understand that it I think people feel like it's going to be such an overwhelming amount of time and everyone's struggling now right everyone's struggling with this hustle culture exhaustion you know trying to do all the things kids do a million things you're trying to reach all these places so one thing that we are doing is we're trying to pull our existing members and other parents to find out for example when meeting would be more accessible for people so currently we need you know like this a Wednesday morning once a month at 8: a.m.

e e e good evening good evening if uh everybody could take a seat we'll call a meeting to order I call a meeting of the special special meeting of the board of trust es to order at 6:01 p.m.