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with additional awards for most outstanding music General effect Visual and auxiliary and first place finish in the WBA Regional championships in Mission vao California with additional awards for most outstanding music General effect Visual and percussion and congratulations to Campo verie high school now saw what happened at desire you know the you know the drill what are you going to tell me um my name my grade instrument and you're probably a 4.0 student aren't you pretty close you will be after tonight no oh okay U my name is Avery I'm a senior and I'm actually the drum major so I don't play an instrument oh what does a drum major do uh we conduct a band there's actually three of us here they'll they'll tell you who they are but so what do these guys do they just kind of show up the director this nicely done congratulations uh my name is Maya I'm a senior and I play the drums um my name is Lily I'm a senior and I'm one of the Guard captains hi my name is Sophie I'm a senior and I'm also one of the drumers I'm and trumpet and I'm a senior I'm Elizabeth I'm a senior and play I'm rain I'm a junor and I play clarinet pardon my reach uh I'm Sam I play susap phone and I'm a senior I'm Aaron I play saxophone and I'm a junior yeah you think about that I'm Matthew I play trumpet and I'm a junior I'm Audrey I'm a junior and I'm also a drum major uh I'm Ryan I'm a senior and I play MAA what you play It's like a it's like a big xylophone okay there you go if you had a picture it'd be even better for me but say that word again not xylophone but looks it looks like that wow good luck all right I'm Emmy I'm a senior and I play horn I'm Breen I'm a senior and I also play horn give them a hand Chad would you like to say a few words about these guys oh sure uh so I am the uh the assistant band director at uh Campo birdie kind of on a volunteer time basis uh this year um the band really worked hard and I don't if they remember but the beginning of the year when I tell you guys that I felt this is going to be a special uh season and what you think it was huh so yeah they did a really good job worked really hard and it just the you know the payoff was just really really good congratulations camp O verie if you guys would turn around and kind of form a line and shake hands with the board and then come back and we'll take a picture and if all of you would stay after this for just a couple minutes is that okay I'm going to do some recognitions of board members congratulations so show me the what's going what happened we get in trouble get in trouble all right vertically challenged up front there you go I can say that cuz I am good thank you campoo if you guys could stay for just a couple more minutes too that would be great usually I do the superintendent report right after this and I do it from the dis but we're going to stay down here for a few minutes um so good evening again thank you for coming to our meeting and joining us tonight winter break is just around the corner how many days kids three three three no uh it's it's closer than you think this is it right so I just want you guys to have a wonderful winter break happy holiday season please be safe with your families and but just enjoy the time and get some rest relax and get ready for how many of our senior out here raise your hand this is it this is it you quit smiling look at him like yeah it's all right you just get older like us and then you go to work every day so something to look forward to um but we're proud of you guys thank you so much um tonight is our last governing board meeting for a couple board members one is not with us tonight that's Ronda page but the other one is Lori wood and she's right here raise your hand Lori um I want just say a few words and then we'll have some board members come up if they'd like to say a few words um we'll start off with Miss Paige she has served on the governing board for the past two years and has done a tremendous job her experience as a GPS parent and background in education has been priceless and I appreciate how she approaches each situation with an open mind and an open heart being a board member is is a difficult job and um you really have to look outside IDE yourself to be able to make decisions that concern all 31,000 of our students and 4200 of our employees which impacts our entire Community not just here in Gilbert but in East Mesa as well and she did a tremendous job I wish her nothing but joy in the next phase of her life she uh is with new grandbabies right now so we just want to congratulate her please give her a [Applause] hand and then there's Miss Lori wood who is served on the governing board for the past eight years she's uh served as a parent on our board and she's gave so much perspective from that parent point of view which is something that we all need as we make decisions Lord you serve during a time where there was red Fred covid boundary changes school closures changes to school start and end times changes to the school year calendar reductions in Workforce and the everpresent financial challenges that school districts face on a daily basis uh you've been the voice of reason a colleague a mentor a leader and most importantly a friend Gilbert Public Schools is one of the best school districts in the state of Arizona and you my friend are one of the reasons why I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for our district for our employees for our students and and for me me and I just want to thank you so in honor of that I think Mr Thompson has something and we have something we have a plaque you says Lori wood governing board member 2017 to 2024 thank you for your service some flowers apprciate that and a hug thank you thank you thank you Chad and Jill give would you guys like to say a couple words and then Lori will turn it over to Lori go ahead Joe oh my gosh well maybe if I go first I won't get so emotional um I think I've sat next to Lori at least the last four years um and when she first got elected we worked on outlining some board procedures together and that's when I kind of got to know her better and we also besides all the things that Dr McCord mentioned we worked on our mission and our vision and our um commitment to doing well by the students of this district and I appreciate her insights and you know our Visions haven't always aligned but that's a good thing because then we have a better Vision working together thank [Applause] you so I won't make this long but I might make it emotional um I am I I think if there's one word that uh for me that sums up my relationship with Lori and and how I view her uh on the board and how I know she views all of us as family um I remember when I first uh was elected to the board anytime I had a question or a concern Lori was my first call and she she helped me see things from a perspective that I just naturally um didn't have and I think it helped me grow as a board member and it was obvious that um through her compassion and also through her fairness that she she truly has uh this District the students the teachers the parents um at the center of everything she does and it's you're going to be truly missed um it's going to be hard to fill your shoes and I appreciate you and and uh like Dr cord said wish you all the best in uh in the next [Applause] phase thank you thank you thanks you guys for staying I just wanted to say thank you really quick it's been a privilege to serve for eight years this a volunteer position so it's something we do it because we care about students that's really who we care about each one of you I hope you know your potential thank you for coming to school each day thank you for doing your best it makes a difference you are future and that's why we do it thank you to our parents for caring about their kids for choosing Gilbert public schools for investing in their education for giving feedback we had a board member who would always tell us read car all feedback is a gift so thank you um thank you to our our employees across the whole district from bus drivers to custodians to nutrition Specialists to all of the office workers every single person who shows up every day for students so that we can have great education thank you to our teachers who are in front of our students each day I can't thank you enough personally for my own children for each of these children you do tremendous work each day and I am so grateful I've seen it I've been to your classrooms I believe in you you are awesome and thank you to our principles who have a huge role in leading our district in setting standards in following up in problem solving and working with parents and students teachers and making sure that our our campuses are functioning properly and doing their best and thank you to our District staff each one of you um who tirelessly work as well toward the common goal of giving our students the best educational opportunities that they each can have and uh thank you to our community we couldn't do it without our community thank you for believing in us for giving us this override again and for your support in so many ways throughout our campuses many many ways that are community and parents step in and help our schools finally thank you to my fellow board members it's been such a privilege to work with you uh our current board with our previous board members to learn from you to hear your different thoughts and opinions to agree with you to disagree with you but to always um have respectful conversations no matter where uh we we were coming from and especially then to remember our goals to focus on our students and our staff and to make sure that we provide the best that we can for them and to come you know at the end of the day set aside the personal things and find the best Solutions so I just feel so grateful for the blessings it's been I'm going to miss all of this but I'm grateful for the the new board members who have been elected grateful they were willing to run I know they'll do great things and I will be cheering you guys on so thank you Lori how many of your kids went through our system a all six students all six children graduated through while she's been here she's she's ushered them all through well and I just got to tell you again on behalf of Gilbert public schools and everybody that knows you thank you and we love you thank you thank you so much thank you guys thank you for staying [Applause] and all right now you can go get ice cream we're coming with you a all right well that was the best part of these meetings not to say that the rest isn't wonderful but uh the recognition and award of our students that work so hard is is why we do this and um so glad we got to do that tonight uh moving on to uh we will not uh we will skip over agenda item number five request to speak to the governing board as there were none there was one uh uh uh submitted uh comment submitted online and we appreciate that that was somebody took the time to do that so moving on to agenda item number six uh monthly financial report for month end ended November 30th 2024 Dr McCord thank you Mr Thompson governing board members it is the monthly financial report this is for November and I'll turn it over to Mrs Betts good evening governing board members Dr McCord Mr Thompson um this uh report we were able to thanks to the hard work of Miss Jackie Matan and um Miss Lauren torka we were able to do a pretty good draft of the revised budget number one it was really important to me to make sure that we were updating you as quickly as possible regarding the financial status of Gilbert Public Schools as of the end of November so the biggest change that has occurred is that you will see a new column in there that is uh includes the projected revised budget number one uh values so everything that we are doing all the math then is going against that projected Revis number one instead of adopted so just keep that in mind as we go through all the grids I was hoping you'd say the new column was board salary that's not no such luck no such luck I'm afraid okay as always we include the district operating funds you can see that maintenance and operations and classroom site fund as as well as the capital fund total are all included so in this projected revision number one some key things have have occurred in our recommendation our our expected recommendations to you when we revised the budget in early February so first you can see that the adopted budget um was 287.4 million and the projected budget revision number one is uh 293 million so about a $5.5 million increase so let me share what what with the components of that so first of all about $3.5 million was due to additional budget balance carry forward as you know you approved the annual financial report in October and So based upon that we now have our true budget balance carry forward in all of these funds so that's reflected um in addition we had budgeted for a 1,200 student count loss um in creating the adapted budget and fortunately we only lost just under 800 students so we met the bogey about additional $2.5 million occurred because of more students than we expected also uh as you know last board meeting you all approved the revised stien amount the appreciation stipend associated with fortunately our our passage of the 15% M override and those values if you look at the year to date expended encumbered column all of the value of that full stien in both maintenance and operations and classroom site fund is fully encumbered So based upon all that information oh one other point if you recall when we adopted the budget in June we made a recommendation to move $2 million out of unrestricted capital and put it into maintenance operations based upon deliberations between um Jackie and Lauren and myself we feel comfortable we do not have to do that and we can keep that $2 million in in unrestricted Capital but in even with that $2 million not being included we still had a sizable um budget increase which we're very happy to report so given all this information the available balance of of $14.9 million is about $1.5 million more than what we reported last month so that's the big the big comment there um also I wanted to point out in classroom site fund you can see that our um projected budget revision number one is 57 million the year-to date expended encumbered is about 34 million just under 34 million wanted to share that the pay for performance amounts which are one time are also encumbered as well as the classroom site funds component of that appreciation stipended and so um based upon this grid that $ 33.9 million is about $2 million over the amount of Revenue we are expecting in the current year so just wanted to give you a heads up that we are starting to draw down some of our classroom site fund dollars um with this these one-time payments still giving us plenty of flexibility if our Revenue expected revenues drop but I just wanted to share that as well finally uh We've highlighted the district Capital fund total we had similar results in unrestricted Capital regarding increases in budget balance carry forward that is reflected here and so we still have even though we are we do not have any bond dollars left we still have um a reasonable amounts of money that we are able to meet our most urgent Capital needs as we move forward into the future um and so that's all I have to share about the district operating funds before I go further are there any questions Miss Betts I do I do have a I just want to make a clarification so when we um go through and we have the incumbrances but then we're finally paying all the bills um at the end of the year our B our budget ballot budget balance carry forward I'm sorry that is a tongue twister um that comes about because we've carefully budgeted and then carefully spent to stay under that budget and that's you know we saved money here or money there five or $10 and coming all together that's why we have those additional funds I just want to point that out to our constituents and then also I really appreciate that we were able to um continue to draw students into Gilbert public schools at are higher rate than we had expected just due to changing demographics and things so thank you very much y okay I'll go on to the next grid this is just what I said uh the Federal grant funds uh so all of them are highlighted in this lovely yellow um so wanted to share that um the biggest one on this particular grid is the sr3 as well as the sr3 required 20% set aside we did receive a final approval for our completion reports which means everything that we expected to spend is will be reimbursed from the state of Arizona very very shortly so that's very good news in addition you can see that the title one title two title 4 ID a and idea high cost those projected budget revisions reflect the award or approval of carryover dollar in all of those funds except for in title three note fund 191 uh title 3 is still in the process of uh the completion report which is due I think at the end of the month is that correct yeah due at the end of December and then that will be reflective then we will be receiving all of those revenues reimbursement revenues then in Jan January reflecting the results of those completion reports and then finally I wanted to share the adult education note that our adopted budget is $652,000 and it's less on the projected budget revision so there's something very different about the adult education funding uh funding for uh Arizona students and so if I could I would like to have um Miss Lauren torsa come up and just quickly explain the different cycle associated with the adult education fund um that that makes it different than uh than the other federal grants I don't think it's on S there we go hello oh very you go thank you um Dr McCord Mr Thompson governing board members so yes um The Adult Ed Grant cycle is very unique compared to the rest of our grant funding um it goes on a three-year cycle so um this grant is a competitive Grant so unlike idea or title funds we do have to apply for this and it's quite a lengthy application um leas when they apply are encouraged to kind of ask for every dollar that they could possibly need um to kind of execute this program because it is a competitive application that is a continuation grant for three years we have to make sure that when we apply for the grant the um information that we give the state allows us to get the needed funding for the next 3 years because we don't have another opportunity to kind of revise those um needs until you know the three-year cycle is over so um when we presented the proposed budget to you that you subsequently adopted we used the numbers that were given in the original application so kind of the the moon and the stars so to speak um so the revised budget will reflect what is actually allocated to us in this year and then going forward we won't see quite as big of a swing allocations can obviously change at any time um but this is kind of a unique thing to the first year of this three-year Grant cycle any questions is there any um I know last legislative session there had to be some Cuts does that uh apply here because it is a state grant that there were cuts to this funding so this grant is a uh it's Consolidated so there are two grants in this uh Grant package out of the seven that we received at our state uh the other five are federal um you'll see in the next grid that we budgeted about 150,000 we only got about 100 so I'm okay sure that that was part of it yeah okay thank you welcome so if I understand you correctly the the 512,000 is is a a three-year chunk of money no it's just the first year of three years worth of allocations so we are only allowed to apply for this once every three years and then we get subsequent allocations um year to year so this is the first year so we'll get another 512,000 next year and the year after correct that allocation could change though um but yes constant what are some things that are encumbered that number the 162,000 so what are some of the things that are encumbered um already and then what do we anticipate needing or or encumbering in the future with the remaining $350,000 great question so because this is a Consolidated Grant package there are there are seven grants within this kind of funding application and each one is for a very specific purpose within the adult ed program um what's already been expended and encumbered is most mostly salaries um the additional spend is going to be most likely on training there's a separate Grant uh just for PD um there's probably going to be some Capital spend it's just going to kind of depend on what the program needs um and because we've now finalized that allocation our adult ed folks have a better idea of what their true funding is and they can kind of figure out what those dollars are going to go towards um we have our quarterly meeting scheduled with them I think in January so we'll have a better idea at that point thank you very much okay great thank you Lauren thank you thank you I I do have one more question do do we how many students do we have in adult education I do not know I don't know off the top of my head but I could get you that information okay of course there's probably 25 to 40 somewhere in there it fluctuates to be real honest with you how long does the program take for them to it depends on what level they come in at okay so yeah okay all right thank you thank you Lauren and the last thing I wanted to share on this grid is the idea high cost that $75,000 does represent what we are awarded we don't always receive revenue for high cost we've been applying for it regularly the last three years and we've been successful so this is a great thing that we did receive this money okay so um moving to the next the state Grant funds um we didn't highlight The Adult Ed but you can see the 425 the state portion of the adult ed you can see that the revised budget has decreased by about $57,000 um I wanted to share the instructional Improvement and the Structured English immersion so note that in instructional Improvement we have um increased the projected budget revision number one by about $500,000 this is very good news as we are in the process of implementing our math curriculum requiring a great deal of professional development this is uh well received that we will have additional money available for the teaching and learning team to make sure that we are uh implementing that that curriculum with Fidelity the Structured English immersion you know note the adapted budget was almost $1.9 million and the projected budget revision which is our actual allocation is down to $288,000 a significant reduction Structured English immersion does fluctuate great year toe depending upon available funds uh note that we do have year-to-date expended encumbered of over that 288,000 leaving a an available balance that is negative we will be working with the um with the uh curriculum teams in in the um English language learner uh realm uh to figure out which which of our uh teachers need to be moved into m m so that we can eliminate that negative okay um the college credit exam incentive uh this is primarily due to carryover that that budget has been increased as part of legislative action as you Mrs humph mentioned there were some significant reductions and the college credit exam incentive uh funding amount has decreased by half going into the current year um just uh a reminder that that money must be spent either for teacher siens or at the school site sitee for professional development related to advanced placement or International baloran so all of that money is not at our discretion at the district office but is allocated out to all of our schools and then finally the results based funding that has a slight increase as well again due to carryover but just a reminder that that fund no longer exists and we will be using that results based funding money in conjunction with the instructional Improvement money to meet the needs the ongoing needs of the curriculum um implementation over the next two years any questions on this particular grid great so um other funds uh note the Career and Technical education um we did update this to reflect the carryover as well as we did receive the first payment from um evit reflective of the of our average daily membership or our student counts that are in our satellite programs uh CTE um that fund is our reimbursement from evit to pay for the CTE approved programs that actually occur at Highland High or Gilbert High or mosquit high or Campo or Desert Ridge and so um we we just received the updated amount and so that estimated Revenue line does include that that expected amount through the end of the current fiscal year and then finally at the advanced placement summer Institute you can see a slight increase there um Dr or Mr Ryan uh really pushed yeah close right um Mr Ryan pushed to have this advanced placement summer Institute here in Gilbert Public Schools so keep in mind I shared the ccip results and the fact that that money must be spent on teachers or on professional development what's really great is that because we have our own advanced placement summer Institute our advanced placement teachers or those teachers who would like to teach an advanced placement course are able to not have to travel and so therefore the costs are um quite a bit less expensive and they can come to our advanced placement summer Institute to get their training which is a nice story okay um finally the bond fund I'm sharing this with you tonight um you know we are fully spent you can see that we um do have some actual spend of about $625,000 in the bond fund in the current year and then you can see the encumbrances of about $960,000 um you can see that that that most of that money there's a little bit still in facilities renewal but that $960,000 resides in transportation and on the consent agenda this evening you have a request to approve the purchase of three buses just an additional information regarding these three buses if you recall state law changed to allow uh non CDL bus drivers to drive these buses it gives us a lot more flexibility in our transportation department um and so so that we can we can use van drivers basically to drive these buses because the CDL is not required and that is the end of my report happy to answer any questions if you have any okay thank you all very much appreciate it thank you thank you thank you Miss bats uh 6.02 teaching and learning academic Spotlight Dr McCord thank you Mr Thompson governing board members turn it over to Mr Ryan uh they're going to do a presentation about collaborative coaching hour so Mr Ryan thank you Dr Accord Mr Thompson governing board uh briefly I wanted to Circle back to the question regarding adult education there are a variety of programs within adult education total there are 328 students I just wanted to pull and verify and make sure I was accurate but specifically completing diploma and graduating on an annual basis we see anywhere from 20 to 40 so um but we have Partnerships with the forestry we have Partnerships with a variety of organizations that come in and take uh maybe a sequence of courses that don't get all the way to diploma completion uh but total in terms of service Delia and her team have 300 and just over 20 that come through in a day or during a week's period of time I thank you for that clarification of course absolutely um so tonight we have Miss Julie auster with us um I'm excited uh for Julie to be here to talk about collaborative coaching hour last spring this is something that as most good educational models come from we stole from people thankfully in this cas we stole from some of our internal Talent uh Patricia Shores and Marcus H are two of the best instructional coaches and now um leaders in our school district and uh we had the the opportunity actually almost everyone sitting here this evening had an opportunity to observe this collaborative coaching hour in practice a year ago at Highland High School and with Patricia and Marcus's leadership uh what we viewed was an absolutely outstanding model um for enhancing teacher retention for enhancing ability in the classroom confidence in the classroom rolling out new curriculum you name it uh what we saw was very impactful to what was going on each day U most importantly at the year at the end of the year we reviewed data and and what we saw was was a group of first year teachers seconde teachers who were staying with us who had built a ton of confidence in the classroom who instructionally were were ahead of maybe where their peers were and uh we decided it was really important for us to to replicate to the best of our ability and so what Julie's going to share with you this evening is uh our version um kind of 2.0 in Gilbert public schools which will turn into uh a version to be I think a little bit different in the future uh as we've learned but um we're really excited about where this is headed and uh why it's a great place for new PE teachers to be Gilbert Public Schools thank you Julie um I'm super excited you guys thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you a little bit about collaborative coaching hour um I think Mr Ryan stole most of the Thunder most of the exciting points but that's that's okay that's all right so collaborative coaching hour um is just one of the many programs that we have in place here in Gilbert um along with the people that have culminated into this amazing academic momentum that we've seen result in our state letter grade um both on site and District so it's pretty exciting and this is just one of the programs that they have in place and so forgot I had a clicker turn it on by the way I think I failed to introduce Miss Oster appropriately she's the director of professional growth and development I guess I could have done that too so thank you thank you all right so what collaborative coaching hour is is it's a dedicated time during the instructional day um to support our teachers in in their growth and so during that time each day they actually get to meet with their Department leads at the high school level and they get to meet with their instructional coaches uh they're able to be provided very content specific curricular support because of their Department shairs being able to be there um they can break apart the district approved resources they can go through curriculum which is incredibly beneficial especially with new teachers on campus because it could be very overwhelming for them um they are also able to break down the priority standards which can be very complex um and you can't teach it very well to students if you don't really have a good understanding of what those priority standards mean and and what that progression towards Mastery looks like and so um those content experts are able to work with those teachers to be be able to really um educate them in that content specific uh material additionally they can work with the instructional coach on campus to really perfect their um Active Learning experiences making sure that they're embedding them in instruction making sure that our kiddos are getting the very best support in the classroom that we're using the very best strategies um to really get them engaged and to get that um get them bought into what they're learning um additionally they're able to actually go through um because it's during the actual school day um the instructional coaches and the department chairs are able to take them through learning walks um so they're able to visit other classrooms they're able to watch um Mastery teaching taking place um the teachers are not only engaging in professional development and learning how to become great teachers but what's even better than that is that um well I don't know if it's better but it's really it's great is that the mentors so the department chairs are also side by side engaged in that learning and so instruction is improving across the campus um the focus is on student learning you know that commitment is there um that collaboration is there and you can feel it in the culture when you walk on the campus so that's collaborative coaching um like what Mr Ryan said it actually started at Highland and I was able to go through the Highland High School um impact check information and I thought it was really cool when I first started hearing about it but then actually when I was able to dig in a little bit more and go through the the specific training and the Very intentional trainings that um Marcus and Trish created at Highland it is beyond impressive they were incredibly um intentional about things and it is just a a well-oiled machine at Highland when they were there and so um they were able to roll that out and they saw massive success with that at Highland and so um again what Mr Ryan was saying we had 11 out of 11 teachers that um started that last year at Highland actually sign on for this year which hasn't happened in years and years and so they were able to feel that support which is a huge deal especially right now and we're dealing with with you know teacher retention issues we want our teachers to feel supported we want them to be engaged we want them to have that feeling of community and that buy in so they stay on board and then our um during impact checks we were able to check progress we were able kind of like what I was able to kind of catch up on when I was reading the impact checks I was able to see all of the presentations that they had uploaded on the impact checks that they were probably able to go through firsthand with District um Administration and so they were able you know Mr Ryan and everybody else were able to actually go through and and see this happening as it rolled out and so it's no wonder that because of all these um amazing things that were happening that we wanted to continue this roll out um to other high schools and so that's what we are doing this year as I said though this is a very very um layered process um and so it's not going to be perfect you know in the very very first year but we've also um recognized that we've made some significant impacts we've seen that um the culture on these campuses have changed in a positive way that the focus is on student learning and growing and you know focusing on that growth mindset if the adults are learning the kids are going to be learning and so you can actually feel that when you go into the classrooms um it was actually skipped ah head here um we were able to um visit a few campuses and a few highlights we have a lot of really good things going on but I wanted to highlight on just a couple um the instructional coaches on these campuses have really taken the Reign and they have really turn this into um their own thing when it comes to teacher support at Gilbert High School they are holding weekly collaborative coaching hours and they've opened it up to the entire staff so it's actually not just new teachers but they have staff members we have a math department chair that's been there for I forget how many years over 20 years he was in attendance and he's been in attendance for the past three and he said it is phenomenal and these are optional so they're choosing to actually go there during lunch and learn with everybody and so it it gave me chills just talking to him about how excited he was to learn these new strategies and then Implement them and then he shared how that went um in the collaborative coaching hour that we attended um at Highland High School we were able to go in there and they were working with a couple of their teachers and they were really breaking down the standards when we were in there they were creating Clarity Maps they were really digging in and you could see the AHA you know the light bulbs going off with these brand new teachers that were trying to um dissect these very complicated standards and so they were able because of that support um to dig in here are some pictures from and I apologize for it being so small um here are some pictures that we took as we were going in the coaches at Gilbert High School they took it to the next level they actually found um money to actually have like a buffet come in so every time they would sign up they'd have teachers sign up and they would bring in and the day that we were there I think it was some Burrows that they had um but it was just an added bonus for the teachers that that came in you know there's a added element when you're sitting down and you're eating together so you're eating and learning together it was a great feeling um and I have some quotes up there and then we have some pictures from Highland and again very intentional as they are um planning their support for their new teachers with that being said um we're in stage one right we have ways to go um and a couple things that we've noted as we've gone to do these different campuses and worked with these um instructional coaches and kind of spoken to some of the teachers is um our instructional coaches all but two at the high school are new this year and so they're learning how to take on their rules and learning what it looks like to be an instructional coach and so it's going to take him a minute to really add that added layer of support in there um on top of that we actually have some master schedule um constraints that came up and when it comes to collaborative coaching hour when it comes to how uh Trish and Marcus rolled it out at Highland High School it it was it was a thing of beauty if you look at the master schedule they had it worked out where they had um they were teaching classes at the beginning so one of them was teaching at the beginning one of them was teaching at the end which means that every single period of the day there would be at least one coach available to help any teacher that during any period that they would need it um that also meant that during the middle of the day they would have that dedicated time to meet during collaborative coaching hours with the Department chairs and the teachers um as we started this year um that didn't quite happen on all the campuses but we've been able to identify and put steps in place to make sure that it will happen next year um to add that consistency to make sure that we're supporting um every way possible because those little tweaks in the master schedule those are easy enough to do as long as we're aware of it and we're making sure it happens for next year and it can have a huge impact on the success of that collaborative coaching hour um we're going to continue the training um to really dig into more you know what Marcus and Trish did they not only trained the teachers but they trained the department chairs they trained they had special trainings for the PLC leads they had special trainings for um the other Mentor teachers that were involved they had special trainings for the teachers who um had their classrooms visited during instruction they were very intentional about how everybody was being trained and what that support looked like and so we want to continue to enhance that on every campus um and then of course continued collaboration between District staff we want to make sure that we're involved and and we are supporting in every way possible are there any questions so I know it's a lot to so I I do have a couple questions yes so can you clarify me this is once a week is it during their prep time during their lunch hour so it's during their prep okay during their prep time during their prep so it it's dedicated time where they would be planning they would be but instead of planning Alone um they actually have people there to support to answer questions sometimes um the instructional coaches said that they do plan you know and they they don't have to be engaged in conversation the entire time but just to have somebody an expert there to ask a question to is a big deal yeah yeah if they get to a point where they're planning a lesson they're like well what do you think would work best exactly um or I'm thinking about doing this what can I do to make it more successful absolutely and if you talk about content experts like I've you know been education for 2223 years and most of it's at the high school level but I couldn't help an algebra 1 teacher with the lesson as much as I'd want to I could talk about engagement strategies and I can talk about those types of things but if they talk about hey what would a Clarity map look like for this priority standard I would have no idea you know I would have to go in there and and even after extensive looking through everything I probably wouldn't be able to help them um not even remotely close to how a Content expert could help them um because they probably have taught the the class before um even if they're not teaching it right then they have taught it before and so that help and support is invaluable okay that that helps that clarifies for me um then the other question I had is um so you're talking about two people at Highland High School are these both instructional coaches because we have a lot of people at Highland High School and if we have one instructional coach an elementary school it does seem like we would need at least two to get through high High School sure so we actually have two coaches on every high school campus okay two coaches on every high school and so what we've been able to do is have one that specializes in ela and one that specializes in math okay oh great that's very helpful to understand thank you absolutely I think I just wanted to say thank you I love that we took um I love that we're modeling using things that are working on other campuses and modeling them and using them across the whole District that's awesome I love that campuses are intentionally using the people who are there to help each other especially our new teachers but also I like you said I can only imagine how that goes across the whole campus as people are asking as new teachers are asking questions the experienced teachers are going oh yeah actually let's let me remember that oh let's try this oh good idea and I just can imagine the collaboration and and like you said just the um feeling of camaraderie that's happening and and look our students are benefiting from all of that so it's really exciting to see all of you guys Embrace that and I'm so glad that we have instructional coaches and that we continue to do that that they're able to focus on that and give that time and attention to instruction on each of our campuses they've been so so integral these last couple years across K through 12 so I'm really appreciative that we've been able to do that well I very much appreciate you guys supporting us and doing that so it's been huge and you're right the camaraderie is is if you look at research based on teacher retention that's one of the big pieces that they say needs to be there in order for employees to want to stay they want that Community that's one of the most important things for them and so by embedding it in the day you're building that community at the same time and so instructions improving in in you know mental health and that connection is also improving too so are are first and second year teachers required to participate in the collaborative coaching hour yes in theory that is that is correct yes so one of the objectives during our initial induction has been going on for a number of years and primarily uh trainings have taken place outside of the school day in the evenings and so we ask first year teachers who are overwhelmed typically with a number of things whether it be volume of grading volume of students learning new content uh having multiple preps in some cases and so um a portion of the origination of this concept came from how do we embed more learning and more support within the school day so that way when uh a first year second year teacher is is off contract they're off contract and able to regroup they're able to maybe focus on grading or whatever it might be that they're doing outside of of the school hours so building building it into the school day is something that they want and so as Julie mentioned earlier Gilbert he's opened it up to all teachers because more and more teachers are saying I want to attend training but I don't necessarily have the ability to come back at 5:00 at night 6 o'clock at night so um we've begun with the high schools and we have some adjustments to make and we have some improvements to make um positive feedback um as Reed car has said any sort of feedback and comments as a treasure right and so we're taking that and we're going to adjust and uh hopefully in the future we'll see it expand to to other campuses the instructional coach is the key and so we didn't anticipate the changes in instructional coaches most of it for very positive reasons Marcus is now a Dean a students at Greenfield Junior High Trish is now going to be working summer school with Miss Taylor and and Ian we we're seeing people doing great things but at the same point in time it's hard to move forward too quickly when you're also onboarding new people and those very important positions so that's where we are right now um but the expectation is first and second year teachers are there and participating which they are um right now it's more of how do you um how do you put a cap on it or do you say that you know year three does that mean you're just fine you're five does that mean you're just fine um as Miss AER mentioned we have Department chairs who are attending and raising their hands and um sharing this is a New Concept I just tried last week in my class and my gosh it worked we had a teacher saying he was involving students with test writing and uh test creation and they wrote test questions that were better than the ones that he had put together and he was astonished and they were aligned to standards and by doing that they were actually learning what the standards were and so he was sharing that with the entire team and he's a 25-year vet so um you know we're learning as we're going and I think we're adjusting uh it was created for first and second year teachers but we're just seeing a benefit out there that um that's far beyond that even so so a um I don't know if it's a suggestion or maybe just something to explore in order to further um integrate these first and seconde teach teachers into our GPS family so they feel that camaraderie they feel that um be that they feel like they're a part of the team is uh giving them opportunities to take the things that they've learned and that they've implemented in their classes in their first or second year and then sharing that with next year's first year teachers and that would maybe give them you know doesn't have to be anything formal or anything big but just giving them opport opportunities to hey I was new last year I learned this from this program and I'd like to share that with you I think that might be a way to to increase buyin and that feeling of of support and wow you know I'm I'm only a seconde teacher but they're already wanting me to share what I've what I've learned I think that might be a good way and also an easy way to expand the program beyond the capabilities uh the the time restraints of of our uh of our instructional coaches absolutely and like you said it feels good to be recognized and so the fact that we say Hey you know can you share what you learned last year just that in itself would be a great recognition for our teachers so I love that I do have one more question when you look towards the future and I'm not saying like next year or uh down the road how do you see this rolling out to maybe our Junior highs in our elementary schools I know that there's talk of that I I know that it would be I mean I think it I might be speaking out of turn but I I it's been in conversation I know that we want to make sure that our high schools we really get this down um so we're able to then when we roll it out to the junior highs we have a really good plan in place um so we can be really efficient with that um I don't I don't think we want to roll it out too early um but I see it heading in that direction for sure I think there's a lot of um when you talk Junior High I think is somewhat similar to high school and that it's secondary students and they have that prep hour yes but when you get to elementary that's a whole another oh it's if you know how to do that I'd love to hear because that you're right it's a huge challenge without yeah yeah that prep with the different periods yes yes thank you yeah absolutely and when you asked if all of our teachers are participating that's been a challenge that we notice this year with the master schedule because if we're not super intentional about the master schedule we won't be able to service all of our new teachers and so that's kind of a hiccup that we have faced this semester that we're definitely addressing for next year thank other questions thank you that's very helpful to understand well thanks thank you so much again for your support because we couldn't do it without the instructional coaches and they wouldn't be there if you guys didn't support them being in those positions so I appre appreciate that very much thank you thank you thank you very much we're going to move on to uh agenda item number seven our consent agenda items uh items for consideration discussion Direction and possible approval is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda as uh as listed on our agenda tonight last time so moved thank you Miss Wood is there a second second thank you Miss Humphries uh we'll now vote all those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda items as outlined say I I I any opposed and that passes moving on to agenda item number eight request for future agenda items uh does anyone have anything that they'd like to add to I guess I'll ask Miss humph is there anything that you well I've like to add to a future agenda um I've already spoken to you so I think that's already been addressed all right perfect thank you just thinking of changes for next year all right and we'll move on to our board committee reports uh as legislative representative I don't have anything to report um tonight however I I was able to this is sort of goes in the long legis lative lines um if you can if you can get there with me um I was able to attend uh be our board representative today for uh the swearing in of our new board members and uh everything went went smoothly and uh all three of our board members are excited uh to sit on this board um and we are uh hopeful that uh that we will be able to continue to have a board that is uh effective um and also uh conscious of all viewpoints and uh look forward to a fantastic 2025 and 2026 with these with with these new board members so that's my report the city of Mesa lays on Miss Wood nothing tonight thank you town of Gilbert leison and audit committee Miss hum um our audit committee I think met between last time and and this time and things are going very smoothly there and um town of Gilbert they're just focused on uh by local get down to Gilbert and do your shopping and Mesa as well and support our local community are uh are our student stores going to be open at all over the break if parents want to go buy sweatshirts or hats or whatever for their students they will not be okay is that that's something they would want to do in the next couple days then yes okay so if you want any of your your students School merch uh go in the next couple days Wednesday Thursday that's right all right thank you Miss Humphries uh agenda item number 10 um meeting dates Dr mord thank you Mr Thompson governing board members January 7th will be our first meeting of the 2025 year uh that's a special organization meeting and brief board business meeting then we will have a scheduled policy uh committee meeting on January 14th and um we will be discussing on January 7th meeting dates because during that organizational meeting is when uh the board can change dates and times of when they want to meet for the next year uh but we do have a scheduled meeting on January 28th and I would like to and I'll be presenting to you to move that to January 21st uh due to some schedules that are conflicting so um but other than that that's where we're at today thank you very much all right uh we are going to um move to uh to an executive session um I'll be calling for a motion in a second and a vote on that shortly but before we move into our executive session I wanted to point out that uh we will adj adjourn tonight's uh regular board meeting from the executive session so session so we won't be coming back in here uh to the boardroom to do that so uh having said that is there a motion to uh let me read this real quick executive is there a motion to move into an executive session pursuant to AR S1 15- 843a and ARS 38-43 1.03 A2 to discuss confidential student discipline information records and to consider the hearing officer's recommendation to expel student number d1212 so moved thank you Miss Wood and is there a second second thank you Miss humph thank you miss humph all those in favor of moving to Executive session say I I I any opposed thank you we will move into executive
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
my students when I know better I try to do better this includes my lgbtq students my students of color my low soci E economic students my students who have experienced trauma and my students with disabilities there is no discrimination when it comes to my heart at the last school board meeting it was stated that kindness and love are acts of grooming my kindness and love for your child is not grooming it is called being a good person that accepts them for who they are at that moment and beyond my room is always and will always be a place of respect kindness and love it doesn't matter who you are or who you love you my students deserve to be respected and love for exactly who you are no matter what your personal thoughts and beliefs are I will tell you this I will love your babies as fiercely and as strong as I do my own no matter what because they deserve that they are children and children deserve love and kindness to my students please know that I am not the only one who feels this way there are many of us who love you just as you are love Mrs [Applause] mcnight our next speaker is Martin burn thank you as most of you know I am a former BPS student I graduated this spring and I'm now attending college in another state as I recently had the I recently had the unfortunate reflection that my time in bavia public schools was worse than I had realized a fish doesn't know it is an a fishbowl and it took me being in a different educational environment for me to realize how widespread some of our district safety problems are and I'm here tonight on my winter break uh because I care deeply about this district and everyone in it and as long as I am able to I will continue to fight for a district that is a safe and Equitable district and school environment for all of us and I know that I'm not alone in that regard I'm here to remind you that you have much work to do to meet your goals of a safe School environment for all students and what a reminder we got of that at last month's meeting I know and I'm struggling to find a word to describe it but I know that some of the views that uh were expressed at last month's meeting um do not represent our community uh but when this is spoken we need to take it seriously uh it should not be met with gratitude from board members even casually and uh lastly say I won't be very long tonight um as for the story time that we had and it's always nice to have story time at a public meeting um I think it would be a real shame to allow PE people are allowed to have the views and the values that they hold but for us to accept those values for everyone who doesn't hold them it's a neglect that diversity whether it be intellectual diversity whether it be diversity in terms of gender or sexuality or experiences um would be a great shame because again we are a better District than that I know that we are and um I know that I trust our teachers to make the right decisions for their students for the classes that they teach and by the way in my last year in high school I took that class A L sorry I should say I started that class I didn't finish it because it's an extremely extremely difficult class it's one of the hardest classes that you can take in high school and I know that uh the students in that class are there to be challenged and um have the right to see themselves in curriculum for their experiences uh to be seen in the books that they read and the classes that they have thank you and our final speaker is Kim Holland good evening my name is Kim Howland as she said and I am a wife and mother of four children one of whom is currently a sophomore at Pavia High School um I am also an educator uh with a BS in education from Miami University and a master's degree in communicative sciences and disorders from Northwestern University in EV in Evanston I've worked extensively in public schools throughout my 25 plus year long career with tenure in two Community Consolidated School districts in Illinois and have a track record of Excellence as evaluated by my administrators and direct supervisors I say this because I think it's very pertinent to what I am about to discuss I am also and most importantly a faithful Catholic who with God's grace desires to get my husband children and other family members and myself through the Pearly Gates of Heaven which is ultimately why I'm here I recently became aware that junior level students have been required to read these very two disturbing books that have been um discussed this evening the school of good Mothers by Jasmine Chan and The Awakening by Kate Chopin both of these books contain very adult dark dystopian themes focused on sexual immorality including adultery reference to teenage sex sexual deviant including references to P pedophilia child abuse physical abuse racism abandonment and suicide in both books in fact a main character takes their own life these books are by definition pornographic porn pornographic as you may know is a compound word porna the first part stemming from the Greek word porneia meaning sexual immorality and graphic stemming from the Greek word graph means writings so pornographic literally means writings of sexual immorality which most definitely unequivocally classifies these books in addition to being labeled as pornographic I would add they are obscene Since By definition obscene is to violate common decency especially that of the folks in this community which is highly predominantly Christian and in speaking of Christianity let's be clear the Bible condemns condemns lust in no matter the content it is consumed which is the predominant theme of both these books with that information said I want to examine the negative effects the aforementioned books potentially have on our children first let's look at the list of significant negative impacts pornographic material has on teenagers number one it potentially leads to distorted perceptions of sex and relationships second it can increase sexual preoccupation third it leads to not only objectification of women but harmful attit attitudes towards women and fourth and foremost it can lead to behaviors like sexual aggression thank you Kim that concludes our public comment thank you very much next is our BPS Partners Drew Ray you hiding back there somewhere Drew thank you uh I just want to say best part of winter break is when your students come back uh from college and say hi that's always fantastic um last week for a variety of reasons I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time in every school building uh throughout the district the more time I'm able to spend in our schools the more I'm able to witness firsthand all the great things that are happening last week I got to see uh Mrs Barrett Mrs Gardini Mrs mcalpin and Rodriguez All In Action I was able to say hi to Mr Bal and Mrs Burns from the ILP program at Grace MCW I even got to pop into uh Mrs Bird's class and had my son and his classmates explain their learning to me kindergarteners were explaining their learning to me blew my mind I could go on and on it was amazing having that opportunity reminds me of what a great District we are in so in response to several recent board meeting comments that were directed towards our Educators and students I have two things to say first I moved my family here because of the teachers and I'm damn proud to teach alongside the educators of pabia public school district and I take comfort and knowing that they have always and will always have the best interests of my children of our students in their hearts and minds and I take it personally when anyone suggests otherwise second we can discuss curriculum uh procedure policy heck even politics clearly at these meetings but hurtful and harmful comments directed towards our students children as I've said before these meetings are democracy in action and democracy gets messy but let none of us forget that Humanity matters that kindness matters and that our children are watching that's all I've got for you happy holidays go Bulldogs uh solidarity with Besa thank you can good luck thank you J my understanding Kevin is uh not feeling well so he's not here today Holly did you have a component to read or do okay thank you you just have to do your best Kevin impression if that's well try to grow my beard inure you're not going to go up to the podium no she's like I'm not that wasn't part of the negotiation um he is very sorry for the late notice and unable to attend the meeting tonight um he and his wife Lori have been blessed to play Santa and Mrs Claus for many Local Schools families businesses organizations and on the bavia boardwalk shops for the past several years we visit with more than 1,000 children during the season and a number of cats and dogs our visits this year included the Roto Middle School holiday party and I'm going to try to pull these pictures up for you so I I mean the likeness is obvious I'll try to speak in a better uh Santa voice but uh more than 40 area businesses and organizations oh wait our visits this year included the Rota Middle School holiday party which was organized and hosted by administrative secretaries Heather Mandel and Jillian tho more than 40 area businesses and organizations provided items for the party's raffle which raised more than $1,100 for bavia United Way which financially supports local Health Service Providers including 24-hour crisis care providers and care for local seniors it was a night of fun and holiday spirit for many members of the Bea and Besa at the middle school thank you and a happy holiday season to all there you go and that's their report great message terrible impression next month all right and our ambassadors are off busy furthering their educational goals in life so we will wish them well on their finals and have have a enjoyable week uh and fun winter break uh board Le aisan committee com any to share this week I do okay okay so uh I'm on the policy committee and we met here on December 9th and we discussed policy 8.02 distribution of community interest messages if you just Google that policy the community can look it up read it I'll just give a brief summary what it is uh bavia Public School serves as a vehicle for distribution of materials for Community Based and governmental organizations providing programs and services for children the distribution method commonly known as backpack mail has been a valuable tool for school and outside groups backpack mail will be electronic communication only so this is an email that goes out communicating to the community uh information distributed by bavia public school must be directly related to a program or service for children examples of outside's agency would be the public library police and fire departments and scouting examples of school-based organizations would be P that's just a uh some excerpts from the policy but uh sort of the Genesis of this was this policy is been has been in place for a long time it was adopted in August of 2010 and at the last Bick meeting which the bck meeting is something that happens quarterly correct me if I'm wrong Tom it's a lot of our organizations the PTO uh booster stage um they get together and they talk about issues that they're addressing and something that came up was uh I think mostly from the PTO a desire to at least on a limited basis send paper home with their kids to communicate information and um so that's what we discussed the policy is holding in relation to that matter and the policy commit reviewed the policy in our opinion the policy is good uh but there could be room to allow for handouts on a limited basis if uh maybe procedures at a building level were modified so uh uh Mr Kim and Holly are going to consult with the administration and discuss possible procedural changes at the building level and hopefully report back to the policy committee before we meet again um with the idea that maybe uh there might be a change where uh like for example maybe once a semester the PTO could send uh a piece of paper home with her child that lists all the activities that might be coming I know I'm old with gray hair I like to put it on the fridge and see it so uh that's something we're going to talk about so I I would like to let the people that were at that last big meeting to know that we are looking at it and I'm also a member of the Hall of Honor um privileged to be on that committee and the subcommittee met also on December 9th that was a busy day for me and uh what we did is discuss new submissions and um we currently have a lot of good candidates but we're always looking for more and so we're looking for is graduates uh of bavia High School uh teachers that have I believe 15 years of at least tenure with the district and then friends of the district so that could be someone that uh wasn't a graduate or a teacher but made significant contributions to BPS 101 so if you know someone that fits that criteria we would encourage you to make your submission to Hall of honor at bavia foundation.org or if you want to write it out you could drop it here off at the the rosley Jones Center uh we're still accepting submissions until January 15th and so I would just encourage if you know someone that you think should be honored we uh had a great class last year that we honored homecoming week I would encourage you to um go ahead and submit them that's all I have thank you any others nope we didn't no meeting if you didn't meet okay all right consent to joa according to our board policy we designate a portion of the agenda is consent agenda for those items that do not usually require extensive discussion before the board before board Act these items generally are between recurring and can be grouped together for efficiency please would you please take us through the role absolutely 5.1 5.2 is the approval of the November 19th 2024 meeting minutes and close session meeting minutes 5.3 is our monthly uh Personnel report 5.4 is our monthly approval of payroll and bills 5.5 is uh the destruction of close session recordings from March 23rd 2023 uh 5.6 is accepting donations uh from by and the New York Life Foundation we appreciate what they've done 5.7 is the authorization to of renewal of patch and system management software 5.8 authorize renewal of cyber security platform and 5.9 is the approval of our consent agenda anyone have any questions I actually had a question if Mr thorby could give uh some clarifications on item 5.7 and 5.8 as far as what those items are for and how they impact students in the district sure um so 5 point I got to get my number right 5.7 is automated patch management so we can manage stuff from this building um it lets us keep up to date automatically so instead of missing a patch the same day that it's dropped it's installed on all the machine so it protects us from hopefully anything trying to get in with an exploit or something like that um 5.8 watches for those said exploits and starts to block them in advance as well if it detects anything like that and there's actually eyes on those alerts as well through that platform so it's kind of a whole Suite of things kind of melded together to protect our not only our kids but staff and all of the people in this building as well and then a question I think you probably almost anticipate but for these expenses where they anticipated and they were budgeted for yep I actually if you noticed I started doing multi-year with one of these uh the fiveyear lock and actually helped us save money that way um I haven't done it with the 5.8 yet because there's still some talk from the state to start funding some of that but it hasn't been official yet so I'm still going yearly until they actually make that happen Okay so hopefully soon yeah thank you for those explanations sure hey hey Dave real quick so and maybe Tony has explained this to me before but do these get bid out they do not uh this is being technology I don't do that that's not part of that process this is more of Us shopping around to find the best solution for the best system that we have here um these are very unique um the 5.8 is more of a I'll call it an industry standard type thing there are comp competitive things there so we did actually evaluate three different systems for that aspect of it um they're the ones uh that won that pull process partly because of what they offer and the cost overall as well was worth it so to answer your question more directly I would say that um technology is exempt from the bidding requirements so we don't have to bid out technology that's not the same that we don't do that on occasion but if we're not bidding it we either issue rfps or we seek multiple quotes that we can get the best price possible I always try to get three if I can if it's a platform that is able to compete you know 5.7 really isn't it's a very unique thing but anything else all right I will entertain a motion to approve all items in the consent agenda as presented so Move Motion by by Aaron second by RJ Cindy please lead us in a roll call vote oh sorry Meadows yes ma yes hilberg yes yes yes all right next is reports Foya Tom would you like to lead us through the foyer report yes um all the foyer reports have been presented to the board all requests were granted thank you uh Tony treasur reports nothing out of the ordinary to report there okay and then next is the overview of BPS 101 alignment the Board District at the Strategic plan so Tom this is effectively the board level of the kind of principal presentations that were done right last week correct correct okay thank you take it away all right um as just noted last month our principls and their school leadership team leaders presented to the Board of Education um this presentation uh is going to address the district strengths opportunities for improvement and steps we're taking to meet those goals so it'll be very similar to what you saw uh we're trying to also mirror the structure our buildings used so that it's consistent in presentation to the board you know um so you have an ability to connect the two months of presentations you've had um before we begin I I do want to say I want to thank all of our staff all of our employees and all of our leadership uh Personnel that have helped kind of bring us to this point that we're presenting this night tonight um I think we're going to be walking through a lot of strengths but we also have all these people to think because these are we're also going to talk about opportunities for us to move forward in how we're going to grow this district and continue to be a district that looks at things that have to improve um we'll talk about some of the steps and strategies that we're taking and for anyone who is looking at our board book our board book highlights more specific details certain points of data that we Illustrated for the public and for the board um the presentation tonight tonight may not go all the way into some of those same data sets but we provided those for you um we've also um shared links that take uh anyone who wants to take a look on a deeper dive on their own to various uh websites that will help them look at data or understand data that we use in our school district all right and so at this time if I could please I would like to have several people in our audience uh introduce themselves be recognized um they're leaders that help us make a lot of the work happen in this District they're the leadership that also collaborates with our Bea and besta colleagues um they're the ones that are behind the scenes and helping us prepare the work that we present to you on a regular basis so team if you don't mind could you uh me just you you have to go to the mic but sorry um if you don't mind just introducing yourself and your role all right pretty please thank you I appreciate it hey Josh you guys to yeah you guys sorry Mark you're Mark I think I got daggers I think you did not like it's not like Mark's not up there enough well good evening everyone my name is krie Ru and I'm the director of special education my name is Natalie as I'm the director of student services my name is Ming Shelby director of professional learning John Hicks director of curriculum and instruction Josh buac Director of Finance a thorough director of Information Services and Mark Anderson director of operations awesome thank you and as one of our students alluded to this night tonight or stated earlier this night um it's a team right and we're working on making sure this entire District moves forward as a team in everything we do so I make sure that they're recognized for the work that uh went into everything we're going to talk about tonight all right okay so moving on to our next slide thank you everyone um they can be seated um this should look very familiar for people um this is the three PRI uh strategic priorities that were approved at our June board meeting and this has been the framework for all the work we've been uh continually moving forward and everything that we're planning for in the district um one of the things I wanted to highlight for you as a board this and and for anyone listening is that uh the work that we will be doing with District Management Group is going to um give us the framework here at this table and how we continue to move forward the governance of our district and the policy development or shaping and other aspects of leadership that happens at this table to ensure that the work in our strategic plan gets carried out um so while there there are times that you're going to see tonight uh some of our priorities that may feel and see very clearly which department might be responsible for some of the work that's occurring um please keep in mind there's often a lot of times these are not silos but when one is doing something that impacts what other teams and departments need to do to support the work and I'll give you the prime example with our uh Esports club tonight you know you heard them recogniz our technology department and I very grateful that they were able to do that because our technology department had to get in on the ground and figure out how to set up all the equipment the technology aspects get them connected to the resources that they needed so those kids can participate in this activity and now why is that important because addressing strategic priority to if you um you know figure out the more clubs we add that are giving students with different passions uh an opportunity to participate and engage in school School increases our ability to make kids feel like they have a place to go to a desire to come to school when they may not have prior to that right so I think that's a great example of how we have various departments working together as a team to make some stuff happen for our kids um all right so on the next slide this is the structure uh these are some of the High Altitude talking points we'll have tonight in our presentation um and we'll go ahead and begin so under strength one I'm going to turn over to Dr newerk and he's going to talk about the growth Trends as one of our strengths that we've identified with the data yep just before we get into this please know that you can ask questions at any time we'll kind of go through just some high level strategic data and when you look at that type of data um you might look at it and see a lot of strengths and some opportunities to celebrate but you also might see something that falls into the opportunity so it's really hard in looking at Big Data so like put it in one category of strength or opportunity it really just tells a story of typically both right and we're a district that's committed to continuous Improvement so we're always looking for like what are we really doing well we can capitalize on that and where can we make significant changes to to help better impact the outcomes of our students so we'll start with growth Trends our growth Trends are heading in the right direction you have this in front of you as board members um my vision is is pretty terrible so you might see me the glasses go on and off about 25 times tonight but we'll take a look at some growth Trends we're going to show you just as an example of some of these Trends the U map results map is uh by nwaa this is an assessment we give students kindergarten through 8th grade we give it three times a year about 8 million students do the same thing across the country so there's a wide data pool for us to have normal ANZ data um math is something we've used in the district for probably almost 20 years so a lot of students who are graduating um I can look and see over 12 years worth of data that they have and look at those data Trends over time so it's a pretty consistent measure that we have within the district at the state level and some of the other assessments I'm going to talk about tonight we don't have that kind of consistency because the tests have changed the windows have changed all sorts of things have changed so it's harder to look longitudinally at our students progress over time on the left hand side you can see proficiency so proficiency is like that 50% Mark where Matt believes that that students should be at in terms of being proficient at their grade level standards you can see that over time since 2022 to 2024 we've seen a slight upswing we had a a really Banner crop of of math students in 2024 in that spring which is the end and then there is a little bit of sum regression as you get to um this this fall so the fall of 24 but we can see that those proficiency numbers are headed in the right direction probably more importantly are growth Trends right every kid's going to start at a different spot we want to see that growth headed in the right direction so you can see we try and keep the scales on these somewhat the same so we're not misleading you with with some uh manipulated um scales of the the line graphs here but you can see over time we've seen quite significant upticks in the right direction of uh growth Trends over the past several years so part of that's probably recovery from covid there's been some test changes to this as well which probably uh accounts for one or two points and then we've really seen our teachers and our staff I credit them with really digging in in the classroom their pedagogical strategies they are really the drivers of growth for kit so uh you can see that is headed in the right direction so there's a lot to be proud of another thing to kind of show as a strength are some student Pathways one of the metrics that the state of Illinois on the Illinois report card which I encourage all of our board members and community members to go on if you want comparisons with other schools you can do it with the click of a button it's really nice tool that they've developed over time freshman on track means students are on track to graduate so a freshman year when you look at the data is actually really important when students fall off track at that time their likelihood of not graduating goes up significantly so we want to make sure that our freshmen are on track that their High School experience that leads to those postsecondary experiences is one that is very solid and they're not in a mode of deficit of credit recovery for uh our students you can see again we didn't adjust the scale on this one you can see our kids are on track as freshmen so if you look at this this is a relative strength when I look at other districts they're asking what are we doing um this is a really nice number uh over time we do see some gaps with some of our other groups so you can see the yellow line is lii so for everyone that's a low income indicator it doesn't mean the student is low income it means that their their family is so we try and use student first language here El students or English learner students is the blue line and then students with a dis a identify disability our IEP students that's the red line there so you can see there are some gaps but those gaps are closing so most of our freshmen at BHS are uh on track which is a really great statistic for us because they have that much higher likelihood of graduating high school postsecondary experiences again this is something that I think we should be really proud of um and this is a lot of the work of the high school but it's without our Elementary staff without our Middle School staff we wouldn't have kids that are ready for these types of experiences so this really is a system functioning as it should to give kids Pathways to postsecondary when I was Jenna's English teacher wow oh that was funny I would say 90% of our our effort was on four-year College admissions right so we were really and we were good at it we we've pumped a lot of kids into four-year universities and that was really our singular focus and what we came to realize is that's not for every kid there's lots of different Pathways and our community told us this through various uh strategic planning things and when we uh talk to them about what they want for their children it varied right some students are going directly into the workforce some into the military um amazing number of kids are doing amazing things in gap years and really experiencing life some are going to Community College we still send about 25% of our graduating class to our community college our partner wansi and then we do send a good chunk of our kids on to fouryear schools so with the wide variety of things that students want to do postsecondary we have to give them the skills and the options to do that we have to give them those experiences and I think um some of this data really shows that our district does a really good job of giving kids those post-secondary experiences and that can be an AP class which is based on College curriculum can be a dual credit class which we do through our partnership at wansi but this can be in the trades too so kids that are earning Advanced certificates or moving along in their career path these are those postsecondary um experiences that we want to give our students there's a big emphasis on work-based learning that we'll talk to the board about more in the coming years because it's great that we're giving kids those opportunities but it's much better for their parents our community and them if they know what they want to do when they do graduate high school so giving them those work-based experiences um is really something that's important to us and is important to our kids in our community so you're going to hear us really ramp up talking about those work Bas work-based experiences because kids need to know what work looks like most students if you ask them to name careers could name maybe their parents career and then maybe about eight others including teacher police officer professional baseball player some of those things so we want them to know like what work really looks like some of you have interesting jobs and there's lots of great things out there in our community that they can connect to and experience but if they don't experience it it's not a possibility for them so our post-secondary experiences is something that we're really hitting out of the the part Tom and there are two things I'd like to draw your attention to on this particular strength that Brad has just spoken to um it's it is covered in the board packet but I think it it deserves a little a recognition here um one is that the Dual credit opportunities and advanced placement uh opportunities and success rate we have in enrolling students at our at our high school here in our district is tops in our region um that is a a databased um statement that I just made uh in 2023 45% of our high school students at bavia High School were enrolled in a dual credit or AP class um and if you think about that I the number I just shared with you is about half of our kids were doing that and we had numerous kids taking multiple kinds of classes that fall under that category so these are single head count students taking at the minimum one class um the second piece of data I want to talk about is our our post uh secondary for one second could you Tom could you define what dual credit is so dual credit is a that's taught at our high school where a student receives uh graduation Rec credit for the district to graduate but will also receive credit from a higher educational institution so it's recognized being two credits dual credit so in in a sense like if you take enough classes at your time atavia High School uh you could essentially qualify to start your college experience as a sophomore by passing a year of tuition Brad did I do a good job covering that great job I was going to say my both my boys but particularly my Colorado state with 19 credit yeah he was he reminds me that he's not graduating early but you know there's that opportunity to do that never works out right never quite works out never works out that way you know he like he's ending his sophomore he's halfway through his sophomore year right now and he's technically a junior and then the second uh piece of dat I'm sorry did I did that answer question people to know because it's yeah okay it's impress I'm guessing the cost of tuition at bavia was a lot less than where he significantly yes well the other thing that I was going to say that what's nice is sometimes you'll hear people talk about like oh we're now focusing on this so like okay we're not we're not focusing on fouryear degrees right and we're focusing on these other things but what really happened is that doesn't mean the focus was less on the fouryear there's still better Avenues and things that were explored to reinforce that process not at the risk of anything else or vice versa you know and that's kind of important to note because there's kind of a Mythos of well we can't do all of it so well these kids are achieving well enough they're going to fouryear college let's focus on these now and this I don't get the sense that's the case thanks and then the second uh point of data I wanted to share and draw attention to is the Community College remediation rate um what that mean so we're at 9% the next closest District to us is at 14% And what that means is when our students enroll at let's use will bonsy community colleges as our example um they when they Co in if they are deemed to not have um enough Proficiency in English or math they would be required to take a course enroll in a class that gives them zero credit to develop their foundational skills then they would be able to take another class the following semester that would start to earn them credit at 9% we are one of the lowest in our region in terms of that remediation rate for our students so again I huge kudos to all teachers and and the the curricular alignment and work that's been going on for years in this district and it's just again one of those examples love to see that number hit zero right so we're we're trying to work towards uh growth and gains in all the areas representing but this was um another area that I just wanted to make sure we drew attention to So Sorry Brad I cut in on your dance all good apologies I'm a step back off and the nice thing about that low remediation rate is that often times loans and grants do not cover below one 100 level classes so a student may be paying full price for those classes just to remediate into a credit bearing class which is a kind of a double whammy against students who are struggling and we want them to make sure that they're launching that um that college career successfully and not having to take below 100 level courses Brad can you explain that right the CTE concentrator yeah so CTE is Career and Technical education so the the graph on the right right shows that placement rate so a concentrator is when you go beyond dabbling in one of these Career and Technical education areas so this is a student who's taking multiple classes say in in graphics or in industrial arts or in business they've taken multiple classes so it looks at those students who they call concentrators are concentrated in the area of focus so at the middle school our focus is actually the opposite we want kids to experience a lot of different things right so we won't you know there's so many options at our Middle School the board has really uh made sure that we provide a number of options at our middle school because we want kids to try things out but as kids progress and their career and future plans become more solidified if that happens um they might concentrate in one of those areas and this is saying that these students find placement and that placement could be any of those options that we talked about before including the peace which is uh noted up there so these are students who find a place in college in career in the military in the workforce uh that percent so you can see it what is it 70 79.1 thank you 79.1% of our students who are a concentrator are finding that placement uh two years outside is this some does that include College it could include College it could include College okay somewhat tangentially related to kind of like your work place kind of process like if they're concentrating on that it's giving them a better indication of what they want to do later right so if we can get kids to take the courses they have that basic fundamental understanding but we also need to give them those experiences to know that they really like that so I think that's kind of one of the missing pieces that we have right now is we want to make sure kids are sure about their decisions or where they're concentrating their time good question another relative strength is our students and staff perception of safety this comes from the five Essentials I might have Tony jump in here to correct anything because he wrote part of his dissertation on the five essential survey so he has a much deeper breath of information but this is a required survey through the state of Illinois that was developed by the University of Chicago and it's really its main focus is to to let us know if we are set up for school Improvement and success it's not a a culture rating it really is about our school set up in a couple of different dimensions for to improve ourselves and the the short answer is we are U but one of the things that they ask about is safety because that's such a a key part of students really accessing their learning so the survey ask questions at different developmental levels for the student that's answering it uh and it also ask them slightly differently for parents so this goes out every spring so you'll see this about February March sometimes we push it a little bit later because we get better response rates when we get out of winter um you can see it has a number of different areas the hallways bathrooms classrooms and this is the percent of students who answered that they mostly or to a great extent believe that they are safe in that area so you can see for example hallway safety 88% of our students for that graph answered they feel mostly or to a great extent safe in their hallways and it goes through bathrooms all sorts of different things so our students are generally telling us that they feel safe there their perception is it parents again there's not as many parents who answer these surveys but it's it's really helpful to us if they do that that the school addresses bullying 70% of parents believe that we mostly or to a great extent address those bullying issues and bullying won't be the won't be the last time I talk about this it'll be under uh one of our opportunities as well so we'll come back to that one excuse me how are these uh areas chosen are these the standard ones this is a baked into that that survey that every Illinois school gives well I won't say every but most so you can compare them to the other school is there is there opportunity to add questions no okay this a standardized metric okay so that's one piece of data on that we're going to talk about some opportunities both academically in our area of belonging which is a a big part of our strategic plan and then in areas of access you'll notice more more slides because we love to focus on things that are broken uh because I think we're problem solvers and we want the best for our kids so you know I try to give you some high level data of our strengths but I'm going to show you more slides um whether you like that or not on things that we're going to improve the next is I data so this is a state required test for students in grades 3 through 8 it's undergone a number of different changes over the years it's been fairly stable recently but we're expecting some more changes in the future uh which doesn't make comparing things over the long term very easy but um it's been pretty stable for for three years so that's what we're showing you data you can see uh again our groups taking a look at those groups in both reading and math that um there are gaps between some of our groups which is one of the things that we are really focused on as a team we talk about this pretty much constantly is is addressing what are those achievement gaps that we're seeing between um some of our groups of students so you can see there's a fairly significant Gap in Reading between our El students and then um our all category um and then the other subgroups as well in reading a little bit less so in math but those achievement gaps are something that we laser like focused on in our work clarification question on the all is literally everyone so those that are in the other three categories are lumped into all yep so it's all so that would be like right now the end number for that is 2,147 students so that's what we got in grades 33 so there's even a larger disparity Gap that's what I was getting to if you pull those people out those kids out that remaining will jump up more okay little bit less so in math but still some of those gaps looking at another required metric this is the SAT this will be the last year that you hear me talk about this since the the state has switched over to the ACT you can see that kind of the same type of pattern happening here where when you look at all of our students who take that particular test and this is Juniors only there are those achievement gaps in both reading and in math we really looking at that proficiency and then those achievement gaps is something that we're we're focused on this is map data going back to map data and we celebrated this as a string but it's also something that we're focused on in terms of an opportunity for growth again this is an internal metric but you see those same types of patterns where we're not seeing the same performance either growth or proficiency out of some of those groups so again that's an area of concern for us we want to make sure that all students are being successful whatever your label is whatever you are experiencing wherever you're starting out we want to make sure that you're growing and that you're proficient at those skills because they are key to your future some similar things turning our our work to belonging again I'm going to show you quite a few slides related to both social and emotional learning and that's a skill set that actually accelerates academics and then we'll talk about uh the general reports of belonging and then show you some activity information as well so this year the excuse me the board authorized us to use a new survey system Panorama which looks at the ability of our students to to report themselves and then we also get teacher Perceptions in there as well of our students and you can see in this graph it's around emotional regulation hugely important grit that determination self-management in a public school environment that's pretty key and then social awareness so you can see that our students perform fairly well but also looking at some of those gaps for those same types of groups in those seal skills so a lot of the conversation that we have around this data is one how do we boost this we boost this through our systems through tier one instruction that core instruction that we give all kids and that is focused on building some of those those skills through Partnerships with our parents because they play a huge role in their child's life in developing some of these skills so making sure um parents have some tools and strategies for doing this and then also looking at how do we provide experiences that can help boost some of these areas as well there's tools and strategies that we can te Teach students in order to develop some of these skills like emotional regulation so this was a the new survey we did this is the new survey yeah was self-reported so that selfserve by the teacher so this is teacher perceptions on the previous teacher like reported on each student and then here's what the students are saying about themselves so you can see there's less variance in the student report than there is in the teacher report on these same skills so um students are reporting from at a higher rate that they have some of these skills than we're witnessing from the teachers so I think it's important to look at both of these aspects right so what are teachers observing in a classroom that's very valuable data for us but also let's listen to the students and see what they're saying um we don't ask the the really young Primary students but students in grades three through five this is what they're reporting to us around some of these skills so we're seeing less variant when the students are reported turning to the secondary here again students there's no teacher teacher ratings at these levels you can see that the students again less variance than we saw with the teacher perception for elementary but again our students are reporting at pretty high rates that they have these skills that's a good thing yeah I think it's a great thing because if you look look at the academic work that we're asking of our kids on a day-to-day basis um these skills are are hugely valuable for that right so if you're asking a kid to learn at 12 years old algebra which is pretty abstract concept some of us weren't great math students we need grit to do that so really these these types of skills that we try and Foster in our students are hugely important to their academic development as well right we're a school a learning organization that's ultimate goal is to get kids to learn but we know what's best for them is to have some of these skills so that they can access their education the best great and some of these are almost literally on what's on the portrait of a graduate as well so it's providing a good feedback loop to that Absolut is there data to compare to other schools or states the the buildings last month showed you some of those National percentiles um there is that data we have not because we're just starting to look at that on the next slide you'll have a little bit of it um but it's I I don't like to talk about it because I still don't know enough about it to really speak intelligently about it and kind of be confident in that but that's just me my my question is just because you the adjective you use was that that these were good numbers and when I see growth mindset those I don't know if those numbers are good it it if I hear every other student doesn't have growth mindset I don't know if that that should be celebrated or not NY do you want to come up and answer talk a little bit more about that a so like Brad shared this is a new tool for us and there are National norms for each of these banded areas um that our students uh self- ratings are compared against as well as our teacher ratings are compared against so something to note is if a student is demonstrating or reporting a strength in these areas they have to be self-scoring a four or a five um which would be that they feel they strongly demonstrate that skill or very strongly demonstrate that skill and not just neutral so we're really learning a lot about the tool um as we go right now um we do know that overall all were falling at least within um the average range at least at the 50th percentile where our students and our staff are rating themselves more often than not we're falling above that but um we're like like Dr Newark said we're not really ready to talk about how that really Stacks up because what we want to see is just like in map we have Trend data over time we want to see the same thing in this so I appreciate that the designation of strongly or very strongly is important too because on the earlier ones it wasn't okay yeah so if the student rates himself as neutral um it's a fiveo l scale that students and teachers are rating um so if the student reports thems as neutral or below neutral um they would not show up in these percentages um but they would have to score themselves as uh strongly or very strongly you want to stay there Natalie for the next optimism I also Ser of questions that really look at something that's named specifically in the board strategic plan and that is a sense of belonging so this this next slide here really focuses on that so you can see those belongingness and this came up in our building level presentations last month where they are focused on this they have strategies for improving this whether it's giving kids access to extracurricular activities or making sure that they're doing things within their classrooms or buildings to to build that sense of belonging so you can see the scores for our 3 through five students and then our six through uh 11 students and you can see on the right hand side some of those National Norm so in grades 3 through five overall as a district we're in that 76 percentile and then at the 6 through 11 we're at that 53rd per level n did I screw anything up or no Mak good and again this is new data so we spent a lot of time really looking at this saying like what does this mean um looking at the questions so we have another training coming up at the end of January we'll kind of go through all this data again and kind of say like all right now that we have a firmer understanding of what these questions are how students are answering them what is this really teaching Us and how can we change our instruction our instructional practices in order to build some of these skills and so I think that helps um hopefully shape a picture of how with this new tool we are learning what potential blind spots we have that's being exposed so that we can start looking at strategies to address um and again one of the things that we showed you a few slides ago was the five Essentials survey and as as Dr newerk shared it's it's it's a a Statewide Statewide normed assessment so when you looked at that safety slide you see some of those numbers those are consistently normed across the entire state for every school district that qualified enough respondents to participate in the survey and have their data published all right sorry BR yep no problem one thing that we are starting to see emerge from this data is that there are again just like there's achievement gaps there are some gaps in the sense of belonging as well so on this next slide what you can see here is breaking down some of the demographics of that so you can see our sense of belonging in grades 3 through 5 76% of our are white students but only 65% % of our black students are reporting the same thing that sense of belonging so these achievement gaps are happening on the social emotional side as well and that really begs the question is like what is the anent and how do you intervene right so uh do students have a lower self of belong sense of belonging and that means that they're not engaging in their academics that sense of belonging can also impact attendance discipline and a host of other VAR Ables which are hugely important for for Student Success so looking at some of those achievement gaps within seal is really instructive for us figuring out like what is the best way to make sure that all of our students are feeling that sense of belonging um and then they're accessing their education to the greatest extent possible so that is one of the things that we're starting to see emerge anything else you want me to say on that one no uh the questions behind sense of belonging have to do uh with both relationships and interactions with adults as well as peers I'm G to keep us moving all right activity participation um again this is as Tom talked about we had our orts thing when we can get kids involved they're more likely to come to school we see less attendance issues we see greater emphasis in monitoring of their grades there's a whole host of these positive impacts of getting kids uh participating in some of our our activities so we we log our activities three times a year fall winter and spring because that's kind of the activity seasons and you can see here during the the pandemic we saw the lowest levels I've ever seen of activity participation because we didn't have them right so and then we were really worried about a bounceback right so were we going to get kids kind of opting out we knew we were getting kids op out of turning on their cameras during during Co and remote learning but where we going to get kids back in school and committed to their extra curriculars which we know to be hugely beneficial to them and I can say that we have seen those rebounds do we see it across all levels no we do not we still see some of those participation gaps with our students and some of our student demographics so we have seen overall as a district us bounce back to pre-co levels in terms of activity participation but we have not uh closed all those gaps and quite frankly we weren't looking at those gaps prior to co we were just kind of saying all right we got about 58% of our students that are are participating in extracurricular events all right that's great but we weren't really disaggregating that um to really look at who was participating and where might some of those gaps be so we've started to take a closer look at that uh I know the high school in their presentation last uh last month shared with you some of the work that they're doing but we look at this as well so we see this as a great strength but also as we got some opportunities and some things to work on in terms of making sure all of our kids have access to those uh really fun things in school and this is for all levels so elementary middle and high school obviously the volume of activities and opportunities accelerate As you move through our system but we have them at all levels is 2425 low just because we haven't had a full year oh uh yes that was an important note we wanted to make my apologies Rob thank you very much I appreciate that the dip you're seeing is due to the fact that we still have two other kind of seasonal windows that have not come through so the kids have not participated something right now doesn't mean they're not going too late all right so this doesn't include anything winter or spring and we have a lot of those activities yeah there's no need for alarm to see the line go down quite yet that's it we'll touch back yep all right and then there's a host of opportunities around access and access can be a a host of different things but I'll talk about a few of those pieces so I have about five pieces of of different data to show you around access and again these are things that we look at to make sure that we're providing our kids access to their education right so if a kid's not accessing it it's really hard to to have them be a success accessible as we want them to be so one of those is looking at discipline so we look at our discipline rates how that is playing out within our school we pay a special attention to suspension data right suspension is when we are telling a kid you can't access your education so the school system is saying that so we want to make sure that we're intervening that we're providing interventions all along the way to keep kids in school right that's our ultimate goal is that kids learn we want them in school we want them learning the best place to do that is within their classroom not in in school suspension and not certainly at home so looking at those discipline rates we do see some discrepancies by by race and that is something that we really look at it's especially troubling when it comes to suspension RS bullying is a part of those uh things so this is um kind of a check-in for us as a board we've had previous conversations about this so so far this year in this data I think was pulled on the 6th or the 9th I can't remember one of those two dates we pulled this data uh so far the school year there's been 1,0 total discipline incidents within bavia Public Schools so this is prek through through grade 12 that encompassed 436 total student students so that's a very small percentage of our overall student population again I like to when we're talking about student discipline it really is a small percentage of our kids most of our kids come to school they do what they're supposed to we have really good kids here in bavia and um sometimes kids make mistakes and that's okay and they're involved in a discipline incident we don't like to see that happen multiple times we don't SE definitely don't like to see instances of bullying harassment or intimidation within that we have a new reporting system as we've discussed at at uh board uh meetings in the past we have a new way of tracking these bullying incidents that we're focused on um we break them down into much finer detail than we ever have before to kind of track those things so far this year we've had eight incidents put into our system to take a look at four of those incidents uh were related ated to Something in kind of the catch all categories a protected class so this could be lgbtq status this could be race uh this could be religion there's a whole host of protected class situations there so there's been four of those incidents there were two others that didn't fall into any of those categories but still fell into bullying and then two where we went through the bullying investigation process but they they remained unfounded after going through through that process what what is the checking on this like I'm kind out of a,0 total incidents only eight would be logged in under the protected class seems a bit low what are we doing to verify does that not seem low to you I yeah I think it's low but I think we're doing a lot of things where there's a lot more attention on this so I think that it's a new reporting system M so I think also sometimes some of of the discipline infractions that might be considered to be rather egregious may not necessarily fall under U the The Bullying definition as it's outlined but it results in other uh fairly serious consequences and may be categorized under something else such as like um violence you know and it may not have been necessarily deemed that it was the vi the uh infraction was related to something having to do with one of those protected class areas or rather the behavior was deemed where it's still being addressed in a rather serious manner but it fell under a different disciplinary code not bullying or is that what right right but it it's very possible that some of these cases still could have resulted in one of those suspensions that you saw on the previous table in the previous slide because it was still deemed to be a very serious infraction it just with the labeling of and categorizing of the different situations it may not so when we've talked about like data and this type of stuff so when we're interested in knowing um if we're having um specific type of issues like if you mention like lgbtq plus are we able then to keep track of it's not just under bullying incidents are you guys keeping track of like well there are other incidents that aren't classified as bullying but they are related to like lgbtq plus are you tracking that by no not that way this is the only thing that the bullying category because of the the rules in the state of Illinois are the only thing that we're really doing to that great extent in terms of disaggregating kind of those reasons why so there's no way to know like if a reported incident that we're tracking the actual like numbers of reported incidents that have to do with this type of issue not that I'm wor no I guess that's a little concerning to not to not know what the big picture looks like and that's not going to fall in under any of these things yeah I'm wondering about that too like if there's a thousand incidents for discipline maybe that's what we need to be focused on instead of just the bullying category maybe we can well I'm making note of the question right now so we can I think your point I think I understand your point like and I'm going to paraphrase just to see if I make sure understand it is the bullying number is low because potentially it's related to the state defined you know definition of bullying and therefore you follow a certain State process there may be of these other thousand elements that have a component of but don't rise to the level of State defined bullying but they have a component related to a protected class yeah like I think as district and as a board it would be important us for us to understand what kind of racism we're dealing with what kind of homophobia we're dealing with and if they're keeping track of that and so we have an understanding of what's going on in the schools um I think that's where that data is important to have but it's not necessarily cap is what I'm understanding okay understood so when students are involved with pooling obviously there's I wouldn't want to go to school and experience that so it's an access issue we want to make sure students feel that sense of belonging and that they're able to access their education um the next piece of day that we'll look at pretty quickly here is El exit rate so a student takes who is identified as having another language other than English spoken in the home uh we screen them for El services and then provide those Services if needed for those students um and then annually the state requires an access test so that's right after break here we start Access season and it is a season it's a a very complicated test it involves speaking Reading Writing listening ing um all of those pieces and students need to score composite 4.8 in order to exit from those services so it's really important because sometimes you're missing part of your core instruction or other pieces of your day as an elementary student sometimes you're missing electives if you're a middle school or high schooler um so we want students to be able to exit as quickly as possible which brings them up to that uh English proficiency so that they can access their classes and that they don't have to give up some of those things in order to to develop those skills one of the greatest areas that you can see that we've been focusing on is that fourth fifth grade level so really that's been a lot of our work with our El team Jen's done a lot of great work Jen and Ming uh with our El teachers to really make sure that we're capitalizing on that fourth fifth grade exit so that's a really great window for our students to exit they might have come to us um with with you know Spanish or farsy or one of the other 37 languages that are spoken here in bavia uh as a kindergartener but we want to make sure that their English proficiency is there so that they can pass that test um and they don't have that kind of annual access uh testing window that they're going to experience every single year and then we monitor them once they do act uh pass that access test we monitor them for several years after that to make sure that they're maintaining those skills as well so some good data here to celebrate um but we want more and I think what's important to remember too if I is students when they're in in this particular program that spring becomes a hellacious season of testing which doesn't exactly make a kid feel like I want to go to school and that's the travesty of it they go from access testing to I testing if they're in high school then they have to they have to do man testing thank you and then and then we have you know statmed testing in high school you know they'd be doing the same things and then they got to take the ACT this year but previously they were taking the sat right so it's just this second semester for some of our students can be a brutal season of just test after test um we're working on ways to to make that the better experience for our students but unfortunately it's unavoidable given certain mandates that were required to follow uh in terms of the state right but um just wanted to share that perspective um so okay sorry go ahead great next is looking at uh Advanced coursework so this is just some of the classes that we're taking a look at so um on the left there again this is really small I'm sorry but um is our fourth grade high ability this is a math class and in fourth grade we do compacted math so students take fourth and fifth grade math in uh fourth grade at the elementary and then they take sixth grade math in in the fifth grade so that kind of compacted math sequence um we want to make sure that students have access to that who need to have access to that advanced coursework so you can see some of our numbers over time we've really put in some changes to really make sure that we're not missing some students um so all of our we have three staff members who work in this area and they serve two schools each so uh every other day students are receiving instruction with their teacher and then the the next day they're on a video screen on a computer screen so um these are are students who are kind of in a challenging learning environment but they're they're great motivated students we have started working with all of our third grade students so they work with every single third grade student and the reason that we do that is to make sure that students who don't perform well on map that we're really taking a look at each kit and see who are those creative problems um who are the kids that would most benefit from this program you can see that some of those changes have really bumped up some of our numbers but we still have a lot of work to do what we look at this is do these numbers match our general demographics and the answer is no they do not right you can see that we've historically had a pretty predominant uh population of boys in this class uh that's balanced out a little bit but we have other discrepancies as well so this is something that we take a look at and make sure kids have access to that high level of math you have two sections there for Rolo both honors Ela and advanced mathematics you can see some of those same gaps still exists so you know one thing that we're really excited about you know perhaps coming in a couple of months to the board is um some new math resources at our Middle School which would also allow for us to do that same compacting that we do in fourth and fifth to do that in seventh and eighth grade so a student may not be ready for that experience when they're a third grader but they might be ready for that experience when they're sixth grader so that we can accelerate and compact their experience there we don't want kids skipping math levels because that creates gaps that uh are not good long term we've done that before made that mistake many times um but we want to compact their experience so kids can move through the curriculum more quickly I was just going to say that was a particular like semi frustration it worked out well in the end but is with one of my kids like in elementary school just kind of missed out on the level by like literally a point right and then therefore from a perspective of a parent their their math Arc was off until basically got to high school and could say okay I can intentionally take a higher level course and double down and work hard and everything else and succeed at it but it's a lot harder when you kind of get into high school to try to make that job yeah for sure we want to give students multiple Pathways in order to to reach whatever goals that they have particularly around mathematics because that's such a Gateway for a lot of careers and a lot of colleges so really looking at that um giving that multiple Pathways so we have that fourth fifth grade hopefully soon in the future we'll have that seventh and eighth grade and then our high school has that open system and because of our block schedule kids can double down on math and kind of get through calculus too even if they're starting in is there a way to like I'm I'm looking at this in like um I'll just use the fourth fifth grade and4 you have 190 total students is there a way for us to specify like I'll just go in the white student column is 83% um I'm trying to understand like in all these numbers how what percentage of the actual students because that's 83% of the 190 correct is that what the percentag is is that the total number of students that are in this program is there way for us understand how many students that is like the whole fourth fifth grade white student population Hispanic population because you know there's 5% of the Hispanic population that I mean that's obviously a shift but it needs to to me it needs to make sense compared to how many students we have in each of those like a proportionality thank you thank you is that what you're talking yeah yeah thank you I believe we can uh yeah that's no problem get that okay we can add that it's I always just wonder about that I mean because that's that can be good and bad for us just depending but you know when you have lower numbers it goes both ways exactly exactly yeah I don't know it for like fourth and fifth grade like overall 11% of our students are so about 2% black so like I know our overall District number but I don't know it for that particular I would like to be able to like see it kind of side by side to understand the numbers a little bit better if there's a possibility to do that yeah that's not that's not hard to do at all thank you so and then the the bottom chart is looking at AP and dual credit again we talked about how that's a great success in our school and giving kids those experiences but we still do have some of those gaps um with some of our demographics so if I could just speak to this particular chart when you heard me share the strengths when we let out this presentation I think that is absolutely we something we ought to be uh very proud of in the numbers that I shared with you at the beginning of this presentation at the same time time it's kind of what Brad was alluding to at the very beginning some of our strengths also do still reveal this opportunity for us to get better at something we're doing here right and in this particular case the representation the access to to the very program I shared with you is one of the strongest in our re the strongest in our region also has the ability to say we can tap into more of our students to get into these programs and so that's been a focal point which I'm probably G to steal your thunder if I say it but I say a little bit is as far as goals access is obviously we've identified as an opportunity so one of our conversations with our leadership teams has been let's start addressing this how do we increase the access so this type of advanced course work I think is important I look at this data a lot because it really we have to ask ourselves the question are we creating barriers for our kids right so some kids this may not be their experience it may not be their strength and that's okay like those are kid variables and I'm a okay with that and parents make choices about what their kids are going to take and I think that's that's fine but when we are creating barriers for students that's where I have a problem with that and I think that's where we can make some some great Headway at getting to Greater Equity within our system is like really examining what our barriers are so with that high ability team that's something we talk about every single time we meet we meet pretty much quarterly is what are the barriers that we're putting up where can we take those barriers down we've done that with the Middle School Jen and I have met with them multiple times about like um placement and curricular issues and placement testing like where are we putting up the barriers for students getting into some of this Advanced coursework now one of the great things and I won't attribute this to myself but we are we have a high school that has very few levels and tracking within it so a lot of high school districts and a lot of high schools are going through the process of detracking right so they have maybe four levels of an English class once you get into one of those levels it's really hard to get out we have I think because of our black schedule never been highly tracked as a school which is actually a really good thing towards equality and giving kids a really robust experience so um the best thing that we can do for kids is to challenge them and put them in the highest level course that we can so that the data has shown that I did my own little dissertation on that it shows that too like when we give kids a challenge they rise to that challenge and their growth exceeds what we could even think that they would do so that's very common in the data so when we're putting up barriers to kids getting in some of those courses that's where as a system we really need to examine that which is why we look at this data I'm glad it's a part of the board's strategic plan because it really forces us to ask that question where are these barriers coming from and if they're from us what are we going to do about it so I think this is a good work and things are happening all over the district I think to really examine this and make sure that our kids have access to these things which goes back to achievement gaps because all this data is intertwined right we can't take one piece of this and just kind of like say this is a great celebration or this is a concentration here's what we're going to do to fix it is like if our kids don't have that academic background from elementary school and middle school then they're not prepared to take these classes then we would be setting kids up for failure and that's not what we're about we're about giving kids challenged so our whole syst system has to move in that Arc of access and I think that's a really important concept for us to keep focusing on and looking at data around is giving kids access to that and that means giving them strong academics and core instruction in elementary school giving them those opportunities in Middle School to to jump levels or to compact work and then really giving them those experiences in high school another big thing that we've been talking about recently is attendance so huge number of kids post pandemic have uh fallen into to Chronic absenteeism chronic absenteeism by the state is defined as absent 10 or more percent of the previous 180 days so in a school year you know we have about 180 days so these kids are absent about 18 days out of a school year so if you think about that that's a significant amount and it is an access issue because if you're not at school you're not truly accessing your education do kids stay home because they're sick absolutely do kids stay home because of this that or another or college visit absolutely but when kids can be at school we want them at school because we know that's where they're going to learn so really taking excuse me a look at Chronic absenteeism is something that's really important for us if you read our district Communications if you read your building communications you'll see a focus on attendance it's because often times these patterns are established early elementary school and then though they never get out of these patterns of not attending school and this disproportionately affects students from um underrepresented minorities and different classes so we want to make sure that all of our kids are getting the most out of their education so it is something that we're focused on uh something we're trying to communicate with our families about because they're play a huge role in getting our kids to school but our teachers do a great job of making a point for our kids to come to school and give them opportunities and excitement about coming to school I think they do a great job with that when a kid's absent I think it's great to talk to them about what happened are you okay welcome them back into that school environment so they play a huge role in getting our kids to school but something we're really focused on you can see it more of a breakdown on the next slide of students who are chronically absent again going back to some of those gaps and when a kid's not here we can't teach them so we reviewed three strengths or three strengths are some of our growth Trends we're headed in the right direction um we're giving kids multiple Pathways when they exit their K12 education and then our students are reporting a sense of safety but all those things are double-edged swords where we can make improvements uh within them as well so there are academic things that we need to focus on there's a sense of belonging which is kind of codependent or comorbid with that that academic success and then there are definitely things within our system looking at access to their education that we need to address as well so the board strategic plan has a lot of metrics in it and you didn't even get them all in uh this this presentation we tried to roll through it pretty quickly so we weren't here till midnight but um it's really important work it's really good that we're U doing this work with DMG because I think that next phase is we have all this data let's set some really clear and measurable targets about where do we want to head from from here so I think this is a good Baseline we'll give you as much uh information as possible but really setting some of those targets is going to propel us into the future and give us a little bit of focus Tom do you want to talk about some of the other work yeah so I'm bringing us home uh Brad thank you very much and so before we talk about the additional work that's occurring that's supports all of this the one thing I wanted to mention is board if you think back to what was presented to you in November if you're now seeing some of the connection hopefully you can kind of it's like reading a book you're starting to tie in one chapter to the next now when you heard some of our principles for example talking about how they're trying to create and they're focusing on their Panorama data or five Essentials about how people feel in their building it's all related to the things because we've been having data conversations as a leadership team and so that's what's created a certain level of consistency um that we're trying to make sure happens whether we're talking about a building or all of our buildings all right okay so just to highlight some of the additional work that's going on here you have this in your uh packets in front of you you can see this and you can um you I know you all know how to read so I don't want to regurgitate any of this right but I think what was what is really important why we wanted to share this particular slide is over the 18 18 months 19 is months I've been here in this District some of this work here has come from feedback because of the board's conversations feedback we've received during our strategic planning process last year and other processes we go through I mean you see here we talk about our collaborative structures we've had some incredible discussions and conversations that are starting to now transform into what our next action steps are going to look like and that has been a um I would I I would hope that my colleagues including Mr Ray would agree we've been very collaborative about how we want this conversation look and it's not always like hey we all agree on the first idea or first thing that's been said there's certainly been really good discourse around that but I think it's been done in a super respectful thoughtful student centered Manner and we're talking about ways how we can uh effectively execute some of these ideas and strategies plans that we're going to be trying to push forward all right so when you take a look at this I think it's really critical and uh you know you look at the list of Partnerships that was what we could try and fit into one slide but as you probably know I I usually send you in my weekly updates we have Partnerships like Galore everywhere in this community and then um that'll be something I speak briefly to in my closing comments for the evening's board meeting um in January we do have our operations techn uh technology and Business Leaders that will provide the board with kind of like a followup presentation that's going to go into more detail about some of the work that's supporting all three of our district strategic uh plan areas and the reason we separated this is one this is we didn't want to overwhelm anyone with the with the information and the initiatives that are happening all right uh because secondly it will require some level of depth of explanation because their particular data sets and I I applaud them for this the data that they're going to use to hold their work accountable is not anything that currently was in our system right what we're pulling for you that had to do with safety academics uh you know our environmental climate for our students and our staff and our parents that's already been built by the state that's some a lot of that data is required by the state when we talk about operational uptime from a technology standpoint um one of our building standpoints the metrics we're going to use and converting from cash flow to all digital payment flow there is no data metrics on that so I I do want to just share preemptively I really appreciate the time and effort that um both those teams and their departments have gone through to try and and show that they're part of the solution and getting us to move um forward as a district as well all right and then um oh uh this particular last part is uh board this is the first time we've done this probably in a lot of years from what I understand where we've given kind of the State of the Union from a building level perspective and a districtwide perspective please know uh we are open to the feedback that you would like to give us on how the structures of our presentations went these past two months if you liked what where it was and how it was delivered and and everything we did great then anticipate a very similar uh presentation format in May and in June if there are some suggestions you have please uh don't hesitate to share that with me um if you could give me that feedback by January's board meeting so we can begin working on any suggested changes and then you as a board can have that conversation so at that board meeting I'll have a discussion item on here for you to review board presentations so you all can discuss it and then provide us a consensus on what you want to see if there's any changes to be made does that sound good to everybody awesome all right and then to conclude my final thank yous um to Brad Steve Tony Holly Cindy and everybody else whose hands went into helping make the presentation happen tonight we were kind of like like I was we were all like Fring over details and we're like all right we got to just let the project go now and just present it and get our feedback all right I'm done done ramly that was rambling I have a couple comments um so one I want to say thank you to the team everybody that put this together this is a a lot information and also um last board meeting we had the principal in they give a similar type presentation condensed uh I kind of have three thoughts uh first I I I love that we're doing this because we're looking at data and uh when you talk about transparency um I think the fact that we're saying sharing the shows that there is an increasing level of trust because we're willing to show that there are areas that we can grow um and that we're all in this together uh and you can't grow unless you acknowledge as area grow for growth so I appreciate that I will say uh I'll just give you some my feedback right now Tom it's top of mine um and I know a lot of this data is new so there isn't context but like RJ one of his comments uh struck a nerve with me while we were talking was um whenever I look at data uh I always look at trends like how are we doing is it getting better is it getting worse but then I'm also looking at like how do we compare like you said like is 50% good is it bad like I'm always like if I want to be a smart guy in a presentation a sales guy gives a number I'm like so what is 50 good is it bad it could be terrible how is that compared to the national average how does it compared to our peer schools you know I know every district is different but we probably have some that we sort of can Benchmark against so for future presentations I want to uh or even if we're saying we think we should be here this is what we're shooting for I would kind of like to see where in relation to that goal and then the last comment was and this also relates to last board meeting is um this is great but it's a lot of information and it's embedded in in the middle of a board meeting which intrinsically are very long and um I kind of always feel like we're sort of getting to the end we're sort of rushing because we can kind of feel the fatigue setting in and this is obviously the board we want to discuss this but I almost feel like this is sort of where we're um we're really kind of opening things up for the community to kind of see how we're doing that it almost would necessitate like a separate board meeting where this is the primary thing we're talking about so I'm not I don't know what that looks like if in certain months of the year we have two board meetings uh or not but I want to give uh these presentations the um the energy the focus that they deserve and also um to make sure that it's not like a marathon session where we're starting everyone's starting to running out of gas cuz it's 9:00 and we still have 10 agenda items to get through um so again that's just something I'm thinking I'm sure I want the other board members to think about um I think that would be good and then I guess the last part I'll also say is uh there is a lot of data if you look at the five Essentials or the uh report card I mean you can go there's just so much information and um you know I I'm familiar with a lot of this but a lot of this I don't live this every every day and so I would uh throw to the board like I think maybe for a workshop it could also be good for the community if like we had like an education on you know we're talking about all these things like let's talk about what they are how they came about what these different acronyms mean uh just like an education on these because it's it can be pretty dense information and if you don't really understand it I mean you can get kind of lost in the acronyms a little bit and so uh that's my fourth point is I just think that might be something for the board and the community in general if there was a appetite for it that uh just to help us so when Brad's making a presentation we all sort of have a familiarity with this to have a deeper understanding of what we're talking about I would have liked to have had this hand out like Friday now I'm not saying maybe we were're printing it out at 2:00 this afternoon don't know but you know how I like data and stuff so I would have liked to have had time to have like looked at it beforehand to kind of get an idea of the numbers and stuff like that but no doesn't matter me any but that's just but thank you it was I like that kind of information my only comment is I appreciate all the effort and time yeah that was taken into this and really since I've been on the board this is the first time we really anything of kind of like substance that we could bite our teeth into and feel like these are kind of like backed up and there are questions don't get me wrong right but like there are things that have been talked about over the past of like where do we sit in relationship to this this and this and our different kids and communities kind of benchmarked against ourselves you know and so I appreciate the time and effort and one of the things um that was kind of like your one of the things we talked about kind of your interview Tom was like the new superintendent coming in was like we want somebody that can come in and kind of really give us an honest assessment of like where we are but the fact that this is all kind of database is even better because you feel like that there's information you can kind of trust and work with that was my answer to you in the interview process so we to look at our data right and which I don't know how comprehensive we were at before I'm sure it was there I just think it wasn't here right it was kind of understood in the parts and pieces below so thank you so we'll take Aaron's three comments and he doesn't have to do any more homework between the next meeting and now get it done right now before the break by the way those were my same three comments oh wow we didn't even talk times two oh what he said what he say all right thank you everybody appreciate it thank you for the questions thank you all right we now move on to uh board actions so item 7.1 Josh you will walk us through the appointment of independent Auditors all right so annually we have to appoint an auditor for our financials and for the past 10 years we've kind of rinsed and repeated and and used the same company and the firm and and they've done a nice job but this year in the business office we decided to put out a formal request for proposal to see what's out there you know you don't know what's out there until you ask the question and we put out the proposal for art services and got three very good um responses back and one of them you know stood Above the Rest and um I actually have someone here with me today which is very nice of Don to come here um but lauderbach and otoman um was by far the best proposal that we saw both from a financial standpoint and also from a process standpoint um and did you want to come up and all right come on up um and uh so don you want to introduce yourself yeah uh my name is Don sha I'm a principal at lak Andaman I'm also a proud bavia resident so I'm especially thrilled to be working with uh Tony Josh and the team this year so and that was not in the packet by the way and we were just kind sitting around and we were waiting for Tom actually to get there and kind of as a joke it was like well who would the farthest commute and that's I thought I was bragging about six minutes but I think I was fourth you were fourth yeah so yeah you guys got me me so um what you have before you is a three-year proposal to uh partner with um Don and his firm um to do our annual Audits and it actually Saves The District's a substantial amount of money um which is don't tell him he's next to you no it's okay it's okay we're locked in we're locked in this is this is happening this as long as you approve it so um so please approve it um but no we're really looking forward to the process and one of the things that was so interesting is when we looked at your guys' proposal your timeline starts earlier than what we're used to um and we had a nice conversation about the why behind that and it's going to yield the results that we want which is to have our audit done uh sooner than we're getting it currently so looking forward to working with you do you guys have any questions for Don or myself any questions just a point of clarification the 2025 through 2027 total amount is all of those years it's not an annual amount of correct that's all of those years and then that savings is projected if we would have stayed with our current firm you know for those years so right no other questions I will entertain a motion to authorize a contract with lauderbach and amen LLP for independent testing independent auditing services for fiscal years 2025 through 2027 and the total amount of $103,900 so move by Danielle second second by Aaron Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes sler yes Mattis yes Lo yes kilber yes arand yes thank you motion passes item 7.2 Josh you get to stay up there thank you for visiting us today sir y uh approval contract for payment processing system I will talk longer on this one so um get ready it's longer than that last one so um want to walk you through kind of the process that got us to this point so basically Tom you like to steal people's Thunder you already alluded to this a little bit with the idea of going more cashless so um that's what we're going to be looking at um so how if you want to go to next one real quick so with everything there has to be a good story so 15 years ago Tony was in charge of tech and his the apartment was charged with a task and it was to have a W uh a digital payment system for registration fees and there wasn't a system good enough out there at the time for bavia so bavia took the Square Peg and jammed it into the round hole and Tony and his team made our current payment system that we're using right now 15 years ago my daughter was born and I'm getting her a permit and she's driving and we can all tell different stories of how the world is different from 15 years ago our payment system hasn't changed in 15 years so uh we're looking to change that tonight so go ahead um but I think what's important with this is getting feedback from so many different groups so we started in the business office in May and June talking with directors building admin building secretaries about things that they like and things that they don't like about how they collect payments from from parents um and how it's a very cumbersome task and then uh talked with rack and also got to talk at Bick about the process of going to a different format and what was so interesting about this was um and I know this is a shocker to people but I don't live in potato and I know that's a check against me but I get a different perspective and I was able to present to Bick what my parent experience looks like um giving money to genita school district I know that's hard to say up here but and it was it was interesting because when I did that I know right and went and uh when when Danielle was there with everyone they're like whoa this is what buying things at school could be like it was a very interesting uh perspective and conversation so took all that feedback and worked with our tech department to try to find a solution that would work within our structure and also get all the needs that um our families uh need to buy and purchase things in in you know the Modern Age Tony so we're going to we're going to up that a little bit and um presented that to rack and here we are today okay so go ahead all right so my school box is the platform that we're hoping to use and what's nice about it is it tackles three specific areas all in one so um you can do in-person purchasing whether that's products at the corn boil or if you just go to the school off and say I want to pay my registration fees here's my credit card here here's my cell phone here's my watch whatever um it can do that for you it invoices parents on those fees um so if you've ever you know your kid makes a basketball team and all of a sudden you're like wait I'm getting a late notice that I didn't pay my basketball fee because I didn't know there was a basketball fee this takes care of that um and then it also will house a school store which is great because Dave manages his own school store with SCH we at the high school on his own um it'll make that a lot easier for them for him so it'll do all those things in one it'll also include um school lunches and the payments for that because right now that's another separate system that parents have to navigate okay and uh my school box is really a onetoone partner with powers school and I really just put this up here to show you this isn't a fly by night company like this is one of the industry standards that a lot of school districts use throughout the country um to process payments um for for all things that happen in the school and what's really great about this one and was really kind of the The Tipping Point for for me and for Dave's team down in Tech was is that it integrates with power school so if you don't go on to the my schoolbox portal you're still able ble to pay for school fees in power school which is an ecosystem that our parents and Community are used to so it'll hopefully make that transition a lot easier this is just a couple of the features that this allows for um you're able to assign um invoices or fees to different groups so a class boom you can send invoice or uh a team boom you can send an invoice it makes that process a lot easier it automatically notifies parents if there's been a charge put onto a student's account it also will tell you if balances are running low you can set up auto payment but this is a really nice feature it allows for parents to customize their own payment plan structure so right now we offer a payment plan you set it up in in August you're locked in you're set this allows for some customization of that so maybe you set that payment plan up in August and then your athlete or your um I keep using athlete because I was a former ad but maybe your uh student makes the um play and there's a fee for that you could add that to your payment structure and just roll it in or maybe hey it's the holidays I I I can't I can't pay as much right now so you can augment your payment structure to allow for that so it puts a lot more flexibility on the adult s um to manage those payments um on the back end it makes it easier for our teams to reconcile accounts to make sure that money goes into correct balances and it also is a lot easier to move money from Kid to Kid in a lunch fund so just a couple high level things there um but this is what I'm really excited about is we're going to have the ability to pay through any medium that parents are used to um and I kind of used the example before whether it's credit card whether it's the app whether it's your phone there's a lot of different options and this interface with my school box also works on multiple platforms so whether it's your phone or a computer because a lot of families now their phone is their main device they don't have a desktop at home my kids make fun of me because I go to my desktop to look up things um you know they're like plot your phone I'm like but the computer's in there and my office is there so it allows for us to meet the needs of all the parents in the community now it all comes down to what does it cost right what is this change going to cost so there's going to be two phases of this so the first is coming out of this fiscal year and this is the implementation what we have to do to get ready for this so there's two main components here there's the student fee side and then there's the um Food Service component of that we have to buy new device deves for the food service but what's great is we can use our current Food Service devices in our main office to do payments for student fees so we kind of have to buy one but we're recycling the other um so this implementation cost comes out to about 16 grand um I budgeted 25 grand for implementation so I'm feeling really good now this is where the cost really comes into play um and I want to take some time and kind of explain this and please if you got questions about this ask is what we have here are different buckets of money that we take in so we have our student fees that are collected in power school currently we pay about $449,000 to process those fees with this new system it will cost a little bit more because we're also paying for software and maintenance of that software so that comes to 7 to for student for food service we pay about $660,000 in fees it would go up a little bit to 71 for this software again it's nice because it's all Consolidated that Delta isn't that big where the Delta comes in is we collect right well I should say in fy2 24 we collected 1.4 million in cash and checks so I like to think about all the little elementary kids walking around with all the envelopes going to their teacher in the hallway here here's money here's money there's not a lot of um receipts in that format it just kind of happens um so that's a lot of money that it it's kind of we capture it but we're not really sure how we capture it and this will make that more streamline but with that does come a processing cost at about 56 um ,000 and that's assuming 90% of that money would go to this processing system we're not trying to be Portillos here we will still accept cash like it's not that we're going completely cashless but we're trying to make it easier to do things um in a more remote fashion you go back of course go right ahead I'm still struggling with the cash and checks is that basically you're taking that that and adding it to the student fees that no that that's a good question so student fees collected in power school because I could say we were charged a processing fee for that okay that was the processing fee and that's what it would be well the processing fee for the 56,000 that that's a processing fee because it's going to be becoming by credit in theory yes yeah cuz right now that 1 Point 4 million is hey coach here's my money hey teach here's my money and it gets to the office and then it gets processed and then it gets sent to the bank all of that would be eliminated by using this process so the advantage of that is that it it reduces a money changing hands and what happens occasionally in that process nothing bad just things go arve correct and then staff and or teacher and or administrator time and processing and 100% and I and I really think that that one point you said there Craig was really good it's eliminating the student from the process right I'll just use my own kids as an example I don't want to give my kids money to them have them give it to their teacher or to their spot I just don't like that's not their they don't need to worry about that that's an adult thing like let me worry about that this allows for that you said you still will be able to accept cash so if a a parent and I'm not making any you know doesn't have a credit card correct or they will still be able to 100% cash or a check or yes that's still an option okay correct okay any more on this one no all right so I just wanted to show you briefly if you approve this what the implementation timeline would look like so we would spend January and February um working with my school bucks training getting things ready here um we'd spend March training more at the building level um making sure we're ready to go in April and May do a soft launch test the system out make sure that things are looking good this is a big lift there's a lot of areas that this affects so really the um July August go live is really about registration first student launches that close second and then everything else kind of Falls in line so if we're not ready for school fees I'm sorry for um athletic fees in August we'll still do it the old way but we'll get there um I want to say we'll have it all live but I don't want to be you know too optim this thing what you trailed off there I I don't want to like I I would love to put it all in July like go live for everything but I'm trying to be very conservative in my expectations although I'd like it all to be done in August does this do away with like a School cafe or whatever it is use now we don't do that anymore then we would not do that anymore that is correct cost for that currently yeah so if you go back two slides that's in there oh one slide sorry yeah so the cost for school Cafe is 60 Grand and then by replacing this it would go up a little bit but what it would do is eliminate I do school Cafe for this and I do this for this and it would just be in one Hub um is PTO locked into this at this time or is there any plans for them to be able to inor so in a base what PTO can have is um the ability to like do donations through it okay um so we could set it up where if I'm you want to donate to Grace mcu's PTO or Storm's PTO you could do that that's fairly simple um as you get more nuanced we could do more but again like there's a lot of layers with this and we've really got to Target like the building operation first right and and from what understand a number of the PTO have kind of moved to their own online Software System that's not one place for everything that's corre banking accounts yeah I guess depending on what you can set up I don't know what the interesting asking yeah okay any other questions Tony any questions I'm good sincey borderline called you a lite today I was ahead of my time you were you were ahead of your time am I I might be completely off base and I wanted to hear the other board members I feel like it's a $100,000 convenience expense like it's just making things more convenient it is I would say that it is definitely more expensive the largest driver of the cost is would be processing that additional nearly $1.5 million and this isn't just a function of convenience there is a real cost and risk to us doing continuing to do business the way that we do can you elaborate on that with cash there's cash and checks with cash and checks a million and a half dollars cycling through our systems I mean is very very challenging I'm not saying that fraud is happening but it's very very challenging for our systems to process that money it's timec consuming for both one our student students are often involved our parents are and obviously giving money to teachers to coaches to secretaries and like a lot of things have to happen so that we can reconcile those accounts and our Auditors just left but I would tell you that that that's the part that keeps me awake at night um is there's not a whole lot more that you can do there to get more Assurance on whether or not that money is finding itself to the right spot but if we moved to an electronic process it makes things not only easier for everybody but more transparent and accountable and I will add we'll have families come to our Jack and they're here for a different reason and they're like oh wait I have um outstanding bill and we're like great they're like well could you take my credit card no you can go online but I'm here but I have my credit card like there's just that disconnect because I don't carry a checkbook my wife doesn't carry a checkbook anymore so that's kind of an option that's not around for a lot of people a lot of people don't carry cash on them anymore because it's just not the The Way of the World so this is a shift to meet the needs of our families as well it is and so for a lot of families that's the case where we don't use checkbooks we don't use cash but we're going on a field trip and now Mom and Dad have to figure out how we're going to get cash too Mrs Smith who then is well intentioned you know but she might have handed all the money in for the field trip to Mrs Jones in the office but then there's some stragglers that come in a couple of days later and they might sit in her desk and then that check might go on cash for 60 days and it like all these things are just we can make this a lot easier on folks we won't get it to a we're not going to we're not saying that we're going to be cashless we you can make it a lot easier for on everybody do you see that you think kind of prompt payment processes would kind of go up because of it you know that we do struggle with not just prompt payment but confusing payment so Josh talked about this a little bit is the year starts we pay all the fees that we know about on the front end of things but sometimes we pay fees that we shouldn't for example maybe I expect that my kid's going to play basketball so I pay for the athletic fee for basketball but he decides that there he's not going to play or she's not going to play so I now the school district has to credit that money back and that's a very manual process one to figure out who's on the team who's not who needs money back who haven't we collected from whereas with a system like this you kind of pay as you go kid makes the team the athletic secretary enters that information these are the parents that have to pay parents get a notification in the system that the payments do have a reasonable time frame to pay it they can put it on a payment plan and and go from there right now it's like 1997 so I do like the payment plan option and how you can incorporate new fees into that and kind of slide things around because things do change in family's lives and just times of the year that's that's really and we can't that's not something we can do now correct it's not something that we can do easily well you can do the payment plan you can do the payment plan at the start of the year right but if accident a student joins uh the egaming E right right there's a fee with that but they already set up their payment plan stat on yeah CU I tried that at the beginning a de one time like I'm like they say it's so easy and so I clicked the button I'm like oh okay but then I was locked into it then you were locked into it yeah yeah Tony yelled at me the credit card the other T So RJ I had the same reaction when I saw that I'm like this is 90 grand more than an old system but uh I want to thank Josh we had a pretty good conversation today and I talked to Tom a little bit about it but um I do think it there's some cost they're not reflected cuz you know we're running to the bank I'm assuming and things like that there's time that's not accounted for in that but I think it's just making us easier to this the the bps1 community interact with us and process things because this is the way of the world now everyone's used to working this way uh anything we can do to make it easier to interact with the community is I think from their end it's going to be a big positive probably so yeah the reception at Bick was I mean I think one of the parents was like can we just have this now like it it was amazing I hated having to jump to like School cafe and try to remember what the hell that password was yes I remember that I presume there's some sort of parent or family or caretaker education notification component that this is going to be coming up and there's this you know great little video to watch that explains these things and stuff like that correct and what we're really talking about here is for the start of next school year so this is going to take some time to get ready it's going to take a semester to get ready um but that is part of it Tony you just didn't write in planned obsolesence when you did your other one it's I mean I mean I guess there is an argument to say or a question is like how long could the system that you had really be maintainable the volume and the scalability and everything else associated with that we had plans actually we're on the second incarnation of um what we had originally developed about 15 years ago and we was it feels longer um it's like the 10s MH and the challenge there is that um we struggle with time on the tech team to be able to develop continue to develop that and that expertise so it takes us longer to do those sorts of things and we're competing with all the other priorities that our team is working on we just we don't have enough horsepower in our tech department in terms of like the capacity for them to actually do that work and keep up with all the other things that are coming in that they have to deal with on a daily basis so we could build out a system that could do these things I don't think we could do it as well as this is this is their full-time job this is what they do as an organization I think we could build those sorts of things out um but it would take us years and years and a lot more probably more expense than what it's going to cost us and I do want to give my team a lot of credit because they spent a lot of time trying to keep up with this trend but it is so hard everything moving constantly more ways to pay more transactional things that happen it changes every day the mic sorry these are your rules not mine I want to give my team a lot of credit too because like a lot of this stuff is not something that you can easily keep up with we've got three people that dedicate their their job to development and we rewrote everything in 2020 but again it's like you're adding different payment methods you're adding different banks you're adding different ways of paying we want to get this down to like literally I'm going to use the bad phrase here but single pane of glass um we know where to go it's one spot everyone goes there to pay their fees bills whatever you name it it's always here this is the URL it never changes done that's the plan and I think that where we're at currently like Craig was saying like I gotta go here for lunch I gotta go here for this and there for that and I got 15 passwords like that adds to the complication and frustration I feel to where now what so I think you know moving towards something that's more centralized plus all the automations and things that I have on our department side this will help a lot not only for the parents but internal processes and things as well that hopefully we can kind of get everything into one spot and move forward so those three people you have kind of slated for development they would then not worry about this so much they wouldn't worry about developing they do have to still worry about integration and keeping all that working but the biggest piece of this like it knows if you're free and reduced it knows what classes you're in it knows what teams you're on it knows if you made the sports team or not and credit you back it's all based on automation so there is some maintenance that'll still happen but it's a lot easier to maintain that than to actually literally build it from the ground up right and on that note it's not just from the tech team it's maintaining that for all of our administrative staff across the district too it makes administering this in each of our school offices much easier on on those folks as well any other questions I will entertain a motion to authorize a contract with my school bucks to manage transactions including student fees Food Services event ticketing for an estimated cost of 200,000 for the 2025 2026 school year so move by Sue second second by Rob Cindy please lead us in a roll call vote meow yes sliger yes arand yes Hilbert yes Mattis yes yes thank you very much motion passes Tony please lead us on the discussion um and information around the uh estimate for the 2024 tax level certainly Holly would you scroll to the very bottom please I'm going to start with the end in mind if you go to that graph at the bottom of the report I'm sorry the next item I guess this is harder to see than I expected um the end in mind you'll we're looking in particular here at the red line uh and the red line indicates a a the estimated taxes have been and what will be for a median value home in the district so a median value home last year was 380,000 $368 and this year we expect that number to be $419,000 properties are appreciating in bavia and the surrounding areas but especially in matavia very rapidly um and of course as your home is getting more valuable you would expect that your property taxes would go up fortunately we' talked extensively during the referendum we're paying off our debt and because we're paying off of our the the outstanding Bond debt for school construction from the last 20 or so years we expect that the property taxes will go down so the end in mind is property taxes are going to go down for the school district's poor portion of property taxes in the school in the in the school district we have no control of course over what the other taxing bodies do but for a median value home we expect that they'll go down by approximately $89 and so we're recommending to that you tonight adopt a tax levy of $86 million that increases by 4.5% but that makes no sense right your ta if your tax levy is going up by four and a half percent why would our estimated property taxes be going down and the answer is because in the levy we're only levying for what the school board has control over the levy is the basically the operating uh levies themselves and the bonds that you're paying off are separate of course the bonds and the operating levies combin together to affect all the property taxes that the school district collects is from collects from taxpayers but the total amount is going down our Levy is going up but the total amount of taxes that we'll collect as a school district next year will go down uh and as I said earlier the reason why it's going down is because we're paying off our bond debt so as you recall we had extensive conversations during the referendum that we pay roughly 9.2 9.1 9.2 million per year or that Bond debt it's kind of like maybe a home mortgage payment we're making the very last home mortgage payment we actually we made the last full amount of payment last year this coming Levy year that mortgage payment is going to turn into about $4.5 million and next year in the 25 Levy Year we're not talking about that tonight but just so you know it will go down even more because that $45 million doll will go away and we will have paid off our mortgage and we won't be making any more payments so um right now we're asking you to adopt the levy that we have to file with the the clerk um by the last Tuesday in December so if I get hit by a bus Josh please make sure that that happens cuz if you don't file it by the last Tuesday in December we don't get it um it's a lot of pressure it is a lot of pressure that's coming up yeah that's coming up this is this is your last chance to adopt the levy and as you recall last month we we did the estimation of the levy just so that we're making sure that Community knows and hears about it we built our budget on these numbers when we adopted it in September so this is the last step in the process but the reason why we're saying it's 4.5% is that there are still a lot of assumptions that go into how taxes work it's a very complicated process and there's a lot of information that has to be collected in fent we're making estimates as to what these sorts of things will be of course it's easier to estimate it in the aggregate it's very hard to estimate it on what the impact is going to be on an average home in Pavia so individual properties they vary you know like you could have your home reassessed upwards or downwards you might appeal you might have certain exemptions you you you there might be certain errors that might need to be corrected there's a whole host of things that can happen to individual homes so we're talking about things in the aggregate here we expect that the levy will go up by 4.5% to $86 million the net effect on the median value home in bavia some $420,000 this year will be a tax decrease of $89 does that make sense it's a little complicated but it's good news overall now this doesn't mean that your property taxes the total bill when you open it that necessarily going to go down I have no idea what the other taxing bodies are going to do but our portion of the bill is going to go down this is not it's a little off topic but based on what you're talking about for this year and for next year's estimates um if the um referendum had passed it sounds like you were correct in your assessment that taxes would not have gone up you still feel good about that to call you out in front of everyone about about something you said How's it off topic something you said two years ago it was a forecast you made two years ago so more accurately he said if we didn't pass the referendum it would go down right which we now was seeing I'm just right what has happened in the interim is that because of inflation and because of the uh housing market in particular uh in bavia property values have increased at a much more rapid rate as have our costs uh and so taxes have increased faster than I anticipated at the time and had the referendum passed we would still be looking at a 4 and a half% increase this year more than likely we would on top of what we were already doing because what we had we were designing that referendum to be is just filling in the debt as it was rolling off and so that $9.2 million payment that we were making in Prior years was relatively flat fluctuated a little bit but not by much that would continue out for 20 years have stayed the same yeah so right now because we didn't fill in that debt we're paying it off the mortgage payment is almost paid it's almost done and we'll go away and so now if and when we need to do a referendum it'll be a tax increase and it's going to be more painful than it would have otherwise have been yeah I wasn't trying to call that out but yeah more he's good at his job yes did you did you you said it was made available to the public did you get any questions or feedback and it was for a month's time we we generally don't get much so this is one I I would say more or less this is a formality because all these assumptions are built into our budget when we adopt it in the fall so when we adopted our budget in August this year all these resumptions were essentially locked in at that time so we'll start talking about next year's Levy here pretty soon it it' be good news because we pay off depending on your perspective we're paying off the mortgage like EAS M couple things I need to mention before you take your vote Smalls where you thought you thought you were done but you're not um if you scroll all the way to the bottom real quick there's two new there's one new requirement that we're required to um disclose and that's this cryptic law here if you click on that attachment Holly which one uh this is an operating expenditures and fund balance what we have to demonstrate is is that we don't hold in our coffers more than 2 and a half% of the average prior three years of expenditures so basically right now we look at our the prior last three fiscal years we look at our expenditures that average is $16 million we cannot hold in our in our funds more than 266 right now our fund balance is only 52 so we're good but we have to disclose that by law now before we adopt the levy um and the other thing that I should disclose to is that um the actual fund balances as of today or actually should I say the actual fund balances as of November 30th are available in the treasures report if anybody was interested in reviewing them but with that we're all set to adopt the levy but it's 52,000 52 million million yep 52 million MH that's awesome M for us m okay I will I will entertain a motion to adopt the 2024 tax levy as presented totaling 86 million which dollars which represents a 4.5% increase over the previous year's extension so much sove by RJ second by I heard two okay Aon C please lead us in a roll call Vote sliger Yes Meadows yes arandu yes Mattis yes Lo yes hilber yes all right thank you revie of board policy 8.1 so I'm going to go ahead and turn the keys over to Aaron on this right oh yes I think you kind of spoke to it ear did earlier so Danielle wasn't here I guess to hear that but um me just to summarize it again real quick we reviewed the policy which is about uh communication right now we're doing basically just St digital communication via email at the last B meeting there was a request for uh some sort of limited form of sending paper home with kids uh so the policy committee reviewed it and thought our policy actually had room in there where we could make some minor procedural changes to allow for that uh Tom and Holly are going to work with the administration to gauge what they think that should look back come back to rec with recommendations to the policy committee before our next meeting um we'll review it we'll see if we need to do a policy change or if it's just good as it is and we just change at the building level and then at the next board meeting uhel and I will report back on that is that accurate to what you said earlier 100% y just chatting back and forth we're going to because that's a part of a committee we're just going to let it reside in there and not have another one later we have specific policy action items will have a separate item and you can just say hey the things we discussed earlier any further questions sounds good try to streamline a little bit yep okay uh time is there so this time we do have a Clos session later so we're kind of moving the staff and board comments so we don't have to come back and say it particularly to an nearly empty room since there's no actions today so uh Tom do you have any uh Administration comments but yes just brief um i' just like to say that I appreciate the work kindness and student centered lens that our BPS family brings to the job every day the jobs that our people do are not easy and we wouldn't be facing a shortage not just in our district because we've brought youus and moas to support some staffing needs that we have in our district but across the state of Illinois if not the nation I hope it is clear after tonight that we have an amazing district and a part of the greatness is acknowledging that our work isn't done and we're going to keep getting after it last night I was fortunate to be able to join volunteers for the adoptive family initiative uh hence my t-shirt tonight this was given to everyone that was volunteering last evening so if you're wondering like Tom you've never shown up in a t-shirt Friday look I like it voila Jenna's like I've never seen you in a t-shirt um this year's efforts which are organized by the United Way and supported by all of our District's Partners school buildings and staff here at arjac were able to support 170 families resulting in 345 students receiving gifts and Essentials for their needs this holiday season the line of cars that were pouring out of the parking lot at the bavia VFW were those families who adopted a family and provided the answers to their wish lists I want to thank everybody that was a part of that effort last night and it's another example and reminder of everything I always tell you when I say this is an amazing School District Community all of this also resulted in the largest number of families and students that this initiative has supported yet in all the years it's been running so what I'm sharing here tonight is why I believe our district will be able to continue to make great strides in serving our students the kindness the collaboration and charity that exists is infectious I have too many interactions with staff parents and students that proves to me we have amazing Educators in this district and amazing experiences so with gratitude everyone has my permission to take a break when we go into the weekend this Friday at the conclusion of school school and I wish everyone else I hope you have a wonderful winter break that people are traveling safely and that everyone is able to find peace and joy with their family and friends and for anyone we'll see you next year all right board comments Su do you want to try to follow that up no I think you Christmas happy holidays be safe happy New Year we'll see you in January we got to start on that side no board president my friend wow all right so I'm going to be a little bit longer with my comments this month than I normally am but uh hope you'll indulge me here um first of all I I'm remiss here because last month in November it ended up being a pretty long meeting and I think we actually went into the next day Wednesday morning for that meeting uh many of you were there um but um I kind of glossed over something I should have mentioned there which was uh I had an opportunity to go to Grace mcain um November 1st day after Halloween and uh visit with their first grade classes and I mentioned it but I want to I want to say a little bit more about that it was a great experience in that um um I kind of saw the start of their day and they were actually talking about some pretty interesting topics uh uh things such as homelessness they were talking about charity um they were working on a sock Drive I believe um collecting socks um and then also about uh being being a good neighbor so and the engagement by those kids was for me was pretty impressive to see them kind of tackling those sort of topics at that uh that particular age so um so extend thanks to Mr Clary Miss uh Manti and Miss uh and forgive me if I say this wrong Sagi s oi yeah um they did an outstanding job so really enjoyed my time there at Grace McQueen the first grade um I also want to mention so we most of us I think a few exceptions but uh most of us were at the I iasb joint conference annual conference um so I did have an opportunity to go to a couple sessions while I was there um superintendent evaluations um so learned a little bit more about um how that's done and really from a um from a legal standpoint they had lawyers up there talking about like negotiating um contracts and stuff like that so um I didn't participate in the last one um I think I'll be participating in this upcoming one so it was a great session to learn a little bit more about uh that process um board Finance I talked to Tony about this but that that was interesting the CFO from u46 was there and she uh they have a huge budget 800 million I believe was the number um so she was talking about that so learned a little bit more um still can't say I'm an expert by no means but uh did learn a little bit more about kind of how School Finance goes evidencebased funding is the term I know we've used it a lot obviously but uh got a little more detail about that and had a little bit more understanding so um it is a complex topic so Tony I appreciate what what you do you and Josh because there's uh there's a lot of stuff that goes on there so and then um attended a session on AI which was really fascinating um so and it really centered on the speaker there he's like it has really a negative perception you know you watch a movie it's about the destruction of society and stuff like that so uh it it really has that negative connotation so he he's like yeah we got to deal with that but um I guess the message was it's it's coming so it's it's a matter of uh trying to embrace it and see what we can um how we can use it for the betterment so for our mission here um so that's that's kind of of the lens um I took uh listening to that discussion and I know we're already starting I think I saw a note we're already starting some of that discussion with the AI technology and it's it's complicated there's a lot of safety privacy Dave I know you're going to be heavily involved in all that so there's a lot of issues to talk about there but I think it's something um that needs that discussion needs to happen and um hopefully we and bavia can um take that on and and use it for its for its benefit and that's good so um so okay uh with that I just want to say a couple thank yous a few thank yous here um first to my colleagues happy holidays it was a great year working with you all um maybe I'm biased but I think we have a pretty good working relationship here so um uh enjoy the time uh want to wish you guys happy holidays and uh Happy New Year um and I'm going to be I'm going to remiss a little bit also I I give a little shout out to Craig you know as the role of board president there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that uh sometimes I don't even know I find out later after the fact oh like Craig had done this or was involved in this discussion so and there's way more than that he does that I know the the community may not be aware of as well but um just shout out thank you Craig that's a it's not an easy role so um appreciate your your efforts there okay um admin staff thank you all for all you do um my words of appreciation they're not going to do justice for all your efforts as we saw here tonight um a team effort so thank you um happy Holidays happy New Year uh to the students enjoy the break get the rest spend time with family and loved ones and let's come back in the New Year ready to do great things and to the community thank you for your support thank you for your trust as we try to get better each day and do our part to continue making bavia a great Community thank you wellow I have to follow that uh wow can I just have your notes there and reiterate them uh I have a lot of the same sentiment so uh like I always do I want to thank everyone who reached out to the board either via email or comment or came to the meeting tonight uh we need to hear your voices so we appreciate that want to thank our BPS Partners uh for their partnership uh I want to take this than the staff and admin we had um the last two meetings we've had very in-depth conversations about very complex subjects um I think everybody here that I work with on that level they can almost always anticipate my question is how can you simplify this so I can understand it um and I thank you for doing that because I think part of the transparency is making sure that uh the community can understand complex subjects and I think we try to do the best job we can with that um I want to congratulate the uh BPS Esports I think a couple of the coaches are still back there uh that's great to see you know uh one I love hearing from the kids uh and two I love to hear that um participation is increasing that means we're doing something right in my opinion so that's very exciting and then I just want to congratulate all our students athletes musicians thespians artist I mean this year I was um Blown Away it seemed like everywhere you looked bavia students were being recognized for outstanding achievement I mean you look in the back and there's art students uh are being recognized for their success in an art competition uh behind us is a some grade schools with their art so it's I mean our our kids are achieving I mean there's definitely work to do but uh they are achieving and um it's just really inspiring so a couple of things I did since the last board meeting as I participated in I went to the Rola Middle School band concert 6 seven and8 that's always a great time uh I went to the fall musical uh I'm not only I always impressed by the actual performances but the staging the lighting the direction that's all student Le uh that's amazing you know it seemed like every athletic team was achieving at a high level and I you know I have to mention the football team again another amazing accomplishment of second place I think in bavia were a little spoiled that we just assume you know you kick it off and we're going to make it to the semi-finals that's not a normal thing um uh and what I will remember from that night it was a very cold night in Bloomington a late night uh uh the team performed with Excellence it was maybe not the result we wanted but uh they competed to the end but also so what struck me was um our rivalry with our opponent that night has gotten kind of heated and um the kids ability to maintain their uh calm and show demonstrate sportsmanship was to be admired but also um what struck me was uh all of our students so the flag Corp the band they all the dancers the cheerleaders all performed so it really was a celebration all bavia demonstrated um we we uh put our best foot forward that night for the whole state to see so that was great to to witness um and uh you know so everyone's doing great I've thanked a lot of people I do want to thank a few people individually um I want to start by thanking our secretary C Teresa Rodriguez and Cindy Rodriguez uh if you come to the RJ or you call Teresa Rodriguez is usually the person that will greet you or answer the phone and um she's a pleasure to work with and I can't really think of a better Ambassador for that initial connection for people and then Cindy down at the end there um with the purple sweater on she is the board secretary and uh you know we could not function without her she is a tremendous advocate for children and for people in the district and uh I think I could probably speak for the whole board to say that we really do appreciate all you doing and represent so thank you for your hard work um yeah I want to thank all the partners in the district every month we have people that make donations uh and and then anytime I'm watching our kids succeed there's like an army of parent volunteers uh behind them that's amazing and so like one of those organizations would be PTO and I've gotten to know the HC Storm PTO president Amber Walker and um I've only met her virtually because they do their meetings virtually but uh she's very impressive she's very passionate about serving that community and uh I just want to thank all those PTO for what they do I want to thank our superintendent Tom Kim um for what he does I know he busts his tail to do what's the best he can for this District so it's appreciated and then as uh Mr arando said I want to thank my fellow board members for their service I really do appreciate working with you it's an honor to serve with you what I really love about our board is we're curious and we're passionate about students putting students first and um as Rob said I think we have a good group and we don't always agree but I think we all are doing this for the right reasons so I appreciate that and then I I would be I didn't thank a few more people and that's my wife and children uh Kathleen is my wife Emma Jake and Lily um you know it's my wife's birthday this week I miss a lot of things uh and uh I would not be able to do what I do without her support and so I want to thank them for allowing me to do this work and then with that I'll just say uh you know I wish everyone a happy holiday and uh look forward to seeing everyone in the new year um I Echo some of what you guys said not everything you guys the people can figure it and decide what they want that I Echo thank you for thanking people I thank them as well um the stats and the data that you guys all put together this team really thank you for that that it's great to have a baseline I'm really excited about it it's um it's nice to have something measurable I think for the past few years we've kind of gone with our guts and kind of like the eye test it feels like it's better it seems like it's better to have that actual data is really really nice and I'm excited to see what we we do with it um thank you guys for dealing with my questions I appreciate it you too Tony um Mrs mcnight thank you for saying what you said I appreciate it um and just uh hope everyone has a good holiday that's that's it I missed what you said I missed what you said it's recorded okay posterity um Echo everybody I don't have anything prepared um but uh I'm I'm thankful for the data and the progress that we're making the conversations that we're having I don't know if you gave a report for the equity committee but you know while we're I'm listening and looking at the data one of the things that we discussed um that was discussed at the equity committee was the stories behind the data right and so like this is part of that work and I'm proud of us for having the conversations and and thanful for you guys putting together I don't want to stop short on that I don't think we will I just really want to um you know encourage to get those stories in that better understanding as Brad was kind of you know going to is you know are we are we setting up these roadblocks are we doing and we won't really know I don't think just by data that's going to be those like boot on the ground working with other organizations working in the community and really getting those stories um so I'm really interested in that I'm interested to see what we come back with in Spring but I really think this is great to have something to start off with um and it was really interesting I know that's a lot of work so thank you you guys have put together a lot of what we've discussed um there is some stuff that I would like to talk about more and I'm I think we still need to have a little board meeting on data um especially when it comes to buling and whatnot but um to get a little bit more understanding but it was really nice to hear what you guys put together and kind of have a better understanding of it and just kind of as it meshes with the work that I have seen that like the equity committee and other things I do see it kind of coming together and there is that progress yes there's a lot of work but like we talked about it's and it's not you know we've made these mistakes but this or you know whatever it's hey we've learned this and we're moving forward right and so that's going to be that growth mindset that we have um so I just want to acknowledge that um other than that I guess you know just everyone have happy holidays uh safe New Year please rest with all of the work that we've talked about please rest please rest and that means like not trading responsibilities doesn't mean more housework it doesn't mean all that rest do nothing like if you can just do nothing um and then come back after the new year and we'll have some energy so thanks all right um my couple of notes um really is great U meeting today appreciate everybody's time and effort of course I appreciate all the work and effort that teachers went into to be able to support the data that came in um good bad um or indifferent it was important and we recognize um the efforts you guys all put better um so the uh couple of other things I want to thank Drew I had to sit down with Drew we shared probably a much longer discussion than he was expecting um at Starbucks the other day I just kind of want to make sure you guys aware that we met and chatted for a little bit about a couple of things particularly kind of around the last board meeting um that was of some concern and then we're starting a new thing U before our board meetings um on a regular basis of meeting with the Bea with Tom as a representative of the administration and myself and probably one other board member before the meeting so we had our kind of first one today just to kind of create a line of communication that could be a little bit more kind of informal to be able to have those open kind of discussions but it's not specifically like necessarily board related it's just a chance to chat a little bit so will uh Aaron joined me and and everybody today and so we'll be kind of opening up other opportunities for you guys to come as you find um interested there's no set agenda per se we may just maybe have a meeting just to sit there and today we had pizza and burgers or we might have you know pasas at our next one so um there was a comment in the meeting today in our discussion today um the other thing is I kind of I don't know how the world kind of gets out there but I am I mean I'm running for reelection I kind of want to let everybody know that I ran into a little snag but it kind of worked itself someone actually objected to my petition so um I want to make sure everybody double checks their petitions because I did not and left a little opening and somebody actually did but I guess I um prevailed and got them to kind of worked with them and explained my position in case and they overruled the objection I'm still on the ballot but so in case you kind of hear some things floating around or whatever happens fill out your paperwork really really well and double check it um because there are people that are out there I'm not saying say creepy weird people kind of thing but there are people out there that are trying to make sure everybody's doing it the right way but also that there may be some agendas out there that they're trying to get other people not on it you know off boards positions and position other people better um beyond that I did want to say thank you know thank you to Rob not just for his comment about me but thank you but for mentioning the triple ey uh I went to a couple of more than a few sessions uh one of the ones was on AI which uh Tony was a part of the panel I thought was really amazing the one big takeaway I had from that other than um Tony's comments about how robots May rule the world and how electricity is the root of all of the problems associated with this and go to Triple I you might learn that um is is really kind of like the impact on how Tech is creeping into the educational and classroom sphere right because that presentation had Nyle School District their version of you doing a presentation talking about your your level of importance on informing teachers about the safeguards and about the things that they may or may not know about and how to integrate that into their kind of processes let's say so it's going to be kind of interesting over the next bunch of years to find out how those all fuse together a bit um and then uh the other one was I went to a couple of equity oriented sessions uh I don't mean this gbly but it's going to sound like it the struggle is real it's AC almost every District that was there they all have their own unique issues and flavors and challenges and no matter the demographic makeup of those communities they're all finding different issues um which makes it really challenging to figure out what's the right direction forward at any individual one I went to probably about two sessions where everybody was kind of walking in going tell me what to do and there was no answer and I'm not blaming there was just no good answer you know so that's you know I appreciate the effort that the people on the equity committee and those that are involved and those that are informing them and working with them because that is a hard Road and I know it affects every moment and it's one of the things I'm proud of on the Strategic plan that that is kind of infused through the process and when all these when all the principles and the teachers and everybody are working on the sense of belonging that's where it kind of starts in my opinion so with that I will conclude my board comment and then we are going to be moving into a close session today uh we do not have any action items after the Clos session but you are welcome to stay here if you like if you decide to leave we want to thank you for coming out uh this evening and to everyone that spoke um and again we'll be moving to a different room you can say if you like but again there's no board actions afterwards and you'll heard all our amazing comments already so we're not so uh the time is 10 p.m I will entertain a motion to move to close session allows allowed under open meetings act for the purposes of exceptions 5 ics1 SL C 2c1 and 5 ICS C2 entertain a motion Some Mo uh motion by Danielle second second by Sue Cindy please lead us in a roll call vote can I just cor yeah what I do wrong oh okay it's just exception one just the first one okay yeah just exception one okay thank you and so um AR yes Meadows yes sliger yes ma yes hilber yes yes all right thank you appreciate you guys sticking with us today
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e testing testing 1 two 3 testing e e e all right I would like to call this meeting to order this is Creet mon Board of Education regular board meeting for Tuesday December the 17 2024 6:30 p.m.
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okay that was the last thing um the the last visit everything was fine and they understand they have to preview every year something like that so okay all right um so a question for Raj um that come the manure handling is that are they going to compos it on site or they going to dispose it off on site so according to our conversation it'll be on site onite okay all right thank you thank you Jay so I I just have a a question so given I know it wasn't a major issue with the animals before and they decreased the flock size and it looked like there might have been some bullying some maybe health related issues which probably not present anymore but given the proximity to the wetlands and and some you know we've been uh trying to work through this for a while um in granting a variance is it possible to Grant it with some sort of um stipulation or even outside of the variance itself where we got permission from the owners just to go in and do like a check um occasionally or you know more more than the annual inspection is that something that's done is that even feasible does it even make any sense um I'm just you know I can answer that we we definitely have the authority right if we have any concerns right with the health of the birds or even even with the maintenance of the coupe we we can do that you know so u i mean if you if you want us to keep keep an eye on this we we can certainly do that you know should that should not be a problem um I I would just throw it out to the rest of the board and see what you folks think about that um you because it sounds like they have everything that they need right now you know unlike the food inspection where we schedule twice a year or something normally and then whenever that complaint happens but on the inspection of uh animal uh Sheltering do they do it regularly or they do only when there's a complaint comes in Mr Nar there is a requirement of one one inspection a year you know from the state you know so okay um I mean besides Ashland right we we submit all our reports to the state of the inspections for with with our uh you know animal permits okay so yes at least one inspection a year you know right if we do more of them keeping it are we isolating these people or we there a reason for us to to add more to them that's just the concerns with with the health of the chickens right like I mean when when we went this time uh though the the smaller chickens have grown up you know like in a month you know they they're bigger now but there's still some further loss you know that they had right again if the bo wants it's not you know but like for us to check just want just to make sure you know given what we have seen and it's approximately I guess six months we have been working on this property you know sure as situation you know as long as they're not overburdened by extra visits there is a purpose for us to make sure that it's a healthy community of birds there so that's fine with me thank you so what would it look like um you know instead of the the annual inspection that maybe somebody goes out there just you know one time in six months from now or something like that yeah because I agree too I I wouldn't want to over burden anybody either and I wouldn't want to treat anybody any differently than anybody else right um but you know I'm still um kind of new to the you know I have a chicken coup we have you know fortunately had not had any problems but um I know that some people can have issues with them right da any thoughts on that I I totally agree with you because basically we need to make sure that you have a healthy population of the birds there and then they're being taken care of out that's all yeah I second that I I you know I think it's worth checking in on the um the the well-being of the animals but also given the location of the or the the close proximity of the wetlands and the the decision by the owners to compost the the uh the manure um I think it's it's probably in this particular case warrants you know a semian ual um inspection if only on just those two issues there' be any other issues that but that's my opinion okay Barbara do you have anything to add um no I just agree with um what you guys are are talking about like you know more frequent checks like you know twice a year not just annually just in case you know just making sure like with the the health of the birds and just making sure that the amount is they have is still enough for the space they have right Raj I have one more question do we know whether we have have any other Chicken cops in the similar situation here with close to the wetlands are there any existing Mr we are dealing with another one right so uh this is on West Union you know we this is the first one that we giving a way over to is it for within the 100 foot for zone or whatever that I mean is I guess we might have another few vienes you know but I'm not sure I'm sorry you know we can check that and get back to you no I I don't need this but I just wanted to make sure that whatever we are imposing here similar rules may have to be applied for others to make sure but in this in this case there is a prior history of how the birds have been it's more with the health of the birds right that's all we are concerned you know yeah in the short run short run I think there shouldn't be an issue for that yes so it sounds to me like what we're saying is maybe you know we Grant the variance and within six months um we go out and just do one more inspection but that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to continue like that into perpetuity when re up the variance uh the the permit next year you know would be the same as every body else does that sound about right that's fine that sounds good that sounds good to me also okay so so uh Mariana can I explain to you what what we just went through so that you're clear yes go ahead okay so what we're talking about is granting the variance with an annual with the a typical annual inspection would be of course once a year um Animal Control will come out and inspect be because of some of the issues that they've had on that property which were not huge but there are some uh for this first year we'd like to inspect twice we'd like to go out within six months and do one inspection and then do the onee inspection um and I'm sure things will be fine but just I think that will make everybody feel better is that okay and at the same time sorry we did I'm sorry I just to be clear we did the yearly inspection through the state um the one we were there last week so we would need one more not two more we just did the inspection okay so so it would just be one in six months from now and then um yes okay and then and then if if the your inspection reveals that you need more then that'll be added on based on what the conditions are correct yeah okay okay so I'm I'm good with uh giving the way so do we need to explore explicitly State the waver or we can just say that the waiver from 100 foot is enough I think that it would be you'd be granting let me just if you can elaborate on the exact law I will move that one so the the uh waiver um let's see the waiver would be for the um for distance from the property line so um under 25 ft they're actually 12 feet and then distance from the wetlands they're 68 ft it should be 100 feet so they're they're waving property line and distance from wetlands and then we're also putting in that stipulation of an inspection in six months from now so if somebody would like to take that I move that okay a second anyone I'll second that okay all in faor hi kg hi hi barara all right good so that passes um so Marana I think you're you're all set we are all set okay so anything just let us know okay okay thank you all right have a good night um all right thanks everyone so now um it is time to review and approve the 2025 board of health permits pending receipt of all required documentation and Raj do you want to just let us know if all the required documentation uh that's something that we need to discuss or um how you would like us to go through doing this I know they're in groups of types of permits and and I myself need to abstain from the animal permit and I think kg you have to abstain from another one of the votes so correct um Raj I'll I'll give you the floor offer to yes thank you for that and and we we can do you know columnwise or all together you know um either is fine you know we we can do retail permits you know um and then once we have the every documents right uh we will issue permits according to that you know that there's still and we still have time right they due uh December 31st you know our permits don't expire till 31st you know so uh we'll we'll we'll give issue permits once we have everything from from our establishment you uh just about uh about approving it it's it's your call you know if you're going to do it single single you know with or you want to do it together I I I I may suggest that we group the food ones together are the the G grease strap is that it's there also the greas strap is coming too or no grease straps will be coming next month or next next all all the food ones we do first and excluding New England Hindu temple and then whoever is allowed to vote go ahead and vote on it then we'll do the animal one except your chicken CP I guess that's what you worried about uh Jay yeah yeah and where where is yours that you are it's it's under New England Hindu temple it's in in the end I guess oh it's at the end okay yeah no the end so we can just group that all the food permits together except the New England Hindu temple okay so the food and then and then all four of us can vote on that if we need to and then uh you take up the New England Hindu temple separately and then vote on it and then I will obain on that one okay so then the food the food permits are including the retail food permits the food establishments um not the and then were we doing tobacco license es separately um so what I would say is we uh we approve the retail food permits the food establishments the residential kitchens is on the next page that's um all in one Fell Swoop does anybody want to do take that so that's retail food permits food establishments and residential kitchens do that one first all three of those is that newly Hindu temple included in it or excluded in it I thought you said that was at the end no no that's also part of it part of the food establishment so if you going to include include on that I cannot even participate on it I can't even move on it so okay let me let me find where it is here it's uh under n well it's yeah so it's under food establishments um in N but we we have a quorum Without You kg so I think that's fine that's true let's do these with kg okay um and get them out of the way so if it it would just be you know Dave me and Barbara voting on retail food permits food establishments and uh residential kitchens does someone want to make a motion to approve those per I will make a motion that we approve the retail food per food establishments and uh residential kitchens as as listed okay we I'll second that okay all in favor I I all right I three votes that passes okay I'm recused myself from that okay so kg recuses himself from that next is the animal shelter permit right well we have tobacco licenses too and septic installer permits sure yeah so let's why don't we do um the three of those three more we'll do tobacco licenses septage huler permits and scepter installer permits and we can all vote on that see I I move that okay excellent do we have a second I second all right all in favor I I I I all right great that is all four of us um and then I am going to abstain from animal and ecoin permits so if someone would like to make a motion to accept those permits please do I move that second okay we have a second all in favor yep I I okay that's three votes and I think that we are I think that's it right permits okay all right great um okay so araj you are up with the health director's agenda thank you Mr chair so uh first was the state inspection for our vaccine program uh this was on November 20th the state came out uh to check check our vaccine program right uh they they do this uh two years you know every two years they do inspection you know so there's couple of items we need to address one was uh uh there was a u Ice uh accumulated in in our freezer so they they asked us to defrost it you know so that's what we did we have to transport our vaccines to Hopkin that's our sty site U there was there for like 3 4 days you know so we defrosted our freezer bring them back Dr Ron kindly uh signed again our documentation because he he's still our medical director for for our vaccine program so he did that you know so that was one more requirement uh we have gotten new data loggers uh from the state that we are in the process to install uh I guess we have a virtual call with the with the state tomorrow to install them so that's just just we keep the temperature locks you know every morning and evening we we check the temperatures of our vaccines both the refrigerator ones and the frozen ones you know so that was it uh mom taste at H restaurant we have granted uh AOS sharing permit to Mom taste they going to be making some sauces uh at the at the hter restaurant so we we granted that and Santo from last uh time they was on the board meeting you know they they have submitted two audits inspections by private contractor and they're going to do another one at this month uh the next item is the Dollar Tree we we do had a complaint about uh um mice rodents at the Dollar Tree though currently we don't have a food permit at Dollar Tree given the exemption by the state you know I guess this was like 3 four years back a little before maybe the state uh or the food program has come up where commercially packed food is sold right they W they're not going to need a permit from from us right so the Dollar Tree was exempt under that but based on the complaint we have to go in and uh uh the the management voluntarily closed the food section for Dollar Tree they was closed for almost a week and Tom went back and then we reopened them you know but that was voluntarily Closer by them so that that that is now solved uh similarly we do have some pest issues on Speedway you know that's again at Pawn Street or War 126 that we call right uh definitely some some radent activities on on Pawn Street uh or 126 um one one reason might be the the construction there so but uh with Speedway we have some other issues also uh couple of times we went in the food manager was not present uh we have still working with them uh we have a fine of $600 to them so far uh but uh still there are a couple of items that are still pending that we have to verify me either me or Tom will get going on this week or next you know so I'll keep the board posted on that regarding the housing cases uh Chestnut Place Apartments uh they are definitely better at the dumpster area um I do have a $200 fine once after the board meeting uh that we have we have them last time here uh a month or so back uh but after that it's it's better uh but uh I did uh got an email from them uh I didn't have an update on the three pending housing cases uh the email stated that they're still working or looking uh into those matters and they they'll be updating us so that'll be pending item uh for those three housing cases at uh at the just just Place Apartment 137 Pawn Street uh we was back at the wer courthouse uh myself uh along with our Building Commissioner Doug uh Our receiver for the property uh Mr James cter Main Street we the 40b project with the town have received an application so we did had an internal meeting you know with the our Consultants the town that the town have hired for the project I have submitted uh uh our comments right that we discussed last time uh the comments that came from uh D EPA along with you know uh we have asked for an IPM report uh that's integrated Pest Management report given uh given the growing rent population in the town right then uh s best abatement lead abatement and uh a uh dust mitigation plan while they're going to be demoing once once the project get going so that's the update for 1060 Main Street that we have from har no and um last thing uh I we missed that it's not on the agenda right the communicable diseases uh usually we we update the board on that so we currently have four TV cases open uh meeting it was there and then we have submitted our comments to our Consultants you know not too much time I will say but yes you know little bit here and there yes all right thanks two questions if you don't mind no no please one is I I'm sure probably 137 there's nobody living there right Mr n that was the problem right so there are two gentlemen you know uh leaving one one one Mr Gary right he's in the camper and he's he's living there from the time we have condemned the property December 2022 right and one of the Elder Brothers Mr William nasio right he habitated one of the Vans there's a blue blue van right there right he been in that in the van for approximately 6 months now you know so uh when last month we got the receiver right we have this concern because there was a uh power line that they have got it in from the property to the van right that definitely condemned building you know very unstable building we had concerns you know and that's why uh the judge have issued you know of the background probably probably goes back year before P arrival into the board I guess probably that's why I'm not aware of it so much true I guess it's it was December 28th 2022 when we have to condemn the building you wow wow wow wow wow where are these people being housed these two are they being moved out or they mean so what has happened right so the gentlemen uh uh Mr Gary is living on the property you know so he's trespassing it he have no rights to the property right so but Mr William nasus and his brother Jorge nasus when we condemned the property we provided them accommodation uh in Red Roof in in Framingham you know from from the town side uh okay it was over two weeks that we we paid for it and then uh Mr William nasos who is the elder brother he's uh eligible to get accommodation from the from the state uh dmh uh but they we it was I guess Dr J you Dr J you was there too right when we went to the Red Roof in so that they're safely accommodated somewhere else that's good that's good I mean so not right now I will I won't want to give you wrong information right or to the public but it'll be more with the receiver right so it's going to be taking care of that part you know Mr James cter who is an attorney right because right now he he he is the or of the property you know so but like their safety is very very important you know so all that is done because of that you know so right the other thing is the road in population is up because of the climate change everywhere so that needs to be that needs to be addressed quite uh whether there is the temperature goes up then everybody everybody has this issue so it'll be more frequent for you to find out that there'll be more radent so I agree you 100% you know but like we we have not seen this in Ashland you know definitely new thing in Ashland right I mean though I'm I'm with the town almost four years you know but like I came from Watertown Watertown have one person just for Road and control right now in the health department right so they they hired somebody last year just just for radent issues you know so that like one of my concerns like I don't want like you know asland to be to be like that you know so you can't help teach the rodents we have to manage it true we we need to control it right I mean given given the construction and all that right like I mean climate change itself produces more population of it so it's it's more of that absolutely sir 100% you know so beyond that but we definitely seeing more and more of it is you know so right I guess I have four open cases on Route 126 you know so uh uh maybe four yeah four right now right so they have opened in yeah Tom Tom should be more cautious about it to to make sure that he monitors these things in the food establishments no he he do he we do a wonderful job you know so yes thank you thank you all right any other questions please no no other questions Raj okay uh thanks Raj next agenda item is the consent agenda hope everybody had a chance to just look at that it's only budget reports no no minutes um this week so does anyone want to make a motion to so moved to um move to um approve the consent agenda thank you kg any seconds I'll second it okay all in favor I I all right that's four thank you um future agenda items I know I have one and um Laura if you could put this uh on the next agenda just I could give a ram a ram Clinic update for 2025 it won't take more than five minutes said that last sorry it didn't get oh no no no no problem in fact it's better I think to wait until um Ed burman's here because then we can both kind of chime in so it it worked out well okay anybody else have a future agenda item no okay uh um the next meeting date it is stated here to be January 7th 2025 and if there's nothing else I'm assuming there's nothing else um does anyone want to make a motion to adjourn so mood okay any seconds second all in favor hi hi hi all right excellent thank you Jay done sure was a colorful meeting you did a good job thank you very much Yeah by bye thank you happy holidays everybody happy holiday happy holidays to all you know thank you thank you thanks for all you do you know yeah byebye okay thank you bye night every bye bye Laura good night Laura for e e e
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e e e pleas we have the pledge allegiance to the flag we' better a one up there fish you want to Le us off e e e Happ thank you moving along anything special for Christmas break family all hanging out opening presents all right the best good answers we have fun uh the minutes uh we a motion to approve the minutes the minutes will be approved for November 19th and we have another meeting December 3rd like a vote to approve both of those meetings pleas motion can I bring something up like the financials of the last one um oh no we can do it under the business okay this is just for the minutes to fine Mr T box yes M FIS yes M dler yes Mr Mia yes Mr ha yes cash balance report Mr okay we have two cash balances report for tonight one for October another one for uh November we go through the October one right now cash balance uh as of September 30th was 3,417 3842 we have deposits for the month 7,354 51545 transferred out a million dollars to our mmdt account we had uh the payroll amounts that you see on OCT toal 10th and 24th and warrants number seven and eight uh leaving us with a Geo balance uh at the end of the month of 4,291 14280 our mmdt account we started with 7,417 5266 uh transfer in of a million dollars you'll see that um that's a m of the 45 and the 35 interest for the month was 65 uh and then it uh a GL balance on the mmdt of 8,450 88026 a total operating cash balance of 12, 02306 pretty healthy balance for October I'll go on to November and then vote okay so November um count balance is 4,291 14280 we had deposits for the month 5,664 46814 we transfers out transferred out 500,000 to the MMD CT account less uh payroll on November 7th from 21st and warrant number 9 and 10 uh leaving us with the GL balance uh at the end of the month at 4,559 445 24 in our mmdt account we have 8,450 88026 transfer in of 500,000 um not out of the two interest of 39,42 leaves us with the GL balance at the end um uh mmdt jail balance of 8,989 9447 and a total operating cash balance of 43971 thank you very much any to vote on that can I get a motion to accept the uh cash balance report is presented motion to accept second second discussion I'll tell you what I we get to the business po you're on the you're on the line items right Mrs F yes under business Mr toox oh yes M Harris yes M TLA yes Mr Mahia yes yes Consolidated cash is a report a packet you have the packet the revolving fund report you have the packet on that the budget is a packet budget report is a packet anybody have any questions on those Mrs FIS okay I just and and I probably know that I can't do anything about it but I just want to you know highlight of make known that there are a couple of things on here on Transportation first of all this nxs Luxury Transportation for 288,000 I don't know what that is I've later now learned that it's homeless students um but I see other other ones in here where it's mentioned that it's homeless Transportation as well I think I mean we're talking not bringing students from one place to another I mean we're bringing them two miles down the road probably that's one thing the second is this raone Transportation um group that bringing students after doc students from and of a high school for 12 days to the tune of $2,400 $200 a day to bring in two miles a mile 1.3 I mean are we even do we even care or no I mean I don't I don't know I'm just trying to be a little bit responsible here so the um the late buses are put up to bid on our regular transportation contract but we do have trouble getting those buses but it does cost us about $100 a run on regular buses as well so it's a fun but those are the rates it's it's a similar rate with what we go out to B and then the the mix the homeless and the Foster those students we have someon W as far as W ringham they're they're not right next door so they they're traveling quite a distance but again those those vendors are also hard to to secure for the students there's no other Avenue that can be like we try a little different things we have a evening custodian that does like has a 7D license so he'll drive he drives some of the kids home to Framingham and wam that save us a lot of money we pay him by the hours so we say an enormous amount of money on that so where we can but we've also tried to get some of our custodians uh try to get them to get a 7D license uh which then we could use them for possibly some of this Transportation as well but when you it's very hard to find anybody to even do the transportation it's not like you can like we can put an RFP or put out a quote look for a quot or anything and we'll get nobody to tell we have to actually go out and see people and ask comp if they're willing to do it for us uh like that the at the dark bus uh the our bus company won't do it and so then we went to a privately the only other private bus company out there went to um Ramone to try to get a price in order the kids from the hand over here if I had like I said if I had like custodians or something I even put out anybody that's interested in getting a 7 license we paid for them to get the license and we had no takers uh so if we did we can send out our own F hand over bring over we don't even have anyone to do that believe so the trans full transportation is very very frustrating in terms of its cost in terms of trying to find people um like I'll give you an example we have a young man that goes to it's Framingham that now wrestles we have to have a bus we have to have someone drive that student just that one student home after wrestling to Framingham so I think is Sean so Sean the custodian is doing that for us uh in order to save us money he drives him to frame him but he typically was going home at we could bring two kids at the same time but now he's doing wrestling so now bring one to Wal in then he comes back works for a while and brings the other one framing hand yeah okay I guess I'm like like ignorance in this area um why are we like dealing with why do we have students that live in those areas yeah yeah some because vocation Works in between here and there yeah so um for the homeless students they fall into what's called mckin vento and schools are obligated um to to allow them to continue to stay in their school of origin and with DCF um they do like typically if a student goes outside the district they have what called the best interest determination in the whole team so the DCF worker the sing District vocational school this whole team gets together sometimes there's an ad Advocate to talk about like what's in the best interest of the student and they they tend to have um you know a guideline if it's like I don't I don't know exactly it might be like if it's more than an hour and a half away um one way then they say that you know that's not really reasonable um and they don't really take into consideration traffic and how long it can actually take so it really it has to be that team decision um based on the best interest determination right I I get them mckenny I I never realized that it could be that distance when you have vocational schools from in between here and there I mean what makes I mean I don't understand why this school fulfills that need of the student and say like a great doesn't uh you know they started here if they start here you can't TR and they want to stay here and they can stay here then you can't force them to transfer up local or anywhere closer that's determined by the team that looks at it and determines what's the best interest for that student that student is doing well and wants to stay here then you know we can't say no you can't stay here you get because it's closer the other thing is sometimes it's a temporary situation it might be emergency housing or if it's a DCF placement um they typically don't say oh you know it's going to be this set amount of time um they you know they might have you know a hearing in a few months or something like that so they don't want to keep moving the kid around um not knowing how longterm the situation is um because they have you know a lot of disruption in their lives so to try to keep as much familiarity as they can um for that student they try to keep them um in the same place when they can especially when they don't know how long the situation will be taken in some cases the community pays half so the student living in off then we pay half the cost and pay half the cost byw they requ but just the Transportation I mean it's not an easy route to go and I mean that would cause I mean me a lot more anxiety than being homeless I mean spending an hour and a half in a car going back and forth two times a day that's crazy and the state is okay with this they're the ones that require I know that's why you're not get any back from so I'm I mean it's purely information I mean for me no it's very expensive and you don't own bud you don't know how many students you can have in that situation in any given year so you impacts our budget I guess I've never just never not that involv that okay I feel bad for get for the extra time and I'm very upset at myself that I didn't think of this myself I I love to drive that Ramon here is doing very well for himself yeah yeah are we responsible for uh Cory's for yes Transportation people okay anything further on the budget donations I don't see any donations articles the kids touch base on the article for manufacturing program uh building the uh pieces that are going up in the space um International Space Station it's fantastic whoos to Mr wette he's a homegrown boy too Mr L boy anything you want to say on that that Pro a lot of sucess in that program the high quality of the work that the students do you have to meet extremely high standards in order to be able to be part of the Space Center Program there's only5 schools in the country that that qualify to make Parts uh so our kids are doing very well with that and you know real um all those staff members that are in machine shop should be recognized right from the 10th grade and Ninth Grade on up because that doesn't happen overnight so kids that are developing and making these parts are typically uh end of the year Junior and senior so because they're training in their skill is a kudos to our staff teachers who actually we read ccul to yeah I mean those stand so those are and as a result of that I would say just by any student that wants a job gets a job out that program they get very jobs we're just putting together a a new agreement with proor proor gamble that's will be bned over they be hiring two of our machine shop students very soon uh and they plan on hire many many more once they're totally moov here to hand over but it's really a high demand program that's been extremely successful um du the um well we have uh really high technology very outstanding equipment as well that's recognized in the industry mat equ would find it any manufacturing planning industry so training as well so good great program yeah please no I I mean I just want to say look kudos to you to school for creating the environment there in the shop and to miss ulette I I honestly think that I mean without his influence encouragement um motivation connections I don't think all of this would have been possible and I do think I don't know how I'm going to I don't know how I'm going to get that done and I do think that some kind of commendation should be afforded him yeah um no I don't disagree with you um that program has had really four out instructors including Mr Chris waterworth has also been an exceptional instructor who's been in that Pro was the first one we hired since his Inception also has his degree in engineering worked at n for us for a while there so that no I'm not minimizing all the others together as a team they've been just Absol absolutely amazing any any school in the country would love to have them or any Corporation would love to have them but I will say that U Mr wette definitely has uh been um proactive in making building these relationships and making sure that the kids have had these opportunities so he cares about kids and that whole program is like that if you walk in there you you feel it you know it no you see kids always open so um they're a perfect example of you know what we' like to see in all programs and we have other programs like that as well I know but not every program is um recognized nationally no that's true yes and that's what sets it apart from the rest of the programs here which is not to take away from any of the programs because I mean they're all they're all great and you have some great teachers in each of those areas but this one stands out and not only stands out it's it's prominent it's it's a national recognition and um again I think some kind ofation is sure yeah anybody else public participation I don't see any budget priorities M Richardson you're going to tell us about budget priorities I don't have a paper on it you just talk right yes so this is just kind of a high level um view of what's driving the next year's budget so I'm just going to go over an overview of the priorities and our goals so all of the priorities are aligned with our school Improvement plan so we're the second year of a twoe uh plan so the overarching goal is to prioritize teaching and learning strategies that support students academic growth in both vocational and academic disciplines and our objective is to allocate resources effectively to enhance the quality of our education system the first priority is uh continuing to develop and Implement mtss multi-tiered systems of support you've heard a lot about that um so this includes first of all a focus on tier one supports in the classrooms in our schoolwide curric ulum instruction and assess assessment practices and when you look at you know our student data um how many of our students um struggle in different areas um you know if you look at our evaluations and where we are um you know that it's important to to um invest in the tier one curriculum because it's not just a very small number of students needing tier tier two and tier three so first and foremost tier one is a priority um we'll be looking to continue to enhance tier two two and tier three intervention so what this mean is a continued focus on reading intervention programs uh like read 180 and specialized reading curriculum for students with disabilities particularly students who are identified with a reading disability we'll be addressing student performance gaps um that are highlighted by recent testing that we um conducted and we're in the process of finishing that now it's called I ready testing and this helps us to assess our students um grade level in terms of their literacy and also helps us to focus in on what specific areas they need support in whether it's comprehension um um fonex or all different types of um criteria and this this assessment breaks that down and what we found is that we do have a significant number of students reading two to three grade levels below their actual grade again this goes back to the importance of the tier one instruction so we'll continue the acquisition and implement ation of hqm so high quality instructional materials in ela and math and right now our science and history departments are also just starting to explore what that looks like potentially in the future uh for their subject areas we'll also be offering more professional development and more highquality targeted professional development for what each department needs um this means more opportunities for teachers to develop and Implement their new curriculum and use those high quality instructional materials effectively our second priority is uh Staffing and teacher support so we're looking to reduce student to teer ratio by hiring some new academic teachers across all subject areas um to improve student engagement and learning outcomes this will also help us to enhance the master schedule so we're trying to optimize the amount of instructional time uh that students receive in their academics particularly for students in grade n and 10 in ela and math we're going to look to hire some additional instructional coaches um who will help to support curriculum development particularly in the CTE areas and also hiring uh additional CTE teachers um as we add new programs and students move up to the upper grade level we need to hire more CTE teachers to meet those needs as we expand those programs and they naturally grow third priority is technology and student support so we're looking to upgrade some of our technology resources so that includes both hardware and software applications throughout the school um also increasing some funding for student Support Services to address student social and emotional needs more effectively and the last priority that's aligned with the school Improvement plan is our focus on dbei which is diversity belonging equity and inclusion so we're looking to provide additional resources Prof for professional development focused on researching and implementing effective practices and creating a positive influence on staff students and our overall School culture so that's just kind of a high level view of how the priorities connect with the school Improvement plan any questions for that thank you missions I'm sorry so for personel you said new CTE teachers so when you refer to CTE teachers do you just mean all across is the priority all across the shops or is it the specific number of them yeah not all shops I think the the programs for example Aviation Mr Leo can speak to so the ones that are incoming right shops that are not at all four grade levels yet those programs with they're be adding another grade level program because I know I know for this year or last year you were looking for Aviation instructors I don't know where that's at now I don't know if you have existing people so I don't know what that would mean we're talking you're talking about expanding yeah just that program as an example right now we have uh we are we're intending to run a ninth B program so we have a ninth grade Aviation to us that's been working on curriculum has done some exploratory work but it's not working with full grade level yet until FAA that's the final approve Improvement so he's also been doing some substitute work and other things to fill in um if we get FFA I mean FAA approval um beginning of April possibly March uh then we are considering running an exploratory during the summer if we can run an exploratory during the summer we can then have so then we would want to hire another instructor but at this point we're not sure that that's going to be the case also depends on what our budget our final numbers come out in the budget uh whether we pursue that or not um so that's just an example robotics uh has three instructors so we'll be looking at hiring a robotics teacher bi biology I mean um biotech we had three I'm not sure if we went looking for fourth one or not we have in the past posted for four one for that spot so wherever there's a a necessary uh need to increase from existing programs that are still growing we may be adding structor but it's not across the board okay second Mrs so so you've already done the IR ready testing so we started it um in November and then the whole thing with the network kind of shut that down so we are looking to try to finish that up in our Wind Block for students who didn't complete it okay so you're you're going to identify those students and and then implement the necessary high quality learning that's how so um well how many steps does it have to go through and and also if I recall that Grant was like a four or five year thing was it I no student Opportunity Grant which oh that's that's a fiveyear grant okay and I believe it's five years it could be four but we're just finished our third year I think this new budget will be the third year that we've have opportunities and student opportunity yet will kick in okay so yeah it's a partly five years of extra funding to support student needs okay in different areas and then how do we know know that that it's working through more assessments and more testing and also data but if the if the extra help hasn't kicked in yet like well we've had it for two years so we students have had extra help the last two years and different whether it be Ela or math they've had homework help they've had an extra course work depending on some of them have specific course work that are those the students that have been identified after that assessment so it's kind of they're sort of different buckets right so we we try to give all students um the I ready testing I don't know about seniors I can't say all SE students um but we we're testing most of the students um we already Ed some of the results that we had from last year's it was a different assessment it's called the star assessment so we used that at the beginning of this year to identify students who are in need of um additional reading support so we already have uh two teachers who were new this year who implemented a new reading curriculum called read 180 um we also have based on that testing um the special ed Department started um their own reading curriculum they're using a different curriculum um so that's already in place and we could so we'll do the testing now which it's not ideal you'd like to test all of the students at one time and then you do it later in the year like in the spring to see what the growth is um unfortunately we're now going to have students tested in November all the way through January so you know it's not 100% alive um but it's sort of the best that we can do right now um so that will continue and then we'll you know we test the incoming freshman so typically it would be like twice a year would be that cycle um the hqm the math department is in the second year of using high quality instructional materials and this is the first year for the ELA so that's just being rolled out so it is definitely um we hope to see some gains by the end of this year and going into to next year but it is definitely a multi-year um initiative it's not something that will you know sort of change overnight but we hope to see you know Progressive growth and do you spend more time like on the freshman and sophomores speciically so more time in terms of the testing or any kind of extra yeah well the ninth and 10th graders that we that was one of the big changes that we made to the schedule this year so this year they have English and math weeks and so they have a half a day of shop in the past it was sort of the full five days of academics five days of shop now their schedule is broken up so they're basically in shop half the day and academics half the day so math and English every day we also assess their uh their quarterly grades and try to alignance some of the assessments we have like two two weeks ago I was looking at assessment with uh Penny ala director of teaching and learning and uh the U Isabel who does a lot of our collection data we're looking at some of the uh I ready data on reading and then trying to compare students in ela how they perform this first quarter based on how they score to see what the impact is on their grade in these particular courses to to identify whether they need additional support Beyond just the read read 180 so we're all and we have a specialist data specialist who's also looking at data basic on an ongoing basis then our Wind Block we're trying to drive our Wind Block on data that we collected and then do specific coursework for those kids and place them in the courses on Wind Block based on what their needs are so we're setting up specific curriculum designed to meet different standards based on the the gaps we see in students have into those wind blocks so we're doing a lot of stuff we're using data a lot more than we've used in the past to try to identify some of those weaknesses one other thing that I just wanted to highlight that um we did last week on the professional development day so um the CTE team along with fota and Chad they did a great job organizing that um professional development for CTE so they provided that I ready data for all their sophomores and juniors um it was shop specific so it wasn't just overall broad data they got to see their own students in grades 10 and 11 and to look at that data um and just having an understanding of where students were was I think really eye openening um and then they had a chance to sort of look at it and to break it down to figure out how that impacts their uh their teaching and in the future they'll uh probably at the next PD session they'll actually get more professional development on how to actually go into the system and to you know to find the data on their own and to really get more familiar with it but I think that was a really um important piece and integrating it into the shop since they spend half the time there I think the other thing about that too and help some to understand why certain students aren't performing the way they would expect them and why they're having challenges and understanding particularly when you're looking at techn uh technical manuals and things like that that students have to reference and then they struggle having an understanding of where their students are gives them a better CH chance to spend more time with those students who are specifically not area so that was one of the reasons I'm happy to hear that it's it's it's moving along so good any other questions uh the admissions report it's pretty self explanatory but maybe the assistant superintendent the superintendent have something to say on that yeah I mean basically right now we're still in the beginning stages of it um what we're finding uh we're close to where we were last year we might be a little there may be lag behind a little bit but it depends on how many um applications that we actually started to process so the numbers uh are not reflective totally on where we think the amount of applicant we have but you can see it is starting to quickly grow in terms of the numbers that we have that are applying you can see the at the bottom of the report that said the um class of 2029 started duplicate out of district and withdrawn applications were not included so students um who have started the application but they haven't fully submitted it um and incomplete application so um with that new Student Activity um that we have this year if a student hasn't submitted something yet they would be considered incomplete so I added up that those two categories the started and the incomplete and that's another 475 applications so rough um you know we're just at about 1,200 um and of course that final number depends on how many of those started applications students and parents follow through um we do have um a couple of people in the admissions office who are actually reaching out directly to those families who haven't submitted the Student Activity as well as the sending schools to make sure that they do that questions uh superintendent will you update us on the uh chapter 74 feasibility study for the following animal science veterinarian assistant construction craft labors and I'd appreciate if you include the update on the Elks yeah okay so we are um continuing to look at other possible opportunities for where job market might be suggesting that there's strong need for uh skilled labor uh as well which would then off offer us opportunities to take in more students but in the realm of uh two of the three that we're looking at right now uh we're looking to uh Start programs that we don't need more space here at jts so we're looking at animal science veterinarian assistant we've reached out to MSPCA um to uh do a partnership with them and run the programs out uh evidence there uh we have a meeting with uh one of the uh not the CEO but next level down his assistant uh when we come back from vacation I think it's the first week of January we're meeting we've had one informal meeting discussion with them uh we'll have a more formal meeting after to see they seem very interested in pursuing something like that but we're just in the beginning stages to determine how strong the job market is is what the interest of students would be and all that before I would come back to the committee and suggest that it might be something you might want to consider us starting those programs the construction craft labors is one that we're looking at uh we don't have that particular program other vocational schools too it's really pretty much a direct partnership with the labor union uh train uh students to uh become laborers uh it would be uh limited number of students but it would be partnership with that Labor uh Union if they were interested in working with us so we're looking at is that something that might make sense given that that's been a strong drop Market in the uh North Shore uh uh reports uh unemployment employment reports show that that is a a strong job market in that area so we are looking at it considering but I want to give you a head start right at the onset of our work just so that you know we're looking at it and then um and then we'll give you some reports on what we're find before we make any decisions on that and then whether we should move on that at the same time we would give you a plan on if we were to pursue these plan uh these programs uh what the impact would be on uh the school in terms of space uh budget personnel and all that before and so you can make a good decision whether you think is the right think we do enough but um we are looking at those and then as far as the out goes um the um gem line company next to the Elks is also interested in purchasing the Elks so theyve U reached out to us and want and ask if we want to do a partnership with them in terms of buying El because I know the city's also looking at whether there a better option than to buy um because the city has reached out to them to see if they still are interested in buying the outs so we did meet with them to talk about what does a partnership look like uh they're very interested in partnering with us because they're interested in um the parking lot but not the building so it might be a partnership that would save a lot of money uh but you know in terms if we decide to go down that pathway if they El do buy property so the the challenge still is finding them they haven't found a piece of property yet we did locate a building in the uh across the street basically dling from the Elks uh in the um over on power Street which is off Glenn Glenn Street there in sou Lawrence there was a building that uh is up for sale we brought them their building committee we met them over there they looked at it and they're interested in purchasing it uh but when the realtor uh showed them the building and after they showed they were interested they said well we got two other buildings we want to sell all three we won't just sell one but they never told us that when we went to look at the building now they want to sell all three and that's not something they else can afford or know they what they do so right now that's out of the that's out of the real so basically the El still do not have a new home so we're still in limo until that can I'll get back until that happens or whatever happens so that's kind of where we're at at the end any questions it's been ongoing saga we also supposed to have a meeting with the city on a piece of land been waiting a long time for that we had one meeting with them and I forgot to put us on the agenda so then they said we'll reschedule the meeting but we schedu a meeting and that was over 6 weeks ago so we're still waiting for schedu a meeting probably want to R develop the property so on Wednesday we sched that we find out there's a lot we did look at has some uh some issues with the lot but still we believe it's buildable if the out want to start from and built right from the ground it's just it's just another option for them in some ways it might be less costly for them um given uh market right now regards to commercial properties very high any [Music] questions Mr ly uh the Grant on a clean uh School Bus program EPA program so we pursued or we pursuing I should say U we originally were pursuing the grant proposal in partnership with our bus company uh reading bus uh company which we're still working with them but they're taking over the they're going to be the lead on the grant this time so what the grant is federal government's offering uh to pay for up to what they say 50 buses um uh electric buses so the fedal government's trying to encourage school bus companies to purchase electric buses so we we partnered with uh in order for uh ready to pursue this grant they needed us but we actually initiated it and we saw that so that they could they would be purchasing 30 electric buses with in our part being partnered with us which would um which would help in terms of the uh clean energy climate issues and we thought was a great opportunity to try to do something for the environment so we reach out to them they were interested we got the ball rolling so the grant is now in process of the application is now in process and should be completed sometime in the middle of uh January we actually feel pretty good about the possibility that they would get the Grant and our ring new collect buses with a lot other new technology that come along with it so and hopefully we could uh convince them to provide us with a cheaper rate or something we help them so anyways actually was going to make a comment as you was speaking but I mean I think the bottom line is if if we break even but kids get new buses and their electric and it helps the environment with them a good thing for the community so that's one of the reason we pursue the just I hope it makes it a FR any questions on the uh PPA Mr superintendent where would these buses be housed in ready or here well that's that's something that we haven't that's that's another whole issue that we talk to them about that we can talk to them about um we could if we were to house them here the electric uh all the electric uh stations would have to be here um so we would basically home them so that might be an opportunity to bring some Revenue solar farm yeah so they use our electricity and um drive for free right and we would charge them for electricity and make money on it there's some opportun there may be some opportunities with regards to the aspect of the program um I'm not going to uh suggest some other Visions for the whole thing that uh that might be possible that make money for and I that's another good reason to do it hey if if these people can make that money that is wow that Beyond The American Dream Ria yeah I I see opportunities for us to be able to make some situation any further questions always fun negotiations Mr so we had our first negotiation meeting last last night yeah with who with the teachers union I thought uh we exchanged proposals um I thought I thought it went well I was um somewhat pleased with what they gave us for a proposal I think it's a workable proposal nothing scary or overly through the roof we're not we haven't talked money yet though that's the one issue that's still hasn't been brought up so we still waiting for that to come but some of the things they presented to us I think are are things that we can work with them I think and driving some of the things that we want I've always found the teachers to be very reasonable for the most part yeah well depend they weren very reasonable during Co but other than that usually we have a good relationship and it works pretty well I think right now I think right now the last negoti went very well you they got everything but the moon but other than that I think right now well everybody did in the school yeah all schools did well yeah I don't think you have to police the teachers as much yeah so my only concern I thought the mood was good the interactions were good that's good so I think they reasonable people yeah yeah most of the time my only concern is why why is absenteeism yeah we that was a big we talked a lot about that yesterday and U trying what are some ways that we can uh curb some of the of that issue through some kind of uh contract it might be reasonable but they're not happy who's not happy know I don't know why would you stay out well we have we do have a lot of longterm that people are um which when we started to collect the data I'm going to give you later some of the data um you'll see that there's people you know returning leaves sickly there just a variety of other issues that people are out for for other people out so there's a variety of stuff that's driving some of the the data okay that we can talk about do we have a timeline for the next meeting uh in Janu January I think we have two meetings scheduled for January January any further questions Mr Vice yeah I mean maybe this question is more to you or superintendent so I know School committees well the school committee in the past has appointed members of the committee to well to represent the committee in those negotiations and I assume all unions are up for Ren renegotiation from so I don't know if we' done that I don't know if we've done that process I don't know who's representing the committee all those neg I haven't been asked and nobody else that I has been asked to we haven't been on it in a number of years okay and that was negotiated years ago back when I was vice president um because what was happening is we would have 10 meetings and we' always see somebody different on the school committee we' never see the same person so they were never up to speak we did recently have one uh for the admin yeah we had one uh school committee remember two committees last time around when it got difficult so when the we couldn't come to any kind of agreement with the administrators and we were having challenges with it then we brought on I don't know if we brought one or two SCH commit members on to try to help uh show the the administrative team that um they were U working with reasonable School Comm members and then and then the other one was the clerical U because a clerical one um we felt that might be a little bit of a challenge as well plus I don't negotiate the CL one because I have someone that's in that that I know so but other than that we never had administr school Comm members on any negotiation in the last 15 years since superintendent and the superintendent prior to meeting also didn't have school committee members on on on the negotiating committee okay but just in response to you I mean if the committee and to my understanding this is my understanding through mask is we the committee is supposed to appoint representative or representatives from the committee to be part of those negotiations if that was happening and there is different School Comm members and there that was there was just no responsibility or accountability in terms of who was supposed to be a negotiation so we have different units regardless of the conditions of of the negotiation or where where they're at and you guys aren't able to come to an agreement regardless this should be some sort of representation from the school committee in those negotiations and I know in the past so I know you say in the past 15 years but I know school committee members in the past that have been part of negotiations yeah not so my argument is not I want to be in negotiation table this is an argument more of sitting down generally there should be some sort of representation from the committee because I have no idea what's going on I'm hearing put a motion you can put a motion to get somebody on here but I believe that we first meeting we have that paper that says these are the yeah we already brought represent already agreed to do it the way we're doing but here's the other issue with you bring a school committee member on then you got to bring the attorney on if you bring a school committee member on you have to bring the attorney on and if you do that then they can bring their attorney on then it gets expensive and it gets lot long and it gets drawn up anytime you bring on an attorney and from my perspective every time we brought attorne a couple times we brought attorneys on and I would say that it's much more challenging first the attorney doesn't know half of what's going on for my experience every time we've had an attorney it's been more difficult and more costly but uh but we're not going to agree to anything the school committee has to agree to everything in this particular negotiations there's not a whole lot of things on the table it's very limited what's on the table the biggest issue will be might be honest with it very little on the table what they're asking for and what we're asking for very specific things you know I'll give you an example like one of the things that's important to us while we can talk about an executive session you know because it deals with negotiation so we can talk more about that so I can give you more insight as to what the issues are right now I can't do it an open session yeah no I I don't I don't mind you know not necessarily having a member I'm I'm saying it more generally as school Committee Member and knowing that there might be committee members maybe that want to be part of that process I I mean I'll just put it this way maybe we'll probably look further into it and in the next meeting talk more in depth about it but I think that's definitely a conversation that should happen at least so I'm not going to put any motion but we can put it down for future business yes I think that I brought it up prior when at a prior meeting about someone from here being in the on the committee and that's what I was told that it hasn't happened in the in the past so so why are we going to bring it up again I I would like because the vice chair wants to discuss it that's okay that's good reason I don't know if we voted on anything no we didn't I mean [Music] I we discussed about it and to my understanding was is if you needed assistance in the negotiation process then you would come to the committee and request a representative right um I just believe that it would be important to have representatives in line for each of the units so that if and when a school Committee Member would like to be part of negotiation or you are you're having trouble then you could call on the school committee to take part in that negotiation um you might not have an issue with the teach you might have an issue with the administrators or the cler and and and I know definitely your problem will not be the teachers but you will definitely prob one of the unit and that's why it's important that we at least one of us on each of the units are part but that's why I just mentioned for discussion for future the way you just explained it is right when superintendent was having difficulty with the admen he asked for two um committee men there and War and the attorney came as well yes once we did that I do understand I'm not worried about paying the attorneys I'm not no I'm not either be safe than sorry yeah don't let that deter you don't let that deter us yeah yeah that's not my concern I mean if we need the attorney we need the attorney but the way to go is we need to have some sort of representation of the school commit in those negotiations I have no idea what's going why we put it down on the future agenda we discuss it further I appreciate the update anything else on negotiations uh superintendent ly we want to move a January meeting looking to move January meeting to January 21st because I uh will be on a at a conference on that week motion to uh approve Mo moving that date does anybody want to check on that date from the 14th to the 21st which we would also be moving our general Advisory board meeting because they come in January we report out the recommendations so we be moving both can I get a recommendation can I get a motion please second FIS discussion Mr Mia yes Mr tabos yes M Ferris yes M dler yes Mr Hayden yes uh travel meal uh rates have gone up Mr want to talk about that so um recently well we haven't had an increase in the travel rates for basically food in uh since 2010 I believe so 15 15 years now and so proposing breakfast to go from $12 to $22 lunch 18 to 28 and dinner 3550 total $100 a day which is you know given food prices over the last 15 years has been substantially increased so we're looking to just increase the rates can I get a motion to approve the uh meal rates as presented Mr to box second second second discussion show Mr Mia yes Mr toox yes M Ferris yes M dler yes mren yes uh they've been changes to the calendar uh you'll see the uh the old calendar and the new calendar and the changes are uh on the third page Advisory board meetings senior finals senior senior final makeups and the awards night I think this had to do with the timeline for us being out for a week no explain to you why we have to change the the timelines so when we submitted our school calendar to the Department of Education as part of our civil rights review um they sent it back and they said that the seniors we getting out too early because um according to desie they can't get out any more than 12 days before the rest of the students and if you looked at our calendar the way it was broken up with the the seni um finals and all of that it was actually 17 days um so we adjusted the calendar to reflect that so um making the senior final go from May 19th to the 22nd now it's the 22nd to the 29th um I think just senior Awards night was changed and our graduation rehearsal obligation day um day after prom now so we're switching that to a 10:30 start instead of the early morning so making this adjustment just um helps us to be in compliance with des's requirements questions this is unrelated to the proposed changes um I mean I've gotten phone calls the last probably week and a half of why kids are going back on the second because the first is on Wednesday and the day after New Year's Day you about Thursday and Friday you're going to have families on vacation you're going to have a lot of absences so I'm just a little worried as to and I know all the other school districts in the in the I want to say all most of the districts in in the valley are not in session for the rest of that week because of that reason um and the way that they well the districts were making that upward towards the end of May to June for the last day of school so I'm just curious as to why or if we could prevent this in the future yeah so part of part of the problem for us is desity requires 185 days including the snow days so so I think you know I think part of our problem is well I wouldn't say it's a problem but for us what's different about us is we start our week on Wednesday so our kids really it's the second day of the week and if we wait till the following week they're going to come in and only have one day or two days left in that week and then go into another week so really is to our advantage to have them come in those two days so now they have their four day week and then the other group has their five otherwise it's uh you know it's uh I think it provides us with that opportunity to give the kids the time to um you know start the week get closer to the start of the week without having to only go to dat so you know educationally it's better um and given now that we had those four days it helps us too we didn't even plan on that but thank God that we have those two days right this year given that we lost the four days in November but I mean next year it'll be one day so that might have a big you know that'll change the whole thing but you might add the time on the other end before Christmas because now you may have instead of two days you'll have three days so you may push go two days in the beginning of the week uh because that's the back end of the of the fight they schedule as well so it's just something we consider and we can talk a little bit more of that when we present next year's calendar thank you anything further uh so I need a motion to update the I mean uh yeah motion to update the calendar as presented Mr discussion tler yes Mr yes yes Mr TX yes M FIS yes Mr yes agenda itend the calendar no the gap for the sen I don't we wer closely that is a concern [Music] business we have District committee priorities uniform update Mr have a uniform update for us so um we've we've had we have a uniform committee for people within the building we also had which we met uh we actually met today on it uh also have um the school council met on it today as well um so to uh give some consideration uh to what might what might be a good choice and we're also looking at uh doing a possible survey to the students once we have once we narrow it down to a couple possibilities to possibly do a survey with the parent with the families and and the students and get some feedback that way and then after that we make a final selection to bring it to the committee for a vote one of the things that it seems like it's been a long talk about I want I'm going to put it out there just to get a feel your feelings about this U t-shirt being a t-shirt to be a shirt uniform un academically with a pair of uh jeans I think that's what we're hearing most from the conversations we've had so far uh so that that what I didn't je blue jeans t-shirt and blue jeans for uni why would we put a uniform policy then just so if you don't like that that's fine because then it gives us some Direction that's not something that you would want to consider t-shirt and blue jeans okay with me it really is I I know a problem but I'm just I'm just curious as to I'm just this is this was Mr J Mr Jones request on uniform polies and where did this addressing come from came from two groups actually from the group from the group committee that we have from the school from this two separate groups and from the school council the faculty group actually was talking about like giving more options so in addition to jeans right uh possibly you know khakis or um you know black pants like that so we're looking at sort of different styles um options for shirts so having the option of a short sleeve or long sleeve t-shirt or a short sleeve or long sleeve polo um different color options things like that yeah so what's what's wrong with that I still go back to what's wrong with enforcing what's in the handbook oh I have no problem enforcing what's in why isn't it done because it isn't if you want to go to that rout but the committee voted to go with the uniform for real go committee wow this you you last no wait a minute did we vote for a whole uniform yes no Ed to look into it supposed to be no no they voted to go with the uniform no look at the look at the uh look at we did vote to look it to explore and to come back with a policy to come back with my was options and we voted to go to a uniform the committee was to look at options and present those options to the district committee for approval so we didn't vote for a uniform voted for that that's my last option I would bring you some ideas for you to bring you recommendations for uniform y for a uniform right that's what that but the idea was you going to vote for one of those uniforms we brought you two options that you were going to pick I'm only giving I told you what I told you we're telling you what we what we've discussed so far to give you an idea of what what the feeling is right but I'm just still wondering why you can't enforce what's in the handbook we can no you can't clearly it isn't that's that's the whole point it says no pajama pants there pajama pants it says no uh tank top so whatever I'm hearing that people are saying that it's it's a biased against females that's bizarre I mean maybe I'm not seeing stuff but I don't see people wearing tank TOS around the school I mean you might catch one here or one there you wouldn't know you wouldn't now I mean it's even early in the year I mean I never noticed that but I mean I'm not looking for like the kids been appropriately dress if I saw something glaring at me or if I saw a t-shirt that was you know had inappropriate uh comments on it I would certainly recognize that but um you know pajama bottoms yeah but it's for the most part kids violate the dress Cod there ended up in the in the discipline office the last meeting Mr Mercedes moved to seek out the current the creation of a dress code to look into the creation of a dress code which we all voted unanimously approved we didn't vote for a a specific dress code and if you look on page three there was talk about adhering to the handbook at the time it's in the front of your packets well how about if we maintain the here's a suggestion we maintain the existing dress code and we bring you back a report after two months of a list of the violations that we end up within the front off in the safe office of that dress code how many violations do we have and then you can make a decision after that yeah I mean I think we should just move forward with what we've been doing now um the suggestion you offered is fine at least with me I don't know others feel about it but in terms of what Miss f is more concerned about is the enforcement behind it so you're coming back with a you know new devel newly developed dress code which is what the intention is but in of that you know we need to make sure that we are being intentional we being clear and specific about enforcement and making sure that folks in the safe office and whoever is responsible for discipline um that we are making sure that we're holding people accountable and that folks are aware that we do have a handbook and this is the way where we need to enforce it and if you know once you come back with what is newly developed dress code then we talk about enforcement and how we could and if there are other strategies as to enforcement because clearly the strategies that are working right now that are in place right now are not working as efficiently as it should um and I and I tell you because obviously I have bus come a loud bus that comes past my house at 6:30 in the morning and my sister goes on that bus and I see at least five of them with Pajamas I pass by this road I live right down the street and I see half of the bus of kids with just these crazy fluffy sweaters with their their Grinch pajamas and everything so and slippers I mean like no no I mean just like just dress normal that's it I wouldn't mind again I wouldn't mind if it was a spirit week but I don't know something we're happy to do whatever you'd like if you would if my understanding is you were looking at doing uniforms and I'm fine to do that and bring you recommendations for uniforms and then in terms of enforcement it'd be a whole lot easier to enforce uniforms than anything else because everyone's going to be dressed in the same close to the not exactly the same thing but a criteria that's very easy to see yeah is you know a black T-shirt and khaki pants yep you're good to go you know what I'm saying if you don't not good to go yeah that's that's what I'm suggesting simp what I'm suggesting is can I get one of you to put it into motion please because we have so much on that uniforms put in a motion that we would be adhering to the current uh hand somebody formal motion yeah I'll get to that um but you know in terms of the enforcement piece it'll be much easier but just to have something clear and you know that we're being intentional in enforcing that um regardless whether it's easier or not um it's just better to have it in place so that you know you also respond to the concern that M feris has and other people have but I'll put that in a motion that's my discussion for yeah well I think um going with uniform will be clear what you is supposed to be dressed but not necessarily easier to enforce there might be other other difficulties in forcing it other challenges I don't know because we never did and I think you're absolutely right I think look I'm not going from A to Z I know it's hard for you to understand that because I usually go from A to Z but listen reverse no I mean I'm a reasonable person I just expect what's written in that handbook gets enforced and not today I decide to look the other way because you know Johnny or Susie is like having a bad day I'm sorry that's the way it is I mean I guess you can you know I don't that's the problem you can never do that now mid year start enforcing what's written in that don't write it in the handbook I mean that's the thing don't write it in but then I'll have a problem with what there's no there's no boundaries I I will have a problem with that well you know I was just trying to see like if we brought to you a t-shirt as the sh you going to be okay with that if you say oh no we're not going to be okay with that at least I have some direction to go back and say yeah that's not going to fly of course that's going to be the easiest that's the easiest thing but then like you said there are you know unintended consequences okay so the unintended consequence could be and or challenges that people can't get the shirt you can't you know afford that particular thing I don't want to get into well problem you got to have some clothes no matter what so I don't think you t-shirt pair of pants if it's jeans fine if it's something else fine it should be it should come right down to a shirt and a pants just not pajama pants okay that's I don't mind I don't mind what this than you offered I don't either but you know you don't have to even well that gives us some parameters and we'll bring you back something it gives me some clarity here yeah that's that's a pretty uh I think liberal or uh standard to me in my mindset you know so that that helps us yeah but in return I just want enforcement enforcement yeah I mean more the easy simple simp it is the easier it going be afford so if if you pick a t-shirt you might want to pick some kind of a shirt a sweatshirt or something that goes over on a cold days the kids might say well I want to wear my sweatshirt it matches the T-shirt something like that we would bring you that as well like accessories that that would make sense yeah what's up you want a motion I think we're clear with where we're going but we're going to keep going in the Direction with the process and once we get a response with the proposal and the ideal code we want to move forward with then committee would decide which one to go about I think I'm clear as to what you yeah are you confused any further questions does it make it easier yeah yes okay uh agender item 8 B new policy jka AA which I I believe is a file number this is from the state physical restraint behavior and support policies and procedures I believe there's 12 Pages we had uh from the common wealth of Massachusetts that we have to uh approve we have to vote on motion to approve discussion yeah this is um I assume an update from the association School update on this is from the code yeah yes the CMR code okay yeah all right they're not asking us no no I know I'm just I'm just asking whether being nice yeah this was also something that came out of that civil rights documentation review yeah thank you any further question sh pleas Miss Parris yes M dler yes Mr Mia yes Mr TX yes Mr yes new business we have none we did have uh something that we were discussing should on the old business I guess but the legislative breakfast the vi year had some questions on finding out May we're going to have one if we're having one so I mean it's not on the agenda but I can tell you that we're looking towards U beginning of February we want to get through the holidays then we gives us the month of January plan so after the start of the year we can then out invitations so that's what we're kind of looking at thank you table matters I see them Personnel considerations anry carasso special education bilingual Le effective December 20th 2024 Thomas Paulson pH Cal instructor effective date was December 20th 2024 there were no leaves of absences there were no retirements there was an appointment Thomas suin Plumbing instructor effective date was December 9th 2024 there is a job posting which I'll need a vote for special education psychologist local 1707 effective January 2025 new position C the attached is a job description for the next page can I get a motion on the job posting pleas car I have a second second discussion please ch um how many school psychologist do we have right now we have one one recomend recommended uh psychologists is one for every 500 students we have almost 2,000 we have one psychologist and is there a plan to meet the ratio are we just looking for one is this for one person we're looking for one we did not put another psychologist other than one that one budget to go any one we have other kinds of social workers that kind of fills the Gap a little bit but in terms of psychologist who really are desperate for the need for particularly in given the mental health challenges we have with kids today is growing substantially uh you know we have way more autistic kids uh the workload we have to be more and more evaluations of kids so uh we're really struggling in the special department but we got the number of students that we can meet further Mr tbx oh yes M Ferris yes M TLA yes Mr Mahia yes Mr ha yes future agenda items we have one already um I have missed one I think the superintendent missed it also Mr Mercedes I had a motion to have the Corey and soris uh done um I will add it to the next meeting it's on page four of the uh last month's meeting we'll addend that you want me to bring the application no it was the uh Cory stories to have a vote on to have the future um people sit in these chairs oh make it a a policy policy I missed it I think you had missed it I picked it up the other day so okay we'll do it on the next meeting okay sure so that under contr and we need to go to Executive session now Mr superintendent right we have a few things on that get a motion to go into executive session MO s discussion let's go into executive session shall we e e e sh okay um we're all set with executive session can I have a motion to adjourn motion to ad any other discussion all set Billy all
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going to share it later on I'm sorry terrible this might just pop up do you need the lights dim like this or off it's on YouTube for [Music] morning [Music] you for Annam we have two days tonight where the way might even be we switch up tomorrow be the other classes it'll be the upper and um so my name is this is our lovely MC for the night and we got Liam on lights Liam all right and oh so we will hold we will hold for photographs if you want to we need to you'll need to make it up here so after we'll turn the lights on and your child the students will stand and take a couple pictures pictures and then they'll leave okay so up here needs to be um is where you come for pictures so if you're going to people are going to walk up here you have to be real careful okay here is our lovely [Applause] MC Miss and Miss br's [Applause] [Music] class master [Music] to a boy [Music] Rock [Music] Santa's got to make it town take [Music] it [Applause] [Music] [Applause] just turn on the lights um you want to come up if you're in the back can you please this is going to be the way people are G to come up does anybody want to come up closer and take some pictures have to um we might have to keep the aisle clear for fire [Music] safety reasons can I go right there come right in here yes please and I forgot to mention earlier that we have Jimmy from our it Department here yeah Jimmy the IT department he this is our first year trying it we're live streaming it right now but he's also recording it and there's a special YouTube channel we'll let you [Music] know so we're really lucky for Jimmy say thank you [Applause] Jimmy 10 n 8 7 4 and three two and a half two one and a half one [Music] why does Santa have three Gardens so he can go ho ho [Laughter] ho what does Santa clean his sigh with com what do you get when you cross a Snowman and Frostbite why is Santa so good at karate because he has a black B what's the best thing to give to your parents for Christmas a list of everything you want why did the elf push his bed into the fireplace because he wanted to sleep like a walk what do else in school the alphabet why did SpongeBob have a good great Christmas because he kissed a pat [Music] what did The Lion at the beach have in common with Christmas sanding clo [Music] Miss Gregory and Miss W's Class 12 Days of Christmas [Applause] here bu so scared [Music] oh wait oh I'm sorry I just want to see iford [Music] she is here you guys ready [Applause] yes chist [Applause] chist [Music] turt [Music] ch [Applause] ch [Applause] nothing s [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay don't you come up here and take pictures right down here for a minute so they can take pictures can they see you might want you the first can you sit down again can you sit down par that are coming up you can come up here parents up here in front four here you can come right up in here you can come right up here 2 thank you wasn't that great [Applause] what kind of music do El listen to what do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus what type of potato potato chip is Santa's favorite Chris pingles [Music] why are Christmas trees bad mirors they drop their heels what did the dog say to Sant Santa Miss Rodriguez's class and Miss F's class Rudolph the red no reer [Applause] [Music] right here mama you take a video take the video [Music] a video Jacob okay [Applause] [Music] ready [Applause] [Music] and dancer and dancer and and you [Applause] [Music] heree [Music] history history [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] take pictures here jaob jaob it's [Music] okay your go to the [Music] class huh she jell what is Santa's dog's name Santa Paul why didn't the skeleton go to the Christmas party he had no body to go with him Lucas who delivers Christmas to sh Santa sorry what do you get when you cross Santa the detective [Music] Santa what is is the best Christmas present a broken Dr you can eat [Music] it mandz is last Santa Claus is coming to hi twin [Music] [Applause] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] know [Applause] [Music] a [Applause] [Music] s CLA is coming Santa Claus is coming to [Applause] [Music] job good job Hy [Applause] stop moving boy hello [Applause] [Music] D yeah yeah yeah yeah is the rudest will be [Applause] our parents would you please help us by getting the chairs on stacking the chairs up on stage please thank you Miss W class I want to there is [Music] do it [Music] I want to for Christmas [Music] St [Applause] [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] like vegetarian [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] stand [Music] like me too [Applause] picture look at your [Music] thank you for coming everyone tomor go find now
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Mr secretary roll call please all right uh Mr Alber here Mr gagos is here uh Mr swales here miss zeit sters here miss War folk wolfolk is here wol for sorry my apologies uh Dr Hall here and president Brown here let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by board secretary Mr gyos followed by our mission statement read by Dr Hall vice president I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and our mission statement is to engage and Empower our students to positively impact their community and Future thank you both do we have any public comments we do not I'm going to make sure we force us to have some where's Mr serma all right so he forfeited his time all right no public comments board updates any I just wanted to give a shout out to all of the music students who participated in the Merit band like ensembles bands jazz bands music groups they were fantastic this week and I know a lot of the students go in and put in a ton of time so congratulations to them and all of the uh instructors okay thank you thank you yeah um I wanted to say we had a pretty good meeting today just before the the board meeting about the new um Athletic Complex that's coming um want to Comm in Jason and his team they they did a really good job of putting information out there um just getting in taking in the ideas and thoughts from everybody but it looks like it's progressing pretty well and I thank everybody for especially your team for the hard work that you do thank you Dr H so you saying we're going to be ready to play our first football game next week um maybe the week after oh the week after okay next year next year all right thank you sure it was in the F FYI but um last Friday I met with Jason and Cara you know last month I had a question about some of the expenses that over budget and we talked a little bit about that one of the actions that Jason and Brian took was to they were able to move some of the expenses that July and AUST back into the prior fiscal year in a way such that we'll still meet our financial recognition score um and then that'll take some of those expenses out so help us meet a financial recognition score for this coming year but really it's still just moving a cash I mean it's still a cash expenditure you know you're just kind moving out of one bucket into the other so it's still something that we as a board and the administration need to keep an eye on our expenses excellent really really good eyes on that appreciate nelon yes well great great keeping your eyes and and we definitely will miss you with those eyes on our finance so if you would like to stay around a little longer just please let me know okay okay thank you we'll all right all right all right so any other board updates I just want to thank board members for and and the superintendent for going out and engaging with the principls we met I I was there I did a kind of a hot handoff to to board member J Janine and and Alex because we didn't want three board members kind of coming together at one time so but all of us had a chance to meet with the high school principal today uh as well as our superintendent so she always have the coffee fresh bringing to us to have our coffee with the various principles so just's keep it going appreciate it thank you so much all right administrative updates superintendent well I'm delighted tonight to have a special presentation from our high school students uh Mr GBS has invited uh some of his top performers to come tonight and Mr GBS I might turn this over to you to share a little bit about your selections that we'll be enjoying this evening well I just before you get started I just want to let everyone know that he did select me to play the bass tonight as soon as I came through the door I didn't have I didn't bring my instrument so it's my fault okay all right thanks for not thanks for forgetting it that's not right I have the honor and the pleasure to share this beautiful music with you our wonderful grass students and I'm starting here from bicor okay [Music] a [Music] wow wow wow next election is [Music] oh [Music] wow wow very good that proud proud board [Music] member let me do something [Music] f the [Music] wow before we play our final F I would like to say a few things about our wonderful students um we have kayen who is a great CL student he is doing day right we have Mr besides the academics and he is part of the FFA program very active and we have Jo R and Nate who besid the academic they part of the Merit program and race and Mar they go every Saturday and study and marage and I also study with Mar teach that's another collaboration that we have for our uh R and Nate was studed by to perform a performance wow Nate is the one that is going to the state represent and I'm proud to announce that he is wow wow our senior so yeah the Chicago $1,000 who yeah wow yeah grad wow wow yes and the left personal that's for you yes [Music] h all [Music] h [Music] h h all oh [Music] [Applause] wow more more more I have to say that I was planning to bring the whole but I not enough room so we have to let me I would have left out and gave him room and heard from the outside okay oh my God thank you oh my God that that was awesome I know oh my God that's awesome any board members want to make any comments on that outstanding I was going to say if you've ever questioned why you're in this position is supporting the incredible students and the incredible staff I mean Mr G does a great job with the with these students absolutely without a doubt absolutely anyone else just blown away just blown away at the talent no no pun intendent yeah the wind instruments it's just uh amazing something that I could never do great job yeah we thanks you so much for coming awesome job and keep up the good work yes anyone else I got a question um I just want to thank the teacher for highlighting that young man's scholarship if I heard him right he said $120,000 but keep the change YES scholarship for being a trumpet player that is outstanding that is I hope we've highlighted that somewhere other than this forum I'm new to the area so or to the board so I'm sure this is old news but I hope that we are definitely highlighting something like that that's good point we want to share a little bit of the whole information have other students I'm sure you do there's no doubt I was just sharing information that's amazing I just you to remember knows ask hey uh I I I know we get all of us are proud but I know we definitely get a proud board member and it would be remiss for us for you not to say something yeah I know you can share to I just want I just want him to practice practice at midnight oh he does believe me he practices every day so he practices at some random times so thank you so much thank you outstanding if I was on the outside just heard you guys didn't see you I was swear there was 50 players there good job okay Mr grip excellent EXC excellent wow I think we're going to have to rename this as not just good news but great news okay that was outstanding and I I do recall playing as a little kid the trumbone and I believe that bigger thing I don't know if that was a a tu but I used to have a smaller version called a baritone but I was only like six years old and I gave up everything the next year and then you know here it is 60 years later I decided to go with a guitar and a piano so I hope they stick with it have them stick with her okay he will okay plan and I'll come back in 10 years and see okay all right all right great okay superintendent that was it for you and the ad man excuse me and I know I want to make sure you have your mic on sh you have your mic on is it green it's green yeah you need too I thought picked that up all right thank you all right and next on the agenda is the consent agenda approval can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so move second second and anyone want to take anything out of it okay superintendent are you ready to read all this okay I'll let you choose how much you want to go on this okay I I will go through it all okay okay item one uh approv Committee of the whole meeting minutes of November 12 2024 item two approved Committee of the whole meeting F uh first Clos session minutes of November 12 2024 item three approved committee the whole meeting second closed session meeting minutes of November 12 2024 item four approved regular meeting minutes of November 19 2024 item five approve regular meeting closed session minutes of November 19 2024 under business item one approve the Board of Education financial report item two approve a payment of uh one 1,416 18157 to weather proofing Technologies Inc for work completed at Creed Elementry item three approve a payment of 4748 to CCC Holdings Inc for work completed at cre uh Mooney High School on a Personnel approve the Personnel reports which includes approving certified staff employment resignation intent to retire and educational support staff employment reassignment resignation and leave of absence and that concludes the consent agenda okay any further questions or comments yeah so the payment to weather proofing Technologies that's for the roof at Phase One are they done for was that kind of for everything they did this year yeah they concluded uh phase one and we are going to proceed with phase two this summer okay and then the CCC Holdings that was for the ex the addition yes for the bridges addition um and that's not the final payment there's still a retainage um out there and a small amount of work that needs to be done with smoke controls in the manufacturing land okay yeah the the roof is one phase one of three right yes sir yeah and I asked Jason earlier that's not the retention uh they still have that cuz we're going into winter to see if that water if that pipe breaks again yeah or whatever they main entrance for you we'll see how it holds he bender and CC if they were able to fix that yeah you know um they did do the work on it you know temperatures are dropping keep an eye on that so uh that will test it and both of these are budgetary items right did we have these y they're both capital projects Capital that we accounted for yes sir all right okay um great question questions any further questions or comments if not roll call please Mrs secretary did you say Mrs I said mister all right I hope I said that please play that back Don Miss War folk oh War folk yeah I was like I was a that's all right that's all right I'm getting what are we doing uh uh proving I uh Miss z somus i Mr swales hi g go says an i Mr Albert I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion carry number eight Action Report under a alpha business can I have a motion to approve a resolution authorized certificate of tax levy in the 2020 three tax levy so move by both so then I'll second okay that was moved by Dr Hall or Dr Hall Nelson got second by Jamie sure any questions or comments we would need to uh excuse me we would need to make an adjustment is the 2024 tax Lobby I'm sorry we do need to make an adjustment that's a 2024 tax Lobby the typo not 2023 I saw that I'm like am I getting this right here 2024 thank you yeah let me just rephrase this so I can get it right I'm like did I miss something here okay so going back to the motion again and if we want to try to redo this okay so the motion is to approve a resolution authorizing certificate of tax levy and the 20124 tax levy so will it be motion uh motion by you Nelson again mhm yeah so moved and second I'll second that hi Jam okay sorry I said maybe I missed something I know okay thanks Jason all right no questions or comments we do not have any is that our only Moy tax assessor any assessors come oh both of you okay oh all right sorry I kind of looked you know I don't have the best headlights over here um I want to appreciate I really appreciate thank you and thank you for both coming it looks like we don't have any public comments regarding our tax levy so that's that's a good thing so really thank both of you for showing up so happy holidays to both of you okay yes send the bill to Ken serman he's around here somewhere thank you right yeah but that says a lot about both of you we summons if they could come they took time onor their day just just to be here as a team to speak to the public if needed you know we had some issues I believe a tax assessor Mrs herd had before experienced public asking comments within this environment years ago and we had her there to kind of defend the process a little bit when it comes to the levy and assessments so so I really appreciate both of you showing up look at that we need to get a picture that that's teamwork over here excellent thank you so much okay if there's no further questions or comments we take did we take a roll call no we took a roll call no no roll call please Mr Albert I Mr guo say an i Mr swales hi Miss zit somus I miss wfol I Dr Hall I and president Brown hi motion carry and and Jason since Ken's here and he's I'm sure he's not doing anything tomorrow he'd probably love to drive this over to Juliet for you been escorted by both of our assessors that'll be great and there's a the time when do we have to have this in by to Will County by uh December 31st it's the last Tuesday in the calendar year okay but as Brian said we we submit it electronically and we'll get it all taken care of tomorrow we won't wait yeah don't get too festive on us okay sir all right any old business new business I I I want to again thank Dr Perkins okay oh no I wasn't going to let you forget that I saw congratulations I know I know I know Cheryl is usually up and she's on top of everything and you again I'm not saying anything new here about my hitlights I can't see doctor on that name tag not yet no I mean the desk one there yeah and I start make I I started to do a piece of Pap silent tonight okay don't be Incognito you earned it you worked hard for it it absolutely yes so can you just stand and we give you BGE congratulations thank you thank you Dr Perkins for that's a a huge a achievement I really appreciate all the hard work you know couple with you doing all hard work here too I know that there was a juggling act there so thank you so much all right any other new business and I do want to say happy holidays to uh everyone here today and all the hard work your your team does for us okay it's really appreciative your whole cabinet and all the staff teachers and hard work this the students they are first and foremost while we here our students all right we do have a reason to go into close session and that would be for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees I can read that a little easier because I have the fun of about n 95 here I say so I can see thank you chery on that so uh can I have a motion for going to close session for reason stated hi all right motion motion by Bill second by Dr Hall any questions or comments how long Dr how long 10 minutes 15 no longer than 15 minutes and there will be no further actions conducted after that thank you public appreciate you joining us today taking the time out of your life appreciate it have a happy holiday season and happy New Year to all God bless
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
right welcome everybody to our educatione for December happy to see all of our students educators of the month here excited to recognize you guys let me just read open public Mee statement the pledge of Alle Stu so the New Jersey public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of public that notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which time business affecting their interest is discussed and act in accordance with the provisions of this act and Board of Education policy 0162 Board of Education of the bur of B this meeting to be posted in the board office at high school and mail the facts to the C Newser South Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice and the require fee please stand with plge [Music] alleg Al to of the United States ofer theice Mr pleas certainly Mr here mron hereo here Carlton Mr here miss h Mr bmer here and Mr J here M president you have a f pres thank you mrki for my president's comments this evening I will just be brief and uh recognize the wonderful gifts that each of the board memb should have receive this evening they are courtesy of our high school robotics team uh who used the printer and CNC machine to develop some ornaments for us so uh some working action forage team and um I'd like to give my thanks on behalf of the [Applause] board and that let me turn over to Dr frean for the superintendence good good evening everyone and Welcome to our December board meeting our last before the start of the new year thank we get to celebrate some of our wonderful students and staff before we go on break so I'd like start with our students of the month I'd like to call up Dr s for the students of the month for [Applause] the congratulations to ariela LeBron she is in our preschool program her teacher's name is Miss Sebastian she has one sister her favorite school subjects are painting and writing her favorite hobby is playing with friends when she grows up she wants to become a chef congratulations ariela y [Applause] congratulations to Liam Gomez Asia he's in kindergarten his teacher name is Miss Forge his favorite school subject is math his favorite hobby is playing with Legos when he grows up he wants to become a police officer congratulations Liam come on down y [Applause] congratulations to Grayson Ramirez she's in first grade her teacher's name is Miss forgett she has one sister and one brother her favorite school subjects are math and music her favorite hobby is cheerleading when she grows up she wants to become a kindergarten teacher [Applause] and next up for our students from Lafayette school [Applause] this our second grade student of the month is aan Kilpatrick [Applause] she is from Miss amar's class she has two brothers and three sisters her favorite subject is math her favorite part hobby is cheerleading and she wants to become a teacher when she gos up [Applause] congratulations congratulations [Applause] our third grade student of the month is Marjorie moika [Applause] araga she's from Mrs Pino's class she has uh two brothers she loves to read she says it's fun to read her favorite hobbies are gymnastics jump rope playing music and dance and she also wants to be a teacher when she grows up [Applause] [Music] congratulations Round of Applause next up for SCH school we have Mrs winter [Applause] so our fourth grade student of the month from Miss Diaz's class is Gabriela Galindo [Applause] Guzman she is from Miss Diaz's class she has a four-year-old brother her favorite subject is reading she likes to play with a brother specifically hide and seek she likes to color and she wants to be a lawyer when she grows up [Applause] our fifth grade student of the month for Miss Gonzalez's class is Samantha sales monoband has two brothers her favorite subject is math she loves dra and crafts and she wants to be an art teacher [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and our sixth grade student of the month is Nicholas [Applause] Lynch here us tonight he has two sisters his favorite subject is Jim he loves to play soccer and basketball and he either wants to be a doctor or a lawyer [Applause] and next up for Community Middle School Dr Santa [Applause] Ser good evening everyone the Community Middle School is proud to recognize as its first nominee Juan Pablo Mendes [Applause] congratulations well done Juan Pablo was nominated by his teacher Miss Esposito uh has an older an older brother an older sibling favorite subject is language arts and Juan Pablo loves playing chess and watching motivational videos on YouTube when he grows up and I like this one he grows up wants to be a scientist astronaut or in your words maybe a normal job like in retail restaurant love it congratulations well done [Applause] the next nominee from the Community Middle School Natasha [Applause] Miranda Natasha was nominated by her teachers Mrs baros and Mrs Gonda Natasha has three older siblings favorite subject is math which I always find it interesting it's like the language arts teacher nominates the kids that like math and vice versa right favorite hobbies is liking to play loving to play with your uh with their brother drawing and watching movies and when Natasha grows up wants to be an architect [Applause] next up for DHS Mr Smith good evening L school is pleased to recognize the Crusader citizens of the month for the month of December our first recipient Michelle Santa Maria Michelle has no siblings and is an only child her favorite subject in school is AP Spanish and makeup design through the rbcc workforce learning program uh she enjoys reading books drawing and coloring her career plans um are to become a software engineer what [Music] [Applause] our next recipient is Emily Batista em Emily has two brothers Brian and Denny her favorite subject in school is science because it Fosters curiosity about the world about the world around us uh she would like to go she likes to go on walks and baking new things as well as listening to podcasts her career plans are to attend a four-year University and study Neuroscience followed by medical school and residency to hopefully become a pediatric neurologist [Applause] all [Applause] right our next recipient Bianca [Applause] Lopez Bianca has two siblings Ariana Lopez and uh Kaylee L Kayla Lopez her favorite subject in school is math her favorite hobbies include walking listening to music swimming and exploring new places in the future she would like to study Finance business Andor economics [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] last but certainly not least the man the myth The Legend John Paul [Applause] Gonzalez John Paul has one sibling um Jan Carlos his favorite subject in school is Spanish his favorite hobby include wrest the sport of wrestling and in the future he's going to join the [Applause] Army one more hold on one more two [Applause] there all right round of applause for high school students [Applause] of at this time I'd like to call back to go forward to recognize our district employee of the month [Applause] congratulations to Mrs Kore and being selected as a district employee of the month for her outstanding contributions to our school Community as a dedicated mentor to new teacher she constantly goes above and beyond providing guidance support and encouragement to help them navigate their first years with confidence Miss kilgore's expertise and her Readiness to assist whenever needed make her an valuable resource fostering a positive and supportive environment for everyone her strong communication with parents ensures they are well informed and involved building trust and enhancing the overall educational experience this kill also played an important role in implementing the connect for learning curriculum providing helpful feedback that was key to its successful use her leadership and commitment to improve the curriculum has been essential to its growth whatever collaborating Co colleagues supporting parents or assisting individual individual teachers Mrs Kilgore is always ready to help she's truly a team player who constantly goes above and beyond for the of our entire School Community congratulations Mrs Kilgore your contributions are deeply appreciated and we are grateful for everything you do [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay okay this time with all parents and students of the month please proceed to the stage where we will take a group picture you guys can come right in front make we're not the important the important people in front that's you she [Music] SL ready one more one two all right w [Applause] nice job really really good [Music] so parents we're going minut recess if you to take pictures the teachers here [Music] is first of all I would hours [Music] wait love all right why don't we go ahead and we up the agenda item 2.3 this is a presentation by Miss so totally the floor is yours and uh we're looking forward to and actually um s Ed Smith will also be presenting [Music] everybody good everybody um so good evening we're going to present information um the results from the alternate access um testing for our special education multilingual Learners and also um Mr Smith and I will be talking about the grading guidance um that was put into effect for our multilingual Learners as of four weeks ago four weeks ago yes um so we're very excited about that as well um so the alternate access the wa alternate access is a large scale English language proficiency test for students in grades K12 with the most significant cognitive disabilities um the evaluation criteria it determines the English proficiency of each student um it is a different test in the regular access test um taking into consideration the students that need to take it um it compares the standards that framework that it uses it uses the waa standards um the five main standards plus the um the proficiency level descriptors and the target audience are again students with disabilities uh the purpose is to monitor the English proficiency progress throughout their years what we get from the alternate um report alternate access report is their proficiency levels it does um have a different scale than the the regular access test where at the in the regular access test we might get like a 3.2 2.8 the alternate AIS gives us whole numbers only from one to five and instead of being one to six as well um the composite score includes the oral language literacy and comprehension scores um provides a whole number reflecting student performance and explains what the students can do with their English at those specific levels for each domain um this is a sample individual student report as you can see it's 1 through five um and the alternate CL proficiency levels are unique um a student who scores uh for example a proficiency level of one on the alternate score is not necessarily performing at the same level that a student um multi learner taking the regular access test um you know would perform at those levels as well so it's different um and it is also a one-on-one assessment with the student um last year we had four students in our whole District to um take the alternate access test one was a student in kindergarten um the the proficiency level for that student is level one the other three students are from were from the high school so two of the students scored a proficiency level of one and one student scored a proficiency level of five so that is actually the highest that that student could um score we don't have um we don't have the cut scores yet from the educational um organizations so they ask also since it was new last year and they revised it they asked for us not to compare from the previous years to last year because it's two different tests but in the previous year also no students took the alternate test in b um so grading di for MLS we needed to implement grading guidance for our MLS to ensure that grades accurately reflect students content Knowledge and Skills rather than their English proficiency this approach promotes Equity supports their academic progress and aligns with the best practices for fair and inclusive assessment um just a little back background about the subgroups that we have um for our MLS at the high school we have a subgroup of long-term multilingual Learners those are students that have been identified as multilingual Learners and have been in the program for six or more years um their conversational English is usually pretty fluent so if you are having a students you would think wow they are totally fluent in the English language but their content um is not at that same level so they struggle academically and hence they they're they become multi um long-term multilingual Learners because the access test as you might remember from my previous presentation not only does it um give us the proficiency of language but it also they have um they get assessed in the grade level standards for every single grade so it's really hard to pass that test if the students actually don't understand the content um these students may be disproportionately identified as having special education needs at times and enrolled in lower level classes remedial courses non-credit bearing electives or classes that do not count toward a college preparation degree the contributing factors for this subgroup is um sometimes a learning disability um the recr effects of circumstances such as poverty um frequent moving from District to District sometimes from state to state um and the lack of appropriate supports in elementary and middle school the second subgroup that we have at the high school are newcomer students with interrupted formal education these students um are recent arrivals in the United States and they might have gaps of like two or more grade levels in their um academic MC growth and not necessarily just the two previous grades before they got to the high school it could be in at any um any grade span um so and then those students have less than grade level equivalent education in their home country um they may have lower literacy in their native language as well which makes it even harder um for them to attain the content because even if they were to understand it and read and write and native language that would be a benefit to them to understand the content but because they lack that um it's often kind of like you know more difficult for them um the third subgroup that we have at the high school are newcomer students who are at or close to grade level we actually have seen more students um in the past couple of months coming in in that subgroup um which is very interesting we normally don't see that but it's good because they're able to be placed at a higher level ESL course so they can go into ESL 2 and at times have gone into an ESL 3 class um and then they can actually understand the content with supports if they're provided um so they enter the they also enter our US schools with high school transcripts that are transferable to our grading system and our graduation um credits uh the group subgroup are progressing MLS these are the students that enter US schools in late Elementary or middle school as multilingual Runners they are on track to exit the multilingual status within the typical four to sevene time frame so all throughout the whole United States these are the subgroups but we do have every single one of those four um subgroups represented in our high school so as of um today we have 155 multilingual Learners at the high school 65 of those 155 students have been in the program for three or more years um and I put the breakdown there from three years all the way to um we have two students in the high school that have been in the program for 10 years those students um are sophomore right now and they entered the um bilingual program at a kindergarten level there's still um multilingual owners they cannot pass that access test um although we are making some gains um with all the students um this is what happens when we don't meet their needs um early on in their educational trajectory so how have we equipped our teachers um to get them ready for all these subgroups of students at the high school um we provided programs um that are beneficial to our MLS professional development tools and Bilal and a Bilal and ESL instructional coach um we have uh the high intensity ESL which we provide two periods of ESL for our students one is aligned to the World Language standards and the second period is aligned to the English language arts standards and they do get credit for World Language and for English language arts with those classes um so and then apart from that we apply for a waver for to have that test because we don't have full-time bilingual at the high school um and we are required just to have those two classes for high intensity asell to be in compliance but we go a little bit beyond that which which I think is why we are seeing a lot of academic Su success with our students um we also provide sheltered instruction classroom settings where the teachers have or are being trained in sheltered English instruction practices so that the students can comprehend that content that they might not be ready for um due to the language proficiency um and then so our students receive those two um supports at the high school the sheltered um instruction professional development um as you know we started this training last year and to date we have trained 139 staff members throughout the whole District every year in October we have a cohort or two cohorts um of the new teachers that were just hired or that might have been hired at the middle um of the previous year or after the training had begun so we do have a list where we track every teacher to make sure that they get that training um so 139 State and total um staff in the district is about 254 so we're kind of halfway there um um and the teachers also when they attend the training they get a lot from it and are very excited when we can just hand over um tons of resources and tools for them so we also provided the teachers with training um and the resources of candy descriptors those um Candy descriptors actually benefit the teachers as well as Administration anybody who's going in observing the teachers for the Educators um they can use them to differentiate the curriculum instruction and assessments based on what the students can produce at each of those levels for the administrators and school leaders um they're useful for communication with other Educators about the language proficiency and also to be aware of the needs of the students at those at those schools um they support that we are can do philosophy throughout schools and districts as well we also have link it which is our data um data storage is that the word warehous there we go um so it's our data warehouse where the teachers have also been trained to go in there they can they can look up any of their students from um well not kindergarten because we wouldn't have any information from that but from first grade all the way through 12th grade they can look at their students they can see the previous year's performance on the access test and it also provides it provides a lot more but um another highlight is that it also provides provides a proficiency um level like when would they like a prediction of like when they're going to be attaining proficiency so some of them might two years some of them might be three years so on and so forth depending on their performance um so those the teachers have been um trained like I said to use that and they are taking advantage of that um they have the reports growth projections and they can also use this um tool to plan differentiated instruction based on domain specific proficiency levels um they can use them to monitor progress and evaluate program Effectiveness and share accessible reports with stakeholders and everybody then is looking at the same data when it comes to like the supports that the students need um and then one one of the other supports is we have U Mary Picasa our ESL and bil instructional coach at the high school who is diligently working with every single teacher and is um very uh I think yeah so teachers are reaching out especially when we have the sheltered instruction training they learn what they learn about what she can help them with so they make appointments with her she goes in their classrooms whatever they need she provides for them um so provide job embedded professional development she goes in she can model um and demonstrate best practices for the teachers um offer non-evaluative feedback on a regular basis if they ask for that um and she's you know site based teacher leader who supports both the teachers and the students so she also is very aware of every single multilingual learner at the high school she probably knows their access course by memory um she also can create an environment where students need um needs Drive the professional development that the teachers might need offer guidance and feedback at the exact time that teachers needed the most which is one of the best benefits of having a coach there and available um she can also Inspire teachers to try new learning strategies and new schools and facilitate the transition from teacher center learning to student um center learning so now um Mr Smith will wrap up and take all that information okay putting it all together what does that mean for MLS at the high school thank you Miss Heyman I appreciate it okay so you know just the thought of like being dropped in another country visiting another country and expected to perform up to what all you know the native born speakers um are expected to do it's really an unfair expectation and you know what we've been seeing as as a high school administration is our multilingual Learners failing five six classes with you know fives tens sevens now several years ago we kind of scratched the surface with you know a PO not a policy but a procedure for grading the MLS but it never really came to fruition so this year myself miss heyerman Mr clear and Miss lson we kind of sat together and we really really worked through looking at different school districts and their their procedures and looking at the state documents and we had uh come up with um a a procedure that's going to work for us but it's in compliance and align with what the expectation is from the state so um in terms of our our procedure um providing Equitable and supportive grading practices to the students again it goes back to you know you have students that speak zero of um you know the English language and just to expect them to perform I mean some of our students think about this um went to school in like a mountainous region of Mexico they don't even speak Spanish in some cases and you know they're coming to school and they're dealing with Chrome books and textbooks and you know this high level rigor that we've been pushing here at the high school and we were seeing you know ultimately um they were being set up to be unsuccessful okay so we were looking at a way to um you know bridge that Gap and to break down the barriers for our students to be you know greated appropriately appropriately and okay so um I'm not going to read through all the different slides as you can see right here so um CLA had talked about can do descriptors and things that us as administrators of classroom you can see that teachers are modeling this approach and utilizing these can do descript students um Miss pitka uh she did she did a PD at one of our faculty meetings on using the fingertip files um we've been pushing data you know at the high school and it's you know I talked to Dr Freeman about this sometimes it's uncomfortable and in all fairness I think you know um we may have come up a little short assuming that teachers know how to use data to drive instruction and that's not always the case so that's been like an instructional focus of hours at the high schools focusing on data to drive instruction you know using higher level questioning but at the same time we need to be fair to the multilingual Learners to make sure that they're being graded equitably and that we're setting them up for Success so this is uh basically the rubric that we had come up with um so for your levels it says level one to level 3.5 and then you're going to see level 2.0 to 5.5 it's not a clean break because it depends you know you have some students that may blow it out of the water in testing for listening but their you know their reading skills may be you know deficient or lacking so that's why there's some overlap because it it's individualized per student instead of just making a cookie cutter ones and twos this and then threes and fours fives and six levels fives and sixes will be graded this way there is some overlap because you know like you had said there's a student that has been um a multilingual learner since what kindergarten and it's still a multilingual learner at this point where other students they progress pretty quickly through through the program and they're able to exit and then go into um you know regular education classes but with with support okay so if you see here a student is given a passive grade so it's a p or an F passing or failing obviously but in order for them to pass they need to be prepared they need to come to work they need to you know complete you know the work to the best of their ability communicate or try to communicate at least um you know how they're feeling obviously in English because we're trying to um obviously promote uh literacy amongst the students um they're attended during instruction so basically they're doing what they need to do in the classroom and we're teaching them how to be students is it really fair to grade them um numerically um and again as we saw five six seven classes failed because of the old approach that was being utilized because teachers did just didn't know so we put this document together we sent it out to our staff and we've seen a tremendous amount of growth in one market period usually when you're you're changing procedures it's a multi-year process with changing the grading um structure for the multilingual Learners I mean you're going to see the data in a moment it's kind of astounding uh how much growth has been made just in one marking period so I'm excited to see marking periods two three and four and how we're going to fair for duration of the of the school year so looking here uh we have comments in Genesis that teachers are expected to include on a report card once uh multilingual Learners are given a p or an F so you see here uh P Val due to language proficiency that will go in the report card for this level here working with ESL test modifications and then test modifications limited to one and a half time and by bu dictionary that would go on the report card as well so prf here you can still give a prf here depending on that level remember because there's overlapping levels right here but ultimately you can give students that fall in this 2.0 to 5.5 a standard grade but it needs to be modified work again you know you're not going to give a multilingual learner you know a five a five page essay you know you need to make modifications and take a look at those can you descriptors as Claudia had spoken about you know earlier in the presentation right there to determine what to expect from the students in order to gain proficiency and then finally here this is when students progress through the program and they're you know level six which is you know exiting they're um fluent in English um uh literacy they can read they can write they can speak they can listen in the English language so they're giv her standard grade as well and it's God bless you it's comparable to his or her peers so again students that are just trying you know to make things work and they're participating the best they could to their ability this next tier here is giving standard grades but with modified work and then in this final tier that's the highest tier it's like a pyramid you know the lowest the middle and then the high this highest tier here that's you know you're basically grad in students with some minor modifications but mostly um that's you know um the same as their peers so let's take a look at the data okay so 2023 24 this is marking period one there's aund there was 140 students Cate categorized as multilingual Learners last year okay of that 98 students failed classes so that 70% of them are multilingual Learners failed a class last year so we break it down even further failed one class was 34% F so think about that two3 of our students multilingual Learners failed one or more classes I mean it was at this point we realiz like something something has to change we need to implement some sort of strategy or grading procedure uh that is going to be beneficial to the students now here well let me go over 2425 first so overall so we had 150 so we add there was 15 students multilingual Learners added from last year to this year okay of that 69 students failed so we had more students categorized as multilingual learners but we had less students fail than we did last year so 45% of the students had failed um a course now this is a little deceiving so I don't want you to be alarmed last year 34% failed one class this year 59% failed one class so what does that mean last year 66% of the students failed more than one class this year for Market period one 41% failed more than one class so you see a drastic decline that is what that's um let me see 50 what is that9 plus 15% drop um right no 25% drop yes so 25 from here to here and 25 from there to there so the number of kids when I would run data in the past that would see the same student five different times this year it's you know you may have a student a student individual students is it perfect no but for one markting period to see this much growth it was really I thought personally was a tremendous accomplishment now here you have total percent or so these are these are courses right here that are categorized as ESL or bilingual courses this is the overall but this is specific to those classes that are ESL bilingual for multilingual Learners so of those classes 62% of the Val so you had 89 kids out of 143 enrolled in the ESL bilingual courses that fa that was 62% this year you had 43 students out of 299 I courses that was yeah they're the total courses that the students are enrolled in so it was %.
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e e e for the Pledge of Allegiance please pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome everybody to the cliff side Park Board of Education uh December 18 2024's meeting I'd like to ask our board uh secretary business administrator luel fanel to call the role please I'll just read a quick notice Mr compano then I'll call the role the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of it to atttend the meeting of public bodies in which any business affecting their interest is discuss or acted upon in accordance with the provision of this act the clai park board have had school's notice of this meeting to be published by having the day time in place there posted in the office of the B clerk B Library b Rec Department the office of the Board of Ed and the offices of school numbers 345 and six in the high school on September 17 2024 and notice is were forward to the reporters of the record September 17 2024 this is an official meeting I will take the roll down Mr capano yes mrsu is not here Mr capano yes Mrs Fredo garga is not here Mr nadw here pontano is not here Mr ranor is not here Mr Russo here mrakia here Mr yanui here okay very good to the record we have our high school leaz on to the board Valentina correct welcome thank you for joining us and for the record we have the Board of Education uh attorney Steven Fogerty with us also and I would like to start with our superintend attendance report Dr Hayes Please Mr capano uh tonight we have 35 Personnel resolutions vast majority as always professional development teacher and lunch AIDS hirings six leaves of absence and co-curricular resolutions five resignations and one retirement and that's the uh resolution I'd like to go public with and uh if I may read it it states resolution recommended by the inter superintendent schools to accept the retirement of Mary Foster school counselor Middle School effec of June 30th 2025 although I've only been here a short time I can tell you that I enjoyed a tremendous relationship with Mrs for during my time with you uh she's as good as elementary school and middle school guidance Council has come and um I know she's going to be sorely missed so miss Foster on behalf of the board I believe that we are accepting your uh resignation and wish you well in retirement with regret we we accept it with regret but we wish you a a lifetime of happiness in this new phase of your life uh Mr nreu I believe you wanted to address the resolution also uh yes uh as someone who went through the school system when Miss Foster was coming in and uh running our program and being a great guidance counselor we appreciate her hard work I appreciate having her as a as a guidance in my life for those years and she's been a guidance to my uh siblings and and to countless other students we accept resolution 27 with regret but we know that you're going to do great and whatever you choose to do in this retirement so thank you Miss Foster I just like to indicate U Clayton said Miss Foster has been instrumental uh to many people in our uh Elementary School there at the middle school I was fortunate enough that my two daughters uh attended the Middle School uh and uh one of my daughters uh Miss fost was very instrumental in placing her in in a high school where she could excel at ice hockey and I'm proud to say my my daughter has uh probably a half a dozen division one and division three uh girls ice hockey uh commitments as of last night um and uh Miss Foster was extremely uh instrumental uh uh with that and I wish her nothing but the best of luck and uh it's going to be a big loss to the district but she deserves a good retirement thank you Dr please thank you Mr um Mr Alano that concludes the report of the superintendent with the exception of wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and appreciate uh everyone's support throughout the school year thank you all right Mr alfano anything on your Finance report and then we'll go into committee reports uh yes Mr capano I'm just um Mr Fredo would just want to get her on the line um I apologize for delay yes Mr kapana if you take your eyes uh Lisa we'll be right with you okay it's l okay thank you so much so uh we just went through our administrative review audit which is essentially a food surface operations order uh went very well the pomptonian folks I thought did Yan's work as well as Maria Romeo on a free and reduced lunch applications and the whole operations process for at leis 11 uh left which she was part of the USDA last Thursday she's very complimentary on our food service processes both on the fiscal side and on operational side and I just wanted to throw Kudos out to uh the pomptonian team of cat Scot and Alex Rosenberg and our own Maria Romeo who heads up the fre and r application process uh if you take your eyes to Pages 20 to 23 you'll see essentially four consecutive resolutions we're here to approve them tonight for a full year 24 audit with the year ending June 30th 2024 essentially it's approving the corrective action plan and the synopsis of audit that's what you'll be approving tonight that'll be uploaded to a home room and a Department of Education uh for uh validation and approval we just had a uh our audit was just reviewed and presented by Mr Steve Wilcox and gave an overview of the uh findings and the Surplus to the board of ed uh we had no material findings we had some minor uh compliance findings which uh the school district is in very good shape financially thank goodness Lou you should be proud of yourself it was $16 you forgot to send back to the state okay out of n you out of 9 million yeah so thank you for that Mr capano um so yeah I'd like to thank the business office and the entire staff and the board uh you don't do we don't do it by ourselves in regard to getting through each and every year uh yeah the audit was pretty clean and uh what you're approving tonight is four separate unique uh resolutions but they're essentially the corrective action plan that will be uploaded to the state via home room so I thank everyone for their support and uh this year's off to uh a good start also in regard to uh how we're doing uh revenues versus expenses and looks like we're going to be pushing out some Surplus again for the uh end of June uh fiscal year so that's pretty much my overview for the uh Finance component blue after this evening's um audit uh presentation from our auditor Steve Willcox I want to commend uh yourself and your your sta you know it's it's a 60 million plus uh budget and as a lot of uh Bells whistles with it and it's well done okay appreciate that Mr and if you need the $16 we'll all chip in and don't worry there you go but I was told you returned it right away back to the state yeah it's G it's gone thank you of course anything else Mr Alan uh no that's it on Myan Mr capano at this time committee reports uh from the board any committee reports just want to touch on uh as you know our um High School uh Lobby renovation is continuing uh a lot of the internal work uh has been completed we're sheet rocked inside drop ceilings are starting to go in temporary partitions have been put up for uh winter sports uh and the outside is moving along having some issues with the delay of uh the entrance glass doors as a lot of uh supply chain stuff are backordered but we hope to have this project uh wrapped up uh as soon as uh we can get it done in the next uh 6 to 8 weeks um and that's pretty much uh building in grounds we have met uh with Mr Al in reference to next year's uh Financial positioning and some Capital Improvement projects to possibly enhance uh some of our uh uh schools and we'll get into detail with that as the year progresses any other questions uh for committee reports okay at this time I'll open it up to the public anybody from the public uh any questions and before I do that I apologize Valentina any good news going on at the high school anything you'd like to as far as right now nothing much but last week we had a club fair and there was a lot of kids that showed up which is really good cuz next year they will be able to join those clubs and they're learning to get more involved in the school as well excellent anything else um no thank you for joining anybody from the public any questions or [Music] comments sure if you can come up state your name Mr capano can I just interject maybe we can uh get a a vote first on the agenda on the agenda on the yeah 10 seconds I apologize can we please get a motion to approve the evenings December 18th that was Mr terak may have and Mr Russo okay very good Mr capano thank you for that sure um uh Mr capano yes uh Mrs Fredo yes okay thank you Mrs Fredo thank you we appreciate take care now no you too byebye Mr nadw yes Mr Russo yes mrakia yes Mr yanui yes okay so passed thank you Mr capan appreciate no no worries no worries at all sorry about that not a problem hi Heather Herman 482 Lincoln Avenue Hi hea how are you I don't know if it has anything to do with Schoolboard but how do crossing guards work and get positioned the cliff Head Park Police Department here so there's no way you could put in like a good word that the top of Lincoln and Grove is a a horrible Corner in the morning um I mean kids literally run for their lives because of all the the traffic going through there people coming in from bourbon Boulevard no people coming from the school so they leave from the school and they fly through like it's some freeway um kids literally are running across the street I've cut try coming up to drop off my son at school and almost get sideswiped you know so and then people pulling over and just ridiculous they Block in corners and they had a Crossing there on Saturday for the breakfast with Santa so I just figure if they have one for that they can have one for when the kids are actually walking without their parents so I don't know if that's something you can kind of well we have tachia here and I think he'll share it with the uh you know officer in charge and also with the traffic yeah I mean like my son doesn't normally walk to school and he's very he's older but like there are little kids on our block that do walk and you know just looking at the kids literally run like it's it's for for a parent it's like wow like it's hard and then you see theid the the parents that are leaving they're literally just flying through that intersection so stop sign or crossing guard would be a big benefit no not going from not on gr not on growth if you're trying to cross I mean drive down there at like 7:45 in the morning hold your life in your hands well definitely uh Teddy let themin thank you wel else from the public any questions or comments name address please Mark Muller 42 Lincoln how are you guys happy holidays right happy holiday um it's been a few months since our first meeting um just trying to figure out was there any work being done on uh professionals looking into the overcrowding issue I know the engineering or Architects were discussed has there been any progress on that to address that yes we we've first of all as you know our fire official has approved our plan uh and once the lobby uh opens up uh it's become more of a instead of a tighter Lobby more of a vast Lobby that's going to be an overflow for the cafeteria uh you know won't be tables or anything in there but we're looking at the a nice against the walls nice uh counters with stools underneath and we are in the we discussed it this evening of potentially under the state guidelines we have to do always a a forecast of our physical need assessment we've done that forecast and we tied back into our uh enrollment forecast and like I said the enrollment at the elementary level has been pretty stagnant the same at the high school level we've seen a an increase of about 60 uh kids from the previous year uh and uh what we're going to do is hire U an engineering firm or consultant to do a physical need assessment on where we can expand all probability is we were trying to expand with the burrow with the synagogue we put apples and apples together we had to table that because it just wasn't feasible for the taxpayer to take the big burden of doing a massive project like that so we're looking to do a physical need assessment on where we could expect So currently at the high school there's what you said just under 1,400 1300 change 1325 1325 just and I didn't know this until the other night do you guys even know the occupancy load for that cafeteria sure few hundred 250 yeah correct we had this dialogue at the yes no I just it was funny because I went there for another meeting and I actually saw the sign post on wall for 250 kids so there's a a lack of for 1100 kids a spot to eat and I know you said the entryway is going to be open or your Auditorium and gymnasium we our principal has made other AB Alternatives and we've discussed it in the past at the last meeting there's pros and cons going to the the block lunge because it's more advantageous for the education of the kids Etc so we're trying to work uh around those parameters so like you said you're You're Expecting still about approximately 1300 kids in the school next year yes sir correct and you said that it would be a tax burden on the taxpayers of the town for an addition or anything else like that I know not necessarily an addition onto to develop a brand new annex to a school Etc there are other towns that have this issue as well right it's not only Cliffside right other towns have officers or people in charge to confirm that children live in the town they go to school in we have that we have a residency office we have a residenc yes absolutely Teddy is that Sergeant uh Lieutenant Miller yes yes well from the police department M Mike Miller's in charge of that Teddy yes okay all right so I just I just want to clarify we all know I I I mean I know I have friends of friends that live actually in Cliffside that don't go to Cliffside Park High School they go to other schools but literally they live in Cliffside Park yeah we know that so it's the same from town to town so I just want to make sure that Cliffside is on top of this and whatever documents or leases or lease agreements that they have to provide you that Mike is on top of this two years ago we did I'm sorry Mark two years ago we did a re-registration uh just to try to because we were convinced like you were can't be can't be can't be and we did the re-registration and everything correlated and worked and Sergeant Miller Lieutenant Miller now has certified anytime there's an inquiry he goes out there and he doesn't go during normal hours as a poli officer he goes according to his plan and have we caught one or two here yes but not anything that's of a major issue in the district what do you know off the top of your head what it cost the burrow per child what our education per child cost that com in the State Department of Ed I think it's in the $177,000 depends on the grade level but Kindergarten obvious less expensive than high SCH on average it runs about 16,000 on aage average K to 12 for a regular K to 12 new jerseyy the third highest in the in the nation yeah yes sir so I just want to make sure everything's going for yeah um Lieutenant Miller active and detective young does residency calls as well I'm sorry detective young Sean is that Sean's last yeah yeah detective young does them as well we have two Cliffside Park officers who do follow up on residency checks okay Lieutenant Miller liutenant Miller spearheads all the school safety ini all that information is operable correct yes probably thank you guys have a great holiday thank you thank you anybody else from uh the public have any comments ments or questions that wraps up our meeting this evening um I want to thank everybody for for joining us I'm sorry that we're a little bit late any questions from the public uh Frank uh none online okay thank you wishing everybody a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful holiday have a good evening everybody can we please have a motion to adjourn this evening's meeting I'll make a motion a second if I may thank you
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and and the bigger issue is that more people are living in these apartments than are on the lease as well too so and then you backtrack to June of 2023 the goal was to find everybody permanent housing with within nine months I personally know of people that are still in shelter from June of 2023 they one they're not working and two they have no prospects on getting a place
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and you need to get some people on these local local school committees and listen we had a State Rep who was for 20 years um you know a a democratic State Rep in our uh district and she started um on the school committee that's where she started and she was able to Parlay that into a very effective um left leaning uh run uh as a state representative so listen every day I would cringe at what was going on in our school districts from the smallest to the biggest of things and it's very hard as a parent because you don't want the teachers or the school to take it out on your kids when you're voicing your concern or opinion for how things go my my you know take on that is get somebody in a seat that can advocate for you and your family and a minimum get one person on your school board so that they can kind of be the Watchdog for everybody else you know I've always been the champion of uh you can you can have a liberal agenda and you can have a different opinion but government only works when there's checks and balances and if apathy has taken over your school system or your local city council or or select board because you just don't want to get involved then you know that person who looks back at you in the mirror tomorrow morning that's the person to blame because if you're not going to step up and you know serve on your a local board or a local committee then you really can't complain about it because like I keep always say you know you need the checks and balances and that's how effective government works
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[Music] hi and welcome to another edition of all politics is local I'm your host John fiston on today's episode we're going to be looking into the mess known as Massachusetts we're joined by Jess masado a fall rber uh report reporter I think you're going to be real interested in hear what she has to say and Alice shat uh the better part of the burn Barrow podcast I would tell you and we're going to talk about some local issues that are in p in Massachusetts as well so ladies welcome thanks for joining us here all politics and W thanks Shan thanks for having us so Jess you have been working very hard on uh what I refer to as the Healy hotels and working on some stories in the Healey hotels one you've exposed the cost of uh just what a a lift and Uber drivers are costing the taxpayers but you have a a piece coming out today why don't you tell us a little bit about your piece coming out today right from the start I've been pretty fascinated ated with you know the life cycle of a migrant in Massachusetts um so to speak from the first time that we had um these migrants dropped off in maur's Vineyard I've just been so curious as to what happens to them so my you know curiosity about what goes on in these hotels has really never stopped um I've spent a lot of time looking at the hotel closest to me which is in Toton um which it's you know completely you know filled with migrants it's closed to the public um and through that reporting I've been able to connect with a lot of different people who are staying in shelters throughout the state um the story today is really going to be the first inside look on what is inside these hotels you know we hear a lot about them we're spending billions of dollars on these migrants but I don't know if anybody has actually been able to see an actual inside uh room of of these hotels certainly not since that very first fluff piece that I saw out there you know showing people come in and everything looks great um the reality is it's almost two years later these hotels are run down um they are infested with uh insects and rats and mice um and there's a real health issue going on and and you know we were talking about this is this is really not a private building anymore is it it's a taxpayer payer funded public housing and um whether or not these hotels are actually you know being taken care of um I think is a question people need to ask um and I think there's some health issues that um are a real concern so I was able to uh investigate this one location I have someone on the inside that sent me some photos um they're pretty concerning whether it's you know mice chewing through baseboards um eating through clothing um infestation of roaches and other insects um it's it's pretty concerning So today we're going to drop that story um and then get some more inside information about what it's actually to live inside one of these shelters I'm going to find that fascinating because as a migrant shelter director and a former chairman of my local Board of Health I can tell you that you know you don't want anybody to live this way you know and and that's where I I get confused is that you know people are saying well you know the governor's doing this because you're being nice to people you is this a way to be nice to people I question that like you know this is not a way to be nice to people and if you're going to invite people to America you have to treat them like you know you would treat another Americans and your local Board of Health would not put up with this in a local Housing Authority your local Board of Health would not put up with this in a restaurant they certainly wouldn't put up with it in a school so why is it being put up with uh in you know a local hotel I mean Alice you as a parent with you know kids in school I mean what are your what are your concerns of what when you hear stuff like this in massach I mean it's extremely concerning and it's concerning for the welfare of the children who are in these hotels I my heart breaks for them and I mean of course costs are a huge Factor but the more that we're putting people up in hotels where there are huge sanitary problems the more it imposes costs on other parts of our government as well as being completely unconscionable for how we're treating people who are coming into our community you know these are these are places where the school district has to make things up because students aren't being fed properly they're not being clothed properly we have um you know students coming into the school district with much deeper needs in terms of language learning because we're bringing people into the community and not providing for their ability to actually thrive in the community so it's a real question where does the funding from this come from and if we don't have the funding to do this properly if we only have the funding to put people in roach and fested rodent infested terrible conditions where we're not feeding and clothing people properly you know why are we doing it then if that if the point is to be kind if the point is to welcome people into our communities it doesn't seem like we're doing a very good job of about right now I think you bring up a valid point aliceon I mean okay I think that if you agree or disagree with the whole premise of it the premise was is that you wanted to help these people you have to admit sometimes that you're not able to do something and it's self-evident now that the state is not prepared to do this so why is moraly reluctant to admit that she needs a either number needs help or two that they're not qualified to do it but then she's going to double down and say she's going to do everything in her power to protect the bad people which is a very very very small percentage of people living in these hotels but she's going to do everything that she can to protect those people rather than just do basic blocking and tackling here like are these places clean and sanitized so what else are you hearing Jess well I mean we have to really step back and think about this just because it's been going on this long doesn't mean that it should have been living in hotels or families living in small rooms is not not um a a really healthy way of life first of all we've heard in the beginning and I think these stories has fallen off a little bit but you're living in a hotel room we've all been in one right how is this a reasonable expectation of living for a year or a year and a half for a family of say you know four it's not you're not supposed to be cooking inside these locations I am hearing that there was such a concern about sanitary issues regarding food and the pr preparation of food that they actually removed all of the micro waves from each one of the rooms at this location and then put them in a central location so people were being forced to move um food back and forth between a central location and the rooms think about the size of these locations just the the Totton hotel for example you have 140 rooms there so um I think it's just it wasn't planned out you know people living in a hotel is a temporary solution this is a long-term problem we've been dealing this for over a year and a half right now and know eviction notice are coming right so I have people on the inside of these hotels that have been served their 90day notice then they're down to the 60 and 30 days where are they going after this what's the plan down here in Bristol County John I'm telling you right now apartments are hard to come by and when you find them they're astronomically priced um home base is obviously an option to these people I'm just not sure what the plan is to transition these people out of hotels into affordable living well you know a lot of people talk about Homebase and you hear the number numbers and you're like what you're going to subsidize uh people's rents for two years up to up to $30,000 so so essentially $1500 a month uh and it sounds great and the landlords say well okay maybe I'll think about it but what I'm hearing on the street uh as a housing commissioner uh is that a lot of these landlords who took that initial leap and said hey I'll take that $1,500 a month supplemental I'll I'll release an apart to a family of four that is now turned into a family of nine and I'm only getting the, 1500 I'm not getting the other $1,000 a month that you know the rent really is because it's really 2500 and I can't evict anybody for not paying their rent because I do receive a partial payment so even the landlords have been burned on this because they're not getting what they were told I'm told that either the the payments are delayed or they're not getting them and and the bigger issue is that more people are living in these apartments that are on the lease as well too so and then you backtrack to June of 2023 the goal was to find everybody permanent housing with within nine months I personally know of people that are still in shelter from June of 2023 they one they're not working and two they have no prospects on getting a place so is Governor Healey going to evict these poor people in what January into the cold I I can't see that being an option either so it's a lot of words but I don't see a lot of reality I mean what do your ladies think absolutely I mean I think we all know living in Massachusetts the cost of housing and how difficult it is to find and maintain housing in this state um especially you know with the current economy people are really really struggling and the cost of housing have only gone up mortgage rates are High um rents are high and the I can't imagine how challenging it would be to come to this State not know the language to not have a place to live to not have a job lined up and then expect to be able to support a family on the kind of wages you can get in an entry-level position not knowing English it's an unrealistic expectation and we've put you know at a federal level at a state level we've put that unrealistic expectation towards people to say come here and everything is going to work out just great and then the only response has been to put the taxpayer on the hook when there's obviously not the opportunities that we're selling to these people on the brochure who are just coming here thinking that they're going to get a better lives for themselves and they're being you know put up in a crazy you know infested terrible conditions and have no other way to provide for their family it's not fair to them and it's not fair to the taxpayers of Massachusetts speaking of taxpayers of massachus Jess you wrot an article about you did a public records request on what the cost of just the hotel that you're focusing in on is paying for Uber and lift rides tell the audience a little bit about that yeah so I mean I'd like to pick aart this like massive bill that taxpayers are footing and really try to break it down into like I guess I guess a way that we can easily digest it right so talk to us about these these numbers and I actually went to the hotel and I was there trying to get some information and while I was there John it was just an endless you know Carousel of Ubers and um vans coming up and picking people up and by asking questions I learned some people were going to doctor's appointments some people were going to see attorneys about their immigration status some people were going grocery shopping and it was all taxpayer funded Transportation so I put in a foyer request um and I asked for the copies of the two um contracts that this hotel has with the state um so there are two different ones one was actually already participating in emergency services for the state so they had a long-standing relationship by providing transportation for other emergencies the other was a new addition so that first contract was just adjusted so they had an original contract which was very minimal in how much they were um spending the state was spending with them obviously it ballooned up to cover what was going on at the Totton hotel and then they added the second one um and from the public records request um they basically outlined that it was you know between 7 and $8 million um in transportation costs for this one one location so let's assume it's 8 million for the other 75 shelters that we have what is that what is 8 million times 75 that's a lot a lot of taxpayer dollars um being uh distributed to people um and you know I want to just go back a bit if you don't mind John to what Alice was saying about these you know um locations and and what we're providing I have met through these stories Massachusetts residents who are homeless and their me needs are not being met and single moms who are struggling who have fallen on hard times with no judgment right however they got to this place that are not being helped and that is the most frustrating part for me is to see people who have been born here in Massachusetts who have you know at some point contributed to the tax base and who are falling on Hard Times in this economy um and they can't get ahead and now they're in these hotels um and they're forced to deal with these conditions but not only that there's no future for them to leave there is no public housing there are no projects like there were back in in the 80s and 90s John where you know people who were on welfare were all living in these projects within each City those are full there there's no housing available um so meeting these people and talking to them about their story you know I get what's going on with these migrants but you know are we able to even at all take on people when we haven't met the needs of the people who live here first um and I think those stories need to be told and unfortunately these people feel from the ones that I've spoken to they don't want to jeopardize any of the help that they're currently getting so they don't want to speak up about the conditions in the hotels because they don't want to be told they have to leave um and you know I'm fortunate to have been able to build relationships with some of them and hear their stories that you know I'm going to be sharing but it's um you know we have we're leaving Massachusetts residents behind in the process of trying to take care of people who have come from outside our state yeah I think you bring up a good point too and I I defer to my experience as a Massachusetts housing commissioner and I'm a housing commissioner still today most housing authorities were built you know as to your point if you if you were lucky right after World War II or you know during the Vietnam area so one they're old uh but you know the state does a pretty good job of upkeeping them but they're not built for families they're built for maybe two people at best so the option of placing migrant families taking them from the hotels and putting them into the housing authorities might sound like a temporary plan until you bring in the piece that Alice was saying about the education piece you now where the hotels are they're they're in established cities and um school systems but if you start nickel and diamond and putting you know 10 kids in this school system another 15 kids in this school system you're going to have a domino effect that's going to affect public education and Public Safety that nobody is thinking about so in um Somerset we had migrants that were brought here overnight literally in the middle of the night um in 2023 um and those students were integrated into our school system um and then three months later they were all moved the families were moved to the Taunton hotel but under the mckin vento ACT um families were given the option to let their children stay in the school district where they originated um and some families chose to do that we have nine students that chose to do that so nine children still get educated in the somerset School District they live in Taunton and we um taxpayers putot the bill for the transportation for that bus every day to bring them back and forth and John I recently was told that we actually also pay for transportation for the parents to come to Somerset for back to school night or parent teacher conferences we're footing the bill for that as well and I'm going to tell you something I remember back in the day when I was a new mom um I had a family and we had one car between my husband and I and he would take it to work in the morning or else I'd have to get the kids up and drag them all out at 5:00 am.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
get started Sarah's got a million so I'm going to go ahead uh good evening everyone I'm going to go ahead and call to order the regular meeting of the Brookfield uh Board of Education it is 7 o'cl and today is Wednesday December um 18th thanks for joining us um so first please join me in Rising and saying the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all so in terms of roll call we are all here it it's wonderful to see everybody uh despite the rain and the yucky traffic um so we're going to start with public comment and um consistent with our mission to shape with the board's mission to shape policy produce a responsive and responsible budget and oversee the superintendent management of the schools uh the board welcomes public comment 3 minutes per speaker um when you get the podium please give your name and address speakers will address agenda items only um and will conform to the guidelines of policy 9325 basically just to be civil um because we share a desire to strengthen our schools and with that our community so let's proceed having said that I don't think I picked up the book Thank you [Music] okay great um Mrs Rice um you're here to talk about ESS [Music] awesome hi Denise rice 3 old Hemlock Road would help if I put my glasses on I worked for ESS as a sub and while I could have subbed in Brookfield I told them from day one I would not be taking Brookfield assignments because I have children in the district that I advocate for instead I chose New Milford um there are and have been a lot of moms that have subed in the district and worked for ESS and have not had a problem but one thing should be noted before considering this path as an ESS employee on page 17 of the substitute manual quotes all inquiries or concerns regarding your assignments must be directed exclusively to ESS management unquote I was told that since I was an ESS employee quote direct communication with The District staff is not permitted I explained that I was asking questions as a mom of a student in the district and that I never took assignments in Brookfield and they responded that it was in the agreement they were notified by the district that I inquired about a safety issue and it needed to go through them and please before anyone tries to do damage control it is said that the safety concern that was discussed was unfounded and we do know that there are others that are not even talked about out so whatever the day that I can't advocate for my kids due to a job is the day I don't keep the job so I quit at that spot on the spot but also keep in mind they being the district and ESS are expecting you as a parent to expect a company that has paid well over $600,000 a year by Brookfield to field your concerns with the district for you it seems to be very much a conflict of interest I'm sure not every parent has these problems but I did and it's something to seriously consider thank you thank you um Mrs Korea you um have signed up to talk about the facilities committee minutes Irene Korea 45 West whis near Road um I attended the facilities committee a couple uh weeks ago and they discussed uh snow removal equipment for CES um which I understand they need um and I'm not saying that they don't need it um there were a couple quotes giving and after I asked for the information one was for rentals one was for you know it's hard to understand the unit because I didn't have time to ask the facilities person more detail about it um but like two of them were from one of the most expensive places around here only because I know I have taken all my equipment there um there should have been three or four at least three quotes for purchasing equipment um when you're spending around you know $15,000 for a piece of equipment um I think that's fair for the taxpayers especially when you're transferring um they also transferred money from Building Maintenance um to purchase this um I don't know what that's coming from but especially our whiskey and BHS buildings are you know you know need repair I mean you walk through the athletic entrance the paint's peeling it's like things like that there you know I think money's getting taken away from those things so uh just take the timing to get at least I say three quotes from three different vendors around in the local area and not taking away from our maintenance from our other buildings that really need it that's all thank you thank you very much um next Alissa how are things going um from your perspective hello everyone um first I'm going to talk about Athletics as always um last Saturday we had the final playoff game for football at the Yukon Stadium um while they unfortunately lost by one point um they had a 100% like a season for the books um and we're named seed Runner ups for the Class M Championship so congratulations to them um and for me cuz I'm on the dance team it was a really good experience um having being able to dance on like a college Stadium while still in high school um student government and some members of Club Council attended a mock legislative session in Hartford yesterday uh where they learned valuable leadership skills to contribute to their future events um they debated with 10 other high schools and spoke with legislators and other government officials so that was a really cool opportunity um and then also in past meetings I spoke towards um a safe driving initiative that they were implementing here for students and parents parents um so last week in partnership with the Brookfield police department and a local mechanic shop um they installed it display which you probably all pass while driving here um just reminding us to be distraction free while driving um and then last night was the chorus and band concert um and they sang and played a lot of ballads that were holiday themed just to get us into the holiday spirit um as in addition to that yesterday climate committee during ilt um which is a group of students uh dedicated to creating a safe learning environment um for students so it's shared across grades um held a student forums which was completely like anomymous Anonymous and optional to fill out um for students during ilt where they can answer their honest opinions regarding School climate um and the answers for these forms will be used um for Provisions for making our school a no place for hate uh and then addition to this yesterday we also had a winter Workshop hosted by National Honors Society at CES um we're around like 40 Elementary schoolers participated in different stations and crafts and we got a lot of good feedback towards that um today and tomorrow during Al students um watched or will watch a presentation from the honic resources recovery Authority um in terms of how we as students in a school can do better with reducing our waste um and Recycling and they talked about a new initiative that we're going to take place in our school when we come back from break that's about it so happy holidays to [Music] everyone thank you Melissa thank you I just had a quick question um Melissa can answer this but can we see the results of the climate survey from the students you can that be shared out or um that's something that's happening at the high school it's it's separate from the climate survey we're working on as a district um I I have to see what it what it reveals in terms of the uh names we got to make sure we're careful with that I don't know what that climate survey looks like so perhaps the candy was a good touch any other questions for Melissa thanks so much have a great holiday take care Melissa thank you okay let's move to written correspondence Stephanie what do you [Music] have the following people have emailed the Board of Ed since the December 4th meeting Andy Korea costeffective additional item to add to the December 4th executive session and Boe minutes Corrections Dana Murphy thank you Board of Ed and BHS BHS staff Ryan Rudin concern at CES and Tony Carr BHS student athlete Transportation awesome let's move next to the approval of board minuts I move Mo that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting 124 second um any discussion on this I think there needs to be um a few more changes so number two I don't know how it reads I only have the first I only have the November 4th thing in my packet but um it just says amending um 1312 complaint when went back it was it was regarding ethics violations so I don't know how it reads what um and then number five we changed it to climate and it was specific to District compliance with current legislation current climate legislation so I think the the second one um did remove the 1312 so that's right but how does it read because it just says I don't have any of those minutes with me the first public comment to remove 1312 no I have this no thanks it just says it's removing it but I don't have the meeting minutes to see what it [Music] says so um it it was so for removing it says amending the first public comment to remove 1312 complaint what does it say right because I think from that meeting um Mr Korea had said that he wanted his public comment like the part where it said he spoke at public comment to remove the reference to the 1312 complaint so we amended the first public comment portion of the minutes to remove the 1312 complaint right but I'm asking how it reads now because I don't have a copy of that all I have is it's amending the first public comment so how does it read when we remove 1312 um that his first public comment was about topic X I don't remember what it was but I can't vote on something well hold on it's it's a point of ification because we're not voting on the November 20th minutes we're voting on the December 4th minutes that's what I'm looking at right here that's what I have a question right so whatever that motion was on the November 20th is on those minutes this is just basically asking you did this capture what we wanted to edit on the November 20th minutes the November 20th minutes are not what we're voting on right now right they're already approved I'm looking at the December 4th one and I'm saying that number two it was ethics violations that's what was spoken about and five it says change 1312 complaint in the last public comment section to climate it was district non-compliance with current climate legislation so I'm just I just think if we're going to be you know accurate in what we're depicting in the minutes that's what was spoken about it was ethics and then non-compliance with current climate legislation so it I I believe I believe that um that to to tie these two points together that what Rose is saying is that the November 20th uh minutes which were already approved um we we removed the 1312 complaint and we left in the he spoke about ethics violations and then so for the fifth if you feel like this amendment number five is is inaccurate then we should has information so I pulled up the November 20th minutes as listed on our website and it says public comment Andie curia spoke about climate legislation so the the minutes that we amended had said he spoke about climate legislation and 1312 and the minutes the amendment we made was to take out 1312 so that's what it's now listed suggested okay right but I think in the future in order for us to vote on them we really should have both sets in front of us so we can compare but the approved minutes are they're approved so they're they're on the website so I understand that but I don't have it in front of me and you're asking me to vote on something that I don't have in front of me tonight but we're asking you to vote on Public Information so okay great then um so we have we have the motion on the table and we have the second all in favor of approving um the minutes from the regular meeting on the 4th please signify by saying I I I I any opposed so um uh Mrs Scalera and U Mrs Divine or nay on that guys it would help us out just to be fully accurate if you would um say nay awesome let's move to the next item which is the superintendent's report all right good evening everyone um and uh Melissa talked about the uh National Honor Society uh holiday uh fair and the shopping that the Cs students were able to uh engage in there's probably 30 beautiful pictures up there so please check out the Facebook page um I do want to start uh by saying tonight and just uh let everybody know that we are thinking about New Milford um New Milford High School uh will neeb and his family and uh obviously the horrible tragedy that happened uh the other night and we are thinking about them uh not only the high school but the district uh and special education department for counseling we've reached out uh to New Milford High and to the district to let them know any support they need we certainly will provide it um and we sent over some some flowers to the uh to the high school um you're you're welcome thank thank you for supporting that um I did want to share uh continuing to build on Melissa's report congratulations for a great football season you know all our all our teams this fall really did well on our individual athletes and so forth um and and uh it was great I I actually got to be up in uh the box and warmed up a little bit uh for the game and it was kind of fun to be up there but uh also thank the cheer team and the dance team as as she mentioned they they're just is always there and great support and do a tremendous job um under teaching and learning I want to let everybody know that we've been talking about the portrait of The Graduate uh on and on and on um that name uh the cape committee as well as the uh internal uh Team for portra of The Graduate has changed that name to Portrait of the learner um so that's there so we'll be calling that P going forward Port of the learner um and we really are excited uh January 15th mid January through February we're going to be um initiating uh walkthroughs for collabora uh collaborative um uh and calibration setting on the domains of our our C's or Brookfield seas and looking forward to the work on that um we will do that work and then come forward with all the work that's been building toward this uh hopefully March 5th we'll have a presentation for the board on the portrait of the learner how the domains are working what evidence we're seeing in classrooms and that kind of a thing so want everybody to know about that uh Dr man myself and Mr Banda were here in the media center uh earlier today and we got to visit with the a P research class Miss rocka's class and the kids were doing a great job they actually had a wedding ceremony to fully commit to their research question so uh she officiated that ceremony and it was a great time to engage and talk with the kids and it was just wonderful so uh kudos to the students and uh two proposals there were two proposals and the rest were all actual matrimony yeah there was matrimony and then actual proposal there was some engagements they had the candy Rings the whole thing it was great it was great they did a wonderful job um under uh business and operations uh just going to move through this tonight for everybody um I do want to address the Panic buttons issue um we've had a number of those at CES um and really to be very straightforward on that it's a con it's a very conspicuous location in terms of where it's located in the office I'm not going to say that out to the world um but it's it's too easy to bump into I'll just leave it at that um we' worked with the chief with technology over there with Eric and with Dr P and we're going to be looking with our maintenance team to uh relocate those within Arms Reach kind of a thing but not where a knee could bump it um or if a student needs a little TLC and happens to be near a desk or something that they could bump into it um and we'll get that resolved okay so I want everybody to know that we are on top of that um and the chief was great we got to him right away yesterday afternoon and he was back in touch with me under climate uh the upcoming surveys I did talk about this uh two weeks ago but I want to just reiterate there's going to be a number of communications that come out to families students and staff with the various surveys and inventories that we'll be conducting first uh we had our second meeting on Monday night with the start times committee the really great work going on there uh for student parent and faculty staff surveys that work has uh we're I guess near final version I'd say of that and Eric and I have dedicated some time carved it out tomorrow to kind of get it uh in Google form for survey form um I drafted a introductory letter and sent it to the committee today for consideration just for that opening letter we're thinking week of January 6th right away when we get back from the break to conduct that survey uh or those surveys excuse me the school climate thought exchange surveys uh that we've developed with Ed Advance uh Mrs ferious and I have been working on that along with uh the rest of the team grades 3 through 12 for students um and of course our parents and our faculty that survey or the thought exchange will be open um we're thinking the week of January 13th a parent letter for the student survey um informing parents about the students being surveyed will go out uh the I believe uh the week of January 6th so just so it gives everybody plenty of time to know that ask questions whatever it might be the Brookfield car's asset inventory we are looking at targeting the week of February 10th and uh again uh that's just 8th grade there's a separate survey for eth grade and then there's a high school level survey um we have some new questions on there on Zen use and also on social media use and distraction and some of the things we're working on with the anxious generation our cell phone work um we wanted to get some new information from the students uh on that uh that uh information I think we're shooting for January 17th getting a a note out to parents about that so they have plenty of time to inspect the survey what was that date um we're shooting for January 17th it's there um or somewhere around there to get it out and we're actually going to have a couple of late nights where we'll ask uh someone to put in a little overtime and be there so if a parent's working and needs to come in and inspect the survey CU we don't send them out electronically cuz we don't want to fool around assessment so we have that set up and the key on this everybody needs to know there is an opt out option right from the start if a parent doesn't want their child they just need to let the the the principal know um if a student as they're approaching or about to start the inventory isn't comfortable they can opt out then and even in the middle of it they can opt out then there is no no one's going to be in trouble I want the staff to know it's okay you don't have to force anybody um and uh we'll all do our best with that finally listening tours uh we did have Monday scheduled for whiskin year but we had the delay so we weren't able to conduct that particular listening visit with Lindsay from HR uh as well as Anna and me so you can see the dates there on the report uh will be January 3rd we'll be spending the day at the high school uh Candlewood Lake on January 10th and on January 31st at whiner that is all I have awesome I think it's great that you guys are um weaving in opportunities to ask students about their experience experiences and I just want to clarify one thing so the healthy St time survey is students going to be 9 through 12 sorry focused on Brookfield High School right yeah yeah yeah right it says Juniors and seniors well oh I thought we were doing Juniors and seniors no because it affects all we found that we realized it still affect the sophomores and then freshman can say it doesn't apply absolutely we can do whatever commit we're hoping we're going to make the grade level they have to enter their grade level like a demographic piece yeah we'll put the grade level in yeah we'll work on that tomorrow Eric and I and we'll let you guys take a look at it for proof read all right everything for the Brookfield cares um will go out all the information to the parents goes out through um parent Square I imagine it would be parent Square we're actually um taking one of the former letters we've used from a couple years ago with Mark and Dean to get that out so we'll work on that awesome great let's move then to subcommittee reports starting with facilities so we met on December 4th uh we were all there present myself Stephanie Sarah Casey and Dan um our first discussion was uh over new business which was for the um uh snow plow snow removal equipment for uh CES we did make a motion to the board um for old business um I didn't we inquired I inquired about the uh the amount of activity happening over at CES and to see where we are with that um the frustration levels are quite high with this as everyone knows um that we discussed uh excuse me that the staff had was discussed with the chair of the NBC last month um the update on capital projects we discussed which was to be uh the library air conditioning is on scheduled to be replaced um prior to the next cooling system our athletic entrance is underway new door hardware has been installed as of last week submitting a permit to the town um Dan is report uh Dan reported that cours have been received for bathroom updates at the high school and we uh Dan anticipates uh work taking place over Christmas break to update um two staff bathrooms uh Dan also reported there's been uh in touch with the vendor to have Team pricing on uh unit ventilators at WMS and BHS athletic storage closet at WMS has been delayed um something to do with the vendor obtaining a permit from the town and all that stuff uh roof projects have gone out to bid for the design phase of these projects and the cafeteria floor project has been awarded to Red Thread the work on this project will take place in June when school is out and for miscellaneous discussion we went over the Heat and the issues with it and how we are not going to have those problems moving forward aome just clarifying the cafeteria floor that's for BHS uh I'm sorry WMS yes sorry can anyone speak to um public comment l so why we're transferring that money from that line to take away from Building Maintenance would you sure so um I'd be happy to speak to that so there there is a need this need is essentially driven by all of like the exorbitant amount of sidewalks at CES um and the the various stamped concrete um around the entryways um and um so the idea here is that we're doing an internal transfer within the maintenance budget itself um the request is going from um maintenance repairs to maintenance equipment the long-term thinking on this is that we it will eventually be funded by um uh Capital funds um in conversations with um the town with uh Mr Dunn and Mrs Maran um they believe that if there's any um remaining funds in the CES building project itself um that those funds should be used for this project for this equipment because it is going to be a piece of equipment that is housed at CS only for CS um there are other there's there there's other ways that it could be funded through Capital but because we are the winter season is upon us right now um there is more of an of an urgency here to get this um purchased and and ordered um so in terms of the quotes certainly that we have internal um protocols and purchasing in place that we do require anything over $5,000 and under $20,000 requires three quotes a PO will not be approved without three different quotes um we did uh Mr calwell did obtain two quotes you know quickly um and then also pricing on rentals if we were to rent a an a piece of equipment um similar to this for the season um and so those are the those are the quotes that we looked at we took the um lowest quote that that was available at the time and the the motion that the committee um uh weighed in on was um an amount not to exceed that so certainly if there is better pricing somewhere else um and it's say $111,000 we would we would be going with that um it was just so again it's not not to exceed it does not tie us into what vendor is used to purchase this equipment um and again it's just an internal transfer we the purchase can't be made without the board's approval to transfer These funds because it is over a $10,000 transfer so it does need the board approval prior to um to being purchased I hope that answers your question yeah so essentially could be covered by funds that we still have remaining in the project capital or or or another Capital item that uh Capital project that has run yeah is is done and has add additional funds um we we are we are pretty confident that will be okay that will happen it's just in the immediate term to get this equipment um we had to do it this way and and big picture it's a great question Joy because big picture um this is something Chris ruse and parks and rec department has been asking for this kind of equipment for a long time knowing the sidewalk design of the school is over a mile of sidewalk that needs to be have snow removed so unlike a typical concrete very durable sidewalk that that doesn't have a beautiful look to it like the stamp CR that can be um uh Dam damaged a little more easily where if there's a foot of snow one of the Town trucks could just drop the plow and sweep it right off you can't do that at Candlewood Lake so um we need this equipment it's been asked for for a long time I know I I believe kind of the back backstory on the NBC if they really wanted to wait on this to see where they landed with the project because the project didn't con uh consider snow removal equipment so it wasn't like it was in there so that's part of the backstory here with this we all know that it snows every year everybody should be prepared this has been something we've been talking about for a while it wasn't as much of an issue last year because we had all asphalt Where the Sidewalk is now so so a plow truck could easily come through and sweep that out so just a little kind of the fundamental back story there and the the piece of equipment being considered for purchase is actually has three functions to it um there's different attach attachments that can be placed on it either a a PL little you know small blade prep plow a brush which would be really good for that stamped concrete so it doesn't get damaged um it also has a brine attachment so they can put drop you know um layers of brine to to prevent I it from icing and then a Salter as well so for for the amount of concrete or sidewalks um the amount you know the length that staff and students have to walk to get into the building um it would it would be worthwhile well one of the things that had been brought up by Mr calwell is the need to make sure that we SA safely clear the the sidewalks in an efficient amount of time so that a 2-hour delay doesn't turn into a 3-hour delay because we couldn't clear the sidewalks which is why we felt like it was like kind of an important issue is the Briner that we purchased for CES last year going to be repurposed at another school it uh it very well could be um that brine that piece of equipment is a small handheld um equipment that you know is a walk behind and it lays down the brine it certainly could be um re you know repurposed for another building absolutely um just because it's it's on the consent agenda for our vote but um Sarah I noticed you were the only one that voted against it was there other information that perhaps you considered I just wanted to know what your opinion was before it just wasn't I just didn't have enough information to feel com comfortable to vote for it at the time oh okay right are we set on facilities then or we have other um comments okay thank you um so we're going to move to we've got two reports from the ad hoc um Healthy Start uh times committee so Ain yep so we the Healthy Start committee we met for the first time on December 9th um all of us are present Sarah Joy myself uh Dr burill uh Casey and Mr Baldwin um we just went through um a ton of data that was provided um when when this initially started years ago um and we were thumbing through um that as well as talking about budget um implications for the late start with um our three- tiered busing going to two-tiered busing um as well as the later start times um affecting with athletic transportation and our students having to leave early from the high school to attend athletic events um we also talked about um you know the start time change and students and whether they're getting to school which we know that they're getting to school but they're still actually they're tardy more often than they were prior to the start so that was the first meeting we just decided to divvy up who is going to do survey questions we're going to bring it back to the entire um committee to review um we met again on December 16th um and we went through each survey question um for the student survey the parent survey um and the teacher survey um and I think we got it to a point where you know we were all pretty confident that it was going to cover the questions or get answers to the questions that we were looking for so again we continue to um talk about just really Athletics and transportation um and we're going to Dr bur has the survey he's going to work with Mr Conlin um on getting the survey together we'll take a look at it it'll go out um when we get back from break um and we just look forward to looking at the data to seeing you know so where we go uh question um so might understand you're you're not you're not using the same survey questions so you're not essentially doing a pre-post thing because you're you're completely changing the survey is that accurate jum in yeah I wasn't here for so when and I did think about that when you mentioned it last time um and I thoroughly looked at the original survey and a lot of it was heavy on sleep right yeah yeah rightfully so right so it wouldn't be prudent to ask the same exact question because it's not going to yield the data that we're looking for how it's affecting our students there is a sleep question um you know students are getting more sleep if they um teachers well rested in the morning how the teach how the kids are first period but to ask those same ASA questions would not it's not going to give us the information that we're looking for to to see if how we need to proceive moving forward is that's a good use of the time as pushing them the start later so I mean what I would what I would urge the committee to understand is that the at the onset set of this initiative we aimed to take a very datadriven objective approach to and we even called it the healthy school start times because it was formulated from a Bas from a health standpoint and we had sleep you know adolescent Sleep Experts come here and tell us that you know this particular initiative AIDS in adolescent sleep so I'm if if there's other you know sort of ramifications of that being Athletics Transportation or cost bus drivers those are sort of additional data points to look at but I don't understand why you would ignore the science or why wouldn't you want to gather that data because that should be the basis of a rationale to do or not do something is you know is it so we do have questions that address sleep they're not exactly worded exactly yeah so we're at one for example we're asking the teachers are are the students more well rested than that first period class and that yeah that was I think something similar was on the will be as to the parents and the same question would be asked to the students um regarding I forget the the exact question that we asked the students but um we ask if they're getting more sleep and then how they feel I first period you know throughout the day maybe I don't know we had that in there so I I think that although I I do I value what you're saying we not devaluing the point of the science of sleep and also when I looked back at the what you the work that was originally done it was mentioned strongly that for this to work school had to start at at like 9:00 8 and that's what the experts said it was eight but I read nine I think it was nine for the youngest Learners I was reviewing the data today I was actually looking today too and it's actually some schools are bringing our elementary students in earlier so our high school students go in yes and that that was an option that we considered it would turned out to not be really feasible for this District to do it that way I just I mean just I think looking statistically I mean the American Academy pediatric says 70% 73% of our high school students don't get enough sleep I'm just curious how pushing it back 45 minutes is making kids sleep I mean my middle schooler is on the bus before my high schooler and sitting outside of the school for 20 minutes I'd be happy to call the Adolescent sleep expert and have him come back in and explain that well we have we have the presentations in the in the folder that Dr BR um shared with us um will we will the board uh will we be able to see the survey before it goes out I don't want to speak for the committee but I think the committee's plan is conduct the survey look at the results and then when ready bring a make a recommendation to the board okay that sound right I want to make yeah okay then we will review um the results at that time Aon is that it yep okay so uh security task force all right uh we met this um last Wednesday and um so uh we met at CES and um we toured the possible locations for a security gate similar to the one that we have at whis andir um this one would be and we made a motion um it passed unanimously to um to uh recommend the addition of a security gate kind of um on the north side of the building um where the the access road kind of goes around um around the back side of the building we also um while touring some of the playground areas um and it's really more of a maybe a facilities um sort of uh task but we were there and so we took a look at the area where there's um a lot of like uh playground balls that are going like down like kind of into like a little ditch um talked about like at least an immediate um solution of maybe like a temporary or like a silt type fence and that'll at least you know be something for right now um but maybe in the future talking about um you know like a community project for some nicer plantings or maybe a fence um and that got us kind of conversating about um maybe uh the addition of um a 4 to 6ft fence around the entire property um not enclosed but like a u around basically the entire property um and that was related to security it's something that uh Chief B is is a heavy advocate for um it's obviously not in the capital budget this year um so we will continue to talk about that um what it might look like what it might cost um and kind of make our recommendation for a possibility to add that in the next um capital budget um and Rosa if I may there haven't been any reported problems there was not right you knowbody walking through the woods or anything like that Huckleberry never had a fence on the property but it's something that Chief PGI is a little more conservative perhaps than uh Chief purcel was and so he thinks about these things and so it's his recommendation that if if we can consider it um the other thing is with the plant things that we're talking about on the South Side the the younger kids uh playscape playground areas um we also thought maybe a Girl Scout or a Boy Scout project so you know might be able with some plan things and could be a real Community kind of thing so lot of ideas going around yep um and the most important piece of information uh that came out of this meeting was um the committee softened their recommendations somewhat on our um earlier recommendation to prohibit the use of our schools for V voting um while we still don't like it when we just open our schools up on voting days um we somewhat soften that recommendation to say um you know at minimum when the school is in session for students so um cuz that got a lot of kind of attention um with you know the registar of Voters and the first selectman's office and some other people in public um and so you know we kind of want to make it clear that this is the security task force recommendation but um I think having a wider conversation with some other stakeholders will be important for us as a board to kind of weigh not just security but some of the other things that are important as well yeah this is this is a big issue that requires a lot of conversation not just among ourselves here but with other um Town entities um just as an aside today um at lunch you know I I work with Educators um who live all over the state and um I was like do you guys all vote in your in your schools and none of them did where do they go uh Senior Center um or town hall or community center community centers had mentioned that one of things uh our safety coordinator or emergency coordinator I don't know Sarah Sarah Palmer's actual position the title but she's saying that the state of Connecticut the register up at the state is actually they're starting to think about how they can get away from using the schools because of this exact issue they don't have any plan yet but they're aware of it uh the you know right you know officials up there so it's something to think about something to consider and um you know we have plenty of other options and you can use this one of the thoughts of the committee is use the schools but not when school is Saturday Fairfield uses Saturdays you know um we're closed for the the big Tuesday November election you know that we're closed anyway and the the PD is going on in the schools with adults you know with our staff but the students aren't there have the day off so that's the we don't want to we don't want to send any kind of message implied or otherwise that our schools are not safe places right you know what I mean and plus the taxpayers you know pay to build and maintain these buildings and they have Wi-Fi and they are Ada accessible and there are lots of reasons that schools make sense but then yeah um there are lots of reasons to yep continue the conversation I guess didn't this has just been top of mind for for me did anybody else want to say anything about this issue since we're chatting about it okay all right then um I I don't think we have minutes for the class size act ad hoc committee um we don't have on yeah I can pour those on I just forgot to P them but I can give a quick summary y if you want that'd be awesome thank you um on the 11th Wendy and Anna and I met um just to come up with a game plan um by January our next meeting we'll have our own research that we've looked through um in terms of other um recommendations on class size and other um districts what they do and kind of come up with a game plan um with I think the main purpose to rewrite the guidelines that I think were done in 2009 that we have just to kind of take a look at them see if we have to drill down at all um school by school and go from there and probably tie it all up by February wonderful thank you okay okay please okay we met on December 11th we received a presentation from Mr Hilt on the PSAT data um everybody has a link to that in your minutes online if you would like to see that but the biggest uh the most important takeaway is a slide that talks about his plan for improvement um so analyzing the tier one instructional practices condu conducting curriculum crosswalks incorporating um simulated testing experiences for students 9 through 11 in English and math work our es and kind of teaching and researching test taking strategies and leverage maybe ilt to teach those maybe work with the bookfi Learning Center and providing realtime standardized Benchmark data to inform future instruction so that's kind of his Mr Hill's five goals for improving PSAT scores and we also um he also talked about in one of the other slides historically what has been a challenge for our students in terms of different areas of Standards like craft and structure which is really the most challenging area um which is comprehension vocabulary and Analysis synthesis and reasoning skills also um knowing that advanced math so 30 T 32.5% of questions in 10th and 11th grade shifted from 20% in 9th grade so um a lot of those skills kind of building on those and trying to improve those targeting those areas um he did mention some important points that the test is now adaptive so there's not a lot there well there is no lack of item analysis so Mr Hill has begun developing homemade like to use that word homemade sat align tests that M1 has already G been given to the students and then additional tests based on that first initial test and prior tests and this homemade these homemade tests are uh release questions prior release questions his experience and Alignment to the curriculum and then he'll um provide that to the teachers and explanations and scoring guidelines and then our next sat day PSAT day will be April 1st so we'll have some data clarify that's the SAT oh sat sat right P wrot sat right April 1st PS will be given given in the fall of 2025 so Mr does anybody have any questions with that so far I I just want to know like I mean it's great that there's a plan is that going to be done for all high school students so these hem a tests yes have been given TOS okay yeah if I so if I could just clarify um this so the presentation um the all of those aspects that Mr Hill is focusing on yes are across uh 9th 10th and 11th and then obviously AP there's some AP alignment um in the various tests there or the various uh um courses um this was a this presentation as you click on it there's there are a lot of slides 37 slides I believe um and Mr Banda put that together comprehensively for for um both erw you know evidence-based reading and writing and uh the math and Mr Hill was there to speak specifically to the math and we mentioned that next time uh Dr Spencer can come and kind of speak a little bit to evidence-based reading and writing um and then and there but there's a lot of histo many of the slides I'd say the first 25 are data focused you know kind of really comparing cohorts comparing grades comparing so it is a comprehensive high school focus um when you look at it pay attention to the to the years because this year's 10th and 11th graders didn't take it um as freshman and sophmores you mean the Adaptive version the adap right well there was also we did we there was a gap in 23 for the younger grades the 11 the current seniors took it in 11th grade but the Freshman the current sophomores and juniors didn't take it in the fall of 2023 um and that was not adaptive right the junior 2020 last last Falls was the first adaptive so the last time they took it was not so it makes a big difference um in terms of the experience and the way that they're talking about and that as as Joy said that's why there's no longer the summary of academic skills report the soas report which is what we used to get which would drill down to [Music] standards that and actually each line item of each uh each and you'd be able to tell how many kids got the question right how many kids got the question wrong which specific answers they chose instead so you can see if all your kids that got it wrong pick the same wrong answer they don't we don't have that anymore because it's a bunch of different questions so when they do take these tests in all their classes specifically with math if they need you know once Mr Hill looks at it and analyzes if a child is low enough is intervention going to be provided or is they going to get a different version of the test well right so his well the the mechanism that he's coming up with is not the only thing that is that they're not it's not the only focus of the class so this will be used more as formative assessments um and specifically to see where kids are so that they can then adapt instruction and you know base that tier one instruction um depending on you know what's going on this is you know it's really important as Educators that we do our best to bring together the sometimes disparate sides of you know the curriculum and the focus of what's going on in a specific course and what is being asked in the SAT um you know and as Joy also highlighted um when you get to the S uh versus the PSAT you know and the later years a third of it is advanced math which is past Algebra 2 so we have a lot of our students who even by junior year are not they're not there and so so it's you know you have to kind of manage the content piece but also the way that the questions are asked and and that kind of thing and the um the slides Joy are linked in the minute so anybody can go online see that good Joy you said the test is adapted meaning it adjust to their level as they go and he's making them homemade like that no no no he basically like a Google form that's what I thought with like a couple different types of questions right right right and then he adjusts it B on you say that something thinking it's like so his aren he tool yet but I think we could do I mean he deserves a a serious professional shout out um because that's great work he saw the results from last year and he has you know it's one of the main focuses that the entire admin um group has talked about you know it's really specifically the curriculum leaders the curriculum administrators of the high school have really kind of dug into these uh results and then the other part of the meeting uh we got a presentation from Miss various about illuster of math um because there was some recent negative media coverage so we brought that up um so she went over um some revisions that we need with the curriculum now that I am is our curc tool for grades 3 through eight uh we discussed the need to give students in elementary school more time in math and more on to complete the IM lessons with fideli um so they're going to kind of present that soon uh fluency practice is embedded in the lessons we talked a lot about fluency and they'll be built into other times and practiced through tools such ASL and then we received a quick update from the class size subcommittee like Sarah said they're in the beginning stages and they receive some information from surrounding schools on their class size ranges that was it awesome thank you so much let's move then to uh finance committee okay uh we last met on Thursday December 12th um after reviewing the check registers um which Casey actually got back to us very quickly the next day with all the questions that we had regarding those um we reviewed the financial report um there's very little change month to month um we saw some gains better um in the budget um in our excess cost Grant Revenue um and also special education transportation and then on the flip side um you know we're over in athletic Transportation as you know and long-term substitutes so overall kind of puts and takes and really not much change um we then talked about the superintendent's proposed budget and in particular um we assigned the 88 uh line items to each of our members and we will start meeting actually starting tomorrow uh weekly to go over um those line items um and we input the questions into the questions Doc and then we kind go over them at each meeting and you know maybe have a little back and forth and some followup questions um let's see um we did talk about pay rate guidelines which is on the agenda tonight so I'll skip over that um we briefly talked about uh a district credit card uh we had talked about this before in our finance committee um we will be using uh a credit card in District and we obviously this is not going to be like a regular use um type tyo card but really just for expenses um that don't um you know for vendors that don't accept other forms of payment so like online registrations things like that um still um per policy will be accompanied by purchase orders require double signature so there's a lot of financial controls in place um the credit card will physically be stored in one particular location at TSO um so uh that was just sort of an update on that and then um in miscellaneous discussion we did talk about um the budget transfer in regards to the uh snow clearing machine at CES um and oh just a point about the Student Activities account um that is currently being um accounted for in a platform called AA web and we'll be transferring that over to munis um starting in January and that's a small uh savings to to the district but it will also just you know sort of standardize accounting practices so um and then that was it right um and it's important to note that um nobody cried too much over the increase in athletic Transportation because it was because our teams did so well and also that tomorrow's finance committee meeting will be virtual yes 6:30 virtually the um agenda is posted so anybody's welcome to join okay awesome thank you so much M all right with that let's move uh to the consent agenda I move that the board approve the items listed on the consent agenda as recommended new hires resignations November financials 2024 2025 budget transfer okay um any discussion on the consent agenda okay all in favor uh please say I I any opposed and any extensions all right so the consent agenda passes unanimously and and it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye would you like to do the honors to Mrs Griffin yeah 20 plus years of service and uh she is moving on um and we are very thankful for her service for all these years and wish her the best uh especially at this time of the year yeah indeed okay so now we move to new business and uh we have a presentation um from ESS say M have to say recommended action and we have to no we're good okay so um I like to invite Beth Beth and um be thank you beatric I'm so sorry um to the uh to the podium they uh Beth uh has met some of you already and ESS is our substitute uh uh service provider and they're going to do an overview of of what they do how they have uh fill rates how that's all working how they recruit and um I think the presentation's ready so Beth I'll let you start great thank you very much and thank you um for the opportunity thought I could be loud enough um you know years as a classroom teacher my voice usually projects but thank you for the opportunity uh to present to the Board of Education Dr burill Dr man faculty staff and of course the community of Brookfield I'm Beth Solaris and I'm a senior regional manager with ES um and I'm here with my colleague beatric andr who is the account manager who uh is assigned uh specifically to work with Brookfield public schools and their substitute program I think most of you are familiar with ESS but just quickly ESS is an Educational Staffing Company uh we partner with school districts to um manage their substitute programs recruiting hiring and managing the company has been around for 24 years we are currently partnered with 900 districts in 34 states across the country we've been partnered with Brookfield Public Schools since February of 2020 so we have very much enjoyed that partnership and continueed to collaborate and um work to not only build a strong substitute pool um but help with C savings when we're able uh to most effectively bring in coverages when we can um as you know education is being challenged by multiple things but some of the things that affect us are teacher shortages um and right now most districts in Connecticut are experiencing shortages for par professionals um which is also affecting our ability to attract and retain par professional substitutes however we continue to find ways to bring them in um mostly through our multifaceted recruiting efforts which um we will talk about more in detail just a little bit in the presentation despite these challenges though we do want to share some of our successes um through our presentation for the time period of September 1st through November 30th uh Brookfield schools requested 1,930 substitutes um and the request for Subs was up by 11.5% compared to last year so we are seeing increases in absences um and a little bit more than last year we were able to fill this year 1,26 of those requests that represents an increase from last year of 5.6% so through November 30th we did Place 68 more substitutes compared to last year we're averaging about 20 substitutes a day and will continue to work to uh increase that to date um from the start of this school year we have hired 21 additional substitutes to the pool I just want to note that any substitute we hired goes through the exact credentialing that the state mandates that the school district would use and we that's something we do take very seriously all the credentialing and background checks that the state requires um throughout the company and we even uh have placed with our company years ago internal Auditors that consistently go through every sub that we hire making sure that every account manager that is hiring has met all that criteria and accurately so um we're very proud to be that confident with our credentialing uh we also are looking to add to different lines of service bus monitors and custodians both of these positions being hard to fill and we're going to try to find some support for coverage uh for either vacancies or absences in these field we have a total substitute pool right now of 140 substitutes uh some of them work every day some of them work the minimum four days a month that we required the rest of them are somewhere in between we currently have 10 building based substitutes placed uh we have five long-term request Quest we have two currently placed and three that have been completed for this school year Quick Glance of the filled uh substitutes that we have placed this year and compared to last year you can see we did surpass last year in September and October uh not in this past November but our total still we have increased coverages from last year this is a pie chart showing the from the substitutes that we placed this is the breakup of employee types so we currently uh and have been placing for lunch recess monitors par professionals and teachers there are two um other positions that although we don't regularly Supply substitutes they were unique positions that temporarily required coverage that we were able to staff for the district so you can see that the majority of our placements are still with teachers and then after that pair of professionals uh a look at re uh fills by school so again 24 2024 and 2023 so you can see um how it the totals play out within the three schools now I would just like to give an overview of some of our recruiting and retention strategies and I'm going to let beatric present to you um she's the one who works um you know every day working on recruiting and managing our current substitute pool Beatrice thank you I'm going to walk around because I'll trip on the wires thanks Beth and thank you all so much for being here today so um part of my job as an account manager is to not only am I hiring and managing the subs but I'm also um recruiting locally actively uh to you know support Community jobs and bring some great folks on board so um in our pipelines right now we have 32 applicants that are in various stages of the application process um my job I meet with them oneon-one I help them through the application process like Beth said making sure that all of those clearances are complete um and then we do have six people that are on track to be hired by January so hopefully we'll get some great people on board then um on top of in-person recruiting events um we do have some school presence so we have our referal friend now hiring Flyers that get sent out to the schools often for the um you know flyer sharing with parents um we also have a direct ESS application link on the website um and Brookfield also often refers their retirees so we love bringing in um retired teachers to help with substituting um lastly we're on all of these different uh job boards to help expand our reach with um jobs oops okay great uh so here are some recruiting events that I've done recently just of this school year so um I went to the fall career fair that was held by Westcon um that's always great and bringing in some great um you know students that are interested in working in education I also Branch out to different community events so we had family fun field day over the summer best of Brookfield was in October um and then you know just some additional fairs and as you can also see we also attended the ribbon cutting ceremony which was beautiful um just a great way to before you get that I'm sorry to interrupt I do just want to add no I just want to I just want to add that because of the number of we're partnered with 16 people in Connecticut and have multiple account managers so that we actually recruit at every state college and university um that even if it's not in the area because sometimes you know Brookfield residents are going to school maybe at Yukon or Fairfield University so we also and when we recruit we recruit for anybody interested in being a substitute so we do recruit at all of the state colleges universities um and also some of some of the private ones as well so these are the ones that um berri's attended personally but know that our recruiting efforts do go beyond what um sometimes she's involved in thank you Beth yes absolutely and I'll just add you know the purpose of these recruiting events not only are we spreading the word about ESS and bringing in some great applicants but I I also encourage people to you know maybe if they're not directly interested they can keep us in mind because we do have a referral program which is um you know beneficial not only for community members they can get a little extra pocket cash but it's also um you know District staff you're able to refer people over um and help boost our subpool okay oh yes uh yeah so I'll I'll get into it right now um the referral program is $100 so once you refer somebody over if it's successful you'll get a 100 bucks for every successful referral um some other initiatives and incentives that we have uh probably our most popular one the Kickstart incentive that's our reimbursement program so part of the credentialing that our substitutes need to go through is a fingerprint background check um and we fully reimburse this cost once they've uh you know started working with us um additionally we have have all sorts of other ways that we celebrate our substitutes hard work so we have Employee of the Month impact Awards um extra pay Friday so we know Fridays are high absence day hard to fill um and so we sometimes offer extra pay for those who work um on those days and then we also offer monthly giveaways for people who are working often um and those are both corporate wide uh and Statewide so a great way to celebrate all sorts of subs and these the incentives to our on ESS those are not things that we build you know the district for so they're just things that um part of what you know we do to motivate incentivize and than the themselves yes thank you um and let's see oh on top of all of these initiatives and incentives we also offer lower cost benefits to all of our subs um you know they can sign up for it and a 401k plan so just you know lots of support here um oh and I'll also add I substitutes are they have all sorts of trainings that go on during their application process so um if they ever felt like they needed some additional support we have all available professional development trainings to help them with their um position as well so um great well thank you so much for your continued partnership just thank you some questions questions sure we do me that's a quick one so your pool you said your pool for Brookfield is 140 Subs correct is that shared with other districts or that's just specific to Brookfield um there are some substitutes that are active in both districts I also manage New Milford so um there are some substitutes that hop around from both districts okay so just one just New Milford or there's other districts that that pool like consists of I I don't think many of the sub U many of the other substitutes travel farther than New Milford so it's either Brookfield or New Milford the time frame that you collected that data from was last year till this year right last year's September was that what it was from Oh I thought it was just just these months she they compared September October November of last year to September October November of this year yeah but the aggregate numbers were just from this semester so far yeah those 1930 a lot yeah yeah thank you ladies that was really informative appreciate welome thank you all very much thank you Beth thank you beatus appreciate [Music] it okay perfect thank you okay and so next we're going to hear um a um presentation from Dr man um on the Next Generation accountability update thank you so you all um in on the board should have a copy of the of the presentation um I'm just going to oh boy what's going on [Music] there hold [Music] please there it goes all right perfect thank you okay so members of the board have um I hope I think a fairly legible copy but um certainly and then this will also be available online um afterwards there are a few hyperlinks uh that I will call your attention to but uh I wanted to thank you once again for um allowing me to come back and give the Next Generation accountability report once again this is my third time up here with this report and this is the second of a two-part series of um the essentially the data from our schools as you know um in the fall bless you I always uh go over the student achievement scores which essentially is part of this report but this is the report that we look to Across the state to give us a more comprehensive and fully fleshed out kind of analysis of where our schools and our district um is kind of more comprehensively and so um I have some you know some information about about the actual report in the very first few slides now this offers us the opportunity to track progress over time similar to the student achievement but again in a more comprehensive way because there are multiple indicators there are 12 indicators um the focus of this and again this is essentially kind of like a school district and a and school's report card kind of annual report card how they're doing in these various indicators so it helps schools and districts make improvements to hone in Target on specific indicators but also look more comprehensively um it shows where our support is needed most and um kind of helps us identify more lwh hanging fruit as well as the more kind of multifaceted M the Myriad of of issues that can um really kind of stymy our progress as a district um it also however lets us recognize success of which you will see um some tonight and it will and it promotes transparency not only because it's comprehensive but also because it is that um consistent measure across the across the whole state the entire state uses this I mean this is generated from the state and um it gives us an opportunity to really kind of compare ourselves and see where we are to the state but also to other um similarly positioned districts uh as Dr BR said in the past this really is a holistic snapshot of the district and school performance and um our chief performance officer for the state AIT gopal gopala Krishnan um was quoted in a recent uh article when he presented his same exact presentation to the State Board of Education as saying that it goes beyond test scores to really provide a more holistic picture of any school or district and so um that might be a little bit self you know uh grandis there because this is ait's report but I think it's a a good point that he brings up so there are 12 indicators as I said it's a little bit more comprehensive than uh than just a straight 12 because uh some of these indicators are um broken into different sub parts um but the first uh few indicators have to do with academic achievement and academic growth all of which we've spoken about earlier um when we did the student achievement uh uh presentation earlier however this one also talks about assessment participation um chronic absenteeism which as you know was a huge Focus not only of our district but of the State uh in the last couple years post-secondary preparation and post-secondary res Readiness um those are both only High School indicators and so uh you'll see how I've kind of outlined those um later on in the in the presentation on track in ninth grade graduation which is actually also an eighth grade indicator so you'll see that in WMS and the BHS report and then a few more of the um indicators that are just at the high school are indicators 8 9 10 and 12 um so graduation 4E adjusted cohort graduation six-year adjusted cohort um so those are so the four-year adjusted cohort those are indicators that they track any student who enters the high school in n9th grade and goes all the way through to 12th grade so it does not account for students who transfer in or transfer out during their four years their regular cohort of four years the adjusted cohort of six-year are those students who we um serve all the way through P past a 4-year requisite time post-secondary entrance rate has to do with the students who graduate from Brookville High School and then enter into some sort of post-secondary uh program physical fitness has to do with all of the the the physical fitness tests that's tested at all of the different um levels and then Arts access is only at the high school and that has to do with the number of students who um it says access it's really who choose to participate in um an art a designated art class so here is uh the nitty-gritty this is the breakdown of our uh this is our whole District so the next couple slides have to do with our district and I compared them as I did last year to last to the previous year so as a reminder we get this information in early November that's when it's released by the state um and it is for the previous year so it's information from the previous year so these two columns are the 2022 2023 school year as compared to last year the 2023 2024 school year so as you uh may remember I I mentioned earlier that indicator one is all academic achievement it's broken down into six different uh areas though the first part is Ela performance uh index for all students and then Ela performance index for high need students so the state breaks those those that first 1A out um for English language arts so those are the performance are grades 3 through 8 and then 11 um as as monitored by the state test the first part the all students is EV all students regardless of designation um and then they break out the uh suc the performance index these are the percentage of kids who have reached uh you know who have reached Benchmark um and these the high need students High needs are categorized as students who um qualify as free and reduced lunch uh through are receiving special education services or um are multilanguage Learners and they may be more than just one of those things um so that's the so you'll see that we actually increased in our Ela performance index again this is performance it's not growth so it's not the cohort it's from the first from the year 2022 to the or the 23 to 24 um however you'll notice that we did not so I I highlighted in green and I know it's harder to see on your paper but you can kind of see it here um I highlighted in green any of the indicators where we did move up from 23 to 24 um if there is no indicator we either either were fairly flat or um fell slightly or um sometimes more than slightly but there there wasn't a huge gap except for that math academic growth which we'll get to in a minute so you'll see that it goes from Ela to math performance again all students and high need students we um remained fairly flat we fell a little bit with our high need students in terms of their performance and then our science all students um grew significantly went up 5% points um but our high need students uh went down slightly and I'll talk a little bit about that um in a couple slides the next section uh is is two uh it has to do with academic growth so this is only for grades three through eight because they cannot track the high school because the high school has a three-year gap between 8th grade and 11th grade when they take the SAT not to mention that the SBA and yeah can can the audience to talk a little bit less please this is a lot to to take again thank you please continue certainly um and so these indicators have to do with um growth over time for grades 3 through eight so that's monitoring the cohort as they move up so if you remember back to the October presentation I gave there was Mrs FAS gave us that nice graph which had the same you know um same colored bubbles that go through that's what that is essentially all right so um again you notice that our growth was not particularly we did not grow a lot from 2223 to 2324 if we go back to last year's presentation um that was where we had huge it's pretty significant um uh positive gains um so not totally surprising that we didn't grow but we also know that math particularly in the area of math that's been a focus of our conversations throughout the fall and as we heard earlier um at the high school we've already heard kind of what Mr Hill is focusing on all right so the next uh set of indicators this is the the last part of the main report card um and so you know I really want to again you can go through each one of those I want to call your attention to our our kind of biggest accomplishment which is chronic absenteeism um so it's the you'll notice that this uh indicator this is where you want to see much a much smaller number right so in 2223 we had 15.4% across the district that's this is one of those measures that's at all three schools K12 um that we have to make sure we're indicating our level of chronic absenteeism as a reminder chronic absenteeism is the is 10 missing 10% of the school year so by the end of the school year 18 or more days and so in 2223 15 and a half% of our whole student body met missed more than three weeks of school and um our students who are in high needs categories missed 20% so that's four or more weeks of school which is or I'm sorry it 20% missed those three or more weeks of school I want you to notice how significantly we improved last year that was um so we went from 15.4% um of chronic absenteeism for all students in 23 22 23 to 2 and a half% so we dropped significantly I will say that um if you do I have a link to uh the the uh State um indicators the state as a whole went down from 27% um of chronic ABS in ISM in 22 23 to 177% so they also made great gains so this is something we're seeing across the the entire State um if you you may remember last spring um I think we mentioned in a superintendent update uh that there was a huge push from the state that school is better with you program um where they you know gave us all you know banners and cards and letters and you know kind of gave us the resources to communicate home and to communicate to kids how important it is to show up to school um well that effort really worked across the district it was not just at any one school all of the the all three schools The Chronic absenteeism came down okay so then these next ones and again I won't go necessarily through each one but you'll see where we went up in our um percent taking courses number five that is just a high school indicator that means that that more students took courses that were designated as college or career Readiness courses which might be an AP course it might be a CTE course that focuses on manufacturing it may be um anything that's designated by the St State as a college of career Readiness course um as your participation goes up sometimes your uh your results on AP tests for example may go down and that that uh number six um is specific to AP tests so passing um percent passing a AP exams or uh the CCR exams for us um on track to high school graduation that is a measurement that is both at the middle school and the high school so when we get into the individual school reports you'll see um because that has to do with e8th grade some of the eth grade students again the the state even though we don't award credit for high school in 8th grade some they some kids may take algebra for example and that's considered a high school course so that's how that um is uh com compiled but we went from 96.8 the year before to 98.6 so that has to do with our ninth graders last year 98.6 of them were on track to graduation which is great news um and then again we are pretty flat with our um with those other couple indicators um post-secondary entrance um went up 5% from our graduating class of 20123 to the graduating class of 2024 which means that uh 85.4% of those students had some sort of entry into a post-secondary program that doesn't necessarily mean a two or four year college it might be a certification program bless you um it may be um you know some sort of other uh but it is a a a specific um educational experience postsecondary um and then excuse me and then our artarts access also went up 4% which again is number of or the reflective of students taking those courses um and our accountability index our total final score final answer um it went from 80.3% to 81.8 so the total score uh went down there so this is where we get into kind of the parts that um are not so green um our you know what we really when we dug into the results and and really started looking at the uh the data we noticed that um for another year um where our participation rate uh is really kind of dwindling and now again this is the entire District I'm going to get into the specific schools um in a minute but uh you know the the state sets a target of 95% participation rate they expect school districts to have 95% of their students participate in whatever the given test is whether it's SBA ngss or the SAT you'll notice that each one of our high needs uh cohorts was below that threshold um and with our uh all students we were just at the threshold for Science and just barely at the threshold for math um and slightly above for ELA which means that um parents are refusing to have their kids tested um and I know that we talked a little bit about this last year we did not have we were not under that threshold last year this year um you'll see that we were um particularly at the middle school that's really where what what brought us down um and with that another important um indicator is that the state really measures how students who now this is where that changes a little bit students who do not have high needs so remember all the indicators before were all students these are now students who do not have high needs as compared to students who do have high needs and those are those two far those two middle columns um and they compare those those uh performance rates and if the size of the Gap is one standard deviation greater than the um size of the gap for the state then you are marked as having an outlier and you notice that our um participation was pretty low in science and we um that is one of the contributors there are a couple different it's not just one thing ever in education as we know um but it is one of the reasons that we are identified as having a gap um in the area of science performance so this is and I'm I don't know if it's well it shows up better here it does not I don't know if it shows up great on your uh slides but you'll notice this is a our comparison districts right we've seen these same kind of districts are often kind of circulated just to give us some frame of reference um so this is a ranking this is kind of a a list in order of performance of the area districts over the last three years three years ago um the average of our comparison districts was 80.3 and we were at a 77.6 toward the lower s end of the district and that was again for 2122 last year or uh the year before last we moved up slightly we were much closer to the average um to the mean of our of our comparison districts the the mean was 8.6 and we were at an 80.3 so we were creeping up towards the middle now we're squarely in the middle right on the average and um we're looking to increase that to the top half next year all right so so um when you do have access to this online um you can click on this hyperlink and it'll take you to the Ed site um Ed Ed Ed site Next Generation site um and you can navigate through there and look at any school district that you choose you can look at any individual school that you're interested in um but you can look at all of our individual um reports at that site so I just want to make sure that people know what that access is when you get there and if you look at Candlewood Lake for example this is what you will see so you'll notice that um a couple things and it goes off the screen up there I noticed but um so I highlighted again because chronic absenteeism was really kind of like our main thing I highlighted chronic absenteeism as a um for each one of our schools um because the chronic absenteeism uh at clees was was really good only 1.8% of our all need of our all of our students were absent for um three or more weeks or almost four weeks and our high needs was at 2.1 so our kids are coming to school which is great the first year I got here when I looked back at the year before CES had very high chronic absenteeism um so it's really great that our our kids are coming to school um and again all of these indicators one through two we've talked about before um we've gone over those uh pretty significantly um the physical fitness assessment um I'm going to talk about that a little bit at the end but uh you know our participation rate was 100% which is great kids are doing it but but they're not performing very well so we have to dig into that a little bit more um and so you'll notice if you go back to this the first one you notice that we're a category three in um which means that we were we were dropped down from a a category two um and that just the categories one and two kind of have to do with where you fall in the with your um average but if you have anything on this on this page whether it has to do with participation or an outlier you automatically get drop down a category so because CES has a gap with science they were dropped from a two a category two school to a category 3 School however the good news is our grades three through five are participating right our students are we have 100% of our students participating in science 96.5 of our students um with high needs in math are not are participating so that's we're still above the threshold and 97 and 98 up with the other um areas so um we're still you know we're working on and I can again I'll speak a little bit more to our science um toward the end of this so this kind of just shows you that those are those are the areas that we focus on all right so with whis skiner again our kids are coming to school that's great um our physical fitness is actually that's one of the higher ones in our district um we're at 52.2% almost all of our kids participate it but that's that's one of those areas that similar to Chronic absenteeism if we really really hone in and focus in on it um we believe we can make some pretty strong uh progress there um again there are Category 3 school and um you're going to see why on the next on the next slide so again we have a gap in our science performance um and that's again that standard deviation but this is really the kind of The Telltale part of the story every single area was below the threshold for participation and um I I remember the building Administration and the instructional coaches um calling me you know kind of incessantly last spring and asking for support and telling me everything that they're doing and they um were telling me that we're not going to have the participation rate uh it's not going to be above 95% um they did Outreach to individual you know students or to families um there was just a you know a there was a large refusal in that school for some reason um sth and eighth grade in particular and um of the seventh and eighth grade uh students who who did not take the test um most of them were in seventh and eighth grade but about half of the seventh grade refusals were students in the high needs category and about a third of the eighth graders who refused and it was mostly eighth grade students were in the high needs category so when we don't have students participating in these tests we can't really get good data as to where they really are and then have a true reflection of what's going on it's also one of the reasons that whis skiner went from a category 2 to a category 3 school and here's the high school so um as we talked about last last meeting the high school uh based on and this is where that that categorization comes from as a school of Distinction um it is a it is a category 2 because there was no participation problems at all you'll see that in a minute and um and and their overall score which is a little bit low on here can't quite see it oh I don't know why it's can you zoom out a little bit or no already okay yeah um yeah so it's 83.5 for the high school so 83.5 is uh one of the reasons that they're in that top they're they're in that top 10% of high schools in the state and they um are uh a school of Distinction so their school of Distinction is based on high performance and great Improvement um and that has to do with improving all over not just not just the state tests right because the SAT as we said earlier does not have any cohort data um but again the the uh The Chronic absenteeism the high school the year before in 2223 had significant needs in the area of chronic absenteeism and they really dug into that and focused in um it was a whole school effort so we're really proud of them for that and then also you'll notice here that for some reason we don't have that same issue with um we don't have any outliers which is great because I'll remind you that um nine years ago the school was a a focus school and it was because of those gaps that's what um if there are large outliers uh those large gaps then you become a focused school so they've not only reversed that but they've actually really improved um but the other thing is that there is no problem with participation so the students are taking the Next Generation science test and they're taking the SAT at the high school so we're trying to to really think about what does that mean what's going on is it a a communication concern is it that parents are nervous about um their middle schoolers you know not being prepared where does that where is that coming from um so there's a lot of uh kind of comparison this is really good information for us to be if if it was across the whole District that would be one problem since it's concentrated in one school that's a different problem and then also with the PSAT that we were talking about earlier um we had almost I think it was 98% participation rate 96% participation rate 9 through 11 so that same group of nth graders who didn't participate last year all participated in the PSAT this year not all but many more of them okay so um what are we doing to you know kind of continue our Improvement we talked about the Improvement that we've made with uh chronic absenteeism um so what are some and we also heard earlier uh from the cape uh report um some of the specifics that are happening at the High School for Math and uh we can talk a little bit about evidence-based reading and writing but overall and this is across kind of many of the of the schools or all three schools um we're going to continue to focus on the AC on addressing academic achievement of all students we talked earlier at the um budget Roundtable about kind of that tier one instruction that is the most important and impactful level of instruction and that's what we really need to shore up and we have to continue to look at the address the needs we do that by not just looking at this kind of stagnant data that is a is 6 months to a year old but also looking at regular B Benchmark data our students at um in the elementary school K3 do uh their Benchmark uh assessment is mclass mclass Dibbles for uh Ela and m-class math for um for math in K through three um for uh four and five it's a Cadance and then in the Middle School um there are some other aspects of other acadians is used at the um for ELA um and then there's a different math resource but the 8th grade does PSAT and this year 9th 10th and 11th all did PSAT as an initial um Benchmark so that's the fall Benchmark the uh at the elementary school we do mid you know middle of the year and end of the year the other thing that we used um a lot last year we started really um rolling out last year and we continue to use this year our interim uh assessment blocks which are released items from the uh state so they have interim assessment blocks for um for smarter Balan and for NextGen uh science so it doesn't help us with the PSAT or the SAT but it helps us with k or 3 through eight um and with NextGen 58 and and 11 um we continue to uh use our interventionists K through 8 we have uh a bunch of reading interventionists we have math interventionists um both at the middle and the elementary schools um and they're the ones who kind of focus on that tier 2 uh intervention right so all three of our schools have um multi-tiered systems of support teams mtss teams used to be response to intervention teams it's now changed to mtss because it's incorporate incorporates uh behavior and uh social emotional um but these are the teams that are regularly looking at not just it's similar to um the change you know with nextg accountability it's not just looking at academics it's looking at the whole child and so if there's a need um for intervention then that intervention may come from a math interventionist or a reading interventionist or a social worker or um a behaviorist or somebody who can step in and you know kind of address whatever the area is um the BHS administrator specifically curriculum coordinators are using this data to inform their instructional appro approaches and then crosswalking the curriculum um to make sure that they can kind of work backwards and make sure that they're addressing some of these not only the uh skills needed to take these attests we already talked a little bit about the Adaptive aspect it's a whole different kettle of fish um in terms of preparing for that and for students uh and I talked about that earlier but also making sure that we're Shoring up those skills for College and Career Readiness and um access to the Arts and making sure kids feel that they are um have the transferable skills to be able to take all of these different um you know these higher level courses that are considered uh College and Career writin courses um the stay wed focus is being monitored by the gen generation accountability system and that article I talked about ait's presentation that this article I think I think it will be accessible um it's through CT Insider so hopefully you can look at that all right so continuing on our Improvement and our approaches um one of the things that we've talked about a lot at Cape and um we will continue to focus on uh with the particularly the CES uh Administration is looking at our uh fourth and fifth grade schedule um which you know as you all know fifth grade used to be at the Middle School it followed a fairly traditional Middle School schedule and we're really seeing now not only with the implementation of illustrative math but also just being in the comprehensive Elementary School it is not um it's not serving our kids well we have double Block in ela but we don't have a double Block in math and we really need to make sure we kind of comprehensively look at the uh schedule so that our students who are still in elementary school and the fifth grade standards are written as such are getting the requisite time and appropriate amount of time for that um Lear learning um we'll continue to monitor attendance because the last thing we want to do is to start slip back slipping back in our chronic absenteeism um and communicate from the building and District level regarding the importance of participation as I said earlier we can't know the real situation if we don't have the information if we don't have the data and so um the best way for us to to get that is for kids to participate and for us to be able to help Monitor and support um that growth and development over time um we will always align to our district strategic plan of action and as you um all may remember earlier in this fall we are now looking toward District accreditation and so we'll be going through that comprehensive self-reflection in two years and so we can use uh the nas standards oops um that are also hyperlink here um to really help kind of focus Us in on that curriculum work that we're talking about and one of the reasons that we are really excited about the idea of having those curriculum teacher um leaders uh for next year so that we can really kind of hone in and focus in and make sure that we are getting our curriculum in line with our instruction and our assessment and so you know all of this kind of as I said this is a comprehensive report card for our district um but it also does align with a lot of the work that we're doing um over the course of this year and over the course of our 5 years with our district strategic plan um and you know we're just really excited to continue um working towards our portrait of the learner you notice that I did change up here with our P um and I'm happy to answer any questions I have a couple things um so is it okay if I start pleas please so I wanted to indicate I have a couple things the first that um there are a couple things I noticed that were really on the right track so the decrease in chronic absenteeism I think that's great I think I'm curious what I'm we as a board had indicated that was one of our priorities so I I'm really happy to see that that has actually made a difference but I'm curious besides the state campaign what do you think specifically anything whether it was the administration or teachers had done to sort of make that jump because it was a pretty significant jump I'm sure it's not just posters and things saying we care about you I mean what kind of things were implemented that you think make the biggest difference um it was really a concerted effort at all three schools um in terms of Outreach to monitoring students and Outreach to uh parents um and then at the high school you know when kids are absent asking kids what's going on where have you been um you know High School attendance is a little bit different because you take attendance at each period but then there's but the state still requires you to take that daily attendance so you have to pull from one of those um those blocks essentially um but it was really you know something that has just been a true focus it it was fortuitous timing really that the state was focusing on it and gave us these resources because that was also something we had identified at our uh administrative uh Council to really focus in on at the beginning of last school year so that's great I think that is a really that's a huge accomplishment yeah to have that really indicates that the one of the things that we had said is like how do we get the kids wanting to be there and that I feel like is and then talking about it with families too how important it is to be in school and have just having those pleasant nice conversations and it it works over time I think also having you know at CES having I mean first of all having a beautifuland new school um but also I think that having the support staff at CES having the um social emotional support staff between social workers and school psychologists and um behaviorists being able to make those connections with families you know that's really the the benefit of social workers is that they can make those connections with families and um kind of really help support the whole the whole scenario not just is the kid here or not well why isn't he here that's kind that's Outreach to the family so I think that was a big I love push that's great um the fact that the number of students taking AP classes and college prep classes that's fantastic do you know what might have motivated that jump I'm going to turn it over to Mr Bando do we have any is there like a big enrollment that's a big piece and you want to give a couple comments well yeah so I mean the college come no come um I'm just filling the air a little bit but um yeah I think that certainly it's you know we're kind of the the SAT piece definitely now that the pendulum is swinging back where many more colleges are requiring the SAT as part of the um of the application process is going to be an inherent motivator for students um but also as the SAT which is part of college board is aligned to AP advanced placement um classes and so um what kids if they're focused in on taking SATs and preparing for SATs they're may be more likely to take an AP um test not just take the class and that was one of the things that we saw but I'll yeah I think the the bringing back of the uh AP US History was a big one that was a new one that came back had been gone for some time uh due to low enrollment uh opening up uh AP Human Geography uh to some ninth graders was a huge thing too that also increased enrollment um and I think they ALS they also look at uh College and Career courses like dual enrollment and dual credit courses as well is Al are also part of that so the fact that we continue to to slowly but steadily expand those uh I think we'll continue to see more and more of that but those are generally one the things just the Open Enrollment the kids that want take more classes you know the the fact we have multiple sections of AP World History is a big deal right so kids want to continue taking these courses so we open enroll is a big piece but the fact that we've expanded a little bit in terms of different grades and areas and brought some classes back that we haven't had in some time so that was the second part of my question is there are there plans to continue to add courses every year or are you going to wait and kind of see how it plays out each enrollment period right it's it's a good question so like we you know we I would love to offer a lot more courses but I need a lot more teachers um you know to do that so it's it's a challenge from that perspective I mean we always there's there's courses that we offer in our program of studies that aren't necessarily signed up we don't get enough enrollment or interest or request for it so we don't run those um you know right now I won't be proposing any new AP courses I can tell you that um from that perspective for the new program of studies um but uh you know I think as as it evolves and changes and new things come up there's certain things that I won't do um like there's an AP pre-calculus course which um we've looked at that it doesn't really fit into our sequence of where it is and it doesn't offer really much more um so Mr Hill and I have talked extensively about AP pre-calculus um which really isn't a college level course like so it is but it isn't so it just seems like a I know Sarah's looking at me thinking they actually yes they have AP pre-calculus um nothing wrong with it people may benefit from that doesn't fit into our our scope and scheme for where our our students are generally here at the high school but the other thing that we have um we began to talk about at Cape and I think it was mentioned at a board meeting a couple board meetings ago um is expanding our dual enrollment so that students can earn college credit or even perhaps on a be on a pathway at the same time that they're earning their High School Credit and that is a big push from the state it's a big um it's one of and the nice thing it used to be really a a Yukon focused program um but many more schools are offering it now um and so you can have one course be a UB col you know dual enrollment while another course is a sacred heart or another course is um you know Fairfield so it depends and then what you essentially um what a student would do is graduate with multiple uh transcripts one from Yukon for six credits for you know Spanish let's say and then another one for um you know psychology if we were to get those so part A lot of it has to do with kind of rostering the teachers along with the classes I don't think our classes would have any problem it's really going through the bureaucracy of the it's the teacher certification that's the biggest issue is that they're looking for master's degree in their fields most often and most of our teachers do not have master's degrees in that specific field so for like a psychology right like you not don't necessarily have a Master's in psychology if you're a certified teacher there are some other areas where it's a little more flexible and you can get some of that stuff but yeah okay okay I just have one two more things actually will the fourth and fifth grade schedules be adjusted this year for Math and we are looking at some creative ways of working in some more math time um and then but the actual like comprehensive schedule adjustments which have to do with teaming and those kinds of things that'll be for next year yeah but we have already plans on trying to add in some more time okay and then lastly with the lack of participation is there anything that you need from us as a board is there anything that we can offer that we can Spearhead how do you see that improving and where do you see our place sort of in that go ahead now I was going to say thank you for asking the question I'm not sure I have an answer for that but it gives us food to you know food for thought and talk about that with the principles we're meeting right after the break because um certainly principales assistant superintendent superintendent the board we have the the bully pulpit to have communication out there to families um and we have our different networks and niches that we can work with so um you know I'm thinking this already how we can do that I don't have a definitive answer but I think it's a great idea and thanks for asking the question to ask the board for that help yeah I think I think it would be I know Mr Ren has done done a lot of direct communication with families and his staff has done that um it just hasn't given us enough fruit to get us to that 95% yeah yeah I mean I think the um you know having um our support staff and adding for example social workers like I said earlier um and you know a dean of students those kinds of things has been helpful and um continuing that kind of support so that we have the people people who are in the support positions um because classroom teachers don't have time to call to make sure that you know oh man Stephanie's not here today and we're doing SBA and she knew we were doing SBA and that so um it's you know it's really because these the other nice thing about these assessments is that it's not like a single day right we have windows so kids can make that that time we can make these tests up um so the participation rate is not because we had a you know kind of a flu issue on the first week of April and everybody missed it um we have lots of time so there's no reason we shouldn't be able to get this participation rate up but um I think we just need you know to continue to support and get the bodies in the schools but like Anna said when she was up at the presentation last year's eighth graders where there was a a dir of participation same cohort of students in ninth grade participated in PSAT so we we don't know what the Gap is there why that is but it's something we can work on addressing thank you thank you Sarah did you want to say something oh no I'm good thank you um I wanted to piggyback I've been thinking about this for a while you and I had a conversation Dr man um a couple weeks ago about um uh math like how to solve the math I'll use the word crisis but the math challenge at the elementary level and you were explaining how you know the the curriculum that had that the district adopted just doesn't fit into the time frame that you know the that CES has and that I it's awesome to see you guys using this data um and you know making like immediate being immediately responsive but then also thinking about how to how to change this so the kids get the the time they need for this particular good quality math curriculum um and I I just think that this is a good opportunity for the district for parents in the district to see the coordination between building leadership and District leadership Based on data um and it's data we weren't happy to see but you know like this lets us know like okay this we have to take these steps you know because we can't take all the steps we want we don't have the time and the money but this is obviously an area of focus and Wendy it's it's something that needs to be said in in working to find that time the school day is still at the same length science needs to happen social studies needs to happen they have standards as well uh the students need to have their special classes so there is a there still has to be time for lunch uh we had a lot of conversation there was a lot of social media conversation at the beginning of the school year on recess time so I mean there's only so much time in the day um there is no magic bullet there's a lot of hard work and creativity that's going on right now with Dave and his team um and obviously we'll continue and you know we're we are we are humble enough to ask for outside help too folks at at Advance any experts around the state anywhere we can to get ideas visiting other schools you know and doing that kind of stuff so um we want to get it right for the kids and I want to also just highlight the the fact that um illustrative math I think has really highlighted for us yes then because of the way that the that the program is constructed um with the lessons that call for essentially 60 to 90 minutes um and we have 45 minutes um that but that is the reason it calls for that in fifth grade is because that is what the kind of expectation is so one of the reasons that with the previous program we were still see we haven't it it wasn't as though we were you know we have had a dip it has always really been tough in fourth and fifth grade and that's partly because this fifth grade schedule just does not match developmentally the need of where the kids are for sustained learning but also for what the standards kind of call for so um I think one of the kind of side benefits is in fact we kind of can hone in and say oh this illustrative math curriculum um has really helped us highlight we just are not we don't have enough time built into the schedule not to mention the change from middle school to Elementary and right sizing the element school so thank you Dr man thank you questions I just have a question with our high need students uh specifically with special education so you know you may have students who are not um necessarily functioning on their grade level so what does their test look like because as a parent I would have a hard time having my child take of course a test if they weren't on that level I mean it's not Mr Roland eron I want to get Mr Roland up here there's a there's a question about the standardized testing and the students who um may have special needs they take it at their level and yeah depends the IP not not take the typical standardized test what might a test look like talk about the alternate assessment there are two assessments there is a a a ctaa which is the alternate assessment so students who are um maybe in a in a very specialized highly specialized classroom would be for one of a better term exempt and there's a different sort of assessment that's given to them almost it used to be called the checklist it's not really the checklist anymore but it's a list of things that students can do uh and it's usually 1% of the district in any District that's um qualifying for that I think in terms of the participation rate Dr man and I want to look closer at the the students that are not in that 1% but also that are um I need special maybe not even in specialized programs but have special educ and what the what the factors are with that so but again there's a there is a not even a tiered system but that 1% of the alterate assessment would be very specialized programs like an ELC um like that and with that though there is an assessment that parents receive but it's very different it's sort of um skills maybe uh Independent Living skills life skills and and what they can do in terms of maybe counting uh money uh uh communication things like that so and as far as um other students kind of not that particular um you know cohort of students but students who are in the general special education population um you know they do take the the same SBA for example however um one of the nice things about SBA is that it isn't timed and so students are able to kind of take their time it's um they have the opportunity to use a variety of different online tools and um my response to the concerns which are very legitimate is that that where the PPT should come into place and really talk about what are the things leading up to the assessment that the student needs in order to be most acclimated and informed because um just not taking the test isn't going to make the problem go away it's going to kick the can down the road yeah I mean and one of sorry there's one more thing about the um the SBA grades three through eight is a state test and you know is is controlled kind of through the state but at the high school level the SAT is controlled through college any accommodations made are have to be done through college board is not by the school and so if if a parent or family becomes more familiar with the process of create you know get and also documents accommodations in the earlier grades they're going to have a much higher likelihood of getting accommodations through college board no and that makes sense I mean I don't have students on with accommodations for testing but you know the qu it begs to question some of our high need students or do they have ad qu accommodations in their plan for them to get through testing yeah you know do we have students who may need talk to teex do we have students who may need a computer to read for them I mean there's all these things that come into play and if parents aren't aware that accommodations can be made or they don't understand the accommodations it may be anxiety provoking to have your kids sit through a test that they may not be able to read and comprehend so I think you those are really thoughtful conversations that need to happen you know at PPT tables 100% And that's that's exactly what we would hope for and sort of speaking to that do you think in general parents have a real understanding of what this test is and and why it is given and where the results go is that maybe the disconnect so communication about the test could there be maybe an maybe the the lack of participation is an indication that people don't really like it's kind of that old school feeling of like my kid's going to be a number or um you know there's anxiety around this one thing is going to dictate how they go through their schooling like maybe there needs to be a I don't know a more parent workshop on it or something like that yeah some kind of communication that gives itations that go about it EES the anxiety in general right well I think and I don't know if Mr Renda wants to talk at all about um the communication that he the Yan's effort that he and his team took last year um I believe it was one of the uh Workshop opportunities at the parent University last year that um Mrs daera um uh on him so no sorry Nicole buckon Miss buckon um had uh organized um but I'm not sure if that if there were and I know that there were a lot of other Communications so thank you that that could be something that we need to do do again um because it has been years that we've been taking it um we do try to conversations I know um I make sure staff of parents are asking specifics we have like a kind of I want say a tagline but how to respond to questions like that obviously they could always reach out to to myself or any of our Administration Mr Berard or the teachers but um things I always try to tell tell the parents is that understanding that this is not a grade it doesn't affect them in any way it is actually it's there to help us with our curriculum as we've been talking about this helps us see the areas that students are struggling in as a whole more more as a whole and I see Sarah like like this because she probably says the same thing to her parents um but um I think it's one of those things where I come I I always think about kids need to be in these settings be prepared in these settings especially with our eighth grade last year I know Dr man brought it up I think it ended up being 23 of our eighth graders decided to uh um refuse to take the test so that means that over 10% of our kids I think was like 11 point something perc of the eighth grade didn't take it and my take with the parents when I talked to them was that they're going to have to get used to taking longer tests as they go to take the PSATs as they go to take the SATs as they go to take midterms as they go to take finals um those are things that kids have to be able to get the stamina to do um so that's another important issue and obviously we want to know how we're doing I mean that's one of the big things so I appreciate you saying that maybe it's a thing that we could look to put back out there what it's about I know at ppts they do talk about the um you know taking the smarter bounce and they will have the accommodations in there but I could also bring up to them that maybe we talk a little bit more specific to Aaron brought up you know speech to text you know we have we have one to one uh hand couple of readers but there there are certain things to qualify for those different uh obviously modifications um you you have to qualify for them it's not like we can just say we want this kid to have a you know a reader um so there are certain you know things that they have to be able to as part of their I to qualify um there so and even alternate settings like do we offer children yeah we yeah oh that is thank you bring it up because that's yeah I laugh because it is a very stressful time when we take it meaning the amount of time um and I think when Dr man said it's not a one-day test like oh kids were sick and they're two days in a row we have it spread it we we've tried different things we we we talked to the staff like what our thoughts are uh to kids because we would have it where eighth graders as they got older wanted to take multiple tests in one day but we were like okay the sixth grade just at the time fth they couldn't handle it like they we're we were like one and done now then our literacy and Math teachers we've changed it where they are giving the test themselves which takes over multiple days because we were finding that kids felt more um I don't want to say meant more to them but when the math teacher is going over like these are directions um and things like that that they like oh I I I want to try to do better on this test well that actually is is in research that's it shows that kids who test in the place that they are learning they do better that's across all the way up through college yep so we've we've actually we've tried different things we tried different schedules um and I think last one we've deal we got the biggest bang for the buff with the kids because listen it's hard and I feel like what's that in the spring in the spring but it's hard to for those students to to have that stem that we do the iibs but we don't do them for a longer period of times like that necessarily um so it is hard for them to do that so that's why we kind of broke it into you know like math one day literacy at a different day and then when that happens the amount of time Aaron brought up about um alternate settings I need to have spaces that they can do those things and I need to have people monitor those spaces so that's why it's it's a pretty Tech time any other questions all right question but um sorry really fast so Stephanie to your point I think we just need to let the parents know I mean if they're going to opt out they're not practicing test taking strategies they're not practicing you know those distractors on the multiple choice how to work work on that they're just anticipating the next time they have to take it the anxiety is shooting you through the even using the Desmos calculator all the Ed the IBS you know they that they can practice oh there's a calculator there's not a calculator yeah so valuable any of the conversations I have with parents is and I get the student is anxious but I'm trying to make them help them understand I'd rather have them do do it now where it doesn't I don't say doesn't matter to them as much when they when they start to take the SATs that means something a little bit more because those are going to colleges this isn't going to colleges and it doesn't affect their grade at all either so I mean we want kids to do their their best on it obviously um but I'd rather have them get get get a little stuck now than as they they you know so thank you Mr Rend okay let's move to the last item of new business um this is the approval of the pay rate guidelines I move that the board approve the pay rate guidelines as recommended by the finance subcommittee second okay um is there a discussion I um I know most people have had a chance to review um you guys have questions on this no did you want Casey to go through any of the highlights it seems like everybody is is pretty set and ready to roll J do do you feel like we have to no um with that um all in favor of approving the pay rate guidelines as recommended by the finance subcommittee please say I I I any nay okay any exensions all right so motion passes unanimously Now we move to Old business um the superintendent budget proposal so Dr Brill um I think everybody's read through your stuff you have any new information for us budget blast the budget so I know the finance committe is entertaining questions now I'm starting to ask questions really the only thing I had was a point clarification um and it was from questions that came up from finance committee to make sure um it's okay point of clarification um regarding the teaching positions eliminating the seven different positions that we talked about six of those were the instructional coaches um going to the curriculum teacher leader positions in my presentation I call them curriculum coordinators or curriculum special a because it's technically curriculum teacher leaders and I want to make sure people know teachers we didn't trade teacher positions for administrators or anything like that the administrators at the high school that are uh curriculum Specialists which is the same name so that's why that's my fault um is the stem Humanities and World Language multi lingual learner MP and and that yeah and if all of those terms were together for people that was explained in the blue text the doc that you were answering today yes that's right so to be clear the six instructional coaches that we're eliminating and then we're only going with four FTE are for curriculum teacher leaders okay and so that's that conceptually we'd have that conversation separately but just for nomenclature so everybody knows there's no there's no trading teacher positions for administrator positions at all there's no Administration being added it's all teacher positions we discussed those are stien did they would have a stien yeah just like the cre the coaches have had or the these curriculum teacher leaders have had in the past yes so those four positions are teaching or driving instruction for our students they're they're driving curriculum development in working with teachers and writing curriculum they're the same positions we've had in the past except we're reconfiguring them as stem and as Humanities so they so those four positions that we're saying are teachers are going to do just strictly curriculum work and teach or instruct our teachers making sure the the curriculum is the taught curriculum helping with the the assessments um but to be very Frank instructional coaches today we're acting as substitute teachers so they do work with students in not only intervening when they need to or if they need to be a sub when we have a shortage I just want you to know they don't just sit in a room and you know they're high futin all the time some people get that and I'm not suggesting you're saying that eron no but it's important they roll up their sleeves and work really hard and jump in with students when they need to so people just need to understand that um don't want them to have to do that but when there's a shortage and we can't you know our fill rate's up 5.6% this fall that's great more teachers are out this fall than last last fall so you know when these are these are things and I'm conflating a little bit here but it's important for people to know but my main point for budgetary is the elimination of the teaching positions we just traded to go to different teaching positions and there's a slide in there that explains in the in the PowerPoint but my use of the word curriculum coordinator was a mistake I should have said curriculum teacher leader that's all and I don't want anybody to be confused with that [Music] okay I don't know if there's any questions or maybe process or no I just wanted to I I sent everybody the question doc um and you know that's what the finance committee will primarily work off of but feel free to you know go through it yourself and um and put questions and you know we'll go over them in the finance committee and also here but yeah so you guys are off to a good start I saw your questions yours um and your answers you were they were they really helped especially people who are still developing their expertise in this areas uh you can learn a lot from those are there other questions about the budget right now okay we're going to move then to um second public comment um Mrs Fitzgerald [Music] Mrs get to the please say your name and your um street address please it's up I got it great thank you um so I'm Michelle Fitzgerald uh nine Tommy's Lane in Brookfield okay um so I'm here this evening to request that the Board of Education collaborate with evidence-based scientific models to better support the students in our district specifically those with aggressive behaviors including self-injury and those that ultimately result in restraints and seclusions um it's my hope that the board will investigate the current climate in our elementary school and consider new approaches such as the Sears model and the developmental therapies teaching models to better support our students and enhance the capacity of our Educators and our par professionals who are all struggling to meet the academic and social emotional needs of the students and have stated that they are exhausted their capacity at this time as a board member of the Brookfield special education PTO I have had the opportunity and privilege to speak with many other parents in our district who have reached out to seek support in their frustrations with the lack of knowledge techniques skill sets and approaches when working with our children in our exceptional Learning Centers and in our social emotional classrooms and yes even general education I'm urging the board to better train and prepare our staff to have more effective interventions better outcomes and save academic environments free from restraints and seclusions our District's current outplacement budget is nearly $3 million with more out placements looming in the coming months of early 2025 one outplacement can total as much as two teacher salaries or an overdue raise for PA professionals or even several additional parent professionals another outplacement can provide ongoing consultations for a few years for related service providers and staff who are at a loss and lack of skill set to integrate their services effectively when faced with a child who is disregulated ated of the students who have been recommended for outplacement I ask that the board investigate how many of them are in second grade or younger and why the kindergarten level at the kindergarten level we are already at a loss for options less than half through halfway through the year despite finding success in previous years of the parents who have reached out to our septo this Academic Year the numbers are alarming parents confirmed 30 plus seclusions for their one young child eight plus restraints for another seven plus for another and those do not include straints and seclusions that have ended an injury to staff or to students parents are struggling to ensure the safety of their children from the staff themselves and ultimately worry that the trauma from restraints and seclusions will cause further harm to our already delicate Little Learners I am asking the board to investigate the professional development of our staff around challenging behaviors and consider that whatever it is it's simply just not enough the cost is not investing the cost of not investing in our staff's capacity is more than financial as the increase in outplacement at much younger ages continues to increase but when those out placements hopefully return what do we have in place to support those students continuously more importantly I want to leave you with us the impact of providing these models and programs have been shown to improve students adaptive behaviors like following directions completing tasks independently communicating appropriately promoting self-regulation and a reduction of disruptive behaviors especially those that lead to restraints and seclusions we can do so much more with what we have when outplay placements truly become the last possible solution and I urge this board to explore that reality collaboratively with all of us thank you very much thank you Mrs Fitzgerald um can I what just a Sears model did you say just is that srts c e r TS and what was the other one uh it's D T can I I'm sorry she could show me yeah sorry so that's the starts model okay and it's dtt oh DT okay okay thank you sorry thank you Mr Korea it is your [Music] turn um Andy ker 45 West whisner Road so the topic of what I'm going to talk about is the district's failure to follow the current climate laws everybody got that and I will sprinkle in um a bit of the board's failure to record accurate minutes despite being told like seven plus times what I spoke about and having video okay so um the district is not and has not been following the climate law the current climate laws really came out of um 2012 and pre 2012 teen suicides and parents not being aware of bullying and then they got updated in 2019 um and then needed to be implemented 2021 July 2021 in October of 2021 there was an is in where they added uh adult adults to the definition of bullying in October 2021 this school district had an issue where uh kids were um harassed by a staff member and it wasn't um handled according to the law and I wrote to the board several times the investigation did not comply with law right when the law became effective okay in 2022 my current my my daughter that graduated recently was harassed by a member of the administration and I asked for an investigation and I quoted the law I never received a report I okay with the issues I have with my daughter I told you about um on the 20th I've I've reached out to the administration and asked for that report they said oh it was done was done by somebody who was an accomplice and a witness and but they can't find it now they can't find the report but it had to be provided to the federal government for an issue that the district has been being investigated by the Department of Justice so the the the report either exists or it doesn't the district should be able to have it because they either provided it to the Department of Justice or they didn't but if you can't find the report you have a statutory obligation to have it I don't I don't understand why you don't have the report now for what's going on with my daughter current daughter she the issues started on November 6th I came to the board and said in in a week and a half this hasn't been handled I got the report on December 6th so it took a month okay the conclu the report did not have the basic facts and there was more activity after that they could only report only went up to the 18 okay it didn't have the basic facts and the conclusions did not fit the basic facts yesterday I got a report for the second half of the retaliation that occurred because the the bullying and harassment wasn't taken care of and in the email here's the report there was I need hold on I need to send another report because there's more the issues the issues that they would not excuse me the issues that not excuse me you preached your three minutes sir I understand the bullying this is not the Forum to bring it is not well if the district fails or refuses to follow the law this is we need to cut the mic from the speaker please so you don't want to hear how you're not following the law and protecting kids speak speak to the say it say it right good night Mr Curry follow the law good night Mr follow the law I will not follow follow the board of Ethics yeah um I think I think you may need to be escorted Out Mr Korea well it kind of doesn't matter what you think I think you need follow up for anyone watching at home this is not the form the board does not take up individual um the matters of students this is not the form for parents to um bring those particular grievances um whereas they matter they are important this is not the forum for that the Board needs to maintain impartiality um in all student matters okay so um three main points sey what are your thoughts so I have number one being the upcoming survey info because I feel like disseminating that information is probably um getting that out as soon as possible would be a good idea the ESS presentation and the Next Generation accountability conversation what's the second one uh ESS the ESS presentation [Music] what do you guys think because we're not finished with the budget stuff right that was kind of thinking there wasn't really enough of an update to include that a climate thing s Reser it good idea Sur okay yes okay so upcoming events uh so just a reminder that winter break is December 22nd to January 1st and January 2nd and 3rd are school days and then January 17th is a half day day and January 20th is no school and I'll have more upcoming events when we get back then without objection we will adjourn at 9:17 p.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e e e is not perfect the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees meeting of December 19 2024 is called to order at 3:33 p.m. the following members are present Ron hosi Brian O'Neal Katherine H Smith Jessica Guerrero and anarie Randall tro staff has requested the following amendments to the agenda exhibit B replace page one to reflect current Insurance committee Representatives okay exhibit o replace exhibit to correct the name of board policy to student use of Technology okay Ron okay and uh ZZ exhibit ZZ replace page two to correct amounts and dates and then on page five of the agenda we are pulling 151 2 and 1517 and if anyone would like to give a motion to adopt the amend amended second all right all in favor I uh no one here for public comments um so the board of cheses will now hold a closed session to discuss items 4.1 through 47 on the agenda it is now 3:34 and we will move to close session
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e e e Open Session no action will um please stand for flop do I just turn this off ready begin I to the of the United States of America and to the republ stand Nation you may be seated and now we will hear from the choir club from wasuma and they be singing for us tonight um so uh before they start I'm just going to introduce the kids by name uh under the incredible leadership of M Tamara dent and Mrs Nicole star thank than thank you uh starting on the sent fourth grader Adele next to Adele we have fourth grade chance eighth grade Jack fourth grade Grayson fifth grade Mavis sixth grade Ian sixth grade Ellery 8th grade Shaina I had to make sure you looking at me 8th grade Luke 8th grade lavender and seventh grade jry all right gentlemen take it away [Music] how [Music] in [Music] all the [Music] [Applause] show [Music] we [Music] in [Music] [Applause] I just want to say how proud Mrs star and I are these kidos this is their third performance in like 30 hours so they're really ping across the mountains here was wonderful can we give wasum choir club a round of applause one more time we are moving on to item number five the annual organizational meeting this is where we um switch roles on the board um this is where we will elect um a new president vice president Clerk and representative to the Executive Board of the Madera County School boards Association we are able to do this in one motion so if we have a motion in a second we can switch rolls I'll make a motion tell us your motion Sten to to he the well tell us the names of who you want to be what oh that we just basically rotate okay so you would like your motion to be for Diane to be the board president for Denise to be the vice president you will be the board Clerk and Ronda will be the representative to the Executive Board of the Madera County School boards ass is that correct no because I I thought I would be the board representative yeah because I was board this year so it should switch yeah okay so but you almost got that perfect [Laughter] your motion right please State your motion Stephen so my motion is that we rotate everyone one step up with you going to the bottom well current position or my current position actually because we're in the wrong seat some but that's all right and and that uh so Rhonda would be the new clerk Denise would be the new vice president Diane would be the president you'll be Miss anyone no you'll be the representative roing representative is there a second I'll second did you get that it's easier to do it than say it any discussion seeing no discussion roll call vote hi hi hi I I we're moving we going to move right now do we not to move I get to St right well you could just move right well we for sure move the G maybe you could just switch your name would you sit do ever somewh here I was looking forward represent started she make six consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda oh five we have establish the date and time first okay okay so do we have do we have to put down the next date or how does that work there's an attachment for um establishing time day place of regular board meetings Okay um was there a motion to approve the establishment of the time day and place of regular board meeting according to the schedule attach I move approval a second okay any discussion are we all good no thank you for outlining it and everything's great okay so uh board vote I I I I and I okay now we're on item number six the consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda I moove approval of the consent agenda I second okay uh any discussion any of these items uh I have a couple things I just wanted to say that I'm thankful that we're filling the vaces because I know sometimes it's hard to find people I appreciate the donation for the Brendan glasi Youth Foundation and Robert's not here but I'm sad to see him go but obviously happy to see him moving on to a new chapter of Life any other discussion comments good just wanted to say about Robert Diaz the head of the maintenance and transportation department the letter that he put forth which is here attached and was just absolutely beautiful and I love that he didn't make it about himself he made it about his team mostly so we're sure going to miss him when he leaves so I was I was hoping he was going to be here because I wanted to compliment him on his resignation I've seen a lot in my party years and various business stuff and that was one of the nicest ones I've ever seen I just wanted to nevere yeah okay moving on to item number seven monthly items of financial reports is there a motion to approve the monthly approved we have to vote on a consent agenda oh I'm sorry we did I thought we did okay sorry about that yes so roll call vote hi hi hi hi hi okay now we're on seven the monthly items and financial reports uh is there a motion to approve the monthly approval of warrants I will motion to approve I'll second any discussion on this um I had a question on the warrants uh on page three um can you tell us is it page three on the top or page three on the written it's page three on the on the document yeah on the actual document okay sorry no you're fine okay page three I'm on there page three so page three we have um an expenditure for Linda M Bell yeah that's there P page three which is Page four sorry no no I'm sorry sorry it's the professional development workshops so there's some different um expenditures within that on a few different pages for professional de development and so I was just hoping to get a description of what that professional development was was for both Ela and math yeah can you hear me so London Mell has seeing stars and on Cloud9 and these are um programs specifically for our students with disabilities and so we have been hearing quite a bit over the last few years from those folks um wanting some supplemental curriculum to help them um help their kids meet their goals for their IPs and so those are the two programs and so those were purchased and then they're also providing them professional development so that they can be effective with with the pering them so this is special ed bully yes okay and it's professional development for both the AIDS of the par Educators and the RSC and SEC teachers so they're rolling that out scheduling that at different times with all the different staff because we were in differentiating assistance with our students with disabilities so we were wanting to have more supports and increase increase the programs that they love okay is this something they asked for is you guys came yeah yeah we had one teacher who spearheaded it and did all the research got the quotes and worked with the rep and has been scheduling all the trainings and um I think that the classified staff's really excited as well because usually a lot of the trainings are teacher side so I think that U it's great to have both the classroom AIDS and the teachers both being on the same page awesome um and then my other question was about near near pod an app what page oh it's I have it that it's on page four but I've been wrong before so and it's five because it counts the cover in the PDF so I can put the cover in a separate attachment able okay it yeah I see it on okay what was it again um it's called near poot and it's an app oh near near it's the middle of the page yeah near so I'm just curious what uh what this app is and maybe how many is it for Teacher how many you're using it what is it's it's a districtwide license so teachers have all teachers have access to it and um grick McDonald who's our TSS teacher on special assignment that's helping teachers with incorporating technology and such into their curriculum so he I asked him to give me a little blur on it because he's obviously has his fingers in it more than I do so um he said nearpod enables us to deliver highly interactive instruction that enhances student engagement and Improv academic outcomes it can be utilized for full class instruction small groups or one-on-one session we are employing it to disseminate edge of protocols which underscores its collaborative focus and then it just says I encourage you to invite board members to come and observe a demonstration if theyd like to in the classroom and then he also um included a link for a video that I'll go ahead and email to you guys thank you and to purchase that we use title four funding which federal funding we receive a small amount for and I just pulled up the blur for you but title core funding um is for um well-rounded education improving School conditions for student learning and improving the use of technology in order to improve academic achievement and digital lit literacy of all students so part of our apps that we get each year are put under this resource um that that fit and need that criteria okay so that'll be a yearly cost we've had it for a few years now but I think the price is left this year year um it kind of goes year to year depending on the number of licenses and and that sort of thing yeah and um at the I think it was over the summer or right at the beginning of the year wasn't Garrick betting with a survey different um apps were using and then he's really good about calling the Reps and saying well you know we're thinking about going over here so kind of give us a deal over here so he actually worked really hard on that and saved us quite a bit of money and helped us take away things that weren't being used very much and then also he's been really good about um you know of course like when we took apps away from like if they didn't have a high usage but then of course like those individuals that are using are like hey like I want to use that right so he was really good about look talking with them about how they use it and seeing if those features were available in some of the apps that we were keeping and then training them on how to use it over here instead of over here so he's been doing that kind of work for us and so far I think that's been pretty successful yeah he's even reached out to a few places where they've done individual licenses for like one teacher if it was something they just had to have and maybe it was only like $149 right you know but that teacher it's a main tool that they use some companies don't offer that some of them they want you to do a district W he worked he was very flexible work with all that to get it to meet the budgets he's well spoken yeah yeah I I got almost all of this oh okay it's okay keep that I am you're welcome I did this this is the transition where I ask my questions now um okay so on page seven oh can I ask my question she question we are all four of it tonight okay so on page seven on the the attachments I just had a question um about the sped mileage because it all had the same date so I'm guessing that it's for different is that $131 like a day for the SP to be taken to um oh yes I think the way the payment was entered oh I oh okay yeah the way the payment was entered it's the October mileage so that um or our awesome aing person she just put 101 but we actually have sheets from um the mileage that have each date and then we also contact the program and we get the attendance so we can match it up as well okay so it's uh 2,300 is dollar a month for transportation yes that that parent provide transportation yes because when um that's what was in their IEP then and also um a lot of times it can be cost effective having the parent if they are willing to transport you know instead of having an employee with it kind of depends year to year and where they're going right but this this one this works out great for this student and but yeah that's each of the day I I'll ask for you know it's totally fine I kind of figured that but I just wanted to ask because I thought that's probably but thank you um and my other on the far left column it has the different days so see on the far left coln yeah she uses that for the inv number1 2024 then the next one's 102 2024 103 2024 mileage 10124 all the way down the line but anyway thank you for clarifying um and then my other question was on page 11 see um which hold on looking I'm still looking oh yeah okay well she's looking on the on the on the I I I had a little question on that I thought when we bought the van these numbers were going to like shrink and go away no because we have um we had one student that in IEP we were transporting them and in this case in said the parent is transporting them and we're reimbursing them and um the parent doesn't wish to have them transported by us so we have to go by what's in the I um and we don't have that position anymore it was a temporary position last year that was a different student so we were going to have both now we're just down to the one are we using our V uh Yes actually we use it quite a bit uh we've been using it for conferences and trainings um okay all districtwide anytime someone's going to go to a conference or training we reach out to Robert and he has a calendar so um I to go to a conference no that's fine you're on the same it's saving us money of renting cars yeah for a different so my other question uh was it's on page 11 on the top um it's the D process mileage for the nurse that um goes up to the special ed process that um special ed student that we have um I'm just wondering why we pay her mileage does she come to the office and then drive to the patient it's from her home to the student but isn't that our place of work why do we have to pay mileage like if we to come here we've had issues of finding um nurses that were available and so this has just been part of um we pay that because that is how we have people that are willing to enticing it's a recruiting technique got it te there's no one up here local so we don't have to keep no this is a local person who's not going very far this smileage is far less last year it was someone from further away this person has been out so it's less less of a mileage cost and um with this student we also pay um the nurse even if the student isn't home because otherwise they'd go find another job so we do that to keep it in consistent for them for their income and for their time driving out there okay thank you that's all I had any other questions or comments on this Sarah I think you do a great job uh all the credit goes to Mindy with all these payments I think you do a great job yeah good job thank you for all of the extra descriptions and extra typing and keeping private things private and there's a lot of attention to detail in this 13 page report and I just didn't want it to go un mention yeah she's made my job easier because you'll see a view on there where I've been trying to put the labels I stopped doing handwriting I'm told my handwriting is bad so I was using the PDF labeler but I'm labeling less because Mindy is doing such a great job with her prescription she has a limited field so she tries to summon up the best she can but I said to her I used to have to have like 40 notes and now I just have like four she's doing a great job you're watching appreciate thank you is that it anything else roll call vote I I I I I okay next item under monthly items and financial reports are the quarterly reports on investments tariff [Music] so this one's information only and we're just due to update you on the July to September period And I have the attachments there from the pars which is our investment fund for our retirees Health and Welfare liability that's on our books um and then also the County Treasury because our funds are in interest so they do a report on that on the interest and percent that's been earned so um the attachments are there there as well as the link if you wanted further detail but just to summarize it um the County Treasury fund uh went up from 2.69% the last time it to 3.92% so we're getting more of a return there on that interest and then our total investment for our op liability also went up uh since I reported in June I prompted over here uh it went from uh 1, 317,000 to 1, 390,000 but you'll see each time when we report sometimes been just 1.1 million so it kind of fluctuates depending on what's going on in the market but either way you know based on our Actuarial study that we did at a previous meeting that we already have above what we need um for our retirees Authority we have an asset instead of a liability so having that investment there um will give the district a cushion when people retire over the years and were paying their question it's not an action item it's and hearing a person's wishing to address the board I don't have any slips anybody who wants to comment will more action items number nine a is the positive certification first interim report is there a motion to approve and approval of the positive certification of the first and term report oh okay discussion on this so first I just want to point out excuse me I'm getting over um what is the taach so you know I always do the narrative where I kind of give you a summary of all the funds but I go over that in my presentation as well and then I always include fund one on our main general fund and I highlight some things on there you know so you could see our revenues and expenditures and I'm going to cover that in my presentation as well as our ending balance and then I also have the multi-year projection it's a last uh two pages of that that shows uh to meet to say we're going to positively certify our first interum we have to say we can meet our expenditures in future fiscal years so we do that um by kind of doing some projections that I'll go in my presentation and then also attached you have the cash flow um that collaborate with the shy to get that so we know what our cash balance is actually I want you to open that because you can if you look at it you'll see for December um beginning cash at the top there is 1,561 250 normally in December we have a lot stronger cash balance so it is getting um lower but we do get our taxes in January um that'll help that's what makes the balance go up there in January but um I don't think I since been here I've seen a year where December was that L cash balance and that cash balance is what pays our payroll and our accounts payable bills so we'll be waiting on those taxes the reason that's lower than normal is because we have had more expenditures than we do revenue and we've checked away you have a question yes do do we do what we'll get in January or that do we do what the TA the tax um no well they have a projection there that's on the cash flow um but um it depends on the tax revenues that come in with this through the state but on there it's showing um actually quite a bit com oh it comes in in December so you'll see it on the the December line the second line down is our property taxes and it's staying around 3.6 million but uh that number can change like I said depend on the tax revenues that come in so then that'll be added and then we have all our expenses that'll carry us forward and in April we receive another uh property tax so those are the two times a year that we get that so I have a question on that page I know you're going to do a presentation prodct that cash flow one what under the miscellaneous funds I see there's like negative like for certain months what is that so if you go down like the one two three oh those are just different adjustments that they have to make like sometimes they go back and look at a previous tax year and then they realize they have to make an adjustment so they use that one to make adjust so this came from the county yes they um they send it to me and then I make one and we make sure it matches in lines up and then the most important numbers are there all the way to the right the totals that's what matches um what I'm going to present to you which is our first en our model so I have to match the revenues and the expenditures to what's actually in our accounting system so it's a true picture and then the last thing that's attached is the presentation so I'll first year I got wear my readers to talk to you so that's begin so this is the 2425 first in um I'm not going to sit here and read through all this because you'll be like really you're GNA do do that but I always start off my presentation to have highlights of all the great stuff that's going on at all of our sites um so we've got our PBF PB PB programs at all Sites now last year we had just had itci and we have it on three sites um we've got psychologists at all Sites uh we just had interviews for our health aid position that had been vacant for some time due to some revisions in the job description you had seen at the previous meeting and so once those two positions are filled between the nurse and the two health aids all three sites will have coverage at lunch which when they get a lot of kids coming in for recess with boooo are needing ice so it'll be nice because before we were trying to bounce people around and um I know it's hard for the school offices with all the traffic they get so now they'll have like a backup and another person there um our school nurse has been doing her CPR classes for staff in fact some district office staff Mindy got to go um and thanks for our awesome um pop 28 music and art funding we now have theater electives and music at all of our sites and then Michelle touched a little on Mr Mac who's our Tech Teacher on special assignment so he's been uh scheduling days and going and working with the teachers on how to implement different apps and Technology into their curriculum and I know it's been really well received if you've never met him you should try to meet him he's such an nice guy and he's very welcoming and warm so I think the teachers really like being able to work with him um Esports is going strong and you saw the last uh presentation at the board meeting where we had the students uh um they were demonstrating and they did their speeches which I love um so we are going to be getting some more equipment thanks to Stephanie pulled together some quotes after the last meeting and oring some of that El funding to uh beep up both those programs that the kids were saying we need some more equipment so more kids can participate at the same time um then the Linda moodbell training we covered with Denise's question um and then Stephan and eight of our teachers so we did a few teachers from each site are going to go to the Q conference and um Q is for another level of tech technology and applications and how to bring that in um we've sent teachers the last few years for that and that's conference that they really love they learn a lot of techniques and things they can use in their classroom with applications and technology and then we have students competing in battle the books in the pentacon and my club there are so many kids signed up participating at both sides so it's great because I know when I first started here almost eight years ago they're really calling for after school programs out of suuma you only have the my C for you know the boys and girls club here which is now my so it's great that they have it at with Zuma then they have it here for oci and oh so our kids are all all have access to that after school and they get imped sport through that so those are some highlights so the for the first interim we have to make some assumptions we have to have some statistics put in to project whether we can certify the budget so for right now I just came back from the CBO Symposium which is all the business and accounting school people from the state that go and they said they're really just looking at um the the budget being stable there's not going to be major increase it's just going to be status quo for for next year in the future they don't know but they are pretty unsure with all the new positions that were elected you know what people's priorities are going to be in the state of California in terms of prioritizing education funding um a lot of new people means they don't understand lcff and how that all works changes so it's kind of Uncertain how that's going to look um the polo we used for this year the cost of living allowance was [Music] 1.07 and we projected using 2.93% mon I'll tell your projection but a lot of the different F schal organizations in the state are saying to you should try to stick with something around 1% because um in previous years they give a higher number and then reduce it down and we have our lower current enrollment in our multi-year projection but you'll see later in the meeting when we talk about enrollment it has already gone so um I did plug in some numbers with a little bit high that number to get back up um but that's just me guessing that's going to happen and that helps the budget to have those High enrollment numbers if that doesn't pan out we could be in a different B and then our unduplicated people count those are are high need students it didn't really change much over the previous year um we always include the step and column increase and any cost that for retirement benefits are heal and ware in in the multi-year projection just to kind of put a buffer in and say we can you know those prices go up and we know people are going to have a step and col increase year-over-year we move up another step so we kind of put that in there as a buffer in the projection so we know we can afford that um we had to do a deduction on the multi-year projection for some of the one-time funded positions that we've discussed before um ones that are you know they're funded with onetime fund those funds are not ongoing so we have to put that in the multi-year projection because we have to meet our reserve and you can see our restrictive funding is going down year over year especially now that we spent big bulk of it which was the co funds um and then there's Lower State and local uh restricted funds so some of the expense budgets in the out out years in the myp are less the lcff funding went up $2,436 since the budget adoption but we did have a higher number for out years because we used a higher bua and enrollment but those are just guesses and vacancies in our budget do not equate to savings so we have some positions that weren't filled but we have to have those in the budget because if we want to fill them in the future year if we take that out of the budget then we have so with our current status that's what we're here and what you're proving we want we want to be able to say we can self-certify as positive and meet our financial obligations through 26 27 uh we will only meet our Reserve by reducing costs and our budget Workshop will show us if the cola will be higher it'll be like the 2.93 like they Pro or will it be lowered like the current one and then I already went over the cash flow but our current cash balance for the end of this F school year is 3,328 688 and as I mentioned our December cash balance is less since we haven't gotten property taxes yet uh and we also have a starting balance and every month between payroll on benefits and then also our accounts payable we're spending around a million so we need to be able to have cash coming in so we can pay the bills and pay everybody goes right back up and then our three-year Ada average is based on the 2021 through last year's Ada so at first we had 1920 Ada in that average and that year we had 890 students and our Ada was 850 so we were lucky for a couple years that was part of the threeyear average now that's fallen off and we're using all of our lower which at 700 750 instead of 800 so that is what our funding is based off so if you multip basically you're I know you take how many students you have with you know with your Ada and you do that time the amount of your lcff funding so if that number goes down the amount you receiv so the one time restricted funding updates in the attachment where I had the funo one and the multi-year rejection there's also a page that just listed out all the restricted funds I just usually include that so you can see that's a big part of our ending balance the bills are all restricted but I'm not going to sit read through this either I know we have a lot of things on the agenda but you've got to 28 in there that's ongoing which is good um that we're using for our music and theater program and then our learning and Recovery block grant is being used for five positions and um the carryover will cover two positions some of those are like onee positions like the interns you know it was a good place to put that uh the art and music One Time Grant was used for our three PB caras and that goes through the end of 2026 we don't have any more covid funds and we've already kind of gone over what elop covers uh for my club but it also covers our after school like choir who's here our after school club so any the teachers extra time or maybe they bought some music sheets with the keyboard we and orts equipment so we've been able to do some great things for our clubs and add a lot of opportunities for our students and then we have a special education prek grant that was supposed to end last year and they extended it so we are able to use that for part of the 3K SPC teachers salary and the aid and then we spent most of the kitchen infrastructure funds that was when we did the big walk-in fridge and freezer at oci so there's around 8,000 left and we could um look at upgrading like the milk coolers or one of the ovens smaller equipment to be able to use that up and then our restricted Lottery we kind of covered the previous meeting that we had set it aside for a textbook adoption and curriculum though we did use a small portion this year for our I ready I ready is around 40,000 which is our math and Ela assment program and then an amplify previously we had funded both those applications with Esser Co fund so now that those funds expired we had to put them somewhere else we weren't going to get rid of I ready and so we put those under the restricted Lottery because it can be used for curriculum it's not just textbooks it can be digital materials we still have a a strong balance in fact um I think it's around I was trying to look on here the restricted Lottery yeah 424,000 so that's still there um remaining for when we do a textbook adoption and then this uh slide shows the lcff changes from budget adoption so I just kind of put the two slid side by side are the two spreadsheet snapshot a lot of years that I've been here I can say that forever um we will go from adopting the budget in June and then we come to First interim and it's like $200,000 more less or something big change and then we kind of are either scrambling or we're thinking why do we have all this extra well this year the budget was pretty accurate because when compared to the budget adoption into Now it only went up [Music] $2,436 for additional lcff funding so it really was just a small increase but since we adopted the June budget you everybody stepped up so that's called step and column in all of our positions and the cost of that was $147,300 so that's extra that comes out of the budget but then sometimes we have that extra lcf helps kind of offset that we're not seeing that this year it really is a tight budget and then these are the this is the little table I use each quarter when I do these budget and interim report I'm showing you so the budget you all adopted in June versus where we're at at first interim as you can see on the revenue side there's really not much of a change it's only $7,000 for and then on the expense side as well it's only um the expenses did go up 71,000 but the biggest change there at the top is the beginning balance so that happens every year you you saw me report on that during un audited actuals once we close the year and there's savings that falls out that's what sustain was having that bigger beginning balance going forward um and then at the bottom there you can see I have restricted ending balance that's all those items I listed and then are unrestricted we have to have 4% to meet our state reserve and they say that's for economic uncertainty well that 4% is 63,800 185 as you see doesn't cover supposed to cover one month of expenses but as I mentioned on the previous slide our one month of expensive payroll alone which you approved up in the consent agenda is 750,000 and that's not the so um it's getting Tighter and Tighter our reserve and it's hard because you're there's a lot of factors things like suppli the books you know have gone up for every cost gone up um but then we're down enrollment and our MBA average is low so we're receiving less funding so it's kind of hard um there's some legislation now to try to fund schools on enrollment which would be a lot better um in fact if you want to look online they're looking for people to sign letters and advocate for that because if they funded on that instead of the average attendant we'd probably be in a better boote but a our higher beginning balance and step and column increases were offset by the unfilled positions which cause savings and the salary and benefits so if we didn't have those savings we wouldn't me our Reserve so what does that blur mean on the side well if I take out that negative [Music] $171,400 vacancies I think and the benefits then at the bottom the reserve is that much and we don't need our Reserve so we're kind of in a tough situation um and we're going to have to look at Future years but our numbers are down you know with our students so maybe there are some ways we can make changes or adjust things um if they're not going to adjust the funding I mean to give a school district a 1% when the cost of everything have gone up so much and we have to have competitive salaries to keep people it's just not really sustainable so we really need uh the state to really prior prioritize schools and give more than 1% so what's next is uh January 9th we have our P1 Ada that's our attendance they don't fund us on P1 they fund us on P2 which is in April but it's kind of the first picture we get of like looking what our average attendance is for this year and how it's been going with absences and St and then the governor's budget Workshop is January 21st and I'm excited Michelle and I are going to go and talk budget and we're really going to get a lot out of that it's just a half day workshop but that's when they'll kind of give us here's the numbers and the factors to use to build your budget for the next year so by may it can change um in March we have a second interim due and then hate to say that word lcap she's triggered by that maybe lcap and budget development will be starting as well as we'll get our our P2 adaa and then may revive is when the state says well now this is the cola and this is the numbers you should use for your budget if we're lucky it's pretty steady some years it's been completely whack a do and then by August it goes to a different and then we'll have our two board meetings in June the first one where we um review the budget and have the public hearing and then the second one will we adopt the budget so lot is coming through the pipeline so much ter anyone have any questions a I do have a question um you were talking about um that uh 2019 2020 was um dropped off the average for adaa and I think that the threee average thing came about because of covid and all of that do you see that um continuing on uh in the future the threeyear average or some kind of average it seems to be more predictable and steady and it seems like at first it was going to be a one-time thing but then they extended it and I think what they'll either blend you on is your current a or the average like what's you know what's better so I it does benefit us and after 1920 you know with the pandemic and everything they let you keep 1920 in your threeyear average I think up till 21 22 or 22 23 because they held harmless a couple years when schools were closed so we kind of got that big number for like extra years that it wasn't up um and now like I said they at the conference they call it a clip they said you you know had this good average and now you have the actual numbers from 22 23 23 24 in the current year and when I looked at our calculator it was you know it went from 840 something now it's 750 and if you look at roughly 13 ,000 a student and that's almost 100 students you know that's pretty substantial in your funding that's going to go down especially if you're only increasing it I had I had another question um you mentioned on the um 4% unrestricted Reserve that it doesn't even cover one month payroll which you know that's barely half um do you see or would you recommend that because the 4% is state law and we just follow that we don't have anything internally here as we we have a board policy for 10 to 14% Reserve um and that includes the 4% and we just the last three or four years we haven't met that so we would have to make some changes to our Bud budget to meet in our the way it's written in the policy it's like we would like to have so technically we're not policy we take the four out of it six to 10% extra on top of on top of what the state yeah and that's why they want I think that's why we had wanted back when FR was here and it was right when started to have extra reserves so that you know you do have enough to cover your costs because what do you do if all of a sudden they say we're not giving you your tax money and you don't have out and I'm not trying to be doom and glom and be negative I just we've always been physically conservative as a district and you know I'm just trying to um you know follow that and do do my job I don't want to be negative but it's really not looking great with lesser numbers lower funding my questions um I know there's a lot of talk about trying to get actual funding for student do you see that going forward or it's been um on the legislative for like three or four years in a row we've never makes it through but this year it seems like it has a little more backing to it they even had um at my conference they gave a link to all cbos that we could all sign a letter U on a Google form Stephan well that they had us do a Google form that went to the legislature and um you know saying so then all the cbos loged right in and we all put so we all signed it saying yes we want to switch to it's like we need to do that because we're facing a bunch of different things from you know Co but then now it's like more people are keeping their kids home you know before they would maybe send them to school if they had a look simple or there could be mental health struggles and other things going on where we're seeing a lot more of those absences so it seems kind of like we're punished in a way to be funded on our average attendant if it's out of our control we've done everything for our chronic aism and trying to do rewards and get kids here but um it's a big difference like I said if we're being funded and we still have to hire and buy food and supplies for Carnival but then you're funded on you know 100 less so it really doesn't make sense most other states I have a friend who works in new hampire she's like what funded on the average attendant do that make any sense we're only one of 14 in the United States that are funded this way yeah majority is Ines so that's I didn't know that we're in TR yeah so that's something that um you know could advocate for the board member I'm sure there's resources um if you did some research on websites well you could put your name down and say the same thing you know like maybe they need to look at that model but they're worried if they switch over that then maybe people um won't send their kids to school they won't be as motivated to put the SE the kids in the seat it seems like if the majority well if other states can do it there must be some kind of safety net or check and balance that can be done in order to make sure that the funding isn't being wasted well I think they think then we're just not going to monitor asking we still would have requirements you know we have to meet test SCS and all that if you don't have kids here like you said even if the kid has a doctor's note it's still they're not here they're at it it's like it's an excused absence but not really excused yeah they're missing that day yeah so ites my was on special ed we know we're not funded fully on that do you hear anything in the actually I got another the other day that they're really pushing yeah they like put in for this because we need they want to fully fund professional education fully fund I and that is something also that is really important because right now we're receiving around 400,000 for special education funding and then our cost is 1.9 million so that's also coming out of the general fund to make up that difference because we have this amazing students who need those support and services but if you only give us you know an eighth of the funding we but we're obligated when there's an IEP or anything you know I mean that in a negative way but I mean we can't say oh we don't have the budget to provide we have to provide so there is a lot of I think to me that H is more of a priority right now than the involvement funds because um the fact that it's so underfunded the state we get around 60,000 and then Federal is like 330,000 so it's combined it's about 400 but it's just that's it really and and we have and most districts have about 12% of their student population that's special end I think we're at 22% so yeah so we're not even in the norm in that way so you know that's what where the cost is more because we're having all these students that like I said amazing students but they need more supports and services and we're going to provide them but um at some point you get to a point of like where are we going to get to do this be a good place to say something about that just because it's important information I think um I think another thing that we need to let our legislators know and and the people that are trying to make changes in in this area is they're underfunding us which means it makes it much more difficult to provide services for our students which then gets um you know obviously par are excit about that as they should be and um then we end up a lot of times with um office of administrative hearings and du process and court cases and so now we're underfunded so we're underst so we're doing the best that we can but maybe we aren't quite meeting what we need to meet um and then what happens is now we have attorney fees and we're paying lots of money for du process attorneys and letters to be written up and then that again takes away from funding the Personnel or the other resources that we need to provide what is needed in an IEP for a student and it's just sort of this vicious cycle that keeps going down the toilet right and so it's those are important things to talk about and so letot people know that are listening and setting out Google form forms to to ask about you know how they can help and you can even see it on our warrants that you know all the charges that say do process yeah legal fees and all that and I understand you know people wanting to advocate for those services but if if we have on average due process could cost around $80,000 um that could be a teacher salary or an aid for a student who needs a one-on-one Aid um you know and so that those resources aren going to the right place where they should be going to the student so I just had a thank you a comment uh so we all went to the annual education conference and one of the workshops that I attended was created ways to boost attendance and so stanlos County shared This brilliant idea where for the cost to $2.50 per student at that that district has about 120,000 students but they they invested $300,000 they ran these ad campaigns 15 15c ads so I brought one of the little cute things I picked up and it says every day counts and each word has one letter missing every day counts and so this was a focus and so these ad campaigns talked about the importance of going to school every single day and they said um they boosted the attendance by 5% and they may for 300,000 invest they made $17 million and that's not the reason they do it it's because they tell the children the parents everybody they said for one miss day of school you missed two days of instruction and for those with chronic absenteeism by the time you're able to graduate high school you've missed an entire year of school so so it's amazing they have banners they have um these cute little things that they hand out put your phone on but just whatever it takes to get these kids you know not just because of the money but provide services yes that more yeah all right so we take a vote on that I remember I motion very good okay so roll call vote I I I I I okay and and the next action item is B consideration and Adoption of board policy regarding stock Al funeral in aers on campus is there a motion to approve I Mo approval I'll second very any discussion questions I think it's a good idea hi hi hi hi I next item C is consideration and Adoption of board policy and administrative regulations board bylaws and exhibit revisions is there a motion to approve I'll move approval I'll second there discussion I know question but I don't I didn't get a chance I remember your question do you want me to address it well I mean is it necessary or does it get deleted or does it matter it I looked at it further I can't remember off the top of there was it seemed to be a duplicate I'll go down here to pleas wait are you talking about the map well I was talking about the map and then I was also talking about is it student technology my email now yeah so one of the question I think it was for draft policy 61 52.1 placement and Mathematics course yes this is a this is so when you read this most of the paragraphs on this policy are very much directed towards High School right um hold on a second I think the reason my understanding of this is there I believe it's in 1 two three the third paragraph down says the superintendent or with me you guys see that shall work with District leaders counselors are you guys there no 61 52.1 the regulation all please and we on this page to the third paragraph down starts with the superintendent M the superintendent or design shall work with district teachers counselors and administrators and the represent representatives of beer schools to develop a well articulated sequence of mathematics courses and consistent protocols for placing students in mathematics courses offered at District high schools so that's us right for leadersh and so we like when um our students our ath grade students are moving onto the high school those teachers and principes work with them on like ensuring that those kids are placed appropriately and that our math curriculum is preparing them for the math curriculum that they have so that because gamut and simply is only going to feed US policies by obviously are for us being a pay through through 8th grade so I I that's why we have it for that blur the rest of is for the high school side of things but us looks like it's 12 yeah I did see there exactly and we have quite a few polies that so yeah is that helpful yeah um but the other one was see here turn it off what are we doing such a TR I we notay so I was giveit 61 [Music] 63- technology technology and there's if you look over on the right side there's two drafts that look exactly the same except the the draft on top was blank and the draft on the bottom had our name on it and I was just wondering is that was that a d was it an eror and duplication like I felt like it read the same so I felt like we could probably just delete the one BL or is it well one of them in parentheses has a one and the other one has five and so one of them is like is is the policy and then the other one to exhibit would be like so the one that has our name in it uhhuh right it joint Union Elementary School District and then if you scroll down this would go out to parents and they fill in the rest of the blank so that's the one that would be given out right yeah so but the first one was basically the same anyway it just felt like a duplication because I felt like I was reading the same thing you were okay and it's needed okay all right I just thought maybe it was like a typo because it seems the same thank you you're welcome and actually they got back to me like today and they said we did have to have both of those in there yeah but you can see that the one has our name on it but we when we adopt it we adopt the one that has our name the other one is just a dra right okay right so when when they get approved then Lana goes in and clicks and does for stuff and then all of the ones that we've approved which will be the one with our name on it will come over and that'll be the one okay that it is any other discussion I do have a question on regulation 51 44.1 suspension and expulsion SL du process so on page see it is that the policy or the regulation the regulation hold on I got to get there okay regulation okay you look page two under item 17 which is engaging engaged in an AC of bullying so the third paragraph talks about cyber sexual bullying the last sentence so it talks about um bullying also includes acts of cyber sexual bullying by student through the dissemination of or the solicitation or incitement to the 78 a photograph or other visual recording that depicts a nude semi nude or section photograph or other visual recording of an identifiable minor when such dissemination is to another student or to school Personnel by means of an electronic act and has or can be reasonably predicted to have one or more of the effects of the Ling described above okay this is my question here cyber section bulling does not include a depiction portrayal or image that has any serious literary artistic educational political or scientific value or that involves athletic events School sanctioned activities so it says it does not include a depiction so that means those are excluded is what I'm understanding right so why would we want to exclude that whole list of things from being cyber section ruling has literary artistic educational political and scientific value okay anyone else something wrong so so I think I could be wrong but like when you think about painting that are in museums and they might have someone that's new right but it might not be sexual it's just that that's artistic so I'm not really understanding how to be honest like itic event sanction activities what would be going on that would be photographed it's sexually explicit maybe like a wrestling match okay all right maybe off he's full ballting or something or like you know girls volleyball really volleyball short shorts and boys volleyball right so like probably that right that's my interpretation definitely have to be subed know somebody is offended by that or it's obviously right and like we would that individually right like if that happened and that was how the person felt and we would talk about it and then if it continued to happen that's a conversation right okay and in that regard I wanted to ask if the middle schoolers if there's any kind of instruction or discussion on Cyber section since C or just even online any kind of online Sor any kind of online tooling which happens discussion about that for sure yeah and there are issues with it happen sure it falls under the whole category of bullying and proper in relation skills think um but yes it's a conversation that's have for sure um we don't get specific say to to sexual P of SE nature per se because it's not it's already very quick but we have other policies that will keep that kind of thing so like things like display public display infection or something like that we basically have a rule of you don't touch each other we don't have people hting we don't have people sitting on SLS things like that and so those types of beh just 100 and we have other policies like polies things like that or they're just not allowed to be used on c as you do hear about exchanges of inappropriate photos sectional photos and that'll get you lock on the door by the sheriff's uh yeah we've had to do that kind of thing before yeah I mean everything that can't happen does happen yeah but that's the nature of the world but we do everything we can to stop it from happening and to catch it when we can honestly a lot of the stuff that we end up finding out about students let us know about which is to their credit and to our our staff's credit because of the relationships we have with the students they feel comfortable coming to us different lives telling a friend a friend might tell us that's how we find out a lot about a lot of things super important those relationships very but it's upsetting yeah glad you have a discussion mention is key right okay thank you Mr M okay any other last one it are we have a motion to approve these call do we have a motion already did that did okay sorry hi hi hi hi hi and on item number 10 now information items first one is academic achievement and curriculum adoption report to be by our superintendent um before we start is everybody okay with a quick restroom break oh thank you e e e B will take longer deep am I'm hungry okay okay good we ready okay yeah hey Mrs okay so I don't have any attachments I just thought this would be a good place to continue our conversation and um maybe talk about a few things regarding the mini board Workshop that we did when we were at csba so um we had a mini board workshop on um academic achievement and sort of putting our mind around coming up with like a long-term plan right and um coming up with some ideas of how we want to move AC academic achievement forward in the district with the understanding of that you know clearly is a big undertaking and probably needs some thought and lots of conversations and like I said like a road map work plan and so um I think I remember us saying we wanted to continue those workshops once a month um so I wanted to yeah like maybe we can schedule that and then um thought that it would be good for obviously our principles to hear and the public that this is something that we are highly focused on and want to pay attention to and certainly want to get feedback and support from our our leaders and our teachers and our staff as we move along in this process but um to let people know that we're starting the process and um we're we're serious about it and um we're in the process of of putting a plan together um have suggestion there yeah no I was think January 22nd it's a Wednesday it's two weeks after our next board meeting I'm open I mean we're talking PM or afternoon or I work until 12 I would prefer it to be after the school day yeah one day oh yeah W uh Wednesday January 22nd what time you um what time would we like five five rather than later does that work for you guys yes Terra is double checking that that's not the day we're coming back from the we come back sorry okay so hold on um yeah that works that's so great you guys all went to the conference together yeah great collor we've never had that for everybody I'll yeah great than you our next and then I think as we move along I would like to recommend and suggest that we bring principles in me right like work collaboratively and get suggestion and ideas from the field 100% that yeah I think that that would be really important and then I just wanted to let you know that um the Google form running thing of tonight for the curriculum survey is done and I'm going to have the principles look at that to see if there's anything I missed or make any editing suggestions and then that go live and and just a quick mention so you guys know U because this is part of programming and academic achievement um the principal and I have been have starting to have conversations about Resident BS that program and what that might look like in the future um and so I think that would be a good thing to bring up in these many workshops also to start kind of Road mapping that and see how that fits into our into our plan is there anything else I missed or that you guys would like to add I just think is there going to be a set agenda for this like are you are you driving an agenda for us so that you know when we sit down we we're topics I would like to yes and I would like to share that with you about a week in advance so if there's anything you guys would like to add or when we invite folks to come and be part of us if there's anything they'd like to add um so it can kind of be a collaborative effort with that and then yeah we'll follow that Wonder thank you great okay we're on item 10 me enrollment Ada reports so we're seeing a little bit of a upturn on our moment um 804 where the previous month it was 798 so to me that's going in the right direction because as I mentioned when our average attendance has taken off that it's better to have a higher enrollment number to work with um we just saw some small changes uh couple more kids went to spiss uh o had a bit of growth there prass was the same um and then oci was couple less that might be the kids went again and then was suuma um it looks like they went up a couple as well we usually do see that this time of year you know with especially after the holiday break again we could see some fluctuation and then the other there is the Ada to enrollment that I have been providing with the average so it shows you the enrollment at the site this is an average and then the average attendance so you can see the variance that's there um and you can see the attendance percentage or the 88 percentage sorry on the side so we were in the low 90s on some of the numbers before and it they went up a little bit and I yeah I'm seeing more here at OES with our little people you do see that a lot more especially in the winter time you know more illness and Stu com on I see interdistrict transfer reports this shows since our last board meeting we have not had any students transferred into the district and we have not had any students transfer out of the district next item D is supp portable project update so I said at the last meeting that I was going to bring back a portable project update and um as you know we had put it out to bid one time and we had only got one bid so we and that doesn't give us any option so we put it out to bid a second time and we received two bids and again they were um the architect had told us uh quoted an amount when we first talked about this project and it was doubled and I just don't see how um moving forward that we could do that because the amount we had set aside from the sale of the bass L school and some of our developer fees wasn't um what was closer to what he had projected it would cost so um plus there had been issues with the building having not the right snow load capability for this region and fireproofing issues so uh before we can even think about moving forward with that we found out um when we filed the plans with the state architect that there were unfinished projects from the NS which I've kind of briefed you on before um but we're working with a company that specializ than that and thankfully um our awesome rep from climatech uh Tyler he had hooked me up with this company and that's what they expertise is around the state they work with school districts to close out the whole projects and we're down to eight um eight out of 10 being closed um but basically you can't proceed with any kind of Zo projects if you still have old projects you don't find out about those till you go to start on a new project so the main one that's holding us up right now is um a project from 1991 and um it's a couple Portables that were be that were put together and they didn't have the correct plans well that many years ago whoever did it the architect could have passed away or the plans are no longer around so we did find someone who can um help us to move that for but they don't have any availability to the spring so since we're not in any hurry right now being that the bids were more we kind of put pump the brakes on that um and also we were thinking about maybe um cutting back you know we bought all these Portables that maybe we could do with having half that amount um because the cost is so much to me it doesn't make sense to bankrupt the district or take everything we have in savings to finish this project since it keeps coming in bid a lot higher so we were looking at there's some other districts that were interested in purchasing Portables as well as local organizations like even my club was wanting to expand and get new Portables their Portables I think are 30 or 40 years old um but there are some rules since we purchased the portable with Co funds we have to um follow some rules of disposition where we would Surplus them and then we could sell them and use um use the proceeds to help the project going forward there's just a lot of different things going on with this right now and I just kind of wanted to update you so right now and everyone says oh the Portables are just sitting there or the district isn't using them well there's a whole bunch of factors to that and number one being the old project so once we can get that wrapped up then we can kind of come up with our plan to move through um with the portable and getting the ones finished that we decide to have in my mind if we could um sell them to a local organization that could use them um that could be a benefit for our students as well um so I hope that we'll have some more updates in the future but luckily we have our developer feed which I reported to you on in a previous meeting that we're using for some of these cost with architect and project Support Services because it falls under that allowable use so it's not impacting our general fund um trying to wrap up these projects and figure out a plan for this and Robert has been working tirelessly with me on trying to figure this out thank you CH okay item 11 accomplishments and other reasons to celebrate from throughout the district and we have Mr M Intermediate School I love going to Hawaii for Christmas it was uh Hawaiian Christmas day today you should have told us we would address like that at the district office what do we have tomorrow oh where am I going here St for room it yes okay stop all right there we are so let me see we have a I don't know where to start so I'll just keep going um here is our elected student leadership um I don't think I shared this with you last time so put this up here everything good yeah cool okay I will uh I'll say right off that here I did not put this presentation together said Johnson did for me so I think you for that um yeah these are Isabelle ler um is our president we have Aon is our vice president and Bella and Ella twin sisters treasur and secretary and they've been doing a great job one of the uh um things that we've been working on the last couple years at oci is getting student leadership to be a lot stronger and to be more interactive um and that's proved to be working very well actually and we've had a few teachers that are helping with that um but particularly Mariah Hatfield is doing the leadership elected and she's been heading that up Veronica B been helping her out a lot and um it's really been really strong really good here we have uh the Cadet Corps at the Veterans Day par down at Fresno um so every year they go down there and represent uh they go down with yhs and students I believe students come from here El and and what yes it look Shar all right you're giving him a complex just trying to get home [Laughter] that's um here our boys basketball we uh we just wrapped this up we just had the tournament uh last week uh they finished up in second place at the tournament with uh overall season three wins and one loss things went pretty well um pardon so that's pretty good we had a lot of lot of joh planing next up we have girls basketball and and boys soccer uh here's the girls soccer here they uh went uh 5050 wins and losses they played pretty well they ended up in third place at the tournament um and things things went pretty well for them and Mr Peterson was coaching basketball and Mr L was coaching soccer and I'll continue to do the same uh sing switching genders um the last time I presented I showed you some boxes I think and things like that of what we're getting ready for our float and that so um this is the actual homecoming uh parade and you can't see it too huge but um they did an awesome job with the uh float that we have and then we have uh our mascot here hanging out with the other mascots and kids having a good time the uh the parade and all went really well uh and we have a ton of uh help on the uh on the float I have to say I don't have to but I'm going to go anyway our float better than everybody else H did you win a price I don't think so but it was like should I think huh are there prices well I think a mention we don't have like kind of troph or anything like that money has been our our art director and uh so she's been super helpful with that and she gets a little crazy on these things but um they come out they're super us and the kids do a ton of work and they get totally good um oh Jesus all right my batter okay um and then we had breast cancer awareness day it was a day of a um on a Friday when we had a home game so we had people dressing up in pink and we had uh some parents and families donate different pink items and then we sold those things to the students and raised some money to be able to donate for this uh we invited Hillside also we let them know about it so if they wanted to do the same when they came up uh and participate in that when we had our games uh that they could so we had a lot of uh we had a ton of participation so it was nice um and here we have Halloween dress up times and again a lot of a lot of participation it's uh it's hard for me like impossible at this moment to not differentiation about when we just got back from Co to now the amount of participation that's been happening has just been gaining and gaining we've been actively working on that but the kids are also feeling more into it and that kind of stuff and um so so that's good it creates more of a community feeling it gets everybody into it and it's just fun you know and and so that's that's something to look forward to and it's nice here we had a rally outside all sorts of silly like pep r games the kids Middle School we never had pepper Ries when I was in Middle School in high school we did um but we've been trying it out and it's been fun and they just don't know what to expect and so that's kind of funny also they're not sure what the whole thing's about especially six character is coming in now um so we uh you know just play Silly games and there's a lot of screaming and yelling and it's unbelievably loud um but it's fun and Cy flying out to the audience kind of stuff so uh again it just it creates some some unity and has a good time and teachers and adults are gooping around and that kind of stuff too which is which is fun for the kids um this is CPR training and this was happening actually in Cadet cor also uh and these these students were getting a trained uh you CPR I know that they're doing adult and then infant also and so um that's really an awesome thing I I took advantage of Jordan's training also I did training last year and when she came up with it again our nurse Jordan um when she offered it again I signed up again and she said you know it's good for like two or three years two I said yeah I'd rather be really sure about what it used to be one year then they made it to two okay yeah so I I will probably continue to do it every year because I like to just feel it I would hate to be in that situation and not feel like what going on I love the being offer right now and working with her is is she's really a great addition to our staff she's nice to work with and that's good uh here we are the community Christmas tree decorations um they came up with some neat decorations this year and again this was leadership doing this and these are we just took a handful of students up to the uh to the tree to decorate they came up with a neat type of decoration every year it's difficult because you have to make ornaments that are like weather and that's not as easy as it sounds it turns out and so this year they came up with one that was what neat it's taking a certain type of like plastic drinking cup you can decorate it with pens and then you shoot it with like a heat gun or something like that or a pot Here There and and it melts it down like a Shrinky Dink you recall those things and it flattens yeah and and they're awesome and there they are all decorated and flat and you know plastic so yeah that's always good I always hated it when the principal would ask me as an art teacher to come up with with these decorations because it was always hard to figure out something um Battle of books for our sixth graders that's as old as that competition gets it's sixth grade um and uh o went and did very well and we went and uh and had a great time we didn't place as high but the kids did a great job they have 20 books that they read between them some of them read all 20 some of them read four or five and then as a group they have to answer questions they do uh competition type stuff so uh we had honestly in this group we had some kiddos who um I would say probably often don't particip in other things and so that was a really neat way for that to do Jackie now um headed that up um and then what last Friday we had our Candy Land dance and they came up with some awesome decorations for this again I gotta say the best decorated dance I've been to yet so we're trying to something water you see uh Mrs Peterson you know how she like [Laughter] away love the yeah they did a great job they spent tons of time on this and um got some new techniques of how to do this but it's all after the board game Candy L and uh it looked really cool uh until everybody got in there just that's how that goes we had 250 Plus student show that to the V it's uh it's quite a lot and had a good time most of the things went right and um a little photo booth there um they they do like uh like when you get in one of those little photo booth deals but they have decorate you know things that you can put on and costumes and that kind of stuff props and you go with your buddies and get a picture taken and they print out one strip for each of you there and I think we were charging a dollar so three people went up was Buck each or whatever like that we didn't make our money back on that but it's pretty quad there so uh and I believe that's the last slide it is so wow thank you thank you so much okay next item is board comments you start oh I'm sorry okay okay a couple things so the first thing that I wanted to mention is is we're all aware of um sort of the unfortunate position we've been in in the last four or five weeks with some um scary threats that have come across and we've had some lockdowns and we've had you know the yuckiness of that and so um I reached out to knowledge saves lives who's the that's the entity that does our active threat training and I asked them they have a program that we could present to our students that um explains to them the significance of these types of threats and the impact that that has on all sorts of different levels and then also if we could also if they also had something like that that they could present to parents and they do and so I'm in the process of getting some materials and some samples and then talking with um principles and um seeing if we can move forward with that um they said that they the program that they have is most appropriate for like fifth through eth grade so um I thought that that might be an important message to to put out there for for our students and our parents and our community so I'm working on that and then um with that I will add that um our catapult system and our door lock system and the training that our principles have had um when we did have that lockdown a couple weeks ago things like went really well and um we were quite pleased and we of course you know there were a few small goals but um we were able to address those and move forward and I think I felt good about it I think they felt good about it I think Stephan felt good about it and um that's a positive thing I hope that we don't ever have to do it again but we're prepared and we have things in place and we're going to move forward with maybe some education around this as well it's great seeing the support of the law enforcement help yes yes um M County Sheriff were very responsive and very helpful with with all of the situation so that's been good um the next thing I wanted to just add is um I mentioned earlier that we all attended the csba conference down in Anaheim and that was fantastic and I I don't know the last time all school board members and the superintendent went together and I think that was very helpful and very collaborative and we learned a lot of great things at the sessions so thank you to the district for for allowing that and I think you guys will probably talk a little bit about that too um the next thing is I wanted to um just give a shout out to Lydia who does our payroll she had um quite the month because of the negotiations with csca and when we moved the classifications and we added the mild moderate par um job right or classification and moved it over range and then got how to get retro and then that affected the budget model and there were um it's hard to explain the idios sequencies in all of that all of the things that she like that just doesn't happen and there's a lot of things that she needs to pay attention to to make sure that's done right for our people and um that's been a lot of time so I wanted to say thank you to her for getting that then and then um I was able to get most of the district office to go on a couple field trips uh today and yesterday I said come on we're gonna go see the win yeah well Lydia gonna go she do the but we went and enjoyed the win departments at um auma and then today at o and that was that fill our bucket right that reminds us why we why we do what we do so they did a great job and the teachers did a great job and Tamara and the principals and um that that was a joy to see um and last I just want to say happy Holiday to all of you and to those that are watching um to our staff and our students and our community and I just hope that everybody enjoys time with their family and friends and gets to relax a little bit and we'll see you back in January I'll see some of you before then but most of them I'll see back in January so happy holidays you too thank you okay now board member comments Julie right turn thank you thanks for letting me be first [Music] um like superintendent towns and mentioned we were all at the csba um conference down in Anaheim um first of all uh the way to see how you operate away from the district and to see the results of how you handle emergencies when we weren't even in town I like I couldn't be more proud I couldn't be more in awe of how hard you work how you function without sleep um if it is an honor to be part of the board with the entire District the way they they operate and um you guys are just like tough dunch and I have a few um comments to make about that um at our csba conference we heard from keynote speaker Lori Santos from the happiness lab she has a podcast I'm a huge fan I'm giving her a shout out right now um I just love the 10 ways to make yourself a bit more happy and it was just like so concise and actionable and like who doesn't want a little bit more happiness um I also got to hear from Dr Victor Rios I'm a fan I have gone to all of his um sessions at every time I've been to csda he is a success story from um being a gang member to now being being a doctor and doing all kinds of research and giving back to the educational community that helped bring him up and it was very interesting I'll just be brief um when kids were surveyed um when they surveyed uh working class families vers or students versus middle class student um their support needs were different the working class need needed more emotional support and less informational and the middle class needed more informational and less emotional and that just made me come back right here to the district and how we are putting kids mental health um as a priority and we are investing time and our money and resources into helping support the mental health of our students and so I'm very proud that um we as a board have prioritized that and and that were um following through with those action items um I was able to tour the campuses uh all three campuses yesterday they were was very brief um but I got to see the battle of the books um presentation where they had a little celebration party at OES and Mrs hudon and Miss Burton and Miss Forte were just talking accolades about all of their students that participated and kind of just a piggyback on what Mr mcru said some kids that have never participated in things before um got to participate in something and even like the kids that weren't great readers got to Pal around with the great readers and another shout out to um Madera County for putting on a countywide competition this is very similar to pentathlon but for OES to get second place was it the fourth graders yeah second place in the whole County wow come on that's awesome so awesome um when I went to wasum I got to tour or I was handled outside I walked around saw some caution tape here and there so we avoided that um I do have a question about um the future of the bus bar in there so I put that um on someone's radar and um I also got to go to oci and have very meaningful conversation with Mr McGrew and one of the things that superintendent Townsen has um implemented this early notification of retirement or resignation and I just think the forethought of that and having that incentive um is hoping to set us up for next year with all of the positions that we need build because I know we don't have you know people teaching in their you know designation if you will uh for example Mrs nef she's our reading specialist and she's in the sixth grade classroom and she's doing a fantastic job but if we could get a sixth grade teacher that would be great too and then she could do reading and um overall I just want to say I'm so proud of all the staff in the district when I hear things that may be not going the way a parent wants or maybe a way um a Community member doesn't think it should go I start to go wow what are we doing about that and then when I step foot on our campuses and I see the amazing work that is going on the teachers the kids I saw a teacher do a minor correction for a kid who was kind of speaking taking the spotlight out of someone else they were trying to shine a light on and that kid responded and it wasn't shame oriented it was supportive and encouraging and this is the worst part I am preaching to the choir right now anyway um hope you guys have a great break thank you for the mic well you said everything um it's funny because things I was going to talk about the sessions that we took together um Dr Rios the one thing that he did mention about his whole experience was it was one teacher in high school that's like you can do this you can do this and he did it and he just needed one person to believe in him and then he has just gone all this way and that was the other thing they were talking about with the social emotional learning and how when they surveyed the kids and the kids you know the um working class students versus the middle class students and how they needed the social uh they needed the social emotional connection in order to get to that next level they needed the teacher say you can do it you can you know and the kids that have that at home or or you know they already had that they didn't need that so they just needed to know how to do it these kids didn't even believe they could do it until their teacher told them they could do it then they needed to know how to do it so he was like the kids until you can let them know that they have that potential they don't want to know how to do it because they don't think they can do it and it was just it just did it was just amazing how we felt I felt very proud that we've already implemented and we're doing a lot that they're just talking about and um Julie said a lot and I just kind of echo what you're saying and it was great to all be together and have that time to kind of focus and um you know like you handling all these situations and you guys you know stepping up and working together to make it happen is amazing that you guys could all do that and thank you um and yes happy holidays I can't make a note I can't remember what else I was going to say but um I'll be done now thank you Sten okay well I'm I'm not going to take a lot of time but I I too we all went to the thing down in Anaheim and it was quite an ID and I I sat in on everything my I got blisters on my feet there was so much walking involved and uh but but the the course that really stuck home with me was the very last one on Saturday and I'm going to be really plugging into it and it was focused on reading and the board and I I don't think there was more than 30 people at that se and uh but but it everything about it was focusing on the the states in our country that doing awesome with their reading and they said anyone can do this if the board members will start focusing on what they call early literacy programs and uh so I'm going to be meeting with some of the the people and and finding out what what they're doing as a board because they're doing things different than most other districts are doing anywhere and they you know in the the top tiers of things happening because it all starts with the reading you know the AI the the history the Civics whatever else comes later if if you can't read you're not going to do much with again so that that is a critical and I hadn't really realized that until after this particular for their course and U I have a lot of notes on it I'm not going to read them um just going to say um going to enjoy my new position on the board it's the one position I have not had being the the roing representative of our school board meetings I'm going to go to and also all I I should mention too I'm the um I I plugged in with the small school board advisory Workshop group people it's a long title and uh and they had like six sessions down there that they they they wanted all their people to go to so that was their little curriculum for me and so I went to all of those because they were targeting you know people with school boards that we had 25 200 people or less we follow so anyway there was only a few that were that were smaller maybe because they you know Happ us raise our hands there are some school districts with like a 100 kids in the district you know which just amazing you know way up in the mountains and Northern California they're talking about near attendance when it goes when 20 people don't show up it's like nobody's there anyway um okay so Merry Christmas thank you for the gifts everyone and we'll see you in the new year not sooner so St you have my pH breath on your screen wait do we have [Music] con but I I it my yeah so um that particular evening Michelle we pay a lot if you look at the war um of attorney fees you haven't ever noticed so our attorney was hosting a um an event with free food so challenge accepted we all showed up and ate many sliders and Sherie boards and whatever we yeah ketos lots anything we could do to try to wake up for some of that money that we spent so and then after that we had our BCT so we are fat and happy moment in time so anyway that was part of the fun but I think U another valuable thing that we got I feel like as a board out of going to that conference with jent time together outside of the Board Room because it's not something we usually get so having dinner together lunch together different things that you know attending sessions together that was something we wanted to do I just really thought that that helped bring us together as a board with our our common Vision that we have for the district and you know Michelle making dinner reservations for us kind of leading us and we had that mini board Workshop which I think is super valuable so I think we pack a lot into those few days and I really appreciate all all the tera's planning and Mindy and and helping us you know with all the logistics of that so uh that was fun and then um I did go to Esports um after that presentation I wanted to check that out so I came on Friday and and saw that I was super neat just to walk around I mean there's so many kids doing so many different things and it's not just the video games they're playing Legos they have other games that they're playing on computers um aside from I'm pointing up there because they have screens up there with with um interactive games they were in a tournament and then but they're also doing art I mean so kids are drawing and and coloring different things and it was just neat to see just all the different levels and they even had a couple of you know um kids with more um special needs but they're still able to participate with all the other kids so it's it's a really interesting program so I appreciate uh the time that I was given to to check that out and Stacy hon and and Michelle Burton spearhead that and they do a really nice job so thank you for letting me see that um and battle of the books I wanted to extend my congratulations to that that's just such a cool thing and I love anything that have to do with reading a bunch of books so that was awesome and then lastly um Merry Christmas everybody thanks thank you Denise yes so I just want to express my appreciation for sending this all to the education conference learned a lot and I was able to go to the uh prior day it was the board president Workshop that was a full day very interactive and probably the main thing that we focused on is is our discussion leading to Children graduating high school so so that was know we all need to focus that's needs to be our most important priority as we all know so um appreciate all the workshops that were very interesting and time together um what else was I going to say so I look forward to going to the holiday performance tomorrow excited and enjoyed hearing the kids this morning or this evening singing they did a beautiful job uh and I will just wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy New Year see you guys next okay our next meeting date I show Wednesday January 8th now I think 15 yeah 15 that was on the beginning of the agenda everything different when they adopted the dates for the organizational for the future meeting because I think when we talked last year the it was too close to when school was just coming back we were trying to push it out a week in January so it it it should be the 15th 15 do we want to adjust our Workshop meeting then at all keep that like it two weeks in a row just not two days so that's good do we have any future agenda items two days two days in a row no not two days Julie no no I don't have any okay and looks like this meeting is adjourned yeah so 15 great job thank president
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e e e call upon you if you want to speak at that time please maintain the Corum it appreciated thank you so much I'd like to nominate truste thama boak as president thank you for that is there a second on that I'll second right thank you uh I I will um finish all the nominations and then have one vote for the entire thing uh do I have a nomination for vice president of the vot I'd like to nomin H trusty hugz for vice president a second I'll second have a motion second uh is there is there a nomination for the clerk of the board i' like to nominate trusty H for the clerk position I'll second that okay it's been more than seconded um so we will vote for the following we'll vote for Miss Black As for president of the board we'll vote for Mr for the vice president vard vote for trusty H uh for the of board will appoint superintendent as Secretary of the board and designate meeting Bo ofes shall be held at 9:8 Drive Open session commencing at 700 p.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e e e good evening everyone welcome to the December 18th regular board meeting for chica Unified School District just as a reminder this meeting is being recorded and live streamed we have an amazing Full House thank you all so much for being here I'm really excited to see what the students have for us today but before we do that we do have a couple of new members who were recently elected so we will in a moment do the uh flag salute then we will invite a judge to come forward and swear in our new members so they can officially begin their term in office and then we will move on to the amazing student presentation that we are very excited about so will you all please join me in the flag salute and Tom before we do the flag salute would you save the flag it kind of took a dive over there United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indiv and with that I will invite judge Lucena to the stage please hello and hello to all of you my name is Kristen lucenna I'm a judge here with the bu County Superior Court and I am honored to be afforded the opportunity to conduct the swearing in ceremony for the new Chico Unified School District trustees Gail Olen and Tisha Hayes both Miss Olen and Miss Hayes are retired teachers and this reminds me of a another former teacher who was a longstanding Chico Unified School District trustee from 1977 to 1990 Miss Maryanne H Mrs HS uh went on to serve her community further as a Chico city council member and then on the bu County Board of Supervisors as Chico Unified School District trustee Mrs HS had the habit of cutting out from the chico Enterprise record articles about students in the district and I was the recipient of several of these kind gestures um that she would U present through the mail as I was um a student through J Partridge And Shasta Elementary School and Bidwell junior high school and then at Pleasant Valley high school and uh I know I wasn't the only one that received these kind gestures and notes of inspiration and encouragement from an important woman and she her targeted attention to students of Chico Unified School District mattered and I hope that our new trustees will find a way of their own to inspire individual students to achieve their best work in the classroom on the sports pitch and in the Arts and I wish both of them a great deal of success and I did want to just introduce myself to the students that are here and welcome you uh an oath is an important uh transition into a new role and this is a very special oath that is said by all elected officials and we're going to have our new trustees come in come up and um swear their oath at this time so let's go ahead and start with Tisha Hayes thank you so if you could please repeat after me I T Tisha Hayes do solemnly swear or affirm IA Haye do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the state of California and the state of California against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California that I take this obligation freely I take this obligation freely without anyal reservation without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will Faithfully discharge and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter the duties upon which I'm about to enter congratulations thank you so much [Applause] thank you so much thank you all right and now would Miss Gail Olen please join us please raise your hands I Gail Olen I Gail Olson do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and Allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California and that I take this obligation freely and without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully and that I will well and Faithfully discharge the duties upon I'm about to enter discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter congratulations thank [Applause] you right thank you so much please join me in a round of applause for judge Lucena thank you so much for being here it's really an honor to have you here at this time I'm going to present a certificate to our new board members and I'm going to start with uh Miss Hayes and allow you the opportunity to say a few words and introduce those people that are with you I'm really excited to uh be entering this role um I've been a teacher for uh since 1990 and so um students are at my very heart um I've been a ninth grade teacher English and reading and um I really do feel that students um are at the focus of what we should be doing I I hope um that all of you uh would reach out to the board if you have any questions or concerns and I want to thank um the California Teachers Association for ncut for their support and my family's support I have my daughter my granddaughter who is at rosale and my husband here tonight and both my daughter and granddaughter um uh campaigned for both myself and for Gail so very proud and now I'd like to invite Gil Olen is it on okay thank you um well first off I just want to say I'm super excited to be here and um I'm ready for this next adventure there were so many people that helped me throughout my campaigning that I couldn't possibly mention them all but I do have a few that I I really need to um give a shout out Matt Taylor uh he was a student of mine he graduated in 10 years ago right 10 years ago he found out that I was running he came out canvasing with me um did a great job um speaking to the people and um thank you for your support I also had two other students um from Pleasant Valley that were on my case load for three years um they came out and campaigned with me and did an excellent job uh canvasing um door too um obviously I have to give a shout out to my campaign manager d who's also my wife her um mental and physical efforts were she made me tired um yeah and then um Ryan who was my treasure I said Ryan they say it's a piece of cake it this will be easy he's like okay it was not easy so thank you very much um and then finally I know on YouTube land um I have my daughter Courtney um who's in Fresno and my my son Chad who's in this little town called mop in Oregon and I know that they're watching and I want to say hi thank you oh don't go that way got to go up time to take your chair you sit up here now and of course a big welcome to both of you from uh the existing board members we've had the opportunity to get to know these two and work with them a little bit already it's been an absolute pleasure looking forward to it and now uh back over to Kelly please well we have a real treat this evening not one school but two so we are going to start with Chico Jr High School and Mr John Gunderson the principal is going to uh come up and tell us what we're going to see thank you [Applause] guys uh thank you so much for having uh myself and my school here today before we get started I just want to thank you all for what you do um making decisions for a school district and doing what's best for kids is not always easy and I just really appreciate all the work that you guys do I also want to thank you guys okay we can't do what we do without schools without the support and everything we get from you guys so thank you so much you guys are an amazing team and we are grateful we are aware at our school that you guys help us get going and keep the thing going so we really appreciate you and I am one of the luckiest principles in the world cuz I work with not only the most amazing staff and just some amazing like Talent people that connect with kids but I also work with some amazing students and uh one of the Showcase things we have tonight is our drama Department um it's run by Miss Sonia hus uh the amount of work that this woman puts in is staggering it's uh impressive it's inspiring as her supervisor to see somebody work that hard and then the product that she produces is spectacular and one of the coolest things that I've noticed is in her classroom in her drama class you can really watch kids who um don't really say much and they're not super social but they start to come out of their shell and after they have her as a teacher and after they go through her program they really start to Blossom and become these amazing individuals as they get ready for high school and it's all because of the work of her and also the awesome kids that we get to work with so I will now introduced her and them so this is Miss Sonia hus and some of our stars from the drama [Applause] Department wow hi I'm Sonia hus it's very nice to be here thank you for giving me this opportunity to describe uh Chico Jr drama I have the privilege of being the teacher that's pulling that together I brought I know you don't want to hear me talk I know you want to hear the kids so um I have three wonderful students with me tonight I've got orabella Mandela and Abby and they would like to describe to you a little bit about what we do in drama hi um sorry Hi um so the I don't know the tech is it the top button okay other Arrow top Arrow okay okay so um some of the goals that we've had um in our drama Department ever since um 2017 sorry we've had several goals in our drama department since 2017 the first of them being to velop confidence this confidence really helps us on stage but it also helps us a lot in real life it helps us gain like a lot more Courage the next skill or the next goal that we're working towards is improving our communication skills we're taught new ways to say things and communicate by memorizing lines you usually the lines that we have to say are more mature than like what a kid would say um our next goal is to improve teamwork doing a show with with 35 to 40 other people helps you realize that you have to work as a team and if you don't then like the show can't get done um our next goal is to help improve your creativity um when you're creating a character you have to think about like how would they act what would they say and you have to um improve your creativity by doing that you have to be creative with it the next goal is to improve your critical thinking you have to think what would this character do what is happening that is leading to this event all of that and you have to use your critical thinking when dealing with that so yeah um our last goal is to learn through the play you know have fun with it and having fun in our plays is pretty much how you learn and that's it thank you thank you thank you um in Fall we did two shows we did the mustache mellow drama and Snow White Snow White was a retail by all of the dwarfs I was Snow White in that show the mustache melodrama was a true melodrama with boing and throwing popcorn this is a picture from Snow White this scene was from Shakespeare this here is the whole cast for Snow White we love hearing the audience cheer we usually get about 175 people at our shows this is the mustache mellow drama there was a lot of action in that one this is the whole cast of the melodrama there are so proud of their accomplishments this year for our musical in the spring we are doing Mean Girls junor don't worry it is um middle school appropriate it is we are going to do this in collaboration with the Chico Junior choir musicals are arguably arguably more difficult because we have to learn how to sing and how to dance and also how to act and then we also have to make costumes and also sets and props and we have to figure out who's doing what on stage and who's doing the sounds and lights and all that good stuff we haven't done our spring show yet obviously so I won't show it to you but here is a clip from our musical last year Madagascar junor well they there's juicy berries yeah but I need St oh come on man you love here can't you see [Music] so thank you for having us as you can see in that we use um real microphones so we have 25 24 microphones for the students and so they have to learn how to do Tech and run the tech with that and then we um we bring sets on and we we have lights so we try to do everything we can my students don't drive so we try we have to keep everything on our stage there on campus and it works really well for us so thank you for this time and opportunity it means a lot okay thank you thank you Chico Jr and I hope Citrus is watching because a lot of our Citrus kids go to Chico Jr so you could be recruiting here tonight so with that we are going to get to Citrus so I would like assistant principal Gloria ginas to come up and talk to us a little bit about the bike program and what we're going to see good evening and welcome sorry I'm Gloria ginz I'm the assistant principal at Citrus Elementary I am excited to share a very special program at Citrus that our students in Mr Wan's fifth grade class participate in in each year the Citrus bike program has been in existence since 2011 and Mr wyan has kept it going strong our bike program has donated over 100 bikes to our community I would like to invite Nathaniel wyan to take over and share the outstanding work that he and his students do each [Applause] year W that was really encouraging thanks everybody um if we could awkward transition my students up and then bikes over if that's okay um I don't okay uh can you guys grab the bikes please and then bring them over here sorry if you're watching this online I know that this is like a longer staff meeting now awesome okay um uh bikes are a large part of what we do um in our class and it's a large part of our um class culture yeah um we use uh bikes for all of our field trips and um actually seven of us uh learned how to ride bikes this year so um a lot of them after school with me and then a few at home uh we travel um for our field trips on bikes it eliminates the need to uh get a bunch of parent drivers which can be tricky and then also it eliminates the need to fund raise for busing so and we we go as far as up to Diversion Dam which is also be hole and then we use usually go out to the Sacramento River um to the reserve over there um so we do a lot of things with bikes um but today we're going to talk about our bike project yep that's me sorry me and my class over the past few weeks have been refurbishing old and used bikes and making them like new to give to children who wouldn't normally find a bicycle under their Christmas tree as we move on I am going to talk about what the bike Journal is mostly about in our bike Journal we graph out our bike parts and their names to know what we're working on we also Drew and labeled our most important tools or the tools we are going to be using that is what the bike Journal is mostly about I think the bike Journal was probably one of the best things we did during this bike project for an example me and my group loved graphing it was fun to find and connect the dots we also loved writing down and getting the donations it was very exciting to see who donated the money math was also pretty fun to see how much we got in [Applause] total hello I'll be talking about the letters we wrote in class we wrote letters to businesses to see if they would want to help us we learned how to write letters and how to address envelopes I'm going to share a few letters that we got written back to us hey Eden I appreciate your handwritten note what an amazing project you are working on we are happy to support your project and we wish you the best of luck reaching your goals Merry Christmas dear Diana I am very impressed with you and your classes by refurbishing Pro project what a wonderful thing is to treat others the way you want to be treated it if you or your classmates didn't have any presents under your Christmas tree that would be a sad day you and your class are going to bring so much happiness some to some children who here in Chico and make their Christmas special thank you for the privilege of donating to such a worth cause sin seriously Brad Jackson [Applause] hello my name is Harris and I'm going to talk about how my group did with the disassembly when we got to take apart the bikes I felt strong cuz I Haven haven't gotten to take apart a bike before the back wheel was the hardest to take off the nuts were super tight and we kept forgetting righty tidy Lefty Lucy how we got the how we got the tire was that Mr Lan came and pulled the nut off [Applause] hello my name is Eva and I'm going to be talking about cleaning during our cleaning we use vinegar bottles toothpaste and toothbrushes we all Char our best to do what we could do to get these bikes looking beautiful for these lucky boys and girls it went really well The Barbarians from the bikes went from the grossest to the cleanest part of the bike this is reassembly um for real assembly we did uh after we got the clean parts we started screwing them on to the new and clean and painted bikes in these pictures as you see we screwed it was a lot better than disassembly to for my opinion I think it's a lot better than disassembly because say for reassembly you get to put back clean and new pretty Parts um instead of doing those uh crusty musty Rusty Parts than the others example when I was doing the tires or putting on the tires it kind of hurted my hand a lot but it was still fun because once for this whole project once you do something once you know you should know how to do it the second [Applause] time oh God please join us on Thursday the 19th 2024 from 9 to 10: at Citrus Elementary room 16 am I done um we we have our open house tomorrow uh and we'll have our bikes up and our students will have all the things that we've worked on and compiled and if you guys would like to come uh to Citrus from 9:00 to 10: uh you're more than welcome to join us so yeah um okay I'm gonna I I'm goingon to do the less fun part the academics well I mean sorry shoot you guys are the B I didn't say that um so oh jeez okay here we go um in math we covered standard CC SS math content 5ga A1 which I'm sure you already know what that is but for the people in the back um that's uh that's graphing so we did um graphing during our project we also uh did decimals and when we got things donated like um pedals or what have you we did um we would multiply the amount so that we could I would I kind of try to use as much when that comes in uh to do lots of math problems and it's highly motivating when you're doing math problems based on the price of pedals versus just the price of Sally whatever thing so uh language arts we we write letters um and send them out uh one thing that's really cool about this is we get to emphasize uh the appropriate audience and how you speak to the appropriate audience so um typically you write I can say you're writing to a classmate or to whoever but really ends up being me reading the essay so this opportunity to write to someone that's in the community a business owner um gives them a chance to really um focus on truly writing to that person uh and then little ngss or science uh generate and compare complete possible solutions and there's just a lot of problem solving and a lot of it ends up being uh at the especially at the beginning students start off um pretty quickly wanting help and then as the project goes on and I allow them to struggle um as we go through to the end um they ask for help a lot less and that's just based on their growth and problem solving all right then we got Technical and practical skills um me uh one thing we grow in is mechanical knowledge just their understanding of how a bike works and how to um engineer and reverse engineer things we do diagramming uh we do this at the very beginning to learn all the parts of a bike and the names of the parts all right Eden so today I'm going to be talking about to proficiency me and my group started off okay at the beginning of the year but at the end we were great at using tools we were good at using wrenches screwdrivers and tire levels levers and almost there was a and almost there was a time that I was using a tool on my tire and I was twisting on the wrench the wrong way then I hit myself when it slipped off of my grip but I'm fine I got better since I didn't get hurt on my bike anymore as you can see me and my group improved more than the [Applause] start um in the journal we also create an instruction manual so we um say what what's happening when and then we go in the reverse order to reassemble uh we also take our donations and put them on a uh Google sheet and then we do a little bit about learning how to type in formulas and then we turn it into um charts and graphs too so we can focus on um those areas my group uh grew and walking together by talking to each other more we needed to be more generous and share tools more uh because there was a lot going of lawn when we were cleaning bikes there were a lot of post to clean so we needed to be more generous by sharing tools and mole so the three basic areas if I go back through them is uh academics um just shoot I forgot what I was going to say uh technical skills and then um life skills so uh those those three are woven together um yeah and then we got one thing my group had trouble with but kept going was the back tire because there was the nuts the break and the chain but we got it every once in a while someone from our group would make sure all the tools were straight every week we have different virtues uh one virtue might be friendliness one might be joyfulness or even perseverance two virtues I know that me and my classmates have was perseverance and friendliness we use perseverance in class by not giving up on our bike refering project and if we didn't have friendliness we we all be mad at each [Applause] other um a couple other life lessons to highlight uh we learn that we can do hard things uh we learn that we can impact uh someone's else else's life with our actions and get our hands super dirty and then um we also learned to be good stewards of possessions and that things are not Expendable that we can take old things and make them new uh and then uh philanthropy is the other thing is that we get to be um givers I do want to highlight um first uh Mr bransky who I'm basically just stealing his program so anyway um he's the man and uh couple two bike shops that help me out north rim and green line and then we get the bikes from sensible Cyclery and then uh conquer Elite is who paints our bike frames so these um these were all the bikes that we did and then we with our fundraising we had some extra funds um and so we bought these two from northr so yeah hi I'm mine and as a class we got to be flist a flist is a person who does nice things and doesn't want things back we did a lot of hard work to cleaning all the kids in our class don't normally give we have like normal kids and we like getting things but I know that everyone in my class is excited to give a lucky kid a bike and want them to be happy I'm glad we have people like [Applause] this can you guys introduce yourselves just yeah sh starts I'm sh I'm Serenity goolia I'm meline Cox I'm zayia Rico I'm ant I'm Antonio Padia I'm Emma barokas I'm Anastasia muers I'm Zur Turner I'm Eva Jensen I'm James Stevens I'm Harrison kot Garcia I'm Eden King thanks for having us [Applause] I just want to say thank you so much this is such an amazing program thanks thanks I'll speak for all of us thank you and I just want to say to our new board members this is what it's all about kids and learning in action and giving back we have just fabulous teachers fabulous students and Mr bransky wave because you did start this program so thank you for doing that before our fabulous Citrus families leave I want to again invite Gloria ginas up to the microphone okay at Citrus we cherish our tradition of surprising staff with the superintendent award creating heartfelt Unforgettable moments that allow them to truly experience the joy and recognition in the moment so Gina will you come up here please [Applause] Gina was a nervous wreck come on up I am honored tonight to present Gina LEF with a superintendence award for classified Personnel JK rling said when in doubt go to the library the library is a place where many children go not only to learn and read but also for warmth and safety Citrus is so fortunate to have Gina as our trusted caring and exceptional Library median assistant Gina has been at Citrus for just a few years and has made an indelible impression on every student and staff member during that time she is kind caring and outstanding at her job Citrus students trust her and look forward to their weekly visits to her welcoming Library space her commitment does not end with the library visits she knows students by name what tipes of books they enjoy and open the library at every opportunity for students to come and spend their free time I want to thank you Gina for your continued commitment to our Citrus students and staff we are so fortunate to have you as our part of our [Applause] community all right s let's here for here you go we're gonna get a quick picture congratulations [Applause] congratulations I would now like Miss Emmy vales to come up Emy is our school counselor at Citrus it is my great pleasure to honor Emmy with the superintendent award for certificated Personnel her unwavering dedication and profound compassion have made a lasting impact on our Citrus students Emmy is a beacon of support a confidant to both students and staff and she is a source of comfort for all that engage with her she is without a doubt the most trusted adult on campus she truly sets a her apart what truly sets her apart is the way she creates trust with students during the most difficult times she has an act for making sure that students and Staff feel respected heard valued and supported if we gave her a penny for every time a student was looking for Miss Emmy she would have already retired Emmy thank you for the positive difference you make every day and the many hearts you have touched and supported we could not nearly be as successful at Citrus if you weren't a part of it oh boy make me for you no crying thank you thank you well we have certainly had Citrus in the house tonight uh we do want to give you an opportunity if you want to stay for the rest of the board meeting by all means do so um but do not feel obligated I know it is right before the holidays and kids have tests I'm sure tomorrow so feel free to go thank you again citus thank you all so much have a wonderful night if you chose to leave you AG well that was amazing and I love getting start the meetings on such a positive note seeing what our schools are doing and now we get on to the much more boring stuff um because we do have new board members uh we are going to move on to our organizational meeting we hold an annual organizational meeting uh for elction of officers as per Ed code uh we are at this point going to elector officers we elect a president a vice president and a clerk of the board the election will be held in this manner for president first then vice president then clerk uh anyone May nominate any member of the board uh once everyone has had an opportunity to nominate then we will go through and vote on each individual nominee uh the first Nomine who gets three votes uh shall hold that office do we have any questions or anything we need to clarify before we move into that process seeing none okay um are there any nominations for the office of President I sorry I would like to nominate Rebecca conin very good are there any others I think we skipped something yeah I'm sorry what's that what uh aren't we usually allowing each member to kind of introduce themselves and give a background of their involvement and qualifications before nominations are put forward that's what I remember I'm sorry I don't have the stuff in front of me but excuse me I believe what we have done in the past is that we have gone through nominations and then each person has been allowed to make a statement um if they are interested in holding the position and um you know what other other comments that they might make but I don't believe every board member has made a statement just those that were running for office or were interested or nominated okay that works for me are there any other nominees uh Mr Lando yeah yes if you're willing I'd like to nomin Nate you for president okay thank you any others uh seeing none um Miss conin if you want to give a statement sure I'm Rebecca Conan and um this is my second year serving as a trustee um and I think what I'd like to say about my myself is um I feel like my focus is definitely the students and I bring to this position um the parent perspective um I'm a pediatric nurse practitioner so I have quite a bit of experience um with kids and um the developmental stages um and I in preparation for potentially the role of president I did attend um the workshop at our last csba conference where um I had the opportunity to um gain some insight on what it would look like to be the president of the board although it's only my second year I am willing to rise to the occasion and serve as president um if it's the will of the board and I'm a mom of four kids um a wife a nurse practitioner actively involved in the community um serving um as a leader of 4 and um lots of experience with sports and I I'd like to just say my my greatest strength is um that I bring the parent perspective thank you for the the nomination I appreciate that I would be um proud to serve as president excellent thank you so much um I guess I'll do the same my name is Tom Lando I've been on the board for six years now wow um serving as vice president currently um in my day job I am a uh teacher and an uh coach I lead a team of teachers um in improving educational practices and I love it um also a parent of two one of whom has successfully gone through the Chica unified system I think I bu bring uh institutional memory to this position as well as a deep understanding of Educational Systems CH unified and a uh desire to build consensus among the board and move us all forward keeping students at the focus and I've got to switch back into running this meeting briefly mode so um as Miss conin was nominated first uh let's have um AO starting from left to right I suppose um so if uh awkward right if you are in favor of uh Miss conen for president please say I con and I Olen I Landon Hy nay Robinson nay very well very well um I guess we'll start down there again with uh votes for Mr Lando Conan I thank you Olen I thank you L ey hyi Robinson I thank you very much that means a lot um we'll use the exact same process to fill the role of uh vice president um I would like to go ahead and nominate Miss conin for vice president that okay I accept excellent are there any other nominees seeing none how about we start on this end this time Robinson i h i Lando I Olsen I con and I excellent right on we got a team and we do need a clerk I'd like to nominate someone if possible take it away um I'd like to nominate um Gail if you'd be willing to accept well since I heard a little bit about what what's involved in that I would happily accept thank you it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it do we have any other nominees for clerk n case you want to start the voting again Conan I Olen I Lando I hey I Robinson I and how's your writing hand my left even after all clapping you're okay we are it's amazing we have more lefties up here now that's I don't know if that's a first um before we move on though we do also need to appoint a secretary of the board um by custom as well as our bylaws that is normally the superintendent so um I would like to move to appoint superintendent Staley as the secretary of the board we have a second I'll second I'll second your motion Mr Lando perfect any debate about this one seeing none we'll start with member Robinson Robinson i h i away Olen I conen I and there we have it you're stuck again I just want to reassure you it is Erica that does 99% of the work so we're in good hands excellent thank you all so much um we are going to move on to setting the date time and place of the regular meeting uh that is agenda item 5.5 do we have a presentation on this one do we have anybody who needs to say anything um you do have in your packet a list of uh traditionally we hold our board workshop on most first Wednesdays of the month uh there are some exceptions to that December June July um and then the regular meeting at which we have business is the 3D Wednesday of the month and so those are listed for you in your board packet and they are up on the screen I have too many packets up here I'm sorry life it's both electronically in your packet and it just up on the screen yes it's right in front of me thank you so much does any member of the board have any questions uh regarding either the layout of the agenda or the uh time and place of our meetings I have a comment please please thank you Mr President um in the paragraph starting um the 2025 meeting calendar 1 and third Wednesdays it mentions in there that the regular meeting location will be marold via live stream special meeting locations at marold and um where's the workshop meeting the board what I'm looking for is that the first meeting of the month is usually our board workshop and I understand we could have some discussion regarding a different location for our Workshop meetings um does the board have any desire to look at a possible different location for our Workshop meetings in order to free up this facility for the use of marold school yeah I know we have heard that having two meetings a month at maragold impacts their after school program um and their operation sum uh so I guess my technical question would be Is it feasible that perhaps we hold the workshop meetings at the large conference room at the district office we certainly can um the regular board meetings sometimes require a larger venue um we do have really good technology and Technology staff that is here so we could do the board workshops which tend to be mainly board members and staff occasionally it's a fun topic and we get lots of people attending and we if we could judge that ahead of time we could move that if need need be um but we probably wouldn't have as high a level as technology and I'm looking at my tech guys over here at the district office as we do here we have a pretty good setup here but um then again the workshops really are designed for more of a conversation so you don't need you know the the individual camera on each person like we do at our regular meetings so short answer yes I'm looking at the tech guys too does that seem reasonable okay um I have another comment the reason why I was fumbling around looking for what I was looking for um is that it indicates that um Regular board meetings on the third Wednesday and special board meetings on the first Wednesday we usually don't call them special board meetings we call them our Workshop meetings so that's why I was m directed in my thinking of what I was looking for so shall we make a wording change or is every was I the only one confused is there a legal requirement regarding the names we do call them workshops because that's what they've developed into for us but technically they are special board meetings so our lingo is a little different than um what egg code or csba might call them so to just to clarify they are supposed to be called special there's different types of meetings that are listed and um that boards can hold and workshops fall under the special board meeting category okay we can still call them workshops we can even call them both are there any other questions for staff regarding this topic I don't see any problem with it as long as we it's clearly stated on the website as to the location and if we're able to get allow students to be here when they need to be here seems like it's in their best interest absolutely all right uh do we have any public comment on this topic anybody out there have big feelings about where and when we hold the meetings uh seeing none uh are there any motions uh from the board regarding this topic I'll motion that our regular board meetings be here at maragold and our special board meetings would be held in the large conference room at Chico Unified all all second all right we have a motion by member Hayes as is second by member Olen any discussion on this topic we haven't already had I don't I thank you Mr President I again I'm searching for something I can't find which at this age gets to be a pretty regular occurrence but um we normally stay away from uh March 17th we don't have it listed we have March 12th but then there's an asterisk after March 12th of 2025 does that mean we've checked it out and we are in alignment with but college and Chico State for that break our breaks um are the student calendar and those are aligned with Chica state and VI College correct okay so that's I don't see an explanation for the asterisk but that's what it's supposed to mean yes so there's an there's a an exclanation in the paragraph um that that's not the first Wednesday unless otherwise noted with an asterisk so it was just denoting that that is not the first Wednesday that is the second Wednesday in March okay as long as as long as we've stayed away from uh the fun times in March so I'm understanding that that the reason we only have one board meeting that that month is because of the holiday the spring breaks is that correct okay spring break Falls during the third week so this got moved up to the second week okay um do not have board meetings at the board workshops during uh spring break during uh winter break and then typically we don't have them during the summer and of course if we need to there's an emergent issue we can always call a special meeting with 72 hours notice one other thing I did want to uh call to your attention for the past couple of years the board has chosen not to have a board meeting uh in July so that is something to consider it is listed here um as a board meeting but that is 100% of course up to the board whether or not you want to have a meeting in July so July would be the first meeting at which we'd have the new superintendant correct that is correct that's an excellent point and given that I think we might want to leave it on the menu for now yeah I'm remembering it seems like we wait closer to the time to decide correct and then we always have the option to put it back on the calendar yeah yes um seems like leaving it on the calendar for now and then if we want to take it off as we approach we can certainly do that absolutely Mr President um yes I I concur with what you just said that for for this year with the engagement of our new superintendent on July 1 that leaving a meeting scheduled uh with the knowledge that we quite often cancel them would be our best best move this year because our new superintendent may want to um may want to have some topics at that board meeting that he would be interested in getting us all aligned with before we go into the August crunch of getting school open absolutely right is there any further discussion on the motion on the table which is for meetings as listed here with the move of the special meeting workshops to the district office large conference room and then one other thing just for the board to consider typically our special board meetings or board workshops start at 5 o'clock and close session follows our regular board meetings start at six o'clock with closed session at 5 o'clock prior so um just want to make sure when we approve it we're doing that as well unless the board desires a change does that work for all the board members to be available at 5:00 on each day with the understanding that on special board meetings the closed session will be held afterwards yes I I believe that um our rationale for doing that is because Workshop meetings quite often involve staff and that getting them into the meeting and out starting at 5: rather than later is our desire because we have so many of our staff committed to those Workshop special meetings and um you know having them stay late just isn't good practice for us or no our practice for them is not good if we go that way yes we like them away from the office for at least eight hours in a row you know any further discussion seeing none uh actually we've already had unanimous votes this meeting so we can go right ahead and just uh all those in favor please indicate so by saying I I I any nay hearing none it's unanimous thank you very much let us oh you know I talked about agenda already but it's its own item I'm sorry moving on to item 5.6 the agenda layout um we all have in front of us a copy of the agenda um are there any changes to the way the agenda looks that anyone would like to introduce or anything about the way the agenda is presented that we need to change for the betterment of the meeting to the public just as a small note to that you have um both a board Workshop agenda board workshops are focused really on a topic that's determined by the board and those are the ones that start at five o'clock and typically involved staff uh and then you have the regular board meeting agenda which um is the one that does have two different opportunities for comments from our public are there any technical questions or questions of clarification from the board seeing none is there any public comment regarding the format of the agenda again seeing none um are there any motions associated with this agenda item I move approval is that a motion to keep the agenda as it is I move approval of the agenda without changes yes thank you sir very good we have a motion by member Robinson and a second by vice president conin any discussion or debate on this topic seeing none uh all in favor please indicate by saying I I I any Nays seeing none it is unanimous thank you and our last of the uh organizational items uh Workshop committee assignments this is item 5.7 um as we do have two new members we need to adjust our committee assignments a little bit Staley yes um when the board voted back in August to set up the topics for board workshops as well as the board member leaon that board voted that our two new board members be given the opportunity to serve on the Chico Unified School District student achievement data and California assessment of student performance and progress information uh presentation which is coming up on February 5th so um just want to make sure that both Miss Hayes and Miss Olson are ready and willing to serve in that capacity and then it will require a vote of the board I am ready and willing thank you perfect looking forward to it all right excellent getting to dive into that data is a really great way to kind get in that's some bols of academic achievement for the whole District so thank you both for being willing to do that then we do have uh one other another one uh we have an open position on our ongoing uh it's not necessarily a board Workshop but it is ongoing efforts to ensure that Chico Unified has athletic sustainability and co-curricular activities and uh currently Miss conin serves on that uh in that role and there should be two so if there's anybody that is interested in serving in that capacity that would be fabulous I'm interested sounds like you're it excellent all right do we and just just a last note one other change that did occur uh Miss Doby was serving on our facilities committee and Miss conin is now taking over in that position it was voted on by the board in August um with the departure of Miss Doby miss conin you are now on the facilities committee so uh if we can have a motion to vote and approve those we'll be set and ready to go and get right down to business Mr President yes I'll move approval with the recommended changes or it's not recommended with the notated changes I'll second that myself um and make sure that uh Erica you got all those for the record thank you so much is there do public comment since we are making a motion anybody out there concerned about our committee assignments seeing none uh we already have the motion on the table is there any discussion up here none all right uh all those in favor please signify by saying I I right on we are there thank you so much which moves us on to agenda item six agenda item six is announcements does anybody up here have an announcement they wish to make for the benefit of the public and the audience usually we use this time to uh talk about upcoming events or other items of note that are the public interest um thank you Mr President um just under announcement uh just to let the public that just voted yes on measure C know that there was a first um organizational planning meeting um last Friday very well attended by all of the schools impacted by the passage of that Bond and I just want to thank everyone in attendance for being there and looking forward to having Miss Conan join us the next I don't have a schedule yet so I don't know when the next one is and no Julie Kissle oh there's Julie Kissle do we have a a meeting date can't hear she said that there will be a series of meetings to send out information about it after the first thank you Julie thank you I don't know if this is an appropriate time to mention this but I'll go for it and you can tell me otherwise um it's just been especially on my heart um in light of the recent um situation down in uh with the school shooting um safety has um come to the Forefront of my mind so I've been um spending some time recently just meeting with um community members and police department and I hope to um in the next in the New Year in January agenda um school safety and um bringing back hopefully um sro's on campus so I just wanted to give our board an update and um just express my condolences to the community and just that it's heavy on my heart and that's um a goal of mine and something I uh want to share with my constituents who who voted me into this position I also wanted to share that today I had um the honor of going to a reading Pals um conference while they did a training at the uh Faith Lutheran church and it was super well attended it was amazing how many um reading Pals came to the event um the the chairs here wouldn't have fit everyone and um I did invite the there um if you're not familiar with reading Pals there they are um volunteers who uh serve after school and one of the comment from the floor um first of all Christy did a presentation and can you help me with her last name Christy B Christy bangson thank you um she did a great presentation and um actually I I might have slid them she had a great little activity um of how to like teach the alphabet and um get kids reading and it was I thought she did such a great job that I I thought it would be really cool if she could come and present to the board just as a means of uh educating the public about things strategies to help um readers um but one of the members one of the volunteers um stated that she hoped that maybe reading Palace could go into the actual classroom during the day and not just be after school and that um what was what were the things that was holding that back and so I invited them to come to the board and you know ask that question so I will send out tomorrow the board member requests to add an agenda item and sounds like we have a couple coming and that'll be great and we'll get those scheduled excellent right on you guys thank you all um I believe unless there are any other announcements that we are on to item seven which is items from the floor we do have two uh requests to speak so as per usual I know both of these speakers are old hands at this but um this is for items that are not agendized as such uh we will not engage a respond to avoid violating the brown act um the speakers will have 3 minutes there is a beautiful timer back there they will get an alert at 30 seconds so they know that the time is close to running out um and if there's extra time after the listed speakers who have turned in cards ahead of time then we will take extra speakers from the audience if there are any I miss anything in that case um Miss Michelle Cooper please come on up good evening I think Rebecca and I must be on the same W wavelength right now so um I just want to take a moment to address uh address an issue that should be at the Forefront of all your minds and that is school safety and excuse me I'm a little raspy tonight during my campaign I was proud to receive uh the only candidate to receive the uh endorsements from Chico Police Officers Association Sheriff Corey Hony and former police chief Michel Brian these law enforcement officials knew that I was the one that was committed to safety and that I was the one that was willing to make sure that we had safe learning environments for our children they knew I would work tirelessly to bring back officers onto our campuses where they play a critical role in preventing violence fostering trust and responding to emergencies although I was Not Elected I still feel a deep obligation to advocate for what is right the recent tragic school shooting in poo is a devastating reminder that we cannot take safety for granted this incident hits too close to home that serves as a stark warning that inaction could cost us dearly our children's lives are too valuable to gamble with we must take proactive steps to ensure that their safety and one of the is that their safety and one of the most effective ways to do this is by reinstating officers on our campuses these officers are not just enforcers of the law they are mentors they are responders and they are a vital part of our school Community I urge at least one of you to stand up and do what's right and I think that's going to be Rebecca and I thank you make school safety our top priority put officers back on our campus as soon as possible we have an opportunity to lead with courage and foresight let's not wait for another tragedy to force us into action thank you thank you uh next up Gina P good evening my name is Gina back I'm a parent advocate I'm also a reading pile volunteer mother five Rosel M PV parent for the past three years I've been attending a Schoolboard meetings on and off to understand how the school system functions in this country here are the key points I have learned composition of the school board the elected board members are often retired teachers backed by teachers unions creating an uneven playing field for candidates and the newly elected board members are not the exception you had the privilege to be funded and supported by the unions thanks to them your campaign materials were displayed play inside our schools on the bulletin boards and you had opportunities to promote your campaigns within our schools this privilege were deny to the other candidates I hope that in the future we can ensure Equitable opportunities and resources for all candidates to reach out to the community so everyone has the same chance to succeed as Miss Olen State at the League of Women candidates Forum it is not what is fair but what is Equitable impact of identity polic politics decisions influenced by identity politics and ideologies have led to costly problems for the district including legal battles identity politics have caused division confusion and again inequitable outcomes tension between parents and School staff board decisions have cre tension among parents and teachers making difficult the collaboration for the well-being of all children four challenges for educators teachers struggle would impose and plans that do not align with their academic goals it is your job to review a school material and ensure only academic age appropriate resources are available to all children so they can think critically number five Community discontent community members are increasingly frustrated with the bo handling of school challenges for example we have a Chu State Professor a titled she doesn't even deserve on my opinion who openly celebrates the destruction of our town harasses bullies and attacks everyone who disagrees with her yet this war in the majority has stayed silent and allows this pathetic Behavior to continue no consequences no accountability as you took your oath I want to remind you that your primary responsibility is to uphold the Constitution of the United States and to represent all children including those of the 7,000 who voted for change as Leaders you're responsible for ensuring that everyone in our community has a voice we need a board that builds Bridges between parents and teachers one that sets aside personal beliefs to make decisions in the best interest of all ideologies and identity politics have no place in our institutions we must stop treating children like adults and adults like children thank you does anyone else uh wish to speak yes good evening board let me Justice good evening board and community members my name is Sergio bras with the NorCal Carpenters Union I'm here to talk about the importance of apprenticeship Fair wages and healthc care for our workers when I graduated high school I didn't know what I really wanted to do I know college was a great option I tried and later realized it wasn't for me then I joined the trades I started off making less than 20 an hour traveling far with minimal Health Care shortly after I joined the union where I started making livable wages full benefits retirement and an apprenticeship program that provided knowledgeable information the compensation training benefits made me feel appreciated and want to be the best worker I could be construction work is physically taxing and means to healthc care is essential it is our priority to provide Healthcare and safety measures to protect and preserve our workers by hiring responsible contractors we ensure that workers have access access to Emergency Medical Services and preventative health care in California 26% ofal construction workers lack health benefits which is more than two and a half times the rate of all workers in the state of California these workers are at risk of financial crisis without these benefits and they deserve better the apprenticeship program is important in maintaining a skilled Workforce in the ever evolving industry of construction the apprenticeship program gave me a sense of purpose and drive along with the knowledge to be successful in the trades this program is designed to create a new generation of skilled workers in the multiple facets of carpentry it also instills a sense of Pride and craftsmanship and responsibility in our apprentices in conclusion apprenticeship programs Fair wages and healthc Care are crucial in upholding a thriving industry by prioritizing the well-being of workers Fair pay and investing in skill development we create not only a successful industry but also support growth and prosperity for our communities we hope to see your School District uphold the same values as well thank you for your time thank you are there any other speakers with items from the floor good evening board my name is Chris Martinez I am a representative for the Carpenters Local 1599 out of writing that uh encompasses this whole area and everywhere else first I'd like to uh say congratulations to the new board members it's an awesome honor to have and it's an honor for me to be here um congratulations on your new Bond measure that's amazing you guys uh going to have a lot of good work coming your way uh $1 1599 my Carpenters is actually uh the proud members that built this year uh gym for you guys so we're excited to be a part of uh the new regime and how everything's going to run uh with that being said we'd like to see you know a higher standard held for construction workers on projects like these schools you know uh a school is a Institute of learning so contractors that come on these job sites and don't have apprenticeship programs I mean apprenticeship program is an Institute of learning so to make sure that we're highering our standards to that level to make sure that we're bringing in contractors that build your school bringing in the local Workforce students that went to your school getting into the trades and bringing them back to rebuild the school they went to once so it's really important to us that we look at the standards that we have set in place to make sure that we're not bringing in bad actor contractors that I see wage theft all over the North State right now and I'm you know I know you guys probably heard about it and seen it too so trying to find that you know standard where we can hold contractors accountable Healthcare is very important in our trade a lot of our people if they get hurt they're out for a long time so making sure they have adequate Health Care is very important so I'm uh here to ask you guys to look into your standards and hopefully we can think of a plan together and rais the standards and making sure that our school is getting built by Top Flight Carpenters men and women and contractors thank you all right thank you so much do we have any other speakers being none we will go ahead and move on to the consent calendar and thank you all for coming and letting us know where you're at appreciate that it's a important part of this process but for now we are going to head on to the consent calendar uh are there any items on the consent calendar that a member would like to pull for further discussion anything staff needs to pull okay in that case uh do we have a motion I'm move approval I second all right we have a motion by member Robertson and a second by member ra is there any discussion regarding the content calendar seeing none uh all those in favor of passing the consent Calendar please say I I I any n no it's cette very well we are on to the fun stuff section nine is our discussion action calendar first up we have uh Business Services item 9.11 or 9.1.1 forgive me is resolution number 1669 d24 authorizing the filing of applications for State allocation board administered programs for cusd hi hi Julie K take it away good evening thank you for having me here tonight I'm Julie Kissle I'm the the director of facilities and construction for the school district uh tonight I have before you uh two resolutions that are related to proposition two which passed also along with measure C back in November um it is going to be a a very similar State funding process as we have experienced in the past with some small changes moving forward um the state allocation board and the office a public school construction are hard at work on the changes to the program they expect to have some results in the late spring uh for now uh districts who have current applications in for school funding need to reassure the state allocation board that we understand we will need a facilities master plan in place in order to qualify for these funding um programs um fortunately for us we do have a comprehensive facilities master plan that was passed in the fall of 20123 so we already meet this requirement but it is required that we uh confirm with them that you the board understands the requirement moving forward so the two resolutions that you have in front of you um are very similar uh one is for new construction and modernization projects and the other is for facilities hardship or seismic mitigation program so um 1669 d24 is what's in front of you right now I can answer any questions that you might have any questions for clarification or questions for Julie regarding this I move approval thank you Mr chairman I'll second that um any discussion about this I I just had a a clarifying question again I I read the uh the bulletin that came out with notifying about what was happening with the passage of uh prop two is there anything that they've mandated in the way of additional changes to our facilities Master plans or are we in fact good to go we are missing um a small item that hasn't traditionally been included in our master plan but the maintenance um deferred maintenance plan needs to be integrated in so you will see that coming back to the board um probably in the springtime where we'll integrate it into the master plan I I thought I read that there was something and that's it yeah thank youie it lives has always lived outside of the facilities master plan but now we'll have to marry them together thank you and I so I just realized that I missed a step and did not ask for any public comment on this item seeing none we can move on thank you so much say what's the minimum for the Deferred maintenance uh percentage wise 3% of the general fund so one of the things that um came up uh during during the election was criticism about how did facilities get to the point where they are um and is the board and the district making sure that there is enough um allocated for deferred maintenance so that we don't have new facilities that are you know com becoming um you know problematic like how how do we end up with schools that have leaking roofs you know so I I do think that that's something that is not necessarily for discussion tonight but I think needs to be a perhaps a discussion yeah that would absolutely be a worthwhile discussion on a separate agenda item I encourage you to to get it on one of the future agendas we see about it thank you very much well that is exactly why the state wants the Deferred maintenance plan integrated into the facilities master plan so that when they're contributing dollars to these important projects it comes with the understanding that there will be funds to maintain them any further discussion on this one oh clarification question again we're still at the mandated 3% right any further questions okay in that case we have a motion on the table already yes all right in that case um all those in favor of adopting resolution 1669 d24 please say I I I I any Nays it is unanimous thank you very much and we'll jump right into the next one which 16702 24 yes so as I stated earlier this is um the same resolution but it is related to facility hardship or seismic mitigation projects the state required a separate resolution specific to those programs excellent thank you we'll do the quick version uh any questions of clarification on this one do we have any uh public input on this topic seeing none uh do we have a motion I'll move approval I'll second very good we have a motion by member Robinson and a second by member conin is there any discussion on this motion seeing none uh all those in favor of adopting resolution 16724 please say I I I any Nays it's unanimous thank you very much do you have a you have another one one more you're so exciting sorry guys I'm uh hope I'm not rushing or otherwise messing this up it's my first time with the microphone on this much I'm a little nervous all right uh 9.1.3 is resolution 1668 d24 what's that about thank you so it's common practice for the Chico Unified School District to uh submit an exemption to the city of Chico um for our projects we are our own government agency and our properties are zoned qu a public property and we we exempt ourselves um from their ordinances for our projects as common practice as I said earlier I want to make sure that you understand that we work very closely with the city of Chico we do submit our plans to their engineering department for their traffic engineering department for advice and review um and we meet with them quarterly so this is not to say that we do not want to work with the city of Chico because we need to and we do but we um we do submit this resolution for your approval for exemption from ordinances from the city of Chico thank you are there any any questions regarding this one seeing none is there any public comment on this item looks like no is there a motion for this item I motion approval I'll second we have a motion from Member Hayes and a second from Member Olsen thank you very much any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any Nays it's unanimous thank you thank you all right we are on to item 914 which is the first interim budget for the 2425 school year great hello welcome board uh my name is Marie Hartman um myself and Sharice Bromley and Jaclyn Krueger are going to be presenting the 2425 first interim budget so these are the major assumptions that we use to build the budget um local control funding formula revenue is our largest source of Revenue it was based on the state adopted budget with the enacted state budget Cola of 1.07% funded average daily attendance will be based on prior year at 11594 43 uh remember we're given three options for our calculation of ADA prior year current year or three-year a average and we use the one that's most advantageous to us um unduplicated students threeyear average is estimated at 54.0 2% the UND duplicated count subgroups are English Learners free reduced students and Foster youth um so if a student falls into more than one of those categories they're counted only once salaries and benefits reflect position control as of November 1st and expenditures include that onetime 2% off salary schedule payment to all employees okay this slide illustrates the actual versus funded adaa that I spoke about in the last Slide the graph on the left is actual enrollment in Ada and and on the right is the funded enrollment and Ada so you can see that due to the utilization of the three options I spoke about the graph on the right's much smoother um the options allow us to have more consistent funding year toe so um that's why we utilize those when possible we're currently projecting that will be funded on prior year numbers as our projected enrollment for 2425 is that will be down 44 kids okay and this slide illustrates unduplicated pupil percentage that I spoke about earlier unduplicated pupil percentage is always calculated on that three-year average there's no other options so if you look at the column on the left you can see we had a little spike in up in 2122 up to 58% but we've been declining since then um so the number here on the right to look for is 55% because at 55% you receive concentration dollars in over the three-year average so we're projecting based on the the information that we had at the time of the budget development um that we will fall below that 55% this year in 2425 okay this is the big picture comparison of our estimates in the original budget which was prepared in the spring uh board approved it in June um versus where we are now at first interim uh Sharice is going to talk a little bit more about some of the details on this but um if you look down at the bottom line the change in fund balance you can see we projected uh that we estimated a $1 million negative change in fund balance at original budget and now our estimate is 3.78 million negative change in fund balance um which is quite the change um but almost all of that is attributed to that onetime 2% payment that we made to um all unit members it was 2.5 million and this slide is just another look at that 2.5 million payment and its effect on the change in fund balance if we took the payment to employees out we really operating at a deficit of 1.28 million rather than the deficit of uh the 3.7 million because that payment was one time in naturee will take over thank you good evening board okay so now we're going to get into a little bit more of the specifics of each comparison category so first we're going to look at revenues now this is on the unrestricted side only only um so you'll see the biggest part of our revenues have to do with local control funding formula otherwise known as lcff um which is largely driven by unduplicated pupil percentage or up and um a average daily attendance or Ada so you'll hear us use a lot of acronyms we're trying to be clear about those tonight um while you're getting familiar with our budget um but the biggest change that we had from original budget to First interim was local and that mostly has to do with interest so luckily the count is doing a great job of investing our money right now and so we're actually receiving much more an interest uh as the interest rates stay pretty high so that'll help us with our local revenues this pie chart helps to demonstrate um when you're talking about unrestricted revenues the biggest pot is our lcff um so it's very important that we identify our UND duplicated pupils properly um keep that percentage as high as possible because that drives our Revenue and also have our students in seats um because that average daily attendance is other big part those two Drive our lcff okay so this expenditures uh it has a lot of numbers on here so I'm going to try and break this down a little bit um the column on the left with those numbers is our original budget projections then we have our first inter room projections and our difference the first three lines are all Staffing costs so it's certificated salaries classified Sal salaries and un um and employee benefits then we get into our smaller expenditures so books and supplies physical materials um services and other operating so that's a lot of contracts travel expenditures that kind of thing um but the biggest changes that we had from when we came to you with the original budget um has to do with our staffing and as Marie mentioned it's that 2% um off the salary schedule payment that we made to employees this pie chart just demonstrates that um expenditure list that we just talked about it also adds in our special ed contribution um because that is not a unrestricted expenditure but that pot of money that we spend on the restricted side is largely Staffing um and so when we contribute for the general fund to help fund that program it really is paying for our staff so if you look at those four green categories we really consider that our staffing um so that note at the bottom that mentions that 90% of our unrestricted expenditures and special ed contribution is uh Staffing is because Chico Unified is in the people business so most of our expenditures go to Staffing yes e question I think I just Mis interpreted something you said okay in the pie chart uh where it says special education contribution 16% you said that that that's covers the Staffing for for special ad no so what um and I'll get into this a little bit more detail in the next slide so what I'm saying is we add the contribution in be and includ it in the Staffing 90% because that contribution from the general fund pays for our staffing it doesn't pay for all of our staffing um because we do get state and local um and federal revenues that help to pay for our special ed Staffing but really when you think about the special ed contrib that we get from the unrestricted funds it's helping us to pay for our special ed staff did that help maybe I know this is something I always have to pay close attention to because it takes me a couple of times through to understand it and I do know that our special ed contribution percentage has continued to creep up yeah um the percentage so I'll if you're we're going to go on the next slide so I'll get into that in a little bit when I go into the contributions if that's okay okay okay so um now that we talk about the transfers in um from other funds so first we have transfers in so that Top Line is our Redevelopment agency uh that helps to pay for our routine restricted maintenance account otherwise known as maintenance and operations um so that comes from state tax or sorry uh property taxes that we get from the county and helps us to fund our maintenance and operations Department um we also budget for three % of the developer fees that we anticipate to collect over the course of the Year that'll be transferred into our unrestricted general fund and then the bottom portion talks about contributions that we have from unrestricted to restricted programs so that top one ien is our special ed contribution which we're estimating is going to be just under 25 million and that the 25 million represents 59% of the total special ed expenditures so the rest of that is covered by the grants that we receive from federal state and local dollars but our contribution from the general fund is basically covering 59% of our special ed programs of the total special ed program not just the um Staffing not just Staffing but um we have to fund Beyond correct and this special ed 24 million it says represents 59% of the total program costs yes so within that so when you take the total expenditures of special ed uhhuh and then consider the 25 million contribution the 25 million contribution is 59% of our total expenditures for all special programs okay and then the other contribution that we do to restrict red programs is our routine restricted maintenance account um which was mentioned earlier it's 3% of our total general fund expenditures and we're estimating that to be about 6.4 million at this point okay and then one um addition that we made to this budget uh presentation this year is we wanted to show the special ed because we do have a lot of questions that have to do with special ed in our budgets so this is a little different than the comparison slides you've seen in the last few slides um we're actually looking at is that farle column is 2324 actual so that's our enrollment revenues and expenditures that actually occurred in 2023 2024 so last school year and then what our budget currently shows as a first interim so that's the comparison here so it's a little bit different than what we've been looking at in the last few slides so if you um notice our enrollment just keep it keeps going up um Jen schola did a present ation a couple of months ago and spoke about special ed um identification and that our enrollment continues to increase um and so luckily we do get a little bit more Revenue which is great um but we do have to cont contribute a little bit more every year as well um and so you'll see the salaries and benefits increased that's due to three new special ed classrooms as well as new provider FTE so full-time equivalent is FTE um and that's occupational therapy ists and speech we added those this year and then Services increased for non-public schools um so those are certified by CDE uh schools that are outside of Chico Unified that can help our students that need more than we can provide unfortunately um and then also the other increase had to do with County programs so we do partner with the county programs we have students that need help um and they go to those programs as well um they had an increase in cost and so they passed those costs along which means that our increase or we have an increase in our expenditures okay all right so the other piece that we always come to the board with in addition to the current year budget is we certainly want to plan and look at the two future years so what you have in front of you is what we call a multi-year projection or an myp so that First Column um is the information that shice and Marie just went over um you can see the revenues there the fourth line down I would focus your attention on and that is the um change in fund balance right so that's going to tell us are we under spending or overspending our revenues and as it was um stated we are spending more than we are taking in in the current year and we knew that um that was board approved to give our employees a one-time payment so we were aware of that um going into next year uh the deficit will be about 1.6 million and you see that drastic back down and that is because the onetime payment in the current year and then going out into 26 27 a deficit of just over 4.3 million we do have some onetime monies that are ending in 2526 and so those costs will then need to be um picked up by the unrestricted side of the budget in 2627 um we do have very healthy reserves I do want to point that out so at the very bottom line here um undesignated fund balance even in that third year we still have over 800,000 that isn't designated for a particular purpose at this point in time so a lot of words here essentially oh yes go ahead again I'm I'm trying to follow along and you you mentioned in the 2526 projected the um 1.6 million and then you said you defined it as that there would be more dollars or there was coming in but that it was still going up to 4 million explain that again so why you're seeing the swings essentially to go from 3.7 million down to 1.6 right is because in the current year we incurred 2.5 million to give our employees a one-time payment okay but that doesn't exist next year at this point in time so the value decreases down to 1.6 million and then in the third year there are costs that are currently being covered by restricted dollars that the unrestricted side of the budget will need to pick up in that third year okay that's the part I I missed and had questions about I think I'll come back into your office on another day so I kind of went over the dollars first but I do want to back up and talk about the assumptions that we used in this um we are looking at pretty flat enrollment um over the next couple years a slight decrease next year um and basically flat in 2627 um we have seen a ramp up of TK and that's helped our enrollment full implementation is next year and so we'll see that kind of level off um at that point in time right now the U Department of Finance is estimating Cola next year at 2.93% um and just over 3% in the following year um those are just a calculation based on eight economic data points so they will change I will tell you that now um the other piece we want to point out is obviously we take into account that we have step and column increase and utilities are increasing um but we also acknowledge that we do have an employees who are retiring um typically the upper end of the salary schedule um and hiring employees um starting on the lower end of the salary schedule so we do take that into account um going back to TK so it's really exciting we have full implementation next year in 25 26 um so the date moves back a couple more months so we are anticipating adding another class related to that date change but more importantly at full implementation of transitional kindergarten is the ratio for the classes so currently we can have 24 students in a class with two adults so we have a teacher and an AG so a 12 to1 ratio at full implementation that goes down to 20 students with two adults in the class so 10 to one so we currently have 15 TK classes so just to serve those students we will need to add another three classes so you'll see four classes here three are related to the ratio change and one is related to the enrollment um the date of when students can enroll and as alluded to we are seeing continued expansion of students identified um via an IEP so we are expecting two more additional classes in special ed next year and one in the following year two is typically what we've been seeing the last several years so that's staying on par with um historical so this is the onetime money I was talking about this very first one I am am I am discretionary block grant that is the one that's going away in June of 26 and why we see the some of the increased costs in 2627 U many of these are Services only or very limited positions but I do want to point out that the learning recovery block grant um was issued to CH unified in the amount of over $12 million um very fortuitous for us um um we do have a lot of Staff um in that Grant and so I know the four of us at this table and many of our ed services team are also actively um monitoring um those positions to be aware of when they end and then how can we find alternative funding to continue those positions so many of those positions are our certificated counselors and our classified targeted case managers I must be on a delay switch or something so our very important counselors and targeted case managers and stuff we are we are having to look at Grants that will keep us able to fund those positions is that what you just said essentially I mean we're certainly always looking for Grants to enhance our program for our students and families um what I'm saying is currently the funding that covers many of those counselors and targeted case managers will be ending in June of 28 and so we're already monitoring that and we're planning for that to find alternative funding to be able to continue those Services another thing to keep my eye on thank you um so it's great to have a budget we but we always have to have cash in the bank right um we need to be able to make payroll so um we are sitting on um nice cash balances and very typical um cash pattern the last couple years you know in December property taxes come in so we get a nice spike in this month um and then we continue to spend but I do want to point out that the dotted line um is the current year and if you look at June it actually drops which is atypical from the prior years and that is because the state approved budget for 2425 includes a quote unquote cut by the state of California which is to not pay leas local um educational agencies in June but to pay them maybe the first week of July and so it's important that in order to make payroll that month and pay all of our other vendors that we do have a nice cash balance to do that um it was only a one month or one week deferral but it was a cut utilized by the state and I would anticipate in tighter times that the state will continue to utilize this as a mechanism um for cutting the state budget so we do have to self-certify um our budget as positive qualified or negative and you can see in front of you positive says we will meet our obligations qualified is may not and negative is will not um I'm happy to say we're self-certifying as a positive um first inm budget you can see in the current year and the two out years that we have enough reserves to cover all of our expenditures so where do we go from here so next steps um the governor in mid January is going to come out with his uh preliminary proposal for next school year already for 2526 we are getting um word that the statutory Cola is probably going to soften right now it's about 2.93% is what the Department of Finance has I've heard anywhere between 2.2 and 2.4% um but no one is a predictor of that but we are expecting a softening of that um we're going to jump right into enrollment and Staffing right after the first of the year be working very closely with Mr Shepard um in looking at that um of course there's elap feedback meetings and Community meetings that we receive feedback from as well and then uh myself and Shri and Marie will be back in March with a second interim or the second update for the year for the budget and that will be very important because then we'll have a little bit more information of what the 2526 year will look like and that's what we have for you this evening for the first interim budget for 2425 a lot of information there do we have any questions of clarification not necessarily clarification but so is there a set strategy for identifying your unduplicated um for each of the categories like Foster Youth and and um I I know that in the past some districts have done like a push to make sure that every single family who qualifies for uh free and reduced lunch that that we're doing an Outreach to make sure that they're filling out the appropriate paperwork you know that families are filling out the paperwork but I was also interested in like Foster youth so I can speak to the free and reduced lunch count and then maybe um Tina can pipe in so this year um for the first time all of our schools from a federal level um were eligible for C which is community eligibility provision it essentially means free meals for all at the federal level so we are legally not allowed to collect the lunch applications um data so what we did instead was we created an alternative income form through Aries registration so when parents went in to validate their information um through Aries there was an alternative income form um within that so we're hoping to be able to collect a lot of information there and then we also have targeted case managers at our sites who do reach out to families who haven't completed that information in an effort to make sure that we can Garner all of that information and really maximize the dollars um generated for Chico Unified I would add to that Jamie mlin who works as our foster Youth and homeless leaz on also has a good pulse on our foster youth families and um Works closely with them to get them their information needed as well thank you again less of a question though it may uh end up asking for some from you Jacqueline um just those projections are are are dire we see our um if these projections hold we see our uh Reserve fund depleting and I just want to make sure that we're all keeping that in mind over the next year or so as we make any kind of decision about spending money that we really need to be careful about um we've been sitting on a fairly healthy reserve for several years now and um if these hold true that won't be the case um and we really need to think very carefully about how we make sure that the programs that we put in place uh we're getting the biggest educational bang for our buck so and I'm curious actually what level of confidence do we have in these in like the third oute projection I'm not a magician so I mean in true honestly they're probably wrong right um they are the best information that we have now and really the multi-year projection is a planning tool it is to bring that awareness of what is going to happen you know two and a half years from now and how do we make decisions today so that we don't get into that impact in that third year right so a dollar saved now is $2 next year and $3 the following year so to mitigate um drastic Cuts it's always better to to catch it on the front end so it is a planning tool to be aware so that there isn't a surprise when we come some June to say hey here's original budget and we're deficit spending $5 million right so it's to be able to look at this information now and continually update this information every time we bring a budget forward to the board thank you we have any more questions for our financial staff do we have any public comment regarding the first interim budget very well do we have a motion let me see if I can say this right I would like to move approval of the first interim budget absolutely nicely done and I'll second that just because I can so we have a motion to approve by member Olen and Lando seconds any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I I I any Nays unanimous thank you and that takes us on to item 9.2.1 appointment of personel commission member to a new [Music] term all right good evening I'd like to say congratulations and welcome to the new board members I look forward to working with you throughout the next term all right so as you all know um Chico Unified School District operates as a mer district and as required by Ed code section 45245 um the Board of Education must approve all members appointed to the Personnel commission each year a new commissioner is appointed serving a three-year term the Personnel commission consists of three members one appointed by the district one appointed by the CCA Association and a neutral third member that is jointly selected by the district and the union our current csda appointed uh commissioner bev Beverly Patrick who has done a absolutely wonderful job will be retiring effectiv of January 1st um CA chapter 110 has conducted their selection process and has identified a candidate to succeed Miss Patrick and is their recommen recommendation that Miss Susan Cox be appointed as a csca representative on the Personnel commission Miss Cox has served as a valued employee for the district for 25 years and has been retired for one um her extensive experience within the district and her commitment to its Mission makes her an excellent candidate for the position and um the the board of education is respectfully requested to approve the appointment of Miss Susan Cox to the Personnel commission as recommended by the local chapter Mr President yes uh for those of us that have known Susie for the many years that she has contributed an amazing amount of um care and influence for classified employees and the district as a whole as a bus driver um I'm happy to support this I have a question is um Miss Patrick's uh retirement going to leave a partial uh off will how long will Susie be serving so Susie will will serve until the rest of Bev's um Bev Beverly's um term and then she will be reappointed at that time so we just did Bev so she has another two years we did bevs yes so she'll have two years and then she'll be reappointed we did um Gloria bever this year ah whenever you're ready sir any other questions for Mr Allen regarding this do we have any public comment do we have a motion I move approval of the chico chapter 110 recommendation to have Susie Cox as their representative on the Personnel commission with a a glad heart other than that she's not by driving bus for us anymore which is sad but I know if she'll do a good job for the classified employees and the commission as a whole thank you a second excellent we have a motion by member Robinson and a second by member conin does that whole speech have to be part of the motion excuse me sorry does my speech have to be part of the motion you can do whatever you want I I can't say enough about Susie Cox and the contribution she has made to Happy kids getting on and off the buses of Chico Unified awesome wonderful thank you is there any further discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I I any NS there are none unanimous thank you so much sir thank you well that puts us on to item 9.2 point two I believe which is regarding a variable term waiver request for a PPS credential thank you president Lando so pursuant to State mandate uh the governing board must approve a variable term waiver for any position um for employees who do not hold an appropriate currently don't hold an appropriately um assigned credential uh we are fortunate with this waiver application to recommend approval knowing that Mr Hernandez is currently completing her 45 practicum hours with us is a one semester waiver sometimes we we bring two semester waivers to you and uh we're excited to present this recommendation so this is again just to be sure this is a case where the it's a current employee who is no no she's completing her 45 practicum hours with us at the school site so that's that's encouraging okay mhm okay any other questions of clarification is there any public comment on this matter seeing none is there a motion I move that we approve the waiver I'll second that motion very good motion by member Hayes and a second by member Robinson is there any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any n it is unanimous thank you thank you and we are on to section 10 uh are there any new items from the floor that were not brought up previously uh I don't see any which I believe puts us at section 11 which is board member request to agendize items the only thing on here is mine you mind if I just talk about it um I was hoping that we could uh set aside some time at a board Workshop or a closed meeting because often the evaluation process for our superintendent is kind of hurried and rushed I'd like to just take an hour out of our time at some point to just dedicate an hour or so of time time to make sure we know exactly what we're going to do in terms of evaluation as we will be switching superintendent soon um so I'd like to just have a discussion with the whole board about what that process might look like and when we could do it Mr President I'm going to Second your request so that we can discuss it is is okay I I appreciate your wanted to move forward we've you know we've struggled um even in the 15 years I've been on the board this is this is something that requires a lot of a collaboration with not only the board members but the person position being evaluated um I would like to postpone with your permission again this until our new superintendent is on board July 1 um I think that it's vital that we discuss that person's um desires for looking at evaluation processes that the board supports and understands and get a schedule in place because it's all new he's not even you know with us until July one so um with your permission I'd like to table your motion until our August meeting um I mean if you want to make a motion to table we certainly can uh in response though I'd like to say that I know that part of our negotiation with the incoming superintendent is that he does have some uh number of days when we could basically borrow him um and I would really like to have an evaluation system in place as soon as he gets here so perhaps we could schedule with him one of those uh one of those days when he is going to be with us uh to dedicate to just this discussion I I would feel that we have other priorities with our new superintendent to be covering if we're going to borrow him during the uh the period of time between January 1 and July 1 um so I'm I'm I'm kind of not in favor of that I I really want to wait for him to get you know on board with us and and then deal deal with the board on what the evaluation process and the schedule for that will look like where are the rest of you at can you give us a little more information on what you had in mind with the evaluation process yes um well I'm thinking back on how our last year superintendent evaluation went which was very scattered and we kept kind of kicking the can down the road um I would like to have a very basically a rubric for what we expect out of the superintendent and how we're going to know if that person is achieving their goals um possibly even to the point of having a brief section in the agenda where we talk about you know progress on those and I just it's going to take time to hammer out exctly what that looks like so I don't know exactly what it's going to look like this request is simply to have set aside some time for a longer discussion about it I I mean I don't see why we have to have him present for that to begin that process I'm just trying to kind of wrap my head around you know what that process is going to look like so yeah I'm open to put it on the agenda I'm gonna jump in here and hopefully it was the evaluation that was scattered and not the superintendent but very much so thank you um I do think it's critical that whoever you're evaluating is involved in the process whether that's on um days that he has been granted to be here or whether you wait either way um but it is a leadership team and everybody on that leadership team needs to know and have conversation about what those expectations are and how you're going to do midar checkpoints and then what that final evaluation document looks like so I happen to know because um Mr Blake did see this item on our agenda and you know he very much looks forward to having those conversations and he has some samples both of ones that have been used in his district and others that he's aware of that do many of those things so um regardless of when you hold it I just want to say I think it's critical that it is the six of you that are having those discussions um I guess I I see this as a process like you said and if my concern is if the process doesn't start till August then um I feel like that's just a little bit too late and if we could start the process earlier just to have I guess our ducks in a row and um so that when he does come in at least some or most of the the process has been completed and we don't feel rushed in August to try to hammer it out um I agree as far as that goes like if we wait until August there's so much that goes on in August the beginning of the school year at least I haven't been in this position in August but I do know what it's like getting schools up and going in August and everything is just um so fast um so if you're going to do it if we're if we have an intention or the board feels like it there would be it would be good to start it sooner than we you know we only have two meetings in February April and May um I realize that this I assume that this would this be a workshop sort of thing where we would talk about it there or would it be a regular board meeting that you're thinking I was thinking either add it as part of a workshop or else just dedicate some uh close session time to it if we could legally do that so the evaluation process itself can be in closed the process part what you're going to do how you're going to do it would need to be an open okay then yeah I Envision just dedicating part of a workshop session to that discussion and and I am more than happy to work with Greg and see which ones work for him and find a time to make that happen and to your point M Robinson about having other important things to do with him I absolutely hear that I'm just thinking back to one of my first employment experiences as a teacher where I was offered a job and my first question was how will I know if I'm doing a good job at this job and the superintendent of that District kind of looked at me like oh that's a great question um and it was it was a moment right of like how will I even know where to start doing the things you're asking me to do if I don't know exactly what a what an excellent job looks like so I think it is imperative that we have that in place uh before July 1 honestly from a procedural standpoint did you want to put a motion to table this I did okay is is is there a second for that motion I am not seeing a second for that one so uh are there any other any other discussion on this one well I appreciate um Miss sty being willing to contact Greg and see if there are any dates that would work um and if we could get feedback um in January I think that would be helpful in that case um are we ready to vote on the motion with the understanding that if the motion passes we will just put a more robust discussion of this on a future agenda set some time with Greg at that point all right are we ready to vote on that is that fair okay um all those in well you mind if we do a roll call vote all right um sorry over here I Olen I Lando I Hy I Robinson no right four to one thank you very much and uh staff do you feel like you have understand what we're asking for have enough guidance awesome thank you so much perfect uh I believe that is all we have so I will make a motion to adjourn is there a second all right we got it thank you very much so I suppose technically we should vote on the motion to adjourn but all those in favor adjourning give me an i all we're done
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so as you can see right there 62% to 15% which is huge and I think you know once teachers feel more comfortable um you I mean you saw the numbers how many of our teachers are being trained in sheltered instruction um Miss Picos is pushing into classes and you know initially once things catch on everyone doesn't have to buy in but once people are hearing what Miss petcov is doing for them and helping them with the tools and the strategies to set their multilingual Learners up and even to set the teachers up to be successful and educating the multilingual Learners um we're really moving or you know the needle to the right and moving in a positive direction so I'm really excited and you know hopefully maybe by maybe Market period two or even by the end of the year we can give you all the data from the entire year to see the growth from marking period to Market period okay all right so kind of just talked about it going over it here you go so the ml's increase from 140 to 155 over a year the percentage of multilingual Learners failing courses dropped significantly from 70% 98 students to 60 uh to 69 students which is 45% in one year um sh some fa pattern so the proportion of students failing only one course increased by 25% but on the other hand had students failing multiple courses decreased by 25% indicating a positive shift as I discussed the specific metrics for what we took a look at 23 24 34% of themel fil one course 66% F more than one and then 2425 59% of failing students failed one course um and 41% of students failed more than one course so obviously there's still challenges um that we're that we're dealing with but um I think teachers and administrators we're becoming more comfortable um collaborating and working to set the kids up for Success okay thank you skip Point well I just wanted to add um at the end like none of that would have been possible if there was no collaboration between administrators the support from the board Dr Freeman everyone I mean all of us had to be on the same page to have a success like this which for me it's you know it's just incredible because our students what and we were talking today that in a little while we're really going to see the impact that just that change is going to have and how the students even feel about themselves and what they can accomplish so um I'm just grateful and I'm proud that we can work as a team um and it's not all the time that someone can feel like the support is there for our students so I know we appreciate that um as well so alone we can do so little but together we can do so much and in a quick amount of time too so um but thank you do you have any questions or do you or comments any so why don't we start first with a round of applause for [Applause] presentation results I think you know a lot of what you presented here today speak to commitment and intention and empowerment how those things can come together and really make a difference uh for our kids in the classroom the teachers the administrator so thank you very much for the presentation and for showcasing the work that you guys did I think it's really difficult to ignore multi- percentage point or double digit percentage Point improvements in just marking period so really commending you guys for that I don't have any questions but if any of the other members would like to ask questions or speak up please feel free I this subject is close my heart I want to say first of all thank you because the day shows grow I don't think anyone can realize personal grow and to take CH coming from another environment that doesn't want to come to school that doesn't want to come to school or that doesn't feel comfortable in school and you're like Mr janzi said you're not only empowering a student but what you're doing for the family or for the community is is is astronomical results that we're going to see data comes and goes I mean I love numbers all day right I did an evaluation with a student today that was talking I realized because there's a s period Lear languages that the student in AC and you know the teacher didn't realize that and it's what you are on the precipice of discovering such growth personally and communal growth for our for our not only our district but for for our our kids I'm I'm I'm astounded I'm humbled so I want to thank you personally want thank you professionally and and Dr Freeman I I I can only say I'm humbled by the incredible job and the presentation I've seen here today [Applause] Excell and the CH to um this is great work and I think we're all really excited about the success that you're seeing and the collaboration and it's it's wonderful to see teachers and administrators on the same page to help our kids um I was really excited in our board report this weekend to read about the P for our staff about trauma informal practices think when we have the multi conversation we forget about um the experience that some of our students brings on so how that may impact their education and I think in uh in doing that work academically socially emotionally um like Roger said you guys really had an impact not only on the children's lives but their families our community and we're doing a lot of really exciting things that I think going to generate great results so thank you very much for your work and your dedication it's really inspiring thank you all right well thank you again presentation thank you [Applause] okay before we move on I just want to make sure that Mr recognized that Mr wi has joined us so thank you Danny and we'll get the roll calls right as we uh this brings us up to item number three which our student board member report okay so recently uh the sky conference um all teaming selections have come out for our fall Sports and we have over I believe down here like 20 20 of our kids across soccer and football so for um Skyland conference coaches all start selections honorable mention I'm just go through these M Guzman as a poer 1D we have Brian Enriquez as a Midfield second team we have Emma Baker As defense K ja as Midfield C merillo forward Brandon Sol of Midfield and Juan forward and for first team we have Rosie spean Midfield defense suie Julian who's defense Amy dvaro who's goalkeeper jir kok who's forward Matthew elori for Midfield defense and Aldo abage for goalkeeper and we also have two recipients of the All State group one award we have jir Koka and Matthew El for football we have uh for the All County which includes Warren Somerset and H counties we have 13 Xavier K as a defense puncher second team we have Andy per Perman as a defense linebacker and first team we have Grant cazino as defense lead and then also we have third team defense all big conference awards for Grant casino and Andy hering uh wrestling if you heard already have a competition in the gym right now so against sou I believe they're winning for all the cheers Prett good um track and field have a meet at East stford University on January 4th uh they also attended the ridge winter Invitational at the Ocean Breeze in satin Island on December 9th where we had three medalists uh Dylan Kean Baptist in fourth place for long jump Dawson Jean Baptist in third place for the triple jump and OD M TI second place for reference at this meet we have schools that SP for group one all with group four competing with Ridge um Hillsboro Montgomery and the fact that we had three of our athletes medal against such teams just shows the commitment that our coaches have for that or our kids uh boys basketball currently have a record of 2-1 with their next game on Friday in the gym against people PR at 6m and girls basketball currently have a record of Tuesday or what a h what a hard a fog game yesterday against B going to overtime five different with their next game tomorrow in the gym against burners in school news uh Barber High School hosted their alumni panel today with alumni spanning as far back as 1996 and 2006 uh for all grades in two separate assemblies one for under classman and one for upper classman uh the southbound Brook Tech Divas the school's robotics team qualified to Regional Championship for the very first time with the event having passed last weekend at Mount ol of high school the Annual Festival of giving hosted by uh the school's National Honor Society will take place this Saturday from 9:00 a.m.
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and if I needed to get to my kids school I'd either have to try to find a ride or I would walk um I could never today in in the town that I live in call call my school and say listen I've got to get to parent teacher conferences can you guys send a bus for me it's just not it doesn't happen yet we are footing the bill for people um who have been dropped here by the Biden Administration um and in in a way I'm paying for that now um which is really crazy to think about it's you I don't even know how we got to where we at sticking on the topic of schools Alice you recently received a letter home from your school about your kids tell us about it absolutely so I mean I think I share the frustrations of lots of parents about how the school districts don't teach you know the fundamentals anymore the basics it's all distraction and Dei and um every like new trend that comes along they're all about that but I was so excited because this school year they finally in their English class are teaching for the first time I think what I consider to be like one of the classics of the Canon of literature that we all know which is All Quiet on the Western Front they just started the unit on it my daughter is really excited it's very gripping I mean if all you've read is adapted and ya novels in school I think the last book they read was written all in blank verse and was about basketball and she was not thrilled by that but she was excited it's a it's an incredible novel there's a reason that it's stuck around for you know the century that it has and um but our school district of course immediately felt the need to apologize for for exposing the children to this dangerous dangerous novel they sent home this letter this month dear parents and Guardians as you are aware your eighth grader will be reading All Quiet on the Western Front as a part of our curriculum it follows the experiences of German soldiers fighting in World War I and some of the content is quite violent and explicit there is swearing in the novel Beyond a typical young adult literature in addition we have the students skipping certain sections of the book that are clearly inappropriate for middle school students but that doesn't mean that students might not read those pages on their own we will approach the novel's content with sensitivity not focusing too heavily on the violence or the swearing uh we will complete an end of module task that requires them to write an essay about the psychological aspects of war and that will be the ultimate focus of instruction for this unit we would also like students to advocate for themselves if they have concerns while reading the novel finally as you may or may not be aware this is my favorite part there's a modern movie All Quiet on the Western Front on Netflix we have not seen it but we have read that it is very violent and gruesome we are not recommending that students watch this movie please contact your English teacher if you have further questions or concerns and immediately I thought way to take all the fun and excitement out of the first time you have students read a real book especially I think boys so often get left behind in our school district I have one daughter and four sons and very often English class is a place where boys struggle um and finally giving them a book that has a lot of great content for boys I know my boys are very into World War II stories disaster stories they love like reading about the Titanic and other things like that so a lot of exciting content for them and a story that's focused really on teen boys that's something that would be of so much interest to them and it's so apparent to me how the school feels about this is really just that they immediately feel the need to jump right out and apologize like we're so sorry that we're exposing you probably the kids in all quiet in the Western Front are pretty close to the ages of the kids they have reading it so just a bit of a current state of the school system snapshot there on that one but you know I'm not saying it's a good thing but I mean kids are exposed to stuff today that none of us as middle middle school age children were ever exposed to I mean Tik Tok and YouTube and you we can't live in I'm I'm not saying that you should encourage you know your kids to watch violent videos and everything like that but they see it they hear the language now I I think it's a horren that they do but they do that's the world that we live in now and the fact that the school would apologize for reading a classic book I think it tells you a lot about the times that we're in right and it shows a misunderstanding of the work as well because it the novel is fundamentally an anti-war antiviolence novel so to to approach it with that money mindset of this book is somehow dangerous and scary is really missing the point of the entire exercise unbelievable uh yes any comments as a parents as well I mean would your reaction be get that letter home from school yeah I'm very fortunate to be on the tail end of the public school system in this state um I've had four children go through it um uh my oldest um graduated in 19 uh 2019 right and um I'm just going to say this um um parents have to work so hard to make sure what they think is appropriate uh is actually adopted by the school district uh I would recommend to anybody stay involved watch your school committee meetings and more than anything try to get some people on your local school committees um that is really where a lot of these things are happening liberal far-left um teachers or former teachers are getting on these School committees and they are really cultivating and crafting the curricul ulum and the style of the school district school committees work for you um and they should represent you and you need to get some people on these local local school committees and listen we had a State Rep who was for 20 years um you know a a democratic State Rep in our uh district and she started um on the school committee that's where she started and she was able to Parlay that into a very effective um left leaning uh run uh as a state representative so listen every day I would cringe at what was going on in our school dist districts at from the smallest to the biggest of things and it's very hard as a parent because you don't want the teachers or the school to take it out on your kids when you're voicing your concern or opinion for how things go my my you know take on that is get somebody in a seat that can advocate for you and your family and a minimum get one person on your school board so that they can kind of be the Watchdog for everybody else you know I've always been the champion of uh you can you can have a liberal agenda and you can have a different opin but government only works when there's checks and balances and if apathy has taken over your school system or your local city council or or select board because you just don't want to get involved then you know that person who looks back at you in the mirror tomorrow morning that's the person to blame because if you're not going to step up and you know serve on your a local board or a local committee then you really can't complain about it because like I keep I always say you know you need the checks and balances and that's how effective government works Works uh absolutely and and you know to Jess's point about um about being on school committees and then rising to higher levels in politics it really does matter when we first lived in Melrose Massachusetts on our local school committee was Katherine Clark and she went on to become a state rep and a state senator and she is now in Congress and she's one of the most powerful women in the United States she has a leadership role in Congress and we hear about her all the time she is driving the leftwing policy agenda agenda nationally and she started out on a local school committee yep that's an excellent point Jess let's talk a little bit about another story that you uh talked about uh blue Hub and how it involves the governor I think uh people are going to be shocked about this one yeah so you know how this story came about John is um my boss gets the State House news service um updates and there was a protester that showed up at a morah Healy event not related to housing um and the person was screaming from from the audience that um she was putting Provisions in her latest Economic Development bill um to protect Blu Hub and this person was kind of screaming and was removed and it kind of made us pause and say what's got this person so angry and what is blue Hub um and I've spent more time researching and reading about this nonprofit um over the past month than any other story it's truly fascinating so essentially the company is a nonprofit that is supposed to help people get out of situations where their home is being foreclosed upon um and uh over the past uh decade or so they claim to have helped over 990 families save their homes what they do is they go in and they buy the home from either the homeowner in a short sale or from the bank that's foreclosing and then they resell it to the homeowner uh the interest rates are higher than average when they resell they also make money on that one transaction so the day that they buy it from the bank or they buy it from the homeowner they resell it to the to the family with a profit I see seen a profit as high as $100,000 on a one-day sale or transaction but essentially what happens is these people are in these transactions and they are going to be giving blue Hub a certain percentage of the um value that increases on this property um and some people are saying okay so great you know you're in a tough Jam you're behind on your mortgage there aren't people knocking down doors to come and help you save your home it's kind of a righteous thing that they're doing but what happens is they get locked into these mortgages and say these people get back on their feet right and in two years they've you know changed their income and their credit is better they want to refinance and they want to get into a lower rate they have to pay out that appreciation Equity to bluehub before they do that and that is the problem so let's just say a property you know goes up um you know 75 or $100,000 right by the time they refinance blue Hub may have 50% of that Equity coming to them the family has to pay that out to bluehub before they can refinance with a new bank it would actually defeat the purpose of refinancing or saving money on the interest rate because now they have this balloon payment that they have to pay bluehub um so it's predatory lending practices the lawsuit that currently is in place with blue bluehub has families basically saying they weren't aware of this um the fine print was really fine print um these closings went very quickly and that they weren't properly informed the bigger picture here John is the CEO of blue Hub is Alise Sher she is a longtime supporter of morah she has not only donated personally to her campaigns but she is also a huge fundraiser for morah helan Democrats across the state a lot of people are saying that this um provision that was put in this Economic Development bill which basically will not allow blue Hub to ever be um taken to court or have any litigation against them for their lending practices going forward is basically a sweetheart deal for more H's bestie um who by the way earned over a million dollars last year from her company so essentially this is you you see them a lot more down south than you do up here in the Northeast but it's a u you know payday lending type of you know it's predatory lending I think the way that you described it wow that's a huge story that is a huge huge story The the stories of the families are are really unfortunate and sad um and some people you know who have joined this lawsuit have EXP you know what has happened to them one of the families um owned a property that was in Rivier and they um they went to sell their property to The Encore um wi company that was making way for the um the casino and they actually had to play Blue Hub $314,000 so here's this family coming in getting a huge payday you know they're finally going to get this money wi is going to pay them $800,000 for this property and uh they had to give blue Hub 300,000 to me that just defeats the purpose of a a nonprofit coming in and trying to help a family they made so much money off of this one family because they had to get that Equity appreciation it's wild that's unbelievable Alice you had a comment it's so disappointing because you know so many people are in these tight spaces now with the economy the way it's been for years since covid people have struggled and sometimes it feels like in this state everybody else comes first the donors come first the migrants come first the you know anybody who has a relationship with Mar comes first and that the people who are struggling and are having trouble affording their houses that they're the people who come last and it's always um those people that end up stuck with the bill everybody else finds a way to B make big money whether it's off of the pandemic or off of housing migrants or whatever it is that you know the Democratic Party in the state a lot of times tries to make a case that they're for the little guy but really they're for their corporate buddies and that's what you see over and over again with stories like this and when it does touch on something so personal and devastating as losing your family home for example it's especially sad to see profiteers making money off it and keeping politicians in power while people are really suffering and struggling you know ladies I thank you for joining us today the only thing that we don't have a lot of around here is time on all politics local Alice why don't you tell people how they can connect with your podcast and and your social handles sure so our podcast is the burn barel podcast I host it with my husband Tom shadik who's a radio host um and we do that daily five days a week you can find it on any podcast platform the burn barel podcast or at burn barel podcast.com on Twitter at burb barel pod thank you Alice and Jess Jess Mado plug your socials and how people can read some of your great articles thank you John um I write for Fall River reporter and you can find us at Fall River reporter.com we have a sister publication which is newbedford guide you can find them at newbedford guide.com I'm on X at uh the uh let's see Jess masado show you can find me there I link all my articles today's article that's dropping will be on there and the Fall River reporter X account which is fall rer report not reporter um and we're on Facebook and we're also on Instagram and Tik Tok great thank you I want to thank you again both of you Merry Christmas to the both of you Merry Christmas to the viewing audience and you're watching all politics is local and we'll talk again real soon
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thanks very much everyone have a good night and happy holidays
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